According to authorities, Mexican drug gangs south of the border are using tourist charter buses more and more to smuggle large amounts of marijuana into southern California. "We are seeing a sharp increase in the use of chartered buses to smuggle narcotics from Mexico, although we are not sure why," Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for ICE in San Diego, said on Thursday.

Her testimony helped put her former boyfriend on death row. Now Amber Frey is hoping her experiences in the Scott Peterson murder case will serve as inspiration for other women facing rough times.

show promoter, dubbed a "grinch" by prosecutors for selling thousands of children tickets to a nonexistent Christmas pageant, is sentenced to more that seven years in prison Wednesday. David Lee Ellisor was convicted in February of eight counts of mail fraud for a December 2003 scam where he sold $10 tickets to over 2,700 Miami-Dade County schoolchildren and parents for a "Christmas Around The World" show he claimed would be attended by ambassadors and feature live reindeer.

A new study of 60 beaches in Southern California shows water pollution varies with the lunar cycle, reaching the highest levels when tides are ebbing during the New and Full Moon. These findings could change the way beach managers evaluate swimming safety.

Minutes after pleading guilty to a gang-related stabbing death, a man gets married in the same courtroom. Joshua Martin Miracle, 26, faces death or life in prison without parole in the stabbing death of Elias Raymond Silva on October 3.