Democrats talk budget ahead of Friday deadline to address $16 billion deficit

Officials: US commerce secretary suffered seizure before several hit and run accidents

Death Row suicide highlights executions’ delays; measure on November ballot

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - When James Lee Crummel hanged himself in his San Quentin Prison cell last month, he had been living on Death Row for almost eight years - and he was still years away from facing the executioner.

Pushing more welfare recipients to work

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Gov. Jerry Brown wants to shift the safety net protecting California's most vulnerable residents

LA utility fights Owens Lake dust control order almost 100 years after draining lake

LONE PINE (AP) - Los Angeles water authorities are fighting an order by a state air-pollution control agency to expand dust control efforts over the dry Owens Lake bed to bring air quality in line with federal standards.

Four dead in Sacramento home attack

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Authorities sought a motive Sunday after an assailant entered a Sacramento home and shot four people to death, police said. The suspect also was wounded and in critical condition.

Selma shocked by family murder-suicide

SELMA (AP) - Residents of a small California agricultural town known as the "Raisin Capital of the World" mourned an Indian family killed in a murder-suicide, and also on Sunday grappled with allegations that the man accused in the shooting was a former Indian army officer wanted for years for murder in his homeland.

State news briefs

PUPPIES TIED TO CA TREE UNDER BEES, 3 DIE, 2 HURT

Calif. blackouts possible with nuke plant offline

Men ordered to trial in brutal attack on SF Giants fan after Dodgers game

Field Poll: Brown tax plan has slim support

Effort to save an orange grove in Orange County

SANTA ANA (AP) - A five-acre orange grove in Santa Ana has been designated historic by the City Council. That gives preservationists more time to raise money to save one of the last sizable orchards in Orange County. Orange County is named after once plentiful groves. The Sexlinger family bought the 230-tree grove in 1913. When Martha Sexlinger ...

Thief puts brakes on amputee's US journey

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A double amputee who hoped to hand-pedal across the United States has found himself without a ride after a thief stole his $13,000 custom bike in San Francisco. Krzyszof Jarzebski, 53, of Poland was staying in Hayes Valley when someone drilled a hole in a locked gate of an apartment and stole his hand-cranked bike from the stairwell ...

Bay Area news briefs

Tombstones uncovered at SF beach SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Tombstones that were used years ago to shore up the seawall at San Francisco's Ocean Beach are once again visible. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that strong winds and shifting sands uncovered the old grave markers this week. One of them - a nearly intact marble tombstone - carries the ...

UCLA votes to take MBA program off state funding

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Faculty representatives at the University of California, Los Angeles voted Thursday to take the school's masters of business administration program off state funding and make it financially self-supporting. The Legislative Assembly of the UCLA Academic Senate approved the plan with a 53-46 vote, with three abstaining, university spokesman Phil Hampton said. The plan makes ...

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.