As a plume of smoke rose from a one-car garage in Santa Ana on Monday morning, neighbors who knew that a family lived inside rushed to pry open its door.

The family of three or four people, some of them children, was able to escape by exiting through the house, said Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Steve Concialdi. The 7:50 a.m. blaze in the 1200 block of South Magnolia Avenue was probably sparked by a cellphone charger that short-circuited, he said.

Neighbors who were unaware the family had escaped tried frantically to open the garage's tightly shut doors as they called 911.

“The...

FRESNO -- Thousands of mourners, including Gov. Jerry Brown, attended a memorial service Monday for two California Highway Patrol officers who died in a car crash on Feb. 17 as they responded to a multi-car accident.

Bagpipers played and hundreds of law enforcement officers, black bands across their badges, stood in silent salute to Juan Gonzalez, 33, and Brian Law, 34, the first CHP officers in the Fresno area to die in the line of duty in more than 50 years.

The flag-draped caskets of the two friends and partners sat inside the Save Mart Center on the Fresno State University campus.

Gonzalez...

Prosecutors on Friday added a child pornography charge against a Newport Beach pool maintenance man already accused of sexually abusing seven boys over more than a decade.

Christopher Bryan McKenzie, 50, has been behind bars since December 2012, when Newport Beach police arrested him on suspicion of molesting two children.

Since then, the Orange County district attorney's office has added accusations from other victims, including boys McKenzie allegedly met while he was a child-care volunteer at Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa, the Daily Pilot reported.

Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Nicole...

Santa Ana’s longtime mayor is under investigation for his relationship with an auto parts business owner, to whom the mayor sold a piece of downtown property and then voted in favor of giving an exclusive city contract.

As part of his real estate transaction, Mayor Miguel Pulido also purchased a home from the auto parts business owner at more than $200,000 below fair market value, according to property records.

Pulido later sold the home in Westminster for a $197,000 profit.

The Fair Political Practices Commission notified Pulido last week that it had opened a conflict-of-interest...

University police have increased patrols at UC Santa Barbara and in the surrounding neighborhood after a woman was gang raped in the middle of the night over the weekend, authorities said Monday.

The woman was attacked by three men sometime between 11 p.m. Saturday and 4 a.m. Sunday in Isla Vista, a densely populated unincorporated community of apartments next to the college campus.

The woman then went home and reported the rape to her roommate and authorities. Sheriff’s deputies searched the area but haven’t made any arrests.

It’s the second gang rape of a UCSB student in...

State Sen. Ronald S. Calderon (D-Montebello) was taken into custody Monday after surrendering to federal authorities in Los Angeles, officials announced.

Calderon, who was indicted last week on corruption charges and accused of taking $100,000 in bribes, is scheduled to appear for arraignment in federal court later in the day, according to the U.S. attorney's office. He faces 24 counts of fraud, wire fraud, honest services fraud, bribery, conspiracy to commit money laundering, money laundering and aiding in the filing of false tax returns.

Federal authorities allege that Calderon, 56, took the...

Actress Amanda Bynes was convicted Monday of reckless driving in April 2012 when she crashed into an L.A. County sheriff's deputy's cruiser.

Her no-contest plea was entered by her attorney, Richard Hutton, a renowned expert on driving-under-the-influence cases.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Edward Moreton sentenced the "She's the Man" star to three years of probation and three months of alcohol education classes, said Jane Robison, an L.A. County district attorney's spokeswoman.

PHOTOS: Amanda Bynes through the years

The charge known as "wet reckless" is among the lowest offenses...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Party hosts who ask guests to pay a cover charge to defray costs may be held legally responsible if an underage drinker becomes intoxicated and hurts himself or others, the California Supreme Court decided Monday.

In a unanimous ruling, the state high court said a cover charge amounts to a sale of alcohol, and state law creates liability for those who sell alcohol to obviously intoxicated minors.

The decision is most likely to affect student parties, where underage drinking and cover charges are common.

The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed by the parents of Andrew Ennabe,...

Authorities say the man who was killed Sunday when Salma Hayek’s brother crashed his sports car was a 43-year-old Mexican national.

Sami Hayek, 40, was driving a 2006 Ford GT eastbound on a curvy stretch of Sunset Boulevard near Mapleton Drive in Beverly Crest at 4:20 p.m. when he lost control and crossed into the street's westbound lanes, colliding with a Toyota Tacoma truck, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Investigators didn’t say how fast Hayek was driving when he allegedly lost control.

A 43-year-old passenger in the GT, whose name was being withheld pending...

SAN FRANCISCO -- State Sen. Mark Leno announced legislation Monday that would modify state law in order to dissuade real estate speculators in San Francisco from displacing long-term tenants from rent-controlled units.

The proposed changes to the Ellis Act, enacted in 1985 to allow owners a path out of the rental business, come during a housing boom in San Francisco that has led to high-profile displacements of seniors, disabled people and low-income families.

The bill proposed by Leno (D-San Francisco), would close a loophole in the Ellis Act that has allowed speculators to buy rent-...

The mother of the 13-year-old girl who became a cause celebre after being declared brain-dead at an Oakland hospital last year defended her decision to keep her daughter on a ventilator, saying the case has brought worldwide attention to her plight.

Citing alleged death threats, Jahi McMath's family has declined to say where they transferred the teen's body after she was released by Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland to the county coroner.

Jahi was declared brain-dead Dec. 12 after surgery three days earlier at the hospital to remove her tonsils, adenoids and uvula.

Family members...