Wildfires across Northern California have prompted the governor to take immediate action.
On Saturday, Gov. Jerry Brown issued a state of emergency, securing firefighting cost reimbursement for local and state agencies responding to the fires.
Hundreds of classic cars will be cruising down Sacramento streets Saturday afternoon during this year's California Automobile Museum Car Cruise.
The route starts at Sacramento State University at 4 p.m. as cars drive down Fair Oaks Boulevard and Fulton Avenue.
The event ends with a huge car show between El Camino and Marconi Avenue and will feature a beer garden, food trucks and a music festival.
People can register their classic ride at Sac State starting at 1 p.m. The on-site fee is $50.
You can find all the information about the California Automobile Museum Car Cruise at http://bit.ly/1shkv7P
SACRAMENTO (AP) - Officials say the executive director of a zoo in Northern California has died unexpectedly during a trip overseas.
Mary Healy, the executive director and chief executive officer of the Sacramento Zoo, died Thursday while traveling to the Galapagos Islands.
Zoo spokeswoman Tonja Candelaria said Saturday the 61-year-old Healy had left a port in Ecuador by ship when she suffered a cerebral aneurysm and was declared brain dead.
Candelaria says Healy was headed to the Galapagos Islands on business and vacation to see animals in the wild and their habitats. Healy's husband was traveling with her.
The widely respected Healy, who had been the Sacramento Zoo's director for nearly 15 years, also worked at zoos in Texas and South Carolina and at a Disney animal park in Florida.
CITRUS HEIGHTS - The Sacramento County sheriff's bomb squad blew up suspicious materials and arrested a man Thursday morning after firefighters extinguished a kitchen fire at a home in Citrus Heights Wednesday night.
Sacramento Metro Fire Department responded to a kitchen fire in the 7500 block of Peachtree Avenue shortly before 6 p.m.
After firefighters put out the fire, they found containers of suspicious materials and contacted Citrus Heights police to investigate.
When police arrived, they believed the containers to be unstable and potentially explosive. They called the bomb squad to assist and confirm.
Several residences in the nearby area were evacuated as a precaution. Paula Strike was not allowed to drive her car to her home along the block. She was told she would have to walk in and then shelter in place.
A Citrus Heights man arrested this week when law enforcement reported finding explosive materials in his duplex is facing three felonies.
The Sacramento County District Attorney's Office has filed charges of possession of a destructive device, possession of ingredients to make a destructive device, and possession of a firearm silencer against Cale Robert Crase, 25.
Sacramento Metro firefighters were dispatched to put out a kitchen fire at the suspect's Peachtree Avenue home Wednesday evening. What they saw in the duplex led them to call for police. A HAZMAT unit, the FBI and ATF also responded. Neighbors were evacuated. Thursday, HAZMAT was still removing potentially explosive materials from the home and detonating them.
Crase was rearrested Friday. He was booked in Sacramento County Jail on $500,000 bail.
Crase is due to appear in court Tuesday, Aug. 19.
CITRUS HEIGHTS (AP) - Authorities say a man who crashed into another car during a high-speed chase in Citrus Heights, injuring a driver, was convicted 10 years ago of killing a prison officer in another car accident.
The Sacramento Bee reports
that 39-year-old Scott Richard St. Pierre had an outstanding felony warrant from Placer County. The pursuit began Thursday night when Citrus Heights police officers spotted him and he wouldn't stop.
Lt. Jason Russo said the chase ended when St. Pierre crashed into another vehicle. The other driver suffered non-life threatening injuries.
St. Pierre was arrested at the scene.
In 2004, St. Pierre crashed into another car, killing a Folsom prison correctional officer.
The Sacramento County Coroner's Office released the names of two motorcyclists killed in a crash in Antelope Friday night.
They have been identified as Zackary Kirk, 23, of Roseville and Jason McQuay, 29, of Rio Linda.
Kirk and McQuatt died when they crashed into a Jeep Cherokee just east of Watt Avenue around 8:45 p.m. Friday, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Chad Hertzell.
Hertzell said they had been racing down Antelope Road..
Witnesses said the motorcyclists were going about 65 to 70 miles per hour. At least one of the motorcyclists was doing a "wheelie" according to the Hertzell. At the same time, a driver in a Jeep Cherokee was making a turn into a mobile home park.
"She turns left right in front of them before they have a chance to react," Hertzell said. "They both collide head-on on the right side of the jeep. Both died on impact."
SACRAMENTO - A young woman was struck and killed by one vehicle and possibly a second one in Sacramento Monday afternoon.
The California Highway Patrol identified the 18-year-old as Brianna Norman.
The collision was at Auburn Boulevard and Madison Avenue just before 4:30 p.m., according to CHP.
Norman suffered life-threatening injuries when she was struck by a woman driving a 2005 Nissan Pathfinder westbound on Madison Avenue.
CHP identified the driver as 47-year-old Maria Guadalupe Valdiva of Sacramento County. She was not injured..
Norman appeared to dart into traffic outside of the intersection crosswalk. She had just come out of a 7-Eleven convenience store on the corner and was on southbound Madison when she was struck by the Nissan.
A motor scooter crash Monday morning sent two people to the hospital and shut down two lanes at Sunrise Boulevard and Antelope Road, according to Citrus Height Police.
Two men were on the scooter when it crashed for unknown reasons around 3:30 a.m. Police described their injuries as moderate to major. Neither was wearing a helmet, according to police.
No other vehicles were involved.
All lanes in all directions at the intersection of Antelope Road and Sunrise Boulevard have been reopened.
A bicyclist is in critical condition after striking a van Monday in Citrus Heights, police said.
The name of the bicyclist has not been released. He was not wearing a helmet when the collision occurred.
Police said the bicyclist was riding south on Auburn Boulevard at about 3 p.m. when he crossed Antelope Road against a red light. He struck a van that was driving west on Antelope Road and was crossing the intersection legally, police said.
The bicyclist was taken to a local hospital. The intersection of Antelope Road and Auburn Boulevard was closed for about an hour while police investigated the crash.
Anton Johnson will be sentenced to 32 years to life plus eight years in prison when he is sentenced for the first-degree murder, rape and torture of 17-year-old Rebecca Layson four and a half years ago.
Layson was found dead, hidden in bushes at Van Maren Park on Feb. 12, 2010. She hadn't returned home after going out with her boyfriend.
According to the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office, Johnson and friends had gone to the park to hang out and drink. Lawson was there with her boyfriend but didn't know Johnson and she wasn't drinking. Eventually all left except the victim, her boyfriend and Johnson.
The boyfriend, who was initially accused of harming Lawson, drank too much and became sick. Layson texted a friend she was going to walk him home.
SACRAMENTO - The West Nile virus continues to be a problem throughout California with more than twice the number of human cases compared to same time last year.
All month, public health officials have focused on preventive spraying across the region to combat the West Nile virus. One recent target was Oki Park, near Rosemont. That was good news for those gathered at the park Saturday afternoon, especially for Lyn Piegaro who was diagnosed with West Nile virus several years ago.
"It's debilitating. It's very hard, and I'm guessing for the kids and older people it's even worse, which is why I'm very happy that they spray," Piegaro said.
The website FIGHTtheBITE.net shows recently sprayed areas like the section of the American River just north of Oki Park.
A woman found guilty of stabbing another woman to death in her Foothill Farms apartment nearly three years ago was sentenced to 26 years to life in prison on Friday.
The victim, 27-year-old Jessica Brock, was found in her apartment with over 50 stab wounds more than a week after the Oct. 24, 2011 murder, according to the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office. Court records showed Brock's car was taken by Delina WIlliams after the crime and she tried to use the victim's credit card to buy gas.
Williams was convicted of first-degree murder by a Sacramento jury on July 11, 2014.
A man was shot and killed while driving in a south Citrus Heights neighborhood late Friday night.
After he was shot, the man's vehicle crashed into a light pole around 11:20 p.m. on the 7800 block of Sayonara Drive, near Lialana Way, Citrus Heights Police Officer Anthony Boehle said. Officers responded to the area after getting reports of multiple shots fired. At the scene, officers performed life saving measures until medics arrived. The 19-year-old man was transported to a nearby hospital, where he later died.
The man's identity will be released by the Sacramento County Coroner's Office after next of kin is notified, police said.
An Antelope man was was arrested early Friday morning for allegedly pointing a laser at an airborne California Highway Patrol helicopter.
According to CHP Officer Chad Hertsell, the helicopter pilot reported someone was targeting his aircraft late Thursday night-early Friday morning. The pilot said he had to remove his night goggles because of the laser.
Airborne CHP officers guided CHP officers on the ground to the 3200 block of U Street in Antelope where suspect Jacob Eligah Vandagriff, 42, was arrested at 1:30 Friday morning, Hertzell said.
Vandagriff was booked into Sacramento County Jail with bail set at $50,000.
Pointing a laser at an aircraft is a felony. Hertzell said they expect the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office to file charges Monday.
SACRAMENTO (AP) - California's transportation agency is spending $2.5 million to update its fleet of vehicles with high-tech gear.
The Sacramento Bee reported Saturday that Caltrans is installing GPS tracking devices on its 7,500 sedans, snow plows, trucks and other vehicles. The devices will report where vehicles are traveling, how long they idle and their speed among other things.
The devices will also track which employee is driving.
In July, the California Highway Patrol found a stolen Caltrans vehicle and arrested a thief within an hour of it going missing because of a GPS tracking device.
The devices cost $2.5 million and Caltrans will spend another $1.5 million on a reporting system annually.
Two people were arrested in connection to a bank robbery in Citrus Heights Saturday afternoon.
A man entered a Wells Fargo at Sunrise Boulevard and Greenback Lane just before 12:30 p.m. and demanded money, Lt. Jason Russo said. It is unknown how much money he stole. A witness said the man may have brandished a gun during the robbery.
Russo said the man got into a black Chevy sedan with another man and drove away from the scene. Officers found that the car was reported stolen. A short time later, the vehicle was found unoccupied outside of Citrus Heights city limits in Sacramento County.
A teenager is dead after a shooting at a North Highlands apartment complex late Saturday night.
According to Sacramento County Sheriff's Department spokesperson Sgt. Lisa Bowman, the shootin was on the 4300 block of Galbrath Drive.
Deputies received a call reporting that someone had been shot in the area. When they arrived, they found the teen shot in the courtyard of the complex.
He was pronounced dead at the scene. His identity will be released by the Sacramento County Coroner's Office pending notification to next of kin.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Brooklyn, New York, and Des Moines, Iowa, will host NCAA men's basketball tournament games for the first time in 2016.
The NCAA announced Monday that the other 2016 preliminary round sites are Providence, St. Louis, Raleigh, North Carolina, Oklahoma City, Denver and Spokane, Washington. Regionals will be played in Philadelphia, Chicago, Louisville, Kentucky, and Anaheim, California.
The 2017 tourney games will be played in Buffalo, New York; Indianapolis; New York; Greensboro, North Carolina; Milwaukee; Orlando, Florida; Salt Lake City; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Sacramento, California. Regionals will be in Kansas City; San Jose, California; Memphis, Tennessee; and New York.
Two men were shot in a confrontation Monday afternoon.
Emergency responders said their injuries were non-life-threatening.
The incident was on the 3800 block of Pinell Street in Sacramento at approximately 1:40 p.m.
Sacramento police Officer Michele Gigante said an Hispanic man came up to the two victims who were working on a concrete job and demanded money. The workers refused and that is when the man pulled a long-barreled gun and shot them.
The shooter then fled in a waiting car.
