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SD Rapper Headed to Trial Calls It "Crazy"

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San Diego rapper and gang member Brandon Duncan a.k.a. "Tiny Doo," told media it is "crazy" that he's headed to trial in April.

Duncan, who posted bail last week after having it reduced to $50,000, said his experience has been "real bad," and he just wants to make music.

"It sucks 'cause this is freedom of speech," Duncan said. "Whatever happened to that? What happened to my constitutional rights?"

Duncan also said Friday that while he was in custody, his grandfather passed away and he was not only unable to console his grandmother, but when he got to go back home, his grandfather wasn't there like he always had been before.

He, along with nine other defendants, are accused of criminal conspiracy related to two dozen local shootings.

During a status hearing Friday, the San Diego District Attorney's office submitted an amendment to the court, which the defense claimed alters the wording of the charges, but the district attorney's office said it does not change them.

Further discussions surrounding the nature of the amendment and its effect on the case will have to be submitted as separate written motions, according to the defense attorney.

A group of 33 active gang members are a part of a high-profile case related to 24 shootings in recent years, including three murders in Southeast San Diego. Because of the number of defendants, the case was split up and assigned to two different judges.

Five of the defendants had the charges dropped at an earlier hearing, but trial was scheduled for the remaining defendants following a status conference Friday.

The confusion about the case still centers around why the charges were dismissed for some defendants but not others, and whether the judge can still dismiss charges for the remaining defendants.

"The judge clearly stated that he wanted to go back and reverse his rule, but he didn't have jurisdiction to do so," said defense attorney Brian Watkins. "We have a situation where - just like when we have a guilty defendant that gets out on a procedural technicality - we have the opposite happening here, where we have innocent defendants being held on procedural technicalities."

Watkins said they plan to address those technicalities "at a later date and time."

The ten defendants in court Friday are charged with conspiracy to commit premeditated attempted murder, but the defense said the wording changes - specifically the removal of the word "willfully" - make it unfairly easier for the prosecution to prove guilt.

Duncan, who believes his First Amendment rights are being violated, remains adamant he never committed a crime, saying "this is crazy."

"It's music," Duncan said Friday. "It's entertainment. That's it. It's telling a story. That's it."

The district attorney's office has argued from the beginning that the case is not about the First Amendment; it's about gang violence and public safety. Prosecutors claim while Duncan had no hand in the shootings themselves, they benefited from gang activity through things like album sales.

“The focus is holding violent individuals accountable for crimes that terrorized a neighborhood,” district attorney spokesperson Steve Walker said in an earlier release. “Criminal charges against these defendants were filed appropriately under this specific law, which was put in place by voters to stop deadly gang violence and hold active gang members accountable. It’s our hope that this week's rulings will lead to clarification on how we can use this statute to fight the scourge of criminal street gangs.”

Another status conference was scheduled for Feb. 27, and trial begins April 20.


La Jolla Kayaking Group Has Close Whale Encounter

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A kayaking tour group got quite the treat when they encountered a gray whale and baby just off La Jolla.

The tour, led by an Everyday California guide, came across the whales last Saturday and captured impressive video footage, posting it to YouTube.

Whale watching season is in full swing in San Diego, as there have been a number of sightings over the past few weeks.

The season started in late December, though the first gray whale was spotted off Mission Bay on Dec. 2.

Duke Jarboe, the guide who filmed the whales, said he's seen about 50 blue and gray whales from his kayaks, but nothing like the Saturday encounter.

"Our encounter was pretty unique in that the baby came right up to us and hung out with us," he said. "I've ... only seen them do this one other time and that was Blue Whales."

He said they encountered the whales after paddling two miles off the coast. So far this whale-watching season, Everyday California has seen whales on 85 percent of its trips, Jarboe said.

In the Everyday California video, you can see the two whales come right up to the guide’s paddle boat. You can watch it here:

 



Photo Credit: You Tube/Everyday California

Couple Accuses SD Dentist of Fraudulent Billing

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A San Diego couple is headed back to court over the billing practices of a local dentist office, which NBC 7 Investigates discovered has 19 complaints and an "F"-rating with the Better Business Bureau.

Nancy and Peter Chen said they had their first interaction with All Smile Dental in Torrey Hills when Dr. Christine Chen made a full upper denture for Peter in 2010.

“We have dental insurance with United Concordia, and he can only have a denture made every five years, and we know — we knew it wasn’t time yet, so we told them that we would be paying in full,” said Nancy in an interview Friday.

The bill totaled $1,030, which they paid in full, out of pocket. But Nancy told NBC 7 the denture was not made well, so they tried to go to a specialist for a better one.

When the couple called their insurer, they said they learned All Smile Dental had fraudulently filed a claim with the Chen’s insurance company, and United Concordia had also paid the dentist $404.

The Chens did not ask for their money back, but they instead requested that the money be returned to their insurer. After some back and forth, the Chens got an appointment Kenny Su, the business' manager and Dr. Chen's husband.

"He looked at the statement — their own account statement — and he say, 'I don't understand this because it's made by someone else in the office.' He's the business manager," said Nancy.

In Aug. 2011, the couple filed a small claims case against All Smile Dental, saying "enough is enough."

Three months later, a judge awarded the Chens the full amount of $929.10 after no one from the defendant’s side showed up in court, according to Nancy.

The office sent them a check for $552.13. The Chens said they cashed it and decided to forgive the difference, assuming the rest would go to their insurance company. But in May 2012, the couple received a bill for $408.39 from All Smile Dental.

Nancy and Peter said they wrote the office a letter, telling them it was a mistake and to stop harassing them, but the bills kept coming — with added interest.

Then last month, they received a late-night knock on the door. They had been served. All Smile Dental is suing them for $2,480, with a claim saying the Chens have “breached written agreements to pay for dental services rendered.”

“I feel this is [Su's] way of doing things and unless someone gets to him, he’ll continue,” said Nancy.

NBC 7 Investigates checked on All Smile Dental’s standing with the Better Business Bureau (BBB). We found 19 complaints against the company, many of them mentioning similar types of billing issues.

“And we’ve even had complaints of retribution where the dentist is charging more money after a consumer has filed a complaint,” said Sheryl Reichert with San Diego’s BBB.

She said of the 1,150 dentists in their system, only 150 have complaints. There are only two dentists in the system with more than five complaints.

Nancy told NBC 7 Investigates she plans to keep fighting the case in court, though it’s adding extra stress to her life.

“My husband’s health is deteriorating. He’s now with hospice care, and I’m his sole caretaker,” she said, “so this is certainly not anything that we need.”

NBC 7 Investigates stopped by All Smile Dental on Friday for comment and emailed questions to their business manager, who has not yet responded. Peter and Nancy will be back in court in February to respond to the office’s claim.



Photo Credit: NBC 7

New Crosswalk Opens in Escondido

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Residents and officials celebrated the opening of newly painted crosswalks in Escondido Monday, a move meant to keep students safe when heading to school.

The crosswalks at the intersection of Mission Avenue and Ash Street will help students heading to and from Pioneer Elementary and Mission Middle schools.

City and county officials, including Escondido Mayor Sam Abed and Vice Chairman of the County Board of Supervisors Dave Roberts, cut the ribbon on the project shortly before 3 p.m.

The ceremonial crossing was held by County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency’s Communities of Excellence (CX3) project in partnership with Escondido Education COMPACT and Escondido Union School District’s Safe Routes to School project.

Man Accused of Being Russian Spy

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The FBI arrested a man they say is a Russian spy Monday in a Bronx parking lot, law enforcement officials tell NBC New York.

Evgeny Buryakov is charged in a criminal complaint with being an unregistered agent of the Russian government.

The court papers describe Buryakov as being an agent of the SVR, the foreign intelligence agency for the Russian Federation. Buryakov entered and remained in the U.S. as a private citizen under “non-official cover” and posed as an employee in the Manhattan office of a Russian bank.

Buryakov’s mission on behalf of the SVR was to gather intelligence on potential U.S. sanctions against the Russian Federation and U.S. efforts to develop alternate sources of energy, the court papers say.

Also charged in the criminal complaint are Igor Sporyshev, who had served as a Trade Representative in New York for the Russian Federation, and Victor Podobnyy, a former attaché to the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations. Both Sporyshev and Podobnyy are believed to be in Russia.

Between 2012 and 2014, Buryakov and Sporyshev used coded language to signal they needed to meet and then met more than four dozen times at outdoor locations during which Buryakov passed bags, magazines and slips of paper to conceal the exchange of intelligence information.

Buryakov is expected to appear in federal court in Manhattan Monday afternoon. Attorney information for the man wasn't immediately available.

Will Blizzard Be Boon or Bust for Delivery Services?

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As cities along the East Coast started shutting down ahead of what authorities said could be a historic blizzard, food delivery companies were ramping up in the hopes of feeding hungry customers. But questions remained about how travel bans enacted amid treacherous conditions would affect business.

Popular services in New York City and beyond, including GrubHub and Delivery.com, were expecting spikes in orders from restaurants once the brunt of the storm hit and people hunkered down. The winter storm, projected to pummel the tri-state area with more than two feet of snow and high winds, prompted widespread travel warnings and planned school and business closures. 

“On particularly cold and snowy days, we see an increase in orders of comfort / cold-weather food from our restaurant partners,”  Kate McKee, vice president of marketing for delivery.com, wrote in an email.

But travel bans kept those deliveries from arriving as the storm intensified late Monday. In New York City for example, where restrictions were set to take effect at 11 p.m., Mayor Bill de Blasio declared that delivery bicycles were not emergency vehicles. Several services suspended deliveries overnight in accordance with the travel advisories. 

“Obviously the safety of the delivery drivers is of most importance to us,” said Allie Mack, a spokeswoman for GrubHub, which allows customers to order directly from about 30,000 takeout restaurants in more than 800 U.S. cities and London. “We’re constantly in contact with restaurants not only to determine if they’re going to be open but also to make sure that their drivers are safe.”

GrubHub was analyzing its data from Sunday to determine if people had heeded warnings about an impending blizzard, she said. The analysis could indicate whether order sizes were larger than normal because people wanted to have take-out meals on hand for the rest of the week or if tips were higher.

Like delivery.com, GrubHub was looking forward to orders rising following the snowfall. Neither company would provide figures on hikes or orders. But whether restaurants stay open to fill those orders is their decision, Mack said.

“As the blizzard sets in we just want to take the opportunity to remind diners to be appreciative of their delivery drivers and be patient,” she said.

Seamless, which is part of the same company as GrubHub, echoed those sentiments on social media, telling Twitter followers throughout the evening that the app-driven delivery service "remains open and is in constant communication with our open restaurants to ensure local safety guidelines are met." The app's account told one follower that they "hope customers are generous in understanding & tipping." 

"Shout out to the people on the front line!" Seamless replied to another user urging big tips amid bad weather. 

But by at about 10:30 p,m., that service, too, had shut down for the night.The app said in a statement online that it had "suspended Seamless ordering and restaurant service in the five boroughs of New York (as well as areas of New Jersey and Connecticut)" to allow for emergency vehicles to clear the roads.Yet hope remained that meals could start arriving again Tuesday, as many families and workers remained home due to the conditions.. 

"We are in constant communication with our restaurants, updating status on openings and closures, and we promise we’ll be back online as soon as we get clearance from the powers that be. In the meantime, cuddle up with your leftovers, help out your neighbors, and stay inside," the statement read.

Grocery delivery services were canceling or cutting back. Fresh Direct, which serves parts of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Delware, would not make deliveries on Tuesday, it announced on its website.

Peapod, which has 24 markets in the United States, limited its East Coast deliveries to metro Boston and Providence and the Washington D.C. area Monday night, said a spokeswoman, Peg Merzbacher. Tuesday’s deliveries will be available only in Washington D.C., she said.

Natureworks Restaurant on Manhattan’s East 31st Street, which got more GrubHub and Seamless orders than any other New York City restaurant during last January’s polar vortex, planned to double its delivery staff for each shift, from 10 to 20. Manager Carlos Arcos was predicting a busy Tuesday.

But as evening approached, the restaurant instead decided to close at 7 p.m and it could remain closed on Tuesday.

"Right now my delivery guy was walking," he said.

Postmates, a courier service that can make deliveries from any restaurant or store, was putting together a plan in response to New York City’s travel ban, April Conyers, the company’s director of communications, said Monday afternoon.

But that has not stopped the company, which works with 6,000 couriers across 18 markets, from boosting its network of available independent contractors to meet increased demand, Conyers said. Postmates readied for the typical influx in orders by sending a message through Facebook encouraging New York-based couriers to sign up for shifts. In addition to a spike in restaurant delivery, she said orders for trips to the grocery store for storm essentials such as water and batteries tend to go up when conditions get bad.

"We know that demand is going to be really high, so we try to get as many postmates on the platform as possible to gear up for the storm,” she said.

Courier community managers send out tips for braving the conditions safely. Suggestions include bundling up with hand and foot warmers, wool socks, boots and trash bags, "because they’re really good ponchos on your bike,” Conyers said.

Recruiting couriers willing to take a job in the snow is not much of a challenge, she said. Postmates’ prices typically go up during bad weather to help temper the high demand, so couriers can expect to make more during bad weather, she said. Tips also increase.

“A lot of our couriers love it,” she said. “It’s kind of fun to be outside in the storm. You’re well compensated certainly in this type of weather.”
 



Photo Credit: Toby Baldinger
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Charges in Baby's Ferret Mauling

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The parents of a one-month-old Delaware County, Pennsylvania, girl have been charged with endangerment after the family's ferrets severely mauled the baby's face.

The baby's nose, upper lip and cheek were eaten away in the attack that took place in a Darby home last Thursday, police said.

Burnie Fraim, 42, and 24-year-old Jessica Benales were each charged with five counts of endangering the welfare of a child, court documents show. The couple has five children including the one-month-old girl.

According to police and the child's father, the girl was strapped into her car seat in the living room of the home along the 300 block of Poplar Road when as many as three ferrets mauled her. The animals had broken out of a mesh cage. The parents were upstairs at the time.

The girl underwent emergency surgery at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and had stents placed into her nose allowing her to breathe, police said. Fraim told NBC10 last week his daughter will need to undergo several more surgeries to repair the damage.

All three ferrets were euthanized.

Darby Police Chief Robert Smythe called the mauling the "most horrific thing" he's seen happen to a child in his 45 years in law enforcement.

The home was infested with insects and lacked food, according to the chief. Three social services agencies were monitoring the family when the mauling took place.

Smythe said the couple had developmental disabilities and he questioned their ability to care for the children.

Fraim and Bernales were arraigned in Delaware County Court on Monday.



Photo Credit: NBC10/Facebook

Officials Searching for "Peach Fuzz Bandit"

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Officials are looking for the public’s help in identifying a bank robber they call the “Peach Fuzz Bandit.”

The FBI and Chula Vista Police Department said the unknown male robbed a Citibank in Chula Vista by giving a bank employee a demand note for cash. He has been dubbed the “Peach Fuzz Bandit” because of his facial hair characteristics.

On Saturday, Jan. 24 at approximately 11:55 a.m., police said the bandit walked into the Citibank branch on the 2200 block of Otay Lakes Road in Chula Vista and handed a demand note to one of the employees. The note indicated that he was armed with a weapon and demanded a specific sum of money.

Once he got the money he requested, he ran out of the bank and headed west. No injuries were reported.

The “Peach Fuzz Bandit” is described as a male in his early 30s that weighs approximately 165 pounds. He is 5 feet 8 inches to 5 feet 9 inches tall with a mustache and some facial hair. At the time of the robbery, he was wearing a black zip-up long sleeved “Foot Locker” hooded sweatshirt with red detailing, blue jeans and tennis shoes.


Firefighters Cut Through Steel Door to Stop Flames

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Firefighters had to cut through a steel door in North Park to keep a legal marijuana grow from going up in flames Sunday, fire officials said.

The fire happened around 1:00 p.m. on the 2600 block of El Cajon Boulevard, San Diego Fire-Rescue Department Capt. Joe Amador said.

The two story commercial building had a rolling steel door that firefighters had to cut through to reach the flames inside. Police are looking into paperwork for the legal marijuana grow.

No injuries were reported.



Photo Credit: NBC 7

University City Restaurant Robbed After Hours

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A masked gunman entered a University City restaurant and held up an employee Monday and now San Diego Police are looking into whether this is part of an ongoing series of armed robberies connected with the so-called “Random Bandits.”

Investigators were on the scene of Cozymel’s Coastal Mex at La Jolla Village Drive and Genesee Avenue where an employee said the suspect entered after the restaurant had closed using a side door.

The employee told police he was alone and locking up the restaurant just after midnight when the man wearing a black hoodie, white bandana and jeans demanded money.

The suspect was armed with a handgun, police said.

The man then took an undisclosed amount of cash and left.

The restaurant is located in the parking lot adjacent to the Westfield UTC shopping mall.

Detectives will determine if this is a part of a string of robberies that we have seen in the last couple weeks around the county.

The so-called “Random Bandits” are believed to be responsible for at least 10 robberies beginning December 15, most of them in the La Jolla and Clairemont areas.

Just last week, the Pacific Shores Inn at Mission Boulevard and Chalcedony Street was robbed by three men in dark clothing and wearing masks. The clerk was pistolwhipped in this incident.

Investigators have not determined if either the UTC or the Pacific Beach crimes are the work of the “Random Bandits.”

SDPD investigators have released several surveillance images of the suspects.

Tthere appears to be no pattern in targets or time of day. Some of the robberies involved two suspects. In a few robberies, there was a third suspect.

Anyone with information can contact investigators at the SDPD non-emergency lines (619) 531-2000 or (858) 484-3154.



Photo Credit: NBC 7
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"Jen the Archer" Defends Hunting, Teaching Practices

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A North County woman who teaches children how to hunt wild game is the target of online threats and a petition to get her stop.

The petition launched Sunday calls for the state to put an end to hunting in California and stop the woman known as “Jen the Archer” from teaching kids to hunt animals.

The Change.org petition posted Sunday group, claims the outdoor enthusiast "brainwashes children into believing that murdering animals is a positive activity."

Jen Cordaro admits the petition and the online threats that have accompanied it are a little intimidating.

“It’s a little scary to have people tell me that they’re going to come and find me and murder me with the same weapon I murdered an animal with,” Cordaro said. “I don’t consider it murder,” she added.

The former vegetarian started hunting with bow and arrow more than a year ago as a resource for locally-grown hormone-free meat.

“Acquiring my own meat and fish seemed to make sense,” Cordaro explained adding that she gardens, cans and other urban homesteading practices.

However, the petition posted to Change.org on Sunday, Jan. 25, used her hunting trips as a reason for the state of California to end hunting. More specifically, for a ban on youth hunting. 

Cordaro said she follows the law including limits when it comes to the number of animals she can kill in a hunt.

“I’m doing everything within the law,” Cordaro said.

What worries her is the fury aimed at her #bringAkidCampaign, bringing children out and teaching them hunting skills.

Mackenzie Caldwell, 12, was one of those kids, her mother Shannon told NBC 7. The Oregon girl traveled to California take part in a hunting trip with Cordaro.

“She wants to be able to know that where her food is coming from and that it’s not processed, it’s all natural,” Shannon Caldwell said.

The petition includes language and statistics used by the San Rafael-based organization In Defense of Animals (IDAUSA). However, an organization spokesperson told NBC 7 they had no involvement in the petition. 

Jogger Saves Woman From Icy Lake

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Yariv Becher said he almost didn’t put on his running shoes Sunday morning, but his decision to run in the snow near Belmont Harbor for the first time in a few weeks helped save the life of a woman who fell through the ice into Lake Michigan.

“Because of the snow, I haven’t run there for a few weeks,” Becher said.

The father of three, originally from Israel, was jogging near the harbor around 10:30 a.m. when he said he heard noises.

“I was running with my earphones listening to music and I heard noises,” he said. “There wasn’t anyone there, so I looked around, and then I noticed [a woman] hanging onto the ropes.”

A woman in her 30s, who may have been out for a run as well, had slipped and fallen into the arctic water surrounded by ice, police said. She had managed to use a belt to strap herself to the dock to keep from going under.

“She pretty much just held on for life, and she sort of lodged her arm through the belt, the strap, and was able to yell out for help,” said Sgt. Ruben Ramirez with the Chicago Police Department.

Becher said he tried to lift her out, but her legs were stuck in the ice. He called 911 and kept her head above water until police and fire rescuers arrived.

“The only thing she said: ‘Don’t let me fall. Please help me,’” Becher said. “I asked for her name, she didn't tell me her name. I think she was too cold to talk.”

The woman spent about 20 minutes in the 35-degree water, according to authorities. Police credit the quick thinking of the woman and Becher with saving her life.

“We’re not the heroes,” said Ramirez. “Yesterday, the jogger, he’s a hero.”

The woman was treated for hypothermia and was released from the hospital Monday. Police warned residents to stay off the ice and call 911 if you spot someone who has fallen in.

Auschwitz Survivor Recalls Ordeal

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Helen Farkas is one of a dwindling group of Holocaust survivors still alive to relay the horrors she experienced.

At age 94, the Romanian-born woman is still an active speaker, telling children and civic groups how she scrambled for scraps of bread and escaped the infamous Auschwitz death camp march with her sister in 1945, during a guard shift in the middle of the night.

"We just slipped away," she told a group of students this spring. "Very slowly."

Farkas, who lives in Burlingame, a small city just south of San Francisco, is one of about 40 regular speakers at the Jewish Family and Children's Services Holocaust Center in San Francisco still around to tell her story. By the center's estimates, Farkas is one of 4,000 Holocaust survivors still living in the San Francisco Bay Area.

On the eve of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of 7,000 Auschwitz prisoners in Poland, Farkas's eyewitness accounts are even more poignant.

"I want people to remember the Holocaust," Farkas told NBC Bay Area on Monday. "I teach tolerance. I want future generations to know what has happened and what can happen."

Morgan Blum Schneider, director of education at the JFCS Holocaust Center, also wants to keep Farkas's and other Holocaust survivors' stories alive, even after the survivors have gone. Most survivors, like Farkas, are already in their 90s. Many have died in recent years.

"We are looking at an era, the post-survivor era," Blum Schneider said, "that with each day, a person loses their life, or their memory."

To keep the stories present in people's minds, however, the agency has created new speakers groups to engage the children, and grandchildren, of Holocaust survivors. A few grandchildren of survivors have offered to to tell their grandparents' stories of death and survival throughout the Bay Area. Each year, the JFCS Holocaust Center reaches 20,000 students through their educational programs. 

In addition, the agency also has created the Tauber Holocaust Library and Education Program Oral History project, where 2,000 audio and video testimonies have been collected for all to see.

Blum Schneider said the goal is not only to study how Jews were tormented and killed during the Holocaust, but to learn how they lived, as well.

Farkas's oral history is indeed a window into how people lived in Auschwitz, the largest concentration camp during World War II. At one point, Farkas remembered trying to survive on crumbs.

"I've got to save these two bites of bread for tomorrow morning, because if I am able to put two bites of bread into my stomach, then I can start the day," Farkas recalled.

But what she also remembered was the humanity of those in the camp with her. "Everybody wants to survive," she said. "But I cannot remember one incidence that somebody would have harmed the other, or would have stolen the bread from those who saved it."

What Farkas wants most now is for children to remain interested in the genocide and in preventing another one, anywhere, in the future.

"I want them to see how lucky they were, being born in a free country," she said. "We have to be alert so that it will never happen again."



Photo Credit: Morgan Blum Schneider, Director of Education, JFCS Holocaust Center
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Man Towed Kids' Sled From Truck: PD

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A Connecticut driver faces charges after police say he towed a sled full of kids behind his pickup truck at high speeds in Monday evening's snowstorm.

Police said Michael Chauvin, 40, of Plainfield, was driving recklessly in the area of Community Avenue with several young children and another adult in the bed of his truck, towing others on a sled behind him.

Chauvin was arrested and charged with four counts of risk of injury to a minor, four counts of second-degree reckless endangerment and reckless driving.

He was released on a $10,000 bond and is due in court Feb. 9.



Photo Credit: Plainfield Police Department

Protest Shuts Down One Lane at Border Crossing

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A protest on the Mexico side of the border closed a commercial truck lane at the border crossing for several hours Monday.

Officials shut down one lane of  the southbound State Route 905 around 10:30 a.m.

The California Highway Patrol shut down one lane of  the southbound State Route 905 around 10:30 a.m. at the Otay Mesa Border Crossing Monday.

The CHP reopened the lane around 1 p.m. Monday.

The NBC 7 Chopper was overhead and showed people walking down the street, holding banners as they marched.




Photo Credit: NBC 7 Chopper

'Olympics' of Hip Hop Coming to San Diego in August

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The Hip Hop World Championships are coming to San Diego in August and several participants and organizers came to the city to preview the event Monday.

The "Olympics of Hip Hop," as dubbed by some organizers, will be held at San Diego State University's Viejas Arena on August 1 to 9th.

The event will draw more than 50 nations and 3500 participants.

Howard Schwartz, co-founder of Hip Hop International, said when the championships started, they had 12 nations involved.

"In every area of the world, right now as we speak, there is an event going on," Schwartz said. "It could be in Colombia, it could be in Paris, it could be in Brazil or it could be in Nigeria. All over the world there are crews performing and training to win their national championship to get here – San Diego – for the World Championship this summer."

Schwartz said many of the dancers involved come from Southern California.



Photo Credit: NBC 7

Another Threat at San Ysidro High School

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Police are investigating another threat at San Ysidro High School, just weeks after a string of similar threat, a school representative said.

At about 1:10 p.m., the school got a message through Skype saying "the bomb will go off in the building in 1 hour," according to Principal Hector Espinoza. The message was not in the caller's voice he said.

San Diego Police were called to campus, and after conducting a sweep, they decided school should continue as usual with no lockdown. Espinoza says they made an announcement over the P.A. system, letting students and staff know about the situation. Parents were also contacted through the ConnectEd program.

A steady stream of parents have arrived throughout the afternoon to pick up their children. Police will remain on campus for the rest of the day.

This is the school's third threat this month. The last one happened about a week and a half ago — also through Skype — though police have not confirmed if they are connected.

City OKs $160M Deal to Lease, Buy Civic Center Plaza

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San Diego taxpayers could always use a good deal when it comes to government office space.

But will a deal put together by the mayor's staff and authorized Monday by the San Diego City Council prove to be a long-term bargain?

As NBC 7 first reported in November, officials had been looking to buy the 18-story Civic Center Plaza tower that’s 90 percent occupied by city workers under an expiring lease, and another downtown building nearby.

But it turned out that lease-revenue bonds were not considered “an appropriate source of funding” for the properties – for which Cisterra Development eventually agreed to pay the current owners $44 million and offer them to the city under a “lease-to-own” deal.

That arrangement will cost taxpayers nearly $160 million over 20 years.

City property managers say the agreement to acquire Civic Center Plaza, along with the building on the same block housing a King-Chavez High School campus, would yield savings of $24 million in rent that otherwise would be paid for space in the office tower.

"The concept is that at some time in the future, they're going to re-format all the floor plans there so you can get more people into the building,” explained Charles Modica Jr., a fiscal and policy analyst in the office of the city council’s Independent Budget Analyst (IBA).

“Right now there are some large offices -- some of them will be reduced, and conceivably you could put more people in,” Modica added in an interview Monday. “But there are costs associated with that."

Those costs include a projected $15 million to re-configure the building for an additional 245 employees -- which doesn't cover furniture or workspaces – plus $6 million for capital improvements and asbestos removal.

The city, meantime, would get rent from the underground Civic Center Plaza Parkade and the King-Chavez leasehold.

The New York-based property owners, comprising a family trust, insisted that Cisterra – essentially the city’s holding company for the lease-purchase -- close escrow March 15.

Thus the city council had a deadline of midnight Monday to approve the transactions.

In a report to the council last month, Modica and his boss, IBA Andrea Tevlin, expressed concerns about the hurry-up manner in which the deal was brought forward, saying there hadn’t been enough time to request more information or suggest potential amendments.

“The stated consequences of the council’s not approving this agreement on January 26th – including significantly increased costs and the potential need to relocate hundreds of city staff – may well represent real risks to the city,” they wrote, “but adequate time for public review and council deliberation is essential.”

Taxpayer advocates pointed out that letting the deal fall through – perhaps leaving the properties to other bidders -- and pursuing a new round of bargaining could involve less attractive terms going forward.

"Once again, that’s the mystery of real estate. If you know something, it's much easier to pencil it out, to put a black-and-white number to it,” Mark Leslie, president of the San Diego County Taxpayers Assn., told NBC 7. “We have to make some assumptions here. The assumptions that are being used in that report appear to support that it's a good deal for the city."

Council members made it clear they didn't appreciate the "last-day" deadline to consider what amounts to a pricey layaway agreement, but approved it on an 8-0 vote.

Property officials said there'd be cost savings and greater efficiencies from having more workers in one facility and that the city would control the whole block for future development options.

1 Shot in Armed Robbery at Vista Restaurant

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One person was shot when an armed robber held up a Vista restaurant Monday evening.

The male suspect walked into the Bistro 760 restaurant at 959 E. Vista Way at about 8:20 p.m., San Diego County Sheriff's officials say.

Pulling out a gun, the man shot a female customer and escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash.

The victim was taken to Scripps La Jolla Hospital for non-life threatening injuries. 

Deputies are still searching for the person responsible, though it's unclear if he ran or drove from the scene.

Check back here for details on this story.



Photo Credit: Candice Nguyen

Blizzard Thundersnow: What to Know

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Janice Huff explains what to expect from thundersnow in the middle of the blizzard.
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