New California Laws Take Aim at Wildfires • Cross-State Pollution Limits in Court • Science Standards

Wildfires scorched California again this year and the danger isn’t over yet. But the state is trying to prepare for next year.

California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) and the state Legislature passed a batch of new laws aimed at reducing the threat of wildfires. One of them requires battery backups for garage door openers so that people can escape in power outages. Others call for tree cutting and prescribed burns.

Firefighters monitor flames in the Pollard Flat area of California in the Shasta Trinity National Forest, north of Redding, on Sept. 6, 2018.

Photographer: Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images

“If you can get people to accept a little smoke now, you will avoid bigger fires,” says Staci Heaton, regulatory affairs advocate at the Rural County Representatives ...