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The only commercially distributed sweet potato vodka in the world is made in Atwater.

OK, before you get upset, yes, the Japanese spirit sochu is sometimes made from sweet potatoes. But David Souza's High Roller Vodka is something new.

The tap water in rural areas of California's fertile Central Valley is often laced with nitrates, a chemical linked to a potentially lethal infant illness as well as cancer. Rural Valley residents in an area half the size of Maryland live day-to-day wondering if the next drink of water will make their children sick. I

Ambitious San Joaquin River restoration plans confront delays on the ground and renewed resistance on Capitol Hill.

California's new greenhouse rules offer dairies two reasons to be thankful -- an exemption from the limits and a chance to make money by voluntarily cutting back climate-warming methane. But industry officials say it's unlikely that many dairies will get involved because it's too expensive to build a methane-capturing system.

The prickly pear cactus is helping eliminate soil contamination left from irrigation drainage in the farmland of the San Joaquin Valley, California.

Recent proposals from the U.S. Department of Labor — the first to address youth labor in more than four decades — have stirred alarm and confusion among family farms, where children have been pitching in since mankind’s earliest harvests. Federal officials and workplace safety groups contend the rules are needed to protect youngsters engaged in one of the most dangerous industries in the nation.

Even as the United States has withdrawn from Iraq, winds down its ground war in Afghanistan and prepares to make do with a leaner military budget, it faces an array of future threats and must still be prepared to fight several conflicts simultaneously, the Pentagon said Thursday in unveiling its latest defense strategy.

Pentagon officials unveiled the outlines Thursday of what they called a pared-down defense budget, but their request increases baseline spending beyond the projected end of the Afghan war, even as they plan to reduce ground forces.

Legislators on Capitol Hill vowed Friday to resist a recommendation from the Pentagon to close unneeded military bases around the country as a way to save money, saying communities could not afford it and defense budget cuts could be made elsewhere.

The stealth design of the F-35 joint strike fighter is supposed to make it nearly invisible to enemy radar, but the super high-tech combat aircraft may not be able to avoid the bull's-eye of Pentagon budget-cutters.

The Afghan soldier who killed four French troops last month bribed an Afghan army recruiter to forge his enlistment papers, deserted to Pakistan and then bribed his way back into the army a month before the shootings, McClatchy has learned.

Thomas Vitsounis was a teenager when Greece dropped its old currency, the drachma, and adopted the euro in 2001. He still remembers how proud he felt. Here was proof, he says, that his country had finally evolved from a backward Balkan state into a respected member of Europe.

Deficits matter.

Just ask the Europeans who've been forced to bail out spendthrift Greece to protect their own economies. Just ask Americans who are suddenly seeing the Euro-scare drag down the U.S. stock market.

A federal appeals court today ruled California's same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional, upholding a federal judge's landmark ruling in a case likely destined for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Bee political columnist Dan Walters hosted a live chat today on the federal appeals court ruling that California's same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional. Replay it here.

It's not every day that a federal appeals court cites late comedian Groucho Marx in a decision, especially one as important as overturning California's anti-gay marriage Proposition 8.

As the 9th Circuit Court was striking down Proposition 8, the chairman of Goldman Sachs, probably the nation's most powerful investment bank, was taking an out-front stand in favor of same-sex marriage.

The fight over California's same-sex marriage ban has been presumed for years to be destined for the U.S. Supreme Court, and a lawyer for Proposition 8 backers confirmed today that they'll appeal this morning's decision "one way or the other."

In a landmark victory for gay rights advocates, a federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled California's same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional.