Sacramento

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Drastically redefining incarceration in California, prison officials are about to start releasing thousands of female inmates who have children to serve the remainder of their sentences at home.

They owed thousands of dollars to the Internal Revenue Service, but the lady in the TV commercials assured them that for a few thousand more she could get the tax man off their backs.

The pitch by self-described "Tax Lady" Roni Lynn Deutch was impossible to resist for many. Among those who bought in: a Central Coast of California contractor who found himself in a financial hole after a recent divorce; a plumber in the Florida Keys in danger of losing his business; an Indianapolis woman trying to sell her house; an Army corporal and father of two in Missouri preparing to ship out for Korea; and a Sacramento area retiree facing mounting debt.

Now, these and thousands of other clients of Deutch's North Highlands, Calif.,-based tax resolution law firm find themselves further in debt and no closer to solving their problems with the IRS.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Her shiny blond hair framing wire-rimmed glasses that look three sizes too big, Ashley Fiolek giggles and smiles as she signs autographs just beyond the steps of California's golden-domed state capitol.

Petite and bubbly, the 20-year-old in neon colors looks more like a rock star than someone who spends her days in the dirt.

In a way, she kind of is.

Deaf since birth and one of the best female motocross riders in the world, Fiolek is an inspiration and role model on two wheels and two feet.

If the Kings leave Sacramento after 26 years, it's not because any one person is at fault or the community failed.

The NBA simply doesn't work in Sacramento, and it won't unless the league changes its financial structure so teams without big TV contracts can remain viable by sharing in revenue more equitably.

Even back in 1999, when the Maloof family took over the franchise, the Kings were deeply in debt. It wouldn't surprise me if the debts have swelled, if the Kings have borrowed $100 million from the NBA to go along with the $77 million they owe the city.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Dorothea Puente, a Sacramento woman convicted of killing her tenants and burying them in her backyard, died Sunday at age 82 at a women's prison in California. 450.

Puente died of natural causes at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla, state corrections officials said.

She was a sweet-looking, grandmotherly woman who ran a boardinghouse out of a rented two-story Victorian. She began the business in 1980, renting out the top floor, but was sent to prison for three years for drugging her elderly tenants and stealing checks from them.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Larry Smith has known for years that he had a serious problem.

The 66-year-old Florida retiree couldn't get a credit card, once spent eight days in jail over a parole violation and regularly receives bills for thousands of dollars from places he has never been.

On Wednesday, after years of Smith trying to convince authorities that his identity had been stolen, the Placer County (Calif.) Sheriff's Department announced it had arrested an "ID theft pioneer," a homeless man who allegedly assumed Smith's name in 1984 and proceeded to marry, apply for Social Security, buy and wreck a car and rack up unpaid bills across the country.

"This will take me years to unravel," sheriff's Detective Jim Hudson said Wednesday. "I will delay my retirement to fix this if I have to."

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- By the time Fred Nelson Jr. walked up to Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson Wednesday morning, his once-promising life had largely unraveled.

His career as a drummer for a successful post-grunge band and other groups had hit the skids, his marriage had crumbled, and he had been in and out of jail several times.

But the perceived threat he allegedly uttered to the mayor -- that Johnson would be out of office within four hours -- may have been the result of mental illness rather than a desire to harm anyone, his friends said Wednesday.

"I've known him for 11 years and he's not a criminal," said one friend and bandmate, Kally Turner. "He's ill."

Nelson, 43, said in a jailhouse interview with The Sacramento Bee that he meant the mayor no harm and does not consider himself to be mentally ill. He said he believed Johnson has not done enough to promote new business in Sacramento's Oak Park section and that he simply wanted to warn the mayor that his political career would not last if he did not do better.