CALIFORNIA

San Francisco voters backed interim Mayor Ed Lee's plan for tackling the city's rising pension expenses for its public employees over a competing plan on Tuesday's ballot, according to unofficial results on Wednesday.

Gasoline and diesel prices fell in the Portland, Oregon, market as two refineries finished seasonal overhauls, traders said.

Is the recent rate of earthquakes in Turkey, and the rest of the world, anything to be worried about?

Four masked thieves tried to rob a San Diego area casino on Wednesday by pulling a display case full of money from the lobby with their sport utility vehicle, police said.

Teen sensation Justin Bieber received a sweet kiss from fans on Wednesday when his album Under the Mistletoe debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, edging out new entries from rapper Wale and country singer Miranda Lambert.

E-mails made public by the U.S. House of Representatives appear to show a major donor to President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign and investor in Solyndra discussed federal loans to the solar company with officials, despite White House assertions to the contrary.

The fight over the AT&T/T-Mobile merger is heating up, and the argument is focused on jobs.

Professional surfer Garrett McNamara has broken the record for Largest Wave Surfed after successfully riding an enormous 90 foot wave.

The National Meat Association says a California law mandating humane treatment and euthanization of animals is preempted by a federal meat inspection law.

The holiday album is Bieber's third number one album in Billboard 200 history.

California law enforcement officials told TMZ that rapper Heavy D weighed 344 pounds at the time of his unexpected passing. TMZ reported that an associated of Heavy D's said the rapper had pneumonia as well.

The conflict between California's legalization of marijuana and a federal crackdown intensified this week, as lawyers acting on behalf of dispensaries and medical marijuana patients sought to halt government enforcement they said was unconstitutional.

Occupy Denver has elected a three-year-old dog named Shelby as its official leader.

Fifty-eight percent of Mississippi voters rejected the so-called Personhood Amendment on Tuesday.

Barclays Capital believes that iCloud could be Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) most important new service since the launch of iTunes in 2003.

Chipmaker Nvidia Corp, rushing to stake out more territory in tablets and smartphones, said its new Tegra 3 processor delivers up to three times the graphics performance of its predecessor and uses 61 percent less power.

Mississippi voters rejected a ballot initiative Tuesday to declare that a human life begins at conception. The measure would have effectively banned abortions in the state and legally challenged abortion rights nationwide as it conflicts with the Supreme Court 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortions.

Putting animal rights over fashion and its own vibrant shopping scene, West Hollywood's leaders gave final approval on Tuesday to a first-in-the-nation ban on the sale of fur clothing within city limits.

A black asteroid as big as an aircraft carrier zoomed past Earth on Tuesday, delighting astronomers who trained telescopes on the ancient body in hopes of learning more about its composition and origin.

A UC San Diego study shows autistic children have an average of 67 percent more brain cells, with significantly heavier brains than their normally developing peers. The excess of brain cells in the prefrontal cortex suggest autism begins in the womb, not (as previously imagined) in infancy or toddlerhood. Extra brain cells cause autistic kids to have too much of a good thing.

Improved job growth and positive leasing fundamentals point to continued recovery in the office and industrial sectors, but buyers continue to focus on major cities over tertiary markets, according to a webcast on Tuesday from commercial real estate brokerage Marcus & Millichap.