People in the News

Five candidates will compete for three open seats on the Desert Water Agency board, pitting the three incumbents against two challengers looking to increase representation of agency areas outside Palm Springs. 

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency’s internal watchdog office announced his retirement Tuesday, leaving subordinates to pursue ongoing ethics probes involving former EPA chief Scott Pruitt and his team.

[Former Arizona Sen. Jon] Kyl, who has a history of negotiating important and contentious water deals, returns to the Senate at a critical juncture for Arizona’s future water security, as it struggles to finalize its portion of the so-called “drought contingency plan” for the lower Colorado River.

DWR Director Karla Nemeth told a global audience of water experts and policymakers Thursday that the department has embraced a science-based approach to withstanding extreme weather changes in California while setting the groundwork for a more sustainable future. “The department is becoming more of a leader in science and the application of science in water resources management,” Nemeth explained to the approximately 200 attendees at Water Pavilion, a water-affiliated program of the Governor’s Global Climate Action Summit.

Scott Pruitt, the scandal-ridden former Environmental Protection Agency chief, denied on Wednesday that he had obtained any out-of-the-ordinary gifts as a result of his Cabinet-level post, dismissing allegations he received perks in office ranging from much-sought sport tickets to a job for his wife.

Shortly before dawn on Saturday, NASA will launch ICESat-2, a satellite that will use a laser to measure the changing height of Earth’s ice. … The Union-Tribune discussed the project with Helen Fricker, a glaciologist at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography who has long been part of the mission’s science team.