California's Severe Drought Is Making Electricity More Expensive, And Less Clean

California produces a significant amount of energy from hydroelectric dams. What happens when there is no more water in the dams?

Low water in northern California's Lake Oroville on Oct. 30, 2014.

Rich Pedroncelli / AP

More than 99% of California was experiencing drought conditions in March, and 40% of the state was in the grips of an "exceptional" drought — the highest category. Officials say the conditions are some of the worst in the state's recorded history.

Drought means less water, but it also means that electricity is costing Californians more as well, according to a new report from the Pacific Institute.

According to the report, the drought cost California $1.4 billion because it has significantly reduced the amount of water in reservoirs and streams that run hydroelectric power plants. In response, the state has had to turn to other, more costly forms of energy, including natural gas, wind, and solar.

"As a result, the drought has led to a direct increase in electricity costs to California ratepayers," the report explains.

A warning buoy sits on the dry, cracked bed of Lake Mendocino near Ukiah, California, on Feb. 4 2014.

Rich Pedroncelli / AP

Albert Lundeen, spokesperson for the California Energy Commission, generally agreed with the report, telling BuzzFeed News that the drought has cut down on the amount of water for generating electricity.

"That usually leads to an increase in natural gas," he said, but added that maturing wind and solar energy have been filling the gaps.

Still, other forms of energy come with a cost; according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, hydroelectric power is less than a third as expensive as traditional fossil fuel electricity.

The report charts the different sources of California's energy since 2001, showing that there has been a gradual increase in natural gas usage, along with significant increases of wind and solar. Hydroelectric, represented in the graphic below by the green line, dropped off significantly in 2014.

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Building Explodes In Downtown Manhattan

An unknown number of people were injured and three firefighters were reported missing. This a developing story.

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Texas Obtains New Supply Of Lethal Injection Drugs For April's Executions

The department of corrections said it obtained a new supply of pentobarbital from a “licensed pharmacy.”

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice Unit in Huntsville.

David J. Phillip / AP

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) said it had obtained a new supply of lethal injection drugs to carry out all executions scheduled in April.

The country's most active death penalty state had almost run out of its supply of pentobarbital, the sole primary drug it uses for executions, with enough left for only one execution. A TDCJ spokesman said in a statement that it has acquired more pentobarbital to conduct all four executions scheduled next month.

"The drugs were purchased from a licensed pharmacy that has the ability to compound," TDCJ spokesman Jason Clark said. He did not identify the pharmacy.

The state has previously refused to disclose its source for pentobarbital and defended its secrecy by claiming that threats were made against previous suppliers of lethal injection drugs. Clark did not specify if the new batch of drugs were supplied by the same pharmacy that provided the previous batch.

Faced with a shortage of lethal injection drugs, other states with active death penalties are exploring alternative methods of execution. Last week, Utah's governor signed a bill into law making it the only state to use a firing squad to carry out the death penalty if there is a shortage of lethal drugs.

Oklahoma's lawmakers on Tuesday gave preliminary approval to allow to use of nitrogen gas for executions.

LINK: Texas Executes Gang Hit Man With One Of The Last Doses Of Its Lethal Drugs

LINK: Governor Signs Law Making Utah Only State To Allow Execution By Firing Squad

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D.C. Public Schools Released Private Student Data For A Second Time

For the second time in two months, confidential information about public school students was made public by District of Columbia Public School administrators.

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Less than two months after exposing confidential information about students with disabilities on a public intranet, District of Columbia Public Schools admitted this week that they also inadvertently released sensitive information about students to BuzzFeed News.

The documents were sent in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. One file included data from a 2012-13 Student Enrollment Audit of more than 80,000 students, and contained students' first and last names, birth dates, gender, race and ethnicity, and schools. Two additional files included discipline data, such as when and why students were suspended or expelled. The discipline data files also included information about student disabilities.

The Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) attempted to redact the files using a feature of Microsoft Excel to "lock" and black-out the sensitive information. That feature, however, did not remove the data itself; saving the files in a non-Excel format revealed it all.

The Washington Post reported on the incident Wednesday, saying that DCPS administrators were set to inform parents about this most recent incident, and that staff at BuzzFeed News had "agreed not to unlock the file." BuzzFeed News reporters did not agree to the condition described in the Post — when contacted by the OSSE, BuzzFeed News reporters agreed not to publish confidential student information contained in the files.

BuzzFeed News did not receive a request for comment from the Washington Post. The author of the Washington Post story, Michael Alison Chandler, told BuzzFeed News she could not comment.

Briant Coleman, a spokesperson for OSSE, suggested that the agreement was mischaracterized by the Post. "I don't know why she said 'unlock,'" he said. Coleman did not respond to additional requests for comment by press time.

After BuzzFeed News discovered that student information had been allowed to sit on a public website for years in February, DCPS promised a security review of confidential files. "We understand how important it is to safeguard student information and will conduct a top-to-bottom review of our security practices to ensure this does not happen again," Dr. Nathaniel Beers, Chief of Specialized Instruction for D.C. public schools, said at the time.

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Two Illinois Men Arrested For Conspiring To Help ISIS

The Department of Justice announced the arrests of U.S. Army National Guard Soldier Hasan Edmonds, 22, and his cousin Jonas Edmonds, 29, on Thursday.

Fighters from the Free Syrian Army, left, and the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), center, join forces to fight Islamic State group militants in Kobani, Syria.

Jake Simkin / AP

On Wednesday night, Chicago FBI arrested two men from Aurora, Illinois — one of whom was a US National Guard Soldier — for allegedly conspiring to help ISIS by providing material support, the Department of Justice announced on Thursday.

Army National Guard Specialist and U.S. citizen Hasan Edmonds, 22, was arrested at the Chicago Midway International Airport without incident. He was planning to fly to Cairo, Egypt. officials said. The man's cousin, Jonas Edmonds, 29, also a U.S. citizen was arrested at his home in Aurora, Illinois.

Both men were arrested on charges of conspiring to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization. They will appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheila Finnegan on Thursday afternoon.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates and follow BuzzFeed News on Twitter.

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Michigan Police Beat Unarmed Black Man During Traffic Stop

Inkster police officers hit Floyd Dent repeatedly in the head and used a Taser three times after the 57-year-old man was pulled over for running a stop sign.

An unarmed black man was dragged from his car by Inkster, Michigan, police officers, put in an apparent chokehold, beaten, and tased during a traffic stop that was caught on the police car's dashboard camera on January 28, his lawyer said.

"He was beating me upside the head," Floyd Dent, who has no criminal record, said during a press conference Wednesday afternoon, according to the Detroit Free Press . "I was trying to protect my face with my right arm."

The footage shows police officers pulling over Dent's 2011 Cadillac after he ran a stop sign. Two police officers approached Dent's vehicle with their guns drawn and as the 57-year-old man opened the car door, the officers pulled him out and forced him to the ground.

While on the ground, officer William Melendez had Dent in a chokehold and punched him in the head 16 times.

clickondetroit.com

The second officer tried to handcuff Dent. The officers said Dent refused to put his hands behind his back but Dent said he was trying to release the officer's grip from around his neck.

"I was on my last breath," Dent told Local Four Defenders. "I kept telling the officer, 'Please, I can't breathe.'"

Police claim Dent yelled "I'll kill you" to the officers, but all of the officers' microphones were either turned off or not working.

When backup officers arrived to the scene, Dent was Tasered three times in the thigh and stomach as he was handcuffed. All ten officers involved in the incident are white.

Dent was hospitalized for two days to treat the injuries to his face and head. An officer, who claims Dent bit him, refused medical attention and did not have his injuries photographed.

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California Woman's Kidnapping And Ransom Was A Hoax, Police Say

The abduction and $8,500 ransom for 29-year-old Denise Huskins appears to have been “orchestrated,” police said Wednesday night.

Vallejo Police

Denise Huskins showed up at her father's apartment in Southern California two days after her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, reported her kidnapping, which police now say was "orchestrated" by the couple.

Vallejo Police Lt. Kenny Park said in a press conference late Wednesday night that the search for Denise Huskins was a "wild goose chase." Park added that criminal charges against Huskins and Quinn are possible.

Huskins had initially indicated she would cooperate with police when she surfaced Wednesday morning, but later hired a lawyer and ceased contact with the authorities. The motive for the fake kidnapping and subsequent ransom remains unclear.

Vallejo Police Department Lt. Kenny Park

KGO-TV

Quinn reported the kidnapping of his 29-year-old girlfriend Monday afternoon to police. He claimed strangers had abducted her from their San Francisco Bay Area home in the middle of the night.

"We initially had a hard time believing it," Park said of Quinn's claim.

The 30-year-old boyfriend said Huskins' kidnappers asked for $8,500 in ransom.

The search for Huskins involved the FBI, 40 detectives and about 100 searchers who focused on sweeping the land and the waters around Vallejo and Mare Island.

A car registered to Quinn was taken from the couple's home and later found at an unnamed location by police.

On Tuesday, the San Francisco Chronicle received an email from an anonymous person claiming to be the kidnapped woman. The email included an audio file of the woman speaking who identified herself as Huskins. It said Huskins could be returned safely the following day. Her father confirmed the voice heard in the email was his daughter's, the Chronicle reported.

On Wednesday morning, the search effort was called off after Huskins showed up outside of her father's apartment in Southern California.

Her father, Mike Huskins, immediately informed the Huntington Beach Police Department and Denise indicated she would corporate with detectives. The FBI then arranged to have her flown to Northern California, police said.

"She wasn't crying at all. She just said, 'Daddy, I'm OK,' " Huskins told The Associated Press after being reunited with his daughter.

Denise Huskins has now hired a lawyer and is hiding in an unknown location, Park said Wednesday night. Authorities do not know if Quinn has hired legal representation.

Mike Huskins has also stopped communicating with police since Wednesday morning, Park said. The Chronicle reported that Huskins' family has not returned any messages regarding Wednesday's developments.

It is still not clear how Huskins traveled from Vallejo to Huntington, which are more than 400 miles apart.

Park said Huskins and Quinn could face state or federal charges.

"Mr. Quinn and Ms. Huskins have plundered valuable resources," Park said. "If anything, it is Mr. Quinn and Ms. Huskins who owe our community an apology."

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