Granada Hills High School has won the Los Angeles Unified School District Academic Decathlon for the second straight year.

Authorities say a medical assistant at an Orange County hospital has been arrested for investigation of sexually assaulting a patient.

A 21-year-old Santa Rosa man who accosted a pregnant woman while she was pushing her toddler in a stroller has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

A top county official held a news conference Thursday night to set the record straight on an issue of paramount importance to Los Angeles: beach football.

A man who state and local officials say is running a massive illegal gold-mining operation in California's Sierra Nevada surrendered Thursday to face 14 criminal charges of operating without permits and polluting a creek.

A federal grand jury in Fresno has indicted a second-grade teacher accused of molesting a student and recording the abuse on four counts of producing child pornography.

Police are asking for the public's help in locating a man who was convicted of threatening to kill Madonna and walked away from a Los Angeles-area mental hospital last week.

The owner of a Sierra Nevada mine who state and local officials say is running a massive illegal gold-mining operation surrendered Thursday to face 14 criminal charges of operating without permits and polluting a creek.

President Barack Obama told gay and lesbian supporters at a big-ticket fundraiser Thursday that there's more work to do to ensure fairness for all, but he said he "couldn't be prouder" of his track record for them.

Federal environmental regulators have given final approval to a rule that bans cruise ships and large cargo vessels from releasing sewage into the ocean within three miles of California's coast.

At least four San Quentin State Prison inmates were seriously injured Thursday during a riot in an exercise yard that serves the infamous institution's newest arrivals, a prison spokesman said.

A former volunteer director for the Pasadena-based organization that puts on the Rose Bowl and the Rose Parade was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of murdering a fellow volunteer in 2004.

A San Francisco woman is accused of having a suspected drug lab in her apartment that exploded and injured her and a 12-year-old boy.

Some of the nation's largest states are questioning whether the Obama administration's offer to let them escape certain mandates of the No Child Left Behind law is a helping hand to improve education or a means to impose more federal control.

Chris Brown has been getting attention for all the right reasons lately, but a judge said Thursday that he should continue to remain under the watchful eye of a probation officer as he works to complete the terms of his sentence for beating then-girlfriend Rihanna in 2009.

A Modesto woman is under arrest on suspicion of murdering a toddler who was under her care.

It looks like a good year to be a Democrat in California: The party swept every statewide office in 2010, has continued to widen its voter registration edge over Republicans and has a chance to gain a two-thirds majority in the state Senate this November.

Death row inmates are suing to stop the importation of a drug used in executions.

Marin County public health officials are investigating two recent cases of an extremely rare brain disease diagnosed in local residents.

A new Fresno elementary school will be named in honor of the late Hmong leader Gen. Vang Pao.

FBI background interviews of some people who knew Apple co-founder Steve Jobs reveal a man driven by power and alienating some of the people who worked with him.

A Half Moon Bay man convicted of brutally attacking his 82-year-old grandmother for driving too slowly is headed to prison.

Rap music mogul Marion "Suge" Knight is facing a March court date in Las Vegas following his arrest on a 2009 traffic warrant and a new misdemeanor drug charge, authorities said Thursday.

A suspect in an auto theft was arrested Thursday after a bizarre five-hour standoff on the rooftops of a Westwood neighborhood.

A deaf student with cerebral palsy is suing a Southern California school district for barring him from playing on his high school baseball team.

Raising Shasta Dam to boost the state's water supply is feasible and economically justified, but could displace businesses and flood the remaining sacred grounds of a Native-American tribe, according to a study by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

A suspect in the shooting of a customs agent was romantically obsessed with the victim's wife, whom he met last year while he was an instructor and she was a student at a Bay Area school for aspiring opticians, court documents filed Thursday alleged.

State Attorney General Kamala Harris announced Thursday that the nationwide settlement with banks over foreclosure abuses could be worth up to $18 billion to Californians who were among those hardest hit by the crisis.

Police have a arrested a 16-year-old student at his Manhattan Beach home after getting a tip the teenager threatened high school students and teachers.

A memorial service will be held at the University of Washington for a 23-year-old Marine who was killed Jan. 31 in Afghanistan.

The Marine Corps on Thursday once again did damage control after a photograph surfaced of a sniper team in Afghanistan posing in front of a flag with a logo resembling that of the notorious Nazi SS - a special unit that murdered millions of Jews, gypsies and others.

Lance Armstrong says he's relieved by the end of a nearly two-year federal investigation into doping allegations against him, and that he always remained confident he would not be charged.

A man who stabbed Central California restaurant waiter he thought was gay has been sentenced to 26 years to life in prison.

As far as Lance Armstrong is concerned, it's all over.

The suspect in the shooting of a customs agent in Newark is due to make his first court appearance, as a new report connects him to the agent's wife.

A long-sought safety feature that Congress required after a deadly 2008 rail crash would be delayed for five years under legislation that the House is expected to take up next week.

The driver of a stolen car has abandoned the vehicle during a pursuit by Los Angeles police and has taken refuge on rooftops in Westwood, taunting officers urging him to surrender.

Some students wrote farewell letters to their former teachers. Even though it was the middle of the school year to them, it was the first day for the new staff of an elementary school where every worker was replaced following the arrests of two longtime teachers on lewdness charges.

Residents of a San Diego County neighborhood are being allowed back in after a daylong search for a gunman who allegedly threatened to kill his girlfriend and shot at an officer.

Passengers on United Airlines Flight 531 from Chicago to Los Angeles didn't just get to travel with a world-famous celebrity, they also had their picture taken with him.

Frontier Airlines is adding more nonstop flights to Colorado Springs.

A California woman has her gold necklace back months after she accidentally flushed it down her toilet.

A San Rafael woman has her gold necklace back months after she accidentally flushed it down her toilet.

A 102-year-old man has been rescued from a burning Chula Vista apartment after his neighbors and landlord helped pull him from the smoky unit.

Two men have pleaded not guilty to killing an Escondido woman whose body was dumped in a roadside embankment in San Diego County.

Taking an optimistic approach, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said Wednesday during her first State of the City address that while the troubled city has issues, it's still on the rise.

A DNA match has led to the arrest of a Southern California man for the 2004 killing of a woman whose decomposing body was found stuffed in the trunk of her car.

Five former detainees of San Francisco's Angel Island immigration station have been celebrated in Los Angeles.

Authorities say a Berkeley police officer shot a suspect after the suspect pinned the officer's partner between two vehicles.