• TRANSIENT ARRESTED IN DOG DEATH: BELMONT (AP) — A man has been arrested after his German shepherd was found unresponsive in a hot truck in the San Francisco Bay Area and later died.
Belmont police say Joseph Regis Jr., a 50-year-old transient, was taken into custody on Monday at a motel on suspicion of animal cruelty.
Capt. Patrick Halleran tells the San Jose Mercury News officers were called to the motel parking lot in the morning after someone spotted the dog in a pickup. They found the 8-year-old German shepherd named Elisha unresponsive without food, water or access to fresh air.
Temperatures in Belmont on Monday were in the upper 80s.
The dog died on the way to a veterinary clinic.
Regis allegedly told police he had checked on the dog at 3 a.m., and it was fine.
• YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK RESCUE CAUGHT ON VIDEO: YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK (AP) — Park officials say a backpacker who narrowly avoided plunging to his death from a waterfall at Yosemite National Park was hoisted to safety by a helicopter rescue crew in an operation that was captured on video.
Video footage of the May 28 rescue shows the helicopter hovering over a gorge at the base of Upper Yosemite Fall. The video was released last week.
The backpacker is on a boulder that park officials say he was able to scramble onto after slipping and falling into the rapids.
A rescuer who was lowered down to the boulder is seen attaching a line. He and the backpacker are then hoisted up.
The backpacker was treated for hypothermia. Park officials say he would have died if he had not been able to get onto the boulder.
• MAYOR IN TIFF OVER TOSSED BAG OF DOG WASTE: SAN MARINO (AP) — The mayor of San Marino, California, admits tossing a bag of dog waste onto a neighborhood resident’s property and has apologized, saying he should have disposed of it properly.
Mayor Dennis Kneier tells the Pasadena Star-News he was walking home from a park with his wife Saturday night in the upscale Los Angeles suburb when they found the bag on a parkway. He says he picked it up and tossed it onto a walkway at the property.
Resident Philip Lao says he recognized Kneier on surveillance video and called police. They photographed the bag.
There is no police record of problems between the men, although Lao does oppose a dog park in the city.
The original owner of the waste has not been identified.
• LENGTHY PRISON SENTENCE IN CHILD SCALDING CASE: WESTMINSTER (AP) — A Southern California man has been sentenced to 25 years and eight months in prison for scalding an 11-month-old girl by placing her in a bathtub filled with hot water.
The Orange County district attorney’s office said Monday that 24-year-old Alexander Hollimon of Westminster was convicted earlier this year on two counts of child abuse, one count of mayhem and a sentencing enhancement for causing great bodily injury to a child under age 5.
Authorities say that on Jan. 26 Hollimon filled a bathtub, awakened the baby, removed her clothing and dipped the lower half of her body into water that was over 120 degrees. Hollimon then peeled blistering skin from the child, identified only as a relative.
Skull, spine, rib and arm fractures were discovered during emergency treatment
• UC BERKELEY STUDENT MISSING: PLACERVILLE (AP) — Authorities are searching for a University of California, Berkeley senior who went missing after staying at his family’s cabin in Northern California.
Family members tell the Sacramento Bee they last spoke to 23-year-old Vernon “Cody” Matthews on Friday, two days after he was dropped off at the cabin in the Eldorado National Forest. The forest is about 80 miles east of Sacramento.
Matthews was set to head out on a hike alone.
El Dorado County Sheriff’s officials say they don’t know what happened to him, though there is nothing to indicate foul play. His cellphone has not been used since Friday.
Matthews’ father, Vern, says his son is capable of surviving a couple of days in the forest.
