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BySudhinThanawala The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO Statecor- rections officials cannot impose blanket lifetime re- strictions on where sex of- fenders may live, the Cali- fornia Supreme Court ruled Monday in a case challeng- ing a voter-approved mea- sure that prohibits sex of- fenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or park. The court restricted its decision to San Diego County, where the case orig- inated. But the ruling has potential statewide impact, with lawsuits in other coun- ties likely, said Laurie Lev- enson, a criminal law pro- fessor at Loyola Law School. "There's every reason to believe in other large urban areas you're going to find similar problems, which is that there is simply no place for these people to go," she said. The court said the blan- ket restriction violates the sex offenders' constitutional rights by limiting their ac- cess to housing, increasing the incidence of homeless- ness and depriving them of access to services such as psychological counsel- ing that are available to all parolees. It also made it more difficult for law en- forcement officials to mon- itor sex offenders, the court said. "Blanket enforcement of the residency restrictions against these parolees has ... infringed their liberty and privacy interests, how- ever limited, while bearing no rational relationship to advancing the state's legit- imate goal of protecting children from sexual pred- ators," the court said in its unanimous decision. The court did not strike down the law itself, saying sex offenders could still be forced to live more than 2,000 feet from schools. But it said the decision would have to be made on a case- by-case basis. Deborah Hoffman, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation, said the agency was reviewing the decision. The residency restric- tions were part of Jessi- ca's Law, which was ap- proved by California voters in 2006. Supporters say it keeps children safe from sexual predators. But opponents say it forces offenders onto the street or away from their families, creating hardships that make them more likely to reoffend. The ruling, which upheld an appeals court decision, came in a case brought by four registered sex offend- ers in San Diego County. A San Diego County judge ruled in 2011 that the law violated the three men and one woman's right to intrastate travel, to estab- lish a home and maintain their privacy and was not specifically tailored to each of their circumstances. The lower court found sex offenders were effec- tively banned from about 97 percent of the multifam- ily rental housing units in San Diego County. At least some of the remaining housing was also not avail- able to them for reasons in- cluding low vacancy rates, high prices and the unwill- ingness of some landlords to rent to sex offenders. The court ordered the state department of cor- rections to stop applying the residency restriction as a blanket provision against all paroled registered sex offenders who were under supervision in San Diego County. A state appeals court up- held the decision, prompt- ing the state Attorney Gen- eral's office to appeal to the State Supreme Court. In a separate ruling on Monday, the California Su- preme Court said the resi- dency restrictions on sex offenders did not consti- tute punishment. The court upheld a law that allows judges to require convicts to register as sex offenders even if a jury has not con- victed them of a sex-related crime. CALIFORNIA Courtrulesagainstapplicationofsexoffenderlaw By Tami Abdollah The Associated Press LOS ANGELES Police fa- tally shot a homeless man on Skid Row during a "brutal" videotaped strug- gle in which a rookie offi- cer cried out that the man had hold of his gun before three other officers opened fire, the Los Angeles police chief said Monday. Chief Charlie Beck said video showed the man reaching toward the offi- cer's waistband. The offi- cer's gun was found partly cocked and jammed with a bullet in the chamber and another in the ejection port, indicating a struggle for the weapon. "You can hear the young officer who was primarily engaged in the confronta- tion saying that 'He has my gun. He has my gun,'" Beck said. "He says it several times, with conviction." Beck's narrative of the shooting, including pho- tos showing the condition of the gun, was rare 24 hours after an officer-in- volved shooting. It comes amid heightened attention to killings by police offi- cers that have led to pro- tests, some violent, across the country. Also Monday, activ- ists called on Gov. Jerry Brown to appoint a spe- cial investigator to exam- ine the killing. Earl Ofari Hutchinson, head of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, called on the city Police Commission to hold a special hearing on use of force by officers in Skid Row, which is home to a large population of street dwellers. The shooting is being in- vestigated by the police de- partment's inspector gen- eral and the Los Angeles district attorney. Among the evidence are two vid- eos shot by bystanders and two shot with cameras worn by a sergeant and another officer who fired their weapons. "The video is disturb- ing," police spokesman An- drew Smith said Sunday. "It's disturbing any time anyone loses their life. It's a tragedy." After the shooting, po- lice are seen drawing their batons and warning an an- gry crowd to step back. Several people shouted at the officers, accusing them of going too far. Sunday's violence had echoes of the August po- lice shooting of 25-year-old Ezell Ford, whose death in a struggle with LA officers brought demonstrations in the city. Ford was un- armed. Police said he was shot after reaching for an officer's gun. Witnesses said the man killed Sunday was known as "Africa," though they withheld his name. The shadowy video does notclearlytheman'srace,but witnesses said he was black, aswastheofficerwhosegun was partly cocked. Police were investigat- ing a reported robbery when they tried to talk with the suspect and he refused to obey their com- mands and started fight- ing, Beck said. Witnesses said the man had been on Skid Row for months, living amid the tents, sleeping bags and trash that are common in the area. On the video — which drew millions of views — six officers are at the scene. They begin wrestling with the man as he takes swings at them. Two of the officers break away to subdue and hand- cuff a woman who had picked up one of their dropped batons. The struggle becomes increasingly blurry and distant, but shouting can be heard, followed by five apparent gunshots. Dennis Horne, 29, told the Los Angeles Times that the man had been fighting with someone else in his tent before officers arrived. Tents and cardboard shelters cover the side- walks of Skid Row, the downtown neighborhood where an estimated 1,700 homeless people live. Many of them struggle with men- tal illness and addiction. POLICE SHOOTING Ch ie f: M an k ill ed o n Sk id Row reached for gun By Scott Smith The Associated Press FRESNO Water districts that serve 25 million Cali- fornians and vast farmland can expect to receive a frac- tion of the supplies sought from the state during the fourth year of the drought, officials announced Mon- day. The State Water Project plans to deliver 20 percent of the requested amounts — a figure that marks a 5 per- cent increase from its pre- vious estimate in January. However, it's the second- lowest amount since 1991, according to the Califor- nia Department of Water Resources, which provides water to districts in the San Francisco Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley and South- ern California. "It's a big deal, each lit- tle amount of water that we get," said Curtis Creel, assis- tant general manager of the Kern County Water Agency based in the agriculture-rich Central Valley. "The higher allocation does give us a lit- tle bit of breathing room compared to last year." Creel said the agency will be forced to draw on reserve water stored underground. Some farmers will have to rely on ground water or leave fields unplanted. State officials said large storms in December and February along with care- ful management have put state reservoirs at higher levels than a year ago. "We're confident that this water, delivered to local dis- tricts around the state, will help offset some economic harm of this extended drought," Mark Cowin, di- rector of the state's Depart- ment of Water Resources, said in a statement. Surveyors on Tuesday are expected to make the third measurement of the snow- pack for the wet season. So far, officials say elec- tronic readings show the snowpack at 19 percent of the normal water content for this time of year. Snow- pack is also a key contribu- tor to the state water supply. Federal water officials said last week that some Central California farmers can expect to receive no ir- rigation water through the Central Valley Project. DROUGHT California officials to supply just 20 percent of water By Lisa Leff The Associated Press SANFRANCISCO University of California admissions of- ficers are sifting through a record number of applica- tions, but they have no idea how many new students they can enroll. The uncertainty stems from the very public clash between university Presi- dent Janet Napolitano and Gov. Jerry Brown over the state's role in underwrit- ing the cost of a UC educa- tion for qualified Califor- nians. Arguing that Sacra- mento has failed to fulfill its fiscal obligations, Na- politano plans to raise tu- ition 5 percent this fall and expand undergradu- ate enrollment by 3,000 — one-third of the slots for Californians and two- thirds for students from abroad and out-of-state. The governor, for his part, is threatening to withhold about $120 million in state funds unless the univer- sity keeps both its tuition rates and non-resident en- rollment flat. Their competing visions — along with additional plans by top lawmakers — have thrown off the tenu- ous mechanics of the ad- missions cycle. Campus of- ficials still are waiting to find out what their overall enrollments are expected to be, a figure they use to cal- culate how many new stu- dents they can accept and then what proportion will be state residents subsi- dized by taxpayers, system spokeswoman Dianne Klein said. "Campuses are in a really tough position. We don't have a state budget, so we don't know what the state will provide to the univer- sity, and at the same time we have a responsibility to reply to applicants," Klein said. "How is that going to translate? Is it going to be admitting fewer students? Is it going to be putting more students on the wait list ... ? It will not be admit- ting more students than we reasonably know we have funding for." The rapidly growing nonresident enrollment is a flashpoint in budget ne- gotiations. Between 2008 and this year, in response to recession-induced bud- get cuts and what the uni- versity says has been insuf- ficient funding to support more in-state students, the share of nonresident under- graduates more than dou- bled system-wide while in- state enrollment grew by about 1 percent. "That is a disparity that every California taxpayer is concerned about, that triple-digit difference," As- semblywoman Catharine Baker, a newly elected Re- publican from Dublin, Cali- fornia, and mother of twins, told the university's chief fi- nancial officer during a re- cent hearing. At Berkeley and Los An- geles, students from other states and countries make up about one in five under- graduates. They account for one in seven at UC San Di- ego and nearly one in 10 at the Davis, Irvine and Santa Barbara campuses. Officials insist they would happily serve more students from California if the state gave them more money, and they point out that UCLA and UC Berke- ley have far fewer non-res- ident students than public colleges such as University of Michigan and University of Virginia. They also say the $640 million in non- resident tuition campuses have generated this year has allowed them to of- fer more classes and main- tain programs benefiting all students. Nonresidents pay $22,878 on top of the $12,192 in tuition and fees for residents. TUITION TURMOIL Budget standoff leaves college hopefuls in limbo DAMIANDOVARGANES—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Students walk on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles. 2 Bud's BBQ 592 Antelope Blvd. Red Bluff (In the old Pronto Market) M-F 11am-6pm • Sat. 11am-3pm • Closed Sun. 528-0799 BBQ PORK ★ BEEF ★ CHICKEN Thetransitionfromone end of Antelope Blvd. to the other has been great Thank you Red Bluff! 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