Rachel Dolezal, the former leader of the NAACP in Spokane will break her silence in exclusive interviews with NBC News and MSNBC on Tuesday.
Dolezal stepped down from her post on Monday, days after her parents' claims that she has falsely portrayed herself as black for years sparked calls for her resignation and a nationwide dialogue about racial identity.
"It is with complete allegiance to the cause of racial and social justice and the NAACP that I step aside from the Presidency and pass the baton to my Vice President, Naima Quarles-Burnley," Dolezal said in a statement on the chapter's Facebook page Monday.
Dolezal didn't address the questions about her own race in her statement announcing her resignation, instead reiterating her commitment to the NAACP's cause.
"Please know I will never stop fighting for human rights and will do everything in my power to help and assist, whether it means stepping up or stepping down, because this is not about me. It's about justice," she said. "This is not me quitting; this is a continuum."
Following a live interview with Matt Lauer Tuesday on "Today," Dolezal will sit down for separate interviews with Savannah Guthrie for "NBC Nightly News," Melissa Harris-Perry for MSNBC, and NBCBLK, NBCNews.com's African-American vertical.
Dolezal's parents had told the "Today" show Monday that they think she pretended to be black as a way to hurt them, and that they have been estranged from her for years.
"I think Rachel has tried to damage her biological family and those kind of claims, as false as they were, seem to serve her purposes in her mind," her mother Ruthanne Dolezal told the "Today" show.
Rachel Dolezal had earlier canceled a chapter meeting Monday where she was expected to speak about the furor sparked over her racial identity. But other members of the organization said they still planned to gather Monday evening.
"The NAACP is not concerned with the racial identity of our leadership but the institutional integrity of our advocacy," NAACP President Cornell William Brooks said in a statement. "Our focus must be on issues not individuals. Ms. Rachel Dolezal has decided to resign to ensure that the Spokane branch remains focused on fighting for civil and human rights. This resignation today comes amidst the real work of the NAACP and the real challenges to our democracy."
A demonstration had been planned by some members Monday night calling for Dolezal to step down.
Dolezal was elected president of the local NAACP chapter about six months ago.
The NAACP issued a statement Friday supporting Dolezal, who has been a longtime figure in Spokane's human-rights community and teaches African studies to college students.
Ruthanne Dolezal, Rachel Dolezal's mother, said the family's ancestry is Czech, Swedish and German, with a trace of Native American heritage. She produced a copy of her daughter's Montana birth certificate listing herself and Larry Dolezal as Rachel's parents.
The city of Spokane is investigating whether Dolezal lied about her ethnicity when she applied to be on the police board. Police on Friday said they were suspending investigations into racial-harassment complaints filed by Dolezal, including one from earlier this year in which she said she received hate mail at her office.
A San Jose couple found a way to be patriotic and save water at the same time.
Dan and Claudia Decker are like a lot of homeowners dealing with the drought. They had to let their lawn go brown to conserve water but they didn't like how it looked. So they painted an American flag on it in honor of Flag Day Sunday, June 14.
But they are also looking into what to do in the future.
“I hope everybody enjoys it and maybe the next holiday coming up we'll think about another thing to paint … Maybe a shamrock or two on St. Paddy’s Day, but the drought will be over by then,” said Dan Decker.
The Deckers say the flag has been getting a lot of attention.
Not only are neighbors stopping by but so are strangers who are asking for help painting a lawn flag of their own.
Authorities say a swarm of mayflies was so dense it caused motorcycle crashes and prompted the closing of a Pennsylvania bridge.
The LNP newspaper reports that mayflies swarmed around the lights on the bridge and then fell to the ground, forming piles several inches deep on the road.
Police in West Hempfield Township in Lancaster County said the Route 462 bridge between Columbia and Wrightsville was shut down about 10:30 p.m. Saturday.
Chief Chad Livelsberger of the Wrightsville Fire Company says three motorcycle crashes occurred because of the flies. Details on any injuries were not immediately available.
Officer Brad Rohrbaugh says the bridge was reopened sometime before 6 a.m. Sunday.
Jeb Bush will formally enter the 2016 race Monday, six months after the former Florida governor got the campaign buzz started by saying he was considering a bid.
The brother of one president and son of another, Bush faces a historically crowded field of more than a dozen possible Republican opponents for the nomination.
On Sunday, the 62-year-old previewed his campaign announcement with several web videos highlighting who he is and his stance on several issues.
"My core beliefs start with the premise that the most vulnerable in our society should be in the front of the line, not the back," Bush said in one of the videos.
Bush will address a crowd of supporters Monday afternoon at Miami Dade College. According to the MDC website, the school both enrolls and graduates more minorities than any other college or university in the United States, including the most Hispanics. The venue was likely chosen to highlight Bush's passion for education policy as well as to seek the support of Latino voters.
South Floridians looked forward to the long-awaited moment.
"He's the one that will pull in more groups," Randy Espinaga says. "Not just in Florida or Miami, but nationwide."
Bush supporter David Carvallo agreed.
"You know the primary is a long process," Carvallo said. "But I think on a national stage the only one that can go up against the Hillary Clinton machine is going to be Jeb and company."
Bush just returned from a week-long trip to Europe where he focused on foreign policy. In recent months, he also traveled across the United States talking about jobs and education. However, some in Miami say they are still undecided.
"This is a big country, there are a lot of capable people out there," undecided voter Ruth Jacobs said. "So we just need more of them to step up."
Bush will make his announcement at 3 p.m. June 15th at Miami Dade College's Kendall campus.
Navigating the complexities of U.S. immigration law can be a bewildering experience, especially for those without legal training. With the threat of deportation often looming, the trust an undocumented immigrant places in his or her attorney is tantamount to the relationship between doctor and sick patient.
But what recourse do immigrants have when they're denied the chance to defend themselves in court because of a mishandled case? The Supreme Court ruled Monday in a case that raised that question, finding that an appeals court has jurisdiction to intervene on deportation.
“An attorney can actually cover up his malpractice, and the client doesn’t have any relief,” attorney Raed Gonzalez, who represented Noel Reyes Mata in his case before the high court, said prior to the decision.
Gonzalez, a partner in Houston immigration law firm Gonzalez Olivieri LLC, said immigrants seeking to reopen their deportation proceedings can often be unaware of their lawyers' legal missteps for months or even years.
"There are a lot of joker attorneys out there,” he said.
Calls to the Justice Department for comment on the case weren't returned.
The backstory: In 2010, Mata, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, pleaded guilty to charges of assaulting his girlfriend, and deportation proceedings were swiftly begun.
He petitioned to halt them through the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), an appeals court within the Justice Department. But his lawyers at the time blundered by not filing the proper appeals documents to the court, Gonzalez said, and Mata's appeal was thrown out.
After he had hired new lawyers, Mata asked that his case be reopened, saying he hadn't been made aware of his former attorney’s clerical error until after the 90-day filing deadline had passed.
The BIA dismissed his appeal, and Mata then asked a federal appeals court to contest the BIA's judgment, saying his lawyer’s failure to file necessary paperwork had denied him of his legal rights. The Fifth Circuit’s response: We can't overturn a BIA ruling.
But Mata's lawyers asked the Supreme Court take the case on, and the justices agreed. They issued their 8-1 decision Monday, holding that a federal appeals court has jurisdiction in such a case and can delay a deadline for an immigrant seeking to reopen a deportation case based on ineffective counsel.
Legal experts said before the decision that a Supreme Court ruling in Mata's favor could bolster due process rights for vulnerable immigrants nationally.
“If a non-citizen establishes that his lawyer messed up and the results could have been different, the case should be reopened,” New York-based immigration attorney Kerry Bretz of Bretz and Coven LLP said before the ruling said in an email.
“The BIA has a habit of applying its opinion (often not favorable to non-citizens) in all the circuit courts that have not addressed a particular issue. That is the case here," Bretz added. "Sadly, the Fifth Circuit failed to do the right thing."
Sheridan Green, an associate with Gonzalez Olivieri, the firm representing Mata, expressed optimism about what the ruling would mean for other immigrants.
“Sometimes these attorneys did really awful things. Sometimes it’s just negligence, but sometimes it’s just straight up fraud. And the fifth circuit hasn’t been of any help to us. So what this is going to do is open up judicial review for foreign nationals.”
San Diego has just been renamed Rhythm Nation -- or it will be, anyway, when pop songstress Janet Jackson roars into Viejas Arena on Oct. 17. What’s more, she’ll likely be debuting some new material.
Though the Queen of Pop's best-remembered performance may have been made by her anatomy during the Super Bowl a decade ago (sorry, Ms. Jackson), she’s taking another stab at rewriting that Jackson legacy. Baby J is back, not only with the Unbreakable World Tour but also with a new record, slated for a fall release on her own label. It’ll her first album since 2008’s “Discipline,” and her first stop in SD in as many years.
The details of this news have been anticipated since last month, when Jackson announced via robot/video that she was getting back in the music game. And while the best things in life were free in the early ’90s, at 10 a.m. PST on June 22, they’ll set you back $45-$250 per ticket.
Janet Jackson performs at Viejas Arena on Oct. 17. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. on June 20 at livenation.com.
Hannah Lott-Schwartz, a San Diego native, moved back to the area after working the magazine-publishing scene in Boston. Now she’s straight trolling SD for all the music she missed while away. Want to help? Hit her up with just about anything at all over on Twitter, where -- though not always work-appropriate -- she means well.
A tiny kitten is on its second life after being saved from a car hood by an NYPD officer in Brooklyn.
The department’s 60th precinct tweeted an aww-worthy photo of the fearless officer nuzzling the tiny tabby after the heroic rescue.
The New York Post reports the 27-year-old Officer John Passarella pulled the kitten out of the engine block of a white minivan Friday afternoon in Brighton Beach.
Another officer adopted the little feline and named it “Pazzy” after Officer Passarella, according to the Post.
A La Jolla landmark shuttered its doors Sunday evening.
The La Jolla Village Square Landmark Theaters will play its last movie Sunday night. The theater will close, along with several other stores nearby, to make way for a Nordstrom Rack.
Residents from the neighborhood, saddened by the news, came to watch the theater’s last few showings.
“I’m terribly sad,” said resident Carolyn Stevenson. “This is an absolute wonderful movie theater for us because it has so many great foreign movies you can’t see elsewhere.”
Stevenson said over the years she had been coming to the establishment, she had seen so many movies and made so many memories she couldn’t even begin to describe them all.
“I’m really sad because we have a population here that really loves those kinds of movies,” Stevenson said. “Obviously I can go elsewhere, I suppose to the other Landmarks, but this is a real asset for our community here and quite frankly we don’t need another Nordstrom Rack.”
Mark Anderson wanted to pay homage, he said to “a disappearing La Jolla tradition.”
He and his friend Penelope Vining said they had been coming to the theater for decades to watch foreign films.
“If you like foreign films, the other theaters are not offering that,” Vining said.
Anderson agreed with his friend, adding that for him, it was also about the experience. He liked the theater’s popcorn, their beverage offerings and the comradery.
"It’s the theater, versus staring at a computer screen,” he said.
The location’s last movie was a 7:30 p.m. documentary called “Iris,” about a 93-year-old style maven from New York City.
A 10-year-old girl airlifted Friday afternoon from Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park in Valencia, California, died Saturday, according to the coroner's office.
The Ventura County girl had just exited the Revolution ride and returned to the ride station when she collapsed at the park in northern Los Angeles County. She was described as breathing, but unconscious, when she was airlifted from the Valencia theme park and later died at a hospital.
Details regarding why the girl, identified by the coroner as Jasmine Martinez, collapsed were not immediately available. An autopsy will determine the cause of death.
The ride has been temporarily closed, pending a review, according to Magic Mountain.
The ride was cleared to reopen shortly after the airlift, and there was no evidence to suggest "this was in any way ride related," according to Magic Mountain. It was not immediately determined whether the girl suffered from a pre-existing condition.
"We were deeply saddened to learn that Jasmine Martinez, who was transported to the hospital after riding Revolution on June 12 has died, " a Magic Mountain spokeswoman said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with Jasmine’s family and friends during this difficult time."
Revolution is a roller coaster that features a 90-foot tall vertical loop. The ride reaches speeds up to 55 mph.
More than 45 million visitors have "safely ridden" Revolution since it opened in 1976, according to a spokeswoman for Magic Mountain.
A Queens man who left his father's body at a morgue for more than a year so he could continue to collect his pension and social security payments will be sentenced this week.
Christopher Bunn, 49, is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday in a Queens court. He pleaded guilty in October to grand larceny and petit larceny and has already served six months in federal prison.
Investigators say his father, James Bunn, collected retirement benefits that were not transferable upon his death. The funds were deposited into his checking account from February 2010 through April 2011. He died on February 24, 2010.
In May 2011, the Social Security Inspector General alerted the New York State and Local Retirement System that Bunn's body remained unclaimed at the Nassau County morgue.
Further investigation revealed that Bunn had withdrawn the money from his father's account. He unlawfully collected pension payments of $7,542 and social security payments of $17,790, according to New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
Bunn is expected to pay full restitution.
After nine seasons as the San Diego Padres Manager, Bud Black has been fired.
The Padres made the announcement with a news release that was released shortly after 12 p.m. Monday.
Later that afternoon, Padres General Manager A.J. Preller talked about the decision, which came after a lot of discussion over the past two weeks.
"Last night, I kind of thought at the end of the day that it was the direction we wanted to go in. I wanted to sleep on it, and then woke up this morning and decided to make the move," said Preller. He said it was a really tough call to make because he has grown to like and respect Black since taking over as GM in August.
Black’s career record as Padres Manager was 649-713. During his 9 seasons with the Padres, Black saw different front office hires come and go, yet Black remained, until today. Despite a losing career record, Black’s lengthy tenure with the Padres was a testament to the respect he had with peers and players in the game.
After Preller acquired high salaried players like Matt Kemp, Justin Upton and James Shields this offseason, expectations for this Padres season skyrocketed.
Those expectations have not been met. This season's Padres team is one game under 500, with a record of 32-33 through the first 65 games. San Diego is third place in the NL West, six games behind the first place Los Angeles Dodgers.
"We've seen so many inconsistencies, you know, the ups and the downs of this team," said Preller. "I'm really just looking for a situation here in the next month or so where we start playing at the level we've shown we're capable of at various times throughout the year."
Bench Coach Dave Roberts will serve as manager beginning with Monday night’s game against the Oakland A’s. The Padres have begun a formal search for an interim manager for the remainder of the season, and Preller said they are considering internal candidates at this point.
California had significantly less shark attacks last year than Florida, but only slightly fewer than Hawaii, one center that compiles shark attack data found.
With four shark attacks last year, California was tied with North Carolina at No. 4 among the states with the most incidents. Edging out California was Florida at No. 1, with 28 bites, Hawaii at No. 2 (7 bites) and South Carolina with five attacks, according to the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of National History.
Florida has long been the state that sees the most shark attacks, as many people flocks to the state’s long and attractive beaches. The waters also have a rich marine fauna.
“As has been the norm for decades, Florida again had most (54 percent) of the unprovoked attacks in the United States,” the report read.
The report also stated that Florida’s number of bites last year was higher than 2013 and Hawaii’s total was lower than in recent years.
A pair of shark attacks on the North Carolina coast just an hour and a few miles apart over the weekend has sparked new fears as beaches prepare for the crush of summer visitors.
Unprovoked shark attacks on humans are extremely rare, but most of them happen in the United States — and more than half of those are in Florida waters, the center found.
Last year, the United States saw 52 unprovoked shark attacks, out of 72 worldwide, according to the center. Of the 72, just three — all of them outside the U.S. — were deadly.
A man suspected of shooting and killing his wife outside their Scripps Ranch marriage counselor’s office pleaded not guilty on Monday to murder charges.
Jeremy Green appeared in court on Monday, three days after he surrendered to authorities who had tracked him down to Mexico.
A San Diego County judge set bail at $5 million, saying Green was a flight risk considering he fled to Mexico after a planned murder.
Prosecutors said Green, 40, escaped in a 2007 silver Corvette after shooting his wife, Tressa Green, 37, to death in the parking lot of a business complex on June 6 following a marriage counseling session that Green had suggested.
Deputy District Attorney Julie Lynn said Green shot his wife three times and then took off in his Corvette.
The fatal shooting sparked a statewide manhunt for Green, who law enforcement called armed and dangerous.
Last week, investigators found Green's Corvette abandoned in a Jack-in-the-Box parking lot in San Ysidro near the U.S.-Mexico border. The parking lot was within a short walk to the pedestrian border crossing.
Surveillance video provided by the lot's employees shows a man in a blue shirt parking the Corvette on Saturday at 3 p.m. Green shot his wife at about 2:10 p.m. that day, according to police.
Prosecutors now believe Green had parked his car in San Ysidro and donned a black hat and black shirt before crossing the border.
Authorities were able to track Green down in Cancun, Mexico. Capt. Nisleit said police had been in contact with the suspect for "multiple days" negotiating his surrender.
"We all hope that domestic violence will come to an end because it not only affects this couple, but the kids, too," Lynn said Monday.
Green does not yet have a lawyer and on Monday, requested a court-appointed attorney.
If convicted of murder, Green faces 50 years to life in prison.
Calling all pod racers: Aerospace manufacturer SpaceX has announced its Hyperloop pod competition.
The privately funded transportation project aims to transport passengers in pods that travel up to 750 miles per hour, nearly the speed of sound. With a functional Hyperloop, passengers could travel from San Francisco to Los Angeles in just a half hour.
Last month, Hyperloop CEO Dirk Ahlborn speculated to Wired that the project may be free of charge or close to it and that the Hyperloop could make money through means other than ticketing, such as selling off excess energy.
SpaceX itself is not developing a commercial Hyperloop. Instead, the company announced “an open competition, geared towards university students and independent engineering teams” to design and build a prototype.
But SpaceX said it would construct a one-mile test track near its Hawthorne, California, headquarters so that teams can test their human-scale pods on it. In addition to its formal competition announcement, SpaceX also launched its @Hyperloop Twitter account on Monday.
The competition is currently scheduled for a weekend in June 2016. Submissions to the contest must be received by 5 p.m. PDT on Sept. 15, 2015.
The man accused of running down a San Diego Police officer with a patrol car entered a second not guilty plea Monday, by reason of insanity.
At a status conference Monday, William Frank Bogard, 25, entered a dual plea to charges of assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer, vehicle theft, burglary and two counts of attempted murder on a peace officer.
At an arraignment in January, the prosecution said Bogard had been "acting strangely" outside a residence in the 3600 block of Main Street in Barrio Logan Tuesday night and the occupants called the police. After leaving for a few minutes, he came back and broke the window of the house, came inside and "threatened to assault and kill" the people inside, they said.
Officer Jeremy Swett was one of the responding officers and was interviewing witnesses when he was struck by his own patrol car, police said.
Prosecutors claim Bogard got into the vehicle and continued accelerating with the officer still on the hood.
The Ford Explorer came to rest suspended partly in the air, hanging from a wire on a power pole.
"The police car is standing up on a cable wire," said Felipe Hernandez, a local business owner who witnessed the action. "It's just something from the movies. Unreal."
Swett, a 25-year-veteran officer, fell from the hood of the SUV and suffered what were described as "serious, serious" injuries. At last update in January, he was at UCSD Medical Center and is expected to survive, according to police.
Bogard suffered a single non-life threatening gunshot wound to the waist by a second officer on the scene. A canine officer helped take Bogard into custody and he was transported to a nearby hospital for treatment.
As to how the suspect gained access to the patrol SUV, an official statement said Swett had gotten out of the patrol vehicle and "stayed near the vehicle as he assisted with the investigation."
Shortly after the incident, NBC 7 learned of a restraining order filed in 2011 by Bogard's mother. In it she writes her son "...has been suffering from bipolar disorder since he was a teenager...is supposed to be on medication, but doesn't take it."
The order also says, "William has threatened me and I fear going home and having William hurt me."
The request was granted, but expired last October.
If convicted, he faces 19 years to life in prison.
Editor's Note: A previous version of this story stated that Bogard entered a gulty plea. He entered a dual plea Monday, by reason of insanity. We regret the error.
NBC 7's Derek Togerson offers commentary on what's next for the Padres
Well, Padres fans, you got your wish. The Friars fired manager Bud Black on Monday after a 32-33 start (six games out of first place) and a 649-713 mark after 8-plus seasons.
One thing a lot of you did during the last few months is compare Buddy to former Chargers coach Norv Turner because neither man could seem to lead his team to a championship and often wallowed in mediocrity (at best).
However, that was all wrong. Buddy is not Norv Turner. Buddy is Marty Schottenheimer, and this is where the old phrase "be careful what you wish for" comes in to play.
Think about it. Marty was fired because he couldn't win the big games, even though he obviously had the roster to do it. For years that was not the case for Black as he squeezed more wins than he should have out of inferior lineups. But in 2015 the Padres put enough talent on the field to win. Probably not enough to win a World Series but certainly enough to be better than .500 after 65 games.
So, like Marty, Buddy is gone because he didn't optimize his talent to produce enough wins. Now we enter the dangerous waters because the Padres have to avoid making the same mistake the Chargers did:
Replacing the well-liked head man with the wrong guy.
Norv (who, coincidentally, was hired the same year as Black) took the Chargers to one AFC title game then went downhill every year. He was not the right guy to replace Marty.
The talent is there. The Padres need to do what the Chargers did not do and find a man who can take it in the opposite direction.
I think I know who that man is.
Dave Roberts will take over the team in an interim basis but, as much as I love Doc and believe he'll make a great manager some day. I just don't see him being ready for a full-time managerial gig just yet.
Former Padres bench coach and Cubs manager Rick Renteria is available after Chicago released him after one year to pursue former Rays manager Joe Maddon. Well-respected inside and outside the organization, Renteria would be a solid choice.
However, a roster like this needs a man who has a proven track record, someone veterans like Matt Kemp and James Shields will look up to. So my gut tells me the next Padres manager will be Ron Gardenhire.
The leader of the Twins from 2002-2014, Gardenhire won six AL Central Division titles in Minnesota and finished with a career 1,068-1,039 record. After winning the AL Manager of the Year Award in 2010 (the same year Black won it in the NL) a string of injuries and ineffective free agent signings led to his dismissal in Minnesota.
Gardenhire says he's not in a hurry to take another job but is interested in managing again. Here's the REALLY interesting piece of the puzzle ...
Gardenhire recently hired agent John Boggs to keep an eye out for openings for him. Boggs is the former agent of the late Tony Gywnn, still lives in San Diego and has close ties to the Padres organization. How's that for timing?
One thing I can guarantee is Ron Gardenhire sure as heck is no Norv Turner.
So what do you think, Padres fans? Would you be happy with Gardenhire as your new skipper or do you have somebody else in mind?
Thirteen people fell ill during a flight that landed at LAX Monday afternoon, according to airport officials.
The Fiji Airways flight landed and the call for help came in at 1:15 p.m., according to Margaret Stewart with the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were also available to assess the passengers.
All of the passengers stayed at the same hotel in Fiji, and complained of nausea and diahrrea, according to LAX spokeswoman Nancy Castles.
Twelve of the passengers were evaluated and cleared to continue with their travels.
One, a 19-year-old man, was taken to a hospital for evaluation.
Three relatives accused of allegedly trying to rescue a family member they believed was being brainwashed by a religious community north of San Diego will not face charges, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney's office said.
On June 5, The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said three suspects were arrested in connection with the kidnapping of a 23-year-old man from the Twelve Tribes Community/Church in Vista.
Deputies stopped the bizarre kidnapping around 5 p.m. in the 1500 block of Foothill Drive.
The sheriff’s department said a deputy responding to a different incident in the area thought he heard a car crash on a nearby street. He then saw two vehicles – a gray van and a red van – speed away from the scene.
Believing this was a hit-and-run, the deputy called for backup. Additional deputies tried to pull over both vans, but both vehicles failed to stop.
A pursuit began, but ended shortly thereafter on Foothill Drive.
At that point, deputies detained four people from the red van and one person from the gray van. While asking questions, deputies learned the incident was not a hit-and-run, but rather a chase that stemmed from a kidnapping that had happened minutes earlier at a house in Vista that also serves as the Twelve Tribes church.
Investigators said the gray van was pursuing the red van in which the victim was being held by the suspects.
The suspects – Andres Martinez-Manso, 51; Eliza Martinez, 25; and Robert Harry Matthew, 25 – are all related to the kidnapping victim and told deputies they were trying to rescue the man from the church because they believed he was being brainwashed. None of them will face charges.
The Twelve Tribes operates religious communities all over the United States. The group began in 1972 in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Members in north San Diego live together in a home in the 2600 block of Foothill Drive that doubles as a church. The Twelve Tribes also has a farm in Valley Center, about 18 miles away from the Vista location. Members also own The Yellow Deli, a restaurant located at 315 East Broadway in the Vista Village.
According to a statement from the church, Robert Martinez has been a member for five years. He has a wife who is expecting their first child in July.
The church's statement went on to say that the events Saturday were a surprise and that Robert's family has been welcomed at the church throughout the time Robert has been a member.
"We are not hidden or inaccessible to anyone, including our family members. In fact we continually invite and welcome folks into our very special life," the statement reads. "We have no ill will towards Robert’s family, and have hope of reconciliation and greater understanding in the future."
Palomar Health may close its downtown Escondido hospital, the board announced Thursday.
The 65-year-old hospital building between Grand Avenue and Valley Parkway is losing about $20 million per year and may need to close within the next few months.
The Palomar Health Downtown Campus houses labor and delivery, rehabilitation and behavioral health departments, and a standby emergency room.
If the Palomar board decides to close the structure at a meeting scheduled for June 24, those departments would be moved to Palomar Medical Center three miles away on Citracado Parkway and Pomerado Hospital in Poway.
Bobette Brown, a spokeswoman for Palomar, said there will be layoffs involved in the process of moving services, though no information was available on how many jobs would be eliminated. She said efforts will be made to preserve as many jobs as possible.
Since it opened in 1950, the hospital has been an integral part of downtown Escondido, and there was concern when Palomar announced it would build its new hospital in a business park on the west side of town.
However, hospital officials mitigated concern with a promise to maintain its downtown presence in addition to the new hospital.
Kenneth Lounsbery, co-leader of the campaign for Proposition BB, the $496 million referendum in 2004 that helped pay for the nearly $1 billion new hospital, said that promises were made to keep services downtown.
“I clearly remember making an ironclad promise to the voters that the downtown campus of the hospital would be retained as a vital part of the operation,” Lounsbery told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “Closure of the east campus breaks the faith with the representations I made to voters.”
It was not clear what would be done with the downtown property if it is closed. In a list of frequently asked questions posted on the hospital’s website, Palomar says it “will be conducting a thorough review to determine the highest and best use of the downtown site.”
Community forums on the possible closure will be held at 6 p.m. Monday, June 15, at Pomerado Hospital, 15614 Pomerado Road, Poway; and 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 16, at the Palomar Health Downtown Campus, 555 East Valley Parkway, Escondido.
