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 ...

SF, NY officials wait to judge Apple 'kill switch'

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The top prosecutors in San Francisco and New York say they are reserving judgment of Apple's new iOS7 security feature designed to make it harder to reactivate a stolen iPhone. San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Monday they aren't judging Apple Inc.'s new activation lock feature until they can fully understand how it works. Apple mentioned the new feature during the Worldwide Developers ...

FBI investigation stressing lawmaker

Los Angeles jury recommends death in mistaken killing of 4 including boy

Past turmoil in Santa Monica gunman's home

Toy gun buyback asks kids to give up play pistols

HAYWARD (AP) - Organizers of a Northern California gun buyback are looking to get weapons off the streets. But gun owners shouldn't show up looking to hand over their arms, unless they shoot rubber bands, Nerf bullets or imaginary lasers. An elementary school in Hayward is planning to hold a gun exchange Saturday, giving students a book and a chance to win a bike if they turn over their Super Soakers, Galactic Space Blasters and ...

SF sues over high-capacity magazines

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - San Francisco is suing three gun accessories companies and one gun show promoter, alleging they sold disassembled high-capacity magazines disguised as repair kits in violation of California law, the city attorney said Monday. The companies and the gun show promoter were trying to circumvent a state ban on the sale of high-capacity magazines by calling them repair kits, City Attorney Dennis Herrera said in the statement. But the kits can easily ...

Legislative leader: Budget deal is near

Death row inmate dies of liver disease

CORCORAN (AP) - California prison officials say a 44-year-old death row inmate convicted of beating a 90-year-old woman to death with a baseball bat has died from liver disease.

State news briefs

HUGE SHARK CAUGHT BY ANGLER OFF CALIF. WASN'T PREGNANT : LONG BEACH . (AP) - Scientists who dissected the huge mako shark caught off the Southern California coast have found that the female shark had gallons of sea water and a seal or sea lion in her stomach.

Injured dog that saved 2 girls honored

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Every dog has its day, but few canines get a motorcade on their return home. Kabang, who lost half her face after jumping in front of a motorcycle to save the lives of two girls, received a rousing welcome Monday in Zamboanga, a city in the southern Philippines. The mixed-breed came back from months-long treatment at the University of California, Davis, veterinary hospital, paid for with $27,000 in donations raised in ...

Another limo fire, 10 women escape

Threat forces LA-to-Texas flight to land in Ariz.

PHOENIX (AP) - The FBI says a "telephonic bomb threat" against a Southwest Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Texas led to the plane being diverted to Phoenix on Monday afternoon. Special Agent Manuel Johnson, a spokesman for the FBI's Phoenix division, says Flight 2675 left Los Angeles International Airport at 2:12 p.m. and was heading to Austin before the threat was received by telephone. He didn't elaborate. The plane landed safely at Phoenix Sky ...

Bay Area briefs

SF PRIDE CONFIRMS MANNING WON'T BE HONORED: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Organizers of San Francisco's annual gay pride celebration have confirmed that the U.S. soldier who has acknowledged providing classified documents to WikiLeaks no longer will not be honored during this month's celebration.

Gunman killed 6 in Santa Monica

Senators upset about exchange secrecy