Chestnut wins 6th straight title, downs 68 dogs

San Francisco City College could close in 8 month due to accreditation

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The state's largest college could close after state accreditation evaluators gave the school just eight months to prove it has a viable survival plan. The financially struggling City College of San Francisco was ordered Tuesday to "make preparations for closure," the San Francisco Chronicle reported . The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges cited "leadership weaknesses at ...

San Diego man stranded after told on no-fly list

Jury eyes case of man accused of beating priest

Human error led state to early parole discharge of accused Santa Cruz killer

SANTA CRUZ (AP) - California Corrections officials have acknowledged that a clerical error led to the early parole discharge of a longtime criminal who allegedly fatally stabbed a Santa Cruz woman that authorities say was a random attack. Santa Cruz County District Attorney Bob Lee said Monday that Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Matt Cate recently came to Santa Cruz to ...

Brown, Democrats fail to reach pension reform deal

Ex-Commerce secretary won't be charged in hit-run

State news briefs

LARGEST STATE WORKERS UNION RATIFIES FURLOUGH DEAL: SACRAMENTO, (AP) - California's largest state workers union has ratified a furlough agreement to reduce employees' pay by roughly 5 percent for a year.

Couple tries for year of daily Disneyland visits

ANAHEIM (AP) - It seems like a dream as flighty as Tinkerbell and as quirky as Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Yet a Southern California couple have passed the halfway mark in their quest to visit Disneyland every day this year. "We joke around that we're here more than the cast members are," Jeff Reitz said Tuesday. <p style="line-height: ...

Pair agree to plead guilty in TSA bribery scam

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Two suspected drug couriers have agreed to plead guilty in a case that involved former Transportation Security Administration screeners who were bribed to smuggle marijuana onto planes leaving Los Angeles International Airport, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. Charles Hicks, 24, of Culver City, and Andrew Welter, 25, of Fontana, have agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy, ...

Bay Area briefs

UC Berkeley settles case with photojournalist BERKELEY (AP) - The University of California, Berkeley will pay a photojournalist $162,500 to settle a lawsuit alleging campus police illegally searched his camera for photos of a student protest outside the chancellor's home. Attorneys for 43-year-old David Morse disclosed the settlement on Monday. Morse was arrested on suspicion of rioting while covering ...

‘City councilman faces sex offense charges on SoCal

Children could have more than 2 parents under bill

Controller appeals ruling over pay

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The state controller announced Monday that he is appealing a judge's decision that prevents him from blocking lawmakers' pay if they fail to pass a balanced budget on time. Controller John Chiang filed an appeal notice in Sacramento County Superior Court because the decision "effectively gutted a key provision of Proposition 25," according to Chiang's spokeswoman, Hallye Jordan. California ...

State news briefs

MAMMOTH LAKES VOTES TO FILE FOR BANKRUPTCY: MAMMOTH LAKES (AP) - Officials in the town of Mammoth Lakes say they've voted unanimously to file for bankruptcy, in the face of a $43 million judgment that's more than twice the town's budget.

BART may lift rush-hour bike ban

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Authorities have set the wheels in motion to allow bicycles on all commuter trains in the San Francisco Bay area. The San Francisco Chronicle says directors of the Bay Area Rapid Transit District voted Thursday to permit bikes on all trains for a five-month period, beginning in July. Currently, bikes are banned during rush hours. Two smaller previous tests found no problems with allowing bikes during rush hours. <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: ...

Firm: Bay Bridge bolts made to exact specs

OAKLAND (AP) - An executive with an Ohio manufacturer has said steel bolts used on a troubled new span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge were made exactly to specifications. Experts have spent the past two months trying to determine why 32 of 96 bolts broke after they were tightened in March. A report released on May 7 by Caltrans suggests the bridge design team ordered a type of steel that under some conditions could ...

Sherman Oaks teen takes supermodel to prom

SANTA MONICA (AP) - A Southern California teen turned heads at his prom when he showed up with a Sports Illustrated model as his date. Nina Agdal agreed to step in as Jake Davidson's date Thursday night after he got turned down for prom by supermodel Kate Upton. The Sherman Oaks teen appeared in a YouTube video that was viewed more than 2.5 million times asking Upton to be his date. After Upton declined because ...

SoCal school's ex-PTA head charged with theft

JURUPA VALLEY (AP) - The former president of a local Southern California PTA has been charged with grand theft for allegedly stealing $20,000 raised from children's candy bar sales. Patricia Gledhill pleaded not guilty earlier this month to two felony counts. Gledhill was PTA president last year for Stone Avenue Elementary School in Jurupa (huh-ROO'-puh) Valley. According to court records, Gledhill told authorities she took fundraising money to pay for food, rent, and the cost ...

State news briefs

SHUTTLE IS MAJOR DRAW AT CALIFORNIA SCIENCE CENTER: LOS ANGELES (AP) - There was always been a special connection between space shuttle Endeavour and California, where it was built.

Damage reported from magnitude-5.7 quake

Court denies 2nd hearing on Medi-Cal rate cut

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A federal appeals court on Friday denied a second request by California doctors, pharmacists and hospitals seeking to undo the state's 10 percent provider rate cut for treating the poor.

PG&E calls $2.25B fine for deadly blast excessive

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The utility responsible for a deadly pipeline explosion in Northern California said Friday that the record $2.25 billion in fines being sought by state regulators is illegally excessive, but did not offer a specific dollar figure it considers reasonable. In a 103-page filing submitted just before the close of business, Pacific Gas & Electric said that it agrees with the California Public Utilities Commission's finding that a financial penalty is appropriate ...

Plastic ocean debris bill dies in committee

Bill would treat e-cigarettes like other tobacco

State Senate election might be headed to runoff in 16th district

LA sanitation ends plans for dump near Joshua Tree

Bill would prohibit ticket-buying software

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Music and sports fans would have one less obstacle in buying tickets to popular events under a bill advancing through the California Legislature. Legislation by Democratic Assemblyman Richard Pan of Sacramento would prohibit the use of robotic ticket-buying software. Supporters of AB329 say scalpers use the software to bombard online box offices and then resell tickets at higher prices. Lawmakers previously deleted a provision that would have allowed transfers of paperless event ...

Professor assigns students to make ad for his campaign

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A San Francisco State University professor considering a run for Oakland mayor is drawing scrutiny for a class assignment that asked students to create a political campaign ad and gave them the option of developing it for him. Joe Tuman said he would use the ad if it were good, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Thursday. But ethics experts said any such use of the students' work could run afoul ...

Bay Area briefs

SWALLOWS LAWSUIT MAY DELAY PETALUMA BRIDGE WORK : PETALUMA (AP) - A lawsuit accuses state and federal regulators of causing the death of dozens of migratory cliff swallows by placing nets on a Sonoma County bridge during a highway widening project.