OC officials keep inmate alive they want to ultimately execute

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - A man charged with raping and killing a woman 30 years ago is being kept alive in Orange County with dialysis treatments until officials can win permission to execute him.

Bills aim to protect privacy in drone age

SACRAMENTO (AP) - California lawmakers are attempting to stay ahead of science fiction-style technology as increasingly nimble unmanned aircraft are considered for use in tracking fleeing suspects and monitoring crowded public spaces.

Arrest in shooting at Vallejo Little League game

VALLEJO (AP) - A man has been arrested for investigation of attempted murder after he allegedly shot at the father of a player in a Little League T-ball game following an argument. The San Francisco Chronicle reports 23-year-old Joshua Chi was arrested Wednesday and being held on $750,000 bail. Authorities say the shooting occurred April 17 during a ...

Daycare owners arraigned in swaddling case

PLEASANTON (AP) - Two sisters facing charges that they endangered the lives of infants at their Northern California daycare center by binding them too tightly in swaddling blankets didn't intend to hurt the babies and contend they didn't commit child abuse, their attorney said. Timothy Rien spoke Thursday, as Nazila Sharaf and Lida Sharaf were arraigned in an Alameda County courtroom on ...

State declines to update campaign data online

Perry disgusted by explosion cartoon

First confirmed Japanese tsunami debris in Calif.

CRESCENT CITY, Calif. (AP) - A barnacle-covered fishing boat that washed ashore this month in Crescent City, Calif., has been confirmed as the first debris from the 2011 tsunami in Japan to reach California's shores. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration confirmed the boat's origin on Thursday with help from the Japanese Consulate in San Francisco, the Del Norte Triplicate reported. <p style="line-height: ...

209 News

WILD DOG KILLED BY DEPUTIES: FRENCH CAMP - One of the dogs which may have killed dozens of goats at a French Camp livestock auction yard recently was killed Friday.

Civil rights groups object to 49ers stadium deals

SANTA CLARA (AP) - A coalition of civil rights groups has objected to the racial breakdown of companies working on the new San Francisco 49ers stadium in Santa Clara, saying they have not found any minority-owned companies among the contractors and subcontractors that have been hired to work on the $1.2 billion stadium. In a letter to the city of Santa Clara, ...

Dangerous wildfire season predicted

Bay Area briefs

SUSPECT WHO ALLEGEDLY KILLED MAN OVER MUSIC CAUGHT: RICHMOND (AP) - A Contra Costa County man who eluded capture for four years after allegedly shooting his neighbor to death in a dispute over loud music has been arraigned on murder charges.

State bill would let legal non-citizens serve on juries

Funding plan would mean cuts to NorCal courts

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The state Judicial Council is weighing a new formula for distributing more than $1 billion in state funding for California's 58 trial courts that would take money from some court systems and give it to rural and fast-growing counties such as Riverside and San Bernardino. Santa Clara County would be the biggest loser in the San Francisco Bay ...

Transit app can estimate crowds on BART trains

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Commuters might be able to avoid crowded trains - or at least find slightly less crowded ones - with a glance at their smartphones. Bay Area Rapid Transit has added a feature to its online trip planner showing an icon that represents estimated crowding on its trains, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Thursday. <p style="line-height: 18pt; background: ...

Senate advances bill to tax Internet sales

Tribal veterans gather to honor sacrifice

SANTA NELLA (AP) - American Indian veterans wearing tribal dress gathered to honor the sacrifice of their fighting men and women in an emotional ceremony at a Central California cemetery.

Surging wildfire forces evacuations in mountains north of Santa Barbara

SANTA BARBARA (AP) - A surging wildfire forced thousands of people, most of them Memorial Day campers, to evacuate the mountains of California's Santa Barbara County, officials said.

5 die as car slams into tree, splits in half before it catches on fire

NEWPORT BEACH (AP) - Police say five people from a single car were killed when it ran off an Orange County street, hit a tree and split into two pieces.

Squeezing every drop out of Colorado River topic for gathering

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Top water decision-makers from seven Western states plan to join conservation groups and Indian tribes in San Diego on Tuesday to begin hammering out rules for squeezing every useable drop from the overtaxed Colorado River.

Auction of lunch with Buffett starts Sunday

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Warren Buffett has already helped raise nearly $15 million over the years for a San Francisco homeless charity, and the group hopes someone will again be willing to pay more than $2 million for a private lunch with the Omaha, Neb., investor.

Bay Area news briefs

&bull; POLICE SEEK SUSPECTS IN 3 SAN JOSE SLAYINGS: SAN JOSE (AP) - Police are seeking suspects wanted in the shooting deaths of two San Jose teenagers and a man from the southern part of the city who were slain on Sunday.

State news briefs

&bull; MAN SHOOTS DAUGHTER WITH 3 KIDS IN HOME: OROSI (AP) - A California man shot his two adult daughters on Monday, killing one and critically injuring the other before apparently committing suicide while his three young grandchildren were in the home, authorities said.

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 ...