The Trailhead Fire in the El Dorado National Forest has grown to 1,264 acres and is 12 percent contained, firefighters said Thursday morning. Smoke from the fire can be seen over the Truckee Meadows. The fire that started Tuesday in the middle fork of the American River near Todd Valley is threatening 2,600 structures.

The Kern High School District agreed Wednesday to pay $10.5 million to a former student injured in a violent dog pile that broke out during a 2010 Bakersfield High School pep rally, cutting short an ongoing civil trial that threatened to cost the district’s insurance company even more money.

Yolanda Mendoza lives every day like it’s her last. The mother of three is very happy and healthy now - a stark change from three years ago, when she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

Two mothers and their four children were killed early on Tuesday after their minivan was struck from behind by a tractor-trailer and burst into flames as it tumbled down an embankment north of Los Angeles, the California Highway Patrol said.

At least one person was killed Sunday evening when a car slammed into a taco stand in Boyle Heights. The age and gender of the victim was not released. It was also unclear if the victim was the driver or a pedestrian.

A raging central California wildfire that has already killed two people and destroyed 200 structures was still burning Sunday, and "additional fatalities are possible," authorities said.

A week after General Motors was hit with a potential class action lawsuit related to the carmakers admission that it had incorrectly calculated the fuel economy on several SUV models, the company’s Chevrolet division is facing a second lawsuit alleging it tricked consumers into paying more for diesel-engine Chevy Cruze Turbo sedans equipped with emissions-cheating software.

Two rapidly growing wildfires burning a few miles apart through drought-parched foothills northeast of Los Angeles prompted the evacuation of nearly 800 homes on Tuesday, as a heat wave continued to bake much of the U.S. Southwest for a third straight day.

Nearly two months after CRF Frozen Foods set off a massive recall of vegetables thought to be contaminated with listeria and linked to at least two deaths and eight illnesses, a second frozen vegetable supplier — National Frozen Food Corp. — has initiated a separate recall over listeria concerns, and many of the recalled products are from the nation’s largest retailers.

A 300-ton crane at a Torrance, California, refinery that Exxon Mobil Corp plans to sell fell onto a portion of a gasoline unit at the plant, industry sources said on Monday.

The Foo Fighters are suing insurers for failing to reimburse them for European shows they cancelled following the Paris terrorist attacks in November.

Firefighters worked into early Friday morning to try to contain a growing wildfire in coastal Southern California and a larger blaze in rural New Mexico as hot weather fed flames that triggered hundreds of evacuations.

A car crashed into Ray Minter’s San Jose home on Monday night. For Minter, it’s nothing new. He says it is the 19th time a car has hit his home.

A Northern California police officer died in a motorcycle crash, authorities announced Tuesday. San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia said Officer Michael Katherman, 34, was riding his patrol motorcycle in uniform when he was involved in a head-on collision with a minivan at around 4:30 p.m.

Three years ago, Silicon Valley developed a fleeting infatuation with a startup called Zee.Aero. The company had set up shop right next to Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., which was curious, because Google tightly controls most of the land in the area.