Orange County

A woman stabbed her two young daughters, critically wounding one, before trying to kill herself Wednesday morning while staying at a relative's Westminster home, police said. Thuy Le, 38, and her 3- and 5-year-old daughters were spending the night at her cousin's quaint, one-story home on Starsia Street, police said. Le and the girls slept on a spare mattress in the living room, said her cousin, Toan Pham, 51. Shortly before 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, Pham said he was awoken by children screaming.

Home prices are way down in Southern California. But the real estate information service Zillow.com says the median values in Los Angeles and Orange counties may not have fallen quite as much as is often reported. That's because the median sale price -- which provides a quick market snapshot and is reported each month in the Los Angeles Times and other media -- can exaggerate the extent of a market downturn, economists say.

A teenage Alex Rodriguez played in the National Classic. So did major leaguers Pat Burrell, J.P. Howell and Jon Garland. It has been 20 years since the National Classic was created by Placentia El Dorado Coach Steve Gullotti and Anaheim Esperanza Coach Mike Curran, and it's still going strong, with 16 of the best baseball programs in the nation ready to begin play in the four-day high school tournament starting today in Orange County.

A man accused of being drunk and at the wheel of a car that slammed into a motorcycle, killing the driver, will go on trial Monday for murder, authorities said. If convicted, Jonathan Barber, 28, could get a maximum sentence of 15 years to life in prison for the 2003 incident. Prosecutors said he was driving 100 mph on Irvine Boulevard when his car struck Carla Olsen's motorcycle, killing her. Police said he was driving on a suspended license and fled the scene.

Nearly five miles of prime surfing beaches in Newport Beach and Huntington Beach remained closed Sunday after a sewage leak created unhealthy bacteria levels in the ocean, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency. The water was contaminated early Saturday, when a local sanitation agency released 30 million gallons of partly treated sewage too close to shore. The coast between Beach Boulevard in Huntington Beach and the Newport Beach Pier will remain closed until at least this afternoon.

A 17-year-old boy was shot to death while riding a bicycle on a Buena Park street, police said Friday. Antonio Jesus Vidrio of Fullerton was in the 7300 block of 9th Street about 9 p.m. Thursday when two men on foot approached him, said Sgt. Gary Worrall, a spokesman for the Buena Park Police Department. "We don't know what the motivation was," Worrall said, "but apparently one of them shot him, and he was pronounced dead at the scene."

Orange County officials began handing out termination notices Monday to 210 social services employees whose jobs were eliminated because of a recession-related drop in tax revenue. Among those let go were social workers assigned to child and elder abuse cases and eligibility technicians who process claims for public assistance, said TerryLynn Fisher, spokeswoman for the Social Services Agency.

An Orange County judge Friday rejected a request by a county employees union to halt the layoffs of nearly 200 social service employees, many of whom were notified this week that they would lose their jobs. The cuts, a consequence of a steep drop in state funding, will proceed as scheduled, with some social workers, supervisors, secretaries and welfare eligibility technicians working their last day Jan. 19.

Authorities on Thursday began searching a Brea landfill with earthmovers and a cadaver dog in an attempt to find an 82-year-old grandmother who vanished this week. The son of Sara Mowry reported her missing from her Laguna Niguel assisted-living home Tuesday, said Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino. About 20 investigators arrived at the landfill, in the 1900 block of Valencia Avenue, at midday, acting on an investigative lead, officials said.

Bruce W. McClendon, the chief land use planner for Los Angeles County, was fired Friday by the county's chief executive. McClendon said he was called to a meeting with William T Fujioka and told he was terminated from his $191,028-a-year job as head of the Department of Regional Planning. Security officers later escorted him out of the building. Fujioka said Friday that personnel rules barred him from publicly disclosing the reason behind McClendon's termination, which was effective immediately.