Rain or shine, the annual “Finish Chelsea’s Run” will take place on Saturday at Balboa Park.

The 5k run and walk honors Chelsea King, the Poway teenager who was murdered in 2010.

Brent King, Chelsea’s father, said the annual event raises more than $80,000. The money goes toward scholarships that are awarded to San Diego-area high school students like 19-year-old Jesus Hernandez.

“It’s a great homage to Chelsea’s memory, and overall, just having faith in the future generations that she represented," said Hernandez.

Hernandez, who graduated last year from Escondido High School, is now a freshman at Cal State San Marcos. He is majoring in Business Administration with aspirations of someday becoming an accountant.

He said he’s grateful toward everyone who takes part in the run, and, in effect, has helped pay for his scholarship.

“Hopefully, I can make everyone who’s behind me proud of what I’m doing," said Hernandez.

During the application process for the scholarship, Hernandez-- like all applicants-- wrote a personal essay.

His family migrated to Escondido from Guerrero, Mexico. He recounted how his family struggled financially, and he vowed to help others in similar situations.

“I can help those in need and maybe guide them in a certain way so they would be most prepared for the future and any financial harships,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez said he stays in contact with Chelsea’s parents, Brent and Kelly -- the couple who inspires him every day.

“They’ve been like role models, like my second parents basically and they’re amazing people. I owe them everything," Hernandez said.

Marines, get ready to roll up your sleeves.

In a Marine Corps Administrative Message dated Feb. 26, the military branch announced that Marines could once again roll up the sleeves of their Combat Utility Uniforms, the daily work uniform.

The decision came from Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James F. Amos. In a letter, Amos wrote, in part:

I can't tell you how many times we have been asked the persistent question "Commandant, are we ever going to return to SLEEVES UP?" I've thought a lot about this over the past 2 .5 years; I realize that it's important to you. Sleeves up clearly and visually sets us apart.

This reverses a policy from October 2011 requiring Marines to wear their sleeves down year-round.

The new dress code goes into effect March 9, when the Marine Corps switches to summer uniforms.

Marines will still have to wear their sleeves down in combat zones, in the field and during the winter months.
 

The woman tapped by San Diego's mayor-elect as his choice to replace retiring Chief of Police William Lansdowne is on schedule to retire in four years.

Assistant Chief Shelley Zimmerman was named as the first choice to be Lansdowne's replacement by Mayor-Elect Kevin Faulconer.

Faulconer made the announcement Wednesday, saying he will officially appoint her once he is sworn in as mayor on Monday.

However, NBC 7 has learned Zimmerman entered the department's Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP) on March 2, 2013.

As the rules dictate, Zimmerman must exit DROP on March 1, 2018.

Afterwards, she may return to work within the department as a provisional employee for a maximum of 90 days per year.

On Tuesday, Lansdowne announced he will be stepping down effective March 3.

In a highly emotional sentencing hearing in a San Diego courtroom Thursday, two distraught parents spoke directly at the driver who killed their 3-year-old son, begging a judge for justice for their little boy.

Between sobs, Juan Ruiz Sr., father of little Juan Andres Ruiz, who was fatally struck by car in Encinitas on Nov. 1, 2013, spoke in court about the pain of losing his son. As he spoke, he looked directly Agustin Morales, the man who was behind the wheel of the car on that tragic day.

“This man basically killed me. He took my son’s life,” said Juan, speaking through a translator. “All I ask for is that justice be done.”

The boy’s mother, Zenaida Ruiz, also said a few words to Morales, who kept his head hung low.

“It’s not easy to be here, looking at the man who killed my son,” said the mother.

The parents described their beloved son as a kind, loving, smart and respectful little boy. In a letter written by Juan Andres’ teacher, the child was also described as joyful.

Morales pleaded guilty to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter for his role in the deadly accident. Per his plea agreement, he was given the maximum sentence: one year behind bars.

According to prosecutors, Morales was rushing to work on the day of the accident.

Little Juan Andres was walking alongside his mother, who was pushing a stroller carrying her baby, in the 400-block of Encinitas Boulevard. The family was on the way to the bus stop, preparing to take Juan Andres to school for the day when Morales’ car struck the boy.

Juan Andres became pinned underneath Morales’ vehicle, sustaining critical injuries, and died en route to the hospital. The mother and her other child were not harmed.

Morales was arrested on four misdemeanor charges in connection with the deadly accident, including one count of vehicular manslaughter, two counts of giving false information and one count of driving without a license. He pleaded not guilty to all charges on Nov. 7, 2013.

With his guilty plea agreement, however, those latter counts were dropped and he was sentenced on the vehicular manslaughter charge.

In an interview with NBC 7 just one week after the tragedy, the boy’s parents mourned over the fact that their son’s life was cut so short.

“Everyone who’s a parent, they understand the pain we’re going through,” said Juan.

“Even if [Morales] is in jail, or in prison, [our] son is not going to come back,” said Zenaida, overcome with grief. “We are in pain. This is very hard.”

In that interview, the mother said Morales allegedly rolled past a stop sign, into the bike lane, and didn’t realize his car was on top of Juan Andres until she told him he had struck her son.

“If he would have stopped at the stop sign, this never would have happened,” said Zenaida. “He was going too fast.”
 

For Daniel Tieabout, 37, a life in and out of jail was what he knew.

“I was in and out of jail from the age of 13,” Tieabout said.

The same went for Andrew Herron, 37.

“My record shows possession of a firearm, receiving stolen property,” Herron explained.

But they hope incarceration is something they’ll never have to experience again.

“I've been out of jail for three months, and it hasn't been since 2006 that I was out on the streets that long,” Herron said.

The two are what Assembly Bill 109 was designed for. It’s an initiative to reduce state prison populations by transferring inmates whose last offense was non-serious, non-violent or non-sexual from state to county custody.

Herron and Tieabout say when they went through the county's Community Transition Center, their lives started to change.

“CTC was a good stop for me because of the simple fact I didn't have to worry about me saying, 'ok, I'm going to do this on the street, but not do it,'” Tieabout said.

The CTC is where they have to go after being released from jail. Many are picked up by the county and brought there, where they go through assessments, including drug and mental health screenings.

"It's to gather information for us, so we can put together the best kind of plan to again help them successfully re-enter the community,” said San Diego County Chief Probation Officer Mack Jenkins.

The former inmates are provided with short-term transitional housing and the opportunity to take advantage of the Lighthouse Substance Abuse program.

"Our job is not just to trail them, nail them, jail them. Our job is to work with them in a supportive way, getting them into services so they can help make changes in their lives,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins says since the program started, they’ve seen success. Nearly 70 percent of the inmates they worked with have not been convicted of another crime. About 100 people go through the CTC each month.

Herron considers himself one of those success stories.

"To be honest with you, if it wasn't for this place right now, not only would I not be here talking to you, I would probably be in a jail cell. I might be even dead,” he said.

Hamel's Gift Shop, on the boardwalk in Mission Beach, has heard the warnings before. But this storm is different for shop manager Mike Romano.

“I think this time it is going to happen, Romano said.

On Thursday, Romano and his crew took a break from behind the counter to clear merchandise from storage. It has flooded in the past. They are also putting sandbags around the building.

“We are putting them around the doorway,” Romano said.

“There is always going to be someone in the building in case something moves,” he added.

San Diego got a taste of what's to come during Thursday's evening commute. As of 4:30 p.m., the California Highway Patrol responded to 242 collisions in the county.

A 36-year-old Oceanside man was killed on the 76 freeway near Gird Road. Police say wet roads and speed were both factors.

A High Surf Advisory begins on Saturday and lasts through Monday. Waves could reach 15 feet, causing coastal flooding in low areas.

Get severe weather alerts here.

One hundred forty county public works department employees will work 12-hour shifts round the clock starting Friday.

The county website’s shows live streaming video of the streets that usually submerge during such weather events. They include Quarry Road, Country Club Road and Sandia Creek.

No doubt the storm will wash out retail foot traffic as well this weekend. While San Diego needs the rain, Romano sees another silver lining.

“It's good that it is the off-season. It's good that it didn't happen during our busy season,” he said.

The storm should bring more than a foot of snow to the mountains. A public works spokesman warns visitors to steer clear of snow plows.

As for flooded roads, if you can't see the asphalt, don't try to drive through it. Your car could be swept away.

In the wake of the massive pileup on the Pennsylvania Turnpike two weeks ago, Steven Coney says his life has been turned upside-down.

"This car pileup has been very stressful. I am depressed," he said. "It’s been hard financially."

The 29-year-old was lucky to escape serious injury when his Mitsubishi was crushed under a tractor trailer in the mess, but his car was left unusable.

Since then, he’s been renting a car, at his own expense, because he says a Pennsylvania State Police report he needs to provide to his insurance company isn’t done. Coney said police told him it might not be completed until April. This is an issue others involved in the pileup, like Coney, are likely facing as the investigation into the incident draws on.

"The State Police have not started a police report yet. They have not said who is at fault yet. It’s just a big mess," Coney said. "I have to work overtime just to cover expenses. I am basically doing everything on my own with no help."

It was around 8:25 a.m. on Feb. 14 when five tractor trailers and 10 cars collided in the eastbound lanes of the Turnpike about a mile from the Bensalem, Bucks County, Pa. interchange. Behind that first crash, a number of other collisions followed with some vehicles spinning out, catching fire, flipping over and being lodged under trucks. Area hospitals accepted 27 drivers who were hurt in the pileup, some seriously, but none suffered life-threatening injuries.

The limited access highway was closed for more than eight hours and more than 75 vehicles were involved. Most had to be towed away, according to the Pa. State Police.

Cpl. Richard Dean, public information officer for Troop T, which patrols the Pa. Turnpike, says troopers are working as fast as possible to complete their final report, but could not provide a timeline for when the investigation will be finished. He says investigators continue to get new information.

"Every time we get something finished another person comes forward and says 'I was involved in it,'" he said. "It turned into a big snowball, no pun intended. It was not one two vehicles here. It’s not 10 vehicles. It’s more complicated."

The Pa. Turnpike Commission is conducting an inquiry into the incident and the Pa. Senate Transportation Committee will also hold hearings on the pileup and the response by police and emergency personnel.

Attorney Robert Braker, head of the motor vehicle department at Philadelphia law firm Satlz, Mongeluzzi, Barrett & Bendesky, says trying to determine who is at fault in the crash is an uphill battle as some cars were smashed into groups of tangled metal along the roadway.

"It’s going to be very complicated and it almost seems impossible to say who was stopped and who was pushed into somebody else," he said. "A lot of times you could [more easily] make the argument whether you’re stopped or moving. But in this you’re still going to have damage from being hit from behind or hit from the front, so it’s going to be very difficult to tell…"

Braker has tried and overseen thousands of cases, although no massive pileups, which he calls rare. He said with major accidents like the pileup, police typically call an accident reconstructionist to the scene to try and determine how the crash happened and who is at fault.

"Police officers who are not certified in accident reconstruction are not permitted to testify about their opinions about an accident in a courtroom," he said.

However, Dean says State Police did not dispatch one of their three accident reconstruction investigators to the scene, because the crash, although high-profile, did not match their criteria.

"It has to meet the criteria of serious injury or a death and this doesn’t meet that," he said.

Once police do finish their report, Braker says motorists will have a tough time suing for damages.

"You hope that the police did a great job sorting it all out, but it is going to be a challenge when there’s upwards of 50 cars that in theory you could point the finger at," he said. "The injured folks will be hoping that you’ll be able to prove that the fault is by a commercial vehicle that would be able to have the bigger policy."

Questions have been raised as to whether the Turnpike was properly plowed and salted prior to the accident. However, Braker says suing the state for that issue is out of the picture.

"Failing to salt a roadway is not a recognizable exception to government immunity so an injured person wouldn’t be able to sue…for failing to salt a public road," he said.

For Coney, however, the here and now is more of an issue for him as he tries to get his life back on track.

"I just want a car so that I can get back and forth to work," Coney said.

Contact Vince Lattanzio at 610.668.5532, vince.lattanzio@nbcuni.com or follow @VinceLattanzio on Twitter.

A downtown San Diego lot will serve as place for homeless people to safely store their belongings.

Interim Mayor Todd Gloria announced this project with the San Diego Housing commission Thursday.

The Homeless Transitional Storage Center will be located at the paved lot at 252 16th Street and will allow 350 people to keep their things in large, clean bins..

City officials said the storage is necessary to help those who are homeless in San Diego look for work, attend classes or meet with a service provider or doctor.

The city council allocated up to $50,000 from the general fund to support the storage center. Donations from the private sector will be used to fund the project as well.

The event was held several days after set out on one of his last goals as interim mayor: ending homelessness downtown by the end of 2016.

Read: Gloria Pushes for Homelessness Solutions

He said homelessness doesn't just affect people living without shelter; it affects the quality of life for all San Diegans.

Kerry Kennedy, the daughter of the late Sen. Robert Kennedy, was found not guilty of drugged driving by a jury in New York Friday after her 2012 arrest for plowing her Lexus into a tractor-trailer on an interstate highway while on sleeping medication. 

Kennedy smiled as the verdict was read while her mother, Ethel Kennedy, hugged other relatives in the courtroom. Outside court, Kennedy said she was "completely blessed by this amazing family" that supported her.

"And I really did have great, great lawyers," she added. "And most people don't have access to that. And we need to take a hard look at our criminal justice system in the United States to make sure that it truly is just and that everyone in our country has true access to fair chance."

Kerry Kennedy was arrested after she swerved into the tractor-trailer on I-684 at about 8 a.m. on July 13, 2012, and tests later revealed a small amount of a sleeping medication in her blood.

She said on the stand during the trial that she believes she accidentally took the sleeping pill instead of her daily thyroid medication. Both were set out on the counter, in similar bottles, in preparation for an upcoming overseas trip.

Prosecutors had argued that she should have pulled over once she realized something was wrong. Her lawyers argued that she never realized she was impaired until after the crash.

The jury began deliberating Thursday afternoon after a trial that started on Monday.

The Westchester DA said in a statement, "we respect their verdict."

Kennedy is the ex-wife of Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the niece of President John F. Kennedy. Her famous family was brought up in court when she was asked about her background while on the stand.

Kennedy testified that she and her siblings were raised by their mother after their father died when she was 8.

"He was shot when he was running for president," she said.

The family lived in Virginia, she said, because "daddy" was the attorney general there.

Two cats have been shot with arrows over two months in a Long Beach neighborhood and police are searching for the culprits.

The first cat was shot in January.

The city's animal services department got a call from a resident who found a cat that had been shot with an arrow.

The cat had to be euthanized due to the severity of its injuries, said Ted Stevens, the manager of Long Beach Animal Care Services.

On Feb. 24 another cat owner reported her cat had been shot with an arrow. The cat died during surgery.

Both incidents originated from the same area, in the 300 and 400 blocks of East 51st Street.

Both animal control and the Long Beach Police Department have launched investigations.

Officials are asking for the public's help to identify the person or people responsible.

Anyone with information is strongly encouraged to call ACS at 562-570-7387 or LBPD’s Violent Crimes Detail at (562) 570-7250. Anonymous tips may be submitted by calling 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), texting TIPLA plus your tip to CRIMES (274637), or visitingwww.lacrimestoppers.org.

Officials at a Bay Area high school acted appropriately when they ordered students wearing American flag T-shirts to turn the garments inside out during the Mexican independence celebration Cinco de Mayo, a federal appeals court says.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that school officials’ safety concerns outweighed the students' right to free speech.

Administrators feared the American flag shirts would enflame the passions of Latino students celebrating the Mexican holiday back in 2010. Live Oak High School in the San Jose suburb of Morgan Hill had a history of problems between white and Latino students on that day.

On May 5, 2010, four Live Oak students showed up wearing T-shirts with American flags on them. The school principal and vice principal told the boys to turn the shirts inside out because they could incite violence. When the boys refused, they were sent home.

The unanimous three-judge panel said past problems gave school officials sufficient and justifiable reasons for their actions. The court said schools have wide latitude in curbing certain civil rights to ensure campus safety.

"Our role is not to second-guess the decision to have a Cinco de Mayo celebration or the precautions put in place to avoid violence,'' Judge M. Margaret McKeown wrote for the panel. The past events "made it reasonable for school officials to proceed as though the threat of a potentially violent disturbance was real,'' she wrote.

The case garnered national attention as many expressed outrage that students were barred from wearing patriotic clothing. The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based American Freedom Law Center, a politically conservative legal aid foundation, and other similar organizations took up the students' case and sued the high school and the school district.

William Becker, one of the lawyers representing the students, said he plans to ask a special 11-judge panel of the appeals court to rehear the case. Becker said he would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court if he loses again.

"The 9th Circuit upheld the rights of Mexican students celebrating a holiday of another country over U.S. student proudly supporting this country,'' Becker said.

Who needs sneakers or a gym to get a little exercise?

President Barack Obama or Vice President Joe Biden showed in a playful workout video that even the leaders of the free world can get a little exercise — even if it means running laps through the White House in a shirt and tie.

The video, released Thursday as a part of First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move fitness challenge, shows Biden entering the Oval Office as Obama is reading at his desk.

"Mr. President, are you ready to move?" Biden asks. Then both men set out running down the halls of the White House, outfitted in dress shoes and ties.

The first dogs Bo and Sunny look on quizzically as the pair jogs together outdoors. Finally, the president and vice president stretch before heading back into the Oval Office for a drink of water.

"After a good workout, you've got to drink up; otherwise, we're going to be in trouble with Jill and Michelle," Obama said.

The video was posted after Michelle Obama’s appearance last week on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," where she announced an online contest to promote staying healthy. If enough people participated, she said, the president and vice president would share how they move, too.

The contest challenged Americans to post on social media about how they exercise and eat healthy foods, and in response, thousands of users — including celebrities from Ryan Seacrest to Nancy Pelosi — submitted their habits on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #LetsMove.

"I want to see how people around the country are moving and changing the standards of health for our kids, because people are doing some amazing things," the first lady told Fallon.

Filing for divorce can be a lengthy process, but a new program set to begin Saturday at the San Diego Superior Court is promising to help eligible ex-couples complete a simple divorce in only one day.

The “One Day Divorce” pilot program officially goes live Mar. 1 at San Diego’s Downtown Family Court.

According to the San Diego Superior Court, the program is available to litigants who do not have attorneys and represent themselves in court. They must also have no contested issues surrounding their divorce.

Hence, a simple, clean break could warrant an equally simple, speedy resolution.

Here’s how it works: After the initial filing and serving of the petition, eligible litigants sit down with a family law expert who will discuss the terms of the couple’s proposed divorce settlement agreement of the default judgment process. Then, the couple completes the forms necessary to finalize the divorce.

If all of the necessary paperwork and disclosures are completed, the litigants can appear in court that very same day to receive their final judgment, and, if all goes well, they can leave the courtroom with the final divorce judgment in their hands.

The San Diego program is modeled after the successful One Day Divorce program first created by Judge James Mize of the Sacramento Superior Court. With the help of a grant from the San Diego Bar Foundation, the court is now able to provide this option to the public and implement the program locally without a direct cost to the public, the San Diego Superior Court said.

San Diego Superior Court Presiding Judge David J. Danielsen had this to say about the option:

“In a time when budget cuts are forcing courts all over California to limit services to the public, judges from the San Diego Superior Court, court professionals, and the legal community are leading efforts to innovate improvements to the administration of justice in Family Law.”

According to court officials, in California, 72 percent of family law litigants do not have lawyers. Still, simple divorces can be complicated for litigants representing themselves and because of this many cases languish in the court system for years.

San Diego Superior Court Family Supervising Judge Maureen Hallahan said this new option could provide a solution for that.

“One of the biggest complaints about family court is that the process is too complicated and takes too long to complete. The ‘One Day Divorce’ program was created to help solve these problems,” she said.

To learn more about One Day Divorce and additional requirements, and obtain a screening form, visit this website.
 

The man arrested in a Carmel Valley armed robbery could be the "I'm Sorry Bandit," wanted in a series of gas station robberies around the city.

The suspect entered the Shell Station on Carmel Valley Road just before 8 p.m. Thursday, showed the clerk a gun and demanded cash, officers said.

The clerk told police the suspect drove off in a black Dodge Ram traveling eastbound on State Route 56.

Officers who were rushing to the scene of the robbery spotted a similar vehicle near Shoal Creek and Ted Williams Parkway.

They arrested the man and questioned him in connection with more than six recent robberies targeting gas stations in Kearny Mesa and Rancho Penasquitos.

Investigators dubbed the man wanted in the string of armed robbers as the “I’m Sorry Bandit.”

The name is linked to one interaction at a Clairemont Mesa crime scene. Officers say the suspect told a gas station clerk "I'm sorry to do this. Times are tough, not going to hurt anybody."

In all of the robberies, the suspect has been described as a man between 28 and 32 years old, between 5-foot-6 and 6-feet-tall. In many of the cases, the robber was wearing a white shirt, dark baseball cap and black pants. In some cases, he was also wearing gloves. He displayed a handgun every time, according to police.

An alleged drunken driver stopped in Connecticut on Thursday blamed the GPS on his cell phone for sending him the wrong way in Interstate 84, according to police.

West Hartford Police Officer Peter Senick was assigned to the DWI patrol when he saw a car go from Park Road onto an off-ramp on around 2 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 22, driving the wrong way despite the “Wrong Way” signs, police said.

Officer Senick immediately went after the man and stopped him about 200 feet onto the ramp, according to police.

The driver, identified as Robert Howe, 43, of Springfield, Mass., told Officer Senick that he was not from the area and was following the GPS on his phone, which led him to drive the wrong way on I-84, police said.

Howe's blood alcohol concentration was found to be .101 and .095, according to police.

He was arrested and charged with DWI and driving the wrong way.

Howe has been released on a $500 non-surety bond and is due in court on March 6.
 

Across the state, 302 people under 65 years old have died from influenza, the California Department of Public Health reported Friday. That is 10 times the number of deaths at this time last year.

San Diego has seen 25 of those deaths – the second highest in the state, behind Los Angeles’ 44 fatalities.

Nineteen other deaths are still under investigation, though doctors suspect they are influenza-related.

The CDPH said the great majority of reported flu deaths were in people with underlying medical conditions, and six were pediatric.

By this time in 2013, 34 flu fatalities had been reported, leading to a total of 106 deaths for the entire 2012-13 season.

Despite the increase in deaths this year, outpatient hospital visits have actually decreased, and both outpatient visits and hospitalizations were within expectations for this time of year, the CDPH reported.

“The influenza season continues and it’s not too late for vaccination, which is still the best way to prevent illness and the spread of illness,” said Dr. Chapman, director of the CDPH, in a release.

The flu season typically ends in April.

Here in San Diego, county health officials said the most prevalent strain of influenza is H1N1, which disproportionately affects children to middle-aged adults. Those who have died in the county range in age from 26 to 100 years old.

Three days after Spike Lee lashed out in a passionate rant against the gentrification of Brooklyn, someone vandalized the director's former childhood home and the house next door.

One or more vandals spray painted the stoop of Lee's former childhood home on Washington Park in Fort Greene on Friday. The damage was worse at the home next door where a window was smashed and "Do the Right Thing" written in spray paint on the first floor of the house.

"I was very angry about that," said Dianne Mackenzie, who lives in that home. "It's mindless and it's senseless, and it's pretty stupid."

Mackenzie wouldn't say whether she thought the crime, which police are investigating, was tied to Lee's remarks.

"They can speculate all you want, but I don't know why," Mackenzie said. "It's not something that happens in this neighborhood. It's not usual."

The tagger only managed to write "Do the Right" on Lee's former home, leaving out the rest of the title of the 1989 modern classic that solidified his reputation as a filmmaker.

Lee sparked controversy on Tuesday when he said that longtime residents of Fort Greene and other New York City neighborhoods were being pushed out by people with "Christopher Columbus Syndrome."

"You can't discover this! We been here. You just can't come and bogart," the director told an audience Tuesday at the Pratt Institute in Fort Greene.