State news briefs

• SUV plummets from SD mall parking garage : SAN DIEGO (AP) - A woman was injured when an SUV crashed through a barrier and plummeted three stories from a parking structure at a San Diego County mall, landing on its roof onto two parked cars.

Yosemite’s lost valley will be subject of vote in San Francsico

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK (AP) - This fall San Franciscans will vote on a local measure with national implications: It could return to the American people a flooded gorge described as the twin of breathtaking Yosemite Valley.

Lightning storms this weekend raise Sierra Nevada fire danger

SONORA, Calif. (AP) - A series of dry lightning storms could spark wildfires throughout the Sierra Nevada mountains this weekend, officials warned Friday. The National Weather Service has issued a fire weather watch starting Saturday for the parched mountains between the Sonora Pass and the Oregon border. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the agency ...

Illegals to pay $465 for temporary work permits

USDA: Number of farmers markets up due to demand

Bay Area briefs

AUTHORITIES FIND GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE CLIMBER: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The search for a man who apparently spent the night atop San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge is over.

Report: Mad cow in Hanford is documented as isolated case

Special funds: No more deceptions

Nurses union gives Brown tax initiative campaign on November ballot $1 million

Pepper spray incident officer fired

DAVIS (AP) - The police chief at the University of California, Davis, overruled an internal affairs panel's recommendation and fired a lieutenant who soaked demonstrators with pepper spray - an incident that sparked protests after it was recorded and posted online, according to documents obtained by a newspaper. The Sacramento Bee reports that investigators concluded Lt. John Pike acted reasonably during the ...

Fire in Plumas National Forest more than doubles

BELDEN (AP) - Dry conditions and rocky terrain are hampering efforts to contain a fire in the Plumas National Forest in Northern California that is threatening dozens of structures, including trailer homes. Fire officials said Thursday the Chips fire near Belden about 120 miles north of Sacramento has consumed almost 4 square miles since it began ...

Court reverses ruling favoring debt collectors

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A federal appeals court has reversed a California ruling that favored debt collectors who send letters to a person's workplace. The 9th U.S. Court of Appeals also took the case away from Sacramento federal Judge John Mendez because of his disparaging remarks. Mendez ruled two years ago that a Southern California debt collector's custom ...

Only 4 challengers for 34th America's Cup

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Only four foreign challengers met the deadline to enter the Louis Vuitton Cup next summer to determine the opponent for Oracle Racing in the 34th America's Cup. They are Sweden's Artemis Racing, Emirates Team New Zealand, Italy's Luna Rossa Challenge and Team Korea. The Louis Vuitton Cup will run from July 4 through Sept. ...

USC plans Schwarzenegger policy think tank

. LOS ANGELES (AP) - Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the University of Southern California announced Thursday they are partnering to create a policy think tank. The USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy will be funded with a Schwarzenegger commitment of $20 million, which will include a personal donation as well as money from fundraising. ...

State news briefs

TEEN SURRENDERS AFTER DAD SPOTS HIM IN PHOTO: LOS ANGELES (AP) - A teenager wanted for stealing nine cash registers from Southern California businesses has surrendered after his father recognized him in a newspaper photograph of the suspect.

New Calif. law limits worker comp for professional athletes

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Professional athletes who spend most of their careers with teams in other states will be prohibited from filing workers' compensation claims in California, under a bill signed by Gov. Jerry Brown.

LA seeks census of buildings vulnerable in earthquake

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Los Angeles officials hope to follow San Francisco's lead in upgrading so-called "soft-story" buildings, those with bottom floors that are susceptible to collapse during an earthquake. Legislation, however, could be years away. Officials were expected to provide details about a proposed census of LA's soft-story structures at Tuesday's Buildings at Risk conference. Also this week, LA officials are meeting with San Francisco's earthquake team to get advice on how to proceed ...

News from around california

PG&E offers employers that are big power users lower rates

Spanking with wooden spoon not child abuse

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - A state appeals court on Tuesday tossed out child abuse findings against a frustrated Northern California mother who spanked her 12-year-old daughter hard enough with a wooden spoon to cause bruising. The 6th District Court of Appeal in San Jose reversed the child abuse determination made by the Santa Clara County Department of Social Services. Social workers waned to report Vernica Gonzalez to the state Department of Justice's child abuse ...

Southern Cal a fires fade as weather turns

CAMP PENDLETON (AP) - A nearly 4-square-mile wildfire on the Marine Corps' Camp Pendleton was reduced to smoldering Monday as hot, dry Santa Ana winds faded and a cooling trend began as a storm approached. About 230 residents return to housing near Lake O'Neil on Sunday evening, base officials said in a statement. Some 30 patients removed from a base hospital were returned. Forty-one percent of the burn area was surrounded and full containment was ...

PUC has leeway to restructure utility rates

Brown vetoes non-citizens on juries

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Jerry Brown has vetoed a bill that would have allowed non-citizens who are legal residents to serve as jurors in California. "Jury service, like voting, is quintessentially a prerogative and responsibility of citizenship," Brown said in an announcement Monday accompanying his veto of AB1401. "This bill would permit lawful permanent residents who are not citizens to serve on a jury. I don't think that's right." The bill by Assemblyman Bob Wieckowski, ...

Carter: Middle class today resembles poor from past years

OAKLAND (AP) - Former President Jimmy Carter says the income gap in the United States has increased to the point where members of the middle class resemble the Americans who lived in poverty when he occupied the White House.

News from around california

Elk Grove wants to expand boundaries

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Leaders in Elk Grove are pushing a plan to expand the city's boundaries by 8,000 acres, but opponents are raising concerns about traffic and environmental damage. The city, already one of the nation's fastest-growing, wants more room to add employers and maintain open space within city limits. The Sacramento County Local Agency Formation Commission, which consists of four elected officials and one member of the public, is expected to decide on the ...

State aims to crack down on tax evasion

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Not everyone is conscientious about paying their tax bill, and the scofflaws cost California an estimated $9 billion a year in uncollected revenue. Lawmakers and Gov. Jerry Brown want to change that dynamic by creating a task force charged with bringing the state's underground economy into the open and collecting the corporate, personal, and sales and use taxes owed the state. The Democratic governor on Monday announced the signing of legislation is ...

SACRAMENTO (AP) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday issued a public health alert for raw

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday issued a public health alert for raw chicken packaged at three Foster Farms facilities in California after 278 people fell ill.

Bitten surfer says shark came from nowhere

EUREKA (AP) - It was a perfect day for surfing. Except for the shark. Jay Scrivner, a 45-year-old college English teacher, was waiting for waves off the Northern California coast near his hometown of Eureka on Sunday morning after surfing for about two hours when a great white he estimated at about 8-to-9 feet long bit his thigh and board. "Sometimes you have a feeling that the water is weird," Scrivner told The Associated Press ...