State news briefs

ASSEMBLY BILL WOULD BAN THE OPEN CARRY OF RIFLES: SACRAMENTO AP) - A year after the Legislature approved a ban on the public display of handguns, the Assembly on Thursday passed a similar prohibition for rifles.

Teachers protest removal after sex abuse scandal

3 agents shot, injured in S.F. Bay incident

3 agents shot, injured in S.F. Bay incident

State news briefs

Shasta woman convicted in revenge beating of boy

Scientists use airship to look for meteorites

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A group of scientists took to the skies in a slow-moving airship Thursday in search of meteorites that rained over California's gold country last month. It's the latest hunt for extraterrestrial fragments from the April 22 explosion that was witnessed over a swath of Northern California and Nevada. Treasure hunters have swarmed the Sierra Nevada ...

UC seeks to cut costs by consolidating operations

RIVERSIDE (AP) - In a move aimed at cutting costs, the University of California will open a new service center in Riverside that will handle administrative duties for its 10 campuses and five medical centers, school officials said Thursday. The facility is expected to save as much as $100 million annually by creating a single payroll and human resources system for all ...

Bay Area news briefs

Needy teen gets free tickets to school from others

‘Rare bacteria appears to have killed SF researcher

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Health officials were trying to determine how a rare strain of bacteria infected and may have led to the death of a researcher at a Veteran's Affairs infectious diseases lab in San Francisco.

Kutcher ad is called racist, yanked offline

LOS ANGELES (AP) - An online ad featuring Ashton Kutcher as an Indian man has been pulled offline after viewers called it racist.

State news briefs

NO NEW REMAINS FOUND IN SPEED FREAK KILLERS SEARCH: LINDEN (AP) - Authorities say they did not find any new human remains during a search of private property in the Central Valley that authorities felt may have been linked to the so-called Speed Freak Killers.

Cal State University workers authorize strike

Transit worker fired after giving discarded passes to needy teen

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Transit worker Jim Stanek thought he was doing a good deed when he gave a needy teenager $300 in discarded train passes. But he said the decision led to his firing. Customers had paid for the passes then turned them over with outstanding balances to the booth where Stanek works as a station agent for the Bay Area ...

DMV workers charged in bribery scheme

Stinging gas sends May Day protesters fleeing in Oakland

USDA: Offspring of mad cow did not have disease

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 ...

Threats target deputy who shot teen

SANTA ROSA (AP) - Sheriff's officials say the Northern California deputy who fatally shot a 13-year-old boy has been the target of threats. The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office confirmed the deputy's identity to the Press Democrat of Santa Rosa (http://bit.ly/1al07gN ) on Sunday as 48-year-old Erick Gelhaus. Gelhaus, a 24-year sheriff's office veteran, shot and killed Andy Lopez last week in Santa Rosa. Investigators say Gelhaus mistook the pellet gun Lopez was carrying for an ...

Jury awards $150M in wrongful death

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.