Merced County Ca

A permanent ban on med- ical marijuana dispensaries throughout Merced County will go into effect Jan. 17. The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to pass an ordinance similar to ones already in effect in Modesto, Merced, Los Banos and other local cities. There aren't any pot shops in Merced County, but law enforcement officials said the ban was necessary to curb crime, keep property values high and lower demands on police.

Following a string of errors at the Merced County elections office, the Board of Supervisors last week approved spending up to $75,000 to hire an attorney to audit elections practices. Officials say voters have been given the wrong ballots, ballots have been misprinted, and absentee voters have received official ballots before sample ballots. In one instance, a school board candidate's name was left off the November ballot.

Merced County Dist. Atty. Gordon Spencer, the subject of multiple state investigations, abruptly resigned from office after he was injured in a truck crash. His resignation Friday came two days after Spencer, 57, was released from Mercy Medical Center Merced after suffering a concussion when his truck flipped over and fell into a creek Monday. "I have determined that I will retire earlier than I had previously announced," Spencer wrote to county administrators and supervisors.

After three years of study and heated debate, a divided Merced County Board of Supervisors early Wednesday approved a 1,200-acre raceway complex that backers said would bring jobs and entertainment but foes derided as a noisy, traffic-choking assault on the region's agrarian roots. Supervisors Deidre Kelsey and John Pedrozo cast dissenting votes against Riverside Motorsports Park as the nine-hour meeting concluded shortly before 2:30 a.m.

The Merced County district attorney's office is investigating allegations that four Los Banos residents hired to register voters for the California Republican Party forged 147 voter registration cards. The four were working for Hilmar-based Spinnovation Strategies, a company hired by the state GOP to register voters for Tuesday's presidential election. The names of the man and the three women were not made public.

County prosecutors have offered a former Merced sewage plant manager accused of dumping chlorine into a stream a plea deal that includes fines and 100 hours of community service. The deal includes a suspended 60-day jail sentence, which would place Gerald Davidson on probation and require him to pay restitution, Deputy Dist. Atty. Brett Morris said Monday. Davidson faces five misdemeanor charges of polluting a stream. If found guilty, he faces jail time and up to $70,000 in fines.

This grief-stricken San Joaquin Valley farm town Wednesday added a new name and a new conflict to the old stone memorial that honors its dead sons from two World Wars, Korea and Vietnam. More than 500 people poured into the whitewashed, cinderblock St. Jude Catholic Church here on a crisp, clear, fall day to mourn the first Livingston daughter killed in a foreign military campaign.