California

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- NASA will announce the name for its next Mars rover in March, according to a latest release of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

NASA initiated the "Name the Rover" essay contest and received more than 28,000 submissions from students from kindergarten to 12th grade, 155 of whom were selected as semifinalists, according to the JPL.

The next phases of judging will reduce the competition to nine finalists, and the public will have an opportunity to vote for their favorite name online in late January.

CUDAHY, Calif. (AP) — Federal authorities will investigate why an airliner with engine trouble dumped jet fuel over a densely populated area of Southern California while making an emergency return to the airport, dousing dozens of schoolchildren in a smelly vapor.

Delta Air Lines Flight 89 to Shanghai, with 181 passengers and crew on board, turned back to Los Angeles International Airport only minutes after taking off Tuesday.

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- At the just-concluded 2020 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, many U.S. tech companies have expressed their hopes for closer exchanges and cooperation with China despite bilateral trade tensions.

Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon told Xinhua he is "super excited" about Qualcomm's business in China, and applauded the win-win cooperation between Qualcomm and its Chinese partners, such as Xiaomi, OPPO, OnePlus and vivo.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg chased California votes on Friday in dueling events, looking to sway Democrats in the state that delivers the largest haul of delegates in the presidential contest.

Appearing at a short-term housing complex for the homeless, Buttigieg promised a new era of help for people living on the streets, while Biden sought to upstage the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor with a formal endorsement from Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti attended by firefighters. The endorsement was initially announced Thursday.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The number of people arrested or stopped entering the United States on the Mexico border fell for a seventh straight month in December, with Mexicans outpacing Central Americans among the detainees, authorities said Thursday.

The tally helps explain why the U.S. has turned more attention to Mexican asylum-seekers as President Donald Trump seeks to highlight his dramatic reshaping of immigration policy in his campaign for a second term.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — In the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, no prize is bigger than California, which offers more delegates than any other state. And as candidates plot their strategies here, there’s an overlooked group of voters who could be key to victory: independents.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A billion-dollar investment last year has yet to curtail California’s growing homeless crisis, and with the state awash in revenue, Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to spend a billion more on programs aimed at getting people off the streets.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A financial tug-of-war is emerging over the $13.5 billion that the nation’s largest utility has agreed to pay to victims of recent California wildfires, as government agencies jockey for more than half the money to cover the costs of their response to the catastrophes.

Pacific Gas & Electric declared bankruptcy nearly a year ago as it faced about $36 billion in claims from people who lost family members, homes and businesses in devastating wildfires in 2017 and 2018. The utility acknowledged its power lines ignited some of the fires.

GARDENA, Calif. (AP) — The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating the crash of a speeding Tesla that killed two people in a Los Angeles suburb, the agency announced Tuesday.

Agency spokesman Sean Rushton wouldn’t say whether the Tesla Model S was on Autopilot when it crashed on Dec. 29 in Gardena. That system is designed to automatically change lanes and keep a safe distance from other vehicles.

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- California prisons recorded this year the highest number of suicides in at least 30 years, well above the national average across the United States, local media reported Saturday.

The state's suicide rate climbed to a record 28.7 per 100,000 prisoners in 2019, up from the rate of 26.3 the year before, and a total of 36 people killed themselves in prisons run by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, San Francisco Chronicle said.