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State Briefs: May 17

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SACRAMENTO

3 arrested after man is beaten

Three Sacramento men have been arrested after a beating that law enforcement officials describe as a hate crime against homosexuals, police said Friday.

The Thursday evening incident at a Sacramento gas station came just hours after the California Supreme Court issued a ruling overturning a state ban on same-sex marriages.

A 23-year-old Sacramento man was sitting with another man in a car near the station's restroom when the three suspects asked if he was a homosexual, Sacramento Police Officer Michelle Lazark said.

The man said he was. When he got out of the car, the three men beat and kicked him, Lazark said. He did not require medical treatment.

In brief

SAN DIEGO

Woman faces false-ID charge

An FBI probe into the May 4 bombing of a federal courthouse led to a woman being charged Friday with using a false identification to try to obtain explosives.

Authorities said, however, that no one has been charged with the bombing, which damaged the courthouse lobby and sent more than 100 nails and other shrapnel flying as far as two blocks. No one was injured.

Rachelle Lynette Carlock, 31, was arraigned in federal court in El Centro on an eight-count complaint charging use of false identification to obtain explosive materials, being a felon in possession of explosive materials and fraud.

FRESNO

Wife gets life for murder

A biochemist convicted of killing her estranged husband by knocking him out and stuffing him into a vat of acid — possibly while still alive — was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Larissa Schuster, 47, of Clovis, was convicted in December of murdering Timothy Schuster with the special circumstance that the murder was committed for financial gain.

Kristin Schuster, the couple's adult daughter, told a Fresno County Superior Court judge at Friday's sentencing hearing that she felt safer knowing her mother would be behind bars.

SACRAMENTO

Registration deadline looms

Monday is the deadline to register to vote in California's June 3 primary election.

An estimated 23 million Californians are eligible to vote. As of last month, 15.9 million were registered.

Registration forms are available at most post offices, public libraries, city and county offices and secretary of state offices.

They also can be downloaded from the Secretary of State's Web site, http://sos.ca.gov.

The last day to request a vote-by-mail ballot for the June primary is May 27.

angels camp

17 hurt when ride collapses

Three people attending the annual fair celebrating the popular Calaveras County jumping frog contest were seriously injured Friday during the collapse of a carnival ride.

An additional 14 riders also were hurt, but their injuries were considered minor, said Dennis Townsend, a chief in the Calaveras County unit of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention.

The three most seriously injured riders were airlifted to area hospitals, he said.

Townsend said they were injured when a type of swing ride collapsed shortly after 6 p.m. Friday. The ride has arms that fling out as they spin around an axis.

He said he did not know what might have caused the collapse or specifically how the riders were hurt.

Laurie Giannini, the fairground's marketing director, said the fair remained open Friday night but the carnival area was shut down after the accident.

— From wire reports

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