World’s best big wave surfers compete

HALF MOON BAY (AP) - As swells lumbered across the Pacific toward Northern California, nearly two dozen of the world's best big wave surfers went to meet them on Sunday, a half-mile offshore at the famed surfing break known as Mavericks.

“Holy windfall”: Batmobile sells for $4.2M

LOS ANGELES (AP) - "Holy windfall, Batman!" The Batmobile just sold for $4.2 million.

State news briefs

MISSING BERKELEY WOMAN, BOYFRIEND FOUND DEAD: MANTON (AP) - A missing Berkeley woman and her boyfriend have been found dead in a rural area in Shasta County.

Lawmaker expense payments flow over holiday

Lawmakers violated law to help Brown

Record number of students apply for admission to nine UC campuses

Too soon for state to control inmate care

City must pay $134K for targeting homeless

SAN LUIS OBISPO (AP) - A judge has ordered a California central coast city to pay $134,000 for targeting homeless people living or sleeping in vehicles. The money is payment to two attorneys who sued San Luis Obispo who worked to get 99 criminal citations dismissed. The Tribune of San Luis Obispo says the lawyers claimed a city ...

Bay Area briefs

MENLO PARK SET TO CONSIDER FACEBOOK CAMPUS DEAL: MENLO PARK (AP) - Menlo Park officials are set to weigh in on the terms of an agreement to allow Facebook to build additional office space in the city.

Tom Cruise possibly latest target of fake 911 ‘swatting’ call prank

BEVERLY HILLS (AP) - Tom Cruise may be the latest so-called "swatting" victim after police responded to a 911 call of an armed robbery at the actor's Beverly Hills house on Thursday and found no crime had been committed, authorities said. Shortly after noon, police received a call reporting a robbery in progress, Sgt. Renato Moreno said. Officers responded to the house, ...

Group warns of farmland loss in SJ Valley

UC: No tuition hike needed under Gov. Brown's budget

Amtrak, California team up for purchase of high-speed rail trains

California news briefs

REPORT: CPUC BUDGET RIDDLED WITH ERRORS: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - An audit of the California Public Utilities Commission found that the agency routinely makes errors in its budget and gives bad fiscal forecasts that could affect fees paid by consumers.

BofA donating 80 homes to Habitat effort

MODESTO - Bank of America has donated five properties in recent weeks and is slated to donate up to 75 over the next three years to Habitat for Humanity Stanislaus in support of the affiliate's efforts to build affordable housing in partnership with low-income families throughout Stanislaus County.

New Tahoe bear battle tactics

LAKE TAHOE (AP) - It's not your average bear battle.

Brown vetoes sex abuse lawsuit bill

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a bill Saturday that would have allowed some sex abuse victims who are now barred by the statute of limitations to file lawsuits against private institutions that employed their abusers.

Teacher stabbed in front of students

LONG BEACH (AP) - Nearly 100 people attended a memorial Saturday to mourn an elementary school teacher who was fatally stabbed in the neck while watching her students play at a park.

Growing backlash to government surveillance

SAN JOSE (AP) - From Silicon Valley to the South Pacific, counterattacks to revelations of widespread National Security Agency surveillance are taking shape, from a surge of new encrypted email programs to technology that sprinkles the Internet with red flag terms to confuse would-be snoops.

BART, unions negotiate as streak deadline looms

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - With a strike deadline drawing ever closer, negotiators for San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit system and its two unions prepared Sunday to resume contract talks that could prevent hundreds of thousands of commuters from having to find costlier and longer ways to work.

SF landmark Cliff House reopens

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A landmark San Francisco restaurant that became a casualty of the federal government shutdown has gotten the green light to reopen.