The driver of a concrete truck struck and killed a pedestrian in the Oak Park neighborhood of Sacramento this morning.

High pressure over California will bring higher fire danger and hot temperatures.

The San Joaquin County Mosquito & Vector Control is preparing to conduct additional adult mosquito control operations using ground units in four scheduled areas.

Until a budget is settled, colleges are unsure how much money they'll be able to spend - and some students may be shut out of classes as a result.

A majority of California's likely voters oppose the November ballot measure that would eliminate gay marriage.

Gold medal U.S. Olympian Stephanie Brown Trafton was welcomed back to her hometown of Galt in grand style Wednesday.

AP - National Guard troops stand ready, batteries and water bottles are selling briskly, and one small-town mayor has spent a sleepless night worrying. The New Orleans area is skittishly watching as a storm marches across the Caribbean on the eve of Hurricane Katrina's third anniversary.

AP - The National Hurricane Center says Tropical Storm Hanna has formed northeast of the northern Leeward Islands in the Atlantic.

AP - A mother intentionally put her month-old daughter in a microwave oven and cooked the child to death after a fight with her boyfriend, a prosecutor told jurors Thursday.

AP - Three lawyers are refusing to testify next week at a removal hearing for Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, possibly harming his ability to defend himself, the mayor's attorney says.

AP - Defense contractor KBR Inc. and a Jordanian subcontractor are accused of human trafficking in a federal lawsuit filed in Los Angeles.

AP - A Colorado man suspected of making racist threats against Barack Obama is scheduled to appear in federal court Thursday on a charge of methamphetamine possession.

AP - A longtime sex offender was sentenced to death Wednesday for the 2005 kidnapping, torture and murder of a 9-year-old northern Idaho boy after federal jurors who watched video of some of the brutality deliberated just three hours.

AP - A majority of California voters oppose a ballot initiative to ban gay marriage, though they are evenly split on the practice itself, according to a poll released Wednesday.

AP - Union bosses in this region of rural Mississippi have long grumbled that the largest factories here hire illegal immigrants, and that the immigrants were starting to get more overtime and supervisory positions.

AP - Four jail inmates who authorities say helped eight others make a brazen escape were charged Wednesday, as officials kept up the search for the five prisoners who remain on the loose, including a convicted murderer.

AP - A federal jury on Wednesday began deliberating whether a former Marine squad leader committed manslaughter in Iraq, marking the first time in which civilians will decide whether the actions of a military service member during combat were criminal.

AP - A former lawyer for Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has filed a lawsuit against the mayor claiming he's owed about $80,000 in fees stemming from his work after Kilpatrick's text-message scandal surfaced.

AP - Linda Sohus was a towering blonde fantasy buff who liked to paint unicorns. Her husband, Jonathan, was a diminutive computer programmer working at a NASA lab who shared his wife's passion for science fiction.