CA utilities may be denied recouping their power costs

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The state Public Utilities Commission is considering a proposal that two major California utilities not be allowed to increase customers' bills to recover money they had to spend purchasing power from other sources after the San Onofre nuclear generating plant shut down.

Citations pending for San Onofre nuclear plant flaw

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Federal regulators announced Monday they are considering slapping a California utility with two violations for problems that eventually led to the permanent closure of the San Onofre nuclear power plant.

California law requires websites to allow minors to delete online postings

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Minors in California will have a chance to remove embarrassing photographs and potentially damaging postings on social media websites under a bill that has been signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown.

Cyclists will get 3-foot buffer on California roads under new law

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Jerry Brown announced Monday he has signed legislation requiring California drivers to stay at least 3 feet away when passing bicyclists.

$25K reward offered in post office robbery

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A $25,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the arrest of a man who robbed a Los Angeles post office at gunpoint.

Abercrombie settles head scarf suits

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Trendy clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch has agreed to make religious accommodations and allow workers to wear head scarves as part of a settlement of discrimination lawsuits filed in California, lawyers announced Monday.

‘Suicide by train’ up in LA

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Train driver Roman Alarcon is still haunted by the memory: He was working the morning commute when, suddenly, a man walked onto the tracks - and just stood there.

Sacramento: America’s farm-to-fork capital

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Like a scene out of the Wild West, several dozen wranglers on horseback herded more than 50 longhorn cattle down one of Sacramento's main thoroughfares Monday to kick off a weeklong celebration of locally grown food.

CA utilities may be denied recouping their power costs

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The state Public Utilities Commission is considering a proposal that two major California utilities not be allowed to increase customers' bills to recover money they had to spend purchasing power from other sources after the San Onofre nuclear generating plant shut down. Southern California Edison closed the plant along the central coast last year after a small radiation leak led to the discovery of extensive damage. Edison officials announced last June ...

California law requires websites to allow minors to delete online postings

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Minors in California will have a chance to remove embarrassing photographs and potentially damaging postings on social media websites under a bill that has been signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown.

News from around the Bay Area

BOY FATALLY STRUCK OUTSIDE MIDDLE SCHOOL: BYRON (AP) - Authorities say a 12-year-old boy riding his bike to middle school was struck and killed by an SUV driven by the mother of another student.

Citations pending for San Onofre nuclear plant flaw

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Federal regulators announced Monday they are considering slapping a California utility with two violations for problems that eventually led to the permanent closure of the San Onofre nuclear power plant. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a report that Southern California Edison failed to identify a flawed design for four replacement steam generators, which led to excessive wear to hundreds of tubes that carried radioactive water. "There were opportunities to identify ...

With 'suicide by train' up in LA

Sacramento: America’s farm-to-fork capital

Cyclists will get 3-foot buffer on California roads under new law

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Jerry Brown announced Monday he has signed legislation requiring California drivers to stay at least 3 feet away when passing bicyclists.

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 ...