EPA froze ‘green bank’ funds worth billions, climate group suit says

• March 11, 2025

By MATTHEW DALY and MICHAEL PHILLIS

WASHINGTON (AP) — A nonprofit that was awarded nearly $7 billion by the Biden administration to finance clean energy and climate-friendly projects has sued President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency, accusing it of improperly freezing a legally awarded grant.

Climate United Fund, a coalition of three nonprofit groups, demanded access to a Citibank account it received through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a program created in 2022 by the bipartisan Inflation Reduction Act and more commonly known as the green bank. The freeze threatens its ability to issue loans and even pay employees, the group said.

“The combined actions of Citibank and EPA effectively nullify a congressionally mandated and funded program,” Maryland-based Climate United wrote in a Monday court filing.

In a related action, the Coalition for Green Capital, a separate group that received $5 billion from the Biden-era program, sued Citibank Monday, alleging breach of contract over the refusal to disburse the grant funds awarded by the EPA.

“Citi’s actions have blocked CGC from deploying funds appropriated by Congress for energy projects to lower electricity costs and provide clean air and water for all Americans,” the Washington-based group said in a statement.

The two nonprofits are among eight groups tapped by then-EPA Administrator Michael Regan to receive $20 billion to finance tens of thousands of projects to fight climate change and promote environmental justice. The money was formally awarded in August.

While favored by congressional Democrats, the green bank drew immediate criticism from Republicans, who routinely denounced it as an unaccountable “slush fund.” Regan sharply disputed that claim.

The bank was quickly targeted by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, who was confirmed to the role in late January. In a video posted on X, Zeldin said the EPA would revoke contracts for the still-emerging program. Zeldin cited a conservative journalist’s undercover video made late last year that showed a former EPA employee saying the agency was throwing “gold bars off the Titanic” — presumably a reference to spending before the start of Trump’s second term.

Zeldin has repeatedly used the term “gold bars” to accuse the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund’s recipients of misconduct, waste and possible fraud.

According to the lawsuit filed in federal court, Citibank cut off access to Climate United’s bank account on February 18 — an action the bank did not explain for weeks.

The cutoff took place as Zeldin made multiple public appearances accusing Climate United and other groups of misconduct, eventually announcing that the funds were frozen, according to the lawsuit. Climate United said the EPA has refused to meet with the group.

Several Democratic lawmakers slammed Zeldin’s attacks on the green bank as a “sham investigation and unsubstantiated funding freeze.”

The Trump administration’s “baseless attacks on these investments will only cost jobs, increase prices and harm our communities,” Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey and Michigan Rep. Debbie Dingell said in a statement Monday. The three Democrats pushed for creation of the green bank.

Citibank said it was reviewing the Climate United lawsuit.

“As we’ve said previously, Citi has been working with the federal government in its efforts to address government officials’ concerns regarding this federal grant program,” the bank said in a statement Monday. “Our role as financial agent does not involve any discretion over which organizations receive grant funds. Citi will of course comply with any judicial decision.”

The EPA declined to comment, citing pending litigation. A hearing on the case is scheduled for Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

In its court filing, Climate United pointed to the resignation of Denise Cheung, a high-ranking prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Washington office, who said she was forced to step dow n after refusing demands from top Trump administration officials to freeze the climate groups’ assets.

Zeldin raised questions in a letter to the agency’s watchdog about the EPA’s use of Citibank to hold the money, a structure that allowed the eight entities to be used as “pass throughs” for eventual grant recipients. The process undermined transparency, Zeldin alleged.

He also questioned the qualifications of some of the entities overseeing the grants and said some were affiliated with the Biden administration or Democratic politics, including Stacey Abrams, a former Democratic nominee for Georgia governor. Trump singled out Abrams over her ties to the green bank in his address to Congress last week.

In a letter to EPA officials on March 4, Climate United disputed Zeldin’s allegations. The group’s lengthy application material is publicly available and the EPA used a rigorous selection process, Climate United said, adding that its spending is transparent.

In addition to Climate United, the new fund has awarded money to other nonprofits, including the Coalition for Green Capital, Power Forward Communities, Opportunity Finance Network, Inclusiv and the Justice Climate Fund. Those organizations have partnered with a range of groups, including Rewiring America, Habitat for Humanity and the Community Preservation Corporation.

The green bank represents ideas Congress enacted that the Trump administration doesn’t like: fighting climate change and helping communities that are often low-income or majority-Black and Hispanic, said Ilmi Granoff, a climate finance expert at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University.

“The resources have already been spent, which means they’re trying to come up with pretexts to do something the government is not supposed to do, which is claw back resources” that Congress provided, Granoff said, comparing the Trump administration’s investigations to a “fishing expedition.”

The Trump administration said Friday that it’s pulling $400 million from Columbia University, canceling grants and contracts because of what the government describes as the Ivy League school’s failure to squelch antisemitism on campus.

Phillis reported from St. Louis.

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

​ Orange County Register 

Kings welcome Islanders after victory over Vegas

• March 11, 2025

Having reversed their recent negative momentum by winning back-to-back games to close last week, the Kings will return to the friendly confines of Crypto.com Arena to face Patrick Roy’s New York Islanders in a meeting of two of the stodgier squads in the NHL.

The Kings (33-20-9; 20-3-4 at home) were anything but stodgy on Sunday, however, when they stormed the Vegas Golden Knights’ castle and pillaged two points in a sinewy 6-5 victory. They established two separate three-goal leads of 3-0 and 5-2, fending off multiple pushes from Vegas to upend the Pacific Division’s pace car for the third time in four meetings this season.

In those matchups, the Kings have scored six goals twice and five in their other victory. Six different Kings found the back of the net on Sunday, including an “instinctual” tally from Brandt Clarke, in his words, and a momentum-shifting marker from Warren Foegele before Adrian Kempe scored the game-winner.

“Resilient,” Foegele told reporters. “That’s a really good team to play against, and I loved that we just stuck with it. There were some ups and downs in that game, but we stuck together and found a way to get the two points.”

Clarke, who had been subjected to some yo-yoing with his minutes and even his games during the middle third of a season that he began with very promising results, spoke postgame about the turmoil that seemed to dissipate after Friday’s trade deadline passed.

“It’s definitely tough being in and out,” Clarke told reporters. “But that just kind of grew my hunger to want to make a difference when I was back in. I love being part of this team, I love being in this locker room.”

The Kings went into Vegas as the NHL’s fourth most feeble offense, and next they’ll face an opponent presently tied for the fifth fewest goals in the league. The Islanders, whom the Kings beat, 3-1, on Long Island back on Dec. 10, will be playing their third game in four nights. They split a back-to-back set that saw them win, 4-2, in San Jose on Saturday, before falling, 4-1, to the Ducks on Sunday.

So desperate were the Islanders for offense in Anaheim that Roy pulled their goalie down three scores with well over half of the third period remaining. It was an ineffective but permitted eccentricity from a man who knows more about goaltending than perhaps anyone: Roy won four Stanley Cups manning the cage of two different franchises, the Montreal Canadiens and Colorado Avalanche.

The Islanders and Kings will take the ice with two of the NHL’s five worst power plays this season, when the Isles have outright brought up the rear in terms of conversion rate. They also each ranked in the bottom three in terms of penalties drawn, predictably leaving these as the two lowest-output power plays in the NHL this season (the Kings are tied with the Ducks for 30th and the Islanders rank dead last in power-play goals).

The Islanders are also without their most creative and skilled player, Mathew Barzal (lower-body). They went to the conference finals in 2020 and 2021, when Kings coach Jim Hiller was an assistant for the Isles, and dealt away one of the central figures from those runs, Brock Nelson, at the trade deadline.

ISLANDERS AT KINGS

When: Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.

Where: Crypto.com Arena

TV: FDSN West

​ Orange County Register 

CIF SoCal Regional girls basketball preview: Sage Hill vs. Windward, Division I final

• March 11, 2025

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A preview of Tuesday’s CIF Southern California Regional Division I girls basketball championship game:

DIVISION I FINAL

Windward (21-10) at Sage Hill (22-11), 7 p.m.

Outlook: The No. 2 seeded Lightning carry a 2-0 record against No. 4 Windward this season as they attempt to reach the CIF State championship for the second time in four seasons. Sage Hill beat Windward 69-58 in the first round of the Harvard-Westlake tournament on Nov. 20, and 70-55 in the finals of the Redondo tournament 10 days later. “It is really difficult to beat a team three times in a season … but really excited about the challenge,” Sage Hill coach Kerwin Walters said. “We have to prepare very well as Windward has been playing extremely well. They have several players who can cause damage and we will have to be at the top of our game in order to pull this off.”

Windward is coming off a 79-55 win against Fairmont Prep in the semifinals. NYU-bound Olivia Lagao scored 20 points, including six of Windward’s 12 3-pointers. In the regional, Central Florida-bound Samari Bankhead is averaging 21 points while sophomore Charis Rainey is averaging 18. Walters lists all three players as key matchups and adds freshman Amel Cook (13 ppg in regional). The freshman had been offered by USC and UCLA among others.

Sage Hill counters with a defense that held Brentwood — known for its 3-point shooting — to a season-low scoring output in a 59-39 victory in the semifinals. Offensively, sophomore Kamdyn Klamberg is averaging 18 points in the regional for the Lightning while Amalia Holguin is averaging 14.7 points. Sage Hill’s surge in regional has been boosted by the return of freshman guard Addison Uphoff from injury.

The winner Tuesday faces either St. Mary’s or Carondelet in the CIF State final Friday at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento at 6 p.m. In 2022, Sage Hill won a dramatic Division II CIF SoCal Regional title at Corona Santiago and went on capture the state championship. That same season, Windward edged an Orangewood Academy team led by Hannah Stines (now at Washington) 61-58 in the Division I regional final. Windward lost in the state final. The Wildcats are 6-1 all-time in regional championship games while Sage Hill is 1-0.

​ Orange County Register 

Senate confirms Lori Chavez-DeRemer as Trump’s labor secretary

• March 11, 2025

By CATHY BUSSEWITZ

The Senate voted Monday to confirm Lori Chavez-DeRemer as U.S. labor secretary, a Cabinet position that puts her in charge of enforcing federally mandated worker rights and protections at a time when the White House is trying to eliminate thousands of government employees.

Chavez-DeRemer will oversee the Department of Labor, one of several executive departments named in lawsuits challenging the authority of billionaire Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency to order layoffs and access sensitive government data.

The Labor Department had nearly 16,000 full-time employees and a proposed budget of $13.9 billion for fiscal year 2025. Some of its vast responsibilities include reporting the U.S. unemployment rate, regulating workplace health and safety standards, investigating minimum wage, child labor and overtime pay disputes, and applying laws on union organizing and unlawful terminations.

Several prominent labor unions, including the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, endorsed Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination. The former Republican congresswoman from Oregon is the daughter of a Teamster, and during her one term in the House earned a reputation as pro-labor.

The Senate voted to confirm Chavez-DeRemer 67-32, with 17 Democrats voting yes and three Republicans voting no.

The Senate has now confirmed all but one of Trump’s picks for his Cabinet. Its Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions had voted 14-9 in favor of her nomination last week, with all Republicans except Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky giving Chavez-DeRemer their support. Three Democrats on the committee — Sens. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, Tim Kaine of Virginia and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire — voted with the majority.

During her confirmation hearing before the committee, several Republican senators grilled Chavez-DeRemer about her decision to co-sponsor legislation that would have made it easier for workers to unionize and penalized employers who stood in the way of organizing efforts.

She declined to explicitly state whether she still backed the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, also known as the PRO Act.

Chavez-DeRemer explained she had signed on as a co-sponsor because she wanted a seat at the table to discuss important labor issues. Under further questioning, she walked back some of her support of the bill, saying that she supported state “right to work” laws, which allow employees to refuse to join a union in their workplace.

The PRO Act did not come up for a vote during her time in Congress, but the legislation was reintroduced in the House and Senate last week.

“As we speak, Donald Trump and his billionaire buddies are stealing the American dream away from working families, rigging every lever of society in favor of the billionaire class,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement. “That’s why we need the PRO Act, to empower hardworking Americans to bargain for better wages, benefits, and safer working conditions.”

During her time in Congress Chavez-DeRemer also co-sponsored legislation which sought to protect public-sector workers from having their Social Security benefits docked because of government pension benefits. That bill also stalled because it didn’t have enough Republican support.

Chavez-DeRemer walked a fine line during her confirmation hearing, attempting to appeal to both Democrats and Republicans. On the subject of whether the federal minimum wage was overdue for an increase, she said she recognized it hadn’t been raised from $7.25 an hour since 2009 but that she would not want to “shock the economy.”

Some Democratic senators and workers’ rights advocates have questioned how much independence Chavez-DeRemer would have as President Donald Trump’s labor secretary and where her allegiance would lie in an administration that has fired thousands of federal employees.

​ Orange County Register 

Angels use 8-run inning to blow out Rockies

• March 11, 2025

THE GAME: The Angels used two of their three candidates for the No. 5 starter spot and busted the game open with eight runs in the seventh on their way to a 12-3 victory over the Colorado Rockies in a Cactus League game on Monday in Tempe, Arizona.

PITCHING REPORT: Right-hander Chase Silseth gave up three runs in four innings. It could have been worse, but Silseth picked off two runners. Silseth walked one and struck out four. He retired the side in order in his first and last innings. Silseth has allowed 10 earned runs in 10⅓ innings this spring, with 13 strikeouts and five walks. Left-hander Reid Detmers pitched four scoreless innings, striking out four and walking none. Detmers has allowed three earned runs in 11⅔ innings this spring. They were facing a Rockies split-squad with only one of their projected starters. The two are competing with right-hander Jack Kochanowicz for the final spot in the Angels’ rotation. … Left-hander Brock Burke pitched a perfect inning in between Silseth and Detmers. Burke has not allowed a run in four innings this spring, with six strikeouts and one walk.

HITTING REPORT: Jorge Soler hit a towering home run to left field, his third homer of the spring. Soler is 10 for 26 (.385) with an OPS of 1.138 this spring. … Kyren Paris hit a tie-breaking homer in the seventh inning. It’s the fourth time this spring that Paris has either tied the game or given the Angels the lead in the seventh inning or later. Paris came up again in the inning and doubled. … J.D. Davis hit an opposite-field double off the right field fence. Davis then hustled around to score from second on a ground ball in the infield. Rockies first baseman Nick Martini was slow to notice Davis rounding third, and he scored ahead of the throw. … Tim Anderson had two hits. He’s now 8 for 29 (.276) this spring, after starting 0 for 6. … The Angels broke the game open with eight runs in the seventh inning. The big blow was a grand slam from Sam Brown. Up from minor league camp, Brown was the Angels’ 12th-round draft pick in 2023. … Mickey Moniak had an RBI single and a triple.

DEFENSE REPORT: Right fielder Mike Trout had a long run to get a pop-up toward the foul line. Trout is adjusting to right after playing center for his whole career.

UP NEXT: Angels (LHP José Suarez) at Texas Rangers (RHP Tyler Mahle), Tuesday, 1:10 p.m., at Surprise Stadium, FanDuel Sports Network West, 830 AM

​ Orange County Register 

How the Wizard of Oz and the Bible influenced Karen Russell’s ‘The Antidote’

• March 11, 2025

“The Antidote,” Karen Russell’s first novel in 14 years, is framed by two real-life events in Nebraska back in 1935 – a devastating dust storm and a Biblical-level flood that was accompanied by a tornado.

But on the pages in between, the story focuses on the town locals. These include some you might expect, a local farmer and his feisty orphaned niece, and some you might not: There’s a Vault, or prairie witch, who absorbs people’s secrets into her body as well as a photographer who inexplicably captures the past and the future in her pictures.

Russell’s first novel, the mesmerizing, Pulitzer Prize-finalist “Swamplandia,” also featured otherworldly touches but relied as much on the magical mystical world of the Everglades to augment the atmosphere. It also had a lot to say about America, “about fantasy versus reality, capitalist expansion, colonial violence and willful amnesia,” Russell said during a video interview from her Oregon home. 

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In “The Antidote,” the magic is more central, enhanced by the presence of a witch, a scarecrow, a tornado and the strategic use of words like “emerald” and the town being named Uz. Russell says she loves in “The Wizard of Oz” how “strangers form this unlikely family and change together,” which is true here, too. But she notes that Uz actually comes from the Book of Job in the Bible, which is also an influence on her work. 

The book shares the same political concerns as “Swamplandia” but here they are laid bare like the topsoil destroyed by years of misguided farming tactics in the book. “A lot of people I grew up with, myself included, didn’t have the tools to understand the cost of their own lives to their ecosystems and to other people,” Russell says about how the characters here gradually come to see the toll the blinders they wore has taken on minorities and the less fortunate. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q. You juggle a big cast of characters, magical realism and a reexamination of American history. Plus, the Wizard of Oz. What was the seed that started this?

I was finishing “Swamplandia” a thousand years ago, when I was a young woman with a poreless face, and I wanted to write my next novel. I got this image of a woman holding up one of those antique earhorns and some guy was whispering a secret to her. I thought of these women I call prairie witches, who absorb memories for people – usually something you can’t bear to know anymore – that’s disrupting your life. 

That felt universal – I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t be tempted to tear out some pages of their life story and put them on the shelf. But that was all I knew and I could never find my way into the book. 

What I love about novels is that you can have multiple worlds that overlap and more time to get to know and care about people. With a short story, it can feel perverse – it’s like the circus comes to town and you set up this whole world and then you say, “Thanks for coming. We’re gone tomorrow.”

But novels are harder to hold in your head than short stories. When I was failing to write this book, I thought, “I’m actually not a novelist. I just write stories.” 

By the pandemic, I was this haggard mother of two and we had these terrible wildfires in Portland where you couldn’t go outside. This room is now a serene office, but it used to be our nursery and I was putting towels around the windows because of the smoke and it became a bridge back to this story. 

It is a big canvas. I sent it to my dad who said, “Oh, Karen, when are you going to write those short stories again?”

Q. Besides the violence and colonization and the denying of reality, both novels also deal with grief and the loss of a mother and of land and home. Were you conscious of those connections?

I’m truly the last to know. It’s sort of embarrassing how deep into a draft I’ll get before I have any clue. It’s a funny thing to try to court this experience of letting the story get a little bit away from me, developing momentum to take me somewhere I don’t fully understand in a first draft. That’s what’s powerful about fiction. You kind of have to disarm yourself first – my waking mind wouldn’t even know how to get to some of these coordinates.

If I wrote this story as straight history without the magic, the stakes are so enormous that I’d be self-conscious about getting it right. This novel goes to some pretty frightening and messy places that honestly, I wouldn’t be able to just sit down and decide to write about.

Q. Are we shortsighted and misguided in the way we treat other people, and the land, because of human nature, or is it the myth of American individualism, or the structures of unregulated capitalism?

These are my questions, too. We have an economy that pushes people down and gives financial incentives to go on destroying things. I don’t think it’s our nature. We are this amazing species that gets to tell stories about what we are, which changes how we understand ourselves. People are capable of so much goodness, so I reject a reductive view of us. 

Q. The erasing of memories in your book is both personal and political. Were you concerned about balancing the characters and story with the political themes?

More than anything I’ve written, this book is overtly political and that really was a decision. I think this has a real intention that’s pretty evident, but I really hope it works as a novel, too. 

I could not have anticipated the context that I’d be launching this book into. The book has a section called “The Counterfeiters,” about counterfeiting fantasies that substitute for history. Watching the way Russia is being recast is terrifying – it is happening right in front of us, a heinous case of a revision that serves power. 

These strategic attacks on knowledge and memory are tragic – they’re happening right now but there’s a section in the book about the Indian boarding schools, which were designed to wipe out whole cultures. Some of these losses are irreversible and it was a challenge of this book to hold both notes – the grief over the reality that a lot has been lost, but also the idea that a lot can be recovered. 

There’s a warranted reason for dismay right now, and it’s harder for many of us to imagine a caretaking society or how we can turn this Leviathan around. But a friend said we all do have to act as if this is possible because if we don’t, it’s not. It’s not that it’s harder but that it feels more necessary to me that we try because if you do get stuck in the cul-de-sac of cynicism, which is very seductive.

But writing this book helped me, talking to real people doing good work – it nourished my imagination when I visited my friend’s farm where she practices regenerative agriculture.

My friend Maureen McLane, who’s a poet, said, “I want to resist apocalyptic anxiety without denying reality.” But that can be a narrow lane to navigate between. 

​ Orange County Register 

AI made its way to vineyards. Here’s how the technology is helping make your wine

• March 10, 2025

By SARAH PARVINI

LOS ANGELES (AP) — When artificial intelligence-backed tractors became available to vineyards, Tom Gamble wanted to be an early adopter. He knew there would be a learning curve, but Gamble decided the technology was worth figuring out.

The third-generation farmer bought one autonomous tractor. He plans on deploying its self-driving feature this spring and is currently using the tractor’s AI sensor to map his Napa Valley vineyard. As it learns each row, the tractor will know where to go once it is used autonomously. The AI within the machine will then process the data it collects and help Gamble make better-informed decisions about his crops — what he calls “precision farming.”

“It’s not going to completely replace the human element of putting your boot into the vineyard, and that’s one of my favorite things to do,” he said. “But it’s going to be able to allow you to work more smartly, more intelligently and in the end, make better decisions under less fatigue.”

Gamble said he anticipates using the tech as much as possible because of “economic, air quality and regulatory imperatives.” Autonomous tractors, he said, could help lower his fuel use and cut back on pollution.

As AI continues to grow, experts say that the wine industry is proof that businesses can integrate the technology efficiently to supplement labor without displacing a workforce. New agricultural tech like AI can help farmers to cut back on waste, and to run more efficient and sustainable vineyards by monitoring water use and helping determine when and where to use products like fertilizers or pest control. AI-backed tractors and irrigation systems, farmer say, can minimize water use by analyzing soil or vines, while also helping farmers to manage acres of vineyards by providing more accurate data on the health of a crop or what a season’s yield will be.

Other facets of the wine industry have also started adopting the tech, from using generative AI to create custom wine labels to turning to ChatGPT to develop, label and price an entire bottle.

“I don’t see anybody losing their job, because I think that a tractor operator’s skills are going to increase and as a result, and maybe they’re overseeing a small fleet of these machines that are out there, and they’ll be compensated as a result of their increased skill level,” he said.

Farmers, Gamble said, are always evolving. There were fears when the tractor replaced horses and mules pulling plows, but that technology “proved itself” just like AI farming tech will, he said, adding that adopting any new tech always takes time.

Companies like John Deere have started using the AI that wine farmers are beginning to adopt. The agricultural giant uses “Smart Apply” technology on tractors, for example, helping growers apply material for crop retention by using sensors and algorithms to sense foliage on grape canopies, said Sean Sundberg, business integration manager at John Deere.

The tractors that use that tech then only spray “where there are grapes or leaves or whatnot so that it doesn’t spray material unnecessarily,” he said. Last year, the company announced a project with Sonoma County Winegrowers to use tech to help wine grape growers maximize their yield.

Tyler Klick, partner at Redwood Empire Vineyard Management, said his company has started automating irrigation valves at the vineyards it helps manage. The valves send an alert in the event of a leak and will automatically shut off if they notice an “excessive” water flow rate.

“That valve is actually starting to learn typical water use,” Klick said. “It’ll learn how much water is used before the production starts to fall off.”

Klick said each valve costs roughly $600, plus $150 per acre each year to subscribe to the service.

“Our job, viticulture, is to adjust our operations to the climatic conditions we’re dealt,” Klick said. “I can see AI helping us with finite conditions.”

Angelo A. Camillo, a professor of wine business at Sonoma State University, said that despite excitement over AI in the wine industry, some smaller vineyards are more skeptical about their ability to use the technology. Small, family-owned operations, which Camillo said account for about 80% of the wine business in America, are slowly disappearing — many don’t have the money to invest in AI, he said. A robotic arm that helps put together pallets of wine, for example, can cost as much as $150,000, he said.

“For small wineries, there’s a question mark, which is the investment. Then there’s the education. Who’s going to work with all of these AI applications? Where is the training?” he said.

There are also potential challenges with scalability, Camillo added. Drones, for example, could be useful for smaller vineyards that could use AI to target specific crops that have a bug problem, he said — it would be much harder to operate 100 drones in a 1,000 acre vineyard while also employing the IT workers who understand the tech.

“I don’t think a person can manage 40 drones as a swarm of drones,” he said. “So there’s a constraint for the operators to adopt certain things.”

However, AI is particularly good at tracking a crop’s health – including how the plant itself is doing and whether it’s growing enough leaves – while also monitoring grapes to aid in yield projections, said Mason Earles, an assistant professor who leads the Plant AI and Biophysics Lab at UC Davis.

Diseases or viruses can sneak up and destroy entire vineyards, Earles said, calling it an “elephant in the room” across the wine industry. The process of replanting a vineyard and getting it to produce well takes at least five years, he said. AI can help growers determine which virus is affecting their plants, he said, and whether they should rip out some crops immediately to avoid losing their entire vineyard.

Earles, who is also cofounder of the AI-powered farm management platform Scout, said his company uses AI to process thousands of images in hours and extract data quickly — something that would be difficult by hand in large vineyards that span hundreds of acres. Scout’s AI platform then counts and measures the number of grape clusters as early as when a plant is beginning to flower in order to forecast what a yield will be.

The sooner vintners know how much yield to expect, the better they can “dial in” their wine making process, he added.

“Predicting what yields you’re going to have at the end of the season, no one is that good at it right now,” he said. “But it’s really important because it determines how much labor contract you’re going to need and the supplies you’ll need for making wine.”

Earles doesn’t think the budding use of AI in vineyards is “freaking farmers out.” Rather, he anticipates that AI will be used more frequently to help with difficult field labor and to discern problems in vineyards that farmers need help with.

“They’ve seen people trying to sell them tech for decades. It’s hard to farm; it’s unpredictable compared to most other jobs,” he said. “The walking and counting, I think people would have said a long time ago, ‘I would happily let a machine take over.’”

​ Orange County Register 

Yosemite under a winter storm warning from Tuesday to Thursday

• March 10, 2025

Yosemite is the focus of a winter storm warning issued at 12:32 p.m. on Monday by the National Weather Service. The warning is valid from Tuesday 11 p.m. until Thursday, Mar. 13 at 11 p.m.

The NWS Hanford CA adds to prepare for, “Total snow accumulations of 1 to 3 feet above 4000 feet and up to 4 feet on the highest elevations. Winds could gust as high as 55 mph.”

“Travel could be very difficult to impossible. The hazardous conditions could impact the Wednesday morning and evening commutes. Strong winds could cause tree damage,” according to the NWS. “If you must travel, keep an extra flashlight, food, and water in your vehicle in case of an emergency. The latest road conditions for the state you are calling from can be obtained by calling 5 1 1.”

The full list of affected locations includes:

• Yosemite
• Yosemite Valley
• San Joaquin River Canyon
• Upper San Joaquin River
• Kaiser to Rodgers Ridge
• Kings Canyon NP
• Grant Grove area
• Sequoia NP
• South End of the Upper Sierra

Emergency alerts in Southern California

For “considerable or catastrophic” hazards, emergency alerts will be sent to all enabled mobile phones in the area. To monitor lesser risk, residents are advised to sign up for county alert systems and to monitor agencies’ social media. How to sign up for alerts in your area:

LA County

Orange County

Riverside County

San Bernardino County

Winter weather driving safety: Navigating the chill with expert tips from the NWS

Winter weather can make driving treacherous, leading to over 6,000 weather-related vehicle fatalities and over 480,000 injuries each year. When traveling during snow or freezing rain, prioritize safety by slowing down. In near-freezing temperatures, it’s safest to assume that icy conditions exist on roadways and adjust your driving accordingly. Be cautious of ice accumulating on power lines or tree branches, which can lead to snapping and falling hazards. If possible, avoid driving in such conditions. If you must venture out, opt for routes with fewer trees and power lines. Never touch a downed power line, and immediately dial 911 if you come across one. Here are additional winter weather driving tips:

Share your travel plans:

When traveling out of town in hazardous winter weather, inform your family or friends of your destination, planned route, and estimated time of arrival.

Prepare your vehicle:

Ensure your gas tank is full and equip your vehicle with essential winter supplies such as a windshield scraper, jumper cables, a small shovel, flashlight, cell phone, blanket, extra warm clothing, drinking water, and high-calorie non-perishable food.

Stay calm when stranded:

If you become stranded, remain composed. Inform someone about your situation and location. Avoid attempting to walk to safety. Indicate that you need assistance by attaching a cloth to your car’s antenna or mirror, and make your vehicle more visible by using the dome light and flashers

Be mindful of snow plows:

Keep an eye out for snow plows and provide them with ample room to pass. Only overtake a plow when you have a clear view of the road ahead.

Check road conditions:

Before embarking on your journey, check the latest road conditions to make informed travel decisions.

Stay safe on wintry roads with these valuable winter driving tips from the NWS, and reduce the risk of accidents during challenging weather conditions.

​ Orange County Register