California

Adam Nagourney and Joseph Berger

They came at dusk, more than 1,000 fans driving pickups and off-road vehicles down eight miles of dirt road, to celebrate an annual rite of summer that draws an intensely loyal group of followers: night racing deep in the Mojave Desert by a fleet of souped-up trucks tackling a barely marked 40-mile track of rocks, ruts, sand and sagebrush.

But as the crowd gathered Saturday night at a prime spot to view the California 200 — the Rock Pile, where drivers come roaring over a steep incline and down a steep hill — a 2000 Ford Ranger modified for off-road use lurched into the air, spun out of control and rolled into the crowd.

Roger H. Aylworth

OROVILLE — The Butte County district attorney was told he couldn't use money from a fund he worked to create, and operators of backyard off-highway vehicle tracks were told they are likely to face some limitations.

District Attorney Mike Ramsey said he will probably lose a counselor, who works with victims of domestic violence, because the Board of Supervisors ruled today that the Chico-based Catalyst Domestic Violence Services could do more good with the money that would have gone to the counselor.

David Sneed

County supervisors on Tuesday gave final approval to an agreement to reduce the amount of dust blowing onto the Nipomo Mesa from Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area amid concerns that the deal lacks teeth and meaningful deadlines.

“This is an incomplete agreement, to say the least,” Supervisor Bruce Gibson said.

The Air Pollution Control District meeting Wednesday was an interesting study in obfuscation. Many Nipomo Mesa residents spoke regarding health problems they believe result from particulate matter blowing off the Dunes. A settled fact is that the particulates originate from the off-highway vehicle area at the Dunes, causing federal air quality violations about every 5 days. We’ve had 47 to date this year.

State OHV Division Director Phil Jenkins spoke about how his agency was willing to fund a required technical expert on health impacts, but he doubted that could be done within six months.

California's 278 state parks are part of our collective inheritance. Yet as The Bee's continuing series on state parks illustrated Sunday, it's an inheritance we could easily squander by abusing our parks and failing to ensure they are properly patrolled.

Reported by McClatchy Newspapers' five California papers, Sunday's story notes that crimes in state parks have more than doubled on a daily basis since 1999, to 170 per day last year.

The county and state are embarking on what appears to be a promising first step in reducing dust pollution linked to the Oceano Dunes off-road recreation area. The state has already signed a formal agreement that lays out a detailed work program to test various strategies and develop a long-term plan for curbing particulate releases.

The county Air Pollution Control District board is expected to vote on the agreement today, and the Board of Supervisors will consider it Aug. 3.

Mike Cruz

A Hesperia parolee who rode a three-wheel ATV on Sunday was arrested after he reportedly ran over a resident who had asked him to slow down.

Sheriff's deputies responded to a report of a hit-and-run at 11 a.m. in the 9200 block of Glendale Avenue, in Hesperia. James Allen Bogdan, 29, was arrested and booked into Victor Valley Jail, in Victorville, according to a statement from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.

It was like a scene from a big-city television crime drama. But this was a state park.

Carlos Alcalá

Rarely does a humble county road become a legend.

That, however, is the status of the El Dorado County route known as the Rubicon Trail.