A man is in custody after getting stuck on the border fence in Otay Mesa Tuesday, according to officials.

Border officials noticed a man in distress around 3:45 p.m. near La Media Road and Kerns Street. Aerial pictures show him trapped in the barbed wire.

Firefighters used a ladder to reach the man. They were eventually able to free him from the fence, which stands more than 20 feet tall.

The man wasn’t injured, officials say. He is now being questioned by Border Patrol.

The midair collision of two planes over Westlake Village in California this week points out that no matter how big the sky, it’s rarely wide open. And the skies over Southern California are among the most crowded in the country.

Part of the reason for that is the sheer number of airports in the Los Angeles area. From the biggest ones like LAX and John Wayne to smaller ones like Hawthorne and El Monte, there are 30 airports in the area.

From those airports are millions of takeoffs and landings. In 2009, Van Nuys Airport earned the title of “world’s busiest general aviation airport” with 400,000 takeoffs and landings that year.

The recession and the high cost of fuel has helped reduce that number, but the latest statistics available show there have been more than 61,000 takeoffs and landings in Van Nuys in the first three months of this year. That averages nearly 700 takeoffs and landings each day from a single Southland airport.

Both planes involved in Tuesday’s midair collision took off from Santa Monica Airport, where records show there were nearly 8,500 takeoffs and landings in January, with more than 8,700 in February.

A tremendous number of aircraft are in the sky at any one moment.

Larry Welk has flown planes and helicopters over California for more than 20 years, including the NBC4 helicopter.

“Airspace continues to get more and more dense,” said Welk, who added that LA airspace is “complex.” Pilots have to contend not only with substantial traffic, but other issues like terrain.

There have been notable midair collisions in the past five years in Southern California.

In May 2009, two planes collided over Long Beach, killing three people.

In January 2008, two planes hit each other over Corona, raining down debris over a strip of auto dealerships. Four people on board the planes were killed, along with one victim on the ground.

According to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, Southern California rivals New York for the volume of air traffic. In New York, pilots complain about what they say can be a hazardous flight over the Hudson River, where nine people died in a 2009 collision between an airplane and a tour helicopter.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, there have been 120 midair collisions since 1999, killing more than 160 people.

Welk said technology that can warn pilots even of small planes of approaching aircraft is minimizing the danger posed by midair collisions.

“I wouldn’t say it’s not safe, but accidents will happen,” Welk said.

It's now easier to "do the right thing" for the environment, and your pocketbook, in the city of San Diego.

The city council on Tuesday eased restrictions on the use of “graywater”.

That’s water from your washing machine, bathtub and shower, that would usually go down the drain, and into the sewer.

Hundreds of San Diegans are now reusing that so-called “graywater”, by piping it to their yards, where it saturates fruit trees and other landscapes.
               
The city will no longer require permits for “graywater”  irrigation systems that use less than 250 gallons a day from washing machines.
               
You'll still need a permit to re-use shower or bathtub water, but the process will be streamlined.
               
Toilet water and water from sinks can not be used in this process.

But experts say washing machine and shower/tub water is absolutely safe.

“It's a way we can save money, cut red tape and save water, all at the same time,” says San Diego

City Councilwoman Sherri Lightner, who championed the new, stream-lined regulations. “It's like creating our own local supply of water without too much effort."
               
Brook Sarson installed a simple "gray-water" system, in South Park.
               
It saves hundreds of gallons a week by channeling water from the washing machine, to pipes in the backyard.
               
But Sarson, who owns the rainwater and graywater consulting firm H2ome, says the city of San Diego’s former policy of charging between three and seven hundred dollars for a gray-water permit discouraged home-owners who wanted to install the system.

“It was doubling the cost of a gray water system, which would make it pretty much inaccessible to your average resident who wants to do the right thing."
               
Candace Vanderhoff agrees.

She’s an architect and environmentalist who  owns the “graywater” consulting firm Rainthanks & Greywater.

Vanderhoff says the washing machine reuse systems include a three-way valve, that lets you send washing machine water to the sewer line, when you wash diapers or other contaminated clothes, or use bleach in your laundry.

Vanderhoff uses the system to water an array of fruit trees in the back yard of her South Park home
.
Pointing to a guava tree she says, “This tree was doing okay with a small amount of water, but when we added gray water, we get about 500 guava off this tree in the spring time."
               
Vanderoff says water is too expensive, and too scarce to waste.
               
Especially in San Diego, where so much of our water is imported.

"So this is a way that we can reuse our water, reduce our water bill, reduce the load on the Pt. Loma treatment facility, and then also grow food. Organic food."

A 250-pound piece of an airplane wing that is believed to be part of a 9/11 jetliner was hoisted out of an alley near the World Trade Center where it was found last week and taken into police custody.

A dozen police officers worked for two hours Wednesday morning using ropes and a hoist to lift the 5-foot-long chunk of debris from the 18-inch-wide alley. They then wheeled it onto the street and loaded it into a pickup truck to take it to the NYPD property clerk's office in Brooklyn.

Deputy Chief William Aubrey said the National September 11 Memorial & Museum could eventually take possession of the part. He described the removal as eerie and emotional.

"It's a piece of history," he said. "We tried to preserve it as best we could."

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani told NBC 4 New York on Wednesday that the finding of the plane part was a "heartbreaking" reminder.

"Given the nature of it, we're never going to be able to recover everything," he said. "This is probably just inevitable in the nature of how horrific that attack was."

The part was removed after forensic authorities sifted the soil around it for human remains on Tuesday. The medical examiner's office said no potential human remains were found.

The airplane debris, identified as a piece of a 767 wing, was found wedged in the alley last week by surveyors hired by the property owner, as first reported by NBC 4 New York. The alley is between the rear of 50 Murray St. and back of 51 Park Place, the site where a mosque and community center has been proposed three blocks from ground zero.

Police say they have not determined whether the part came from American Airlines flight 11, which hit the north tower at 8:46 a.m., or United flight 175, which hit the south tower at 9:03 a.m. A FEMA graphic below shows that all the other plane parts in the immediate area were from flight 175.

San Diego County sheriff’s deputies found a missing hiker uninjured on Iron Mountain in Poway.

Deputies were called around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday to help look for 22-year-old Luis Ocampo.

Ocampo went hiking alone around 1 p.m. Tuesday and did not come home. His car is still parked at the trailhead along Highway 67 at Poway Road.

Around 6:30 a.m., deputies told NBC 7 Ocampo was found safe.

According to SDSO spokesperson Jan Caldwell, Ocampo was found near the summit. He had apparently run out of daylight and did not have mobile phone coverage so he decided to stay put, Caldwell said.

"Darkness fell upon me and I couldn't see and I was just using my lighter and my camera to find my way," Ocampo said. "In the morning I was half way there, found these guys, these guys were yelling at me."

Ocampo went on to say that his phone died and decided to wait it out under a rock.

Mark Zuckerberg has clicked "Like" on the Keystone XL Pipeline — and now his timeline is going to be chock-full of angry.

The Facebook founder and CEO recently started a political advocacy group called FWD.us — and the group is running a series of television ads in support of the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

His PAC was created to support immigration reform, but it is also going to support such things as drilling. There are those in Congress who support immigration reform, but who also support drilling, and some say that the PAC funding might be a means to an end.

Feared and loathed by environmentalists, the pipeline would open up Canadian tar sands for oil and gas exploration.

Activists in the San Francisco Bay Area say they are "angered and mystified" over Zuck's turn for the pipe, and a group of about 50 protested Wednesday at Facebook's world headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. The protest was timed just before the company released its first-quarter earnings. . Wednesday is also "May Day," a day where many took up immigrants' rights and a path to citizenship as the key causes of the day.

The protesters questioned why Zuckerberg would "spend millions in support" of the pipeline, "among the dirtiest projects on Earth."

And they created an online petition to stop "running ads supporting fossil fuels" which as of Wednesday afternoon had collected more than 18,000 signatures.

Zuckerberg did not come outside the building when the protect occurred about noon, nor did he issue any statement on his Facebook news website.

Supporters, however, point out that that building the pipeline means thousands of jobs.

FWD.us's ads feature Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) bashing President Barack Obama for not being supportive-enough of the pipe.

Credo Mobile, the socially-active mobile carrier, says that Facebook has refused to run its ads that blast the pipeline and FWD.us's support for it.

Even though experts say Zuckerberg's primary directive in effecting change in social policy is immigration reform, some are not going to agree with using the pipeline ads as "cover" for that change.

"But invariably there is going to be people who don’t understand and the inevitable result is going to be this type of press fire," Dan Schnur, a political science professor at the University of Southern California, told the Los Angeles Times.

Ironically, the Zuckerberg critics have a Facebook page dedicated to their cause.

The 26-year-old Chinese engineer who was carjacked by the Boston Marathon bombing suspects said he was "lucky" to survive an agonizing 90-minute car ride that ended with his escape.

"God was with me," said the man, who goes by the nickname Danny, in an interview on the "Today" show Wednesday.

Danny appeared on "Today" with his face concealed and his voice modified to describe his harrowing encounter with the bombing suspects on April 18.

For Danny's full story, visit NBCNews.com

Three nights after the marathon attack that killed three people and wounded more than 260, Danny was sitting in his Mercedes when a man approached from behind, put his hand through the open window and opened the door from the inside, Danny said. He then pointed a gun at him while asking if he knew of the bombing.

“I said, "Yes, of course,’’’ Danny recalled. “Then he said, ‘I did that. And I just killed a policeman in Cambridge.’’’

The attacker was Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Danny said. He ordered him to drive the car while pointing a gun at him. Tsarnaev’s younger brother Dzhokhar was following them in a sedan. Danny's body was shaking so much that he had trouble driving, he said.

“Tamerlan told me, ‘Relax, man. Slow down. Don't drive too fast,’’ Danny said.

Tamerlan soon took over the wheel and Dzhokhar joined them in the Mercedes, he said. The attackers transferred items from the sedan into the Mercedes. Danny didn’t know it at the time, but those items were explosives, which the brothers later hurled at police during a firefight in Watertown, Mass., according to authorities.

Danny, meanwhile, was plotting his escape. The brothers stopped as a gas station in Cambridge, with Dzhokhar leaving the vehicle go to an ATM and get gas. That’s when Danny unbuckled his seatbelt with his left hand, opened the door with his right hand and ran from the car.

I took off,’’ Danny said. “[Tamerlan] tried to grab me. He was trying to grab me. It was very close. I can feel it.”

Danny ran to another gas station and called 911. Authorities used his car’s satellite system and the iPhone he left in his car to track the suspects.

"I think Dzhokhar is, like, a follower,'' Danny said of the surviving suspect. "He went out to the ATM (at the gas station). He went out to get the gas. Tamerlan never got out of the car."

While Danny plans to testify at Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's trial and expects to be identified, he wants to remain under the radar for now, NBC's Matt Lauer said.

For Danny's full story, visit NBCNews.com.

The City of San Diego is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars training police officers only to lose them to neighboring communities that pay better.

Patrol officers are leaving at a rate of nine per month. It's an incredible cost and safety concern.

San Diego Assistant Police Chief Shelly Zimmerman will go before the city public safety and neighborhood service committee Wednesday afternoon with some alarming statistics about our disappearing police force.

Mayor Bob Filner is prepared to throw over four million dollars at the problem but critics say more money in the wrong place won't help.

Historically San Diego's police rank and file receive the least compensation for the same job elsewhere in the county. Recruits to veterans are asking themselves why stay?.

“When you got to take care of your family I think your family is a higher priority than your loyalty to an organization,” Police Officers Association President Brian Marvel said.

Wednesday the City safety committee will hear these discouraging statistics.

The police department is 132 officers short of what it can afford.

Since last July, 88 officers have left.

Thirteen percent of those went to work for other departments

More recently 43 police recruits in the process of getting hired in San Diego joined other departments.

The police chief says each recruit is a $190,000 investment.

“If the compensation package isn't keeping people here then basically the city of San Diego is training people for other departments,” Marvel said.

Here's a snapshot of what some other departments pay. San Diego officers make $48,000. San Diego County sheriff's deputies make 10 percent more then that when you add benefits. Escondido's city web site indicates it's officers make $71,000. Chula Vista pays recruits $49,000 but after six months on the job that jumps to $67,000.

San Diego police are asking for a raise in the form of cheaper healthcare and pension benefits not a salary increase.

“The city has shown over and over that they are not capable of procuring quality healthcare at a low price,” Marvel said.

The city is pledging millions more to safety services in the coming year and doubling recruit classes. Most agree it's money well spent but only if you can convince them to stay.

Demonstrators demanded an overhaul of immigration laws Wednesday in an annual, nationwide ritual that carried a special sense of urgency as Congress considers sweeping legislation that would bring many of the estimated 11 million people living in the U.S. illegally out of the shadows.

Thousands joined May Day rallies in cities from Tampa, Fla., to Bozeman, Mont., with participants braving the cold and snow to deliver their message in some places.

Labor organizations, immigrant rights coalitions and residents gathered in downtown Los Angeles, chanting and waving American flags and the flags of their home countries, NBC 4 Southern California reported. About 30,000 were expected to march in L.A. throughout the day.

In Salem, Ore., Gov. John Kitzhaber was cheered by about 2,000 people on the Capitol steps as he signed a bill to allow people living in Oregon without proof of legal status to obtain drivers licenses.

More than 1,000 people assembled on the Montpelier, Vt., Statehouse lawn. In New York, paper rats on sticks bobbed along Sixth Avenue as about 200 protesters set off from Bryant Park, chanting: "What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!" The rats were intended to symbolize abused migrant workers.

Many rallies featured speakers with a personal stake in the debate. In Concord, N.H., Kristela Hernandez, 21, said she feared separating from her U.S.-born children if her work visa expires.

"I came here for better opportunities for me and now my children," Hernandez told about 100 people outside the Statehouse. "I'm here to work and to get an education."

Naykary Silva, a 26-year-old Mexican woman in the country illegally, joined about 200 people who marched in Denver's spring snow, hoping for legislation that would ensure medical care for her 3-year-old autistic son.

"If you want to do something, you do it no matter what," Silva said. "There's still more work to do."

The crowds did not approach the massive demonstrations of 2006 and 2007, during the last serious attempt to introduce major changes to the U.S. immigration system. Despite the large turnouts six years ago, many advocates of looser immigration laws felt they were outmaneuvered by opponents who flooded congressional offices with phone calls and faxes at the behest of conservative talk-radio hosts.

Now, immigrant advocacy groups are focusing heavily on calling and writing members of Congress, using social media and other technology to target specific lawmakers. Reform Immigration for America, a network of groups, claims more than 1.2 million subscribers, including recipients of text messages and Facebook followers.

Gabriel Villalobos, a Spanish-language talk radio host in Phoenix, said many of his callers believe it is the wrong time for marches, fearful that that any unrest could sour public opinion on immigration reform. Those callers advocate instead for a low-key approach of calling members of Congress.

"The mood is much calmer," said Villalobos, who thinks the marches are still an important show of political force.

May Day rallies began in the United States in 2000 during a labor dispute with a restaurant in Los Angeles that drew several hundred demonstrators, said Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, which organized what was expected to be Wednesday's largest rally. Crowds grew each year until the House of Representatives passed a tough bill against illegal immigration, sparking a wave of enormous, angry protests from coast to coast in 2006.

The rallies, which coincide with Labor Day in many countries outside the U.S., often have big showings from labor leaders and elected officials.

Demonstrators marched in countries around the world, with fury in Europe over austerity measures and rage in Asia over relentlessly low pay, the rising cost of living and hideous working conditions that have left hundreds dead in recent months alone.

The New York crowd was a varied bunch of labor groups, immigrant activists and demonstrators unaffiliated with any specific cause. Among them was 26-year-old Becky Wartell, who was carrying a tall puppet of the Statue of Liberty.

"Every May Day, more groups that have historically considered themselves separate from one another come together," she said.

An older male transient stabbed another male transient dressed in women's clothing in Oceanside late Tuesday officials said.

Around 8:30 p.m., Oceanside Police were called to the Rodeway Inn at 1100 N. Coast Highway for a stabbing.

Initial reports indicated the suspect used a large knife to wound the victim several times in front of the motel.

Detectives say at that point several employees from a restaurant across the street as well as passersby held the suspect until officers arrived.

One witness was legally carrying a gun, which compelled the suspect to stop his actions, according to police.

The victim was pronounced dead at the scene officials said. The suspect was placed in custody and taken to a nearby police station.

Officers are now looking at surveillance and trying to figure out a motive.
 

A school bus with a child on board was hit in Escondido on Wednesday afternoon, according to officials.

The incident happened shortly before 2 p.m. on East Lincoln Avenue and North Rose Street when a Jeep and the bus collided.

The student and bus driver were uninjured, but the jeep driver had to be transported to the hospital, according to CHP Officer Jim Bettancourt.
 

View School Bus Accident in a larger map

Suspects who were arrested as part of an undercover narcotics operation yesterday appeared in court for the first time Wednesday.

The operation involved several north county high schools and in at least one case, the drugs were sold inside a classroom.

Sheriff’s deputies served 19 warrants yesterday and the arrests targeted people selling drugs to undercover deputies who were posing as students.

Today, six of those arrested pleaded not guilty. They face a range of charges, from possession of marijuana to selling narcotics.

If convicted, the defendants could face between 4-6 years in prison depending on the seriousness of the drug, according to Deputy District Attorney Jorge Del Portillo.

One defendant, Ramon Kelly, had his bail set to $25,000 for a previous criminal record.

After their arraignment, the prosecutor said he hopes this operation sends a message.

“In that sense the message to the community is we're going to be present." Del Portillo said. “We want drugs out of schools and out of students hands and we're going do anything."

The Padres, who had a four game winning streak snapped on Monday, got back on track Tuesday, scoring 13 runs on 17 hits in a wind aided 13-7 win at Wrigley Field. The run and hit totals were season highs for the Friars who have now won five of their last six games. The run total was actually a franchise high for the Padres at Wrigley .

Carlos Quentin broke out of his mini-slump, going 3-for-4 with 3-RBI, 3 runs scored and a home run. Yonder Alonzo and Nick Hundley also homered for the Friars. Every Padres starter got a hit including pitcher Edinson Volquez, who won his second consecutive game. Volquez (2-3) pitched effectively enough in what was a challenging wind for both pitching staffs.

A statistical oddity came to an end. The Cubs streak of 25 games decided by four runs or fewer to start the season ended. That run was second all-time behind only the Detroit Tigers who did it in their first 33 games of 1914.

The two teams continue the four game series Wednesday night at Wrigley.

Today you can buy milk, toilet paper and see a nurse all at the same location.

There is a growing trend in walk-up clinics across the country. Stores like CVS, Walgreens and Target are adding medical clinics inside their stores staffed by nurse practitioners and physician assistants.

"We really want to be able to deliver care at the right place, at the right time, the right way and sometimes this might be it," said doctor Steve Green with Sharp Reese-Stealy. 

Dr. Steve Green is the medical director coordinator between Sharp HealthCare and MinuteClinic in San Diego.  There are 10 clinics in the county, MinuteClinic is owned by CVS.

"We treat certain common family illnesses," said family nurse practitioner Teresa Ashcraft with MinuteClinic. 

The nurses at the clinic diagnose and write prescriptions when it's needed. If they have questions or need another opinion, they are able to contact doctors at Sharp Healthcare.

Steve Green says it's always nice to have some backup just in case. 

"Basically they (doctors) are going to be on call whenever the clinic is open," Green said.

The clinics are open seven days a week, eight-and-a-half hours every day.  Prices are listed on a screen where office visits run between $79 and $89. That price can go up depending on the treatment.

Nearly 50 percent of the patients do not have a primary doctor, 15 percent do not have insurance.

There was standing-room-only at San Diego’s City Hall Wednesday for a hearing on new pet store regulations aimed keeping puppy mill animals off the retail market.

It's an emotional issue, and the pet store industry hopes to curb lawmaking with assurances that the vast majority of suppliers are responsible and well-regulated.

But the animal rescue and adoption community says the marketplace is overrun with "substandard", if not inhumane, practices.

The measure, which is now headed for consideration by the full City Council, would require pet retailers to get their puppies, kittens and rabbits from city or county animal shelters, human societies, and nonprofit rescue groups such as the Helen Woodward Animal Center.

"(With) these animals,” said the Woodward Center’s spokeswoman Jessica Gercke in an interview Wednesday, “we've already discovered all their wonderful traits and personalities.  We know what home they're going to be happy in, and we're able to give that information to the pet stores.  And that's going to be a win-win for the family and the pets."

At the moment, Gercke was cradling Mario, a 1-year-old Terrier blend she had brought from the Woodward Center to NBC 7’s downtown studio for a feature interview on the mid-day news.

All too many puppy-mill breeders, Gercke explained, “breed these little puppies and send them out, and nobody knows much about the animal.”
           
But local pet shop owners say the puppy mill market will hardly feel the impact of the ordinance.
           
They say the measure will hurt regulated operations with properly registered and cared-for animals -- denying pet buyers a choice.
           
"If you take that way, you're going to open up a black market,” said David Salinas, CEO of San Diego Puppies, Inc., before Wednesday’s hearing of the City Council’s Public Safety & Neighborhood Services Committee. "The demand for purebred baby puppies will always be there.  So you're going to open up potential puppy mills selling on-line."

One of the committee members is especially vocal in backing the ordinance.

“There’s a lot of inbreeding going on, and the conditions are deplorable, really – really inhumane,” says Councilwoman Lori Zapf.  “They have a lot of health problems.”

Zapf referred specifically to a hand-me-down, puppy-mill Pomeranian named Farrah, who belongs to Zapf’s communications adviser Alex Bell.

They mentioned Farrah’s bad eyesight, legs and teeth – along with a tail that was badly bobbed in her early puppyhood.

"There are reputable breeders here in San Diego,” Zapf said. “And people can go to the Humane Society.   They know who they are for the  type of breed that people want."
           
The Public Safety & Neighborhood Services Committee voted to approved the ordinance on a 4-0 vote.
           
The measure is expected to come before the full Council in June or July.
           
Similar measures have been adopted in Los Angeles and a number of other Southern California cities including Chula Vista.

Two airplanes clipped while preparing to take off from the runway at Newark Airport just outside of New York City on Wednesday evening, officials said. 

Scandinavian Airlines Flight 908, headed to Oslo, clipped its left wing against the tail of ExpressJet Flight 4226, which was going to Nashville, officials said. The planes were taxiing for departure shortly before 7:30 p.m.

The Scandinavian Airlines Airbus A330 was directly behind the ExpressJet Embraer E145 on a taxiway, and was turning right to get onto another taxiway when its wing clipped the tail of the Embraer.

NBC 4 New York's Chopper 4 video from over the airport shows a broken wing on the Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) aircraft. 

The ExpressJet plane was towed back to the gate, and the SAS plane taxied back to the gate. Passengers disembarked both planes and were being re-accommodated. No injuries were reported.