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Cherkauer said he ran simulation models that show Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan could see as much as 28 percent more precipitation by the year 2070, with much of that coming during the winter and spring months. His projections also show drier summer and fall seasons. "This was already a difficult spring to plant because of how wet it was. If you were to add another inch or so of rain to that, it would be a problem," Cherkauer said. "It could make it difficult to get into fields. There's also a potential for more flooding." He calculated that winters in the four states could be 2.7 degrees to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit warmer by 2077 than today. Summers could be 3.6 degrees to 10.8 degrees warmer. The NASA-funded study appears in the early online edition of the Journal of Great Lakes Research.

BOLD FARMING: Pesticide used at a marijuana grow site in Sequoia National Park in California is prepared for removal by helicopter. (Photo: Gary Kazanjian/AP) Not far from Yosemite's waterfalls and in the middle of California's redwood forests, Mexican drug gangs are quietly commandeering U.S. public land to grow millions of marijuana plants and using smuggled immigrants to cultivate them.   Pot has been grown on public lands for decades, but Mexican traffickers have taken it to a whole new level: using armed guards and trip wires to safeguard sprawling plots that in some cases contain tens of thousands of plants offering a potential yield of more than 30 tons of pot a year.