California

Pam Chandler decided to accompany her husband, Bob, to the extraordinary auction of an Ocean City, N.J., mansion Saturday to keep him from "going overboard. " But an hour after she toured the 7,000-square-foot Victorian-style house on the Great Bay, she was the one prodding him to stay in the frenzied bidding on the breezy bayside veranda. The Chandlers, who live in Rumson, Monmouth County, with their three children, won the auction, ultimately paying $3.9 million for a property that was listed at about $6.5 million two years ago. It is assessed at $5 million.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Bodemeister is headed to the Preakness to challenge I'll Have Another after their memorable finish in the Kentucky Derby. Bodemeister set a blistering early pace in the Derby only to be caught in the final 100 yards by I'll Have Another and finish second, giving owner Ahmed Zayat his third runner-up finish in the race in the last four years. Zayat was on hand Monday to watch Bodemeister to make sure the horse was ready to travel to Baltimore for Saturday's race.

Penn couldn't shake the rust from a monthlong layoff in its opening game of the NCAA baseball playoffs yesterday. The Quakers (27-10), who last played on April 27, were hammered by 18th- ranked California (37-23), 13-3, in the first round of the double- elimination NCAA Central regional. Tonight, Penn meets Southern, which lost last night to No. 4 Texas, 7-3. The loser is eliminated. Bart Frets hit a two-run homer and John Kuehl drove in three runs for California. The Golden Bears battered Penn starter Doug Smidt for seven hits and eight runs in 3 1/3 innings.

Kelly Patrick is taking her hockey stick to the beach. The Moorestown senior will attend the University of California at Berkeley and play field hockey for the Golden Bears this fall. Patrick chose California over Michigan State and Georgetown. Last fall, Patrick was a key component in the Quakers' offense as she delivered nine goals from the right wing. Moorestown went 19-1-1, and its only loss was a 1-0 decision to Shore Regional in the South Jersey Group 2 tournament.

ARNOLD Schwarzenegger, Larry Flynt, Gary Coleman, Arianna Huffington, Cruz Bustamante, and let's not forget current Gov. Gray Davis - all contending for the position of governor of California in a historic and unprecedented event. We've got well over 100 people running for this coveted position, so why don't we make it interesting and entertaining for the American public? "Who Wants to Be Governor of California" can be a prime-time, star-studded spectacular highlighting the entire process and featuring all of the candidates.

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. - Hagen Danner homered and struck out 12, and Huntington Beach, Calif., spoiled the Pennsylvania party at the Little League World Series with a 2-0 victory over the hometown heroes from Clinton County on Thursday night. California will face Billings, Mont., in the U.S. final Saturday. Montana beat California, 1-0, in seven innings Wednesday night. Pennsylvania was eliminated. Danner was the biggest reason with a stellar night on the mound, leaving in the sixth because of Little League's pitch-count rules.

It is an overcast day, unusual for autumn in the heart of California's golden Napa Valley wine country. But here in the Inglenook winery, inside a building that smells of grape and well-aged oak, the spirits of some 60 visitors are overflowing. And I mean that literally. With Inglenook's entertaining free tour behind us, it's time to sample the product of its sun-drenched vineyards. Our guide has topped off our complimentary glasses and, thanks to 45 minutes of nonstop wine talk, we stand salivating over them.

Players from California won all three singles titles at stake in the men's U.S. Senior Grass Court Tennis Championships yesterday at the Germantown Cricket Club. With straight-set triumphs, top-seeded Charles Hoeveler of Ross, Calif., won the 45-and-over championship; fourth-seeded Bob Duesler of Newport Beach, Calif., won the 50-and-over championship, and fifth-seeded Gordon Davis of Encino, Calif., captured the 55-and-over championship. George Wills, who has conducted the tournament at the club for the past 14 years, presented United States Tennis Association gold balls and Germantown Cricket Club blazers to these victors.

William W. Scranton 3d, the Republican who narrowly lost the election for governor last fall, has taken the advice of Horace Greeley and gone west. Scranton, 40, who served as lieutenant governor for eight years until January, started this week as chief operating officer of a California mail- order business that he said sells "high-quality garden tools and other related garden items. " "It was an offer I thought was terrific and so I took it," said Scranton. His wife, Coral, who is employed as an assistant manager at WITF, Harrisburg's public television station, and the couple's three children still live in Hummelstown, near Harrisburg.

Under California-blue skies and welcomed by cheerleaders, Mayor Nutter and the "Rocky" theme song, the first Virgin America flight from Los Angeles arrived Wednesday at Philadelphia International Airport to inaugurate new daily nonstop service to the West Coast. Virgin, with its trademark mix of sexy and techy, is the first new airline in eight years to begin operations in Philadelphia. The daily flights to Los Angeles and San Francisco will mean an immediate reduction in fares, as competing airlines - especially US Airways - move to match Virgin's prices.

SAN FRANCISCO - A San Francisco man was arrested Sunday on suspicion of killing five people in a home, leaving a gruesome crime scene that has investigators struggling to identify the victims and determine the causes of death. Binh Thai Luc, 35, was taken into custody Sunday morning and booked on five counts of murder, police Chief Greg Suhr said. The bodies of the three women and two men were found early Friday by a woman with access to the home in the Ingleside District in the southern part of the city.

  SAN NICOLAS ISLAND, Calif. - The problem was daunting: Round up every last one of the who-knows-how-many cats living in the wild on wind-blasted San Nicolas Island, a 33-square-mile chunk of chaparral and jagged canyons off the Southern California coast. And don't get in the way of the missiles that are launched from, and sometimes aimed at, the arid, Navy-owned island. And don't hurt the cats, the seabirds they feast on, the threatened island foxes, the native deer mice, or anything else.

Roxborough Memorial Hospital has a new owner, for the third time since 2002. California-based Prime Healthcare Services said Wednesday it bought the 140-bed hospital from Solis Healthcare L.L.C., but did not disclose the price. Prime Healthcare already had 15 hospitals, 14 in California and one Texas. Solis purchased the Roxborough hospital, along with Warminster Hospital from Tenet Healthcare Corp. in 2007. Roxborough became part of Tenet in 2002.   Contact staff writer Harold Brubaker at 215-854-4651 or hbrubaker@phillynews.com .  

Rita's Franchise Co., the water ice chain headquartered in Trevose, said it named Jonathan Fornaci as president and chief executive officer, effective immediately. Fornaci, former president of California-based Straw Hat Pizza, replaces interim CEO Thomas Christopoul, an operating partner at Falconhead Capital L.L.C., which took a controlling stake in Rita's earlier this month. Rita's has 550 locations in 18 states.    - Reid Kanaley

Jocelyn Kirsch - the buxom half of the city's infamous "Bonnie and Clyde" duo - worked at a San Francisco women's activewear store while finishing her prison sentence at a California halfway house. Yes, Kirsch - whose lavish criminal escapades were fueled in part by stolen credit-card numbers - was again swiping people's credit cards. Not anymore. After inquiries from the People's Paper, Kirsch was put on a two-week leave yesterday from her job at Athleta. "The security of our customers' personal information is a top priority for us," said Callie Canfield, a spokeswoman for the Gap-owned chain.

SEAL BEACH, Calif. - A gunman opened fire Wednesday in a busy hair salon, killing eight people and critically wounding another, leaving bodies scattered throughout the shop in a normally sedate Southern California beach community. The gunman got into a truck and drove away from Salon Meritage after opening fire. He was stopped by officers about a half-mile away and surrendered without incident while saying he had multiple weapons with him, police Sgt. Steve Bowles said. His name and those of the victims were not immediately released.

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. - A rematch with Billings, Mont., turned into a comfortable win for the Little Leaguers from California. The reward for the boys from Huntington Beach? A picture at the pitcher's mound with the U.S. championship banner and a berth in the World Series title game at noon Sunday against Hamamatsu City, Japan. Starter Nick Pratto struck out 10 and had three RBIs at the plate, and California built an early three-run lead to cruise to an 11-2 victory over Billings on a cloudy, dreary Saturday at Lamade Stadium.