Hearst Group to Auction Night at Xanadu

One rancher's turning them into rugs

(NEWSER) - Hasty California ranchers shot dead three Hearst Castle zebras who strayed onto their property, and neighbors are aghast. The zebras—a buck, a mare and yearling—were part of a herd that roams castle grounds, the remnants of what was at one time the largest private zoo in the world, owned by the late publishing magnate William Randolf Hearst. Two of the zebras were "spooking my horses," said rancher David Fiscalini, who blasted the animals with a shotgun, then called a taxidermist to skin one of the zebras for a rug. More»

Laverne Everett takes a scary skydive in California

(NEWSER) - Octogenarian skydiving may not exactly catch on after this video goes viral. Laverne Everett was celebrating birthday No. 80 with her first skydive when she became reluctant to jump at the last second, Huffington Post reports. The man going with her pried Everett free, and the pair tumbled out over northern California—where she nearly came out of her harness. Her partner held on tight as the pair plummeted toward the Earth. More»

Eric Simons turned AOL campus into his personal office

(NEWSER) - A teenage entrepreneur found the perfect place to develop his new software: AOL's campus in Palo Alto, Calif. Only problem: No one knew he was also eating, sleeping, working out, and doing his laundry there, CNET reports. Eric Simons had invented his educational software, ClassConnect, in a new campus "incubator" program called Imagine K12. But when his money ran out, Eric figured he'd see if his campus security access still worked. And it did. More»

California locale tops annual survey

(NEWSER) - If you're yearning for a little beach time this summer, California's Coronado Beach is the place to be, according to an annual survey. The 1.5-mile stretch of sparkling sand wins top honors in the 2012 survey by a Florida professor known as "Dr. Beach," reports AP . Coronado's main drawback: The water is a bit chilly. The top 5 winners in the survey, which takes into account a host of factors including water quality and safety:

1. Coronado Beach, California
2. Kahanamoku Beach, Waikiki
3. Main Beach, East Hampton, New York
4. St. George Island State Park, Florida
5. Hamoa Beach, Maui

Infected person visited 2 neonatal intensive care wards

(NEWSER) - The parents of 25 babies in northern California have been warned that their children may have been exposed to tuberculosis in their first days of life. A person with active tuberculosis visited neonatal intensive care wards in two hospitals in Sacramento and Sutter County in March and April of this year, ABC reports. The person, who did not know he or she had the disease at the time, was not a health worker, but did have a valid reason to visit the intensive care units, say hospital authorities. More»