Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/817014
ByEllenKnickmeyer The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO New cli- mate-change findings mean the Pacific Ocean off Cali- fornia may rise higher, and storms and high tides hit harder, than previously thought, officials said. The state's Ocean Pro- tection Council on Wednes- day revised upward its pre- dictions for how much wa- ter off California will rise as the climate warms. The forecast helps agencies in the nation's most popu- lous state plan for climate change as rising water seeps toward low-lying air- ports, highways and com- munities, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area. Discoveries that ice sheets are melting in- creasingly fast in Antarc- tica, which holds nearly 90 percent of the world's ice, largely spurred the change. As fossil-fuel emissions warm the Earth's atmo- sphere, melting Antarctic ice is expected to raise the water off California's 1,100 miles (1,770 kilometers) of coastline even more than for the world as a whole. "Emerging science is showing us a lot more than even five years ago," council deputy director Jenn Eck- erle said Thursday. Gov. Jerry Brown has mandated that state agen- cies take climate change into account in planning and budgeting. The coun- cil's projections will guide everything from local deci- sions on zoning to state ac- tion on whether to elevate or abandon buildings near the coast and bays. In the best-case scenario, waters inthe vulnerable San Francisco Bay, for example, likely would rise between 1 foot and 2.4 feet (one-third to three-fourths of a meter) by the end of this century, the ocean council said. However, that's only if the world cracks down on climate-changing fossil-fuel emissions far more than it is now. The worst-case scenario entails an even faster melt- ing of Antarctic ice, which could raise ocean levels off California a devastating 10 feet by the end of this cen- tury, the state says. That's at least 30 times faster than the rate over the last 100 years. Scientists say rising wa- ter from climate change al- ready is playing a role in extreme winters such as this past one in California, contributing to flooding of some highways and helping crumble cliffs beneath some oceanfront homes. HIGH TIDES State says oceans could rise higher than thought By Sophia Bollag The Associated Press SACRAMENTO California lawmakers may start re- quiring police departments to track the status of rape evidence kits in an effort to reduce the backlog of un- tested evidence. The state Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a bill that would re- quire police to report in- formation about rape evi- dence kits that have been collected by investigators but remain untested. AB41 now goes to the state Sen- ate. Rape kits are used to gather and preserve evi- dence after victims say they have been sexual assaulted. The kits contain DNA evi- dence collected during an examination of the victim that can last hours and can be "extremely invasive," said Assemblyman David Chiu, the bill's author. Chiu has said there are more than 6,000 untested rape kits in California but no comprehensive data on how many are collected and why some have not been tested. The San Fran- cisco Democrat says his bill would help decrease un- tested kits by requiring po- lice to report them. "I hope that the injus- tice of the situation is obvi- ous," he said. "When a rape kit remains untested, it re- traumatizes survivors and allows criminals to roam free." Under the bill, police would send information on the kits to the Califor- nia Department of Justice, which would submit annual reports to lawmakers. The information would help of- ficials determine why there is a backlog and how it can be improved, Chiu said. The requirements would apply for kits collected starting next year. Opponents of Chiu's bill have argued the reporting requirements are too bur- densome for police depart- ments. Police sometimes do not submit the kits for testing when they are not needed to identify the perpetrator or the victim has recanted, said Cory Salzillo, a spokes- man for the California State Sheriffs' Association. It's unclear how a new re- porting requirement would address the backlogg, Sal- zillo added. The issue has drawn na- tionwide attention. There are estimated to be more than 100,000 untested sex- ual assault evidence kits in the U.S. Former President Barack Obama signed a bill last year that guarantees sur- vivors in federal criminal cases the right to know the results of their evidence kits and to be notified before the kits are destroyed. EVIDENCE State lawmakers may require untested rape kit reporting NATACHAPISARENKO—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS German scientist Andreas Beck takes notes at Robert Island, in the South Shetland Islands archipelago, Antarctica. Antarctica holds 90percent of the world's ice. California Ocean Protection Council deputy director Jenn Eckerle said ice melt in Antarctica raises sea levels more off California than it does for the world overall. The Associated Press NORTH HIGHLANDS Cal- ifornia police said Thurs- day they have detained a young man in the appar- ently random sexual as- sault and beating death of an 86-year-old woman on a morning walk around a high school track. Authorities say the vic- tim was killed when she came to the aid of a friend who the initial target of the attack Wednesday as they exercised on a high school track near Sacramento. Neither the suspect's or victims' names have been released. Sacramento County Sher- iff's Sgt. Tony Turnbull said the two elderly women rou- tinely walk around the high school track early in the morning before classes. On Wednesday at about 6 a.m., Turnbull said a young man jumped out from be- hind a baseball backstop and attacked a 61-year-old woman. The older woman was several paces ahead her friend when she heard a commotion and turned back to help, Turnbull said. The 86-year-old brandished a walking stick at the at- tacker and approached to help her friend. That's when the attacker turned his attention to her, Turn- bull said. Turnbull said both women were sexually as- saulted. Turnbull says an 18-year- old man was arrested later Wednesday in connection with a separate assault. Turnbull said the teen has been booked on suspicion of assaulting another elderly woman later in the day sev- eral miles away. Investiga- tors say the teen is a person of interest in the homicide, but he has not been charged. HIGH SCHOOL TRACK Police detain teen in fatal beating of 86-year-old woman The Associated Press FRESNO The attorney for a black man charged with four counts of first-degree murder in a shooting ram- page that randomly tar- geted white men in Fresno and in the separate death of a security guard said Thursday that his client suffers from mental illness. A judge for a second time suspended Kori Ali Muhammad's criminal case Thursday to allow time for a doctor perform a psychological evalua- tion, The Fresno Bee re- ported. Muhammad, 39, is charged in total with kill- ing four men — three ran- domly shot on the streets of Fresno on April 18, and an unarmed motel secu- rity guard days earlier. Police have said that Muhammad explained in detail after his arrest how he shot men sitting in a utility truck, carrying a bag of groceries and wait- ing for a bus in the same neighborhood. Muhammad wanted to kill as many white people as possible, laughing as he explained his actions, po- lice have said. Muhammad appeared in court last week to hear the charges filed in the se- curity guard's death, mak- ing some outbursts. SHOOTING Man in rampage to undergo evaluation FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 2017 REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM | NEWS | 3 B