• LIGHT QUAKE SHAKES CENTRAL CALIFORNIA AREA: KING CITY (AP) — A light earthquake has shaken a Central California region southeast of Monterey Bay.
Some 700 people reported feeling the magnitude-4.4 tremor, which struck at 5:21 a.m. Tuesday.
The U.S. Geological Survey says the epicenter was 17 miles northeast of King City. The USGS says the quake occurred at a depth of 6 miles.
The immediate area is largely rural and lightly populated. The USGS public reporting pages show it was felt lightly or weakly around Monterey Bay and to the east in some San Joaquin Valley cities.
• WARM, DRY WEATHER CLOSES 2 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA SKI RESORTS: SONORA (AP) — Two popular Northern California ski resorts have shut down mid-season because no fresh snow has fallen for weeks blanketing their slopes.
Sean Waterman, a spokesman for Dodge Ridge east of Sonora, said Tuesday that they’ve been moving snow around the mountain for the last few weeks to get through a warm, dry spell.
But he says that isn’t the full experience the resort wants to give skiers; he says they’ll reopen after the next big snowstorm hits.
Operators of Badger Pass in Yosemite National Park say they’ve also shut down.
Forecasters say wet weather may come early next week, but warm temperatures may only send snow falling at higher elevations above 9,500 feet.
• DRUNKEN DRAG RACERS CRASH INTO HOUSE: MERCED (AP) — Six people were asleep when police say a drunken motorist who was street racing slammed into a Northern California house.
A Volkswagen Jetta and a Honda Civic Del Sol were racing early Monday at speeds of up to 80 mph and lost control.
Merced police Sgt. Jay Struble says the Jetta crashed into one wall, plowed through the living room and knocked down another wall. Only one person — a sleeping boy — was injured.
Police say the Honda hit a pole, went airborne, clipped the side of the house, and landed upside down.
The Honda driver went to a trauma center, and his pregnant passenger was also taken to a hospital as precaution. The Jetta driver was arrested for drunken driving.
• 9S UFFER BURNS, OTHER INJURIES IN CONDO FIRE: SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO (AP) — A fire tore through a second-story condominium where there were no working smoke alarms Tuesday, forcing a woman to lower her children out of a window before jumping out herself.
Nine people were injured, including six children, by the blaze that filled the four-bedroom unit in San Juan Capistrano with heavy smoke, said Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Steve Concialdi.
Firefighters rescued a 20-year-old woman and her 2-year-old and 3-year-old sons in grave condition. Another woman suffered burns and severe leg injuries after she jumped from a window, he said.
