San Joaquin County

Stage 7 started in Livermore, looped through East Contra Costa County and back to Livermore before the final climb up Mount Diablo, the most popular stretch for crowds.  

Bradford Island landowner and tax scofflaw Paul Sosnowski makes an attempt to get his seat back on the reclamation board that booted him last summer, much to the chagrin of the board president.  

An Antioch man who is the proprietor of an Internet sweepstakes cafe in Tracy is under investigation for allegedly running an illegal gambling operation out of the business, police said Wednesday.  

Andrew B. Katakis now faces a charge of obstruction of justice, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines if he is found guilty.  

The California Supreme Court got it right on Monday when it unanimously ruled that local governments have authority to ban certain activities -- in this case marijuana dispensaries -- from operating within their borders.  

Iberhim Bechwati, 40, faces a $388,000 bail after police raid tobacco store and find 600 vials of the highly toxic drug inside, as well as illegal weapons and tens of thousands of dollars in cash.  

Tracy police restarting it's "Are You OK?" phone service  

FRENCH CAMP -- Authorities believe they have captured or killed at least some of the stray dogs in a pack that has killed hundreds of goats in San Joaquin County.  

Jim Stevens / Bay Area News Group

As three blazes burned in the North Bay, firefighters in the South Bay and East Bay are on high alert for any sign of trouble amid high temperatures, gusty winds and vegetation dried out by low rainfall totals.  

Nine dogs are on staff at Working Dogs for Conservation, a nonprofit group of six biologists who trained their canines to work on behalf of wildlife  

District says it has cost more than $101,000 so far  

Seven of California's 10 ZIP codes most burdened by pollution are in the San Joaquin Valley and three are in Los Angeles, according to a new tool developed by state environmental officials to target communities for cleanup.  

While it remains too early to fully place blame for Monday's sinister bomb attack at the Boston Marathon, it is abundantly clear that this was an act of terror against the United States.  

Last-minute tax return filers are more likely to become careless with personal information and make a mistake on their returns that could result in losing out on a refund, paying steep penalties and falling victim to identity theft.  

Find the 2011-2012 dropout rate of any California school district.  

Council approves contract for design of the new project, first phase to be done by end of 2014  

Though the IRS paid out about $512 million in Earned Income Tax Credits to over 263,000 families or individuals in Bay Area counties for 2011 returns, an estimated 20 percent more were eligible but didn't claim them  

SACRAMENTO -- A proposal to construct two huge water diversion tunnels beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta includes plans for rerouting three, two-lane highways -- previously undisclosed projects that carry a preliminary price tag of at least $265 million, a newspaper reported.  

(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, Pool)

For the first time in AT&T Park opening day history, as a result of Defense Department budget cuts, no jets flew over the stadium at the end of the national anthem.  

Police in Tracy continue to investigate who caused more than $5,000 in damage to the Tracy Public Cemetery, and now they're offering a $100 reward for information that leads to an arrest.  

At the center of the showdown over debt write-offs looms the question of whether public employee pensions remain untouchable even at times of financial crisis. This is new legal territory.  

Despite some lingering anger over wood-burning rules, Bay Area air quality officials say a five-year burn ban has paid off for the region's 7 million residents. Data collected by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District show winter air is getting cleaner.

How the Bay Area's no-burn ban punishes violators

Database: Spare the Air no-burn violators from 2010-2012  

California's budget crisis has had many terrible consequences, but one of the most troubling has been the erosion of access to college courses. This past fall, for example, about 400,000 community college students -- nearly a quarter of the student body -- were on a waiting list to get into a class.  

As a former tour manager for the Rolling Stones, Ron Schneider has stories. From horseback riding with Keith Richards, to 100 mph car chases with unruly fans, and the time Richards nearly shot him accidently while trying out a new Derringer pistol. And then there was Altamont.  

Who says there is no good news coming out of Sacramento? Consider this: The chairman of the citizen panel established to set pay rates for the members of the state's Legislature and constitutional officers does not expect either to get a raise this year.  

Two Tracy high schools had an uninterrupted day Tuesday, the first full day of school since five bomb threats prompted four evacuations in less than a week.  

Students were sent home Monday morning after a bomb threat, the third threat against a Tracy school in the past two weeks, school district officials said.  

Students and staff were safe as Tracy police and bomb-sniffing dogs scoured the campus to confirm that the threat was unfounded, a school spokesperson said Thursday. In Fremont, a 14-year-old was arrested after he called in bomb threats to Thornton Jr. High School on Thursday morning.  

FRESNO -- California water officials are set to release the first part of a $23 billion plan to restore and protect the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta ecosystem and guarantee a stable water supply for millions of Californians.  

Three East Bay cities -- Tracy, Pleasanton and Fremont -- are on alert after a series of unrelated bomb and graffiti threats at several school campuses in the past week.