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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A powerful storm brought drenching rain or heavy snowfall to much of California on Saturday, snarling traffic and closing highways as the state prepared to usher in a new year.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Howard Fischer, a 63-year old investor living north of New York City, has a wish for when he dies. He wants his remains to be placed in a vessel, broken down by tiny microbes and composted into rich, fertile soil.

NASHVILLE, Tenn.

BOSTON (AP) — A simple plan to get more people enjoying the outdoors on New Year’s Day has become a nationwide movement after a hike at a Massachusetts park more than three decades ago.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Landslides of rock and mud closed roadways Friday across California as heavy rains kicked off what will be series of storms poised to usher in the new year, likely bringing downpours and flooding.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina utility regulators told Duke Energy Corp. on Friday to carry out a series of activities to generate electricity that they say will help ensure greenhouse gas reductions set in a new state law are met.

The U.S. government on Friday said it received one bid for the right to drill offshore for oil and gas in Alaska's Cook Inlet near habitat for bears, salmon, humpback whales and endangered beluga whales.

Starting New Year's Day, you can still wear bikinis on the beaches of Miami Beach, but forget about showing any butts — cigarette butts, that is.

REVELSTOKE, B.C. — A special avalanche warning is in placeuntil Monday for wilderness areasthroughout most of the Columbia Mountains in British Columbia as well as the Northern Rockies in B.C. and Alberta.

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