uEXPLOSIVES FOUND IN HOME WHERE MAN LOST HAND: REDDING  (AP) — Shasta County’s sheriff says bomb technicians found 40 pounds of explosives at the home of a Redding man whose hand was severed during an explosion and that authorities still want neighbors within a 1,000-foot radius to evacuate.
The Record Searchlight in Redding reported that some of the materials viewed through a bomb robot are considered so unstable that deputies have not been able to enter the home.
Sheriff Tom Bosenko said Saturday they are so sensitive that even a light touch could cause them to detonate.
Officials learned about the cache Thursday following an explosion and flash fire at the home of 63-year-old D. Ray East. The Record Searchlight says East lost most of his hand and suffered other injuries from the blast, but is expected to survive.
The sheriff says there is no evidence suggesting a terrorist link.

uFORMER RASTAFARI PRISON GUARD SUES OVER DREADLOCKS: FRESNO  (AP) — A former California prison guard who alleges he was harassed for wearing a beard and dreadlocks in accordance with his Rastafari religion is suing the state corrections department.
The Fresno Bee reports that Solomon Stanley claims to have received special dispensation from a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation rule requiring guards to keep their faces bare and their hair no longer than their shirt collars.
But in a pair of lawsuits alleging a violation of his religious rights, Stanley says new leaders at North Kern State Prison in Delano ordered him to cut his hair while fellow guards there called him “Bob Marley” and “Rastaman.” The 47-year-old Visalia resident says he retired on stress-related disability in Dec. 2011.
North Kern prison spokesman Lt. George Becerra says he could not comment because of the ongoing lawsuits.

uJUDGE: MARIN MANAGER MUST FACE EMBEZZLEMENT TRIAL: SAN RAFAEL  (AP) — A judge in Marin County has ruled that prosecutors have enough evidence to try a former wastewater treatment manager on embezzlement and other felony charges.
The Marin Independent Journal reports that Brett Richards, the former general manager of the Ross Valley Sanitary District, is accused of misappropriating a $350,000 loan the district made to him to buy a house in 2010. Instead, the district attorney’s office alleges that Richards used the money on living expenses, a new truck and vacations.
After an Independent Journal columnist raised questions about the loan in June 2012, Richards resigned his $197,000-a-year job by email. His whereabouts were unknown until he was arrested in the Philippines in July.
He has pleaded not guilty, but is scheduled to be arraigned again on March 7 following the preliminary hearing that ended Friday.
Richards remains jailed on $1 million bail.

uGOOGLE’S FERRY SERVICE TRIAL ENDS: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google has ended a trial run of transporting workers to the company’s Silicon Valley campus by water, and it’s unclear whether the tech giant will continue the ferry service.
The monthlong pilot program, which took employees from San Francisco’s Ferry Building to Redwood City and a five-day ferry servicing employees who live in the East Bay ended Friday.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports Google officials won’t say whether service would resume.
In recent months, Google has been at the center of a San Francisco controversy over private buses that several large tech companies use to transport workers to Silicon Valley. Some community members say the buses are congesting city bus stops, so the city recently voted to charge the companies for each stop the buses make.

uCAR CRASH ON SOCAL FREEWAY LEAVES 6 DEAD : POMONA  (AP) — A wrong-way driver on a Southern California freeway was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving after causing a pre-dawn crash with multiple vehicles Sunday that left six people dead, a highway patrol officer told the Los Angeles Times.
Police arrested the 21-year-old female driver on suspicion of felony driving under the influence and felony manslaughter in connection with the 4:40 a.m. accident on the westbound Pomona freeway, or State Route 60, in Diamond Bar, said Rodrigo Jimenez, a California Highway Patrol spokesman on the scene, who spoke to the Los Angeles Times, (http://lat.ms/1fQrEWe).
The female driver was in serious condition at a Los Angeles County hospital with a broken femur and a ruptured bladder, Jimenez said.
Authorities were seeking blood tests.
Investigators “believe from what they found in the vehicle that alcohol was involved,” Los Angeles County Coroner’s Lt. Fred Corral told the newspaper.
Jimenez said the woman was traveling east in a red Chevy Camaro when it collided head-on with a red Ford Explorer. The sequence of events involving the other vehicles was not immediately clear. At least two people were ejected from their vehicles.

SF COLLEGE LOSES ROUND IN CERTIFICATION FIGHT: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — One of California’s largest community colleges has lost its initial bid to hold onto its accreditation and stay open, but the certification fight is far from over for City College of San Francisco.
The president of the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges notified the college that it is unwilling to reverse its decision from last year to strip the school of its accreditation in July 2014 because of what it said were intractable financial and governance problems.
The decision paves the way for San Francisco City College to submit a formal appeal.
The Chronicle says Chancellor Art Tyler has a Plan B: persuading the commission that the college’s mission, leadership and programs have changed so substantially that it merits a reevaluation.