SANTA ANA

Latest county jail lockdown ends

Orange County sheriff's officials Tuesday ended their lockdown of the Men's Central Jail, concluding that racial tensions had eased enough to allow inmates to leave their cells for exercise, education and dining-room visits.

Sheriff's Capt. Roland Chacon said he agreed to ease the restrictions at the Santa Ana facility Tuesday morning, and inmates ate breakfast in a dining hall without incident.

Chacon authorized the lockdown April 29 after a fight in the dining hall involving several black and Latino inmates. That fight came four days after officials ended a previous lockdown that resulted from a fight in which a dozen inmates in two dormitories were injured. That fight also involved black and Latino inmates.

--

Stuart Pfeifer

SACRAMENTO

Foes sue over prison bond sale

Opponents of state prison and jail construction filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Sacramento County Superior Court against the state's plan to build 53,000 more beds, arguing that $7.4 billion in borrowing without voter approval is illegal. But state officials say courts have already sanctioned the practice.

The plaintiffs, including a group called Californians United for a Responsible Budget and several taxpayers, contend that the borrowing mechanism -- so-called lease-revenue bonds -- that the legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger approved last year in AB 900, the prison package, would waste $1.3 billion in current dollars because of high interest rates and fixed costs.

Unlike general obligation bonds, which are backed by the state government, revenue bonds don't require approval from voters. But the suit argues that those bonds are not appropriate in this instance because the state's general fund, and not income from prisons, will repay the debt.

"We think it's kind of an inappropriate end-around the voter approval requirement," said Thomas Nolan, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.

H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the state Department of Finance, said interest rates were only marginally higher for lease-revenue bonds. And he pointed to other cases, including one in the same court last year also targeting the prison construction plan, in which judges had found that the use of revenue bonds did not violate the state constitution.

--

Michael Rothfeld

BERKELEY

Murder charge is filed in stabbing

A 20-year-old Berkeley man was charged with murder Tuesday in connection with the stabbing death of a UC Berkeley student killed during a brawl near the campus last weekend.

Andrew Thomas Hoeft-Edenfield, a Berkeley City College student with no previous criminal record, was arraigned Tuesday in Alameda County Superior Court, authorities said.

Christopher Wootton, 21, an engineering student from Bellflower, was stabbed early Saturday during a melee in the back parking lot of a campus sorority house.

Berkeley police on Tuesday released new details on the fracas, which they characterized as a "pride fight."