Congressman's Daughter Sues Justice Department to Prevent Marijuana Dispensaries Closure

1. The 25-year-old daughter of Republican Congressman Brian Bilbray of San Diego is among several medical marijuana advocates suing the U.S Justice Department to prevent the closure of pot dispensaries. Briana Bilbray is part of a coalition of patients, storefront collectives and their landlords who began filing lawsuits Friday in all four federal judicial districts in California -- Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento and San Diego. The move comes after U.S. attorneys set various deadlines for dispensaries to shut down or risk criminal prosecution and forfeiture of their properties. Read the full story on ImperialBeach.Patch.com.

2. A preliminary hearing was rescheduled Monday to Dec. 12 for two 16-year-old boys accused of raping two teenage girls at knifepoint in a Rancho Penasquitos park during the Labor Day weekend. Leonel Contreras and William Steven Rodriguez have been charged as adults with 16 counts, including kidnapping, forcible rape and sodomy by force. Each defendant faces up to 325 years to life in prison if convicted of all charges, said Deputy District Attorney Wendy Patrick.

3. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Monday awarded $100,000 grants to San Diego-based research projects on improving sanitation and finding the causes of diseases in babies. One of the Grand Challenges Explorations grants went to a project by San Diego State University engineering professor Temesgen Garoma, who seeks to reliably and inexpensively treat human waste with algae, generate biogas for energy use and create biosolids to use as fertilizer.