A San Diego woman spent 15 hours at sea clinging to a half-inflated raft off the coast of Central California overnight Tuesday.

The 45-year-old woman, who was visiting Pacific Grove, traveled a mile and a half into the Monterey Bay to watch Tuesday’s sunset from a dinghy, NBC affiliate KSBW reports.

However, her motor failed around 6:30 p.m., and her raft started losing air.

As darkness set in and the water temperature dropped to the low 50s, the woman was forced to lay partially submerged for hours in shorts and a sweatshirt.

A fisherman found her at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday and called the Coast Guard, who rescued her about ten minutes later.

According to KSBW, the Coast Guard said she was suffering from hypothermia, but was remarkably alert.

Officials credit the life jacket she was wearing for saving her life, but Coast Guard Monterey Division Chief Mike Aguilera said even with a jacket, people can usually only survive up to ten hours in 50-degree water.

The Federal Aviation Administration says an electrical component failed on American Eagle Flight 3400 Wednesday night, causing smoke to rise in the cockpit and the pilot to make an emergency landing.

The flight, which departed Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport bound for Quad Cities International Airport in Moline, Ill., diverted first to Tyler and then to Greenville after declaring an emergency shortly after takeoff.

• Am. Eagle Flight Declares Emergency, Diverted to Greenville
• VIDEO: American Eagle Flight 3400 Diverts to Greenville After Emergency

The pilot landed without incident, and none of the 45 passenger or crew of three were injured.

Mechanics were in and out of the aircraft, an Embraer ERJ-145, all day trying to determine what went wrong.

Thursday afternoon, the FAA said it was a "failed electrical component" in the cockpit that caused the smoke, though they did not elaborate further.

NBC 5 DFW Investigates found portions of the pilot's communications with Air Traffic Control, recorded by the website Broadcastify.com, where the pilot reported the smell of smoke.

"We've got smelling of electrical burn," the pilot said. The pilot then went on to describe the number of people onboard and the weight of fuel on the aircraft.

Twelve seconds after that, the pilot said they needed to land and wanted to divert to Tyler.  Shortly after that, they asked to land at an even closer airport in Greenville.

During a crucial four-minute period, the pilot reduced the altitude of the aircraft from 21,900 feet to 8,800 feet.

One passenger, a reporter named Tiffany Liou, talked exclusively with NBC 5. She said some passengers smelled smoke, the pilots made an abrupt U-turn with the plane and the flight attendant made an announcement. “’I need everyone to listen up’ and he was really serious," said Liou.

• VIDEO Reporter Recalls Emergency Landing in Greenville
• VIDEO American Eagle Passengers Leave Following Emergency Landing
• Passenger Describes American Eagle Emergency Landing
• VIDEO Passenger Describes Emergency Landing Live on NBC 5 News at 10 p.m.

NBC 5 spoke to an aviation expert who explained planes generally descend at a rate of about 1,500 feet per minute, but the American Eagle pilot was descending at more than 2,500 feet per minute.

"The crew did a very good job. They got the airplane on the ground as soon as they could ... and then they worried about what was wrong. It may not have been that serious, but they don't know that they are not mechanics," said Denny Kelly, aviation expert.

American Eagle said the two pilots and the flight attendant are already back on the job.

NBC 5's Kendra Lyn contributed to this report.

Massachusetts lawmakers in the House and Senate quickly passed a bill Thursday that makes it illegal to take photos up a woman's skirt, NECN reported.

Massachusetts Senate President Therese Murray said she was astonished when she heard Wednesday that the state's highest court had dismissed so-called "peeping tom" charges against an Andover man accused of taking photos up women's skirts while riding on the MBTA's Green Line. The Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the 2004 law in place did not apply to people clothed in public.

"For me, this is going backwards, like when your husband could beat you and beat your children. That was okay. Well, we've changed," Murray said, according to NECN.

So Murray and House Speaker Robert DeLeo took immediate action to revise the state law to make "upskirting," as it's called, illegal.

"We are outraged by what has occurred and from today forward want to make sure that those types of actions are dealt with in our court system and dealt with swiftly," DeLeo said.

DeLeo said they want to make sure the bill is able to pass constitutional muster, but they expect to have it on the Gov. Deval Patrick's desk by late Thursday. The governor has promised to sign it.

"The common-sense view is that that sort of thing qualifies as a peeping tom, if you will, and we need to change the law in order to make sure that's clear we ought to do so," Patrick said.

Meanwhile, it hasn't been lost on many Beacon Hill observers that while most basic legislation, including bond bills and supplemental budgets, can take months to move through the chambers, this bill is being moved in one day, NECN reported.

"So we should ride the wave while we have it, because it usually doesn't happen around here," Republican House minority leader Bradley Jones said. "Usually there's a disagreement on who gets credit or 'I want to be up' or 'If you do it, we can't' and it needs to be tied into some other moving parts. No, this is the very definition of a no-brainer."

 A Southern California man with a big appetite for lawsuits is taking a bite out of something much bigger than a Big Mac. In his latest bit of litigation, Webster Lucas is suing McDonald’s for $1.5 million after an incident that started with a napkin.

On Jan. 29, Lucas sat down to enjoy a Quarter Cheese Deluxe Burger at a Pacoima McDonald’s when he noticed only one napkin in his bag. The lawsuit states Lucas approached the counter and asked the manager for more.

The suit alleges the manager "developed a nasty attitude and mumbled a few words" before Lucas told him that "he does not have to act like that."

According to court documents, the manager continued his rude behavior, prompting Lucas to say, "I should have went to Jack-In-The-Box, because I didn’t come here to argue over napkins, I came here to eat."

This is where the verbal bout becomes nasty. The lawsuit alleges the manager began to curse, yelling across the aisle. Offended, Lucas said, “Is it because I’m black?”

The manager allegedly responded to this question by saying “You people,” leading Lucas to believe that he is being discriminated against, according to the lawsuit.

The subsequent lawsuit, filed Feb. 27 against the manager, general manager and the McDonald’s Corporation, claims Lucas suffered undue mental anguish, emotional distress and was discriminated against.

The defense claims McDonald’s "“made every effort to ‘sooth the situation over in favor of their store manager.’" In an email to Lucas, the general manager apologized for his “unsatisfactory visit” and thanked him for his feedback.

Lucas responded, “I am unable to work because of the undue mental anguish and the intentional infliction of emotional distress cause by your employee... who played around when asked for the proper spelling of his last name…that I still don’t have. Take care.”

In a statement, McDonald’s director of U.S. media relations Lisa McComb said, “We understand this customer was disappointed with his visit. We have made every effort to make it right for him. We have not been served with a lawsuit.”

This case against McDonald’s is not the first time Lucas has taken on a fast-food joint. He has filed lawsuits against Jack-In-The-Box on two separate occasions and has not received any compensation for his claims, according to court documents.

Over the last decade he has brought cases against Walmart and Denny’s among others. All but a small claims suit against an auto body shop were dismissed. In each case Lucas did not hire a lawyer.

According to NBC4 legal analyst Royal Oakes, Lucas is what is known as a vexatious litigant.

“He is just one of those people who files frivolous lawsuits,” Oakes said. “They go out and consume the time and resources of the courts.”

To be named a vexatious litigant in California, a person has to file at least five suits, other than in small claims courts, that have gone against them or have left cases pending for at least two years without bringing them to a trial or hearing. Repeatedly re-litigating or filing cases without merit is also grounds for being named a vexatious litigant.

California updates a list of vexatious litigants every month, preventing them from filing suits for a short period of time. Lucas is not currently listed.

The state is very careful in who it names to this list to avoid infringing on people’s right to sue. Oakes believes this allows people to abuse the system.

“A case like the one against McDonald’s is a shakedown,” Oakes said. “The party who is sued has to think about if it is worth the money to continue the suit and take it to court. Because they have deep pockets they also need to consider how bad it might be if they lose. So, people who sue big company’s like McDonald’s know they have a chance of getting some money to get them to go away.”

While settlements may be the ultimate goal of frivolous suits being taken to court is not necessarily a bad outcome for vexatious litigants.

“If a company puts up a solid fight, it is possible the frivolous filer will drop the suit,” Oakes said. “They have to pay some costs for doing so but those usually add up to a few hundred or thousand dollars. It’s a small amount considering that the amount of suits they file will likely put them out ahead.”

A long-running dispute involving the mother of a Southern California man who was killed as he crossed a street and an atheist rights group appeared to head to a conclusion Thursday with the planned removal of roadside crosses she placed in his memory.

The removal comes after an organization that promotes the rights of atheists and other nonreligious people called the cross on city-owned property a "serious constitutional violation" in a letter to city council of Lake Elsinore, a western Riverside County community.

"It's like I'm losing my son again, pretty much," said Ann Marie Devaney, through tears, as she removed two crosses. "It hurts when you lose a child."

But just as she removed the crosses, a group of people put up six more.

"It just really got to me," Emily Johnson, . "I have kids. I just can't believe how insensitive people are."

Devaney had placed the white crosses on the side of Lake Street near a freeway exit ramp after her 19-year-old son was killed in May 2012. Anthony Devaney was struck and killed by a sport utility vehicle driver as he crossed the street near the 15 Freeway.

Nearly two years later, she removed the crosses after a Lake Elsinore resident and the American Humanist Association pursued the symbol's removal with the city.

Ann Marie Devaney arrived at the site early Thursday to mourn her son, hours before she removed the tribute.

"It's so petty and sad that they have to complain over removing a cross," she said. "It's his personal preference that he was Christian. What's wrong with having a cross up?"

The mother of the teen driver who struck and killed Anthony Devaney was among the cross visitors Thursday morning. She told NBC4 Southern California she opposes the cross removal.

"That's their memorial, that's where they go to grieve," said Laurie Howanec.

• Read: Lawsuit Over Veterans Monument

The American Humanist Association also successfully fought Lake Elsinore's plan for a veterans monument that depicted a service member kneeling next to a cross at a grave site. In a February ruling, a U.S. District Court judge ruled the planned memorial -- which must be redesigned -- at a minor league baseball stadium was unconstitutional.

In its letter to the City Council, the group cites complaints about Devaney's cross memorial from a Lake Elsinore resident. The city removed the cross in December 2013 after requests from the resident, but Devaney returned the cross to the property.

• Updates: Download the NBCLA News App

The resident contacted the city again last month and was told the cross would be removed by mid-March, according to the letter.

"The city's selective enforcement of its signage ordinance and its display of the Christian cross on government property violates the state and federal Constitutions, and must therefore be removed immediately," the letter states.

Deputies launched an investigation Thursday evening in the Blossom Valley area after a person was found dead outside of a home, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said.

Deputies were called out to a residence in the 9800-block of Circa Via Verde just before 5 p.m. Neighbors and witnesses had called authorities to report a person down outside of a house, with blood all around them.

Deputies on scene determined the person had been dead for some time, but officials could not immediately release details of the person’s injuries, including whether or not there were signs of trauma on the body.

Officials said the incident is being considered suspicious in nature because at this point, it is still unclear how the person died.

By 7 p.m., officials said a homicide investigation team was en route to the scene to continue the investigation.

Check back for updates on this developing story.

The German manufacturer of the Texas Giant roller coaster at Six Flags over Texas is blasting the amusement park.

In a cross-complaint filed in the case involving the death of a Dallas woman, Gerstlauer Amusement Rides said the park is solely to blame for the accident.

On July 19th, Rosy Esparza got on the Texas Giant, and soon after plummeted to her death.

• Six Flags Joins Lawsuit Against Coaster Maker
  
• Esparza's Family Asks for Sanctions Against Six Flags
  
• Six Flags Denies Liability in Roller Coaster Death
  
• Incident Report Released in Six Flags Death
  
• Woman Riding Six Flags Roller Coaster Dies

In the new court document, Gerstlauer said, "Six Flags failed to exercise reasonable care in their hiring, training and supervision of the ride operators...on the date of the accident."

Attorney Frank Branson, who represents the Esparza family, said interviews with employees showed that one of the workers operating the ride “had a button that could have stopped and should have stopped the ride,” but that button was not pressed.

The German maker also said Six Flags had a hand in designing the ride. Six Flags has blamed the death on a dangerous, defective ride.  

Gerstlauer Amusement Rides said the park “expressly designed and specified in writing that there be no seat belts.”

Soon after the accident, seat belts were added, and there was a test seat put out, so people could see if they could safely get on the ride. Gerstlauer Amusement Rides said that seat was provided for the park two years prior to the accident, but never used.

Six Flags over Texas responded to the countersuit.

“The manufacturer assured Six Flags that the Texas Giant, without seat belts, was safe for riders. As an additional safety measure, when the ride re-opened in September, we added incremental and overlapping safety measures including re-designed restraint bar pads and new seat belts. The safety of our guests is our number one priority,” said Six Flags over Texas spokesperson Sharon Parker.

U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has apologized for a heated exchange that took place during a House Oversight Committee meeting on Wednesday.

The hearing was about an investigation into the IRS for targeting conservative groups.

When IRS official Lois Lerner refused to answer questions, Issa abruptly ended the hearing.

However, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., protested and said he wanted to ask a question. Issa motioned to cut Cummings’ microphone. Cummings kept speaking, becoming increasingly upset. Issa eventually told Cummings that he had his chance and left.

On Thursday, Issa personally apologized to Cummings.

Cummings then released this statement:

This evening, Chairman Issa telephoned me and apologized for his conduct, and I accepted his apology. My sincere hope is that we move forward, we will respect the opinions of all members of the committee, we will proceed in a deliberate manner to obtain the facts, we will refrain from making accusations that have no basis in fact, and we will seek resolution rather than unnecessary conflict.

Issa's office did not release a statement, but referred NBC 7 to the congressman's Twitter account:

I just wanted to clear the air with @RepCummings: http://t.co/Krs974TlTH

— Darrell Issa (@DarrellIssa) March 7, 2014

“I could have offered to reopen the hearing and allowed him to make a second statement. As chairman, I should have been much more sensitive to the mood of what was going on, and I take responsibility,” Issa said in a phone interview with the UT San Diego. 

Issa represents California’s 49th Congressional District, with includes parts of San Diego’s North County and southern Orange County.

A recent phishing scam targeting Netflix customers was so bold it even took a security expert by surprise.

It started with a fake Netflix site, which Jérôme Segura, senior security researcher for Malwarebytes Corporation, found by chance. The URL included the word Netflix, followed by a string of seemingly random characters that tipped him off to the fraud.

He knowingly participated in the scam and recorded what happened in a video embedded below.

Segura immediately noticed that the customer care number listed on the imposter site was the same one he’d seen weeks earlier in another scam.

• Coachella Ticket Buyers Warned of Phishing Website

What was different: "They were urging me to call a 1-800 number for ‘support.'"

It is unusual for scammers to ask their victims to contact them directly.

This is “something that is completely new to me,” he said. “Normally after a phishing scam you get redirected to new scam.”

Segura made the call and was told his Netflix account was suspended because it had been hacked.

“I knew this was not right because I entered a fake account,” he said.

• Napkin Argument Leads to $1.5M McDonald's Lawsuit

The scammers told him they needed access to his computer to help him install security software. He complied, using a PC set up with fake information.

The scammers then installed spyware enabling them to access and transfer his (fake) personal information and documents.

"They had me download what was called ‘Netflix support’ but there is no such thing as Netflix support software," he said.

They also requested a photo of Segura’s ID and credit card,

When Segura balked at the request, the “agent” on the line remotely turned on Segura’s computer camera to make it easy for him to comply.

• LA County Medical Patients' Personal Data Stolen

At the end of the session the “agent” attempted to charge Segura upwards of $400 – minus a $50 "discount."

The unusually aggressive nature of the operation could be an indicator of the next wave of phishing scams, he said.

The site was up for two days before it was shut down, he said.

Netflix told NBC4 News in an email it would not comment on the suspected scam.

Scams are not specific to any particular provider or brand, Segura said. Consumers need to be vigilant and on their guard whenever they are online.

People who believe they are the victims of online phishing scams can contact the Federal Trade Commission.

Netflix Tech Support Scam from Malwarebytes on Vimeo.

Baseball season in San Diego will start off with a packed house on Opening Night, since the game is a sellout, the San Diego Padres announced.

Tickets to the Sunday, Mar. 30 game against the Los Angeles Dodgers are sold out. The game starts at 5:05 p.m. and every fan in attendance will receive a free 2014 Padres schedule cling. The only way Opening Night tickets might still be available is through the purchase of a Padres Membership, the team said.

Tickets are still available for the rest of Opening Week, however, including Opening Day against the Dodgers. That game takes place Monday, Apr. 1 at 3:40 p.m. at Petco Park and will include traditional Opening Day ceremonies beginning at 3 p.m.

Every fan in attendance to that game will receive a free 2014 Padres schedule cling and Opening Day hat. This season will bring 80 home games to Petco Park in downtown San Diego. Tickets can be purchased via the Padres website.

Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto said Thursday that he is not the creator of bitcoin, adding further mystery to the story of how the world's most popular digital currency came to be. The denial came after Newsweek published a 4,500-word cover story claiming Nakamoto is the person who wrote the computer code underpinnings of bitcoin.

In an exclusive two-hour interview with The Associated Press, Nakamoto, 64, denied he had anything to do with it and said he had never heard of bitcoin until his son told him he had been contacted by a Newsweek reporter three weeks ago.

Nakamoto acknowledged that many of the details in Newsweek's report are correct, including that he once worked for a defense contractor, and that his given name at birth was Satoshi. But he strongly disputed the magazine's assertion that he is "the face behind bitcoin." "I got nothing to do with it," he said, repeatedly. Newsweek stands by its story, which kicked off the relaunch of its print edition after 15 months and reorganization under new ownership. Since bitcoin's birth in 2009, the currency's creator has remained a mystery.

The person — or people — behind the digital currency's inception have been known only as "Satoshi Nakamoto," which many observers believed to be a pseudonym. Bitcoin has become increasingly popular among tech enthusiasts, libertarians and risk-seeking investors because it allows people to make one-to-one transactions, buy goods and services and exchange money across borders without involving banks, credit card issuers or other third parties. Criminals like bitcoin for the same reasons.

For various technical reasons, it's hard to know just how many people worldwide own bitcoins, but the currency attracted outsize media attention and the fascination of millions as an increasing number of large retailers such as Overstock.com began to accept it. Speculative investors have jumped into the bitcoin fray, too, sending the currency's value fluctuating wildly in recent months.

In December, the value of a single bitcoin hit an all-time high of $1,200. It was around $665 on Thursday, according to the website bitcoincharts.com. Bloggers have speculated that bitcoin's creator is worth hundreds of millions of dollars in bitcoin. After Newsweek posted the story on its website early Thursday, Nakamoto said his home was bombarded by phone calls. By mid-morning, a dozen reporters were waiting outside the modest two-story home on the residential street in Temple City, Calif., where he lives. He emerged shortly after noon saying he wanted to speak with one reporter only and asked for a "free lunch."

During a car ride and then later over sushi lunch at the AP bureau in downtown Los Angeles, Nakamoto spoke at length about his life, career and family, addressing many of the assertions in Newsweek's piece. He also said a key portion of the piece — where he is quoted telling the reporter on his doorstep before two police officers, "I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it" — was misunderstood. Nakamoto said he is a native of Beppu, Japan who came to the U.S. as a child in 1959. He speaks both English and Japanese, but his English isn't flawless. Asked if he said the quote, Nakamoto responded, "no." "I'm saying I'm no longer in engineering.

That's it," he said of the exchange. "And even if I was, when we get hired, you have to sign this document, contract saying you will not reveal anything we divulge during and after employment. So that's what I implied." "It sounded like I was involved before with bitcoin and looked like I'm not involved now. That's not what I meant. I want to clarify that," he said. Newsweek writer Leah McGrath Goodman, who spent two months researching the story, told the AP: "I stand completely by my exchange with Mr. Nakamoto.

There was no confusion whatsoever about the context of our conversation —and his acknowledgment of his involvement in bitcoin." The magazine pulled together its thesis on the creator's identity by matching Nakamoto's name, educational history, career, anti-government bent and writing style to the alleged creator of bitcoin. It also quoted Nakamoto's estranged wife and other family members who said they weren't sure he is the creator. Several times during the interview with AP, Nakamoto mistakenly referred to the currency as "bitcom," and as a single company, which it is not.

He said he's never heard of Gavin Andresen, a leading bitcoin developer who told Newsweek he'd worked closely with the person or entity known as "Satoshi Nakamoto" in developing the system, but that they never met in person or spoke on the phone. When shown the original bitcoin proposal that Newsweek linked to in its story, Nakamoto said he didn't write it, and said the email address in the document wasn't his. "Peer-to-peer can be anything," he said. "That's just a matter of address. What the hell? It doesn't make sense to me." Asked if he was technically able to come up with the idea for bitcoin, Nakamoto responded: "Capability? Yes, but any programmer could do that."

The nearest Nakamoto has come to working on a financial system, he said, was a project for Citibank with a company called Quotron, which provided real-time stock prices to brokerage firms. Nakamoto said he worked on the software side for about four years starting in 1987. "That had nothing to do with skipping financial institutions," he said. Nakamoto said he believes someone either came up with the name or specifically targeted him to be the fall guy for the currency's creation. He also said he doesn't discuss his career because in many cases, his work was confidential.

When he was employed by Hughes Aircraft starting around 1973, he worked on missile systems for the U.S. Navy and Air Force. He said he also worked for the Federal Aviation Administration starting around 1999, but was laid off following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Getting hired by a military contractor was the reason he applied for and received American citizenship. He decided around that time to change his name, adding "Dorian Prentice" to Satoshi Nakamoto, partly to sound more Western. He said he picked "Dorian" because he says it meant "a man of simplicity" and referred to the ancient Greek people. "Prentice" alluded to his affinity for learning, he said. As he pored over the Newsweek story with a reporter, Nakamoto repeatedly said "oh jeez," as he read private details about himself, quotes from family members and even specifics from his medical history. "How long is this media hoopla going to last?" he said.

The man accused of striking and killing a cyclist in Chula Vista was arraigned in his hospital room Thursday.

Michael Reyes, 29, has been undergoing treatment at the UCSD Medical Center Trauma Unit for injuries he sustained in the crash Monday near East J Street and Dennis Avenue.

Cyclist David Voigt was riding home from his job at the Sweetwater Water Authority when he was hit and killed by a stolen vehicle being driven by Reyes.

The impact of the Nissan Maxima was so great, it split Voigt’s bike in two, smashed through a utility pole and then split a tree trunk that was half the width of the car.

• Read: Cyclist Remembered as "Great Husband, Great Father"

Chula Vista police say Reyes was drunk behind the wheel at the time of the crash.

During his arraignment, Reyes laid in a hospital bed in apparent discomfort, his bandaged left leg propped up at an angle. Through a public defender, he pleaded not guilty to charges related to the fatal accident that killed Voigt.

Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sontag did not allow any recording devices inside the small hospital arraignment at UCSD Medical Center. Reyes was ordered held on $500,000 bail.

• Read the Full Criminal Complaint Filed Against Reyes

Reyes waived the reading of charges during his arraignment by telling the judge “yeah,” when asked if he agreed. According to deputy district attorney Carlos Varela, Reyes is facing five counts including gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, car theft and possession of methamphetamine. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 15 years and 4 months behind bars.

Four of Voigt’s family members were in the hospital room during Reyes’ arraignment. A pool reporter inside the room said Voigt’s father said, “I want to get a good look at him,” and then shook his head.

The family walked out of the hospital but did not want to talk to reporters.

• Read: Bicyclist Killed in Crash with Stolen Car

NBC7 has learned Reyes has a long criminal past and was on probation for a January drug conviction at the time of the fatal collision. During the arraignment, the prosecuting attorney specified three previous cases for the judge to consider at Reyes’ next hearing.

Reyes’ older brother, who asked not to be identified, told NBC7 the family is very sad about what happened Monday.

They extend to the Voigt family their very deepest sympathy, the brother said.

Court records indicate Reyes was not only on probation at the time of the crash but also was convicted of methamphetamine possession less than two months ago.

And there's more: Reyes' criminal history includes at least seven felony cases dating back just in the past ten years.

The suspect's brother does not excuse the behavior but said, "Michael has been going through many life difficulties in this last year."

Voight was a father, husband and an avid cyclist.

His death has touched many lives reflected by the sidewalk shrine that grows daily.
Wednesday night a ghost bike was chained to it.

The bike painted all white serves as a reminder of yet another bicyclist death in San Diego and as a quiet statement of support of every cyclist's right to safely share the road.

A readiness conference has been scheduled for Reyes for Mar. 20. His preliminary hearing date is set for Apr. 16. Neither the prosecutor nor hospital would comment on Reyes’ injuries or when he might be released from the hospital and transferred to county jail.

Two Marine officers have been relieved of command as the investigation into a fatal Camp Pendleton training exercise explosion unfolds.

During a Nov. 13 exercise, four Marines were killed  most likely when a grenade round was “dropped, kicked or, bumped” in the demolition pit, according to a report released Thursday.

However, the exact cause cannot be determined because the only people who directly saw the incident were those killed. 

Investigators believe the M430/A1 40mm High Explosive Dual Purpose grenade round set off several other ordnances the Marines were gathering for disposal in the Zulu impact area.

Brig. Gen. John Bullard, commanding general of the Marine Corps Installations West, relieved the the officer and staff non-commissioned officer of command on March 4, citing loss of trust in their ability to prepare and assess the potential danger on the range.

Bullard also ordered a review and revision of Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) training policies on all Marine Corps Installations West ranges. 

The Marines who died were all members of the EOD community at Camp Pendleton: Sgt. Miguel Ortiz, Staff Sgt. Mathew R. Marsh, Gunnery Sgt. Gregory J. Mullins and Staff Sgt. Eric W. Summers.

Three other service members nearby were injured in the explosion, but they survived.

According to a release, Bullard will recommend changes to risk assessment, mitigation and levels of approval. He also wanted additional safety training requirements for all EOD personnel beyond what is currently required and mandatory adherence to the range survey requirements. 

The cost of living is on the rise, making it a lot harder for some to make ends meet, and a new study released Thursday verifies that.

The Center on Policy Initiatives (CPI) claims a large segment of working people in San Diego aren't making enough money to survive.

Their research shows 38 percent of all working-age people don't bring home enough money on the job to make ends meet.

Adam Carcione says he’s one of those people. He and his wife are chefs.

With his $12 an hour pay, the 27-year-old Ocean Beach father says their combined income wasn't enough to pay for rent and care for their 3-year-old son. So they moved in with his wife's mother to help pay the bills.

According to CPI, for two adults with a child, the cost of housing, child care, health care and other living expenses is more than $67,000 a year or a salary of $15.93 an hour per person.

The research director for CPI says when businesses don't pay their employees a living wage, we all pay the cost.

“If an employer isn’t paying enough to sustain the person on a day to day basis, the bottom line is the rest of us pick up the tab through food stamps or other forms of public assistance. Whether it’s relatives taking care of them or churches or private groups providing food banks or other forms of charities,” explained Peter Brownell.

Minimum wage is supposed to increase from $8 to $9 this summer.

Opponents say rising wages will decrease the amount of available jobs.

A man died after being attacked by bees in San Diego’s Valley Center area Thursday afternoon, officials from the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department confirmed.

Deputies and officials from the Valley Center Fire Department were called to the 12500-block of Montaya Drive and Lilac Knolls Road just before 2 p.m. to investigate reports of a man who had sustained numerous bee stings.

When officials arrived, they found a 67-year-old man suffering from stings, in medical distress. Medics rendered aid to the man, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said the bee attack victim had been working in his front yard when he was stung several times. No one else was injured in the incident.

Sgt. Jeff Lauhon said the man had been conducting a permitted controlled burn on his property, clearing out rubbish and brush, when the smoke may have disturbed a beehive in the area.

Lauhon said deputies had not determined how many times the man was stung.

The man’s son, Jamey Umland, spoke with NBC 7 and identified the victim as Bruce Umland. Jamey said his father – who had no known allergies to bees – was stung at least three times and seemed fine at first. He continued to work in the yard for a while before collapsing.

“[The smoke] roused a bunch of bees and next thing I know, he’s been stung a couple times, not feeling good,” Jamey explained. “It was downhill from there. I didn’t even have time. I called 911.”

Lauhon said the bees were gone by the time deputies arrived on scene and said the incident does not appear to be tied to a swarm of bees, just perhaps a few bees.

Lauhon said a fatal case like this is uncommon for the area.

“This is a very rare event for us here. Very rarely do we get these sort of calls," he said.

The San Diego County Medical Examiner’s office will handle the follow-up investigation and determine the man’s exact cause of death. Deputies said the victim did have an existing medical condition, but did not disclose additional details on that.

Teenagers using e-cigarettes are more likely to try smoking real cigarettes and are less likely to quit than kids who did not use the battery-powered devices, a new study found.

“The use of e-cigarettes does not discourage, and may encourage, conventional cigarette use among U.S. adolescents,” the study concluded.

Published online on Thursday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics, the study examined data collected from nearly 40,000 U.S. middle and high school students who completed the 2011 and 2012 National Youth Tobacco Survey.

The report also found that e-cigarette use among middle and high school students doubled between 2011 and 2012, from 3.1 percent to 6.5 percent.

"E-cigarettes are likely to be gateway devices for nicotine addiction among youth, opening up a whole new market for tobacco," said lead author Lauren Dutra, a postdoctoral fellow at the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education.

But not everyone agrees with the conclusion drawn by the researchers. The study did not prove that teen e-cigarette smokers used tobacco after smoking e-cigarettes, because it examined two large data pools of teens in 2011 and 2012 rather than tracking the same people over two years.

Other experts said that just because e-cigarettes are being used by young people who smoke more and have a more difficult time kicking the habit does not mean that the devices are the root of the problem, according to The New York Times.  Those experts say it is possible that young people who use e-cigarettes, which deliver nicotine through vapor instead of the smoke associated with traditional cigarettes, were heavier smokers to begin with, or would have become heavy smokers down the line, the Times reported.

“The data in this study do not allow many of the broad conclusions that it draws,” said Thomas J. Glynn, a researcher at the American Cancer Society, according to the Times.

Experts remain divided on whether e-cigarettes, which entered the market about a decade ago, are a getaway to smoking or a path for the nation's 45 million smokers to help quit. 

A large federal survey published last year found that the overwhelming majority of young people who use e-cigarettes also smoke real tobacco. Meantime, another report concluded that while e-cigarette use among youths doubled from 2011 to 2012, real cigarette smoking for youths has continued to decline.

An 18-year-old tagger suspected of more than 300 incidents of graffiti across Vista was arrested Thursday, according to officials.

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said Bladimir Lopez was taken into custody at a home in the 700-block of North Citrus Drive at around 8 a.m. His arrest was the result of an ongoing investigation involving at least 303 incidents of graffiti vandalism that have cost the city thousands upon thousands of dollars.

According to investigators, the tag associated with the prolific alleged vandal reads “ALSOE.” Cleaning up the hundreds of tags across Vista has cost the city approximately $89,500.

Officials said they used a special investigative tool called the “Graffiti Tracker” to trace acts of tagging and to help identify Lopez as a suspect. Numerous items of evidence linked to the vandalism investigation were found at the residence where Lopez was arrested, though officials would not go into specifics about those items.

Lopez was booked into the Vista Detention Facility on one count of vandalism and one count of conspiracy to commit a crime.
He’s scheduled to appear in court Mar. 13.

Meanwhile, officials said anyone with information on taggers or anyone who’d like to report graffiti in the City of Vista should call the Vista City Hotline at (760) 639-6176.
 

A measles warning was released Thursday after health officials realized people at four public locations may have been exposed to the disease in the last week.

Two new measles cases have been linked to a person who contracted the infection while in the Philippines, according to the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA).

Those two sick people may have exposed others at these locations and times:

• Pettit Kohn law offices at 11622 El Camino Real, Suite 300 on Feb. 28 from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and again on March 3 from 8 to 10 a.m.
• The Naval Base San Diego Commissary, 2525 Callagan Highway, Bldg. 3629 on March 1 between 1 and 4 p.m.
• Sharp Rees-Stealy Sorrento Mesa Urgent Care Center, 10243 Genetic Center Dr. on March 3 from 4 to 8 p.m.
• Sharp Rees-Stealy Sorrento Mesa Primary Care, 10243 Genetic Care Center Dr. on March 4 between 12:30 and 6 p.m.

Navy and HHSA officials have been contacting people who they know were in those locations to make sure they have been vaccinated.

• READ:  Possible Measles Exposure at Naval Medical Facilities

If you have not had measles or been vaccinated for it – and you were in those locations at the estimated exposure time – call your doctor within one week to get evaluation and possible treatment.

The HHSA said if you don’t have a doctor, call its Epidemiology Branch at 619-692-8499.

“The best way to prevent measles is by getting the measles vaccine,” said County Public Health Officer Eric McDonald. “Infants under 12 months of age are at high risk of infection with measles because they would not have received the protective vaccine.”

HHSA officials said measles can develop 7 to 21 days after exposure, and symptoms include cough, runny nose and red eyes at the onset.

• READ: Measles Warning After Infected Student Rides BART

In one to four days, a distinctive red rash usually appears on the face and head, moving downward to hands and feet.

The very contagious disease can spread by coughing, sneezing or just being in the same room with an infected person, said McDonald.

The only treatment for measles is bed rest, fluids and fever control. However, those born after 1956 should have received at least one dose of MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine or documents that show they’re immune.

Mayor Kevin Faulconer and Councilman David Alvarez reconfirmed their commitment to laying down a sidewalk in Otay Mesa on Thursday.

“Because kids should have sidewalks to walk to school on and as I’ve talked about many times, when it comes to infrastructure, that’s an area where there is absolute agreement on this council,” said Faulconer, who took office four days ago.

City officials said last year that construction was set to begin this spring on a project that includes a sidewalk for San Ysidro High students. Students currently walk to school on a skinny dirt path wedged between a steep canyon and the busy Otay Mesa Road.

Funding for the project hit a snag with the delay of the Otay Mesa Community Plan Update, which is now set to be approved on Tuesday. But many months after promising our media partner Voice of San Diego that funding for the full $8.5 million price tag was secured, it appears the city is no closer to breaking ground than it has been for the past 12 years.

Alvarez said Thursday he wasn’t even sure if design plans for the project were complete or not, even though that portion of the work has been funded for some time. Messages left with the company hired to design the project were not returned Thursday.

“What I’ve been doing is making a lot of noise, making sure this project gets done, trying to hold people accountable, trying to find the money to make it possible,” Alvarez said. “And what we’re going to do next week, with the approval of the Otay Mesa Community Plan, which will reprioritize this project to make sure it’s the top priority.”

City officials now say the timeline has been pushed back to construction beginning next fall.

Funding for $2 million of the $8.5 million project depends on money that will only be available once the facilities financing plan is passed along with the community plan update. But it remains unclear how the brief delay in the community plan update pushed the project back another six months.

This isn’t the first time the project has been delayed. Residents have been promised a sidewalk for kids since 2002.

“There has been expectation management that has not been fulfilled for the city on that,” Faulconer said. “I’m going to be very clear about changing that and being very upfront and direct about when projects are going to happen and when they’re not.”

San Ysidro High School Principal Hector Espinoza has been raising concerns about the dangerous conditions of the path to school since before the high school was built.

Emails to Espinoza from state Senator Ben Hueso, then a council member, say 'considerable progress' had been made, but "government does move slowly."

That was 2007.

Multiple times since then, the city has said the sidewalk would be in place by 2010 or 2011. In 2011, it was promised construction would begin April 2013.

Hueso’s office said when he left the District 8 council office, the project was ready to be completed.
Alvarez responded to a question about whether his office did not act strongly enough to push the project forward after he took over the district:

“Absolutely not. This has been a top priority from the very beginning. In fact, it was not set up to be completed. The plan update did not exist. Maybe it was on its way to getting to completion, but clearly not, it’s been three years.”

The scope of the project includes more than just a sidewalk. Engineers will widen the street by 10 feet and straighten some of the sharp curves on Otay Mesa Road to make it safer for drivers and pedestrians. The project also includes a bike lane.