Former state Assemblyman Nao Takasugi (NAH'-oh tah-kah-SOO'-gee), who was sent to a Japanese internment camp during World War II, has died. He was 87.

Officials say dozens of people occupying a campus building at the University of California, Berkeley in a protest over fee hikes and budget cuts have been arrested.

The son of a late San Francisco pornography mogul accused of crushing his girlfriend's skull with a baseball bat will stand trial in her death.

Federal officials say they arrested a man who strapped 15 live lizards to his chest to get through customs at Los Angeles International Airport.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency in Santa Cruz County to help communities affected by storms that battered the area in October.

The 27-year-old son of a veteran Los Angeles police officer has pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography and the officer is facing similar charges.

Two men face charges in connection with a street race in San Jose that killed a 20-year-old woman.

A recall effort against a Republican state lawmaker who voted to raise taxes earlier this year has failed.

Oakland police say an Oakland teenager who was shot and killed while answering his front door may have been an unintended victim.

Prosecutors have decided not to seek the death penalty for a former Sacramento County sheriff's deputy accuse of murdering a state correctional officer.

Authorities say a pilot was killed when his small plane crashed in Northern California near the Nevada border.

A Minneapolis nonprofit group best known as a video game watchdog is closing its doors at the end of the year due to a lack of funding.

A woman who drove the getaway car after a robbery and murder at an ATM in Los Angeles last year will spend 25 years to life in prison.

A federal appeals court in San Francisco has rejected three grape growers' challenge to a mandatory advertising campaign for California table grapes.

Los Angeles cold-case detectives have arrested a man charged with murdering a 65-year-old woman nearly three decades ago.

California is investigating several companies suspected of bilking churches nationwide of hundreds of thousands of dollars through fraudulent computer leasing schemes, authorities said Friday.

A judge's decision to move Johannes Mehserle's murder trial to Los Angeles County is a setback for the former transit police officer charged with gunning down an unarmed man on New Year's Day.

A grand jury has indicted an alleged Bakersfield gang member in the shooting deaths of three men.

A 17-year-old pleaded guilty Friday to killing a Border Patrol agent who was shot eight times while chasing suspected illegal immigrants in the mountains east of San Diego.

A Los Angeles gang member has been sentenced to death for fatally shooting two people at a Watts housing project.

Prison officials say a man convicted of a 1987 double murder has died of natural causes, 16 years after he was sent to death row at San Quentin State Prison.

A 17-year-old Mexican immigrant has pleaded guilty in San Diego to murdering a Border Patrol agent who was shot eight times in July.

In a sharp improvement, more than half of U.S. states added jobs in October, though economists said many of the gains likely occurred in temporary employment.

Members of the armed services on leave from tours in Iraq and Afghanistan will get free rides on Bay Area Rapid Transit starting in January.

San Jose officials have ordered a review of about 200 police department cases to determine if officers have used excessive force while attempting to make arrests.

California medical professionals who have abused drugs will now face drug tests twice a week and be immediately removed if they relapse.

A 39-year-old Southern California man has been arrested for misdemeanor child annoyance after allegedly paying a teenager $31 to spit in his face.

Police believe a batch of drugs blamed in Michael Jackson's death was purchased by his personal physician at a Las Vegas pharmacy, court documents released Friday show.

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

University of California Berkeley students protesting a 32 percent increase in student fees have barricaded themselves in part of a campus building.

Birth control for bison?

California's unemployment rate rose to 12.5 percent in October to set another modern record, even though more than 25,000 Californians found jobs, the state Employment Development Department reported Friday.

Birth control for buffaloes?

A 39-year-old Thousand Oaks man has been arrested for misdemeanor child annoyance after allegedly paying a teenager $31 to spit in his face.

President Barack Obama has nominated a former press secretary to President George W. Bush and a past chairman of CNN to the Broadcasting Board of Governors. The independent agency oversees nonmilitary international broadcasts sponsored by the federal government, including Voice of America.

A 16-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with a gang-related shooting that killed a man and wounded two others near a fire station in San Bernardino.

A list of congressional districts with the fewest military academy nominations for the classes of 2009 to 2013, the officeholders and the total nominations they have made. All 20 are Democrats from districts where whites make up less than half the population, and all but two of the districts include major urban areas.

As the nation's military academies try to recruit more minorities, they aren't getting much help from members of Congress from big-city districts with large numbers of blacks, Hispanics and Asians.

An Illinois insurance executive accused of secretly making nude videos of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews posted $100,000 bond on Friday - a much larger amount than previously imposed.

This city did not wait for Washington's health care overhaul. Most uninsured adults here are already reaping the benefits of a government-run health care program - seeing doctors, filling prescriptions, and getting surgeries they could not otherwise afford.

Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies say tips from the public helped lead to the arrest of a suspect who allegedly robbed a man outside a convenience store while holding a 3-year-old boy in his arms.

Job cuts and closing two fire stations are being considered as Fresno officials move to cut nearly $28 million from the city's budget over the next 18 months.

State and federal prosecutors have charged seven people in an alleged securities scam that cheated dozens of people out of $17 million.

A Berkeley man has been charged in connection with the fatal shooting earlier this year of a 17-year-old Danville boy.

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.

A Los Angeles gang member has been sentenced to 82 years to life in prison for the murder of a 14-year-old girl and the attempted murder of a motorist.

The former head of San Francisco software company is being held without bail after a federal grand jury indicted him on embezzlement charges.

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

A man has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the beating death of a 6-year-old Los Angeles boy.