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Burglars Caught on Video Stealing $15,000 from Church

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Police released surveillance video showing a burglary in progress at a church in Southern California on Tuesday — and they say the thousands of dollars stolen were headed for charity.

The video was captured May 1, between 4:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m., at the Forty Martyrs Armenian Church in Santa Ana, Calif.

Two of the men broke into the church, while the third acted as a lookout, according to police.

After rummaging through rooms and cabinets for about an hour, the burglars came across a safe containing $15,000.

The video shows one burglar leave the room and return with a crowbar, which the men use to rip the safe out of the ground.

The money was for the church's weekly bingo night, which was held the previous Friday, the church said.

"This was for charity. Nobody likes people who steal from charity," said Corporal Anthony Bertagna of the Santa Ana Police Department. "They collected money that they could have used for a lot better things than what these people will be using it for."

The first suspect was described as a white man, 30 to 35 years old, clean shaven. A second was described as a white man, 40 to 45 years old with a mustache, a bald head and a medium build. A third suspect was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and appeared to possibly be a Latino man, 35 to 40 years old, with a goatee and a thin build.

Anaheim and Irvine police are investigating similar burglaries have occurred at small businesses across Santa Ana. In each case, a safe containing money was taken.

Anyone with information can contact the Santa Ana Police Department at (714) 245-8665.


Rehabilitated Sea Lion Pups Return to Wild

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Rescuers from SeaWorld released nine sea lion pups back into the wild Tuesday.

The release took place at Border Field State Park Beach. The pups peered out their cage before barreling toward the ocean.

The pups were rescued from La Jolla, Del Mar and Oceanside between March 1 and March 28, according to SeaWorld.

“They were thin, emaciated, dehydrated and needed some help,” said Heather Ruce, Rescue Animal Care Specialist with SeaWorld.

Ruce says the pups doubled in weight from the time they arrived until now.

Stranded sea lion and seal pups have been a big problem in Southern California this year; more than 1,100 have washed ashore. Last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association declared an Unusual Mortality Event. Scientists are still unsure what's behind it.

But Ruce says SeaWorld is starting to see a decrease.

“Now we are rescuing 2-4 animals a day, whereas several weeks ago we were rescuing 10-12 animals every single day,” she said.

SeaWorld has rescued more than 335 marine mammals so far this year. That’s compared to 135 in all of 2012, according to officials.

 

Calif. Coroner IDs 5 Limo Fire Victims

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The cornoner of San Mateo County, Calif.,  released the names on Tuesday of the five women who died Saturday night in a fiery limousine tragedy on the San Mateo Bridge.

The women were part of a bachelorette party -- four women survived -- to celebrate Neriza Fojas' marriage when the Limo Stop 1999 Lincoln Town Car limousine they were in caught fire for an unexplained reason. The women were trapped inside and died.

The women who died all lived in California: Michelle Estrera, 35, of Fresno; Anna Alcantara, 46, of San Lorenzo; Neriza Fojas, 31, of Fresno; Jennifer Balon, 39, of Dublin; and Felomina Geornga, 43, of Alameda. All were nurses.

John Balon, Jennifer Balon's husband, told NBC Bay Area on Tuesday that several of the women invited to the bachelorette party on Saturday night had been at his daughter's 10th birthday party at Dublin Bowl earlier in the day. They returned home for dinner, and then his wife headed out for what was supposed to be a night of fun in Foster City at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

"She kissed me goodbye and she left with her friends," Balon said. 

It was his last kiss. The limo she was in caught fire on the San Mateo Bridge about 10 p.m., trapping her and four others inside. The driver, Orville Brown, wasn't injured.

Now, Balon is left to raise his daughter, Jillian, and 1-year-old son, Jayden, on his own.

"She was a very, loving, sweet mom...she nurtured them," Balon said. "They won't have her in their lifetime. They won't have a mom."

A relative told NBC Bay Area that Fojas was recently married here in the United States, but she was also planning a wedding in the Philippines on June 19. 

She was preparing to get her master's degree, according to Christina Kitts, who said that Fojas lived in Hawaii while she reviewed for her nursing exam, then took a job in Oakland, for two years before moving to Fresno, where she had been a nurse at Community Regional Medical Center for a year.

Community Regional released a statement about Fojas and Estrera, who worked for them in Fresno as nurses.

"Neriza Fojas and Michelle Estrera were exemplary nurses who dedicated their lives to helping others. These two outstanding nurses were loved by their patients, colleagues and staff at our hospital. Both were good friends, stellar nurses and excellent mentors who served as preceptors to new nurses. On behalf of everyone at Community Regional, we offer our condolences to their family and friends. We will dearly miss these two special people who have touched our lives during their time at Community Regional."

 

The brother-in-law of another victim, Anna Alcantara, says her family is also heart broken. Alcantra was also a wife and mother of two children.

"It's hard to imagine the pain they had gone through and now the pain the husband and kids are going through," Resty Padojino said.

Four women did survive the horrific accident. Three were still hospitalized on Tuesday. Jasmine Deguia, 34, of San Jose and Amalia Loyola, 48, of San Leandro were at Valley Medical Center in San Jose. They were upgraded to "fair" condition on Tuesday.

Stanford Medical Center would not discuss the details of Mary G. Guardiano, 42, of Alameda. According to reports, though, she had been released.

Nelia Arrellano, 36, of Oakland had been released from Stanford earlier on Monday, and spoke emotionally about the deaths of her friends.

Meanwhile, state Public Utilities Commission spokeswoman Terrie Prosper said  that the commission is looking into whether the operator of the limo, Limo Stop of San Jose, willfully misrepresented the seating capacity to the agency. If so, Limo Stop could be penalized $7,500 for each day it was in violation. Limo Stop's owner, Kultar Singh, has expressed his sympathies, but deferred all comments to his attorney, who did not immediately respond for comment.
 
Limo Stop is licensed and has shown evidence of liability insurance, Prosper said. The company has seven vehicles with a seating capacity of up to eight passengers listed with the commission, and it has not been the target of any previous enforcement action.
 
The CPUC, which regulates limousines, requires that all carriers have a preventive maintenance program and maintain a daily vehicle inspection report, Prosper said. Carriers also certify that they are have or are enrolled in a safety education and training program, she said.
 
Prosper said requirements for emergency exits only apply to buses, and limousines are not required to have fire extinguishers.
 
Joan Claybrook, the top federal auto-safety regulator under President Jimmy Carter, said the stretch limousine industry is poorly regulated because the main agency that oversees car safety doesn't have enough money to prioritize investigating the small businesses that modify limos after they leave the assembly line.
 
Instead, the agency tends to focus more on problems with new cars and major recalls, she said.

A nonprofit recall website shows that the 1999 Lincoln Town Car has been subject to five recalls: In 2000, tires, jack equipment, and the front seat belts were recalled. In 1998, the suspension was recalled.
 
U.S. Department of Transportation data shows five people died in three separate stretch limo accidents in 2010, and 21 people died in another three stretch limo accidents in 2011.

 

 Associated Press writers Sudhin Thanawala in San Francisco and Gosia Wozniacka, and NBC Bay Area's Christie Smith, Kris Sanchez, Lori Preuitt and Kinsey Kiriakos contributed to this report.

 



Photo Credit: Courtesy of Bolan family

San Diego Man Arrested in 37-Year Cold Case Murder

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More than 37 years after a Tucson woman was killed, homicide investigators believe they have solved the cold case homicide with the arrest of a San Diego man.

Tucson Police have identified Bruce McCullough as the suspect in the March 1976 murder of his then-girlfriend Donna Smith.

McCullough, 28, at the time of Smith’s death fled the Tucson area and assumed another identify, officials said.

Then, in 2013, homicide investigators got a break in the case when they learned that not only was McCullough using his identity again but that he had been living in San Diego.

With the help of San Diego police, detectives found McCullough, 66, and arrested him on May 2. He is now in custody facing a charge of first degree murder and extradition to Arizona.

Smith, 20, (pictured right) was found dead inside her home on March 19, 1976.

Investigators say she had been dead for several days before she was discovered.

Her mother is still living in Tucson. Detectives said they were able to visit her and give her the news of McCullough’s arrest.

More Local Stories

 



Photo Credit: Tucson Police Department

WATCH: Dodgers' Kemp Gives Fan the Jersey Off His Back

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Dodgers' outfielder Matt Kemp gave his hat to a Dodger fan. And his jersey. And his cleats.

A soon-to-be viral YouTube video of Kemp went live Monday night and shows Kemp giving the shirt off his back to a 19-year-old Dodgers fan sitting in the front row near third base at San Francisco’s AT&T Stadium. Joshua Jones has been battling brain cancer for three years.

Kemp sauntered up to the stands after a game against the Giants Sunday, shook the fan’s hand and signed his baseball. Kemp took off hat and reached across the fence, then, in quick succession, pulled off his jersey and cleats and handed them to the fan, as a stadium full of San Francisco Giants fans cheered.

"I didn't even know," Joshua Jones told NBC4. "My dad talked to the third-base coach and he surprised me."

"I'm still kind of amazed by it," Jones added.

The video, embedded below, was uploaded by YouTube user “stayinhigh4209,” who wrote:

“Matt Kemp is sucha great person. He came over after the game and made one of my best friends night.”

He indicated that the Dodger fan who received Kemp’s treasure trove of baseball items was “fighting a tough battle.”

Fans of the video left supportive comments after watching the video, many saying it brought them to tears.

“All professional athletes should take a lesson. This is what class looks like!” wrote YouTube user Shawn Dempsey.

Singer in Grammy-Nominated Band Accused of Murder-for-Hire

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The frontman of the Grammy-nominated Christian heavy metal band As I Lay Dying was arrested Tuesday, accused of trying to hire someone to kill his wife.

Tim Lambesis, who is the lead singer and co-founder of the San Diego-based band, asked an undercover detective on Tuesday afternoon to murder his estranged wife, according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. Authorities said Lambesis was arrested at an Oceanside, Calif., business without incident.

Officials said they learned on May 2 that Lambesis may have solicited someone to kill his wife, who is a resident of neighboring Encinitas. A search of court records has determined that Lambesis' wife, Meggan, filed for divorce in North County last September.

Described as a straight-edged Christian metal band, As I Lay Dying formed more than a decade ago and has released eight albums, including the Grammy-nominated An Ocean Between Us, which came out in 2007, according to band publicity.

The band is also a mainstay of the San Diego Music Awards, nominated last year for Best Hard Rock Album for Decas, and winning for Best Hard Rock the year before that. In 2008, 2007 and 2005, the band took home the SDMA statuettes for Artist of the Year. As I Lay Dying is slated to embark on a cross-country tour with Massachusetts metal band Killswitch Engage later this month.

Lambesis has been charged with solicitation of another to commit murder. He has been booked into the Vista Detention Facility.

Tim Pyles, a DJ at FM94/9 and contributor to NBCSanDiego.com's SoundDiego blog, said that he was "bummed" by the news.

“There’s a lot of people who look up to him," Pyles said. "He’s just broken a lot of hearts if it’s true.”

 

 



Photo Credit: Getty Images

SD Airport Reveals New $35M Baggage System

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The San Diego International Airport unveiled Terminal Two’s new baggage handling system Tuesday.

In a behind-the-scenes tour, NBC 7 got a glimpse of what happens after passengers check their luggage.

The system includes1.5 miles of conveyor belts, according to airport officials. It currently handles 100,000 bags a month, but that number will increase after the terminal’s new gates go online.

Transportation Security Administration spokesperson Nico Melendez explains how the system works: After passengers check their luggage, the bags are screened for explosives; they are either cleared or sent to a TSA agent for inspection. Then a conveyor belt takes the bags to the runway.

“It will process a bag from intake to ready to go to the plane in about 10 minutes,” said Thella Bowens, President and CEO of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority.

“It gets it back to the way it was for passengers pre-9/11, where they dropped their bags off at the ticket counter and they say goodbye to it until they see it on the other side,” Melendez said.

The new system cost $35 million, 90 percent of which was funded by the Department of Homeland Security, according to Bowens.

Besides security, officials say the system will increase efficiency. The fully automated system means less physical strain on employees. It could also mean fewer chances for lost baggage.

“The technology in the system really helps to make sure the bags are properly sorted and that they are going to the right place more frequently than what manual technology would have done,” Bowens said.

The Terminal Two expansion is expected to open this August. The terminal added six new security lines in March.

Filner, Romney Discuss 2024 Olympic Bid

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Mayor Bob Filner has met with former presidential candidate Mitt Romney about the effort to bring the 2024 Olympics to San Diego and Tijuana.

Filner mentioned the conversation briefly during Tuesday morning’s the city council budget meeting. 

“I had the opportunity to spend some time yesterday with Governor Romney who is now living here in San Diego, and he will be an adviser to our bid,” said Filner. “He has graciously talked about it.”

Romney has agreed to advise Filner and Tijuana Mayor Carlos Bustamante’s committee to bring the Summer Olympics to the bordering cities in 2024.

Filner, a democrat, says the former republican governor could provide sound advice regarding the international games because of his involvement with the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Filner said that when he met Romney on Monday, he was “incredibly down to earth and friendly and creative,” and then joked that, “He didn’t come across that way on television.”



Photo Credit: Getty Images / NBC 7 San Diego

2 Taggers AKA "Cali Female Bombers" Face Charges

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Two members of a tagging crew known as the Cali Female Bombers (CFB) have been arrested for more than 800 incidents of graffiti in the North County.

On Tuesday, San Diego County sheriff’s deputies announced the arrest of 20-year-old Elizabeth Marie Reyes.

Reyes tags under the alias “DASE” and Vista city officials say their graffiti tracker system has linked her to more than 500 graffiti incidents. They claim she has cost the city more than $154,000 in cleanup costs.

Reyes was arrested May 2, two days after another member of the Cali Female Bombers was taken into custody.

Deputies say Ramona Montes, 18, was arrested April 30 for more than 300 incidents of graffiti.

The arrests are the result of work by deputies and city crews who take photographs of the vandalism and upload them into a web-based service called Graffiti Tracker.

Reyes will be in court on Friday, May 10th.

Local Arrested in Decades-Old Cold Case

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More than 37 years after a Tucson woman was killed, homicide investigators believe they have solved the cold case homicide with the arrest of a San Diego man.

Tucson Police have identified Bruce McCullough as the suspect in the March 1976 murder of his then-girlfriend Donna Smith.

McCullough, 28, at the time of Smith’s death fled the Tucson area and assumed another identify officials said.

Then, in 2013, homicide investigators got a break in the case when they learned that not only was McCullough using his identity again but that he had been living in San Diego.

With the help of San Diego police, detectives found McCullough, 66, and arrested him on May 2. He is now in custody facing a charge of first degree murder and extradition to Arizona.

Smith, 20, (pictured right) was found dead inside her home on March 19, 1976.

Investigators say she had been dead for several days before she was discovered.

Her mother is still living in Tucson. Detectives said they were able to visit her and give her the news of McCullough’s arrest.

More Local Stories

 



Photo Credit: Tucson Police Department

Local Musician Accused of Murder-for-Hire Plot

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The frontman of the locally based heavy metal band As I Lay Dying was arrested Tuesday, accused of trying to hire someone to kill his wife.

Tim Lambesis, who is the lead singer and co-founder of the band, asked an undercover detective on Tuesday afternoon to murder his estranged wife, according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. Authorities said Lambesis was arrested at an Oceanside business without incident.
 
Officials said they learned last Thursday that Lambesis had solicited someone to kill his wife, who is an Encinitas resident, and that they immediately began an investigation.
 
A search of court records has determined that Lambesis' wife, Meggan, filed for divorce in North County last September.

SoundDiego contributor Tim Pyles of FM 94/9 was shocked by the news.
 
“He’s not the idealistic young Christian kid he once was, apparently,” Pyles said. “Beause that’s what [As I Lay Dying] are: a straight-edged Christian metal band. He was a nice guy. I’ve had him on my show a couple times over the years. I just spoke to him via Facebook the last couple months about having him come on to talk about his latest record.”
 
Pyles said he wouldn’t be the only one disturbed by the news.
 
“I‘m bummed,” Pyles said. “There’s a lot of people who look up to him. He’s just broken a lot of hearts if it’s true.”
 
As I Lay Dying formed more than a decade ago and released eight albums, including the Grammy-nominated An Ocean Between Us, which came out in 2007, according to band publicity. The band is also a mainstay of the San Diego Music Awards, nominated last year for Best Hard Rock Album for Decas, and winning for Best Hard Rock the year before that. In 2008, 2007 and 2005, the band took home the SDMA statuettes for Artist of the Year. The band had been slated to go on a cross-country tour with Massachusetts metal band Killswitch Engage later this month.
 
Lambesis has been charged with solicitation of another to commit murder. He has been booked into the Vista Detention Facility.


Photo Credit: Getty Images

Cute Puppy Stuck in Car Rescued

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A 12-week-old puppy was found after being locked in an abandoned car at a Kansas City tow lot.

Ex-Con Tries to Bring Field of Dreams to Newark

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The statistics are sobering. Newark, N.J., has a murder rate double that of the Bronx. A third of its residents live in poverty. Only 40 percent of its students graduate from high school. Behind those numbers, though, are people trying to beat the odds.

In his new book, “A Chance to Win: Boyhood, Baseball, and the Struggle for Redemption in the Inner City,” reporter Jonathan Schuppe chronicles that effort through the story of a fledgling Little League team, its improbable coach and inspiring players.

At the center of the narrative is Rodney Mason, a drug-peddling ex-con left paralyzed from a drive-by shooting who decides he can make a difference by starting a baseball team in a city where America’s pastime holds little allure.

Below is an excerpt from “A Chance to Win,” published May 7 by Henry Holt:

For weeks, Rodney had been combing the neighborhood for recruits, but now it was late March, a couple of weeks before the start of the 2008 Little League season, and he had only a handful of completed registration forms.

Baseball just didn’t seem to be on many people’s minds. Some kids had actually told Rodney that they hated baseball, recoiling as if it were some kind of social disease. He couldn’t understand it. This was the national pastime, the game everyone played when he was growing up.

And today was the day. If kids didn’t show up this morning, then they never would.

Rodney hoisted himself out of the tub and dried off. He slipped on a condom, fitted to a urine collection bag, and strapped the contraption to his right leg. He ironed his jeans and white T-shirt and switched to a battery-powered scooter that the family of an elderly neighbor had given him after the old man died.

Then he rode a lurching elevator to the lobby and rolled out in the gray chill. The neighborhood was just starting to come alive, people stepping onto their stoops, assessing the weather, waving to neighbors, retreating inside.

The field was empty. So was the parking lot. Rodney pulled up to the dugout, jammed his hands into the pockets of his Yankees windbreaker, and waited. Please god, he prayed. Help me make this happen.

***

Sometimes, when he was not working and his children were at school, Thaiquan Scott stopped by the Jackie Robinson South Ward Little League’s old field at the St. Peter’s Recreation Center to catch a game.

The diamond was lousy with lumps and the quality of play was terrible, but he occasionally noticed a gifted athlete who, if he found the right coach and stuck with it, could probably go on to play in high school or college. Thaiquan wondered why more black kids weren’t interested in baseball.

Thaiquan and his family lived on the second floor of a narrow three-family house with cream-colored vinyl siding on Peshine Avenue. Their block was not what you’d call kid-friendly, though there were many children.

Dope fiends and drunks puttered around in the abandoned lot across the street. Brash young drug dealers played noisy games of dice on the stoops of homes, the tenants too frightened or too complacent to complain. A few days after the Scotts moved in, a thirty-nine-year-old woman was killed in a drive-by around the corner.

Thaiquan and his wife wanted to leave Peshine Avenue, but their house was one of the only places they could find that was cheap and large enough for the seven of them. So they made the best of it by keeping the kids busy and trying to expose them to the world outside the city.

Thaiquan saw baseball, and sports in general, as a bulwark against the streets; the more his kids played, the less chance that something bad would ever happen to them. His father had been an amateur player – a damn good one, he’d heard, but drinking got in the way, and the old man left home without ever passing the game on to Thaiquan.

Now he wanted to give his two oldest children – Nasir, his biological son, and Kaneisha, his stepdaughter – that chance he never got. He pledged that as soon as they reached playing age, he’d sign them up for Little League.

In late March, Thaiquan got word that Nasir and Kaneisha had been assigned to a team. They went to meet their coach and were surprised to see that he was in a wheelchair. Thaiquan introduced himself and felt like he understood Rodney immediately.

“He’s from the struggle,” Thaiquan said later. “But that don’t mean he’s not about the kids. He’s a product of his environment, so he knows how the kids are and how they grow up. I could tell right away that he was doing it from the heart.”

***

It began with a trickle: a child here, another there, and soon there was a crowd. Among the first arrivals was Derek Fykes, who arrived with his grandmother Irene. He was ten but had the face of a tired man: eyes narrowed, brow rumpled, lips slack.

He had just been removed from his father’s apartment by the state child welfare agency. This wasn’t the first time he’d been abruptly pulled from one home and placed in another. Probably wouldn’t be the last, either. Irene worried about the lasting damage of an unsettled childhood. But baseball was one of the few things that helped Derek regain his footing.

Derek was an anomaly in that he’d played Little League before. Just one other boy, a heavy trash-talker named William (who went by “Pooh”), had any experience. The others were young and scrawny and clueless; most didn’t have gloves, and some didn’t know if they threw right-handed or left-handed.

DeWan Johnson, a magnetic 10-year-old with a gap-toothed grin and nubby dreadlocks that poked from his head like spring shoots, was one of the most promising recruits. No one had taught him how to swing a bat or throw a ball or encouraged him to play baseball at all, for that matter. What little he knew about the game came from watching kids in the park and the Yankees on TV. He had an untethered rocket of an arm and bravely planted himself in front of hard-hit grounders. Rodney assigned him to third base.

The kids were arriving in packs now. A pickup game began. Rodney suddenly looked overwhelmed. A couple of fathers offered to hit grounders, keep the books, whatever they could do to assist. Another man showed up and said he, too, wanted to coach.

By that afternoon, Rodney figured that he’d talked to about a hundred people. When Kelley, the league president, stopped by to see how things were going, she found dozens of kids calling themselves Eagles. They threw like shot-putters, swung bats like axes, ran shrieking through the infield with little clue what they were doing.

It was hard not to chuckle, watching them swirl around Rodney as he tried to figure out what to do next. His sister Darlene showed up and was startled by the sight.

“Where did you get those kids?” she said, aghast. “They cannot play baseball.”

Rodney didn’t care. The hardest part, in his mind, was over; he now had something to work with, something that he could shape into a team. It would not be pretty. But it would happen. Finally. He couldn’t wait to get started.

“That’s all right,” Rodney told his sister. “I’m-a teach them.”

Copyright © 2013 by Jonathan Schuppe

Jonathan Schuppe is a national enterprise reporter for NBC's local news websites and a former staff writer at the Newark Star-Ledger



Photo Credit: Jennifer Brown / The Star-Ledger

In Hospital Ceremony, World War II Vet Weds Sweetheart

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Shirlene King thought the moment would never come, but after a 30-year courtship, she finally got her wedding day.

She married her sweetheart of three decades, 88-year-old Jack Wright, on Tuesday.

They were wed in the hallway of the oncology department at the West Los Angeles veterans hospital, where a gravely ill Wright is receiving chemotherapy. Doctors, nurses and friends looked on during the hospital's first-ever wedding.

Despite his serious condition, Wright's humor and devotion were evident.

In response to one of the vows -- instead of answering with the traditional “I do” or “I will” -- Wright answered, “You bet your sweet life.”

It was a long time coming for the untraditional couple, and Wright admitted to being “a little teary eyed.”

Making the wedding more unusual is that Wright is believed to be the only living survivor of Battle of Guadalcanal during World War II.

He then went on to become a well-known figure in Marina del Rey -- where he lived on his boat and serenaded locals with his accordion. In the harbor, he went by Captain Jack.

One day in 1983, he met the much younger Shirlene King, who is now 57.

“We were at a hot tub party and I was the only one wearing a bathing suit. He swam over to me and said, ‘Can I kiss you?’ I said no. He swam away, but he never stopped asking.”

When Captain Jack became sick, he knew it was time to make it official with his long-time love.

“I have to undergo several treatments. She’s been by my side every step of the way,” Wright said.

Newlyweds Mr. and Mrs. Jack Wright perhaps prove you’re never too old for a happily ever after.

Couple Held Captive Will Get Bulk of Dorner Reward Money

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The bulk of the approximately $1 million reward offered during the manhunt for a murderous ex-police officer will go to a couple held captive by Christopher Dorner in the hours before he died in a fiery exchange with law enforcement, the LAPD announced Tuesday.

Two other parties – a tow-truck driver who spotted the fugitive at a Corona gas station, and a ski resort worker who found Dorner’s burned-out truck in Big Bear Lake – will also receive a portion of the reward.

Twelve parties filed claims on the reward.

Among the rejected claimants are a man who claims to have predicted Dorner’s demise in detail, a woman who had a “vision” of a storage facility that may have belonged to Dorner but did not tell police, and a man who let officers use his cellphone after a deadly shootout with Dorner in Riverside.

Tuesday's ruling eliminates Rick Heltebrake, who was carjacked by Dorner, from receiving any reward money because although his phone call tipped agents to Dorner, law enforcement had already spotted and engaged in gunfire with the fugitive in Heltebrake's pickup truck, the memorandum notes.

Heltebrake in April said he intended to sue the city to get the money.

Full Coverage: Christopher Dorner Manhunt | Timeline | Dorner's Manifesto

Held captive by Dorner in their Big Bear cabin, Karen and James Reynolds will receive 80 percent of the reward.

The couple stumbled upon Dorner on Feb. 12. A former Navy reservist who served tours overseas, Dorner methodically tied up the pair, telling them he’s knows they’ve seen him on the news and that he does not want to hurt them.

He then left cabin and, according to law enforcement, commandeered the couple’s Nissan sport utility vehicle. Dorner later crashed the Nissan and carjacked a white pickup truck, authorities said. A shootout, standoff and inferno inside a separate cabin followed the double car thefts.

After about 15 minutes in captivity, Karen Reynolds was able to roll onto her knees, scoot over to the bed and get onto her feet. She hopped into the living room, where she noticed her cellphone was on the coffee table, which she used to call 911. Agents found Dorner 30 minutes later.

Unlike the other parties who laid claim to the reward, the Reynoldses were deemed “instrumental” in finding Dorner.

Daniel McGowan, who will receive 15 percent of the reward pot, was driving to work along an unpaved fire road in Big Bear Lake on Feb. 7 when he came across Dorner’s burning truck.

That discovery, the memorandum notes, gave law enforcement vital information that pinpointed Dorner’s location in the mountain community, where they zeroed in.

“Had Mr. McGowan failed to contact authorities in a timely fashion, Dorner would have had a chance to flee the area,” the memorandum reads.

A tow-truck driver whose sighting of Dorner resulted in a police pursuit and two police shootouts with the fugitive will receive the remaining 5 percent of the reward money.

R. Lee McDaniel spotted Dorner at an AM/PM gas station in Corona early in the morning on Feb. 7.

Remembering a news article describing Dorner’s truck as a gray Nissan Titan, McDaniel returned to his tow truck and used its scanners to read the license plate on a similar truck parked in the lot.

The men made eye contact before McDaniel drove away, followed by Dorner. As McDaniel started to call police, he saw an LAPD squad car pull into the gas station he just left. McDaniel drove across the media to tell officers who he had just seen.

A subsequent police pursuit of Dorner led to two shootouts, one of which left Riverside Police Officer Michael Crain dead and his partner critically hurt.

McDaniel’s role in the manhunt, although minimal, “confirmed Dorner’s presence in Southern California … specifically, his presence east of Los Angeles in the Inland Empire,” making his worthy of a portion of the reward, the memorandum noted.

A panel of three judges doled out the reward money based on whether the claimant contacted police with information that helped the investigation and whether that information led to Dorner’s capture.

The City of Riverside and the Peace Officers Research Association of California pulled their portions of the reward money -- $100,000 and $50,000 respectively -- saying their pledges were contingent on the capture and conviction of Dorner, who died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in a burning cabin.

For the purpose of determining the reward recipients, “there is no requirement that a conviction have resulted, which of course would be impossible in view of the fact that Dorner is dead,” the memorandum stated.

The panel deemed Dorner was “constructively arrested or captured” when agents surrounded the cabin in which he was hiding on Feb. 12.

Dorner killed a newly engaged couple, including the daughter of a former LAPD captain, on Feb. 3 before slaying a Riverside police officer on Feb. 10, and a San Bernardino County Sheriff's detective on Feb. 13.

In a manifesto posted on online, Dorner said his ramapage would end when the LAPD cleared his name after he was fired from the force in 2008. He was accused of falsely accusing  fellow officer of kicking a suspect.


Brothers Tased in CHP Pursuit

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Two brothers, on the run from the California Highway Patrol, were tased and taken into custody in Lemon Grove.

The CHP spotted the car going 75 mph on city streets around 1 a.m. and began the pursuit.

As the vehicle approached the area of Woodrow Avenue, the officer performed a PIT maneuver on the vehicle.

The suspect vehicle crashed into a parked sedan, but did not appear to cause any damage.

The suspects, identified by the CHP as brothers, were tasered and taken into custody.

The driver was transported to Grossmont Hospital for a DUI evaluation.

Because an officer discovered what looks like an oil dipstick in the car’s ignition, the CHP is checking to see if the vehicle is stolen.
 



Photo Credit: NBC 7 San Diego

San Francisco 49ers to Play at Levi's Stadium

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When Colin Kaepernick throws his first touchdown pass in the 2014 season, the star San Francisco 49er quarterback will be playing in what one Twitter user dubbed it as "the field of jeans."

That's right. Field of Jeans.

In a joint news conference on Tuesday, the CEO of Levi Strauss and the 49ers announced that the new $1.2-billion football arena in Santa Clara will be called Levi's Stadium.

Levi's CEO Chip Bergh said that his San Francisco-based company will enter a 20-year, $220-million contract to buy the naming rights to the San Francisco 49ers new stadium in Santa Clara.

Bergh called the merger a "great partnership" between "two iconic" institutions: Levi Strauss and the 49ers, noting that the denim company first made jeans for the Gold Rush 49ers who panned for gold in San Francisco.

"This is a great day for the 49ers and for the Bay Area," added 49er CEO Jed York, who acknowledged that the new name - and influx of cash - comes just before the Super Bowl bid announcement, which Santa Clara is vying for.

Before the announcement was made, many fans were offering up their suggestions on the new stadium name, including Denim Stadium and Skinny Jeans Stadium. Jokes about "button fly" touchdowns and "Section 501" needing a "zipper fly" abounded.

But York, who is prolific on Twitter himself, said: "The best thing I've seen on Twitter was 'Welcome to the field of  jeans.' "

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and Santa Clara Mayor Jamie Matthews were also in attendance at the news conference. Both said they were happy with the partnership.  The NFL football team is leaving San Francisco's aging Candlestick Park stadium, for a modern, high-tech one in Santa Clara. Despite the move, the team will still bear the name the San Francisco 49ers.

 “Every time a fan turns on their television to watch a 49ers home game from Levi’s Stadium, the entire region will be on center stage," Lee said. "And, in a few short weeks, we are hopeful that we will host Super Bowl 50 or 51 and experience the enormous economic boost and lasting legacy for the entire Bay Area.”

Matthews added that the $220 million is is a "large amount to pay down the stadium."

"As powerful advocates for our communities, we share a vision for the new stadium constructed on the pillars of innovation, sustainability and an unparalleled entertainment experience," Matthews added.

City councilwoman Teresa O'Neill, a past skeptic of financing the new stadium, agreed that for a naming rights deal, this is "excellent' and does help pay down the overall cost.

However, O'Neill noted that under the agreement provided to the city council,  Levi's will pay $154 million to the Stadium Authority. And in a separate contract, Levi's agreed to pay $66 million to the football team for sponsorship benefits.

The city of Santa Clara still has to vote on the deal. A special meeting will be held Thursday at 7 p.m. 

About the new Santa Clara Stadium:

The Santa Clara stadium will not only be the new home to the San Francisco 49ers, but it will also serve as an outdoor sports and entertainment venue. It was designed by HNTB and is being built by Turner/Devcon in Milpitas, Calif.. The $1.2 billion venue will have 1.85 million square feet, seat approximately 68,500 and will feature an expected 165 luxury suites and 8,500 club seats. It was designed to be a multi-purpose facility with the flexibility to host a wide range of events, including domestic and international soccer, college football, motocross, concerts and various civic events, and will be expandable for major events such as the Super Bowl. For more information, go to www.newsantaclarastadium.com.

NBC Bay Area's Lori Preuitt contributed to this article.

Congresswoman Calls on Marines to End Vulgar FB Page

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U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier (D-San Mateo) has fired off a letter to the Secretary of Defense, bringing his attention to what she called a "disturbing Facebook page," which includes many negative comments and photos denigrating women in the Marine Corps.

NBC Bay Area is not showing all these photos because they are inappropriate, but one shows a woman's breasts and her fingers flipping someone off in an image that is labeled "F'N Wook," and another shows a female Marine putting a colleague in a choke hold with the words, "This is my rape face." Speier said she did not know who the Facebook page belonged to, and she was tipped off to it by a whistleblower. The page has since been taken down.

Speier's letter (PDF) and accompanying Facebook screen grabs was dated May 8, and sent to Secretary of Defense Charles Hagel, Commandant of the Marine Corps General James Amos and Principal Deputy Inspector General Lynne Hal brooks. Her letter comes as the national uproar over sexual assaults in the military following a Pentagon report this week saying that 26,000 military members were sexually assaulted last year.

"Many of the pictures imply women only advance professionally by performing sexual favors," Speier wrote. "And otherwise promote the idea that women are inferior and only useful as sexual objects and sandwich makers."

In a statement on behalf of the Marines received by e-mail on Wednesday, Capt. Eric Flanagan said that in general, "We have identified active Marines doing inappropriate posting on social media and they have been punished." 

In some cases, Flanagan said that Marines have faced "office hours" as "non judicial punishments" for unsavory comments posted online.

He said the men have been both active duty and reserve Marines and have been referred to commands for "appropriate action," though he was not specific about what that action was. Flanagan's comments were not necessarily made regarding the "F'N Wook" page, specifically highlighted by Speier.

Flanagan also issued some general facts about the Marines and their social media policies. Marines are responsible for all content they publish online, for example, and there is "no tolerance for discriminatory comments."

Violations of federal law and Department of Defense regulations or policies may result in disciplinary actions, which includes posting "any defamatory, libelous, abusive, threatening or ethnically hateful or otherwise offensive or illegal content."

When the Marines do receive a complaint regarding derogatory comments made online, Flanagan said that his military branch has notified companies such as Facebook about it. However, Flanagan said in an e-mail that "there are difficulties" in finding out the Marine who did it because people use fake accounts and pseudonyms. Social media sites, he said, are not obligated to divulge personal information to the Marines.

His statement added that the Marine Corps has been dealing with social media complaints "over the past ten years."

According to Speier, Amos has been aware of this specific Facebook page and monitoring it for three years. And despite the monitoring, the "cyber retaliation against those who complain about the website's content continues unabated," Speier wrote.

On her website, Speier called for "Hagel and Marine Leadership to Respond," and said that this type of vulgar "humor" seems to "encourage sexual assault and abuse."

Speier has worked long and hard to end what she calls an "epidemic of rape and sexual assault in the military," and has authored three pieces of legislation to change the military's justice system's treatment of cases of rape and sexual assault.

NBC Bay Area's Joe Inderhees and Cheryl Hurd contributed to this report.



Photo Credit: Facebook/Courtesy Rep. Jackie Speier

Cop Nearly Run Over in Pursuit

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A La Mesa police officer was thrown to the ground while trying to stop a suspect in a stolen car early Wednesday.

A 1995 Honda Prelude was reported stolen from a driveway at 5040 Comanche Drive around 3 a.m.

Officers spotted the car a couple of miles away on Parkway Drive. Before the officer turned on his lights and tried to pull the driver over, the suspect got out of the car while it was still moving. The man ran into a housing area.

Sgt. Brett Richards was blindsided on his left side by the car rolling backwards down the hill. He was knocked up onto the car's trunk.

"Sgt. Richards held on to the spoiler of the vehicle while trying to keep from being run over," Capt. David Bond.

"As the vehicle picked up speed, 10 to 15 miles an hour, he realized he was going to either run in to something or be knocked off so he jumped off before the vehicle collided with anything," Bond said.

Sgt. Richards was taken to a nearby hospital to be treated for what Bond described as bruises, contusions and "road rash."

The suspect fled the scene where the pursuit ended on Maryland Avenue and is still outstanding officials said.

Police described the man as Hispanic, 5-foot 8-inches to 5-foot- 10-inches tall, with curly hair and wearing a gray sweatshirt with jeans.

Bond said if anyone spots the auto theft suspect, they should not approach him but call 911 immediately.

There was no indication that the suspect intended to harm the officer but that will be a charge La Mesa police investigators will consider.

 

Ramona Teachers Vote to Authorize Strike

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The votes are in and the majority of teachers from the Ramona Unified School District have voted to authorize a strike “when and if it becomes necessary.”

On Wednesday, 99 percent of Ramona teachers had voted regarding a potential strike linked to teacher’s efforts to achieve a fair contract settlement with the district.

By more than a three-fourths majority, the Ramona Teachers Association overwhelmingly approved a vote authorizing the executive board to call for a strike action.

On Apr. 22, the school board unilaterally imposed a three-year contract for teachers which reflects a combination of salary cuts, furlough days and benefits contributions. Some of the cuts are retroactive, and will be taken out of teachers’ paychecks this month and next – unless teachers get the injunction they want to stop it.

The teacher’s union says the cuts are severe and the district has refused to bargain in good faith. The district says if it does not impose the cuts, the district will be insolvent and is prepared if there is a strike.

The district has put ads in the newspaper calling for substitute teachers, offering to pay subs $275 a day instead of the usual rate of $95.

The union believes about 70 percent of Ramona teachers voted on the matter on Tuesday, with the rest voting Wednesday at their respective schools.

“We’re disappointed it has come to where we are at this moment and we were hoping cooler heads would prevail and maybe there might be some kind of resolution, which I can’t anticipate at the moment,” said Ramona Superintendent Robert Graeff, Ed.D.

The final count on the votes came into union office late Wednesday.

The last time there was a teacher’s strike in Ramona was in 1976. Ramona Teacher’s Union president Donna Braye-Romero says teachers don’t want to strike, but will do so if necessary.

“We don’t want it to be a strike; we want it to be an injunction and we come back to the table and the district decides to be reasonable and not ask for as deep cuts. That’s what we’re hoping for,” said Braye-Romero.
 



Photo Credit: NBC 7 San Diego
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