Nation briefs

CALIFORNIALA fights a hike in shootings

Eduardo Rebolledo had just gotten into his pickup truck after work to head home to his two children when a gang dispute erupted 30 yards behind him on a Los Angeles street. Rebolledo, 38, ducked right into the path of a bullet that hit him in the head, killing him instantly. "He was completely innocent," said police Det. Dave Peteque. "He's just a working Joe, a family man trying to support his kids." In a split second, Rebolledo joined the growing list of victims in the nation's second-largest city, where murders are up 12 percent this year and shooting victims up 20 percent. The LAPD has deployed hundreds of elite officers to crime hot spots, increased the number of officers walking the streets versus patrolling in cars, and created a community relationship division dedicated to building the public's trust in police. But LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said his department can't solve the problem alone. "A lot of it is public will," he said. "A will of everyone in the city of Los Angeles to say, 'Enough is enough.' "

WASHINGTONClimate: Rating the candidates

When it comes to climate science, two of the three Democratic presidential candidates are A students, while most of the Republican contenders are flunking, according to a panel of scientists who reviewed candidates' comments. At the request of The Associated Press, eight climate and biological scientists graded for scientific accuracy what a dozen top candidates said in debates, interviews and tweets, using a 0 to 100 scale. To try to eliminate possible bias, the candidates' comments were stripped of names and given randomly generated numbers, so the professors would not know who made each statement they were grading. Also, the scientists who did the grading were chosen by professional scientific societies. Hillary Rodham Clinton had the highest average score at 94. Three scientists did not assign Martin O'Malley a score, saying his statements mostly were about policy, which they could not grade, instead of checkable science. Two used similar reasoning to skip grading Gov. Chris Christie and one did the same for Carly Fiorina. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas had the lowest score, an average of 6. All eight put Cruz at the bottom of the class.