Shipping lanes tweaked to protect whales

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Ship traffic off the California coast will be re-routed under new rules designed to protect slow-moving endangered whales from ship collisions. The International Maritime Organization has approved vessel lane changes on approaches to San Francisco Bay and the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and in the Santa Barbara Channel. The changes take effect next year after ...

LA gun buyback collects more than 2,000 weapons

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A one-day gun buyback program in Los Angeles brought in 2,037 firearms. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's office says the weapons collected Wednesday included 901 handguns, 698 rifles, 363 shotguns and 75 assault weapons. Long lines of cars and people showed up at two locations to exchange their weapons for supermarket gift cards of various values ...

Birdwatchers furious over cutting of refuge

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Los Angeles bird lovers are squawking after the Army Corps of Engineers razed 80 acres of a San Fernando Valley wildlife refuge. The Daily News of Los Angeles says the San Fernando Audubon Society is outraged that the corps last week stripped shrubbery and many trees from the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve. The corps ...

Silicon Valley's $2 billion light rail among least efficient in United States

SAN JOSE (AP) - A $2 billion light-rail system built to serve San Jose and some surrounding cities in Silicon Valley has become among the least efficient in the country and suffers from low ridership and high operating costs. As the Valley Transportation Authority rail line marked 25 years of service this month, the San Jose Mercury News reported Thursday that less ...

Heavy snows halt missing plane search in Yosemite

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK (AP) - Yosemite National Park officials are suspending the search for a missing plane until spring. Park spokeswoman Kari Cobb said Thursday that more than 5 feet of snow and strong winds have created extremely hazardous search conditions in the park's backcountry. The single-engine plane was last detected via radar on Dec. 17, over the ...

Plans under way to refurbish LA market

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Grand Central Market, a bustling downtown landmark that saw its glory days decades ago, is hoping to recover some of its fashionable luster as the gritty neighborhood gentrifies. The 27,000-square-foot market in the heart of the city is getting a cleaning and a new paint job. Consultants have been hired who want to see the huge place - ...

Woman set on fire in LA as she sleeps

Bay Area briefs

BAY AREA MAN DIES CLIMBING VOLCANO IN ECUADOR: QUITO, Ecuador (AP) - Authorities in Ecuador say an American expert on teen sexual health has died while climbing a volcano in the South American nation.

Stores in Sacramento mall open after fight

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Officials say all the stores of Sacramento's Arden Fair Mall shopping center are open again after a lockdown during a fight in the mall's in the food court.

California's snow pack levels about 146% of normal

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Officials say several early season storms have pushed California's snowpack - which supplies much of the state's water - to well above normal levels. The state Department of Water Resources said Wednesday that early electronic readings indicate that the water content of California's snowpack is 146 percent above normal for this time of year. The ...

Beer sales help rebuild NorCal monastery

VINA (AP) - Monks in a small Northern California town are rebuilding a centuries-old Spanish monastery with help from what may seem an unlikely source: beer. The first phase of the building's decades-long restoration project in the Sacramento Valley town of Vina has been completed, with the Chapter House of Ovila now standing, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Tuesday. <p style="line-height: ...

Wash. man held in Greyhound bus attack

DUNSMUIR (AP) - A 66-year-old Washington man is in custody on suspicion of stabbing two people aboard a Greyhound bus in far Northern California. Siskiyou County Sheriff's officials say Charles Burnett Ripley - a passenger on the bus - had been talking to himself when he lunged across the aisle without warning early Tuesday morning and began stabbing a 23-year-old woman. <p ...

California may lose ‘No Child Left Behind' waiver bid for public schools

LA offers groceries for guns in buyback

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Long lines of cars and people formed Wednesday to take advantage of a guns-for-groceries exchange program that was moved up in the wake of the Connecticut school shooting. Police officers filled bins with a variety of rifles and handguns outside the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena and the Van Nuys Masonic Temple. Officials were ...

Bay Area briefs

4 INJURED AFTER CHRISTMAS PARTY TURNS VIOLENT: ALAMEDA (AP) - Four people were injured after police say a woman attacked members of her family with a box cutter during a Christmas party in Alameda.

Cliff House caught in federal shutdown

Democratic group runs ads against GOP lawmakers including Denham

New California law expands who can perform abortions

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives and physician assistants in California will be allowed to perform a type of early abortion under legislation signed Wednesday by Gov. Jerry Brown, an action that drew condemnation from Catholic bishops and that came as many conservative states are limiting access to abortion services.

Study: Change initiative process

Agency will inspect illegal pot grows

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board will begin inspecting illegal marijuana grows across Northern California, reversing an earlier ban designed to protect employees Last week the water board directed staff to join law enforcement in the field and write citations for environmental violations when appropriate. Law enforcement agencies across the board's 37-county region had sought the help of water scientists so they could prosecute growers who flatten hilltops, divert streams ...

Fertility coverage protected for same-sex couples under new law

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Unmarried and same-sex couples will be ensured the same access to insurance coverage for fertility treatments as heterosexual couples under a bill Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law. The governor's office announced Tuesday that he had signed AB460 by Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco. The bill clarifies the non-discrimination provision of an existing state law that requires health plans to offer coverage for fertility treatments, except for in vitro ...

Woman found dead in SF hospital stairwell may be missing patient

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A woman's body was found dead Tuesday in a San Francisco hospital stairwell as authorities investigated whether she was a patient who went missing more than two weeks ago. The unidentified woman's body was found by an employee in a rarely used exterior stairwell around 10 a.m., San Francisco General Hospital spokeswoman Rachael Kagan said. It wasn't known how long the woman had been on the stairway - which is used ...

SF rail commuters on phones didn't notice gun

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A man flashed a gun several times on a crowded commuter train in San Francisco, but passengers were so absorbed in their phones and tablets they didn't notice until he randomly shot and killed a university student, authorities said. Security video footage showed the gunman pull out the .45-caliber pistol, raise it and point it across the aisle before putting it back against his side, authorities told the San Francisco Chronicle ...

PG&E must show regulators closed gas pipeline in San Carlos is safe

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - State regulators on Tuesday directed Pacific Gas and Electric to keep a Northern California natural gas pipeline shut down until they verify its safety after concerns surfaced in an email from an engineer. The California Public Utilities Commission has opened an investigation to determine whether any immediate dangers are posed by the pipeline in the San Francisco Bay Area city of San Carlos, saying the findings would be made public, and ...

State exchange processes 16,000 applications

Stockton teen takes plea in boy's beating death

STOCKTON (AP) - A Stockton teenager is facing nearly 20 years in state prison after pleading guilty to participating in the beating and stomping death of a 14-year-old boy at a city park. Jereme Sin, who is now 17, was the same age as the victim, Rin Ros, when he and seven other teens were charged as adults with murder in Ros' August 2010 slaying. Sin pleaded guilty on Monday to involuntary manslaughter as part ...

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