California

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Artist Wants to Bury Jet in Mojave

Visitors will pass through underground tunnel in 'Terminal'

(Newser) - Swiss artist Christoph Buchel has applied for a permit for a truly big, truly strange art exhibit: He wants to bury a 727 in the Mojave Desert, allowing guests to visit it through an underground tunnel. The piece will be called "Terminal," and the group Buchel organized for...

Dad Gets Restraining Order Against 4th-Grade Bully

Son was threatened with knife in Calif. school, says father

(Newser) - Here's one way to deal with bullies. A Southern California dad has taken out a restraining order against a classmate of his fourth-grade son who he says threatened his boy with a knife. A judge has granted a temporary order requiring the classmate to stay at least 20 feet...

California Occupy Activists Charged With ... Lynching

Sergio Ballesteros interfered with protester arrest, say authorities

(Newser) - In a bizarre twist, two Occupy California activists have been busted for ... lynching. Under California law the crime involves “taking by means of a riot any person from the lawful custody of any peace officer." Of course the 1933 law was intended to save people from vigilantes, particularly...

Can Birdsong Cut Crime?
 Can Birdsong 
 Cut Crime? 

Can Birdsong Cut Crime?

California mayor says it already has

(Newser) - Crime has dropped in a California town, and residents should be thanking their fine feathered friends, says the mayor. Last year, he began piping recorded birdsong to 70 speakers on a highway. Minor crime dropped 15% from 2010 while serious crimes dropped 6%, the Wall Street Journal reports. It's...

Homeless Killer Suspect's Father Is Homeless

Itzcoatl Ocampo was a changed man after serving in Iraq, family says

(Newser) - Itzcoatl Ocampo, the California man accused of stabbing four homeless people to death , often gave money to the homeless, says his father, who is homeless himself. Refugio Ocampo, who lives in the cab of a broken-down truck, says that just a few months ago, his son gave a beggar his...

2 Adults, 2 Kids Dead in California Murder-Suicide

Another man wounded in stabbing

(Newser) - Two adults and two children were found dead of gunshot wounds in a California apartment yesterday, while another man was found with stab wounds outside its door, police say. Though the details remain hazy, police believe the mother of the kids shot herself when police arrived, the Fresno Bee reports....

Cops: Man Poisons Rice Krispies to Kill Wife

Fernando Porras busted as he flees from hospital

(Newser) - A California man spiked his wife's bowl of Rice Krispies with enough chemicals to kill her, say Azusa police. Suspect Fernando Porras' 17-year-old daughter called 911 after her mother said the cereal smelled and tasted awful. It had been doused with the household cleaner Goof Off, according to investigators....

Suspect in Homeless Killings Is Iraq War Vet

Calif. man talked of hallucinations

(Newser) - A suspect detained for killing homeless people in Southern California is a mentally unstable Iraq war veteran who complained of hallucinations, the Los Angeles Times reports. When Itzcoatl Ocampo returned from service in 2010, "he was sick," his uncle says. But Ocampo never went to therapy appointments made...

California Parents Prepare to Fire School

Group plans to use state's Parent Trigger law

(Newser) - The Parent Trigger is cocked and ready to fire at an underperforming elementary school in California. A 2010 state law gives parents the power to take over schools, and a parents group at Desert Trails Elementary outside Los Angeles plans to do so if the district doesn't overhaul the...

California Facing Driest Year on Record

Lack of snow not a problem, water manager says

(Newser) - The snow that provides around a third of California's water has largely gone AWOL this year, and with rain also noticeably scant, experts believe the state may be about to experience its driest year since records began. The temperature pattern known as La Niña, combined with a strong...

Passenger Tasered at Calif. Airport
 Flier Tasered at Calif. Airport 

Flier Tasered at Calif. Airport

Edwin Barton loses it after having to go through screening twice

(Newser) - Here's a new one in the ongoing battles between airline passengers and security. Now a flier has been been zapped with a Taser—three times—for becoming "unruly" during a security screening in California. New Hampshire flier Edwin Barton, 26, walked into the Sacramento Airport off his Southwest...

Serial Killer Stalking California Homeless

Three killed in 10 days in Orange County

(Newser) - Homeless Californians were packing shelters last night after discovering they're being stalked by a serial killer. The stabbing deaths of three homeless men in 10 days have been linked to a single "serious, dangerous serial killer operating in Orange County," police warn. A man wearing a dark,...

California Has First Gray Wolf in 88 Years

One crossed the border from Oregon this week

(Newser) - A lone gray wolf is wandering around the forests of California's Siskiyou County, and that's a milestone for wildlife experts. The 2-year-old male is the first gray wolf in the state since 1924, reports the Los Angeles Times . He crossed the border from Oregon Wednesday afternoon, according to...

'Gay Nativity' Vandalized in California

Cops launch hate crime probe

(Newser) - Police have launched a hate crime investigation into vandalism of a "gay nativity" scene outside a California church. The scene at Claremont United Methodist Church featured three wooden light boxes portraying a heterosexual and two homosexual couples holding hands beneath a Star of Bethlehem and the words: "Christ...

Marijuana Delivery Crews at Your Service

This bud's for you

(Newser) - With the feds cracking down on medical marijuana shops, what's a responsible provider to do? Turn to the dope delivery man. More and more California operations are using medical marijuana couriers to get their weed into the hands of those who need it, operators tell the San Francisco Chronicle...

In California, Devoted Await Solstice 'Illumination'

Dazzling light planned by priests for sun-worshipping Indians: Expert

(Newser) - Let there be light. Just after dawn on the winter solstice, a 200-year-old California mission is bathed in such a dazzling blaze of sunlight that the altar appears to burst into flames. It's an annual "illumination" that draws the devoted, presenting what some observers consider awesome "special...

Gerard Butler Survives Accident in Surf 'Boneyard'

Actor saved from Mavericks waves while filming

(Newser) - A safety worker on a jetski saved actor Gerard Butler from dying at a northern California surf spot that has claimed the lives of pros. Butler, 42, was filming a scene at Mavericks for upcoming movie Of Men and Mavericks when a freak set of waves, some higher than 12...

Record Exec Wounded in Hollywood Shooting Dies

John Atterberry had worked with Jessica Simpson, Michael Jackson

(Newser) - The record executive who was critically wounded in Friday's Hollywood shooting rampage died last night, the AP reports. John Atterberry, 40, had been a vice president of Death Row Records, then home to Tupac Shakur and Dr. Dre, before going on to work with artists including Jessica Simpson, Christina...

United Flight's Engine Shuts Down in Mid-Air

Plane makes emergency landing in Colorado

(Newser) - A United airlines flight en route from Denver to Los Angeles was forced to make an emergency landing in Colorado when one of its two engines shut down. The Boeing 757 experienced trouble shortly after takeoff and was diverted to a Grand Junction facility typically used by much smaller airplanes....

Hollywood Gunman Opens Fire on Motorists

He wounds one driver before being fatally shot by police

(Newser) - A gunman indiscriminately opened fire at passing motorists in Hollywood today, hitting one person in the head who is now critically wounded, reports the Los Angeles Times . The gunman was then shot dead by two police officers who were on a nearby movie set and alerted by bystanders. The shooting...

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