Rachel Becker, CalMatters
Rachel Becker is a reporter with a background in scientific research. After studying the links between the brain and the immune system, Rachel left the lab bench with her master's degree to become a journalist via the MIT Graduate Program in Science Writing. For nearly three years, Rachel was a staff science reporter at The Verge, where she wrote stories and hosted videos covering a range of beats including climate change, nicotine, and nuclear technology. Her byline has also appeared in NOVA Next, National Geographic News, Smithsonian, Slate, Nature, Nature Medicine, bioGraphic, and Hakai Magazine, as well as the PBS Digital Studios video series Gross Science and the YouTube show MinuteEarth. Rachel is now an environment reporter for CalMatters, where she covers climate change and California's environmental policies.
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The chemical, used for decades, can harm babies’ developing brains. Farmworkers and people living near fields are most at risk. The EPA issued a rare emergency order. -
A Kings County judge granted a temporary restraining order against the state's unprecedented mandate. Growers there will not have to meter their groundwater use for now. -
Hundreds of wells in Tulare Lake aquifer are at risk of going dry. Thursday’s recommendation is the first time that state officials have moved to crack down on local plans that fail to stop excessive groundwater pumping. -
After its driest three-year stretch on record, California braces for another year with below-average snow and rain. Conditions are shaping up to be a “recipe for drought.” -
During one of the driest years on record, California legislators didn’t approve laws to protect depleted groundwater or boost water supplies. -
Warning that the supply will shrink by 10% due to climate change, Newsom sets targets for recycled water and increased storage. But deadlines are distant, details are scant and there is no conservation mandate. -
California is acting later than many states in regulating neonicotinoids, but its rules would be among the nation’s most extensive. They would change how growers kill pests on nuts, citrus and other fruit crops. -
As drought intensifies, the order affects many cities and growers from Fresno to the Oregon border, including 212 public water systems. -
Ignoring urgent pleas from water officials, Californians used substantially more water after a record-dry three months gripped the state. -
If enacted this summer, California’s mandate — the first in the world — would increase sales of electric or other zero-emission cars to 35% in 2026, and prohibit new gasoline or diesel cars by 2035.
