Report: Teacher fund lax on anti-spiking efforts; audits each district every 48 years

Paraplegic awarded $1.5M from Fresno Kaiser hospital

FRESNO (AP) - A man who was left partially paralyzed by an infection has been awarded $1.5 million from a Fresno medical center. Jurors ruled Tuesday that Kaiser Permanente Medical Center was 30 percent negligent for Dusten Chevalier's condition. However, the jury said Chevalier himself was mostly responsible. The 27-year-old was left a paraplegic because of an untreated ...

Court denies LA's bid to take Skid Row property

Bank robbed; device strapped to manager

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Two masked gunmen kidnapped a bank manager, strapped what they said was a bomb to her midsection and forced her to order employees to "take out all the money" from her Bank of America branch when it opened Wednesday morning, authorities said. The bank robbers got away with an undisclosed amount of cash, but no one was injured ...

State news briefs

PEDESTRIAN KILLED BY POLICE CAR CHASING SUSPECT : WEST SACRAMENTO (AP) - A 17-year-old who police say stole a car and then led West Sacramento police on a chase that ended up killing a pedestrian is being charged with murder.

Investigator says suspect shot CHP officer in head

MARTINEZ (AP) - The suspect killed in a shootout following a traffic stop on a San Francisco Bay Area freeway had shot a California Highway Patrol officer in the head without warning, leaving him in critical condition, authorities said Wednesday. Footage from a dashboard camera showed Officer Kenyon Youngstrom speaking with Christopher Boone Lacy, who had been pulled over Tuesday morning, Contra ...

Feds grant SF shrub endangered status

Company fined $267K after immigration raid

Rain aids battle against forest fire

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Light rainfall and cooler temperatures are helping firefighters gain ground on a blaze in the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles. Angeles National Forest ...

Bay Area briefs

GROUP FIGHTING RICHMOND SODA TAX FILES LAWSUIT: RICHMOND, Calif. (AP) - A group funded by the beverage industry has sued to avoid campaign-disclosure laws as it fights a proposed soda tax in Richmond.

Mother, 1-year-old child, die in CA canal accident

WATERFORD . (AP) - Authorities say a mother and baby daughter died after their car struck an embankment and flipped over into a canal Monday afternoon near Waterford.

State Side

Oakland activists smash windows during protest

Oakland activists smash windows during protest

OAKLAND . (AP) - Oakland police say protesters upset that the city's gay pride festival charged admission went on a weekend vandalism spree, smashing windows at a Bank of America and spray-painting a police vehicle. No arrests were made during Sunday's incident. Police tell the Oakland Tribune that up to 60 marchers tried unsuccessfully to crash the gate ...

San Bruno survivors plan 2 year anniversary

SAN BRUNO . (AP) - Survivors of a deadly pipeline explosion in a San Francisco Bay area suburb plan to hold a memorial to commemorate the two years that have passed since the blast, even as they continue to press for stronger pipeline safety reforms. On Tuesday, neighbors gathered at the San Bruno blast site with Assemblyman Jerry Hill, a Democrat who ...

CHP officer critically wounded in shooting on I-680 in Walnut Creek

WALNUT CREEK (AP) - A California Highway Patrol officer was in critical condition and a suspect was dead after a Tuesday morning rush hour shootout on Interstate 680 near Walnut Creek, authorities said. The shooting prompted the closure of the highway in both directions as traffic came to a standstill. The incident occurred shortly before 8:30 a.m. after the male officer conducted ...

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 ...

Students find way to play games on iPads

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Education officials in the nation's second-largest school district are working to reboot a $1 billion plan to put an iPad in the hands of each of their 650,000 students after an embarrassing glitch emerged when the first round of tablets went out.

Major movie involving sharks filming in Reno, Lake Tahoe

RENO, Nev. (AP) - Filming for a major motion picture is scheduled to begin soon in northern Nevada, something the local producer says will become more common in the years ahead as some new tax incentives for the industry kick in.

Pendleton Marine base partially evacuates from

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Evacuation orders remained in place Sunday as crews built containment lines around a wind-driven wildfire that scorched 1,500 acres of dry brush and damaged four buildings at a Southern California military base.

Teen on trial for theft of chef’s Lamborhghini

SAN RAFAEL (AP) - The trial of a Northern California teenager charged with the brazen theft of celebrity chef Guy Fieri's Lamborghini sports car from a San Francisco dealership has started in a Marin County courtroom.

Sloppy Silicon Valley techies find their style

SAN JOSE (AP) - The Silicon Valley has had a men's fashion problem dating back to its founders.

Dozens play chess in public in defiance of SF crackdown

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - At least for an afternoon, the chess players were back at the usual spot they've occupied for years along downtown San Francisco's busy Market Street.