California | featured news

The father of Phillip Garrido, suspected of kidnapping an 11-year-old South Lake Tahoe girl 18 years ago, said today his son had a long history of drug use and mental problems.

Toyota is shutting the California factory it ran with General Motors for 25 years -- the first time the Japanese automaker is closing a major auto assembly plant ever.

Thousands of residents were evacuated from million-dollar homes in exclusive Los Angeles communities as four wildfires burned on Friday in the mountains and coastal areas around the city.

Firefighters in Southern California braced for another day of hot, extremely dry weather as they battled two wildfires in the Angeles National Forest northeast of Los Angeles.

About 1,000 firefighters are battling a brush fire in the foothills above the San Gabriel Valley northeast of downtown Los Angeles.

A raging wildfire in northern California scorched more than 5,000 acres and hundreds of firefighters struggled to bring it under control Friday, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.

A fast-moving wildfire near the Santa Cruz Mountains prompted the mandatory evacuation of about 250 residences in northern California early Thursday, a fire official said.

GM and eBay will launch a pilot program Tuesday that will allow consumers to place online bids for new vehicles from GM dealers in California.

A Fresno-based beef company is recalling hundreds of thousands of ground beef products because of concerns it may be linked to an outbreak of salmonella.

Federal judges call conditions in the prisons 'appalling' and unconstitutional. California must shrink the population of its teeming prisons by nearly 43,000 inmates over the next two years to meet constitutional standards, a panel of three federal judges ruled Tuesday, ordering the state to come up with a reduction plan by mid-September.