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The Obama administration released a comprehensive strategy document Wednesday aimed at reducing wildfires, which it says are being exacerbated by climate change. The strategy recommends preventive measures like controlled burns, municipal and state zoning to reduce the effects of sprawl and incorporating watersheds into local management plans. “As climate change spurs extended droughts and longer fire seasons, this collaborative wildfire blueprint will help us restore forests and rangelands to make communities less vulnerable to catastrophic fire,” said Jack Boots, acting chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality.

Trust in technology: That seems to be the underlying message of a coming report from the world's top panel on climate change. Scheduled for release on Sunday, the new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report will point to many possible ways - from burying greenhouse gases to going nuclear to encouraging biofuel production—to save humanity from the ravages of climate change. "I think we will see that there are a wide number of paths we can take to get to the mountaintop we want to reach," says economist James Edmonds. "We just have to pick what mountaintop we all want,...

Reputed gangster Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow isn't a criminal by choice, but rather a victim of government "misconduct" who had no other options than to "assimilate back into Chinatown" while he tried to go straight, according to his lawyers. Chow was facing 27 years in federal lockup for crimes that included a home invasion robbery and trafficking in prostitutes. In return for testifying against his former boss, Peter Chong, Shrimp Boy was released in 2003 after only seven years. Briggs says the feds promised Chow they would put him in witness protection - then dumped him on the streets and...

A Santa Monica High School student is charged with assault and drug possession in connection with a fight involving a teacher, reports CBS Los Angeles. According to the station, 18-year-old Blair Moore, of Los Angeles, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to several misdemeanors: two counts of threatening a public school official, one count of possession of a box cutter on school grounds, one count of marijuana possession on school grounds, and one count of force or violence against a school employee in retaliation for an act performed in the course of his or her duties.

Prosecutors say a man charged with murdering nine people in California has told authorities that he has killed up to 40 people. Errek Jett, a district attorney in Lawrence County, Alabama, said Wednesday that 51-year-old Jose Manuel Martinez told investigators he carried out the crimes working as an enforcer for a drug cartel. Prosecutors in California say the slayings happened over 30 years.

An ethics panel has dismissed a complaint that accused Arkansas congressman and Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Tom Cotton of illegally soliciting contributions during a radio interview at his office in the U.S. Capitol. However, former Arkansas Chief Justice Jack Holt filed a new complaint Wednesday against Cotton. Holt is asking the Office of Congressional Ethics to consider whether Cotton broke House rules by not specifying clients for whom he provided consulting services.

Millions of Americans who didn't have health insurance last year now do, as a result of the Affordable Care Act. In Lane County, Oregon, Trillium Community Health Plan is struggling to deal with a huge influx of new patients. CEO Terry Coplin says they expected 26,000 people to sign up in the first few years. Instead, about that many signed up in the first few months. "We weren't expecting to get such a large assignment of patients in the first two months," says Coplin. "These patients who are coming onto the program, many have not seen a physician for years....

Offering a first glimpse of the health care needs of Americans who bought coverage through federal and state marketplaces, an analysis of the first two months of claims data shows the new enrollees are more likely to use expensive specialty drugs to treat conditions like HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C than those with job-based insurance. The sample of claims data - considered a preliminary look at whether new enrollees are sicker-than-average - also found that prescriptions for treating pain, seizures and depression are also proportionally higher in exchange plans, according to Express Scripts, one of the nation's largest pharmacy benefit management...

Hillary Rodham Clinton's new book on her time as President Barack Obama's secretary of state will be released on June 10, her publisher says. Publisher Simon & Schuster said Wednesday that Clinton would share "candid reflections about key moments during her time as Secretary of State as well as her thoughts about how to navigate the challenges of the 21st century." Clinton's book has been widely anticipated as she considers another presidential campaign in 2016. The former first lady and New York senator is already a best-selling author: Her 2003 memoir, "Living History," sold more than 1 million copies.

As President Barack Obama's job approval ratings continue to flounder nationwide, he can still look to California for affirmation. A new Field Poll found 53 percent of California voters approve of Obama's job performance while 41 percent disapprove. That's nearly the opposite of the nation as a whole, where an average of major polls now finds a 53 percent disapproval and 43 percent approval -- not his all-time low, but nothing to brag about either. Among California Democrats, 80 percent approve of Obama's job performance and 15 percent disapprove; among Republicans, 80 disapprove and 16 percent approve. Nonpartisans and third-party...

Gov. Scott Walker is going back to school. A spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Republican says Walker is looking to sew up a degree he abandoned 24 years ago when he was a senior at Milwaukee's Marquette University and left to accept a position with the American Red Cross. Walker explained his struggle in finishing up his college education: "I kept thinking I'd go back, got married, had one kid, had another kid, next thing you know," he said, "you're worrying more about paying for your kids' college education than you are for your own."

A Democratic blitz this week for new orders and laws promising equal pay for women is a key agenda item the party hopes will boost turnout this fall among its most loyal voters. President Barack Obama signed two executive actions, which will bar federal contractors from retaliating against employees for comparing salaries and require contractors to report compensation data to the government by gender and race. A McClatchy analysis in January found that women employees at the White House make 91 cents for every dollar men make. The female share of the federal workforce also has declined under Obama, while...

MAPLEWOOD, Minn. -- Two Minnesota burglary suspects are arrested after police say one of them accidentally called 911 and left the line open as the pair discussed the crime. Officers arrived to see two men leaving the building wearing dark clothing. One carried a television, the other a box.

In last week’s ruling in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission , the Supreme Court was not a mere instrument so much as a blowtorch, searing a hole in the fabric of our fragile democracy. The American experiment seems to be run by a smaller and smaller control group as billionaires — like the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson — get expanding seats at the shrinking political table. NASCAR drivers wear the corporate logos of their sponsors on their suits. The justices who sided with plutocracy ought to wear sponsorship logos on their robes, too. The all-out assault against campaign finance...

Tens of thousands of state workers stand to get extra money in the next couple months by cashing out some of their unused leave time – assuming the state can find money to cover it. California owes billions of dollars to state employees for unused paid time off, a largely unseen burden that isn’t regularly tracked or reported statewide. Last year the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office said the state’s leave liability totaled $3.9 billion as of June 2012 – and it’s growing.

The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce is “outraged” over a ballot measure to raise San Francisco’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, saying in a statement on Monday that it “flies in the face of collaboration and partnership.” The measure would lift base pay about 40 percent from its current $10.74, making San Francisco’s minimum wage the highest in the country. Activists were expected to file papers on Monday for the November ballot. The measure, designed by SEIU Local 1021, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, and other activist groups, would give companies with fewer than 100 employees until...

Students from around the nation have been taking to Twitter and other social media sites to post snapshot photos of their meager lunches — in some cases, a sad-looking sandwich with a carton of milk — and say to the first lady: Thanks a lot, Michelle Obama, for the rations. One wrote, next to a picture of a hot dog roll that seemed spread with tomato sauce and cheese, on a tray with three small cherry tomatoes and a carton of lower-fat milk: “You call this a [expletive] lunch? @BarackObama @MichelleObama,” The Blaze reported. And others were just as blunt...

The Obama administration Monday accused Russia of promoting separatist agitation in eastern Ukraine and threatened to step up economic sanctions on Moscow unless it reverses course. --snip-- U.S. officials have hoped that Russian President Vladimir Putin would be satisfied with his control over Crimea.

VIENNA - With nuclear talks set to resume here on Tuesday, the Obama administration says it is convinced it can conclude an agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear program by the July 20 target date despite significant political hurdles. “I’m absolutely convinced that we can [meet the deadline], though the real issue is…about the choices that Iran has to make, and some of them are very difficult,” said a senior U.S. official involved in the talks. “We are on pace with that work plan, looking toward beginning drafting in May.”

The Senate approved a bipartisan unemployment benefits extension Monday, with six Republicans joining Senate Democrats to clear the measure. The measure passed 59 to 38 with all Democrats in attendance voting for the bill. The five Republicans who helped negotiate the measure joined the Democrats voting in favor of the bill as well as by Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid teed up the vote with another screed against the billionaire Koch brothers. Reid on Monday tied his war against the Kochs to the fight to restore emergency unemployment insurance benefits that have been cut off since...