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 (Aric Crabb/Staff file) Berkeley Bears football team improving in the classroom UC Berkeley set out to improve players' graduation rate before news broke that it was worst among all NCAA teams. Stricter standards for admission waivers, more tutors and a "different culture" have an effect, leaders say |
 (Livermore Police Department) Livermore: Popular youth golf pro charged with 65 counts of child molestation Andrew Nisbet, 31, worked at Las Positas Golf Course in Livermore and was charged with 65 counts of child molestation after police say he abused at least two students. |
 (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group) San Ramon Valley schools get more federal scrutiny after discrimination complaints The district will be monitored by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights for up to two years as part of a resolution to a special education discrimination complaint. |
 One year later, has Sandy Hook changed America's gun debate? What little progress gun control advocates made was hard fought and hard to come by. |
BUSINESS  (Patrick Semansky/AP Photo) Quinn: With the NSA looking for terrorists on video games, it's now time to be afraid Reports this week that U.S. national surveillance agencies have been playing games like 'World of Warcraft' and 'Second Life' has our spies looking silly. But their random digital exploits are frightening, too. |
LOCAL NEWS  ( ) East Oakland: Crews cap gas line leak that sparked fire  Crews have capped a 4-inch gas line that ruptured Tuesday morning in East Oakland and sparked an underground fire that burned for nearly four hours and prompted the evacuation of nearby homes. |
 (Courtesy photo) Teen slams into pet-grooming business on way to driver's exam A Massachusetts teen's trip to take her driver's exam ended when she slammed into a neighboring business. Full Story |
 (
NBC
) Tonight's TV picks: Kelly Clarkson gets into holiday spirit; 'Rodeo Girls' saddle up WATCH THIS:n "Kelly Clarkson's Cautionary Christmas Music Tale" (10 p.m., NBC): The pop star headlines an offbeat special that has her learning some lessons about the meaning of the holiday. |
 (
Chris Pizzello
) How Miley Cyrus landed MTV's Best Artist of 2013 honors Cyrus twerked her way to the top of the music scene this year with the most watched videos of 2013. |
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) Bay Area residents live longer; here's why Bay Area residents are among the nation's longest-lived people, surviving on average more than a decade longer than residents of rural Kentucky, West Virginia or Mississippi. |
 (HERALD FILE) Mi Pueblo files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Mi Pueblo, the festive Bay Area supermarket chain and icon of family-grown Hispanic businesses, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday, citing a dispute with its primary lender, Wells Fargo. |
