California News Archives

A former California plastic surgeon was sentenced Monday to three years and eight months in state prison for groping female patients.

It's a choice most of us don't have to make: lingerie or loyalty? But for 10 young women vying for a spot on the Victoria's Secret runway, balancing tiny outfits and high heels wasn't the biggest juggling act in the online contest that will land just one of them in the CBS broadcast Tuesday night.

Til death do us part? The vow would really hold true in California if a Sacramento Web designer gets his way.

Eds: APNewsNow. No. 3 Ohio St. 83, No. 22 California 71. AP Photo OHJL105, OHJL104 By RUSTY MILLER AP Sports Writer COLUMBUS, Ohio Jantel Lavender broke out of a shooting lump to score 11 points during a big second-half surge, and No.

Protesters chanted, marched and even took over buildings at University of California campuses last week.

The first rigorous study of behavior treatment in autistic children as young as 18 months found that two years of therapy can vastly improve symptoms, often resulting in a milder diagnosis.

More than 70 percent of the registered sex offenders in San Diego County are violating a state law by living too close to schools or parks, it was reported Sunday.

Winds have blown clouds of ash and dust from the vast area of Southern California's San Gabriel Mountains that burned in a summer wildfire.

California has received $60 million from the federal stimulus package to upgrade its 23-year-old unemployment benefits system even though previous federal funding to improve the same system has not been fully spent.

A car raced through a red light and slammed into a minivan broadside, killing four family members including both parents and their two young children in west-central California, authorities said Sunday.

At most colleges, marijuana is very much an extracurricular matter. But at Med Grow Cannabis College, marijuana is the curriculum: the history, the horticulture and the legal how-to's of Michigan's new medical marijuana program.

California campuses have been rocked by protests this past week, provoked by massive student fee increases voted on by the University of California Board of Regents.

Leland Traiman, who runs a sperm bank in California, worries about his lesbian clients in more conservative parts of the country when he hears fellow gay rights activists talk about winning the right to wed.

As Meg Whitman has been introducing herself to California voters, she retells a line that usually generates a chuckle: "The next governor of California needs to know exactly what SHE believes." The statement conveys the kind of confidence the former eBay executive displayed in her trailblazing role as the female head of a Fortune 500 company.

Hugo Diaz cleans an RV from El Monte RV in Santa Fe Springs, Wednesday, November 25.

A Wal-Mart store in Southern California closed its doors for several hours before dawn Friday after some shoppers began fighting over bargain merchandise, police said.

Inside the green neon sign, which is shaped like a marijuana leaf, is a red cross.

People either don't like sand in their shoes or they have something better to do and are staying away from the Imperial Sand Dunes west of Yuma.

Last spring, two seasoned politicians squared off over a rare open congressional seat.

A private pilots association that helped to wage a successful battle against a proposed power plant in Hayward is moving to block a similar plant near Byron.

A California startup company that will make windmills to supply power for businesses and residences is moving to southern Indiana.

The University of California now says it will ask state legislators for $913 million more next year than it received in this year's budget.

More than 1,200 acres of scenic meadow land and a spectacular waterfall in California have been bought by the U.S. Forest Service.The property in the Sierra Nevada mountains near Truckee is considered valuable for recreation and wildlife.It was obtained through four separate transactions totaling $3 million.

California has taken a major step toward creating a broad-based trading system to limit emissions of pollutants blamed for harmful climate change.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's wife Maria Shriver has left her politician partner red-faced yet again - after committing a third and fourth motor vehicle violation in less than two months.

Gov. Schwarzenegger's choice of moderate Republican Abel Maldonado for lieutenant governor is unwelcome news for two valley politicians seeking the same job in the 2010 election.

Mrak Hall on the campus of the University of California at Davis was the staging ground Tuesday night for a third student protest against a 32% fee hike enacted by members of the school system's board of regents.

Investigators found more charred human remains at the home of one of two missing Southern California boys as a third teen turned up safe Wednesday.

Actor Sylvester Stallone arrives at the UK gala premiere of 'Rambo' at the Vue cinema, Leicester Square on February 12, 2008 in London, England.

Corp. said Wednesday it will replace accelerator pedals on 3.8 million recalled vehicles in the United States to address problems with the pedals becoming jammed in the floor mat.

For Abel Maldonado, the son of migrant farmworkers who rose from the strawberry fields to become land barons, Tuesday morning's tableau was another chapter in his own American dream.

Police in Southern California say a man has been caught on surveillance videotape stealing a nun's purse at a Los Angeles-area supermarket.

OSU extension agent Chal Landgren inspects one of the test Nordmann christmas trees grown on a tree farm in the Banks area.

A judge in Long Beach has sentenced a California man to death for murdering a girlfriend who refused to help him dispose of another girlfriend's body.

Monday, November 23, 2009 California has an oil boom under way, but it's not what you might think: The state's farmers are planting olive trees to boost production for the extra virgin olive oil market.

Supporters of a proposed $11 billion water bond say the money is urgently needed to fix California's water supply problems, yet billions of dollars in previous bond money still hasn't been spent, according to the California treasurer.

State auditors said Monday that California corrections officials overstated how many jobs they saved using more than $1 billion in federal stimulus money, listing thousands of jobs that were never in jeopardy.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today announced the appointment of Senator Abel Maldonado as Lieutenant Governor.

Just weeks after California first lady Maria Shriver apologized for parking in a red zone, her husband appears to have violated the same law.The Web site TMZ.com on Monday posted photographs of Gov.

When Mac Taylor, the California Legislature's chief budget adviser, declared last week that the state budget enacted just four months ago is already billions of dollars upside down, no one in the Capitol should have been surprised.

Three percent of California voters favor some other gubernatorial candidate, and 14% are undecided.

At the newly opened Cannabis Cafe, people sit around taking tokes from a "vaporizer" - a contraption with a big plastic bag that captures the potent vapors of heated marijuana.

Read the polls and you'd think the end was near for this, America's largest state.

An oil boom is underway in the state's agricultural heartland, as evolving tastes and a trend toward healthy fare have transformed a profession as old as civilization: olive production for the extra virgin market.

In this May 8, 2007 file photo, Dr. Jay Chapman holds a human skull from Nepal that has been hand decorated with silver at his home in Napa, Calif.

State Treasurer Bill Lockyer has delayed plans for issuing bonds to pay for the expansion of death row at San Quentin State Prison.

A paralyzed University of California law student has passed the bar exam after a legal battle to take the test.

Demonstrators entered their third day of a building takeover at UC Santa Cruz on Saturday in protest of a tuition increase, an undertaking that a school spokesman called futile.

Authorities arrested a Sacramento fisherman Saturday in connection to shooting a sea lion in the head.

After dropping sharply last year, the number of Thanksgiving travelers is expected to partially rebound over the holiday weekend, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California.

Berry Gordy founded what would become Motown Records a half-century ago with an $800 loan.

California regulators have adopted the nation's first energy-efficiency standards for televisions, a move that will eventually ban power-hungry sets from the state's store shelves.

California Watch /New America Media, News report, Louis Freedberg and Hugo Cabrera, Posted: Nov 20, 2009 Editor's Note: This article is part of a new collaboration between New America Media and California Watch , a new nonprofit journalism project at the Center for Investigative Reporting.

A space shuttle is no tinker toy. But is it the most complex machine ever built? Curiosity about the complexity of the reusable spacecraft inspired one of the questions in this edition of "Ask AP," a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers' questions about the news.

Students barricaded themselves inside buildings on University of California campuses to protest a 32 percent increase in student fees and budget cuts that have led to slashed programs and lost jobs.

California is investigating whether 30 Southern California churches were bilked of tens of thousands of dollars by companies that leased computer equipment.

Two days before shipping off to war, Marine Pfc. Jesse Sheets sat inside a trailer in the Mojave Desert, his gaze fixed on a computer that flashed a rhythmic pulse of contrasting images.

California tax officials say an interior designer's false disability claim was uncovered when he was spotted on a home improvement television show.

The governing board of the University of California approved a $2,500 student fee increase Thursday after two days of tense campus protests across the ...

California's public university system has agreed to fully reopen a troubled South Los Angeles hospital that was partially closed in 2007 after deadly lapses in care.

As hundreds of students demonstrated outside, University of California leaders on Thursday voted to approve a 32 percent hike in undergraduate fees, arguing the increase is crucial because of the state's budget crisis.

Most of California's largest school districts are increasing class sizes in kindergarten through third grade, eroding the most expensive education reform in the state's history.

Listen to the report The state's Legislative Analyst says the state's financial condition is worse than when the governor and lawmakers patched together a budget for the balance of this fiscal year.

In a widely watched ruling that could be followed by other states, California passed first-in-the-nation energy efficiency standards for new television sets.

California is telling skinny-dippers to put some clothes on, and the message is sending a chill through lovers of sunning-in-the-buff across the country.

While the Assembly takes a leisurely look at education reform, California may miss its chance to compete for a share of $4.35 billion in education stimulus funds.

In a Thursday, Jan. 22, 2009 photo, Doug Pongrazc checks out a large screen television while shopping at a Best Buy store in Elk Grove, Calif.

The legislative budget analyst's projection, to be released Wednesday, threatens to send Sacramento back into gridlock and force across-the-board cuts to state programs.

Gay marriage advocates on Monday launched a campaign to try to overturn California's same-sex marriage ban, hoping to become the first U.S. state to convince voters to approve gay people's right to wed.

A measure to let voters decide whether to ban same-sex marriages in D.C. cannot go on the ballot because it would violate a city human rights law, the Board of Elections and Ethics ruled Tuesday.

San Diego Police and the California Highway Patrol will receive their share of over $3 million in safety grants to enforce seat belt laws.

One thing is clear from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's recent statements: He's not quietly settling into lame duck status.

Actress Angelina Jolie and actor Brad Pitt arrive at the premiere of Weinstein Co.'s 'Inglorious Basterds' held at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on August 10, 2009 in Hollywood, California.

As America's trade with the Far East - principally China - expanded massively during the 1980s and 1990s, California reaped the benefits as the gateway for both exports and imports.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger dropped in on U.S. troops in Iraq on Monday, thanking them for the sacrifices they and their families are making.

"A Thanksgiving wine should have a medium body, be lower in tannins and able to handle the complexity of flavors offered in a Thanksgiving meal," said Katrin Naelapaa, director of Wines from Spain.

A Swedish woman who was sentenced to life for a double murder in California will be released in 2011, a Swedish court ruled Monday.

NEW YORK In what could be one of the biggest counterterrorism seizures in U.S. history, federal prosecutors sought to take over four U.S. mosques and a New York City skyscraper owned by a Muslim organization suspected of being controlled by the Iranian government.

Two moderate earthquakes have struck under the ocean near the Channel Islands off the Southern California coast.

Southern California has tumbled to its worst ranking in the AP college football poll since the Trojans began their current run of 128 consecutive weeks in the Top 25 back in 2002.

LOS ANGELES - Every lawsuit filed or even threatened under a California law aimed at electing more minorities to local offices _ and all of the roughly $4.3 million from settlements so far _ can be traced to just two people: a pair of attorneys who worked together writing the statute, The Associated Press has found.

Talk of scandal is nothing new in California's 72nd Assembly District, where the last legislator - a married father of two - resigned after being caught on videotape bragging about kinky romps with lobbyists.

The molesters drank blood, the children said, and hung them from hooks after forcing them to have sex with their parents.

Sarah Palin is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at a Northern California logging conference early next year.

Share + Nov 13, 2009 1:10 am US/Pacific SACRAMENTO Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration said Thursday it can comply with a court order to sharply reduce California's prison population if federal judges bypass the state Legislature and pre-empt state laws.

The California Attorney General's office said that more gay and Jewish people were the victims of hate crimes last year even though the overall number of bias-related crimes declined slightly.

PG&E's $2.2 billion program to install 10 million SmartMeters on homes and businesses throughout California to better monitor energy consumption is off to a rough start.

The United States' first marijuana cafe opened on Friday, posing an early test of the Obama administration's move to relax policing of medical use of the drug.

As a construction worker in southern California, says Blaise Counter, life was pretty sweet.

It turns out there's lots of water on the moon _ at least near the lunar south pole.

California saw modest improvement in its export trade in September, but exports each month are still lower than a year ago, according to trade data released Friday.

Reporting from Sacramento and Los Angeles - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger quietly spiked an effort last month to win $1.1 billion in federal high-speed rail stimulus funds for 29 projects to improve the safety, speed and capacity of heavily traveled commuter corridors through Southern California.

The head of the state Department of Administration on Wednesday blasted a report that indicated Wisconsin government may be heading toward fiscal peril.

California officials say they can comply with a court order to ease prison crowding if federal judges bypass the state Legislature and pre-empt state laws.

California's marriage activists maintain Maine's referendum that nullified the state's law that allowed gays and lesbians to wed only have only re-energized their efforts to overturn Prop 8. For supporters of marriage for same-sex couples in California, last week's successful Maine referendum was certainly a painful disappointment.

A California man pleaded not guilty Thursday to wearing military medals that he never earned.

Joan Zuniga of Oakland had high hopes when she sent her daughter to San Francisco State University four years ago.

A decorated Marine veteran famously photographed smoking a cigar after the fall of Baghdad is running for Congress in California's most southern district.

California's continuing budget problems are raising concerns that cuts in funding for higher education will hurt the chances of qualified people to attend college.

A 61-year-old California man has been arrested in Oklahoma on charges of coming to the state to have sex with an 8-year-old girl.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office said the governor will visit U.S. troops in Iraq next week.

The budget woes could mean higher taxes, accelerated layoffs of government employees, more crowded classrooms and fewer services in the coming year for some of the nation's most populous states.

A man who was arrested but later released in connection with the rape of a 16-year-old girl outside a high school homecoming dance in California says he didn't take part in the attack, but was trying to help the girl.

Navigating a sea of red ink, state wants proof the program works. Last June, the Public Policy Institute of California released a highly critical report on California's "enterprise zone" program that provides big tax breaks to businesses for supposedly hiring workers in areas of high unemployment.

A A A big-eyed bird, two baby pythons, a hungry horse and a balding bearA a ' plus more creatures great and small.

The California State University system is seeing a record increase in applications this fall, just as budget cuts are forcing the system to reduce its student body by 40,000 over a two-year period, the CSU Chancellor Charles Reed said.

Attorney General Jerry Brown has relied on a stealth fundraising campaign and his near universal name recognition to wipe out the field seven months ahead of California's Democratic primary for governor.

An arrest warrant has been dropped for actor Randy Quaid and his wife after they were accused of stiffing a California hotel on a $10,000 bill.

Miss California Carrie Prejean has been stripped of her crown. Donald Trump, who runs the competition, says the decision was based, not on Prejean's political views, but because she violated her contract.

Whittier police said three children were abducted by their father and found safe Monday.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a far-reaching water bond passed last week by the California Legislature intended to restore the ailing estuary at the heart of the state's water system.

It was the roll of a lifetime. Hundreds of amateur sushi chefs at the University of California, Berkeley got their hands fishy Sunday as they assembled a 330-foot California roll.

A trucker died Monday after his big-rig plummeted 200 feet from a new section of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge that has seen more than 42 crashes since it opened, authorities said.

A senior Iranian prosecutor accused three Americans detained on the border with Iraq of espionage on Monday, the first signal that Tehran intends to put them on trial.

A new law aimed at exposing child deaths to public scrutiny has given Californians their most complete view yet of the toll of abuse and neglect but falls short of legislators' intent and leaves many fatalities uncounted, according to interviews and The Times' review of previously confidential records.

When he was growing up, Kenneth Tucker dreamed of flying airplanes. Years later, his daughter, Wanda Tucker Goodwin, had dreams of becoming a writer.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown is by far the most popular candidate for governor in next year's election, but most voters in his party are unhappy that he is the only major Democrat running, according to a new poll on Sunday.

EVEN though no Republican candidate for president or the U.S. Senate has carried California since 1988, it's still not entirely impossible for a Republican to be elected governor next year.

Kirk Douglas was stunned to be presented with a top movie award by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday night - because he coached the muscleman on his first ever film.

CHILL winds and blustery showers may be ushering in the British winter, but James Robinson and fellow members of alternative funky soul popsters Two Spot Gobi have their memories of a glorious Californian summer to keep them warm.

Killing or removing 25 California sea lions over the past two years has not reduced the toll on salmon at the base of Bonneville Dam in the Columbia River.

Up to one-fourth of the 110,000 jobs reported as saved by federal stimulus money in California probably never were in danger, according to a review of the statistics by the Sacramento Bee.

The law of unintended consequences has seldom been more clearly illustrated than by the cat fight unfolding from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

A small majority of California voters supports the right of gay couples to marry, but a much larger portion of voters opposes efforts to place the issue back on the ballot next year, a new Los Angeles Times/USC poll has found.

Declining kidney function is linked to a higher risk of heart failure, heart attack, peripheral arterial disease, and early death in individuals with or without kidney disease, according to a pair of studies appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology .

In this Oct. 20, 2008 file photo, Rosana Mendoza, 14, left, gets a hug from her sister Bianca, 4, before a rally in support of Proposition 8 to ban same sex marriage in Sacramento , Calif.

California prison officials have submitted a construction plan intended to expand medical and mental health treatment for inmates.

Thursday November 5th, 2009 Occupancy tax update on internet hotel booking - By Jim Butler, author of www.HotelLawBlog.com More lawsuits against Expedia and online travel companies over 'lost' bed taxes - Why hotels should care about the transient occupancy tax battle Hotel Lawyer: The transient occupancy tax litigation by cities and local ...

An unusual supernova rediscovered in seven-year-old data may be the first example of a new type of exploding star, possibly from a binary star system where helium flows from one white dwarf onto another and detonates in a thermonuclear explosion.

Results from the latest Capitol Weekly/Probolsky Research California Poll were released today.

The election of John Garamendi to represent the 10th Congressional District filled one void and created another.

Reporting from Sacramento - Lawmakers capped months of discussions, weeks of tedious negotiations and years of chasing a water deal with approval of major legislation in a marathon session that ended Wednesday as the sun rose.

Faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, are crying foul about the millions of dollars in subsidies directed to the school's athletic department.

The medical marijuana dispensary in this California wine country town is in a former auto dealership, and has more registered patients than the town has residents.

After years of gridlock and failure, California lawmakers reached a historic agreement in Wednesday's pre-dawn hours to address one of California's most vexing problems: its vulnerable water supply and a dying Delta ecosystem.

Kt Crossman joins same-sex marriage supporters for a rally on the steps of City Hall, in Portland, Maine, on Wednesday, a day after voters rejected the gay marriage law.

A Northern California bus driver involved in a crash that killed 11 people last year has been sentenced to more than 26 years in prison.Quintin Watts was sentenced by a Colusa County judge to 26 years and four months Wednesday.

Authorities reported a staggering jump in the number of marijuana plants seized in California's eradication effort, claiming a more than 50 percent jump over the previous year.

A new report finds that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation failed to properly supervise parolee Phillip Garrido and missed opportunities to discover the alleged kidnapping victim held for 18 years.

"White sharks are a large, highly mobile species," said Salvador Jorgensen, a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station.

In the wake of marriage equality being defeated in Maine, and the one year anniversary of the passage of proposition 8, activists are holding protests throughout the country to express their outrage that the majority has the right to deny civil rights to a minority population.

In this April 26, 2009 file photo, Miss California USA Carrie Prejean listens to a question at the Rock Church during services in San Diego .

California Lt. Gov. John Garamendi has won a special election to a Northern California congressional seat, keeping the district in Democratic hands.

Gay marriage was put to a vote in Maine on Tuesday in a closely watched referendum that gay-rights activists across the country hoped would prove that public opinion is turning in their favor.

Gov. Schwarzenegger's finance director is stepping down after four years, leaving the administration to fill a key vacancy as the state faces what is expected to be another multibillion dollar deficit.

Authorities in southwestern North Dakota searched Monday for three Dickinson State University softball players reported missing after a friend received late night telephone calls that mentioned water and indicated the women needed help.

Equality California will host phone banks across the state for California volunteers, encouraging voters in Maine and Washington to vote to protect the rights of same-sex couples.

An attorney for the man who assassinated Robert F. Kennedy said Monday his client was transferred from a prison that houses high-risk offenders to a new facility where his life could be in danger.

Legislation designed to provide long-term solutions to California's water challenges is scheduled to go before both houses of the Legislature on Monday, although the prospects for passage remain uncertain.

Investigators are meeting to look into the cause of a crash between a Coast Guard plane and a Marine helicopter that killed nine people off the Southern California coast.

California wage earners will soon notice a little less money in their paychecks.

Attorney General Jerry Brown is facing accusations that he cleared the way for a ballot measure summary that was favorable to an insurance company that has contributed to his campaign coffers.

Police were searching Saturday for a person who shot and killed a 16-year-old girl and wounded two men following a football game at a high school in Southern California.

"There is still a lot of work that needs to be done," Bart Ney, a spokesman for the California Department of Transportation , said Friday evening.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Washington D.C. Friday, for a meeting with vice President Joe Biden to discuss the benefits of the federal stimulus program.

The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge remains closed and commuters are being urged to find alternative ways to work.

Musician Elton John arrives at the 17th Annual Elton John AIDS Foundation's Academy Award Viewing Party held at the Pacific Design Center on February 22, 2009 in Hollywood, California.

Maybe it's time to call your state legislator to admit "It's not you, it's me." A recent Field Poll, designed by a panel of political scientists from Stanford, Berkeley and yours truly from California State University Sacramento, asked Californians a series of questions about proposed reforms to state government and various constitutional ...

ONE OF the more obscure - and probably more important - of California's many political conflicts pits an organization called EdVoice against the California Teachers Association and other school unions.