UC RIVERSIDE STUDENT FACES MURDER PLOT TRIAL: RIVERSIDE (AP) — A University of California, Riverside student has been ordered to stand trial on charges that she plotted to have two ex-boyfriends killed.
Barbara Wu, 22, was in court Monday. She'll face trial for solicitation of murder, stalking, vandalism and threatening a witness.
Prosecutors contend Wu tried to arrange the killings of two exes. In one case, she allegedly asked a current boyfriend to kidnap a former boyfriend, break his legs with a bat, kill him and dispose of the body.
Defense attorney Rajan Maline says Wu was just spouting off and never seriously intended to carry out the plans.
GROUPS SUE TO BLOCK DEMOLITION AT EX-NUCLEAR SITE: SIMI VALLEY (AP) — Several environmental groups on Tuesday sued state regulators over the cleanup of a former nuclear research lab, saying low-level radioactive waste was improperly shipped to landfills.
Consumer Watchdog, along with other groups, filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Sacramento County Superior Court against the Department of Public Health and Department of Toxic Substances Control, which oversees the cleanup at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory.
Located about 30 miles northwest of Los Angeles, Santa Susana was once home to nuclear research and rocket engine tests. In 1959, one of the reactors suffered a partial nuclear meltdown. Responsible parties including Boeing Co., NASA and the U.S Energy Department have been working with state officials to meet a 2017 deadline to rid the nearly 2,900-acre site of contaminated soil.
In their complaint, the groups contend that materials from several buildings that were demolished were sent to landfills and metal recycling shops that are not licensed to accept radioactive waste. They also sought a temporary restraining order to stop Boeing from tearing down a plutonium fuel fabrication building on the hilltop complex.
5M IN ART, JEWELRY TAKEN FROM SAN DIEGO-AREA HOME: SAN DIEGO (AP) — Authorities say burglars have stolen jewelry and artwork worth more than $5 million including prints by Monet and Pissarro from a San Diego County home.
The Sheriff's Department sent a statement asking for the public's help Tuesday in finding sculptures, jewel-encrusted necklaces, bracelets and nearly a dozen paintings that were stolen the night of June 17 or early on June 18 from a couple's home in Rancho Santa Fe.
SEARCH GROWS FOR CALIF MAN IN DEATH OF WOMAN: SAN DIEGO (AP) — The husband of a woman whose body was found in a burned house near the U.S.-Mexico border said Tuesday that he knew the man suspected of killing his wife and abducting one or both of their children.
The disclosure came as a manhunt for James Lee DiMaggio, 40, expanded. The San Diego County Sheriff's Department has said DiMaggio and the victim, 44-year-old Christina Anderson, had been in a close, platonic relationship.
Brett Anderson said he knew DiMaggio "very well" but declined to answer further questions as he arrived from out of town to meet with investigators. He did confirm that he had fathered the two missing children — 16-year-old Hannah Anderson and 8-year-old Ethan Anderson.
