Report: Teacher fund lax on anti-spiking efforts; audits each district every 48 years

Paraplegic awarded $1.5M from Fresno Kaiser hospital

FRESNO (AP) - A man who was left partially paralyzed by an infection has been awarded $1.5 million from a Fresno medical center. Jurors ruled Tuesday that Kaiser Permanente Medical Center was 30 percent negligent for Dusten Chevalier's condition. However, the jury said Chevalier himself was mostly responsible. The 27-year-old was left a paraplegic because of an untreated ...

Court denies LA's bid to take Skid Row property

Bank robbed; device strapped to manager

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Two masked gunmen kidnapped a bank manager, strapped what they said was a bomb to her midsection and forced her to order employees to "take out all the money" from her Bank of America branch when it opened Wednesday morning, authorities said. The bank robbers got away with an undisclosed amount of cash, but no one was injured ...

State news briefs

PEDESTRIAN KILLED BY POLICE CAR CHASING SUSPECT : WEST SACRAMENTO (AP) - A 17-year-old who police say stole a car and then led West Sacramento police on a chase that ended up killing a pedestrian is being charged with murder.

Investigator says suspect shot CHP officer in head

MARTINEZ (AP) - The suspect killed in a shootout following a traffic stop on a San Francisco Bay Area freeway had shot a California Highway Patrol officer in the head without warning, leaving him in critical condition, authorities said Wednesday. Footage from a dashboard camera showed Officer Kenyon Youngstrom speaking with Christopher Boone Lacy, who had been pulled over Tuesday morning, Contra ...

Feds grant SF shrub endangered status

Company fined $267K after immigration raid

Rain aids battle against forest fire

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Light rainfall and cooler temperatures are helping firefighters gain ground on a blaze in the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles. Angeles National Forest ...

Bay Area briefs

GROUP FIGHTING RICHMOND SODA TAX FILES LAWSUIT: RICHMOND, Calif. (AP) - A group funded by the beverage industry has sued to avoid campaign-disclosure laws as it fights a proposed soda tax in Richmond.

Mother, 1-year-old child, die in CA canal accident

WATERFORD . (AP) - Authorities say a mother and baby daughter died after their car struck an embankment and flipped over into a canal Monday afternoon near Waterford.

State Side

Oakland activists smash windows during protest

Oakland activists smash windows during protest

OAKLAND . (AP) - Oakland police say protesters upset that the city's gay pride festival charged admission went on a weekend vandalism spree, smashing windows at a Bank of America and spray-painting a police vehicle. No arrests were made during Sunday's incident. Police tell the Oakland Tribune that up to 60 marchers tried unsuccessfully to crash the gate ...

San Bruno survivors plan 2 year anniversary

SAN BRUNO . (AP) - Survivors of a deadly pipeline explosion in a San Francisco Bay area suburb plan to hold a memorial to commemorate the two years that have passed since the blast, even as they continue to press for stronger pipeline safety reforms. On Tuesday, neighbors gathered at the San Bruno blast site with Assemblyman Jerry Hill, a Democrat who ...

CHP officer critically wounded in shooting on I-680 in Walnut Creek

WALNUT CREEK (AP) - A California Highway Patrol officer was in critical condition and a suspect was dead after a Tuesday morning rush hour shootout on Interstate 680 near Walnut Creek, authorities said. The shooting prompted the closure of the highway in both directions as traffic came to a standstill. The incident occurred shortly before 8:30 a.m. after the male officer conducted ...

DNA to determine if rare fox spotted

TRUCKEE . (AP) - Wildlife biologists are conducting a DNA test to determine if a rare native fox has been spotted at a lake in northern California near the Nevada state line.

Officials seek to find how 2 California condors died

TEHACHAPI (AP) - State wildlife officials are trying to learn how two endangered California condors died after the birds were found last month in water tanks used by firefighters in California's Central Valley.

Four hurt in S. California hot air balloon explosion

TEMECULA (AP) - Officials say a hot air balloon exploded after landing in Southern California wine country leaving four people hospitalized, one of them with severe burns.

Atheist ‘mega-churches’ take root

LOS ANGELES (AP) - It looked like a typical Sunday morning at any mega-church. Hundreds packed in for more than an hour of rousing music, an inspirational sermon, a reading and some quiet reflection. The only thing missing was God.

Transgender law repeal will qualify

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Opponents of a new California law that gives transgender students certain rights said Sunday that they had collected enough signatures for an initiative that would repeal the law.

2 men charged with murder in Turlock slaying

TURLOCK (AP) - Two men have been charged with murder for the slaying of a 21-year-old man in Turlock.

ABC picketed over kid’s kill everyone in China joke

BURBANK (AP) - More than a thousand people picketed ABC's Burbank headquarters over the weekend to protest a "Jimmy Kimmel Live" show in which a youngster said the United States could resolve its debt to China by killing everyone in the Asian country.

Bullet train land acquisition moving slowly

FRESNO (AP) - The body overseeing plans to build California's bullet train has started the daunting and expensive process of acquiring thousands of acres in the Central Valley, where the rail line's proposed path would slice through farms, stores and motels.

State’s low community college fees face scrutiny

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The fees to attend California's community colleges are by far the lowest in the United States - less than half the national average - yet at least 40 percent of the 2.4 million students in the largest U.S. system of higher education do not pay them.

New research on shallow shoreline waters

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE. (AP) - For more than 40 years, scientists have carefully scrutinized the cobalt waters in the middle of Lake Tahoe, documenting a steady and disturbing decline in the lake's famed clarity.

Google's Bay Area barge to hoist sails

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Google plans to include a dozen or so massive sails on its four-story barge under construction in the heart of the San Francisco Bay, creating a floating artistic structure the Internet giant promises will "stand out," a newspaper reported Friday. After weeks of speculation that barge would be "a party boat," a data storage center and a store to sell its Internet-connected glasses, Google on Wednesday revealed that it plans to ...

State workers get $516M in bonus pay

4 charged in 'virtual kidnappings'

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Four people have been charged in a scheme that used telemarketing tactics to shake down immigrants for ransom money under the guise that loved ones had been kidnapped, according to an indictment unsealed Friday.

4 charged in severing pot clinic owner's penis during his torture

NEWPORT BEACH (AP) - Four people were charged with kidnapping a California marijuana dispensary owner, torturing him with a blowtorch and cutting off his penis during a robbery because they thought he was burying piles of cash in the desert, authorities said Friday. Ryan Anthony Kevorkian, 34, and Naomi Josette Kevorkian, 33, were arrested Friday in Fresno, a day after the FBI arrested 34-year-old Hossein Nayeri in Prague in the Czech Republic, Orange County authorities ...

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