FOOD LABELING, 3-STRIKES JOIN CROWDED NOV. BALLOT: SACRAMENTO (AP) — California's secretary of state has certified two more initiatives for the November election, when voters will have to decide at least eight ballot measures.
Debra Bowen's office said Monday that a proposal to require mandatory labeling on foods that contain genetically modified ingredients has collected enough signatures to qualify, along with a proposal to modify California's strict three-strikes sentencing law.
That initiative would make a life sentence on a third strike possible only when the new conviction is serious or violent.
Six other initiatives have already been approved for November. They include measures related to auto insurance, political contributions, a $12 billion water bond, the death penalty, penalties for human trafficking and repealing the new state Senate maps drawn by an independent citizens panel.
CHEMISTY EXPERIMENT GOES WRONG: LOS ANGELES (AP) — Officials say a Los Angeles high school was evacuated and three people were taken to the hospital after a teacher mixed up her acids in a classroom chemistry experiment.
Los Angeles fire spokesman Brian Humphrey says the incident began Monday afternoon when an instructor apparently mistook sulfuric acid for nitric acid at East Valley High School in North Hollywood.
Humphrey says a 16-year-old male student and two women in their 30s were taken to hospitals with minor complaints from chemical exposure. One of the women was the teacher. It was unclear who the other woman was. No names were released.
Paramedics examined about a dozen other students from the class, which gathered in the school gym after they evacuated.
The rest of the school evacuated classrooms for the football field.
MAN SENTENCED TO LIFE IN SLAYING OF FATHER, 2 SONS: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — An illegal immigrant convicted of killing a father and two of his sons in a gang-related shooting that also drew attention to San Francisco's sanctuary policy will be spending the rest of his life behind bars.
Edwin Ramos was sentenced Monday to three consecutive life sentences in prison without possibility of parole for the murders of 48-year-old Tony Bologna and his two sons, 20-year-old Michael, 20, and 16-year-old Matthew in the city's Excelsior District in June 2008.
The 25-year-old Ramos offered his condolences to the Bologna family prior to his sentencing.
Prosecutors said Ramos opened fire on a car carrying Bologna and his three sons. Andrew Bologna, who was the lone survivor in the drive-by shooting, testified as the prosecution's star witness.
Authorities said Ramos was seeking revenge for an earlier shooting of a fellow MS-13 gang member.
POSSIBLE LUNGS FOUND ON LA COUNTY SIDEWALK: LOS ANGELES (AP) — Authorities say something that looks like lungs have been found on a sidewalk in south Los Angeles County.
Sheriff's Sgt. Robert Dean tells the Los Angeles Times that a citizen called Sunday evening to report organs on the sidewalk on Avalon Boulevard in an unincorporated area.
He says he doesn't know what they are but deputies turned them over to coroner's officials.
Coroner's spokesman Ed Winter says a doctor has not looked at what was found yet. He says an examination will be conducted Monday or Tuesday.
KIDNAPPING SUSPECT DIES DURING STRUGGLE IN MODESTO: MODESTO (AP) — A kidnapping suspect who led authorities on a car chase has died in Modesto following a struggle in which officers deployed bean bags, a stun gun and a dog to subdue him.
Modesto police officers tried to pull the man over early Sunday after a woman reported that she was being kidnapped by her boyfriend. The man let the woman go at an intersection before speeding off.
Sgt. Ivan Valencia said that when the chase ended, the man resisted arrested. Stanislaus County Sheriff's deputies who also got involved in the chase tried to restrain him.
Valencia said that during the struggle the man had an unspecified medical emergency. He was taken to a hospital where he died.
The cause of his death was under investigation.
IMMIGRANT ACTIVISTS PLAN MORE CAMPAIGN PROTESTS: LOS ANGELES (AP) — Illegal immigrant student activists are planning protests at more Obama campaign offices to pressure him to stop deportations, as students in Denver ended a six-day hunger strike that closed the president's campaign office there.
The National Immigrant Youth Alliance in Los Angeles said Monday that the national protests will be similar to the one in Denver, where two students agreed to end their occupation after hearing others were taking up the cause.
Alliance organizer Dominic Powell said protests would start this week but declined to say where.
The activists want Obama to stop the deportation of illegal immigrant college students and others who they believe qualify to have deportations put on hold under a federal case review currently under way.
The Obama campaign did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
WHITE TEEN RETURNS SCHOLARSHIP INTENDED FOR BLACKS: RIVERSIDE (AP) — A white student at a Riverside high school has returned a $1,000 scholarship intended for black students.
Jeffrey Warren of Martin Luther King High School received the scholarship from the Martin Luther King Senior Citizens Club at a school awards night last month, prompting laughter from the audience.
Jeffrey later returned it. The teen, who graduated last week, says he applied for 27 scholarships and won three others.
The Riverside Press-Enterprise says the 17-year-old never saw a cover letter for the award that was sent to high school counselors and specified it was for black students.
The application itself said only that African-Americans were encouraged to apply.
The scholarship has now gone to a black student. The senior club says it will change next year's application language.
CALTRANS WANTS BEE'S BAY BRIDGE STORY RETRACTED: SACRAMENTO (AP) — The California Department of Transportation is asking the Sacramento Bee to retract a story that raised concerns about the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge's structural integrity.
Caltrans on Monday called the May 27 story "false" and announced it would host a public webinar to go over the engineering and safety features of the new bridge.
The Bee defended the story as accurate and fair.
Citing Caltrans records, the Bee reported that a 19-foot section of concrete in the foundation of the span's signature tower had not hardened before tests were conducted.
Caltrans officials now say the agency did substantial examination of the foundation in question, including tests showing the concrete had set.
The paper said Caltrans rejected an on-the-record meeting with the Bee to address Caltrans' objections.
