14 NEW HOTELS PLANNED NEAR DISNEYLAND: ANAHEIM (AP) — Disneyland's neighborhood may be in for a hotel boom.
Developers are planning to build 14 new hotels near the Anaheim theme park, with the first opening as early as December. That would add nearly 4,000 new rooms to the region — a 19 percent increase.
Officials say the industry is recovering after the recession and developers are again able to get loans.
Tourism is important to Anaheim and neighboring Garden Grove, which already have some 20,000 hotel rooms. Hotel bed taxes make up the biggest chunks of the budgets in both cities.
FBI PROBES NUDE PHOTO EXTORTION OF MISS TEEN USA: TEMECULA (AP) — The FBI is investigating allegations that someone tried to extort nude photographs from the newly crowned Miss Teen USA after hacking into a webcam in her Southern California bedroom.
Cassidy Wolf told the website of NBC's "Today" show that she received an anonymous email several months ago. The sender claimed to have stolen images from the camera on her home computer.
The FBI tells the Riverside Press-Enterprise that the emailer threatened to go public with the images unless Wolf provided nude pictures.
The 19-year-old Wolf, a graduate of Great Oak High School in Temecula, won the Miss Teen USA crown Saturday.
The FBI says she's one of more than a dozen alleged victims in the case.
NEW BILL AIMS TO PROTECT CALIF. BEACH FIREPITS: SACRAMENTO (AP) — Two California lawmakers are burned up by new regulations on beach fire pits and they're sponsoring a bill to roll them back.
Assembly members Travis Allen of Huntington Beach and Sharon Quirk-Silva of Fullerton introduced the measure Friday.
Rules approved last month by the South Coast Air Quality Management District require fire rings to be at least 700 feet from homes — which could force the removal of dozens of rings from Southern California beaches.
Assembly Bill 1102 removes the AQMD's authority to regulate fire rings.
Newport Beach residents have been fighting to eliminate local firepits, arguing that their soot casts a pall over their homes. Supporters say the rings are a decades-old tradition and a beach attraction.
The state Assembly approved a nonbinding resolution supporting the rings in May.
WILDFIRE DESTROYS HOME, STUDENTS EVACUATE: DIAMOND SPRINGS (AP) — A wildfire in a Northern California town northeast of Sacramento destroyed a home and spurred schools to evacuate before firefighters stopped its progress.
The blaze broke out in Diamond Springs and grew to 40 acres Friday afternoon, but state fire officials say it's 90 percent contained.
The fire was burning near Union Mine High School and students from there and other nearby schools were bused away from the scene, though police tell KCRA-TV that no mandatory evacuations were ordered.
An evacuation advisory was issued for a mobile home park.
The blaze burned a home and several other structures, but fire officials did not immediately say what the structures were.
Diamond Springs is a town of about 11
PAROLEE COMMITS SUICIDE AFTER MOTORCYCLE CHASE: LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police say a motorcycle chase through the San Fernando Valley has ended with a parolee taking his own life after a standoff.
Authorities say the man shot himself in an apartment Thursday night as officers entered. His name wasn't released.
City News Service says the man was wanted for a weapons violation and took off as officers tried to contact him in Van Nuys.
A 25-minute chase ended with the rider ditching the bike and running into an apartment complex in the Winnetka area.
Police evacuated the building and tried to convince the man to surrender. After about 2 ½ hours, officers decided to go inside. They heard a gunshot as they entered and found the man dead in the bathroom.
CALIF. PARK WHERE LION KILLED INTERN HAS NEW CATS: DUNLAP (AP) — A new lion, tiger, and leopard have arrived at the California wildlife park where an intern was killed in a lion attack.
Cat Haven owner Dale Anderson said Friday that a 5-month-old white tiger was named Dianna in honor of Dianna Hanson, the 24-year-old who was killed in March by one of the park's lions after she failed to secure the door to a feeding cage.
Another new addition to the park, the 3-year-old lion named Titan, will replace the lion named Cous Cous who killed Hanson and who was put down by sheriff's deputies.
The park also has a new 10-week-old snow leopard named Jackson.
Federal officials determined the nonprofit had proper enclosures and procedures and did not violate any Animal Welfare Act policies in the fatal lion attack.
