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Year In Review: The Top 100 News Stories Of 2015 On CBS Sacramento, 75-51

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — As the new year approaches, we're taking a look back at the most popular stories on CBS Sacramento in 2015.

You can find all of our 2015 In Review content here.

75. Thieves Ransack Double Amputee Army Veteran's Woodland Home, Stealing Valuables, Memories

Alex Jauregui served two tours in Iraq and two tours in Afghanistan. He recently moved into the home built especially for him, but now thieves have taken almost everything including some things that just can't be replaced.

The Army staff sergeant says thieves took almost everything inside.

74. Mom Says Playmobil Pirate Set Had Racist Instructions To Shackle Dark-Skinned Character

Ida Lockett was happy for her son after he received a Playmobil pirate ship for his fifth birthday. Only after putting together the gift from his aunt did she see what her son was playing with. The dark-skinned character with no shoes and tattered pants came with instructions to put some sort of neck piece on him. The company would later apologize.

73. California Rancher Selling His Water Through Newspaper's Classified Section

Under the farming equipment section, you'll find Grover Francis' ad. For 49 years, Francis raised cattle and grew pasture, but he decided to rip out his farm to plant almond trees.

72. Deftones Lead Singer: Sacramento Band, Crew Safe After Paris Attacks

The lead singer of the Sacramento band Deftones told CBS13 he is safe in a hotel room after a series of attacks rocked Paris, where he was scheduled to perform. Chino Moreno said he was at dinner earlier when shots rang out. His security team managed to him and his family back to their hotel room, where they remained on lockdown.

71. Study: Megadroughts A Future Reality For Much Of Western United States

As bad as recent droughts in California, the Southwest and the Midwest have been, scientists say far worse "megadroughts" are coming – and they're bound to last for decades.

70. Mom Arrested For Death Of Baby Justice

Samantha Green and her baby, Justice Rees, went missing, then Green emerged from a Knights Landing slough telling a man who lived nearby to call 911 and that her baby was dead. Search crews worked through the night on Tuesday to find Justice, but it wasn't until Wednesday morning that they found the baby's body.

69. Study Finds There Are Too Many Studies

The conclusion states that due to the exponential growth of publications, scholars "forget" papers more easily now than in the past, sometimes making it harder to isolate the most relevant information.

68. Owners Say Sacramento Strip Club Bounced For Russian Church

Owners of City Limits Showgirls say it's too late to spare their club, but they're calling out what they say is hypocrisy by the county.

General Manager Paul Lamberty says the controversy started years ago when the county kicked out a couple of businesses at the time as part of a rezoning project on Auburn Boulevard. City Limits got the best attorney money can buy.

"The same attorney that was involved in the Times Square battle, when they were trying to clean up Times Square," he said.

The county negotiated, giving the club seven more years to operate, and the time has come.

67. 100 Cats Taken From Vacaville Home Where Owner Insists She Did Nothing Wrong

She claims she was planning to take the 100 cats to shelters. Instead, they were held as evidence by animal control after officers lined her block and spent an entire day removing them.

66. Shooting Outside Stockton Theater Sends Audiences Fleeing

Witnesses say theater goers weren't sure if it was a terrorist attack and ran from both the front and back exits. Two men selling Christmas trees last night said terrified moviegoers ran into their lot. They said they were surprised only three patrol cars showed up at the scene.

Stockton Police say four officers showed up at the theater, but three more were searching for the suspects and the victim who fled the gunfire. Police say it was a dispute that started in the theater.

65. 4 Stabbed At UC Merced, Suspect Shot And Killed By Police

All four victims – said to be two students, a staff member and a vendor – were expected to recover.

64. Man's Body Found Stuffed Under Grass Valley Staircase

When Andrew Ponti came home on Tuesday afternoon, his neighbor told him something had happened, but she wasn't sure what it was. As he started to investigate, he could tell almost immediately that something was wrong.

63. DUI Suspect Only Survivor Of Crash That Killed 3 On I-80

Three people – including two teens – died instantly after police say a drunk, wrong-way driver hit them head-on on Interstate 80 early Saturday morning.

The suspect was the only one who survived.

Two of the victims – Kendra Langham and Mathew Beardwitt, both 18 – worked at a Taco Bell in Granite Bay. The store manager says they were both outstanding employees and the team is in disbelief that they lost these two.

62. How Can You Avoid A Deadly Crash Involving A Wrong-Way Driver?

The CHP says the victims of several crashes this year could have been saved if the driver had adhered to a late-night rule of the road—stay out of the fast lane at night. That's the lane that wrong way driver's typically choose, because to them, that is the right lane, and they think traffic should always be on their left.

61. California State Fair Ends With Reported Violence For Second Time In Three Years

Instead of family fun, the videos posted online show fists flying in what appears to be a series of violent clashes between fairgoers on the final night of the fair.

60. 'Porn' And 'Lonely' Among Top Late Night Google Searches In US

Google data analysis suggests that "porn" and "suicide" searches dominate late night online inquiries, while searches for free video games and other anonymous searches flow throughout the day.

59. Paid Sick Leave Law Gives California Employees More Time Off

Under the new law:

  • Nearly all California employees can accrue one hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked
  • Employees can use their sick days after 90 days of employment.
  • Employers can cap the sick leave at 24 hours, or 3 days a year.
  • Employers must display how much sick leave employees have on their paystub documents.

58. Mandatory Water Cuts Have Sacramento Residents Turning To Gray Water In Drought

They say you can learn a lot about a woman from her garden, but at Robin Weld's home, the bathroom tells the story.

She has a toilet and sink in one that she ordered from Japan for about $100. While some say it sinks to a new low during the drought, she says it sometimes saves 10 gallons of water or more a day.

It's just one of many stories around California of trying to save water during the drought.

57. The Hottest Cheerleaders You Will See During March Madness

This one's pretty self-explanatory.

56. Stockton Child, 4, Escapes Carjacking

There's not much 4-year-old Peyton can do on his own yet, including unbuckling his own seat belt. So his mother says she's shocked and proud that he knew to act quickly and bravely to get out of the stolen car. Peyton was in the backseat, unbuckled. The 4-year-old decided to jump out of the car.

55. UC Davis Medical Center Treating Possible Ebola Patient

Dignity Health officials said in a statement that the patient was first identified in January at Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento before being transferred to UC Davis. The tests came back negative a day later.

54. Yuba City Police Warn Women To Be On Guard After Attacks

Neighbors off of Stabler Park Lane are left feeling uneasy knowing a man tried to attack two separate women over the past two weeks in the normally peaceful neighborhood.

53. Stockton Robbers Wedge Victim's Lips Into Side Of Shopping Cart

A 26-year-old man was walking on Pacific Avenue near the Calaveras River when he noticed he was being followed by three suspects. One suspect called out to the man, and as the man was trying to get away, was hit on the back of the head and knocked to the ground, according to a statement from the Stockton Police Department.

Two of the suspects held the man down while the third suspect went through his pockets and took his money.

This is where things take a strange twist.

52. Central California Woman, 21, Dies From Brain-Eating Amoeba

The 21-year-old was a Bishop residnt. Inyo County public health officials say she woke up from a nap on June 16 with a headache and was soon vomiting. When the symptoms wouldn't go away after a day, she was taken to the ER at Northern Inyo Hospital.

51. Whatever Happened To Kidnapping Victim Jaycee Lee Dugard?

Kidnapped at the age of 11 as she walked to school in her South Lake Tahoe neighborhood in 1991, Jaycee Lee Dugard was found 18 years later in 2009.

She was held captive by Phillip and Nancy Garrido and forced to bear his children.

The Garridos are in prison, but where is Dugard today and how is she coping?

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