Investors searching for the next big thing are increasingly being drawn to the US commercial marijuana business.

USA: Felimina Rotundo works 11 hours a day, six days a week at a Buffalo laundry and says she has no plans to quit working even though she turned 100 two months ago.

Despite a devastating four-year drought that has forced strict water conservation measures across California, most Los Angeles County supervisors have their cars washed two or three times a week, a newspaper reported.

California public health officials, grappling with a measles outbreak that has already sickened 113 people statewide, have urged residents to get vaccinations for themselves and their children before travelling internationally over spring school break.

Firstly, this week I want to thank those readers who came to our Californian Wine Evening in Meades 126 Wine Bar on Cork’s Oliver Plunkett Street last month. 

Live music: The Eagles

A Co Cork-born man is spearheading a campaign in America’s third largest state to have the Irish Famine put on its schools’ curriculum.

Ed Power looks at the highs and lows of a mixed year in music

The winners in the US Supreme Court case that overturned California’s same-sex marriage ban tied the knot at San Francisco City Hall yesterday, about an hour after a federal appeals court freed same-sex couples to obtain marriage licences for the first time in four years.

Two Californians say they survived separate shark attacks over the past few days by punching the fish in the head.

A strong rotten egg smell had Southern Californians plugging their noses and crying foul as air quality experts scrambled to determine if the sulphurous scent was coming from the Salton Sea.

The backers of California’s same-sex marriage ban petitioned a US federal appeals court to review a split decision by three of its judges that struck down the voter-approved law known as Proposition Eight.

A FEDERAL judge yesterday upheld a gay judge’s ruling striking down California’s ban on same-sex marriage, noting that his fellow justice could not be presumed to have a personal stake in the case just because he was in a long-term same-sex relationship.

DANCE legend Michael Flatley is planning on raising his little boy in sun-soaked California rather than on his 19th Century Cork estate.

An attempt to legalise cannabis in California has prompted some to ask if it is time for a fresh debate about the issue, writes Kerrie Kennedy .

CALIFORNIANS have rejected a proposal that would have made it the first state to legalise marijuana for recreational use.

THE city of Oakland, California, has legalised large-scale marijuana cultivation for medical use and will issue up to four permits for “industrial” cultivation starting next year.

Big television sets that use massive amounts of electricity could be banned from sale in part of the US under pioneering new laws.

Hollywood actress Charlize Theron is rallying support for the campaign for gay marriage - she has written an open letter calling for people of all sexual preferences to join in an upcoming demonstration in California.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has confirmed he will appear in Sylvester Stallone's next movie 'The Expendables' - but insists it will just be a cameo.

An estimated 1,000 protesters have taken to the streets over California’s new ban on gay marriage as the political turmoil and legal confusion over who should have the right to wed deepens.

California’s Secretary of State confirmed an initiative that would again outlaw gay marriage in the state has qualified for the November ballot.

Thousands of Americans have barricaded their homes against a powerful storm which has led to flights being ground, road closures and power cuts.

THE Red Hot Chili Peppers have sued a TV network over the name of the television series “Californication,” which is also the name of the band’s 1999 album and single.

AT least 11 Filipino devotees were nailed to the cross during Good Friday reenactments of Christ's final hours.

US health officials said tonight they have ruled out the abortion pill RU-486 in one of two deaths in women who had taken the drug. The second is still under investigation.

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger all but declared his intent to run for re-election in 2006, telling an audience that his job wasn’t finished and that he would make an announcement about his plans tomorrow.

Austin Powers beauty Elizabeth Hurley becomes violently ill whenever she visits husband-to-be Arun Nayar's native India - sparking fears for their forthcoming wedding in Mumbai.

Californians braced for even more rain today as they struggled to recover from storms that killed at least nine people, triggered mudslides and tornadoes and washed away roads and runways.

California Governor Arnold Scwarzenegger has been dealt a blow from the state he runs - most residents wouldn't vote in favour of him becoming President of the United States.

High among the rafters at Madison Square Garden, tens of thousands of balloons, red, white and blue, strain against nets waiting to drop on to a cheering crowd below.

Shortly before he was elected as California governor, action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger gave a speech to supporters, holding aloft a broom and promising to “clean house”.

CALIFORNIA’S Supreme Court annulled more than 4,000 gay marriages in San Francisco yesterday, finding the city acted improperly in granting licences earlier this year in defiance of state law.

ACTION hero turned politician Arnold Schwarzenegger has told how he suffered what “would now be called child abuse” at the hands of his father.

Action hero turned politician Arnold Schwarzenegger has told how he suffered what “would now be called child abuse” at the hands of his father.

SO much for sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.

THE five-and-a-half-year ban on GM foods in the EU was officially ended yesterday with the decision by Commissioner David Byrne to allow the importation of canned GM sweet corn.

Action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger will not be questioned in court as part of a libel case brought by a woman who claims he groped her, a court ruled.

Action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger will not be questioned in court as part of a libel case brought by a woman who claims he groped her, a court ruled.

The California Supreme Court has declined a request by the state attorney general to immediately shut down San Francisco’s gay weddings and to nullify the nearly 3,500 marriages already performed.

California’s attorney general has been ordered to “take immediate steps” to get a court ruling to put an end to same-sex marriages in San Francisco.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is being sued by a woman who claims he launched a dirty tricks campaign against her on the eve of his election as California Governor, it emerged today.