A Tracy couple has been charged with using knives, belts and baseball bats to torture a teen imprisoned in their home.

They say knowledge is power and that is definitely the case when it comes to your health.

Starving dogs and birds were found in an abandoned Folsom house Thursday.

Democratic lawmakers want to change the constitutional requirement for a two-thirds vote in the Legislature to pass California's annual budget.

A new poll in California shows who voted for the ban on same-sex marriage -- and who didn't.

The race isn't until Valentine's Day but Thursday the specific route details for the 2009 Amgen Tour of California were released. 3 p.m.: 2009 Amgen Tour news conference live-stream 

AP - Three men, including a small-town police chief, were indicted Thursday on involuntary manslaughter counts in the gun-fair death of an 8-year-old who accidentally shot himself in the head with an Uzi that a prosecutor said he never should have been allowed to handle.

AP - The people of Kansas City thought they were getting a straight-shooter with financial smarts as their new mayor. What they got, critics say, is a henpecked husband who needs his wife to tell him what to do.

AP - Two teenage girls who worked at a nursing home have been charged with abuse, accused of taunting, spitting on and groping residents who suffered from Alzheimer's disease.

AP - In the last months of his administration, President Lyndon Johnson voiced worry over the Vietnam peace talks and stridently suggested that associates of Richard Nixon were attempting to keep South Vietnam away from the table until after the 1968 election, recordings of telephone conversations released Thursday show.

AP - If O.J. Simpson is looking for a break from the Nevada judge who will sentence him for kidnapping and armed robbery, he may be in the wrong courtroom.

AP - A California couple has been charged with kidnapping and torturing a 17-year-old boy police say they sometimes kept shackled in their home.

AP - Federal prosecutors twice pursued a former autoworker suspected of running a multimillion-dollar drug operation. The first attempt fizzled when Clarence Carson died shortly after an indictment. The second? Blame it on the collapse of Detroit's real-estate market.

AP - Voters' economic status and religious convictions played a greater role than race and age in determining whether they supported the Nov. 4 ballot measure outlawing same-sex marriage in California, a new poll shows.

AP - Six weeks after someone with HIV said dozens of students at a St. Louis high school might have been exposed to the virus, it remains unclear whether an outbreak has occurred.

AP - Special court-appointed investigators are seeking fines against Gov. Matt Blunt, alleging he "knowingly and purposely" violated Missouri's public-records law by denying access to e-mails.

AP - Drivers in New York City would pay to cross the East River and companies would be taxed on their payrolls under a proposal to stanch financial bleeding at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

AP - For those hard-to-please people on your holiday gift list this year, consider some unusual presents: the chance to hang out with Bill O'Reilly, sing with Aretha Franklin or tour the Capitol with Nancy Pelosi.

AP - Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison on Thursday took the first step toward a run for governor, setting the stage for a contentious challenge in 2010 against fellow Republican Rick Perry, the longest-serving leader in state history.