DEPUTIES SAY MAN SPEARS, KILLS FAMILY DOG, CAT: CASTAIC (AP) — Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies say a man made a spear from a broomstick and kitchen knife, killed the family dog and set it ablaze, then used the spear and an arrow to kill the family cat.
Lt. Randy Harris says 23-year-old Jared Foster was arrested Wednesday for investigation of cruelty to animals. Bail was set at $20,000.
Harris says Foster's brother came home to find the dog in the backyard of the family's Castaic home, blood inside the house and his brother acting irrationally. He left to call deputies.
Harris says deputies talked Foster out of the house, located in north Los Angeles County, and found the dead cat inside.
LA COUNTY DEPUTIES SEIZE FIREWORKS: INDUSTRY (AP) — About 3,000 pounds of illegal fireworks have been seized by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies.
A Sheriff's Department statement says the seizure was made Wednesday evening after deputies saw three men igniting what appeared to be illegal fireworks in a street in the unincorporated Valinda area near the city of Industry.
The men were arrested and during the investigation the deputies spotted numerous boxes of fireworks in an open residential garage.
The department says a search warrant was then served, and the seized fireworks were turned over to county Fire Department.
The names of the men have not been released because the investigation is continuing.
CALIF MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO SMUGGLING FISH BLADDERS: SAN DIEGO (AP) — A California man has pleaded guilty to smuggling endangered fish bladders into the United States from Mexico to later sell to Asia.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in San Diego says Jason Xie entered his plea before a federal judge on Wednesday.
He is one of seven defendants charged with unlawful trade in wildlife.
The 49-year-old Sacramento man admitted that in February and March he received five coolers containing the swim bladders of 270 Totoaba fish from across the border. The bladders were valued at more than $400,000.
Xie agreed to forfeit 170 bladders and a $350,000 residence in Seattle.
Authorities say the bladders are used in a highly desired soup in China and Hong Kong.
The totoaba fish is only found in Mexico's Sea of Cortez.
4 ARRESTED IN $2 MILLION ELK GROVE. MARIJUANA BUST: SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The state attorney general's office says four men are in custody after authorities seized thousands of marijuana plants worth $2 million during a Sacramento County raid.
Agents on Tuesday arrested 34-year-old Anthony Uasiarez and 18-year-old Ruben Guzman, both from Mexico, as well as 22-year-old Jorge Vargas Garcia and 23-year-old Jose Estrada of Tulare County during the raid on a pot grow at the Stone Lakes preserve near Elk Grove.
Garcia and Estrada are suspected members of the Sureños gang.
Agents seized more than 7,000 pot plants, 100 pounds of marijuana, two shotguns and a handgun following an investigation of the men.
The men are in Sacramento County Jail on suspicion of possessing marijuana for sale, cultivation of marijuana, conspiracy and being armed in commission of a felony.
TODDLER DIES IN KERN COUNTY FIRE, 3 CHILDREN SAVED: BAKERSFIELD (AP) — Kern County officials say a toddler died in a Bakersfield house fire, while three of his siblings were saved.
The toddler was identified by the coroner as 21-month-old Aiden McDonald.
Cary Wright with the Kern County Fire Department said three children — ages 3, 5, and 6 years old — were rescued from Wednesday's fire by their mother and sustained no injuries.
The fire broke out around 6 p.m. while the children were being watched by an aunt. Wright said when the mother returned home, she went inside the burning home to rescue her children. She tried to rescue the toddler as well, but firefighters stopped her from going back inside the home because it was engulfed in flames.
WATER BOARD BLOCKS OC TOLL ROAD EXTENSION: SAN DIEGO (AP) — Southern California regulators have put the brakes on plans to extend an Orange County toll road.
The Orange County Register says the permit for a 5 1/2-mile extension of State Route 241 was turned down Wednesday by the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board. The permit would have allowed the toll road agency to fill in some small wetlands on the route.
A majority of board members said they believe the $200 million extension is really just the start of a plan to extend the road 16 miles and link it to Interstate 5 near the San Diego County line.
The toll road agency has denied that but California's attorney general sued last month to block the smaller extension on those grounds.
STARVING CATS, BIRDS, PIG RESCUED OUTSIDE FRESNO: FRESNO (AP) — Animal advocates say they've rescued 61 animals including cats, birds and a potbellied pig that were starving at a makeshift shelter in rural Fresno County.
Beth Caffey of the Central California Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says her group discovered deplorable conditions at the site 30 miles east of Fresno.
Caffey tells the Fresno Bee (bit.ly/1c0OWpB) Thursday that dogs were found chained to trees with 3-foot cables and two feral cats were found in one small bird cage. None of them had any food.
The group also found several bird species and a potbellied pig, buckets of soiled cat litter and kiddie pools full of what appeared to be human feces.
Caffey says the SPCA is asking for an investigation and hoping it leads to criminal charges.
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