California Government News

A plan to restore salmon runs on California's Sacramento River also could help revive killer whale populations 700 miles to the north in Puget Sound, as federal scientists struggle to protect endangered species in a complex ecosystem that stretches along the Pacific coast from California to Alaska.

A man from California wolfed down 68 hot dogs in 10 minutes to smash the previous world record of 66 and to win Americas Coney Island annual hot dog eating contest.

As lawmakers in cash-strapped states wrestled this year with revenues that kept on falling, both campaign promises and long-standing reform efforts got pushed to the side.

California lawmakers have little to celebrate this Fourth of July as talks continue on the state's ballooning deficit.

It's a trial judge's job to settle any factual disputes surrounding the voter-approved ban and its effect on the civil rights of gays and lesbians before the case goes to a higher court, he said.

This July 1, 2009 shows Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger listening to a question concerning his declaration of a fiscal emergency at a Capitol news conference in Sacramento, Calif.

Dilbag Singh had been arrested for public intoxication about 12:30 a.m. Thursday.

It might take Californians a puff or two to get their heads around an apparent contradiction recently enshrined in state law.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has set Nov. 3 as the date of a special election for the Congressional seat vacated by former U.S. Rep.

Michael Jackson: Josh dickey and Frank Baker are off, but monitoring and on cell.

Business consultant Katrina Kennedy has taken her young son out of preschool and put a family vacation on hold.

Furlough Fridays are back at California's DMV offices. The California Department of Motor Vehicles announced Thursday that all its offices will be closed for three Fridays in July as part of Gov.

The clogged tourist travel route between Southern California and Las Vegas has been designated a federal high-speed rail corridor, in a move that officials hope would signal increased cooperation between the regions on building speedier train travel.

"This downturn, even more so than previous downturns, really is affecting every state right now," said Brian Sigritz, a staff associate with the National Association of State Budget Officers.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown says his office is helping Los Angeles police investigate the possible involvement of prescription drugs in Michael Jackson's death.

With budget deadlines missed and coffers running empty on Wednesday, officials in California extended state employee furloughs, prepared IOUs and swapped blame as a gloomy new fiscal year dawned.

A year ago, the Brevard County Schools ran a robust summer program here, with dozens of schools bustling with teachers and some 14,000 children practicing multiplication, reading Harry Potter and studying Spanish verbs, all at no cost to parents.

When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned an amendment to the Colorado Constitution that outlawed discrimination protections for gay people, same-sex couples could not enter into civil unions or domestic partnerships anywhere in the nation, much less get married.

The precise size of California's budget deficit has been a moving target since Tuesday, when lawmakers failed to pass stopgap measures to avoid IOUs.

California's controller will start paying many of the state's bills with IOUs as soon as Thursday after lawmakers failed to close the state's worsening budget deficit, adding a new measure of indignity to a state sinking deeper into dysfunction.