SAN FRANCISCO – Northern California authorities say two skydivers are dead.
San Joaquin Sheriff's Sgt. Brandon Riley said the bodies were found Saturday in a vineyard, near the city of Lodi. The skydivers, both men, had jumped in tandem. The sheriff's office received a call about 10 a.m. indicating a parachute was down.
Riley said they are working to identify the men, who were jumping out of the Parachute Center skydiving school. The Parachute Center's website claims to be "one of the largest and oldest drop zones in the United States," launched in 1964.
FOREST FALLS, Calif. – A mother of three has provoked a backlash for having a bear shot after it repeatedly broke into her Southern California mountain home.
“I’ve had death threats and my address posted all over social media,” Julie Faith Strauja told the San Bernardino Sun. Strauja moved to the community of about 1,000 in the San Bernardino Mountains last month.
A self-proclaimed animal lover, she became worried after a bear repeatedly entered her home two weekends ago. Strauja got a depredation permit from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and a friend shot the animal that Sunday after it tried to enter her home for the third day in a row.
JOHANNESBURG – South Africa's ruling party suffered its worst election setback since taking power at the end of apartheid a generation ago, with the African National Congress losing the capital, Pretoria, and its surrounding Tshwane metropolitan area. But it won a tight race for the country's biggest city, Johannesburg, election authorities reported Saturday night.
The opposition Democratic Alliance, which named its first black party leader last year, made a strong move out of its stronghold in the city of Cape Town, winning in three of the country's six largest municipalities. With no party reaching a majority in Johannesburg or Tshwane, the possible formation of coalition governments is the next challenge.
Scandals around President Jacob Zuma came back to haunt him even as he praised a peaceful vote. As he spoke on national television, four women stood up in front of him, silently facing the crowd and holding signs that appeared to refer to his acquittal for rape in 2006. Zuma didn't appear to respond.
The election losses have threatened two decades of dominance by the ANC, the former anti-apartheid movement.
CHILMARK, Mass. – President Barack Obama's seventh and final summer vacation at Martha's Vineyard has begun with hopes of getting in some relaxing time with the first family before the busy fall leading up to November's presidential election.
Obama will fill the next two weeks with leisurely rounds of golf, beach outings, bike rides and hikes with his wife and daughters, and dinner with Mrs. Obama and their friends at some of the island's top restaurants.
Congress is also on an extended summer break from Washington, something the White House has chided it for as the nation deals with the Zika virus making its way to Florida.
Associated Press
