Volcano News

I'm still a little damp-eyed from Jessica Sanchez's final performance on "American Idol" Wednesday night, on which the final four contestants each sang a song either from or about California as well as a song they wish they'd written themselves, which Ryan Seacrest also classified as songs that inspired them.

Meanwhile, Hollie Cavanagh fell flat on a Bonnie Raitt classic and Phillip Phillips coasted by on his "I'm a dreamy, sensitive singer-songwriter" credentials.

After a tepid spring, wildflowers fired to life across the foothills of much of the Bay Area and Sierra Nevada.