Firefighters had their hands full on the first official night of fire season battling a blaze near the Gold Hill area of El Dorado County.

Sacramento firefighters have a three-alarm commercial building fire under control.

A Sacramento high school senior is among six Northern California teens to earn a perfect score on the ACT.

Dozens of people honored their mother's by giving the gift of life.

Scientists say the clarity of Lake Tahoe has improved, and more importantly, the rate of decline has slowed considerably in recent years.

A debt collector accused of filing fraudulent property liens against scores of Sacramento County homeowners was taken into custody Monday during his arraignment.

AP - More than a third of the 23 people killed by a tornado that smashed parts of Oklahoma and Missouri over the weekend died in cars, troubling experts who say vehicles are one of the worst places to be during a twister.

AP - The reason most residents of Picher won't be able to rebuild their homes following a massive tornado is plainly visible from most parts of town.

AP - Federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment Monday accusing a man and woman of training the woman's child to be a dominatrix, selling her sexual services and photographing some of the acts.

AP - Dry, windy weather fueled several wildfires on Florida's central Atlantic coast Monday, damaging more than 50 homes and driving hundreds of residents away as the governor declared a state of emergency.

AP - Several foam manufacturers have agreed to pay $30 million to settle lawsuits brought by survivors and family members of those who died in a 2003 nightclub fire that killed 100 people, according to court papers filed Monday.

AP - The mother of former NFL player Pat Tillman suspects the military's account of how fellow Army Ranger comrades shot and killed her son in Afghanistan is still not the true story, four years later, according to her new book.

AP - Presumably, she didn't fleece Prince Charles. But a couple of young jet-setters plan to admit in court that other people who crossed their paths unwittingly financed their luxury lifestyle.

AP - Even by tough, urban-crime standards it was a grisly attack: Up to 15 people chased a man, then kicked and beat him to death on the street. Before police arrived, one attacker urinated on the victim's head.

AP - A wet, gusty storm that lashed the mid-Atlantic states Monday forced evacuations, flooded roads, fanned the flames of a deadly New Jersey fire and wrecked a research vessel off the Delaware coast, killing a crew member.

AP - News that scientists have for the first time genetically altered a human embryo is drawing fire from some watchdog groups that say it's a step toward creating "designer babies."

AP - Federal immigration agents raided a northeastern Iowa meat processing plant Monday, arresting more than 300 people and housing many of them at a converted fairgrounds.

AP - A small-time New Jersey actor accused of traveling to Thailand to have sex with underage boys was denied bail on Monday.

AP - Across America, earthen flood levees protect big cities and small towns, wealthy suburbs and rich farmland. But the Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency that oversees levees, lacks an inventory of thousands of them and has no idea of their condition, the corps' chief levee expert told The Associated Press.