COUNCIL CANDIDATE LOSES SUPPORT DUE TO RAP VIDEO: SAN BERNARDINO . (AP) — A San Bernardino city council candidate is drawing some flak after music videos he recorded have turned up that critics say promote violence and crime.
The San Bernardino Police Officers Association recently pulled its endorsement of Anthony Jones who is in a runoff election for a council seat. The organization said it received the music videos in which some of the lyrics focus on violence and a gunshot sound effect is heard.
The 23-year-old Jones doesn't regret making the videos, one of which was recorded two years ago. He said he wouldn't make similar videos now because he's involved in local politics and didn't appear too worried about losing an endorsement.
Jones said he had been open about his past in the music business and the video had been made in collaboration with others.
SEAL BEACH WOMAN MAY GET TO KEEP 235-POUND PET PIG: SEAL BEACH . (AP) — An Orange County city that's banned pigs is considering a move to save a pet-owner's bacon.
A 235-pound pot-bellied pig named Bubba has lived with Seal Beach resident Madonna Grimsley for four years. But neighbor complaints about the noise and smell prompted the city on Tuesday to expand its list of banned animals — which already included hogs — to include all swine.
At the same time, the Orange County Register says the city will consider granting Grimsley an exotic animal permit to keep Bubba. That decision could come next month.
Grimsley says she's happy that she may get to keep Bubba but sad that others won't share the joy of having a pet porker.
MEETING PLANNED ON SCHOOL'S ARAB MASCOT: THERMAL (AP) — A special meeting will be held to discuss the growing controversy over a Southern California high school's longstanding Arab mascot.
The Desert Sun reports Tuesday that the Coachella Valley Unified School Board had planned to address the issue at a regular Nov. 21 meeting, but decided to hold a special meeting Friday to allow more time for discussion.
Coachella Valley High School's mascot has been around since the 1920s. It was chosen to recognize the area's reliance on date farming, traditionally a Middle Eastern crop. The mascot has evolved from a turban-wearing horseman carrying a lance to a standing figure with a snarl on its face and sporting a headscarf.
Recently, an anti-discrimination group demanded that the school get rid of the mascot.
Superintendent Darryl Adams said the mascot was never intended to ridicule anyone.
4 DEAD, 4 INJURED IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CRASH: YUBA CITY (AP) — A crash at a Northern California highway intersection left four men dead and four people injured, authorities said.
A 1997 Toyota Camry carrying the four men was approaching Highway 99 south of Yuba City around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday when it entered the intersection and was broadsided by a Mercedes sedan heading south on the highway, the California Highway Patrol said.
The Camry had a stop sign, but it was unclear whether it stopped before the crash, Sgt. Michael McCarthy said. The CHP will look at the possibility the driver was under the influence and will inspect the vehicles as part of its investigation, McCarthy said.
One of the passengers in the Camry was not wearing a seatbelt and was thrown from the car. The Camry went into a clockwise spin before the trunk collided with a light pole, the CHP said.
All three passengers and the driver died at the scene.
Their names were withheld pending notification of family, but the CHP said the four were from Yuba City and between the ages of 40 and 53.
The Mercedes driver, identified as 23-year-old Sonny Granados, suffered major injuries. Three passengers in the Mercedes had minor injuries.
LA EDUCATION BOARD APPROVES CONTINUING IPAD PLAN: LOS ANGELES (AP) — The nation's second-largest school district will move ahead with an ambitious $1 billion plan to provide iPads to all students after problems emerged when some of the first to get them used the tablets to tweet, text and play games instead of studying.
The Los Angeles Board of Education voted 6-1 on Tuesday that 35 campuses will receive the devices this year in addition to nearly 50 in the first group.
Superintendent John Deasy says it is important to get the tablets to students quickly because computerized state testing is being introduced in 2015.
The rollout of the iPads quickly encountered problems when more than 300 students at three of the first campuses quickly cracked their security settings and began surfing the Internet.
BONES OF 4 PEOPLE FOUND IN DESERT GRAVES: VICTORVILLE (AP) — Authorities now say they've found the bones of four people in what appears to be a makeshift gravesite in Southern California's Mojave Desert.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department says the skeletal remains were found in two shallow graves near Victorville. Investigators first went to the remote area on Monday after a motorcyclist reported finding some bones that coroner's officials confirmed were human.
Homicide and coroner's officials have been digging in the area since then.
However, the bones appear to have been there a long time and authorities say it will take more examination to determine the age and gender of the victims — let alone how and when they died.
MARINES KILLED IN ACCIDENT AT CALIFORNIA BASE: SAN DIEGO (AP) — Four Marines were killed Wednesday during an operation to clear a range of unexploded ordnance at Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, a Marine official said.
The deaths occurred during a periodic sweep of explosive material to make ranges safe for future exercises, said a Marine official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
The identities of the dead were withheld pending notification of relatives. Base officials released no details on the 11 a.m. accident. Authorities were investigating the cause.
The deaths come about eight months after a mortar explosion killed seven Marines during a live-fire training exercise in Nevada.
