A group of Russian hackers has reportedly stolen 1.2 billion user names and passwords in what’s being described as the largest cyber-crime in history and this could mean your online information is in jeopardy.

The hacking heist, which spans 420,000 websites and also includes 500 million email addresses, was uncovered Tuesday by Hold Security, a Wisconsin-based information security company.

The company found the Russian hackers pushed spying programs onto personal computers worldwide and got sent people’s passwords when users logged onto websites.

Although experts recommend you should change passwords frequently, that tactic may not always work in this digital age of savvy hackers.

“So even if you have a very complicated password, they're going to run through a billion variations and eventually they'll trip upon it,” explained Larry Clinton, president of Internet Security Alliance. “You need to combat this with an equally automated system.”

Clinton said this could mean signing on with a company like LastPass, KeePass or Dashlane, which generate and store complex passwords.

In the future, you may need more than just a password, like a retinal scan or thumbprint.

Meanwhile, the Identity Theft Resource Center of San Diego says online users should watch out for enticing social media posts and emails, even if they appear to be from your friends.

One click could open the gate to your more sensitive personal information, like social security numbers and banking details.

Also, experts suggest you change your passwords every three months using a combination of both lower and uppercase letters and numbers – and make passwords longer than eight characters.

Additionally, delete credit card information store with retail and bill pay websites. Download anti-virus updates when available on both your computer and smartphone.

“If you are buying something online or paying a bill online you are going to want to make sure you do not save the log-in credential information or any financial information,” said Nikki Junker, spokesperson for the Identity Theft Resource Center.

“In addition, you are going to want to make sure you go through your internet browser on a normal basis and delete all temporary internet files,” she added.
Junker said app users must strike a balance between convenience and security.

While it may be handy to order up dinner online and have it delivered with one click of a button, storing credit card information in your phone is dangerous.
 

A fundraiser will be held Thursday at the very same fast food restaurant where a San Diego Police Department officer performed his final act of kindness before being fatally shot in the line of duty.

In light of the 3rd anniversary of SDPD Officer Jeremy Henwood’s death, a fundraiser will be held at the McDonald’s restaurant located at 3879 Fairmount Ave. in City Heights from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. A portion of the proceeds will support the San Diego Police Officers Association Widows and Orphans Fund.

A remembrance ceremony celebrating Henwood’s life will also take place at 10 a.m. Thursday at Officer Jeremy Henwood Memorial Park at 3700 Fairmount Ave., the police department said.

Henwood, a beloved SDPD officer and U.S. Marine Corps veteran, was fatally shot on the job while sitting in his patrol car in City Heights on Aug. 7, 2011.

Suspect Dejon Marquee pulled up alongside Henwood’s vehicle and fired at the officer in an unprovoked attack. Marquee was later killed in a shootout with police officers outside his City Heights apartment.

Henwood died from injuries sustained in the attack.



San Diegans may remember Officer Henwood from a surveillance video captured just moments before his death at the McDonald’s restaurant on Fairmont Avenue. In the famous footage, the officer is seen buying food for a hungry child that he had never met.

Those last moments of his life have added to his legacy as a compassionate officer that many members of the San Diego community consider a hero.

In an emotional ceremony earlier this year, city leaders dedicated a park in City Heights to Henwood.

He was also honored at Mt. Soledad last fall for his time as a Marine Reservist who served in Afghanistan and Iraq.
 

Long known as America’s Finest City, San Diego has also now been dubbed one of America’s “coolest cities,” according to a newly-released list by Forbes and Sperling’s Best Places.

Turns out, San Diego ranks No. 6 on the list of “America’s Coolest Cities” – charting above major hotspots like New York City, Miami and Los Angeles.

According to Forbes, the cities that made the cut were ranked on six equally-weighted factors including entertainment and recreational amenities, as well as the city’s “foodie” culture.

Diversity among residents and age was also factored in, specifically looking at cities with a large population of people ages 20 to 34.

Finally, the cities were analyzed based on population growth since 2000, including how much of that growth was due to net migration, since, as Forbes puts it, “cities with greater influxes of new people tend to be more desirable.”

By the criteria, San Diego ranked a high 92 on the arts and culture index, a 96 on the recreation index, a 69.90 on the diversity index and 78.7 percent on local eats. The list says 32.9 percent of the population is between 20-34 years of age, and 1.7 percent of growth in San Diego between 2010 and 2013 can be attributed to net migration.

Now, as for the No. 1 coolest city in America, that title went to Washington, D.C.

Other hip, happenin’ places that made the top 20 list include, in order: Seattle; Austin; Houston; San Francisco; Denver; Riverside, Calif.; Boston; Dallas; New York City; Oakland, Calif.; Miami; Sacramento, Calif.; San Antonio; San Jose, Calif.; Los Angeles; Raleigh, N.C.; Bethesda, Md.; Santa Ana, Calif.

To see the full list, click here.
 

New Padres General Manager A.J. Preller is an enigma wrapped in a riddle cloaked in a rather loud sports jacket. He is an international scout of mystery, if you will.

The team announced the hiring of Preller, 36, today, a man who has been described as “eccentric,” “in the shadows” and a “baseball rat.” (That’s a good thing in baseball terms, by the way.)

Here is a little bit of what we know so far about the man called to lead the Padres into the future:

• Preller grew up on Long Island as a Yankees fan. He is also close to his family, thanking them for all their help during his first Padres press conference on Wednesday. "I wanted to thank my parents back in New York," he said. "They were unelievably supportive."
   

• He graduated from Walt Whitman High School in 1995, where he played three varsity sports. He was named to the Principal’s List and National Honor Society and is now a member of the South Huntington Schools Hall of Fame.
   

• At Cornell, he was a member of the Delta Chi fraternity (not to be confused with the Delta Tau Chi from the movie “Animal House”) with current Texas Rangers president and general manager Jon Daniels. They lived together for three years.
   

• Preller took his first baseball job as an intern with the Philadelphia Phillies in which he earned college credits. After graduation, he took an unpaid position with Arizona Fall League, where he worked under baseball great Frank Robinson. The two then worked together in the Major League Baseball office before Preller took a scouting job with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He said he considers Robinson a mentor: "Frank, to myself, is somebody who is very open ... I said, 'If I get a chance to run a department, I want to run it that way."
   

• He was originally hired by the Rangers as Director of International and Professional Scouting. His territory included Japan, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and other parts of Latin America. But he seemed to travel anywhere anybody was playing baseball. He said he's "maybe spent 3 million miles on American Airlines" and would take several flights a day to scout different players.
   

• Both ESPN and Baseball American have named the Rangers the top farm system in baseball in the past five years. The Rangers won two American League championships during Preller’s tenure, the first time in the team's history that it won a playoff series.
   

• He was one of eight candidates originally interviewed by the Padres. They brought in Preller and three other candidates --  Yankees assistant GM Billy Eppler, MLB senior vice president of baseball operations Kim Ng and Red Sox assistant general manager Mike Hazen. He becomes the Padres’ fourth general manager following the 14-year tenure of Kevin Towers.

A Fallbrook woman accused of killing her son-in-law – shooting him 15 times and stopping twice to reload – is mentally competent to stand trial, a judge has decided.

Cynthia Cdebaca, 63, went before Judge Ruston Maino on Wednesday for a hearing to determine whether she understood the charges against her and could assist in her own defense.

The judge determined Cdebaca fit for trial.

Cdebaca’s son-in-law, Geoward Flores Eustaquio, 53, was found shot to death the morning of Feb. 11 at the home he shared with his wife, children and mother-in-law in a gated Fallbrook community.

Cdebaca told the authorities that her son-in-law made a comment about her outfit before the shooting.

She then went to Denny's for breakfast, gambled at Pechanga Resort & Casino, purchased cigarettes at a liquor store and visited a Fallbrook coffee shop, where she was ultimately arrested.

She reportedly told police “if he were here she would kill him again,” a deputy district attorney has said.

Cdebaca’s next hearing is scheduled for Sept. 16.

President Barack Obama said he doesn’t have enough data right now to consider fast-tracking a new, unapproved Ebola medicine created by a San Diego-based pharmaceutical company, he confirmed at a press conference Wednesday.

The president was asked about the Z-Mapp drug during his press conference to wrap up this week’s U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit, specifically about whether he’s considering sending supplies of this drug to Ebola outbreak patients in West Africa.

“We gotta let the science guide us. Not all the info is in as to whether this drug is helpful,” said the president, adding that it’s “premature” to consider fast-tracking the approval of the drug.

“Let's get all the health workers we need on the ground, nip early outbreaks, and then during the course of this process, appropriate to see if additional drugs can improve survivability,” President Obama continued.

The president said it’s important to remember that “Ebola is controllable if there is a public health system in place.”

“Despite the pain and hardship, and despite the fact we have to take this seriously, it’s important to remind ourselves that this is not an airborne disease and can be contained,” he added. “We're focusing on the public health approach now because we know how to do that and will continue to seek info.”

Z-Mapp, developed at Mapp Biopharmaceutical in Sorrento Valley over the course of 10 years, was the drug given to the two Ebola victims from America.

The secret drug cocktail had not been tried on humans before, but has shown effective signs of improving symptoms in monkeys. The drug, developed from antibodies in mice fighting the Ebola virus, was credited with saving four monkeys infected with Ebola after it was given to them 24 hours after infection.

Three experimental samples of the drug at subzero temperatures were flown to Liberia last week to save the two Americans infected with Ebola, according to CNBC.

Dr. Kent Brantly was given a dose and by the next day was showing signs of improvement. After two doses, American patient Nancy Writebol’s condition also was improving.

Z-Mapp is not FDA-approved. Use of it was granted under the FDA's "compassionate use" clause only given in extraordinary circumstances. There are only a handful of doses available.

A bus driver for the San Diego Unified School District has been placed on leave after the boy's mother said the driver left her 11-year-old son unattended in a hot bus.

An investigation into the incident is underway, school officials said in a statement.

Still, the boy’s mom is outraged by what she describes as a “cover-up.” She said the principal had told her it wasn’t considered a serious incident.

“I’m not interested in hearing any more lies, any more cover-ups. You know, it is what it is. People make mistakes; it happens,” said mom Ena Walters of Lemon Grove. “But for someone to say it wasn’t a serious matter and to try to maybe sweep it under the rug or cover it up — no. Unacceptable.”

The boy, who is hearing impaired, was on the bus on the way to summer school on Monday morning at Walt Whitman Elementary School when he fell asleep. He was found by other bus driver wandering the bus facility yard.

“He was confused, and he had woken up because of the heat inside of the bus,” she said. “He said he wasn’t really scared. He was just confused, because he didn’t know where to go or what to do.”

Walters said she suspects the bus driver did not realize he was asleep on the bus.

Once the boy was found, Walters said the district’s transportation department contacted her, letting her know her son was safe and on the way to school. In all, the boy had been left in the bus alone for 10 minutes, school officials said.

The district and principal have been working closely with the parents to alleviate their concerns, the district's statement said. The principal told NBC 7 that it was a misunderstanding, but declined to comment further.

“The safety and well-being of our students is our top priority,” district spokeswoman Linda Zintz said in the statement. “The transportation department will be providing additional training and implementing additional safeguards to prevent future incidents.”

Children on a school field trip ducked for cover as San Diego police opened fire on a man armed with a gun.

The students witnesses the officer-involved shooting near De Anza Cove around noon Wednesday. 

The unidentified man called 911 and said he was sitting in his car and was going to shoot himself, San Diego Police said.

Officers surrounded the car and attempted to talk the man out.

Witnesses said the man got out of a car, waved a gun around, pointed it at his head, pointed it at police officers and even pointed it up at the police helicopter.

The same witnesses said the man was shot once in what appeared to be his chest. He went down to the ground and then got up again and walked over to a shaded area where police handcuffed him.

There were nearly a dozen police patrol cars on the scene just west of Interstate 5 along North Mission Bay Drive.

The school students were on a field trip to Mission Bay and witnessed the incident. No one was injured.

The officer who fired the shot was described as a patrol officer from SDPD's Northern Division with nine years on the force.

The unidentified man was struck in the stomach area and transported to Scripps La Jolla via ambulance.

He was listed in critical condition, police said. 

A 16-year-old Connecticut high school student was killed and another suffered a serious leg injury after the teens fell while tubing on Long Island Sound and were struck by the boat towing them, according to police.

Police have identified the teen who died as 16-year-old Emily Fedorko, of Old Greenwich. Authorities said she was out on the water with three old friends, all ages 15 and 16 and rising juniors at Greenwich High School, when tragedy struck.

According to police, the teens were boating off Greenwich Point Park Wednesday afternoon, in a 21-foot Wahoo center console recreational powerboat that belonged to one of their fathers.

Police said Thursday that the driver of the boat was properly licensed with a boating safety certificate and described the scene as a "tragic accident." Alcohol did not appear to be a factor, according to police.

Fedorko and another teen fell off an inner tube between 2 p.m. and 2:30 p.m., according to police. The driver of the boat made a turn to pick up the tubers when the boat hit the two girls in the water, injuring them with the propeller of the outboard engine, police said.

The teens who were in the boat immediately lifted the injured girls into the vessel and brought them to the Old Greenwich Yacht Club, about a mile or two from where the accident happened, according to police. The Greenwich harbormaster said the girls are not members of the yacht club.

Greenwich police spokesman Lt. Kraig Gray said at a press conference Thursday that the driver and passenger of the boat rendered medical aid in an effort to save Fedorko, but it was too late.

She sustained an severe injury to her torso and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said the medical examiner will determine the cause of Fedorko's death.

The other teen sustained a significant but non-life threatening soft tissue injury to her lower left leg and was rushed to Stamford Hospital for surgery and "extensive stitching," police said. She remains in the hospital Thursday and officials said she is recovering well from her injuries. Her name has not been released.

"This is a devastating loss for the whole Greenwich community," said Greenwich school Supt. William S. McKersie, at a news conference on Thursday.

Twenty grief counselors were available Thursday at Eastern Middle School and Greenwich High School, McKersie said. Anyone in need of counseling can dial 211 or call the Center for Hope at 203-655-0547.

This is the second tragic death the rising juniors have experienced in two years. In August 2013, a sophomore committed suicide just hours after the start of the new school year.

The Greenwich Police Department Marine Section is investigating and the State Environmental Conservation Police will conduct the accident reconstruction. Police said the report will be extensive.

A photo near the investigation site of the boat accident pic.twitter.com/Oz32ygeg2B

— Greenwich PD PIO (@GreenwichCTPD) August 6, 2014

A 47-year-old mother arrested in the cold-case killing of her 5-year-old son, whose remains were found in a New Jersey industrial park nearly a year after he was reported missing from a carnival in 1991, was held without bond Thursday on a charge of "fleeing from justice," authorities say.

Michelle Lodzinski, formerly of Perth Amboy, is accused of killing Timothy Wiltsey, who was reported missing from a carnival in Sayreville on May 25, 1991, prosecutors say. The 5-year-old’s body was found in a marshy, remote part of a large industrial park in Edison nearly a year later, on April 23, 1992.

Lodzinski currently lives in Florida and was taken into custody by authorities there after a grand jury in New Jersey handed down a one-count murder indictment late last month. She was remanded in Florida and is awaiting an extradition hearing. 

Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey said that a cold-case review helped launch a new investigation into Wiltsey's death.

“Following a routine, cold-case review of the evidence and facts surrounding the disappearance and murder of Timothy Wiltsey, a new investigation was conducted and the matter was presented to the grand jury,” Carey said.

Alan Rockoff, the Middlesex County prosecutor when Timmy disappeared, said he wasn't surprised at Lodzinski's arrest.

"We didn't have sufficient evidence at the time to pull the trigger," Rockoff told The Associated Press. "There was no direct smoking gun here."

Rockoff, 81, said detectives never stopped working the case and did as much as they could to solve it.

"Hopefully now, there's a possibility of closure," Rockoff said. "Justice works slowly, but works surely."

Lodzinski ran into other legal troubles after her son's death.

She surfaced in Michigan in January 1994 and said two men claiming to be FBI agents had abducted her at gunpoint outside her apartment building, forced her into a black SUV and drove her to Detroit, where they let her out.

She pleaded guilty in 1995 to making false statements to the FBI and fraudulently using the agency's seal. She was sentenced to probation.

In 1997, Lodzinski was arrested and charged with stealing a computer from her former employer. She pleaded guilty to a theft charge and was pregnant in 1998 when a federal judge sentenced her to house arrest after she admitted she committed a crime while on probation.

A high school cheer program in Southern California is on hiatus after what school district officials called an "offensive" photo surfaced of 13 girls dressed in what looks like gang attire.

The photo shows members of the Redlands East Valley High School cheer squad wearing baggy clothes and flashing gang signs.

"Anything stereotypical in a negative light like that is not funny, especially at somebody else's expense," parent Tracy Gomez said. "Teenage pregnancy, gun violence."

School officials believe the photo was taken a few weeks ago at a student event. Redlands School District official Brad Mason said the district became aware of the photo Tuesday.

District Superintendent Lori Rhodes released a statement, which said in part that she found "the picture offensive" and that "this type of depiction will not be tolerated."

Ashley Scott, a recent graduate of Redlands East Valley High School, knows several of the cheerleaders in the photo.

"I was a little disappointed in the girls, just because that's not who we are," Scott said. "I don't believe that any of the girls meant to do this on purpose, to send any kind of message to anyone."

Ashley Scott and her mother Nicole Scott believe that any adults involved in the group’s choice of attire should be held responsible.

"I think that the teacher who approved it, the administration, whoever approved it should have thought a little better about that because it just, it puts us in a poor light," Nicole Scott said.

Superintendent Rhodes said in a statement that the circumstances surrounding the event and photo are being reviewed, and that "appropriate action will be taken once (the) review is complete."

The school district said it is working with Redlands East Valley High School and the community to address cultural awareness and sensitivity at the school.

"Team building exercises such as dress-up days are to build spirit and camaraderie in a positive manner. They should never demean, insult or portray negative stereotypes, as done in this photo," Rhodes said in the statement.

Editor's Note: NBC Chicago will stream the Windy City Rubber Ducky Derby live right here starting at 1 p.m. CT.

Get ready. More than 60,000 ducks are making a splash in the Chicago River for the 9th annual Windy City Rubber Ducky Derby Thursday at the Columbus Drive Bridge.

Participants buy rubber ducks to support training for Young Athletes and the Special Olympics and compete for prizes such as a 2014 Chevy Equinox and an all-inclusive Apple vacation. The duck race starts at 1 p.m.

Proceeds from the derby help nearly 21,500 Special Olympics athletes and more than 18,500 young athletes throughout Illinois. Participants can buy ducks for $5 each, a quack pack of six ducks for $25 or a flock of 24 ducks for $100.

Beginning at 10 a.m., families can enjoy entertainment from the Radio Disney Team and several sports mascots at The Wrigley Building, 400 N. Michigan Ave.

Can't make it to the event? Watch the livestream online here.

Venice has seen more than a dozen property crimes recently, and for one resident, it produced an odd, pre-dawn encounter with an intruder.

Mitch Kirsch got up before dawn Wednesday to use the bathroom in his Santa Clara Street home when he bumped into the intruder.

"He was right in front of me," Kirsch said. "I'm naked the whole time, so it was a little awkward."

Kirsch grabbed the man, forced him to drop a laptop he was clutching and then let him go.

"I don't really want to hold on to this guy for 10 minutes naked," Kirsch said.

After the burglar ran off, another break-in happened two houses down, and police suspect it was the same man. He was described as about 5 feet, 8 inches tall and 135 pounds.

In a one-week period at the end of July, police said they recorded more than 30 property crimes in Venice.

"I was so glad this guy wasn't armed," said Izumi Hamagaki, Kirsch's girlfriend.

Two burglaries happened on their street Wednesday morning, police said.

The couple's high walls and locked doors helped, but they left a window open just a touch for their cat to go in and out.

Police say open doors and windows are the commonality behind the rash of Venice home burglaries.

The woman sentenced Wednesday for passing through airport security without a boarding pass and stowing away on a flight from San Jose to Los Angeles earlier this week was arrested again Thursday at Los Angeles International Airport.

Marilyn Hartman, 62, was arrested after she was seen wandering through several terminals at LAX.

"I just knew she would come back," said Los Angeles World Airports Police Chief Pat Gannon after her arrest. "She is a serial attempter of being a stowaway."

Gannon said arrangements had been made for her to go to a homeless shelter, but he believed she would return to the airport despite being ordered to stay away without an airline ticket.

"I just knew she would come back," said Gannon, adding he had fliers distributed with the woman’s picture on them to agents and officers. "We were keeping an eye out for her."

Hartman was arrested near Terminal 7 and transported to Los Angeles Police Department's 77th Street Jail where she was being held Thursday night in lieu of $10,000 bail.

A judge on Wednesday ordered Hartman to "stay away from LAX" unless she had the necessary documents to board a flight.

She did not try to go through any TSA screenings, Gannon said.

The stay-away order was part of a sentence handed down Wednesday after Hartman pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor trespassing charge. She had been arrested two nights earlier at LAX after arriving on a Southwest Airlines flight from San Jose.

She was charged in connection with willfully and unlawfully entering LA as a stowaway on an aircraft, a misdemeanor, according to the LA City Attorney's Office. She was ordered to serve a 24-month probation term and three days in jail.

Speaking with reporters Wednesday, she said she was trying to reach Hawaii earlier this week but did not say how she bypassed security. She described herself as homeless and "desperate."

Gannon countered that, telling reporters "She actually has the means to take a flight or two."

Hartman has previously breached security at San Francisco International Airport and has a history of trying to get on flights without a ticket, officials said. She had at least seven encounters with police at SFO and was arrested four times, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office.

San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe told NBC Bay Area Hartman tried to sneak onto planes at SFO on Feb. 15, 18 and 20. The remaining four arrests, he said, were for violating her court order and trespassing at the airport. In those last cases, she was "simply found sitting outside the security in places, like the food court."

Gannon said he had hoped Hartman would buy a plane ticket and leave LA.

"I was hoping she'd be somebody else's problem," he said.

NBC Bay Area's Lisa Fernandez and NBC4''s Nyree Arabian and Mateo Melero contributed to this report.

While an East County family mourns the loss of a man killed in a La Mesa tree trimming accident, they say county officials are not allowing them to put the name of the deceased father on his baby’s birth certificate.

Debbi Anderson, the baby’s grandmother, spoke to NBC 7 about the child.

“He has the same ears as his dad had, same facial features, same attitude. I know who he dad was. He knows who his dad was. There are no family members that questions that,” Anderson said.

Joshua Pudsey was killed in November 2013, crushed by the weight of a tree he was trimming outside of one of his employers’ homes in La Mesa.

Three executives with the business, Three Frogs Inc., have been criminally charged. Cal/OSHA found Pudsey and his co-workers did not receive proper training on how to use the equipment to trim trees of that size.

Pudsey’s mother told NBC 7, when he was killed, his fiance was eight weeks pregnant. She said her son knew he was going to be a father and, she believes, he did not complain about the working conditions because he felt he had to provide for his future family.

Anderson said when the mother gave birth to her grandson, a county employee told them the father needed to be there to sign a declaration of paternity. Obviously, that was not possible.

NBC 7 reached out to county Health and Human Services officials who deferred questions to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). According to the CDPH, if "the father/parent is deceased and not married to the mother/parent"…"the unmarried mother/parent will be required to obtain an Adjudication of Facts of Parentage to add the deceased father/parent's name." That means the mother of Pudsey’s baby has to go to court and provide evidence he is indeed the father to get the name on the certificate.

Anderson said it’s hard enough the family has to deal with her son’s death and the criminal case against Three Frogs, Inc. Having to deal with proving her son’s parentage, she said, is almost too much to bear.

The CDPH said it could not provide an interview this week.

Anderson hopes state officials will change the mandate to allow for exceptions in particularly tragic cases.

Three Frogs, Inc. President David Scot Wolf, 48, Chief Operating Officer John Murphy, 36, and Chief Financial Officer Jonathan D. Cox, 34 have pleaded not guilty.

They are expected to be back in court August 26.
 

Cox Communications is offering a $10,000 reward to solve a series of equipment thefts.

Someone is stealing hardware used to provide cable to customers in Oceanside and Vista. The equipment ranges from line extenders to amplifiers and batteries.

As a result, customers have lost services including connections to Emergency 911.

The company has teamed up with San Diego County CrimeStoppers to offer a $10,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest of the person responsible.

Cox Communications has experienced thefts in Palos Verdes and Goleta.

Other cable companies have also reported that they have been victims of similar thefts.

CrimeStoppers released several images showing the type of equipment stole that may be resold as scrap metal at recycling centers.

Anyone with information on this case should call the Sheriff’s Santee Station at (619)956-4000 or the Crime Stoppers anonymous tip line at (888) 580-8477.
 

A potential burglar caught on surveillance cameras inside a San Diego area church didn’t need to steal to get what he wanted, the pastor said.

"My heart goes out to him,” Pastor Bill Jenkins. “You’ve got to be on a low limb to steal from a church."

The Christ United Methodist Church Ministry Center on Meade Avenue houses multiple churches.

The person of interest was first spotted Tuesday around 4 p.m. in the center’s cafeteria. He was seen running after reportedly stealing something from the fridge.

Church employees believe the man followed someone into the building. After eluding janitors, the man hid upstairs for about five hours, employees said.

Then, the man was recorded on camera using a flashlight to navigate through the darkness.

“You can see him casing and checking the doors,” Pastor Jenkins said watching the video.
He walked to the closet where two speakers, belonging to New Jerusalem Church and valued at $800, were stolen.

That is money that’s hard to come by for Pastor Connie Cervante's Normal Heights house of worship.

“It’s a small congregation and this is the church's money the congregation gave,” Cervante said. “That’s what bothers and hurts me."

While police investigated what was missing from the church, employees plastered pictures of the possible suspect on their walls as a warning.

“Hopefully it will be a deterrent to him,” said Jeanneta Kramer. “If he sees it, he knows we're aware
of him and everyone knows what he looks like."

Pastor Jenkins said all of this could have been avoided.

“He doesn’t need to break in,” the pastor explained. “If he needs something let us know.”

But one act of good did come out of the unfortunate situation. After hearing about the church's loss, an anonymous man dropped off six donated speakers to New Jerusalem Thursday morning. 

A state bill introduced by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) proposes giving low-income families a monthly stipend to buy diapers.

If passed, Assembly Bill 1516 would give families on welfare $80 per month for each child under 2 years old.

According to the measure, federal law prohibits families from buying diapers under CalFresh or the California Special Supplemental Food Program, listing the hygiene products under the same category as cigarettes, alcohol and pet food.

However, most free or subsidized child care facilities require parents to bring disposable diapers with their children, and without them, parents must keep kids at home.

The bill suggests this situation continues the cycle of poverty, for without child care, parents will not be able to go to work and make a livable wage to raise their family’s income.

It also warns that lack of diapers can have severe health and social consequences for babies.

Families in need already receive aid through the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program using a mixture of federal grants and state and county funds.

AB 1516 proposes that because the program would be state-mandated, any of its costs covered by local agencies would be reimbursed by the state.

There has been a break in the search for the suspect in a violent stabbing in a park area near University Town Center, a man believed to be "extremely dangerous."

Odie James Miller was taken into custody just before 11 a.m. at Broadway and Park Boulevard, just two blocks from the San Diego Police Headquarters downtown. 

Miller is believed to be connected to a random stabbing that took place in a park near the UTC mall.

A 44-year-old man was stabbed multiple times in a park near Renaissance Avenue and Montrose Avenue at noon Wednesday. The man suffered stab wounds to his head, neck, torso, arms and hands.

Investigators were told Miller was dropped off at the home on Rolando Boulevard north of University Avenue around 10:15 p.m. Wednesday.

Helicopters were hovering overhead as officers in heavy gear waited outside the home. The SWAT team was called to the Rolando location around 3 a.m. Thursday.

An NBC 7 news crew was quickly on the scene. A flash bang was heard followed by officers demanding the occupants come out with their hands in the air.

When officers got inside the home, they found it vacant.

San Diego Police Capt. David Nisleit warned residents not to approach Miller who is considered to be armed and extremely dangerous.

"It seems to be a random attack," Nisleit said. "Unknown of the relationship. There does not appear to be a relationship between the suspect and the victim at this time." 

Nisleit did not have an update on the stabbing victim's condition.

Miller was later booked into San Diego Central Jail on charges of attempted murder, carrying a concealed dagger and probation violation. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday, Aug. 11.

A pint-sized intruder managed to squeeze through the fence outside the White House Thursday evening, causing a lock down.

According to NBC News correspondent Chris Jansing, a toddler briefly got away from his parents just after 8 p.m. and entered the grounds of the arguably most famous --and protected -- residence in the world.

A brief lock down was instituted by the Secret Service, and the scene was quickly cleared.

Neither the parents nor the tiny intruder was detained for questioning, according to NBC News.

"We were going to wait until he learned to talk to question him, but in lieu of that he got a timeout and was sent on way with parents," according to the White House pool report.