Registered sex offender John Albert Gardner III, the man charged in the death of Poway teen Chelsea King, allegedly hid a MySpace page from state prison officials while under their supervision, it was reported Thursday.

Up to 5,536 homes and businesses in the North County were without power today following two outages, according to San Diego Gas & Electric.

San Diego and Los Angeles were the only large metropolitan areas to show an increase in housing prices in January 2010 over December 2009, and among the few to post significant gains over the previous year, according to a Standard & Poor's report released today.

The parents of slain Poway High School senior Chelsea King and state Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher plan to host a two-hour community forum today as part of their campaign for stricter sex offender legislation.

Nearly 500 mourners, seated in chairs and grandstand benches, gathered under 80-degree sunny skies for the ceremony at a football stadium decked out in flowers and blue ribbons.

The unemployment rate in San Diego County dropped to 10.6 percent in February, down from 11.1 percent the previous month, the California Employment Development Department reported today.

The aircraft carrier Nimitz and three ships in its strike group returned to San Diego today, met by cheering crowds after an eight-month deployment that included operations in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

A moderate earthquake with a preliminary magnitude estimated at 4.2 hit below Mount Laguna at 8:32 a.m. today, automated seismographs report.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today directed the state Sex Offender Management Board to review the John Albert Gardner III case to determine whether systemic changes or improvements can be made to better protect the public.

To increase minority enrollment at UC San Diego, where racial tensions have been on the rise, university officials today announced new efforts to get minorities who have been admitted to the school to enroll.

The spectre of tsunami waves hitting Southern California seemed to be a washout, as the arrival of tsunami surges came and went with only a small impact observed.

A winter storm is expected to bring rain, mountain snow and gusty winds to San Diego County this weekend.

The City Council today unanimously authorized the San Diego Housing Commission to acquire a 130-room downtown hotel to be preserved as affordable housing for low-income seniors.

As part of a pilot program, nine San Diego police officers today began wearing camera-equipped headsets that will record the sights and sounds of their interactions with the public.

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors today altered the juvenile curfew law for unincorporated areas, requiring that youngsters be home by 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

A $20.2 million federal economic stimulus grant will help fund construction of an interchange between State Route 905 and Interstate 805 in the South Bay, the San Diego Association of Governments announced today.

A Mexican national accused of fatally running down a U.S. Border Patrol agent trying to stop suspected drug smugglers in Imperial County two years ago is scheduled to make his first court appearance in San Diego federal court today.

The Grossmont Union High School board of trustees, which oversees Helix High School, has voted to issue a letter of intent to revoke the school's charter.

The number of children living in poverty in San Diego County increased to the highest level in a decade between 2007 and 2008, according to a report presented today to the Board of Supervisors.

A newly released audit shows the San Diego County Treasurer-Tax Collector's Office improperly withheld about $8 million in overpayments. It also repeatedly failed to fix problems in how the office is run.

Starting today, the number of fire engine companies at 13 of San Diego's 47 fire stations will be reduced on a rotating basis. The plan is part of budget cuts recently adopted by the City Council.

San Diego County's chief administrative officer and Supervisor Greg Cox both warned Tuesday that state budget proposals would again put a squeeze on local programs in the next fiscal year.

A hard rain is headed for San Diego, with the first wave of a nearly weeklong storm expected to arrive early Monday.

Six people were injured, two seriously, when a heavily-loaded 20-foot panga, carrying 23 people, made a crash landing at Torrey Pines State Beach today, authorities said.

Motorists heading to the Palm Springs area were warned today that one of the two freeways leading to the San Gorgonio Pass will remain closed all weekend for emergency overpass repair.

San Diego Unified School District officials said today they are "cautiously optimistic" about Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's state budget proposal because it guarantees $50 billion in education funding.

Three local research institutions and the Port of San Diego today formalized the establishment of a center to study San Diego Bay. The research center is the result of a collaboration between the port, San Diego State University, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute.

Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla have discovered two new antibodies to HIV that they plan to exploit in the development of a potential AIDS vaccine, it was announced today.

Saturday's football game between San Diego State University and UCLA will be played as scheduled at the Rose Bowl, despite earlier concerns about poor air quality due to the Station Fire.

People hoping to making donations to benefit victims of the Southern California wildfires should beware of "sham charities" that often arise to take advantage of major disasters.

Sixteen alleged associates of the Mexico-based Sinaloa drug cartel were indicted and more than 550 pounds of drugs were seized as part of an eight-month undercover investigation that included surveillance operations in San Diego, Attorney General Jerry Brown announced today.

Nearly 60 percent of college students polled by San Diego State University agreed their age group uses social networking sites for narcissistic, self-promoting and attention-seeking reasons, it was announced today.

The median price of homes statewide rose 3.9 percent in July, compared to June, and in Los Angeles prices rose 6.1 percent, according to figures released today by the California Association of Realtors.

A husband-and-wife contracting team pleaded guilty today to paying married warfare systems officials thousands of dollars to land government contracts for their company, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced.

A judge today denied a prosecutor's request to increase the $2 million bail for a Ramona businessman accused of orchestrating a plan to blow up a rental home he owned to collect insurance money.

Qualcomm Inc. donated $450,000 to San Diego State University to support its science and engineering programs, it was announced today.

The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in San Diego County was unchanged today for the second time in three days, remaining at $3.057.

Given the state of the economy, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders is questioning the $600,000 in raises and bonuses that a city agency has budgeted for its 250 employees this year, it was reported today.

The state Senate voted 30-4 today to approve legislation aimed at blocking the court-ordered removal of a colony of harbor seals from Children's Pool in La Jolla.

Home sales jumped 25 percent in San Diego County in March, compared to the previous month, but the median price declined by 3 percent, according to a housing report released today.

State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner was in San Diego today to urge motorists to take part in an affordable automobile insurance program.

A young gray whale that wandered into San Diego Bay and became a popular tourist attraction passed the three-week mark in the harbor today. A U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant saw the 30-foot cetacean surfacing about 150 yards offshore from the maritime agency's local headquarters about 10 this morning, USCG Petty Officer Jetta Disco said.

An index used to gauge the health of the local economy suffered its largest one-month decline ever in February, a University of San Diego professor announced today.

Palomar Mountain and the Interstate 8 corridor between Alpine and the Laguna Mountains are the two most important areas for clearing brush as a way of preventing wildfires, according to report delivered to the San Diego County Board of Supervisors today.

A committee charged with scrutinizing San Diego's finances today endorsed Mayor Jerry Sanders' nomination of the city's internal auditor as city auditor.

A small plane that crashed in Butte, Montana, killing more than a dozen people, was reported today to have taken off from Otay Mesa. Before the doomed single-engine turboprop flew from Redlands to Butte, it took off from Brown Field in Otay Mesa on Saturday, Rachel Laing, a spokeswoman for Mayor Jerry Sanders, toldThe San Diego Union-Tribune.

A brief return to wet, colder winter weather is in store for San Diego County this weekend, according to the National Weather Service.

President Barack Obama walked out to thunderous applause at a town hall meeting near downtown Los Angeles today, where he told the crowd his administration is taking steps to resolve the housing crisis that is at the root of the economic crisis.

The San Diego Union-Tribune is being sold to a Beverly Hills-based private equity firm, it was announced today.It wasn't disclosed how much Platinum Equity would pay The Copley Press for the newspaper, only that the transaction is expected to be completed in the second quarter of the year, according to a joint statement.

A gray whale that wandered into San Diego Bay last week was still cruising the harbor's waters today, seemingly determined to extend its break from annual migration duties.