Most parents do not want their children playing too many video games or getting too much screen time.

But in many San Diego-area classrooms, that is exactly what is happening. Students are not playing the video games so much as they are designing them.

“To me, I don’t have a problem with you playing a video game as long as you design it,” said Tony Mauro, a coding teacher at Canyon Crest Academy (CCA).

Students at CCA, along with several other schools across the San Dieguito High School District, are learning to write a language that tells the computer what they want it to do.

The district is having a hard time keeping up with the demand for the elective class and will be expanding the number of classes offered for the 2015-2016 school year. This 2014-2015 school year was the first year the elective classes were offered in the district, school officials said.

On Monday, the students were learning to create their own video games: climbing, jumping and avoiding death.

Mauro said that many times, the students do not realize the extent of what they are learning.

“The concept of, say, learning an 'if' statement, it’s in every programing language you’ll learn,” Mauro said. “So learning that structure, learning how to methodically think through a problem and decompose it into smaller pieces, and then be able to assign instructions to that so that a piece of hardware can execute that, that’s all part of what we’re doing here. Now maybe they don’t know that, it’s kind of under the hood, but that’s what they’re learning.”

Freshman Miguel Nepomuceno, a freshman at the school, said the elective class has a positive reputation around his school.

“It’s an awesome class to be in,” Nepomuceno said. “You get to have a great time designing things, be with your friends and create the things you love to play the most.”

A newborn child’s umbilical cord contains valuable stem cells. Millions of parents spend thousands to privately bank their baby’s cord blood in the hope that it could be used to cure it of certain diseases in the future.

The umbilical cord blood business is huge, estimated at $4 billion worldwide. The Bay Area is home to the biggest private blood bank of them all, Cord Blood Registry (CBR).

“We are the world’s largest family cord blood bank. We have over a half million individual samples in storage,” Cord Blood Registry CEO Geoff Crouse said.

The company’s website and brochures tout the many benefits of storing cord blood. What they don’t emphasize is that very few children ever receive treatment from their own stem cells.

“There’s a low likelihood of use, but still a probability,” said Crouse. “We’ve had 100 families benefit from using stem cells in their current application.”

Click here to see the full investigation.

One of two brothers involved in a deadly crash outside of West Hills High School last week has been released from the hospital.

With his jaw wired shut, Cory Willweber was allowed to go home Monday after suffering broken bones to his shoulder and face. His 17-year-old brother Ryan died when their car was T-boned on Thursday as they drove onto Mast Boulevard.

The boys’ father, Paul, told NBC 7 Sunday that Cory’s jaw will stay wired for six weeks, making it harder to grieve for his brother amid the physical pain.

“I think he’s doing well with it,” Paul said of Cory, who is expected to make a full recovery. He will not be going back to school immediately, the father said.

Paul, a pastor at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, said he is tremendously sad about this eldest son’s death, but he knows Ryan is in heaven and will see him again. On Monday, he told NBC 7 that the family’s faith is getting them through this tragedy.

News of Ryan’s death spread quickly through West Hills High and devastated many students, especially those on his track team. “He was the best of us,” junior Liam Breslian said.

At a vigil on campus, students gathered to remember Ryan as a kind, caring friend.
 

The retired New York City correction officer who fatally shot a man in a Brooklyn subway station in March won't be charged in man's death, the Brooklyn District Attorney announced Monday.

The officer, 68-year-old William Groomes, fatally shot Gilbert Drogheo inside the Borough Hall subway station on March 10 after the two got into an argument that turned physical on board a No. 4 train.

District Attorney Ken Thompson said in a statement that he's determined criminal charges are not warranted in the matter.

"Based on interviews of multiple eyewitnesses to the events leading up to the shooting, our review of video tapes of the shooting itself and other evidence, I have decided not to put this case into the grand jury and will not bring criminal charges against Mr. Groomes," he said. "While the death of this young man was indeed tragic, we cannot prove any charge of homicide beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Norman Seabrook, the president of the city Correction Officers' Benevolent Association, told NBC 4 New York in March that they believe the retired officer was acting in self-defense when he shot Drogheo. 

Groomes got into an argument with two men after he boarded a Brooklyn-bound No. 4 train at the Bowling Green station in Manhattan on March 10. The altercation turned physical, and one of the men pushed Groomes into an empty subway seat, a source told NBC 4 New York at the time.  

Groomes and the two men got off the train at the Borough Hall stop and started fighting on the platform, the source said. That’s when Groomes allegedly identified himself as an officer and told Gilbert Drogheo and Joschelyn Evering that they would be put under arrest.

The source says that the men ran away, with Groomes following. As the men tried to walk out of an exit gate, Drogheo and Groomes began scuffling again. Then, the source says, Groomes pulled out a gun and fired one round, which fatally hit Drogheo in the abdomen.

The retired officer and Evering stayed at the scene. They were not hurt and no bystanders were injured, police said.

Grooms was questioned by police and released. Evering, 28, of Brooklyn was charged with assault and menacing. 

A messy sewage backup wound up closing several major visitor attractions in Balboa Park on Sunday.

And while the problem was fixed in time to resume normal Monday operations, frustrated park activists say it's just the latest chapter in a long history of maintenance neglect throughout the 1,200-acre park.

They say the problem – traced to plumbing in Casa de Balboa, likely clogged by tree roots – further illustrates that it’s high time the city took better care of its world-renowned "Crown Jewel.”

"We had to shut down the entire building yesterday -- three major institutions, on a Sunday,” said Mike Kelly, president of the nonprofit Committee of 100 whose offices are headquartered in Casa de Balboa.

“And this has happened more than once,” Kelly added in an interview Monday. “Nothing has been done to correct the problem -- only waiting for the next time for it to happen."

The shutdown inconvenienced not only tenant staffers in the building, but visitors who otherwise could have been enlightened at the San Diego History Center, seen iconic images at the Museum of Photographic Arts, indulged in miniature make-believe at the Railroad History Museum and relaxed and refreshed themselves at Casa 1915.

No numbers for projected revenue losses at those institutions were readily available.

Kelly and other executive board members of The Committee of 100 lamented over how little influence they seem to have in focusing the city on long-term infrastructure needs – estimated at upwards of $300 million, and addressed annually only by spending that doesn’t reach seven figures.

"There have been some outrageous examples of neglect in the park,” Welton Jones, a career newspaperman who extensively covered local arts and culture issues, told NBC 7.

“Pieces of buildings falling on tourists -- we can't have that,” Jones said. “The city's attitude seems to be that the tenants have to get together and figure out how to keep the Band-Aids on.”

Said Tom Jackson: "I understand the reluctance to spend money in hard times, financially, so I'm not surprised in a way -- but this is a regional treasure, this park. Not just a city treasure … and I think really it belongs to the people of California. It's one of the very few sites like it. Probably one of the most significant city parks, in many respects, in the country. And it deserves better treatment, I think, than it's been getting in the city of San Diego."

To locals who frequent what civic leaders like to call San Diego's "crown jewel," Sunday’s soggy, smelly disruption at Casa de Balboa is a familiar experience.

"I ride through here several times a week; for me, this place is both heaven and hell," said North Park resident James Spellman, stopping for a breather on El Prado while bicycling through the heart of the park late Monday morning. "How can it be a 'crown jewel' when you don't provide for its upkeep?"

While out-of-towners -- especially Californians – make certain allowances for municipal budget crunches, they also see the need for an ounce of prevention when it comes to civic assets.

“We don't allow them to get to the point where we have to patch them up -- we take care of them every day,” said Hayward resident Stephanie Toney, strolling past the Lily Pond along with her daughter Stephanie, who lives in Mountain View.

Stephanie put a finer point on her mother’s thought: “It will cost more by the time you get to that point where something breaks down, and then you have to pay for it after the fact.”

Hillcrest attorney David Lundin, a historic preservationist active in organizing grass-roots centennial celebrations of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition , weighed by email with this view of the situation: “Condemnation of the park by aggressive neglect."

Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s proposed budget for Park & Recreation Dept. operations for fiscal 2015-16 will be reviewed Wednesday by the City Council’s Budget Committee.

Councilman Todd Gloria, the city’s chairman, issued a statement broadly addressing citywide infrastructure deficits including Park & Recreation maintenance backlogs, ending on this note: “I share the independent budget analyst’s concern that the mayor has no plan to address this enormous problem facing San Diego.”

Faulconer representatives deferred an immediate response, citing the need for consultations with department staff.

A 52-year-old man fatally shot his 28-year-old girlfriend and her mother before turning the gun on himself in Warner Springs last week, San Diego County Sheriff's investigators said Monday.

Sadie Louise Stockalper and Steven M. Keith were having issues in their dating relationship before they were found with gunshot wounds Friday in the 30600 block of Chihuahua Valley Road, along with Stockalper's 63-year-old mother, Felice Elena Howard-Vinnard.

Stockalper and Howard-Vinnard died from multiple shots to their upper bodies.

Keith was still alive by the time emergency crews arrived, but he died as an ambulance tried to take him to a helicopter.

Deputies say problems in the relationship may have led Keith to shoot Stockalper and her mother with a handgun before shooting himself.

The sheriff's investigation is still ongoing.

A car flipped off an overpass in Mission Bay Monday night, landing on its roof and killing a person inside.

The accident happened as the car drove southbound on West Mission Bay Drive at about 8:30 p.m.

As the road turned, the car went off the overpass and landed on the transition from the southbound Sunset Cliffs Boulevard onramp to Ingraham Street.

A person inside died at the scene.

Check back here for details on this breaking news story.

Five ambulance companies in San Diego and Orange County will pay more than $11.5 million to the U.S. government to settle a lawsuit that accuses them of a “swapping kickback” scheme.

San Diego-based companies Balboa Ambulance Service and E.R. Ambulance -- as well as Orange County-based Pacific Ambulance, Bowers Companies and Care Ambulance Service – are all named in the suit filed by the Justice Department. Pacific and Bowers were later acquired by the Rural/Metro Corporation after the alleged scheme occurred.

The lawsuit accuses the companies of providing deeply discounted or below cost ambulance services for hospital or facilities that gave them exclusive rights to the hospital’s Medicare patient referrals.

According to U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy, this kind of scheme encourages patients to overuse medical services and inflate Medicare charges.

A federal investigation revealed this kickback plan led to false claims for Medicare Part B transports, which essentially paid for the discounted trips. The companies are accused of violating the Anti-Kickback Statute, a rule that prohibits any payment arrangement intended to influence health care referrals.

“It is a priority of this office to combat abuses that drive up the cost of health care and waste taxpayer dollars,” said Duffy. “We will continue to work closely with our investigative partners to pursue those who refuse to play by the rules and offer kickbacks to induce health care referrals.”

The settlements also resolve a lawsuit filed by Kelvin Carlisle, a competitor and whistleblower in the case, under the False Claims Act. Carlisle will get about $1.7 million from the settlement money.

Duffy’s office says the False Claims Act has helped the Justice Department recover more than $24 billion for the government since 2009. More than $15.3 billion of that was recovered in cases involving federal health care fraud.

NBC 7 has reached out to the companies involved in the lawsuit for comment, but representatives have not responded.
 

The first of five hearings is scheduled to take place Monday as city officials discuss how public dollars will be used in the next year.

Since the city is expected to bring in more money from sales, property and hotel taxes, Mayor Kevin Faulconer has pledged to dedicate more to public services and maintenance.

The mayor has proposed spending $3.2 billion, seven percent more than the current fiscal year.

Monday’s session in City Council will focus on the budget for police and fire departments.

For years, the San Diego Police Department has been losing trained officers to other departments around the county and state.

Mayor Faulconer wants an increase of $16 million for police, that's a 3.5 percent bump up.

Earlier this year, we already saw one of the largest police academy recruiting classes in several years.

The mayor is also proposing spending an extra $10.5 million on San Diego Fire-Rescue Department providing for overtime and two extra fire academies, that's more than a four percent increase.
 

Two San Diego police officers had to become emergency responders when they answered a 911 call of a baby who wasn't breathing and was unconscious.

In minutes, they saved the little girl's life.

On April 6, officers Robert Carlson and Thomas McGrath were close to the home when they heard the call come in over the scanner.

“The first thing you hear when you hear that call is, I just need to get there,” said Carlson at a press conference Monday. “Because we don’t know how long the baby hasn’t been breathing, we don’t know what the circumstances are, like most are calls we go to.”

Jessica Salas, the mother of the child, had dialed 911 after her husband woke her up, telling her their daughter Kendall was not breathing. He found the child suffering from a violent seizure for an unknown amount of time. The seizures were so bad, Kendall was unconscious and her face and lips were blue.

Carlson was first to arrive at the house, and McGrath came shortly after. Inside the house, the mother was crying and the dad was cradling Kendall in his arms, McGrath said.

Neither of them knew how to render aid, so the officers stepped in when they arrived.

“You could see right away she was blue…I grabbed the baby, put it down on my hand, almost like the baby Heimlich. Through my hand, I couldn’t feel any heartbeat,” Carlson said.

Carlson said in situations like these, no matter how much training an officer receives, they never know what to expect until they arrive on scene.

“You’re ultimately thinking, you’re just hoping you can help,” Carlson said. “You’re hoping you’re not getting there too late, that there is time to make a difference.”

Carlson proceeded to administer first aid until he heard labored breathing sounds. The paramedics soon arrived and took Kendall to Rady’s Children’s Hospital, where she was able to recover.

The officers said it is important for parents to be equipped with CPR skills so that they are able to make a difference before trained professionals arrive.

Now, a month later, Kendall is happy and healthy. Carlson said he saw Kendall recently, but he did not think she knew who she was.

Despite their actions, McGrath and Carlson said they do not consider themselves heroes.

“All we care about is in that moment can we make a difference and at least help somebody out,” McGrath said. “Going to the call, personally, I was afraid that I was not going to be able to do anything. That’s all we care about in that moment, getting there as fast as we can and helping somebody out.”

What they did on April 6, Carlson said, was a part of their job.

“We’re definitely not heroes,” Carlson said. “This is what we want to do, we’re here to help, we want to help people. It’s not anything any other person who has the tools and ability to help wouldn’t do.”

The officers said they plan to stay in touch with Kendall and her family throughout the years.

“I’d be lying if I said every time I drive past that street, I don’t smile,” Carlson said. “I park and want to say hi.”

The San Diego Police Department will conduct a thorough investigation into a fatal police shooting in which the officer did not turn on his body camera, the chief announced Monday.

Officer Neal N. Browder, a 27-year veteran of the SDPD, shot a man reportedly threatening people with a knife last Thursday at a Midway District porn shop. During the incident, Browder was wearing a body camera.

“For enforcement contact, if our officers are going to make an enforcement contact, they will hit the record button,” said SDPD Chief Shelley Zimmerman.

According to officials, Officer Browder had given the suspect verbal commands – an apparent “enforcement contact” – but failed to hit the record on his camera.

Zimmerman would not address the specifics of the case, saying not enough facts are known right now, and she could not answer why the officer did not record the confrontation.

“In any officer involved shooting, we conduct a very methodical comprehensive and thorough investigation and that question will be answered during the investigation,” she said.

That investigation comes as the chief presented her proposed 2016 budget to the San Diego City Council Monday. It calls for $2.1 million for 400 more body cameras.

That would bring the total number of police body cameras to 1,000, just about one for every officer. The chief insists they've been effective since going into service last year, when the city rolled out 600 body cameras and became the largest city to deploy that many devices.

“Our complaints were down, the allegations contained within those complaints were down, and also, our use of force was down,” Zimmerman said.

But everyone admits the cameras were brought in to build public trust, and for some, the fatal, unrecorded shooting could hurt that effort.

Before a judge handed him a six-month sentence, a San Diego man who knowingly spread HIV was defiant, saying: "I am not a monster."

"I would never ever do something like what I'm accused of," Thomas Miguel Guerra said.

Judge Katherine Lewis, visibly angry, did not agree.

"There's no question in my mind that he's guilty," Lewis said. "There's no doubt in my mind, Mr. Guerra would have been convicted" if the case went to trial.

In sentencing him to the misdemeanor charge, Judge Lewis called a six-month sentence in the case a "travesty."

"I think that's a tremendous oversight in the law if this is just a misdemeanor," she said. "If any good comes out of it, that this law would change" and become a felony.

Guerra had earlier pleaded no contest  to violating a state health code, San Diego County’s first such prosecution of willful HIV transmission. A no contest plea concedes that prosecutors could prove their case, but does not admit guilt. For sentencing purposes, it's treated the same as a guilty plea.

As outlined in the charges, his ex-boyfriend says Guerra intentionally deceived him about having HIV. The two started dating in April 2013, and Guerra claimed to be HIV negative, urging his boyfriend to have unprotected sex, the city attorney’s office says.

His boyfriend soon discovered message logs on Guerra’s computer, dating back to 2007, in which he references being HIV positive. Guerra even joked in text messages about having HIV and other people not knowing it, according to an arrest warrant.

At Monday's sentencing hearing, a prosecutor said the evidence against Guerra included 11,000 text messages he sent and 36 audio clips showing he was deceitful with sexual partners about being HIV positive.

In response, Guerra said in court that none of the 11,000 text messages were between him and his accuser.

He denied that the victim had not known he was HIV positive and called the victim's actions "reckless."

The two met on the gay dating app Grindr and after exchanging text messages, the two met up, Guerra said.

"If you are that reckless with your life, how can you blame someone else's actions?," Guerra said.

Guerra's attorney said he didn't bring the case to a jury because he feared jurors wouldn't understand his client's "dark humor." The attorney requested the judge sentence Guerra to electronic home confinement instead of jail custody.

The judge did not agree, calling it an egregious case and saying she wished she could sentence Guerra to more time.

She said Guerra showed a striking lack of remorse.

"I don't think in my 25-plus years in a law, I've ever seen somebody be so lacking of insight, blame or responsibility that you have demonstrated," she said.

The charge against Guerra came in August 2014, about a year after the couple broke up. As he was prosecuted, a judge ordered Guerra to stay off dating websites, specifically the gay dating app Grindr.

Teresa Esparza Hernandez was terrified of driving a car. When family members would tease her about the fear, she would insist she was terrified of dying in a car crash.

Hernandez was one of two people killed Saturday in a tragic collision along southbound Interstate 15 in Scripps Ranch.

The 84-year-old Escondido woman was a passenger in a vehicle that was struck by a wrong-way driver.

Rodolfo De La Torre, 55, of Escondido, was behind the wheel of the Honda Civic and also died in the crash.

His sister and Hernandez's daughter, Claudia De La Torre, spoke with NBC 7 on Monday and described the injuries suffered by the surviving family members who were in the back seat of the vehicle.

In the back seat were Rodolfo's wife Angelica and her two children 20-year-old Julio and 19-year-old Carolina. Angelica and Julio are in the ICU at Scripps La Jolla. Carolina is in intensive care at Sharp. Angelica and Julio suffered broken necks, head trauma and severe abdomen injuries from the seatbelt. Carolina suffered broken ribs, broken clavicle and head trauma.

The California Highway Patrol said 21-year-old Shane McDonald in a black Audi A4 was driving in the wrong direction in the express lanes of the freeway when he collided head-on with the Civic.

The Honda Civic changed lanes to avoid the collision with the wrong-way driver, but McDonald simultaneously did the same maneuver and the vehicles collided head-on, officers said.

McDonald also had to be extricated from his vehicle. He was arrested on suspicion of two counts of vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and five counts of felony DUI causing injury or death, officials said. Because he is still recovering, CHP says he will be arraigned in the hospital in the next few days.

The family was driving to the Tijuana airport to catch a 6 a.m. flight to Aguascalientes, Mexico.

Hernandez wanted to visit her hometown to see family, Claudia said.

Her grandmother grew up in Mexico but had been living in San Diego since 1975. She had six kids – five of whom live in San Diego.

Claudia said her brother, who grew up in Escondido, served in the U.S. Army before working for the post office. He had recently started taking cooking classes and was working as a pastry chef at Valley View Casino, she said.

Angelica is an accountant at Casino Pauma. Her children graduated from Escondido High School.

Carolina is a freshman at Palomar College. Julio is attending Pacific College in the Los Angeles area, Claudia said.

A GoFundMe page has been set up for the family, hoping to cover funeral bills and medical expenses.

A Florida teen who is battling cancer attended prom on Saturday with Jacksonville Jaguars' defensive tackle Sen'Derrick Marks as her date.

NBC affiliate FCN reported that 18-year-old Khameyea Jennings, of Jacksonville, almost didn't attend her senior prom. It was her grandmother, who recently passed away from cancer herself, who had convinced her to go.

Local non-profit organization Dreams Come True teamed up with local businesses - including the Jacksonville Jaguars organization - to surprise Khameyea with her dress, shoes, accessories, hair and makeup — and of course, her date.

Marks surprised Khameyea with roses for a bedside promposal in her hospital room last Wednesday.

"I talked with your mom, and she said it was okay," he said before asking if he could be her date. The teen accepted his offer, and suggested he wear white and gold and wear his hair down.

Marks made good on his offer, picking Khameyea up in his Lamborghini Gallardo Saturday wearing a white and gold tuxedo to match Khameyea's gold and white gown. The pair arrived in style to the Franklin H. Peterson High School prom held at the Jacksonville Zoo, appropriately right next to the jaguar exhibit.

"I look good, I think my date looks good, we'll have a great night," Marks told FCN. "I always want to be there for her here on out."

At the beginning of last year, Khameyea had surgery to remove a cancerous tumor. The tumor recently came back and it's not shrinking, the teen's mother told FCN.

"We're trying to make it, we're trying to get there," said her great-aunt Susan Philpot. "We've been praying for her, she's been strong. She's been a brilliant young lady going through what she's going through."

Khameyea's high school held an early graduation just for her at the beginning of the year.

Her family says that while Khameyea may be physically weakened by the cancer, her attitude and smile touched everyone at prom. Her famous date agreed.

"We get a lot of bumps and bruises from tackling, but nothing like she's going through," Marks said. "Tonight I just want make sure she has fun and keeps that smile on her face."

A newlywed woman who was wounded in the Colorado theater massacre testified Tuesday that when the shooting began, she told her husband she loved him because she feared they wouldn't survive.

"I didn't know if it was the last time I would be able to do so," Denise Axelrod told the jury.

Axelrod testified in the sixth day of the trial of James Holmes, who is charged with killing 12 people and injuring 70 in the July 2012 attack.

Axelrod said she and her husband, Brandon, had just returned from their honeymoon when they went to the suburban Denver theater with a friend, Joshua Nowlan, to watch a Batman movie.

Brandon Axelrod suffered leg injuries when they dropped to the floor to hide from the gunfire. Nowlan also was shot.

Holmes pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. His attorneys have acknowledged he was the shooter but say he has schizophrenia and didn't know right from wrong.

Prosecutors maintain Holmes was sane. They're seeking the death penalty.

On Monday, jurors watched a video of Holmes after the attack asking detectives, "There weren't any children hurt, were there?"

The video shows detectives interviewing a dazed-sounding Holmes at police headquarters about two hours after the shooting.

The detectives don't answer Holmes directly about children but say, "We'll get to that." One of the 12 people killed was 6-year-old Veronica Moser-Sullivan.

Detective Chuck Mehl testified later that Holmes saw a sign for the Crimes Against Children Unit in police headquarters while he was being taken to the interview room, which might have prompted the question.

Some of Holmes' interview answers are odd. Asked if he needs anything, he says, "Oxygen." The detectives ask if he is having trouble breathing or wants a fan, but he says no.

When asked how to spell "Holmes," he answers, "Like Sherlock."

MiraCosta College is set to celebrate the official open house of its Technology Career Institute facility at 2075 Las Palmas Drive in Carlsbad.

According to MiraCosta, TCI is a new, comprehensive technology training program designed to provide skilled workers for such industries as high-tech manufacturing, maritime technology, robotics and biotech manufacturing. Many such jobs were transferred overseas in the ’90s and early 2000s, but some companies are seeing the benefit of returning those jobs to the U.S.

TCI’s offerings are part of MiraCosta’s Community Services and Business Development program.

“Community colleges throughout the country are customizing offerings to meet the needs of local workforces, San Diego County notwithstanding,” said Linda Kurokawa, director of Community Services & Business Development. “Companies that are headquartered or have locations in San Diego, such as Lockheed Martin, have an increasing need for qualified, trained engineers with specializations in, robotics, biotech manufacturing, and maritime technology, and our new campus is designed to help meet that workforce demand.”

The facility is also offering training in homeland security.

The official open house and grand opening are set for May 5 and May 6, classes began in the spring.

The May 5 open house event will provide an opportunity for all community members, as well as current and prospective students to tour the facility and learn more about the programs being held there.

The official grand opening will be invitation-only, 5 to 7 p.m. May 6 and will include remarks by
MiraCosta College President Sunita Cooke, and Carlsbad Mayor Matt Hall.

For more information on the TCI programs offered at the new campus, visit www.miracostatraining.com.

A construction worker died after falling 24 stories down an elevator shaft in midtown Manhattan Tuesday afternoon, police said. 

The worker was at a building on West 46th Street and Eighth Avenue when he fell shortly before 1 p.m., according to the FDNY. The worker was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The victim and another worker were operating an elevator lift to install doorframes on the elevator when the car stalled about five feet above the 24th story landing, according to Department of Buildings spokesman Alexander Schnell. 

One of the workers was able to jump down to the 24th-floor landing safely, but when the victim tried to jump down to the landing, he fell backwards into the elevator shaft, plunging all the way down to the pit level, said Schnell. 

About 200 people were working at the site at the time of the accident, authorities said.

The Department of Buildings has issued a full stop-worker order at the site and cited the building owner for failure to safeguard. 

An email accidentally sent to a New York Times reporter revealed that Mayor de Blasio experienced a common frustration faced by many New Yorkers: a delayed subway train.

The mayor chided the head of his police department security detail after he waited 20 minutes for a delayed train while heading to a speaking engagement at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in midtown Monday afternoon, according to the Times.

The email was only intended to go to city hall staffers, but it appears the mayor accidentally included one of the newspaper’s reporters as a recipient.

In the email, with the subject line “2 problems today,” de Blasio reportedly detailed a 20-minute wait for a train amid major delays. When he decided to leave the station rather than keep waiting, the team that normally drives him around the city in a NYPD-issued SUV was nowhere to be found.

“The detail drove away when we went into the subway rather than waiting to confirm we got on a train,” de Blasio wrote in the email. “We need a better system.”

The Times reported that de Blasio asked his staff to stay abreast of possible delays the next time he takes public transportation, suggesting they coordinate with the MTA or the NYPD’s traffic division.

“Let’s cross-check our info with them when I take the subway,” de Blasio wrote. “This is a fixable prob.”

The email from de Blasio, who has become notorious for being late to events, including a Sept. 11 ceremony last year that he said he had trouble reaching because of fog, comes as the city plans to increase the funding for the city's mass transit system despite increasing delays and overcrowding.

The city promised to devote $125 million a year for the next five years to the MTA, which, when combined with a $32 million city match to a federal grant, will match the $657 million in capital contributions the authority requested in the fall.

MTA chairman Tom Prendergrast wrote a letter to the mayor Monday asking the amount be more than doubled, to $300 million a year. 

A mystery that appeared to involve an unfortunate lottery winner who walked away from a Southern California gas station with just $75 after handing over a $75,000 scratcher took a turn this week.

The man caught on store surveillance camera video that was circulated during the weekend was really an undercover lottery agent with a decoy ticket. The man handed over the card at about 4:15 p.m. on March 25 at a Chevron station in Palmdale as part of a compliance check.

The cashier who was working at that time claimed to have been unaware how much the ticket was worth and handed over just $75, the store's manager Shamsun Nahar Islam said. Islam claims they only realized the ticket was worth $75,000 after the undercover agent left.

She said she realized the mistake and contacted the California State Lottery.

Video and photos were circulated during the weekend in what Islam said was an attempt to identify the man, turning what was a regular compliance check into an unusual situation for lottery officials. On Monday, the agency identified the man in the video as a compliance investigator.

"This is an odd situation,"  Russ Lopez, a deputy director with the state lottery, told the Los Angeles Times. "We don't want the public looking for a winner that doesn't exist."

A lottery spokesman said it appears the store kept the decoy ticket for 40 days before contacting the lottery, though they did not try to cash the ticket. Investigators are still attempting to determine whether the clerk's actions were accidental or deliberate.

A receipt with a scanned lottery ticket's value is required to be provided to a winner, according to lottery rules. But no receipt was provided in this case, according to the Times.

VA Secretary Bob McDonald is in Southern California this week to meet with mayors of San Diego and Los Angeles as part of the Obama administration’s push to end veteran homelessness.

McDonald met with San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer on Tuesday and plans to meet with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti Wednesday to discuss how their cities are reaching the goal - eliminating veteran homelessness by the end of the year.

“We’re making good progress but there’s a lot more work to do,” he told a group of veterans in San Diego Tuesday.

McDonald outlined many issues the VA is facing to representatives of from Paralyzed Veterans of America at the organization’s annual convention.

The Veterans Administration system is the canary in the coal mine when it comes to what’s wrong with the health care system in the U.S.

“If you want to find out what’s wrong with American medicine, or what will be wrong in the future, learn about what’s wrong with the VA,” he said.

He said the VA can play a key role to establish new medical schools and new residencies in order to train the doctors needed to fill thousands of primary care physician positions and other specialties.

He also addressed the controversy last year involving timely access to services through the VA system. He said the backlog of medical claims for veterans is down 75 percent.

Medical care for veterans is improving but much more investment needs to prepare for the veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, McDonald told the group.

“You've got to build the capability today,” McDonald said explaining that he’s fighting Congress to avoid proposed budget cuts.

The total number of veterans in the U.S. may be declining but the number of issues per veteran is increasing, he said.