California to Require Smartphone Anti-Theft 'Kill Switches'

Smartphones in California will be required to come with a "kill switch" to render them useless if lost or stolen under a bill signed Monday by Governor Jerry Brown, the latest effort to stem an epidemic of phone theft in the most populous U.S. state. The bill would be the strongest attempt yet by a U.S. state to fight smartphone theft, which accounts for more than half of crimes in several of the state’s large cities.