LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Despite a close race for Los Angeles mayor and hotly contested battles for City Council, city attorney and city controller, only 22.7 percent of registered voters returned vote-by-mail ballots as of today, with polls across the city opening tomorrow.

Election officials issued 739,117 vote-by-mail ballots and 167,657 have been returned so far, Kimberly Briggs of the City Clerk's office said.

Hollywood-area City Councilman Eric Garcetti will square off tomorrow against Controller Wendy Greuel. The two candidates took part in a flurry of last-minute, ``get out the vote'' events over the weekend to wake up voter interest.

City Attorney Carmen Trutanich is waging an uphill battle to keep his job, trailing in recent polls behind former assemblyman Mike Feuer with as many as 18 percentage points between the two candidates, according to the USC-L.A. Times poll released last Friday.

Read more on the KFI News Blog

Two suspects arrested for breaking into a car in Central California accidentally called 911 on a cellphone, which led police to them.

KXTV in Sacramento reports a dispatcher was able to hear a rambling 35-minute conversation between the men as they discussed buying drugs and what implements to use to break into vehicles in Fresno.

The dispatcher listened in as the suspects smashed a car's window and found prescription drugs.

Read more at ABC News 

Would you prefer living in an earthquake zone or a tornado zone?

Both victims died in a twister that slammed into Shawnee, Okla., leveling a mobile home park.

A storm system stretching from Texas to Minnesota on Monday threatened another round of tornadoes and high winds that has already killed two people in Oklahoma and injured more than 20.

The body of one victim 79-year-old Glen Irish, was found in an open area of the neighborhood after a twister slammed into Shawnee, Okla., on Sunday, leveling a mobile home park.

Read more at USA Today
 

Yahoo confirmed Monday it is buying social media platform Tumblr for $1.1 billion and "we promise not to screw it up," CEO Marissa Mayer blogged on her Tumblr page.

The pledge is a direct acknowledgment of the Internet giant's spotty record as a start-up acquirer. The Tumblr deal will boost Yahoo's audience 50% to more than 1 billion monthly visitors (about 700 million for Yahoo and 300 million for Tumblr for now), the company estimates. Just as important, Yahoo is scrambling to regain the hip factor it once enjoyed and to show investors the deal can increase profits and revenue.

Yahoo shares were up 0.7% to about $26.70 Monday, a positive but but lukewarm investor reaction.

Read more at USA Today 

They’re calling it the “Pee in the Cup’’ initiative — a proposed state ballot measure that would require doctors to be randomly subjected to drug and alcohol testing, the same way bus drivers are.

It’s being pushed by a tech mogul who’s on a very personal crusade to clean up the state’s medical practices.

Bob Pack is a former AOL and NetZero exec whose 10-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter were struck and killed a decade ago near their Danville home by a driver under the influence of alcohol and prescription pills.

Read more at the San Francisco Chronicle 

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A mother whose 4-year-old was being abducted chased the suspect down and crashed her vehicle into his car, triggering a manhunt and the arrest of the suspect, Albuquerque police said Thursday.

The young girl was playing in her yard at St. Anthony's Plaza Apartments in Albuquerque's North Valley about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday when a group of teenagers saw the kidnapping and ran to alert the girl's mother, police said.

The family called 911 and the mother jumped into her vehicle and gave chase for about seven miles, unaware the man had pushed the girl out of the silver Buick before fleeing the apartment complex, authorities said. The girl was found wandering nearby, uninjured, police said.

According to police, the mother followed the suspect and finally rammed into his car near an intersection. The suspect fled on foot, police said.

Melissa Torrez, the mother, told KOAT-TV she didn't mean to hit the suspect's car and struck it accidentally when she lost control of her car. Torrez said didn't even have time to cry when she jumped to chase the suspect.

"I don't ever want to lose my kids," said Torrez, a mother of three. Read more at the Star Tribune

By SEAN EMERY / ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

By Megan McArdle, The Daily Beast 

WE SCRIMP. We save. We plan. And we dream that when we retire—at 50 or 70 or 90—we’ll ride off into the sunset on a chariot made of our sequestered gold.