State news briefs

LA STUDENTS WRITE ESSAYS ON GAY MARRIAGE: LOS ANGELES (AP) - High school students had to write essays on gay marriage views for admission to a Southern California school play based on the legal wrangle over anti-same sex marriage Proposition 8.

Late painter's girlfriend agrees to pay $11K rent

SAN JOSE. (AP) - Thomas Kinkade's girlfriend is agreeing to pay $11,000 a month to rent the San Francisco Bay area mansion where she had lived with the late artist, but his paintings and possessions remain the focus of a bitter estate fight. The San Jose Mercury News reports that Kinkade's widow, Nanette, sought permission Monday from a probate judge to remove ...

Cancer overtakes heart disease among Hispanics

Filipinos win settlement in English-only case

DELANO (AP) - Dozens of Filipino hospital workers in California will share a nearly $1 million settlement in a lawsuit claiming they were targeted by a rule requiring English only at work, federal officials said Monday. The settlement involves nearly 70 nurses and medical staff members who accused Delano Regional Medical Center in Kern County of banning them from speaking Tagalog and ...

San Francisco officials to vote on public power option from renewable sources

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - San Francisco officials on Tuesday are set to decide whether to fund an energy plan that will give city residents the option of getting 100 percent of their power from renewable sources. The city's Board of Supervisors will consider whether to approve $19.5 million for the contract with Shell Energy North America. <p ...

200,000 illegal immigrants may ask Los Angeles Unified for school records

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Thousands of illegal immigrants have inundated the nation's second-largest school district with requests for copies of records that might qualify them for the Obama administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the district said Monday. Under the program, people who are 30 or younger will be allowed to stay in the United States and work for up to ...

Coptic Christians, Muslims denounce film, violence

Bay Area briefs

Occupy SF celebrates first year with march, rally SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Members of the Occupy Wall Street movement in San Francisco say they plan to celebrate their first year with demonstrations. Organizers say local Occupy groups on Monday are scheduled to occupy 10 banks across the city and then hold ...

Young illegals may get driver’s licenses

FRESNO (AP) - When 17-year-old Alondra Esquivel needs to get from her rural central California home to classes at Fresno State University 20 miles away, she must rely on rides from her relatives or her boyfriend.

Gov. Brown says he is ready for austerity of voters don’t approve new taxes Nov. 6

SACRAMENTO (AP) - California Gov. Jerry Brown said he is prepared to live frugally if voters don't pass his tax increase proposal in November, and as evidence said he recently ate a two-day-old tuna sandwich for lunch.

Charter schools balk at California’s new pre-kindergarten requirement

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A California law requires public schools to add a grade level this fall designed to give the very youngest students a boost when they enroll in kindergarten, but charter schools say the law does not apply to them, pitting them against the state Department of Education.

Anti-tax group says Cal State letter is illegal

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A letter being sent to California State University applicants that details the effect on university finances if an upcoming ballot measure fails is illegal, an anti-tax group said.

Scouts failed to report sex abuse suspects

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Boy Scouts of America failed to report hundreds of suspected child sex abusers to authorities and often helped cover up the accusations over two decades, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.

Caltrain operator tested positive for drugs

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Caltrain is overhauling some of its safety procedures and has placed two engineers on leave after a recent incident that forced passengers legally crossing the tracks to leap out of the way of a speeding commuter train.

State news briefs

&bull; CALIF. HIGH SCHOOLER CHOSEN FOR ELECTORAL COLLEGE: SIMI VALLEY (AP) - A 18-year-old Los Angeles County high school senior has been selected as a member of the nation's Electoral College.

West Coast states, British Columbia link climate policies

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The governors of Pacific coastal U.S. states and a Canadian province on Monday vowed to collectively combat climate change by coordinating polices that place a price on greenhouse gas pollution and mandating the use of cleaner-burning fuels.

Scientists dig for fossils in tar pits

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Surrounded by a gooey graveyard of prehistoric beasts, a small crew diligently wades through a backlog of fossil finds from a century of excavation at the La Brea Tar Pits in the heart of Los Angeles.

Arrest ends shootout that wounded 6 peace officers

ROSEVILLE (AP) - Police said a wanted parolee fired first in a shootout that left six officers injured and led to an hours-long standoff in a suburban Sacramento city before he surrendered.

Cattle rustling up as beef prices rise

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A crime that was at the center of many Western movies is thriving in modern-day California as reports of cattle rustling are on the rise, state livestock officials said.

Drive-by shooter kills 1 at Sacramento party

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Sacramento police say one man is dead and six others wounded after a drive-by shooting Sunday morning at a Sacramento Halloween party.

14 patients left after nursing home closes

CASTRO VALLEY (AP) - Detectives are investigating an assisted living facility that closed Thursday and left behind 14 sick and elderly patients, a spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff's Office said Saturday.

Vallejo drive-by is city’s 20th homicide

VALLEJO (AP) - A 19-year-old who was a passenger in a group of cars that had stopped to change a tire is Vallejo's 20th homicide of the year after being hit by bullets fired from a passing vehicle on Saturday.

News from around california

RIM FIRE NOW 100 PERCENT CONTAINED: YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK (AP) - A fire that raged in forest land in and around Yosemite National Park and grew to become one of the largest wildfires in California history is now 100 percent contained.

Decision to shoot boy made in 10 seconds

Family members sue over fatal limo fire

FRESNO (AP) - Family members of the five nurses who died in a limousine fire on a San Francisco Bay Area bridge have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against several companies, including those that maintained the limousine and customized it. The lawsuits - filed on Thursday - claim the companies were responsible for design and manufacturing defects with the 1999 Lincoln Town Car that caused the May 4 fire on the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge. The ...

Researchers say experiment a success

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Flooded rice fields appear capable of serving as substitutes for now-depleted wetlands and helping California's Chinook salmon population recover, researchers have concluded. In a report submitted to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the researchers said salmon raised in replicated rice fields near Sacramento as part of their experiments were the fattest and fastest-growing salmon ever documented in freshwater in the state. "We're finding that land managers and regulatory agencies can use these ...

Suspect slain in Mojave shootout

RIDGECREST (AP) - A gunman fatally shot a woman, injured a man and then led police on a wild chase through the Mojave Desert with two hostages in his trunk before he was killed in a shootout with police.

State levels $15M campaign-reporting fine

SACRAMENTO (AP) - In a case seeking to unmask the murky multimillion-dollar trail of money pouring into state and national political campaigns, California's political watchdog agency on Thursday announced the largest fine in its history for campaign reporting violations and ordered two political action committees to pay the state $15 million for failing to properly report the source of funds spent in the 2012 ...

Clovis woman sues McDonald's over coffee burns at drive-thru

FRESNO . (AP) - A Fresno County woman who says she suffered second-degree burns when she spilled hot coffee on her lap at the drive-up window of a McDonald's has filed suit against the fast-food chain. The Fresno Bee reports 74-year-old Joan Fino's lawsuit seeks more than $2 million in damages. The Clovis woman says she's had trouble sleeping since the incident in August 2012 because "the burning sensation doesn't go away." A lawyer for ...

WWII vet pistol-whipped, robbed

FRESNO. (AP) - Authorities say a 92-year-old World War II veteran was pistol-whipped and thrown into a closet by three robbers who ransacked his Fresno home. The Fresno Bee reports (Josef Martin, who is blind in one eye and nearly deaf, was awakened early Wednesday by one of the robbers stuffing a gun barrel in his mouth. After they left, Martin, who uses a walker to get around, managed to crawl out of the closet ...