LOS ANGELES – SeaWorld San Diego has nixed its fireworks shows for the rest of the year after an environmental group claimed the pyrotechnics displays may be polluting the Pacific Ocean.

The move has left other beach cities that shoot fireworks during the Fourth of July and other celebrations grappling whether increased scrutiny by state regulators will make it more costly to put on such displays.

Environmentalists “are pushing the envelope and, yes, it will be troublesome for any agency firing over water,” said Dusty Crane, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors.

In June, San Diego Coastkeeper threatened to sue SeaWorld for violating the federal Clean Water Act, alleging that its fireworks shows rain harmful heavy metals and chemicals into the bay, and that it never applied for a state permit to discharge such pollutants into the water.

SeaWorld contested the allegations, but decided last month to scrap its fireworks and apply for a discharge permit from the city's regional water quality control board, said park spokesman Dave Koontz, adding that it takes steps to deal with pollution by sending out a boat after each display to pick up debris.

A review of SeaWorld's permit application would take six months to a year, said John Robertus, executive officer of the regional water board.

SANTA ANA – A man dubbed the “Orange County Flasher” is on the loose.

Despite having been sighted by more than 100 women in several upscale Orange County communities since 2005, police still have not caught the suspect.

But investigators know this much: The man tends to strike in the morning and on weekends and is probably working the rest of the time. He sometimes wraps a T-shirt around his head or wears a mask to cover his face.

“I've arrested well-off businessmen and transients; there are a myriad of characteristics we find in those we arrest,” said Orange County Sheriff's Department Investigator Wade Walsvick.

Police caught a break when the suspect exposed himself to a female triathlete jogging in Laguna Niguel. She chased him down, tore a T-shirt from his face and gave investigators a composite sketch.

Police released the drawing last month, but said the suspect exposed himself to at least four more women by Labor Day.

Flashing is a misdemeanor crime and carries a one-year jail sentence.

LOS ANGELES – Four online companies that offer short-term “payday” loans have been ordered to cease doing business in California, state regulators said.

The state Department of Corporations identified the companies as Ameriloan.com, USFastCash.com, PreferredCashLoans.com and UnitedCashLoans.com.

The state said Friday the companies were not licensed to do business in the state.

The desist-and-refrain order bars Internet Cash Advance Marketing Inc. of Canada from offering or arranging payday loans for the online companies without a state license. Last year, a Southern California customer of USFastCash was levied fees and charges in excess of the amount allowed under state law, said DOC's Susie Wong.

To date, the department has issued enforcement actions to 40 payday lenders operating in violation of state law.

PALM SPRINGS – The Palm Springs International Airport has received $6.8 million to improve airport operations and runway safety.

Republican Congresswoman Mary Bono, who is running for re-election this year, announced the grant by the Federal Aviation Administration on Friday.

Airport safety has emerged as a campaign issue when Bono's Democratic challenger, David Roth, criticized the lawmaker for not doing enough to address airport safety concerns.

About $6.5 million will go toward renovating the taxiways at the airport, officials said. Another $350,000 will go toward replacing signs and other markers.

The airport served more than 1.5 million passengers last year.

Airport officials have said they need additional federal money to improve its infrastructure, including building a new tower that is currently too short to allow air traffic controllers full visibility of the airport's main runway.

Bono has so far secured $2.3 million in federal money for a new airport tower. An additional $2 million approved in the House is awaiting Senate approval. The new tower would cost about $20 million. Federal aviation officials hope to take bids on the project by 2010.

SAN QUENTIN – The son of executed Crips gang founder Stanley “Tookie” Williams is contesting his late father's will.

Travon Williams, 33, said the will doesn't reflect his father's true intentions. He claims the executor of his father's estate was a business partner and said the will was signed two days before Williams' execution at San Quentin prison.

It's unclear what Williams' estate may be worth. Tookie Williams wrote children's books denouncing gang violence while on death row.

Barbara Becnel of Richmond is the sole beneficiary. Becnel filed a petition last spring in Marin Superior Court to begin probate proceedings.

Becnel said Travon Williams never publicly supported saving his father's life but “now he is willing to publicly dishonor the wishes and intelligence of Stanley Tookie Williams for his own financial gain.”

A hearing is scheduled for Monday.

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OAKLAND – A University of California, Berkeley student and her boyfriend pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor drug charges for allegedly baking marijuana cookies that sickened 16 students at a student co-op.

Carmen Anderson, 21, and recent Berkeley graduate Christopher Portka, 23, entered the pleas in Alameda Superior Court on Friday.

Court Commissioner Willie Lott allowed the pair to be released on their own recognizance and ordered them to return to court Nov. 2.

Both were charged with 12 counts of furnishing marijuana, possession of more than 28.5 grams of marijuana and possession of psilocybin (hallucinogenic mushrooms).

Michael Tobias, 24, was released without being charged.

Portka's attorney, William Linehan, told the commissioner that those who ate the cookies “were not sick. They were wasted.”

THREE RIVERS – A new cave with large rooms, a 100-foot wide lake and crystal-studded flowstone that sends sparkles across the floor and walls has been discovered in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.

The cave, dubbed Ursa Minor after the Little Dipper constellation, will remain closed while scientists can map it, make a biological inventory and take photographs, park service officials said Friday.

The cave was found last month by researchers from the Pennsylvania-based Cave Research Foundation working with the National Park Service. It has long cave curtains, fragile soda straws up to 6 feet in length and vertical drops that require ropes to navigate them.

Ursa Minor is the latest of dozens of caves found in the two parks in the last two decades. So far, more than 200 caves have been found in the parks, which are home to the state's longest cave, the Lilburn Cave.

DAVIS – A retired sociology professor from the University of California, Davis, has been missing for 99 days, and authorities fear he may have been the victim of foul play.

Authorities found blood at the house of John Finley Scott, 72, who was reported missing on June 11, said Yolo County Sheriff's Capt. Larry Cecchettini.

“But the family is prepared for the worst news,” he said. “Significant physical evidence was found that leads us to believe he sustained injury.”

Cecchettini said the case hasn't been classified as a homicide.

Scott, a noted sociologist and a pioneering mountain biker, rode his bicycle from his Davis-area home to the university on June 1 to attend a party. He sent an e-mail to a friend on June 3, but hasn't been heard from since.

Detectives have seen activity in one of Scott's bank accounts and are investigating the lead, Cecchettini said.

Authorities arrested a man who was suspected of stealing a trailer from Scott's property, but the charges were later dropped. The trailer was on Scott's property when sheriff's detectives first searched it. Later, they found it empty in a rural field.