Topless protest; river runs dry; BLM will rough it

GLENDALE, Ariz.  — A security guard at a Glendale nightclub fatally shot one of two bar customers who were involved in a heated argument.

Police say 27-year-old Manuel Ardite was pronounced dead Saturday morning shortly after the dispute.

Investigators say a club employee tried to stop the argument when Ardite pulled out a handgun and started firing.

Police say the other man involved in the argument was shot by Ardite and suffered an injury that wasn't considered life-threatening.

It was then that the security guard shot Ardite.

It's unknown what the two men were arguing about.

ONALASKA, Wash. — A new wildfire has prompted evacuations in Lewis County.

Washington's Department of Natural Resources said Sunday afternoon the fire was burning near Onalaska and was estimated to be about 25 acres.

Newaukum Valley Fire and Rescue Chief Gregg Peterson says four homes were threatened but firefighters were able to stop the flames before they reached the residences. He says he estimates the fire is about 50 percent contained and is expected to be fully contained within hours.

Officials reported that the smoke could be seen from Interstate 5, about 5 miles to the west, and two helicopters were responding to fight the fire. Peterson said 100 firefighters were on the scene.

No injuries have been reported.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The river that runs through America's 10th-largest city has dried up, shriveling a source of civic pride that had welcomed back trout, salmon, beavers and other wildlife after years of restoration efforts.

Over the past two months, large sections of the Guadalupe have become miles of cracked, arid gray riverbed and fish and other wildlife are either missing or dead, the San Jose Mercury News reported Sunday.

"I'm heartbroken," said Leslee Hamilton, executive director of the Guadalupe River Park Conservancy, a nonprofit that runs educational and community programs along the river.

"We've been seeing a great increase in the number of birds and wildlife in the area," she said. "The timing of this is just devastating."

The Guadalupe River isn't a big river or a storied river. But it has a long history in the area.

It was named in 1776 by Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza for the Virgin of Guadalupe as he camped along its banks en route from Monterey to San Francisco.

The river starts in the eastern foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains in smaller creeks. Those tributaries merge to become a river just south of Highway 85 in the Almaden area of San Jose. In normal years, it flows north through neighborhoods and downtown, then alongside Mineta San Jose International Airport before emptying into San Francisco Bay at Alviso.

Despite problems with homeless encampments, the river has become increasingly popular with bicyclists who use its growing trail network as well as community groups who have watched its fish and wildlife rebound.

State law requires dam operators in California to release water for fish but Santa Clara Valley Water District officials made the case that with low storage in the county's 10 reservoirs — now 46 percent full — even if a lot of water was released down the Guadalupe River, most of it simply would soak into the bone-dry soil. And within a month the river would be dry again.

Because less water is being released from the reservoirs, at least eight miles of the 14-mile Guadalupe River are now completely dry.

The Guadalupe is in worse shape than many California waterways, but it is hardly alone.

The state's rivers and creeks are withering and in some cases disappearing entirely after four years of historically dry weather.