The San Diego Stock Exchange Index closed higher Friday at 128.00, up 0.79 percent from Thursday. Advancing issues beat decliners 59 to 42, and 60 issues were unchanged.

National Guard pilots are training in Ventura County for this year's wildfire air wars, and new equipment will give the C-130 Hercules aircraft more versatility.

EBay Inc. is exploring whether to require customers to use its online payment service PayPal, a move that has angered users and prompted antitrust scrutiny in Australia, where a PayPal-only rule takes effect next month.

A school in Contra Costa County will be closed today because of an outbreak of whooping cough.

A judge has reinstated a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the family of slain rapper Notorious B.I.G., reversing an earlier decision to dismiss the case.

When Maulit Shelat heard about the Bush administration's plan to pump up the economy by sending out stimulus checks, he sat down with his wife and drew up a list of priorities: first up, remodeling the bathroom.

Dry vegetation and warm weather are forcing Santa Barbara County fire officials to declare an early start of the wildfire season.

Serial thieves preying on JCPenney jewelry counters in California have taken more than $2 million worth of gold, silver and gems, including a $100,000 heist in Escondido this week.

San Francisco officials say an investigation has found there is no indication the city is liable for injuries suffered by two brothers who were attacked by an escaped zoo tiger.

The FBI has released surveillance video of a powerful pipe bomb explosion in the lobby of the federal courthouse in downtown San Diego.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Friday that California must increase tax incentives to movie and television studios as a way to keep them from moving their productions out of state.

A judge has tentatively ruled that a Japanese man does not have to be in a Los Angeles court for his attorney to argue for dismissal of charges that he had his wife murdered in the 1980s.

A San Francisco surgeon was sentenced to six months in jail today for perjury.

When members of an anti-illegal immigration group offered to sponsor litter cleanup on local roads, they never imagined California officials would offer them an Adopt-a-Highway stretch near a Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 5, the main artery carrying illegal migrants north from the U.S.-Mexico border.

State wildlife regulators have voted to ban almost all recreational fishing of salmon in California rivers this year to protect declining chinook stocks.

A light earthquake has shaken the Southern California desert southeast of Palm Springs.

Police are investigating the dean of students at a South Los Angeles school on suspicion of hiding evidence that one of his colleagues had a sexual relationship with a student.

It's a new kind of virus for Sun Microsystems Inc.

Google Inc.'s top executives expressed hope Thursday that the Internet search leader will be able to form a potentially lucrative advertising partnership with Yahoo Inc. -- a deal that would lower the odds of Microsoft Corp. renewing its attempts to buy Yahoo.