The LA Times reports that the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest school district in the nation, has proposed significantly lowering its bar for graduation in order to avoid a flood of drop-outs.

In an outtake from Khole Kardashian's E! reality show Khloe & Lamar, big sister Kim revealed a diabolical plan to force the people of Glendale, California, to submit to her nefarious whims by becoming their mayor.

Californians are ready to claw someone's eyes out after a report from state's Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) found that several nail polishes billing themselves as "toxic free," were, in fact, toxic times three: they contained formaldehyde, toluene and dibutyl phthalate (DBP), also known as the "toxic trio" of chemicals.

What's new with notorious mass murderer Charles Manson? Not much. He's 77 now. Still in prison. The California department of Corrections has released an updated mugshot in advance of his 12th parole hearing next week. He probably won't attend (hasn't gone to one since 1997) and he certainly won't get parole.

On California college campuses, the pepper spray flows as free as a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Here is disturbing video of police pepper-spraying students at Santa Monica College last night. About 150 students had assembled at a board of trustee's meeting to protest tuition hikes. It seems that pepper spray was used simply because the room got too crowded.

All Roberto Clemente wanted to do was turn his 5,000 square-foot Southern California McMansion into an invite-only swinger's club called the "Kinky Palace." As you can imagine, his neighbors in the rural residential community of Oak Hill were not pleased.

California is America's least popular state, according to the results of a nationwide poll.

California's three-year legal battle over Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure that effectively banned gay marriage in the state was suspended this morning after a panel from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled it unconstitutional in a 2-1 decision.

A redevelopment project in Loma Linda, California is being met with protest now that city council members have approved the addition of a McDonald's to their historically healthy community.

Lauren Kornberg, the professional dogwalker who discovered a severed head in the Hollywood Hills this week—the one that a paparazzi agency is shopping photos of with a smiling mystery woman posing next to it—says she never snapped pics of the gruesome find. She does, however, have a theory about who did.

Mumblecouple Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart have vacated their California coffin-on-a-cliff. The 2,604-square-foot home it is listed at $5.9 million.

There are a lot of parenting books out there, but not all of them answer the very pertinent question, "Is it okay to hotbox my car with my two-year-old son in the backseat?" So allow us to answer: No. No, it is not okay.

Michael Davis is a hyperactive 5-year-old diagnosed with ADHD who frequently gets into fights at school. His mother calls him an "energetic, loving, good kid" who is misunderstood by school administrators at Rio Calaveras Elementary of Stockton, California. They disagree, frequently complaining to his divorced parents that he is a discipline problem. When the school didn't see any improvement, they took matters in their own hands, and invited a police officer to the school to scare Michael straight.

Yesterday's zeitgeist-iest Black Friday shopper—the California Walmart-woman who allegedly pepper-sprayed a crowd of fellow Xbox seekers, creating the scene captured in this video—surrendered to the authorities Friday night, but was released without charge. Before she left the police station, officers asked her for pepper-spraying protips.

Even without waffle-iron rioting and bloody police beat-downs, the standard Black Friday shopping experience is utterly terrifying. Just watch this video featuring hundreds of shoppers storming the Urban Outfitters at Thousand Oaks Mall in California and tremble at the sight of so many people running toward the khaki fashions.

We all know that the Smurfs movie ruins people's childhood memories, but does it also ruin people's very lives—namely, by leading them to reach frighteningly high intoxication levels in an effort to cope with its awfulness? "Yesssshhhhhh," traumatized mom Sarah Boushey might say, before sideswiping another car.

An angry (and strategic) shopper in Los Angeles pepper sprayed about 20 people trying to get X-Boxes 360 on Thursday night, sending at least one person to the hospital. In North Carolina, a shootout broke out at 2 a.m. outside a mall where shoppers had gathered. Yes—it's the most wonderful time of the year. Happy Black Friday, everyone!

first shot in the annual War on Christmas has been fired, and it's not a pretty one: part of a $1,600 Christmas display was stolen from a California home early Tuesday morning. Secularism strikes again!

Medical marijuana is a very controversial issue for cities across America, pitting individual freedoms against municipal concerns with a backdrop of blah blah, [boilerplate "on the one hand, on the other hand" here]. The real question is: how can medical marijuana win, forever? A foolproof legal strategy is now emerging.

Calling all unemployed Okies with underutilized graduate degrees! Many government positions have opened up in Oakland, California, in the past few weeks as one city official after another has abandoned Mayor Jean Quan's administration. Several new positions are waiting to be filled!