national

By ANNA BAKALIS
Scripps Howard News Service
Friday, October 12, 2007

From the primordial ooze to a hillside in Moorpark to a temperature-controlled basement in Santa Ana, the Pleistocene-era pachyderm made her final journey this week to Santa Barbara.

The Moorpark Mammoth, the second most complete southern mammoth skeleton in North America, is now at its permanent home at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.

"This is sort of the final journey for her," said Hugh Riley, Moorpark's assistant city manager.

By PAM LOUWAGIE
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
Friday, October 12, 2007

Talking with fellow survivors who went down with the Interstate 35W bridge, Kimberly Brown could see the frustration growing among some of them: Lost wages.

By ZEKE BARLOW
Scripps Howard News Service
Friday, October 12, 2007

After a life inside a fence, the fox had found freedom. The only thing was, it didn't want to go.

"Come on, it's OK," Dave Garcelon, president of the Institute for Wildlife Studies, whispered to the fox.

The setting sun cast a long shadow behind the cat-size animal as it looked around its new home on the western edge of Santa Cruz Island.

By SUSAN FERRIS
Sacramento Bee
Thursday, October 11, 2007

Jose Reyes was listening to a Spanish-language radio station when news broke that large numbers of immigration agents were descending on McDonald's restaurants all over the Reno area.

He'd been hearing rumors about a possible raid for days.

By BROOKE ADAMS
Salt Lake Tribune
Thursday, October 11, 2007

A Utah judge has threatened attorneys with contempt of court for making unwanted calls to jurors in the trial of polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs.

Fifth District Judge James Shumate's order says he "has been made aware of persons making unwanted, and, in some cases, harassing attempts to contact jurors in this case and members of their families."

David Finch, who served as jury foreman, was one of several jurors who received unwanted calls from a private investigator hired by Jeffs' attorneys.

"What he was trying to do was get something that would impeach the jurors so they could file an appeal," Finch said.

By KELLY ZITO
San Francisco Chronicle
Thursday, October 11, 2007

California's housing market has fallen farther and faster this year than many leading economists expected, and it appears the worst is not over, according to a new outlook from a leading trade group.

Tighter lending standards, unrealistic prices and a standoff between home buyers and sellers are expected to drive prices and sales lower in 2008 after a surprisingly weak 2007.

The median price for resales of single-family homes will drop to $553,000 in 2008, 4 percent less than the estimated $576,000 this year.

By Rocky Mountain News
Scripps Howard News Service
Thursday, October 11, 2007

A young man backing an SUV out of a driveway accidentally struck and killed his grandmother who was on the sidewalk, the Colorado State Patrol said.

By
Scripps Howard News Service
Thursday, October 11, 2007

This is a second test

By CAROLYN SAID
San Francisco Chronicle
Thursday, October 11, 2007

Mortgage lenders rarely help homeowners struggling with rapidly increasing adjustable mortgages, according to a survey of 33 California housing counseling agencies released this week.

Only one agency responding to the survey said that loan modification -- adjusting a mortgage's terms to make it more affordable -- is among the most common outcomes for its clients.

By JIM DOWNING
Sacramento Bee
Wednesday, October 10, 2007

As a child in Lancaster County, Pa., Susan Cobey always liked creepy-crawly things.

"I just liked hanging out in the backyard catching bugs," she said.

When she finished college at the University of Delaware in 1976 with a degree in entomology, she found that most job prospects involved finding ways to slay bugs, not cherish them.