LANDLORD CONVICTED OF SETTING PIPE BOMB UNDER SUV: SACRAMENTO (AP) — A Northern California landlord is facing decades in prison after a federal jury convicted him of detonating a homemade bomb beneath a former tenant's SUV.
United States Attorney Benjamin Wagner said Tuesday that 30-year-old Daniel Garcia of Fairfield was found guilty in U.S. District Court in Sacramento of four explosives charges.
One count, possession of a destructive device in relation to a crime of violence, carries a possible life sentence.
Prosecutors say the May explosion caused a fireball and sent shrapnel into a nearby apartment building where two children were sleeping. They say investigators found another bomb when searching Garcia's home.
Garcia was arrested two days later after a standoff with a SWAT team.
He faces a mandatory minimum of 35 years in prison when he is sentenced in April.
GOOD SAMARITANS SHOT DURING MEAT MARKET HOLDUP: LYNWOOD (AP) — Investigators say two good Samaritans have been shot while attempting to thwart a Southern California meat market robbery.
Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Mark Pope says 30-year-old Kyle Henderson and 47-year-old Terrance Fair, both of them parolees, and 42-year-old Ischa Criner have been arrested. All three are from Lynwood.
Pope tells City News Service that the victims tried to stop a Sunday night armed robbery at a Lynwood meat market.
Pope says they are both hospitalized. One was shot in the hand and the other was shot in the chest.
HUMBOLDT WOMAN DIES AFTER SPENDING NIGHT OUTSIDE: MCKINLEYVILLE (AP) — Humboldt County officials say a 65-year-old woman died after she spent a night outside in freezing temperatures.
Juliann Siple of McKinleyville was found lying in four inches of water around 8:30 a.m. Monday near Hammond Trail.
Officials say Siple was suffering from hypothermia and apparently died while being transported to a local hospital.
Authorities launched a search for Siple after she was reported missing late Sunday afternoon by her domestic partner. Her partner told authorities she had dropped Siple off to walk her dogs on Moonstone Beach in Trinidad around 1 p.m.
National Weather Service officials say the temperature at the Arcata-Eureka airport reached an overnight low of 29 degrees on Sunday, when they issued a hard freeze warning for Del Norte and Humboldt counties.
BABY WHALE EUTHANIZED AFTER WASHING ASHORE: MOSS LANDING (AP) — Veterinarians have euthanized a newborn gray whale that washed ashore on the central California coast during the marine mammals' annual migration.
The whale washed ashore at Salinas River State Beach Monday and appeared less than a week old.
Frances Gulland, a Marine Mammal Center veterinarian, said the whale measured 12 feet long and more than 1,700 pounds. It appears to have separated from its mother during the migration.
Officials determined the whale could not be saved, and administered an injection.
California gray whales have an estimated population of more than 20,000, and migrate 12,000 miles from Alaska to Baja California.
The whales usually give birth in warmer waters, but a number of young whales have been spotted in migrating pods this year.
CITY SALUTING TRASH WORKER WHO RETURNED FOUND CASH: CLOVIS (AP) — A California trash collector is being honored for returning $1,000 in cash and checks he found on his San Joaquin Valley route.
The Clovis City Council is presenting a proclamation Tuesday night to Martin Dominguez, who works for Allied Waste Services.
Dominguez was picking up recyclables in a residential area on Dec. 13 when he says a man drop something while emptying trash. The man got into a van and drove away.
As Dominguez got closer, he discovered the dropped item was a bank deposit bag. Inside was $763 in cash and about $300 in checks.
Dominguez returned the bank deposit bag in what turned out to be church donations.
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LOS ANGELES COUNCIL REQUIRES CONDOMS IN PORN FILMS: LOS ANGELES (AP) — Actors in adult movies filmed in the nation's Porn Capital would be required to use condoms under an ordinance granted final approval Tuesday by the Los Angeles City Council.
The measure, adopted 9-1, next goes to the mayor for his signature. Before it can take effect, however, the City Council has ordered police officials, the city attorney and others to hold meetings to figure out how it might be enforced.
The council's second and final vote to approve the law was taken without public discussion on a day when most of the porn industry's major players were in Las Vegas preparing for Wednesday's opening of the Adult Entertainment Expo, their industry's largest trade event.
Several industry officials condemned the move as being an unneeded exercise in political correctness that cannot be enforced.
BORDER PATROL TO TOUGHEN POLICY: SAN DIEGO (AP) — The U.S. Border Patrol is moving to halt a revolving-door policy of sending migrants back to Mexico without any punishment.
The agency this month is overhauling its approach on migrants caught illegally crossing the 1,954-mile border that the United States shares with Mexico. Years of enormous growth at the federal agency in terms of staff and technology have helped drive down apprehensions of migrants to 40-year lows.
The Border Patrol now feels it has enough of a handle to begin imposing more serious consequences on almost everyone it catches from Texas to San Diego. The "Consequence Delivery System" divides border crossers into seven categories, ranging from first-time offenders to people with criminal records.
Punishments vary by region but there is a common thread: simply turning people around after taking their fingerprints is the choice of last resort. Some, including children and the medically ill, will still get a free pass by being turned around at the nearest border crossing, but they will be few and far between.
POLICE SAY WOMAN OFFERED SEX FOR MCNUGGETS: BURBANK (AP) — Police say a Southern California woman offered McDonald's restaurant drive-thru customers sex for chicken McNuggets.
Burbank police Lt. John Dilibert says 31-year-old Khadijah Baseer was seen opening the car doors of customers in a McDonald's drive-thru lane on Jan. 11.
The lieutenant says the Los Angeles woman, a frequent panhandler in the area, told customers she would swap sex for the fast-foot item.
Baseer was arrested for investigation of prostitution, cited and released.
MOM WHO STABBED BABY TO SERVE 1 MORE MONTH: BAKERSFIELD (AP) — A mother who repeatedly stabbed her six-week-old daughter has been sentenced to a suspended prison term and will serve one more month behind bars.
Danielle Mailloux was sentenced to a suspended eight-year prison term on Tuesday.
She was ordered instead to spend the first nine months of her five-year-probation behind bars. With credit for the time she's already spent in jail, she'll go free in about a month.
Mailloux made a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty to child abuse with an enhancement for great bodily harm.
Mailloux's attorney says she was suffering from post-partum depression when she attacked her baby last May.
Police say Mailloux was under the influence of methamphetamine at the time.
