LA Times Science Files for 2007/05/24

These are items compiled by staff of the LA Times.

• WAYWARD WHALES
  New tactics in humpback rescue effort
  

  SACRAMENTO – With two wandering humpback whales refusing Wednesday to budge past a bustling steel bridge across the Sacramento River, rescuers escalated their tactics to prod the wounded leviathans back to the sea. By Eric Bailey, Times Staff Writer.

• ENVIRONMENT
  A plot both wide and thick
  

  Untamed acres in San Diego County belonged to an Old World empire builder. A bitter feud concerns their future. By Mike Anton, Times Staff Writer.

• ENVIRONMENT
  State acts to limit use of coal power
  

  The California Energy Commission on Wednesday imposed new rules that effectively forbid the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and all other municipal utilities in the state from signing new contracts with coal-fired power plants. By Margot Roosevelt, Times Staff Writer.

• ENVIRONMENT
  7 beaches in L.A. County among most polluted
  

  in state, report says For the second straight year, Los Angeles County had the worst coastal water quality in the state for the 12 months ending March 31, with seven beaches ranking among the state’s 10 most polluted. By Valerie Reitman, Times Staff Writer.

• HEALTH
  Minority women in L.A. County found to have higher rates
  

  of chronic disease Minority women living in Los Angeles County suffer disproportionate rates of chronic disease, according to a study released Wednesday by public health officials that examined the relationship between ethnicity and women’s health. By Susannah Rosenblatt, Times Staff Writer.

• OBITUARIES
  Stanley Miller, 77; chemist was a pioneer in studying the origins of
  

  life Stanley Miller, the UC San Diego chemist who was the first to demonstrate that the organic molecules necessary for life could be generated in a laboratory flask simulating the primitive Earth’s atmosphere, died Sunday from heart failure in a hospital in National City. He was 77. By Thomas H. Maugh II, Times Staff Writer.

• OBITUARIES
  Joseph Zuska, 93; Navy doctor developed treatment for alcoholism
  

  Inside a rusted Quonset hut at the Long Beach Naval Station, Dr. Joseph J. Zuska operated a clandestine program, treating sailors for an illness that in the eyes of the Navy did not exist. By Jocelyn Y. Stewart, Times Staff Writer.