San Bruno

Jianwei Li and two other wealthy Chinese businessmen thought they had a sure thing when they wired $1 million each to a California firm that had promised to build a fine Chinese restaurant in the Bay Area city of San Bruno. The project had an alluring budget with multiple lucky 8s - $5,888,888 - and the three investors were assured it would create enough jobs to obtain the real prize: a U.S. green card. Months passed and nothing happened. When Li's friends cornered the project developer one evening at a karaoke bar, the man, identified in court papers as Sammy Lee, apparently devised a fantastic escape.

Almost 21 million residential customers of Southern California Gas Co. will see their monthly bills increase by about 5%, or $1.94, now that state utility regulators have approved a four-year plan to guarantee revenue collected by the nation's largest natural gas distribution network. The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday granted the unit of San Diego-based Sempra Energy a rate increase totaling $1.95 billion for 2012 through 2015. The amount is $84.83 million more than current revenue but $154 million less than the company asked for at the start of a lengthy legal proceeding, the commission said.

Sections of a new $40.6-million bridge near Oceanside that will serve one of the busiest rail corridors in the nation are being torn out and rebuilt due to flaws in the concrete. Officials for the San Diego Assn. of Governments, which is funding the project, said the contractors are replacing about 500 feet of the 755-foot span over the Santa Margarita River and a nearby tidal marsh. David Hicks, an association spokesman, said the work will cost about $3 million and delay the opening of the bridge by about a year.

An Anglican church campus in Newport Beach belongs to the larger Episcopal Church Diocese of Los Angeles, an  Orange County Superior Court  judge ruled last week. St. James Anglican Church members split from the Episcopal Church nine years ago after a fissure over the ordination of a gay bishop and other issues. The court order, which comes at what could be the end of a series of court battles over three church properties on 32nd Street, was reaffirmed Monday by Judge Kim G. Dunning.

An Anglican church campus in Newport Beach belongs to the larger Episcopal Church Diocese of Los Angeles, an  Orange County Superior Court  judge ruled last week. St. James Anglican Church members split from the Episcopal Church nine years ago after a fissure over the ordination of a gay bishop and other issues. The court order, which comes at what could be the end of a series of court battles over three church properties on 32nd Street, was reaffirmed Monday by Judge Kim G. Dunning.

A division of the California Public Utilities Commission recommended Monday that the agency levy a $2.25-billion penalty against Pacific Gas and Electric Company for the deadly 2010 explosion in San Bruno. If approved, Commission officials said, the fine would be the largest ever imposed by a state regulatory agency and far beyond the previous record-setter for the agency -- a $38-million fine against PG&E for a 2008 natural gas explosion in Rancho Cordova. The September 2010 blast left eight people dead, dozens injured and more than 30 homes destroyed after a 54-year-old gas pipeline exploded underneath the suburb south of San Francisco.

In a scathing critique, federal investigators blamed Pacific Gas & Electric Co. for what one official called "baffling" mistakes that led to a gas pipeline explosion last September that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes in the Bay Area last year. The National Transportation Safety Board also said PG&E exploited the lack of monitoring by regulators, who mistakenly placed "blind trust" in the utility. The report Tuesday concluded that poor pipeline welds went undetected because of a lack of inspections by the company and inadequate monitoring by state and federal regulators.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. announced Monday that it will pay $70 million in restitution to the Bay Area city of San Bruno for a pipeline explosion that killed eight people and destroyed a neighborhood two years ago. "This money will be used for the benefit of all the citizens of our city and to help us, as a community, get beyond the tragedy and devastation caused by PG&E's explosion and fire," Mayor Jim Ruane said. The utility plans to provide the money to San Bruno within 30 days.

Reporting from San Francisco -- The head of the federal agency investigating a deadly pipeline explosion scolded Pacific Gas & Electric Co. on Wednesday for taking nearly nine months to report that there had been a gas leak near the disaster site years earlier. Deborah Hersman, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said she was "disappointed" and "frustrated" that the information came so late in the ongoing investigation of the September blast, which killed eight people and destroyed 38 houses in San Bruno, a suburb south of San Francisco.

A broken system Re " A failure of the system ," Aug. 31 The San Bruno explosion was the result of a "litany of failures" by Pacific Gas & Electric and lax regulation, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. PG&E and utility lobbyists consistently used typical arguments to head off proposed pipeline safety regulations requiring automatic shut-off valves, effective inspection methods and accurate record-keeping. As happens after many accidents, legislators may now have little choice but to ignore industry rhetoric and pass legislation that will strengthen pipeline rules.

For the fourth time in the last two weeks -- and the third in Orange County -- a pedestrian was killed after ending up in the path of an oncoming Metrolink train. The latest incident happened about 8:55 a.m. Tuesday when a person ran up to a rail crossing between the Anaheim and Orange stations at Eckhoff Street in Orange, stopped and then appeared to jump in front of the train, said Jeff Lustgarten, a Metrolink spokesman. Lustgarten said he did not yet know the person's gender.

A man accused of murder in a 2010 Baldwin Park gang shooting was one of four jail inmates the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department mistakenly released in the last year, officials revealed Tuesday. The Sheriff's Department launched an investigation that discovered that missing paperwork resulted in the suspect's release, spokesman Steve Whitmore said. He said the department subsequently noted understaffing in the clerical operations and made a decision to hire more clerical staff and add an additional supervisor to the process.

A 20-year-old woman who was the first victim in an early-morning shooting rampage in Orange County in February had been hired as a stripper by the gunman, according to law enforcement sources. Courtney Aoki , 20, was discovered shot to death in Ali Syed's bedroom after his parents frantically called 911 at 4:45 a.m. on Feb. 19. Syed left the Ladera Ranch town house and took off in the family's car, embarking on shooting rampage on Orange County freeways, randomly firing on other motorists.

Sections of a new $40.6-million bridge near Oceanside that will serve one of the busiest rail corridors in the nation are being torn out and rebuilt due to flaws in the concrete. Officials for the San Diego Assn. of Governments, which is funding the project, said the contractors are replacing about 500 feet of the 755-foot span over the Santa Margarita River and a nearby tidal marsh. David Hicks, an association spokesman, said the work will cost about $3 million and delay the opening of the bridge by about a year.

A few weeks after the death of public health leader Antronette Yancey, organizations around California and the nation will participate in an "Instant Recess" break Tuesday afternoon to honor her work. The Oakland-based Prevention Institute is asking participants to stand up at 1 p.m., click on this YouTube video and take a short exercise break led by the Los Angeles Sparks women's basketball team.  Yancey, a researcher and professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, died April 23 of lung cancer.

SAN DIEGO -- A 16-year-old girl reported missing by her family has died after being found at the base of a dam in southern San Diego County, officials said Tuesday. The girl, whose name was not released, was found Monday night at Upper Otay Lakes Dam. She was injured, possibly from a fall from the dam into the water 75 feet below, San Diego County Sheriff's Department officials said. She was airlifted by helicopter to Scripps Mercy Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, officials said.

Students will get a chance to shake their fingers in protest over being busted for shaking their behinds in a suggestive "twerking" video. The two-day suspensions meted out to 31 high school students in San Diego have been served and the students are eligible to return to class, according to a memo provided by the school superintendent to school board members. In the video, filmed on campus at Scripps Ranch High School, the students are shown twisting and thrusting their hips and buttocks, with rap music playing in the background.

Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies are looking for a man who drove his truck into hell and may have started a fire. Witnesses reported seeing a man about 2:45 a.m. Tuesday drive an older-model white Chevy pickup through the glass storefront of El Infierno restaurant- - el infierno means hell in Spanish - - then run off. Seconds after the crash, a fire erupted inside the eatery, charring the building and damaging neighboring businesses, police...