POLICE: TRACY MOTEL OWNER, 62, KILLED BY NAKED MAN: TRACY (AP) — Tracy police are investigating the death of a motel owner who was allegedly killed by a naked man in her business office.
Officials say 62-year-old Lalitaben Patel died at a hospital Saturday night after she was attacked at the Hacienda Inn in Tracy. Investigators are still determining how she was killed.
When police arrived at the scene two people were trying to restrain the unclothed suspect, 25-year-old Stephen Carreiro.
Carreiro is scheduled to appear in San Joaquin County Superior Court on Tuesday to face charges of murder and resisting arrest.
Tracy police Capt. John Espinoza says there's no known link between Saturday's killing in Tracy and a similar slaying of an 84-year-old woman in Stockton.
AUDIT FIRM REFUSES TO SIGN COMPTON FINANCIALS: COMPTON . (AP) — The independent audit firm hired to examine Compton's books has quit and refuses to sign off on the city's financial statements.
Last month's decision by the Mayer Hoffman McCann audit firm could further undermine the city's hopes of getting a line of credit to pay its bills and could endanger its ability to receive federal grants.
Compton has a more than $40 million deficit.
Mayor Eric Perrodin asked the California controller in December to conduct an audit, saying fraud may have led to Compton's financial troubles.
The fraud allegation delayed the routine annual city audit by Mayer Hoffman McCann, which says it was unable to determine the financial impact of the mayor's allegation and they cannot make opinions on Compton's financial health.
LA-AREA CHASE OF LEWD ACTS SUSPECT ENDS IN CRASH: ROLLING HILLS ESTATES (AP) — A Los Angeles middle school teacher under investigation in a lewd-acts case led officers on a chase that ended with his pickup truck veering off a road, flying down an embankment and ramming a tree.
The California Highway Patrol says the chase began Tuesday with a child-endangerment case in Bell.
At one point a patrol car bumped the pickup, forcing it into a big-rig. After a standoff the suspect resumed fleeing.
TV news helicopter cameras followed the pickup as it veered off a road in the Rolling Hills Estates area, crashed through a fence, became airborne and flew into trees.
A school district statement says the driver was Kip Arnold, a physical education teacher suspected of lewd acts with a former student.
LA COUNTY MAY SHIP JAIL INMATES TO CENTRAL CALIF.: LOS ANGELES (AP) — The burgeoning Los Angeles County jail population is forcing the sheriff to consider shipping inmates to jails in San Joaquin Valley to ease crowding.
State prison realignment has shifted more than 5,000 inmates to Los Angeles County jails since fall and sheriff's officials say space will likely run out by Christmas. There are now 18,600 inmates in the jail system.
The Sheriff's Department is in discussions with the Kern County cities of Taft and Shafter to use their currently empty jails to house up to 1,000 low-level offenders.
They are also considering talks with the San Joaquin County cities of Coalinga and Delano.
NO-FLY LIST MAN STRANDED IN BAHRAIN RETURNS TO CA: SAN DIEGO (AP) — A U.S. citizen of Somali descent who was stranded in Bahrain for two weeks after being told his name appears on the U.S. government's no-fly list has returned to San Diego.
The San Diego chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations told The Associated Press on Tuesday that 20-yearold Ali Ahmed arrived Monday at San Diego after being given a pass by the U.S. Embassy in Bahrain to return home.
Ahmed was denied entry into Kenya two weeks ago and flown to Bahrain. He says he flew to Kenya to see his father after the two were separated by Somalia's civil war 14 years ago.
Ahmed says he has talked to a lawyer to see how to clear his name.
CALIF. HABITAT ACQUIRED TO PROTECT ANIMALS, PLANTS: SAN DIEGO (AP) — Government officials say 2,000 acres of newly acquired land for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will help protect vital habitat near the California-Mexico border for rare plants and animals, including the Quino checkerspot butterfly, the California gnatcatcher and arroyo toad.
San Diego, California and federal officials on Wednesday will inaugurate the acreage inside the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge that they say will help close gaps in state and federal preserves.
Gary Gallegos says closing those gaps was critical to the survival of the species.
Gallegos is executive director of the San Diego Association of Governments, which helped along with The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Department of the Interior in the acquisition of the $18 million property near the town of Jamul.
CHP: MAN RUNS OVER WIFE, THEN ROLLS SUV AND DIES: HESPERIA (AP) — Investigators say a Southern California motorist ran over his wife with his sport utility vehicle before he fled the scene and died in a Mojave Desert rollover crash.
The Victorville Daily Press reports 34-year-old Kenneth Amaya Jr. was squabbling with his wife on a Hesperia roadside Saturday afternoon when he got into his GMC Yukon and ran over her.
San Bernardino County sheriff's investigators say Amaya was gone when deputies arrived.
The injured woman was airlifted to a hospital, but details about her injuries are being withheld.
A short time later, the California Highway Patrol says Amaya was driving at high-speed on Interstate 15 when he lost control of the SUV and it plummeted down an embankment.
Amaya, who wasn't wearing a seat belt, was ejected during the crash and killed.
POLL: VOTERS SUPPORT CAPS, HIGHER AGE FOR PENSIONS: SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A new poll finds Californians overwhelmingly support capping pension benefits and raising the minimum retirement age for public employees.
A Field Poll published Tuesday finds 67 percent of registered voters support a salary cap for calculating pension benefits, compared to 25 percent who are opposed. Voters support increasing the retirement age by a nearly two-to-one margin, 60 percent to 32 percent.
Registered voters are also evenly split on the level of retirement benefits promised to government workers. About 37 percent say pensions are too generous, 36 percent say they are about right and 17 percent say they are not generous enough.
The Field Poll interviewed 997 registered voters from June 21-July 2. The poll has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
LA SCHOOLS SUED IN TEACHER MOLESTATION CASE: LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former Los Angeles elementary school teacher molested 14 students and officials did nothing to protect them, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday against the nation's second-largest school district.
The negligence and liability suit is the third to stem from charges that Mark Berndt abused children as young as 7 at Miramonte Elementary School. He was arrested in January and remains jailed after pleading not guilty to committing lewd acts with 23 youngsters.
The suit claims current and former school principals and other officials in the Los Angeles Unified School District ignored student complaints dating back more than a decade that Berndt engaged in improper behavior with students.
