A high wind warning has been issued for the desert and mountain areas east of San Diego through Tuesday,

The National Weather Service warns of 20 to 30 mph winds with gusts up to 60 mph.

Get Your Forecast

Travelers and homeowners should keep in mind the strongest winds will occur Monday morning and evening the NWS advises.

The NWS reports the strongest wind gust so far was 59 mph recorded at 3 a.m. in Burns Canyon in the northeast area of the San Bernardino Mountains.

There may be reduced visibility from blowing dust and sand in the deserts. Homeowners will want to secure items like umbrellas, patio furniture and trash cans.

The high wind warning expires around 8 p.m. Tuesday.
 

The report of shots fired in an attempted robbery on the campus of San Diego State University Monday was a hoax according to investigators.

In the initial report, a man said he was in the area east of the university’s Viejas Arena around midnight when several suspects demanded his backpack at gun point.

The suspects also fired several shots that hit the ground the man told officials.

San Diego State University campus police investigated the incident and told NBC 7 San Diego there was not enough evidence to support the man's claim.

Officials determined the report to be unfounded.
 

When emergency crews arrived to a deadly rollover accident in Point Loma, they discovered stolen items belonging to an elite submarine training program from Naval Base Point Loma.

Among the items recovered were electronics, ID badges and passports officials said.

NCIS investigators are handling the investigation into the death of Blake Andrew Thornton, 33, of El Cajon.

Thornton was driving a Ford Windstar Sunday when it rolled into a home at the corner of Canon Street and Ullman Street. No one inside the home was injured. Thornton suffered fatal injuries when he was ejected from the vehicle.

San Diego police and military investigators responded to the scene because of a burglary reported at the Arctic Submarine Laboratory (ASL).

The ASL building is located at Cabrillo Monument Drive and Electron Drive. While technically off-base, it's still considered part of Naval Base Point Loma.

Thornton was described by San Diego police as a parolee with an extensive criminal history who may have been involved in the base burglary.

Sgt. Art Doherty also said the identification and passport of a burglary victim were found on the suspect at the time of his death.

Court documents show that in 1998 Blake Thornton was charged with burglary and sentenced to four years in prison.

In 2004 Blake was charged with resisting arrest and sentenced to 32 months in prison according to the court documents.

Check back for updates on this developing story.

The tragedy at the Boston Marathon shook America to its core, but the heartache was particularly profound for residents of Newtown, Conn., who flocked to the race to honor the victims of last year's shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

The Newtown Strong Fund dedicated each mile of the 26.2-mile race to one of the 26 victims of the shooting, which included 20 first-graders and six educators gunned down at the school.

Runners held a 26-second moment of silence at the beginning of the race, and a special marker bearing the city seal of Newtown was placed at the 26-mile mark. The marker was surrounded by 26 stars.

The half-dozen members of the Newtown Strong Team who ran the race all finished the marathon before the blast, and the group said on its Facebook page that everyone was OK.  

Lisa Abrams, whose husband, Thomas, ran with the group, told the Connecticut Post her husband sent her a text about the explosion. 

"Newtown cannot handle any more of this," Lisa Abrams said. "We don't need any more stress, no more heartache.''

Before the race, Newtown Strong Fund spokeswoman Laura Nowacki, whose daughter survived the shooting, spoke about how crucial it would be to reach that last, symbolic mile marker. 

"We're going to sprint like we ran that day to get to our children," Nowacki said, "and we're going to fly like those little kids flew to get out of that horror and to get to the firehouse, and we're just going to let it all out and run for the freedom and that full on love of life that those kids had."

A 63-year-old man burned in his car outside a Long Beach 7-Eleven, possibly as retribution for spurning a homeless man, has died.

The victim, whose was identified as Jerry Payne of Long Beach, died about 2 a.m. Monday at the hospital, according to the Long Beach Police Department.

Raymond Sean Clark, a 38-year-old homeless man, was arrested on suspicion of throwing a flammable substance into the victim's car outside the convenience store.

"The suspect … will be re-booked for murder and a new bail has yet to be determined. Detectives still anticipate presenting the case to the District Attorney's Office within this week," according to a statement from police.

The attack happened Friday about 5:15 p.m. at the 7-Eleven store located near the intersection of Clark Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway.

Detectives have not established a motive in the alleged crime, but a witness told NBC4 the victim refused to give money to the panhandler. A store owner said the man has been seen in the area before and reported for loitering.

Anyone with information about the incident was asked to call detectives at 562-570-7244.

When the bomb blasts went off near the finish line at the Boston Marathon on Monday, former New England Patriots offensive lineman Joe Andruzzi, who was there for an event to raise money for cancer research, jumped into action.

A photo the New England Patriots circulating on Twitter shows Andruzzi carrying a woman after the blast.

Andruzzi tweeted that he and his wife are fine and issued a statement to ESPN, saying that the spotlight should not be on him. It should be on the first responders and runners, who he said are the true heroes. 

“The spotlight should remain firmly on the countless individuals -- first responders, medics, EMTs, runners who crossed the finish line and kept on running straight to give blood, and the countless civilians who did whatever they could to save lives. They were the true heroes. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by this senseless tragedy," the statement to ESPN says.

Andruzzi is a cancer survivor and president of the Joe Andruzzi Foundation, which raises money for cancer patients and their families and funds pediatric brain cancer research. The foundation had a team of runners in the marathon and had an event at Forum, on Boylston Street near the site of the second explosion.

Andruzzi has three brothers who are New York City firefighters and responded to the 9/11 attacks.

Andruzzi, a former Southern Connecticut State University All-American, was with the Patriots from 2000 to 2004 and contributed to three Super Bowl wins.  

Former @patriots player @andruzzi63 helping an injured woman after blasts.Pic from Getty Images. twitter.com/Tim_Caputo/sta…

— Tim Caputo (@Tim_Caputo) April 16, 2013

Our thoughts & prayers are with all the victims and their families impacted at today's Boston Marathon.TY to all our emergency personnel.

— Joe Andruzzi (@Andruzzi63) April 15, 2013

The family of a California teen who has become a national symbol for sexual assault and cyber bullying spoke publicly for the first time Monday to call for tougher cyber bullying laws and implore anyone who knows about their daughter's case to come forward.

"If this could happen to my daughter, this could happen to anyone," Sheila Pott said at a Monday news conference.

• VIDEO: Hear Sheila Pott speak 

Audrie Pott, 15, tried to commit suicide on Sept. 10, eight days after a Labor Day house party where she drank too much, passed out and was allegedly sexually assaulted by three fellow students at Saratoga High - boys she had been friends with since middle school. She died on Sept. 12 in the hospital, according to her family's lawsuit.

The 16-year-old boys were arrested Thursday on sexual assault charges and are expected to appear in a private juvenile detention hearing on Tuesday. NBC Bay Area was the first to report that news last week.

In a statement, their lawyers called much of the reporting "inaccurate" and distanced their clients from the alleged crime and Audrie's suicide. "Most disturbing is the attempt to link Audrey's [sic] suicide to the specific actions of these three boys," some of the statement read.

NBC Bay Area also learned on Monday after the news conference from attorney Bob Allard that there is a photograph of the girl with writing on her leg. At least one of the boys, Allard said, wrote on her saying something to the effect of  "---- was here." Allard has not seen the photograph, but it was described to him. He referened it in a wrongful death lawsuit he filed on Monday in Santa Clara County Superior Cout, which also alleges the parents of the house party are also responsible. 

• MORE: Teens Arrested for Sexual Assault After Victim's Suicide

Her parents didn't learn why their daughter killed herself until her memorial service, where some friends told them there was more to the story that they should look into. That's when they hired Allard's law firm to investigate.

• Click here to read lawsuit.

NBC Bay Area doesn't normally identify victims of sexual assault or suicide, but has used the girl’s name in this report with her parents’ permission. They are hoping the story will help prevent something like this from every happening to anyone else.

It was Sheila Pott's idea to use her daughter's name in such a public forum, which has now become a global story.

• VIDEO: Hear Larry Pott speak

She and her ex-husband, Larry Pott, and his wife, Lisa Pott, are working on creating a law to stiffen penalties in California for cyber bullying and to treat juveniles as adults in some cases of sexual assault. They said they are now in the research phase of what they hope will be one day called "Audrie's Law."

At the news conference, some new details into Audrie's story were revealed.

According to Allard, the Pott's family attorney,  the boys took "at least one photo" of the assault and showed it by email and text to at least ten people. He also alleged the boys harrassed her afterward and "took steps to cover up evidence." 

In her mind, Audrie felt as though "the whole school knew," Allard said at news conference, citing Audrie's Facebook page the family scoured after her death.

Allard made a point to say there was a direct cause-and-effect between the party and Audrie's suicide, where hours before she killed herself, she called her mother: "I can't do this anymore Mom. Pick me up." Allard and Pott's parents said they are calling on the District Attorney and the judge involved to try these teens as adults.

• MORE: Teens Arrested for Sexual Assault After Victim's Suicide

Her Facebook page, discovered by her parents only after her memorial service, also showed haunting comments the normally vivacious girl made in private messages to friends, which her family shared publicly. Some of the comments include statements such as:

"I have a reputation for a night I don't remember."

"The whole school is talking about it."

"My life is ruined."

"The boys who did this can die in a hole for all I care."

"I'm in hell."

Still, some evidence - including a cell phone that took the photograph - has not been turned over; at the conference, Lisa Pott said the family learned from the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office that one of the boys said he lost or broke it, and the family begged for more information.

• VIDEO: Hear Lisa Pott speak

Allard filed a 9-count wrongful death lawsuit against the boys and the homeowner where the Labor Day party took place, in large part, to compel some of this information to come forward. The complaint includes allegations of negligence, conspiracy, sexual battery, defamation and false imprisonment.

The school told the family administrators had "disciplined" the boys and expelled them from the football team, but not from school, Allard said, because the alleged assault did not take place at school.

Audrie's parents, on a website dedicated to her, described her as a gifted art student, a writer and a musician who played viola and piano, and she was part of a middle school band that played for Barack Obama's inauguration.

Her father teared up and got very emotional during one point of the news conference in describing his daughter, who used to be "so full of life."

"She was beautiful on the outside," Larry Pott said. "But she was more beautiful on the inside. she was sweet and kind. She was the wittiest and funniest kick in the pants you'd ever seen."

FOR MORE INFORMATION: The Audrie Pott Foundation has been set up to provide information about Audrie and efforts to raise money to provide art and music scholarships to Bay Area students.

In the four days since the Padres and Dodgers had their bench-clearing incident, tensions among the team's fan bases have not dissipated much.

Carlos Quentin may not be in the lineup (he's serving his 8-game suspension), but he's still Public Enemy #1 in Dodger Nation for charging the mound in an altercation that left Los Angeles starter (and former Cy Young Award winner) Zack Greinke with a broken collarbone.

See images from the game

Dodgers players have issued some not-so-thinly-veiled threats since the fracas.

"If he's smart, he'll take the suspension," said fellow starter Clayton Kershaw, another Cy Young winner. "Eight games is not nearly enough."

With comments like that, it's easy to think there will be retaliation. However, the Padres either don't think it's coming, or aren't going to admit it.

“Like all Dodgers – Padres game, I think there’s going to be some intensity to it," said Padres manager Bud Black. "But, I don’t suspect any problems. Our guys know what’s going on. You know, we’re all professionals. We’ll handle it that way.”

Starting pitcher Eric Stults, who takes the mound for the Padres against Chad Billingsley, agrees.

“I think there’s no reason not to just be professional, go about your business, and do your job," said Stults.

That's how the Padres see it. But, the guys in the other clubhouse lost a valuable teammate. They might not be so quick to return to the status quo. LA's guys might have a shorter fuse, more apt to think an inside pitch is sending a message instead of missing location. However, Stults is not going to abandon half of the plate. No pitcher would.

“I don’t think you can change anything," said Stults. "You’ve gotta stick with the game plan and try to put that out of your head. Obviously, what happened in the other game is unfortunate. It’s unfortunate that Zack got hurt. But, you can’t change your approach to the game and change the way you pitch. I have no beef with any of their guys so I’m just going to keep pitching my game and try to make quality pitches.”

Rookie infielder Jedd Gyorko found himself in the middle of a bench-clearer in his second week in the Big Leagues. His adrenaline is already spiked just being here. But he agrees, Monday night's meeting will simply be number 13 of 162.

“It’s just going to a regular game," said Gyorko. "I don’t think anything’s going to come out of it too much. Obviously we’re not going to worry about that stuff, and just go from there.”

The outside perception does not match the inside narrative. A Dodgers spokesperson told NBC 7 there's a lot more national interest in this game than there normally is for a Monday game in April.

Tonight's first pitch is a 7:10 p.m. at Dodgers Stadium.

Officials have prepared fire season by adding nearly 60 firefighters to CAL Fire San Diego. 

An extremely dry winter prompted the 58 additional hires, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL Fire).

Fifty-five seasonal firefighters were hired for Riverside County and 41 for San Bernardino County, CAL Fire spokesperson Daniel Berlant said Tuesday.

During the last month, the department has hired and trained seasonal firefighters to bolster its full-time firefighting staff.

These firefighters will work during the next few months when fire conditions are heightened by hotter, dry weather.

This week's hiring wave is only the first round; a total of 2,400 seasonal firefighters will temporarily join the CAL Fire ranks to help support the 4,300 permanent staff members, Berlant said.

The department planned to start staffing airtankers in the region on April 22.

CAL Fire also asks homeowners to be prepared for the fire season and have tips on their website on how to keep homes fire safe.

An Olympic marathon runner known to many San Diegans was in the area of the Boston Marathon finish line just minutes before the explosion and credits God with keeping him safe.

Two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon Monday, killing two people and injuring more than 70 others.

Get Full Coverage Here

"How can somebody have a bad heart to destroy people’s life or enjoyment or achievement,” asked local marathon runner Meb Keflezighi. “My heart goes to the people who passed away and the people who are affected by it.”

The 2012 Olympian was in the grand stand for four hours cheering racers on and left five minutes before the explosion happened.

“That was God watching for me personally because I got cold. The only reason I left is that I got cold,” he said. “Otherwise I would have sit there and would be the tragic moment of it.”

“I’m happy to be alive,” he said.

The San Diego High School alum would go on to win four NCAA titles, the New York City marathon, and Olympic Silver in 2004.

He tweeted to those impacted to “stay strong.” 

Keflezighi believes this will change security at marathon finish lines. Currently, racers have access to the area to visualize their finish. He said he could see marathons restricting access for racers and for families in response to the violence in Boston.
 

Local law enforcement and official agencies are keeping an open line of communication, but are not on high alert following an explosion at the Boston Marathon on Monday morning.

San Diego Police Department officials said they are not doing anything differently at this time.

Nico Melendez with Transportation Security Administration said it’s too early to know what happened and they are not changing security as of now.

An airport manager at Lindbergh Field said there are no changes.

Jan Caldwell with the San Diego Sheriff's Department said they are in communication with other law enforcement agencies, but there is nothing specific currently being activated.

Check back for updates on this story.

After a pair of explosions rocked the Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring more than 150, millions took to social media to look for loved ones, let friends and family know they were OK, and to express sympathies for victims.

On Facebook, two disparate voices carried the day: the beloved children's TV host Mr. Rogers, who died in 2003, and comedian Patton Oswalt.

A black-and-white photo of a smiling Mr. Rogers made the rounds, with the caption, "When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.'"

Oswalt, a man best known for a wit that can be as merciless as it is acerbic, offered a reminder of the prevalence of good, one that took Rogers' point a step further:

You watch the videos of the carnage and there are people running TOWARDS the destruction to help out… This is a giant planet and we're lucky to live on it but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in awhile, the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled and they're pointed towards darkness. 

But the vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus... This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We'd have eaten ourselves alive long ago. 

So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, "The good outnumber you, and we always will."

In addition to sharing these messages, many on Facebook changed their cover photo to a picture of the Boston skyline, and still others switched out their profile photo for the iconic "B" logo of the Boston Red Sox, or some other similar show of support.

Close to 50,000 Facebook users have joined a "virtual run" event that asks people to "run (or walk) any distance, anywhere and at anytime" to show solidarity in the running community.

NBC correspondent Ann Curry launched a new hashtag #26Acts2, which is an update to #26Acts - a Twitter call to arms for random acts of kindness in the wake of the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

A piece by Bruce Schneier of The Atlantic in which he implored readers to "Refuse to be terrorized," bore a headline that included the phrase "Keep Calm Carry On." Originally part of a 1939 propaganda campaign in England meant to boost morale, the phrase has of late developed something of a kitsch cool about it, but yesterday and today it was repeated with sincerity time and again on Twitter.

In the moments after the explosions, the Twitterverse was quickly flooded with the hashtag #prayforboston and some variation on the message, "You go to a movie, You get shot, You go to school, You get shot, You go to a marathon, You get bombed."

The terror in Boston also brought out attention-seeking charlatans. Twitter has already suspended a fake account, @_BostonMarathon, which claimed it would donate $1 to victims for each retweet.

But Google offered a stark counterpoint to fake Twitter accounts by establishing a "Person Finder" for the Boston Marathon, a site where people can look for or post information about loved ones. As of Tuesday morning, it was tracking more than 5,200 records.

A fire broke out in a drainage ditch in Chula Vista on Tuesday morning, according to officials.

The incident happened around 10:30 a.m. at 470 Oaklawn Ave. and firefighters were able to extinguish the flames within 5 minutes.

No injuries or major damage has been reported.

A Lemon Grove tax preparer is accused of using customer Social Security numbers to get $1 million in fraudulent refunds from the IRS.

Cynthia Lozano, 31, faces 33 counts including identity theft and wire and mail fraud according to federal prosecutors.

Lozano ran the business "CLozano Income Taxes" in Spring Valley since 2010. She allegedly targeted 200 victims by filing fake 1040 forms in their names.

She was arrested in Phoenix, Ariz. Monday where prosecutors say she used the money she received from the IRS to buy 20 properties.

They allege that she used “a bewildering maze of bank accounts.”

If convicted on all charges, Lozano could face up to 47 years in custody and $750,000 in fines as well as forfeiture of the properties purchased with the illegal funds.

Law enforcement officials in Boston on Tuesday asked the public to bring forward any photos or videos captured at Monday’s marathon that may help to piece together the mystery of who is behind one of the first large-scale domestic terrorist attacks since 9/11.

News organizations, too, relied heavily on media from bystanders who captured the moment the first explosion blew windows from storefronts and knocked runners approaching the finish line to the ground -- like this raw video from Runner Jennifer Treacy that showed a blast of white smoke spilling into the race route.

Much has changed since the 9/11 attacks, when the public relied heavily on mainstream news reports for most of their information and investigators couldn’t count on the abundance of high-quality images from the scenes of the attack that they now often solicit. Over the last decade, the use of social media and smartphones has played an increasingly important role in both the delivery of information as a crisis unfolds and the investigation that follows.

“It seems like there’s a new platform everyday,” said Jim Lukaszewski, a crisis management and media consultant, who’s lectured on the media and terrorism. “I think clearly social media is and will continue to play an extraordinarily important role in events like this, whether it’s the Carnival disaster or — name your disaster.”

In February, when a fire in the engine room of the Carnival Triumph blew out power through much of the ship, stranding thousands of passengers at sea, stories of conditions on board leaked out through a stream of photos and videos shared online via smartphones. When a much graver tragedy stuck Newtown, Conn. months earlier, both the flow of information between the public and law enforcement officials, as well as the flow of condolences to the devastated community—the Acts of Kindness twitter campaign, for example—moved swiftly through the web.

In the case of the Boston attack, where so many people were on hand to witness an elite sporting event, cameras at the ready, investigators have the promise of an immense amount of information to work with.

Those who post online any information that can be seen as relevant to the investigation, Lukaszewski speculated, may even get a visit from the FBI.

“One thing is clear from [Monday morning’s police] press conference: every stone will be unturned.”

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

In addition to providing resources to the law enforcement community, social media has given those directly touched by tragedy resources to immediately solve problems on the ground. Monday, Google launched People Finder, an online message board that it developed after the 2010 Haiti earthquake and used again in the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. As of Tuesday afternoon, about 5,400 records pertaining to the Boston attack had been entered to the database.

With cell phone service overwhelmed, as it was in the wake of 9/11, people trying to connect had the added options of sending messages via Facebook and other platforms. Stories abounded on cable television and online about marathon runners telling their loved ones they were okay via Facebook, where marathon organizers first posted news of two explosions.

Eleven years ago, before these tools were available, many people looking for their loved ones after the Twin Towers were attacked resorted to posting flyers on walls and street lights, requesting anyone with information to call.

Lee Ielpi, the president and co-founder of the 9/11 Families' Association first got word of the 2001 attack from his son, a firefighter who died at Ground Zero, who called to let him know about the first reports coming across an internal radio. Ielpi recalled that, at the time, many people were relying on direct phone calls to gather information. He sees the new avenues of information sharing that have developed since then as a double-edged sword.

"People get it all on their phones, which in a sense is good," he said. "People have to understand when there's an attack." But he adds that the new media also spreads anxiety, particularly before concrete details are available.

What struck Ielpi, even more than the speed with which information traveled about the Boston blasts, was the speed with which law enforcement officials sprung into action, as if thoughts of terrorism were at the front of their minds.

"It's interesting, watching the uniformed people, how quickly they react to it now," he said, pointing out that in certain photos you can see that police had their weapons drawn in the seconds after the blast.

"It's a bit scary to think about it, but this is the way we have to live now," he said. "We have to be prepared for these events."