On what should have been a carefree day of reconnecting with friends and settling into new classes recently, more than two dozen students at the University of California, Berkeley, sat in uneasy silence outside the financial aid office.

The airy room on the second floor of Sproul Hall took on the desperate feeling of an unemployment office, with students waiting their turn to plead for emergency loans.

“I want to have enough money to pay for school,” Daniel Seman, a junior majoring in English and music, said as he waited to see a financial aid counselor last Wednesday. “My mom is really worried.”

Mr. Seman, 23, said he had already spent an emergency loan of $500 from the university on books and food. But faced with about $7,230 for tuition and fees this semester, roughly $1,000 more than the fall semester last year, he was back in line trying to get another loan.

FBI agents executed search warrants Thursday morning at the headquarters of California solar firm Solyndra, which received a $535 million loan from the federal government before filing for bankruptcy last week, FoxNews.com confirms.

Agents executed the search warrants at the company's headquarters in Fremont as part of a joint operation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Energy and the Office of Inspector General, FBI spokesman Peter Lee said.

Lee told FoxNews.com that "multiple search warrants" were executed but said he could not provide details on what prompted the investigation.

The percentage of working-age Californians with jobs has fallen to a record low, and employment may not return to pre-recession levels until the second half of the decade, according to a research group.

Just 55.4 percent of working-age Californians, defined as those 16 or older, had a job in July, down from 56.2 percent a year earlier and the lowest level since 1976, the Sacramento- based California Budget Project said in a report released late yesterday.

California’s 12 percent unemployment rate in July, the nation’s second-highest after Nevada, compared with 9.1 percent nationwide. The most-populous state lost 1.4 million jobs during the recession that began three years ago, and has gained back only 226,800, or about 17 percent, according to the report.

Alissa Anderson, deputy director of the research group, which concentrates on issues facing low- and middle-class Californians, said women have disproportionately trailed men in regaining jobs.

The college dreams of thousands of students who are illegal immigrants moved closer to fulfillment Wednesday after the state Senate approved a bill that for the first time would give them access to public financial aid.

Part of a two-bill package known as the California Dream Act, the measure would allow undocumented students who qualify for reduced in-state tuition to apply for Cal Grants, community college waivers and other public aid programs. To be eligible, they must be California high school graduates who attended schools in the state at least three years, and demonstrate financial need and academic merit.

The Senate vote brought relief to Brian Lee, a UCLA undergraduate who was brought to the U.S. at age 4 from South Korea and fell out of legal status when his mother did not renew their visas. Lee, a biology major who hopes to become a dentist, said the chance to apply for financial aid would help him

Restaurant owner Gary Honeycutt says a push in California’s Legislature to ban the plastic foam containers he uses to serve up takeout meals could cost him thousands of dollars in an industry where profit margins are razor thin.

BJ’s Kountry Kitchen, in the heart of California’s farm country, uses about 26,000 of the 9-inch foam clamshells a year, mostly for takeout by the customers who come in for the restaurant’s popular breakfast omelets.

“We put cheese on those omelets. And when we put the cheese on, it’s really hot and bubbly and it goes right through the biodegradable stuff,’’ he said. He said he expects his costs would more than double if the state requires him to use only biodegradable cartons.

In a major victory for immigrant advocates, a key state Senate committee cleared the most significant obstacle to a bill that would give college students who are illegal immigrants access to public aid for the first time.

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the final part of a two-bill package known as the California Dream Act, which would allow students who qualify for reduced in-state tuition to apply for an estimated $40 million in Cal Grants, community college fee waivers, and other public scholarship and grant programs.

For Javiera Infante, a 24-year-old Los Angeles Valley College student from Chile, the committee action brought her dreams of becoming a Spanish-literature professor closer to reality. Infante, who entered the United States legally with her family at age 12 but overstayed her visa, said her mother works as a day-care assistant but that money is so tight her family often has to choose between buying food and paying for schooling.

Three Mexican nationals attempted to illegally land their boat on California's Huntington Beach Sunday -- about a mile away from where crowds were forming to watch a professional surfing contest.

Lifeguards spotted the small fishing boat at around 8:30 a.m., but when the men realized they had been spotted, they turned back to sea and were seen throwing a package overboard, The Orange County Register reported.

A number of people were on the beach at the time, for the U.S. Open of Surfing.

It is believed the men in the boat were smuggling drugs across the border from Mexico.

All three were arrested and taken into custody by U.S. Border Patrol agents on suspicion of smuggling and attempting to enter the U.S. illegally.

There are fewer undocumented immigrants in California – and the Sacramento region – because many are now finding the American dream south of the border.

"It's now easier to buy homes on credit, find a job and access higher education in Mexico," Sacramento's Mexican consul general, Carlos González Gutiérrez, said Wednesday. "We have become a middle-class country."

Mexico's unemployment rate is now 4.9 percent, compared with 9.4 percent joblessness in the United States.

Records show nearly 60,000 of California’s more than 2 million disabled parking placards issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles may have been sent to dead people.

The DMV checks state death records every two years and the Los Angeles Times says this year’s cross-check uncovered about 56,000 deceased placard holders.

The DMV misses many deceased people because of mismatched birth dates.

The DMV says fraudulent use of disabled parking placards, which allow motorists to park for free or in special designated spaces, is on the rise. More than a third of the placards displayed in vehicles are used illegally.

The DMV says it is studying ways to make the process more efficient.

California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law on Monday a bill allowing illegal immigrants to receive privately funded scholarships to attend the state's public colleges and universities.

The bill, dubbed the California Dream Act, passed the state Legislature earlier this month and aims at helping illegal immigrants who have earned a high school diploma after attending at least three years of high school in the state.

"At the end of the day, if we're going to continue as a powerful, equal-opportunity society, we're going to have to invest in our people," Brown, a Democrat, said at the signing ceremony in the library of a Los Angeles community college.

The state law is named after a national bill introduced in Congress last year to give young, undocumented immigrants who have lived in the United States for at least five years a path to citizenship through college or military service.

Discovery Channel is set to announce a potentially controversial new series: A docu-soap reality show set in the country’s largest medical marijuana distributorship and starring a pot reform activist. This fall, the network will unveil Weed Wars, where cameras follow the day-to-day dealings of a California ganja store.
The show follows Steve DeAngelo, the owner of Oakland’s Harborside Health Center, which serves 80,000 clients. According to the network, DeAngelo strives to provide patients with the highest-quality product and uses his business to promote the national regulation and taxation of cannabis.

Buffeted by high taxes, strict regulations and uncertain state budgets, a growing number of California companies are seeking friendlier business environments outside of the Golden State.

And governors around the country, smelling blood in the water, have stepped up their courtship of California companies. Officials in states like Florida, Texas, Arizona and Utah are telling California firms how business-friendly they are in comparison.

Companies are "disinvesting" in California at a rate five times greater than just two years ago, said Joseph Vranich, a business relocation expert based in Irvine. This includes leaving altogether, establishing divisions elsewhere or opting not to set up shop in California.

"There is a feeling that the state is not stable," Vranich said. "Sacramento can't get its act together...and that includes the governor, legislators and regulatory agencies that are running wild."

The chief psychiatrist for California’s overcrowded prison system was paid $838,706 in 2010, more than any other state employee that year, payroll figures released today show.

The doctor, whose name wasn’t released, had a salary range of $261,408 to $308,640, according to data released today by California Controller John Chiang. The total compensation was raised by bonuses or payout of unused vacation time, according to the controller’s office.

The figures show that the 10 highest-paid state employees each earned more than $500,000 in 2010, for a total of $6.2 million. All but three were doctors or dentists for the Corrections Department. Joe Dear, the chief investment officer at the California Public Employees Retirement System, ranked seventh with a gross pay of $548,142, the data show.

Is the state of California about to go “South”?

Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone apparently thinks so, after proposing that the county lead a campaign for as many as 13 Southern California counties to secede from the state.

Stone said in a statement late Thursday that Riverside, Imperial, San Diego, Orange, San Bernardino, Kings, Kern, Fresno, Tulare, Inyo, Madera, Mariposa and Mono counties should form the new state of South California.

The creation of the new state would allow officials to focus on securing borders, balancing budgets, improving schools and creating a vibrant economy, he said.

The L.A. school board's decision to stop serving flavored milks on campuses is just the beginning.

A menu overhaul is underway that will mean fewer meals that resemble fast food and more vegetarian offerings. Spinach tortellini in butternut squash sauce and California sushi rolls, along with many ethnic foods, are to be added.

Corn dogs, chicken nuggets and other breaded items are out, said Dennis Barrett, food services director.

A federal judge on Tuesday upheld a gay judge's ruling to strike down California's same-sex marriage ban.

Chief U.S. District Judge James Ware said former Chief Judge Vaughn Walker did not have to divulge whether he wanted to marry his own gay partner before he declared last year that voter-approved Proposition 8 was unconstitutional.

Lawyers for backers of the ban argued at a hearing Monday that Walker should have recused himself or disclosed his relationship because he and his partner stood to personally benefit from the verdict.

Walker publicly revealed after he retired in February that he is in a 10-year relationship with a man. Rumors that he was gay had circulated before and after he presided over the trial in early 2010.

One of California's largest labor unions today advanced a plan intended to result in the election of more moderate Republicans.

By creating a Republican political action committee, Service Employees International Union California officials say they hope to help send people from right-leaning areas to Sacramento who put practical solutions in front of strict conservative thinking.

"Our legislators are harangued by radio talk show hosts like John and Ken and D.C. ideologues like Grover Norquist," said Bob Schoonover, president of SEIU Local 721 in Southern California.
Schoonover, a registered Republican, said lawmakers are afraid to do the right thing.

"We've lost the art of compromise that allows us to make deals in tough times," he said.

With over 35 million people and two centers that are unrivaled in their industries (Hollywood and Silicon Valley), California is a goliath economic engine. Unwieldy and politically challenged (mainly due to the state’s love of direct democracy allowing the public to vote on state laws), the state never ceases to amaze in terms of the progressive legislation it’s able to pass – not to mention the effect the largest state has on policy nationwide and globally. For instance, vehicle emissions standards at the federal level have taken a monumental leap forward because of clean air legislation passed by the state decades ago.

After San Francisco banned styrofoam in 2007, over 50 other municipalities in the state of California followed suit, and now, the entire state is poised to make it official–35M+ people will now get their take-out food in containers made from reusable or renewable materials as opposed to the lightweight plastic known as expanded polystyrene. The shift this law

California's attempts to switch to green energy have inadvertently put the survival of the state’s golden eagles at risk.

Scores of the protected birds have been dying each year after colliding with the blades of about 5,000 wind turbines.

Now the drive for renewable power sources, such as wind and the sun, being promoted by President Obama and state Governor Jerry Brown has raised fears that the number of newborn golden eagles may not be able to keep pace with the number of turbine fatalities.

The death count along the ridgelines of the Bay Area’s Altamount Pass Wind Resource Area has averaged 67 a year for three decades.

The 200ft high turbines, which have been operating since the 1980s, lie in the heart of the grassy canyons that are home to one of the highest densities of nesting golden eagles in the US.

There are many questions a school should ask parents of new students during the enrollment process — age, previous schools, proof of identity and residency, vaginal delivery or C-section — wait... what was that last one again?

Some parents in Roseville, CA, aren't too thrilled with being asked about which delivery method was used for the birth of their child.

"I really don't feel think the school asking if the child was delivered vaginally or by C-Section is appropriate," one mom tells CBS13 in Sacramento. Making matters more curious, for children born via C-section, the school asks the reason why. "What's next? This is an invasion of our privacy."

Nearly three-quarters of a million people in California who were unemployed in April had been out of work a year or more, according to the state Employment Development Department.  It is the only category of unemployment based on time out of work that increased year-over-year.

The EDD says another 431,000-plus people have exhausted their 99 weeks of unemployment benefits. It is not known how many of those have since found work.

New data released by the EDD show that as California continues to struggle to turn around, the workers who have been out of work the longest are having the most difficulty finding jobs.

Police and firefighters stood on a California beach and watched as a suicidal man waded into the San Francisco Bay and drowned in the surf.

The body of Raymond Zack was finally pulled from the 54-degree water by a passerby as local fire officials blamed budget cuts for their inability to save the man.

"We are absolutely going to do an investigation," Alameda, Calif., Mayor Marie Gilmore promised after the Memorial Day tragedy.

"And we are planning to do it in as transparent a way as possible."

Police and firefighters were brought to Robert Crown Memorial State Beach by a 911 call, authorities said.

Computer errors prompted California prison officials to mistakenly release an estimated 450 inmates with "a high risk for violence" as unsupervised parolees in a program meant to ease overcrowding, according to the state's inspector general.

More than 1,000 additional prisoners presenting a high risk of committing drug crimes, property crimes and other offenses were also let out, officials said.

The 5-4 decision represents one of the largest prison release orders in U.S. history. The court majority says overcrowding has caused 'suffering and death.' In a sharp dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia warns 'terrible things are sure to happen.'

Justices upheld an order from a three-judge panel in California that called for releasing 38,000 to 46,000 prisoners. Since then, the state has transferred about 9,000 state inmates to county jails. As a result, the total prison population is now about 32,000 more than the capacity limit set by the panel.
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, speaking for the majority, said California's prisons had "fallen short of minimum constitutional requirements" because of overcrowding. As many as 200 prisoners may live in gymnasium, he said, and as many as 54 prisoners share a single toilet.

The number of criminal aliens incarcerated in California rose to 102,795 in 2009, a 17 percent increase since 2003, federal auditors reported.

The California DREAM Act, which stands for Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors, was vetoed by Gov. Schwarzenegger on Oct.15. The DREAM Act was a bill that many immigrant activists were riding on to help children of illegal immigrants recei

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is facing a growing number of problems preparing his state's budget due to previous deals he approved. Due to a number of agreements Schwarzenegger approved to benefit the state earlier in his tenure as governor, he n

In Santa Barbara, California, on June 27, 1990, I left my office just after five o’clock to go to a nearby building for labor negotiations. The Santa Ana winds blew so strongly that I could not stand straight. And it was hot—over 100 degrees. I checke

Six illegals stole food and water that was provided for those fleeing fires in California. The latimes.com headline, sidelining political correctness for one word, actually called the robbers “illegals” in this read : “Six illegal immigrants arreste

At least six illegal aliens are hospitalized – one in critical condition – from severe burns after challenging the California wildfires in their crossing of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The major north-south freeway through north Los Angeles County was shut down Saturday after a fiery pileup in a truck-only tunnel injured at least 10 people and left at least one person missing.

The theory of Mexican re-occupation of its lost territories doesn't look so ridiculous if one were to examine the demographic trends in the Southwest.In another 20 to 30 years Latinos will comprise more than 50% of the population in California.

In a shameless effort to gain additional Congressional seats, California Democrat Senator Barbara Boxer has attached an amendment to a spending bill that will block federal immigration enforcement until after the 2010 census. The idea is to count all ille

LOS ANGELES - A former lawmaker from El Salvador wanted in his country on money laundering charges was arrested Friday in Southern California, authorities said. Roberto Carlos Silva-Pereira, 33, who has been sought since he was charged in March in the Cen

Students and immigration rights activists are planning to march through Sacramento to the state Capitol in support of a new bill. They want Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign the "California Dream Act." The bill would allow students who entered the United

Anti-illegal immigration activists protested again Saturday in front of St. Peter's Catholic Church in Fallbrook and said they planned to present its leaders with a petition demanding they close a day-labor hiring site on the church's property. About 40 S

Three suspected illegal immigrants, including a 10-year-old child, were found trapped in the underside of a van early Friday morning after they were abandoned and heard screaming for help. Police got a call about 4 a.m. reporting that screaming could be h

Bad news about California and its future continues. As a result many residents, myself included, are contemplating what may be the inevitable - leaving the once Golden State. Among California’s most pressing problems is the state’s water shortage. Acc

Detective Joe Greco of the Lake Elsinore Police Department described the incident as "something out of a Quentin Tarantino movie."

A TV ad campaign on California television stations has drawn attention on the overpopulation issue in the state and wants presidential candidates to seriously look into the matter, as reported by Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS). Immigrati

"Because the plain, unambiguous language of Proposition 22 is concerned only with who is entitled to obtain the status of marriage, and not with the rights and obligations associated with marriage, (state law) does not add to, or take away from, Propositi