Get ready to be burned by higher gas prices

Police: Woman stole baby after faking being pregnant

9th Circuit sides with feds in wiretap ruling

State news briefs

LA BANS SKATEBOARD "BOMBING" AFTER 2 DEATHS: LOS ANGELES (AP) - Los Angeles officials voted Tuesday to respond to two teen deaths by banning skateboard "bombing," where skaters zoom down steep hills at up to 40 mph.

Young men of color in trouble costs California billions of dollars

Loss of RDA cash hurts struggling cities

SF mayor ends stop-frisk consideration

Bay Area briefs

Car dealership settles discrimination suit FREMONT (AP) - A Northern California Toyota dealership has agreed to pay $400,000 to five former Afghan-American employees who say a manager called them terrorists and threatened them. The Fremont Argus reports that Fremont Toyota's former general manager allegedly called four salesmen names and threatened to blow them up with a grenade in a 2007 staff meeting. <p ...

Legislative pay hikes could hurt tax plan

Why Mars again? A look at NASA's latest venture

PASADENA (AP) - NASA's new robot rover named Curiosity landed safely late Sunday in a huge crater near the equator of Mars and will soon begin its scientific studies. This marks NASA's seventh landing on the red planet and is its 19th Mars mission, including those by orbiters and other spacecraft. WHY MARS AGAIN? <p style="line-height: ...

Quake felt in Coalinga was magnitude 4.5

COALINGA (AP) - A magnitude-4.5 earthquake has shaken a rural area of Central California. A U.S. Geological Survey computer-generated report says Monday's 12:36 a.m. quake was centered 16 miles south-southwest of Coalinga in the San Joaquin Valley and 123 miles southeast of San Jose. A Coalinga police officer says several people have reported feeling the quake but there ...

Weekend thunderstorms fuel California wildfires

BELDEN (AP) - A wildfire in Northern California's Plumas National Forest has now consumed more than 21 square miles although officials say calmer winds and higher humidity helped crews battling the blaze overnight. The Chips Fire was still at zero percent containment on Monday morning. The blaze jumped fire lines over the weekend, fueled by strong winds from thunderstorms. It is threatening ...

Woman tries to steal newborn in tote bag from Southern California hospital

GARDEN GROVE (AP) - A woman disguised in scrubs was caught trying to steal a newborn girl from a Southern California hospital in a duffel bag after sensors attached to the baby alerted employees, Garden Grove police said. The 48-year-old woman was arrested Monday at Garden Grove Medical Center after a hospital staffer stopped her from leaving with the baby, Lt. Jeff ...

Bay Area briefs

Man trying to rob pot operation killed OAKLAND (AP) - The caretaker of an indoor marijuana growing operation in Oakland's Chinatown district shot and killed a man early Monday after the man and two others tried to rob the operation, police said. The shooting occurred shortly before 5 a.m. after three men tried to barge into a duplex about two blocks ...

State news briefs

Couple reports finding baby's body FOLSOM . (AP) - Authorities are investigating how a baby reportedly found in the backyard of a Sacramento County couple's home died. The couple has told police they returned to their Folsom home after a vacation on Sunday and found the baby. Police are not releasing its sex or race or saying whether it had been carried to ...

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

Bill would prohibit ticket-buying software

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Music and sports fans would have one less obstacle in buying tickets to popular events under a bill advancing through the California Legislature. Legislation by Democratic Assemblyman Richard Pan of Sacramento would prohibit the use of robotic ticket-buying software. Supporters of AB329 say scalpers use the software to bombard online box offices and then resell tickets at higher prices. Lawmakers previously deleted a provision that would have allowed transfers of paperless event ...

Professor assigns students to make ad for his campaign

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A San Francisco State University professor considering a run for Oakland mayor is drawing scrutiny for a class assignment that asked students to create a political campaign ad and gave them the option of developing it for him. Joe Tuman said he would use the ad if it were good, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Thursday. But ethics experts said any such use of the students' work could run afoul ...

Bay Area briefs

SWALLOWS LAWSUIT MAY DELAY PETALUMA BRIDGE WORK : PETALUMA (AP) - A lawsuit accuses state and federal regulators of causing the death of dozens of migratory cliff swallows by placing nets on a Sonoma County bridge during a highway widening project.

State releases health reform plans, pricing