California on way to $8 minimum wage

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill Tuesday to give California one of the highest minimum wages in the nation.

The law gives more than 1.4 million people an increase of 75 cents an hour in January and an additional 50 cents the following year, boosting the rate from $6.75 an hour to $8.

With the new law, California joins Massachusetts as having the nation's highest minimum wage.

Massachusetts also will boost its rate to $8 an hour by 2008 after lawmakers were able to override a veto this summer by Gov. Mitt Romney.

Man who killed uncle is executed

A man who pleaded guilty to the fatal stabbing and beating of his uncle was executed Tuesday.

Before a Harris County jury decided in 1993 that he should die for his uncle's death, Farley Charles Matchett of Huntsville also had pleaded guilty to killing a 74-year-old woman and severely beating a 91-year-old woman — both with a hammer — in the days leading up to his uncle's death.

Evidence showed Matchett, now 43, stole a car and drove to Houston, where an argument over his crack-cocaine abuse led to the slaying of 52-year-old Uries Anderson in July 1991.

The execution was the 21st this year in Texas, the most in the nation.

Schwarzenegger video spread by foe

The campaign of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Democratic rival acknowledged Tuesday that it downloaded — and leaked to the media — a recording of a private meeting in which the governor described a Hispanic legislator as having a "very hot" personality.

But Cathy Calfo, campaign manager for Democrat Phil Angelides, said the campaign had done nothing wrong because the file was available publicly on the governor's Web site. "No one hacked," Calfo said at a news conference. "They accessed information that was available to the public."

However, Schwarzenegger's legal affairs secretary, Andrea Lynn Hoch, said the sound files were stored "in a password-protected area of the governor's office network computer system."

Hoch said she forwarded the Internet protocol address used to download the file to the California Highway Patrol, which is investigating how the files became public.

Car goes airborne, hits second story

A car hit a dirt hill at high speed and flew 200 feet into the second story of an apartment building on Tuesday, killing the driver, police said.

Two people in separate apartments at the time of the 9 a.m. crash escaped injury, and there were no injuries on the street.

Investigators did not know what led the driver, Vincent Pontillo Jr., 43, to speed down a dead-end street. His 2004 Honda Accord, which was launched from a 4-foot dirt hill, penetrated the building up to its rear bumper, police spokesman Officer William Fairchild said.

Also

Suspect: John Mark Karr, who was briefly a suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey slaying, arrived in Oakland, Calif., to face child-pornography charges late Tuesday, authorities said.

Teacher strike: Detroit's striking teachers and the school district reached a tentative contract agreement overnight, clearing the way for a possible return to work after 16 days on the picket line.

Hurricane: Hurricane Gordon formed over the open Atlantic on Tuesday, becoming the third hurricane of the season. Forecasters say it will remain over open water and not threaten land.

Compiled from The Associated Press