A state official monitoring California's worsening financial situation says he's running out of words to describe it.

His offbeat sense of humor and honest assessment of sometimes grade "z" movies made him a popular fixture on local Northern California television.

A woman testified that an Elk Grove man's plea bargain to avoid prison is "a gross injustice to my family and the community."

But child welfare advocates want the public to realize there are 4,800 other children and teens in foster care in Sacramento County.

Eight students from Rio Linda High School are going to the presidential inauguration.

Winter temperatures and higher electricity costs are leading to bigger bills.  

AP - A key panel unanimously recommended impeachment for Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Thursday, setting up a vote that could make him the first governor to face such fate in Illinois' sordid political history. Blagojevich should lose his job for abusing power, mismanaging government and committing possible criminal acts, including federal allegations he tried to sell off a U.S. Senate seat, the special committee concluded.

AP - Roland Burris cleared a key hurdle Thursday on his way to filling President-elect Barack Obama's vacant U.S. Senate seat, testifying under oath that he didn't strike any deals with Gov. Rod Blagojevich to get the plum appointment.

AP - Floods, mudslides and avalanches in the Pacific Northwest kept tens of thousands of people from their homes Thursday, brought freight trains to a standstill and stranded hundreds of trucks along the major highways that link Seattle's busy ports with markets around the country.

AP - A half-acre plaza that has stood for the goodwill between Mexico and the United States is closing to make way for a triple fence along the U.S. southern border, the California State Parks Department confirmed Thursday.

AP - A teenager who authorities say was plotting to "shoot up" a North Carolina high school is in custody because of a tip from a teen who chatted with the suspect online, investigators said Thursday.

AP - An anti-tax group will consider new legal action after a California appeals court tossed out a lawsuit that sought to block tax increases passed by Democrats in the state Legislature, the group said Thursday.

AP - An 82-year-old businessman was charged Thursday with running a Ponzi scheme that took in at least $17 million from a clientele gleaned largely through ads in Catholic newspapers.

AP - Thousands of evacuated residents, including former FEMA chief Michael D. Brown, were allowed to return to their homes Thursday after firefighters partially contained a wildfire near Denver that destroyed two houses and several outbuildings.

AP - In grainy cell-phone videos played over and over on the Internet, police officers force an unarmed black man to the ground and hold him face-down on a crowded train platform. Suddenly one of the officers draws his gun and fatally shoots the man in the back — then looks up.

AP - Episcopal leaders in Pittsburgh went to court Thursday seeking to recover $20 million in assets they believe were wrongfully taken when the conservative branches split from the liberal diocese in October.

AP - Republican Sen. Kit Bond announced Thursday that he will not seek re-election in 2010, saying he wants to go out "at the top of my game" and setting the stage for what one expert said could be a "land rush" for the seat.

AP - An attorney for a woman convicted in a MySpace hoax directed at a teen who ended up committing suicide asked a judge to dismiss her convictions Thursday, saying a computer-fraud law was improperly used to prosecute her.

AP - A boy whose disappearance went unreported for 10 years was once taken away from his adoptive parents, then returned days later, Kansas' social services agency said Thursday.