DesertXpress Vegas-California rail project renamed

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Developers planning high-speed rail service between Las Vegas and Southern California announced Monday they are giving the project a new name. DesertXpress Enterprises is rebranding the project XpressWest to reflect its goal of a larger rail network across the western U.S. The privately held company wants to build a high-speed line between Las Vegas ...

Fight after Bay to Breakers race ends in death

Democrats talk budget ahead of Friday deadline to address $16 billion deficit

Officials: US commerce secretary suffered seizure before several hit and run accidents

Death Row suicide highlights executions’ delays; measure on November ballot

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - When James Lee Crummel hanged himself in his San Quentin Prison cell last month, he had been living on Death Row for almost eight years - and he was still years away from facing the executioner.

Pushing more welfare recipients to work

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Gov. Jerry Brown wants to shift the safety net protecting California's most vulnerable residents

LA utility fights Owens Lake dust control order almost 100 years after draining lake

LONE PINE (AP) - Los Angeles water authorities are fighting an order by a state air-pollution control agency to expand dust control efforts over the dry Owens Lake bed to bring air quality in line with federal standards.

Four dead in Sacramento home attack

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Authorities sought a motive Sunday after an assailant entered a Sacramento home and shot four people to death, police said. The suspect also was wounded and in critical condition.

Selma shocked by family murder-suicide

SELMA (AP) - Residents of a small California agricultural town known as the "Raisin Capital of the World" mourned an Indian family killed in a murder-suicide, and also on Sunday grappled with allegations that the man accused in the shooting was a former Indian army officer wanted for years for murder in his homeland.

State news briefs

PUPPIES TIED TO CA TREE UNDER BEES, 3 DIE, 2 HURT

Calif. blackouts possible with nuke plant offline

Men ordered to trial in brutal attack on SF Giants fan after Dodgers game

Field Poll: Brown tax plan has slim support

Effort to save an orange grove in Orange County

SANTA ANA (AP) - A five-acre orange grove in Santa Ana has been designated historic by the City Council. That gives preservationists more time to raise money to save one of the last sizable orchards in Orange County. Orange County is named after once plentiful groves. The Sexlinger family bought the 230-tree grove in 1913. When Martha Sexlinger ...

Thief puts brakes on amputee's US journey

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A double amputee who hoped to hand-pedal across the United States has found himself without a ride after a thief stole his $13,000 custom bike in San Francisco. Krzyszof Jarzebski, 53, of Poland was staying in Hayes Valley when someone drilled a hole in a locked gate of an apartment and stole his hand-cranked bike from the stairwell ...

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