A lawsuit alleges the former employer of an immigrant worker who died during a Central Valley heat wave moved the dead man's body to escape responsibility.

Sierra County search teams Saturday found the wreckage of a plane and a body believed to be that of a missing Truckee pilot.

Even though gas prices are high, some boaters on the Sacramento river this holiday weekend said filling up the boat's gas tank is still cheaper than getting out of town.

Authorities are looking for a 77-year-old woman who was last seen Wednesday walking near a Yolo County casino.

Toxicology tests show a Turlock man who beat and stomped his 2-year-old son to death last month was not using drugs.

Authorities near Stockton spent Saturday looking for one of their K-9 officers after the dog was apparently spooked by holiday noise. Fortunately, the story has a happy ending.

AP - A wildfire threatening thousands of homes in Southern California spread slowly through scenic canyonlands Saturday, straining resources as crews struggled to contain hundreds of other blazes around the state.

AP - The American Civil Liberties Union said Saturday that it plans to investigate the actions of federal law enforcers who arrested five Rainbow Family members in western Wyoming during their annual gathering.

AP - The three American hostages rescued by Colombia's military said in their first public statement that they are doing fine and are thrilled to "return home to the country we love."

AP - Even folks in the Optimist Club are having a tough time toeing an upbeat line these days. Eighteen members of the volunteer organization's Gilbert, Ariz., chapter have gathered, a few days before this nation's 232nd birthday, to focus on the positive: Their book drive for schoolchildren and an Independence Day project to place American flags along the streets of one neighborhood.

AP - Dale Metta, who manages a gun shop just outside the District of Columbia limits in Maryland, has had to turn away dozens of city residents wanting to buy handguns in recent days. Never mind that the U.S. Supreme Court just struck down Washington's 32-year-old ban on possessing handguns.

AP - The knock on Brian Hart's door came at 6 a.m. An Army colonel, a priest and a police officer had come to tell Hart and his wife that their 20-year-old son had been killed when his military vehicle was ambushed in Iraq.

AP - Using his trusty BB gun to help him return to Earth, a 48-year-old gas station owner flew a lawn chair rigged with helium-filled balloons more than 200 miles across the Oregon desert Saturday, landing in a field in Idaho.

AP - Jesse Helms forever changed North Carolina politics and the conservative movement. The former senator did it without ever changing much about himself.

AP - A popular beach on Long Island was evacuated at the height of a holiday weekend after stray, unexploded fireworks washed ashore the day after a July Fourth show, state parks officials said Saturday.

AP - A Fourth of July fireworks shell misfired in a northern Iowa town, sending a fireball skidding down a street into a crowd of spectators and injuring 37 people, officials said Saturday.

AP - Playing with matches, being careless with a campfire, even burning a letter from an estranged husband: Some of the most devastating wildfires in the country's recent history have been started by people.

AP - The last of the Mississippi River navigational locks that were closed to barges because of flooding are back in business.

AP - The NAACP's Cincinnati chapter sagged to a low point a few years ago, its membership the smallest it had been in decades. Some outside the chapter even questioned its relevancy — this in a city recently torn by racially tinged rioting.