By HUDSON SANGREE, Sacramento Bee

Even as the definition of family in America expands and shifts, California courts are trying to keep pace by redefining whom the law regards as parents.

Judges have moved beyond traditional notions of biology and adoption and have assigned parental rights to adults with no genetic or legal ties to kids.

Open the door to a vault-like room at the University of California, Davis, and the cool sterility of a laboratory gives way to the sticky heat of the tropics, with thousands of mosquitoes buzzing in cages and feasting on blood.

New sheriffs in California's Sacramento and El Dorado counties say that, despite the deadly Tucson shootings, they are preparing to fulfill their campaign pledges to make it easier for residents to obtain concealed weapons permits.

It's the stuff of doomsday movies: A new virus jumps from animals to people, with ominous possibilities.

At the California National Primate Research Center at the University of California, Davis, last year, a newly identified form of virus devastated a monkey colony and sickened a researcher, who likely carried it outside the facility, officials said.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - It's a pet owner's nightmare.

Your dog or cat is sick or injured and you don't have the money to pay a veterinarian for treatment. Euthanasia or giving away your best friend become the only options.

The recession and unemployment have made that scenario a reality for more pet owners, animal-care experts say.

New York and other big cities fought their garbage wars. These days the battle over trash is in the rural outlands.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The painter of light is having a dark period.

Thomas Kinkade, who became one of the world's wealthiest artists with his sentimental landscapes and Christian motifs, has had a string of legal troubles.

His company owes millions of dollars to art gallery owners who successfully pressed fraud claims.

It was mayhem under the full moon in the northern reaches of California.

From the East Bay to the foothills, a series of bizarre and violent incidents this past weekend left seasoned investigators and casual observers trying to make sense of it all.

DUNNIGAN, Calif. - Yolo County Sheriff Ed Prieto has launched an investigation into claims by a couple that a deputy stuck a gun to the head of their 9-year-old daughter as officers executed a search warrant in June.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A man who put cheese down his trousers faces a life sentence when he goes before a judge next month.

Jurors convicted Robert Preston Ferguson of two counts of petty theft on Jan. 6.