A pilot who landed a hot air balloon carrying a wedding party in the middle of a residential San Diego street Thursday says the emergency maneuver was the safest option for getting him and his eight passengers on the ground. 

Magical Adventures Pilot Phil Brandt said he knew about 20 minutes into the flight that he would not make the trip's Rancho Penisquitos destination because of changing wind conditions. After earlier attempts in open field and a number of rooftop near misses, Brandt chose Sorrento Valley's Lusk Boulevard to set down the balloon

“I chose the safest option I had with the conditions I had,” Brandt said.

Despite the risks caused by buildings and power lines near by, Brandt says there was no traffic below. He steered the basket into tree tops to slow it down and limit skidding on the street.

It's just that kind of unpredictability that frightens and frustrates nearby Sorrento Valley resident Sandra Williams. Williams says in the last 10 years she has had one hot air balloon collision with her home and several near misses.

“They can't control them they float out of an area that makes any sense,” Williams said.

Brandt says in 25 years and 7,000 flights, he's made emergency landings on roadways several hundred times. He considers this a a safe alternative with no injuries nor property damage.

“It was a controlled landing but at an unusual location,” Brandt said.

The pilot says he is required to contact the Federal Aviation Administration Friday to report details of the landing. He could be sanctioned or cited, but said he doesn't expect to be based on the circumstances.

Rooted on by a lawsuit first brought on by an Oakland Raiderette, a California lawmaker, a former Stanford University cheerleader herself, has proposed a bill that would force professional sports teams to treat cheerleaders just like any other employee.

“NFL teams and their billionaire owners have used professional cheerleaders as part of the game day experience for decades," California Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) said on Thursday announcing the introduction of AB 202. "They have capitalized on their talents without providing even the most basic workplace protections like a minimum wage."

Her bill would entitle cheer atheletes to be eligible for California's minimum wage, as well as overtime, and the right to paid sick time and workman's compensation, just like any other employee in the state. As it stands, most cheerleaders are treated as independent contractors, and sometimes, even volunteers, Gonzalez said.

The NFL has repeatedly declined comment on this issue, and spokesman Greg Aiello did not immediately return a phone call or email on Friday seeking comment.

Gonzalez, who said cheered at Stanford when she was an American Studies major in the 1990s and also served as a labor leader before being elected in 2013, gave direct credit to Lacy T., an Oakland Raiderette who was the first cheerleader in the country to sue a professional sports teams regarding alleged unfair labor practices in December 2014.

In November 2014, the Oakland Raiders settled a class action suit with the Raiderettes, paying Lacy T. and about 90 other cheerleaders a total of $1.25 million. Lacy T.'s suit, which inspired others around the nation, alleged that the football team violated state labor laws by failing to pay minimum wage. With all the time Lacy T. worked off the field - at practices and mandated community event attendances - she figured she earned less than $5 an hour, far below California's minimum wage.

Three Raiderettes, however, have since rejected that class action suit, and are continuing to pursue their work conditions case against the NFL. The NFL has argued in court that the football league is exempt from state labor laws.

Mike Taylor, a spokesman for the Oakland Raiders, also didn't immediately return a request for comment on Friday regarding Gonzalez's bill.

Gonzalez said that Lacy T.'s case outlined a "stunning system of abuses against cheerleaders for the Oakland Raiders stemming from the team’s misclassification of these cheerleaders."

That's because until the class action agreement almost three months ago, the Raiderettes, like many other cheerleaders around the country, were paid to cheer at games, but not paid when they were told to attend mandatory practices and community events. In an interview Friday, Gonzalez did note that the team was the only one seeming to "move ahead" by paying the Raiderettes $9 an hour, on and off the field.

But that's not enough. Gonzalez said she wants this practice to change for all pro sports teams in California. So far, she said she hasn't met any formal opposition to her idea. She hopes that enough people will care about this issue to get on board.

“If the guy selling you the beer deserves a minimum wage, so does the woman entertaining you on the field," she said. " All work is dignified and cheerleaders deserve the respect of these basic workplace protections."

A 43-year-old Bronx man was arrested for allegedly punching a 6-month-old pit bull and beating it with a shovel, then burying it in the snow so deep only its head was visible, authorities say.

Police responded to a 911 call about a dog being abused shortly before 3 a.m. Friday and found the pooch, which appears to be a pit bull, buried in the snow on 167th Street. Only its head was visible.

Officers pulled the pup out of the snow and saw signs of mistreatment and abuse. It apparently The dog, a female named Hennessy, was taken to the ASPCA in Manhattan for treatment.

About an hour later, police arrested Raul Cruz, who witnesses had identified as the alleged dog abuser, not far from where they rescued the pup.

He was charged with aggravated cruelty to animals and torturing, injuring or not feeding an animal. It wasn't clear if Cruz had an attorney.

Want to see if your college student is skipping class? There’s an app for that.

For $200 a year, parents, professors and campus administrators can use Class120 to check to see if a student is in class at the scheduled time.

The minds behind the app, which was debuted by start-up Core Principle this month, say the accountability app could help students stay on track with their studies and prepare them for being punctual once they enter the workforce. But some students say it gives parents too much control over the lives of their adult children.

Jeff Whorley, founder and CEO of Core Principle, developed the app after a conversation he had with a college professor that left him thinking that if colleges treated all students the way they treat Division 1 athletes, whose attendance in class is closely monitored, then graduation levels would rise.

“If we could get students everywhere to attend at least 90 percent of their classes, over 80 percent would graduate,” Whorley told NBC Owned Television Stations.

The app tracks if the student is in class, and sends an alert to the student’s parent or teacher if they do not show up to class for two days in a row. Core Principle can also call the student directly if a parent or teacher does not feel comfortable contacting the student. The app must be downloaded by the student, and it can only be used to track if a student is in class, not at parties or other activities.

Still, some have criticized the app for being too controlling over students who should be treated like adults.

"I would probably be more annoyed than anything," Natalie Pike told NBC affiliate WTHR. "I would feel like my life is being pried into."

But Whorley argues that in the post-college world, a recent grad will face immediate consequences if they do not show up or even show up late to work. More students, he says, need to be treated with similar consequences by having a teacher or parent point out that they are late and help get back on track before the entire semester goes down the drain.

“We don’t think this app is anti-adult," Whorley said. "It’s an introduction to the real economy.”

The app has made recent headlines, with coverage in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. In the last four days alone, the start-up has seen a huge increase in traffic from parents in Europe and Asia looking to track their children who are studying abroad in the U.S., he said. So far the app is available for close to 2,000 college campuses across the country that the company has geomapped.

Whorley hopes that in the future this app can work to take class attendance.

“The future of taking attendance is Wi-Fi or GPS where a professor looks down at a piece of smart technology instead of calling roll," he said.

One San Diego counselor received a big honor at the White House Friday.

Tawnya Pringle, a counselor at Hoover High School, was one of five counselors invited to the White House. She was honored as one of the top five 2015 School Counselor of the Year finalists by First Lady Michelle Obama and actress Connie Britton.

The ceremony marked the first time school counselors were honored at a White House event dedicated to their work.

Pringle said the experience was humbling and was one of the “most amazing times of my life.”

“Being a school counselor runs through my blood and my veins and it just doesn’t end when I walk through the door at home,” Pringle said. “I have a passion and it’s been there ever since I entered college at San Diego State because I wanted to give children a voice when maybe they wouldn’t have one and to be an advocate at the school with teachers and helping the parents out too and their families.”

Winners were picked based on their creative school counseling innovations, effective counseling programs, leadership skills and contributions to student enhancement, the White House said.

The winners were chosen for creative school counseling innovations, effective counseling

The ceremony was part of the First Lady’s Reach Higher initiative. Reach Higher is a program dedicated to inspiring students to take charge of their future through education.

The outbreak of measles at Disneyland in Orange County, California, has reignited the debate over the anti-vaccination movement, driven by parents who question whether vaccines are safe and and whether there is a connection to autism in particular.

Medical experts say the study showing such a link has been repeatedly discredited and other parents counter their children are being endangered by irresponsible behavior.

Arizona, meanwhile, is monitoring more than 1,000 people who might have been exposed as thousands begin arriving for the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Here’s what you should know.

How many people are affected?

Sixty-eight people in California and and other states have reported contracting measles as a result of the outbreak that began at Disneyland in December, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The majority of the children and adults who became ill either had not been inoculated or did not know if they had been, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, assistant surgeon general and director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

“This is not a problem of the measles vaccine not working,” she told reporters this week. “This is a problem of the measles vaccine not being used.”

Since 2000, measles has been eliminated in the United States, meaning it is no longer native to the country. But it can still be spread by someone infected elsewhere and the CDC is assuming that is what happened at Disneyland.

How widespread is measles?

Each year there are 20 million cases around the world, and 145,000 people die, according to the CDC. Other complications: encephalitis and pneumonia.

Last year, there were a record number of measles in the United States, 644 cases, up from a median of 60 a year over the previous decade. And this January a total of 84 cases in 14 states were reported, more than what was typical in an entire year.

Those numbers pale compared to the average number of cases reported each year before the vaccine became available: 549,000.

Is there reason to worry?

The CDC's Schuchat said the numbers for January were concerning.

"I want to do everything possible to prevent measles from getting a foothold in the United States and becoming endemic again," she said.

Dr. Stephen Morse, professor of epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, said he thought the country was a long way from returning to the high number of measles cases and other diseases.

"If enough people are not taking these vaccines, we will see a resurgence, but right now these are fairly small events," he said. "So I think the reason everyone pays attention to it in medical and public health communities is simply because this is not a trend you would like to see really going up."

How high are vaccination rates?

Immunization rates remain high despite the attention the measles outbreak is receiving. Among kindergartners enrolled in the 2013-2014 school year, the median vaccination coverage was 93 percent and higher for measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough and chicken pox.

To provide what is called herd immunity -- to protect people who cannot be immunization and those for whom the vaccines are not effective -- experts recommend that between 90 and 95 percent of a community be fully inoculated. Health officials are worried about pockets of parents who are rejecting inoculation.

Morse said the control of a disease such as measles was hard won.

"When we actually had these diseases among us people feared them or at least really wanted a vaccine," he said. "Now of course we’re much more blasé, which is a mistake."

What is the reaction from parents worried about vaccines?

Barbara Loe Fisher, the president of the National Vaccine Information Center, a Virginia-based nonprofit that advocates allowing parents to choose whether to vaccinate their children, said that it was premature to point fingers at those who decided to forgo vaccines.

"There is no question that there is a tremendous amount of pressure being placed on parents who are making informed vaccine decisions for their children," she said. "I think this has gone way too far. The discussion has gotten very ugly, it has gotten extremely polarized and it's caused a lot of parents to be very afraid of doctors and public health officials."

Less than 1.8 percent of children attending kindergarten have vaccination exceptions, she noted. Less than 1 percent of children under the age of 3 are unvaccinated, she said.

What about other diseases?

Mumps, rubella, pertussis or whooping cough and chickenpox are among others that could also spike if parents continue to forgo vaccinations, experts say.

“This isn’t just a measles problem,” said Dr. Gregory A. Poland, the director of the Mayo Clinic Vaccine Research Group in Rochester, Minnesota. “This is a problem for any transmissible disease for which we have safe and effective vaccines that aren’t unfortunately used.”

Measles is especially contagious, but there have been other outbreaks. Mumps, for example, is no longer common in the United States, with only 229 cases reported in 2012 compared to 186,000 cases each year before the mumps vaccination program began in 1967. But in 2009-2010, there were two large outbreaks, according to the CDC: one among mostly Hasidic Jewish children in New York who were delaying immunization, and another among mostly school aged children in Guam.

Dan Hare calls it a horrible attack. His year-and-a-half-old Bull Mastiff named Ziggy was being mauled by a pack of pit bulls he says had dug underneath his fence. Ziggy suffered more than 350 puncture wounds, according to Hare.

“Like a deer. It was like a dead deer, and they were just ripping him apart at both ends," said Hare, 52, of Campo.

Hare said last Saturday, five pit bulls belonging to his neighbor dug under the fence on Oak Drive in Campo. He told NBC 7 as he tried to save Ziggy, a fifth pit bull attacked him. Hare suffered severe bite wounds to his hand, wrist and leg. He also suffered ankle and back injuries.

“These dogs got a taste of blood, especially the one that really worked me, and once that’s done, I know dogs and I love dogs, but once they get a taste of blood, they’re going to come back under the fence again,” said Hare

Now, Hare is planning to file a civil lawsuit against his neighbor to cover his veterinary and medical costs and lost wages.

Hare said he was also bitten three weeks ago by one of the pit bulls, and the neighbor assured him it wouldn’t happen again.

“They called me and apologized. They’ve been pretty nice people and everything. I have no problem with them, but it can’t get any worse than this,” said Hare.

The neighbors were not immediately available for comment. A locked fence surrounded the property with prominent "beware of dog" signs.

Meanwhile, six pit bulls have been impounded and are now under quarantine at the Bonita Animal Shelter. After an investigation, county animal services will determine what will happen with the pit bulls.

If the dogs are allowed to return home, Hare said he will be forced to take drastic action should it happen again.

“I will drop them in the yard. I don’t want to have to do that, I don’t want to have to kill their dogs, but I’m not going to play this game, where I have to hide when I come out of my house. It’s ridiculous,” said Hare.

The dog that was plucked out of the roiling Los Angeles River in a heroic afternoon aerial rescue put on a quite a show as it made its brief cameo for the waiting cameras Friday night.

The cute yellow dog nicknamed Lucky made a big splash Friday, discovered by someone at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank who called in about a dog paddling down the rain-swollen River.

The pup was swept at least three miles downriver and saved in Glendale, near the Golden State (5) Freeway overpass.

Los Angeles firefighters went to work in the air and NBC4 caught it all as firefighter John Terrusa was lowered into the river to pick up the soggy pooch.

"It was quite a team effort, quite a concert," Terrusa said.

As Terrusa and canine spun their way to safety dangling from a line on a chopper, several people gathered with firefighters along the river's banks to warm up the chilly doggy.

Lucky, a 7-year-old Shiba Inu who was not microchipped, is spending the night under doctor's care at a shelter in Eagle Rock. He will stay at a shelter for seven days, allowing enough time for his owner to come forward.

If no one comes forward, then the dog goes up for adoption and there's already one offer.

Terrusa is hoping this story has a happy ending.

"It is definitely a loved animal," Terrusa said. "It's just one of those things where I'm sure the dog just got out of somebody's yard and got in the wrong place, at the wrong time."

Asher Klein contributed to this story.

Two men were arrested in Oceanside after trying to cash in stolen lottery tickets.

Oceanside police said they responded to a call about a window smash burglary at the Shell Gas station at 2315 Vista Way where lottery tickets and cigarettes had been stolen.

Three hours later, the San Diego Sheriff's Department contacted Oceanside police after the California State Lottery reported the stolen tickets were being used in nearby Vista, a release said.

At that time, a silver Ford pickup had been sighted with two male suspects inside.

California Lottery and law enforcement worked together to follow where the suspects were attempting to cash in the tickets, police said.

The last store the two hit was an AM-PM at 1501 North Melrose Drive. Police responded and made contact with the suspects in the 600 block of Picacho Court in Oceanside.

Police said the suspects were still carrying stolen lottery tickets and a fourth waiver search lead them to find more inside one of the suspect's homes.

Both men were arrested on suspicion of burglary and possession of stolen property, police said. One of the men was also charged with possession of brass knuckles.

Speculation about whether a trio of ferrets were responsible for the mauling of a 1-month-old girl in a Delaware County, Pennsylvania, home last week have been running rampant since the attack — but police are shooting down the rumors, saying clear evidence points to the ferrets.

Skyy Fraim was released from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia this week after undergoing emergency surgery following the Jan. 21 attack, police said on Friday. The girl’s nose and part of her cheek were eaten away, while her upper lip was shredded.

The baby’s mother, Jessica Benales, was upstairs using the restroom when the mauling happened. She came down to find at least one of the ferrets attacking the child and pulled the animal off the girl, who was strapped into a car seat on the floor of the family’s Darby home.

Benales, 24, and her 42-year-old fiancé, Burnie Fraim, told police they believed the ferrets somehow broke out of their mesh pen.

But despite the accounts by police and the child's parents of the mauling, some ferret owners and shelter operators told NBC10 the animals could not have inflicted such severe injuries on the child.

Others claimed a necropsy found no human tissue in the animal’s stomach — but necropsies were not performed on the ferrets, Delaware County Animal Control said, so that cannot be known. After the animals were euthanized, a rabies test was performed and came back negative.

A staffer said necropsies are hardly ever performed by the agency and were not in this case because the mother witnessed part of the attack.

Still, the necropsies are unnecessary, says Darby Police Chief Robert Smythe. There is clear evidence that the ferrets were responsible for the mauling, he told NBC10.

“I would refute what they are saying because of physical evidence that was inside the building and that was on the child’s face,” he said.

Skyy Fraim had puncture wounds on her head consistent with a ferret’s teeth and claws, Smythe said. Detectives looked at the family’s other pets and the possibility that a rodent was responsible, but those possibilities were ruled out. It also appeared the ferrets roamed the home, which authorities said was filthy, and broke into pet food.

Benales and Fraim, who have four other children age 5 or younger, have each been charged with five counts of child endangerment. The children have been removed from their parents' care and are currently with the Delaware County Children and Youth Services.

Authorities said the children and parents all have special needs and have been under the care of three social service agencies. 

In addition to the ferrets, the family had six cats and two turtles. Two dogs had previously been removed from the home.

Seven case workers were assigned to the family, Smythe said. He questioned how nothing had been done to improve the family’s quality of life and remove the animals.

“It’s a family in crisis,” he said. “I believe they’re people that have issues and problems and the system is not working.”

Prior to being charged, Fraim told NBC10 that he and his fiancé care for the children.

“We’re good parents. It’s just we made one mistake by leaving them alone. We regret it, and we blame ourselves for it,” he said. The 1-month-old will need to undergo several surgeries to repair the damage done in the attack, the father added.

Smythe said a district court judge disregarded a bail recommendation that included a psychological evaluation and instead released the couple on their own recognizance. They are barred from having contact with the children.

A court date has yet to be set in the case.

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

Both the Seahawks and Patriots have won Super Bowls before. So who will win Super Bowl XLIX Sunday in Glendale, Arizona? A case can be made for both:

Why the Patriots could win

It’s a dynasty. New England has won three Super Bowls in the Bill Belichick-Tom Brady era, which qualifies for as much of a dynasty as the NFL has right now. The coach and QB have come up big when it counts before, so they’ll find a way to win a fourth.

The “evil genius” factor. Belichick may not be well-liked these days (or maybe ever), but he’s found a way to reach five of these championship games and win three. The personnel has turned over and the staff has changed, but Belichick knows his Xs and Os and is known for figuring out ways to limit the effectiveness of his opponents’ best players. Certainly he’ll come up with something special to stop Marshawn Lynch and limit Russell Wilson’s impact as a runner.

LeGarrette Blount. Since the running back joined New England after his release by the Steelers in November, the Pats’ running game has had an explosive, workhorse ballcarrier to keep defenses honest. If the Seahawks defense spreads out and focuses its efforts on stopping tight end Rob Gronkowski or wideout Julian Edelman, Blount should be able to gash them with power runs.

Special teams superiority. Both teams are solid in all areas, but New England’s punt-return, kick coverage and field-goal blocking abilities are a tick better. One big play could be the difference.

Brady-to-Gronkowski. The passing combination may be the hardest to stop in the NFL when Gronk is healthy, and he’s been healthy and very productive.

Why the Seahawks could win

Karma. The flip side to the “evil genius” factor. The Patriots have been caught bending the rules before, so the whole “Deflategate” scandal from the AFC Championship Game is just the latest chapter. Remember, the Patriots went into Super Bowl XLII in February 2008, trying to complete an undefeated season, when they were upset by the Giants -- after the whole “Spygate” controversy first surfaced. That was Karma I. This could be Karma II.

Pete Carroll. The Seattle head coach has managed to get his team to peak at the right time for two seasons now. The Seahawks play hard for him, and Carroll’s defense was No. 1 overall and No. 1 vs. the pass this season. After surviving a scare against Green Bay in the NFC Championship Game, all the mojo is on the side of Seattle's upbeat coach.

Kam Chancellor. The Seahawks’ All-Pro safety will be the man tasked with containing Gronkowski, and he seems ideally suited for the job. He’s big, strong and athletic and should be up to the task. If Seattle can take away Brady’s No. 1 target, the Pats will be playing with one hand tied behind their back.

Russell Wilson. The Seahawks’ young quarterback just wins. He’s not the best passer in the league -- until crunch time. Then he simply finds a way to make plays with his arm and his feet. He has a 6-1 playoff record, including five straight wins. In a meeting of the teams in 2012, Wilson led two late touchdown drives as the Seahawks pulled out a comeback victory.

Marshawn Lynch. If the Seahawks can get “Beast Mode” in gear early, they can control the game’s tempo. And it will help open up other avenues for the Seattle offense. Plus, after a week of Lynch vs. media shenanigans leading up to the game, wouldn’t it be perfect for Lynch to win the MVP award and get yet another chance to be interviewed on national TV? “I’m just here so I won't get fined… and to get my trophy.”

Many of the empty bike racks popping up around San Diego were finally filled Friday, ready for people to give them a whirl.

The bike-sharing program called DecoBike wheeled in bicycles at 20 of its 80 existing stations across the city on Friday — an unfortunately rainy day.

The idea is that anyone — tourist or local  can pick up a bike at a solar-powered station and drop it off at any other location they choose. Vice President of Operations David Silverman said it’s the greenest, healthiest way to get around, and it’ll cost you less than a cab.

"A lot of people who visit San Diego who come for conventions or just here in town don't have a vehicle, they can use this to get from point A to point B,” said Silverman. “So if they wanna explore other parts of San Diego such as Balboa Park, Little Italy, or the beaches, they can technically ride a bike to those areas."

But the full DecoBike roll out has been a long ride.

The first stations were installed back in October, but the bikes themselves have taken longer than expected to arrive.

"There's been some delays with manufacturing and as well as community outreach. So we've done very extensive community outreach and wanted to get the input from the community,” said Silverman. “But we're happy because we overcame some of those obstacles and finally have the bikes out today."

So Silverman and other DecoBike employees braved the rain and handed out helmets Friday to those willing to hop on the new bikes.

The pay structure breaks down this way: for a one-time user, you can rent a bike for $5 for every half-hour, $7 for an hour, and $12 for two hours. A whole day will cost you $15, a week will be $35 and a month will set you back $50.

The company also has memberships, which run $20 per month for unlimited 30 minute rides or $30 month for unlimited $60 minute rides.

DecoBike will continue adding bikes to its 80 existing stations, and eventually 180 of the high-tech bike racks will dot the city — from beaches to parks to downtown. Click here for a map.

A woman driving on a learner's permit slammed her car into an El Cajon apartment Friday night, according to El Cajon Police.

Nearly half the car ended up in the unit at 1041 North Mollison Avenue at about 8:30 p.m.

The people who live there told NBC 7 at that time of night, they usually sit with their 18-month-old child in the now damaged room, but Friday was an exception. They were not at home when the crash happened.

Police said the driver had a permit, not a license. There is no word on if she was injured in the crash or if she will be cited.

A tow truck was called in to help the fire department pull the car out of the building.

Three social studies teachers at a D.C. public charter school were fired for teaching black history lessons beyond what’s in the curriculum, students’ parents told News4.

"It's about the history of who we are and where we came from,” said Michelle Payne, whose son is in the eighth grade at Howard University Middle School of Math and Science.

Parents say it is unacceptable for a school located on the campus of a historically black university to stifle African-American history lessons.

"If you know your culture, if you know from whence you came, it tends to build your self-esteem," said Lateefah Bilal, a grandmother who heads Parents in Action, Howard Middle’s parent group.

D.C. Council Education Committee member Anita Bonds and Council member Brianne Nadeau are looking into the claims that the three teachers were fired for teaching too much black history.

Bonds' spokesman said the charter school board chairman declined to answer her questions Friday.

News4 reached out to school administrators and the D.C. Public Charter School Board several times this week. They promised to release a statement.

Parents said they are also upset because the teachers were fired and escorted out of the building in front of the kids.

New York state health officials say an upstate college student who took an Amtrak train out of Penn Station earlier this week has been diagnosed with the highly contagious measles.

The student was diagnosed at Bard College in Dutchess County, officials said, but had traveled out of New York City on Sunday, potentially exposing people beyond the campus. 

Anyone who traveled on Amtrak train no. 283 departing Penn Station at 1:20 p.m. on Jan. 25 is urged to contact their doctor if they're not immune to measles and they develop a fever. The train was headed to Albany and Niagara. 

People who may have been exposed and have symptoms consistent with measles should call their doctor or local emergency room before going for care so that others at the facilities aren't exposed. 

New York state has had three cases of measles this year, one in Dutchess County and two in New York City. 

A measles outbreak in New York City in early 2014 affected dozens of residents, initially in upper Manhattan and the Bronx, and then in Brooklyn and the Lower East Side. Officials had been looking at whether that outbreak may have spread because workers in medical facilities didn't recognize the symptoms quickly enough to isolate patients and prevent them from spreading it to others. 

Measles is a highly contagious respiratory disease caused by a virus and is spread by contact with nasal or throat secretions of infected people. Measles can lead to serious side effects and, in rare cases, death. Measles symptoms usually appear in 10 to 12 days, but can occur as late as 18 days after exposure. Symptoms generally appear in two stages.

Learn more about measles at health.ny.gov.

The videos are disturbing. A young girl in pink pajamas leans on another, cutting off her air supply until the girl collapses.

Link: Erik's Cause

A young boy in a public gym quietly slumps down against a wall. A teenager, alone in her room, chokes herself until she begins to twitch and gasp.

All of these are recent examples of videos posted online of kids playing "the choking game." The game goes by many names, including, the fainting game, pass out challenge, space monkey, California choke and maybe most appropriately, suffocation roulette.

The game has been around for generations, but with the proliferation of online videos, safety advocates worry there is more temptation than ever. Judy Rogg, a social worker, told NBC4 these videos encourage kids to dare others to "go further" with little regard for the risk involved.

"Kids think it's fun," she said. "Kids don't realize that it's dangerous."

The game cuts the oxygen to the brain, in the hopes of getting light headed, or a feeling of euphoria. But the high comes with great risks including broken bones, seizures and even death.

There is a long list of things parents warn their children about, and Rogg said "the choking game" should be part of that conversation. It is a conversation Rogg wishes she had with her own son. Erik was just 12 years old, when found him unresponsive, alone in their home, with a rope around his neck.

"This is important, as important to talk about with your kids as drugs and alcohol and sex," said Rogg. "The horror just stops you cold.

"I truly believe he did not intend to end his life. He had plans that evening, he had plans the next day, and he wasn’t going anywhere."

Erik was rushed to the hospital. While there, Judy explains that detectives told her they believed her son died from "the choking game."

It was the first time she had ever heard of it. Several days later, a classmate of Erik's came forward and told her Erik had learned the game at school on a Monday.

He died one day later.

Judy struggles with the loss every day. Her apartment celebrates his memory -- in one corner rests his skateboard. A collection of baseball bats are on a shelf and baby booties are tucked in the pocket of a handmade quilt.

Rogg has now developed an awareness program called "Erik's Cause."

"This is about saving other kids, that's Erik’s legacy, and that's the legacy that I want for my son right now," Rogg said.

Rogg insists if Erik knew the dangers, he never would have played the game.

"I would love to see this program in every health curriculum across the country."

Right now, only one district has taken up her program. Jennifer Wood, Director of Secondary Education for the Iron County School District in Cedar City Utah, said the choking game is a real problem.

"We've had four children die of this," Wood said.

San Bernardino Child Welfare Coordinator Earl Smith said he believes there have been choking deaths in the San Bernardino area. He is one of the first school administrators to advocate for a program like "Erik's Cause."

"As a teacher I actually heard students talking about it all of the time," Smith said. "We have to get the education out, not only to kids, but to parents."

There's a long list of topics teenagers are already warned about, including drugs, alcohol and texting while driving. Still, 17-year-old Roman Valentine said schools need to include warnings against the fleeting high of the choking game because it can be more dangerous than drugs.

"Weed isn't really good, but I mean, when do you really see deaths about that?"

Rogg continues to travel the country, talking to health professionals and school districts, hoping more of them will adopt her program. She said Erik always wanted to be of service and she feels his presence as she now tries to help others.

"He was really smart, and as one of his best friends said, 'Even smart strong kids can make dumb choices, with deadly consequences.'"

Arson investigators are searching for the cause of a mysterious apartment fire in Santee that burned two units' worth of people out of their homes Friday and injured two involved.

Forty-five-year-old Charlie Ayers said he heard explosions starting the fire at 1:40 p.m. on Mission Gorge Road.

“I was asleep and I heard two pops. It sounded like backfire at first,” Ayers said.

A neighbor told NBC 7 it was in the back bedroom where the several blasts originated. Ayers said he was in a back bedroom and could not explain the explosions.

The noise of the blasts reverberated through most of the Town Center Apartment complex, yet Ayers said it did not wake his roommate on the living room sofa.

“I went and woke up my roommate and jumped out the window because there was too much flames to go to the door,” Ayers said.

Video captured on a neighbor's cellphone shows brilliant orange flames moving fast through Ayers’ apartment. The smoke and heat were so intense, the unit above was also destroyed.

In that second-story apartment, a 5-year-old girl was treated for second- and third-degree burns. She and her grandmother escaped with help from neighbors.

A Santee firefighter also suffered burns to his hand. The injuries were not considered serious.

Life hasn’t been easy for Ayers lately. Neighbors and friends say his father just died, and he was asked to vacate the apartment in which he lived for more than a decade before fire destroyed it.

Some complex residents find the afternoon fire suspicious. They say often strangers visited at all hours of the day and night.

“I just got a feeling from the people going in and out anything could have gone down,” neighbor Lawrence Smith said.

San Diego County Sheriff's arson investigators combed through the charred remains. They interviewed Ayers, his roommate and eyewitnesses with no firm conclusions to the cause of this blaze.

A former dispatcher is contradicting a San Diego Police Department statement that callers rarely wait several minutes to reach 911 operators.

After NBC 7 reported Thursday that a member of our news team was placed on hold when trying to report an attempted assault downtown and an SDPD spokesman said it was a rare circumstance, Chuck Rickman reached out to us to set the record straight.

Rickman worked as a SDPD dispatcher for 20 years. He said when you call 911 to report an emergency, you don’t expect to be put on hold, but it does happen more often than it should.

"It's real, true life-threatening emergencies that people just can't get through on, and fortunately most of those don't end in someone getting killed or something like that," Rickman said.

Lt. Scott Wahl said the day the 911 call was made had a particularly high volume of calls.

"Our expectation is that we answer those calls as quickly as possible," Wahl said. "This situation that we're referring to is a rare situation that someone's going to wait two minutes and 44 seconds to get in touch with a 911 dispatcher."

Rickman said a caller being placed on hold for several minutes is not uncommon. He said staffing issues are mostly to blame, but that people do abuse the system making emergency calls for non-emergencies.

"'What time is it?' Yeah, it's crazy that people call (and say) 'I don't know where I'm going. Can you give me directions?'" Rickman said. He said those calls tie up the lines and place lives in danger.

"But the bottom line for me is that theyr'e just aren't enough dispatchers there to adequately handle it," he said.

Rickman said he's seen the number of dispatchers dwindle from 92 in 1991 to 66 now, a number SDPD did not confirm.

"The turnover is extremely high," he said. "It takes over a year to train somebody and it's a big problem, but it's not just rare. It happens and it shouldn't."

Last Wednesday, a member of the NBC 7 news team dialed 911 from a mobile phone at 12:04 p.m. to report an attempted assault in downtown San Diego.

She was put on hold. After one minute, she hung up. At 12:07 p.m., she received a call back from a dispatcher who took her report.

When approached about the recording stating that 911 dispatchers were answering other calls, an SDPD spokesperson confirmed the call was not answered immediately and explained why.

"Our dispatchers, they're human and they're busy trying to answer those calls as quickly as they possibly can," Wahl said.

SDPD received more than 200 phone calls in one hour that were handled by 11 dispatchers. The average wait time during that hour was 14 seconds.

“We had 134 911 calls during that hour, and over 71 non-emergency calls just in that hour,” said spokesperson Lt. Scott Wahl.

That high volume of calls produced the second busiest hour for the department’s dispatch that day.

In the day, 88 percent of calls were answered in fewer than ten seconds, 91 percent in fewer than 20 seconds and 98 percent were answered in less than one minute, they said.

However, Wahl said the incident is a rare one for the dispatch center.

"We strive every day to answer those calls as quickly as we possibly can and when they hang up, although their call still stays in queue, it takes time for dispatcher to call back," he said.

He went on to suggest citizens not hang up and call back multiple times because that loads up the queue and slows the process down even more.

Dispatchers have to return each one of those calls, sometimes leaving voicemail messages if their return call is not answered.

A woman convicted of killing an elderly man she was taking care of, then draining his bank accounts, was sentenced to life in prison in a San Diego courtroom Friday.

Denise Michelle Goodwin, 47, will spend the rest of her life in prison for the 2011 murder of 89-year-old Gerald Rabourn, despite prosecutors seeking the death penalty.

Rabourn, who trusted Goodwin with his money after she cared for his late wife, went missing in 2011 and his body was never found. The district attorney's office said Goodwin took everything he had, then murdered him to avoid being found out.

Although Rabourn's body was never found, she was convicted in October of first-degree murder and murder for financial gain.

Defense attorneys argued during the trial that enough evidence was present to prove Goodwin had made off with Rabourn's money, but not enough to say she killed him.

"She's a thief disguised as a churchgoer; she's a killer disguised as a caregiver," Deputy District Attorney Bill Mitchell told the judge before the sentencing.

Prosecutors said Goodwin targeted rich old men with no close family and described the case as especially shocking and compelling.

"Gerald Rabourn was sucked in and taken to the cleaners," Mitchell told jurors. "[Goodwin] had found her golden goose. He thought she was wonderful. He thought he was getting something for nothing. When it came to his money, he wanted to keep it."

Before the sentencing, the defense motioned to have Goodwin's charges reduced to second-degree murder, but the motion was denied.

Rabourn's son called Goodwin a "pariah on society." Rabourn's daughter said he was a gentle and kind man who should not have died in a violent way.

A fight between two cousins in Castle Park sent one man to the hospital with a stab wound.

The fight broke out between a 50-year-old man and his 65-year-old cousin in the 3100 block of 38th Street in the Castle Park neighborhood Friday evening, according to the San Diego Police Department.

Police said the 50-year-old suspect stabbed his cousin once in the stomach with a knife. The victim was transported to a nearby hospital with non life-threatening injuries.

Police arrested the suspect for assault with a deadly weapon and Mid City detectives are investigating the incident.

Anyone with information can call Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.