Sharon McNary

KPCC Archive

Rose Parade hires former Macy's parade exec in bid for younger audience

Her challenge is to get the whole organization behind the mission to entice more exciting entries to the parade and win a younger audience.

The band Earth, Wind & Fire plays atop a float depicting the Inglewood Forum for the 2018 Rose Parade audience. The addition of live entertainment to a float is an example of how the parade is amping up the entertainment on the floral-covered floats.

KPCC Archive

Survey ranks LA's parks 66th out of the the 100 biggest cities. Irvine is No. 10

When it comes to the quality of its parks, only one Southern California town made the top 10 of America’s 100 largest cities. And it wasn’t Los Angeles. The annual ranking is from The Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit group that advocates for more green spaces.

Later this year, officials plan to charge by the hour for parking in Griffith Park, where traffic has sometimes overwhelmed the area.

KPCC Archive

A dangerous Oxnard rail crossing is about to get a $69 million overpass, paid for by the new gas tax

After a Metrolink engineer was killed in Oxnard in a collision with a truck with years ago, politicians said they had no money to build an overpass. Now they do. Gov. Jerry Brown was there Tuesday to make sure everyone knew the money for the $69 million overpass was raised by California's new gas tax.

Three cars of a Southern California Metrolink commuter train derailed and tumbled onto their sides after a collision with a truck on tracks in Ventura County northwest of Los Angeles.

KPCC Archive

In the face of efforts to repeal gas tax, Brown leads the push back

As a GOP-based effort to repeal hikes in gas and diesel taxes and vehicle fees gains ground, Gov. Jerry Brown and other officials launch a defense of the increases.

Gov. Jerry Brown addresses state and local transportation officials gathered at the Mobility 21 conference on May 18, 2018. The meeting was billed as one focusing on California’s crumbling transportation infrastructure.

KPCC Archive

Twin satellites circling the globe find California's losing groundwater at a steady pace

A new study of the globe's water says drought and farming are depleting California's groundwater, but new measures could help the state sustain its supply.

File: An aerial view of the Hoover Dam and the Hoover Dam bypass under construction June 12, 2009 in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Arizona.

KPCC Archive

Broken pipes and limited gas storage: Why it's a risky summer for the power supply

Southern California Gas Company doesn't know when outages on four major gas pipelines will be fixed, and as a result, we'll have less gas imported this summer, heightening the possibility of power outages.

File: Real-time pressure monitoring transmitters are part of a series of new safety enhancements at the Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage Facility near Porter Ranch. The transmitters are displayed during a media event on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2017.

KPCC Archive

Gov. Brown accused of behind-the-scenes manipulation in vote of water tunnel project

Two nonprofit groups are accusing Gov. Jerry Brown of improperly working with Metropolitan Water District board directors behind the scenes to put pressure on a key vote for a massive water tunnel project.

FILE - In this Feb. 25, 2016, file photo, water flows through an irrigation canal to crops near Lemoore, Calif. The California Supreme Court is set to issue a ruling Thursday, July 21, 2016, that could add millions of dollars to the governor's $15.7 billion plan to build two giant water tunnels in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

KPCC Archive

The cost of the Porter Ranch gas leak is closing in on $1 billion

It includes what SoCal Gas spent housing thousands of families away from Porter Ranch while the leak was active, and a program to capture greenhouse gases equivalent to what got into the atmosphere from the broken gas well.

The SoCal Gas Company's Aliso Canyon Oil Field and Storage Facility pictured in an aerial photograph taken Sept. 28, 2016.

KPCC Archive

Cheaper gas or better roads? The battle over California's new gas tax

Government officials and construction interests who want to keep the gas tax face off against anti-tax activists to win the hearts and minds of California voters.

Customers pump gas at an Arco station on July 2, 2012 in Los Angeles, California.

KPCC Archive

LA County wants a new tax on property owners to fund the capture of more stormwater

The proposed tax could raise $300 to $400 million per year to fund projects to capture more of the stormwater that falls on L.A. County and is lost to the sea.

Concrete stormwater storage caverns being set into place in Sun Valley Park several years ago. They have since been covered over with about five feet of fill dirt. Baseball and soccer fields are placed atop the caverns.

KPCC Archive

AQMD panel wants safety measures, but no ban, to cope with hazardous refinery chemical

Air quality staffers had been working toward a ban, but the officials who govern the agency call for less stringent means of reducing the risk of a toxic chemical.