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At 2:40 a.m. Feb. 3, police in Newark responded to a 911 call from the Homewood Suites Motel. A distraught woman said she had been attacked by an ex-boyfriend. Her head and neck injuries required medical treatment. Sounds like your classic domestic violence complaint. Only, the victim was Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer. Lockyer is married to state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, 70, who has been prominent in state politics for four decades. His wife, 40, is viewed as a rising star. Which makes this one hot political mess. The incident had been hush-hush until a report appeared last Sunday in...

When a residential burglar fired a gun at Jay Leone last month, he was initially too angry to realize he had been shot in the head, he testified Friday. "To tell you the truth, I never felt a thing," said Leone, 90, of Greenbrae. "I said, 'F—- you, you son of a bitch, now it's my turn.'" Whereupon he shot five bullets at the suspect from his .38-caliber Smith & Wesson snubnose revolver, hitting the burglar three times in the abdomen. A scuffle ensued between the wounded men. "Then he took the gun and put it to my head —...

Court Reverses Red-Light Camera Conviction A court ruling that reversed a red-light camera conviction for a Los Angeles woman could have implications for drivers throughout California, including San Diego County, a local attorney said. Last month, the state’s 2nd District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles agreed with the woman’s argument that a Beverly Hills police officer who testified at her traffic court trial was unqualified to do so because he was not the one who monitored and calibrated the red-light camera that cited her. Instead, Annette Borzakian — an attorney who represented herself in the case — argued that...

Vetting a candidate for elected office is commonplace in American politics, but sometimes the level of scrutiny isn't as thorough as it should be. Consider the recent troubles of Nadia Lockyer, an Alameda County supervisor who on Tuesday announced a leave of absence following an alleged assault two weeks ago. In an incident that still lacks clarity, Lockyer said she was the victim of an assault. Her husband, state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, said the attacker was an ex-boyfriend and that the assault happened Feb. 3 at a Newark hotel. Then on Tuesday, Nadia Lockyer announced that she had enrolled in...

Over the years, Bill and Nadia Lockyer's neighbors watched the couple walk their young son up and down their Hayward street at Christmastime, admiring the festive lights. The image of this political power couple seemed as perfect as a campaign commercial. Everything seemed "hunky-dory" between the 70-year-old state treasurer and the 40-year-old Alameda County supervisor, said neighbor Stephen Welch. "He seemed happy. She seemed happy. I've never seen conflict or strife or anything," he said. But this week, after stories emerged of Nadia Lockyer's substance abuse, extramarital affair and alleged beating by a former lover in a Newark motel room,...

Critics have called it the train to nowhere and a $98 billion boondoggle. As concerns mount over the practicality and affordability of California's plan to build a high-speed rail system, even many former supporters are beginning to sound skeptical. Not so Gov. Jerry Brown. He has emerged as the most vocal cheerleader of a project that is as risky as it is ambitious. Building a first-in-the-nation project would provide a lasting legacy for the 73-year-old Democratic governor as he moves into the twilight of a long political career. His father is revered for promoting the construction of California's comprehensive water...

The FBI has joined Oakland officials in examining a city-funded teen center, asking two construction firms why city Redevelopment Agency officials sought bids from them for a 2010 renovation of the center that had already been completed, representatives of the companies said Friday.The Digital Arts and Culinary Academy, offering free classes in cooking, agriculture and multimedia production, has been run by aides to Councilwoman Desley Brooks since it opened in her East Oakland district last summer. It was renovated in spring 2010 without a contract or City Council approval.Brooks has been trying to get Oakland to pay prime contractor Pulte...

AB 1678, would ban mobile food and beverage trucks within 1,500 feet of elementary and secondary schools. The bill seeks to ban mobile food and beverage vending within 1,500 feet of elementary and secondary schools from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. when schools are in session. The bill was introduced by Bill Monning (D-Carmel), and already given support by the California Food Policy Advocates, which focuses on low income familes' access to affordable and nutritious foods. A statement from Monning's office reads in part: "Mobile food vending poses a threat to student safety as well as student nutrition. Mobile vending...

California's sea otters have struggled for years with diseases, parasites and even the occasional collision with boats. But now the fuzzy coastal mascots are increasingly facing another threat: shark attacks. It's difficult to say that white shark numbers are increasing. Last year, the first comprehensive study of the number of white sharks off the California coast estimated there are 219, fewer than previously thought. Block said other species of sharks, including sevengills and makos, might also be attacking otters. She said having a population of large predators is healthy for any ecosystem, and that more research is needed before...

Just in time for Presidents Day: get ready for the long holiday weekend's highest prices ever in Southern California as $4 gasoline is expected to arrive in Los Angeles, Long Beach, and probably Orange County, too. That's what energy analysts are predicting as the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area reached $3.996 a gallon overnight, up nearly 2 cents since Thursday. That was also a jump of 15.9 cents a gallon since last week.

LONG BEACH A workplace encounter turned deadly when a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent turned a gun on his boss after he threatened disciplinary action at the Long Beach Federal Building Thursday evening. Police officers were seen arriving at 5:50 p.m. Thursday to a report of shots fired on the 7th floor of the Glenn M. Anderson Federal Building. Emergency dispatchers initially reported that one person was shot behind closed doors. They later reported that an ICE agent fired upon another agent in the stomach. The victim was transported to St. Mary Medical Center and was listed in stable...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Faculty members at a California university where campus police pepper-sprayed a group of peaceful Occupy protesters have voted against a motion that would have expressed a lack of confidence in the ability of the school's chancellor to lead the campus, university officials said Friday. Members of the University of California, Davis Academic Senate had two weeks to vote on a motion that would have expressed "no-confidence" in Chancellor Linda Katehi's leadership after the widely condemned pepper-spray incident. The final tally showed faculty members voted 697-312 against the motion, officials said.

President Obama was greeted with wild applause and shouts of “We love you!” from thousands of adoring supporters as he took the stage at the Nob Hill Masonic Center on Thursday night. But then, there were those two very vocal women in the pink slips lead away by the cops. Chalk up another appearance by Nancy Mancias of CodePink – the women’s group opposed to the United States’ involvement in wars. She stood as Obama was speaking about killing Osama bin Laden and began protesting the administration’s use of drone attacks. With her was another veteran CodePinker, Janine Boneparth, another...

A teacher was removed from Mount Gleason Middle School in Sunland after three students alleged inappropriate contact, authorities reported Friday. The three children went to police on Thursday to report the inappropriate contact, Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Richard French said.

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — In an extraordinary development, six of the House Ethics Committee's 10 members Friday dropped out of the investigation of longtime Democratic lawmaker Maxine Waters of California, saying they wanted to ensure there was no bias in the case.</p>

The FBI says a fatal shooting in a Southern California Immigration and Customs Enforcement office occurred as an agent was being counseled on his performance by a high-ranking ICE official. Federal officials on Friday identified the gunman as 45-year-old supervisory special agent Ezequiel Garcia and the victim as 51-year-old Kevin Kozak...

California's tax burden, according to the Tax Foundation, is heavy. The Register reported that per-person state and local taxes, fees, licenses and "intergovernmental revenue" amount to $8,634, ranking California 13th-highest among the states. California businesses fare worse, the Tax Foundation said, ranking 48th in tax climate, based on corporate, income, sales, property and unemployment insurance taxes. What's unsaid is the effect on individuals of extremely high corporate taxes. Companies not driven out of state or out of business are less likely to hire or expand, more likely to contract and struggle to provide for current employees...

LOS ANGELES – When Newt Gingrich announced he would be spending the majority of the week in California it was assumed the candidate, who is low on funds, was heading west to collect money. While Gingrich’s California political director said fundraising this week likely pushed the campaign to its $2 million goal in the state since the beginning of the campaign, there is another strategy is in the works to rack up votes as the state awards proportional delegates for the first time. -snip- Gingrich has long said he’s in the race until the convention, even saying Thursday his goal...

The House ethics committee is starting over with its probe of Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., after six of the 10 members on the investigating panel recused themselves. In doing so, the committee declared the equivalent of a mistrial. A new committee will be impaneled to investigate the ethics questions surrounding Waters. The committee formally launched a probe of Waters in 2010. She was accused of trying to use her influence to secure bailout money for a financial institution in her district -- she owned stock in the institution, and her husband served on its board of directors. What's known as...

<p>Obama addressed 2,900 mostly adoring supporters at a fundraiser Thursday night, the largest and most raucous event on a three-day West Coast swing.</p> <p>The president was greeted with a standing ovation and repeated outbursts of "I love you!" The crowd jumped to its feet again when the president mentioned the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy barring gays from serving openly in the military.</p>

A confrontation between law enforcement agents erupted in gunfire Thursday evening at the federal building in Long Beach, leaving two dead and one seriously injured, authorities said.

Three immigration officers were involved in a shootout at the Long Beach Federal Building Thursday evening, police said. Two officers were pronounced dead at the scene and a third was sent to a nearby hospital, according to aerial communications from Long Beach Police. The third victim, repeatedly referred to as a man, was reportedly shot in the upper body. He is being treated at St. Mary's Medical Center, and his vital signs were positive, said Francine Marlenee, speaking on behalf of the hospital. One of the agents is believed to be the suspected gunman, police said. But the suspect's condition...

President Obama, who signed the Shark Conservation Act into law last month, apparently didn't check out the menu before he made a surprise visit Thursday to a restaurant in San Francisco's Chinatown that is among a handful still serving shark fin soup, a delicacy that has been outlawed in California. The Great Eastern restaurant, a Chinatown landmark on Jackson Street, has a $48 single serving of braised shark fin soup on its menu, and was the site of the president's drop-in after he landed in San Francisco to attend three fundraising events. Obama made an unannounced visit to the venue,...

GINGRICH: No. It just means that we're going to have to pick up all those delegates in late May, just before the California primary, when we hope to pick up more delegates out here. That still means that on super-Tuesday, we're looking at Georgia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, we're looking at Ohio. It means the week after super- Tuesday, we're looking at Alabama and Mississippi. Now, we have hopes that we're going to keep picking up delegates everywhere and continue. This race is going on for a long time, I think. And what Texas moving back means, combined with California being in...

Relative: Mother of Drowned Toddler Sought Help, But Was Turned Away SOUTH LOS ANGELES (KTLA) -- A South Los Angeles mother accused of using a baby bathtub to try to drown her two young daughters could make her first appearance in court Thursday. Authorities say Lorna Valle drowned her one-year-old daughter, Lindsay Stephanie Taque-Valle, and also attempted to drown her 5-year-old daughter, Marian, by shoving their faces into the small tub, said Deputy Police Chief Pat Gannon. Marian remains hospitalized at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. She has been upgraded to serious but stable condition from critical condition. Valle, who may...

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said today that it's time to end sparring over competing measures and rally behind Gov. Jerry Brown's tax initiative for the November ballot. The Sacramento Democrat, in what he characterized as a "clarion call," said that Brown's tax initiative appears to be the state's best alternative. Placing competing measures on the ballot could hurt its prospects, he said. "It's time to get behind the governor's tax initiative," Steinberg said. "If you have two or three of them on the ballot at one time, they're all at risk of losing," he said. Brown's proposal would...

A single-engine aircraft carrying drugs broke the temporary flight restriction around LAX as President Barack Obama was returning to the airport aboard Marine One, sources told NBC News. NORAD fighter jets scrambled out of March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County and immediately surrounded the Cessna 182, escorting it to the Long Beach Airport. "After intercepting the aircraft, the F-16s followed it until it landed without incident at approximately (11:30 p.m. PST), where the plane was met by local law enforcement," according to a statement from NORAD. Sources told NBC News that about 10 kilograms of marijuana were discovered aboard...

FULLERTON (CBS) — The patients of two Orange County hospitals may have inadvertently had their private health records exposed to outside search engines for a year. Thousands of patients treated at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton and Mission Hospital in Laguna Beach were affected by a security glitch that allowed people to search and find medical records that should have been protected on each hospital’s internal computer network. The private information that was unprotected included patient names, body mass index (BMI), lab results, medication allergies and diagnoses lists. The hospitals say Social Security numbers, addresses or financial data were...

San Francisco philanthropist Susie Tompkins Buell, one of the Democratic Party's most generous benefactors, is keeping her checkbook closed when President Obama holds high-priced California fundraisers this week."I want to look him in the eye and say, 'Thank you so much' " for his work, said Buell, who expresses deep disappointment in the president's leadership on environmental issues, especially climate change. With Obama's 2012 re-election campaign in full swing, "I would just love to write my big check ... or have a high-dollar dinner here" on his behalf, she said. "I can't."Buell, a co-founder of the Esprit clothing company, has...

We're in the ballot initiative wing of the California Political Causes Morgue. On the table, two public pension reform plans that died last week. Scalpel, please:Poisoning. The official language issued last month by Attorney General Kamala Harris to describe the measures' tainted public opinion.The AG picked "teachers, nurses, and peace officers" as public servants affected by the measures and implied that public employees and their families could not receive death and disability benefits. Voters polled by California Pension Reform, the group that wrote both measures, said the descriptions were a huge turnoff. Newspapers around the state blasted Harris, but it...

There are Labradoodles in the produce aisle. There's a little Australian terrier sniffing the potato chips. Yes, there are dogs in the supermarket, particularly in San Francisco. And God help us, one of these days there may be a miniature pony in the checkout line. Seriously. And it's all perfectly legal. Or imperfectly legal, depending on whom you ask. Technically, these are service animals. But the technicality is starting to drive customers, supermarket owners and animal control officials around the bend. "This service animal thing is getting a little out of control," said Vicky Guldbech, captain of San Francisco's Department...

PALO ALTO -- Newt Gingrich, fundraising in California this week to bolster his fading presidential campaign, said this afternoon that he is "on the way to Michigan and Arizona," which hold primaries on Feb. 28. The former House speaker's campaign characterized his week of California fundraising as necessary to compete on Super Tuesday, when 10 states hold primaries or caucuses March 6. "We're on the way to Michigan and Arizona, but we're out here doing fundraising, and we scheduled this a couple months ago," Gingrich said as he left a series of meetings at the Hoover Institution, a think tank...

Supervisor Nadia Lockyer, wife of California treasurer, acknowledges substance abuse, affair (Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer at a public event in San Leandro, Calif., April 22, 2011.) Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer, wife of California Treasurer Bill Lockyer, said Tuesday that she's in rehabilitation for a substance-abuse problem after an extramarital affair culminated in a beating by her ex-lover. The announcement marked a sharp turn in the career of a woman who at 40 had been seen as a rising star in California politics. The scandal is also an ugly footnote on her husband's nearly four-decade-long career, which made him...

People are back in the streets because of Pacific Steel Casting Company. In the past, it has been the issue of pollution. The workers have struck over the issue of health and safety (the same issue, as seen from inside). And now, some 200 workers are protesting unjust job termination, owing to intervention by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), in violation of the spirit of Berkeley as a sanctuary city. This factory remains a problem. There will be a march to publicize this problem on Friday, Feb. 17. Here's a bit of the story (aka history). The factory is a...

In the two weeks since state regulators gave them the choice, about 4,400 Pacific Gas and Electric Co. customers have decided to opt out of the utility's SmartMeter program and stick with older, analog meters instead. The number, reported by PG&E today, is just a fraction of the 145,000 to 150,000 customers that PG&E predicted would eventually choose not to receive a wireless, digital SmartMeter. But many people may not yet realize that they have a choice. The California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates the state's utilities, for years insisted that all PG&E customers would receive the new meters, which...

Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House and current Republican presidential primary candidate, visited the Hoover Institution on Wednesday, February 15, 2012, for a series of meetings with Hoover fellows to discuss a broad range of issues, from health care to current economic conditions in the United States and abroad to national security. Gingrich asked for and received fellows’ assessments of the problems associated with these issues and the fellows’ suggestions for solutions. Among those participating in the meetings were Hoover Institution director John Raisian; former secretaries of state Condoleezza Rice and George Shultz; former members of the President’s Council...

CalPERS is going to look again at adjusting its investment forecast, a move that could increase taxpayer contributions while ramping up the political heat on public pension funds in California. Just a year ago, the board of the California Public Employees' Retirement System ignored recommendations from senior staff to cut its forecast a quarter-point, to 7.5 percent. Yet on Tuesday, senior actuary Alan Milligan said CalPERS staff will make another recommendation to the board next month. He didn't say what the recommendation will be. But other big public pension funds have been cutting their forecasts in recent years to reflect...

Newt Gingrich is meeting with former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice today at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution as he continues on the third day of his California swing. The huddle is a luncheon meeting between Gingrich and a group of professors at the school, reports Politico’s Ginger Gibson. Spokesmen for Gingrich and the Hoover Institution did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Rice, who served as George W. Bush’s second secretary of state from 2005 to 2009, is currently a professor of political economy at the Hoover Institution. Gingrich has had warm words for Rice along the campaign...

TULARE, Calif. -- Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign has a history of near-death experiences and he insists another resurrection is on its way. "I'm very happy to continue this campaign based on real solutions that ... are going to attract a lot of Americans," Gingrich said Monday during a fundraising swing in California. "We've done it twice and I suspect you're about to see us do it again." The third time may not be the charm. Gingrich sustained a string of disappointing performances in several state contests last week and has watched rival Rick Santorum emerge as the leading conservative opponent...

Snowfall in the Sierra Nevada has remained consistent for 130 years, with no evidence that anything has changed as a result of climate change, according to a study released Tuesday. The analysis of snowfall data in the Sierra going back to 1878 found no more or less snow overall - a result that, on the surface, appears to contradict aspects of recent climate change models. John Christy, the Alabama state climatologist who authored the study, said the amount of snow in the mountains has not decreased in the past 50 years, a period when greenhouse gases were supposed to have...

As The Chronicle reported today, Galileo High School celebrated Valentine’s Day with a “Love Fest” that featured same-sex marriage ceremonies and safer-sex games. In one exercise, students puts on goggles “that made their vision slightly blurry, simulating a drunken state.” A teacher told students “to put a condom on a wooden penis. Most of the students left air in the condom tip, which could lead to breakage, and that prompted an instructional rebuke from (teacher Raina) Meyers.”

Considering the state of this state and the condition of the world, the so-called "Public Employees Bill of Rights Act" might be mistaken for satire. The problem is, Assembly Bill 1655, is serious. It aims to give unionized California government workers "more workplace discipline protections and first dibs on state government work," as the Sacramento Bee put it...

The Sacramento Bee website is reporting that the number of top-income taxpayers in California has declined by a third. In an article in its Capitol Alert section, the Bee says that those Californians with $500,000 and up taxable incomes have declined from almost 150,000 in 2007 to slightly under 100,000 in 2009. The article also notes that the 100,000, representing just over a half percent of the 14.6 million returns, accounted for 18.8 percent of total income reported, but paid 32 percent of all income taxes in 2009. If Governor Jerry Brown wonders where a whole bunch of those making...

Yuba City, CA. – With a standing ovation, the crowd at Tuesday night’s, Jan. 31, Sutter County Board of Supervisors meeting praised the board’s action in which it unanimously rejected a resolution to apply for a state grant to update the county’s zoning ordinance. Lisa Wilson, the county Planning Division Manager, had asked the Board to approve submitting a grant application to the Sustainable Communities Planning Grant and Incentive Program for Local Sustainable Planning funds to update the zoning ordinances to comply with the recently adopted General Plan.

The Humboldt County Sheriff's Office is seeking two unidentified male suspects after an Orick resident reported using a handgun to avert an attempted home invasion robbery early Sunday morning. The sheriff's office was notified at approximately 7 a.m. on Sunday that an attempted home invasion robbery allegedly had just occurred on the 100 block of Robinson Road in Orick. Sheriff's deputies responded to the scene and met with two victims, a 26-year-old female and a 35-year-old male, according to a release from the sheriff's office. According to the release, the victims told the deputies that they were asleep with their...

Former Speaker Of House Of Representatives Newt Gingrich Spoke At Event In Fairbanks Ranch SAN DIEGO -- With a new poll showing him in fourth place among Republican presidential candidates, Newt Gingrich brought his campaign to San Diego on Tuesday. The former Speaker of the House of Representatives visited the San Diego Zoo and attended a fundraiser in Fairbanks Ranch. He later went to California's Central Valley. In Fairbanks Ranch, Gingrich stressed one theme. "Would you rather have $2 a gallon gasoline or $4 a gallon gasoline?" he asked. Martha Kaloogian, who attended Gingrich's event, called him "authoritative [and] presidential."...

Reporting from San Diego— For the record: Yes, that was Newt Gingrich at the San Diego Zoo on Tuesday for a 90-minute behind-the-scenes tour. Gingrich was in the area raising money for his bid for the Republican presidential nomination but found time to visit the zoo, including feeding a young panda, looking at elephants, polar bears and tigers, and posing for pictures with zoo staffers. Gingrich has made other visits to the zoo and Safari Park, including a sleepover at the park's Snore and Roar program. -snip- The Gingrich visit was planned at the last moment with no public announcement,...

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — President Barack Obama is headed back to Southern California — and so is his street-closing, traffic-delaying presidential motorcade. Obama will be in town Wednesday and Thursday on a fundraising trip through Beverly Hills and Orange County. While details are still not finalized and remain highly subject to change, the closures will be over a smaller stretch of the Southland and are not expected to be as disruptive as during previous visits. The president’s itinerary for Wednesday, Feb. 15, includes: •After 3:00 p.m.: Arrival at LAX •Between 3:45 p.m. and 4:15 p.m.: Helicopter from LAX to VA...

Just days after a mysterious incident in which she was reportedly attacked at a Newark motel by an ex-boyfriend, Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer said Tuesday that she has enrolled in a program to be treated for chemical dependency. Lockyer, 40, the wife of state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, said in a statement that she entered a “wellness and recovery center” last week for treatment of the unspecified chemical dependency and “my injuries from the assault.”She also said she was being treated for “chronic pain from a past debilitating car accident,” without giving specifics.“Alcoholism and addiction are diseases from which many...

Attorneys for the company filed papers in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware last week asking for a court order to dispose of up to 3,900 pallets filled with glass tubes that were used to make Solyndra’s solar panels. The lawyers said the company tried to auction the tubes, return them to a supplier and sell the material to recycling companies. But it was too expensive to ship back to the supplier and nobody seemed interested in buying the glass, the attorneys said in court papers. Unable to sell the assets, Solyndra said it would be cheaper just to abandon the...