CALIFORNIA

Ever wonder how Siri understands you? It's called natural language processing and, starting in January, two of the field's leaders from STanford will teach a free online course teaching you how to create these types of leading-edge programs.

A multi-million-dollar class action lawsuit against Netflix and Walmart that alleged the two companies had conspired to carve up the DVD rental and sales market between them has been dismissed.

Revenues for U.S. states may be getting better, but generally they are still not good enough.

There's no avoiding a ballot showdown over paring public employee pensions in California's third-largest city, its mayor said on Wednesday.

Prosecutors on Wednesday asked a judge to sentence Michael Jackson's former doctor to the maximum four years in prison for his involuntary manslaughter conviction in the singer's 2009 death.

When police ordered anti-Wall Street protesters out of a vacant lot in Oakland this week, the group responded as it does to nearly every challenge it has faced -- with a lively debate.

City workers dismantled tents and cleared debris from a downtown park on Wednesday as part of a restrained, daylong operation by police to peacefully end a five-week encampment by Occupy Toronto protesters.

As winter chills set in, it's time to dust off the skis and head to the hill! But before you do, check out this guide to the best of the West. This ski season preview has you covered for season dates, best runs, and directions to the top resorts.

The medicinal value of cannabis is a controversial topic. The debate centering on the legality of its use in certain situations has been unresolved for decades now, fueled, to some extent, by the U.S. federal authorities refusal to accept its possible medicinal uses. That refusal has hit the billion dollar marijuana industry hard in recent times.

Knee-deep in foul-smelling water, workers are piling office equipment, documents and food onto fiber boats that ferry them from one building on Hana Microelectronics' 12-acre company site to another with more space on higher floors.

It might be too soon for Justin Bieber to wash his hands off Mariah Yeater, whose lawyer insisted Wednesday that the crooner head to California to subject himself to a second paternity test after taking one a few days earlier to confront the allegation that he fathered her baby.

A first-in-the-nation ban on the sale of fur clothing in the trendy Southern California city of West Hollywood has been given final approval by officials after weeks of contentious debate.

The NBA meandered ever so slightly closer to resolving its five-month-long work stoppage Tuesday, with its players consolidating two class-action anti-trust suits against league owners.

A former talent manager is hoping to convince the California Supreme Court to block enforcement of the state's Talent Agencies Act.

This year's Thanksgiving travel forecast: stormy weather!

The Department of Homeland Security announced last week a sweeping review of deportation cases before immigration courts and the establishment of a nationwide retraining program for enforcement agents and prosecuting attorneys. Both are intended to focus deportations on immigrants who have committed serious crimes or who pose a threat to public safety, rather than a broad category of noncriminal immigrants.

Megyn Kelly is being petitioned on the internet to eat or drink pepper spray on national TV following her controversial characterization of the crowd control mechanism as a food product.

The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market gainers are: Yahoo, ASML Holding, Brigham Exploration, and First Solar. The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market losers are: Diamond Foods, Rambus, Netflix, Groupon, Central European Distribution, and Micron Technology.

In what appears to be the latest in a spate of illegal passageways found on the U.S.-Mexico border in recent days, border police in Nogales, Arizona, uncovered yet another drug smuggling tunnel.

The top after-market NASDAQ Stock Market gainers are: TiVo, Novellus Systems, Casual Male Retail Group, Canadian Solar, and Applied Materials. The top after-market NASDAQ Stock Market losers are: Diamond Foods, Netlist, Gulfport Energy, Sangamo Biosciences, and Expedia.

The hacker collective Anonymous has posted personal data, including the home address and phone number, of one of the University of California, Davis, police officers, who was suspended for Friday's pepper spraying of students.