Pasadena police searched Friday for one of the drivers involved in a hit-and-run accident in which a woman in a motorized wheelchair was killed.

The 52-year-old woman, who was killed Thursday night on North Fair Oaks Avenue, lived in a nearby convalescent hospital, said Lt. Chris Russ of the Pasadena Police Department.

DeShaun Chapman, 28, of Pasadena, was arrested after he allegedly fled the scene with a child who was a passenger in his car, then returned. He was charged with vehicular manslaughter.

Chapman was headed north on Fair Oaks at a high speed about 6:30 p.m. when a dark sedan pulled out from a private driveway onto the street, Russ said.

To avoid the car, Chapman swerved into oncoming traffic, then over-corrected onto northbound Fair Oaks and lost control of his car, which hit the woman and a retaining wall, pinning her underneath.

Police were looking for the sedan driver, who fled the scene.

Anyone with information is asked to call (626) 744-4241.

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-- Sam Quinones

Days of record-setting rain caused the evacuation Monday of about 2,000 residents in a Kern County farming community.

The evacuation order was called about 11:30 a.m. for some residents of McFarland in the San Joaquin Valley, said Sean Collins, a spokesman for the Kern County Fire Department.

“About 400 to 500 houses are in danger of flooding around there,” he said.

The National Weather Service warned Sunday that the San Joaquin Valley faced an “extended period of very wet conditions” that heightened the possibility of flooding in the area until the end of the week.

Temporary evacuation shelters have been set up at Mouser Center at 100 S. 2nd St. and McFarland High School, Collins said.

The source of the flooding was unclear but could have to do with a problem with the irrigation canals that supply water to area farms.

“What we have there is quite a lot of farmland with ditches and drainages and canals,” he said. “Without knowing 100%, it is quite possible one of the ditches either ran over or one of the banks broke.”

-- Shan Li

Photos: Southern California storm

In a tearful YouTube video, the mother of a 13-year-old boy from Tehachapi who committed suicide after enduring harassment for being gay called upon schools to stop anti-gay bullying.

The video, released Thursday by the American Civil Liberties Union, shows Wendy Walsh reading her son Seth’s suicide note and is interspersed with pictures of him hanging out with friends and smiling shyly for the camera. (Warning: The video included some strong language.)

“Mom … thank you for having me. It’s been a pleasure,” Walsh said, reading from the note. “I know this will bring you much pain, but I will hopefully be in a better place.”

The video ends with Walsh describing finding her son Sept. 19 hanging from a plum tree. Eight days later, doctors declared Seth brain-dead.

“Wendy wanted to get the word out about what happened to her son,” said James Gilliam, the deputy executive director for the ACLU of Southern California. “She was hoping to spread the word that there are resources for people in need.”

In a letter sent Thursday to the Tehachapi Unified School District, the ACLU demanded the district take steps to address and stop bullying students endure because of their sexual orientation.

“We hope we can work with them to craft anti-bias and anti-bullying policies,” Gilliam said. “To make sure there is a complaint process and that students like Seth know that their complaints will be taken seriously.”

Gilliam said a lawsuit against the district is not out of the question, but the ACLU hopes to work peacefully and cooperatively to address the concerns.

-- Shan Li

A state investigation did not find a common underlying cause for recent birth defects, including heart problems and cleft palates and lips, in Kettleman City, a Central California farming community of about 1,500 mostly Spanish-speaking residents, according to a long-awaited report released Monday.

"While we wish there was an explanation for what caused the birth defects experienced by the children we studied in Kettleman City," said California Department of Public Health Director Mark Horton, "our investigation finds that no common health or environmental factor links the cases."

State health investigators tested air, water and soil throughout the region and studied family histories to determine why at least five of 20 babies born between September 2007 and November 2009 in Kettleman City suffered birth defects.

Read more at The Times' Greenspace environmental news blog. 

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-- Louis Sahagun

It was to be the perfect end to a perfect day. Hillary and Jason Martin had just gotten married. They arrived at Bakersfield's swank Padre Hotel -- the bride in her wedding dress, the groom in Marine Corps dress blues.

They were 18 and in love.

They were 18 and out of luck.

The high school sweethearts and parents of twin 9-month-old boys were old enough to marry. Jason Martin, on leave after completing boot camp, was old enough to join the Marines. The Padre Hotel's age policy, however, required them to be at least 21 to rent a room.

"I was so upset," Hillary Martin said. "I planned the wedding, so I felt this was my fault. It was all just falling apart. In the car, I just broke down. I thought, 'Here I am looking for a place to stay on my honeymoon.'"

Pedro Ramirez, Fresno State's student body president, is an undocumented immigrant serving in the position without pay.

Some people on Twitter have been discussing the story. A student at Northeastern is happy his university has never elected an illegal immigrant to student body office, while @LatinoDemocrats supports Ramirez's position.

Read more: Fresno State student body president acknowledges he is an illegal immigrant, refuses to step down

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

A shout-out from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last Thursday for somebody to give Fresno hero Victor Perez a job led to something perhaps even better: a full scholarship to contractors school.

"All my uncles are in construction. I'll get this license, then maybe we can put ourselves to work," said Perez, an unemployed construction worker who last week chased down a kidnapper and rescued an 8-year-old girl.

The story caught the nation's attention and thrust Perez and his cousin Flor Urias, who spotted the kidnapper's truck, into the media spotlight. The governor flew to Fresno to meet them. Fresno declared a "Victor Perez Day."  A CNN Cadillac picked up Perez and took him to back-to-back interviews with national morning shows. 

"After four interviews, I was ready to throw in the towel," he said. "I couldn't take it no more. I was really spooked."

He did what he'd been doing his whole life when he needed guidance. He went to talk to his Uncle Sam, Urias' dad.

"When I go to him, I know I'm going to get set right," said Perez. "He told me, 'God was with you when you saved that little girl. It's a blessing.' "

 An 8-year-old girl who was abducted from her family's home has been found "safe and alive," Fresno police spokesman Jeff Cardinale said Tuesday morning.

Elisa Cardenas was being taken to an undisclosed location to be reunited with her mother, officials said.

"It beats the odds," Cardinale said, adding only that she was found somewhere in Fresno at about 7:15 a.m. Police confirmed that a suspect -- identified as Gregory Gonzalez of Fresno -- has been detained in the case.

An Amber Alert had been issued, and a search was launched after the girl's abductor drove off with her in a pickup truck about 8:30 p.m. Monday.

The girl's abductor was described as a 6-foot-tall, 25-year-old white or light-skinned Latino man with brown hair, brown eyes and short, combed-back hair, or possibly bald. He was last seen wearing a white tank top and blue jeans, officials said.

-- Diana Marcum in Fresno and Tony Barboza

Authorities were searching early Tuesday for a man they said kidnapped an 8-year-old girl from her Fresno neighborhood and drove off with her in a pickup truck.

[Updated at 7:45 a.m.: Fresno police spokesman Jeff Cardinale announced about 7:40 a.m. that Elisa Cardenas has been found safe., according to the Fresno Bee, and the CHP is reporting that it has detained a possible suspect.]

The California Highway Patrol issued an Amber Alert for Elisa Cardenas, who they say was abducted from her family’s home about 8:30 p.m. Monday.

Her abductor was described as a 6-foot-tall, 25-year-old white or light-skinned Latino man with brown hair, brown eyes and short, combed-back hair, or possibly bald. He was last seen wearing a white tank top and blue jeans, said CHP Officer Marc McWilliams.

Authorities are looking for the vehicle the man was seen driving away in: a late 1980s or early 1990s brown or tan pickup truck with a single white cab and large horizontal stripes.

Cardenas, a 4-foot-tall, 60-pound Latino girl with brown eyes and brown hair, was last seen wearing a purple sweatshirt with "Winnie the Pooh" on the front and light blue jeans.

Authorities ask anyone who has seen Cardenas or her kidnapper to call 911 or contact Fresno police.

-- Tony Barboza

Photo: Elisa Cardenas. Credit: California Highway Patrol

UC Merced Chancellor Sung-Mo "Steve" Kang, the second person to lead the newest UC campus, announced Thursday that he will step down in June at the end of the upcoming academic year.

An electrical engineer who holds more than a dozen patents and was the engineering dean at UC Santa Cruz, Kang, 65, said he intends to return to research and teaching. In a statement released Thursday, he said he was gratified to help the UC Merced student body triple in size to the current 4,000. "I am extremely proud that we were able to manage this growth successfully as a team in one of the harshest economic climates in memory," he said.

Kang became head of the San Joaquin Valley campus in March 2007. He succeeded its founding chancellor, Carol Tomlinson-Keasey, who guided the campus through its opening five years ago and stepped down in the summer of 2006. Tomlinson-Keasey died last year of complications of cancer.

The UC system will start a search this fall for a new chancellor of UC Merced.

--Larry Gordon