COSTA MESA — When an Orange County college district wanted to get out of the public television business, it sold its station last year and hoped to use the proceeds to improve education.

But a state appeals court decision to overturn the sale of KOCE-TV by the Coast Community College District board has left the future of Channel 50 in doubt. Under the ruling, the district must keep the PBS station or start the sale over again, giving others another chance to buy it.

The decision and a likely appeal have plunged the community college board, the station's operator and a rival group of Christian broadcasters into uncertainty on how to proceed.

"Our attorneys are sitting there scratching their heads," said George Brown, one of five trustees for the college district that oversees Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, Coastline Community College in Fountain Valley and Golden West College in Huntington Beach.

Dallas-based Daystar Television Network, which lost out in the deal, asked the appeals court Friday to award it ownership of the station immediately.

KOCE viewers are unlikely to see any changes in the next few months. But it's unclear whether the college will return to the TV business or if Daystar will succeed in acquiring the station.

The sale of KOCE to the nonprofit KOCE-TV Foundation, made up of business and community leaders, was completed last year. But on June 24, a state appeals court in Santa Ana canceled it.

District trustees, the three-judge panel ruled, showed "the rankest form of favoritism" for spurning the bid from Daystar, the world's second-largest religious network.

Milford Dahl, the attorney for the district, said he would recommend that trustees appeal to the state Supreme Court but spokeswoman Erin Curtis said the district would probably ask for a rehearing by the appeals court. The trustees will meet July 20 to decide.

ANAHEIM — State Assemblyman Tom Umberg, who revealed last month he had had a four-year extramarital affair, has retired from active service in the Army Reserve, an official said.

Umberg, D-Anaheim, a former prosecutor, retired from the Reserve as of June 30, Jorge Swank, a spokesman for the Army Reserve's 63rd Regional Readiness Command in Los Alamitos.

Umberg's chief of staff, George Urch, said the assemblyman was seeking time off from reserve service because of his busy schedule since his election in November. As a reservist, Umberg had to serve one weekend a month when not on full-time duty.

Umberg plans to run next year for the state Senate seat now held by Sen. Joe Dunn, D-Santa Ana. Dunn is running for state treasurer and Umberg will lose his Assembly seat because of term limits.

Umberg disclosed the extramarital affair last week, saying the woman he was involved with planned to publicize the relationship. He told the Los Angeles Times the illicit relationship ended in November and that he and his wife, Robin, plan to stay married.

Umberg, a former federal prosecutor, was elected to the Assembly in 1990 and re-elected in 1992. He ran unsuccessfully for attorney general in 1994. He served as the nation's deputy drug czar from 1997 to 2000, then ran statewide for insurance commissioner in 2002, losing in the primary.

BAKERSFIELD — Authorities here continue to warn those seeking relief from the triple-digit heat to stay out of the Kern River as melting snowpack in the high Sierra pushes massive amounts of water downstream, creating dangerous currents.

Three people have already died in the river this summer, and over the Fourth of July holiday weekend nearly 20 people had to be rescued.

Florn Core, of the city's Water Resources Department, said the river is most dangerous above Bakersfield.

"In the canyon I'm not sure what you tell people other than don't go in the water at all," Core said. "Don't go into the water. It's just too treacherous. People get in there, get in trouble and don't get out."

The river may look smooth on the surface, Core said, but dangerous undercurrents exist below.

"There's no safe way to recreate in the river other than the licensed rafting companies," Core said.

HERCULES — Authorities continued Sunday looking for a white early 1980s Cadillac in connection with a shooting a day earlier on Interstate 80 that injured two teenagers.

Witnesses told police the youths and a 19-year-old man from Richmond were traveling east in a Toyota Corolla when they exchanged gang signs with people in the Cadillac, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Scott Yox.

Shortly afterward, witnesses said, the man in the front passenger seat of the Cadillac fired a gun at the Corolla.

The Toyota's driver, a 16-year-old, was hit twice in the leg, and another bullet grazed the head of the 17-year-old front-seat passenger.

Yoz said the driver underwent surgery at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek to remove the bullets, and the passenger was treated and released.