California refuses pleas for major weakening of water conservation rules

Nine months after California imposed its first-ever mandatory statewide water conservation rules to cope with the state's historic drought, dozens of leaders of water agencies on Tuesday pleaded with the administration of Gov. Jerry Brown to relax them.

Their argument: It's raining, reservoirs are filling, customers are mad -- and selling less water is costing them hundreds of millions of dollars.

But rather than making major changes, the State Water Resources Control Board voted instead for modest adjustments