California IN BRIEF : ELK GROVE : Driver With Pipe Bomb Is Arrested

The California Highway Patrol closed northbound California 99 for nearly three hours while explosives experts removed a pipe bomb from a pickup truck. Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies discovered the bomb after stopping the truck to arrest James Jerald Price, 26, on a shoplifting warrant and for questioning about an earlier fire bombing, said sheriff’s spokesman Ed Close. In the earlier incident, a fire bomb was thrown from Price’s pickup in Elk Grove, Close said. Sheriff’s explosives specialist Sgt. Ron Howell said the 8-inch-long, 1 1/2-inch-thick pipe bomb found in the driver’s side door pouch could have blown the door off and possibly injured other motorists. Bomb experts safely removed the device.