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State news briefs
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EX-CON GETS 148 YEARS IN SMOKING CONFRONTATION: BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (AP) — An elderly California ex-con has been sentenced to 148 years to life in prison for pulling a knife on a security guard who asked him to put out his cigarette.

The Bakersfield Californian says 80-year-old Billy Wayne Shrader also threatened to kill the police officers who arrested him and later threatened the life of the judge presiding over his trial.

He was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon and was sentenced Thursday by a Kern County judge.

Prosecutors say Shrader was smoking in a no-smoking area of a bus terminal last September when the security guard asked him to put out the cigarette.

Shrader then tried to stab the security guard.

Shrader has been in and out of jails and prisons for more than 30 years.

$64M APPROVED FOR NUKE PLANT SEISMIC STUDIES: OCEANSIDE  (AP) — The California Public Utilities Commission has approved $64 million in funding for seismic studies to see how vulnerable the San Onofre nuclear plant may be to earthquakes.

The costs will be recovered from Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric customers.

The study at San Onofre comes in response to legislation directing the commission to assess the plants.

The plant is currently out of service as the utility tries to figure out why steam generator tubes are showing more wear than they should.

Utility officials say they will work with Scripps Institution of Oceanography on the seismic studies beginning later this year.

The San Onofre plant's license expires in 2022. The studies could play into Edison's decision to renew it.

NEW SANTA MONICA METERS RESET WHEN CARS LEAVE: SANTA MONICA . (AP) — Santa Monica is installing new parking meters that will give drivers perks like paying with phones, but deny them the rare pleasure of finding a meter with time left on it.

City finance director Don Patterson said Friday that the meters Santa Monica has been trying on select blocks will be expanded throughout the city starting on Monday.

Parkers can still pay with coins, but also credit cards and mobile phones, and they can get a text message when their meter runs out.

But there are sensors on the spaces that won't allow new payments past posted time limits unless a car moves, and that reset the meter every time a car leaves.

UC INVITES FARM OCCUPIERS TO DISCUSS USE OF SITE: ALBANY  (AP) — Officials at the University of California, Berkeley say they have invited protesters occupying a patch of land owned by the university to join in a discussion in how to use the site, but only if they agree to clear out their encampment.

The university said in a statement Friday they will allow two representatives of the group to attend a meeting Saturday with students, faculty and city officials on how the property in nearby Albany should be used both for research and urban farming.

But in order to attend the meeting, the protesters must also agree to clear their encampment by 10 a.m. Saturday.

The university also says it will drop its lawsuit filed earlier this week against the protesters for the encampment if they leave peacefully and do not attempt to re-occupy the 10-acre site.

REPORT: OCCUPY LA COST TAXPAYERS $4.7 MILLION: LOS ANGELES (AP) — A report says Occupy Los Angeles cost taxpayers at least $4.7 million.

That's $2 million higher than an estimate reported in February.

City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana found two thirds of the cost was spent for policing the protest.

The report says the LAPD spent $1.3 million monitoring protesters during the two-month demonstration outside City Hall and another $1.3 million evicting them. An additional half a million dollars was spent by city security officers.

Officials say the higher figure reflects newly reported costs to police the protest and the cost to restore City Hall Park and several monuments damaged by protesters.

Santana tells the Times the city has received more than $400,000 in donations and rebates to restore the park.

BIG SALMON RELEASE BEAR: HALF MOON BAY (AP) — Some 60,000 hatchery-raised salmon are now acclimating in a Northern California sea pen before their release in the Pacific Ocean.

The finger-length salmon smolts were taken by truck on Thursday from the Feather River Fish Hatchery in Oroville to a Pillar Point Harbor pen north of Half Moon Bay.

The salmon will spend two weeks acclimating to the temperature and salinity of the water before they are released into the Pacific.

MOTHER OF 3 ARRESTED FOR SEX WITH 16-YEAR-OLD BOY: SANTA ANA  (AP) — A Southern California mother of three has been arrested for having sex with a relative's 16-year-old boyfriend.

Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna says investigators also believe 32-year-old Mayra Gonzalez gave birth to the teenager's child.

Orange County prosecutors have charged the Santa Ana woman with six felony counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor and two felony counts of oral copulation of a minor.

She's in jail pending arraignment Friday with bail set at $20,000.

Investigators say Gonzalez had an ongoing sexual relationship with the teenager during a six-month period ending in December. The victim is a close friend of the defendant's relative.

If convicted, she could be sentenced to nearly eight years in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender.