Calif approves north coast marine protection zones

Bay Area briefs

Suspect facing murder charge in San Ramon robbery

Stockton council grants city manager authority to ready backup bankruptcy plan

STOCKTON (AP) - Stockton City Council members late Tuesday granted the city manager authority to seek Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection in three weeks if officials are unable to broker a deal with the city's creditors.

San Jose, San Diego approve pension cuts by wide margins in Tuesday’s voting

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Voters in two major California cities overwhelmingly approved measures to cut retirement benefits for city workers Tuesday in contests being closely watched as states and local governments throughout the country struggle with mounting pension obligations.

California voters split on $1 per pack tobacco tax; final tally make take days or possibly weeks

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A California ballot initiative to raise the tax on cigarettes that pitted big-spending tobacco companies against cycling legend Lance Armstrong and the New York City Mayor was too close to call Tuesday night.

California voters approve term limit reform

LOS ANGELES (AP) - California voters tweaked term limits Tuesday to shave two years off the total time lawmakers can serve in the state Legislature, but will allow them to spend their tenure in one house.

Tough battles mark Congressional contests

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Two long-serving Democrats headed Tuesday for a November showdown in a bitterly contested Los Angeles County House district, a marquee matchup among congressional races across California.

Candidates backed by leaders ahead in Senate

LOS ANGELES (AP) - State Senate candidates favored by the Legislature's leaders were ahead Tuesday in the two primary election contests expected to help determine whether Democrats can win a super majority in the upper chamber.

Feinstein easily advances to November ballot

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein has easily won her primary election race, advancing to the November ballot. She will face GOP-endorsed autism activist Elizabeth Emken.

Romney's (non) military record faces new scrutiny from Vietnam War era

Cooler weather aids firefighters in Sequoia forest

Jury recommends death for officer killer

RIVERSIDE (AP) - A jury on Tuesday recommended the death penalty for a man convicted of killing a Riverside police officer who pulled him over while investigating a report of a hit-and-run accident involving a big rig. After several hours of deliberations, jurors made the decision in the case against 46-year-old Earl Ellis Green, who was convicted last month of first-degree murder, ...

Federal ag officials: Grapevine moth no longer in San Joaquin County

State news briefs

Governor wants to bar bullet train injunctions

Gay marriage ban backers look to US Supreme Court for relief

Bay Area briefs

FEDS TO PROBE REPAIR WORK ON BAD BAY BRIDGE RODS: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The Federal Highway Administration on Monday said it is investigating the state's response to broken steel seismic safety rods on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

State news briefs

15 OF 23 CAL STATE CAMPUSES CHARGE GRADUATION FEES: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Graduating students at more than a dozen California public universities will have to hand over money before they are handed their diplomas, a newspaper reported.

End near for evangelical radio network?

Girl , 7, escapes kidnapper's car trunk in Sacramento

Ginsburg: Roe gave abortion opponents a target

CHICAGO (AP) - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says she supports a woman's right to choose to have an abortion, but feels her predecessors' landmark Roe v. Wade ruling 40 years ago was too sweeping and gave abortion opponents a symbol to target.

Person of interest named in jogger killed by pit bull pack

PALMDALE . (AP) - Sheriff's authorities said a man who was arrested this week on suspicion of growing marijuana is now a "person of interest" in the death of a 63-year-old jogger who was mauled to death by a pack of pit bulls in the Mojave Desert.

Los Angeles, Paris project aims to track big city carbon footprints

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Every time Los Angeles exhales, odd-looking gadgets anchored in the mountains above the city trace the invisible puffs of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases that waft skyward.

Relentless thief still taking Tahoe crawfish traps - 160 stolen so far

INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. (AP) - It's not that easy to catch crawfish in Lake Tahoe. Turns out, it may be harder to keep them.

Black student targeted with racist note

IRVINE (AP) - University of California, Irvine officials pledged to work on race relations on campus this week after a black student found a hand-scrawled note in her backpack calling her a slave, making it the second racist incident that has offended black students in recent weeks.

Mom: Accused boy, 12, ‘could never’ hurt sister

VALLEY SPRINGS (AP) - A day before a 12-year-old boy was arrested for the stabbing death of his 8-year-old sister, his mother described him as "protective" of his younger sibling.

State lawmakers debate how to spend $900M in new revenue from loophole

SACRAMENTO (AP) - California schools are expecting a boost from the $900 million to be raised over the next year through the closure of a corporate tax loophole, but Gov. Jerry Brown is locked in a disagreement with state lawmakers over how to hand out that money.

Chris Brown’s scary curbside art irks LA neighbors; city cites him for ‘signage’

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Grammy-winning musician Chris Brown's neighbors are unhappy with what some are calling frightening art he's chosen to have painted along the curb of his Hollywood Hills home.

Bay Bridge base rods can’t be easily inspected

OAKLAND (AP) - More than 400 seismic safety rods that may be vulnerable to cracking or breaking are embedded in the base of the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and may be difficult to inspect, remove or replace, according to a newspaper report.

One by one, homes in subdivision sinking

LAKEPORT (AP) - Scott and Robin Spivey had a sinking feeling that something was wrong with their home when cracks began snaking across their walls in March.

Judge denies bid to block Dorner reward payout plan