A walk-on assistant football coach with Mar Vista High School has been arrested on suspicion of engaging in an ongoing sexual relationship with a freshman, a day after news broke of the arrest of a NJROTC instructor at the same school on similar allegations.

Edward Aaron Mendoza, 27, is accused of having an "ongoing inappropriate relationship" with a 9th grade student, San Diego County Sheriff’s officials said Tuesday.

"Detectives discovered Mendoza had fostered an ongoing relationship with the victim and engaged in sexual activity with her at school over a period of about six months," the department said in a statement.

The relationship came to light when the victim's father learned his daughter was talking to Mendoza on the phone for long periods of time. 

Mendoza was arrested at 2:30 p.m. outside his workplace in the City of Chula Vista, San Diego Sheriff's officials said. Child Abuse Detectives filed multiple counts of child molestation against Mendoza. 

Three days earlier, Martin Albert Gallegos, 48, a Navy Junior ROTC instructor at the Imperial Beach high school, was arrested. Gallegos was booked into San Diego Central Jail on five counts of sexual conduct with a minor, deputies said.

Authorities said there does not appear to be a nexus in that arrest and Tuesday's arrest. 

Investigators said that relationship had allegedly been going on for months and did not include intercourse.

A Sheriff’s School Resource Officer received a tip Friday that a teacher at the high school was in a relationship with a female student. That information led deputies to Gallegos.

District officials said Gallegos was a first-year substitute in the district. When district officials learned of his arrest, Gallegos was fired.

Mendoza will be booked into the San Diego Central Jail. 

Anyone with information about this case is asked to call the Sheriff's Child Abuse Unit at 858-974-2310. If you wish to remain anonymous call Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477 with information. You may be eligible for up to a $1,000 reward for information leading to a felony arrest.

A man exposed himself Tuesday to women studying inside one of the libraries on the campus of San Diego State University, police said.

The flasher approached two women who were studying on the fourth floor of Love Library at 11:35 p.m.

The women told police the man pulled down his pants and exposed his genitals and then fled the scene.

The women called police who searched the building but there were no arrests.

The suspect has been described as Hispanic or Caucasian in his early 20s, about 5-feet, 6-inches tall with light brown hair. Witnesses said the man was wearing a salmon-colored short sleeved shirt with white writing on the front, light blue jeans and black shoes.

Anyone with information can call Crime Stoppers (619) 235-8477 or contact campus police by sending an e-mail to police@mail.sdsu.edu or calling 619-594-1991.

An Arizona man found Tuesday lying face down on Interstate 8 in the East County told California Highway Patrol officers he was struck by a car moments before he died.

A passerby found the man on eastbound I-8 just west of Crestwood Road at approximately 10:10 p.m. and called 911. The man’s car was out of gas and parked nearby.

The man told CHP officers he had been struck by an unknown vehicle while walking on along the shoulder. Investigators believe the man was trying to reach the Golden Acorn Casino to purchase fuel.

Emergency personnel arrived and took the man to the Viejas Casino for air transport to a nearby hospital. The man was pronounced dead before he could be airlifted, CHP officers said.

The victim has been identified only as a 45-year-old man from Phoenix, Arizona.

Visibility was reduced to approximately 50 feet at the time of the incident due to dense fog, CHP investigators said.

Officers are looking for any information regarding the man’s death. The vehicle involved should have damage to the front, right side of the car.

Anyone with information should call the El Cajon Area CHP office at (619) 401-2000.

One person died Wednesday in a collision involving a big rig and an SUV on State Route 52 near Santee, according to San Diego Police. 

A Sig Alert has been issued for commuters traveling along westbound SR-52 near Mast Boulevard.

The tractor trailer was traveling eastbound on Mast Boulevard when it approached the westbound ramps of State Route 52. 

San Diego Police said a Toyota 4Runner was traveling at a high rate of speed on the exit ramp of SR-52. 

The SUV driver failed to stop for a red light, police said, and his vehicle struck the big rig. 

The SUV driver did not survive the crash. No one else was injured.

The off ramp from westbound SR-52 to Mast Boulevard has been closed until further notice.

Check back for updates on this breaking news story. 

A teenager was stabbed with scissors during a fight between girls at a Philadelphia school Wednesday morning, authorities said.

Officers and medics were called to Jay Cooke Junior High School along W. Loudon Street in Logan around 8:45 a.m after a girl was stabbed in her right shoulder and arm during a fight in a third-floor hallway, according to Philadelphia police.

Medics found the 14-year-old girl in a second-floor nurse's office at the K-8 school, said Philadelphia firefighters. Medics took the girl to nearby Einstein Medical Center in stable condition.

There has been no word on what led to the stabbing, but Philadelphia School District spokesman Fernando Gallard said the girls know each other.

"There has been a history between these two students before," said Gallard.

Police took a 14-year-old into custody and recovered the scissors used in the attack, said investigators. NBC10 cameras captured the girl being taken out of the school in handcuffs.

Concerned parents rushed to the school to check on their children after hearing about the fight that put the school on a temporary lockdown. The district planned to call all parents to let them know what happened.

Two Russian attack planes few dangerously close to a U.S. Navy destroyer on Monday and Tuesday, NBC News reported, citing defense officials.

The crew of the USS Donald Cook radioed the two Russian Su-24 attack planes, but the jets didn’t respond. U.S. official said the actions were "unsafe," "unprofessional" and among the "most aggressive" acts committed recently by Russia.

The planes created a "wake in the water" because they flew so close, according to the official, who confirmed the Cook was in international waters at the time of the incident. The planes were operating about 70 miles from the Russian province of Kaliningrad.

In October, Russian warplanes flew near the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier in the Sea of Japan and the Navy was forced to send U.S. fighter jets in response. 

Actor Robert De Niro defended the controversial anti-vaccine documentary "Vaxxed: From Cover-Up To Catastrophe" – which he pulled from this year's Tribeca Film Festival – while noting that he is not anti-vaccine, "but I want safe vaccines," NBC News reported.

"I think the movie is something that people should see," the Oscar winner said Wednesday in an interview on "Today." "There's a lot of things that are not said. I, as a parent of a child who has autism, am concerned. And I want to know the truth.

"Vaxxed" was originally set to screen Sunday, April 24th at the 15th annual Tribeca Film Festival, but was pulled after other filmmakers threatened to leave the fest. 

Scientists have repeatedly debunked many of the assertions De Niro makes in the interview. Decades of study have also shown no link at all to vaccines and autism, leaving scientists increasingly impatient with the refusal to accept their findings.

It was quite the wild ride for a cat that got stuck in the front fender of a car, unwittingly taking a trip from Mexico to Oceanside.

The Oceanside Fire Department posted video on its Facebook page showing firefighters rescuing the cat on March 21.

The person who alerted firefighters said he drove from Mexico to his home in Oceanside – which is approximately 54 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border -- apparently not knowing about the cat.

Loud meowing alerted him to the whiskered stowaway tucked beneath the vehicle.

A firefighter wearing gloves is seen in the video pulling the cat free from beneath the front fender of the car. The car then loudly meows and tries to dart away.

Fire officials said the kitty was taken to the humane society.

It wasn’t clear how exactly the cat got beneath the bumper.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has asked that a hate crime investigation be launched after someone accessed police radio frequencies numerous times over the last month and used racial slurs.

The most recent incident happened Tuesday, when someone interrupted an officer describing a shooting suspect and said "shoot the god---- n----- and get it over with," police confirmed.

The incident is not the first of its kind and the city said an investigation into the comments is ongoing. 

"The Office of Emergency Management and Communications and the Chicago Police Department, together with our federal partners, continue to investigate the unauthorized use of the City's radio frequencies that have occurred over the last month," the Office of Emergency Management and Communications said in a statement Wednesday. "The comments are absolutely unacceptable and we do not condone them nor the unauthorized use of the radio frequencies."

Officials said they do not believe the comments were made by a Chicago officer and it does not appear the comments come from a city-programmed radio.

"We have filed a complaint with the FCC regarding the transmissions and Mayor Emanuel has asked Cook County State's Attorney and U.S. Attorney for Northern Illinois to launch a hate crime investigation," OEMC said.

The police department began investigating similar incidents after racial slurs, including the n-word, were heard on police radio channels last month.

Audio from the calls revealed a man saying "typical f---ing n-----s" on the radio channel as a dispatcher and officer communicated. Another person on the radio also said, "All black lives matter man, f---ing n-----s."

At the time, Emanuel called the comments "absolutely unacceptable."

The incidents come as tensions between police and the city's black community continue to rise following the release of footage showing the fatal police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.

After undergoing renovations, a Bath & Body Works store in San Diego’s East County has reopened with the company’s “store within a store” concept – the first shop to try this in California. 

The Bath & Body Works at 9926 Mission Gorge Rd. in the Santee Trolley Square shopping center has been closed for the past two months. The store reopened on April 8 with a new look and new signage to accommodate a new concept: a “store within a store” for White Barn Candle Co., a home fragrance company with many locations on the East Coast.

According to Pamela White, senior economic development coordinator for the City of Santee, this is the first White Barn Candle "store within a store" inside a Bath & Body Works location in California.

White Barn Candle Co. is a product line that includes candles, room sprays and fragrance wall plugs for the home distributed through Bath & Body Works. The company transitioned to standalone stores in malls and shopping centers, most of which were next door to Bath & Body Works stores.

Now, the company has launched this new concept of housing its store within a Bath & Body Works shop.

Currently, according to the White Barn website, the company’s "store within a store" concept can be seen at a few locations across the U.S., including shops in McDonough, Georgia; St. Clairsville, Ohio; Spartanburg, South Carolina; and Lubbock, Texas.

Now, the Santee shop joins the list.

According to the Bath & Body Works website, White Barn Candle Co. products range in price from $6.50 for some fragrance wall plug refills to $22.50 for three-wick scented candles.

NBC 7 reached out to L Brands, the Ohio-based company that owns and operates Bath & Body Works across the world, to see if more “store within a store” concepts will be launched at existing San Diego County Bath & Body Works locations.

Point Loma High School was placed on lockdown on Wednesday morning for more than two hours after an unsubstantiated email threat.

School officials said they received an email threatening the school and the lockdown was implemented at about 8:15 a.m.

Police were sweeping the school at 9 a.m., as students were being told to shelter in place.

The school's principal sent out voicemail messages to parents, alerting them to what was described as an "unsubstantiated threat."

He said standard protocol calls for police to sweep the school and that students were safe in their classrooms with teachers.

By 10:30 a.m., students were given the "all clear" and the lockdown was lifted.

An argument over cab fare prompted a passenger to pull a gun on a taxi driver in La Mesa overnight, authorities confirmed.

Lt. Chad Bell, of the La Mesa Police Department (LMPD), said a passenger got into a verbal argument with a taxi driver around 2:20 a.m. Wednesday in the 5700 block of La Murray Boulevard.

The passenger, now identified as Armando Rivera, 36, did not want to pay his fare.

As the fight over the fare escalated, Rivera allegedly pulled out a gun and threatened to shoot the cab driver, Bell said. Without paying for his ride, Rivera exited the taxi and took off running.

No one, including the taxi driver, was injured, police said.

LMPD officers were called to the area. They launched a search for the suspect and, within a few minutes, police found Rivera hiding behind a utility box on Lake Murray Boulevard.

Rivera was arrested for robbery and booked into San Diego Central Jail. The firearm he allegedly used in the incident was not recovered, the LMPD said. Rivera is scheduled to appear in court Friday.

A driver who was not wearing his seat belt died Tuesday night after his truck hit a center median and guardrail on Interstate 5 near Camp Pendleton.

California Highway Patrol (CHP) Sgt. Curtis Martin said the deadly crash happened around 11:20 p.m. on northbound I-5 near Las Pulgas.

The driver – a man behind the wheel of a Ford F150 whose name has not yet been released – lost control of his truck and slammed into a center divider. Martin said the truck bounced off the divider, drifted across several lanes and then plowed into a K-rail wall.

The man was thrown out of the truck and died at the scene, Martin confirmed. Investigators soon learned the driver had not been wearing his seat belt.

“The seat belt was tied in a knot and was not used in this situation,” said Martin. “If he had been wearing his seat belt, he probably would’ve been fine.”

Martin said a passerby called 911 to report the wreck, but investigators are not sure if there were any witnesses to the collision. The investigation is ongoing.

No one else was inside the truck, officials said.

Due to the proximity to Camp Pendleton, Martin said fire and police officials from the base also responded to the scene of the crash to help.

Do you have itchy, watery eyes? Sneezing much? Maybe you’ve developed a headache?

Breezy conditions, coupled with usual spring bloom, have created high pollen and dust levels across Southern California. Unfortunately, it’s about to get worse, as higher winds roll through starting Thursday.

San Diego currently has a high 9.9 pollen count. As dry winds whip through the mountains and deserts Thursday, pollen counts will surge to very high 10.3.

Airborne allergens like pollen, mold, animal dander and dust are among the most common that can trigger reactions. When levels are high, even those that don’t typically suffer from allergies may feel the effects.

“You may have a headache. You may have itchy, watery eyes. You may notice yourself sneezing or coughing a lot,” said NBC 7’s Meteorologist Jodi Kodesh. “It could very well be due to the air outside.”

Kodesh calls this “headache weather.”

The National Weather Service has issued a High Wind Watch, ahead of strong winds expected to move in Thursday. Westerly winds of 25-35 mph are possible in the mountains and deserts, with isolated gusts in the 50-60 mph range possible in the wind-prone canyons. The Watch will be in effect from 5 am Thursday to 3 am Friday.

“The best relief would come in the form of rain,” said Kodesh. “But there is none in the forecast.”

Kodesh recommends keeping windows closed, when in the home, or driving. As clear as the air appears, it is carrying pollen and dust, as it travels across the county.

The San Diego Chargers point person on the push for a downtown stadium said Tuesday that, first and foremost, the team is moving full speed ahead with their initiative for a new downtown stadium-convention center. 

"We have no intention of withdrawing our ballot, we're locked and loaded, we've filed our petition, we've published it," said Fred Maas, special advisor to Chargers Chairman Dean Spanos. "We're in the process now of the waiting period."

Maas praised hoteliers for keeping an open mind on the tax and its potential rewards. 

Maas was speaking to NBC 7 San Diego at a mixer organized by the San Diego Press Club Tuesday night. 

“They’ve not made a decision yet, we respect that, we understand they're shouldering a large, most of the burden of financing this outside of the contributions of the team and league are making, so we're respecting that," Maas said. 

He declined to weigh in on the recent spat between City Attorney Jan Goldsmith and local lawyer Cory Briggs who is spearheading another initiative which could include a stadium. 

Goldsmith identified several potential red flags with the "Citizens Plan." 

Briggs called his remarks a calculated maneuver to disenfranchise the public. 

The Chargers don't think they have to pick sides, because they say they're staying put with their plan. 

The team can start collecting signatures on April 23 but Briggs says the San Diego Tourism Marketing District has already agreed to throw its support behind his plan. If true, Briggs said the move would essentially kill the Chargers' downtown stadium proposal.

"I take issue with those folks who've never been through the process and this gloom and doom scenario that just isn't born out in the facts," Maas said.  

"If you're a resident and voter in the city of San Diego and you don't stay in a hotel room in the city of SD, you'll never pay a dime for this convention center stadium facility we're proposing downtown," Maas said. 

Police are actively searching for a second suspect wanted in connection with a man's stabbing death in National City over the weekend. 

Eduardo Ortego Jr., 25, of San Diego, was found on the east sidewalk of the 200 block of North Highland Avenue Saturday night, National City police (NCPD) officers said. He was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead in the early hours of Sunday morning. 

Police arrested a 34-year-old suspect in the case shortly after. In their interviews with him, he identified a second suspect, Enrique Cruz Pompa, said Lt. Robert Rounds.

Authorities spotted what they believed to be his white Chevy Tuesday night and pursued the suspect, following it down side streets until they found it abandoned, left unoccupied and veered onto someone's property, Rounds said. 

The two occupants inside bolted, running eastbound through a ravine. 

It was then police began a yard-to-yard search with the help of a helicopter. The suspects escaped the containment area, police said, and they have not been able to find them since. 

The victim did not have any ties to gangs, police said, but the suspects are gang members. Rounds said the homicide is gang related. 

Ortego Jr. leaves behind two children and a family in the area. 

The investigation is ongoing. 

Feast or Famine. Jekyll or Hyde. Tons of runs or next to nothing. 

Right now there’s no in between for the San Diego Padres offense. And other than those three days at Coors Field, the Padres are struggling to score.

Philadelphia won 2-1 and shut-out the visitors for the first eight innings. 

A RBI single by Brett Wallace helped San Diego avoid what would have been the team’s 5^th shutout in 9 games.

The Phillies dropped the Friars to 3-6 on the season after their latest low-scoring affair.

At some point the levee will break but it's tough sledding right now.

Phillies starting pitcher Jerad Eickhoff kept the Padres off-balance with his curveball. 

He wound up with 9 strikeouts over scoreless innings of work.

Jon Jay’s 8-game hitting streak also came to a close. The centerfielder went 0-for-4 with 2 strikeouts.

The Padres will try to earn a split in the series Thursday when they wrap up their 7-game road trip. 

Drew Pomeranz opposes Vince Velasquez on the mound. 

After that contest, San Diego opens up a 9-game homestand with Arizona starting on Friday night.

Russia on Thursday said said they did not understand why two Russian fighter jets flying close to an American Navy destroyer would prompt "painful reaction from our American colleagues," NBC News reported.

The Su-24 fighter jets were filmed "buzzing" around the USS Donald Cook in the Baltic Sea, about 70 miles from Russia's Kaliningrad province, on Monday and Tuesday.

A U.S. official said the maneuvers were "unsafe" and "unprofessional" — and that the jets were so low they left a "wake in the water." He said a Russian KA-27 helicopter also made passes above the destroyer and was believed to be photographing the ship.

Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov hit back Thursday, saying that "upon visual contact, the Russian pilots have executed a turnaway from the ship, compliant to all safety regulations."

A 5-year-old girl wandering in her pajamas in Grafton, Massachusetts, led police to her dead mother and injured father, who was holding a knife to his own throat, according to prosecutors.

Police responded to the child's home on Worcester Street Wednesday morning after an officer spotted the girl walking down a busy street in her pajamas, headed in the direction of her preschool.

"She did say to the police officers in the vehicle that 'Mommy is sleeping,' 'Mommy is sick," said Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr.

The 5-year-old led police back to her home about a block away. Early said officers forced their way inside when they saw a man on the floor with a knife "protruding" from his neck. He was later identified as the child's father, 42-year-old Michael Sugarman, and police said his injuries appear to have been self inflicted.

The girl's mother, 36-year-old Kelly Sugarman, was dead in an upstairs bedroom, authorities said.

It was not immediately known what the child saw, Early pointed out.

Michael Sugarman was taken to the hospital. He was arraigned Thursday and ordered held without bail on unspecified charges. It's not clear if he has hired an attorney.

"Keeping in mind we are early in the investigation, the appropriate charges will be forthcoming," Early said.

The child was also examined at a hospital and was released into state custody.

An autopsy will be conducted on Kelly Sugarman to determine the exact cause and manner of her death.