Farmhand indicted in California rampage
SAN FRANCISCO -- A farmworker charged with killing seven people last year in back-to-back shootings at two Northern California mushroom farms was indicted by a grand jury in an effort by prosecutors to move the case along, authorities said.
Chunli Zhao was in court Tuesday to be arraigned on seven counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder, but his arraignment was continued until Feb. 29, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said in an email.
Zhao was charged last year in the Jan. 23, 2023, killings of seven people in Half Moon Bay. He pleaded innocent last February. But the case has dragged on with a preliminary hearing not set until March, and that has now been vacated, Wagstaffe said.
The grand jury indictment supersedes the criminal complaint and bypasses the need for a preliminary hearing, skipping one step in the legal process and advancing the case, he said.
The next step is for Zhao to enter a plea on the grand jury indictment charges at the February hearing, he said.
Zhao admitted to the shootings during a jailhouse media interview days after the killings and told KNTV-TV he was bullied and worked long hours on the farms.
6 deaths probed in Mojave Desert town
EL MIRAGE, Calif. -- Deputies found the bodies of six people at a remote dirt crossroads in the Mojave Desert, a scene described as so grisly that Southern California TV stations blurred some of the images captured by their helicopters overhead.
San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies responding to a request for a wellness check reached the area off U.S. 395 outside the community of El Mirage around 8:15 p.m. Tuesday and found five of the bodies. The sixth was found Wednesday morning, sheriff's spokesperson Mara Rodriguez said.
Authorities were still gathering evidence to determine what happened, and Rodriguez said they could not say even how the people died or whether they had been shot. The area, about 50 miles northeast of Los Angeles, is so remote that the San Bernardino sheriff's office called in help from the California Highway Patrol's Aviation Division to find the scene, Rodriguez said.
"It'll be several hours still before we are ready for any body to be removed from the scene," she said, adding that the coroner's investigators will be called in then.
Members of the department's specialized investigations division were brought in to conduct a homicide investigation, according to an email from sheriff's spokeswoman Gloria Huerta.
Heavy rain inundates parts of U.S.
HOUSTON -- Heavy rains in Texas Wednesday closed schools and elevated flooding risks around Houston in another round of soaking downpours that have made for a soggy and dangerous week across large portions of the U.S.
A stretch of wet and freezing winter weather has swept away vehicles in San Diego, led to high-water rescues in San Antonio and coated roads with ice in the Midwest. Rain was expected to continue pushing across the Gulf Coast today and Friday.
The morning downpours in Texas canceled classes in rural counties outside Austin, where some areas had received more than 8 incheof rain within 48 hours.
Flood warnings were also in effect around Houston, snarling morning commutes.
Periods of showers and thunderstorms were expected in the area through this morning, and the main concern is that the soil is already quite saturated, said National Weather Service meteorologist Cameron Self. Runoff from swollen rivers will also be a factor, he said.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom this week declared a state of emergency for Ventura and San Diego counties, with the latter being hit by heavy rains and high surf that caused flooding.
In Texas, Lake Conroe, located about 54 miles north of Houston, has been temporarily closed because of high lake levels.
Abortion plaintiff invited to Biden speech
WASHINGTON-- President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden have extended an invitation to attend the president's State of the Union address to a Texas woman who sued her state and lost over the ability to get an abortion to end a wanted pregnancy.
The Texas Supreme Court denied Katie Cox's request. But by then, her lawyers said, she had already traveled out of state for an abortion.
The Bidens spoke with Cox Sunday and invited her to the annual address set for March 7 at the U.S. Capitol. Cox will sit with the first lady, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday. Cox accepted the invitation, she said.
Cox, 31, was pregnant with her third child when she learned the baby had a rare genetic disorder. The couple was informed by doctors that their baby would live at best a week. She sued over the right to have an abortion to end the pregnancy but lost because the judges said she hadn't shown her life was in danger enough to be granted the procedure.