Voter distrust will be a hurdle for Brown sales, income tax hike proposition on November ballot

'Idol' favorite would continue winner monotony

Del Norte DA faces possible disbarment

Suit attacks teacher employment rules, students say they protect bad educators

Bay Area briefs

Oikos University nursing program downgraded OAKLAND (AP) - The nursing program at the California Christian college where a gunman killed seven people has been placed on a form of probation. The state Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians voted on Friday to shift approval of the program at Oikos University to provisional status. That means the Oakland school ...

State news briefs

MODESTO CEMETERIES VANDALIZED, HEADSTONES BROKEN: MODESTO (AP) - Vandals have caused thousands of dollars in damage in three of Modesto's cemeteries.

Police raid Occupy camp on UC Berkeley land

ALBANY (AP) - University of California police raided a four-week Occupy encampment at a college-owned farm used for agriculture research early Monday, arresting nine people after protesters ignored yet another weekend deadline to leave. About 100 officers clad in riot gear arrived shortly after 6 a.m. at the camp known as Occupy the Farm, but there was no violence, university spokesman Dan ...

New regulations proposed for restaurant playgrounds, reporting stolen guns, table saws

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Fast-food restaurants in California could face new sanitation and safety requirements for the playgrounds they install to attract children. Under the bill, sponsored by Democrat Michael Allen of Santa Rosa, restaurants would be required to post signs informing customers that food is not allowed on play structures and to provide adults who ask copies of their playground inspection and ...

Lawsuit seeks to keep death penalty off ballot

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A victims' rights group is seeking to remove from the November ballot a measure that would abolish the death penalty. The Criminal Justice Legal Foundation filed a petition with the California Court of Appeal on Monday. The Sacramento-based group argues the initiative violates a state law limiting propositions to single subjects. If passed, the measure would abolish the ...

Brown: $8.3B in budget cuts by July 1

Cell phone penalties would rise under pending bill

Savings from state worker pay cut far from assured

Cal high-speed rail must spend $2.7M a day in order not to lose federal funding

LOS ANGELES (AP) - California will need to build its high-speed train line in record time if it doesn't want to risk losing federal funds - indeed, it will have to be the fastest piece of transportation construction in U.S. history, experts said. Under a federal deadline, the California High-Speed Rail Authority has until September 2017 to finish the first segment of ...

Proposed cuts in governor's revised budget plan

Bay Area briefs

Solo drivers embracing SF South Bay toll lanes

Firm: Bay Bridge bolts made to exact specs

OAKLAND (AP) - An executive with an Ohio manufacturer has said steel bolts used on a troubled new span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge were made exactly to specifications. Experts have spent the past two months trying to determine why 32 of 96 bolts broke after they were tightened in March. A report released on May 7 by Caltrans suggests the bridge design team ordered a type of steel that under some conditions could ...

Sherman Oaks teen takes supermodel to prom

SANTA MONICA (AP) - A Southern California teen turned heads at his prom when he showed up with a Sports Illustrated model as his date. Nina Agdal agreed to step in as Jake Davidson's date Thursday night after he got turned down for prom by supermodel Kate Upton. The Sherman Oaks teen appeared in a YouTube video that was viewed more than 2.5 million times asking Upton to be his date. After Upton declined because ...

SoCal school's ex-PTA head charged with theft

JURUPA VALLEY (AP) - The former president of a local Southern California PTA has been charged with grand theft for allegedly stealing $20,000 raised from children's candy bar sales. Patricia Gledhill pleaded not guilty earlier this month to two felony counts. Gledhill was PTA president last year for Stone Avenue Elementary School in Jurupa (huh-ROO'-puh) Valley. According to court records, Gledhill told authorities she took fundraising money to pay for food, rent, and the cost ...

State news briefs

SHUTTLE IS MAJOR DRAW AT CALIFORNIA SCIENCE CENTER: LOS ANGELES (AP) - There was always been a special connection between space shuttle Endeavour and California, where it was built.

Damage reported from magnitude-5.7 quake

Court denies 2nd hearing on Medi-Cal rate cut

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A federal appeals court on Friday denied a second request by California doctors, pharmacists and hospitals seeking to undo the state's 10 percent provider rate cut for treating the poor.

PG&E calls $2.25B fine for deadly blast excessive

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The utility responsible for a deadly pipeline explosion in Northern California said Friday that the record $2.25 billion in fines being sought by state regulators is illegally excessive, but did not offer a specific dollar figure it considers reasonable. In a 103-page filing submitted just before the close of business, Pacific Gas & Electric said that it agrees with the California Public Utilities Commission's finding that a financial penalty is appropriate ...

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