California Attorney General Kamala Harris has joined officials from 10 other states in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Arizona's immigration law, saying the law exceeds state authority, conflicts with national policy and would drive illegal immigrants into other states.
The law would require police to demand proof of legal status from anyone in their custody whom they suspect of being in the country illegally. Largely blocked by court order since its passage two years ago, it is scheduled for a Supreme Court hearing on April 25, with a ruling due by the end of June.
Prosecutors today filed murder charges against a man accused of killing five people in a home in San Francisco's Ingleside neighborhood on Friday.
Binh Thai Luc, 35, was arrested Sunday morning in connection with the grisly killing of three women and two men inside a home at 16 Howth St. near City College of San Francisco.
Luc, a San Francisco resident, was charged today with five counts of murder with special circumstances for committing multiple murders, district attorney's office spokesman Omid Talai said.
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Pepper spray was needed at UC Berkeley protest, review finds (Mercury News)
Police trying to control a raucous protest at UC Berkeley last fall should have used pepper spray to control students, faculty and others but they were instead limited to jabbing them with their batons, concludes a review of the confrontation released Friday.
It was not appropriate to ban officers from using options, such as pepper spray and tear gas, for which they were trained and equipped, the review found.
"A few focused applications (of pepper spray) on the crowd that blocked the officers ... likely would have cleared the area very quickly, with few additional baton strikes," he wrote of police operations that day.
SCOTUS yesterday effectively decided to uphold an earlier decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals regarding the use of religious messages and textbooks in classrooms. The two cases — one involving a San Diego area teacher who had hung "In God We Trust" and "God Shed His Grace on Thee" banners in his classroom for three decades and one involving an Idaho charter school that used the Bible as a "cultural" text — were heard together in September.
A 49-year-old crab fisherman died after he became tangled in crabbing ropes and was pulled overboard off the San Mateo County coast, authorities said Tuesday.
James Allshouse of South San Francisco was on a 40-foot crabbing boat, the Seabird, with another deckhand and a pilot when the accident happened Monday near Pescadero State Beach, said Lt. Larry Schumaker, a spokesman for the sheriff's office.
The crew was dropping crab pots into the ocean around 3:30 p.m. when Allshouse became tangled in rope and was pulled into the water...
On his second trip through high school, former C-student Alex Salinas got a lot of A's.
He was 22, however, and an undercover narcotics officer going by the name Johnny Ramirez. When his first semester progress report showed a 3.25 average, the baby-faced police rookie made a mental note: Stop turning in homework assignments.
Eight months later, the ruse was up, and Exeter, a bucolic citrus-growing community in California's Central Valley, was turned on its ear after a school-day police sweep ended with a dozen Exeter High students in custody on drug charges.
- Rick Santorum to rally at Jelly Belly Factory (The Reporter)
Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum will be at the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield on Thursday. Senator Rick Santorum Will Address Healthcare Reform at Jelly Belly Candy Company in Fairfield, California on Thursday, March 29, 2012
According to Santorum's website, the candidate will hold a rally at 4 p.m. and discuss healthcare reform outside of the local candy factory located at One Jelly Belly Lane.
A $1,000 a plate campaign fundraising event will follow inside the Jelly Belly facility afterward, according to local Republican organizers.