• NEW LIGHTS TO ADD PIZAZZ TO SF-OAKLAND BAY BRIDGE: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The western span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is getting spruced up with 25,000 white LED lights, transforming the gray, workhorse of a bridge into a light sculpture.

The $8 million, privately funded project will be done by March. It would be the largest such light sculpture in the world; four times bigger than the installation on Paris’ Eiffel Tower.

New York light sculptor Leo Villareal says the idea is to help people see the bridge in a new way. It will also add some pizazz to the old span when the new eastern portion of the bridge opens later in 2013.

To prevent distracted driving, the lights won’t be viewable by drivers, but from the shoreline.



• EARLY MOTHERS OF INVENTION MEMBER RAY COLLINS DIES: CLAREMONT  (AP) — Ray Collins, who invited guitarist Frank Zappa to join the band that eventually became the Mothers of Invention, has died at age 75.

Collins’ friend Patrick Brayer tells the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin that the musician from Claremont, Calif., died Monday, five days after a heart attack.

Collins brought Zappa to R&B cover band the Soul Giants in 1964. By 1966, they had become the Mothers of Invention, releasing their first album, “Freak Out,” on Verve Records.

Collins sang on three albums, then left the Mothers, saying their comedic approach to music didn’t suit him.

He pursued little music afterward and spent his last years living in a van, but was a well-known character and conversationalist on the streets of Claremont, a college town east of Los Angeles.



• FORMER LAWYER ARRESTED FOR SKIPPING JAIL SENTENCE: SAN RAFAEL  (AP) — A former Marin County attorney convicted previously for practicing law without a license was arrested again after failing to show up to serve three-month sentence for another crime.

The Marin Independent Journal reported that 59-year-old Stephen Jaycox of Santa Rosa appeared in court Thursday as prosecutors sought an additional 30-day sentence.

Jaycox was convicted for practicing law after accepting $4,000 in attorneys’ fees from three clients, and appearing in a San Francisco courtroom with no license.

He received home detention after pleading guilty, but was later arrested again for driving while his license was suspended for a DUI.

Jaycox failed to show up for his jail sentence, prompting his latest arrest.

He is being held without bail at the Marin County Jail.



• 2 charged in crash that killed 90-year-old woman: WEST COVINA (AP) — Los Angeles County prosecutors have filed murder charges for two drivers they say were street racing in West Covina when one of their vehicles crashed into a van and killed a 90-year-old woman.

The district attorney’s office says 30-year-old Vincent Lopez and 34-year-old Victor Hugo Sanchez were each charged Thursday with one count of murder and one count of driving under the influence causing injury.

Celia La Torre of West Covina was in a wheelchair in the van Tuesday when it was hit by a car allegedly driven by Lopez. She was thrown from the van and killed. Her son, the van’s driver, was injured. Lopez also was injured and remains hospitalized.

Prosecutors say the second car left the scene and Sanchez was arrested later.

Arraignment is scheduled for Friday.