The founder of a company specializing in running answer services for doctors is accused of trying to oust the competition by hacking into that firm's computer. Whenever patients tried to reach a physician, they were greeted with a busy signal or erotic moaning. Gerald Martin, 37, is charged with computer tampering and possessing a forged instrument. If convicted, he could face up to seven years in prison.

A recent ruling by several California grand juries has indicted 40 pilots for fraud. Federal officials reveal the pilots falsified reports that would have disclosed they were collecting disability payments for medical and psychological conditions - disqualifying them from operating an aircraft. Other pilots failed to report prior criminal convictions.

The fossil of an ancient woolly mammoth's tusk has been discovered near a dairy farm in Tulare County. According to Roger LaJeunesse, anthropology professor at California State University, the 10-foot-long tusk is estimated to be 100,000 years old.

Federal officials have begun searching trees near an Air Force base in Northern California for a destructive Asian beetle officials believe arrived last month in a shipment of tiles from China. Two Asian longhorned beetles were found outside a privately-operated warehouse at the former McClellan Air Force Base outside Sacramento. A team of U. S. Forest Service smokejumpers, firefighters trained in parachuting into forest fires, have been searching for traces of the insects in trees near the site since Monday.

Authorities say a young marine, terrified of returning to Iraq, had his cousin shoot him in the leg, and then told police he was hit by random gang gunfire. According to police, the shooting was meant to keep 19-year-old Moises Hernandez from returning to the war-torn country. He was charged with filing a false police report, while his cousin, Juan, also 19, faces felony weapons charges.