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39-Story High-Rise Proposed for East Village

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The Civic San Diego Board of Directors will meet Wednesday to discuss entering into negotiations with a developer on a proposed 39-story, mixed-use building and hotel in downtown’s East Village area.

The proposal, from Cisterra Development, includes a 751,474-square-foot development at Seventh Avenue and Market Street that would include more than 200 residential and affordable housing units, including 58 for-sale condos, 115 market-rate rental apartments and 32 affordable housing apartments.

The site would also feature commercial offices, retail space, a ground-floor restaurant, public open space, public restrooms, a 670-space subterranean parking garage and a 160-room Ritz-Carlton hotel.
The 300-foot high-rise would include a gourmet grocer located on a mezzanine above the ground floor, too.

“The apartments and office floors rise in two separate towers that connect at the first floor of the hotel with condominiums rising above the hotel and apartments,” the proposal explains, describing a visual of the plan.

In addition, a public plaza and public art space would be located at the southeast corner of the site. Building components are expected to include eco-roofs, building-top wind turbines, sun shading and sustainable materials.

According to the proposal, which can be read in its entirety here, the development of the Seventh
Avenue and Market Street site “would advance the goals and policies of the San Diego Downtown Community Plan” by providing a range of housing opportunities and adding public improvements to the area, including parking facilities.

The project also aims to “stimulate new commercial, residential, employment and economic growth, and to improve the circulation of people and vehicles,” the paperwork states.

The proposal anticipates that the redevelopment project will generate 655 construction jobs and 603 permanent jobs in the area.

Cisterra will be solely responsible for all of the costs and expenses linked to the design, development and construction of the site.

Civic San Diego, a city-owned non-profit and development partner for urban neighborhoods, has already recommended the City of San Diego approve the plan and enter into negotiations with Cisterra to purchase and develop the land for the project via a Disposition and Development Agreement (DDA).

If this happens, the negotiation period between the developer and the City will last 180 days, with an optional 90-day extension, documents say.

Civic San Diego received several proposals for redevelopment projects at the East Village site after putting out a request for ideas in December 2013. Those submissions were then evaluated, with the Cisterra proposal coming out as the frontrunner in May 2015.
 



Photo Credit: Cisterra Development

Shooter's Mom: Silence Was His Loudest Cry for Help

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James Holmes' mother insisted Wednesday she would "have been crawling on all fours" to reach him had she known he was talking about killing people weeks before he ambushed a crowded Colorado movie theater.

Arlene Holmes said her son's campus psychiatrist never told her James Holmes had homicidal thoughts when she called that June of 2012 and revealed he was quitting therapy and dropping out of school.

"We wouldn't be sitting here if she had told me that!" Holmes' mother said, her sobs rising to anger. "I would have been crawling on all fours to get to him. She never said he was thinking of killing people. She didn't tell me. She didn't tell me. She didn't tell me!"

"He was not a violent person. At least not until the event," Holmes' father, Robert Holmes, said earlier Wednesday in the sentencing phase of James Holmes' trial.

"The event" is a phrase Robert Holmes used several times to refer to his son's attack on the audience inside a darkened Colorado movie theater on July 20, 2012, which killed 12 people, injured 70 others and makes James Holmes eligible for the death penalty.

Arlene Holmes was the defense's last witness in its portion of the sentencing phase. Others who testified included family friends, teachers and former neighbors who said the James Holmes they knew was shy, mild-mannered and polite -- not the kind of young man who would gun down innocent strangers.

The family has lived in Rancho Penasquitos, Calif., since James was a child. James attended Westview High School where he competed in soccer. He then decided to study neuroscience at University of Colorado.

Closing arguments were scheduled for Thursday. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty; Holmes' attorneys are arguing for life in prison.

James Holmes on Wednesday declined his last opportunity to speak to the jury.

"I choose not to testify," he told the judge.

In her testimony, Arlene Holmes complained that the University of Colorado psychiatrist, Dr. Lynne Fenton, didn't respond to a message seeking more details about their son. They didn't know he was getting therapy and thought perhaps he was depressed or had Asperger's syndrome, Robert Holmes said.

Fenton testified earlier that she called James Holmes' parents, despite her concerns that she was violating her client's privacy, because she was trying to decide whether he posed a danger to himself or others.

A campus security official offered to detain him for an involuntary hospital mental health commitment, but Fenton declined, in part because she said the parents told her he had always been withdrawn.

"Schizophrenia chose him; he didn't choose it, and I still love my son. I still do," Arlene Holmes said, choking up on the stand.

Before she testified, the couple held hands in the courtroom gallery, their fingers intertwined. James Holmes looked up at the screen as his childhood photos were displayed, but he and his mother didn't appear to look at each other.

"People said to me that when your kid turns 18 you're done. And that's not true. We're not done. We are never done, and that's why we're sitting here. We're not done," she said.

James Holmes enrolled in a prestigious neuroscience postgraduate program at the university in 2011. But his parents grew increasingly worried when he came home on his first winter break looking haggard and making odd facial expressions. He shared his fear of failure later that spring, but his parents said they had no idea he was descending into mental illness.

The two were thrilled when he started dating in graduate school, and they knew it wasn't a good sign when that first relationship ended.

"He said he was having trouble in school," Arlene Holmes said, stifling a sob. "I kept telling him, just keep trying, keep trying, but I didn't realize that his loudest cry for help was his silence."

They rarely spoke by phone but communicated even less after he moved to Colorado. James Holmes sent sporadic and terse emails that gave no hints of trouble.

Their concerns eased again when they finally reached him by phone on July 4, 2012, just two weeks before the shooting.

Their son was more talkative than usual, and "he didn't give any indication he was homicidal or depressed -- at least not to us," Robert Holmes said.

They made plans to fly to Colorado for an August visit. Instead, Robert Holmes booked a flight to see his son at his first court appearance. Both parents said they were shocked by his state of mind, and later, by the wide-eyed smirk he made in a booking photo at the jail.

Robert Holmes said he realized he had seen that look before -- the previous winter, when his son came home stressed from graduate school.

District Attorney George Brauchler noted the bug-eyed mug shot wasn't taken immediately after his arrest, because his hair was shorn and no longer comic-book red. Might he have been posing, trying to appear crazy?

Robert Holmes deflected the suggestion, saying he didn't know.

Death sentences must be unanimous. The jury already has decided Holmes was legally sane at the time of the attack. But his defense is hoping at least one juror will agree that his mental illness reduces his moral culpability so much that he deserves the mercy of a life sentence instead.

FDA: San Diego Doctor Operating Illegally

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On a variety of websites, Dr. Hettie Morgan offers hydrogel injections for "buttocks and breast enhancement” -- something that is illegal, according to the FDA.

The injections can be ordered online and shipped to your home.

Dr. Morgan’s website advertises, “FOR BREAST, BUTTOCK, GENITAL AND WHOLE BODY SHAPING INSTANTLY! BUTTOCKS INJECTIONS ... A KILLER REAR IN ABOUT AN HOUR Hydrogel is 100% Polyacrylamide of INTERFALL brand.”

Hydrogel is “a semi-permanent filler that has a synthetic component that helps to draw water into the tissue to plump it up,” La Jolla Plastic Surgeon Jeffrey Umansky said. “It hasn't been FDA approved in the United States. Injections into other parts of the body will not only be off-label but potentially dangerous.”

In May, the FDA sent Dr. Morgan a warning letter explaining that selling this product was illegal in the United States. Click here to read the letter.

The FDA gave Dr. Morgan 15 business days to respond. A spokesperson for the agency said they never heard back from Dr. Morgan.

“It could be dangerous, and if it's online, there's a good chance it’s fake,” Umanksy said, "which is what makes this a scarier issue. People are injecting something they’re not supposed to inject in the first place.”

On the website, Dr. Morgan lists an address in the Clairemont area of San Diego County. It's the same address where the FDA sent the warning letter.

NBC 7 Investigates went to that location. A woman who answered the door had no idea who Dr. Morgan was. She told NBC 7 Investigates her family has owned the property since the 1960s. In the last two months, she received mail addressed to Dr. Morgan, but doesn't know why he's using her address.

NBC 7 Investigates discovered the Medical Board of California does not have a "Dr. Hettie Morgan" listed as a licensed doctor in California. And no one with that name is licensed through the California Department of Consumer Affairs in any medical field.

A quick online search shows the image Dr. Morgan uses on his website is actually New York doctor John Muney, who has no affiliation with Dr. Morgan or the hydrogel injection website. Dr. Muney told NBC 7 Investigates he was shocked someone stole his image and is worried it might ruin his reputation.

Calls and emails to the numbers and address listed on Dr. Morgan's website and Facebook page were not returned.

If you want to report suspected illegal activity to the FDA, you can contact their office of criminal investigations.



Photo Credit: Dr/ Hettie Morgan's Clinic on Facebook
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Family of Man Killed by Ohio Cop Calls For Peace

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The family of Samuel DuBose, the Cincinnati man shot and killed during a traffic stop, is calling for peace following the release of the body camera video that captured the moment when DuBose was killed. 

DuBose family attorney Mark O'Mara called for a "peaceful and nonaggressive" response from the community after University of Cincinnati police Officer Ray Tensing was indicted on murder charges.  

The white University of Cincinnati police officer who shot the unarmed black man during a traffic stop has been indicted on murder charges, a prosecutor announced Wednesday, saying the cop "purposely" killed the motorist and "should never have been a police officer," according to NBC News.

In announcing the murder charge against officer Ray Tensing, Hamilton County prosecutor Joe Deters lambasted the cop over the death of Dubose, 43, saying the fatal shooting was "the most asinine act I've ever seen a police officer make."

Dubose was pulled over July 19 for having a missing front license plate.



Photo Credit: WLWT

1 Hurt in Encinitas House Fire

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One man was hurt Thursday after fire engulfed a two-story home in Encinitas.

Firefighters were called to the home at Rancho Encinitas Drive and Camino Ricardo just before 4 a.m.

When they got to the scene they saw the home up in flames with smoke billowing into the air.

Firefighters upgraded the incident to a two-alarm to call out more resources to help battle the fire.

On the front porch of the home, fire crews found a male victim with unknown injuries.

They say the victim was 35-40 years old and was taken to UCSD Medical Center.

Fire fighters say it was difficult to attack the fire because there home had many tough to reach places.

Crews were able to get a handle on it within 40-50 minutes. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
 



Photo Credit: NBC 7

Man Arrested in Connection with String of Bonita Fires

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San Diego Sheriff’s officials have arrested a man they say is responsible for a string of arson fires in Bonita. 

Edwin Fisk, a 44-year-old transient, was arrested in Bonita by sheriff’s deputies and booked into Central Jail Wednesday evening.

The arrest is connected to a string of small fires that took place from April 29 to May 1 near Willow and Bonita roads. Deputies with the bomb and arson unit were investigating the series. 

The flames left residents wondering who set them and why.

"It's crazy because you just never know when something like that can happen," said Bonita homeowner Sheilah Gonzales. "Even just throwing out a cigarette anywhere where there's leaves, it can spark something so fast."

One of the small fires took place behind a liquor store on the 4200 block of Bonita Road in Bonita. That fire was near a creek bed where other blazes had recently broken out.

One burned dangerously close to an office building owned by Tom Miletich.

"All the homeowners behind, the businesses, I have tenants here. It's a hazard to them," he said.

Investigators gathered evidence to link the crimes to Fisk but did not detail what that evidence was. They also say eyewitness accounts helped crack the case. 

Fisk is being held on $75,000 bail and is set to appear in court on Friday at 1:30 p.m.

Prison for Man in Mission Bay Sports Ctr Meth Ring

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The San Diego man who ran a sophisticated meth ring from his popular water sports rental company was sentenced Wednesday to six years behind bars.

Mission Bay Sports Center owner Jason Boone received the sentence after pleading guilty to four felony counts including selling meth.

The business, known to many San Diegans as a place to rent water equipment or take lessons, was used a drop location for drug suppliers and buyers.

Investigators said drug couriers would drop in money or pick up methamphetamine from lockers on the premises.

About five pounds of methamphetamine along with heroin, marijuana and prescription pills were found at the sports center.

Officials also found $48,000 in cash a bullet proof vest and a loaded .22 handgun.

The District Attorney's office says Boone also had more than a pound of meth in his car and a loaded handgun in his North County home.

Driver Escapes Injury in Park Shuttle Fire

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San Diego Botanic Garden shuttle caught fire on Wednesday.

Photo Credit: San Diego Botanic Garden

Donna Jou's Killer Freed

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The convicted sex offender imprisoned in the death of a San Diego State University student has been released, officials confirmed Wednesday.

Donna Jou, 19, was last seen in June 2007 leaving a house party on the back of a motorcycle driven by John Burgess.

The SDSU honors student met Burgess through Craigslist in late May or early June of 2007 and began exchanging e-mails.

On June 23, Burgess picked up Jou at an Orange County apartment and took her to a party in West Los Angeles.

A criminal complaint suggested Burgess injected Jou with a mixture of heroin and cocaine known as a speedball, and she died of an accidental overdose.

In 2009, Burgess pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and concealment of an accidental death.

In court, he said he awoke and found Jou dead. He panicked and dumped Jou's body into the ocean from his sailboat.

"I gave her to the sea," Burgess said in court.

Now 43, Burgess has been released in Florida and will have to register as a sex offender due to a previous conviction in Los Angeles.

Planned Parenthood Reports Second Website Attack

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Planned Parenthood said electronic traffic to its websites was snarled by computer hackers on Wednesday in the second cyber attack mounted against the healthcare organization this week, Reuters reported.

Websites operated by Planned Parenthood and its political branch, Planned Parenthood Action, were clogged by a wide-scale "distributed denial-of-service," or DDoS, attack, the organization said.

The group said on Tuesday it had notified the FBI that "extremists who oppose Planned Parenthood's mission and services" had launched an attack on its information systems.

The cyber attacks happen as the organization faces a controversy over covertly recorded videos released this month by an anti-abortion group, showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing procedures for obtaining tissue from aborted fetuses for research.



Photo Credit: Getty Images

Decision on Expanded SeaWorld Tanks Stalled

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A decision on whether to allow SeaWorld San Diego to build larger tanks for orca whales has been stalled by an outpouring of negative response to the proposal.

The California Coastal Commission has delayed a vote on whether to allow the San Diego park to build the larger tanks after receiving 75,000 letters and emails, mostly opposing the plan.

A vote on the project was delayed until October, so that the staff has “more time to ensure that all viewpoints and relevant information are addressed,” a commission spokeswoman told The Los Angeles Times.

Opponents feel the larger killer whale environments mask the larger issue: orcas in captivity.

In response, SeaWorld spokesman David Koontz said in a statement that veterinarians and other experts have "acknowledged that Blue World is a continuing evolution of the park’s killer whale habitat that enhances enrichment for the whales and allows for a broad range of behaviors. It will also provide for greater research opportunities, and inspires and educates visitors by increasing their understanding of these incredible animals. "

“The proposed Blue World project will provide not only an expanded habitat for whales, but also new opportunities for researchers to conduct studies that will benefit killer whales and other cetaceans in the wild,” said Dr. Paul J. Ponganis, research physiologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. “In addition, a dynamic animal environment like Blue World may inspire a host of future marine biologists, veterinarians and other scientists.”

The opposition to the project appears to be led by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which has posted a letter on its site that people can sign and send to the commission.

“This project is window-dressing intended to mislead the public into thinking that the orcas are no longer suffering,” PETA’s website statement reads.

SeaWorld announced last year that it plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build an expanded killer whale environment and programs called the Blue World project.

The tanks will have a planned total water volume of 10 million gallons, nearly twice as much as the existing facility. They will have a maximum depth of 50 feet and span more than 350 feet in length.

The new environment will also provide the world's largest underwater viewing experience for guests, as well as a home for the 11 orcas at the park.

The park has battled negative publicity since the release of “Blackfish,” a documentary critical of orca whales in captivity.



Photo Credit: SeaWorld San Diego

Grieving Friend of Man Killed at Traffic Stop: 'Our Lives Matter'

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A longtime friend of Samuel Dubose, the unarmed black man shot to death by a white University of Cincinnati police officer during a traffic stop, says he hopes the killing will show the world that "our lives matter."

Donte Fleming, who knew Dubose for 20 years, described his friend as a loving father and gentle man.

"He had a good spirit in him, so I can't understand why someone would shoot him," Fleming told NBC News on Thursday. "I watched the long version of the tape last night, and I still don't have any words for it."

Officer Ray Tensing was indicted for murder on Wednesday. He shot and killed Dubose after pulling him over for a missing front license plate. The officer was wearing a camera that proved crucial to prosecutors.

Number of NYC Legionnaires' Cases Rises Amid Deadly Outbreak

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Nearly four dozen people have gotten sick amid what the Health Department has described as an "unusual" spike in Legionnaires' disease in the Bronx, officials said Thursday, adding 15 cases to the total authorities gave a day earlier in announcing the deadly outbreak.

Forty-six cases of the disease, a severe, often lethal, form of pneumonia spread through the air, have been reported in the south Bronx since July 10, city officials said Thursday. Two of the 46 patients, a man and a woman in their 50s, have died from the illness; authorities say they had other lung problems as well as Legionnaires'. Their identities have not been released.

The cases have been reported primarily in High Bridge, Morrisania, Hunts Point and Mott Haven, since July 10, the Health Department said.

Legionnaires' disease is caused by exposure to the bacteria Legionella; in most cases, people are exposed to the bacteria by inhaling contaminated aerosols from cooling towers, hot tubs, showers and faucets or drinking water.

Since the cases are widely dispersed — as in they're not clustered in one or two buildings —authorities do not believe the outbreak is connected to any contaminated drinking water, Health Commissioner Mary Bassett said at a news briefing Thursday.

"The water supply in the south Bronx remains entirely safe. We don't know the source of this outbreak, but in recent months we have seen outbreaks associated with cooling towers and that's why we're focusing on them," Bassett said. "We're testing every cooling tower we can find in the area."

Twenty rooftop cooling towers, which are primarily on commercial buildings, have been tested so far; another 10 were tested Thursday, authorities said, and results were expected within a day.

Mayor de Blasio said that thus far, two rooftop cooling towers in the area had been found to be contaminated, including one at Lincoln Hospital and one at a private housing facility. Both are now being disinfected; the decontamination will be completed by Friday afternoon, authorities said.

De Blasio and Bassett said there has been no evidence of contamination within Lincoln Hospital, and though the hospital has confirmed it is treating patients with the disease, Bassett said no one -- neither patients nor employees -- contracted it at the facility.

Both officials stressed there was no concern for alarm.

"People have to understand that this is a disease that can be treated -- and can be treated well if caught early," de Blasio said. "The exception can be with folks who are already unfortunately suffering from health challenges, particularly immune system challenges. But for the vast majority of New Yorkers, if they were even exposed, this can be addressed very well and very quickly so long as they seek medical treatment."

Legionnaires' disease usually sets in two to 10 days after exposure to the bacteria and has symptoms similar to pneumonia, including shortness of breath, high fever, chills and chest pains. People with Legionnaires' also experience appetite loss, confusion, fatigue and muscle aches.

It cannot be spread person-to-person and those at highest risk for contracting the illness include the elderly, cigarette smokers, people with chronic lung or immune system disease and those receiving immunosuppressive drugs. Most cases can be treated successfully with antibiotics.

The Health Department urges anyone with symptoms to seek immediate medical attention.

"We are concerned about this unusual increase in Legionnaires' disease cases in the south Bronx," Bassett said Wednesday. "We are conducting a swift investigation to determine the source of the outbreak and prevent future cases."

James Rouse, 42, died of Legionnaires' three months ago; he's not one of the two deaths linked to the more recent Bronx outbreak, but his family wonders if it's connected. He lived in Manhattan but taught music to children in the South Bronx. On April 30, he went to the hospital with a 104-degree fever, was diagnosed with Legionnaires' and then died 10 days later.

"If it turns out those two people died and it's related to my brother's death, and something could have been done about it — that kind of tragedy, I couldn't put into words," said brother John Rouse of Coram.

An outbreak last hit the Bronx in December. Between then and January, 12 people in Co-op City contracted the potentially deadly disease. Officials said a contaminated cooling tower was likely linked to at least 75 percent of those cases. No one died in that outbreak.



Photo Credit: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Public Health Image Library

Climate Change Could Be Culprit in Rise of Legionnaires' Cases

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The number of reported cases of Legionnaires’ disease is on the rise in the United States and researchers say the increase could be partly a result of climate change.

More than three times as many cases of legionellosis, of which Legionnaires’ disease is one form, were reported in 2009 than 2000 — 3,522 up from 1,110, according to a 2011 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

New York City, where an outbreak in Legionnaires’ disease in the Bronx has killed two people and sickened 46 since July 10, has seen a similar rise. The incidence of cases increased 230 percent from 2002 to 2009, with the greatest number in high-poverty neighborhoods, according to an October study in the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

The recent outbreak in the Bronx, where residents already have high rates of asthma, is the second in the borough this year. Twelve cases of Legionnaires’ disease were reported in December and January and were traced to an apartment complex cooling tower. On Thursday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said that two rooftop cooling towers in the area had been found to be contaminated, including one at Lincoln Hospital. Both are now being disinfected, he and the New York City Health Commissioner, Dr. Mary Travis Bassett, said.

"We’re aggressively investigating and testing all possible sources," de Blasio said.

Legionnaires’ disease, identified after 34 deaths among American Legionnaires returning from a 1976 convention in Philadelphia, is a sometimes deadly pneumonia that is spread through the environment, rather than person to person, often in a mist of contaminated water from cooling towers, hot tubs, showers or faucets. It is not contagious.

Dr. David N. Fisman, a professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, said in an email that he doubted the increase was the result solely of improved testing. The rise is linear and across all regions of the United States, he said.

It is difficult to be certain that climate change is a factor but it seems plausible, he said. The bacteria is more infectious in warm temperatures and some studies, including one he and others did in 2005, have shown that wet, humid weather predicts an upsurge in the risk of contracting the disease over the following week or two. That finding was not replicated in Toronto, he said, but there the disease peaks later in October in that area.

“Give that we know climate change is going to make for hotter, stormier summers (and already is doing so) it doesn’t seem like a huge leap to suggest that the ongoing rise in legionellosis in the US could be at least partly due to climate change,” he wrote.

Why humidity would increase the risk of legionellosis is not known. Increased air conditioning use, with the bacteria potentially in the dripping water, could be a factor, or it might be that the true culprit is summertime rainfall, he said.

A commentary in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization on March 27 argued for adding it to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's list of important climate-sensitive health issues.

The CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report of Aug. 19, 2011, from Dr. Lauri Hicks and others, noted that the incidence rates increased nearly threefold from 2000 to 2009. The totals likely underestimate the actual cases, because the tracking system depended on health-care providers and laboratories to report cases. The rise underscores the need to test adults for Legionnaires' disease and to report cases, they wrote.

The New York study, which reviewed cases through 2011, also found disparities among race and ethnicity, with the highest incidents among non-Hispanic black residents, and greater risk among certain occupations, including janitors and cleaners. 

Legionnaires' disease usually appears two to 10 days after exposure to the bacteria. Symptoms include shortness of breath, high fever, chills and chest pains. People with Legionnaires' disease also experience appetite loss, confusion, fatigue and muscle aches.

Those at highest risk are the elderly, cigarette smokers, people with chronic lung or immune system disease and those receiving immunosuppressive drugs. Most cases can be treated successfully with antibiotics — which is why those who have symptoms should seek immediate medical care.

Dr. Ruth Berkelman, a professor at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, reported on the increased incidence of legionellosis from 1990 until 2005, particularly in the eastern United States and more recently on the need for national public health authorities to review prevention policies.

“Legionellosis deserves a higher public health priority for research and policy development,” she and her co-authors wrote in the Journal of Public Health Management Practices in September.
 



Photo Credit: AP

Plane Fragment Confirmed to Be From a Boeing 777

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The airplane fragment found on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion is from a Boeing 777 — the same as missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 — sources told NBC News on Thursday.

The barnacle-covered plane piece was found by a crew cleaning the coastline Wednesday. On it was a number — 657-BB — which sources said is attached to a Boeing 777.

MH370, which disappeared in March 2014, is the only 777 known to be missing anywhere in the world. 


Flight MH 370 Victim's Mother Wants Answers

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NBC 7's Elena Gomez reports the mother doesn't want to believe the debris found yesterday is that of the missing plane.

New Flight Service From Carlsbad to Las Vegas Launches

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A new flight service from Carlsbad to Las Vegas officially launched Thursday out of McClellan-Palomar Airport.

Fittingly joined by an Elvis impersonator, San Diego County Chairman Bill Horn and Carlsbad Mayor Matt Hall came together to celebrate the inaugural 10:35 a.m. flight to Las Vegas offered by commercial air carrier BizAir Shuttle.

For now, BizAir plans to offer regularly scheduled one-way or round-trip flights from Carlsbad to Sin City on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, with plans to potentially expand if the service is popular.

Customers can book flights online and park at McClellan-Palomar Airport for $5 a day. Curbside drop-off is also available in front of the airline terminal.

BizAir says flight prices to Las Vegas start at $154 per person, plus tax, with no baggage fees and complimentary snacks and drinks on board. A booking search for a flight departing this Friday and returning on Sunday yielded tickets ranging in price from $249 to $299 per way.

BizAir’s 30-seat jet shuttle currently also offers two daily flights from Carlsbad to Los Angeles. BizAir plans to expand its service to Phoenix in September and Oakland, Calif. and San Jose, Calif., in the near future as well.

In 2009, the county completed a $24 million renovation that added an 18,000 square-foot terminal to the McClellan-Palomar Airport, in addition to new parking and a restaurant.
 



Photo Credit: Photo courtesy of BizAir Shuttle

Hookah Shows Its Popularity on Twitter

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Think e-cigarettes are more popular than hookah?

Twitter would beg to differ.

A new study by analysts at Washington University shows that Twitter users send significantly more tweets about hookah (12,000 a day) than e-cigarettes (1,200 a day). Plus, researchers found that among those Twitter users with high influence and a large number of followers – the high majority promoted hookah use.

The study highlights the popularity of smoking hookah among college-age students and points out that usage has nearly doubled among adolescents.

The study found that many people normalized hookah on Twitter and did not perceive it to be harmful. Only 7 percent of the tweets related to hookah discouraged its use.

“Despite research demonstrating hookah use exposes smokers to toxins similar to those in cigarette smoke and increases exposure to carbon monoxide, hookah use is widely perceived as less harmful,” the study states.

Still, hookah popularity on Twitter paled in comparison to marijuana and alcohol use. About 250,000 tweets are sent per day related to marijuana and 400,000 about alcohol, the study found.

The study concluded that social networking about hookah use is likely to increase.

“In this age of social media, peer influences extend beyond those in our proximate communities to those in our virtual social networks,” the study states.



Photo Credit: Getty Images

Fire Chief Evaluating Training After Dispatcher Hung Up on Caller

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The chief of the Albuquerque Fire Department said he is examining training procedures after a dispatcher hung up on a 911 caller seeking help for a 17-year-old who was dying after being shot last month.

Albuquerque Fire Chief David Downey on Wednesday called the actions of dispatcher Matthew Sanchez on June 26 "unforgivable" and said Sanchez should not have hung up on the caller.

"We hung up on her. I was stunned," Downey told NBC station KOB. "People should be outraged, and they should hold us accountable," he said. 

Donate Blood, Get a Free Burger

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Besides the satisfaction of helping others, San Diego blood donors can score an extra treat next month when they donate blood: a free burger.

The San Diego Blood Bank is bringing back a program dubbed “Burger Tuesdays.” On Tuesdays, from Aug. 4 through Aug. 25, anyone who gives blood at any of the six local donor centers will be given a voucher for one free burger or salad valid at any of the eight Burger Lounge locations in San Diego County.

Anyone over the age of 17 and in good health may be eligible to donate blood. To make an appointment, visit the San Diego Blood Bank website or call (800) 469-7322.

Donor centers include the following locations: San Diego Blood Bank Gateway Donor Center (3636 Gateway Center Ave., Suite 100); East County Donor Center (776 Arnele Ave.); North County Donor Center (358 West El Norte Parkway, Suite J); North Coastal Donor Center (161 Thunder Dr.); Sabre Springs Donor Center (12640 Sabre Spring Parkway, Suite 109); Carmel Valley Donor Center (3880 Valley Center Drive, Suites 209 & 210).

For more donor center information, including hours, click here.
 

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