More residents of Southern California were urged to leave their homes Sunday despite calming winds that allowed a major aerial attack on wildfires that have destroyed hundreds of homes and blanketed the region in smoke. ...more

November 17, 2008

California Battles Fire's Wrath LOS ANGELES - Southern Californians weathered a second straight day of devastation Saturday as wind-blasted wildfires destroyed hundreds of homes, shut down major freeways and forced thousands of residents to flee to safety. ...more

November 16, 2008

1991: University of Oklahoma law professor Anita Hill publicly accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of making sexually inappropriate comments when she worked for him; Thomas denied it. ...more

October 7, 2008

When Tesla Motors Inc. began taking orders last year for its all-electric sports car, celebrities lined up to purchase the sleek zero-emission vehicle with the six-digit sticker price. ...more

September 22, 2008

An appellate attorney in the high-profile drug, sex and torture case against Steven Lorenzo is arguing that the prosecution was illegitimate because the government is "notorious worldwide for subduing, torturing and killing people on a large and systematic scale." ...more

September 6, 2008

If John McCain becomes president, he will be confronted by a Congress with significantly larger Democratic majorities than today's - majorities furious about high hopes dashed by an eighth Republican victory in 11 presidential elections. And if the normal pattern of off-year elections obtains in 2010, those majorities will expand. So McCain would have to deal with a hostile legislature for four years, as Arnold Schwarzenegger has done for almost five years. For that reason, and because these two self-styled post-partisan, reach-across-the-aisle mavericks admire one another - McCain has given Schwarzenegger a starring role Monday at the Republican convention - it is pertinent to survey Schwarzenegger's governorship of one-eighth of America's population. ...more

August 31, 2008

Eight firefighters and a pilot were presumed dead in the crash of a helicopter that had just picked up firefighters battling a blaze in a Northern California forest, officials said Wednesday. ...more

August 7, 2008

SAN DIEGO - "Terminator Salvation" won't hit theaters until next summer, but thousands of fans got an early look at a portion of the film Saturday. ...more

July 27, 2008

California on Friday became the first state to ban trans-fats from restaurant food, following several cities and major fast-food chains in erasing the artery-clogger from menus. ...more

July 26, 2008

We first met Francesco Lafranconi at the 2007 Tampa Bay Food & Wine Festival. There he was, in white linen pants and a pink pinstriped tailored shirt, sleeves rolled up, relegated to an oak barrel just a stone's throw from the painted naked lady. He was mixing a heavenly concoction of Dom Perignon, rose nectar and fresh blueberries. Sweat poured from his European brow, thanks to the Florida humidity. ...more

July 15, 2008