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ByJulietWilliams The Associated Press SACRAMENTO Anewlycre- ated state board awarded nearly $29 million in in- come tax credits on Thurs- day for companies that have agreed to expand and re- tain jobs in California. The29separatecreditsap- proved at the first meeting of the California Competes Tax Credit Committee included $20,000 for a Novato-based stem cell biotech research firm that promised to create eight jobs, and $6 million for Samsung Semiconductor, whichpromisestocreate400 jobs in San Jose. The program was created after lawmakers last year abolished the state's Enter- prise Zone program, which Gov. Jerry Brown called wasteful and inefficient. Nearly 400 companies requested more than $500 million in credits, although only $30 million was avail- able this year. The total will increase to $150 million for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The program's deputy di- rector, Will Koch, said ap- plicants are assessed us- ing a formula that weighs how many jobs will be cre- ated or retained; how much the employees will be paid; the rate of poverty or un- employment in the area where the business will be located; competition from other states; and the strate- gic importance of the busi- ness. "It's not a grant; we're not writing a check," Koch said. The income tax credit is administered by the Dem- ocratic governor's GO-Biz Department, while other agencies oversee newly cre- ated hiring tax credits and sales tax exemptions for the purchase of manufacturing equipment. The five-member tax credit board postponed a decision on a $700,000 credit for a subsidiary of German-owned grocer Aldi that is opposed by unions. Board member Greg Conger, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 324, which represents grocery and drug store em- ployees in Southern Califor- nia, said the company's pro- jected wages were below the market average for the area. The subsidiary, AI Cali- fornia, is proposing to cre- ate 182 jobs at a distribu- tion center in Moreno Val- ley and at 30 grocery stores planned for Southern Cali- fornia next year. Koch said nine of the stores would be located in federally desig- nated "food deserts" that have limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Conger, who was ap- pointed by former Assem- bly Speaker John Perez, D- Los Angeles, questioned whether the stores would address the problem be- cause he said they are smaller than typical gro- cery stores. Other firms awarded the credits include: • $2 million to Samsung Information Systems Amer- ica to add 210 jobs in Moun- tain View; • $2.6 million for San Di- ego-based Petco to create 263 full-time jobs; • $1.58 million for 1,550 jobs at Amazon retail ware- house and distribution centers in Moreno Valley, Tracy, Newark and San Ber- nardino; • $1 million for 28 jobs at Novartis Pharmaceuti- cals in San Carlos; • $40,000 for Animal Me- morial Service Inc., a Gil- roy-based pet cremation service that promises to add five full-time jobs. BUSINESS Californiaboardawards$29millionintaxcredits By Don Thompson The Associated Press SACRAMENTO California's medical board and Depart- ment of Public Health have been asked to investigate 17 doctors and eight hospitals involved in the illegal ster- ilizations of female prison inmates, based on a critical state audit released Thurs- day. The auditor's office rec- ommended that those au- thorities investigate doc- tor and hospital practices in 39 cases where steril- izations were performed without inmates' law- ful consent. At issue is whether the women were properly told of the na- ture and permanence of the procedure. The cases will be re- ferred to the department and medical board, said Liz Gransee, a spokeswoman for the federal court-ap- pointed official who con- trols prison medical care. She said the investigations are confidential. The 39 cases were among 144 between 2006 and last year in which inmates had tubal ligations or other pro- cedures for the sole pur- pose of sterilizing them. Another 650 inmates had other medical procedures that could have resulted in sterilization. Auditors found that nearly 30 percent of the tubal ligations and other sterilization procedures were performed without lawful consent. In 27 cases, the inmate's doctor did not sign a re- quired consent form say- ing the patient appeared mentally competent, un- derstood the permanent ef- fect and had waited at least 30 days and no more than 180 days to give the patient time to reconsider. In 18 cases, there were potential violations in ob- serving the waiting period. That included one case in which only 22 days elapsed between the time the in- mate consented to the pro- cedure and when the sur- gery was performed, and a second case in which 196 days passed. Margarita Fernandez, a spokeswoman for the Cal- ifornia State Auditor, said the 39 questionable ster- ilizations involved 17 doc- tors and eight hospitals. The sterilizations were performed by private doc- tors at hospitals outside the prisons, said Fernan- dez. Surgeries on prison inmates are typically per- formed at outside facilities. State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson said she found it shocking that nearly 30 percent of the procedures were performed without obtaining proper consent. Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, is the author of SB1135, which would bar the state's prisons and jails from ster- ilizing inmates for the pur- pose of birth control. "Clearly this demon- strates a real systemic prob- lem that frankly implicates the entire culture and fur- ther demonstrates the need for my legislation," she said. Her bill passed the Senate last month, 36-0, and is awaiting consideration in the Assembly. The federal receiver's of- fice previously said new procedures to limit steril- izations were put in place in 2010, but the state audi- tor recommended that the office adopt better proce- dures to monitor its own medical staff and medical providers who work under contract with the state. That includes improving medical record-keeping and making sure inmates give their informed con- sent to medical procedures. CALIFORNIA Audit seeks investigation of inmate sterilizations By Scott Smith The Associated Press FRESNO A blackbird spe- cies found mostly in the Central Valley of Califor- nia has experienced a ma- jor decline in its population over the past several years due in part to farming prac- tices, researchers say. The tricolored blackbird now numbers about 145,000 in the state, down from millions less than a cen- tury ago, a survey released Wednesday shows. Robert Meese, a Univer- sity of California, Davis, re- searcher who led the study, said Californians must act to reverse the decline. "It's our responsibility because it's our bird," he said. "We're going to have to take an all-hands-on- deck approach." Meese conducted the sur- vey with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, California Department of Fish and Wildlife and Audubon Cal- ifornia. It found the tricolored blackbird population has fallen 64 percent since 2008. The decline is blamed at least in part on the har- vesting of feed crops on dairy farms where the bird has come to nest. The Central Valley had been a stronghold for the birds, but the survey found that their numbers plum- meted in Kern and Merced counties, and only six were found in Fresno County. No birds were found in Kings County, Meese said. WILDLIFE Study finds blackbird decline in California By Lisa Leff The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO A federal appeals court on Thurs- day struck down a 31-year- old Los Angeles law that bars people from living in parked vehicles, saying the vaguely written stat- ute discriminates against the homeless and poor. The ruling by a three- judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in- volveda1983lawthatprohib- its the use of a vehicle "as liv- ingquarterseitherovernight, day-by-day, or otherwise." The court said the law was unconstitutional be- cause its ambiguous word- ing does not make clear what conduct would consti- tute a violation and "crimi- nalizes innocent behavior." The decision came in a case brought on behalf of four people who were cited and arrested in the Venice area by Los Angeles police officers who concluded the numerous belongings in their RVs and cars meant they were violating the law. "Is it impermissible to eat food in a vehicle? Is it illegal to keep a sleeping bag? Canned food? Books? What about speaking on a cellphone? Or staying in the car to get out of the rain?" Judge Harry Pre- gerson wrote for the panel. "These are all actions plain- tiffs were taking when ar- rested for violation of the ordinance, all of which are otherwise perfectly legal." The officers were part of an LAPD homelessness task force charged with enforcing the ordinance in response from community complaints about people living in their cars. The panel's ruling over- turned a lower court judge who had sided with the city and dismissed the case without a trial. Carol Sobel, the lawyer for the three men and one woman who sued to over- turn the law in 2011, said Los Angeles' ban on living in cars was exceptionally broad.Oneofherclientswas cited while waiting outside a church that served meals and another while driving her RV through Venice on her way to sell her work at a local art fair. Even so, the ruling might force other western cities within the 9th Cir- cuit's territory to amend statutes that outlaw sleep- ing in vehicles, Sobel said. LOS ANGELES La w th at b ar s li vi ng i n car s ov er tu rn ed By Michael Virtanen The Associated Press ALBANY, N.Y. New crime data show Apple's addi- tion of a "kill switch" to its iPhones last September has sharply reduced robberies and thefts, authorities said Thursday. The report by state attor- neys general, prosecutors, police and other officials from a year-old initiative called "Secure Our Smart- phones" said Google and Mi- crosoft will incorporate a kill switch into the next version of their operating systems on smartphones. The three systems — Android, iOS, and Windows Phone — are used in 97 percent of smartphones in the U.S. New York Attorney Gen- eral Eric Schneiderman, part of the initiative, said the data show crimes mean- while surged against people carrying phones without switches intended to make them useless to thieves. "The statistics released to- day illustrate the stunning effectiveness of kill switches, and the commitments of Google and Microsoft are gi- ant steps toward consumer safety," he said. The report noted a Consumer Reports estimate that 3.1 million mobile devices were stolen nationally in 2013, double a year earlier. In New York City, robber- ies of Apple products fell 19 percent while grand larce- nies dropped 29 percent in the first five months of 2014 compared with a year earlier, according to the re- port. Robberies and grand larcenies involving a Sam- sung smartphone, which didn't have a kill switch during much of that time, rose more than 40 percent. Samsung introduced a kill switch in April. Crime data from police in San Francisco and London, comparing the six months before Apple's switch to the six months following, showed similar trends, ac- cording to the report. TECHNOLOGY Data show iPhone 'kill switch' cuts the s By John Rogers The Associated Press LOS ANGELES A little Af- ghan girl whose love of painting won the hearts of U.S. doctors who fitted her with a prosthetic arm returned to the United States on Thursday, af- ter the group that spon- sored her first visit said it learned her newfound ce- lebrity made her a subject of death threats at home. Seven-year-old Shah Bibi Tarakhail arrived at Los Angeles Interna- tional Airport on Thurs- day morning on the last leg of a journey from Ka- bul. She has been granted a six-month visa, but Amel Najjar, executive director of the nonprofit Children of War Foundation, said her group is looking into permanent residency sta- tus for her, perhaps as a political refugee. Najjar said all the atten- tion has made her a target of insurgents in Afghani- stan, who railed against her exposure to Western culture. The father told the group that he and his daughter had been in hid- ing and separated from the rest of their family since her return to Af- ghanistan in April. Mean- while, he said, the girl had grown so depressed that he had her hospitalized. "Her father called us a week ago, said she'd been in a hospital near the Pak- istani border and her life was in danger," Najjar said. "Her father said, 'I can't care for her anymore and it's at a point where she needs to be out of here sooner rather than later." The little girl lost her right arm last year when she picked up a grenade following a firefight be- tween U.S. and Taliban forces in her village near the Pakistan border. The explosion, which killed her brother, also destroyed her right eye. After doctors at Shri- ners Hospital For Children fitted her with a prosthetic arm she quickly adapted to it and resumed paint- ing, something she re- vealed was her favored pastime in Afghanistan. WORLD Threats bring Afghan girl back to US DAMIANDOVARGANES—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Afghan war victim Shah Bibi Tarakhail, le , takes a selfie with Ilaha Omar, a Children of War Foundation member, during a painting session at Galerie Michael in Beverly Hills in April. The Associated Press SACRAMENTO A bill sent to the governor's office on Thursday responds to a problematic rollout of health care reform in Cal- ifornia by diversifying the board tasked with over- seeing the state health in- surance exchange. SB972 passed the As- sembly on a 68-2 vote Thursday. Sen. Norma Torres, D-Pomona, says her bill responds to con- sumer complaints of long waits, confusing website materials and low mi- nority enrollment on the Covered California ex- change. State exchanges were created under the fed- eral health act to sell in- surance plans to residents who don't have insurance through a government program or an employer. Torres' bill broadens the qualifications for the five-member Covered Cal- ifornia board, currently stacked with health care and insurance adminis- trators. It allows informa- tional technology experts, health insurance market- ers and enrollment coun- selors skilled in reaching out to poor and minority Californians to join. 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