The Navy has made several changes to women’s uniforms that went into effect last Wednesday.

Women are now allowed to wear their hair in a bun through the back opening of a command or Navy ball cap.

"I think this will be more comfortable and will look a lot better. Thanks to the Lt. j.g. out there for making that known to me. We promised to fix it and now it's fixed,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson said in a Facebook video last week.

Women are also now authorized to wear white pearl or white synthetic pearl earrings with Dress Uniforms and round cut white diamonds or white synthetic diamonds with Dinner Dress Blue and White Jacket uniforms. The earrings must be 4 millimeter - 6 millimeter (approximately 1/8 inch - 1/4 inch) in size.

Pregnant women can now purchase the NWU Type III maternity uniform due to a reduction in the production of the Type I uniform.

Chelsea Manning, the former U.S. Army Intelligence analyst, on Sunday took part in her first Pride March since being released from prison last month, NBC News reported.

Manning rode in cars for the American Civil Liberties Union and said she was "honored to represent" the organization at the parade in New York City.

Manning, who came out publicly as transgender in 2013, rode alongside Gavin Grimm, the transgender teen who sued his school for denying him access to the boys' bathroom.

The 29-year-old was released from military prison in May after serving seven years of a 35-year sentence for leaking intelligence records. President Barack Obama commuted her sentence in January.

Passengers of a Sunday morning Air Asia flight said their captain asked them to pray — twice — as the plane experienced engine trouble and shook like a "washing machine," NBC News reported.

Damien Stevens, who was on the flight from Perth, Australia, to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, told NBC News the plane shook after a “huge bang” about 75 minutes into the flight.

"The rattling started straight away," Stevens said. "It was like being in a washing machine... The pilot asked us to pray twice and said he was scared too."

The exact cause of the incident remains unclear, but Stevens said the airline told him the trouble stemmed from one of the engines and that the pilot had 44 years of experience. The plane landed safely back in Perth and there were no reported injuries.

The days of notebooks, chalkboards and flour sack babies in schools across the country may be ending. Many of today’s schools are incorporating Chromebooks, Smart Boards, and even high-tech infant simulators that are taking the classroom into a highly digitized 21st century.

As tablets, laptops and apps have taken hold with consumers in recent years, they have also gained a steady following within schools, said Ellen Meier, a professor at Teachers’ College at Columbia University.

One influential addition in many classrooms is the Chromebook, a low-cost, simplified laptop, loaded with Google apps like an internet browser and word processor, that can work offline. Last year, Chromebooks made up 5.4 million of the devices sold for U.S. classrooms, or just under half of the total, according to the Associated Press.

Chicago Public Schools has spent about $33.5 million to provide Chromebooks for more than a third of its 381,000 students, The New York Times Magazine reported. “In less than 10 seconds, a student can grab a Chromebook and be off and running,” Rajen Sheth, who oversees Google’s Chromebook business, told the magazine.

With these basic laptops or tablets like iPads, schools can create virtual classroom hubs that let students view assignments, submit homework and talk to teachers online on platforms like Moodle and Blackboard.

Meier, who directs Columbia’s Center for Technology and School Change, said that schools are facing a growing impetus to make sure that more students have experience using keyboards because tests are increasingly being administered online.

Cassettes or CDs in foreign language classes, meanwhile, are getting competition from interactive language lessons apps like DuoLingo. It's being used by tens of thousands of students, according to the company.

“More and more technology is being used in classrooms for practicing math and reading skills,” Eric Cayton, vice president of merchandising at Staples, said in an email. “In order to do this work independently, headphones now often appear on [back-to-school] shopping lists for students in elementary school.”

But the digital revolution in the classroom isn’t just tied to the arrival of laptops and tablets. High-tech reinventions of traditional school supplies are starting to make older models obsolete.

The same way that classic chalkboards were phased out in favor of dry-erase boards in the late 1990s, the Smart Board — an interactive whiteboard/projector combo — is now the board of choice in many classrooms. Texas Instruments, meanwhile, has kept its monopoly on calculators with the TI-Nspire, a modern version of the company’s bulky devices from the 80s and 90s.

More than three million classrooms now use Smart Boards, whose latest model of touch TVs can hook up to Chromebooks, according to a Smart Board representative.

Benjamin Glazer, an editor at consumer shopping website DealNews, said he predicts that many traditional items on back-to-school lists may also receive a digital update soon.

“There’s a strong possibility you might see things like smart binders or smart notebooks where you can access calendars and schedules from a touch screen inside the notebook,” he said.

But what’s often more important than the technology itself is how it ends up being used in the classroom, researchers say.

“The Smart Boards have become well-known for replacing blackboards, but they have so many things that we often don’t prepare our teachers to do,” Meier said. “There’s going to be an ongoing parade of new devices, but devices are not the answer in terms of how we can use these tools for more thoughtful teaching and learning.”

In any case, the most basic supplies — like paper, pencils and erasers — won’t be going away anytime soon.

“Every year, we see massive price loads on those items,” Glazer said. “Retailers continue to treat them as doorbuster deals that will bring in customers.”

For Rebecca Lemos-Otero, the founder of a nonprofit that creates school gardens, plots of vegetables and flowers don't only offer new ways to teach science or math. And give kids opportunities to be outside and moving about. And show them that their neighborhoods can be green and beautiful.

School gardens also leave some students with a taste for much-maligned kale and other fruits and vegetables they've grown themselves, Lemos-Otero said.

"The expectation that kale is part of your meal, versus this exotic food that it felt like 10 years ago, it's amazing," Lemos-Otero said.

Some organizations gather school supplies like notebooks, pens and backpacks, but her organization, City Blossoms, works directly with a dozen schools, mostly in Washington D.C., to supply them with gardens and keep them going year after year.

The goal for the 10-year-old organization is to make gardening routine for the students, not a special event. Older students sell their produce at farmers markets or to their teachers in school-based community supported agriculture subscriptions.

"They become more comfortable with expecting to try different foods. They become much more comfortable with exploring the food that's put in front of them, especially if they have something to do with the preparation or the growing of it," Lemos-Otero said.

Edna Chirico of the nonprofit Real School Gardens said she has seen a similar change.

"It is amazing," she said. "If they grow it, if they take care of it, if someone shows them how to cook it, the students eat it 100 percent of the time."

Some of the gardens are quite elaborate.

Real School Gardens works with schools to develop deluxe gardens, which they call outdoor classrooms. In a three-year process, teachers, students and community members can submit design ideas for the space, which include things like whiteboards, student seating areas that are shaded from sun or protected from rain, a shed full of school supplies.

Those features are intended to eliminate the possibility that a teacher might say, "Well, we were going to go outside for class today, BUT..."

"Beyond just going outside and having fun, it's about learning. Every piece of that space is intentional and has a reason for being there," said April Martin, the group's Mid-Atlantic regional director.

Real School Gardens has partnered with schools across the country for these large-scale projects, which are available only to low-income schools that apply for the program and meet qualifying criteria. It also services schools that already have garden spaces or standing beds on their campuses but want to learn more about how to integrate garden projects into learning across subjects.

School gardens remain popular, despite all of the criticism of former first lady Michelle Obama's push for healthy school lunches and claims from school cafeterias of millions of dollars in food being discarding because students refused to eat. There were more than 7,000 across the country in 2015, according to a census done by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The federal government — which built a "School Garden Army" during World War I and backed victory gardens at schools in World War II — encourages gardens through grants, guidance and support for food purchased from them, according to the USDA.

Today, City Blossoms and Real School Gardens are just two of many nonprofits working to get gardens up and running, in schools and elsewhere. Parents and others can contribute to the organizations or in some cases volunteer in the gardens. Groups also seek donations of plants and other supplies.

Even if the garden programs do not address school lunches directly, as Real School Gardens says, by transforming the outdoors into a space for structured open-air learning, students are able to spend more time outside, with dirt and earthworms, kale and potatoes, and to see how fresh foods grow.

That's important for children who know little about agriculture, especially those who live in cities. (Or adults for that matter: A recent survey by the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy found that seven percent of American adults believe chocolate milk comes from brown cows.)

"We really want them to be able to connect with where their food comes from," said Jenny Schrum, director of youth programming at City Green, which works with 80 schools in New Jersey.

"There's many children who did not know that vegetables come from the ground, so it's very eye-opening," she said.

One thing that school gardens aren't necessarily doing is growing food that students, well, eat. Which is understandable, given various practical restraints like how much and what can be grown on a particular plot. Even a fairly large school garden couldn't provide food on the mini-industrial scale necessary to feed hundreds of kids daily.

But some schools are trying to get a taste of what they've grown into the schools.

The 14 schools in Charlotte, North Carolina, that are partnered with Real School Gardens all focus on the same "big six" vegetables: broccoli, carrots, peas, cabbage, spinach and cauliflower — plus, a bonus seventh vegetable, the sweet potato. Having students grow the same foods that they see on their lunch trays, even if not the produce from their gardens, gives them the chance to make connections between food production and food consumption, the group says.

The cost of raising a child has decreased slightly, but it's a different story for their school supplies. They've gotten steadily more expensive since 2007.

In the last decade, the price of supplies and extracurricular activities increased by 88 percent for elementary school students, 81 percent for middle school students and 68 percent for high school students, according to the latest Huntington Backpack Index, an annual survey of the cost of school supplies and other expenses compiled by The Huntington National Bank and school support nonprofit Communities in Schools.

The index, now in its 10th year, tracks the costs of required classroom supplies and school fees that parents have to pay, in an effort to show that public school costs more than just what's assessed in taxes. It's one of the few figures that tracks the cost of school supplies.

(Disclosure: Communities in Schools is a partner of NBC- and Telemundo-owned stations' Supporting Our Schools campaign.)

The Backpack Index was just shy of $1,500 for high schoolers last year, the most recent year available. It was $957 for middle schoolers and $659 for elementary schoolers.

Meanwhile, raising a single child in the United States was projected to set parents back between between $12,350 and $13,900 annually, between food, housing, education and more. That figure is lower by several hundred dollars than two years before, according to the most recent U.S. Department of Agriculture "Cost of Raising a Child" reports.

Every school year, teachers send out a list of school supplies and fees that will cover the student for the year. Between 2007 and 2016, prices for school supplies rose by an estimated $10, according to the index. If a high school student plays more than one sport, that'll incur up to $375 in fees, an 87.5 percent leap from 2015.

One of every five school-age children was living below the federal poverty line in 2014, nearly 11 million children in all, according to U.S. Department of Education data. Many of the students struggle with the cost of basic school supplies, let alone the cost for school sports, clubs or activities.

"We need to be sure that every child in America comes to school equipped for success," said Dale Erquiaga, president and CEO of Communities In Schools, in an email. "That's why we are proud to be working with NBCUniversal and United Way on the Supporting Our Schools initiative. By encouraging back-to-school shoppers to add a few extra supplies to their shopping lists or to donate online, we can be sure that no student starts out behind on the very first day of school."

In a profession most readily associated with the printed word, school librarians have embraced what may seem like an unlikely tool.

Librarians in public schools across the country are mixing new technologies like iPads and the internet with old to teach their students fundamental skills, while also preparing them for the digital age. But their progress is threatened by a familiar problem in education: funding.

“Librarians are really embracing technology and integrating tech tools into their teaching in very meaningful and effective ways. The issue for school librarians is budget,” said Kathy Ishizuka, executive editor of the publication School Library Journal.

Librarians in schools that have robust support have seized the opportunity.

Todd Burleson, the school librarian at Hubbard Woods Elementary School in suburban Winnetka, Illinois, is running with technological innovation. In his library, technology isn't just used to consume information on a screen, it's used to create it, he said.

On an average day, his elementary school students may be producing their first book on an iPad, complete with self-shot photos, digitally-produced drawings and audio tracking. Or they may be using a green-screen iPad app to layer-separate animated sequences to produce videos.

But Burleson hasn’t shelved the hardcover books.

Children’s books offer stories that are written specifically for their reading level, something a Google search does not do.

“Books are one of the most valuable pieces of information that we can get,” he said.

Navigating this mix of technology and traditional media – “books and bytes,” as Burleson calls it – is, for him, why school librarians are so essential in the 21st century, and other school library advocates agree.

“Just because the children have that device in their hand, or have access to that essential information, does not mean they can find it efficiently and evaluate once they’ve found it,” said Audrey Church, president of the American Association of School Librarians. “I think we need librarians in schools now more than ever because of that teacher role they play in the area of information literacy and digital literacy.”

It’s now part of librarians’ jobs to teach students to be effective users of technology. This includes showing them how to identify appropriate online sources, condensing search results — even sniffing out fake news.

But training kids in new technology is not possible if the funds are not there.

In many cases, sheer cost puts libraries on the chopping block, said Christie Kaaland, a school library advocate and director of the library education program at Antioch University.

“A library is expensive. Print material is expensive. Technology is expensive,” Kaaland said.

Library funding is not equal across the United States. Certain states require a certified librarian to be on staff at every public school. Others do not.

In wealthier districts, librarians can rely on parent-teacher organizations to provide funds. In others, librarians often rely on grants to supplement the money budgeted for the purpose.

In some districts, tightening funds simply means fewer school libraries and certified librarians on staff.

In New York City, the largest school district in the country, the number of school libraries more than halved from 2005 to 2014, from 1,500 to about 700. In Philadelphia, another of the largest districts in the country, just eight full-time librarians are employed. 

Librarian and advocate Tracey Wong saw the effects of funding cuts firsthand at public elementary schools in low-income neighborhoods of the Bronx, New York.

Wong’s first librarian job at P.S. 63 in the Bronx evaporated when her principal pulled funding and shut down the school’s library, she said.

After that, she went to work at another low-income public school in the Bronx, where she secured just under $1 million in about three years through private grants. With the funds, she brought in laptops, computers, iPads, a smartboard, and transformed the once-decrepit library into a bustling media center.

The new tools paid off: One of her students won an academic contest and was selected as one of five kids in the country to meet billionaire businessman Warren Buffet. Another won $500 in a separate contest and was taken to City Hall to meet the mayor of New York.

But despite her successes, Wong’s library eventually went the way of P.S. 63.

“A new principal came on board,” Wong said. “So by my third year being a librarian, she decided to shut down the library and was going to make me a fifth grade teacher.”

Instead, Wong left the New York City school system to work as a librarian in neighboring Westchester County.

Wong’s experience, while disheartening, came as no surprise, she said.

From the time she was studying to become a certified librarian, Wong was told to expect job loss and funding cuts.

The reality made Wong an advocate for libraries from the start. She secured grants to fund technology for her schools; lobbied principals to reopen libraries that had been shut; and now tracks her professional experiences on her website and frequently writes about how educators can secure grants for their schools.

“Advocacy is something you have to work on early, it’s the most important part of your job,” Wong recalled being told while earning her degree. “If you don’t start to do it, you’re going to realize you should’ve been doing it, and by that time it’s going to be too late because they’re always cutting jobs.”

Two U.S. Marines were critically injured Sunday in what military officials describe as a ground flash fire on U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Miramar near San Diego.

The blast occurred on base at 10:18 p.m. as the Marines were performing routine maintenance on an F/A 18 fighter jet, said Major Kurt Stahl, Director, Public Affairs for 3d Marine Aircraft Wing, MCAS Miramar.

"Technically, this was a 'ground flash fire' rather than an 'explosion,'" Stahl added. "The cause is under investigation."

Two Marines suffered severe burns and were transported to UC San Diego Medical Center in Hillcrest.

The injured Marines were identified as members of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 112 (VMDA-112), a reserve unit based out of Fort Worth, Texas.

No other information was available.

The National Fire Protection Association defines a ground flash fire as one involving fuel in the air and an ignition source. The fires tend to last just seconds but can reach intensely high temperatures.

Please refresh this page for updates on this story. Details may change as more information becomes available.

A mama bear and her cub took a dip in a cool spring in Chico, California, to get some relief from the triple digit temperatures. The owner of the property, Marc Miller, set up the camera in hopes of spotting a mountain lion after seeing some big cat tracks nearby. Instead, video captured the bear family cooling off.

For the past 189 days, Five-year-old Ari Schultz from Stow, Massachusetts has lived at Boston Children's Hospital, where he had 10 operations, including a heart transplant, and where he almost died when he went into cardiac arrest on March 22, reports Today.com.

Last week, when his parents told Ari he would finally be able to go home — or, for now, to a rental home in Sudbury, Massachusetts, closer to the hospital where he will continue treatment. He was thrilled.

"Do you want to go home on Friday?" his dad asks him in the video. "Yeah!" Ari replies with hesitant enthusiasm, almost as if he can't believe his good fortune. "TWO DAYS!"

Jurors have reached a verdict in the murder trial of 2-year-old Bella Bond, whose body was discovered washed ashore in Massachusetts two years ago, Monday.

The man accused of killing her, Michael McCarthy, is awaiting his fate, which is about to be announced by the Suffolk County jury. He has been charged with first degree murder, but the judge has allowed the jury to find him guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

Bella's mother, Rachelle Bond, pleaded guilty in February to helping dispose of her daughter's body. 

Jurors got the case on Tuesday after listening to 15 days of testimony. McCarthy, 37, never took the stand in his defense.

Bella's body was found washed ashore on Deer Island in Winthrop in June 2015. She was only known as "Baby Doe" until three months later, when a tip led to the arrests McCarthy and Bond.

Under a plea deal, Bond testified for the prosecution, accusing McCarthy of killing her daughter in their Dorchester apartment and then dumping Bella's body into the water in South Boston.

McCarthy faces up to life in prison if conviction.

A small group gathered on Sunday to mark the two-year anniversary of the discovery of "Baby Doe." The search for her identity garnered worldwide attention.

Those who held vigil to remember Bella told reporters that they want justice for her young life taken too soon.

The Supreme Court is rejecting yet another call to decide whether Americans have a constitutional right to carry guns with them outside their homes.

The justices on Monday left in place an appeals court ruling that upheld the San Diego sheriff's strict limits on issuing permits for concealed weapons.

The high court decided in 2008 that the Constitution guarantees the right to a gun, at least for self-defense at home.

But the justices have refused repeated pleas to spell out the extent of gun rights in the United States, allowing permit restrictions and assault weapons bans to remain in effect in some cities and states.

California generally prohibits people from carrying handguns in public without such a permit. State law requires applicants to show good moral character, have good cause and take a training course.

In San Diego County, the sheriff required applicants to show supporting documents such as restraining orders against possible attackers to show good cause for a permit. The requirement prompted a lawsuit by residents who were denied a permit.

Paul Neuharth, the attorney for the San Diego man who filed the case, said there is no uniformed definition of good cause statewide.

He also said if the courts can not infringe upon guaranteed rights like free speech and freedom of religion, why is the Second Amendment different.

In June 2016, an 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said law enforcement officials can require applicants for a concealed weapons permit to show they are in immediate danger or have another good reason for a permit beyond self-defense.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch said the court should have reviewed the appellate ruling. Thomas said the decision not to hear the case "reflects a distressing trend: the treatment of the Second Amendment as a disfavored right."

More than 40 states already broadly allow gun owners to be armed in public.

The high court also turned away a second case involving guns and the federal law that bars people convicted of crimes from owning guns.

The Trump administration had urged the court to review an appellate ruling that restored the rights of two men who had been convicted of non-violent crimes to own guns.

The federal appeals court in Philadelphia ruled for the two men. The crimes were classified as misdemeanors, which typically are less serious, but carried potential prison sentences of more than a year. Such prison terms typically are for felonies, more serious crimes.

The administration says that the court should have upheld the blanket prohibition on gun ownership in the federal law and rejected case-by-case challenges.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor said they would have heard the administration's appeal.

Daniel Binderup of Manheim, Pennsylvania, was 41 when he pleaded guilty to "corruption of minors" after acknowledging that he had been involved in a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old employee of his bakery business. The crime is a misdemeanor yet carries with it a maximum prison term of five years, although Binderup was given probation instead of time behind bars.

Julio Suarez was convicted in Maryland of carrying a handgun without a license, a misdemeanor with a possible prison term of up to three years. Suarez received a six-month sentence, which was suspended, and a year of probation.

Triple-digit heat is likely in the foothills and possible in the inland valleys Monday.

Cooler temperatures are expected to bring relief from the hot, dry weather later in the week.

Most of the region is under a heat advisory Monday with temperatures between 95 and 105 in the forecast.

An excessive heat warning was issued by the National Weather Service through 9 p.m. for desert communities east and northeast of downtown San Diego.

Temperatures from 114 to 120 are expected in Borrego Springs as well as Banning, Palm Desert and Palm Springs.

The elderly, children, and those unaccustomed to excessive heat will be most susceptible to the heat, the NWS warned.

“We’re basically sitting in a dry dome,” said NBC 7 Meteorologist Jodi Kodesh, referring to the lack of water vapor over the state of California.

Wildfire danger is amplified in these conditions, Kodesh said.

After 3 p.m. Monday, gusts up to 45 or 50 mph are possible in the mountains and on the desert floor.

“The heat, the dry weather and the gusty conditions, it’s going to elevate our fire danger today and tomorrow with better conditions Wednesday,” she said.

Temperatures will drop into the lower 70s along the coast by the week’s end.

Under an excessive heat warning, residents should know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. It’s suggested that you wear light weight and loose fitting clothing when possible and drink plenty of water.

An exhibit on modern Mexican masterpieces has drawn one of the largest and potentially most diverse crowds at the Dallas Museum of Art, NBC News reported.

More than half of guests who visited the traveling exhibition, entitled "Mexico 1900-1950: Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, José Clemente Orozco, and the Avant-Garde," since its opening in March were first-time museum visitors.

Corporate sponsorships allowed exhibit organizers to allow free entry on over a dozen "family days" and create the "Yo Soy DMA" campaign to promote the exhibit in heavily Latino areas, many of which have been disconnected from the museum in the past.

“I haven’t seen this many brown people in the museum before,” said José Villanueva, 28, a Dallas artist who volunteers as a docent with the “Yo Soy DMA” initiative.

The exhibit -- whose only U.S. stop ends in Dallas July 16 -- features bilingual information and over 200 pieces of modern art that mark the development of a national Mexican identity, like Kahlo's iconic "Las Dos Fridas" painting.

A Senate Republican proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act aims to reduce funding for Medicaid, the single largest source of health care coverage in the United States.

Organizations like AARP are concerned that the cuts unfairly target senior citizens.

AARP Executive Vice President Nancy LeaMond said in a statement that the Senate bill imposes an “age tax” on older adults.

“AARP is adamantly opposed to the Age Tax, which would allow insurance companies to charge older Americans five times more for coverage than everyone else while reducing tax credits that help make insurance more affordable,” LeaMond noted.

The advocacy organization notes on its website that the current law keeps insurers from charging older adults more than three times as much for premiums as they charge those who are younger for the same coverage. Both the Republican House and Senate legislation would "allow insurers to charge older adults five times as much, and states could receive waivers to remove even that limit."

Jerome Mosman agrees with the “age tax” characterization.

Mosman is the CEO of Sixty & Better, a nonprofit that provides nutrition and socialization services to senior citizens at 25 activity centers across Tarrant County in Texas.

“I think it is an Age Tax because there is a presumption that all older people are sicker, and this is not true,” Mosman said.

“To lose that [Medicaid] safety net is frightening. States are ultimately going to have to ration [their allotment] and say, ‘Well, we only get so much from Medicaid, therefore we cannot insure more disabled people, more elderly people.’ It is frightening for those on low income,” Mosman said.

At the age of 71, Anita Strange — a retired school teacher and lifelong Fort Worth resident — was dropped by her health insurance company, Aetna, which Strange believes was a direct result of her age.

Since then, Strange, now 74, has been enrolled in Medicare.

“I’m watching [the developments] but I’m just going to wait and see [before I pass judgment],” Strange said. “There’s got to be a better plan out there for us because we have to have insurance.”

Republicans have been said to be considering a vote this week, though the bill has a narrow path to victory with Democrats united against it and some moderates and conservatives calling for changes. 

A Congressional Budget Office analysis of the number of people likely to keep coverage under the bill is due out this week. Twenty-three million people would lose insurance under the House version of the legislation, the CBO said last month. 

"Republican Senators are working very hard to get there, with no help from the Democrats," Trump tweeted on Monday. "Not easy! Perhaps just let OCare crash & burn!"

Former Atlanta Braves player Keith Lockhart is asking for prayers for his 15-year-old son, who is on life support after being hit in the face by a baseball during a tournament last week, reports Today.com.

Doctors initially thought Jason Lockhart only needed some stitches after he was struck in the face by a throw from the catcher during a game in South Carolina on June 17, his family said.

But the injury was much more serious. Two days later, the bleeding would not stop, and he was taken to an Atlanta hospital, where tests discovered a torn artery. Doctors have been working to control the bleeding.

His sister, Sydney, has been providing regular updates of his condition on Facebook, including one saying Jason was scheduled to have surgery on Monday at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta to replace the packing in his face and check for any areas of bleeding.

A miniature horse kicking a soccer ball or playing piano with its nose is a sight that could put a smile on anyone’s face.

But at the Ronald McDonald House in Hollywood, tiny horses mean much more than a good laugh. For the critically ill children who live there, playing with these petite creatures is therapeutic.

"I think it just takes everybody's mind off of whatever they're going through," said 14-year-old cancer patient Chloe Dollar.

Dollar has been living at the Ronald McDonald House with her mother for the past three months while she receives life-saving treatment. She has gone through six rounds of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant.

"There were times where she didn’t know if she was going to make it through and wanted to keep fighting," said her mother, Tamara Dollar.

But she added that her daughter’s naturally positive attitude has helped her through tough times and spending time with the miniature horses has helped to lift her spirits.

Through the nonprofit Mini Therapy Horses, the horses visit more than 45,000 children and adults in crisis each year. 

"There's such a shift in what people are going through when they see the horse, it's like pulling the clutch in," said Mini Therapy Horses founder Victoria Nodiff-Netanel. "It takes them, a lot of times, out of the pain that they're feeling, out of their depression, despair."

In addition to the Ronald McDonald House, the horses also visit veteran’s hospitals and are certified first responders with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles Mayor’s Crisis Response Team.

A large brawl erupted in the Westfield mall in San Francisco Sunday evening, forcing it to close its doors and leaving one officer injured as he tried to stop the violence, police said.

San Francisco police received multiple calls about 6:45 p.m. reporting fights at Westfield San Francisco Centre, police said. Dozens of officers swarmed the shopping mall in the Union Square area of the city and were seen in witness videos taking multiple suspects into custody.

The brawl started between about two dozen people in the food court and grew from there, police said.

Some officers were seen struggling to maintain order during the melee and even being attacked by suspects.

"It did complicate matters and that's why we did have to stop the situation as soon as possible and that's why you see us moving to multiple levels in order to stop and detain these individuals that were involved in this incident," San Francisco Police Department Officer Robert Rueca said.

One officer suffered minor injuries after being pepper-sprayed, police said.

Because of the level of violence and the number of innocent bystanders inside the mall, the center was closed early, police said.

There was no indication what caused the brawl or exactly how many people were involved. Police confirmed late Sunday that one arrest was made.

Officers were still at the scene late Sunday investigating the incident, police said.

The mall is expected to open on schedule Monday morning.

A man was killed in a collision with another vehicle on a highway in Escondido Sunday evening, according to California Highway Patrol (CHP).

It happened around 7:20 p.m., when a driver lost control of his Toyota Camry while headed westbound on Del Dios Highway, near Rancho Del Rio, said CHP officials.

Another 60-year-old man driving in a Tesla was unable to avoid colliding into the passenger side of the Camry, as he traveled eastbound on Del Dios Highway.

Paramedics declared the driver of the Camry dead at the scene. The driver of the Tesla complained of pain in his lower back but was not hospitalized, according to CHP.

An investigation is underway to determine what caused the collision, said CHP officers.

It is unknown whether alcohol or drugs played a factor in this crash. No further information was immediately available.

Two people were rescued from the stranded boat "Lady Max" off the coast of Encinitas, Lifeguards said. 

The Coast Guard Sector San Diego received a Digital Selective Calling distress alert, telling them the boat was close to Beacon's Beach, at around 3:30 a.m. 

Coast Guard officials, assisting local lifeguards in the rescue, made radio contact with the sailing boat, "Lady Max."

The radio was connected to a GPS device, Cmdr. Rob Potter, the chief of response and air operations at Coast Guard Sector San Diego, said, making the rescue a lot easier.

In an hour, lifeguards found the boat. On the boat, two people with life jackets were waiting. 

"It is vitally important that radios and all electronic signaling devices are properly registered," Potter said. "It is only when the device is registered and connected to a GPS can the Coast Guard quickly determine a lot of relevant information that can significantly speed up the rescue process."

Officials found the boat stuck on rocks off Ponto Beach with two people on board.

The two people on board were not injured and rescued safely. 

TowBoatU.S. towed the boat back to Mission Bay in San Diego. 

No further information was available.