Nursing director thinks she was target of shooter at Oakland school

White residue on spoon in Houston's room

State news briefs

Animal fat-to-biofuel plant proposed

Lawsuit challenges suction dredges for gold mining destroys Indian cultural resources

Trump says transgender hopeful can enter pageant

Chevron facing more taxes on Richmond refinery after trying to get them lowered

RICHMOND (AP) - Chevron Corp. owes additional taxes on its refinery in Richmond because Contra Costa County undervalued the facility by hundreds of millions of dollars, a county assessment appeals board has ruled. The Assessment Appeals Board made the decision Monday while rejecting Chevron's contention that it actually owed less in tax bills from 2007 through 2009. Chevron claimed the county had ...

Cap-and-trade fees become key source for high speed rail plan

Oakland attack suspect upset about expulsion, teasing over English skills

Feds seize 16 upscale cars bound for Asia

Federal agents raid Oakland marijuana university; protestors openly smoke pot

Onion workers sue farm over wages, housing

RIVERSIDE (AP) - Two onion workers have filed a federal lawsuit against a farm alleging they were underpaid and forced to live in squalid conditions on the edge of the fields. Megan Beaman, an attorney for California Rural Legal Assistance, said Monday the workers reported living in cars and makeshift camps on the edges of onion fields and working for less than ...

7 dead, 3 hurt in Christian school shooting in Oakland near airport

Financing still murky for revamped $68B high speed rail plan after being scaled back

State news briefs

CALIF. STORMS BOOST SNOWPACK, CONDITIONS STILL DRY: SACRAMENTO . (AP) - State water managers say a recent spate of storms has brought California's water supply up to more than half of normal levels, but that is still not enough rain to change dry conditions in Southern California.

Drug kingpin Arellano Felix gets 25-year term

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.