California lawmakers are weighing three bills to phase out single-use plastic containers and address the state’s recycling crisis. But industry opposition looms.

In the 60 years since billionaire B. Wayne Hughes graduated from USC, he has quietly wielded power and bestowed enormous gifts at the university he loves.

SANTA ANA — Santa Ana police asked for the public’s help Wednesday, Sept. 4, in tracking down a man accused of slashing the face of his ex-girlfriend. Alexander Chicas, 44, allegedly broke into the victim’s home at about 1:50 a.m. Monday, according to Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna. Police sought Alexander Chicas, 44, on…

Three men and one woman were charged Wednesday, Sept. 4, on suspicion of kidnapping an Irvine woman to extort money from her family. Ezra Schley, 71, and Yang “Rose” Wang, 37, both of Huntington Beach; Reha Soylular, 54, of Newport Beach, and George Armando Medrano, 34, of Norco, are charged with felony counts of aggravated…

A 250-acre brush fire burned Wednesday in the grassy slopes of the La Cresta community, west of Murrieta, and limited evacuations were ordered, authorities said. The blaze had been  0% contained as of 4:30 p.m., the Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department said in a tweet when it was measured at 25 acres. By 5:40 p.m.,…

A La Mirada High School teacher accused of molesting five students on campus recently pleaded not guilty to the charges. Michael Rodriguez, 47, of Riverside was arraigned Aug. 30 in Downey Superior Court on five counts of misdemeanor child molesting, according to Ricardo Santiago, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. He…

SANTA BARBARA — Search crews have recovered the bodies of all but one of the 34 victims in the deadly fire aboard a dive boat off the coast of Southern California, authorities said Wednesday. Teams continued to search for the remains of the last person who was still missing Wednesday morning, and are developing their…

A family of five from Stockton, two high school students and the owner of a Santa Cruz diving company are among the passengers of a boat that was engulfed by flames in Southern California, sending shock waves across the Bay Area, where most of the victims hailed from. Officials have not formally named any victims,…

By BRIAN MELLEY LOS ANGELES  — Officials vowed to find what sparked the inferno aboard the dive boat Conception that killed 34 people in waters off Southern California but vital evidence may have gone down with the ship or drifted out to sea. The main piece of evidence, the charred remains of the boat, rests…

California Boat Fire: There is growing focus on the limited escape route on the boat where 34 died in the worst maritime disaster in modern California history