NATIONAL BRIEFS

CALIFORNIA: 15 years for economic spying

A China-born engineer convicted in the United States' first economic espionage trial was sentenced Monday in Santa Ana to more than 15 years in prison for stealing sensitive information on the U.S. space program with the intention of passing it to China. Dongfan "Greg" Chung, 74, a Boeing stress analyst with high-level security clearance, was convicted in July of six counts of economic espionage for storing 300,000 pages of sensitive papers in his home.

ILLINOIS: Wanted: Lt. guv candidate

Democrats are getting a political do-over: the chance to pick a new lieutenant governor nominee themselves now that the primary winner dropped out because of revelations about his checkered past. Gov. Pat Quinn has the rare opportunity to help choose his running mate, but refused to say Monday who was on his short list. The spot opened up when Scott Lee Cohen announced Sunday that he would leave the ticket over fears he could cost Democrats the governor's race. Nominees for governor and lieutenant governor are chosen separately in the primary, but are linked together on the November ballot.

HAWAII: 28 abandon fishing boat

The U.S. Coast Guard says the 28 crew members of a fishing vessel that caught fire 900 miles southwest of Honolulu have abandoned ship and are in two life rafts. A Coast Guard search aircraft located the rafts Monday after the fire aboard the Taiwan-flagged Hou Chun 11 was reported by the Rescue Coordination Center in Taiwan.

WASHINGTON: Plan to thwart Asian carp

Navigational locks and gates in Chicago-area waterways crucial for shipping may be opened less frequently than usual under a $78.5-million campaign to prevent Asian carp from overrunning the Great Lakes, federal officials said Monday. The plan falls short of closing the gates entirely, as demanded by Michigan and other Great Lakes states.