CALIFORNIA

Report: Guardsmen told to repay bonuses

Nearly 10,000 California National Guard soldiers have been ordered to repay huge enlistment bonuses a decade after signing up to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan, a newspaper reported Saturday.

The Pentagon demanded the money back after audits revealed overpayments by the California Guard under pressure to fill ranks and hit enlistment goals. If soldiers refuse, they could face interest charges, wage garnishments and tax liens, the Los Angeles Times said.

Faced with a shortage of troops at the height of the two wars, California Guard officials offered bonuses of $15,000 or more for soldiers to reenlist.

A federal investigation in 2010 found thousands of bonuses and student loan payments were improperly doled out to California Guard soldiers. About 9,700 current and retired soldiers received notices to repay some or all of their bonuses with more than $22 million recovered so far.

Soldiers said they feel betrayed at having to repay the money.

“These bonuses were used to keep people in,” said Christopher Van Meter, a 42-year-old former Army captain and Iraq veteran who was awarded a Purple Heart. “People like me just got screwed.”

Van Meter said he refinanced his home mortgage to repay $25,000 in re-enlistment bonuses and $21,000 in student loan repayments that the military says was improperly given to him.

The California Guard said it has to follow the law and collect the money.

— Associated Press

OHIO

Jury selection begins in police shooting

Under tight courthouse security and close monitoring by local officials concerned about keeping the peace, jury selection begins Tuesday for the murder trial of a white university police officer charged with killing an unarmed black man during a traffic stop.

Ray Tensing, 26, fatally shot Sam DuBose, 43, last year after pulling him over for a missing front license plate near the University of Cincinnati. The Hamilton County prosecutor called Tensing’s actions “asinine” and “senseless” in announcing the officer’s indictment and releasing a police body camera video.

An outside review commissioned by the university said the now-fired university police officer showed poor police tactics in an “entirely preventable” fatal shooting.

Defense attorney Stewart Mathews has said Tensing feared getting dragged under DuBose’s car as he tried to drive away. And legal experts say jurors often want to give police the benefit of the doubt in deadly force cases.

“It’s divided the community. But I think it’s a tough case for the prosecutor because juries have a difficult time convicting police officers,” said attorney Mike Allen, a former prosecutor and also a former police officer, including for the university. “They realize that police officers have to make split-second decisions sometimes.”

To convict Tensing of murder, Allen said, jurors would have to find he purposely killed DuBose. He also is charged with voluntary manslaughter, which means killing during sudden passion or fit of rage.

— Associated Press

Protesters arrested in North Dakota: More than 80 people protesting the Dakota Access pipeline were arrested Saturday during a demonstration that gathered about 300 people at a construction site in North Dakota and prompted law enforcement officers to use pepper spray. Rob Keller, aA Morton County sheriff’s office spokesman said authorities were called at 5:20 a.m. Saturday to a pipeline construction site about five miles from an area where protesters have been camping out for weeks near the confluence of the Missouri and Cannonball rivers. The confrontation between officers and protesters lasted five hours.

Ruptured Pa. pipeline causes little harm to water supply: There has been little effect to the water supply so far from a ruptured pipeline during a freak storm in Pennsylvania that sent nearly 55,000 gallons of gasoline into a creek tributary, officials said Saturday. But authorities are continuing to monitor the water supplies that serve thousands of residents around Williamsport.

— Associated Press