WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is restoring California’s authority to set its own tailpipe pollution standards for cars, reversing a Trump administration policy and likely ushering in stricter emissions standards for new passenger vehicles nationwide.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed sending money back to taxpayers to offset record-high gas prices but rejected calls to increase oil drilling, saying he wants to free the state “once and for all from the grasp of petro-dictators.”

California, already paying record prices for motor fuel, is set to shell out even more with the Golden State more exposed to surging oil prices than the rest of the country in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Biden administration is moving to restore California’s legal power to lead the nation in stifling auto emissions and accelerating the transition to electric vehicles.

A national developer recently purchased one of the largest empty lots in Ontario, Calif., with plans to build a 1 million-square-foot logistics center that would be among the largest warehouses in the city.

California will increase weight limits for trucks carrying goods in and out of its ports in an effort to ease supply chain bottlenecks and clear containers off the docks of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Amid an historic drought posing threats to future harvests, California farmers now say they have no way to export the crops they do have because of a kink in the global supply chain that has left containerships lined up off the Southern California coast with nowhere to deliver their goods.

President Joe Biden’s point-person for clearing the supply chain bottleneck in southern California hailed a new agreement that will fast-track multiple logistics projects in the Golden State.

Sacramento, Calif., had its rainiest day in history and downpours made the record books in San Francisco as a powerful Pacific storm ripped across the West, spilling rocks onto highways, toppling trees and leaving thousands without power.

A California mayor said Tesla Inc. broke ground in his city on what it calls a new “Megafactory,” praising the planned facility in a Facebook post that was deleted and is now visible again.