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 ...

Bay Area news briefs

Tombstones uncovered at SF beach SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Tombstones that were used years ago to shore up the seawall at San Francisco's Ocean Beach are once again visible. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that strong winds and shifting sands uncovered the old grave markers this week. One of them - a nearly intact marble tombstone - carries the ...

UCLA votes to take MBA program off state funding

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Faculty representatives at the University of California, Los Angeles voted Thursday to take the school's masters of business administration program off state funding and make it financially self-supporting. The Legislative Assembly of the UCLA Academic Senate approved the plan with a 53-46 vote, with three abstaining, university spokesman Phil Hampton said. The plan makes ...

Students smear peanut butter at Sacramento school as senior prank

SACRAMENTO (AP) - More than two dozen students at a Sacramento high school have been barred from walking at graduation after they spray painted profane graffiti and smeared peanut butter throughout the campus, school officials said. The vandalism at C.K. McClatchy High School this week was billed as a senior prank. But Principal Peter Lambert said it went too far. <p style="line-height: ...

State Side

FREEWAY SANDSTORM CAUSES MULTIPLE WRECKS, 6 HURT: LANCASTER (AP) - The California Highway Patrol has closed a freeway north of Los Angeles after a sandstorm in Lancaster led to several car wrecks that injured six people.

Calif. bill would expand who can perform abortions

Justin Bieber investigated for reckless driving

CALABASAS (AP) - Los Angeles County Sheriff's detectives are investigating Justin Bieber for reckless driving after witnesses, including former NFL star Keyshawn Johnson, complained. Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore says at 8 p.m. Monday Bieber allegedly drove his white Ferrari at freeway speeds in his north Los Angeles County gated community. Johnson was outside with his 3-year-old daughter who was preparing to get into a small electric car when Bieber zoomed by. Johnson followed Bieber to ...

Norcal News

PG&E SUED OVER NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CANAL BREAK: COLFAX, (AP) - Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has been hit by a pair of lawsuits over its handling of a canal failure two years ago that forced thousands of Placer County residents to ration water.

Bay Area briefs

3 WOUNDED IN SAN FRANCISCO SHOOTING: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - San Francisco police have arrested three people in connection with an early morning robbery attempt that left three others with gunshot wounds.

209 News

BODIES PULLED FROM WATERWAY WEST OF STOCKTON: STOCKTON (AP) - San Joaquin County Sheriff's officials are searching a waterway west of Stockton where an SUV crashed over the weekend.

Wal-Mart guilty in hazardous waste case

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.