Features

SACRAMENTO — Rural California counties will receive more than $20 million for crime prevention efforts under two bills signed Friday by Gov. Gray Davis. 

Part of the money will go to safeguard food, water and agriculture chemicals from terrorist threats, said the sponsor of the first bill, Assemblywoman Barbara Matthews, D-Tracy. 

It creates a new Central Valley Rural Crime Prevention Program encompassing Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Tulare counties.