western news

Single men, listen up: Sacramento, Calif., is the only metropolitan area on the West Coast where there are more single women than men.

What has the region's singles scene so lopsided are the 20,000 more single women than single men over age 34, according U.S. census data from 2006.

Tough times are driving record demand for a little-known state program that pays partial unemployment benefits to workers whose hours and wages have been cut.

Mayor Gavin Newsom -- a Democratic gubernatorial candidate -- has raised nearly $1.2 million in charitable donations to his pet projects from scores of supporters with business before the city, including developers, landlords, unions, health-care providers and airlines, city records show.

An estimated $100 million in potential sales tax revenue never makes it into California's and won't any time soon, even in a monumental year of budget shortfalls.

Diners in the courtyard of Sophia's Thai Bar and Kitchen in Davis, Calif., will want to enjoy the shade while they can, because the black walnut tree providing the canopy is at risk.

"Thousand cankers disease," the coined name for a newly discovered pathogen, is infecting and slowly killing hundreds of black walnut trees in California and seven other Western states.

Recession-battered California hospitals are asking state lawmakers to provide relief from seismic safety rules that could prompt closure of facilities that don't meet impending deadlines.

In the race to check the H1N1 pandemic, some California nurses are at odds with their hospitals. They complain that rules on the use of one simple, yet important weapon -- respirators -- may not protect them from on-the-job exposure to the virus.

But hospitals counter that their respirator practices are safe.

Financial desperation may be driving more Californians to ditch their cars or set them on fire to get an insurance payout, according to the California Department of Insurance.

The state agency, led by insurance commissioner Steve Poizner, recorded 300 more suspected fraud cases involving arson and theft in 2008 than in 2007.

Federal officials plan next month to round up and trap 130 or more wild burros that roam in and around Death Valley National Park and the Army's Fort Irwin, part of a longtime effort to clear the animals from most government land in Southern California deserts.

Wild horse and burro advocates say the animals should be left alone.

Willie Horton's shadow haunts California's capitol as lawmakers wrestle with how to cut $1.2 billion from state prisons without endangering public safety.