Western United States

Seashore, mountains, desert . . . California is unsurpassed for its diverse vacation destinations. Here are a dozen favorite getaways in the Golden State, all within easy reach from Los Angeles. We mention offbeat treats as well as top attractions, accommodations and dining spots along with telephone numbers and the one-way mileage from Los Angeles. Santa Barbara. Subtropical landscaping and bright stucco buildings with red-tile roofs set the scene for this seaside retreat.

COCHISE COUNTY, ARIZ. Independence Day celebrations When, where: July 1-4, Benson, Bisbee, Douglas, SierraVista, Tombstone and Willcox Highlights: The communities of southeastern Arizona are festive for the Fourth, with Bisbee's Coaster Races down Tombstone Canyon, Sierra Vista's Pets & People parade (plus a variety of other parades throughout the county), a firefighters' water battle, sports matches, live entertainment and, of course, fireworks. Cost: Free Info: http://www.explorecochise.com PARK CITY, UTAH Park City Food & Wine Classic When, where: July 7-10, various venues Highlights: More than 100 high-profile chefs, vintners, brewers and distillers convene to present tastings, pairings, classes and culinary-themed outdoor adventures.

Every time it rains here, Kris Holstrom knowingly breaks the law. Holstrom's violation is the fancifully painted 55-gallon buckets underneath the gutters of her farmhouse on a mesa 15 miles from the resort town of Telluride. The barrels catch rain and snowmelt, which Holstrom uses to irrigate the small vegetable garden she and her husband maintain. But according to the state of Colorado, the rain that falls on Holstrom's property is not hers to keep.

Built in 1859, the simple cottage in the scenic Gold Rush town of Sutter Creek wasn't even on the market in 1966 when Jane Way persuaded the owner to sell it. Way bought it "on a whim," she later said, during "an all-time low in my life. " "My son had been killed in an accident, my husband had split, my health was terrible — I'd had cancer twice," she told the San Francisco Chronicle in 1999. Seeking to reinvent her life, Way turned the property into the Sutter Creek Inn, an early bed and breakfast in the West that served as a prototype for many that followed, according to travel guidebooks.

Kilsby-Roberts, a Brea-based distributor of steel and aluminum tubing and bars, has reached a tentative agreement to acquire Republic Supply Co. of California. Terms were not disclosed. Republic, with headquarters in Carson, distributes pipes, valves and fittings in the western United States. The deal is expected to be completed by Oct. 1.

A two-year investigation led Wednesday to the arrests of 57 Hells Angels members and associates in five Western states on suspicion of firearms violations, narcotics trafficking, possession of stolen explosives and organized criminal activity.

Everyone thought the tall, strange white man was some kind of genius. But to teenage Ernestine De Soto he was a giant pain in the neck, a nosy, "Ichabod Crane-like" character who drew her mother's attention from its rightful place -- on her. John Peabody Harrington studied De Soto's Chumash family for nearly 50 years, pumping her great-grandmother, her grandmother and her mother for the tiniest details of their lives. Everything fascinated him: the Chumash names of places mostly forgotten, of fish no longer caught -- even, to the family's puzzlement, of private parts never discussed in polite company.

Ozone from Asia is wafting across the Pacific on springtime winds and boosting the amount of the smog-producing chemical found in the skies above the western United States, researchers said in a study released Wednesday. The new study, published in the journal Nature, explores a phenomenon that has puzzled scientists in the past decade: Ground-level ozone has dropped in cities thanks to tighter pollution controls; but it has risen in rural areas in the western U.S., where there is little industry or automobile traffic.

It was less than 18 months ago that the Democratic Party declared this region its new base. Barack Obama claimed the party's presidential nomination at a football stadium here, in a state where Democrats had won the governorship, both houses of the state Legislature, and were about to pick up both U.S. Senate seats. Now President Obama and his party's approval ratings in the West are lower than elsewhere in the country. Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter Jr. abruptly announced last week that he would not seek reelection.

Federal courts in California and eight other Western states will allow video camera coverage of civil proceedings in an experiment aimed at increasing public understanding of the work of the courts, the chief judge of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said Thursday. The decision by the court's judicial council, headed by Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, is in response to recommendations made to the court two years ago and ends a 1996 ban on the taking of photographs or transmitting of radio or video broadcasts.

It's only fitting that Tombstone, Ariz., which gained fame for a shootout, has a rough-and-tough gunslinger grave site. Check out the political commentary on the epitaphs of Billy Clanton, Frank McLaury and Tom McLaury, killed as they battled Wyatt Earp and his posse at the O.K. Corral. Want a taste of headstone humor? Try this: "Here lies Lester Moore / Four slugs from a .44 / No Les / No more." And this one recalls George Johnson (wrongly sentenced to hang for buying a stolen horse)

In an effort to protect endangered and threatened Pacific salmon, the Environmental Protection Agency announced new limits Friday on three pesticides that are commonly used on Western farms. The restrictions apply to the use of chlorpyrifos, diazinon and malathion near salmon waters in Washington, California, Oregon and Idaho. The chemicals have been found by the U.S. Geological Survey to interfere with salmon's sense of smell, making it harder for them to find food, avoid predators and return to native waters to spawn, according to federal biologists.

As part of a therapy program called Project 9865, pediatric patients at St. Jude Medical Center on Tuesday joined in making what creators say is the largest monument in the western United States. Patients painted floral panels that will go on a 165-foot-tall oil tower at 9865 Olympic Blvd. in Los Angeles. The project involves more than 4,000 children from pediatric units and 40,000 volunteers throughout the state.

People in Boise, Idaho, have taken pride in favorable lifestyle rankings their city has picked up recently: No. 2 on Forbes' best places for business and careers; No. 9 on Inc.com's hottest cities for entrepreneurs; No. 1 National Geographic adventure town; and No. 8 on Money magazine's best places to live. But one title startled and baffled nearly everyone: city most vulnerable to terrorism in the Western United States.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Thursday scrapped a plan, authorized in the last days of the Bush administration, to nearly quadruple the allowable logging on federal lands in western Oregon -- including many prized old-growth stands -- and open up protected northern spotted owl habitat across Oregon, Washington and Northern California to timber companies.

Frustrated by the expanded power of Washington, a growing number of state lawmakers are defying the federal government and passing legislation aimed at rolling back the reach of Congress and President Obama. While many measures are symbolic ones declaring the sovereignty of states, some Westerners are taking more dramatic steps. One Utah lawmaker wants to limit federal law enforcement in his state.