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The Associated Press SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, — A lawsuit in an Orange County city could change the way customers Califor- nia-wide pay for water. The suit alleges San Juan Capistrano's tiered water- rate structure violates state law, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday . Under tiered systems, the more water a customer uses, the higher the rate. It's a strategy water districts employ to encourage con- servation. A group of taxpayers ar- gue the tiered structure vi- olates Proposition 218, a 1996 state law that prohib- its agencies from charging customers more than the "cost of service" provided. A lower court decided in their favor, and an appeals court is expected to rule soon. The residents argue that San Juan Capistrano charged arbitrary fees — es- pecially in the highest tiers. The city's 2010 rate sched- ule charged customers $2.47 per unit — 748 gallons — of water in the first tier and up to $9.05 per unit in the fourth, the newspaper said. The city charged custom- ers who used the most water more than the actual cost to deliver it, plaintiffs said. "People were getting nailed," said John Perry, a 79-year-old resident who helped create the taxpayer group. "They were having $500 or $600 water bills on Tier 2 and Tier 3. There were horror stories." At least two-thirds of Cal- ifornia's water providers, including the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, use some form of the tiered rates that are at issue in the lawsuit, consultants and water lawyers said. A 2014 study at the Uni- versity of California, River- side, estimated that tiered rate structures similar to the one used in San Juan Capistrano reduce water use over time by up to 15 percent. A state superior court judge declared the city's rate structure invalid in 2013. The city has flattened its tiers and tied charges more directly to water costs while it awaits a decision by the state's 4th District Court of Appeal. If the appellate court publishes an opinion up- holding the previous ruling, many Californians could see changes to their bills ei- ther immediately, or during their water agency's next rate-making cycle, lawyers said. Agencies could flatten their tiers, adopt uniform rates or simply wait to see if they get sued, they said. 1996 STATE LAW Orange County case challenges legality of tiered water rates The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO Thieves drove a car through a high- end electronics store in the latest crash-and-grab heist in the San Francisco Bay Area. San Francisco police say the crime occurred about 4 a.m. Friday at a store on California Street, causing $100,000 in dam- age to building. Police did not say what, if anything, was stolen. Police are reviewing video surveillance footage of the burglary. No arrests have been made, and a de- scription of the suspect was not released. Police were looking into whether the burglary was related to at least six sim- ilar crimes in the Bay Area during the last year. Electronics, high-end clothing and purses have been stolen during past crimes. On Jan. 27, thieves smashed a stolen SUV through the front of a Wells Fargo museum in San Fran- cisco, making off with gold nuggets that remain miss- ing. Other metropolitan ar- eas have been hit by crash- and-grab heists. Since Sep- tember, at least a dozen "crash-and-grab" burglar- ies have been reported at retail businesses in Chicago and the surrounding sub- urbs. Some targeted high- end businesses, including a Neiman Marcus store on the famed Magnificent Mile. Others struck less af- fluent locations. Police in the San Fran- cisco Bay Area also are in- vestigating the following crash-and-grab crimes: • Feb. 19. Two burglars crashed their minivan through a front plate-glass window at a photography shop in Palo Alto, making off with thousands of dol- lars in merchandise. • Feb. 13. A driver rammed a U-Haul truck into a chiropractic college east of San Francisco in an apparent break-in. • Jan. 19. Two men slammed a U-Haul van through the front door of a San Francisco Patagonia store and stole hundreds of dollars worth of jackets. • In November 2014, sus- pects crashed a vehicle into the Chanel boutique in San Francisco's Union Square. • In May 2014 thieves crashed into an Apple store in Berkeley and stole mer- chandise. CRIME Th ie ve s cr as h car i nt o el ec tr on ic s st or e in latest Bay Area smash-and-grab heist By Lynn Elber The Associated Press LOS ANGELES Leonard Nimoy, the actor known and loved by generations of "Star Trek" fans as the pointy-eared, purely logical science officer Mr. Spock, has died. Nimoy died Friday of end-stage chronic obstruc- tive pulmonary disease at his Los Angeles home, said his son, Adam Nimoy. He was 83. Although Nimoy followed his 1966-69 "Star Trek" run witha notable career asboth an actor and director, in the public's mind he would al- ways be Spock. His half-hu- man, half-Vulcan character was the calm counterpoint to William Shatner's often- emotional Captain Kirk on one of TV and film's most re- vered cult series. "He affected the lives of many," Adam Nimoy said. "He was also a great guy and my best friend." Asked if his father chafed at his fans' close identifica- tion of him with his char- acter, Adam Nimoy said, "Not in the least. He loved Spock." However, Leonard Nimoy displayed ambivalence to the role in the titles of his two autobiographies, "I Am Not Spock" (1975) and "I Am Spock" (1995). After "Star Trek" ended, the actor immediately joined the hit adventure series "Mission Impossible" as Paris, the mission team's master of disguises. From 1976 to 1982, he hosted the syndicated TV series "In Search of ... ," which attempted to probe such mysteries as the leg- end of the Loch Ness Mon- ster and the disappearance of aviator Amelia Earhart. He played Israeli leader Golda Meir's husband op- posite Ingrid Bergman in the TV drama "A Woman Called Golda" and Vincent van Gogh in "Vincent," a one-man stage show on the life of the troubled painter. He continued to work well into his 70s, playing gazil- lionaire genius William Bell in the Fox series "Fringe." He also directed sev- eral films, including the hit comedy "Three Men and a Baby" and appeared in such plays as "A Streetcar Named Desire," "Cat on a Hot Tim Roof," "Fiddler on the Roof," "The King and I," "My Fair Lady" and "Equus." He also published books of poems, children's stories and his own photographs. But he could never really escape the role that took him overnight from bit- part actor status to TV star, and in a 1995 interview he sought to analyze the pop- ularity of Spock, the green- blooded space traveler who aspired to live a life based on pure logic. People identified with Spock because they "recog- nize in themselves this wish that they could be logical and avoid the pain of anger and confrontation," Nimoy concluded. "How many times have we come away from an ar- gument wishing we had said and done something different?" he asked. In the years immediately after "Star Trek" left televi- sion, Nimoy tried to shun the role, but he eventually came to embrace it, lam- pooning himself on such TV shows as "Futurama," "Duckman" and "The Simp- sons" and in commercials. He became Spock af- ter "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry was impressed by his work in guest appearances on the TV shows "The Lieutenant" and "Dr. Kildare." The space adventure set in the 23rd century had an unimpressive debut on NBC on Sept. 8, 1966, and it struggled during its three seasons to find an audience other than teenage boys. It seemed headed for obliv- ion after it was canceled in 1969, but its dedicated legion of fans, who called themselves Trekkies, kept its memory alive with con- ventions and fan clubs and constant demands that the cast be reassembled for a movie or another TV show. Trekkies were particu- larly fond of Spock, often greeting one another with the Vulcan salute and the Vulcan motto, "Live Long and Prosper," both of which Nimoy was credited with bringing to the character. He pointed out, however, that the hand gesture was actually derived from one used by rabbis during He- braic benedictions. When the cast finally was reassembled for "Star Trek — The Motion Picture," in 1979, the film was a huge hit and five sequels followed. Ni- moy appeared in all of them and directed two. He also guest starred as an older version of himself in some of the episodes of the show's spinoff TV series, "Star Trek: The Next Generation." "Of course the role changed my career— or rather, gave me one," he once said. "It made me wealthy by most standards and opened up vast oppor- tunities. It also affected me personally, socially, psy- chologically, emotionally. ... What started out as a wel- come job to a hungry actor has become a constant and ongoing influence in my thinking and lifestyle." In 2009, he was back in a new big-screen version of "Star Trek," this time play- ing an older Spock who meets his younger self, played by Zachary Quinto. Critic Roger Ebert called the older Spock "the most hu- man character in the film." Among those seeing the film was President Barack Obama, whose even man- ner was often likened to Spock's. "Everybody was saying I was Spock, so I figured I should check it out," Obama said at the time. Upon the movie's debut, Nimoy told The Associated Press that in his late 70s he wasprobablycloserthanever to being as comfortable with himself as the logical Spock always appeared to be. "I know where I'm go- ing, and I know where I've been," he said. He reprised the role in the 2013 sequel "Star Trek Into Darkness." OBITUARY Le on ar d Ni mo y, f am ou s as M r. S po ck o n 'S ta r Tr ek ,' d ie s RICFRANCIS—THEASSOCIATEDPRESSFILE Nimoy, famous for playing officer Mr. Spock in 'Star Trek' died Friday in Los Angeles of end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He was 83. The Associated Press BAKERSFIELD Inspections by water officials have found numerous oil-indus- try wastewater pits operat- ing without permits across Central California. Oil producers have been dumping chemical-laden wastewater into as many as 300 unlined, shallow troughs in Kern County, ac- cording to the Central Val- ley Regional Water Quality Control Board. More than one-third of the region's active disposal pits are operating without permission, officials said. The pits are a common sight on the west side of Bakersfield's oil patch. In some cases, waste facilities contain 40 or more pits, ar- ranged in neat rows. Kern County, which is heavily agricultural, ac- counts for at least 80 per- cent of California's oil pro- duction. The water forced out of the ground during oil oper- ations is heavily saline and often contains benzene and other naturally occurring but toxic compounds. Doug Patteson, an offi- cial with the water board in Fresno, said that officials have not yet determined how many of the unauthor- ized pits held waste from hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, an intensive form of production that now ac- counts for half of the new wells drilled in California. Even the unauthorized pits holding ordinary oil-in- dustry wastewater "still are a threat to water quality," Patteson said Friday. "It is a priority and something we are working on diligently." Kern County farmer Tom Frantz has tracked the open- air, unlined disposal pits for years. That includes a series of pits he found this winter where oil-slicked wastewa- ter regularly spilled out of the pits into a gulley, and from there to a Kern County river, Frantz said Friday. The biggest pits have long been visible from the air and on Google Earth, and Frantz was skeptical the state would compel oil companies to take any sub- stantive action now. "If there's a danger to groundwater, which I be- lieve there is, and they're not permitted, they should be shut down instantly," Frantz said. "But I don't see that happening." Officials said the water board expects to issue as many as 200 enforcement orders, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday. Representatives of state oil-industry trade groups did not immediately re- turn calls for comment on Friday. This winter, an Associ- ated Press investigation de- tailed state records show- ing 2,500 times in which the state had authorized oil companies to operate in protected water aquifers. That included more than 500 times the state had authorized oil companies to dump wastewater into federally protected under- ground water sources. CENTRAL CALIFORNIA Hundreds of illicit oil wastewater pits found in Kern County N EWS D AILY REDBLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N TY S I N C E 1 8 8 5 FAX: (530) 528-0130 545 Diamond Avenue • P.O. Box 220 • Red Bluff, CA 96080 Support our classrooms, keep kids reading. DONATE YOUR VACATION newspaper dollars to the Newspaper In Education Program HELP OUR CHILDREN For more details call Circulation Department (530) 73 7-5047 | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2015 6 B