Did rocker hire a hitman?

School monitors kids’ social media

GLENDALE (AP) - A Southern California school district is trying to stop cyberbullying and a host of other teenage ills by monitoring the public posts students make on social media outlets in a program that has stirred debate about what privacy rights teenage students have when they fire up their smartphones.

Secession fever rises on rural Calif.-Ore. border

YREKA (AP) - Since the 1850s Gold Rush, some folks in the rugged hills and valleys of Northern California and Southern Oregon have felt they would be better off if they could break away and form their own state.

Residents hire private security guards

OAKLAND (AP) - As crime rates soar in Oakland, a growing number of city residents are turning to private security guards to protect their neighborhoods.

Around the State

CREWS CONTAIN DESTRUCTIVE WILDFIRE NEAR REDDING: REDDING (AP) - Fire crews have fully contained a blaze that killed one man and destroyed nearly 70 homes in far northern California.

Growers seek pesticide alternatives

FRESNO (AP) - For decades, California strawberry growers like Rod Koda injected the potent pesticide methyl bromide into soil to kill bugs, weeds and plant diseases before planting strawberries.

State news briefs

MAN FALLS OUT OF HELICOPTER IN CALIF. POT CLEANUP: FRESNO. (AP) - A California outdoorsman who led crews of volunteers through the Sierra Nevada mountains repairing trails and cleaning up marijuana grow sites has died after falling 50 feet from a helicopter, authorities said.

18 arrested, ton of marijuana seized

SANTA BARBARA (AP) - Friday the 13th was certainly unlucky for some reputed drug smugglers. Authorities arrested 18 people and seized more than a ton of marijuana brought ashore by boat in Santa Barbara. Authorities say California National Guard members saw a small boat land at Arroyo Quemada beach early Friday morning and watched people removing bales from it. Officers and agents from local, state and federal agencies descended. Authorities say the smugglers scattered but ...

State news briefs

HUNTERS ASKED TO HELP MANAGE DEER POPULATION: SONOMA (AP) - Bow hunters are being asked to take aim to help control the deer population in a 5,000-acre wildlife preserve near Lake Sonoma in Northern California.

California home sales climb during August

SAN DIEGO (AP) - California posted its strongest homes sales for any August in seven years as price increases cooled, a research firm said Friday, a relief to buyers who have been competing over slim pickings.

California home sales climb during August

SAN DIEGO (AP) - California posted its strongest homes sales for any August in seven years as price increases cooled, a research firm said Friday, a relief to buyers who have been competing over slim pickings.

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Bill would create quake warning system

Illegals need to come out of shadows

EPA fines Modesto cereal plant $365K

MODESTO (AP) - Two corporations that owned the Post cereal brand have agreed to pay $635,000 in fines to settle allegations that they failed to prevent air pollution from a Modesto plant where Grape-Nuts, Banana Nut Crunch and other products were made. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday that Post Holdings, Inc. and Ralcorp Holdings Inc. are being penalized because federal investigators found that cereal coaters, dryers and other equipment at the 282,000-square-foot plant ...

Audit: Calif. courts fail to comply with gun law

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Many California courts fail to tell state justice officials when someone is determined to be mentally ill, undermining efforts to take guns away from potentially dangerous owners, according to a state audit released Tuesday.

Health reforms could help Calif. prison spending

SACRAMENTO (AP) - California could gain tens of millions of dollars annually in federal reimbursements for prison health care under the nation's new health law, state and federal officials said Tuesday.

News from around california

PARASITES FOUND IN CALIF. 'SEA SERPENT' DISSECTIO: SANTA BARBARA (AP) - One of two oarfish found in Southern California waters earlier this month had a host of parasites living in its giant, serpent-like body.

Intruder who spoke of zombies killed by owner of SoCal home

YORBA LINDA, Calif. (AP) - A man who authorities say had been hallucinating and talking about zombies was fatally shot over the weekend after he allegedly broke into an Orange County home. A homeowner shot and killed Paul Bracamontes, 22, of Fullerton early Sunday in Yorba Linda, sheriff's investigators said. A couple awoke to hear Bracamontes screaming in their backyard and the wife called 911 as her husband confronted him. Bracamontes threatened the couple and ...

1 killed, 2 deputies shot in Inglewood

INGLEWOOD (AP) - One man has been killed and two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies wounded in a shooting in Inglewood. City News Service says the incident occurred shortly after midnight Tuesday near Hollywood Park. No details were immediately released about what transpired, but a handgun was found at the scene. Authorities say a female deputy was struck in the upper leg and she may have had a more serious injury if her phone charger ...

LAPD officers will field-test 60 body cameras

Steve Jobs' home gets historic designation

LOS ALTOS (AP) - The Silicon Valley home where Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs grew up and built some of his first computers is now on the city's list of historic properties. The historical commission in the city of Los Altos voted unanimously for the historic designation Monday night. Any proposed renovations to the modest, ranch-style home now require additional review. The home, where Jobs and his foster parents moved in 1968, is owned by ...

Odor from Sriracha chili plant a nuisance?

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The maker of Sriracha hot sauce is under fire for allegedly fouling the air around its Southern California factory. The city of Irwindale filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court Monday asking a judge to stop production at the Huy Fong Foods factory, claiming the chili odor emanating from the plant is a public nuisance. City officials say residents have been complaining of burning eyes, irritated throats and headaches and ...

Foot of snow, 103 mph wind gust in Sierra storm

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE (AP) - A foot of snow fell in the upper elevations of the Sierra overnight and a 103 mph wind gust blew across the mountains near Lake Tahoe before an early winter storm blew out of the area early Monday. The National Weather Service reported four to seven inches of snow fell late Monday on Tahoe's western shore, with 13 inches above 6,300 feet near Donner Pass on I-80. Kirkwood ski resort ...

News from around california

Gold rush-era mercury flowing downstream

FRESNO (AP) - California's gold rush may long be over, but mercury-contaminated soil from mining activities in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada continues to flow downstream, impacting fish and the environment, a new study suggests. The heavy metal tends to be loosened during major floods that occur about once a decade and likely will continue unless something is done to prevent mercury-laden sediment from eroding and ending up in the state's agricultural heartland, according ...

San Francisco jumps into soda regulation debate with tax plan

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - San Francisco is getting into the debate over regulating sugary drinks. San Francisco Supervisor Scott Weiner is set to introduce a ballot measure that would levy a 2-cent-per-ounce tax on all sugar-sweetened beverages sold in the city, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. A can of soda, for example, would cost 24 cents more. The money would be used to fund health and nutrition programs for children. Similar soda tax measures fueled ...

Troops turn to liposuction to pass fat test

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Soldiers often call plastic surgeon Adam Tattelbaum in a panic. They need liposuction - fast.

Woman's upper body found at LA sewage plant

BASSETT (AP) - The upper half of a woman's body was found Monday at a Los Angeles County sewage plant and investigators believe her lower half turned up two days earlier at another plant some 30 miles away, authorities said. The woman's body may have slipped into the wastewater processing system through a manhole or sewer line in the San Gabriel Valley east of downtown Los Angeles and been mangled by a pump before wastewater ...

Powerful wind triggers truck accidents on Interstate 205

TRACY (AP) - A storm blasted the Southwest with powerful wind gusts, snow and rain on Monday, knocking over big rigs on a stretch of Interstate 205 near Tracy, , toppling trees in Las Vegas and causing dust storm warnings in some areas. It was a gusty prelude to a storm that was forecast to drop more than a foot of snow in mountainous areas of Utah. A foot had already fallen in the upper ...