The Californian from Salinas, California • Page A7

The Salinas Californianthecalifornian.com 7A Newsom has $5.5 million for 20 18 Califor nia go race California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom reports that he has already banked nearly $5.5 million for a ossible run for governor still ore than three years away. he Democrat and former San Francisco mayor filed campaign finance rep orts Friday showing he has $2.5 million in an exploratory account set up in February. on top of the nearly $3 million in his re-election account for lieutenant governor.

Among his biggest donors are technology leaders such as Yahoo! Chief Exe cutive Marissa Mayer, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and Google Executive hairman Eric Schmidt. He also re- eived contributions from the California urses Association and the Service Employees International health care branch. Gov. Jerry Brown reported Friday that he has $19.6 million in his re-election account, though he is termed out next year. Authorities: LA man posed as federal immigration agent LOS ANGELES Federal prosecutors say a Los Angeles man is facing multiple elony charges after posing as an immigration agent and offering to help secure the release of detained relatives in exchange for thousands of dollars in cash.

Fifty-one-year-old Gregory J. Chavez was taken into custody Wednesday and is being held on $1.2 million bond. According to authorities, Chavez offered to more than two dozen individuals. Victims told i nvestigators they paid Chavez initial deposits ranging from $800 to $15,000 to gain the release of family members. The releases never occurred and ome victims say they were defrauded ut of their life savings.

havez has been charged with 40 felon counts, including residential burglary and grand theft. Judge blocks release of recordings by anti-abortion group SAN Afederal judge on Friday blocked the release of any recordings made at meetings of an abortion association by an anti- a bortion group that previously revealed ecretly recorded videos of a Planned arenthood leader. Judge William Orrick in San Francisco issued a temporary restraining order against the Center for Medical Progress hours after the order was requested by the National Abortion Federation. In his three-page order, Orrick said the federation would likely suffer irreparable injury absent a temporary restraining order the form of harass- ent, intimidation, violence, invasion of privacy, and injury to The National Abortion Federation sued in federal court in San Francisco, alleging that the Center for Medical Pro- ress infiltrated its meetings and recorded its members. The group says release of any audio or video would put members in danger.

safety and security of our members is our top Vicki Saporta, association president and CEO, said in a statement. security has been compromised by the illegal activities of a group with ties to those who believe it is ustifiable to murder abortion David Daleiden, a leader of the Center for Medical Progress who is also named i the suit, said in a statement that lanned Parenthood and its allies were rying to silence the group and suppress i nvestigative journalism. Center for Medical Progress follows all applicable laws in the course of our investigative journalism work and ill contest all attempts from Planned arenthood and their allies to silence our irst Amendment he said. Central alle board allows wastew ater disposal to continue The Central Valley egional Water Quality Control Board has voted to allow a water management company to continue disposing contaminated drilling wastewater in an area ear Bakersfield for the next 2 years. The board voted Thursday to delay shutting down some of Valley Water Management operations.

The Los Angeles Times reports the company not only disposes excess drill- i ng waste in unlined pits, but also sprays i on hillsides. With precipitation, con- aminants can travel to nearby fields and creeks. espite objections from water Fresno office, the regional board seemed to agree that an aggressive cleanup would be financially challenging for small oil producers. vote gave the company until January 2018 to reach full compliance. However, it must meet a series of ater quality requirements before then.

Man who died in police fight wanted for beating 97-year-old SAN Aman who died after a fight with San Francisco police Thursday was wanted in the beating of a 97-year-old who employed him as a caretaker and later died from the attack, authorities said. The San Francisco Chronicle report- Friday that Filimoni Raiyawa, 57, of Sonoma, beat Solomon Cohen in his home early Thursday. Later that day, Raiyawa got into a car crash and then a brawl with responding fficers, authorities said. He struck two of them and then other officers subdued him, Police Chief Greg Suhr said. He experienced a medical emergency while he was handcuffed and stopped breathing, according to police.

He died at the scene. Two officers were injured in the fight, treated at a hospital and released. The cause of death eleased Friday but is being investigated by police. San Francisco Board of Supervisors President London Breed and Supervisor alia Cohen issued a statement Thurs- ay calling for an independent investiga- ion of death. ohen died of major head injuries Thursday evening.

His daughter, Betsy Hershfield-Cohen, 52, told the Chronicle that she was hocked Raiyawa was accused of killing er father. She said Raiyawa had worked ith the family for less than two years but had been dependable and trustworthy. Raiyawa the only caregiver my dad really ever Hershfield- ohen told the newspaper. Regulators close case about California reactor repairs LOS Federal regulators ave closed a case that questioned whether Southern California Edison violated government rules when it installed faulty equipment at the now-closed San Onofre nuclear power plant. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission uling Thursday concluded the issue is longer relevant since the coastal react ors, located between Los Angeles and San Diego, are retired.

I 2012, the environmental group Friends of the Earth asked the agency to review if majority owner Edison misled the NRC when it replaced steam generators in a $670 million overhaul in 2009 and 2010. The group argued that a series of equipment and design changes to the enerators created a significant risk of mechanical problems. It said the compa- never disclosed the modifications, ins tead describing it as an exchange of imilar equipment. San Onofre was shut down in January 2012 after a small radiation leak led to the discovery of extensive damage to hundreds of tubes inside the virtually new generators. The plant never produced electricity again.

Edison closed San Onofre for good i 2013 amid a fight with environmentalists over whether the plant was too damaged to restart safely. William M. Dean, director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, rote that because the plant is permanently closed, it is no longer necessary to rule on issues raised in the case, including whether Edison skirted rules when it installed the equipment. Edison said it agreed with the ruling. Acompany statement said a previous NRC review found evaluations before installation of the generators did not have any bearing on the underlying i ssues that caused the 2012 tube leak.

The generators each contained nearly 10,000 alloy tubes that carried hot, pressurized water from the reactors. Resem- ling massive steel fire hydrants, the enerators controlled heat in the react ors and operated something like a car adiator. After the plant was shut down, tests found some generator tubes were so badly eroded that they could fail and possi- ly release radiation, a stunning finding i nside the nearly new equipment. A NRC investigation found that a botched computer analysis resulted in design flaws that were largely to blame for the unprecedented wear in the tub- i ng. osts stemming from the premature emise of the plant are still being sorted out.

services STATE DIGEST AP An air tanker drops fire retardant near Lower ake on Friday. A series of wildfires were intensified by dry vegetation, triple-digit emperatures and gusting winds..