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Startup's ‘Hidden Money’ Scavenger Hunt Coming to San Diego

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A local startup is using its augmented reality app to invite users to a digital scavenger hunt with very real prizes – including money virtually “hidden” around downtown San Diego.

On March 4, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., the “Hidden Cash San Diego” scavenger hunt will take place around points of interest across downtown. The event is the brainchild of Dmitry Shapiro, founder of the San Diego startup, GoMeta, Inc., and creator of the augmented reality app, Metaverse.

The app, much like Pokemon Go, is built to allow users to interact with its augmented reality universe. Users can create games and other “experiences,” drop them onto a map of the real world and, using their smartphone as a guide, physically walk up to those experiences and interact with them.

Since the company was founded in September 2016, it has hosted a few hype-inducing stunts around Southern California, including scavenger hunts in San Diego and Los Angeles in late October 2016.

The March 4 hunt, Shapiro said, is another one of those big events, meant to get people to play his company’s app while exploring San Diego for a chance to win money and freebies from local businesses. He said, so far, about 1,500 people have RSVP’d for the event.

“Participants will go on a quest, as we call it, via the app,” explained Shapiro. “They get a map and walk to get closer to clues, and the augmented reality interacts with them. They will encounter 10 to 15 experiences and the last one [will lead to] a prize.”

Shapiro said one of these “experiences” could entail a user coming across some sort of character as they point their smartphone at a spot along the scavenger hunt. That character, via a speech bubble, may ask the user a trivia question. The answer may unlock another clue, leading the user to another experience along the scavenger hunt, or to a prize, such as cash.

The cash – which could be between $20 and $1,000 – is not physically hidden anywhere, but will appear in the game, on the player’s smartphone screen. Shapiro said the winner will be paid digitally, via tools like Paypal or Venmo.

Unlike the viral “Hidden Cash” craze of 2014, Shapiro and his colleague, Jonathan Miller, said this scavenger hunt is all virtual, meaning there is no physical digging for prizes.

“Don’t bring your shovels,” said Shapiro. “There’s nothing to dig; you have to find the cash [via augmented reality].”

For the upcoming scavenger hunt, Miller said Metaverse has also partnered with San Diego businesses to offer other prizes along the way, including freebies at local restaurants such as a side of bacon at The Omelette Factory or a free taco at Cilantro’s Taco Shop.

Other giveaways up for grabs in the Metaverse include: free yoga classes at Pilgrimage of the Heart Yoga or Full Circle Yoga, an introductory to cooking class at San Diego Culinary Institute, or a free small coffee at Lush Coffee & Tea.

Leading up to the big scavenger hunt, Miller and Shapiro said locals have already started winning cash across San Diego in places like UC San Diego, Westfield UTC, Little Italy and Lake Murray in La Mesa. The company’s Twitter account, @HiddenMoneySD, has been posting happy selfies of winners.

“We see lots of smiles,” said Shapiro. “People have a lot of fun playing and winning.”

Miller said these giveaways will be ongoing, with bigger scavenger hunts happening once in a while as “fun experiments.”

To participate in the March 4 event, iPhone or Android users must download the Metaverse app and create an account. From there, they will be able to navigate a map on their smartphone and then get out and walk around San Diego in search of clues.

GoMeta, Inc., was founded in September 2016. On Halloween, the company held its “Augmented Halloween” event in Los Angeles and San Diego, again giving away cash.

In November 2016, the startup landed $2 million in seed money from several big names including former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, former Myspace CEO Michael Jones, Greylock Partners and Moonshot Capital.



Photo Credit: Getty Images
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San Diego Cop Killer Faces Parole Hearing

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A state parole board is convening a hearing in Chowchilla this afternoon to decide whether a prison inmate convicted of murdering a San Diego police officer will get another parole.

The shooting happened nearly four decades ago.

Jesus Cecena was 17 when he gunned down 30-year-old patrol officer Archie Buggs during a traffic stop in the Skyline area in November, 1978.

Since then he's been recommended for parole from Valley State prison twice -- but Gov. Jerry Brown later overturned those decisions.

Buggs was wounded in a hail of pistol bullets, then killed with a shot to the temple while he lay on the ground.

His partner, Jesse Navarro, is now a top executive in the San Diego District Attorney's Office.

Prosecutors are at the maximum security lockup to make their case for keeping Cecena under a life sentence.

He was turned down after parole hearings 13 times until 2014 and '15.

The San Diego Police Department and San Diego Police Officers Assn. strongly objected to Cecena's release, prompting the governor to reverse those recent parole decisions.

Prison administrators have cited Cecena for 10 conduct violations over the years.

Deputy District Attorney Richard Sachs told NBC 7 that parole officials who approved Cecena’s release insisted on evidence that Buggs was, in effect, "executed" at close range.

The DA's office has since submitted blood spatter material from beneath the patrol car Buggs was lying next to.

Buggs was the first of nine San Diego police officers to be killed in the line of duty over a seven-year period – the most of any department in the nation.

Innovators Lab Helps Kids Learn Science Through Art

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Kids can now learn about science and math by making cool projects, like drones and LED holiday cards, at a new Innovators Lab.

The permanent exhibit recently opened at the New Children's Museum in downtown San Diego. NBC 7 is a proud part of making the lab possible, by awarding the musuem a $25,000 grant through the 21st Century Grant program.

The Innovators Lab is a collaborative makerspace experiment. The museum works with local artists and experts from various fields to create open ended design challenges to nurture creativity, problem solving, skill building, and learning.

"When you demystify science for them and you turn it into an art and creative and play environment, all of a suddent things that seems impossible beccome possible for them," said Judy Forrester, the museum's Chief Executive Officer.

"What sets this apart from other makerspaces is the collaboration with external professionals," said Tomoko Kuta, director of education and exhibitions. 

The current Spinning Tops Workshop teaches kids about balance and gravity. Kids don safety masks then use a lathe to create their own tops from wax. 

"I think with Innovators lLab we're able to empower kids to think about using real tools and it builds confidence and creativity," said Lani Bautisa Cabanilla, the manager of Visitor Programs.

The workshops will change four times a year. Up next: workshops in collaboration with an architect and an engineer. 

During the lab's first project, children created their own drones to explore the concept of buoyancy.

The second project taught children about electricity and currency by building LED lit holiday cards.

"When you think about workforce development, and you think about, what are those 21st century skills our students are going to need to be in the workforce, things like an Innovators Lab really give kids a leg up for that," Forrester told NBC7.

 The lab is designed for kids who are in the 7 to 13-year-old age range.

"It's a really good way to work with our families as they age up with our museum," said Kuta.

The lab is included with the museum admission.  The museum says 30 percent of children visit at no cost, thanks to fundraising that helps reach community centers, military families and foster children.

"For us, it's really enriching because we get to each out to the broad community and bring resources here and then just share it with the families who come," Kuta said.

For more information about the new Innovators Lab, click here.

To learn more about NBC 7's 21st Century Grant program, click here.



Photo Credit: NBC 7

Innovators Lab is Helping Kids Learn Science Using Art

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Photo Credit: NBC 7

Sister of Missing Man Makes Plea for Help

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In Claremont, a sister is desperate to find her brother, who went missing nearly six weeks ago.

Jake Roberson, 30, is considered bipolar and doesn't have access to his medication, his family said.

Ruth Roberson describes her brother as an old spirit, kind, and a loving uncle to her 4-month-old daughter.

Roberson's car sits in her driveway. It was found in Los Angeles County near Pyramid Lake on the Interstate-5.

A note on the car said he was out of gas.

Just 10 days ago, another piece of evidence was discovered--a maintenance worker from Pyramid Lake found his jeans and car keys, but still no sign of Roberson.

"It's actually been kind of a struggle because as family members, we know that there are certain circumstances--that we think a search party should have been sent out earlier," Ruth said. "But dealing with just two jurisdictions, dealing with circumstances around his case, it's neccessarily considered serious."

A search operation is schedule for Friday morning in Los Angeles County. Due to weather, dive teams will not be able to search the lake.

Man Killed After Being Hit by Car in Santee

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A pedestrian was killed after being hit by a car Thursday evening in Santee, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) confirmed.

The crash occurred at 5:10 p.m. on the eastbound State Route 52 at Mast Boulevard.

CHP officials said according to the initial reports, the man had stepped out of a truck and was hit by another car.

A Sig Alert was issued at 5:30 p.m. for the eastbound SR-52 at Summit.

No other information was available.

Check back for updates on this breaking news.



Photo Credit: Getty Images

BMW Allows Local Man To Negotiate Out Of Car Lease Early

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A Ramona man turned to NBC 7 Responds after a dealership wouldn’t let him out of a three-year lease his wife entered into before she died. 

“She was actually in the back seat, in a head-on collision, and go figure, she was the only one that didn’t survive,” Charlie Spicuzza said. “I’ll never forget that day.” 

It’s not easy for Charlie to talk about the day he lost his wife Cindy. It also hasn’t been easy to take care of the details since she passed away, including her favorite car. 

“There’s plenty of reminders of her all over the house,” Charlie said. 

One of those is Cindy’s car. She was eight months into a three-year lease on a BMW. After she died, Charlie drove it to BMW of El Cajon where they originally leased it. 

Charlie said the dealership told him he was still responsible for paying the lease. 

“You can bring us back the car but you need to give us $15,429 which just by coincidence was exactly the total sum of all the remaining payments I still had left to make,” he said. 

Charlie said all he wanted was a small break, he didn’t expect the dealership to forgive the entire debt. 

“And I told them, I said, look I understand. Sell it for whatever you can get for it, I’ll pay the difference, I know I’m not going to get out of this without taking some sort of financial hit,” he said. 

Charlie talked to BMW lease officials and said he got the same answer, he would have to sell the car himself. After nearly eight weeks of trying to work out a solution, Charlie turned to NBC 7 Responds for help. 

“I knew immediately that we had to do something for him,” Selena Hernandez, a Consumer Producer for NBC 7, said. 

She works in the NBC Responds call center in Dallas. After she took Charlie’s call, Selena said she reached out to corporate officials at BMW. 

“It will never replace the life that was lost but perhaps give him some comfort and some peace to some degree,” she said. 

It took less than a week for Charlie to get a call he said he didn’t expect. 

“Just bring that car back down to El Cajon BMW, they know you’re coming, you don’t owe us any more money,” Charlie said. 

BMW agreed to take back the car and cancel any future lease payments. 

In an email, BMW Corporate Communications Manager Dave Buchko told NBC 7 Responds, “BMW is committed to the highest level of customer service. The matter has been resolved to the satisfaction of all involved."

$1M Settlement Reached for Death of Mexican Man Near Border

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A $1 million settlement has been reached in a lawsuit against U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), seven years after the death of a Mexican man near the San Ysidro Port of Entry.

Anastasio Hernandez-Rojas, 42, died in 2010 after he was caught coming into the U.S. illegally and was involved in an altercation with border officers.

According to the Justice Department, Hernandez-Rojas began fighting with agents when his handcuffs were removed and he struggled and kicked them. One officer used a stun gun on Hernandez-Rojas after which his breathing slowed and he became unresponsive.

He was taken to the hospital and died a few days later.

According to his autopsy, Hernandez-Rojas suffered a heart attack during the altercation. The Justice Department said heart disease, electric shocks from the stun gun and methamphetamine intoxication were contributing factors.

Hernandez-Rojas' death raised complaints of excessive force from the then-president of Mexico and others, and investigators with the Justice Department examined the case for evidence of a civil rights violation.

But in 2015, the Justice Department announced that it would not bring criminal charges against the CBP and closed the investigation.

A year later, the CBP's Use of Force Review Board (UFRB) began to review the investigation into the deadly incident.

On Thursday, a settlement was reached in the lawsuit alleging wrongful death, excessive force and failture to properly supervise and failure to intervene.

The $1 million settlement will be paid to the plaintiffs, who are Hernandez-Rojas' children and wife, after the petition is approved.


Arrest Made 30 Years After Teen Murdered in Valencia Park

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An arrest has been made nearly three decades after the murder of a teenager in Valencia Park.

One April evening in 1987, 15-year-old Dewan Emerson told his mother he was stepping outside to speak to someone – a man he said he knew - who had stopped by their home.

That was the last conversation the two ever had.

The following morning, someone stumbled upon what they thought was a manikin in a flood channel behind Naranja Street. San Diego Police arrived and discovered that it was the body of Emerson. Investigators confirmed that he had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death.

Emerson was a student at Lincoln High School at the time and was involved in the ROTC program. His neighbor and friend Denise Barnes remembers the day officers knocked on her door and told her and her mother what happened.

"He was just like the little brother I never had, you know?” Barnes said. “Sweet kid, I miss him.”

A lot has changed since 1987, including advancements in DNA evidence analysis. SDPD Cold Case Detectives and District Attorney Investigators recently revisited the case and new technology helped them create a suspect DNA profile for Emerson’s killer.

The profile led them to 56-year-old Russell Taylor, a man serving a 25-year sentence at San Quentin State Prison for a separate crime.

SDPD officers came knocking on Barnes’ door once again a couple of months ago, this time telling her and her mother that Taylor had been arrested. He was charged for the crime last week.

“That made me feel good,” Barnes said. “That boy deserved to live. He was the sweetest, he stayed in school, whatever was going on in his household he tried to stay away from it.”

Investigators still hold suspicion that there may have been a second victim that night in Valencia Park.

Neighbors reported to police that they saw another boy running along the 5100 block of nearby Groveland Street. They say the boy mentioned that he was being chased.

Witnesses described him as a “chubby” black boy, 17 to 18 years old, about 6 feet tall, weighing about 160 pounds and wearing blue sweats and a white t-shirt that was torn along the left side.

SDPD is asking for the public’s help in identifying the boy, and are urging anyone with any other information to come forward.



Photo Credit: NBC 7

Construction on Encinitas Home May Have Flooded Neighbor's Yard

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Construction work in an Encinitas neighborhood may have caused flooding and significant damage to a neighbor’s yard, fire officials said Thursday.

Muddy water filled the yard of the home on Normandy Road Thursday morning.

Solana Beach-Del Mar-Encinitas Firefighters were called to the home around 10:30 a.m. to help remove the excess water caused by a broken pipe.

Battalion Chief Robert Ford said a contractor was working on a home up the street.

There was a good 2 feet of water around the home and several inches of water inside, he said.

“We’re working with the homeowner to salvage what we can inside the house,” Ford said.

“The homeowner going to be not living in her house until it’s rendered safe.”

While Ford wasn’t sure what caused the flooding, a NBC 7 news crew saw a broken pipe on the site of the construction. When asked, Ford said he had not investigated the cause of the flooding.



Photo Credit: Mark Sackett, NBC 7

'Bang, Bang' Sound Heard During Lakeside Car Fire: Neighbor

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Neighbors said they heard what sounded like gunshots during a fatal car fire in Lakeside Wednesday night.

San Diego County Sheriff’s Department (SDSO) homicide detectives are investigating after a burning body was recovered from a car parked on Mast Boulevard.

On Thursday, NBC 7 obtained cell phone video of the fire--which left behind scorched earth on the side of the road .

“It sounded like bang-bang, like fire crackers or guns going off,”  said neighbor Megan Blum-Hopgood.

One neighbor said she was afraid to look outside her home after hearing the explosions.

"I was more worried about gunshots. Not sure what was going on, so I stayed away from the windows,” said Shannon Shepard.

Andrew Borcher recorded the car fire with his phone from the back patio of his home.

During the four and a half minute recording, four explosions can be heard coming from the Lexus sedan.

"Very, very shocked something like that would happen. Very heartbreaking someone was actually in the vehicle,” Shepard said.

One homeless man who lives under a pepper tree near the location of the incident, told NBC 7, he witnessed the whole thing and believes it was an act of self-harm.

"I heard a shot and explosion,” he said.

Andrew Borcher said he also believed the fire was intentional.

“Without intentionally setting the car on fire, you wouldn't have 15 or 20-foot flames for 20 minutes,” he told NBC 7.

SDSO is called the death suspicious until a cause of death is determined.

The fire is unsettling some neighbors.

"We bought this home because it was a very safe neighborhood. Now we know someone was killed. It's very very scary,” Blum-Hopgood said.

The Medical Examiner has not yet identifying the victim.

According to authorities, the victim did not own the car.

Deportation Backlog: Half a Million Cases Pending

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President Donald Trump is keeping his promise to crack down on illegal immigration.

But under the current immigration court system, it can take years to actually get deported.

The reason? A huge backlog.

Across the nation, there's more than 500,000 pending cases, yet less than 300 immigration judges to get through them. In San Diego, there's only about half a dozen immigration judges. The court system is understaffed and the facilities are often maxed out.

"The backlog is incredible, in some cities very easily four or five years," said Andrew Nietor, Chair of San Diego's Immigration Lawyers Association. "I've had clients flown from San Diego to Louisiana, just because they don't have the capacity right now in the San Diego detention facilities."

President Trump has promised to increase deportations and speed up the process, yet the current infrastructure can't manage a dramatic spike. More deportations will ultimately cost more money.

"There's definitely going to be a marked drastic increase in the number of detentions," Nietor said. "There will have to be an increase in immigration judges, Department of Homeland Security staff, attorneys and detention facilities. The tax payers are going to have to come up with billions of dollars."

But experts said finding immigration judges is easier said than done. The federal government is aware of the backlog and says it's in the process of hiring more judges and court staffing. But that's just one side of the issue. The other is U.S immigration laws.

"If you're not an authorized resident, and you're undocumented, then you have to go right?" said Everard Meade, Director of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego. "Well when you look at the U.S. immigration laws, it's actually really complicated. We've created all these exceptions to the rule over the years that are incredibly complicated."

Meade says that having more immigration judges would make it easier to remove people who don't have a valid immigration claim to stay in the country.

"The U.S spends about $19 billion a year on immigration enforcement," Meade said. "But we only spend about $360 million on the court system. Over the last 15 years, the enforcement budget has grown, the judicial system has not."



Photo Credit: NBC 7

Motorcyclist Injured in Crash in Escondido

Bulldogs Maintain Their Perfect Season

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Perfection: when you look up this word in the dictionary it reads, “The state or condition of being perfect.” What it should read is “The state of Gonzaga’s 2016-2017 basketball season”.

It was a sellout crowd Thursday night at the Jenny Craig Pavilion, as the USD Toreros hosted the undefeated and number one ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs. But the hometown crowd didn’t witness what they hoped as the Toreros fell to the visiting Bulldogs 96-to-38.

With the Zag’s victory they maintain their perfect record and improve to 29-and-0 on the season to clinch the West Conference Title.

Gonzaga’s 58-point victory marked their largest win so far this season. Four out of the Bulldogs five starting players finished the game in double figures. Josh Perkins and Jordan Mathews lead the team as they racked up 15 points each.

It was forward Jonathan Williams, who really exceeded on the night for the Bulldogs. Williams double –dipped, capping off the game with 14 points and 19 rebounds.

Regardless of “home court advantage” The ball seemed to always be in Gonzaga’s court. The team as a whole was 13-for-25 on shots taken beyond the three point arc and shot 66 percent from the field. While the Bulldogs offense was good their defense is what truly hurt the Toreos, limiting USD to just 24 percent shooting from the field.

The multiple missed shots made by the Toreros gave the Zag’s plenty of opportunities to rebound, and they took full advantage of that, something USD failed to do. The Zags finished the night out-rebounding USD 51-to-20.

However despite the Toreros 58-point deficit Olin Carter III continued to impress the packed pavilion. He put up 15 points against the Gonzaga defense, sinking three of the teams six three-point shots.

With the loss to Gonzaga the Toreros have now fallen in six of their last seven games. They will finish off the season at home against Portland Saturday night. As for Gonzaga they will finish the regular season at home against BYU on Saturday evening, as they attempt to cap off a perfect season.

Trump Wants to Make US Nuclear Arsenal 'Top of the Pack'

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President Donald Trump on Thursday again expressed a desire for America to be an unparalleled military power, saying he wants to build up the U.S. nuclear arsenal to make it "top of the pack," NBC News reported.  

In an interview with Reuters, the president stated that the United States had fallen behind on atomic weapons but did not detail what kind of expansion, if any, the military would pursue. 

"A dream would be that no country would have nukes," Trump told Reuters. "But if countries are going to have nukes, we're going to be at the top of the pack."

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Photo Credit: AP

DC-Area Riddled With Old 'Spy Sites': Ex-CIA Employee

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The chances you live within walking distance to a spy site are 100 percent for those living in the D.C. area, according to a former CIA official.

Robert Wallace, who spent 40 years in the CIA, wrote the book “Spy Sites of Washington, D.C., A Guide to the Capital Region's Secret History,” which details hundreds of locations in D.C., Maryland and Virginia with connections to espionage.

Walking the streets of D.C., Wallace said locations where spies lived, worked, held secret meetings and conducted dead drops are all around.

“I think it's about 100 percent certain that there is a spy site in your neighborhood, somewhere in your neighborhood,” he said. “I assure you, you can walk to it.”

In December 1976, retired CIA employee Edwin Moore lived in a home on Fort Sumner Drive in Bethesda, Maryland.

“He decided to go to the other side,” Wallace said.

Moore stole enough classified documents to fill several boxes and tried to sell them to the Soviet Union. He wrapped up a sample of the secret documents with a note and threw the bundle over the fence of the Soviet Embassy, which is now the Russian ambassador’s home. A security guard at the embassy found the package and called D.C. police, fearing it was a bomb.

“They come, retrieve the package, determine it isn't a bomb,” Wallace said. “They open the package, and some very alert police officer in Washington says, ‘Hmm, I think the FBI might be interested in this, and in fact, they were.”

Moore’s note instructed the Soviets to deliver $3,000 in cash to a dead drop location by a fire hydrant right across the street from his house, which undercover FBI agents did.

“He's arrested, he's tried, he's convicted, he's sentenced to 15 years in prison and then subsequently paroled after about three years,” Wallace said.

From the Soviet Union to the United States and Back
The security guard who found the package at the embassy was KGB.

Eight years after turning over Moore’s package of secrets to police, Vitaly Yurchenko returned to the Soviet Union.

“He was a fast-rising officer of the KGB,” Wallace said.

In 1985 after being diagnosed with cancer Yurchenko returned to the United States as a defector.

“He had knowledge of a lot of KGB operations in the United States, so of course we were interested, from a counterintelligence perspective, to debrief him thoroughly, and we did,” Wallace said.

Yurchenko’s defection didn’t last long. One night while having dinner at a Georgetown restaurant that is now the location of an &pizza restaurant, Yurchenko told his CIA security officer he was stepping outside for some fresh air.

“When he walked down the street maybe a block or so he was likely picked up by the KGB at that point,” Wallace said. “We saw him a day or so later on TV announcing that he had been drugged by the CIA for the last three months and he was very happy to be back in friendly hands.”

Spy Tactics Used for a Political Purpose
In his book, Wallace recounts hundreds of spy stories from locations across the area, including the famous garage in Rosslyn where Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward held secret meetings with his Watergate source Deep Throat.

“The Watergate story is in fact an adaptation of espionage techniques for a political purpose,” Wallace said.

“Spy Sites” includes maps of neighborhoods in D.C., Maryland and Virginia.



Photo Credit: NBCWashington
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Status Check: 'April' the Giraffe Doing Well, Still Pregnant

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The 15-year-old giraffe named "April," who has captivated millions of people across the world as they watch a live stream in anxious anticipation of the birth of her fourth calf at an upstate New York zoo, is still pregnant and doing well. 

Veterinarians with the Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville, outside Binghamton, said April's progression continues, but giraffes tend to hide signs of labor as a natural instinct, so they can't confirm active labor.

That said, vets checked in on her twice overnight and "physical posturing and other activity observed would suggest we are close," the group wrote on Facebook Friday morning. Around 8:30 a.m., the live stream actually showed significant movement in April's belly as the long-necked beauty began to walk outside.

Another update was expected Friday evening. 

April's pregnancy was catapulted into global headlines earlier Thursday after YouTube briefly yanked the zoo's live stream following complaints by animal activists that it violated the site's policies concerning "nudity and sexual content." Thousands upon thousands of commenters voiced their frustration on Facebook and YouTube, and the stream was restored within an hour or so. 

More than 30 million people across the globe have tuned in over the last few days to watch it. You can check out the live stream above.

April was seen slinking gracefully around her hay-laden home Friday morning in no apparent distress. Once she goes into active labor, zoo officials say the keepers will go in to help her but first-time dad, 5-year-old Oliver, will be held out of the pen. The dad-to-be will get to go outside with his mate for some exercise Friday, zoo officials said, but they have to be kept apart.

"Her and Oliver will both enjoy yard time today, but are kept separate due to April's condition," the group wrote on Facebook. "His rambunctious play for an extended period could have negative effects. Boys will be boys."

Giraffe pregnancies last for 15 months. Labor lasts anywhere from a few hours to a few days. The calf will be about 150 pounds and 6 feet tall at birth and up and walking in about an hour. The zoo says it will hold a contest to name it.



Photo Credit: Animal Adventure Park/Mazuri
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Ramona HS Principal Dispels Rumors of Threat

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NBC 7's Elena Gomez reports on a rumor that made some Ramona High School parents and students uneasy.

One parent told NBC 7 his son heard a rumor floating around campus that someone was planning to shoot up Ramona High School Friday.

It's not clear if these rumors were from social media or spreading by word of mouth.

NBC 7 has learned the principal, school administrators and its security looked into the rumors and after their investigation, found no credibility to the threats.

Classes were scheduled as usual.



Photo Credit: Google Maps

Poll: More Than Half Disapprove of Trump's Job Performance

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Fifty-four percent of Americans somewhat or strongly disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling the presidency after a month in office, while 43 percent approve somewhat or strongly, according to the latest NBC NewsSurveyMonkey poll.

NBC News reported that Trump enjoys broad support from within his party, but few outside of it, with evident divisions along gender and racial lines as well.

Nine of 10 Republicans or people who lean Republican approve of Trump's performance as president, with the same percentage of Democrats and those who lean Democrat disapproving. 

But independents split two to one against Trump. His aggregate low approval rating is below any other newly elected president since pollsters began tracking presidential job approval.



Photo Credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images, File

LA DACA Recipient, 22, Accused of Smuggling, Held in Ga.

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The plea from the family and girlfriend of 22-year-old Jesus Alonso Arreola Robles paints a picture of a young man who came to the United States from Mexico with his parents when he was just 18 months old.

He graduated high school, applied for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program initiated by the Obama Administration and was granted temporary legal status. He worked in a North Hollywood hotel with his dad and allegedly as a driver for either Lyft or Uber.

But NBC4 Southern California has learned that Robles is under investigation by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol for allegedly smuggling into the country another man who didn't have the legal right to be here.

Border Patrol says they arrested Robles on Feb. 12 on State Route 94 near Campo, California. In a statement to NBC4 radio partner KPCC, Robles' attorney, Joseph Porta, falsely claimed local police had arrested his client for a minor traffic violation and handed him over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"I'm a little at odds as to why he's actually being detained right now," Porta said in a Thursday morning news conference at the headquarters of CHIRLA, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles. Porta claims ICE had since moved his client from San Diego to Arizona and ultimately to Georgia where is currently being detained.

"It's very troublesome because it's prevented me from speaking to my client, having access to my client and mounting a defense," he said.

ICE says detainees are often moved around when there's an overcrowding issue and San Diego is a location that often sees cases like that. But they add that Robles has access to a phone 24/7 even though Porta claims he has yet to speak with his client.

In Thursday's public news conference, Porta claimed he didn't know why Robles was arrested and Robles' mother also denied know the details. But NBC4 has learned that in an interview with KMEX in Los Angeles, Rosa Robles admitted that her son had unknowingly picked up a passenger near the U.S.-Mexico border that night. Neither she nor the family attorney have responded to requests for comment.

Meantime, a spokesman for CHILRA says Robles was near the border because he was working at the time as a driver for a ride share app, claiming it was either Lyft or Uber. NBC4 and our partners at Telemundo 52 have confirmed that is also false, with both companies denying Robles was a registered driver at the time of the arrest.

But the fact remains that Robles is in federal immigration custody and faces deportation to a country he's never been to since he left at such a young age, and he faces losing his DACA status. ICE says that since DACA went into effect in 2012, they have deported 1,500 recipients who "pose a threat" to national security.

In a statement to NBC4, ICE says undocumented immigrants granted deferred action from deportation who are subsequently found to pose a threat to national security or public safety may have their deferred action terminated at any time. According to the statement, "this includes those who have been arrested or convicted of certain crimes, or those who are associated with criminal gangs."

Border Patrol would not go into specifics into Robles' arrest but say he was subsequently transferred to ICE custody on Feb. 15 pending a hearing before an immigration judge. It will be up to the judge to determine if he has a legal basis to remain in the U.S.

The question as to his defense lies with his attorney, who says he's not sure about why his client was arrested in the first place.

"I haven't been able to verify that with my client and I need to maintain that silence until I know what's going on," Porta said.


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