California

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Two Students Accidentally Shot at LA High School

Student had gun in backpack, and it went off

(Newser) - Two Los Angeles high school students were wounded when a gun accidentally discharged in their classroom today, say police. A female student was shot in the head (she's in critical condition) and a male student was hit in the shoulder. Witnesses and authorities say a 15-year-old student had a gun...

Calif. Lawyer: Break Back Into Your Foreclosed Homes

Radical attorney helps clients squat in bank-owned properties

(Newser) - One California attorney isn't afraid of getting on the wrong side of the law to help clients who have been evicted from their homes. Michael T. Pines of Pines & Associates advises clients to break into their foreclosed homes and live there illegally. He has personally broken into at...

Ranchers Shoot Heart Castle Zebras
Ranchers Shoot
Hearst Castle Zebras
Jan 13, 2011 3:06 AM CST

Ranchers Shoot Hearst Castle Zebras

One rancher's turning them into rugs

(Newser) - Hasty California ranchers shot dead three Hearst Castle zebras who strayed onto their property, and neighbors are aghast. The zebras—a buck, a mare and yearling—were part of a herd that roams castle grounds, the remnants of what was at one time the largest private zoo in the world,...

California Cutting Off 48K State Workers' Cell Phones

About 40% of employees currently have them

(Newser) - Here's one more reason California finds itself with a $25 billion budget deficit—it was handing out cell phones to state employees like candy. Nearly 100,000 state workers—about 40% of the workforce—have phones on the taxpayers' dime. New Gov. Jerry Brown is ordering that half of them...

Calif. Police Chief Quits After Gay Sex Sting

Boss faced backlash after 'egregious case of entrapment'

(Newser) - The chief of police in Palm Springs has stepped down after a heavily criticized crackdown on gay sex in what boosters call "the gayest city in America." Some 19 men were arrested for indecent exposure after a sting operation in an area that's home to 11 clothing-optional gay...

Health Insurer Tries to Jack Rates—59%

Blue Shield of California cites rising costs, new health care law

(Newser) - Blue Shield of California wants to jack up its health insurance rates a whopping 59% for individual policyholders this year, saying the increase is “absolutely necessary” to deal with rising health care costs and restrictions in the new health care law. Policyholders have complained to the state insurance commissioner,...

Court: Cops Can Read Your Texts Without a Warrant

Calif. court decides suspects' cell phones can be searched after arrest

(Newser) - Police in California don't need a warrant to check messages on suspects' cell phones, the state's Supreme Court decided yesterday. The court decided 5-2 that cell phones, like clothing, can be subjected to warrantless searches after a suspect is arrested, AP reports.The two dissenting justices argued that US Supreme...

Man Torches Foreclosed Home, Shoots Himself, Wife

He threatens mayhem in 911 call

(Newser) - Economic hard times took a deadly turn when a soon-to-be-fired 60-year-old California man apparently torched his foreclosed home and shot himself and his wife. Authorities found the remains of two people in the ashes of the suburban San Diego home after the man called 911 to report that he had...

Dispensary Trades Free Pot for Cans of Food

California facility brings in 11,000 pounds of donations for food bank

(Newser) - Want to know the secret of getting a whole bunch of canned food donations? Offer free pot. That's just what a medical marijuana dispensary near San Francisco did over the holiday season, reports AP . The Granny Purps dispensary collected 11,000 pounds of donated food by offering complimentary marijuana cigarettes...

San Diego Professor Stabbed to Death in Mexico

Police seeking motive behind killing of well loved instructor

(Newser) - Authorities are still scrambling to find a motive behind the murder of a popular San Diego professor in Tijuana. Henry Acejo, who taught at three colleges in the San Diego area, was stabbed to death in his Mexico apartment late at night, reports AP . “He had a great sense...

Democrats' 'Female Obama' Generates Party Buzz

Kamala Harris will be California's next attorney general

(Newser) - Politico today profiles the incoming attorney general of California, and two of her nicknames will tell you why: the "female Obama" and the "anti-Palin." Kamala Harris, who resists both labels, is "a rare talent who will be a national figure shortly,” former Clinton aide...

California Pummeled Again by Record Rain

Walls of muddy water pour through streets, rip off hillsides

(Newser) - Drenching weather continued to hammer southern California throughout the day yesterday, inundating streets, tearing off hillsides and driving thousands of people from their homes. Some regions have been swamped with an entire year of rain in a single week. A muddy wall of water 4 feet high poured through downtown...

More Storms on Way, Soaked Calif. Declares Emergency

Flooding, landslides expected in 'extraordinary' weather

(Newser) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency in much of southern California amid “extraordinary and continuing rainfall,” CNN reports. Another in a series of storms is expected to bring more flooding and landslides; the declaration authorizes state agencies to help local ones in addressing the weather....

Fifth Day of Rain Drenches California

Thousands lose power; dozens evacuated

(Newser) - Thousands of Californians have lost power and dozens have been evacuated as rain and snow pelt the state for the fifth day, the AP reports. Mountains in the state’s south have seen 12 inches of rain; a ski resort is facing 13 feet of snow; and downtown Los Angeles...

Retiree Repays California for Jobless Benefits in '64

Dennis Ferguson says $1,110 helped him train for computer career

(Newser) - A 74-year-old South Carolina man has repaid California for the $1,100 he received in unemployment benefits 46 years ago. In fact, Dennis Ferguson added interest and wrote a check for $10,000 to the state Treasury, reports the Los Angeles Times . Ferguson got laid off from Douglas Aircraft way...

California Approves Cap-and-Trade System

3 years in the making; first of its size in the nation

(Newser) - While climate legislation flounders in Congress, California is taking the lead: Air regulators there voted yesterday to cap industrial greenhouse gas emissions and instate the first carbon-trading program of its size in the US, the Los Angeles Times reports. “Most political people said we should do as little as...

Girl, 13, Stabbed 30 Times in Rape Attack

Boy, 14, then slashes her baby brother: cops

(Newser) - A young teen attacker stabbed a 13-year-old girl more than 30 times before raping her, then slashed her baby brother, police said yesterday The girl was sleeping at home with her 18-month-old sibling when the 14-year-old boy burst into their northern California home, according to the Vacaville Reporter . He stabbed...

New Marijuana Lobby Group Hits Washington

We'll be the 'go-to' association, boasts director

(Newser) - Heavy, man. No more hippie-dippie peace-and-love arguments to legalize pot: marijuana supporters have launched a professional lobby organization in DC to press their case. The National Cannabis Industry Association will be the "go-to organization in Washington" for this fight, said director Aaron Smith, who has worked for 5 years...

Ohio, Wisconsin Spurn $1.2B to Build Train Lines

Stimulus funds will go to other states

(Newser) - The US is redistributing $1.2 billion in federal stimulus money that had been headed to Ohio and Wisconsin, after both states' Republican governors-elect called for an end to proposed train projects, arguing they were unnecessary and would cost millions to operate. “Wisconsin taxpayers were victorious today in defeating...

California's About to Execute a Framed Man
California's About
to Execute a Framed Man
Nicholas Kristof
Dec 9, 2010 1:54 PM CST

California's About to Execute a Framed Man

Case shows everything that's wrong with the death penalty

(Newser) - Judges around the country are decrying an upcoming California execution, because there’s ample reason to believe the condemned man was framed by police. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to hear the case of Kevin Cooper, Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times explains, despite an extraordinary...

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