DesertXpress Vegas-California rail project renamed

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Developers planning high-speed rail service between Las Vegas and Southern California announced Monday they are giving the project a new name. DesertXpress Enterprises is rebranding the project XpressWest to reflect its goal of a larger rail network across the western U.S. The privately held company wants to build a high-speed line between Las Vegas ...

Fight after Bay to Breakers race ends in death

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 ...

State news briefs

BILLY RAY CYRUS HAS AN ACKY BREAKY HEART AS HE AND WIFE OF 19 YEARS, GETTING DIVORCE: LOS ANGELES (AP) - Billy Ray Cyrus' wife has filed for divorce from the country singer after 19 years of marriage.

Coastal board hikes SoCal beach parking fees, may impose NorCal parking fees

New York, San Francisco plan tech summits

License of Davis group home revoked over sex case

3 found dead in burning stolen car near Paradise

PARADISE . (AP) - Authorities in rural Northern California have found a burning stolen car with three people dead inside. Butte County sheriff's Sgt. Jason Hail says deputies and firefighters responded to reports of a vehicle fire on a road in Magalia 10 miles northeast of Chico early Thursday. They arrived to find a green Acura sedan engulfed in flames when it was out found three bodies. Undersheriff Kory Honea tells the Chico Enterprise-Record that ...

San Francisco parking spot sells for $82,000

San Francisco parking spot sells for $82,000

Bay Area briefs

SF DEVELOPER LOOKS TO MAKE MORTUARY INTO MINI-GOLF: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Developers in San Francisco want to turn a funeral home into a fun zone.

Federal board OKs high-speed rail work

Court overturns part of port's trucking plan

Clint Eastwood looks to loan water to dry zone

MONTEREY . (AP) - Clint Eastwood is looking to make the day of a thirsty section of the California coast. The 83-year-old actor, director and former mayor of Carmel is in negotiations to loan water to a Monterey peninsula utility to help alleviate the region's water shortage. Eastwood is looking to loan California American Water 85 acre-feet-per-year of water from a parcel of land where he controls the water rights. The deal would alleviate the ...

State news briefs

PARADISE . (AP) - Authorities in rural Northern California have found a burning stolen car with three people dead inside. Butte County sheriff's Sgt. Jason Hail says deputies and firefighters responded to reports of a vehicle fire on a road in Magalia 10 miles northeast of Chico early Thursday. They arrived to find a green Acura sedan engulfed in flames when it was out found three bodies. Undersheriff Kory Honea tells the Chico Enterprise-Record that ...

State news briefs

AGENTS PULL 15,000 POT PLANTS IN SIERRA FOREST: OAKHURST (AP) - Agents in Madera County have eradicated nearly 15,000 marijuana plants on two grow sites in the Sierra National Forest.

Lawmakers: What are Bay Bridge incentives?

SACRAMENTO (AP) - State lawmakers want officials overseeing construction of the new eastern portion of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to disclose any incentives promised to contractors if the span opens as planned on Labor Day weekend. Fourteen members of California's Assembly and Senate said in a letter that public confidence could be damaged if there's an appearance of a rush to finish the span to meet the deadline. The Sacramento Bee reported on the ...

Timing of Prop. 8 ruling complicates rally

2 dead as homemade plane crashes in NorCal.

MONTAGUE (AP) - Officials say two men were killed when a small homemade plane crashed in a field in Northern California near the Oregon state line.