Around the state

FRESNO — China has banned Fresno County citrus exports after the discovery of a fruit fly led to a produce quarantine, agriculture officials said.

About $1 million worth of county oranges were on their way to China when officials declared the ban Monday.

The country is a growing market for Fresno County citrus growers who sent $2.7 million in oranges, tangerines, lemons and grapefruit there last year, said Robert Vandergon, assistant Fresno County agriculture commissioner.

The produce quarantine was set May 24 after agriculture officials found six peach fruit flies, which can destroy about 50 types of tree fruit as well as some vegetables. No flies have been found since.

The quarantine covers about 106 square miles and is scheduled to last until August, but could be extended, said Abel Valenzuela, a spokesman for the county Peach Fruit Fly Project. Growers said the ban is not a big issue now but could affect them if it lasts until October when navel oranges, their main citrus export, are harvested.

Former finance manager sentenced for embezzlement

SACRAMENTO — The former finance manager and controller of a Sacramento medical group has been sentenced to 17 months in federal prison for embezzling more than $388,000, prosecutors said Friday.

U.S. District Judge Edward Garcia also ordered Mary Engstrom to pay $388,355 in restitution to Perinatal and Pediatrics Specialists Medical Group and to spend three years on supervised released after leaving prison.

Engstrom, 53, of Lovelock, Nev., embezzled the money between June 1999 and March 2004 by writing checks and wiring money to herself out of the medical group’s accounts, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Tice-Raskin. The case was investigated by the FBI.

Four inmates

sought after Blythe

jail breakout

BLYTHE — Four inmates were at large after escaping from a jail recreation yard, authorities said Friday.

The men managed to flee the enclosed yard at about 11 p.m. Thursday. They were awaiting court hearings on charges ranging from robbery to assault on a police officer and attempted murder, Riverside County sheriff’s Sgt. Earl Quintana said.

"We’re asking the public to use extreme caution” and to contact authorities rather than approach the men if they are spotted, Quintana said.

The men were in a group of inmates who were removed from jail living quarters after a "minor disturbance,” Quintana said. He did not have details.

In the yard, nine inmates managed to escape. Details of how that occurred were not released and the escape remained under investigation.

Four men were located within 35 minutes and a fifth was recaptured Friday morning, about two hours after the breakout, authorities said.<