A motorcycle rider drove at high speeds on three San Diego freeways and even ducked into a shopping center parking garage Thursday to avoid California Highway Patrol and San Diego Police officers who were in pursuit.

The 2007 Yamaha R1 randomly changed lanes while heading southbound on State Route 163 before exiting onto Washington Avenue. At times the rider accelerated at speeds up to 120 mph, officers said.

After riding through Hillcrest, the motorcycle rider headed north and drove on surface streets in Mission Valley.

When he attempted to drive east on Friars Road, he crashed into the back of a vehicle about half a mile east of Mission Center Road.

Minutes later, CHP officers had the rider seated and handcuffed in the eastbound lanes of Friars Road.

Paramedics arrived and took the rider to Scripps Mercy Hospital.

Investigators say a CHP motorcycle officer tried to pull over the motorcyclist at 10:30 a.m. on westbound State Route 94 from Lemon Grove Avenue.  The pursuit involved freeways SR-94, I-805, and SR-163.

Aaron C. Gossmeyer, 27, of La Mesa was arrested and will be booked on charges of felony evading, hit and run and failing to possess a motorcycle endorsement, CHP investigators said.

Vice President Joe Biden said he was confident the Democrats will win the Senate and also the House, NBC News reported.

Biden, speaking at the annual House Democratic retreat on Thursday, referenced the Obama administration over the past seven years — including saving the economy, the Iran nuclear a dal and auto sales.

While he avoided discussion of the race on the Democratic side, he believed the divisive Republican primary gave Democrats a chance for success.

"And by the way we may be given a gift from the Lord in the presidential race here," Biden said to laughter.  

One resident was displaced Thursday when a fire ripped through the first floor of a home in Bankers Hill, fire officials said.

The blaze began around 1:20 p.m. at a home in the 200 block of Quince Street. Within an hour, San Diego Fire-Rescue Department (SDFD) crews were able to extinguish the flames.

Photos posted to the SDFD’s Twitter page showed the home’s charred kitchen space, including a burnt countertop and stovetop that appeared blackened by the blaze.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

The fire department said officials with the Red Cross were called to the scene to help one woman displaced by the incident.

No injuries were reported.
 

The wife of a Christian preacher freed from an Iranian prison filed for separation the same day he came home to Idaho, according to records.

Naghmeh Abedini, the wife of Saeed Abedini, apologize in a Facebook post for hiding "from the public the abuse I have lived with for most of our marriage." Although she did not give specifics, she did say she was open to reconciliation, according to NBC News.

NBC News confirmed that the petition for legal separation was filed — and sealed — in Boise, Idaho, on Tuesday.

Abedini worked tirelessly for her husband’s freedom. He was released with four other Americans on Jan. 16. 

A woman who taught English classes at Orange County's Central Men's Jail was arrested Thursday for allegedly helping three inmates escape from the lockup last week, a jailbreak that prompted a massive manhunt throughout Southern California.

Ravaghi Nooshafarin has been teaching English-as-a-second-language classes at the jail since July 2015, according to Orange County Sheriff's Department Lt. Jeff Hallock. She came to the United States after studying in Tehran and Paris. She earned her master's degree in education from Cal State Fullerton, college officials said.

One of the escaped inmates, Hossein Nayeri, 37, of Newport Beach, took her class and developed a relationship with Ravaghi, according to Hallock. Working for the Rancho Santigo Community College district led Noosha, as she is called, to teach English as a second-language class at the Santa Ana Jail. Nayeri took her class.

The exact nature of her alleged assistance was still being investigated, but she is believed to have provided information such as Google maps to Nayeri, the alleged mastermind of the Jan. 22 escape.

Hallock said Ravaghi, a 44-year-old Lake Forest resident who works for the Rancho Santiago Community College District, denied providing Nayeri with any tools used in the escape. It's not immediately clear if she has an attorney.

Hallock said investigators also believe the escaped inmates stole a white GMC Savana utility van from a "private party" on Saturday in the South Los Angeles area, and the inmates may be living out of it.

The van has paper license plates from Felix Chevrolet, with the plate number 8U66466, although the plates may have been removed and replaced, authorities said.

Hallock said around 10 people have been arrested in connection with the escape so far, and several other arrests for unrelated warrants or probation issues have also been made during the manhunt.

The news comes as a rooftop view from the Orange County Jail shows the dramatic six-story drop to the ground that the three inmates took during their escape last week, leading to a manhunt that entered its sixth day Thursday. The inmates somehow made their way to the roof, cut through razor wire surrounding its edge, then rappelled down to the ground, authorities said. The fugitives had a 16-hour head-start Friday when they fled the high-security lockup in Santa Ana.

In addition to Nayeri, the other two escapees were identified as Jonathan Tieu, 20, and Bac Duong, 43. They were awaiting trials for unrelated violent crimes when they vanished from a dormitory they shared with about 65 other men at the jail. Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens called the escape "every sheriff's nightmare during a news conference Wednesday when she announced five arrests were made in connection with the investigation.

She declined to provide details about the arrests, but said more are possible in the next few days.

Around 30 warrants have been served since the escape was discovered. Those warrants were served and homes and used to search for electronic devices, such as computers and phones.

The men are believed to have escaped shortly after a 5 a.m. physical body count, one of two that take place each day at the jail. The disappearance wasn't discovered until about 9 p.m., during the second daily head count, which was to have started at 8 p.m. but was delayed by an altercation possibly staged to help delay discovery of the escape, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

Authorities were continuing to investigate whether other inmates had a hand in the escape, notably through the altercation that delayed the 8 p.m. body count.

The men cut through a steel grate, half-inch steel bars and plumbing tunnels early Friday before making their way to an unsecured part of the jail's roof and using makeshift ropes to rappel several floors to the ground.

Nayeri, of Newport Beach, was in custody on kidnapping and torture charges for the abduction of a marijuana clinic owner who Nayeri allegedly drove to the desert and burned with a blowtorch. The victim, his attackers thought he had stashed money in the desert, was also sexually mutilated, prosecutors said.

Nayeri fled the United States to Iran. Authorities do not have extradition agreements with Iran, where Nayeri has family, so investigators used a ruse to get him to the Czech Republic, which is more cooperative with the U.S. for extraditing fugitives, according to Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy. Nayeri was arrested in Prague while changing flights from Iran to Spain to visit family, Murphy said.

Tieu, of Fountain Valley, faces murder and attempted murder charges in connection with a gang hit, prosecutors said, and Bac Duong, of Santa Ana, faces an attempted murder charge and was being held without bail on an immigration hold pending a possible federal deportation hearing.

Duong was ordered deported from the United States in 1998, but remained in the country. His appeal was dismissed and Duong was taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in 2003, but later released on an order of supervision. He complied with that order until August 2014, according to ICE, which lodged a detainer against him following his Orange County arrest and sought notification before his release.

Robert Kovacik and City News Service contributed to this report.

Ammon Bundy, the leader of the armed occupation at an Oregon wildlife refuge again called on protesters to turn themselves in to police, NBC News reported.

"My message still remains: turn yourselves in. Do not use physical force. Use the national platform that we have to continue defend liberty through our constitutional rights in an Article III court, with an Article III judge," Bundy said in the statement made through his lawyers.

Bundy was arrested with his brother and six others on Tuesday.

It was unclear how many protesters remain, but videos posted claim there were four people still there.
 

The mother of a woman found buried in her boyfriend's yard earlier this month will soon lay her daughter to rest.

Alejandra Gutierrez, the San Ysidro mother of two went missing earlier this month. Investigators found her body buried in her boyfriend’s backyard in Fontana. As the homicide investigation unfolds, the family has funeral services planned for this week.

Gutierrez' family began worrying when she went to her boyfriend’s house in Fontana and didn't come home on Dec. 30.

Family filed a missing persons report. A few days later, Gutierrez' car was found in Fontana. The family held out hope that Gutierrez would be found.

In mid-January that hope was shattered, when police discovered a body buried in her boyfriend’s backyard. Gutierrez' boyfriend, 40-year-old Cesar Rosales, was arrested and booked for homicide.

A cadaver dog found the body during a search of Rosales' home. Detectives say he confessed to the crime.

The coroner’s office is still determining exactly how Gutierrez died.

Her mother says she talked to Rosales after reporting her daughter missing.

She says he was very calm and denied knowing Gutierrez's whereabouts, but now that conversation haunts the mother.

She also says burying her daughter this weekend is going to be agonizing.

“I didn’t want this day to come. Thank God we know where she is at; there were many days of searching and couldn’t find her. But I know this is going to be really hard, but she needs to rest,” says Lupita Gutierrez, Alejandra’s mother.

The services will be held at 6 p.m. Saturday at One In Christ Church in National City.
 

Police officers on Thursday morning raided an alleged hash oil lab in Kearny Mesa and arrested two employees.

Narcotics detectives with the San Diego Police Department received a tip about the possible lab in the 8200 block of Engineer Road.

They served a search warrant at about 8:30 a.m. and requested assistance from the San Diego Fire-Rescue’s Hazmat Team as a precaution.

Two employees, 42-year-old Patrick McDonald and 48-year-old Daniel Gregg, were arrested on suspicion of manufacturing an illegal substance and manufacturing an illegal substance with intent to sell.

Authorities were searching the building and detectives then started gathering evidence.

An attorney for the company that occupies the building told NBC 7 that it's a medical marijuana business called Medwest Distribution LLC.

The attorney, Jessica McElfresh, confirmed there was a lab inside, but said it was used for making medical marijuana products to ship to licensed dispensaries. Those products include oils from marijuana.

McElfresh is criticizing the raid, saying her client's business is legal.

Another attorney for the company, Lance Rogers, said the raid of the business will ultimately impact patients who rely on the medical marijuana.

"Tomorrow the cancer patients, the AIDS patients who rely on safe quality medical cannibis can go to a licensed facility. However, there will be no product on the shelves because it's all been taken by the police behind us," Rogers said.

San Diego police have not revealed the basis for the raid, but say they believe the business is an illegal hash oil lab.

The city attorney's office said after receiving complaints, staff previously visited the site to find out if an illegal dispensary was being operated there. No dispensary was observed at that time.

An Arizona state worker is being called a local hero after rescuing a small white puppy from the middle of a busy highway, NBC News reported.

Gil Estrada was monitoring Phoenix traffic cameras on Monday when he saw the puppy dodging cars on State Route 51. The puppy stopped when she got to the median, hopped onto the concrete barrier before she made it and lay down.

Estrada rushed into his car and drove to rescue the puppy, who was cowering on the carrier for an hour.

Authorities haven’t been able to find the owner of the puppy, who is now at a shelter, where she was given the name Dottie. 

Three good Samaritans rushed to the aid of two people trapped in an overturned truck moments before it exploded into flames.

At about 5:15 p.m., a box truck from Servpro of North Vista, a home restoration business, was rear-ended as it traveled north on State Route 163, San Diego Fire-Rescue officials said.

The driver overcorrected and flipped over the guardrail, sending the truck tumbling down an embankment, just feet from northbound I-805.

Three men following about 180 meters behind -- RJ Paglino, Jacob Pitman and Trevor Jackson -- saw the truck topple over and rushed to help.

The men said they first pulled a woman from a small gap about a foot wide. They then rescued the man.

"When we got to the roadside, 30 seconds after pulling them out of the vehicle, it blew up and was engulfed in flames," said Paglino.

The victims, 20-year-old Marie Filares and 22-year-old Chris Mitchell, were taken to the hospital with moderate injuries. Filares is expected to be released Thursday night, and Mitchell should be released Friday.

Shortly after, Jose Araya, the owner of Servpro of North Vista, arrived at the scene to check on his employees.

"I don't believe what happened. I would say we won the lottery today - ourselves and our guys. And thank God that they are, not too well, but OK," said Araya. He said they were both very shaken up.

Soon, both victims were surrounded by family in the hospital. They said they are so grateful to their loved ones' rescuers.

"Very, very thankful for the guys who took him out of the truck," said Mitchell's mother Fernanda. "Thanks to them, my son is alive. I want to thank them with all my heart."

"I just want to thank the people that saved her and got her out of the car," said Filares' sister Aracele.

After the crash, police stopped all vehicles on northbound I-805 and some lanes of SR-163, snarling rush hour traffic.

A witness said the fire was spreading to a nearby tree, but firefighters arrived quickly enough to stop it from going far. 

When the fire was extinguished, there was nothing but a shell of the truck remaining.

A U.S. Navy commander admitted Thursday to accepting cash, prostitutes and other bribes in exchange for giving classified ship schedules to a Malaysian defense contractor at the center of a widespread Navy bribery scandal.

Cmdr. Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz, 48, pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy and bribery. He is the eighth of nine defendants to plead guilty in the scandal.

In his plea agreement, Misiewicz admitted to providing classified Navy ship schedules and other sensitive information to Leonard Glenn Francis – aka “Fat Leonard” – who was the CEO of Singapore-based Glenn Defense Marine Asia (GDMA).

The plea says Misiewicz used his position in the Navy to help GDMA get military contracts to provide husbanding services, like fuel, tugboats and trash removal, for Navy ships and submarines in various Pacific ports. With the inside information, Francis was able to overbill the U.S. government by more than $20 million. 

In exchange, Francis gave Misiewicz cash and luxury travel so the commander and his family could go to the Philippines, Japan, Kuala Lumpur, Cambodia, Singapore and the U.S. Misiewicz also accepted prostitution services on several occasions, the plea deal says.

To keep his actions a secret, Misiewicz and his co-conspirators used clandestine email accounts that they would delete from time to time.

“Commander Misiewicz provided information to a foreign contractor that, in the wrong hands, could’ve had a devastating impact on national security,” said U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy in a statment. “By giving in to greed, he put his Navy shipmates and fellow Americans in harm’s way. This guilty plea is an important step in ensuring that all those who violated their duty of trust to the United States in this affair are held accountable.”

Misiewicz faces 20 years in prison at his April 29 sentencing.

Francis himself has pleaded guilty to federal bribery and conspiracy charges, as have six others embroiled in the affair.

Navy Capt. Daniel Dusek admitted to one count of conspiracy of bribery after he was relieved of command on USS Bonhomme Richard.

U.S. Navy Cmdr. Jose Luis Sanchez accepted a plea deal, in which he said he accepted $100,000 cash, entertainment, travel and prostitutes from Francis for proprietary Navy information.

Retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Edmond A. Aruffo admitted to his role in the scandal in July 2014. He said he worked for GDMA and used letterhead from several Japanese vendors to send the Navy inflated invoices.

Alex Wisidagama, a GDMA company manager and Francis’ cousin, admitted in court to conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government.

Senior Navy criminal investigator John Beliveau II said he used his law enforcement training to help Francis avoid detection. Francis paid him with envelopes of cash and travel to Virginia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines.

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. The letter is seen as a career-ending development for the officers.

Navy Lt. Cmdr. Todd Dale Malaki pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery after admitting to taking gifts from GDMA starting in 2006 with a deluxe room at the Grand Hyatt Singapore. He twice accepted envelopes with Singapore dollars equivalent to $1,500 and the services of a prostitute after visiting a karaoke club in Malaysia.

Navy Petty Officer First Class Dan Layug was sentenced to 27 months in prison for accepting cash, travel and a “bucket list” of video games and gadgets from Francis.

Only one defendant accused in the scandal, former Department of Defense civilian employee Paul Simpkins, is awaiting trial. He has pleaded not guilty to charges against him.
 

Thieves targeted vehicles along Ranch Penasquitos’ iconic Christmas Card Lane neighborhood in a rash of car break-ins and thefts reported this week.

San Diego Police are now warning residents to keep their garage door openers out of their cars when they are parked outside.

Early Monday morning, suspects went from driveway to driveway, breaking into at least six cars and stealing various items.

They also absconded with two cars belonging to two neighbors, including Jim Woodard, who awoke to find his Cadillac CTS missing from his driveway.

Making it worse, Woodward had an expensive set of golf clubs sitting in the back.

"I think it was a crew and it's my assumption, probably three or four guys going up and down the street, quickly checking cars to see which ones were open,” said Woodard. “They might have had tools to open cars."

He knows the theft happened just after 2 a.m. because a neighbor’s front yard surveillance camera caught the suspect driving the Cadillac down the street with an SUV following close behind.

Police said they are concerned the thieves are targeting the cars as a way to also get inside homes.

They put out a friendly reminder to neighbors to not leave garage door openers inside their vehicles parked outside a garage. They also want homeowners to remember to lock the door between the garage and the interior of their home.

Neighbors believe the thieves cased their street ahead of time.

“I’ve had nothing stolen from my house before. This would be the first time. I have not heard from any other neighbors of any vandalism or anything stolen,” said Woodard. “Until the other night, it was low crime."

Police are also investigating two cases out of Mira Mesa this week where thieves took garage openers, got into the garage and went into the house while the homeowners were asleep.
 

Ali Akbar Salehi, the energetic, English-speaking head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, told NBC News in Tehran how the the historic deal between Iran and the United States came to fruition. 

During the interview Salehi revealed for the first time some of his country's calculations, preconditions and continued mistrust of Washington.

Salehi, who is also one of Iran's vice presidents, said the country's supreme leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khameini, was involved at every step of the way.

During the NBC News interview Salehi also discussed that Washington initiated the talks and that the Iranians had several conditions, including that the talks should be quick and no fall into lethargy. 

Caltrans has put together a plan to fully repair the large sinkhole that snarled traffic on Interstate 8 near College Avenue last week.

On Jan. 21, a huge hole -- measuring 30 feet long, 20 feet wide and 20 feet deep -- emerged on the shoulder of westbound I-8.

Caltrans investigators determined a 42-inch storm drain that runs under the freeway had separated from an elbow joint about 40 below the surface. The pipe had been installed in 1958.

According to Caltrans officials, they will be able to install a new drain next to the old one with minimal highway closures. They will do much of the work underneath the highway.

“Caltrans crews have stabilized the area where the sinkhole occurred and we will continually monitor the area until the new system is in place,” said Caltrans Chief Deputy Cory Binns in a statement. “We will keep the public informed of the progress as we develop the construction plans.”

No official date has been set for construction.

Right now, the sinkhole is filled with slurry, dumped on the crevasse by several trucks when it opened. However, slurry doesn't harden, so the current fix is temporary.

Caltrans was able to send a robot into the storm drain to determine the cause of the sinkhole.

The slasher who told a subway rider "I will chop you up on this train" before attacking her on a 3 train in Brooklyn Tuesday has turned himself in, police say. 

Police said investigators were speaking to 37-year-old Ras Alula Nagarit on Thursday night, two days after he allegedly hit a 29-year-old woman with an object wrapped in cloth on a train in Prospect Heights. 

Nagarit has been charged with assault, attempted assault, criminal possession of a weapon and menacing. 

The incident was the latest in a string of slashings and stabbings that have shocked New Yorkers recently. The NYPD confirms slashings in the five boroughs were up nearly 15 percent in January over the same month in 2015: there were 249 slashings in January of 2015, compared to 286 so far this month.

Of those, five of the slashings happened on the subway this month, compared to just two in 2015.

Police say most subway slashings are the result of a fight, and that just three people were slashed at random in all of last year. 

"Each one seems to have its own motivation when we make the arrest and get into what was behind it," Bratton said Wednesday. "Sometimes they’re emotionally disturbed persons. So their rationale is beyond rationalization.”

When it comes to subway crime -- most of which is not violent, mainly thefts of bags or cellphones from sleeping people -- NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton says there are already 2,800 officers on patrol underground, with some undercover. He announced Thursday another 1,300 officers will be trained to join the officers on the subway. 

NYPD Transit Chief Joseph Fox took to the trains with NBC 4 New York Thursday to reassure riders the subway is "very safe" but says understands their concerns. 

"It only has to happen once for everyone to see it happening to them. That's where our job is," he said.

With the new officers, "we want to be there to throw off potential criminals," Fox said. 

Authorities were searching for a 38-year-old woman who went missing a few days before her husband's body was discovered in an apparent suicide at their home in Pomona, officials announced Thursday.

Police responding to a suicide call Wednesday found Ivan Zarate dead in his garage at the home he shared with his wife Marisela Fabian Hernandez around 10:30 a.m., according to the Pomona Police Department.

"When I came back I thought somebody broke into my garage because the lock was missing and there he was," said 19-year-old Fernando Zarate, the oldest of four kids in the family. "He was the best."

Police are investigating what they call suspicious circumstances around the disappearance of Hernandez, who failed to report to work on Sunday and has yet to contact her kids or relatives.

Hernandez, who has a history of marital problems with Zarate, has left two or three times before, but is always in contact with her family, according to Marcus Perez of the Pomona Police Department. Hernandez left her car behind and it is unknown how she left her home.

Police say Hernandez may have a boyfriend in Albany, New York after family said that's where she disappeared to last month. 

"I hope she's watching, I hope she can get down here as soon as she can because there's a lot of things that need to be taken care of," Fernando said.

A possible murder-suicide has not been ruled out, police said.

Hernandez is described as 5-foot-3, weighs 133 pounds, and has brown hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with information about Hernandez's whereabouts is asked to call the Pomona Police Department at 909- 620-2151.

Since 2007, YOLA has provided free instruments and after-school support for musical and academic pursuits to more than 700 students in South LA, the Rampart District and East LA. 

The homeless in San Francisco said they are being herded out of the Embarcadero as the city prepares to kick off Super Bowl City this weekend.

"We have to get up and move everything right there and then," said Tee, one of the homeless people moved by the city.

Tommy Davis is one of the many homeless in the city who call the tents home along 13th and Harrison streets. Davis said city officials and police are actively moving them away from Super Bowl City.

Davis has been moved twice in the past few weeks, which he said is frustrating. When the tents are moved, some fear belongings will also be thrown away.

"It's the most ridiculous thing," said Tiny Garcia, a homeless advocate. "That's lying to the fans."

Garcia is calling on Mayor Ed Lee and city officials to have a better game plan for the homeless. She said simply removing them from certain areas of town does not solve the problem.

"There's homeless people in San Francisco Super Bowl fans," Garcia said. "Guess what? That's our reality."

San Francisco police said all homeless matters are handled by the Mayor's Office. Calls to the Mayor's Office for comment on the issue have not been returned.

He’s the Super Bowl’s ultimate fan: Larry Jacobson has gone to every single Super Bowl game.

“Fifty years later, I could have investment in an apartment house,” Jacobson said. He belongs to an elite group of fans called “Never Miss a Super Bowl Club.”

The ticket cost 50 years ago? Just $12. The 76-year-old San Francisco resident sat down with NBC Bay Area in his Noe Valley home. He calls the second floor room, adorned with patches from every Super Bowl and shelves full of footballs, his “man cave.”

NBC BAY AREA: How much has 50 Super Bowls cost you?

LARRY JACOBSON: I don’t know and I don’t want to know.

NBC BAY AREA: Then you must be excited you don’t have to travel this year.

LJ: I’m saving money on airfare, rent-a-car and hotel, so yeah I’m saving a few bucks. But the best thing about having the Super Bowl in San Francisco is we get two weeks of hype. I love the energy of the city during the Super Bowl.

NBC BAY AREA: During Super Bowl I, you took a girl on a first date?

LJ: I put the whole thing together for less than $100. That’s the tickets, the airline fair, the rental car, the program, parking at the airport, all that was under a hundred bucks. The tickets were 12 bucks and the program was a dollar. Long of the short was she wasn’t impressed with the football and she wasn’t impressed with me.

NBC BAY AREA: So I take it that was your last date?

LJ: I don’t even remember her name.

NBC BAY AREA: Do you have a favorite Super Bowl?

LJ: I’ve been a season ticket holder of the 49ers since 1953. As a 49ers fan, my favorite Super Bowl is Super Bowl 23. On the last play of the drive, I saw the Niners line up. John Taylor was on the line and I saw him running up and he was running so fast I thought he’d be out of the end zone before Montana found him and threw the ball to him. That just played out right in front of me and I’ll never forget that play. It’s my favorite play of all time.

NBC BAY AREA: Tell me how you met Don, Tom, Stan and Bob – your fellow “Never Miss a Super Bowl Club” members.

LJ: There was a newspaper Q&A, and one of them was: Has anybody been to every Super Bowl? And they named three people, Don, a man named Stan, who has since passed away, and myself. I called Don and we found Tom and Bob, and we all met for Super Bowl 34 in Atlanta. I’d never met these guys before and I didn’t know whether they were going to drink up a storm or what would happen.

NBC BAY AREA: But it sounds like you hit it off with everyone, especially Don.

LJ: I said, ‘Who do you write for?’ He said, ‘I write for the philatelic magazine.’ He writes for a stamp magazine. What the hell is a guy who writes for a stamp magazine doing at the commissioner’s press conference? I said to myself immediately, this guy is a phony. He’s my kind of man.

NBC BAY AREA: Any other antics over the years?

LJ: At Super Bowl 6 in New Orleans, I got arrested. I was parked five feet from the curb, which I guess isn’t okay there. A police officer stopped me and I said, ‘Don’t you think you’re being a little chicken bleep about this? He said, did you call me chicken bleep? I said, yes I sure did. He says you’re under arrest. I bailed myself out. There was a cab out front. I took the cab back to the stadium and actually got back before the game started.

NBC BAY AREA: I’m surprised this is the first year you are receiving free tickets to the game.

LJ: Why? I’m not Avis. I’m not American airlines. I’m not Budweiser. I’m a guy off the street. Nobody comps me anything…until now.

NBC BAY AREA: How many Super Bowls do you hope to go to?

LJ: I’ll go until they put me in a box.

Mayor Emanuel said police are turning to a new strategy to address the spike in crimes during the month of January.

Chicago crime is up this January compared to last January at an alarming rate. Chicago police statistics show murders are up 93 percent, while shootings are up 171 percent. During an 11-hour time span just this past Monday, 16 people were shot – 5 fatally.

"I believe the increase in the shooting, the increase in the gun violence, the onus of that is on the gangs and illegal flow of guns into the hands of criminals,” Emanuel said.

The change in crime fighting strategy means 275 officers will move into patrol cars to increase visibility.

“You are going to see more of the officers in the impact zones are now going to mobile, not just on feet to cover more territory," Emanuel said.

The mayor does not believe police are laying back after the scrutiny from the Laquan McDonald shooting.

“The people responsible are not the police officers, I put the responsibility on the gangbangers who are pulling the triggers," Emanuel said.

Meanwhile, activists say the solution must include job creation for those who live in the neighborhoods most impacted.

"If we have nothing to offer them but hey you got to change your ways, you got to put down the guns, you got to stop selling drugs, fine. If they say yes to all of that, what next," Father Michael L. Pfleger said.

Dozens from all backgrounds came together Thursday evening at Old St. Pats church to speak out against the violence.

"The theme of the night was "enough is enough. No more violence," Rev. Booker Vance of Faith in Place said.

At the Steve Harvey studios, guests arrived to tell their stories for an upcoming episode on Chicago violence.

Among them was Rochetta Tyler who lost her daughter to gun violence. She brought her ashes to the taping.

"We need help," Tyler said. "I just want my baby back, and I know I can't get her back."

The Fraternal Order of Police has yet to respond to NBC Chicago’s request for comment.