California

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A decorated Navy SEAL stabbed to death a wounded and captive teenage Islamic State fighter in Iraq and then bragged about it, a military prosecutor told jurors Tuesday during opening statements in a politically charged court-martial.

Lt. Brian John projected photos of the dead prisoner in the military courtroom, along with a text message Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher sent to friends with the image.

“Good story behind this,” Gallagher wrote. “Got him with my hunting knife.”

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Seasoned combat veterans who described losing comrades and taking war prisoners were questioned Monday as possible jurors in the trial of a decorated Navy SEAL charged with killing a wounded Islamic State captive in Iraq.

All but one of the potential jurors in the court-martial of Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher had served in a war zone and all but two were veterans of conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

A jury is likely to be seated Tuesday and opening statements presented, defense lawyer Tim Parlatore said outside court.

CORONA, Calif. (AP) — An off-duty police officer opened fire inside a Costco Wholesale warehouse store, killing a man who had attacked him and wounding two others, the Corona Police Department said.

Kenneth French, 32, of Riverside assaulted the Los Angeles Police Department officer Friday night while he was holding his young child, the department said in a statement Saturday. The officer fired his gun, hitting French and two of French’s relatives, the department said.

French was killed, the department said. The relatives are in critical conditions at hospitals.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Three satellites for the Canadian Space Agency’s Earth-monitoring Radarsat program were launched into orbit from California on Wednesday aboard a reused SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The rocket lifted off from fog-shrouded Vandenberg Air Force Base at 7:17 a.m. and arced over the Pacific west of Los Angeles.

The first stage separated a few minutes into flight and headed back to the coastal base, extended its legs and set down on a landing zone.

The first stage previously was used in March for a demonstration flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — In a cramped San Diego courtroom, immigrant mothers cradled restless babies and toddlers as they waited to go before a judge. After a quick exchange, they were whisked back to Mexico where they face months, or possibly years, before their cases play out in the U.S.

Hundreds of miles away, a judge in El Paso, Texas, noticed that an infant was fussing and let the child’s mother stand up and burp the baby before shipping her and about a dozen others, including six pregnant women, back to the Mexican border city of Juarez.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Leaders of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang were charged Thursday with directing killings and drug smuggling from within California’s most secure prisons, U.S. prosecutors said.

The charges detail five slayings and accuse an attorney of helping smuggle drugs and cellphones to aid the white supremacist gang.

Sixteen Aryan Brotherhood members and associates are accused of running the criminal enterprise using contraband cellphones, encrypted chats, text messages, multimedia messages and email.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California officially gave its blessing to coffee Monday, declaring the beverage does not pose a “significant” cancer risk.

The rule, proposed a year ago by regulators, means coffee won’t have to carry ominous warnings that the beverage may be bad for you.

The state took the rare move after a Los Angeles judge found Starbucks Corp. and other companies failed to show that benefits from drinking coffee outweighed risks from a byproduct of the roasting process.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The federal government may be warming up its antitrust enforcement machine and pointing it at Big Tech.

On Monday, the House Judiciary Committee announced a sweeping antitrust probe of unspecified technology companies. In a statement, it promised “a top-to-bottom review of the market power held by giant tech platforms,” which would be the first such Congress has ever undertaken.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Latest on the Democratic presidential candidates (all times local):

4:15 p.m.

Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro says he’s hoping his campaign for president will prove Latinos aren’t scared by President Donald Trump’s racism.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Democratic presidential hopefuls took rival Joe Biden’s absence at a California state party gathering Saturday as a chance to take subtle digs at the former vice president and craft themselves as better positioned to bring Democrats into the future.

“Some say if we all just calm down, the Republicans will come to their senses,” Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a clear reference to Biden’s comments that the GOP may have an “epiphany” after President Donald Trump is gone. “But our country is in a crisis. The time for small ideas is over.”