BROWN OKS TRANSGENDER BIRTH CERTIFICATE BILL: SACRAMENTO (AP) — Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a bill designed to make it easier for transgender Californians to obtain birth certificates reflecting name and gender changes.
Currently, people born in California can only get their birth certificates amended by court order, a process that transgender rights advocates argued is expensive and needlessly invasive since a legal notice of the requested changes has to be published in a newspaper.
The bill the governor signed Tuesday, AB1121 by San Diego Assemblywoman Toni Atkins, authorizes the state registrar to issue a birth certificate with a corrected sex to a transgender person who provides proof of having undergone appropriate medical treatment.
Judges will still have to sign off on name changes, but will be able to do so without holding a formal hearing. The law also eliminates the legal notice requirement.
LAW STUDENT CHARGED IN OAKLAND: OAKLAND (AP) — A law student has been charged with multiple felonies after police say she ran her car into an innocent bystander while chasing a group of graffiti taggers who attacked her in downtown Oakland.
Twenty-six-year-old Meaghan Zato, of Oakland, was charged on Monday with assault with a deadly weapon and hit-and-run.
Police say Zato, a student at Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, struck 25-year-old James Roda, also of Oakland, with her Mercedes early Saturday.
Zato had been attacked by vandals after a friend she was with told them to stop spray painting a library. Police say she was chasing the vandals in her car when she struck Roda. Roda suffered severe head injuries and faces a long recovery.
CAR HITS LA PRESCHOOL, INJURES 2 CHILDREN: LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman motorist crashed into the corner of a preschool in South Los Angeles, injuring two 2-year-old girls.
Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Erik Scott says the girls suffered minor, non-life-threatening injuries Tuesday and were being transported to the hospital as a precaution.
Firefighters responded to Toddler Tech University at West 79th Street and Normandie Avenue at 12:24 p.m.
The car went a foot into the building. Its driver was treated by paramedics at the scene and released.
FEDS DROP MEDICAL POT CASE AGAINST LANDLORD: LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal prosecutors have dropped a civil forfeiture lawsuit against an Anaheim landlord who rented space to medical marijuana dispensaries.
Court documents filed Tuesday show a stipulated agreement between the U.S. government and Tony Jalali. Federal authorities were using a well-established law that allows for the seizure of property linked to criminal activity.
Had the case moved forward, Jalali could have lost his building, worth about $1.5 million.
Jalali was among more than two dozen landlords ensnared in a federal push to close pot clinics in California. He argued he was unfairly targeted and he booted the lone remaining dispensary once the lawsuit had been filed.
POLICE SEEK LONE GUNMAN, 3 CRITICALLY WOUNDED: INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Police are searching for a lone gunman who critically wounded three people with gunfire in the courtyard of an Inglewood apartment complex.
Los Angeles County fire Inspector Scott Miller says paramedics transported three people to the hospital Tuesday in critical condition. Initial reports from fire officials were that a child had been transported, but Miller says all three were adults. A fourth person, possibly a child, was treated for minor injuries at the scene.
Serrano says police believe a single gunman fired at the people while they were in the courtyard of the apartment complex.
PILOTS, AIRLINE FAULT EQUIPMENT IN ASIANA CRASH: WASHINGTON (AP) — The pilots of Asiana Flight 214, which crashed in San Francisco in July, as well as the airline, are raising the possibility that a key device that controls the Boeing 777's speed may have malfunctioned, an aviation expert familiar with the investigation into the crash said Tuesday.
National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman said early in the crash investigation that her experts had found no mechanical problems with the plane, but were investigating further. One of the three pilots in the Asiana cockpit told investigators after the accident that he thought the plane's automatic throttle was maintaining speed as the plane descended to land, but later discovered it wasn't sending power to the engine, Hersman told reporters in briefings following the accident.
The autothrottle controls engine power and thus speed. Without enough speed, a plane can lose lift and sink quickly. In the case of Flight 214, the plane was flying low and slow as pilots attempted to land. The 777's landing gear struck a seawall just short of the runway. The impact ripped off the back of the plane, tossed out three flight attendants and their seats and scattered pieces of the jet across the runway as it spun and skidded to a stop.
