BROWN OKS BILL ALLOWING MORE THAN 2 LEGAL PARENTS: SACRAMENTO (AP) — Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation making California the fifth state to allow judges to declare a child has more than two legal parents.
Current law allows courts to acknowledge only two people as parents, which advocates say does not give judges any leeway to exercise judgment.
SB274 by Democratic Sen. Mark Leno of San Francisco allows a judge to legally recognize additional parents if failing to do so would be detrimental to a child.
Leno's bill was prompted by a 2011 court case involving a California girl whose legal parent could not care for her and whose biological father was deemed not a parent. She ended up in state custody when her birth mother was incarcerated and her other legal parent was hospitalized.
Brown vetoed similar legislation last year.
TEEN STRUCK ON SF BAY AREA FREEWAY: OAKLAND (AP) — A teenager is in critical condition after he was struck by at least one car while running in pajama bottoms and a white shirt on a San Francisco Bay Area freeway.
The California Highway Patrol says the roughly 16 or 17-year-old boy was spotted on Interstate 580 in Oakland around 6:30 a.m. Friday. He was walking into lanes of traffic when he was struck.
The collision caused several other cars to crash and the freeway's eastbound lanes to close for about an hour.
Three people suffered minor injuries.
It's not clear why the teenager was on the freeway. Authorities say he did not have identification on him.
GROUPS APPEAL DISMISSAL OF UC ANTI-SEMITISM CLAIMS: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Attorneys are appealing a federal decision to dismiss claims that alleged three University of California campuses failed to respond effectively to anti-Semitism displays during events at the schools.
The appeal filed Friday with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights concerns events at three campuses — UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz and UC Irvine — spanning more than a decade.
The complaints alleged anti-Jewish comments were made at meetings in Berkeley to discuss a student senate bill calling on the university to divest from companies that support Israel's military in Palestinian territories.
In Santa Cruz, the complaints alleged the school didn't respond quickly enough to swastika graffiti on campus.
After an investigation, the government ruled the incidents that spurred the claims didn't constitute harassment of Jewish students.
MAN SENTENCED FOR KILLING TODDLER: SANTA ANA (AP) — An Orange County man has been sentenced to 31 years to life in state prison for beating an 18-month-old girl to death and abusing another child.
The district attorney's office says 27-year-old Juan Carlos Aguilar of Santa Ana was sentenced Friday for the murder of his girlfriend's niece.
A jury found Aguilar guilty of murder, assault on a child, and child abuse in August.
In July 2011, Aguilar shared an apartment with his girlfriend and their 3-year-old daughter, his girlfriend's sister and her baby.
When they were alone, Aguilar assaulted the baby, giving her bruises, lacerations, and injuring her lungs, liver and brain. The baby was pronounced dead at a hospital.
During the investigation, prosecutors learned that Aguilar abused another child in 2009, who survived similar injuries.
MAN ACCUSED OF KILLING, COOKING WIFE DIES: SAN DIEGO (AP) — A San Diego County man accused of killing his 73-year-old wife and then cooking her body parts has died of cancer while awaiting trial.
The district attorney's office announced Friday that 69-year-old Frederick Hengl of Oceanside died of prostate cancer Sept. 27 in the jail infirmary.
Hengl was arrested last November after neighbors complained of a foul odor coming from his home. Police found the head of his wife, Anna Faris, in a freezer and dismembered parts of her body cooking on a stove.
Hengl denied killing his wife, who reportedly suffered from Alzheimer's disease. The couple had been married 34 years.
HOME INVADERS CUT, PEPPER SPRAY LA MAN, THEN FLEE: LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles police say a man in his 30s was slashed with a knife and pepper-sprayed by three assailants who barged into his home.
City News Service reports the attack happened shortly before midnight Thursday when the man opened his front door after hearing a noise outside.
Sgt. Rick Colombia says the three attackers charged in and attacked. Colombia says one man cut him on the face, back and arm with a knife, while another pepper sprayed him.
The three then fled the home in El Sereno.