BAKERSFIELD MAN HELD AFTER LITTLE BOY SLAPPED ON VIDEO: BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (AP) — Police have arrested a man after surveillance video from a Bakersfield convenience store showed a toddler being knocked down with a slap to the face.
KERO-TV reports 23-year-old Justin Whittington was taken into custody Thursday night on suspicion of child endangerment.
The video posted to social media showed a boy running through Vest Market. The toddler was approached by a man who hit him in the face.
The man then picked up the toddler and a woman came up and took away the boy, who appeared to be crying.
The Kern County Jail website showed Whittington remained in custody Friday with bail set at $1 million.
UPS TRUCK ABLAZE ON SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA BRIDGE: SAN RAFAEL (AP) — A UPS truck caught fire on a Northern California bridge, snarling the morning commute and sending plumes of white smoke into the sky that could be seen for miles.
No injuries were immediately reported early Friday morning.
Authorities say the fire started after the delivery truck hit the center divider on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and punctured its fuel tank.
KNTV in San Jose reports Friday that the California Highway Patrol says the big rig is ablaze on the westbound side of Interstate Highway 580 near San Quentin Prison in San Rafael. All lanes are blocked.
The CHP reports the truck was carrying 50,000 pounds of household goods.
The accident was first reported about 5:45 a.m. It was not immediately known when the lanes would be reopened.
WIFE OF EX-OFFICER GETS JAIL IN PARKING METER THEFTS: SANTA ROSA (AP) — The wife of a former junior college police officer convicted of being an accessory to her husband’s theft of more than $280,000 from campus parking meters in Santa Rosa has been sentenced to nine months in jail.
The Press Democrat newspaper reported Thursday that a judge ordered Karen Holzworth to turn herself in to jail officials April 17.
The 51-year-old woman sobbed through most of the hearing and made a brief apology, saying she wanted to “just move forward.”
Her husband, Jeff Holzworth, was sentenced to four years last year for stealing the money from automated machines at Santa Rosa Junior College.
Prosecutors say his wife exchanged the bills and coins at banks and that the couple spent the money on vacations, at a casino and on living expenses.
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA CREEK FOULED BY CEMENT: OAKLAND (AP) — Truckloads of cement were dumped accidentally into a stretch of a San Francisco Bay Area creek, clogging the water and killing at least one bird and many smaller life forms.
The Contra Costa Times reports (http://bayareane.ws/1IRhZgJ) Friday that the spill in an Oakland creek occurred while utility district crews were repairing pipes Wednesday.
At least one golden-crowned sparrow was found dead and another, partly covered by cement, was rescued and taken to a wildlife rehabilitation center. State game wardens said smaller life-forms in the creek, such as insects, would not have survived.
East Bay Municipal Utility District spokeswoman Abby Figueroa says the incident occurred when a valve was left partially open.
State Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesman Andrew Hughan says it will take three days to clean the creek, but much longer for the waterway to completely recover.
