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A Northern California mixed-martial artist accused of ripping out his friend’s heart and removing his tongue while the two were on hallucinogenic drugs has pleaded guilty to murder and mayhem charges.

Selvin Chajon Rodriguez asked the mother of his young children to marry him. But if she said no, the couple and their son and daughter would "all be laid to rest." The alleged threats, detailed in court papers filed last week in Riverside County Superior Court, were enough for Laura Reveriano to request a restraining against her ex-boyfriend.

The title of Michael Chabon’s pungent new novel, “Telegraph Avenue,” refers, of course, to the famous Telegraph Avenue that bridges Berkeley and Oakland, Calif., that frisky, clamorous thoroughfare so identified, since the 1960s, with the counterculture and community life.

Jeffrey A. Michael, a finance professor in Stockton, Calif., took a hard look at his city’s bankruptcy this summer and thought he saw a smoking gun: a dubious bond deal that bankers had pushed on Stockton just as the local economy was starting to tank in the spring of 2007, he said.

A magnitude-3.2 quake hit Beverly Hills, Calif., before dawn on Monday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The California tax man cometh, and he's headed for the Internet. State tax collectors are preparing to crack down on renegade Internet merchants who don't collect sales taxes, and nearly 100 new state auditors, lawyers and other specialists are being hired to help over the next three years.

A driver who said he was 101 years old jumped a curb and crashed into a group of pedestrians Wednesday afternoon outside a south Los Angeles elementary school, injuring 11 people, mostly children, officials said.

The Democratic mayor of Los Angeles says Republican efforts to use Latino speakers at the GOP national convention to win over Latino voters won't work. Antonio Villaraigosa (vee-yah-ry-GOH'-sah) told reporters Tuesday that the GOP "can't just trot out a brown face or a Spanish surname" and expect Latinos to vote Republican. He called that window dressing.

Ever since hundreds of earthquakes began rippling through southeastern California over the weekend, many asked the question: Could this be a precursor to the Big One?

In the latest attempt to cultivate a pedestrian lifestyle in Los Angeles, the City Council has approved plans to temporarily block off a few street parking spaces at four locations so they can be turned into tiny public plazas big enough to hold a bench or two.