By CYNTHIA HUBERT, Sacramento Bee

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Calves and piglets likely will be born at the Oregon State Fair this year. But if "the miracle of birth" happens, it will be in a quiet spot, away from bright lights and enthusiastic crowds.

Ditto at state fairs in Texas and Colorado.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Homeless men and women are getting a chance to talk in federal court about how this city treats them.

In an unusual case that focuses on their nightly searches for places to sleep, the city's down and out are pitted against city police charged with enforcing a local ordinance prohibiting camping in undesignated areas for more than 24 hours at a time.

They give you joy. They give you loyalty. They give you sloppy kisses.

But before you allow Fido or Fluffy to climb into bed with you at night, as an increasing number of Americans are doing, know that they can also give you something else: zoonoses.

After a federal judge declared that gays in California have the right to marry, couples are rushing to tie the knot - and being forced to wait.

Within an hour after a federal judge declared that gay people in California have the right to marry, Wendy Rae Hill gathered her partner, two children and mother and headed to the Sacramento County clerk's office.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - One of the State Fair's long-standing traditions is to invite the public to watch live births of cows, pigs and other farm animals to help celebrate California's rich agricultural history.

But after a pregnant cow headed for the "birthing barn" this week escaped her handlers and was shot to death by police, the practice has turned controversial.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - It is a craving so powerful that addicts will do almost anything to satisfy it.

For thousands of people hooked on heroin and other opiates, a daily swallow of methadone tames the demon and opens the door to a normal life.

LAKE OF THE PINES, Calif. - From a crowded orphanage in Haiti, Claire Marie Bryditzki seems to have landed in a little girl's dream world.

Her bedroom is on the second floor of an elegant home overlooking a lake. She sleeps in a queen-sized bed with her name painted above the headboard, and she has discovered the joys of pizza, yogurt and McDonald's french fries.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - No one thought it would be easy.

Richard Nary has moved in with his daughter and her family in a small town in Wisconsin, 35 years after leaving his wife and children, sinking into alcoholism and living on the streets of Sacramento.

The unlikely reunion has had its awkward moments, Nary's daughter Krista Szymborski said.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Animal shelters across the nation are overloaded with pit bulls, muscular terriers with a reputation for violence and fighting.

Media reports on pit bull maulings are commonplace.

On the first night he slept indoors in more than 15 years, Jeff Latchaw tossed and turned and fretted.
It was much too quiet. The mattress was too soft. Latchaw got in and out of bed, over and over.