Droughts

Got wood? If you live around Lake Arrowhead, Big Bear Lake or anywhere in the San Bernardino Mountains, you've got more than you can shake a stick at. The devastating four-year drought and an infestation by a tiny pest called the bark beetle have forced crews to cut thousands of dead and dying trees to reduce the chance of a disastrous wildfire. This has created a glut of cheap firewood, mostly pine, sending prices plummeting by nearly 50%.

BALTIMORE -- The amazing story moved up to incredible. I'll Have Another ran true to his name. On a Saturday that brought blue skies, perfect temperatures and a record crowd of 121,309 here at venerable Pimlico racetrack, the horse who has never been favored in a race and has been mostly under-appreciated by the public, even the racing public, won the 137th Preakness. Now, it is I'll Have Another who will take a shot at history. The last horse to win the Triple Crown was Affirmed in 1978.

At first glance, the two homes have nothing in common. One's an urban update of a rustic log cabin. The other, a 1920s Mediterranean casa. What links them is their imaginative drought-resistant gardens -- drastic departures from the lush carpets of grass that used to surround each one and that still front almost all the other houses in their neighborhoods. Neither of the homeowners set out to be environmentally up-to-date.

The Angels' Albert Pujols ended his career-long home-run drought Sunday, cracking a two-run home run into the Angels bullpen in left field in the fifth inning of Sunday's game with the Toronto Blue Jays at Angel Stadium. The home run came on a 2-2 pitch from Toronto right-hander Drew Hutchison. The crowd, which had booed Pujols when he struck out an inning earlier, came to its feet and gave the slugger a long, loud ovation, but Pujols did not acknowledge that with a curtain call.

Through much of the 1990s, California suffered a money drought. By 2003, revenue had dried up severely and California seemed in terminal crisis. Then came the deluge of 2006. It rained dollars: Several big-time Silicon Valley investors cashed out, resulting in a huge boost in income tax revenue, and Sacramento was awash in money. In response, lawmakers doled out the abundant funds to interests who believed, often correctly, that previous budgets had left them unfairly parched. But the deluge quickly ended, and the state's situation became worse than ever because it had failed to either save the excess or change its spending ways during the unexpected year that it rained money.

For centuries, Adam Abdi Ibrahim's ancestors herded cattle and goats across an unforgiving landscape in southern Somalia where few others were hearty enough to survive. This year, Ibrahim became the first in his clan to throw in the towel, abandoning his land and walking for a week to bring his family to this overcrowded refugee camp in Kenya. He's not fleeing warlords, Islamist insurgents or Somalia's 18-year civil war. He's fleeing the weather. "I give up," said the father of five as he stood in line recently to register at the camp.

A prolonged drought punctuated by intense monsoons that partially destroyed the city's water-preservation infrastructure led to the 15th century collapse of the ancient city of Angkor, capital of the Khmer Empire, U.S. and Asian researchers reported. Researchers had suspected that water scarcity played a role in the city's demise, and the first tree-ring chronology in Asia provides strong support for that speculation. It shows that the drought persisted for decades, which would have severely strained the city's ability to survive.

She stops for long stretches, lost in thought, trying to make sense of how she's been left half a person. Sunita, 18, who requested that her family name not be used to preserve her chance of getting married, said her nightmare started in early 2007 after her father took a loan for her sister's wedding. The local moneylender charged 60% annual interest. When the family was unable to make the exorbitant interest payments, she said, the moneylender forced himself on her, not once or twice but repeatedly over many months.

Gov. Sonny Perdue banned the washing of state vehicles and ordered inmates to take one quick shower a day as part of an effort to reduce water use in the drought-stricken state. Standing on the banks of a dwindling lake in West Point, Perdue ordered state agencies to reduce their water consumption by 10% to 15% as the state struggles with one of the worst droughts in its history.

The Metropolitan Water District board Tuesday approved a much-disputed drought plan despite protests from officials in some southeastern Los Angeles County cities who complained that low-income residents would be penalized with higher rates. Using a weighted voting system that is keyed to property valuation and not population, the 37-member board voted 176,523 to 14,265 to support the plan.

Albert Pujols has hit 446 home runs in a career that is certain to end in the Hall of Fame. But it's unlikely many felt better than the one he hit in the fifth inning Sunday at Angel Stadium. Because not only did the two-run shot account for the deciding runs in a 4-3 Angels win over the Toronto Blue Jays, silencing the boos from a fickle crowd of 37,548, but it was also Pujols' first home run as an Angel, ending a career-long drought at 27 games and 110 at-bats. "It's a relief for him. And I'm pretty sure it's a relief for us," teammate Torii Hunter said of a slump that was threatening to consume Pujols and the Angels.

Question: Our homeowners association has what seems to be miles of greenbelts and landscaping that is not water-efficient. Our board of directors and their friends, who constitute the majority of owners, are of the same mind-set in that they refuse to use drought-tolerant plants and do not encourage more efficient water use by association gardeners. They say they like how grass and lush vegetation make our development look rich and add to the value of our properties. They pay no attention to rising water bills.

The park surrounding Los Angeles City Hall will soon be getting a California makeover, with less green grass and more native and drought-tolerant plants. The City Council voted Tuesday on a plan to restore the grounds around the building after the sprawling lawn was destroyed last year by the Occupy L.A. encampment. Officials considered several options, including one that called for much of the grass to be replanted and another that would have eliminated nearly all of the turf and replaced it with plants that require less water.

Happy 100th! Wait. Not yet. The Lakers looked as if they could beat the Indiana Pacers and break the 100-point barrier, an important two-for-one for a team that couldn't score or win lately. Then came the fourth quarter, all of 18 points from the Lakers and a 98-96 loss to Indiana on Sunday at Staples Center. The Lakers have now failed to score 100 points in 11 consecutive games, their worst skid since doing it 12 times in the 2003-04 season. There are plenty of theories why the Lakers (10-8)

It took false reports of mass suicide for Mexicans to rally in great number to the aid of the legendary Tarahumara Indians, who are facing a season of starvation. But publicity about their plight has exposed the chronic marginalization and growing perils, including drug violence, faced by many indigenous communities, activists say. Members of the Tarahumara community "die every year from hunger; it's just that this year, it's worse," said Liliana Flores, a founder of the El Barzon organization, which works with poor campesinos and indigenous peoples.

Occupy L.A. raised consciousness about something else besides income disparity: landscaping. After the two-month encampment turned the lawn around City Hall into a sprawl of dirt, the debate now is whether to replant it with grass or take the opportunity of this topographical upheaval to do something more environmentally sound. Using drought-tolerant native plantings would give the city a chance to create a high-profile, less-thirsty panorama on the 1.7 acres surrounding City Hall, and would set an example for city residents whom it has urged to replace water-guzzling lawns with indigenous flora.

Water officials from the states that share the Colorado River reached agreement Tuesday on a wide-ranging drought management plan that they will propose to Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton this week. After two days of discussions in Las Vegas, water officials from seven states said they put the finishing touches on proposals that would allow them flexibility in determining how much water is released from Lake Powell to Lake Mead, the system's two major reservoirs.

Ventura County has joined a long list of California counties that were declared agricultural disaster areas because of damage sustained during the current drought. Farmers and ranchers throughout the United States have been hard hit, and many have been calling for federal aid. U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman designated counties in 10 states as disaster areas.

Center Anze Kopitar had gone 17 games without a goal but was sure the chances he was getting would turn into goals. "I'm confident. I believe that it's going to happen soon," he said Saturday before the team's morning skate. Players always say that when they're not scoring. This time, it came true. Kopitar scored the third goal in the Kings' 4-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night, taking a fine pass from Justin Williams and holding onto the puck before lifting a backhander past goaltender Roberto Luongo.

Reporting from Detroit — Defenseman Davis Drewiske forgot that goal scorers usually linger after games to talk to reporters, but his lapse Thursday was understandable. Before his shot got through a screen for the first goal in the Kings' 2-1 victory over the Blue Jackets, he had not scored since Oct. 6, 2009 — and that was into an empty net. His feat Thursday drew huge smiles from his teammates, who knew of his drought and as well as their shutout streak of 130 minutes 35 seconds over three games.