CALIFORNIA

Wildfires have wreaked havoc in the western states of the U.S., engulfing hundreds of houses, charring acres of wood- and grass-lands in the past two days. Ravaging flames have been spreading fast to new areas aided by drought-like situations as the firemen continued to douse the flames amid scorching temperatures.

After the Apple TV failed to capture much market attention, the California tech giant may be looking for a new way to enter the television market. Reports suggest that the new Apple TV could be a set-top box designed to give viewers access to cable programs at any time.

Researchers say that higher concentrations of human milk oligosaccharides, or HMO -- a kind of complex carbohydrate that's the third-most abundant ingredient in breast milk -- were associated with protection against HIV transmission to infants.

Let's face it, hipsters are taking over. New Yorkers have already abandoned much of Brooklyn to their ironic mustaches. But one coffee shop is fighting back. San Francisco coffee shop Four Barrel has banned "talking about annoying hipster topics" from their back alley coffee shop on Caledonia Street.

Thursday frees holders of as many as 271 million shares of Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), the No. 1 social networking site, to sell them for the first time since the first-day trading fiasco on May 18, when shares that had been priced at $38 first traded at $42.05, then didn’t trade for 30 minutes and closed at $38.23.

Santarus Inc, the U.S. pharmaceutical company said it has filed a lawsuit against Dr. Reddy's laboratories for allegedly infringing its patents on Zegerid, a drug for heartburn.

Police said a burglar stole the wallet of the late Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) Chairman Steve Jobs July 17, when he broke into his empty residence in Palo Alto, Calif. The wallet had $1 inside along with Jobs’s California driver’s license.

New commissioner Mike Aresco looks to bring stability to the Big East. The conference will look at lot different in the next couple of years with schools like Syracuse, Pittsburgh and West Virginia headed elsewhere.

Bill Gates, the man responsible for bringing software to the masses with Microsoft and Windows, has plans to reinvent another industry: Sanitation. Gates, whose philanthropic efforts have helped bring clean water and resources to developing countries via the foundation founded by he and his wife Melinda, said on Wednesday that he plans to build a toilet that's better suited to developing countries in an effort to cut down on disease and death in those regions.

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), the No. 1 provider of Internet gear, is scheduled to report fourth-quarter results Wednesday that are expected to be much better than last year’s when CEO John Chambers said the company was overmanned and was in the midst of layoffs and retrenchment.

Tony Conigliaro is my all-time favorite baseball player – not only for what he accomplished on the diamond, but for what he didn't.

The top after-market Nasdaq gainers Tuesday were Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation, Renewable Energy Group Inc, Synacor Inc, Arena Pharmaceuticals and Transcept Pharmaceuticals Inc. The top after-market Nasdaq losers were Horizon Pharma Inc, KIT digital Inc, Myriad Genetics Inc, TICC Capital Corp and Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Calif., said Tuesday he would resign immediately, a move he told a local newspaper was due to family concerns.

Shares of Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), the No. 1 search engine, set a record high of $672.85 on Tuesday, not quite eight years to the day of its initial public offering in which co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin pledged to “make money without doing evil.”

Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard have been engaged since 2007, so why have they been so hesitant to walk down the aisle? It's a little thing called equality for all -- that's all. The spunky blonde and her funnyman refuse to marry until California legalizes same-sex marriages.

Shares of Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), the world's most valuable technology company, have recovered lost ground and are trading not much below their record high of $644 set on April 10. Despite a setback when third-quarter earnings fell shy of estimates last month, they could set another record again this week.

Four days after NASA's Curiosity rover successfully landed on Mars, the one-ton robot sent another postcard back to Earth on Thursday, this one a 360-degree doozy.

The rest of the world has sworn off Kristen Stewart, but Robert Pattinson is contemplating getting back with his girlfriend of three years, according to RadarOnline.com.

The Perseid Meteor Shower could not have peaked at a better time in 2012, falling as it does right in the middle of the weekend. But where is the best spot to view the shooting stars and when?

Friday marks 13 weeks since the first public trading in shares of Facebook at $42. Now it's near $21.

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), the No. 1 search engine, said it has devised a voice-enabled app for Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhones that will challenge the Siri personal assistant. The move comes two months after Google acquired Motorola Mobility Holdings, one of the top makers of smartphones.