GOV. SIGNS BILL FOR PRICIER COMMUNITY COLLEGE CLASSES: SACRAMENTO (AP) — Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a bill that would allow California's community colleges to offer additional courses at inflated prices during short summer and winter sessions.
Brown issued a statement when signing AB955 Thursday, saying the pilot program "seems like a reasonable experiment."
The measure sponsored by Assemblyman Das Williams, D-Santa Barbara, would allow community colleges to make courses available between the traditional fall and spring semesters.
It does not provide additional state funding to pay for the extra classes. Instead, students would be charged the nonresident rate of $200 per unit, compared with $46 for state-subsidized credits during traditional semesters.
Several community college systems and student and faculty groups opposed the bill, saying it would put lower income students at a disadvantage.
GANG MEMBER SENTENCED IN DEATH OF 3-WEEK-OLD BABY: LOS ANGELES (AP) — A gang member has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the shooting death of a 3-week-old baby who was hit by stray gunfire near a Los Angeles park.
City News Service reports 40-year-old Juvenal Cardenas Mejia received the sentence on Thursday. He was convicted in August of first-degree murder and other offenses in connection with the 2007 shooting death of Luis Angel Garcia.
Authorities said the baby was in a stroller near MacArthur Park when he was struck by gunfire aimed at a street vendor who had refused to pay "rent" to the gang.
Mejia, who was extradited to the U.S. from Mexico, was the last of seven men to be sentenced.
LAW WILL EXPAND USE OF DRUG TO COMBAT OVERDOSES: SACRAMENTO (AP) — Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation that will expand use of a treatment to restore breathing after a drug overdose.
A drug known as naloxone is used in hospitals and by paramedics to revive individuals who may have overdosed on a prescription or illegal drug. The new law also will allow other health care providers to prescribe the drug.
Bill author and Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco says enacting AB635 will save lives. There were more than 2,700 drug overdose deaths in California in 2010, according to a legislative analysis of the bill.
Brown announced signing the bill Thursday. It was sponsored by the Harm Reduction Coalition, which works to reduce consequences to drug use, and the California Society of Addiction Medicine.
NO GUNMAN FOUND ON SAN JOSE STATE CAMPUS: SAN JOSE (AP) — Authorities have lifted a lockdown at a building at San Jose State University after saying they did not find a gunman during a sweep.
The university said on its Twitter page that the lockdown at Sweeney Hall was ended a little before 11 a.m. Thursday.
University spokeswoman Pat Lopes Harris says authorities received a report of a gunman around 9 a.m. She said there were no reports of injuries.
A student reported seeing a man dressed in black clothing holding a gun in Sweeney Hall. Students and faculty inside the building had been ordered to shelter in place.
The rest of campus remained open while police swept the building.
