AP State News

The Fresno County coroner says a man who died after stealing a small plane and crashing it near Fresno was high on methamphetamine.

Officials say vandals have caused at least $500,000 in damage to a new elementary school building in Richmond that was scheduled to open within weeks.

California utility regulators are investigating Pacific Gas & Electric Co.'s pipeline safety practices after two welders claimed that some of the company's lines contain weld defects and that repairs have not been made properly.

Republican Newt Gingrich on Monday dismissed calls to drop out of the presidential contest in order to set up a direct contest between rivals Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum. The former House speaker insisted that his ideas and a new determination to stay positive would help him once again resuscitate his flagging candidacy.

Two men were sentenced to decades in prison Monday for their part in the kidnapping of a Los Angeles man who was shot, beaten, shocked and held captive without medical care for five days as his kidnappers tried to negotiate a $1 million ransom.

Gov. Jerry Brown and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will welcome the vice president of China to California this week, his last stop on a U.S. tour.

Border Patrol officers found nearly 400 pounds of marijuana encased in concrete on the back of a truck at a San Diego-area crossing.

President Barack Obama's upcoming West Coast fundraising trip will feature a musical lineup worthy of Grammy gold.

Republican Newt Gingrich says he's in the presidential contest for the long haul, dismissing calls from rival Rick Santorum and others to drop out.

The co-owner of two Los Angeles-area health care companies has been sentenced to eight years in prison for scheming to defraud Medicare out of millions.

A hazardous materials spill at a Monterey, Calif., hotel sent more than a dozen workers to the hospital and led to the evacuation of about 200 guests.

Police say Whitney Houston's body has been taken to a Los Angeles-area airport for a flight to New Jersey.

Police are seeking suspects in an attack on a San Jose man that left him injured and his mini-Yorkshire terrier dead.

Monterey city officials say a hazardous materials spill at a hotel sent more than a dozen workers to the hospital and led to the evacuation of about 200 guests.

Authorities say Hugh Hefner's 21-year-old son has been arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor domestic violence in Pasadena.

The AIDS Memorial Quilt is back in its hometown for its largest San Francisco exhibition since the project moved across the country more than a decade ago.

Federal authorities say they recovered $4.1 billion in health care fraud judgments last year, a record high which officials on Monday credited to new tools for cracking down on deceitful Medicare claims.

Whitney Houston was underwater and apparently unconscious when she was pulled from a Beverly Hills hotel bathtub, and she had prescription drugs in her room, authorities said Monday.

Love conquered the weekend before Valentine's Day as Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum's romantic drama "The Vow" led the box office with a $41.2 million debut.

A moderate earthquake struck Northern California's coast Monday afternoon, rattling nerves around the Oregon border but yielding no immediate reports of major injuries or damage, officials said.

A moderate earthquake has struck the northern California coast.

Backers of affirmative action asked a federal appeals court Monday to overturn California's 15-year-old ban on considering race in public college admissions, citing a steep drop in black, Latino and Native American students at the state's elite campuses.

A hearse under heavy police escort arrived late Monday at a funeral home officials said was handling the arrangements for late pop star Whitney Houston.

A magistrate judge on Monday set a Nov. 5 trial date for James "Whitey" Bulger, rejecting a plea from the reputed gangster's lawyers for more time to prepare.

Google's $12.5 billion bid to buy cellphone maker Motorola Mobility has won approvals from U.S. and European antitrust regulators, moving Google a major step closer to completing the biggest deal in its 13-year history.

Apple said Monday that an independent group, the Fair Labor Association, has started inspecting working conditions in the Chinese factories where its iPads and iPhones are assembled.

Twenty-eight people suspected to staging illegal cockfights have been arrested in rural Riverside County.

The search for more human remains in what appears to be a mass grave used by two men known as the "Speed Freak Killers" was suspended because of rain Monday, a day after authorities unearthed hundreds of bone fragments.

Dionne Warwick has postponed a Valentine's Day concert at a western Pennsylvania theater after the death of her cousin Whitney Houston.