NATION NEWS BRIEFS

NATIONWIDE / Study tracks fireflies

Scientists are hoping a network of backyard volunteers who spent the summer counting fireflies can help them determine if the luminous insects are in a decline. About 700 volunteers from across the nation counted fireflies in their area and noted their color and flash patterns. The volunteers then entered their observations into an online database. Scientists are worried by reports that people are seeing fewer fireflies each summer, possibly because of habitat destruction. About 5,100 people from 42 states and four other nations have taken part in Firefly Watch's online effort since May 2008.

CALIFORNIA / Waste-to-energy race

Los Angeles County officials are looking to spend $200 million to build three so-called biorefineries as California attempts to catch up with Japan and other countries in turning trash into energy. Fears that newer trash-to-energy technologies would undermine traditional recycling or create air pollution have stalled efforts to build new plants in California, once considered one of the greenest places in the world. Proponents of the new technology are trying to convince critics as space for trash shrinks. L.A. County officials are seeking alternatives to closing the world's largest landfill and shipping trash by rail to an abandoned goldmine near Mexico. The proposed demonstration plants would either use heat to turn trash to energy or use microorganisms that eat organic material and create methane to produce power.

CALIFORNIA / New job for ex-HP exec?

Former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Mark Hurd, who resigned from the company last month in the wake of a sexual harassment investigation, is in talks about a position with Oracle Corp., according to published reports. Hurd could join Oracle in an executive role, though he is not expected to replace the software maker's chief executive, Larry Ellison, according to reports Sunday on The Wall Street Journal and New York Times websites. Both attributed the information to unnamed people familiar with the matter. A spokeswoman at Oracle didn't immediately return messages seeking comment Sunday.