California drought update: State sees further improvements

In updated information released Thursday morning, the U.S. Drought Monitor determined more of California is officially out of an ongoing drought. That's an improvement over good news from last week. The Central Valley and the Central Coast both saw significant expansions of the drought-free zone that was first indicated last week. About half of Kern County was classified last week as abnormally dry and half was still in moderate drought status. This week's newest information indicates the western portion of Kern County is drought-free, and central and eastern portions are...