California Briefing

Meadows, authorities said, was driving with a suspended license because of prior speeding tickets and having run a red light. The other motorcyclist fled; Parker was pronounced dead at the scene.

"This conduct is so egregious," said Deputy Dist. Atty. Susan Price. "When someone dies as a result of these actions, consequences must be paid."

Meadows faces 18 years to life in state prison if convicted. He is being held at the Central Men's Jail in Santa Ana in lieu of $1 million bail and will be arraigned Tuesday.

Authorities are still trying to find the motorcyclist who fled the scene.

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Paloma Esquivel

LOS ANGELES

$2.3 million raised for mayor's bid

Campaign aides to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Friday that his 2009 reelection campaign has collected $2.3 million, an amount likely to scare away all but the most well-financed challengers.

Villaraigosa political strategist Ace Smith said the total shows "overwhelming support for the mayor's leadership in taking on the city's biggest challenges."

Billionaire shopping mall developer Rick Caruso, a prolific Republican fundraiser, said last summer that he was considering a challenge to the mayor. But so far Villaraigosa's biggest opponent is Walter Moore, a lawyer who finished sixth in the 2005 mayoral race.

Villaraigosa has spent nearly $564,000 on his campaign so far, leaving his reelection bid with $1.8 million on hand. Moore, who lives in the Westside neighborhood of Carthay Circle, raised $162,735 as of Sept. 30 and has just over $11,000 on hand, according to campaign fundraising reports.

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David Zahniser

VENTURA COUNTY

Owners of horse ranch arrested

The owners of a family-run horse ranch near Frazier Park were taken into custody this week after investigators found 55 allegedly malnourished horses on their property.

Joan Bor, 65; her son Ernie Bor, 30; and his wife, Cecilia Bor, 35, were arrested on multiple felony counts of animal cruelty after a search warrant was served at Cochema Ranch, county authorities said.

The three were booked into County Jail on Wednesday on $10,000 bail each, said Capt. Ross Bonfiglio of the Ventura County Sheriff's Department. The Bors stabled more than 100 horses on the 21-acre ranch, in the 16000 block of Curtis Trail in Lockwood Valley.

Investigators were called in when a neighbor reported that some of the animals appeared emaciated.