Once more, attorney Christopher Asvar has set the record for the highest known workers’ compensation settlement or award in the nation.

Firefighters and construction workers frantically shoveled at a construction site where a man was trapped in a confined space Monday, authorities said. Two men were digging footings next to the wall when it collapsed, fire officials said.

Firefighters battled a massive gas-fed inferno Monday night at a commercial food processing plant in South Los Angeles, and officials said explosions were heard from inside the burning building.

A north Torrance man has won more than $1.3 million from an insurance company that declined to fully cover a claim of about $134,000 in property damage caused when burglars broke into his home, then flooded part of it when they filled the bathtub and left the taps on before fleeing.

A runaway bull caused a six-car pileup in the East Bay Monday night. At 7:59 p.m., the California Highway Patrol received a call about a bull walking in the fast lane on eastbound state Highway 4 east of McEwen Road in unincorporated Contra Costa County.

The next rainy season is only months away and the California insurance industry faces a "significant risk" from the Oroville Dam and its damaged spillway. Experts are cautioning the industry, residents of the region and pretty much anyone else who will listen about that the next time the waters rise could end far worse than the last time.

When mass-producing packaged foods, one of the goals is to prevent pieces of the processing equipment out of the food. A plant that makes José Olé products came up short of that aspiration, resulting in a recall of 17.5 tons of taquitos that could contain pieces of plastic and rubber.

One person is confirmed dead, seven were rescued and three suffered injuries from smoke inhalation this morning in a four-alarm fire in West Oakland, according to fire officials.

The state is considering dropping out of the nationwide program in favor of establishing its own. California flood insurance found itself in the spotlight last month when the Oroville Dam threatened to fail.

A fire roared through the second floor of an East Hollywood strip mall and threatened nearby apartments before it was brought under control early Tuesday morning, officials said.

A traffic collision led to a sheared fire hydrant, downed power lines and a raging structure fire in Santa Fe Springs Monday afternoon.

First the flood, now the mold — and for many San Jose residents the coughing and sneezing has already begun. It takes only 48 to 72 hours, most experts agree, for fungi to invade a home.

For decades, trucking has provided big-rig driver Frank Mora and his family a decent living. He doesn’t expect that will last forever. Most major truck manufacturers and several well-funded startups are busy testing automated or driver-free vehicles.

The odds of the earth moving beneath the feet of Southern Californians just got a lot higher. According to a newly published study, a fault line that stretches along that coast could produce earthquakes far more severe than previously suspected.

On Friday, the meteorology community was riding a major high as stunningly high-definition images came in from the nation’s newest and much-anticipated earth observation satellite. The high came crashing down that evening, though, as the first hints of significant cuts to the budget of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began to emerge.