California

An explosion rocked a Murrieta, Calif., neighborhood shortly after noon Monday, according to multiple reports.Rattled residents of the city in Riverside County posted reaction on Twitter, saying the blast shook homes in the area.One video shows smoke covering a neighborhood on Clinton Keith Road as firefighters try to extinguish cascading flames that appear to encompass a corner home. At least three firetrucks are seen outside the house in the video.Both the Murrieta Police Department and the Murrieta Fire Department responded to the scene. No further details were immediately available from authorities, although residents posted on social media the explosion may have been caused by a gas [email protected]@cshalby … [Read more...] about Explosion shakes Murrieta neighborhood

A man’s body was discovered in a Tulare County lake Sunday morning, officials said.Mario Sandoval, 43, of Los Angeles was reported missing at 5:41 p.m. Saturday at Lake Success near Porterville. The Tulare County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release that deputies responded to the scene and deployed search teams on foot and by air. Sandoval’s body was found Sunday morning in the lake.Officials were not immediately available to comment on the death investigation.The Tulare County Sheriff’s Office asks anyone with information to contact [email protected] or (559) 725-4194. Woman, 69, missing in Mojave with no supplies or cellphone and wearing only a bikini » … [Read more...] about Missing L.A. man found dead in Tulare County lake

A Sacramento area man has died after crashing his motorcycle while off-roading at Oceano Dunes Vehicular Recreation Area, park officials said.State rangers and lifeguards responded to reports of the crash about 3:20 p.m. Saturday and found the 18-year-old not breathing, park officials said.Bystanders and park officials performed CPR on the man for more than 20 minutes before paramedics arrived. The man, who has not been identified, was pronounced dead at 3:53 p.m.According to park officials, the motorcyclist was following another rider and crashed off a 30-foot dune. It was unclear how fast he was traveling. The man was wearing a helmet, officials said, noting that neither alcohol nor drugs appear to be factors in the crash.The death comes as Oceano Dunes faces criticism from conservationists, who want to close vehicle access to the area. It is the sixth death this year, the Sacramento Bee [email protected] Twitter: @r_valejandra … [Read more...] about 18-year-old dies in off-road accident at Oceano Dunes

Every morning for 10 years, Joey Gamez has hopped on a boat to take customers of his Golden State Sportfishing business on a San Francisco Bay excursion, a hobby-turned-business for the 42-year-old.On Saturday, he and a group of men were hunting for sevengill sharks, also known as cow sharks, off the coast of Alcatraz Island when they made a surprising catch, Gamez said in an interview Monday morning.The longtime fisherman documented the experience in an expletive-filled Facebook live video Saturday, seen more than 40,000 times, with the backdrop of Alcatraz below hazy skies.Hours into the excursion, the men felt a strong tug at one of their lines with a salmon carcass as bait. It was unusual, Gamez said. He doesn’t normally have to pull his boat’s anchor out and follow a fish. But the men weren’t about to lose a potentially enormous catch, he said. For more than 30 minutes and two miles out of their starting point, the men took turns trying to reel in the enormous … [Read more...] about Great white shark pulls fishing boat around San Francisco Bay

The remote-control car sped along the miniature race track, dodging its competitors and hugging the makeshift walls as it navigated steep curves.The STEAM Legacy High School car — identifiable by its school colors, orange and blue — continued to surge ahead for six long hours. Andy Palomera, the car’s “driver,” knew that he had to keep the remote-control device steady or the car would crash into the others on the track.But if his car completed the most laps, his South Gate school would win a worldwide competition — and maybe someday help reduce emissions that cause global warming.“I trusted my mechanics and the whole team that the car was at its best, so I really didn’t have to worry about anything other than just driving,” Palomera, 15, said a few weeks later as he sat in the engineering classroom at STEAM Legacy High School in South Gate. “It actually felt like the car and I had a connection.” Palomera was a member of … [Read more...] about An L.A. school races to save the planet