State and federal prosecutors have charged seven people in an alleged securities scam that cheated dozens of people out of $17 million.

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Hot weather brings a spike in demand for water and power, so Hoover Dam keeps humming all summer long.

NORWALK, Calif. (AP) -- Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies say tips from the public helped lead to the arrest of a suspect who allegedly robbed a man outside a convenience store while holding a 3-year-old boy in his arms.

AVALON, Calif. (AP) -- Birth control for bison?

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- California's unemployment rate rose to 12.5 percent in October to set another modern record.

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) -- Nevada's unemployment rate leveled out a bit in October, at 13 percent.

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) -- A 16-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with a gang-related shooting that killed a man and wounded two others near a fire station in San Bernardino.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- As the nation's military academies try to recruit more minorities, they aren't getting much help from members of Congress from big-city districts with large numbers of blacks, Hispanics and Asians.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- As protests resounded outside, the University of California Board of Regents approved a fee 32 percent fee increase for students attending the state's premier public schools.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Los Angeles cold-case detectives have arrested a man charged with murdering a 65-year-old woman nearly three decades ago.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A Los Angeles gang member has been sentenced to death for fatally shooting two people at a Watts housing project.

SAN QUENTIN, Calif. (AP) -- Prison officials say a man convicted of a 1987 double murder has died of natural causes, 16 years after he was sent to death row at San Quentin State Prison.

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- A 17-year-old Mexican immigrant has pleaded guilty in San Diego to murdering a Border Patrol agent who was shot eight times in July.

TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. (AP) -- Two days before shipping off to war, Marine Pfc. Jesse Sheets sat inside a trailer in the Mojave Desert, his gaze fixed on a computer that flashed a rhythmic pulse of contrasting images.

MARTINEZ, Calif. (AP) -- A Berkeley man has been charged in connection with the fatal shooting earlier this year of a 17-year-old Danville boy.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The former head of San Francisco software company is being held without bail after a federal grand jury indicted him on embezzlement charges.