Berkeley chief defends search for son's iPhone using officers on OT

BERKELEY (AP) - A California police chief is once again under scrutiny, this time for using 10 officers - some on overtime - to search for his teenage son's stolen iPhone. Berkeley Police Chief Michael Meehan told the Oakland Tribune that no preferential treatment was given when officers, including three detectives and a sergeant who each logged two hours of overtime, searched ...

Bay Area news briefs

USS Iowa to depart to Southern California Saturday

State news briefs

CALIF. SUES ARMY CORPS OVER VEGETATION RULE : FRESNO (AP) - A California agency is suing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over its policy requiring the removal of vegetation on federal levees, claiming it harms fish and wildlife.

Safeway clerk who defended woman attacked by boyfriend in store reinstated

DEL REY OAKS (AP) - When Safeway meat clerk Ryan Young jumped from behind his counter to help a pregnant woman being kicked by her boyfriend, he didn't know that he'd be suddenly jobless and a national hero at the same time. On April 21, while Young worked a shift at the Del Rey Oaks, Calif., Safeway, he saw the woman and ...

13-year-old girl held in attempted murder of her mother three times over a few hours

San Jose voters to decide fate of city's minimum wage hike from $8 to $10

SAN JOSE (AP) - The San Jose City Council will let voters have the final say on the city's minimum wage will be. In a unanimous decision Tuesday, the council approved putting a minimum wage ordinance on the Nov. 6 ballot. If approved, the minimum wage would rise from $8 to $10 an hour, with annual increases tied to the consumer price ...

Poll finds support fading for $1 cigarette tax

San Onofre trouble may prompt rule review

Bay Area briefs

City official consults Ouija board before vote

Beam them up: Ashes of 'Star Trek' actor in orbit

Calif. pension fund to vote against Wal-Mart board

SACRAMENTO (AP) - One of the nation's largest pension funds says it will vote its 5.3 million shares against all of Wal-Mart's board nominees - including the company's current and former CEOs - at the retailer's annual meeting next week. The California State Teachers' Retirement System, known as CalSTERS, said Tuesday that it has lost faith in the board's independence amid allegations ...

Couple convicted in trashed home case

RIVERSIDE (AP) - A former San Diego police officer and his wife have been found guilty of trashing their foreclosed home in Riverside County. A jury convicted Robert Acosta on Monday of stealing fixtures valued at greater than $65,000 when he and his wife moved out of their foreclosed home in 2010. Monique Acosta was found guilty of the same charge on ...

Prolonged Facebook slide could hurt California budget

Brown seeks business support for tax-hike plan on November ballot

State news briefs

WOMAN, 3 CHILDREN HIT BY CAR IN CROSSWALK: THOUSAND OAKS (AP) - Police say a woman and three children walking in a Thousand Oaks crosswalk were hit by a vehicle and injured, but a baby in a stroller escaped harm.

Some are overlooked in overhaul

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Carlos Gonzalez has lived nearly all his 29 years in a country he considers home but now finds himself on the wrong side of the border - and the wrong side of a proposed overhaul of the U.S. immigration system that would grant legal status to millions of people.

California weighs first state ban on lead ammo

SACRAMENTO (AP) - In November, one of the oldest condors in Central California died from lead poisoning after being found with tiny bullet fragments and a .22-caliber slug in his gullet that he apparently swallowed with a mouthful of meat.

Rolling Stones rock small LA club

LOS ANGELES (AP) - For one night only, the Rolling Stones were an up-and-coming band again.

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

Daycare owners arraigned in swaddling case

State declines to update campaign data online

Perry disgusted by explosion cartoon

First confirmed Japanese tsunami debris in Calif.

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.