Ohio State University issued a warning to staff and students about an “anonymous threat of violence” posted online, NBC News reported.

The university didn’t explain the nature of the threat or provide any details, except that it referred to Tuesday.

A mass email went out overnight, urging people to “be observant and aware,” and that campus police "are working alongside law enforcement partners" to investigate the threat.

All campuses were open and operating as normal despite the warning.

A 7-year-old girl is on life support after family members say she choked on food during lunch at her Brooklyn school last week.

Noelia Echaverria, a second-grader at P.S. 250 in Williamsburg, choked on food at school last Wednesday and is now brain dead, according to family, but her mother says she has faith the child will pull through.

"I know at the bottom of my heart that she will live because I can feel it," her mother Ana Santiago said.

Qwaise Reid, a paramedic for a private company, was transporting a patient back to a nearby nursing home in an ambulance when he stumbled upon the chaotic scene. Reid was stopped at a red light when a school safety officer and another person started banging on his door for help.

"I seen the 7- to 8-year-old on the floor, blue in the lips," Reid said.

He said children and adults were crowded around Echaverria, who was not breathing or talking, and had foam coming out of her mouth.

Reid and the girl’s family said they think the school could have acted more quickly in calling 911.

"I believe no one called 911 before they came to me, because they would most likely have been there before me," Reid said.

FDNY said the department received the call at 2:33 p.m. and was at the school less than five minutes later.

NBC 4 New York asked the Department of Education how quickly 911 was called and it said the school followed protocol by calling 911 and the girl’s parents, but did not offer further explanation.

Uncle Alexis Santiago said he went back to the school to ask what had happened to his niece but didn’t get any answers.

"The principal, the dean, the security guards… They closed the door and said, 'Go to the hospital to find out,'" Alexis Santiago said.

The girl’s family has hired an attorney to represent them during the investigation.

The 33-year-old NYPD officer who was fatally shot in the head last week while on duty in East Harlem was remembered at a wake Tuesday as an even-tempered man who always had a smile on his face.

Thousands of family members, friends and fellow officers gathered at the Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral of New York in Jamaica to pay tribute to officer Randolph Holder, a five-year NYPD veteran who was shot in the head after responding to reports of gunfire near the FDR Drive a week ago.

An honor guard carried Holder's flag-draped casket to the alter where those who knew and respected the young officer will bid farewell over the next two days. Hundreds of officers stood in the shadows of blue ribbons tied to fences and trees as they waited their turn to walk inside.

Holder always wanted to be a policeman, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather who served as officers in their native Guyana. Holder's dream came true in 2010 when he joined the NYPD and began patrolling the city's public housing complexes.

"It's in his blood," said his commanding officer, Captain Reymundo Mundo. "It's in his genes."

As a stream of officers wiped tears from their faces, many said they wanted to live by his example and not bury themselves in the loss, said Sgt. Joe Imperatrice.

"It's never easy," he said, recalling the funerals of NYPD officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu last December. "But anything that goes on, you're going to put on your vest, put on your uniform and do your job right."

Holder was also remembered for the sacrifices he made for his family, his No. 1 priority.

"He was a very outgoing person, very giving and very caring, especially for the family back home," his aunt Ruth Noel said. "It's a great loss in Guyana, too, not just here."

As Noel stood in front of the church Tuesday, she recalled memories of her time with her nephew.

"It's only when these people are gone that you see how good they really were," she said.

Noel said she became overcome with emotion when she saw her nephew laid out in an open casket in the church, dressed in his full uniform, as his fellow officers wept.

"I just couldn't hold myself," she said. "It's too much for me."

Holder died Oct. 20 after being shot in the head near the FDR Drive. He and his partner had been chasing a man after responding to a call of shots fired and a bicycle stolen at gunpoint. The suspect, 30-year-old Tyrone Howard, hopped off the stolen bicycle and shot Holder, authorities allege. Howard was taken into custody a few blocks away and has been charged with murder and robbery.

A grand jury indicted him on unspecified charges Tuesday. Howard did not appear in court. The charges are expected to be unsealed at a hearing next month. His attorney has said there are many missing details in the case.

A funeral for Holder is scheduled for Wednesday. He will be buried in Guyana.

San Diego police have tied two suspects to at least seven “smash and grab” burglaries in the North Park area over the past month.

Investigators say Jeffrey Jakse, 27, and Carlos Casteneda, 25, went on a spree that lasted from late September to the middle of October.

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In each case, the suspects would smash the front window of a business and steal the cash register.

An NBC 7 viewer captured pictures of two crime scenes: the first at Fatboys Deli on University Avenue and the second at Daisy Cleaners on 30th Street. In both incidents, the glass front doors were shattered.

As officers investigated, they say they discovered seven burglaries in North Park were related. Here is a breakdown of the locations, according to police: 

• Three cases were reported between the 2700 and 4200 blocks of Adams Avenue.
• Two cases were reported between the 2500 and 4500 blocks of University Ave.
• One case was reported on the 3500 to 4000 blocks of Ray Street.
• One case was reported on the 3500 to 3900 blocks of 30th Street.

Police say the two suspects maybe responsible for at least one case each of the following neighborhoods: Pacific Beach, La Jolla, Hillcrest and Mission Hills.

Both Jakse and Castaneda have been booked into the Central Jail on multiple burglary counts.

The U.S. Air Force awarded ViaSat Inc. a $13.2 deal to develop Mini Crypto,  electronics that can encode a message to National Security Agency specifications while keeping size, weight and power consumption to a minimum.

The Defense Department describes Mini Crypto as a self-contained cryptographic module that can be embedded in a variety of communication devices to protect data and ensure the authentication of those communicating with it. ViaSat refers to it as a "security system on a chip."

Under a deal announced Oct. 26, ViaSat will provide engineering and manufacturing development for the electronics. Contract options will cover low-rate initial production, full-rate production and related support functions. Work is expected to last through October 2020 and will be performed in Carlsbad.

Seven companies bid on the contract.

The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas awarded the deal.

ViaSat recently announced it's purchased 23 acres off El Camino Real and Gateway Road in the Bressi Ranch area of Carlsbad for its global headquarters.

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The City of San Diego released a new video Tuesday showcasing the proposed Mission Valley stadium site in its ongoing negotiations with the NFL and the San Diego Chargers.

The new stadium would sit on the same land as the existing Qualcomm Stadium at the merger of Interstates 15 and 8.

The Chargers, who have recently announced they plan to file for relocation to Los Angeles in January, have long said they prefer a downtown location for a new football stadium.

Mayor Kevin Faulconer created a Citizens Stadium Advisory Group to compare the downtown and Mission Valley sites. CSAG recommended the Mission Valley site and Mayor Faulconer agreed.

The City hired Kansas City-based Populous to create a design.

Some of the features of this design including 70,000 square feet of party decks in the end zones, video boards that would be the largest in the NFL and a canopy around the stadium lit up by LED lights that could change color and design.

What's missing is any specific information about things like the number of luxury boxes, always an important source of revenue.

Chargers special counsel Mark Fabiani told NBC 7 the video was, "Just more wasted taxpayer money."

As far as how to pay for it, the mayor's office told us this video is a follow up to the plan released in August that would call for 2/3 of the stadium to be paid for with private money. The plan would require voters to approve it.

A spokesperson for the mayor's office said as far as downtown is concerned, they are still open to talking about it but the timeline of getting a downtown stadium would be much longer, and likely more expensive than Mission Valley.

What do you think of the video? Comment below or on NBC 7 San Diego's Facebook page.

Ben Carson leads Donald Trump in a new poll of Republican primary voters.

The retired neurosurgeon had 26 percent support, compared to 22 percent for Trump and eight percent for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

Still, the margin of error is six percent for the New York Times/CBS survey of 575 GOP primary voters.

Carson had overtaken Trump as frontrunner in recent Iowa polls.

Congressional leaders reached a tentative budget deal with the White House that, if approved, would end the annual cycle of government shutdown threats, NBC News reported.

The bill, which was posted online just before midnight, would set government funding levels for the next two years and would also extend the country’s debt limit through 2017, NBC News reported.

The $80 billion deal would raise "sequestration" spending caps that were set in place in 2011.  

It would prevent a spike in Medicare B premiums for millions of seniors and also include long-term entitlement reforms to the Social Security Disability Insurance program — the first major reform to Social Security since 1983.

Speaker John Boehner — who resigns from Congress at the end of this week — told NBC News Monday that by pushing through the deal he was "cleaning out the barn."

Comet Lovejoy lived up to its name by releasing large amounts of alcohol as well as a type of sugar into space, according to new observations by an international team. The discovery marks the first time ethyl alcohol, the same type in alcoholic beverages, has been observed in a comet, NASA said on it website. The finding adds to the evidence that comets could have been a source of the complex organic molecules necessary for the emergence of life.

"We found that comet Lovejoy was releasing as much alcohol as in at least 500 bottles of wine every second during its peak activity," said Nicolas Biver of the Paris Observatory, France, lead author of a paper on the discovery published Oct. 23 in Science Advances. The team found 21 different organic molecules in gas from the comet, including ethyl alcohol and glycolaldehyde, a simple sugar, according to NASA.

 The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation will not enforce the yearly program "Operation Boo" which asks registered sex offenders to place signs on their doors during Halloween.

The program, meant to protect children from predators during Halloween, was scheduled to go into full effect this year. However, the president and founder of California Reform Sex Offender Laws organization filed a lawsuit against the CDCR. Janice Bellucci is challenging what her organization calls an unconstitutional Halloween sign requirement that's part of "Operation Boo."

In an agreement between the two parties in court, the CDCR agreed not to enforce the sign policy, though the lawsuit continues. 

CDCR spokesman Luis Patino clarified that such signs were never a condition of Operation Boo and are not a state requirement, even it they were a common practice locally.

However, offenders will still not be able to put up Halloween decorations or illuminated porch lights during the holiday.

 Bellucci filed the suit after she says her client, a registered sex offender in Chula Vista, was told to post a flier on his home on Halloween saying, "We Do Not Participate in Trick or Treating."

"All we’re challenging is the sign requirement," explained Bellucci. "We believe this both violates the United States Constitution and places in significant danger all sex offender parolees."

A registered sex offender, who spoke to NBC7 anonymously, felt the sign is appropriate because it doesn't mention any charges.

"I kind of understand where they're coming from," he said. "It helps keep them away so there's less chance of children saying something happened."

Concerned parent Amanda Misiano said she thinks the signs are a good idea.

"I think it’s good because it will protect the kids," Misiano said.

According to the "Operation Boo" website, requirements for sex offender parolees include a 5 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew on Halloween. Their lights must also be off so they don't attract children, but there's no mention of having to post the sign.

A deer apparently hit by a car brought itself to a New York hospital and walked into the emergency room.

Hospital officials say the deer walked through the automatic doors at the entrance to Strong Memorial Hospital's emergency room late Monday afternoon in Rochester. Officials say the deer made it about 20 feet down a corridor before staff members corralled it.

The Monroe County sheriff's office says two deputies happened to be at the hospital when the deer wandered in. They and hospital public safety officers strapped the deer to a gurney and wheeled it out to the parking lot.

One of the deputies put down the deer.
 

A drone carrying drugs, blades and other contraband crashed into an Oklahoma prison yard on Monday, according to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, NBC News reported. 

Staff at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester noticed the drone on prison grounds at around 9 a.m., according to a statement from the Oklahoma DOC. The drone had apparently hit a razor wire, which caused it to crash.

A package attached to the drone with fishing line contained two 12-inch hacksaw blades, 5.3 ounces of marijuana, .8 ounces of methamphetamine and less than a gram of heroin, according to the state.

The package was also carrying a cellphone, cellphone battery and hands-free device; two packs each of Newport cigarettes and Black & Mild cigars; and two tubes of Super Glue.

Speaking to thousands of police chiefs gathered Tuesday in Chicago, President Barack Obama briefly addressed the gun violence afflicting his hometown and urged cooperation between police officers and communities.

Obama listed statistics about lower crime rates nationwide, saying the crime rate today is half of what it was 20 years ago. He admitted, however, that violent crime in some cities, like Chicago, has increased.

"I live on the South Side of Chicago, so my house is pretty close to some places where shootings take place," Obama said. "Because that's real, we have to get on top of it before it becomes an accelerating trend."

Chicago saw one of the most violent Septembers in years, with two consecutive weekends of more than 50 people shot. In a single day, on Sept. 2, nine people were killed and at least 12 others were wounded in shootings across the city, making it the deadliest day in the city in over a decade.

The president then focused on criminal justice reform and gun control. He spoke about the police-involved shootings that have painted national headlines in recent months, saying "anecdotal evidence" should not be used to change policy. Instead, police and the public need to stick to the facts, he said.

Obama spoke at the International Association of Chiefs of Police. The five-day event is the world's largest law enforcement conference, with more than 14,000 professionals in attendance. This year's conference came on the heels of other similar gatherings addressing criminal justice reform, including one in Washington, D.C., earlier this month.

Despite the president's call for cooperation between officers and the communities they serve, the beginning of the conference was marked by protests. On Saturday, 66 demonstrators were arrested for blocking traffic. Many of them were protesting the police killings of Rekia Boyd in Chicago and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, among others.

On Monday, demonstrators gathered outside McCormick Place, where the event was held, and took aim at gun makers who were exhibiting at the conference. The group called for "smart gun" technology that would require a gun to have fingerprint recognition in order to fire and help prevent the sale of guns to the wrong people.

Obama echoed the calls of the demonstrators to keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people and said it was easier for people in some communities to find guns in their neighborhoods than to find fresh vegetables at a supermarket.

"It's too easy for criminals to buy guns and that makes (police officers') already dangerous job far more dangerous than it should be," the president said. "And it makes the communities so fearful that it's hard for them to be a good partner with you. The streets become abandoned and parents start not being as involved."

It's unlikely that a South Carolina police officer was justified in dragging a high school student across her classroom Monday, regardless of what led to the confrontation, experts say.

Details about what prompted the incident at Spring Valley High School in Columbia are still unclear. But education safety specialists say school resource officer Senior Deputy Ben Fields, who appeared to body-slam the student in cellphone video of the encounter, was over the line, NBC News reported.

"There are situations where it is appropriate to touch someone or pick someone up, or move them for some reason. But body slamming? The school should not be the site of a WWF exhibit," said Ronald Stephens, executive director of the National School Safety Center.

"Typically, school officials will address issues of discipline matters, and officers will address matters of criminal offense. So the question is, what was this young lady doing? Was she simply being defiant, or were there illegal activities involved that would warrant a reasonable use of force?" Stephens said.

If you’re looking to get rich, you shouldn’t bank on doing so in San Diego.

A new study ranked our city dead last among major U.S. cities in terms of accumulating wealth.

The problem, it appears, is San Diego’s enormous cost of living.

Bankrate.com conducted the study, taking into account the area’s affordability, the ability to buy a home and other factors, such as average net income after taxes.

Of the 18 largest cities, San Diego came in at No. 18, with a home ownership rate of 53.1 percent, a surplus income of $8,786 and an average debt burden of a whopping $78, 282.

That’s a sharp contrast to the No. 1 city to accumulate wealth, Houston, which averages a debt burden of $42,784.

San Francisco and Los Angeles also ranked low in the list – at 12 and 16, respectively.

NBC Bay Area's quake map shows all earthquakes recorded near the San Francisco Bay Area over the past 24 hours.

San Ramon, California, appears to have broken a new earthquake record over the last two weeks: A total of 408 small quakes have shaken the East Bay city, almost four times the record set in 2003 in half the amount of time.

"I've not felt so many tremors in decades," Mark Stone said outside a San Ramon Starbucks on Tuesday morning. "My dog, Gimmel, she's the first one to know a couple of seconds before."

And his dog has been extra alert lately.

The U.S. Geological Survey reports that as of Oct. 13, the Northern California Seismic Network had detected 408 earthquakes – at least a dozen since 10 p.m. on Monday, with other quakes spilling into the early hours of Tuesday. Most quakes have clocked in with magnitudes ranging from 2.0 to 3.0. San Ramon is about 45 miles east of San Francisco.

In an Oct. 14 interview, Senior U.S. Geological Survey research geologist David Schwartz said the swarm is not all that unusual, noting that San Ramon Valley is at the "center of earthquake swarm activity" in the Bay Area. He recalled a 2003 swarm of 120 earthquakes over 31 days in San Ramon, with the largest clocking in at a magnitude of 4.2. 

The biggest swarm on record in the same general area, Schwartz noted, was in 1990 in neighboring Alamo, about 30 miles east of San Francisco. That's when 351 earthquakes struck over 42 days, with the largest recorded at a magnitude of 4.4.

The current swarm of 408 - and counting - tops both those numbers.

Most of the earthquakes are occurring at a depth of about five miles underground and are too small to be felt, the USGS explained. One of the largest earthquakes in the current swarm activity was a 3.6-magnitude quake on Oct. 19.

San Ramon, Danville and Alamo all have a history of earthquake swarms, as they sit on the Calaveras Fault. Based on other swarms, the USGS predicts this swarm may continue for several more weeks and is unlikely to be a foreshock to a larger quake.

The northern Calaveras Fault has not ruptured with a significant earthquake since the 1860s, the USGS reported, and the likelihood of a large earthquake of 6.7-magnitude or larger is just 8 percent.

As for why the swarms occur?

"We just don't understand the structural geology of the swarms, why they turn on and shut off quickly," Schwartz said in a previous interview. "We just don't understand." 

A man trying to dodge arrest stripped his clothes and ran through the swampy water and brush underneath a bridge in the North County Tuesday, officials said. 

A high speed pursuit began just after 1 a.m. in Orange County and ended near Poway north of San Diego Tuesday.

The man driving a stolen car led California Highway Patrol on a pursuit that ended on Poway Road.

He got out of his car and ran across the northbound lanes of I-15, into a swampy area near the freeway.

San Diego Police joined in the pursuit and sent in K-9 officers. The man was naked when he was taken into custody around 3 a.m.

Officials identified him as 35-year-old Justin Sassilme.

Sassilme was bitten by a police dog in the pursuit. He was loaded onto a gurney and treated by emergency personnel at the scene.

The car he was driving was reported stolen Monday out of Newport Beach, police said.

Instead of candies or stickers, staff at the San Diego Zoo offered ground elk meat and trout as a trick-or-treat enrichment Monday.

Ratu, the four-year-old Komodo dragon at the main zoo, found the meat drizzled with fish blood inside two jack-o-lanterns in her habitat.

Reptile keeper Joey Brown said the pumpkins were placed in way to encourage Ratu’s natural behavior of scavenging.

“We hung one up high because these guys can climb trees as well,” said Brown.

In the spirit of the holiday, here’s a fact that may make you squirm.

Ratu and her fellow Komodo Dragons have special muscles in their jaws and throats that allow them to swallow huge chunks of meat rapidly.

So quickly, that they can eat up to 80 percent of their own body weight in one meal.

That’s one of the reasons the Komodo Dragon is the top predator in its region of Indonesia. 

Defense Secretary Ash Carter told congressional lawmakers Tuesday the U.S. will begin "direct action on the ground" against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

Carter said "we won't hold back" from supporting partners with "strikes from the air or direct action on the ground."

Carter cited the operation with Kurdish forces last week that freed hostages but resulted in the death of Joshua Wheeler, a soldier from Oklahoma. Carter said Tuesday that Wheeler was "killed in combat."

After months of denying that U.S. troops would be in a combat role in Iraq, Carter had acknowledged to NBC News last week that the raid was combat.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, said Tuesday that the U.S. effort in Syria is a "half-assed strategy at best."