DEFENSE SUGGESTS VICTIM FATALLY SHOT HIMSELF: SACRAMENTO  (AP) — A defense lawyer suggested a man who was fatally shot at a Sacramento Sikh sports festival five years ago may have fired the fatal bullet himself.

Attorney David Dratman made the suggestion during cross-examination Monday in the trial of Gurpreet Gosal.

Prosecutors say Gosal is responsible for the 2008 killing of Parjit Singh during the Sacramento Sikh Society sports festival at Bradshaw Temple.

While questioning the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy in the case, Dratman demonstrated how he believes Gosal reached behind his back with his left hand, pulled a handgun and accidentally shot himself.

The pathologist, Elizabeth Albers, says investigators had dismissed that possibility.

The shooting happened while Singh argued with Gosal's partner, Amandeep Dhami, who authorities believe has since fled the country.

CALIF. FORECLOSURE VICTIMS WILL GET $1,500 CHECKS: SACRAMENTO . (AP) — More than 200,000 Californians will each receive checks worth nearly $1,500 this month as part of the national mortgage settlement, the state attorney general's office said Tuesday.

The money is going to homeowners who successfully filed claims saying they were the victims of wrongful foreclosures.

Attorney general spokesman Nick Pacilio said that the national settlement administrator, Rust Consulting, will mail checks of about $1,480 starting next week to about 207,000 Californians who lost their homes.

That amounts to more than $307 million in settlement money statewide, and is part of the $1.5 billion in settlement checks that will be sent to nearly 1 million borrowers nationwide.

Those who were eligible for the checks had their mortgage serviced by one of the settlement's five major banks and lost their homes to foreclosure between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2011. The five participating banks are Ally Financial Inc., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Wells Fargo & Co.