• DOWNED TREE KILLS MAN AT YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK: LOS ANGELES (AP) — A pair of winter storms bringing rain and snow swept across California on Saturday, buffeting Yosemite National Park with strong wind gusts that toppled a tree and killed a park employee.

A branch of the huge tree fell and killed Ryan Hiller as the 27-year-old from North Carolina lay in his tent cabin in an employee housing area, park spokesman Scott Gediman said.

Hiller, of Chapel Hill, N.C., had worked as a park ranger during busy periods for about five years. He was working for a park concessioner and staying in the Yosemite Valley stable complex while waiting for the winter ski season.

Gediman said Hiller as a ranger worked in the Yosemite wilderness and at the park’s famed Half Dome mountain, where he often helped in search-and-rescue efforts.



• LA COUNTY DEPUTIES SHOOT UNARMED MAN IN FOOT CHASE: LANCASTER  (AP) — Sheriff’s officials say deputies have shot and killed an unarmed man during a foot chase in northern Los Angeles County.

Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said Sunday that the man, identified by coroner’s investigators as 26-year-old Christian Cobian, was stopped for riding a bicycle without a light Saturday night in Lancaster.

Whitmore says Cobian bolted on foot and ignored orders to stop as two deputies chased him.

He says Cobian reached for his waistband and the deputies, fearing he had a gun, shot him. He was declared dead at the scene. No weapon was recovered.

Whitmore says Cobian was a known gang member from Inglewood who had recently moved to Lancaster, was on probation for receiving stolen property, had three felony convictions and had a warrant out for his arrest.



• OAKLAND POLICE LOOKING FOR SUSPECT WHO WOUNDED 2: OAKLAND  (AP) — Oakland police are looking for a suspect who shot and wounded two men and then escaped capture after hiding in an auto body shop.

A police spokeswoman say officers were first called to a neighborhood in East Oakland around 10:20 a.m. Saturday after two men had been shot.

Spokeswoman Johnna Watson says officers received information that after shooting the two men, the gunman ran into the nearby building and barricaded himself inside.

When SWAT officers were called out, they entered the building about 4 p.m., but could not find the suspect.



• UNLV SCIENTISTS ISOLATE RARE DEATH VALLEY BACTERIA: DEATH VALLEY (AP) — A University of Nevada, Las Vegas microbiologist says he and his team members have identified and cultivated a type of magnetic bacteria in Death Valley that could one day contribute to the biotech industry.

Researcher Dennis Bazylinski says that the bacteria navigate along magnetic field lines because of the mineral produced inside their cells. His team is the first to isolate a rarely-studied type that produces the mineral greigite and is found 280 feet below sea level in the valley’s Badwater Basin.

The greigite may have different uses in drug delivery and medical imaging than the minerals found in other magnetic bacteria. More research can begin now that the scientists know how to grow the Death Valley bacteria.



• SD SHERIFF: MAN STABBED 3 WITH BROKEN WINE GLASS:  SAN DIEGO (AP) — A 24-year-old man has been arrested in San Diego County after authorities say he stabbed three people with the broken stem of a wine glass.

Sheriff’s Det. Jacob Klepach says deputies responded early Sunday to a report that a man was stabbed inside a home in Lemon Grove.

When they arrived they discovered three people with various stab wounds.

Nicholas Millican was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.