WOMAN STRUCK, KILLED BY CARS ON S. CAL FREEWAY: LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman who jumped, fell or was pushed from a car on a Southern California freeway was killed when several other cars hit her Thursday morning, and investigators were treating her death as a homicide, police said.
The woman was alive shortly after 1 a.m. when she tumbled from a red car on Interstate 210 in Sylmar, Los Angeles Police Department Lt. Paul Vernon said.
The area is about 14 miles north of downtown. The driver didn't stop.
The woman "could've bailed out, jumped out of her own volition. But then again, she could've been shot, stabbed or hit. We just don't know," Vernon told the Los Angeles Times. "Every moment that driver doesn't turn him or herself in, it raises suspicions."
A driver who was behind the red car told police that it swerved left and then right across the lanes before the passenger door opened and the woman fell out, Vernon said.
The witness pulled over and tried to help.
STATE RAID NETS 13 SUSPECTED ABALONE POACHERS: OAKLAND (AP) — Thirteen people were arrested Thursday on suspicion of being part of an abalone poaching network after fish and game wardens served search warrants on 14 locations.
The poaching raid included more than 100 Department of Fish and Wildlife game wardens who served the warrants throughout Northern California, The San Jose Mercury News reported.
Lt. Patrick Foy said 13 of 14 suspects were in custody after the raids in Oakland, San Leandro, Fairfield, Alameda and Sacramento.
Collecting abalone is legal, but divers must be licensed and are limited to 24 of the mollusks a season, and three a day.
Divers track their catches on a report card, and authorities said some of the alleged poachers had falsified their cards.
The poachers are lured by the steep prices abalone can get on the black market: Some average size abalone can sell for $100 each.
One suspect took 57 abalones in a season, mostly collected from the waters off Sonoma and Mendocino counties, Foy said.
EX-TEACHER GETS YEAR IN JAIL FOR STUDENT SEX:
SAN BERNARDINO (AP) — A former Southern California teacher who had her student's baby has been sentenced to a year in jail for having sex with a minor.
Laura Whitehurst, 28, was sentenced Wednesday. She must register as a sex offender and can't have contact with the father.
Whitehurst is a former teacher at Citrus Valley High School in Redlands. Prosecutors say she began an affair with a student last summer. She gave birth last month.
The father, who's now 18, told a judge she robbed him of his innocence.
Under a plea deal, Whitehurst pleaded guilty last month to having unlawful sex with the teen and with two former students who are now adults.
Whitehurst's parents are caring for the child.
EX-MARINE CHARGED WITH CARRYING GRENADE IN LUGGAGE: SANTA ANA . (AP) — A former Marine has been charged with illegally carrying a non-lethal grenade and other military materials in his checked bag at a California airport.
Orange County prosecutors have charged 23-year-old Gregory Salyer of Independence, Ky., with one count of placing a destructive device in checked baggage, two counts of possession of a controlled substance, one count of receiving stolen property and carrying a switch-blade knife.
Authorities say Salyer was arrested Tuesday at John Wayne Airport after security screeners detected suspicious devices in his bag. The bomb squad found artillery fuses, a sting ball grenade, which is an explosive that shoots out rubber projectiles, a small knife, and steroid and Adderall pills.
CALIFORNIA BEACHES EARNING HIGH MARKS: SANTA MONICA (AP) — An annual study of California beaches shows the water quality along the state's coast this past summer was one of the cleanest on record.
The "Beach Report Card" released Thursday by Heal the Bay said an estimated 93 percent of the 445 beaches that were tested for bacterial pollution received A and B grades. Thirty-two locations received fair to poor water quality grades.
Most bacterial contamination occurs during winter, when heavy rains overload storm drains and sewage systems, washing waste into the sea. Swimming in such pollution can cause gastrointestinal, respiratory and other illnesses.
