ECHO SUMMIT, Calif. (AP) - California's last snow survey of the season is bad news for the millions of state residents who rely on the snowpack for their water.  

The state Department of Water Resources found the water content in the snowpack on Thursday was 17 percent of normal, an ominous situation for a state that depends on a steady stream of snowmelt to replenish reservoirs throughout the summer.  

In some places, there was no snow at all.  

State officials are projecting they will deliver just 35 percent of the water that has been requested from the 29 agencies that rely on the snowmelt, which supplies more than 25 million Californians.  

This year has been one of the driest rainy seasons on record in some parts of California.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The number of Americans who signed contracts to buy homes rose in March to the highest level in three years.

The National Association of Realtors says that its seasonally adjusted index for pending home sales rose 1.5 percent to 105.7. That's the highest since April 2010, when a homebuyer's tax credit boosted sales. It's also above February's reading of 104.1.

Signed contracts are 7 percent higher than they were a year earlier. There is generally a one- to two-month lag between a signed contract and a completed sale. Still, sales are being held back by limited supply.

Sales of previously occupied homes dipped in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.92 million, down from 4.95 million in February.

SACRAMENTO - Recent statistics are showing a decline in the number of new, small businesses in the United States. 

Some economists believe one reason fewer small businesses are opening up shop comes down to the fact that potential entrepreneurs are capitalizing on an improving job market, choosing to join the general workforce rather than venturing out on their own.

According to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, there were an estimated 514,000 new business owners per month in the U.S in 2012. That number is down from 543,000 per month in 2011, and 565,000 in 2010 which was the peak of the recession.

In regards to Sacramento specifically, the city recently made a list of the most unfriendly cities for small businesses, due in part to high tax rates.