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Penn State pays tribute to Paterno at public memorial
Last debate before Florida primary
Avlon: Why debates matter
N. Florida voters: Romney's too rich
Rescued aid workers arrive at U.S. base
Gates donates $750M to fight diseases
Mob threatens Australia's PM

Brewer after heated tarmac exchange with Obama: He's 'thin-skinned'

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) weighed in saying Obama's interaction with Brewer is but one example of the President's 'prickly personality' By Aliyah Shahid / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer points at President Barack Obama after he arrived at

Obama to propose tax credit for natural gas trucks

By Ayesha Rascoe and Caren Bohan | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama was set on Thursday to promote a plan for greater use of natural gas and open up more land for offshore drilling during a campaign-style tour aimed at shoring up

Gingrich's tax return shows how much he earned, but not how he earned a living ...

WASHINGTON — Yes, Newt Gingrich beat Mitt Romney to the punch by releasing his most recent tax returns. But Gingrich still hasn't disclosed how he earned most of his $3.1 million. Gingrich's 2010 return shows that $2.4 million of his income came in

Pentagon Plan Includes Base Closings and Pay Raise Cuts

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon took the first major step toward shrinking after a decade of war as it announced on Thursday that it wanted to limit pay raises for troops, increase health insurance fees for military retirees and close bases in the United

Lawmakers Demand Answers on Google Privacy Changes

By AMY SCHATZ WASHINGTON—Lawmakers want answers from Google Inc. about new privacy policies the Internet giant announced earlier this week that would allow it to consolidate all of the user data it tracks. In a letter to Google Chief Executive Larry

In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad

The explosion ripped through Building A5 on a Friday evening last May, an eruption of fire and noise that twisted metal pipes as if they were discarded straws. When workers in the cafeteria ran outside, they saw black smoke pouring from shattered

Briefly: Verizon pulls away from AT&T, Apple philanthropy

By Mikey Campbell AT&T announced a significant quarterly loss as a result of a failed T-Mobile takeover and is now adding fewer new customers than rival Verizon Wireless, while Apple extends its charitable matching program to include part-time

Kepler telescope team finds 11 new solar systems

By Irene Klotz | CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA's planet-hunting Kepler space telescope has found 11 new planetary systems, including one with five planets all orbiting closer to their parent star than Mercury circles the Sun, scientists said

Hayward home severely damaged in afternoon fire

Firefighters remained at the scene of a one-alarm fire that caused heavy damage to a home in Hayward Thursday afternoon, a Hayward fire official said.

The fire was reported at 1:35 p.m. at 2225 Beckham Lane. Firefighters had the blaze under control by 1:43 p.m., but not before 70 to 80 percent of the house was lost, fire Capt. Thor Poulsen said.

Arriving firefighters found thick smoke and flames coming from the roof and attic of the single-family home.

After the blaze was controlled, firefighters remained on the roof making ventilation cuts to ensure that the fire was completely extinguished, Poulsen said.

He estimated that the fire caused between $150,000 and $250,000 in damage. As of 2 p.m., he was still unsure where the house's occupants were, but said no one had exited the home during the fire.

"We're still conducting several searches due to the amount of heat and smoke in this fire," Poulson said.

Family of homeless man killed by BART police files lawsuit

The family of a homeless man who was fatally shot by a BART police officer last July has filed a wrongful death and civil rights lawsuit claiming that he didn't pose a serious danger even though he was armed with two knives and a bottle.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Oakland by Chris Hill, the brother of 45-year-old Charles Hill, concedes that Charles Hill threw a knife at officers James Crowell and Myron Lee at the Civic Center BART station in San Francisco at about 9:45 p.m. on July 3.

The knife was 8 inches long and had a 4-inch blade, according to BART Police Chief Kenton Rainey.

But the suit states that the knife missed Crowell, and that Crowell then "inexplicably" and "unlawfully" shot Hill three times in the chest, mortally wounding him "even though the immediate threat of harm to Crowell had already passed and Mr. Hill was standing 15 to 20 feet away from him."

The suit, filed by Oakland civil rights attorney John Burris, said Hill "was celebrating the eve of America's Independence Day" at the Civic Center station when he was noticed by a BART employee who told police that he was holding an open bottle of alcohol on the platform.

The employee described Hill as drunk and said he wobbling on the platform "but did not mention that Hill appeared armed or that he was a threat to anyone," the suit states.

According to the suit, eyewitnesses to the incident described Hill as a "drunk hippie."

Hill "was a small, disheveled-looking middle aged white man" and stood "a mere 5-foot-6-inches tall and weighed a spindly 150 pounds" and was wearing pants, a tie-dye shirt and a long gray suit, according to the lawsuit.

It alleges that when Crowley and Lee arrived at the station they saw passengers milling about and not acting as if they perceived Hill as a threat.

The suit states that the two officers "immediately escalated the situation by shouting conflicting and confusing commands at Mr. Hill."

Hill responded by throwing down his bottle of alcohol but Crowell "further escalated the situation by pulling his firearm and aiming it at Mr. Hill," the suit says.

Hill responded by slowly "walking like Frankenstein" toward them and then throwing a knife, according to the suit.

The suit seeks unspecified damages from BART, Rainey and the two officers.

Burris said the suit was filed on behalf of Hill's brother, who lives on the East Coast, because his parents are deceased.

BART spokesman Jim Allison wasn't immediately available for comment Thursday morning.

Rainey released a video of the shooting last July 21, at which time he said Crowley had apparently shot Hill because he "felt threatened in some way."

Rainey said officers are justified in using a gun if they believe a suspect could cause "serious injury or death" either to officers or the public."

Muni bus, taxi collide outside SF Hall of Justice

A San Francisco Municipal Railway bus and a taxi collided outside the city's Hall of Justice Thursday morning.

The crash happened at about 10 a.m. outside the building at 850 Bryant St.

An officer at the scene said the cab driver had just come off of Interstate Highway 80 onto Bryant Street and was trying to make a right turn onto Gilbert Street when it cut off the bus.

The bus struck the right rear of the cab, causing it to spin around and hit a fire hydrant across the street from the Hall of Justice. The hydrant did not rupture and no water leaked.

A middle-aged woman in the cab was taken to a hospital in an ambulance but appeared to have suffered only minor injuries.

All of the passengers on the bus, an inbound 8X-Bayshore Express articulated bus, were unloaded.

Money and shoes stolen from Mission District robbery victim

A robbery victim was punched and kicked and had her money and shoes stolen by a group of attackers as she walked in San Francisco's Outer Mission neighborhood late Tuesday night, police said.

The robbery was reported at about 11:45 p.m. Tuesday in the 5600 block of Mission Street.

The victim had gotten off of a San Francisco Municipal Railway vehicle nearby when five suspects approached and surrounded her, and began to taunt her, according to police.

She tried to walk away, but one of the suspects grabbed her hair and another kicked her in the leg. The victim fell to the ground and the suspects began kicking and punching her, police said.

Before fleeing, they took her shoes and reached into her pockets and took her money, police said.

The victim was taken to San Francisco General Hospital to be treated for head pain, but is expected to survive.

No arrests have been made in the case. Anyone with information about the robbery is encouraged to call the Police Department's anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444 or send a tip by text message to TIP411.