After more than two decades of planning, a new regional headquarters for the Navy looks a lot closer to taking shape on San Diego's bayfront.

A billion-dollar commercial complex on Broadway called "Pacific Gateway" would replace eight blocks of aging buildings that civic leaders argue should not be on such scenic property.

On Wednesday, a federal appeals court rejected a legal challenge brought by the civic group San Diego Navy Broadway Coalition. The group argued the Navy had not adequately considered the threat of a terrorist attack when designing the new complex. In a 2-1 vote, the federal appeals court ruled in favor of developers. 

Attorney Cory Briggs told KPBS he planned to seek a rehearing on the issue and will file additional actions in state court to stop the project. 

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Consulting developer Perry Dealy discussed the project recently on "Politically Speaking."

"The scale of the project and all the pedestrian amenities are going to make it so much more livable. So much more attractive. The downtown residents love it," Dealy said adding the project has received endorsements from the Chamber, the Downtown San Diego Partnership and the EDC.

The development comes amid booming construction on the downtown San Diego skyline. The area will soon include a Ritz Carlton hotel.

The project is slated to be finished in winter 2017. 

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Montgomery Sibley, one of the attorneys in the nearly decade-old “D.C. Madam” scandal that rocked the nation's capital, vowed to release records that could have a ripple effect on the 2016 presidential election.

Deborah Jeane Palfrey ran a high-profile escort service that was exposed in 2007. Sibley filed an application with the Supreme Court this week, asking to allow him to release records from the escort service that has names and phone numbers that have been tied up due to a restraining order. 

"Those records contain information relevant to the 2016 presidential election," Sibley said in an online video posted last month, adding the records include some 800 client names and 5000 phone numbers. In the video, he asked for donations for his mounting legal fees after lower courts denied his requests. 

The scandal brought down Louisiana Gov. David Vitter who was linked to the prostitution ring. Palfrey committed suicide in 2008 after she was convicted of racketeering and other offenses. 

Authorities have identified an Illinois man as the gunman who fatally shot a Virginia state trooper at a bus station in Richmond.

State police identified the man Friday as 34-year-old James Brown III of Aurora, Illinois.

Trooper Chad P. Dermyer was shot while troopers were conducting narcotics training in the Greyhound bus station Thursday. As part of their training, they dispersed through the station to talk to people. Dermyer was talking to Brown when Brown allegedly pulled out a handgun.

Police said Brown shot Dermyer several times before he was killed by two other troopers.

Police have not said what motivated the shooting but said Brown had a history of criminal charges. There are no indications the shooting was an act of terrorism, according to police.

Authorities said two women were also injured in the shooting but are expected to recover. One is a member of the Bingham University track team who was heading to a meet at William & Mary.

Greyhound evacuated the station, which is across the street from Richmond's minor league baseball stadium, and directed inbound buses to its Richmond garage location. Counselors were available for employees and customers who were at the station at the time.

The station is scheduled to reopen at 1 p.m. Friday. Service will resume at 2 p.m.

The method used by the FBI to open the iPhone of San Bernardino gunman Syed Rizwan Farook is unlikely to help police open hundreds of other iPhones that may contain evidence of a crime, NBC News reported Thursday.

On Monday, the Justice Department said it "successfully accessed the data stored on Farook's iPhone," using a method devised by an outside third party.

"We are now able to unlock that iPhone without compromising any information on the phone," said Eileen Decker, the U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles.

But for both technical and legal reasons, the FBI is unlikely to use the same method to unlock other electronic devices sitting unopened in state and local crime labs around the nation.

On Wednesday, for example, prosecutors in Arkansas said they asked the FBI to help open an iPhone 6 and an iPod belonging to defendants in a murder case.  

Three people are suing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, claiming they were subjected to racial slurs at one of his rallies in Kentucky, NBC News reported.

They allege he encourages an atmosphere of violence.

The suit was filed Thursday on behalf of three protesters seen being pushed by angry crowd members at a March 1 Louisville, Kentucky, rally.

"Each time he said 'get them out,' Trump intended for his supporters to use unwanted, harmful physical violence to remove protesters," the suit reads.

Violence at Trump rallies, at least two of which involved audience members sucker punching protesters as they were being led away, have raised questions about whether the Republican front-runner's speeches and tone are inciting supporters. Trump has denied that he condones violence.

An Arab-American family claims it was racially profiled and kicked off a United Airlines flight at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, but the airline says the family was rebooked on a later flight over concerns about a child’s safety seat.

In a Facebook post that has been shared nearly 20,000 times, Eaman-Amy Saad Shebley wrote she and her family were on a plane heading to Washington, D.C., when they were asked to leave the aircraft. The post includes two videos of the incident.

In one clip, a woman identified by NBC affiliate WDIV as a flight attendant says to the family, "We’re going to ask that you step off the aircraft with all your belongings." A man asks why, and the flight attendant replies, "Because they are investigating."

A man WDIV identifies as the pilot says in a second video the family must leave the plane because "it is a safety of flight issue."

Shebley claimed in the post her family was profiled for "no reason [other] than how we look," adding that her three kids "are too young to have experienced this."

A spokesperson for the airline sent the following emailed statement:

"We reached out to the family following their flight on March 20 to discuss their concerns. They were originally scheduled to fly on SkyWest 5811, operating as United Express from Chicago O’Hare to Washington, D.C., but we rebooked them on a later flight because of concerns about their child’s safety seat, which did not comply with federal safety regulations. Both United and SkyWest hold our employees to the highest standards of professionalism and have zero tolerance for discrimination."

When asked for further comment, Shebley referred NBC Chicago to the Chicago branch of the Council on American Islamic Relations, which has yet to respond to inquiries.

An experienced San Diego diver who was helping with the exploration of the narrow underwater passageways that radiate from a well-known swimming hole in eastern New Mexico has died, authorities confirmed Thursday.

The initial investigation suggests 43-year-old Shane Thompson's death below the Blue Hole, a tourist destination in the community of Santa Rosa, was an accidental drowning.

"He's done literally thousands of operations," good friend Robert Butler told NBC 7. "Anything from running lines to shore in super rough conditions where his entry point was limited, to diving in couple hundred feet of water...When he wasn't working he was diving, when he wasn't diving he was studying about diving or teaching diving."

Police Chief Jude Gallegos said Thompson was among 10 or so people from the ADM Exploration Foundation who were at Blue Hole for a multiple-day exploration. The group had been working on surveying the underwater cave system since 2013.

Thompson dove into Blue Hole on March 26 with another experienced diver, Mike Young, Gallegos said. They planned to have Young enter part of the cave system while Thompson stayed outside in a safety role.

Instead of staying outside, Thompson entered, Gallegos said. "Apparently something went horribly wrong, and he started to panic," the chief said.

The divers were about 160 feet below the surface when the incident happened.

"Whatever he did in his mind was the best solution to what he thought was going to get him out of that situation," Butler explained. "I know the partner he was with was every bit as good as Shane was. I couldn't fathom a brash mistake being made."

It still was unclear Thursday what went wrong. It could be weeks before autopsy results are available, the state Office of the Medical Investigator said.

No more exploration is planned of the underwater cave system at Blue Hole, said Curt Bowen, president of the exploration foundation.

"The cave system below is walled out. That means there is no cave passage left to explore," he said in an email. "We mapped everything we could fit through, and it ended in a tight rock breakdown at a depth of 194 feet."

Because of the extreme environment within the cave system, the city accepted the group's recommendation that the cave system remain off-limits to the public. The divers covered and secured the grate at the bottom of the bell-shaped swimming hole to prevent untrained divers from gaining access.

Family members said Thursday they were struggling with Thompson's death, but they acknowledged that diving was what he loved to do and that he had earned numerous certifications during his lifetime.

"The diving community lost an icon," Butler said. "You wouldn't even know where to start to appreciate how important he was."

A Navy veteran, Thompson began diving at a young age while growing up in the Florida Keys. After earning his first certification, he went to work for an underwater construction company and later started numerous diving businesses that focused on everything from boat maintenance to salvage work and training.

 Last year, Thompson rediscovered the wreckage of the B-36 "Peacemaker" bomber that had crashed in 1952 near Mission Beach. A video posted by Thompson's San Diego-based Advanced Underwater Training business shows his flashlight scanning the engines and other corroded pieces of the plane as he makes his way through the darkness more than 250 feet below the surface.

In New Mexico, the Blue Hole has been an attraction for centuries. Legend has it that outlaw Billy the Kid would take a dip at the swimming hole before heading into Santa Rosa.

The artesian spring, tucked into a rock outcropping, pumps out about 3,000 gallons per minute. The steady flow results in crystal clear conditions that have attracted divers from around the world.

Beyond the grate, Gallegos described the cave system as "a maze -- kind of looks like intestines."

In the coming weeks, Bowen said he plans to complete a three-dimensional map that will illustrate the entire Blue Hole system.

The caves have been sealed off since 1976, when two divers in training died after getting separated from their classmates. New Mexico State Police divers quickly found one of the bodies, but it took several weeks to find the other. In the process, police divers made a crude map of some of the unexplored passages.

At that time, one of the divers descended and found himself at the edge of an underwater cliff. His powerful flashlight wasn't enough to see the cave wall across from him or the bottom, sparking only more curiosity.

In 2013, divers with the ADM Exploration Foundation attempted an expedition, but they had little success getting past the tons of rock the city dumped onto the grate to keep people out.

Divers with the foundation returned in 2015 for more excavation work and were able to reach a depth of 160 feet.  They returned in late March to continue surveying.

Divers from around the region flock to Blue Hole for fun and certification, as it's one of the best diving spots in the American Southwest. About 8,000 dive permits are sold each year.
 

Doug Laux, a steelworker's son from Indiana who speaks Pashto, ran a network of spies in Afghanistan during part of his eight-year post as a CIA operative, an experience he chronicles in a memoir to be published Tuesday.

"Left of Boom" is the first inside account by a front-line CIA counter-terrorism operator of the post 9/11 generation. Laux's story sheds new light on the debate over the Obama administration's Syria policy and offers new insights into how the CIA goes about the business of war zone espionage, according to NBC News. 

"Fear runs deep through the agency and inhabits every fiber of its soul," he writes. At the same time, he credits the CIA with giving him the time and resources to thwart a Taliban bombing network that was killing American troops.

The CIA, which reviewed and censored Laux's book, declined to comment, but a former senior intelligence official cautioned that field operatives like Laux rarely see the big picture. Laux's first-ever television interview will air Saturday on "NBC Nightly News."

Staff at the VA Medical Center in San Diego manipulated wait time data to make it appear veteran patients received mental health care more quickly than they actually did, according to an investigation done by the Veteran Affairs Office of the Inspector General.

The investigation launched in 2014 after two VA Medical Center employees called the OIG office to report the misconduct. This followed national coverage of a wait time scandal in Phoenix where 35 veterans died while waiting for VA care.

The Inspector General’s investigation, released Thursday, uncovered that medical schedulers were changing the date veteran patients requested to make it look like the department had shorter wait times. They also found many appointments were actually cancelled.

“I basically had been diagnosed with ADHD and PTSD so I was getting some [help at the VA,]” Army vet Debra Eggeman-Steffen explained. “Unfortunately, I haven’t been getting anything from the VA in a long time, like I said because of a lot of the problems that the VA was causing me.”

After waiting for mental health services for six months, another veteran became so frustrated that he tried to kill himself the report revealed.

Antonio De La Rosa, a Marine Corps veteran who did two tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, agreed there’s a huge problem.

“There’s so many veterans here and with the issues going on veterans are committing suicide and we need to have more help and it probably wouldn’t happen,” De La Rosa told NBC 7. “I know there are a lot of programs out there where it’s actually useful to veterans because a lot of veterans are afraid to admit that they have an issue, one or two, they’re just embarrassed…The wait time there could be a whole lot better. The programs there could be a whole lot better.”

“There’s some times when I have to go to the VA and I don’t even want to go because I’m like, you know what, they’re not going to do anything for me,” he said. “There’s tons of times when I need to go and I just don’t go because I feel like it’s pointless.”

The Inspector General reviewed scheduling data for fiscal years 2012 and 2013, and as a result Ray Deal, Deputy Chief for Health Administration Service for the VA, said actions have been taken to make sure appointments are given in a timely manner.

“These folks who were found in the reports to be working outside of the directive itself, we have absolutely conducted personnel action against them,” Deal said. “I’m not free to disclose what that is, but these folks were held accountable.”

The number of schedulers has also been reduced and each scheduler is now audited on a weekly basis.

The Inspector General’s report only focused on the mental health department of the VA.

San Diego Representative Scott Peters released a statement on the investigation Thursday. It reads:

“I’m disappointed and angry to learn the very type of VA malfeasance that I’ve railed against, that I’ve fought to eradicate, was happening here in San Diego. I’m particularly saddened to hear that another horrible wait time cover up contributed to a suicide attempt – which shows how desperately this veteran needed the help that was delayed by someone’s desire to put a sunny face on a dark problem.

“Congress was rightly shocked into action after learning of ‘schedule fixing’ most notably in Phoenix but also in other regions. How anyone could think it was better to cover up that veterans in need weren’t getting the care they’d earned, rather than speak up, is appalling and an egregious abuse of trust."

“I know VASDHS has acted to address these problems, and I commend them for taking the findings and recommendations made by the inspector general seriously. I will, however, follow up with Sec. McDonald to find out how it is that any of the people found responsible still have a job at the VA.”
 

A Hornblower harbor cruise ship smashed into the walkway along San Diego's Embarcadero while docking on Thursday afternoon, jolting tourists on board and sending three people to the hospital.

A photo taken by a witness shows the ship crushing the walkway of the Embarcadero. The incident happened just before 1 p.m. in the area of North Harbor Drive and Broadway.

San Diego fire officials said seven people suffered minor injuries in the incident; four people were able to leave the boat on their own and another three were taken to the hospital.

All those injured are believed to have minor injuries, such as bumps, bruises and some pain, officials said.

Passengers on board the Adventure Hornblower, a 150-foot-long yacht, waited for two hours to get off the ship, as a tugboat worked to pull the vessel away from the pier.

Dozens were allowed off the boat just before 4 p.m., many of whom appeared stunned from the accident.

A tourist from Wisconsin said he was standing on the walkway, waiting to get on the Hornblower, when suddenly he realized something was wrong when the boat didn't slow as it was docking.

“We realized that it was coming in really hard and really fast," said Pete Sinsky of Kenosha, Wisconsin. "And the next thing we know, we are all just scrambling because the boat just crashes into the pier.”

Sinsky said his family then decided not to take the cruise ship tour on Thursday.

Fire officials said an apparent mechanical malfunction prevented the ship from stopping in time.

Attempts to reach Hornblower Cruises on Thursday afternoon were not immediately successful.

According to the Hornblower's website, the Adventure Hornblower seats 300 passengers and is certified for bay tours surrounding San Diego's skyline and for dolphin and whale watching.

The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating what caused the malfunction. Meanwhile, there is no timeline for when the Adventure Hornblower will be repaired and providing bay cruises.

Planned lessons on LGBT tolerance at a San Francisco Bay Area middle school have sparked outrage from parents who call the material inappropriate or insensitive to "those with religious, cultural and personal convictions not in agreement or acceptance with the promotional campaign."

Some parents whose children attend Windemere Ranch Middle School in San Ramon have launched a petition seeking to have the lessons limited to one day. Parents are also threatening a student walkout April 11, the day lessons are set to begin, if changes are not made.

"Inequalities in such efforts are evident when comparing the time, resources and intensity devoted to lessons, activities, and promotional fanfare dedicated to the acceptance of the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, and Transgender group while ignoring acceptance and promotion of values represented in other diverse groups within our community," the petition reads.

The lessons, set up by a student leadership group, are part of the school's second annual LGBT awareness week, which will feature lessons on safety and respect for all students with a specific focus on the LGBTQ community, the San Ramon Unified School District said.

The week leads up to the national Day of Silence — April 15 — meant to raise awareness of "the silencing effect of anti-LGBT bullying, harassment and discrimination," according to the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.

Some parents opposed to the lessons do not want a full week devoted to the topic.

"There is a time for everything in life. I don't think Middle school is the right time to expose kids to all this stuff," one parent wrote on the petition page.

Another parent commented: "This is a discriminatory action fully biased in support of a specific group and not taking consideration the diversity and religious views of our community."

In response to the backlash, students were allowed to opt out of lessons, which the principal revised and sent home to parents for review, according to the school district.

Parents are scheduled to meet with district officials on Friday.

School district spokeswoman Elizabeth Graswich on Thursday provided the following statement:

During the week of April 11, Windemere Ranch Middle School has planned a week of lessons around the theme of “acceptance.” The idea came from the school’s leadership students who wanted to plan lessons to address acceptance and respect for all leading up to the National Day of Silence on Friday, April 15. The lessons are on safety and respect for all students with a specific focus on the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender, Questioning) community.

This is the second year in a row that the Leadership students have created and presented lessons on this theme. The presentations are part of the student leadership program. Throughout the year, each week, leadership students present “character education” lessons to their fellow-students. Other topics that they students have addressed include bullying, “Words Matter Week” and “Holocaust Teaching Week.”

This week, the principal, Dave Bolin, shared the intended lessons for the Week of April 11 with all the parents, in order to provide them an opportunity to review the lessons and choose to opt their children out. This is part of a common practice to provide parents an opportunity to review and opt out of lessons of a sensitive nature. Another example would be sexual education lessons.

Since sending the lessons to parents, the principal has received some feedback that has led to revisions to the lesson plans. A follow-up email was sent to parents today with the revised lessons for parents to review and provide input.

Eater San Diego shares the top stories of the week from San Diego’s food and drink scene, including a survey of Javier Plascencia's restaurants on both sides of the border, plus vital new details on Brian Malarkey’s newest eatery in Little Italy.

Surveying Javier Plascencia's Budding Restaurant Empire
Eater's national dining critic Bill Addison eats on both sides of the border to review the growing restaurant empire of Chef Javier Plascencia. From San Diego's buzzy Bracero to Tijuana's elegant Mision 19, Plascencia has become the first name in showcasing Baja cuisine.

New Details on Brian Malarkey's New Restaurant in Little Italy
Brian Malarkey branches out from his “Fabric of Social Dining” restaurants – Searsucker and Herringbone – for a new concept in Little Italy. Herb & Wood is slated to open in April with a wood fire-fueled kitchen and a stunning indoor-outdoor design. We have the latest scoop on the project.

What to Eat at Petco Park, Home of the Padres
Here's a guide to all the new food and drink in the ballpark, just in time for opening day on April 4. This year, Philly cheesesteak specialists Gaglione Brothers are added to the lineup, along with Brigantine Seafood & Oyster Bar, North County's Board & Brew, and more.

Bellamy's Restaurant Unveils Grand Redesign in Escondido
The fine dining home of French master chef Patrick Ponsaty reveals its new look after a major facelift to the dining room and bar. The chef, who will be opening an eponymous restaurant with Bellamy's owners in Rancho Santa Fe later this year, will soon launch a chef's tasting menu at his Escondido farm-to-table restaurant.

Greek Frozen Yogurt Concept Launch First West Coast Store
Chillbox Greek Frozen Yogurt will soft open its first West Coast location in San Diego's East Village this weekend, just steps from Petco Park. The concept, which originated in Greece and has shops all over the world, specializes in 100 percent all natural Greek frozen yogurt in flavors ranging from chocolate and strawberry to hazelnut praline.

A British delivery driver with connections to suspected ISIS fighters was convicted Friday of planning a "terrorist" attack against U.S. troops in England, NBC News reported.

Junead Khan, 25, planned to stage a traffic accident with American military personnel, then attack them with knives and potentially detonate a bomb, Britain's Metropolitan Police said. He allegedly discussed ways of carrying out the attack with an ISIS militant in Syria and was arrested in July. 

When police raided Khan's home, they found an ISIS-style black flag and a laptop containing an article from an al-Qaida magazine entitled "Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom," according to NBC News.

Khan and his 23-year-old uncle, Shazib Khan, were also convicted of preparing to join ISIS in Syria.

President Barack Obama will visit the University of Chicago Law School next Thursday to discuss his Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, with students and faculty.

During the trip, Obama will make his case for Garland and touch on the Senate’s constitutional responsibility to give a fair hearing to a qualified nominee, a White House source confirms.

Obama nominated the fellow Chicago native to the Supreme Court at a White House Rose Garden ceremony earlier this month.

Republican lawmakers are pushing to block Obama’s nomination until a new president is elected next year. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called Garland after he was nominated to inform him that the Senate would not move forward with the confirmation process.

"I simply ask Republicans in the Senate to give him a fair hearing, and then an up-or-down vote," Obama said during his nomination announcement. "If you don’t, then it will not only be an abdication of the Senate’s constitutional duty, it will indicate a process for nominating and confirming judges that is beyond repair."

Garland met with Illinois Republican Sen. Mark Kirk Tuesday and plans to visit with Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin next week.

"We need open-minded, rational, responsible people to… make sure the process works," Kirk told reporters in his Senate office prior to Tuesday’s meeting.

Obama taught constitutional law at the university for over a decade.  

A New Jersey couple who met as volunteer firefighters attracted a surprising response to their wedding announcement from the fire chief: a threat of suspension.

The couple, Paul Mellor and Danielle Szep, got well-wishes and "likes" after posting their announcement on Facebook. The announcement featured a clever display showing their names on the backs of their firefighter coats.

"We knew each other in high school but started dating through the fire department," Szep said. 

She added, "That's why it's part of our invitation."

So, Szep said they were stunned when Garfield Fire Chief James Kovacs Sr. told them on March 17 to remove their announcement immediately or face suspension because it violated department policies.

City officials later reversed the decision, after Szep had reluctantly deleted the announcement. She also deleted all other pictures related to the department, such as fundraisers and firefighters battling fires.

"I took it all down....I was very upset," she said.

According to the Bergen Record, which first reported the story, Mellor said during a recent city council meeting that he and Szep are proud to serve as volunteers and have shown their pride by posting "positive" pictures of department activities on Facebook.

"It's unfair that James Kovacs Sr. takes that right away from me and other members of the department who volunteer their time and effort and feel that they have to walk on eggshells and constantly be afraid of suspension," he said.

When contacted by the Record, Kovacs said the new social media policy was "a work in progress and nothing has been finalized yet."

City officials later told NBC 4 New York that they determined that the announcement didn't violate policy and that the couple could use the fire coats in their announcement.

Mayor Tana Raymond said that Szep and Mellor's invitation is something the city should endorse.

"For a young couple to pick the fact that they are firefighters for the theme of their wedding is flattering to the city and firefighters everywhere and we should endorse it," Raymond said.

Mellor said he and Szep are planning a "traditional fire department wedding" on May 21 that involves riding in a fire truck and wearing the coats shown in their Facebook announcement.

Szep said she was happy that she was able to be able to use her invitation again. 

"We made a difference, she said. 

Police are investigating after a father jumped onto the mirror of a moving school bus in Boston's Mattapan neighborhood and the driver kept going.

James Burdett says he was trying to get his young daughter off the bus, but the driver didn't stop.

"I was scared, my 5-year-old daughter's screaming at him, 'that's my dad, that's my dad,' and he still didn't care," said Burdett.

The father says he was banging on the bus door trying to get the driver to stop.

"He hit me in my leg, and after that I just grabbed on," said Burdett. if I didn't grab on he was going to run over me, he just kept going," said Burdett.

Police were called to the scene around 4:40 p.m. The students were let off the bus and Burdett went to the hospital to be treated for bumps and bruises.

"He did not stop the bus because at the time he felt as though it was not a safe environment for the children on the bus and himself," the driver claimed, according to a police report.

But Burdett's mother says the same driver, who had 10 years experience but was new to the route, refused to stop at the bus stop the day before, possibly confused by the fact that there are two bus stops at both places that Woodbole Avenue and Woodruff Way intersect.

"We're the same parents that chased the bus down the day before, so there's no way that he wouldn't have known," said the child's grandmother, Carmen Nieves. "I filed a complaint and I did let them know what took place, and I thought that things would be rectified, and it wasn't."

Boston Public Schools said it "does not tolerate any kind of behavior that places people's lives in danger or compromises public safety. [The contractor that operates the district's buses] immediately removed the driver from service and placed him on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation."

"BPS is cooperating fully with the Boston Police Department, which responded to the incident and is currently investigating the matter," the district added in a statement.

"I think honestly they should just get rid of him," said Burdett. "Ten plus years, he understands what he's doing."

"I think he should be fired, I believe he should be fired," said Nieves.

Boston Police continue to investigate to determine if any charges will be filed.

A Boston Public Schools official says there were five children on the bus at the time of the incident and counseling was made available to them Friday.

Family, friends and community members gathered in Temecula Friday to pay their respects to a U.S. Marine killed in a rocket attack in Iraq last month.

Staff Sgt. Louis F. Cardin died in Iraq on March 19 from wounds suffered when his unit was attacked with rocket fire at a base in northern Iraq. He was serving in Operation Inherent Resolve, which is the military's campaign against the Islamic State.

A closed-casket ceremony for the 27-year-old was held on the steps of the Civic Center. The ceremony included speeches from the mayor, members of congress, and a family representative who described the Marine as a genuine and reliable man.

"I would hear from marines, how they would call up Cardin at 3 in the morning for a ride back to base because somehow they were stranded and needed a safe ride home," said Manny Toldeo. "Without any delay, there he was, at the crack of dawn picking up a bunch of marines."

Cardin was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. He was a native of Riverside who moved to Temecula with his family, and graduated from Chaparral High School.

A private funeral will be held at Riverside National Cemetery on Saturday.

The last U.S. service member killed in Iraq was in October 2015.

A courageous San Diego girl who won her battle against Ewing Sarcoma earlier this year is fighting for her life once more after being diagnosed with leukemia.

Madison “Madi” Taylor, a 12-year-old Poway resident, was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma in March 2015. After more than 10 months of chemotherapy, the girl was declared cancer-free on Jan. 29.

But 12 days after beating cancer, things took a turn for the girl.

On Feb. 10, Madi was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) – a risk factor associated with the treatment of Ewing Sarcoma. Though the disease does impact some patients, it rarely appears within days of being declared cancer-free.

Madi now needs a bone marrow transplant, and her family is hoping the community can rally in support of the girl.

On Saturday, a Marrow Donor Registry Drive to benefit Madi will be held between 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. at the Creekside Plaza shopping center located at 13495 Poway Rd.

The girl’s family is asking people between the age of 18 to 44 to come out and donate marrow. The family says there is a chance Madi will look to the Be the Match registry from the marrow drive to find the donor who could ultimately save her life.

In January, as Madi entered her last cycle of chemo to send her Ewing Sarcoma into remission, her friends put together a “flash mob” to celebrate her recovery.

Outside Rady Children’s Hospital, where Madi was being treated, the girl’s firned surprised her by busting into a synchronized dance to one of Madi’s favorite songs, Silento’s “Whip/Nae Nae.”

Madi was known to dance with the nurses at Rady’s, so it came as no surprise when the girl happily joined in the dance, with her IV in tow, in one memorable moment.

Team Madi supporters are hoping the girl can “whip” disease once more.

As Madi began undergoing treatment one year ago, her family fell prey to a cancer charity CEO who stole money that had been raised on Madi’s behalf.

The Taylors were one of many families taken advantage of by WishWarriors CEO Brianna King. The Taylors agreed to be featured by the cancer charity to help the organization raise money for those battling the disease.

In exchange, Madi was supposed to receive some financial help with her medical bills.

However, after NBC 7 Investigates delved into the matter, the charity’s board realized all the money raised through WishWarriors had vanished. It was stolen by King for her personal use. King pleaded guilty to grand theft in September 2015.

To donate to Madi's fight, visit the Team Taylor website.

To get updates on Madi, visit the Team Taylor-Prayers for Madi page on Facebook.

Two paragliders got tangled together 100 feet in the air at the Torrey Pines Glider Port Friday afternoon just after 2 p.m. 

After the collision both pilots managed to deploy their back-up parachutes and pull off an emergency landing within seconds as they fell to the cliffs below.

“What's going through my mind? As soon as you collide I'm going to hit the cliff. That's what's going through my mind,” Dave Maples told NBC 7.

Maples, who survived the collision, was absolutely right.

They did hit the cliff. Maples said the other pilot was higher than him and she caught the wing on her left side. That's when the parachutes got tangled together.

As they began to spin they went down. The paragliders were stranded on the side of the cliff for a short amount of time afterwards before lifeguards came in from the bottom of the cliff and others from the top.

Rescuers helped the paragliders get their equipment together then escorted them to lifeguard trucks on the beach.

“Actually it was pretty calm. The other pilot threw her reserve first, then I threw mine right after her, and that's what slowed us down,” Maples explained.

Lifeguard Mike Cranston said the paragliders are lucky to have walked away from the incident. He told NBC 7 the pilot showed him his helmet and it didn't have a single scrape on it.

“It’s just amazing that they hit each other and they fell to the ground in a controlled emergency descent, they were not injured. We were expecting that this was going to be a bad one from the information we had and we are very happy to see that there are no injuries and nobody has to go to the hospital from this incident,” Cranston said.