BRIEFLY.

Cardenas donor is fined $12,000

A woman who gave multiple contributions to the campaign of Los Angeles City Councilman Tony Cardenas in 2001 was fined $12,000 by the city Ethics Commission on Tuesday.

The panel said Christina Diaz Lopez, who owns the San Fernando Beauty Academy, reimbursed five employees and others in making $2,500 in contributions to Cardenas' campaign. Cardenas ended up losing that election to Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, but came back to win a seat in a neighboring district in 2003.

-- Daily News

Rooftop fire does minor damage

SHERMAN OAKS -- Firefighters Tuesday quickly snuffed out a blaze that broke out in a roof air conditioner of a Sherman Oaks commercial building that houses a theater, causing minor damage to the second floor of the structure.

The fire at 14621 W. Ventura Blvd. was reported shortly after 3 p.m. and was knocked down in 20 minutes, said Fire Department spokesman Ron Myers.

A stretch of Ventura Boulevard was shut down to traffic as firefighters worked, he said.

-- City News Service

Zoo panel backs Ruby's retirement

The Los Angeles Zoo Commission on Tuesday endorsed the idea of sending Ruby the African elephant to a wildlife sanctuary, but stopped short of acting on the plan.

Ruby is kept separate from the zoo's other elephant, named Billy, and suffers from both a lack of companionship and the harsh impact of the hard concrete floor in her enclosure, according to animal rights activists.

Efforts to transfer Ruby to the 150-acre PAWS wildlife sanctuary in San Andreas, southeast of Sacramento, would give the 45-year-old pachyderm about 500 times the space of her current enclosure at the Los Angeles Zoo, according to Catherine Doyle, a representative with In Defense of Animals.

The panel, which oversees zoo operations, was prepared to introduce a motion asking that Ruby be sent to a sanctuary. They were stopped by a city lawyer, who warned that the item was only up for discussion, not a vote.

-- City News Service

Man convicted on anti-spam law

A 45-year-old Azusa man is the first person nationwide to be convicted under a federal anti-spam law enacted in 2003, prosecutors announced Tuesday.

Jeffrey Brett Goodin, who is scheduled to be sentenced June 11 by U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder, was found guilty Friday by a jury in Los Angeles.

Goodin sent ``phishing'' e-mails that looked as though they were from AOL's billing department, and asked the recipients to ``update'' their records by sending personal and credit card information, prosecutors said.

The e-mails referred recipients to several bogus Web pages where victims of the phishing could input the information, which Goodin used to make unauthorized charges on their credit and debit cards, according to the government.

-- City News Service

Frozen pipe may have caused slide

PASADENA -- Irrigation lines that apparently broke because of the cold temperatures may be the cause of a mudslide that buried a private road in Pasadena under about 150 tons of debris, authorities said Tuesday.

The slide in the 800 block of Hollyvista Drive, north of the Ventura Freeway, was reported about 11:30 p.m. Monday, said Lisa Derderian of the Pasadena Fire Department. No injuries were reported.

-- City News Service

Victim urges max for 1991 rapist

Two women who were kidnapped during a birthday celebration and raped at gunpoint for nearly seven hours in 1991 urged a judge Tuesday to impose the maximum punishment for one of the four men who attacked them and remained on the lam for years.

``Almost 16 years ago, I had finished celebrating my birthday with some of my closest friends, not knowing that in a few moments ... my life would be changed forever,'' one of the women said of the attack in which Fernando Maldonado took part.

Maldonado, now 35, eluded capture for more than a decade. He was convicted Nov. 29 of 100 counts and is expected to spend the rest of his life behind bars.

-- City News Service