State news briefs

REDDING FIRE CREWS FIGHT BLAZE STARTED BY KIDS: REDDISNG (AP) - Redding firefighters are battling a brush fire that was sparked by kids and now threatens a subdivision and apartment complex.

Students, parents occupy Oakland school

California tobacco tax trails by razor-thin margin with 400,000 ballots still to count

California tobacco tax trails by razor-thin margin with 400,000 ballots still to count

Parents planted drugs on school volunteer

IRVINE (AP) - A California couple was charged Tuesday with felony conspiracy and false imprisonment for allegedly planting drugs in the car of an elementary school parent volunteer they disliked because they felt she didn't properly supervise their son, prosecutors said. Kent Easter, 38, of Irvine, planted prescription painkillers, marijuana and a marijuana pipe in the woman's car and then called police ...

Bay Area briefs

Former school official facing new charges WOODSIDE . (AP) - A former school official in San Mateo County accused of misappropriating millions of dollars in public funds is now facing additional charges that he billed a school district for remodeling work done on his home. Prosecutors say Timothy Hanretty charged the Portola Valley School District nearly $101,000 for the work. The 55-year-old Hanretty ...

DA: Calif. officer justified in officer's shooting

The search is on for a mutt who will become Benji

911 call details moments after King found in pool

Democrats not done with budget despite their claims to the contrary

Church abuse victim faces trial for beating priest in Santa Clara County

Bill bans forcing students to reveal grades on IDs

Federal safety report: Design led to woes at San Onfroe nuclear power plant

San Diego County wildfire is 30% contained

CAMPO (AP) - A wildfire fanned by strong winds that prompted the evacuation of 150 homes in eastern San Diego County is 30 percent contained, officials said Monday. But authorities with California's Department of Forestry and Fire Protection warned that the 907-acre blaze east of Campo still threatens 200 houses, sheds and other buildings. Nearly 500 firefighters have ...

Rodney King autopsy concluded; results weeks away

Bay Area briefs

Appeals court overturns defendant's release RICHMOND (AP) - An appeals court has overturned a judge's decision to release a defendant in a Richmond sting operation on the condition that he write book reports. The Ninth District Court of Appeals in San Francisco said there were significant findings in favor of keeping 23-year-old Otis Mobley behind bars while he awaits trial. <p style="line-height: 18pt; ...

State Senate OKs ski safety legislation

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.