The driver of a truck accused of causing a train derailment Tuesday morning that injured nearly 30 people, four critically, was arrested on a felony hit-and-run charge, police said.

Jose Alejandro Sanchez Ramirez, 54, of Yuma, Arizona, was taken into custody in connection with the crash that happened before 6 a.m. on the Ventura County Line tracks between Camarillo and Oxnard, about 70 miles northwest of Los Angeles. He has a valid commercial drivers license and was driving a 2005 F-450 truck towing a trailer filled with equipment, possibly welding equipment, police said.

Ramirez's attorney, Ron Bamieh, said in a statement that his client was driving his company's truck and trailer, owned by The Grower's Company, Inc., when "it became tangled and unable to move off the railroad tracks."

"An investigator with Oxnard Police Department said that it was common for trucks to get caught on the tracks, saying this is at least the fourth or fifth time it has happened at that location. Mr. Ramirez tried to do all he could to extricate his truck from the position it was in but he was unable to do so. He saw the train coming and had to leave his truck to get help," Bamieh said.

Ramirez is a married grandfather who is raising the children of his daughter, who died of cancer, his attorney said.

The engineer of the Los Angeles-bound train used its emergency-braking system after noticing the truck and trailer on the tracks near Fifth Street and Rice Avenue, according to officials with the Oxnard Fire Department.

Witnesses described the sound of metal scraping on metal before a fireball erupted as the train slammed into the truck, which burned along with its trailer after it was sheared in half. Ted Maloney was driving to work when he heard the train's horn, normally three honks at the crossing.

"This guy was just laying on the horn," said Maloney. "I looked up and just a huge ball of fire. I didn't even see the truck because it was all engulfed in flames."

Maloney and three farmworkers who were in a nearby berry field ran to help the victims, he said. After entering the overturned train car, Maloney said he found a woman suffering from a severe head injury and other victims who appeared to be "in a daze."

The train cars were being pushed by a locomotive from the rear at slower than the cruising speed of 79 mph, according to fire officials. The crash sent at least four cars off the track and toppled three cars on their sides near the rail crossing at Fifth Street and Rice Avenue.

Four victims were in critical condition, according to Oxnard Fire Department officials. Doctors at Ventura County Medical Center said three of the nine victims transported to that hospital are in critical condition with head injuries and spine and rib fractures.

"These are the type of injuries we'd expect to see in a major trauma incident," said Dr. Bryan Wong.

The other six victims at the hospital suffered minor to moderate injuries, said Wong. Other patients were transported to hospitals in Thousand Oaks, Ventura and Oxnard.

The driver of the vehicle tried to run from the scene but was detained by police for questioning, according to authorities.

"He was found a little while later some miles down the road," said Oxnard Fire Battalion Chief Sergio Martinez.

The driver was not under arrest early Tuesday afternoon, police said. He was identified as a 54-year-old produce truck driver from Arizona who suffered minor injuries that were not related to the crash, police said.

"It is clear this was an accident, the arrest of Mr. Ramirez is the unfortunate result of Law Enforcement attempting to cast blame on a man who was caught in a tragic situation with no way to stop the oncoming tragedy," Bamieh said. "He does not know how or why the truck he was driving stopped on the tracks, and wishes there was something he could have done to prevent this accident."

Ramirez has worked for the company for the past 12 years, his attorney said.

A preliminary investigation indicated the driver was southbound on Rice Avenue when he turned onto the tracks instead of Fifth Street, police said. It was not immediately clear why the vehicle was stopped on the tracks, police said.

"(The truck) was actually stuck there," said Oxnard Assistant Police Chief Jason Benites. "We are looking into this as to whether there are any criminal acts.

"We don't know if it was on purpose or whether it was a mistake."

Benites described the driver as "unsettled" when he spoke with officers.

The 51 people involved in the crash included passengers, conductors and the truck driver, fire officials said. Authorities asked people seeking information about passengers to call 877-248-8381.

Fire-rescue personnel set up a color-coded triage area with green, yellow and red tarps at the site. The tarps indicate the severity of the victim's injuries, with red being the most serious and green indicating minor injuries.

"The extent of injuries ranged from significant head trauma and extremity trauma to neck and back injuries and trauma that you'd generally get from being thrown around," said Steve Caroll, of Ventura County Emergency Medical Services. "We did transport a total of 28 patients and we have 23 on scene who were not transported who did not complain of any significant injuries."

All Ventura County Line trains will be delayed, with tracks remaining closed between Oxnard and Camarillo. Trains will travel as far as Oxnard, where buses will provide transport. Repair work on the tracks is expected to continue into Wednesday morning.

Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board confirmed a crash investigation team is headed to the location.

The collision follows two major crashes involving Metrolink trains in the past 10 years. In January 2005, a truck abandoned on a rail line near Glendale caused a Metrolink train to derail and strike other trains on either side of the track, killing 11.

In 2008, a freight train and Metrolink train collided head-on in Chatsworth, killing 25. Authorities determined the Metrolink train went through a red signal before entering the single-track section.

The train involved in Tuesday's derailment consisted of four passenger cars and a locomotive at the rear. The engineer was in the first passenger car — known as the  "cab car" -- and was operating the train from there. The engineer and the  conductor were among the injured, according to Metrolink.

The cab car and the third and fourth passenger cars were newer  cars, equipped with "collision energy management technology," which is  designed to "send the impact outward instead of inward and prevent  crumpling," said Metrolink  spokesman Scott Johnson. The second passenger car was an older car,  retrofitted to accommodate bicycles.

Metrolink is in the process of installing a Postive Train Control system throughout its network. The system is a GPS-based technology designed to prevent collisions by automatically slowing or stopping trains. The federal government has mandated the implementation of the system by the end of this year.

That system, however, is not designed to stop collisions with vehicles that are driven or parked on tracks, like the crash that occurred Tuesday.

There are 228,000 street crossings in the country, about 140,000 of them on publicly owned roads, according to the Federal Railroad Administration. About 53 percent of the public ones are equipped with active warning devices.

Collisions at the crossings have dropped by 85 percent from a high of more than 13,500 in 1978 to just over 2,000 in 2011, according to the administration. It attributes the dramatic decrease to engineering improvements, better enforcement of traffic safety laws and education of motorists. The administration estimates that 94 percent of collisions and 87 percent of fatalities are the result of risky behavior by drivers or poor judgment.

Noreen O'Donnell and Jason Kandel contributed to this report.

Crews worked for several hours Tuesday to pull a tractor-trailer dangling off an icy highway bridge back onto the roadway.

While crossing a small bridge on Interstate 45 near Stuart Simpson Road Monday afternoon, the big-rig's cab slammed through a guardrail, left the road and immediately turned toward the small creek below.

The truck's driver managed to slip out of his seat and into the creek below. He then climbed back up to the median where he called police for help.

Help soon arrived, though efforts to remove the truck Monday were slowed by ice on the roadway, live electrical wires on the ground and not having enough equipment available to successfully pull the truck back onto the roadway.

Six wreckers were called Tuesday to secure and pull the cab back onto the bridge. After several hours, and several tense moments where the cables used to hold the rig tore through the trailer, the cab was successfully secured back on the bridge.

"On a grade of 1 to 10, this was about a 15, this is probably one of the most difficult recoveries I've ever been involved in," said Joseph McIntyre, his family-run towing service was one of the companies involved.

The truck hung from the bridge for nearly 24 hours.

"It was just the situation the truck was in, not being able to get to nose of it, not having a lot of room to work, being limited in the space of the freeway," he said.

The group had to secure the truck with chains, wrapping around the trailer and hooking the cab. That was Johnny Monroe’s job, he is the newest guy in the group.

"I chose to, I asked to do it," he said. "I'm just glad it's over with and everyone's safe."
 

Monroe says he didn't think too much about the situation and its risk.
 
"A little bit but like I said if it was my time to go, it's God's will, just doing my job," said Monroe.

The crew tried righting the cab several times, and was finally successful.

"It was just honestly absolute relief, we didn't tear our equipment up we got the job done and myself, my guys and all guys helping us we get to go home safe," said McIntyre.

Once the truck is towed away, crews will install a temporary guardrail and then plow and sand the bridge before reopening it to traffic. NBC 5 has learned the truck was carrying raw rubber to be made into tires.

Lt. Matthew Edwards with the Dallas Police Department said Monday the driver of the truck was fortunate his cab came to rest where it did and that the driver was, "very lucky he got out alive."

While it's not known what caused the driver to lose control, the bridge did appear to be covered with ice. Sleet from a winter storm turned into up to an inch of ice on North Texas roadways overnight Sunday into Monday morning, leading to hundreds of reported crashes.

NBC 5's Ben Russell, Ray Villeda and Julie Fine contributed to this report.

It's now OK for city workers to criticize Boston's bid for the 2024 Olympics, thanks to a change to the city's deal with the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Mayor Marty Walsh announced the change Tuesday, saying that the agreement with the USOC had been revised to remove any language discouraging city employees from criticizing the Olympic bid. Walsh had earlier defended the stipulation, which civil liberties advocates had criticized.

The Boston Globe reported last month that the "joinder agreement" between the city and the USOC banned city employees from badmouthing the 2024 Olympic bid. The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts said the agreement was a violation of the First Amendment right to free speech.

"This revised agreement is the result of positive negotiations with the United States Olympic Committee to reach a consensus that accurately represents how Boston is moving forward with our Olympic bid," Walsh said in a statement.

"I want to thank those who have already offered their thoughts on Boston's bid and I continue to encourage all residents, including city employees, to share their opinions over the coming months. My top priority is to ensure an open and transparent process, and it is important that any proposal is shaped by the input and ideas of people from every neighborhood in order to offer the greatest benefit to our city," Walsh continued.

Walsh's statement characterized the original ban on employee criticism of the Olympic bid as "boilerplate language that all cities have historically signed regarding city employees and their participation in the Olympic process."

Rich Davey, Boston 2024's CEO, said the new agreement "will strengthen Boston's efforts to work with communities to build a stronger Olympic bid."

The next citywide Olympic discussion is scheduled for Tuesday night at 6:30 at the Condon School Cafeteria in South Boston. 

Additional citywide meetings are scheduled for March 31, April 28, May 19, June 30, July 28, Aug. 25 and Sept. 29.

Washing dishes might be the best chore for a kid.

Doing dishes by hand instead of using a dishwasher might prevent or reduce allergies in children, according to a Swedish study published in the journal Pediatrics yesterday.

The study of more than 1,000 children from Sweden found that those living in homes where dishes were washed by hand were 40 percent less likely to develop allergies compared to those in homes with a dishwasher.

A questionnaire asked parents about their dishwashing practices as well as whether their 7- or 8-year-olds had asthma, eczema or seasonal allergies.

The researchers suggest that allergy development was reduced due to increased microbial exposure from the bacteria left on dishes, and that the exposure is good for children because it may stimulate their immune systems.

The report references a German study from 2004 that compared hand-washing techniques and dishwashers and found that half of the subjects did not clean as well as a dishwasher. That study also found that milk products have the potential to stay on utensils enough to pose health risks.

"People whose immune systems are no longer busy fighting infection become disregulated and allergic,” Susan Wasserman, professor of medicine at McMaster University in Canada, told Live Science. Wasserman referred to the "hygiene hypothesis," a theory that the immune systems of children not exposed to as many microbes do know how to fight off allergens such as pollen.

The new study of Swedish children found that the development of allergies in children was reduced even more once the researchers analyzed other lifestyle factors. Eating fermented foods, living in crowded situations, and being a part of an immigrant family all prevent or reduce the development of allergies.

In the commentary of the study, two physicans at University of California, San Francisco, said that dishwater usage and other lifestyle choices should be researched further.

Ted Maloney usually drives past the same Ventura County rail crossing each day and hears the same familiar honking of the train engineer's horn.

But on Tuesday, Maloney said there was an urgency to the sound of the horn instead of the normal three honks before he heard screeching sounds and looked up to see a fireball.

"This guy was just laying on the horn," said Maloney. "I looked up and just a huge ball of fire. I didn't even see the truck because it was all engulfed in flames."

A Metrolink train leaving Camarillo and bound of Los Angeles had just slammed into a truck on the tracks, injuring nearly 30 people and toppling cars off the track.

Maloney and three farmworkers who were in a nearby berry field ran to help the victims, he said. He entered the overturned car and found a woman suffering from a severe head injury and other victims who were standing on the windows, which had become the floor of the car after it flipped over.

"Everything was just tossed around," said Maloney. "The seats were all in place, but there were laptops laying around, jackets, coats laying around."

Maloney made a bandage out of a sweater and tried to provide medical aid for the injured woman before paramedics arrived, he said. Four of the victims were hospitalized in critical condition with head, neck and back injuries after the Los Angeles-bound train's derailment between Camarillo and Oxnard.

The truck driver was detained after running from the crash site, police said. He was identified only as a 54-year-old man produce truck driver from Arizona who suffered minor injuries that were not related to the crash, police said.

Investigators are attempting to determine whether the truck was intentionally stopped on the tracks or whether the driver made a mistake, said Oxnard Assistant Police Chief Jason Benites.

Authorities said a crash energy management system likely limited the number of injuries and might have prevented fatalities. To help absorb the impact of collisions, Metrolink has been introducing the crash-resistant cars that have specialized bumpers and so-called "crush zones" designed to collapse in crashes and protect passenger cars.

Three of the four passenger cars were equipped with the technology.

The driver of the produce truck at the center of the Southern California commuter train crash that sent 28 people to hospitals was being questioned as to why the truck became stuck on the tracks, police said.

The 54-year-old driver, identified as Jose Alejandro Sanchez Ramirez, was arrested on a hit-and-run charge, Oxnard police said. He was found disoriented by a police officer several miles away from the crash scene.

The train derailed about 5:45 a.m. just east of the Oxnard station, near Rice Avenue and Fifth Street. The crash sent more than two dozen people to hospitals, including four in critical condition. The derailment interrupted rail service from Ventura County.

Little was left of the truck except scorched and mangled wreckage, with some debris found in a nearby intersection and some close to the tracks.

Oxnard Assistant Police Chief Jason Benites said during a news conference that when the truck was safe to search, police found no sign of a driver or any passengers. It was a patrol officer who spotted the driver — disoriented, but otherwise OK — several miles away. He was taken to a hospital for observation, Benites said.

Officers were sifting through a complicated scene to determine what caused the crash. Benites said it started when the driver of the box truck, with a trailer, turned onto the tracks instead of nearby Fifth Street and became stuck.

The driver was not arrested, but police were looking into any "potential acts" that would require a criminal investigation, Benites said.

The Metrolink train carrying 48 passengers and three crew members was heading from Ventura County to Los Angeles.

With polls in the mayoral contest closing in a matter of hours, Mayor Rahm Emanuel showed no signs of slowing down Tuesday. 

And neither, apparently, did his motorcade. 

The mayor's two-car transport cruised through a red light at 11th Street and Michigan Avenue following a lunch apperance, a Chicago Tribune reporter tweeted. 

Spokespersons for both the mayor's campaign and city office said they were not aware of any such incident Tuesday. 

But wouldn't be the first time the mayor and his entourage found themselves on the wrong side of the city's traffic laws. One January report found he racked up five different red light tickets in just two months. 

The mayor has defended his driving transgressions, saying he personally pays up for violations that he chalked up to a matter of protocol. A Chicago Police Department spokesman confirmed the two-car Emanuel detail is trained to keep cars together.

“I always pay them,” Emanuel told NBC 5 in January. “Since there’s a tail car given, there are some instances where they can’t get through a light because they can’t get separated from the first car. That may be what happened but whatever it is I pay them, even though I’m not driving.”

Still, the report drew a jab from opponents of the mayor's controversial red light camera implementation, who said in a statement that the mayor "has proven once again that he is above his own law" . 

Emanuel is one of five candidates running in Tuesday's mayoral election. If no one wins more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two finishers will face off in an April runoff election. 

For complete Election Day coverage, visit NBC Chicago's Ward Room blog. Click here to follow live results once the polls close at 7 p.m. 

San Diego Police arrested a man Tuesday for possessing a cart full of stolen school computers.

The man was spotted by a patrol officer on Esmeraldas Drive just after 3 a.m. The officer shined his light on the man and the man ran off.

The man’s cart was carrying 20 to 30 laptops with barcodes identifying them as property of the San Diego Unified School District.

After a search of the area, police said they found the man walking about a block away on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard. He was taken into custody.

The Serra High School principal walked through the campus with San Diego Police and found a broken window that may have been used as a point of entry.

They have turned over the investigation to determine where the computers belong to San Diego Unified School Police.

San Diego Police Lt. Paul Connelly said the department got a call a couple of hours before the arrest reporting a noise from Serra High School. Officers checked out the report but found nothing. Investigators aren’t sure if the two are related.

A woman was arrested in La Mesa, accused of carjacking a pizza delivery man and driving his SUV for miles before getting caught in a road closure.

A fuel spill closed down Amaya Drive around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Officers helping to direct traffic in the area recognized an SUV that had been reported stolen earlier in the evening.

Police stopped the vehicle in the parking lot of the 7-Eleven and detained the woman behind the wheel.

A delivery driver for Happy’s Pizza in El Cajon had called police to say he’d been carjacked on Chase Avenue.

While the woman was in handcuffs pleading her case with officers, the delivery driver walked by and yelled at the woman.

El Cajon police arrested the woman and say they aren't looking for any more suspects.
 

An El Camino High School graduate was the victim in a fatal highway rollover last week, school officials confirmed.

Stephen Asebedo, 18, of Oceanside was seriously injured on Feb. 16 when his 1992 Nissan pickup veered across two lanes of traffic along Interstate 5.

The truck overturned several times before eventually hitting a light pole and landing in a ditch near Poinsettia Road.

Emergency personnel who responded to the incident just after 3 a.m. helped to cut Asebedo out of the wreckage and rushed him to Scripps Hospital La Jolla.

He suffered major head trauma and later succumbed to his injuries.

A 2014 El Camino High School yearbook includes a picture of Asebedo, who friends say was a member of the volleyball team.

A school official said administrators were aware an alumnus had passed away but were not offering any on-campus counseling. Rather, the school would make counselors available to any student having difficulty dealing with the loss.

The cause of the incident was under investigation.

A precautionary lockdown placed at Valley Center Middle School has been lifted, the school said.

The school was placed on lockdown as the San Diego Sheriff's Department checked a nearby house on North Lake Wohlford Road for reported domestic violence and a bomb threat.

The California Highway Patrol created a perimeter around the school and casino while they investigated the incident.

The man, who appeared intoxicated, said there were were several bombs and devices placed in or around the home, deputies said.

Deputies froze at the scene and the Sheriff's bomb squad responded, checking for explosives on the property. They found nothing and took the man into custody.

Students at the middle school were dismissed as usual at 2:45 p.m., and all after school sports were canceled on Tuesday.

"Many thanks to the San Diego Sheriff's deputies and detectives for their support today, and to our staff and students for a job well done," the school said on its website.

President Barack Obama formally rejected congressional Republicans' efforts to force construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, the third veto of his presidency and reportedly the likely start of a wave of vetoes as he approaches the end of his second term.

Prior to notifying the Senate of his Keystone veto Tuesday afternoon, Obama used the power of his pen just two times in his six years in the White House. That matched the number of vetoes made by George Washington.

Obama's first veto — a rejection of a stopgap spending bill meant to keep the Defense Department funded — was described as a technicality by White House officials when it occurred in December 2009. The move was null, however, as Congress approved the defense spending bill before the previous budget expired.

The second time around, Obama withheld his signature — a pocket veto — in October 2010 from legislation that would have made notarizations completed in one state more easily recognized in other states. His office cited possible unintended consequences as the reason for his veto.  Consumer advocates said the bill, if passed, would make it easier for major mortgage lenders to rush through the foreclosure process.

"The presidential power to veto legislation is one I take seriously," Obama said in a message that accompanied his Keystone veto on Tuesday. "But I also take seriously my responsibility to the American people."

Obama has said that his administration is still considering the project to pipe oil from Canada's tar sands to Gulf Coast refineries, though he rejected attempts by lawmakers to force its approval.

The New York Times reported that Obama's move could kickstart a flurry of vetoes from the 44th president as he wraps up his final two years in office.

He would only need nine more to match his predecessor, George W. Bush. However it is unlikely he will swipe his pen enough to match record-holder Franklin D. Roosevelt. FDR vetoed 635 bills during his 12-year presidency. Grover Cleveland has the next highest number of vetoes, 414 measures nixed during two non-consecutive terms in the White House.

Check out how Obama has fared compared to his predecessors. Scroll over for more info on past presidents:

As a teen, Kristin Greene was devoted to horses. She rode, groomed and trained them at her family’s Lakeside ranch.

Kristin won praise and a room full of trophies during a decade of equestrian competition.

“If she got into something, she was into it a hundred percent," said Kristin’s sister, Lisa Bond.

But Kristin left the horses behind with the birth of her first child.

“Her behavior completely changed," Bond said. She said Kristin complained of post-partum depression and severe migraine headaches, and took strong prescription medicine for those aliments.

Bond and Kristin’s father, Mike Greene, said Kristin repeatedly lied and minimized her problems when confronted about her growing dependence on prescription pain-killers, sleeping pills and sedatives.

Her family persuaded Kristin to enter a drug rehab program in 2011. Despite that intervention, they said Kristin tried to kill herself several times by overdosing on prescription narcotics.

Then, on Nov. 28, 2013, the day after Thanksgiving, Kristin succeeded in ending her life with a toxic cocktail of prescription pain-killers and sedatives.

“So ‘Black Friday’ to us is really a Black Friday," said Bond.

That same day, investigators from the county Medical Examiner’s office found more than 30 prescription bottles in the bedroom of Kristin’s Lakeside home.

Some of those bottles were empty; others were missing just a few pills. Many of the medications were powerful and potentially addictive, including sedatives, anti-anxiety medicines and narcotics.

After investigators left, Kristin’s family searched her bedroom again. They found 32 more pill bottles, many of them also for potentially dangerous controlled substances.

“We found stuff in the craziest places” Bond said. “In pockets of jackets, in old shoe boxes, inside her shoes, hidden in Tampon boxes."

In all, more than 60 prescriptions written by nine different medical professionals, in the previous five years.

What the family learned in the aftermath of that tragedy prompted them to ask questions about how medical professionals handled Kristin’s treatment, and the huge numbers and kinds of prescription medications they gave her.

It was also the first time they saw, in black-and-white, just how much medication Kristin had been taking. According to her family, Kristin consumed many other prescription drugs in the years leading up to her suicide, resulting in a history of deadly abuse that they feel could have been treated more effectively by her doctors and managed more effectively by the pharmacies that filled all those prescriptions.

Dr. Clark Smith, a psychiatrist and addiction medicine specialist, agrees with Kristin’s family. He and other professionals told NBC 7 Investigates about a computer database that might have saved Kristin’s life and the lives of the more than 1000 other Californians who die every year of accidental prescription drug overdose or who struggle with unrelenting prescription drug addiction. (In San Diego County last year, 259 people died of prescription drug overdoses, according to the Medical Examiner’s office.)

The database is called the “Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System”, or “CURES.” It was developed more than six year years ago by the California Department of Justice.

Doctors, pharmacists and other medical professionals can access CURES on their computer to review a patient’s prescription history.

That information is designed to alert them to potential problems, including over-prescribing and doctor-shopping, when a patient obtains controlled substances from multiple providers without those providers knowing about the other prescriptions.

“I think if CURES were used on a regular basis, we would see tremendous progress in cutting back prescription drug dependence,” Smith said.

But, NBC 7 Investigates found that CURES is not used on a regular basis by medical professionals. Our investigation also revealed that CURES has been dogged by problems since its inception.

In testimony to the Medical Board of California last July, the state employee who administers the database, Mike Small, admitted it’s very cumbersome and time consuming for doctors and other medical professionals to register for CURES.

Small acknowledged that CURES sometimes cannot handle the demands of multiple users accessing patient prescription histories. “I get kicked out myself, and it doesn’t show me your password expired. It kind of leaves it to your imagination,” he said.

Viewing patient data is equally challenging and unpredictable, Small he told the medical board. “Usually in the existing system, it can be moments to never” for a provider to access a patient’s history.

In addition, data obtained by NBC 7 Investigates reveals as of this month, less than 20 percent of eligible health care workers are registered for CURES.
Other problems with CURES date back to its debut, when state legislators unknowingly made it illegal for medical professionals to share patient information, which is the very reason CURES was created.

That legislation was later rewritten to remove that prohibition, but in 2011, Governor Jerry Brown cut all funding for CURES as a result of the state’s financial problems.

Also, pharmacists have up to seven days to enter a prescription in the database, which can give drug abusers time to “doctor-shop” and stockpile addictive medications.

Despite Small’s commitment and dedication to fixing the database, he made the embarrassing admission to doctors that shortcomings beyond his control have badly undermined the system’s potential. “My joke to my colleagues is if I tried as hard as I can to build a terrible system, I don't think I could meet this," he said.

Problems with the CURES database provided ammunition for the California Medical Association to defeat a ballot measure last November that would have required doctors to check a patient’s prescription history before prescribing a controlled substance.

The legislature recently restored funding for CURES, paid for by a fee imposed on California physicians, and Small is confident that “CURES 2.0,” which is scheduled to debut on June 30, will be much easier to use.

Small said the new system will be able to handle many more users, which is important because the new legislation also requires all California pharmacists and prescribers to register for CURES.

Dr. Clark Smith said he hopes those improvements are made as scheduled. “The incidence of overdose deaths, emergency room visits and addiction problems related to prescription drugs is going up every year. We need every tool available to us to try and control this.”

If CURES works as planned, Smith and other professionals told NBC 7 Investigates they would support legislation requiring medical professionals to check the CURES system before prescribing controlled substances for a new patient, and to make periodic follow-up checks on those patients.

Such a requirement would have increased the odds of preventing Kristin’s suicide, her family said.

Less than two months before her death, Kristin tried to kill herself with an overdose.

She ended up in the emergency room at a local hospital.

According to Smith, if Kristin's doctors and the pharmacies that filled her prescriptions had known about that earlier suicide attempt, they would not have given her the ten additional prescriptions she obtained in the seven weeks before her death.

The first of the prescriptions was written just four days after Kristin was discharged from the emergency room. She obtained the last one just two days before she killed herself.

At least four of those medications were found in Kristin’s system when she died, including the powerful narcotic Oxymorphone, which the Medical Examiner says contributed to Kristin’s death.

One of the two doctors who wrote those ten prescriptions told us no one from the emergency room notified him about Kristin's attempted suicide.

This doctor says had he known, he never would have given Kristin those medications and would have instead insisted that she immediately get intense mental health and addiction treatment.

The other doctor declined to discuss any aspect of Kristin's treatment.

A review of Kristin’s medication history by NBC 7 Investigates also reveals all but one of those ten prescriptions -- and the vast majority of her medications obtained by Kristin in the four years before her death -- were filled by CVS pharmacies in San Diego County. Smith and Kristin’s family said they feel CVS should have been more aggressive in alerting Kristin’s doctors to potential problems with over-prescribing and dangerous drug interactions.

Dr. Smith notes that Kristin was given prescriptions for short-acting barbiturates, a tranquilizer and a strong narcotic, all in the seven weeks before she overdosed. Smith said those medications are a dangerous, potentially deadly combination.

According to Smith, the pharmacists should have alerted Kristin’s doctors to the problem. “Just like they would stop a penicillin prescription for someone allergic, they could stop a barbiturate prescription for someone who already has it,” said Dr. Smith.

Citing patient confidentiality, a CVS spokesperson declined to discuss Kristin’s case and would not disclose whether its pharmacists contacted any of Kristin’s doctors.

In a statement, the company told NBC 7 Investigates “our pharmacists use their professional judgment when determining whether a prescription for a controlled substance was issued for a legitimate reason.” A CVS spokesman also said the company is combating prescription drug abuse by reviewing prescriber data to identify providers “with extreme patterns of prescribing controlled substances and suspend(ing) the dispensing of these high-risk drugs…”

But the company indicated it does not require its pharmacists to use the CURES database, and instead allows them to “exercise their professional judgment to determine when to check those databases prior to filling a prescription.”

Kristin’s family members say they’ll keep asking tough questions about CURES and other preventative measures that might have saved Kristin’s life.

They’ll be helped in that effort by another Californian who suffered a similar tragedy.

Bob Pack, whose two young children were killed in 1993 by a drug-impaired driver, now spends much of his time lobbying for a stronger CURES system and mandatory use of that system by medical professionals.

“You just look at the numbers, and it’s terrible,” Pack told NBC 7 Investigates. “More people are dying from abusing prescription narcotics in California than from car accidents each year.”

Pack said the four other states that require mandatory use of a CURES-type database have reduced “doctor-shopping” by addicts by more than 50 percent and have seen a significant reduction in the number of narcotics prescribed by doctors. Those states are New York, Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia.

“I just believe that it’s a kind of life-long journey for me,” Pack said of his efforts to strengthen the CURES system. “Maybe a healing process for me, personally, knowing that I could help save someone else’s life, when the things I’m working on could have saved my own children’s lives.”

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Four Wesleyan University students have been arrested in connection with MDMA, or "Molly, overdoses that sent 11 off their peers to the hospital over the weekend, according to the Middletown Police Department.

Of the dozen people hospitalized Sunday night, two are still receiving treatment at Hartford Hospital. School officials declined to comment on their conditions, citing privacy concerns.

Wesleyan students Eric Lonergan, 21; Andrew Olson, 20; Zachary Kramer, 21; and Rama Agha Al Nakib, 20, were arrested Tuesday on drug charges and immediately suspended from the school.

"The University takes allegations of the distribution of drugs seriously and is cooperating with state and local officials," Wesleyan University President Michael Roth said in a statement Tuesday night. "We will do everything we can to make our community as safe as possible."

The charges are as follows:

• Lonergan has been charged with possession of a controlled substance and 16 counts of illegally obtaining or supplying drugs. His bond was set at $100,000.
• Olson was charged with two counts of possession of a hallucinogen, sale of a hallucinogen, possession of less than half an ounce of marijuana, possession of marijuana with intent to sell and possession of drug paraphernalia. Olson's bond was set at a total of $175,000.
• Kramer was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of a regulated substance and possession of less than half an ounce of marijuana. Bond was set at $75,000.
• Al Nakib has been charged with three counts of possession of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell and possession of drug paraphernalia. Her bond was set at $100,000.

Middletown Police Chief William McKenna said all four students were in custody by 8 p.m. Tuesday, adding that police searched "certain locations in and around the campus" to collect evidence.

Investigators are also working to identify chemicals included in the MDMA that sickened students on Sunday.

“This particular batch may have had a mixture of several kinds of designer drug chemicals, making the health risks unpredictable and treatment to combat the effects complex and problematic,” McKenna said Tuesday evening.

It's not the first time the campus has had a close call with Molly. An email sent to students in September said several of their peers were hospitalized after taking the drug.

A spokesperson for the university said Wesleyan is taking steps to keep students both informed and safe.

"The drug ‘Molly’ is widespread and becoming increasingly more prevalent on college campuses nationwide. Following the student hospitalizations in September, Wesleyan's Health Services Department emailed information to all students warning about the dangers of the drug," Lauren Rubenstein, Associate Manager of Public Relations at Wesleyan, said in a statement Tuesday.

Rubenstein added that the information is posted on the Health Services website and will be distributed to students again in light of this weekend's overdoses.

"Wesleyan also offers a wide range of drug prevention, education and treatment programs and resources, and responds to drug and alcohol violations with sanctions, as appropriate," she added.

Students, however, have expressed doubts over the university's ability to mitigate the problem.

"I don't really think it's something a university can control as a unit," said Wesleyan sophomore Hailey Sholty. "I think it's something that individuals control themselves."

Police emphasized Tuesday night that the investigation is ongoing and that "offenders will be held accountable."

All four students arrested will appear in court March 3.

Anyone with information is urged to call Middletown police.

NBC 7's Gene Cubbison has this analysis on the Chargers stadium dilemma: 

It's now official — the San Diego City Council really, really wants the Chargers to stay.

But with the Los Angeles market eager for an NFL team, time to keep the Bolts local may be running out.

On Thursday came a formal city council resolution of undying commitment to working toward a stadium solution with the Chargers.

But there was no mention in all the phrases beginning “whereas” and the “be it resolved” of how much and under what conditions they're ready to commit.

In this high-stakes scrimmage, will Mayor Kevin Faulconer's "read-and-react" game plan sway a team that's being lured toward Los Angeles?

"You can't do that on this issue — you're going to have to, at some point, stand behind an idea of what you want to happen,” said Voice of San Diego editor Scott Lewis.

“Even if that idea is 'Sayonara, have fun in L.A.' or the idea is 'Let's build a stadium in downtown or Mission Valley, and let's get this thing done.' I think he's just trying to have it both ways, and now he's paying from both sides."

And, as hard questions linger in San Diego about who pays what for a new stadium, those questions already are pretty much answered about the project St. Louis Rams Stan Kroenke and his investment partners are planning in Inglewood.

The city council approved the venture in a multibillion-dollar renewal effort called "City of Champions Revitalization Initiative.”

Meantime, downtown San Diego’s East Village target site carries a 5-to-7 year timeline to get rid of the Metro Transit System bus yard, according to an MTS memorandum.

That would appear to leave Mission Valley’s Qualcomm Stadium site as the faster track to redevelop — assuming a laundry list of issues can be resolved.

"I think what the Chargers have made clear in the past number of weeks is that they're fed up,” Councilman Todd Gloria said in an interview Tuesday. “I think fans are fed up and they're getting incredibly nervous and expecting some leadership."

At City Hall, following a pep talk by Faulconer, the Council voted 8-0 (with one absentee) on a resolution proclaiming the Chargers "a source of civic pride and inspiration", and declaring the city "fully committed" to keeping them.

Die-hard Bolts fans who attended the Council session can't imagine what the city would be like without the team.

"It would be like, even a death in the family — you really don't get over with it, but you learn to live with it,” Serra Mesa resident Butch Dye, sporting a Bolts #32 (Eric Weddle) jersey, told NBC 7. “I think that's what could happen. But it won’t happen because the Chargers are gonna stay."

Said Lemon Grove resident Don Holdren: “To me, with all the friends and fan base I know, we’ll no longer be Charger fans. It’s a terrible thing, but us sharing a stadium with the Raiders is like sleeping with the enemy. And I don’t see it happening.”

Rahm Emanuel failed to clinch another term as Chicago's mayor on Tuesday, setting the stage for an unprecedented runoff election against challenger Jesus "Chuy" Garcia.

Results showed the incumbent mayor with about 46 percent of the vote, short of the 50 percent-plus-one support he needs to win another term outright. Garcia, a Cook County commissioner, came in second place with 34 percent. 

The results mean the two will face off April 7, a potentially embarrassing result for a high-profile politician who has already spent millions in his re-election bid. It is the first time since the city changed its election system in the 1990s that an incumbent mayor is forced into a runoff. 

"We have come a long way and we have a little bit farther to go," Emanuel told supporters. "This is the first step in a real important journey for our city. To those who voted for me in this election, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. For those who voted for someone else, I hope to earn your confidence and your support in the weeks to come." 

A boisterous Garcia celebrated the outcome as a win over moneyed interests and other powerful forces supporting the incumbent, saying the results show "the people have spoken."

"Nobody thought we’d be here tonight," Garcia said. "They wrote us off; they said we didn’t have a chance. They said we didn’t have any money while they spent millions attacking us. Well, we’re still standing! We’re still running! And we’re gonna win!" 

Emanuel, a former White House chief of staff, struggled to rise above 50 support throughout the campaign, even as he outpolled his four lesser-funded and known challengers. A late campaign blitz that blanketed the airwaves and a public appearance last week with President Barack Obama — a move seen as an effort to appeal to undecided African-American voters — couldn’t propel the 55-year-old mayor to victory.

The 55-year-old Democrat anchored his re-election bid on first-term efforts to better the lives of Chicagoans, highlighting pushes to expand access to early childhood education, raise the minimum wage and improve the city’s business climate and infrastructure. But he faced criticism for other major policies pursued during his first term, including his decision to close dozens of schools.

The school closures fueled a tumultuous relationship with the Chicago’s Teachers Union, which went on strike in 2012. The union, which also clashed with Emanuel over other changes to the city’s education system, endorsed Garcia after a brain cancer diagnosis sidelined its own president, Karen Lewis.

Political expert John P. Frendreis said while Garcia is “funny, he’s got a good speaking presence, he’s been around long enough, he’s got this colorful nickname so people kind of know him,” it was the support of the teachers that made the race competitive. 

“It’s really the school controversy, the closure of schools, the continued opening of charter schools and then the ... battle with the CTU and Rahm that has generated any kind of heat in this and has made him even remotely vulnerable,” the political science professor at Loyola University in Chicago, said ahead of Tuesday’s race.

Emanuel's “bare-knuckles” approach to running the city, despite yielding results in some areas, also hurt his standing with some voters, analysts say.

“He’s reasonably good at his job,” Freindreis said. “Now where he has stumbled is that he is a tough guy and he is a bully and sometimes he is just too smart for his own good and so he’s rubbed people the wrong way because he’s not nice.”

Emanuel’s challengers criticized him throughout the campaign for not doing enough to help bring jobs, safer streets and other opportunities to all Chicagoans. Garcia told NBC Chicago he would, to hire a thousand more police officers, reduce class sizes and standardized tests and “invest in neighborhoods to attract manufacturing or industrial-creation jobs.” In addition to the backing from the teachers, he also gained headlines for winning the endorsement of the liberal political group MoveOn.org. The group applauded Tuesday's results as a "huge win for progressives and working families across Chicago." 

Even if Emanuel succeeds in winning a second term in April, some observers say the education initiatives he pushed in his first four years could take a hit in Chicago and beyond.

“Over the next few years you could have mayors, some Democrats and some Republicans, in cities
across the nation saying I’m going to pick the kids over the unions,” said Keith Koeneman, author of “First Son: The Biography of Richard M. Daly.”

Check back with NBCChicago.com for more on this developing story. For complete election night coverage, visit the Ward Room blog. 

A man wanted on a federal warrant for failing to appear for sentencing in an aggravated assault case set off a wild chase that started in New Jersey and ended on the Brooklyn side of the Verrazano Bridge when he tried to flee the U.S. Marshals searching for him, authorities say.

Chopper 4 exclusively captured the dramatic sequence of events Tuesday. 

It started when a U.S. Marshals task force working with the Monmouth County Sheriff's Office went to a home in Old Bridge, New Jersey to act on a lead they'd gotten on 41-year-old Anthony Mazza, the U.S. Marshals' Regional New York/New Jersey Task Force said. 

The officers were staking out the home when the suspect's vehicle appeared, with Mazza in the front passenger seat, according to authorities. A woman was driving the car, and another man was in the backseat. 

Mazza apparently noticed the Marshals, and the car took off, authorities said. The task force officers attempted to pull over the vehicle in a traffic stop, and as they got close, Mazza allegedly pushed the woman out of the car and onto the road.

Mazza took off in the vehicle, and U.S. Marshals gave pursuit. He was believed to be dangerous, sources said. 

The woman was found to be OK.

As the car approached the Garden State Parkway, the U.S. Marshals reached out to New Jersey State Police, who took over the pursuit, according to the Marshals. As Mazza went onto the Outerbridge Crossing into Staten Island, Port Authority police were then notified, and they tried to set up roadblocks on the New York side.

Mazza managed to avoid the roadblocks and continued onto the Verrazano Bridge and into Brooklyn, at which point the NYPD and MTA police got involved, according to authorities.

Police radio transmissions obtained by NBC 4 New York reveal officers communicating urgently to have the bridge closed. 

"Could you have the highway shut down please? And notify TBTA to shut the bridge," one dispatch stated. 

TBTA is short for Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, the legal name for the MTA.

Chopper 4 showed nearly half a dozen vehicles, many with sirens blaring, zipping across the span of the Verrazano and on residential streets before the runaway vehicle crashed on the Brooklyn side shortly after 2 p.m.

The runaway car wove to either side of the road as it tried to evade the police cars and managed to separate from the cruisers for a moment on the Brooklyn side of the span before police caught up. 

Chopper 4 showed the getaway car and the law enforcement vehicles speed past other cars in the Bath Beach neighborhood, including ones stopped at a traffic light, before a marked police car bumped into the getaway car from behind. 

A person in a red shirt was seen getting out of the passenger side of the vehicle and trying to run after the crash. Mazza momentarily appeared to try to flee again, but the banged-up car couldn't go far. 

MTA Bridges & Tunnels officers surrounded the vehicle and took Mazza into custody on 14th Avenue, the agency said. The person in the red shirt, identified as Timothy Isaken, was also apprehended. 

Resident Danny Castillo was inside his home when he heard the chase-ending crash that wrecked his red van parked outside. 

"I hear 'boom, boom, boom,' he hit three cars here. I see cops and helicopters everywhere," he told NBC 4 New York. "They ran out and chase some guy." 

"It was unbelievable, I've never seen anything like that happen, over here, especially," said Castillo.

Local police protocol for chases generally calls for a balance between apprehension and maintaining public safety. 

Mazza was charged with eluding and aggravated assault on police, and Iskane was charged with obstruction. They were first taken into custody at the 68th Precinct station in Bay Ridge. and then moved to the 121st Precinct station on Staten Island. 

It's not clear if they had attorneys. 

Two Port Authority police officers were treated for minor injuries. No one else was hurt, officials said. 

Mazza's aggravated assault case stemmed from a domestic violence incident, officials said. 

One San Diego Humane Society employee got the surprise of her life when she sat down with Ellen Degeneres.

Jesse Tyler was a guest on The Ellen Show Monday with her boyfriend at-the-time, John King-Hernandez.

During a game of Heads Up, King-Hernandez got down on one knee and pulled out a ring. In response, Tyler squealed and fell into her boyfriend's arms.

"And you didn't even say yes. But are you saying 'yes?'" Ellen asked. Tyler said yes and kissed her boyfriend.

Tyler never dreamed her fiancée would propose to her on national television.

“I’m such an Ellen fan because she loves animals and cares about animal rescue. I’ve been writing letters for years, trying to get tickets to attend a taping of the show,” said Tyler when asked about the appearance in a statement. “I had no idea John was going to propose to me on the show – it was such a surprise!”

Degeneres spoke to Tyler about her position as Volunteer Recruitment Coordinator with the San Diego Humane Society during the interview and encouraged people to adopt rescued pets.

The couple have been dating for more than four years. They have not set a wedding date yet, but the financial burden of planning has been alleviated after the couple received a $10,000 gift from Shutterfly.

The couple's appearance on the episode airs Tuesday at 3 p.m. on KNSD. You can watch it live by clicking here.

Heads up, commuters: All lanes of southbound Interstate 805 will be closed between Interstate 5 to Miramar Road and La Jolla Village Drive during the nights of Tuesday through Thursday.

The closures will start at 9:30 p.m. and end at 5 a.m., according to Caltrans. Drivers will be detoured to southbound I-5 then State Route 52 to northbound or southbound I-805.

The closures are necessary for bridge work over Carroll Canyon.

The Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Robert McDonald, apologized again Tuesday for saying he once served in the Special Forces.

"In an attempt to connect with that veteran to make him feel comfortable, I incorrectly stated that I too had been in Special Forces," McDonald said outside the Department of Veterans Affairs, NBC News reports.

"That was wrong and I have no excuse."

McDonald made the claim while speaking to a homeless man during a segment that aired last month on "CBS Evening News."

In a statement released by the VA, McDonald said: “I asked the man where he had served in the military. He responded that he had served in special forces. I incorrectly stated that I had been in special forces. That was inaccurate and I apologize to anyone that was offended by my misstatement."

McDonald recently visited San Diego where the agency is spending $11.3 million to hire more medical staff and increase facility space to handle the large number of military personnel - both retired and active - that call the city home.

McDonald toured the Veterans Affairs of San Diego in September 2014.

President Barack Obama chose the former Procter & Gamble CEO to take over the scandal-plagued VA last year, and McDonald took office last July.