Cal State L.A. announced today it will receive a $1 million federal grant to help clear the backlog of DNA samples that have been stored for pending rape cases. That's a bit of good news following Sheriff Lee Baca's recent declaration that the budget crunch will force his department to halt the headway it's been making on a decades-old backlog of rape kit processing.

The university says the government money, which was championed by Congressman Adam Schiff (D-Glendale), will go to pay graduate students to provide administrative support to the the Sheriff's Department and LAPD, and to outsource 250 cases for private testing.

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