Santa Monica

SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Republican Meg Whitman struggled to steady her campaign for California governor after disclosures about her former housekeeper - an illegal immigrant - threatened to cut into her support among Latinos just weeks before Election Day.

SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman says her husband might have seen a 2003 letter warning that their housekeeper's government records weren't in order.

SANTA MONICA, Calif. - The attorney for Meg Whitman's former housekeeper released a copy Thursday of a purported 2003 letter that she says shows the Republican gubernatorial candidate knew all along that the maid might be an illegal immigrant.

SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Meg Whitman said Thursday that her former housekeeper might have intercepted a 2003 government letter warning that the maid could be in the country illegally as the Republican gubernatorial candidate denounced the story as a "baseless smear attack." For a second straight day, Whitman forcefully denied that she knew her housekeeper was in the country illegally for years and called the allegations a "political smear on me, on my family, and based on lies." She said her Democratic opponent, Jerry Brown, was behind the story and that the housekeeper was being manipulated for political gain.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - California lawmakers have rejected a bill seeking to ban plastic shopping bags after a contentious debate over whether the state was going too far in trying to regulate personal choice.