New information released Friday from the California Department of Motor Vehicles shows the agency has received nearly twice the number of applications for driver licenses from undocumented immigrants as projected.

As of March 27, 2015, nearly half a million people have applied for the license under AB 60 which went into effect earlier this year. Here’s a look at the numbers:

• 493,998 Total number of applications for a driver license
• 448,693 Applicants with necessary documents to obtain a license without further review
• 203,000 Approximate number who have obtained a license
• 28,163   Applicants requiring additional review (duplicate records or other administrative process)
• 17,142 Applicants without necessary documents who can schedule a second review

DMV Director Jean Shiomoto said the agency had expected to reach the half-million milestone in July 2015.

California is one of 10 states that now provide licenses to immigrants in the country illegally. The licenses issued to immigrants without legal status will include a distinctive marking and are not considered a valid form of federal identification.

Before the law went into effect, it was estimated that approximately 1.4 million people would apply over the next three years.

Immigrant advocates have cheered the licenses as a way to integrate immigrants who must drive to work and shuttle children to school.

Critics have questioned state officials' ability to verify the identity of foreign applicants, citing security concerns.

In preparation for the added workflow, the DMV opened four locations in San Diego County on Saturdays: Clairmont, Chula Vista, San Ysidro and El Cajon.

A San Diego man accused of trying to kidnap a girl from the campus of a Solana Beach elementary school appeared expressionless when he faced a judge for the first time Friday.

Jack Henry Doshay, 22, walked into court Friday wearing blue prison clothing. He pleaded not guilty to  one count of kidnapping of a child under 14, one count of false imprisonment with violence and one count of felony child abuse.

The charges are connected to the attempted abduction of a student from the campus of Skyline Elementary School on March 23.

A 7-year-old girl was grabbed by a man holding packing tape as she walked from class to her after-school care. Officials say the man began to wrap the tape around the girl's head and was picking the girl up when her screams and kicks alerted adults nearby.

The girl escaped and the man fled.

Ten days later, deputies announced Doshay's arrest. Sheriff Bill Gore said there appears to be no connection between Doshay and the victim in the incident. He did say Doshay's brother lives near Skyline Elementary School.

In court Friday, defense attorney Paul Pfingst argued there is a question of identification in the case and asked his client not be shown in media reports of the hearing. Judge William C. Gentry, Jr. approved the motion.

During the rest of the hearing, Doshay appeared to follow what was happening. He looked at attorneys as they spoke and when asked a question by Judge Gentry, he appeared to nod and respond.

At one point he took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

Defense attorney Paul Pfingst said Doshay was in treatment for depression in Laguna Niguel when he was arrested Thursday by San Diego County Sheriff’s Deputies.

Doshay is the son of Glenn and Karen Doshay of Fairbanks Ranch. Glenn Doshay owns a minority stake in the San Diego Padres. He and his wife are known as philanthropists in San Diego County and have donated money to several charities aimed at helping children.

Family members did not attend Friday's hearing on the advice of their attorney.

"The family is very distressed about the accusations," Pfingst said. "It’s very upsetting to everyone involved."

"They want to support their son but they’re very concerned of course about everything that is happening."

Deputy District Attorney Ryan Saunders said that if convicted of all charges Doshay would face a maximum of 11 years behind bars.

The next hearing will be a bail review held Thursday, April 9.

A San Diego man convicted of identity theft and extortion after posting more than 10,000 sexually explicit photos of women to his so-called "revenge porn" website was sentenced on Friday to 18 years behind bars.

The sentencing of Kevin Bollaert ended an all-day hearing where a number of victims told of the humiliation inflicted from his website. Bollaert burst into tears as he listened to testimony from his mother and victims.

The sentence was at the high end of the range; Bollaert faced a maximum of 20 years. In explaining his punishment, the judge noted that he stacked the sentencing terms based on the multiple victims.

Considering credits for good behavior, Bollaert could be eligible for parole after 10 years, the judge noted.

Bollaert also must pay $10,000 in restitution.

It was the first case of its type in the United States, and California was the first state to prosecute someone for posting humiliating pictures online. Bollaert was convicted of 27 counts of identity theft and extortion in connection to the thousands of photos posted online.

Once they were published, Bollaert would then demand hundreds of dollars from individuals to remove their photos through a second website he owned.

Prosecutors called Bollaert "vindictive" and claimed he took pleasure out of hurting his female victims with the internet being his "tool of destruction." 

In court Friday, his parents told the judge their son has said he has shown remorse.

"He has said many times he wishes he never made the website...If he could go back and change it all, he would," they said in a statement to the court.

One after another victims shared how they were damaged by Bollaert's actions.

"It's just broken me on a level that's not describable," one woman told the court. "The only thing I have left is shame and anger."

Another explained how she is haunted by her photos being made public, saying,"If someone looks at me? Are they remembering me?" She also described her experience as a daily struggle.

A third victim said she has a hard time acknowledging Bollaert as a human being.

The case centered on a now defunct website called YouGotPosted.com, created by Bollaert so ex-husbands and ex-boyfriends could submit embarrassing photos of victims for revenge. The photos also linked to victims’ social media accounts.

Prosecutors say those who wanted to get the pictures taken down were redirected to another one of Bollaert's sites, ChangeMyReputation.com. There, the victims were charged $300 to $350 to have their photos removed.

State law prohibits anyone from putting identifiable nude photos online after a breakup, punishable with $1,000 or six months in jail.

As a roaring fire ripped through two homes in Spring Valley overnight, one resident saw her entire life go up in flames as she escaped before it was too late.

The fires broke out around 12:30 a.m. on Tarleton Street near Warbollen Street, a block behind Mt. Miguel High School south of Interstate 8 and east of State Route 125, engulfing two houses.

There were a total of eight residents inside both of the homes. All were able to get out safely, including Cheryl Spiegalberg.

She told NBC 7 that amid the chaos she ran outside with her mother still inside the burning home.

“I tried to go in there; I couldn’t make it past the front door. I had to come out until I saw her come out. I didn’t know if she was gone,” Spiegalberg recalled. “I was so happy to see her.”

Spiegalberg said she woke up to her mother’s home and the next-door neighbor’s home both going up in flames.

She said she was awakened by what she thought was a light on in a back room. Quickly, she realized it was a fire tearing through the house and she had just seconds to run to safety.

“It just – we just watched our lives go up. This is all I have. Everything in there – gone,” said Spiegalberg.

The two-alarm fire drew 12 engines from four different agencies. Neighbors said they could hear residents screaming.

In the end, it was a battle crews could not win. At one point, firefighters made a decision to abandon a burning roof for safety reasons.

By the time the sun came up, a few dresser drawers were left behind in the rubble – one of the few things that were recognizable in the charred aftermath.

Construction crews later began boarding up one of the homes. The residents there were still far too shaken to speak with NBC 7 on Friday afternoon.

As for Spiegalberg, she said she’s grateful to be alive. Still, in the devastation of the fire she said there is heartbreaking loss. She managed to save an urn from inside that holds the ashes of her sister.

“My sister was on the mantle. She had died a few years back and we lost her,” she said. “We don't have nothing. I mean, nothing.”

Fire investigators say it’s still too early to determine what caused the fire. The Red Cross and Salvation Army are now offering help to the two families displaced by the fire.

Cigarette smoke has long been known to have harmful health effects and new research shows it also makes superbugs more aggressive.

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego found that when Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), an antibiotic-resistant bacteria, was exposed to cigarette smoke, it became even more resistant to killing by the immune system.

MRSA can cause potentially deadly skin and bloodstream and surgical site infections or pneumonia in patients at hospitals, nursing homes or dialysis centers.

“We already know that smoking cigarettes harms human respiratory and immune cells, and now we’ve shown that, on the flipside, smoke can also stress out invasive bacteria and make them more aggressive,” said senior author Dr. Laura E. Crotty Alexander, assistant clinical professor of medicine at UC San Diego and staff physician at the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System.

Crotty Alexander’s team infected macrophages, immune cells that attack infections, with MRSA. They grew some of the bacteria with cigarette smoke extract. The macrophages attacked both bacterial populations, but they had a harder time killing the MRSA that had been exposed to cigarette smoke extract, researchers found.

The study, published this week in the journal Infection and Immunity, also found that cigarette smoke strengthens MRSA bacteria by altering their cell walls so that they are better able to resist antimicrobial peptides and other charged particles.

“Cigarette smokers are known to be more susceptible to infectious diseases. Now we have evidence that cigarette smoke-induced resistance in MRSA may be an additional contributing factor,” Crotty Alexander said.

The research was funded, in part, by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Another recent study on MRSA found that an ancient concoction for eye infections, which contains garlic, onions and cow bile, kills MRSA, according to researchers at Britain's University of Nottingham.

They sent their findings to an expert at Texas Tech University who found the potion was more effective in battling MRSA than the currently-used antibiotic vancomycin.

Now researchers are trying to figure out what's in the salve that kills germs so effectively.

While a parched California copes with a long-term drought, water threatens to cost the state billions in a much different way if climate change continues unchecked, according to a new study.

By 2050, rising sea levels could engulf between $8 and $10 billion in coastal property, with up to $10 billion more susceptible to tidal flooding, according to the study by climate change research group Risky Business.

Climate change will likely deepen the drought, change rain- and snowfall patterns, double or triple the number of extremely hot days in inland California and more: "Extreme heat will fuel large and costly wildfires, endanger water resources, drive up energy costs, exacerbate air pollution, and threaten human health," says the study, "From Boom to Bust? Climate Risk in the Golden State."

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer chair Risky Business and commissioned the report, released Thursday.

"Every city in California should be concerned about possible impacts (of climate change) on the state's agriculture and water supply," Bloomberg said in a news release.

Rising air temperatures are expected to warm the oceans and melt ice across the world, raising sea levels, according to many climate change models. The Risky Business analysts found that, because 85 percent of Californians live in coastal counties, the state's economic output would be threatened by rising oceans.

By 2100, $19 billion in property will likely be underwater, and the new waterline could threaten coastal infrastructure. San Diego is especially vulnerable, facing a predicted sea-level rise of 1.9 to 3.4 feet, the study says.

Increasing heat is the best understood outcome of climate change, the study's analysts say, probably bringing more extremely hot days and fewer freezing days in the Golden State. That could lead to less snowfall, an important and already-diminishing source of water.

A hotter California would likely impact agriculture beyond what farmers are dealing with under the state's more than three-year drought. For example, Inland Empire cotton crops could yield $38 million less each year by the end of the century because the plant is sensitive to heat, the study says.

The higher heat could threaten outdoor laborers, whose productivity is forecasted to drop up to 2.2 percent by the end of the century in the Inland South region, which include San Bernardino, Riverside, Inyo and Imperial counties. The region would also see a higher energy demand than anywhere else in the state, leading to probable cost increases between 19 and 35 percent, according to the study.

"Every year that goes by without a comprehensive public and private sector response to climate change is a year that locks in future climate events that will have a far more devastating effect on our local, regional, and national economies," the study warns.

Two Chicago men say they were kicked out of a taxi on a city highway because they kissed in the backseat of the vehicle.

Passengers Shadi Ramini and Seth Day said they were on their way to get drinks with friends Wednesday night when they ordered a Blue Ribbon taxi through the Uber app, and then were kicked out on Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive, leaving one of the men injured.

“We shared just a very small kiss, like a big peck, like, excited to go out,” said Ramini.

Ramini said the cab driver saw the kiss and told them he would not take them to their destination.

The driver then allegedly pulled over on Lake Shore Drive between Montrose Avenue and Irving Park Road, telling the men to get out of the car.

“I got out and then Seth still refused to get out of the car,” said Ramini, adding that about 20 feet up the road he saw Seth get out of the car as the driver took off.

"He gets tripped up in the car and that’s where he got injured," Ramini said.

Day suffered scrapes and bruises on his arms and torso, and road burn on his lower back.

“He’s still, he’s very shaken up about it,” Ramini said.

Day told NBC 5 via email that he will be OK physically, but said, “I should be able to kiss whoever I want.”

“If it had been a female I was kissing, there would have been no problem.The fact that this all happened is mind-blowing to me,” he said. “I hope that this brings up more awareness in general for this issue.”

The men say they ordered the taxi through Uber but Uber said the driver was not employed through their company.

“No rider should ever have to go through an experience like this,” Uber said in a statement. “Not only is this Chicago taxi driver’s behavior unacceptable, it’s in clear violation of Illinois’ non-discrimination law and Uber’s zero tolerance discrimination policy. The driver was immediately removed from the platform.”

The driver leases his cab through Blue Ribbon Taxi in Chicago.

"It is not appropriate [for drivers] to stop like that unless they are threatened in some way," said Alex Jelovac, office manager of Blue Ribbon Taxi, who said discrimination based on sexual orientation is "not allowed at our company."

According to the Illinois Department of Human Rights, the Illinois Human Rights Act “prohibits discrimination on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation.”

“It is a civil rights violation for any person to deny or refuse the full use and enjoyment of public accommodations, including such travel services as cab and taxi services, based upon unlawful discrimination,” the department said in a statement. “The Department of Human Rights would need to investigate any complaint to determine if there is substantial evidence of discriminatory conduct.”

Ramini and Day say they reported the incident to Chicago police. While no charges have been filed as of Friday, police said the incident is under investigation.

A convicted killer who attacked a guard and escaped a Kankakee, Illinois, jail facility earlier in the week was back in police custody in late Friday night, officials said.

Chicago Police officers arrested Kamron Taylor, who had a loaded handgun in his possession, shortly before midnight near 92nd Street and South Stony Island in the Calumet Heights neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. Taylor allegedly has connections to Chicago, according to Kankakee County Sheriff Tim Bukowski.

Taylor was charged with four felony counts relating to possession of a firearm, according to Chicago Police.

The Kankakee County Sheriff's Department first announced Kamron Taylor's arrest in a message on Facebook.

Taylor, 23, was recently convicted of murder and was awaiting sentencing when he got away from the Jerome Combs Detention Center at about 3 a.m. Wednesday.

Officers in Chicago initially identified Taylor based on "unusual tattoos," particularly one that depicted an "unusual name" on his neck, Bukowski said. They were called to the area for a report of a suspicious person and found Taylor when they arrived.

"If you're in law enforcement very long, you just get a feeling that something is not right, and I think that's what happened. And the guy took off and fled and they pursued him,"  Bukowski said.

About an hour before Taylor was caught, the reward for information about him was raised to $25,000.

Taylor allegedly escaped from his two-man cell, hid in the jail facility and attacked a guard when he walked by, beating and choking him, Kankakee County Sheriff Tim Bukowski said. He then took the guard's keys, uniform, and 2012 Chevy Equinox.

Officials do not know how Taylor escaped from his cell, but Bukowski believes the inmate did not enter his cell after the facility went on lockdown.

Questions have also been raised about staff cuts at the jail facility that were made in December. The inmates allegedly knew about the staff cuts and may have tried to take advantage of it, Bukowski said.

"They have nothing else to do. They sit in those cells, and they think about things like this, and they work the system pretty well," Bukowski said.

Police about five hours later found the vehicle allegedly used in Taylor's escape in the 1100 block of South Lincoln, but Taylor remained on the run until late Friday night.

More than two dozen officers searched the area for days, believing that Taylor had stayed in the area. Officials said they believed someone was helping Taylor and late Friday night increased the reward for information leading to his arrest.

The guard remains hospitalized, but his condition has improved, according to Bukowski. The sheriff said officials believe Taylor thought he killed the guard by strangulation and will likely be charged accordingly.

Taylor is currently being held in Chicago, but he will likely return to Kankakee jail facilities.

A man was hospitalized after he was bitten by a shark off the coast of Jupiter Friday, officials said.

The man was about three miles from the coast when he was bitten in the upper torso area, Palm Beach County Fire Rescue officials told WPTV.

The man was able to make it back to his boat after the shark bit him, where he was raced to the Jupiter inlet. The man said he believed he was attacked by a bull shark, which is considered the most dangerous shark in the world.

He was in stable condition at St. Mary's Medical Center and was expected to be okay.

The victim told first responders he was spearfishing for cobia when he was bitten.

San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr said Friday he is recommending several officers be fired over accusations that they have exchanged racist and homophobic texts.

Two officers who were involved in the racist text scandal have resigned. Suhr said Friday he expects more officers may do the same.

"It just makes me sick to even talk about this," Suhr said. "There were eight standing officers who engaged in such repulsive conversation via text that I have suspended them and they have been referred to the police commission with a recommendation of only termination."

In addition to the two officers who have resigned, two were reassigned and sent to the police commission for discipline. Four others face lesser punishments.

The names of the officers have not been released by police, but attorneys representing them have identified them as Michael Robison, Noel Schwab, Rain Daugherty, and Michael Celis.

The texts included slurs against blacks, Mexicans, Filipinos and gays. They also feature officers and civilians using the phrase "White power" repeatedly.

What’s now been dubbed “Textgate” stemmed from a federal investigation into Sergeant Ian Furminger, who was convicted in February of fraud and conspiracy. Investigators searched his private cell phone and uncovered countless racist and homophobic text messages, some of which were exchanged with other San Francisco police officers. Court documents revealed by federal prosecutors in a motion to deny bail made some of these texts public.

One read, “All n___s must (expletive) hang.”

In another, someone asks him, “Do you celebrate [Kwanzaa] at your school?” to which he replies, “Yeah, we burn the cross on the field. Then we celebrate Whitemas.”

San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi said this shows an endemic problem plaguing the SFPD.

“This is very unusual because we’re getting a view of sort of what’s going on between at least this group of police officers from one police officer’s private cell phone,” Adachi said. “We would not know this if it were not for the federal corruption trial and investigation that resulted in learning about these texts.”

Tony Brass, the attorney representing Celis, said it’s unclear whether San Francisco can even terminate these officers because of a law that indicates the department has a statute of limitations on when it can act or penalize an officer for conduct. Brass said he believes SFPD knew about these text messages for more than a year – passing that statute.

"Naturally the texts are offensive and the community has legit concerns, but terminating a police officer is not that simple," Brass said. "There are rules."

Adachi issued the following statement Friday:

“Chief Greg Suhr’s recommendation to terminate officers accused of sending racist and homophobic text messages is a step in the right direction, and I strongly encourage the police commission follow suit.

The characterization of these hateful statements as innocent banter is dead wrong. This casual dehumanization leads to real life suffering and injustice. It foments a toxic environment in which citizens fear and distrust the police, brutality reigns, and good officers are less effective.

The chief and the police commission should require all SFPD officers to undergo at least 25 hours in racial bias training. Furthermore, they should institute a policy requiring officers who witness a colleague engaging in racial bias to report it to their superior officers or face discipline.

Training and reinforcement is the only way to ensure that racial bias by police does not harm our citizenry.

We look forward to reviewing all the cases and reports made by the officers involved in sending or responding to the racist texts. We expect that this will significantly widen our investigation."

NBC Bay Area's Kristofer Noceda, Jean Elle and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Photos of a massive school of sharks spotted just south of the Sebastian Inlet in Indian River County Thursday have Facebook users speculating about just what type of sharks they are.

John Massung of Indian River by Air tells NBC 6 South Florida that it's typical to see sharks in the water in north central Florida, but not quite like this.

"It looked like they had traveling in mind. They were heading north," he says.

Massung says the powerful camera he normally uses is in the shop, but even with his backup lens, he was able to catch incredible views of the sharks from his powered parachute.

"It was something to see," he says. "I did fly on for about a mile, and it didn't end!"

Massung says another person was flying to the east of him and the sharks were out that way as well. He was even able to spot a manatee and her baby calf swimming among the sharks.

"They weren't bothering anything. They were just swimming," he says.

Since sharks don't come with name tags, Massung posted the photos to the group's Facebook page asking for input as to what type of sharks they are.

Since then, the post has been shared more than 1500 times with users speculating that they're anything from spinner sharks to black tips to bull sharks. 

 While he doesn't proclaim to be an expert on marine life, Massung, who is originally from Pittsburgh, says he routinely sees sharks coming in through the inlet and into the Sebastian River this time of year as they prepare to give birth.

He says the group of sharks were still in the area Friday, but conditions were not as clear for photographs.

This isn't the first time a post to the Indian River by Air Facebook page has picked up steam. Last August, Massung snapped an incredible photograph of a group of rays coming into the ocean. The group was so large they couldn't all fit in the frame, so he zoomed into a cross section to see the rays layered on top of each other.

"It was an amazing picture, and we had 110,000 hits in just a couple of days," he says.

For more photos and videos, visit Indian River by Air.

Tremors could be felt around north Los Angeles Saturday morning when a string of small earthquakes hit the area, the largest a magnitude 3.1-earthquake, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The temblors struck northwest of Granada Hills within the space of 10 minutes, according to the agency's preliminary earthquake reports. The 3.1-magnitude earthquake, reported at 7:54 a.m., could be felt as far away as Carson.

The LA Fire Department found no significant damage or injuries in a 470-square mile survey following the earthquake.

Two smaller earthquakes preceded the largest temblor: a 2.1-magnitude shaker at 7:46 a.m. and a 2.8-magnitude earthquake (initially reported as a 2.7-magnitude) at 7:52 a.m., both in the same area, according to the USGS.

The earthquakes were reported between Granada Hills and Santa Clarita, the USGS said.

The Los Angeles Fire Department will go into "earthquake mode" to survey the area, spokesman Erik Scott said, but no damage was initially reported.

#LAFD is now in #earthquake mode. M3.1 in greater #LA Area. No significant damage reported. @ 8:23 AM -Erik Scott pic.twitter.com/Z0XK4WrFK9

— LAFD (@LAFD) April 4, 2015

As a precaution, LAFD trucks were rolled out of station houses, where garage doors can jam or stall if a major quake occurs. Seismologists routinely give a 10 percent chance of a major shaker following what turns out to be a foreshock.

“You can't predict, but you can prepare," Scott said as a reminder to residents in a post on the LAFD Facebook page.

More than 400 people sent responses to the agency's "Did You Feel It" map for the 3.1-magnitude shaker.

Refresh this page for updates on this developing story. City News Service contributed to this report.

A man suspected of intentionally setting at least three fires in San Diego’s City Heights area has been arrested, caught red-handed after allegedly setting fire to a porch, investigators announced Saturday.

Rolando Resendiz, 24, is accused of arson, including deliberately setting fire to the porch of a home in the 5200 block of Ogden Stree Friday night.

Detectives from San Diego’s Metro-Arson Strike Team (MAST) said Resendiz was found walking away from the area of that porch fire. He was stopped and questioned by detectives and arrested on the spot.

Over the month of March, more than one dozen other small fires were deliberately set in dumpsters, alleyways, trash cans, beds of pickup trucks and flatbed trailers in the Mid-City area.

One of those fires, on March 5, was also in the 5200 block of Ogden Street. A map of those fires can be seen below.

Evidence collected by detectives also linked Resendiz to the two most recent fires in the arson series, which were set on Landis Street on March 31.

Those involved two mattresses set ablaze in an alleyway near an apartment complex and a fire set inside a dumpster near homes.

Resendiz was booked into San Diego Central Jail early Saturday morning on two counts of arson to an occupied structure and one count of arson to property. He's scheduled to appear in court Wednesday.

NBC 7 spoke with City Heights homeowner Han Sim on Saturday. He was the victim of the porch fire that resulted in Resendiz’s arrest.

Sim told NBC 7 waking up to a fire and police on his porch was an extremely frightening ordeal.

“I'm sleeping and the cop comes to knock my window they want me to get out of the house they say, ‘Fire fire!’ When I come open the door I saw the smoke go inside my house. And I pulled my way outside,” Sim explained.

Sim said he was relieved the suspected arsonist had been caught. He has six family members living at his home, including two granddaughters, and was very worried for their safety.

“I'm happy they got him,” said Sim. “Thank you to the policemen last night; they help my family. They save my life.”

City Heights resident William Seth said he too was glad to hear of an arrest in connection with the fires.

“Why [does] he come around and burn people’s property? Something like that is not right,” Seth said. “We are human. We have to live peacefully.”

The investigation is ongoing. Police have not yet confirmed if Resendiz is the suspect in the 12 other arson fires reported in City Heights over the past month. At this point, it is still unknown if there are additional suspects in this arson series.

On Friday, officials announced a $2,000 reward was being offered for information leading to an arrest in this arson series.

For the first time Friday, victims of a man who ran a “revenge porn” website shared their stories, describing how the cyber-exploitation changed their lives.

After an all-day sentencing hearing in a San Diego courtroom where victims shared their experiences, Kevin Bollaert was sentenced to 18 years in prison for identity theft and extortion after posting more than 10,000 sexually explicit photos of women to his so-called “revenge porn” website.

A group of Bollaert’s victims were flown to San Diego from across the country to be involved in the prosecution and ultimately, his sentencing.

Bollaert was convicted of running a website that allowed the anonymous posting of nude photos of women plus their private information without their permission. Bollaert also ran another website where the victims could pay him hundreds of dollars to take down the embarrassing content posted on the first site.

Nicole Coco, of Pennsylvania, was one of the victims who testified in court.

“Justice has been served and I’m very thankful for this,” said Coco.

For Coco, the ordeal began when she checked her Facebook page one morning and saw vulgar messages from strangers. She said she went to her local police department twice, but not much was done.

“I got the photos removed once. The second time they were like, ‘We’ll try and try again.’ They thought it was my fault, and it was a lot of victim shaming,” said Coco.

Coco said that when a California Department of Justice official reached out to her in regards to criminal charges against Bollaert, that was the first time she was told and felt the situation wasn’t her fault.

“It was amazing because I blamed myself for a long time before that,” she said.

Coco said, before becoming aware of the prosecution of Bollaert, she was so traumatized by the experience she tried to commit suicide.

Megan Borash, of Denver, is another victim of Bollaert and his websites.

“When that guilty verdict came in, you know what? I took a stand. [I knew] what I did was not wrong. I am not ashamed of what I did,” she said.

When asked what the sentencing means to hear, Borash said, “It means a lot. Huge weight off my shoulder. I’m out here talking to you, gave you my information. Ask me yesterday, you wouldn’t have gotten it. It’s time for me to take my life back and start living.”

NBC 7 spoke to criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor Tony Solare who explained what’s commonly known as “revenge porn” cases can be difficult to prosecute.

“It’s hard to prove someone did the act if they did it through a computer. Unless you can prove someone did it with that IP address they can say I didn’t do this. I can sit here and think of a million ways people can commit this crime without getting caught,” he said.

Solare and other legal experts tell NBC 7 Bollaert’s crimes were particularly blatant. Most others are not. Also, Bollaert’s website involved extorting money from victims, which took his case to another level.

Solare explained resources to investigate and prosecute these kinds of crimes is an area of concern as well.

“As far as the volume of [cyber-exploitation crimes] I’m sure [investigators] are woefully understaffed as far as what’s out there,” he said.

He added there are things you should do if you think you’re a victim of cyber exploitation.

“If you have a situation like that, you want to sit down and write a detailed account of what occurred, who did it, why you think they did it, what information you can have to specifically tie the bad act to the person you think did it and how you found out about it. Because the more information someone has, the more law enforcement has, the more they have to look into it. The other thing to do is to not delay in reporting something like this because any delay in reporting of any crime creates any problem for prosecution,” advised Solare.

Bollaert is expected to serve at least half of his prison sentenced. He was also ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution.
 

The map below indicates general locations of the largest magnitude earthquakes reported in California since 1900.

Click on the locations for details about each seismic event.

App Users: Click here to view map

Twenty-year-old Koral Reef's life was just beginning. She said yes to the dress and married her high school sweetheart. But Reef never got the chance to enjoy her happily ever after when she developed a rare, brain-eating amoeba that took her life.

Reef’s mother, Cybil Meister, believes a family trip to Lake Havasu in Arizona was the catalyst for the infection that killed her daughter.

“She started with the headaches, the stiff neck, the sensitivity to light and heat was bad,” Meister told NBC 7.

Around Thanksgiving of 2013, Reef's family noticed something was wrong. By January, things went downhill. In June 2014, she went to the emergency room.

Doctors were never truly able to pinpoint a cause behind Reef’s health issues.

“They said, ‘Oh, she’s having withdrawal from her birth control; It’s a migraine.’ They gave her medicine and sent her home and then she progressively got worse,” recalled her mother.

In September 2014, Reef started losing her vision.

"She went to Temecula Valley and they did an MRI. They showed us the MRI and the amoeba, which they didn't know was an amoeba, but there was a mass covering the entire right side of her brain and partial of her left,” explained Meister.

In October 2014, Reef died.

Doctors say she had a rare but extremely deadly amoeba called Balamuthia. Meister believes her daughter contracted the parasite on that trip to Lake Havasu.

“Balamuthia's mortality rate is very, very high. Only 13 percent of patients survive without any type of treatment,” explained Dr. Navaz Karanjia.

Dr. Karanjia is the Director of Neurocritical Care and the Neuro-ICU at UC San Diego's Health System.

She said Balamuthia is inhaled and the parasite has been found in soil and dust. The symptoms of the infection are general – such as headache, fatigue, and a stiff neck – which make it hard to diagnose.

"Usually the initial tests come back negative for the usual bacteria and viruses so medical providers need to know if those test come back negative a parasitic infection could be present,” said Dr. Karanjia.

Reef’s mother is now devoted to raising awareness about the deadly, brain-eating amoeba in her daughter’s name. She has started #TeamKoralReef through Amoeba Awareness.

She's hoping to keep others from experiencing the pain of losing a loved one.

"We're reaching out to people trying to raise awareness because I don't think people understand how serious it can be. It's deadly,” she added.

Dr. Karanjia said a drug has been approved for treatment of another parasite, leishmaniasis, and that drug is being tried for amoebas as well. She said it has shown some promise in treating amoebas like the one that caused Reef's untimely death.

Schools in the Solana Beach School District will soon have additional security features in place following an attempted kidnapping at Skyline Elementary School, according to an email sent out to parents.

On March 23, suspect Jack Henry Doshay, 22, allegedly walked onto campus not long after the dismissal bell rang and confronted the young student as she walked to her after-school program, according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department. The girl's father says the "reckless and crazy" man tried to silence her by wrapping tape around her face and started to carry her off.

However, the 7-year-old kicked and screamed, drawing the attention of staff and parents nearby. They chased the man but could not catch him before he drove away.

Doshay turned himself into the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department though attorney Paul Pfingst on April 2.

On Friday, The district’s Board of Education held a special meeting to discuss security enhancements at schools in the district following the incident.

At the meeting, the board voted to employ a security guard at Skyline through April 30, 2015, or until the fencing enhancements are completed. The board also voted to approve additional or improved fencing at Skyline, Solana Highlands, Solana Ranch and Solana Vista schools.

The board also voted to approve a contract with Play It Safe for student assemblies at all schools in the district as well as two parent presentations. The presentations will teach children to set appropriate boundaries, recognize inappropriate behavior, to trust their instincts when something doesn’t feel right and the importance of awareness.

The district will also bid for a district-wide multi-camera video surveillance system, in hopes of installing security cameras at all sites across the school district.

A man suspected of being under the influence of drugs was arrested Friday after he broke into a room at a Southern California retirement facility and held an elderly resident and a nurse hostage at knifepoint, officials confirmed.

Brian Phillips, 30, was arrested at Fredericka Manor Retirement Community in San Diego’s Chula Vista area at around 7 p.m.

The Chula Vista Police Department said dispatchers received a phone call from Phillips at around 6:40 p.m. saying he had broken into a room at the facility and was holding hostages at knifepoint.

When police arrived on scene, they confirmed an elderly resident and a nurse were, in fact, being held hostage by Phillips inside an apartment at the retirement facility.

SWAT and crisis negotiation officials were called in for backup. Before SWAT crews arrived, Phillips came out of the apartment and was arrested by police.

Police said the hostages were found shaken up but otherwise unharmed inside a bathroom.

Phillips was booked into San Diego County Jail on seven charges, including robbery, using a person as a shield and being under the influence of a controlled substance.

The Chula Vista Police Department said Phillips was on parole at the time of the break-in and has prior arrests for drug violations. He had no relationship to the hostages or a reason to be at Fredericka Manor, police said.

Phillips was suspected of being under the influence of drugs at the time of the incident. He's scheduled to appear in court Wednesday.

This is the second time Fredericka Manor has been in the news this week. A recent norovirus outbreak at the retirement facility infected dozens of residents and nearly a dozen staff members.
 

If you’ve walked by Dog Beach in Del Mar recently, you may have noticed some better-than-average sand castles. That’s thanks to a new startup offering a unique service that’s becoming one of the most sought-after attractions in San Diego.

San Diego Sand Castles is the one and only local company that teaches customers how to make eye-catching sand castles on the beach. The company is less than two years old, but it’s already reached the number one spot on Trip Advisor for San Diego attractions.

Founder JT Estrela stumbled upon the idea after being laid off as a charter school math teacher.

“I started doing sand castles, street-artist style, on the boardwalk in Pacific Beach, while I looked for jobs at night,” said Estrela.

After a while, Estrala realized he could combine his love for teaching and building sand castles and make money from it.

That’s when he decided to cash in his 401K and become a small business owner.

“It’s basically an art class, it’s very educational, so it kind of hit me in the right spot. It just took off from there,” he said.

Now San Diego Sand Castles has three instructors who teach three-hour classes every day. They have two locations: one by Dog Beach in Del Mar, and the other by Powerhouse Park.

JT says his customers are from all over the world.

When NBC 7 visited a class, Rachel Snyder from Chicago was building a sand castle with her family.

“It’s actually easier than I thought,” she said. “I thought it was going to break apart, but it didn’t.”

Looking back, JT says getting laid off from his teaching job was one of the best things that ever happened to him.

“All of us here at Sand Diego Sand Castles feel like we hit the San Diego job lottery jackpot, he said. “It doesn’t even feel like work.”

According to JT and his fellow “sculpting experts,” all you need to make a good castle is sand, water, a broken plastic fork for designs and a straw to blow away the sand. All of his materials are less than $5 each.

Sand Diego Sand Castles hopes to expand to other beaches in San Diego and possibly to other locations like Miami and Costa Rica. Right now, the company’s classes are available any day of the week and cost approximately $60 a person.