False alarms. As the drama unfolds in Boston this morning with the search for the remaining suspect in the Marathon bombings, police in L.A. are also on edge. They responded to numerous bomb scares yesterday, including one that that forced an evacuation of Cal State L.A. and the cancellation of classes. A man who walked into a Hollywood Hooters and claimed to have a bomb in his lunch pail later told police that he was joking. They weren’t amused. He was arrested and a bomb squad robot blew up the lunch pail. KTTV, City News Service
U.C. Admissions. The University of California is going for the money – accepting higher numbers of out-of-state residents who pay substantially more for their education than in-state students. Nearly 100,000 Californians applied for U.C. admittance this fall, a record. But only 60.6 percent of those students made it in. That’s the lowest acceptance rate ever. Overall, more than a quarter of the incoming class will come from out of state. In the previous two years, out-of-staters made up about 18 percent of incoming students. Non-residents pay nearly three times more in tuition than Californians. AP
Occidental allegations. More than three dozen current and former students at Occidental College have filed a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education Justice. The students say the school brushed aside allegations of sexual assault and failed to protect students. Occidental is defending its record but officials say they are taking the allegations seriously. The college has hired two former sex crimes prosecutors to conduct a review of the school’s handling of sex abuse cases. L.A. Times
Confiscating guns. Lawmakers say it’s time to go after California’s unregistered gun owners. The state Assembly passed a bill that would allocate $24 million to confiscate guns from people who own them illegally, including felons and people with psychological conditions. The bill would take the money out of a fund that pays for background checks on buyers. That angered Republicans and gun rights advocates who say the money was not intended for that purpose. The bill now goes to the Senate. Sacramento Bee
Bullet train. A potential obstacle to California’s proposed $68 billion bullet train has been cleared. A group of Central Valley farmers agreed to drop their opposition in exchange for a promise from the state to put money toward preserving agricultural land along the route. The legal settlement comes as rail officials acknowledged that they changed their rules for selecting for a builder for the first stage of the route, between Fresno and Merced. The shift allowed the lowest bidder to be ranked as the top candidate despite receiving the lowest technical rating. Reuters, L.A. Times