Deluged

Realtors are being deluged with class-action lawsuits threatening to upend the traditional real estate compensation system, with 16 “copycat” cases filed in the wake of a mammoth $1.78 billion verdict handed down last October against top industry groups. Two California lawsuits filed this month — one in Los Angeles and one in Sacramento — brought to 20 the number of federal court cases seeking to end requirements that home sellers pay agents for the buyers. The lawsuits name the National Association of Realtors and more…

California is taking a beating from what the National Weather Service has called a “seemingly never ending parade” of strong storm systems, which started late last December and are still coming. Called atmospheric rivers, they are long, narrow currents of exceptionally wet air that shoot across the ocean, capable of dumping massive volumes of rain or snow on landfall. Although these storms deliver much of the West’s precipitation, they also cause most of the region’s flooding, with associated economic damages as high as…