The Moraga School District, defending itself in a civil lawsuit filed by a former student who was molested for years by two teachers in the 1990s, argued in court papers that the girl contributed to the abused by being “careless and negligent.”   read more

Fourteen Southern Californians have been accused by the FBI of taking advantage of a flaw in Citibank's online banking system to extract $1 million at cash kiosks in casinos before going on gambling splurges.   read more

Doris Thompson is 82, walks hunched over with a limp, has trouble hearing and is an unrepentant career cat burglar. Last week, the woman with more than 25 aliases, a 21-page rap sheet that goes back 50 years and hair styled like boxing promoter Don King was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for doing what she does best, or at least most often—burglarizing doctors’ offices in Southern California.   read more

All that CalPoly San Luis Obispo student journalist Sean McMinn wanted was a copy of a public document so he could finish writing his story for the Mustang Daily. The school told McMinn he could send them a check for 20 cents and they would email it to him. But only a check would do and he didn't have time to get one to them.   read more

Schools in the Pasadena Unified School District have put out the word on Frito Lay’s Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Even in a junk food world, where obesity rates of American children have tripled since 1980, and schools have limited control over what students put in their bodies, Flamin’ Hots are not welcome.   read more

Yuba City officials want George Louie to go away and will pay him $15,000 to stop filing lawsuits in their town alleging violations of the federal Americans With Disablities Act (ADA). Describing the deal as the first of its kind, the officials said a settlement was reached with Louie, who has filed hundreds of such actions against Northern California cities and businesses, according to the Sacramento Bee.   read more

The economic crash of the past four years has been very good for Portfolio Recovery Associates (PRA). The innovative, debt collection agency was named one of Fortune’s 100 Fastest Growing Companies in 2012 and its stock is trading near its 10-year high. On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, told the company, which has offices in California, to stop chasing after alleged debtors by making robocalls to cellphone users in violation of federal law.   read more

Veteran Congressmen Howard Berman and Brad Sherman, now competing for the same seat in the House, were having a spirited exchange before a raucous crowd last Thursday when the 57-year-old Sherman suddenly wrapped his arm around the shoulder of the smaller, 71-year-old Berman, jerked him close and shouted, “Do you want to get into this?”   read more

A man flying to Boston from Japan was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport wearing body armor, flame retardant leggings and knee pads under a trench coat. When his stored luggage was searched, it turned up an array of weapons, including a smoke grenade, a collapsible baton, several knives, a hatchet and three leather-coated black-jack billy clubs. The luggage also contained packed body bags, masks, duct tape, handcuffs, leg irons, oven mitts, cooking tongs and a full-face respirator.   read more

Perhaps taking a page from a National Football League playbook, a California Pop Warner youth football team has been accused of putting bounties on opposition players as a reward for knocking them out of games. Tustin Red Cobras coach Darren Crawford and association President Pat Galentine were suspended last week by the Pop Warner national office while investigators look into allegations that first surfaced in the pages of the Orange County Register.   read more

When Richard Sentz bought his new Stockton city bus card, he accidentally tossed it away instead of his old, expired card. At least, that’s what Sentz told the police when they boarded his bus and asked him and others for their cards. That’s a hefty ticket. But when Sentz received his fine in the mail two weeks later, he was flabbergasted. His fine was $1,050 for not having a $1.50 available on his bus card.   read more

Republicans have made vote fraud an issue across the country, pushing through VoterID laws in more than half the states and toying with the idea of putting it on the ballot in California, although examples of such schemes are practically non-existent anywhere in the country. Well, almost anywhere. The Riverside County Registrar of Voters has been fielding complaints that Democrats are being tricked into re-registering as Republicans by petition circulators.   read more

After years of fudging its on-time rate to meet voter-mandated standards, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency finally published honest numbers and they validated what riders already knew―buses don’t run on time very often.   read more

The Bakersfield Condors finished last in the Western Conference of the East Coast Hockey League in 2011-12, way behind the next worst team, the Stockton Thunder, to whom it had dedicated its December 27 promotion—“Our City Isn’t Bankrupt Night.”   read more

A family is suing a Jewish cemetery in the Mission Hills area of Los Angeles for moving their mother’s ashes so it could sell the space—located next to the remains of Groucho Marx—to someone else.   read more

With its one-year anniversary looming, the Occupy Movement confirmed what it suspected from Day 1: It is under surveillance by the FBI. Material obtained by the ACLU of Northern California through the Freedom of Information Act documents FBI coverage of Occupy Oakland events, strategy planning for continued surveillance and coordination with private security companies. A complete assessment of FBI activities was not possible because it refused to release most of the available material.   read more