California

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Calif. Pol Busted on Charges of Arms Trafficking

Leland Yee arrested in ring that also includes gangsters

(Newser) - There's your everyday corruption, and then there's what California state Sen. Leland Yee has been accused of. The FBI arrested Yee yesterday on sweeping corruption and arms smuggling charges, the LA Times reports. The affidavit names 26 people in all—including prominent political consultant Keith Jackson, and a...

Why Calif. Pot Farmers Open Fire on Scientists

In California, marijuana growers are damaging the environment

(Newser) - Think pot growers are kind, environmentally-minded hippies? Not in the so-called Emerald Triangle, a weed-farming region of California where illegal growers are spewing pollution, poisoning wildlife, and scaring scientists away from probing the environmental effects of pot-growing, Mother Jones reports. One wildlife ecologist received threats against his family, and researchers...

Doctors Stumped by Mystery Paralysis Disease

They're not even positive how to describe it

(Newser) - Doctors are hitting brick walls in their search for the cause of the polio-like condition that's partially paralyzed at least two dozen California children, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Doctors assume a virus is at work, but almost all of the patients they're examining weren't tested for...

San Diego: Nation's Meth Gateway

Report shows 70% of US supply enters through the city

(Newser) - If you're talking about our country's meth crisis and looking to point fingers, go ahead and direct yours to California, and San Diego in particular. "California is now the primary source for methamphetamine nationwide with as much as 70% of the US foreign supply of methamphetamine being...

6.9 Quake Strikes Off N. California Coast

No tsunami warning

(Newser) - A very strong earthquake rattled the Northern California coast and was widely felt across the region, but authorities said early today that there were no reports of any injuries or damages. The magnitude 6.9 quake struck at 10:18pm PDT Sunday and was centered 50 miles west of Eureka...

Killer Bees Sting Woman 1K Times

Victim in Palm Desert, Calif., is covered by bees

(Newser) - An elderly woman and three firefighters are recovering after being attacked Friday by a massive swarm of killer bees that stung the woman 1,000 times, CBS Los Angeles reports. The 71-year-old looked like someone wearing "a suit of bees" when firefighters arrived, said Battalion Chief Mark Williams. "...

Transgender Woman's Suit: Let Me Compete as Female

CrossFit says birth sex offers 'physical advantage'

(Newser) - A transgender woman in California has sued the company behind the popular CrossFit workouts for refusing to let her compete in the female division of its annual fitness competitions. The $2.5 million lawsuit by Chloie Jonsson, 34, accuses CrossFit Inc. of violating her rights under a California law that...

Buried Gold Likely Not From Heist, Says US Mint Rep

And he's not the only one to pooh-pooh the theory

(Newser) - Perhaps it was too intriguing to be true: A rep for the US Mint and an expert on the San Francisco Mint throw water on the latest theory surrounding the $10 million in gold coins uncovered in California—that they were the long-hidden spoils of a 1901 gold heist from...

Source of Buried California Gold: Century-Old Heist?

If the theory is true, it could be bad news for the couple who found the coins

(Newser) - The only thing more mysterious than the identity of the couple who stumbled upon an estimated $10 million in US gold coins while walking their dog on their California property: Where did the gold come from? The San Francisco Chronicle floats a theory with all the intrigue and illegality you...

Teen Killed Trying to Retrieve Phone From Tracks

She was sucked in by freight train's 'vacuum'

(Newser) - Yet another person has died after putting her phone's safety ahead of her own. Jenna Betti, 14, was killed by a freight train on Sunday when she tried to retrieve a phone she had dropped on the tracks in Martinez, Calif., reports the San Francisco Chronicle . She had been...

Calif. Gov: Stoners Will Be Our Downfall If Pot Is Legal

Jerry Brown says we won't be 'alert' enough

(Newser) - Jerry Brown thinks legalizing marijuana would put California and the rest of America at a competitive disadvantage, because we'd have too many stoners. Toward the end of a brief Meet the Press interview yesterday, the California governor was asked about Colorado and Washington's legalization moves. It was just...

Parched Calif. Farmers Turn to 'Water Witches'

Vineyard owners say dowsing works; scientists disagree

(Newser) - With California in the grip of drought, farmers throughout the state are using a mysterious and some say foolhardy tool for locating underground water: dowsers, or water witches. Practitioners of dowsing use rudimentary tools—usually copper sticks or wooden "divining rods" that resemble large wishbones—and what they describe...

Why 30K US Inmates Went on Hunger Strike

Solitary confinement drove alleged gang leaders to make a statement

(Newser) - Last summer, four prison inmates organized a hunger strike from their solitary-confinement cells and inspired 30,000 prisoners to join them —a stunning development that says a lot about US prisons, writes Benjamin Wallace-Wells in New York . The four guys—allegedly leaders of white, black, and Latino gangs—were...

Polio-Like Illness Hits Kids in California
Puzzling Polio-Like Illness Hits Kids in California
in case you missed it
Mar 1, 2014 12:25 PM CST

Puzzling Polio-Like Illness Hits Kids in California

Doctors mystified by at least 25 cases

(Newser) - Public health officials are mystified by an outbreak of a polio-like illness that has left at least 25 children in California with paralyzed limbs. The affected children are hit quickly with severe weakness or paralysis, sometimes after a respiratory illness, the Los Angeles Times reports. The first case surfaced in...

Court: Calif. Drivers Can Use Phones to Check Maps

Law doesn't apply to smartphone apps

(Newser) - Using a smartphone to look a map while driving is allowed under the California law that bans motorists from talking or texting on a handheld phone, an appeals court has decided. The court sided with Steven Spriggs, who was fined $165 after a highway patrol officer spotted him looking at...

Split California Into 6 States? Petition Moves Ahead

Venture capitalist gets go-ahead to start collecting signatures

(Newser) - Californians may soon get a chance to vote on splitting their state into six smaller ones, reports the San Francisco Chronicle . Venture capitalist Tim Draper has gotten formal approval to start collecting petitions for his "Six Californias" idea. If he can get about 807,000 names by July 18,...

Dad Tried in Vain to Save Family in Fiery Calif. Crash

Was following wife, 4 kids when vehicle hit their SUV

(Newser) - A California father who was driving behind his family's SUV tried in vain to save them from the fiery wreckage after a vehicle ran a stop sign near Fresno and plowed into their vehicle. The man's 29-year-old wife and their four children—1- and 3-year-old boys and girls...

17 People Called 911 About Wrong-Way Driver

She was seen on 2 freeways before crash killed 6

(Newser) - The woman accused of killing six people in a horrific crash in California was spotted driving the wrong way on two freeways before she drove her Camaro at 100mph into a Ford Explorer, the California Highway Patrol says. At least 17 witnesses called 911 before the crash to report seeing...

Man Electrocuted While Taking Facebook Photos

California resident died after snapping pics in family's tree

(Newser) - A California man met a tragic end over the weekend when he climbed a tree to take photos of the sunset and electrocuted himself. David Strohm Jr., 27, climbed a tree in his parents' backyard Saturday in Tustin, Calif., snapped the sunset pics, and posted one on Facebook shortly after...

Driver in Wrong-Way Crash Was on 'Girls' Night Out'

Olivia Carolee Culbreath, 21, just had a baby last month

(Newser) - Olivia Carolee Culbreath, the 21-year-old arrested in a wrong-way crash in California that killed six people yesterday, had just had a baby late last month and was on a "girls' night out" when the horrific collision occurred around 4:40am Sunday in Diamond Bar, one of her friends tells...

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