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.

Coroners with the Glenn County Sheriff’s Office identified the victim in the high-speed collision that left one dead and several injured Tuesday afternoon in Orland. Weston Sites, 15, of Willows, was identified as the individual killed in the accident.

As two criminal cases became public this week, the Justice Department today announced three cases in which additional defendants have pleaded guilty to federal charges for participating in a long-running health care fraud scheme that illegally referred thousands of patients for spinal surgeries and generated nearly $600 million in fraudulent billings over an eight-year period.

48-year-old Elizabeth Louise Brown of Canyon County, a former claims adjuster, has pleaded guilty to two counts of insurance fraud with white collar crime enhancement for her scheme to defraud her employer out of more than $289,000.

A massive case of insurance fraud spearheaded by a chiropractor has ensnared seven defendants named in a pair of indictments. Riverside County prosecutors allege that $98 million was fraudulently billed to 18 insurance companies.

A Santa Barbara police officer was charged with four felonies related to worker’s compensation insurance fraud, allegedly committed while employed at the department, the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office said Monday.

We’re No. 1. Again. California led all states in auto thefts last year, and Los Angeles was the top city. L.A. saw a total of 57,247 cars stolen last year, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, almost twice as many as closest rival San Francisco’s 30,554 and more than double Houston’s 25,433 or New York-New Jersey’s 22,391.

Hundreds of firefighters gained ground Sunday against a wildfire in Los Angeles County that forced at least 5,000 people to evacuate their homes, authorities said. All evacuation orders will be lifted Sunday evening, Los Angeles County Deputy Fire Chief John Tripp said.

The rest of the world is beginning to catch up to the progress workers’ comp has made fighting the opioid scourge. Kudos to PBMs, payers, regulators, researchers and some physicians for recognizing the incredibly negative effects of opioids years ago, and taking action to mitigate some of these effects.

Firefighters battled a spectacular 5-alarm fire at a Santa Clara strip mall that sent flames and smoke towering into the early morning sky Wednesday, authorities said.

An Amtrak train collided with a car in San Leandro Tuesday afternoon killing a woman and a young child inside the car.
Firefighters responded at 1:19 p.m. to reports of a collision on the railroad tracks in the area of Washington Avenue and Chapman Road, fire spokeswoman Aisha Knowles said.

A 7-year-old boy was getting ready for bed Saturday night at his Costa Mesa home when he smelled smoke. Then he saw fire in the garage and ran to tell his dad, who had already fallen asleep watching television.