A Tennessee teen is alive today thanks to Siri, he says.

Eighteen-year-old Sam Ray says the voice recognition service on his iPhone — famously named Siri — called emergency dispatchers after his truck fell on him while he tried to make repairs.

Ray told media outlets that a jack collapsed, pinning him under nearly 5,000 pounds of metal in a location where he couldn't be easily seen or heard. He says he was trying to get free when he heard Siri activate.

"I said 'Call 911,' and that was all it said," he said.

Rutherford County dispatcher Christina Lee says she first thought it was a mistaken pocket-dial, but then she heard his screams for help and sent crews, who rescued him.

She said she knew his general location from the cellphone signal, but Ray helped them pinpoint his exact whereabouts.

"The map got to his street. ... It got pretty close," Lee said. "But he was yelling his address, and that was the best thing he could have done."

When volunteer firefighters arrived, they raised the truck back up with a jack and pulled Ray out. He was under the truck for about 40 minutes.

"I could feel myself slipping," he said. "I was starting to accept that I wouldn't get out."

Ray and Lee met Friday for the first time after the July 2 incident.

Rick Miller, who is chief of trauma and surgical care at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said Ray suffered broken ribs, a bruised kidney, cuts and a concussion, and he had burns on one arm. Miller said Ray is lucky his wounds weren't worse.

"Sometimes these crush injuries can be devastating and can kill you," Miller said. "I've never heard of a story where you can figure out a way to use Siri to call 911 and get yourself rescued."

Sam Ray said he is thankful to be alive.

"I guess I'm stuck with an iPhone for the rest of my life," he said. "I owe them that."

Hillary Clinton was pressed on her record on racial issues during a 15-minute meeting last week in New Hampshire with Black Lives Matter activists, video released by the the group shows.

Activists asked Clinton about mass incarceration, racial tensions and crime legislation passed under her husband's administration.

"I don't believe you change hearts," Clinton said when asked what she would do to change hearts and minds. "I believe you change laws, you change allocation of resources, you change the way systems operate. You're not going to change every heart. You're not."

Activist Daunasia Yancey told MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry, "What we were looking for from Secretary Clinton was a personal reflection on her responsibility for being part of the cause of this problem that we have today in mass incarceration, and so her response really targeting on policy wasn't sufficient for us."

Two Los Angeles police officers took time out from fighting crime to help a 14-year-old boy look his best on his first day of high school.

Officers Jonathan Maldonado and Alberto Ladesma were patrolling in the Boyle Heights neighborhood on Aug. 13 when a female driver and her son flagged them down.

"I saw the kid waving at me and the mother asked if I could help with his tie through her car window," said Maldonado, a 10-year veteran with the Los Angeles Police Department's Hollenbeck Division.

The officers pulled their patrol car over to help the boy who was rushing to get to Bishop Mora Salesian High School for orientation.

"[The mother] was almost embarrassed and said she had been looking at YouTube videos to learn how to tie a tie," said Maldonado.

The officer described the short exchange as a blessing, saying there is more to cops than dealing with criminal issues.

"We're here to help the community we serve," Maldonado said. "Sometimes people are just scared to ask."

Although he didn't catch the boy's name, Maldonado said the teen was very thankful for the gesture and enthusiastic about starting high school.

"I thank God I had the opportunity to help someone and make an impact in their lives," he said.

More than 12,000 fresh New York steaks were served Monday to crew members of three aircraft carriers in San Diego.

The grilling began days before the picnic scheduled for USS Carl Vinson, USS George Washington and USS Ronald Regan at Naval Base Coronado.

The organization "Cooks from the Valley" served up the steaks. The group is known for bringing its grills to members of the military – no matter where they are in the world.

In San Diego, they served more than 8,400 crew members and a Pentagon VIP who just happened to be in town for the event.

Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Jonathan Greenert told crew members they are the “real deal.”

“This is all real business, and you are the tip of the spear,” Greenert said. 

USS Carl Vinson is in homeport. USS George Washington and USS Ronald Regan are conducting a crew and equipment swap.  George Washington will soon move to Norfolk, Virginia, where it will be overhauled.
Ronald Reagan will also leave but will head to serve out of Yokosuka, Japan.

A Michigan woman thought to be the nation's oldest veteran died Sunday at age 100, about a month after she met with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office, The Associated Press reported.

Emma Didlake, of West Bloomfield, joined the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in 1943 at age 38. She served about seven months stateside during the war as a private and a driver, according to the AP.

"Emma Didlake served her country with distinction and honor, a true trailblazer for generations of Americans who have sacrificed so much for their country," Obama said Monday. "I was humbled and grateful to welcome Emma to the White House last month, and Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to Emma's family, friends, and everyone she inspired over her long and quintessentially American life."

Police are looking for Rosie O’Donnell’s 17-year-old daughter, who has been reported missing, according to the entertainment personality's website.

Chelsea O’Donnell was last seen at her home in Nyack on Aug. 11, the statement said. Police were alerted that she was missing on Sunday, and they’ve been searching for her since.

The girl is in need of medical attention and hasn’t been taking her medicine, the site says. Police say there is no reason to suspect foul play.

"Chelsea, like millions of people, lives with mental illness," Cindi Berger, a representative for O'Donnell, told NBC 4 New York. "It has been a difficult road for Chelsea and her family and they just want her back safe."

Chelsea O’Donnell was last seen wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, ripped blue jeans and a black bookbag. She has a tattoo of a dream catcher and the word “Breathe” on her right side. She apparently left the home with her 6-month-old therapy puppy, a 9-pound black terrier named Bear.

Rosie O'Donnell tweeted photos of her missing daughter Tuesday afternoon. One tweet early Tuesday featured the caption "dude was asking for u today .... dude #urFAMILY #call."

The comic said the teen may be in New York City.

Anyone with information about the girl’s whereabouts is asked to call police at 845-358-0206.

One man is dead after he was hit while standing on the side of Interstate 8 near State Route 125 in La Mesa, according to the California Highway Patrol.

At about 3:30 p.m., the man had pulled his 1994 Toyota pickup into the triangular area that separates I-8 from SR-125. Officials say it's unclear if the truck had mechanical issues or why the man decided to get out.

As he was standing with his back turned to the traffic at the rear of the pickup, a 27-year-old woman from New York drove her 2014 Chevy Traverse into the area.

The CHP says she did not see the pedestrian or pickup and slammed into the man, making him fly forward. He died at the scene.

The pickup was pushed into the first lane of traffic on westbound I-8, while the Chevy blocked the first lane of the transition road to SR-125.

A Sig Alert was put into effect for about two hours.

The female drive was taken to the hospital for evaulation, but it's unclear if she will be cited. Alcohol and drugs were not factors in this crash, officials say.

Anyone who's spent time in the Gaslamp Quarter on a Friday or Saturday night knows what a crowded, high-traffic experience it can be.

So city planners are looking at a pilot program to bring a new dynamic to the nightlife scene in one of San Diego’s prime dining and entertainment destinations.

The idea is to turn 5th Avenue from Harbor Drive to Broadway into a so-called "active loading zone" – similar to the drop-off and pickup at airport terminals -- by getting rid of curbside parking between the hours of 6 p.m. and 3 a.m.

Gaslamp Quarter executive director Michael Trimble said the program is expected to reduce traffic congestion for police and paramedics dealing with emergency situations and improve pedestrian safety.

”The perception (of drivers) is that maybe they’ll find that ‘miracle parking spot’ – which never happens,” Trimble told NBC 7 in an interview Monday.

"So not only are we taking away the parking, but we're promoting other structures in close proximity to the Gaslamp … there's tons of off-street parking. We have 'Park it on Market,' the 16th and K Parkade. The City Square building has a parking structure."

The strategy certainly appeals to Dan Estep, manager of Florent Restaurant & Lounge: “I think it's a great idea. Fifth Avenue is really congested, especially on weekends. And having that open space right there might allow more people to swing by in cars and taxis and be more of a benefit to the Gaslamp."

It's a plan that's been tried out on major holiday weekends, but rolling it out on year-round business is something that raises red flags for other Gaslamp restaurateurs.

"I could imagine parking somewhere else is going to be even worse now,” said Bree Lochmiller, manager of Henry’s Pub. “Taking away these parking spaces away is going to cause everywhere else to be backed up.”

Said Toscana Café & Wine Bar manager Sean Shoja: "I think this is just going to push people away.”

Studies of how the system has worked on major holiday weekend nights, however, suggest there’ll be an upsurge in people carpooling, using online ride-sharing services, taxis and the trolley.

Trimble said the plan is to roll out the program on a year-long experimental basis sometime in early fall and follow it up with going to "reverse angle" parking on 4th and 6th Avenues from Harbor Drive to Broadway, to create more spaces away from 5th Avenue.

If all that pans out, the bumper-to-bumper parade of cars that chokes Fifth Avenue on Friday and Saturday nights figures to become a thing of the past.
 

The second highest-ranking official in the U.S. Navy made his first public comment on the bribery scandal that’s infiltrated the U.S. Navy, resulted in guilty pleas and ended careers.

Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jon Greenert described the U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecution of naval officers as “still in the early stages” in some cases.

Members of the U.S. Navy have pleaded guilty to trading confidential ship movement schedules to a Singapore-based company in exchange for travel, prostitutes, elaborate dinners or electronic gadgets.

“We're just still in some cases the very early stages of this. We only know what we know about the GDMA,” Greenert said in San Diego Monday referring to the company run by “Fat” Leonard Francis.

Court documents show that Francis and his company GDMA gave the co-conspirators – officials ranging from an NCIS investigator to a battleship commander – millions of dollars in gifts over 10 years beginning in 2004.

In exchange, Francis obtained classified information that allowed his firm to overbill the Navy at least $20 million for port services such as food, fuel and garbage disposal when they visited his ports in Asia.

NBC 7 has been following this story since it was first revealed in September 2013.

The CNO compared the Navy's scandal to similar corruption involving businesses in the private sector.

“These are not situations we have not seen before,” Greenert said.

Of those naval officers who have pleaded guilty to bribery and conspiracy charges, Greenert said some of them did not know they were breaking the law.

“Some folks made, in some cases, mistakes. Just flat out mistakes,” he said. “Some were not deliberate at all.”

Pentagon leadership is reminding new admirals and new generals that their ethical foundation is the most important thing to them and their career.

“How do they ensure their integrity is always there and they don’t tell, as we like to say, ‘the little white lie,’” he said. “In the business we’re in, we can’t afford to do that. We have to have unconditional trust.”

The U.S. Navy went through an adjustment period two years ago. Several senior naval officials including ship commanders were reassigned with the Pentagon citing “lack of confidence” as the reasons.

“The behavior of our folks, especially people in leadership, has improved a lot. I would like to say it’s the emphases on the foundation,” Greenert said although he admitted he would like to see data supporting his theory.

Federal prosecutors have estimated they have at least 200 targets in the ongoing investigation. 

Three naval officers received career-ending censures because of their “lack of judgment and failure of leadership” from U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus.

Commander of Carrier Strike Group 7 on USS Ronald Reagan Rear Admiral Michael Miller received a letter of censure along with Rear Admiral Terry Kraft, who was commanding officer on the same ship, and Rear Admiral David Pimpo, who once served as supply officer of the aircraft carrier.

Among the perks the former rear admirals received from GDMA were discounts on model ships.

Guilty pleas have been entered by Navy Capt. Daniel Dusek, Navy Cmdr. Jose Luis Sanchez, Retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Edmond A. Aruffo, Navy Petty Officer First Class Dan Layug, senior Navy criminal investigator John Beliveau II and GDMA company manager Alex Wisidagama.

San Diego County is offering a new tool for Spanish-language residents to use in emergency situations.

The county’s just launched a free Spanish SD Emergency App.

The app is available through iTunes as is the English language version. County officials say the app will offer updates during wildfires or other public safety emergencies.

“We want all residents to have the information they need to make good decisions in an emergency situation,” Holly Crawford, director of the County Office of Emergency Services said on the county’s website.

County officials also suggest residents register for “Reverse 911” with their mobile phone numbers so they can be informed of evacuations in their area.

Construction was underway Monday to install a temporary sidewalk on a dangerous stretch of road in the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa area.

An alarmingly dangerous dirt path is used by school children on a busy stretch of Old Otay Mesa Road to get to school at San Ysidro High in the Sweetwater Union High School District.

The city will take a patch of state lands from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to complete an $8.5 million project that will create a safer sidewalk for them.

City staff members have been working to build a sidewalk there since 2002.

The district provides free school bus passes to students who would otherwise have to walk that path.

A security guard says he was robbed while he was working at a downtown San Diego grocery store early Tuesday.

San Diego Police were called just after 3 a.m. to the Ralph’s at 5th Avenue and J Street in the East Village community.

Raymond Wyatt said his wallet was in his backpack near the flower section of the store when Wyatt noticed a man take the wallet.

Wyatt confronted the suspect and told NBC 7 the man threatened the guard, saying that he had a gun and would shoot him.

So Wyatt followed the suspect down 2nd Avenue and used his radio to ask a co-worker to call police.

SDPD officers arrested the suspect about three blocks south of the store. They say the man was carrying a screw driver and a pocket knife but did not have a gun.

Wyatt told NBC 7 he served multiple deployments in Iraq as a U.S. Marine and had just started the security guard job two weeks ago.

He said he feared for his life and ducked behind parked cars when the suspect pretended to pull out his gun.

The suspect was booked on armed robbery charges, police said.

Wyatt went back to work to finish out his shift.
 

One of the coaches of the Little League World Series-bound Bonita team just learned he lost his day job.

Jaime Ramirez, the dugout coach for the Sweetwater Valley Little League team, was fired on Monday, the same day the team headed to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, in preparation for the World Series on Thursday.

Ramirez worked as a sale representative for Altar Produce based in Calexico on a one-year probationary period.

“For him to lose his job over a commitment to kids and community, I don’t understand it,” said Allan Botterman, a Sweetwater Little League board member.

A manager of the company told NBC 7 that Ramirez’s time had run out and Altar Produce simply decided to let him go.

While some team members believe Ramirez’s firing was connected to his time coaching Little League, the Altar Produce manager said Ramirez’s team commitment had nothing to do with the termination.

The manager did admit it was “terrible timing,” though.

The Sweetwater team beat Hawaii’s Waipo Little League team 12-10 on Saturday, giving the group of seventh graders a World Series berth.

The team will play the Bowling Green Eastern Little League representing the Great Lakes Region on Thursday.

Botterman said Ramirez was out of vacation time and had earlier been told if the team went to the World Series it would be on his own time without pay.

“But there wasn’t any knowledge that he’d be fired if he left to go to Pennsylvania,” Botterman said.

Team members say Ramirez wants to concentrate on the World Series game now and not the termination.
 

Starbucks showed once again why it is considered an innovator.

The coffee chain will now include an ‘evening menu’ in addition to the breakfast and snack options that made it famous.

The menu will feature craft beer, wine, truffle macaroni and cheese and flatbread among other items.

Starbucks said its customers are twice as likely to prefer craft beer. Also, most (70%) Starbucks customers drink wine as opposed to 30% of the general population according to Mintel Insights for Wine, January 2014 and Mintel Insights for Craft Beer, June 2014.

Starbucks first launched the evening menu in a Seattle location five years ago, and will expand to 70 stores this week including the store at 5980 Village Way in Carmel Valley.

The menu varies region to region to reflect local tastes and traditions.
 

A man who was killed when standing on the side of Interstate 8 near State Route 125 in La Mesa has been identified. 

Reynaldo Ventura Nava, 85, of Coronado, was driving on I-8 at about 3:30 p.m., the San Diego County Medical Examiner's office said, when he pulled his 1994 Toyota pickup into the triangular area that separates I-8 from SR-125. 

He got out of his truck and walked to a nearby call box to call for help, the ME's office said. Officials say it's unclear if the truck had mechanical issues or why the man decided to get out.

As Nava was standing with his back turned to the traffic at the rear of the pickup, a 27-year-old woman from New York drove her 2014 Chevy Traverse into the area as she tried to merge from the I-8 to SR-125. 

The CHP says she did not see the pedestrian or pickup and slammed into the man, making him fly forward. He died at the scene.

The pickup was pushed into the first lane of traffic on westbound I-8, while the Chevy blocked the first lane of the transition road to SR-125.

A Sig Alert was put into effect for about two hours.

The female drive was taken to the hospital for evaluation, but it's unclear if she will be cited. Alcohol and drugs were not factors in this crash, officials say.

The University of California, San Diego was ranked the 14th best university in the world for the third consecutive year, according to the 2015 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). The rankings were recently released by the Center for World-Class Universities at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, a public research university located in Shanghai, China.

In addition, UC San Diego’s programs in life sciences, engineering, computer science, chemistry, and economics were ranked among the top 20 in the world. Nationally, UC San Diego is listed as the 12th best university.

“It is an honor for UC San Diego to be recognized as a world-class university with strengths across multiple disciplines,” said Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “This recognition can be attributed to our stellar faculty and outstanding students who are dedicated to producing research that changes lives, solves critical problems and benefits society.”

The Academic Ranking of World Universities uses six indicators to evaluate world universities: the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals; the number of highly cited researchers; the number of articles published in the journals Nature and Science; the number of articles indexed in the Science Citation Index - Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index; and per capita performance.

The list also recognizes broad subject fields in which UC San Diego’s programs excel. Life sciences is ranked 11th, engineering ranked 14th, clinical medicine and pharmacy ranked 20th, social sciences ranked 26th, as did natural sciences and mathematics. Selected subject field rankings for the campus include computer science (14), chemistry (18), economics (19) and mathematics (30).

Academic Ranking of World Universities evaluated more than 1,200 universities and published the top 500 on the web.

A man shot to death by a San Diego Police officer was holding a pen that the officer mistook for a knife before firing his weapon, according to the city of San Diego’s response to a legal complaint.

The $20 million complaint, filed by the family of Fridoon Rawshan Nehad, 42, claims SDPD Officer Neal Browder used excessive and unreasonable deadly force when he killed Nehad outside a Midway District adult bookstore on April 30.

The allegations are supported by a man who says he saw surveillance video of the incident and called the shooting “unprovoked” and “shocking” in a signed statement attached to the complaint.

City Attorney Jan Goldsmith filed a response Aug. 13 on behalf of the city of San Diego, which is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, saying the officer acted reasonably in the deadly incident.

The city says shortly after midnight on April 30, the police department received a 911 call reporting that a man was threatening people with a knife at the Highlight Bookstore on Hancock Street.

Browder, a 27-year veteran of the SDPD, was the first to arrive on scene and drove his patrol car into the store’s alley. However, he failed to turn on his body camera — a move which prompted changes to the SDPD’s policy regarding those devices.

Nehad “emerged from the shadows of an alley near the bookstore and headed directly for Officer Browder,” the city’s response says.

Nehad held a metallic pen “that appeared to be a knife,” according to the city. Browder got out of his patrol car with his weapon drawn, yelling at Nehad to "drop it” or "drop the knife.” When Nehad got within 10 or 15 feet of the officer, Browder fired his gun and shot him in the chest. Nehad later died at UC San Diego Medical Center.

Because the incident was not recorded on an officer’s body camera, the SDPD had to obtain surveillance video from KECO, a nearby business. However, the department refused to turn that video over to Nehad’s family until they filed a lawsuit, and KECO refused to give it to them without a subpoena.

The complaint instead leans on the declaration of KECO employee Wesley Doyle, who said he has seen the surveillance video 20 to 30 times.

Doyle said the footage was “shocking" to see, and believes anybody else who watches it would feel the same. From what he recalls, he said Browder did not make any physical movement like raising his hand to order Nehad to stop, nor did he try to use other measures like a Taser to halt him.

“He did not even get into a shooting stance,” Doyle wrote in his declaration. “The shooting appeared to be unprovoked; Officer Browder appeared to shoot Fridoon hastily.”

The city denies that deadly force was unwarranted and that Nehad was unarmed.

“Officer Browder reasonably believed that plaintiff’s decedent [Nehad] was going to harm him or others, and used only the amount of force that was reasonably necessary to protect himself or others,” the city’s response reads.

Click here for the full answer to the complaint.

The city has requested the case move forward to a jury trial. The case is also under review by the San Diego County District Attorney's Office.

In their complaint, Nehad’s parents accuse Browder of deprivation of Nehad’s civil rights, assault and battery, negligence and wrongful death.

The shooting ended Nehad’s long struggle with PTSD and mental illness, his parents said in the complaint. While in the Afghan army, Nehad was captured by a Mujahedeen group and spent nearly two months in captivity, being tortured. He was released when his mother met face-to-face with his captors.

To prevent further injury to their son, his parents said they sent him to Germany for the next 14 years, where he lived away from his family. After the parents fled Afghanistan in favor of the U.S., Nehad joined them there in 2003.

Here in the U.S., he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disease. “Fridoon battled against his illnesses for years. He was intelligent, learning new languages (German and French) and taking classes on computer programming, linguistics and literature,” the complaint reads.

But Nehad suffered manic episodes, becoming aggressive and getting him in trouble with the law. He pleaded guilty to battery in 2005, was sentenced for burglary in 2008 and was charged with petty theft in 2014.

“Fridoon was loved. His family spent years and countless hours helping him cope with his PTSD and mental illness,” the document said.

However, during one episode, he threatened his mother and sister and said he would light the house on fire so they could all burn. Investigating police recommended the family get a restraining order to help get Nehad into a shelter in Oceanside, according to the document. His mother filed for the restraining order two days before his death.

Seventy years after earning the Bronze Star Medal, one San Diego-based World War II veteran finally officially received the meritorious medal for his service to our nation.

On Monday, 49th District of California Congressman Darrell Issa presented the Bronze Star to 89-year-old WWII vet Captain Robert A. Sulit, a Del Mar resident.

Sulit, USNR Retired, earned the prestigious award in May 1945 for his achievement in active ground combat against the enemy while serving in support of allied operations to liberate Central Europe as a member of Company A, 69th Armored Infantry Battalion, 16th Armored Division.

The captain earned the Combat of Infantry Badge, which also entitled him to a Bronze Star that he had not physically received.

Capt. Sulit’s wife, Shelley, reached out to Issa’s office for help in getting the medal to the veteran.

In researching Capt. Sulit’s case, Issa – also a U.S. military veteran – said he learned every recipient of the Combat of Infantry Badge during this period of WWII was entitled to the Bronze Star Medal, per a declaration by General Omar Bradley.

Issa assisted the veteran in securing the medal earned seven decades ago.

“Capt. Sulit’s award should be a wake-up call to families out there. If your father served in World War II and earned a Combat Infantry Badge or was a medic during the war, he is likely to be eligible for the Bronze Star,” Issa explained.

“That can be awarded, as it was today, with a very healthy Navy captain retired, or posthumously,” the Congressman added.

Issa said it’s important to honor “America’s Finest Generation,” and the sacrifices of service members, even 70 years later.

“As that generation is coming to a close, it really is important to remember World War II,” Issa said. "They were tough birds, who survived a tough war."

At the ceremony in Vista, Capt. Sulit stood proudly as Issa pinned the medal on him. The vet said he was grateful for the honor.

“I was really surprised when we got the call for this award. I didn’t expect it and it’s nice to receive it,” said Capt. Sulit. “It was a long time, but it’s finally here.”

And, 70 years later, Capt. Sulit said his patriotism for the U.S. is as strong as ever.

“Gee, I’d do anything for the country that I can. Even go to war again,” he added.

Capt. Sulit was drafted into the U.S. Army at the age of 18 and served from 1944 to 1946, when he was sent to fight in the European Campaign.

His first job was to clear mines atop the cliffs at the Atlantic Wall. His first combat experience came when he traveled to Frankfurt, Germany, as he went through a village where snipers were shooting down at him and fellow servicemen.

Capt. Sulit served as a machine gunner on a half-track and has vivid memories of aiming his machine gun and battling with the enemy.

“We were going through town – people were shooting at us. It’s kind of dangerous,” he recalled. “I crunched back down so I could angle up and shoot my machine gun, and I think I got somebody. After that, we went further into the action.”

After WWII, Capt. Sulit served in the U.S. Army Reserves from 1946 until 1950.

In 1957, he was commission as LT. JG, Engineering Duty Officer in the Unites States Navy Reserves. After 40 years of service, Capt. Sulit retired in 1985.

The Bronze Star Medal is the fourth highest individual award in the U.S. military given to those distinguished by heroic service while serving in the U.S. Army after Dec. 6, 1941.

The man accused of trying to abduct a Solana Beach girl from her school won't be back in court for two months.

Jack Doshay, 22, and his attorneys appeared in court Monday for a pretrial hearing.

He's accused of trying to kidnap a 7-year-old girl from Skyline Elementary School on March 23. He allegedly tried to wrap duct tape around the child's head and carry her off. Prosecutors say Doshay's DNA was found on the tape.

Her screams and kicks caught the attention of staff nearby and the girl managed to escape, unharmed.

Then on April 2, Doshay was arrested and charged with kidnapping, false imprisonment with violence and child abuse.

On Monday, defense attorneys filed for a continuation in his trial.

Doshay is being represented by prominent criminal defense attorney Paul Pfingst. His parents are affluent members of the community, with his father being a minority stake owner of the San Diego Padres.

The judge scheduled a readiness hearing on October 22 and a preliminary hearing on December 2.

Doshay left the courthouse with his defense team. He was released on $2.5 million bail in April.

The judge approved bail on the condition that Doshay enter a private in-patient psychiatric facility and wear an ankle monitoring bracelet.

A small fire has been reported near Valley Center north of San Diego.

Cal Fire officials say the nearest interection is Lilac Road and Roble Verde, east of Interstate 15.

It's described as a quarter of an acre in medium fuel with a slow rate of spread.

Ground crews canceled air support saying that they should be able to get a handle on things.

There were no evacuations ordered.

No injuries.

Check back for updates on this developing story.