SACRAMENTO

Agency to study special education

The state Department of Education announced Wednesday that it would hire an independent consultant to study special-education students who fail the high school exit exam but otherwise meet graduation requirements, according to a lawsuit settlement tentatively approved by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Robert Freedman.

The study will determine whether such students have mastered the English and math skills tested in the exam, but are unable to demonstrate their proficiency because of their disabilities, according to the settlement.

If that is the case, the consultant will propose alternative methods of testing this knowledge.

The settlement, which could receive final approval at a hearing May 30, stems from a 2002 lawsuit alleging that the exam is unfair and discriminatory against special-education students.

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Seema Mehta

WESTMINSTER

Fortuneteller's shop is robbed

A pair of robbers held up a Little Saigon-area fortuneteller, making off with jewelry and cash and leaving the owners and a lone customer bound and gagged, police said Wednesday.

An armed man and an accomplice entered the Westminster Boulevard shop Saturday and asked the owners for a "specific object," said Westminster Police Det. David Ferronato.

He declined to say what the object was. When the robbers did not find it, they bound and gagged two female owners and a female customer in a back office of the business, Ferronato said. They also grabbed bracelets and rings worth hundreds of dollars and cash from the women's purses.

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My-Thuan Tran

ORANGE COUNTY

Man gets 61 days for voter fraud

A signature gatherer has been convicted of felony voter-registration fraud for signing up people who were ineligible to vote in Orange County, authorities said Wednesday.

Don Cornell Williams was sentenced to 61 days in jail and three years' probation, Secretary of State Debra Bowen said. Williams is prohibited from participating in any voter-registration activities while on probation.

The Sacramento-based signature gatherer, apparently motivated by a $10 fee for each new registered voter, pleaded guilty in Orange County Superior Court to improperly registering two teenagers not yet old enough to vote and a noncitizen ineligible to vote.

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David Haldane

SAN DIEGO

Arrests in drug sting total 128