Briefs

Committee formed to search for new lab
director

The University of California has formed a screening committee to
assist the advisory committee appointed by UC President Robert C.
Dynes in the search for a new director of the Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory.

The 15-member screening committee consists of LBNL employees,
researchers, UC faculty and members of the UC President’s
Council on the National Laboratories.

The chair of the screening committee is William Frazer, vice
president of the Aspen Center for Physics. The group will work in
concert with the advisory committee, which was announced earlier
this month and serves as the most direct source of counsel to
President Dynes on the selection of a new laboratory director.
Dynes hopes to bring a candidate recommendation to the UC Board of
Regents later this spring.

Pipe backup makes beach uninhabitable

HUNTINGTON BEACH “”mdash; A clogged pipe forced up to 2,000
gallons of sewage into a storm channel leading to Huntington
Harbour. It forced closure of Huntington Harbour to swimmers.

A blocked sewer pipe in Anaheim sent waste into the storm
channel late Monday. The blockage was cleared by Anaheim public
works employees early Tuesday, but up to 2,000 gallons of sewage
made it into the channel, officials said.

As a precaution, the Orange County Health Care Agency closed
Sunset Aquatic Marina and Portofino Cove Marina to swimmers. The
agency will monitor ocean bacterial levels and lift the closure
once they have dropped to normal, probably sometime Wednesday.

Abandoned infant rescued at the last second

SAN BERNARDINO “”mdash; Seventeen-year-old parents of an infant
reported missing this week were arrested after police found the
2-month-old girl in the trash moments before a refuse truck was to
dump it.

The girl, lying face down in garbage, was found in a trash can
at the curb beside her parents’ home, investigators said.
Forty minutes earlier, a woman telephoned police to report the
infant was missing.

“˜”˜I saw a blanket that appeared to be dirty, with
things on it. I moved it, and when I moved it, I saw a leg, a
little baby’s leg. I thought somebody might have thrown away
a doll,” Officer Mario Molina said after finding the
infant about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday.

The infant had a fractured skull and was bruised and dehydrated.
She was in critical condition at a local hospital.

Timothy Reuber and Annette Soto, both 17, were arrested and
booked for investigation of child abuse and attempted murder,
police said.

Police Chief Garrett Zimmon said the infant would have been
dumped in the truck if Molina had not taken the initiative to look
in the trash can.

“˜”˜Nobody would have been the wiser,”
Zimmon said.

Compiled from Bruin reports and wire services.