The dead were found in burned-out cars, in the smoldering ruins of their homes, or next to their vehicles, apparently overcome by smoke and flames before they could jump in behind the wheel and escape. In some cases, there were only charred fragments of bone, so small that coroner's investigators used a wire basket to sift and sort them. At least 29 people were confirmed dead in the wildfire that turned the Northern California town of Paradise and outlying areas into hell on earth, equaling the deadliest blaze in state history, and the search for bodies continued Monday. Nearly 230 people were unaccounted for by the sheriff's reckoning, four days after the fire swept over the town of 27,000 and practically wiped it off the map with flames so fierce that authorities brought in a mobile DNA lab and forensic anthropologists to help identify the dead. Get More

Relief and heartache await those starting to return home to a Southern California wildfire zone. Eager to know the status of his house, 69-year-old Roger Kelly defied evacuation orders Sunday and hiked back into Seminole Springs, his lakeside mobile home community in the Santa Monica Mountains north of Malibu. There, he had the thrill of finding his house intact. But some a half-block away were laid to waste, as were dozens more, and virtually everything on the landscape around the community had been turned to ash. "I just started weeping," Kelly said. "I just broke down. Your first view of it, man it just gets you." Get More

More than 30 people have died and tens of thousands of Californians have been forced from their homes as huge wildfires continue to rage in the northern and southern ends of the state. The Camp Fire has become the most destructive wildfire in state history, killing at least 29 people and destroying more than 6,400 residential structures over nearly 175 square miles. The 130-square-mile Woolsey fire north of Los Angeles, meanwhile, killed at least two and has the potential to grow with the return of Santa Ana winds. Burning near the Woolsey fire, the Hill fire is smaller and three-quarters contained. Here are some ways to help: Get More

Move more, sit less and get kids active as young as age 3, say new federal guidelines that stress that any amount and any type of exercise helps health. The advice is the first update since the government's physical activity guidelines came out a decade ago. Since then, the list of benefits of exercise has grown, and there's more evidence to back things that were of unknown value before, such as short, high-intense workouts and taking the stairs instead of an elevator. "Doing something is better than doing nothing, and doing more is better than doing something," said Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones, a preventive medicine expert at Northwestern University in Chicago. Get More

The communities said to be favored to become homes to a pair of big, new East Coast bases for Amazon are both riverfront stretches of major metropolitan areas with ample transportation and space for workers. But there are plenty of differences between New York's Long Island City and Crystal City in Northern Virginia. Set within eyeshot of the nation's capital, Crystal City is a thicket of 1980s-era office towers trying to plug into new economic energy after thousands of federal jobs moved elsewhere. Get More

A second high school coach of the gunman who killed 12 people at a Southern California bar recalled him as volatile and intimidating, and said that repeated complaints to school administrators about his behavior failed to prompt any discipline. Evie Cluke coached Ian David Long on Newbury Park High School's track team in 2007 and 2008. In an interview with The Associated Press, she said Long was a "ticking time bomb" who constantly lost his temper, threw tantrums and would scream at coaches when he didn't like their decisions. She said she once witnessed him assault a fellow coach. That coach, Dominique Colell, said Long grabbed her rear and midsection after she refused to return a cellphone. Another time, he used his hand to mimic shooting her, Colell said, adding that she feared for herself whenever she was around him. Get More

The electric scooter company Lime is recalling some scooters after receiving reports that they have broken during use. Lime said Monday that all scooters in their fleet that were made by the Chinese company Okai Vehicles would be taken off streets, in all cities where they operate. Get More

President Donald Trump faces a growing backlash over his choice of Matt Whitaker to serve as acting attorney general, with liberal and conservative legal experts questioning the appointment, NBC News reported. The controversy arises because Whitaker was serving Jeff Sessions as the attorney general's chief of staff, a position that was not confirmed by the Senate, and because a federal law specifies that the deputy attorney general takes over when there's a vacancy at the top of the Justice Department. Get More at NBC News

The U.S. government is recruiting thousands of workers to help with the 2020 Census. Right now, applications are being accepted for positions in a temporary office to be located in Vista in 2019. There are temporary positions across the country that need to be filled once Census 2020 gets underway. Get More

A broad sell-off in technology companies pulled U.S. stocks sharply lower Monday, knocking more than 600 points off the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The wave of selling snared big names, including Apple, Amazon and Goldman Sachs. Banks, consumer-focused companies, and media and communications stocks all took heavy losses. Crude oil prices fell, erasing early gains and extending a losing streak to 11 days. Get More

Comic book legend Stan Lee, creator or co-creator of such Marvel Comics characters as Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, X-Men, The Fantastic Four and Iron Man, has died. He was 95. Get More