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BySudhinThanawala The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO A Native American student who sued his California school dis- trict because it's refusing to let him wear an eagle feather to his high school graduation will ask a judge for an order permitting the sacred item. Christian Titman's law- yers are expected to argue in court Tuesday that the student's rights to freedom of expression and religion in the state constitution are being violated. Titman, 18, a member of the Pit River Tribe, said he wants to attach the 5-inch feather he received from his father to the tassel on his cap at the Clovis High School ceremony set for Thursday. Clovis is about 10 miles northeast of Fresno. He wants to mark his achievement and honor his Native American heritage, according to the lawsuit filed in state court Mon- day. The tribe considers eagle feathers sacred and symbolic of a significant ac- complishment. "The district's refusal to allow a small symbol of re- ligious expression during the graduation ceremony is a misunderstanding of both the spirit and the let- ter of the law," said Novella Coleman, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of North- ern California, one of the groups representing Tit- man. "The implication that an eagle feather with reli- gious significance is unac- ceptable or disruptive sig- nals a deep disrespect from the district." A call to the district was not immediately returned. In a letter to Titman's at- torneys, Superintendent Ja- net Young said the district has a strict graduation dress code intended to show "re- spect for the formality of the graduation ceremony, unity of the graduating class, and also to avoid disruption of the graduation ceremonies that would likely occur if students were allowed to al- ter or add on to their gradu- ation cap and gown." The district previously refused to allow stoles, leis, rosaries and necklaces on graduation caps and gowns, and its dress code is neutral to any religion, Young said. Titman could wear the ea- gle feather after the cere- mony and take photos with the principal, she said. The issue of whether Na- tive American students can wear eagle feathers at grad- uation has come up in other school districts in the coun- try. Last month, a federal judge in Tulsa, Oklahoma, ruled an American Indian student couldn't wear an eagle feather on her grad- uation cap. U.S. District Court Chief Judge Gregory Frizzell said the school's policy of pro- hibiting all decorations on graduation caps did not violate the U.S. Constitu- tion's right to exercise reli- gion freely because it was religion-neutral and applied generally. The school also had a legitimate interest in maintaining the formal- ity of the graduation cere- mony and in demonstrating the unity of the graduating class, the judge said. He re- jected the student's free- dom of speech argument. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that under the Con- stitution, governments don't have to make exceptions to religiously neutral laws that are applied generally, said Aaron Caplan, a constitu- tional law expert at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. But the issue has not been resolved by the California Supreme Court under the state's constitution, under which Titman is bringing his lawsuit, Caplan said. The California Constitu- tion guarantees free exer- cise and enjoyment of reli- gion, but not if it would lead to actions that are "licen- tious" or inconsistent with peace or safety. That would seem to favor Titman's ar- gument that he has a right to wear the eagle feather, Caplan said. "I don't see any rea- son why displaying an ea- gle feather at graduation could be considered licen- tious or inconsistent with the peace or safety of the state," he said. Titman also wants a dec- laration that the district cannot prohibit religious symbols or insignia at the ceremony. SACRED ITEM Student seeks court order to don eagle feather at graduation ERICPAULZAMORA—THEFRESNOBEE Christian Titman with the Titman family representing the Miwok people dances during the Grand Entry at the 24th Fresno State First Nations Powwow held at Fresno State's O'Neill Park Saturday in Fresno. The day-long event was hosted by the First Nations Indigenous Student Organization. By Denise Lavoie The Associated Press BOSTON A college friend of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsar- naev was sentenced Tues- day to six years in prison after he apologized to the victims and their families for not calling police when he recognized photos of Tsarnaev as a suspect. Dias Kadyrbayev, 21, pleaded guilty last year to obstruction of justice and conspiracy charges for re- moving items from Tsar- naev's dorm room after recognizing his friend in photos released by the FBI days after the bombing. Prosecutors say Kady- rbayev knew Tsarnaev was a suspect soon after the FBI released photos of Tsarnaev and his brother on April 18, 2013, three days after the bombing. At about 8:45 p.m. that night, Kadyrbayev sent Tsarnaev a text message: "U saw the news?" In a reply text, Tsarnaev said he did, then said, "Bet- ter not text me my friend," and added, "Lol." Kadyrbayev texted back, "u saw urself in there?" Tsarnaev responded by telling him he could go to his dorm room and "take what's there." That's when Kadyrbayev went to Tsarnaev's room with two other friends. There, he and another man agreed to remove Tsarnaev's computer and a backpack containing fireworks that had been partially emptied of their explosive powder. Kadyr- bayev threw the backpack into a garbage dumpster. It was later recovered at a landfill after federal agents spent two days searching for it. Kadyrbayev said Tues- day that he had no expla- nation for his actions. "I can't find an answer. I really can't believe that I acted so stupidly," he told Judge Douglas Woodlock before his sentence was imposed. Kadyrbayev had faced up to seven years in prison under a plea agreement with prosecutors. His law- yer had sought a three- year sentence. OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE Bo st on M ar at hon bomber's college pal gets 6 years in prison JANE FLAVELL COLLINS — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE Defendants Azamat Tazhayakov, le , Dias Kadyrbayev, center, and Robel Phillipos, right, college friends of convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, sit during a hearing in federal court in Boston in this courtroom sketch. The three, all friends who attended the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth with Tsarnaev, face sentencing during the first week of June 2015for obstructing the investigation and lying. The Associated Press LOS ANGELES Bill Cosby's comments calling rape a form of bullying and "an- noying" have been released by a filmmaker who inter- viewed the comedian in 2011. Documentary filmmaker Cassidy McMillan said Cosby made unsolicited comments about rape dur- ing the interview, which was to discuss a project she was working on about bul- lying and violence faced by some young girls. "This rape thing is an- noying, it is sickening," Cosby is heard on three minutes of audio posted on the website RadarOn- line, which is owned by the National Enquirer. The magazine ran a story last week with a headline on its cover, "Cosby Confesses." The comments were made during part of a broader discussion about the bullying and McMil- lan's work chronicling the story of a 12-year-old Cana- dian girl who killed herself after being bullied, accord- ing to a partial transcript of the conversation posted on the website www.our- weekly.com. The partial transcript was posted by a freelance journalist who was on the phone when McMillan and Cosby spoke. McMillan provided au- dio of the hour-long inter- view with Cosby to the En- quirer, and RadarOnline posted a three minute clip on Monday. Cosby's attorney Marty Singer did not return a phone message seeking comment Tuesday. The comedian also dis- cussed how his own daugh- ter had been bullied and how he and his wife han- dled it. Cosby has been accused by more than two dozen women of sexual miscon- duct, including allegations by many that he drugged and raped them in inci- dents dating back more than four decades. Cosby, 77, has never been crimi- nally charged, and most of the accusations are barred by statutes of limitations. Thecomedianalsosaidat the time that the only real recourse for rape victims is through the court system. "Rape, there is no free- dom unless in a court- room," Cosby is heard tell- ing McMillan and another journalist in audio posted by RadarOnline. After the Enquirer re- leased its story, McMil- lan appeared on a radio talk show hosted by Glo- ria Allred, a prominent Los Angeles attorney who has hosted several news conferences with women who have accused Cosby of drugging them and sex- ual misconduct. Allred rep- resented Judy Huth, a Riv- erside County woman who sued Cosby last year, claim- ing the comedian molested her when she was 15 years old at the Playboy Mansion. McMillan did not return email messages requesting an interview. She told Allred she was surprised by Cosby's ca- sual mentions of rape in a discussion of bullying, but let him talk about it. She said the interview was ar- ranged by Cosby's publicist and he was aware he was being taped. INTERVIEW Filmmaker drawing attention to 2011 Cosby rape comments PHELAN M. EBENHACK — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE Comedian Bill Cosby performs at the Maxwell C. King Center for the Performing Arts, in Melbourne, Fla. A documentary filmmaker is drawing attention to comments Cosby made about rape and bullying during a 2011interview, a small portion of which was posted by the website RadarOnline on Monday. By Terence Chea The Associated Press SAN JOSE Twelve years ago, Ian Wright and some fellow engineers launched Tesla Motors, a Silicon Valley company that has helped jumpstart the mar- ket for electric cars. Now, the Tesla co- founder wants to electrify noisy, gas-guzzling trucks that deliver packages, haul garbage and make frequent stops on city streets. His latest venture, Wrightspeed, doesn't make the whole truck. Rather it sells electric powertrains that can be installed on me- dium-and heavy-duty com- mercial vehicles, making them cleaner, quieter and more energy-efficient. "We save a lot on fuel. We save a lot on maintenance, and we make the emissions compliance much easier," said Wright, a New Zea- land-born engineer who left Tesla when it was still a small startup in 2005. Wrightspeed is one of a growing number of com- panies that are trying to transform the market for commercial trucks that consume billions of gallons of fuel while spewing tons of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and other pollutants. While more consumers are switching to electric cars like the Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt or Tesla Model S, convincing commercial fleet owners to replace their diesel trucks won't be easy. "It takes a lot of techno- logical ambition to break into such an old and estab- lished market," said Mark Duvall, a research direc- tor at the Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto. "If you want to sell a fleet owner an electric truck, you have to convince them that it's better than what they're already using. So the bar is set very high." Wright's company is in- stalling its powertrains on 25 FedEx delivery trucks and 17 garbage trucks for the Ratto Group, a Santa Rosa-based waste manage- ment company. Its plug-in powertrains feature an elec- tric engine, battery system and on-board power gener- ator that runs on diesel or natural gas and recharges the battery when it gets low. LATEST VENTURE Tesla co-founder wants to electrify commercial trucks PHOTOS BY MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Wrightspeed CEO Ian Wright unplugs an electric-powered truck as he gets ready for a test drive at the company's headquarters Thursday in San Jose. Wrightspeed CEO Ian Wright drives an electric-powered truck at the company's headquarters. DENTAL ASSISTANT NEEDED with X ray license Full time position faxresumeto 530-527-6551 1375MontgomeryRd. 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