Shell Oil Co. will pay $19.5 million to settle a lawsuit that accused it of violating rules on hazardous waste, underground fuel storage and other environmental regulations at its gas stations in California, Attorney General Jerry Brown said Friday. The...

State prison officials announced a five-year plan Friday to add beds and treatment space for about 2,600 mentally ill inmates, in response to years of federal court rulings that found substandard psychiatric care in California's penal institutions. Most of...

Another day, another Bay Bridge commute slowed to a halt by an accident at the famed S-curve. On Friday morning, a motorcyclist rear-ended a truck that resulted in a broken leg for the motorcyclist and an hourlong delay for San

Mayor Gavin Newsom was spotted Friday morning at City Hall, but he wouldn't come out and discuss his mysterious disappearance. Newsom arrived at his office about 9:30 a.m., walking past members of the media who were hoping he'd comment on

Santa Clara County has agreed to pay $800,000 to the father of one of the two bicyclists struck and killed by a sheriff's deputy who fell asleep at the wheel of his cruiser, officials said Thursday. Deputy James Council's car

A federal appeals court granted a Catholic advocacy group's request Thursday for a new hearing on whether San Francisco expressed official hostility to religion in 2006 when the Board of Supervisors denounced a Vatican order to Catholic Charities not to

Pharmacists championed San Francisco's law, which made it the first city in the country to ban the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products at drugstores. Now San Francisco entrepreneur Stuart Skorman, founder of the now defunct holistic-oriented...

California is paying six to seven times more per day to care for some elderly and disabled people in nursing homes because a state-funded in-home care program is turning them away, welfare advocates and lawmakers said Thursday. Advocates for the

Edward Wycoff, who spent his murder trial cracking jokes and proudly admitting he had killed his sister and her husband in their El Cerrito home, should die by lethal injection, a jury said Thursday. The jury's decision came in spite

The Obama administration hired Jared Blumenfeld to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's regional office. He takes the post after serving for eight years as San Francisco's environmental czar, where he grew his department into a major player on the...

A Richmond High School student recovering from a gang rape has told police that she was betrayed that night by one of her attackers, whom she considered a trusted friend, the lead investigator in the case said Thursday. Richmond police

Oakland Mayor Ronald V. Dellums owes the residents of this great city an explanation. And if he can't provide one, he owes his resignation. The mayor is by no means the first public figure to run afoul of the Internal

From major conferences at the Moscone Center to small coffee shops in the Mission, San Franciscans are buzzing about Mayor Gavin Newsom and the stunning turn of fortune that in a few short days took him from being a candidate

Tired of constant threats to close California's state parks, a coalition of environmental and nonprofit groups proposed a ballot initiative Tuesday that would charge motorists an additional $18 to register their vehicles in exchange for free admission to the...

A San Francisco nonprofit is so poorly run that it should not be given $159,000 in promised federal stimulus funds, California's inspector general said Tuesday after state officials uncovered such questionable expenses as a pricey retreat taken by the group's...

The California Supreme Court appeared to be searching for a middle ground Tuesday in a dispute over whether thousands of formerly imprisoned sex offenders must live at least 2,000 feet from parks and schools, a voter-approved restriction that would exclude...

A majority of San Francisco supervisors agreed Tuesday to ban the declawing of cats, calling the procedure a barbaric practice that opens the city's feline residents to stress, chronic pain and behavioral problems. "It is well documented and well understood...

A seventh suspect has been arrested in connection with the gang rape of a 15-year-old girl outside Richmond High School's homecoming dance. Richmond Police Lt. Mark Gagan says a 21-year-old man from Richmond was arrested Tuesday morning on suspicion of

A small earthquake has struck Southern California near the Mexico border but no damage or injuries are reported. The U.S. Geological Survey says a quake with a magnitude of 3.6 hit at 2:56 a.m. Tuesday. It was centered nine miles