Sharon McNary

After two more horses died at Santa Anita Park over the weekend, state regulators wanted to suspend racing during an investigation, but the park declined. A proposed law could change that.

Animal rights advocates want an eventual state ban on horse racing.

The 26 deaths of thoroughbred horses during training or racing so far this season are on track to equal the 37 such deaths at Santa Anita last year.

Attorneys for alleged victims of the nation’s largest-ever natural gas leak spoke to reporters today in Porter Ranch, near the site of the 2015 disaster at the Aliso Canyon gas storage field.

Some offer a cold soda, or a free ride between trailhead and town. But some Trail Angels actually offer long-distance hikers free lodging and other services at their own homes. One of the best-known outposts is Hiker Heaven in Agua Dulce.

I'd read about Trail Angels in Cheryl Strayed's 2012 memoir "Wild," and saw the ones depicted in the 2014 movie of the same name starring Reese Witherspoon, but had never visited them.

"We had a lot of people coming to the station asking us what the health risks were and we couldn't figure that out and we couldn't get any information," says retired LAFD Engineer Dan Mehterian.

The leak lasted for several months and forced some 8,000 households to evacuate for weeks or months.

It involves using the excess wind and solar power L.A.'s renewable energy sites produce during the day to pump water from Castaic Lake uphill 7.5 miles to Pyramid Lake. Then, late in the day, when the sun goes down and the city's energy demand spikes, the water gets run downhill through hydroelectric generators at Castaic Lake.

Using excess solar and wind energy to power massive hydroelectric plants could be a key way to help get L.A. to its goal of 100% renewable energy by 2045.