SAN FRANCISCO SHERIFF CHALLENGES SUSPENSION: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi on Tuesday formally challenged his suspension as he faces a misconduct charge stemming from a domestic violence case.
Mirkarimi's attorneys filed a request in San Francisco Superior Court for a judge to review the suspension ordered by Mayor Ed Lee last week. They argue he can't be suspended over the alleged incident that triggered the criminal case because it happened before Mirkarimi took office.
"The courts have also held that an elected official can only be removed for conduct that is directly related to the performance of his official duties," the attorneys said in a statement. "The conduct in question did not occur at work and does not prevent the sheriff from being able carry out his job."
The decision to challenge his suspension is the latest show of defiance from the 50-year-old ex-member of the city's Board of Supervisors.
He originally pleaded not guilty to multiple domestic violence charges and a charge of child endangerment filed following an alleged New Year's Eve dispute that left his wife, Venezuelan actress Eliana Lopez, with a bruised arm.
His attorneys tried and ultimately failed to convince judges not to allow prosecutors to introduce as evidence a video in which Lopez displays the bruise and tearfully describes the incident.
OCTOMOM POSES IN SEMI-NUDE PHOTOS FOR CASH: LOS ANGELES (AP) — Financial struggles have led "Octomom" Nadya Suleman to pose semi-nude in photographs to run alongside a paid interview in a British magazine, her attorney said Tuesday.
With 14 children to care for, Suleman can't hold down a regular job to pay bills, lawyer Jeff Czech said.
"She's not doing well. She's struggling financially and she does whatever she can," Czech told The Associated Press.
In photos posted to TMZ.com and published in Britain's Closer magazine, Suleman wears panties and little else.
In an interview with TMZ's television show, Suleman said she didn't expect the photos to reach American readers so quickly, but she's not ashamed of posing for the magazine.
"I'm doing what I need to do to take care of my kids," Suleman said.
Czech declined to disclose how much Suleman was paid for the photo shoot and interview.
When Suleman gave birth to octuplets in 2009, she was an unemployed single mother who already had six other children. All her children were conceived through in vitro fertility treatments.
SMALL QUAKE SHAKES FONTANA AREA: FONTANA. (AP) — The U.S. Geological Survey says a small earthquake has occurred in the Fontana area of San Bernardino County.
The USGS says the 1:30 p.m. Tuesday tremor had a preliminary magnitude of 3.5.
The quake's epicenter was 4 miles north of Fontana, about 50 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.
County fire dispatch supervisor Tim Franke tells The Press-Enterprise that it was felt at the Fire Department's Rialto command post but there were no calls from the public.
MAN, 19, ARRESTED IN SHOOTING OF LA COUNTY BOY, 17: WHITTIER (AP) — Authorities say a 19-year-old homeless man has been arrested in the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old in the Los Angeles suburb of Whittier.
A Tuesday sheriff's statement says Eudiel Lopez has been arrested on suspicion of killing Michael Soto.
Soto was shot in the head Monday and was later declared dead at a hospital.
Nearby Whittier School District facilities were briefly locked down after the shooting. The district said in a statement that the victim was not a student.
Homicide detectives and K-9 units tracked down and arrested Lopez shortly after the shooting, and recovered a gun investigators believe was the murder weapon, but it has yet to be tested.
CALIF. MENTAL FACILITY IN 8TH DAY OF LOCKDOWN: ATASCADERO (AP) — Atascadero State Hospital remains locked down eight days after an outbreak of violence at the California central coast mental facility.
Spokesman Craig Dacus said Tuesday that the lockdown has been in place as a precautionary measure since March 20, with the exception of a few hours last Wednesday.
A lockdown means patients are kept inside their sleeping and living units. Visitors aren't allowed.
Dacus says the lockdown is designed to protect patients and state hospital employees.
He says several incidents on March 20 involved patients and employees, but he won't elaborate.
The San Luis Obispo County Tribune says jail records show hospital police booked two men into San Luis Obispo County Jail for investigation of assault causing great bodily injury.
ROMNEY SAYS OBAMA TRYING TO COZY UP TO KREMLIN: LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mitt Romney hit back at Russia's president Tuesday and said President Barack Obama is trying to "ingratiate himself with the Kremlin" after the foreign leader suggested the Republican presidential front-runner was living in a bygone era and that all the candidates should "use their heads."
"The Russians clearly prefer to do business with the current incumbent of the White House," Romney wrote in an opinion piece on the website of the magazine Foreign Policy.
The article represented an escalation of his attacks on Obama after the president's private remark to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev was caught on tape. Obama told the outgoing Russian president that he needed "space" to deal with missile defense issues because he would have more "flexibility" after the November elections.
Romney drew criticism from Medvedev and House Speaker John Boehner, the country's top-ranking Republican, after he said Monday in a CNN interview that Russia is America's "No. 1 geopolitical enemy."
"While the president is overseas, I think it's appropriate that people not be critical of him or of our country," Boehner told reporters when he was asked if he agreed with Romney. "Clearly what's going on in Russia over the last couple of years raises some concerns."
MAN TO STAND TRIAL IN '10 COP SHOOTOUT ON FREEWAY: OAKLAND (AP) — A Northern California charged in a 2010 shootout with officers on an Oakland freeway has been ordered to stand trial on attempted murder and other charges.
An Alameda County judge ruled Tuesday that there's sufficient evidence to try Byron Williams on four counts of attempted murder as well as multiple weapons charges.
Prosecutors say the 46-year-old Tuolumne County man had an arsenal of weapons in his pickup truck on July 18, 2010, when he engaged at least eight California Highway Patrol officers in a nearly 20-minute gunbattle.
The CHP had stopped Williams for traffic violations on Interstate 580. Authorities say he was planning an attack on two liberal nonprofit groups in San Francisco.
Williams, who is representing himself, argued during the preliminary hearing that he was being set up.
