A man was critically hurt with burns covering 90 percent of his body after lighting himself on fire inside the bathroom of a Southern California Starbucks on Tuesday morning, officials said.

Before 8:20 a.m., a man walked into a Starbucks in the 15300 block of Sherman Way in Van Nuys and went inside the bathroom, Los Angeles fire officials said.

After he went into the bathroom, bystanders heard "an explosive sound." The man then staggered out of the bathroom and collapsed near the entrance, where Starbucks customers helped douse the flames, officials said.

Firefighters said man had "extensive burns" and was taken to the hospital in critical condition.

The burns cover 90 percent of his body, officials said.

Aerial video showed firefighters and police officers outside the Starbucks and on the business' roof.

The victim is possibly a transient who is about 60 years old, officials said.

The young son of former Chicago Bears running back Adrian Peterson has died.

Peterson made the announcement on Facebook early Tuesday morning, writing “#Ajsoars is in Heaven, where he belongs… #ajsoar #P3 #MyFirstSuperHero.”

AJ was diagnosed in June, when he was just 6 years old, with an inoperable tumor in his brain stem. His family started a GoFundMe page to help with their son’s medical treatment.

The GoFundMe page raised nearly $40,000 to help with the medical costs.

The family used social media and the GoFundMe page to chronicle AJ’s journey and keep supporters updated. Their Facebook page, titled “AJ Soars, Prayers for AJ," garnered more than 5,800 likes in less than a year.

Since Peterson’s last message about his son, more than 250 people have commented and even more offered condolences on their designated Facebook page.

Peterson spent eight seasons with the Chicago Bears, playing from 2002-2009.

A plow truck fell into a sinkhole Tuesday morning along a snow-covered New Jersey road.

The accident happened along Wordsworth Lane in Lopatcong Township in Warren County as a snowstorm moved out of the area around 7:30 a.m., said Mayor Tom McKay.

Instagram user MRLish456 captured the aftermath on Instagram. The township truck's plow could be seen dangled above the truck, which was partially emerged in the hole.

The shaken driver of the plow managed to get out of his vehicle. He was taken to the hospital for observation, said McKay.

The township issued a warning for people to avoid the area. McKay said it could take hours to remove the truck.

Former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis was one of hundreds of passengers rescued by the "T" from a disabled Amtrak Acela train Tuesday afternoon -- and he was tweeting about it.

After the Acela train, #2154, became disabled 6 miles south of Providence, workers helped about 200 passengers board the MBTA commuter train, #818, via a gangplank and gave them a ride into Boston.

Meanwhile, it could be a month before the Boston area's transit system is running at full capacity again following a series of snowstorms.

MBTA General Manager Beverly Scott, who is stepping down effective April 11, said Monday that the storms that have dropped more than seven feet of snow in the region have "crippled our infrastructure."

Gov. Charlie Baker said on Tuesday the MBTA's 30-day recovery plan is on the "outer limits," and that crews are working everyday to get the aging transit service back up and running from core to outside of Boston.

Boston has seen 7.5 feet of snow since Jan. 23.

A Tennessee man accused of soliciting donations for the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre and using the money for personal gain has been indicted on six counts of wire fraud, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Robert Terry Bruce, 34, of Nashville, could face a sentence of up to 120 years in prison if convicted.

He was indicted Tuesday on charges that he defrauded donors from around the country, including in Connecticut, who thought they were helping to raise money for Sandy Hook but in reality were paying to support Bruce’s personal training business, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

• Read the indictment
  

According to federal prosecutors, Bruce set up the 26.4.26 Foundation in the wake of the December 2012 shootings and hosted two athletic charity events in early 2013.

He solicited contributions through a PayPal account and told supporters the “Schools 4 Schools run” and “CrossFit Cares” event were designed “to help raise funds for increased school safety, families of victims, memorials to teacher heroes, awareness and prevention in schools across America.” the U.S. attorney's office said.

Bruce told donors all proceeds would benefit the 26.4.26 Foundation, but in reality, he used most of the money to cover personal expenses and bolster his personal training business, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Several donors who fell victim to the scam are from Connecticut.

The allegations came to light over the summer when 26.4.26 co-founder Ryan Graney told the Associated Press that only $30,000 of the $103,000 raised had been used for the true purpose of the organization.

Bruce was arrested Feb. 13 and indicted Tuesday. He’ll be arraigned in Hartford on Monday, Feb. 23 and could be sentenced to 20 years in prison on each count if convicted, according to federal prosecutors.
 

One person has been taken to the hospital following a drive-by shooting in Spring Valley, police said.

The incident happened at approximately 2:27 p.m. on Bancroft Drive and Kenwood Drive, officials said.

The San Diego Sheriff's Department and Cal Fire both responded to the report for a drive-by shooting.

The victim was taking to Mercy Hospital. The suspects fled in a vehicle.

More details were not immediately available.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

A two-alarm fire at a Vista taxi cab company building sent flames shooting 10 feet in the air, forcing one man out of his apartment due to the heavy smoke.

The fire happened just after 11 a.m. on the 1800 block of Santa Fe Avenue at an autobody shop. Fire and smoke was seen coming from the east side of the building.

No one was inside the taxi cab company building and no one was injured as a result of the fire, though a nearby neighbor was temporarily evacuated from his house, said Vista Deputy Fire Chief Ned Vanderpol. 

“They saw the flames were getting closer to the back of the buildings so they actually went and evacuated the neighboring house right there and had him come out," said Carlsbad resident Emily Hernandez, who saw the fire unfolding.

Sixteen engines responded to the fire and started putting up ladders and spraying down the building, Vanderpol said. One man who lives on the hill behind the building was forced to leave when smoke floated his way.

He told NBC 7 he was not happy about that because it interrupted his nap, but neighbors who look after him said they were glad he was OK.

"I don't believe in luck, actually. I'm a Christian, but we're very lucky," said neighbor Leo Varez. "Thank God his is OK. Thank God my family is OK."

Once the majority of the fire was extinguished, firefighters entered the building and doused any remaining hot spots.

The fire was contained about 30 minutes later, and no one was injured. However, as they cleared out the debris, they noticed a substance that was causing a sheen on the water, which they believed was a potentially hazardous material.

A Hazmat team was called in, and the fire crews are taking precautionary measures to make sure it doesn't go down storm drains, making little trenches to keep the material contained. Crews say it could take hours to determine what the substance is.

Firefighters will be on the scene throughout the afternoon working on putting out the remaining hot spots.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, and investigators do not have an estimate on how much the damage will cost.

A man who spent 15 years in prison for a crime he says he didn't commit is suing Northwestern University, saying a former professor there tricked him into confessing to a double murder.

“I am angry at the people who did what they did to me,” said Alstory Simon. He was freed from prison nearly five months ago and now hopes to get restitution for the emotional distress he endured spending a decade and a half of his life behind bars.

Simon’s Lisle-based attorneys Terry Ekl and Jim Sotos fought to get Simon released and on Tuesday filed a $40 million federal lawsuit against former Northwestern professor David Protess, among others, claiming Simon was tricked into confessing to a 1982 double murder.

Simon's confession in the high-profile case helped free another death row inmate, Anthony Porter, who served 17 years before evidence surfaced he was innocent, thanks to the investigative work of the Northwestern University professor and his students.

At one point in 1998, Porter was just 48 hours shy of execution when attorneys won a stay by raising concerns about his mental competence at trial.

Now Simon’s legal team says Protess, who overturned wrongful convictions through his university journalism class, used illegal tactics to get Simon’s confession, which freed Anthony Porter from prison.

“Northwestern knew about these activities as early as 1996," Ekl said, "and did not put a stop to anything."

Northwestern said in response to the lawsuit saying it “denies all wrongdoing in this matter and looks forward to being vindicated in a court of law.”

Private investigator Paul Ciolino, who got Simon to confess to the murder on video tape and is among those named in the lawsuit, said in a statement that Simon’s attorneys’ “media spin of the horrific injustice suffered by Mr. Simon is a legalized version of a hold up for a big payday.”

“I don’t have to read this lawsuit to know it is frivolous,” Ciolino added.

Attorney Jim Sotos maintained they have “no problem” with class projects on cases of innocence and understands they are valuable.

“The problem is when you have rogue individuals operating investigative classes that are functioning as investigative agencies outside the boundaries of the law,” Sotos said. “That kind of thing needs to stop.”

Protess could not immediately be reached for a comment.

After a high-profile fall from grace as a gambler caught up by the law, former San Diego mayor Maureen O'Connor is finally escaping the shadow of prosecution -- and no longer a prisoner of the addiction that cost her a fortune.

It was two years ago that O’Connor, now 68, was accused of money-laundering to support a gambling habit.

Now, the criminal case against her is in the process of being dismissed.

O'Connor has been free under a pretrial "deferred prosecution" agreement that's held criminal charges in abeyance, pending restitution of $2 million taken from a nonprofit foundation created by her late husband Robert O. Peterson, the founder of Jack-in-the-Box.

She’s paying it back to two other charities “with the approval of all interested parties,” according to a statement filed in federal court, and getting involved in those causes.

“It was probably the most difficult day of my life,” O’Connor recalled of Feb. 14, 2013 -- the day news of the scandal broke.

“But I also learned how people don't understand and are quick to judge,” she told NBC 7 in an interview Tuesday. “So I can't wait to get back out there and share my views."

Since surgery to remove a brain tumor that she believes was behind her ruinous video poker obsession, O'Connor said she's no longer had a desire to gamble.

What she now has are proceeds from an unrelated legal settlement to make the charitable restitutions that prosecutors required of her.

O’Connor lost approximately $13 million through wagering -- and gained worldwide notoriety for the much larger numbers that reflected her total betting volume over nine years of visits to Las Vegas, Atlantic City and tribal casinos.

"The billion-dollar headlines that really had nothing to do with the facts is what everybody grabbed onto,” she noted . “It’s sensational. It sells papers. TV interviews."

From time to time after leaving as Mayor in 1992, O'Connor has gone public on behalf of issues near and dear to her heart -- and political mindset.

But she chooses them -- and her words -- carefully.

"I see a lot of things I would do differently, but I never try and criticize another mayor. Will I get back in politics? It just depends,” she mused. “If someone needs me and I have the energy and the desire -- sure, I'll help them. That's the way I've been."

Following a status hearing before a federal magistrate judge Tuesday, the dismissal of O'Connor's case is scheduled to become final next week.

Her restitution funds are going to the San Diego Brain Injury Foundation and Sharp Memorial Hospital's Foundation, for which she'll work on programs dealing with "illness-caused addictions."

Students have been released from class following a safe and secure campus measurein response to an unconfirmed threat of a weapon on campus, officials said.

El Cajon Police put the school on lockdown Tuesday morning after reports of a weapon on campus, according to the school district. Students were released from Period 6 classes, the district said, and students with a Period 7 class will remain on campus until the regular 2:48 p.m. release. Two canines assisted police in searching, the district said.

Regular teaching and classroom activities were taking place, the alert said, behind closed and locked doors and all students are safe.

No one was allowed on or off campus.

No further details were immediately available.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

An onramp where a pickup truck driver carrying copies of San Diego CityBeat crashed is now open, officials said.

Shortly after 2 a.m. Tuesday, the driver ran into a guardrail on the 94 East onramp at Interstate 805 near home Avenue, the California Highway Patrol said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Crews were on scene working throughout the morning to clear the accident, they said, and the road reopened just before noon.

Once the pickup truck hit the guardrail, it flipped onto its side and the car’s lights turns off. A sedan driving on the onramp did not see the truck and struck the passenger side.

The driver of the pickup truck died on scene, CHP officers said, as a result of the second collision. He was not wearing a seat belt.

The driver of the sedan had minor injuries, the CHP said.

Officers are investigating whether the driver fell asleep or whether he was driving too fast. The investigation is ongoing.

Chants of “si se puede” (“yes we can”) rang out Tuesday morning during a rally in Logan Heights to show support for President Obama’s order that could spare millions of immigrants from being deported.

“We will ensure every San Diegan gets the benefits they deserve,” Congressman Juan Vargas told the crowd.

The rally joined members of the Service Employees International Union and community members. It comes a day after a federal judge in Texas ordered to temporarily block the president’s executive action on immigration.

Obama’s action would impact as many as five million immigrants in the country illegally, about 90,000 of whom are in San Diego.

Vargas told the crowd to not be dismayed at the U.S. District judge’s order, saying it “will not derail our attempts.”

“This is a temporary injunction,” he said.

The rally also provided tools for families to use Deferred Action for Parents (DAPA), a program that protects children from deportation if they were brought to the U.S. illegally.

Alejandra Ramos came to the rally to show support for DAPA. She was brought in to the U.S. illegally and has received protection through the program.

“I grew up knowing I was undocumented,” she said. “We were always scared."

Obama’s orders to expand DAPA was set to start taking effect Wednesday. The other major part of his orders, which extends deportation protections to parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents who have been in the country for some years, was not expected to begin until May 19.

A NBC 7 reporter following a story on a boat dumping unwittingly became part of the story when a man claiming to work for the boat owner accosted her.

Reporter Vanessa Herrera was at the spot where a boat was abandoned on the side of a busy road in Mission Valley on Tuesday afternoon. There, she was attacked by a man who said he worked for the owner.

She was trying to track down the owner and find out why the boat was there, as were San Diego environmental crews.

Herrera was on Camino Del Rio when a man and woman approached her and told her to stop rolling her camera. As she was on a public sidewalk, she refused and called 911.

Video footage of the incident shows the man curse at her while she’s on the phone, relaying information to a 911 dispatcher. He then smacks the camera she’s holding.

“This guy just hit my camera, man,” she’s heard telling the dispatcher.

Police responded and diffused the situation.

“It became a police matter when the incident occurred out here involving your reporter,” said Jose Ysea, spokesman for the City of San Diego.

An hour and a half after the ordeal, San Diego police sent a tow truck to tow the boat. Environmental Services officials said they’ll continue to investigate who owns the boat and why it was left on the side of the road.

The man accused of shooting CBS 8 sports director Kyle Kraska outside his house appeared in court for the first time Tuesday.

Mike Montana, 54, pleaded not guilty to a charge of attempted first degree murder with allegations that the crime was premeditated and a firearm was used.

In court, Deputy District Attorney Rebecca Zipp said Kraska was shot six times, including once in the torso and once in the abdomen. She said Montana intended to kill him and shot him from several feet away.

Montana also pleaded not guilty to a charge of making a criminal threat in an unrelated incident. A felony complaint says on Nov. 6, 2014, Montana verbally threatened a victim with injury or death, though the Zipp said she cannot give details about the case.

A status hearing is scheduled for Feb. 24, and a preliminary hearing will occur on March 2. Bail was set at $750,000. Montana faces at least 37 years to life in prison if convicted.

The house painter suspected of shooting and wounding Kraska outside his Scripps Ranch home Tuesday, Feb. 10 led police on a countywide manhunt that ended with a SWAT standoff at an El Cajon home.

"It appears that Mr. Montana was doing work on Mr. Kraska's house and there was a financial dispute," said Zipp. "And that was the reason or the motive."

Kraska suffered 10 bullet wounds as a result of the shooting, which shattered through his car’s back window in a cul-de-sac south of Scripps Ranch Parkway as he was leaving for work.

Emergency crews took Kraska Scripps to La Jolla hospital, where he was immediately taken into surgery, a source close to him said. Hours later, the station reported Kraska was out of surgery and his prognosis is good.

Kraska started at CBS 8 in 1999 as morning and noon co-anchor, and four years later, he was promoted to evening sports anchor.

Ben Leibowitz called up relatives to tell them he got into Carnegie Mellon University's prestigious graduate computer science program. He even went out to dinner with his parents to celebrate.

Then he got a second email saying he hadn't been accepted after all.

About 800 other Carnegie Mellon applicants experienced similar swings of ecstasy and agony Monday - first rejoicing that the Pittsburgh institution had selected them for its master of science in computer science, then being told the acceptances were sent in error and that they had been rejected.

"It was brutal. I didn't get much sleep last night," Leibowitz, of Stamford, Connecticut, said Tuesday. "Now I have to clean up the mess. I'm calling all my relatives, I'm going, 'I'm sorry it's not happening.'"

Carnegie Mellon spokesman Kenneth Walters said the "Welcome to Carnegie Mellon!" messages were the result of "serious mistakes" in the university's process for generating acceptance letters and that it would conduct a review to prevent another error.

"We understand the disappointment created by this mistake, and deeply apologize to the applicants for this miscommunication," Walters said.

The university sent a follow-up email to the rejected students Tuesday afternoon, saying its system had "incorrectly flagged" applicants as being admitted.

Dozens of applicants shared snippets of their rejection emails along with hints of their own disappointment on a message board for people applying to graduate programs.

Carnegie Mellon's computer science graduate school tied for No. 1 with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford and the University of California at Berkeley in U.S. News & World Report's most recent rankings.

The university said in the erroneous messages that it accepts less than 9 percent of more 1,200 applicants - or about 100 people - into the master's program each year.

But all the technological know-how and selectivity in the world couldn't prevent the university from joining the list of high-profile institutions that accepted applicants when they didn't mean to.

In December, Johns Hopkins University mistakenly sent nearly 300 undergraduate applicants welcome messages when they were actually rejected or deferred.

In February 2014, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sent thousands of students a mistaken email about financial aid saying they were receiving the information because they had been admitted.

In 2009, the University of California at San Diego sent acceptance emails to all 46,000 students who applied, including 28,000 who were rejected.

Elisa Davis, a consultant who helped Leibowitz prepare for the graduate admissions tests, said she'd never heard of erroneous acceptance letters at the graduate school level, in part because the process is much more personal than for undergraduates.

"People need to put care into things that affect other people," Davis said. "I'm very disappointed in them."

A driver slammed into a power pole off State Route 78 Tuesday, killing power to multiple buildings.

The pole toppled over and threw live wires onto the freeway, sheriff's officials say.

The California Highway Patrol issued a Sig Alert for westbound SR-78 near Magnolia Avenue at about 7:30 p.m. The alert was canceled about an hour later.

It's unclear how severe the driver's injuries are; sheriff's officials report serious injuries, while Cal Fire says they are minor. Investigators are trying to determine what caused the crash.

No other vehicles were involved, CHP says.

About 112 customers are without power, according to the SDG&E outage map. Electricity should be restored at 10 p.m.

Officers called to a Carmel Valley scene Tuesday found it hard to cuff this jaywalking perpetrator.

A sea lion was discovered walking down the center island of El Camino Real, just south of San Dieguito Road, according San Diego Police Officer Tracey Williams. The location was more than two miles from the nearest beach.

Williams posted pictures of the stranded marine mammal on the Nextdoor app.

He joked that the seal surrendered peacefully to officers and was held in custody until SeaWorld caretakers could pick it up.

"Some days on this job you get what you don't expect. The police academy definitely didn't mention detaining seals in our training," Williams said in his post.

It's unclear how the lost soul wandered so far from sea.

Precious items are lost in Times Square each day, but there may be one still out there that's particularly special to a British woman who lost her teenage daughter to cancer two years ago. 

Before Vicky Pyne's 17-year-old daughter Alice died of cancer, Alice gave her a necklace that contained her fingerprint.

"The necklace was something Alice had made for me when she found out she was terminal," said Pyne. "She had put it on a chain and gave it to me before she died."

Pyne was visiting from England when she went to the Applebee's restaurant in Times Square on Saturday, and that's where she last remembered touching the fingerprint, as she often did to remember her daughter. She continued shopping and didn't notice it missing until she got to the hotel. 

"I was absolutely horrified when I realized it was missing," she said. 

The necklace could be anywhere in Times Square -- under the hundreds of thousands of feet that have walked by, or perhaps under the fresh coat of Tuesday's snow. 

The other fingerprint strung on the necklace belongs to Milly Pyne, Alice Pyne's sister. She was by her sister's side as she captured her country's attention fighting the blood cancer that would claim her life. 

In 2012, Alice Pyne was awarded the prestigious British Empire Medal. 

"Cancer is gaining on me," Alice Pyne had written. She put together a bucket list and left the necklace for her mother.

"I desperately want this necklace back," her mother said. "She left me a few things, but this is the most precious thing she left for me. I can never get Alice back, but I'm hoping I can get my necklace back."

A father defended his son as a "hero" for bringing his gun on a hunt with his mother for a driver in an apparent road rage incident that turned deadly.

Tammy Meyers, originally from Glendora, California, ended up being gunned down outside her family's house in Las Vegas last Thursday after she and her son, Brandon, attempted to track down a man who was involved in an earlier altercation.

"My son is not an animal, my son is a hero in my book," Tammy's husband, Robert Meyers, said at a vigil Tuesday. "There were mistakes made like every one of us have made in our life, but this particular mistake was made to keep a bigger mistake from happening."

Before the fatal shooting, Tammy had been teaching her 15-year-old daughter how to drive in a nearby school parking lot, Las Vegas police Lt. Ray Steiber told reporters Tuesday. The girl didn't have a learner's permit.

The 44-year-old had been behind the wheel and driving slowly when she was involved in a near-collision with a vehicle that led to a verbal confrontation between her and the other male driver, police said in a statement.

In a change from earlier accounts, Steiber said Tammy Meyers had her teenage daughter run into their house to get her armed son, who then drove with her in the back seat to find the car involved in the near-collision. It was initially reported the victim had been followed after the initial road rage incident.

They tailed the car for 10 minutes before deciding to head home, though they ended up being followed and "there was a volley of rounds fired from that vehicle," Steiber said. Brandon shot back and after the gunfire was over he discovered his mother had been shot.

Police said they believe she was struck by a gunman in the other car, which had three occupants total, according to NBC affiliate KSNV.

Brandon insisted he had only gone along on the trip to make sure his mother would be safe.

"I did what I had to do to protect my family. Everyone can think what they have to think; I did it for a reason. And I'd do it for anyone I love," Brandon said.

At a candlelight memorial for the nurse, mother and grandmother, relatives said the new information does not change the important facts of the case.

"She didn't go out on a hunt like they said. She took her daughter home to safety, she got her son, she took the chaos away from her home like any mother would," her cousin Susan Ramos said.

The family of Tammy Meyers is now offering a 1965 Chevrolet El Camino to anyone provides information that leads to an arrest, according to KSNV.

Tammy Meyers lived in the San Gabriel Valley and then Victorville before she and her family moved to Vegas.