Richmond puts soda tax on November ballot

RICHMOND (AP) - Voters in Richmond are set to decide whether to make the San Francisco Bay area city the nation's first municipality to tax soda and other sugary beverages to help fight childhood obesity. The Richmond City Council voted 5-2 on Tuesday to place the soda tax measure on the Nov. 6 ballot, despite opposition from grocers and soda drinkers. The ...

LA museum gets big gift to build shuttle exhibit

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The California Science Center said it has raised nearly half of the $200 million needed to build a permanent exhibit for the space shuttle Endeavour. The museum recently received a donation from the Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Oschin Family Foundation that will allow it to start the design phase of the project. The museum didn't disclose the amount ...

Parents of slain Chinese students sue USC

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The parents of two Chinese students who were killed near the University of Southern California campus filed a lawsuit alleging the school made false claims about safety. In the 15-page suit filed Wednesday, the parents of 23-year-olds Ming Qu and Ying Wu attack safety claims they say the school makes in the "frequently asked questions" section of its ...

California home prices, sales rise in April

SAN DIEGO (AP) - California home prices increased for a second straight month as the supply of lower-priced homes in foreclosure dwindled and previously hesitant shoppers were lured by low lending rates, a research firm said Thursday. The median price for new and existing houses and condominiums in the state was $264,000 in April, up 6 percent from the same period last ...

Bay Area briefs

BROWN APPROVES TRIBAL CASINO IN SONOMA COUNTY: SANTA ROSA (AP) - Gov. Jerry Brown has moved a Northern California Indian tribe one step closer to building a casino about 50 miles north of San Francisco.

Bill would repeal vehicle asset limit of $4,650 for CalWorks participation

Street skateboarding league posts $1.6M in prizes for 4 contests

A current lawmaker on the ballot: Who would know?

Phosphorous may have been on hot beach rocks at that severely burned her legs, hands

State news briefs

MOTORIST FATALLY STABBED AFTER CRASHING INTO HOUSE: INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) - A motorist being chased at high-speed by another driver has been stabbed to death after crashing into a Southern California house.

Injured man found week after San Jose rollover crash

SAN JOSE (AP) - Authorities couldn't find the driver of a pickup truck after it rolled over along a Northern California freeway. But he was there a week later when they went back to search for more clues. Police discovered Michael Sanchez Jr. unconscious Tuesday in a dense thicket of brush and trees below an off-ramp along Highway 101 in south San ...

TB patient charged for not taking his meds

Six sisters sue government agencies claiming sexual abuse by dad missed

MARTINEZ (AP) - Six sisters who for years were sexually abused by their father with their mother's help have sued government entities and officials, claiming they failed to properly investigate their ordeal. The women claim in a lawsuit filed last week that police and social workers missed a chance to ascertain the scope of the abuse in 1995, when they interviewed the ...

CA official seeks US commitment on high-speed rail

Documents allege teen assaulted during Bible study

CORONA (AP) - A Southern California pastor charged with terrorizing a 13-year-old boy allegedly carried out the assault during a Bible study session while a circle of men watched, newly unsealed court documents revealed. The pastor of the Corona storefront church and two of his followers are accused of disciplining the teen by pinching him with pliers, beating him with a shovel ...

State taxes coming in $4B above forecast

SACRAMENTO (AP) - California is on track to collect $4 billion more in personal income taxes than Gov. Jerry Brown had expected, giving a potential boost to education funding, the legislative analyst's office said Tuesday.

Los Angeles settles with women fired on in manhunt

Davis man spends week in wilderness on pine nuts

Burger King delivers it your way in San Francisco & LA

Bay Area briefs

WOMAN UNINJURED AFTER BART TRAIN PASSES OVER HER: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A woman escaped uninjured after a commuter train passed over her but did not hit her on tracks at a San Francisco station, transit officials said.