Scammers posing as customer support for prepaid cards are draining victims’ accounts as they leave the customers on hold.

The FBI is warning consumers about fake websites pretending to offer customer service for Moneypak, a reloadable, prepaid debit card from company Green Dot.

When customers look up help for MoneyPak online, they are coming across the fraudulent sites and calling those involved in the scam.

In some cases, the FBI says victims looking for a refund will give a “representative” their prepaid card number, as well as a credit card or checking account number where they want the refund to be sent.

Instead, the scammer will use that information to get money from the prepaid card and the victims’ personal accounts.

Another incarnation of the scheme involves people seeking support because they lost money from another scam.

For example, if a victim calls to get $500 they lost refunded to their card, the representative will ask them to load another $500 to it first, claiming that “reloading is the only way to process the refund.”

The representative tells the victim the account will be refunded the entire $1,000, but then will take the additional money put on the card.

In most cases, phony customer support puts the victims on hold long enough to steal all the money in their accounts or will immediately drain the card after the caller hangs up.

For protection, those who use MoneyPak cards should only use the website and phone number listed on the back, the FBI says.

You should also never give your MoneyPak number to someone you don’t know, and use it only to reload your prepaid cards or accounts you control.

If you believe you are the victim of this scam, file a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center’s website, including detailed descriptions of the encounter.

A rabbi at a prominent Washington, D.C., synagogue has been arrested on accusations he secretly recorded women in showers there.

A witness said Dr. Barry Freundel installed a hidden camera inside the women’s showers at Georgetown’s Kesher Israel Orthodox synagogue, according to the police report.

A camera and recorder were disguised as a clock radio in the showers, which are used for ritual cleansing.

"To hear that about a rabbi that people trust is very disturbing and concerning," congregant Michael Uhr said.

Police arrested Freundel, 62, at his home Tuesday morning after raiding it and seizing computer equipment. He is charged with voyeurism.

The synagogue's board of directors suspended him without pay after his arrest.

"Upon receiving information regarding potentially inappropriate activity, the board of directors quickly alerted the appropriate officials," the board said in a statement. "Throughout the investigation, we cooperated fully with law enforcement and will continue to do so."

Freundel has been the spiritual leader of the synagogue for 25 years. He is also an adjunct instructor at the University of Maryland and an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law School. He is also teaching as an associate professor in the philosophy and religious studies department at Towson University this semester.

San Diego Police need your help to find a woman accused of stealing hundreds of dollars' worth of merchandise from a local department store.

Investigators released surveillance images Tuesday showing a woman who they say stole items worth $282 from a Kohl's on Oct. 11, 2014.

When a security guard confronted her, the woman ran off, officers say.

If you know this woman, call the SDPD.
 

San Diego County hospitals are rolling out new and improved training procedures for health care workers who may come in contact with an infected Ebola patient.

This comes after Dallas nurse Nina Pham became infected after treating the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are continuously updating their guidelines on how to care for an infected patient. Hospitals in San Diego say they’re paying attention to make sure their staff is protected, too.

“Since the transmission of Ebola to the health care worker in Dallas, we've taken a look again at our protocol and decided to retrain our organization,” said Jim LaBell, Chief Medical Officer for Scripps Health.

LaBell says Scripps is stepping up its training for staff who may come in contact with an Ebola patient. This means upgrading their protective suits and using a buddy system to have an extra set of eyes when putting it on and taking it off, a process outlined step-by-step by the CDC.

“What that means is that every person that is going to be taking care of a patient with Ebola has a safety buddy with them observing for any risky behavior,” LaBell said.

“We fulfill all the CDC criteria, actually moving above what they recommended,” he said. “I think given the conversations we've had over the couple of days, it’s likely to be uniformly adopted by most hospitals.”

That includes Sharp Memorial Hospital, which is now screening patients, asking about their travel history and if they’ve had contact with anyone who was recently in West Africa. Warning signs and masks will also be available in the main entrances of the hospital.

The UCSD Medical Center says it is also making preparations but was not ready to speak with NBC 7 on camera.

On Tuesday, National Nurses United, the largest registered nurses’ union in the country, said that nurses in the U.S. are not protected or prepared to handle Ebola.

There have been no reported cases of Ebola in San Diego County.
 

A second health care worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas who provided care for Thomas Eric Duncan has tested positive for the potentially deadly disease, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services, pointing to lapses beyond how one individual may have donned and removed personal protective garb.

The second patient, a female health care worker, reported a fever Tuesday and was immediately isolated at the hospital within 90 minutes, officials said. If confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the person would be the second case of Ebola spread within the United States.

As with Nina Pham, a nurse who was the first known person to contract Ebola in the U.S., the new patient was among the workers who took care of Duncan ahead of his Oct. 8 death.

It is not clear how Pham or the second health care worker contracted the virus, leading the CDC to say, "an additional health care worker testing positive for Ebola is a serious concern."

Health and city officials cautioned that more cases could surface among those involved in Duncan's treatment. They are currently monitoring 75 additional hospital employees for symptoms.

"We are preparing contingencies for more and that is a very real possibility," Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said Wednesday.

Jenkins said the latest patient is heroic person "dealing with this diagnosis with the grit and grace and determination that Nina has dealt with the diagnosis." He said the protocol for identifying symptoms of the virus worked well in both new cases.

"We pray that, like Nina, she will get on a good track," Jenkins said.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said he wanted to reassure Dallas residents who he knows might be afraid at the moment.

"The only way we are going to beat this is person by person, moment by moment, detail by detail," Rawlings said.  "It may get worse before it gets better, but it will get better."

Breach of Protocol

The CDC has said Pham's infection was the result of a "breach of protocol" and warned in recent days that more cases could surface among other workers who may have been exposed during Duncan's care.

The confirmation of a second case lends support to nurses' claims this week that they have inadequate training and, in some cases, protective gear, to take care of Ebola patients. It also highlights the need to quickly determine how the health care workers contracted the virus and how many of the other 75 who treated Ebola patient Thomas Duncan, who died Oct. 8, are at risk.

"They're not prepared" for what they are being asked to do, said RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United, a union with 185,000 members.

Based on statements from nurses it did not identify, the union described how Duncan was left in an open area of the emergency room for hours. It said staff treated Duncan for days without the correct protective gear, that hazardous waste was allowed to pile up to the ceiling and safety protocols constantly changed.

DeMoro refused to say how many nurses made the statement about Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, but insisted they were in a position to know what happened.

"We are looking at every element of our personal protection equipment and infection control in the hospital," said Dr. Daniel Varga, chief clinical officer for Texas Health Resources, which operates Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.

The second case may help health officials determine where the infection control breach is occurring and make practices safer for health workers everywhere. For example, if both health workers were involved in drawing Duncan's blood, placing an intravenous line or suctioning mucus when Duncan was on a breathing machine, that would be recognized as a particularly high-risk activity. It also might reveal which body fluids pose the greatest risk.

The latest diagnosis comes one day after the CDC announced additional measures and precautions for fighting and containing the virus on U.S. soil, including plans to immediately send a team of experts to any hospital where a case is confirmed. CDC Director Tom Frieden said the agency is also stepping up training and education for health care workers and providing more infection control supervision at the Dallas hospital to minimize risk of transmission during Pham's treatment.

“I wish we had put a team like this on the ground the day the first patient was diagnosed," Frieden said. "That might have prevented this infection." 

Frieden said initially that safety measures in place at the hospital should have prevented the virus' spread. But some have questioned how ready and equipped the hospital in Dallas was to treat Duncan and prevent spread of the illness there and whether patients should instead be routed to special facilities that have successfully treated Americans who fell sick with Ebola while abroad.

On Tuesday, a national nurse's union claimed the nurses in Dallas did not have proper protective gear and worried about exposure to Duncan's bodily fluids. The hospital did not respond to the specific claims but said it will continue to review and respond to concerns raised.

"I want to be very clear. We want to trust our health care workers and we want to protect our health care workers," Dallas County Health and Human Services Director Zach Thompson said.

Second Patient's Apartment Cleaned

Emergency responders in hazardous materials suits began work before dawn Wednesday to decontaminate the Dallas apartment of the second hospital worker. Officials said she lives alone with no pets.

Notices handed out to neighbors advise them that "a health care worker who lives in your area has tested positive for Ebola."

Ryan Fus, 24, who lives in the same building as the blocked-off apartment, said police knocked on his door before 6 a.m. to notify him and make sure he was doing OK.

"It's a little scary. It's a little shocking that it's right near me," he said. "But I'm not afraid or anything like that. I'm not gonna run away."

Containing the Virus

Ebola is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids of a sick person or exposure to contaminated objects such as needles. People are not contagious before symptoms such as fever develop, CDC officials say.

"What this case further illustrates, these two heroic women, is that Ebola comes from the body fluids of a symptomatic Ebola patient," Jenkins said.

Health officials are once again completing "contract tracing" to identify potential exposures in what they say is now a "two-front fight" against the virus. Officials are actively monitoring 75 additional hospital workers, as well as several dozen individuals who may have had contact with Duncan or a close associate outside the hospital. Those who may have been exposed before Duncan's hospital stay are nearing the end of the monitoring period and are now less likely to show symptoms of the virus.

"This is not going to be a situation where we’re going to put protective orders on 75 heath care workers," Jenkins said. "The system right now is working. If they have any temperature or any loose stool or any other symptom, they immediately go to isolation in the hospital and they are tested."

The preliminary Ebola test was run late Tuesday at the state public health laboratory in Austin, and results were received at about midnight. The CDC is conducting a confirmation test.

Dallas police set up a media center at the Bend East in The Village apartment complex at 5454 Amesbury Drive. Authorities went door to door distributing information about the Ebola virus to residents.

The commute in San Jose was a stinkin' mess Wednesday morning after a big-rig carrying a load of port-a-potties tipped over on the highway just before the height of the head-to-work rush.

Luckily, though, the toilets were empty. There was only cleaning fluid inside the portable latrines when the accident was reported about 5:15 a.m. on southbound Interstate 280, in a chain-reaction collision that stretched out from 4th Street to 11th Street, California Highway Patrol Officer Matt Rasmussen said.

The driver of a black BMW had a solo spinout, prompting him to crash into the tanker, causing a chain reaction, Rasmussen said. Five other vehicles were involved, but the CHP said all the injuries were minor.

There were about 100 gallons of deodorizer on board the rig, San Jose Fire Battalion Chief Jose Guerrero said. The manager of the sewage tanker said he thinks his driver may not have seen the BMW spin out because the lights on the side of the road weren't on.

There was no immediate reason given for why the driver spun out, though Guerrero told NBC Bay Area he thinks slick roads might be to blame.

The driver did not give his full name, and although he was speaking after the accident, he went to the hospital to get checked out.

The CHP is investigating the accident and did not immediately make any arrests.

There are protests in the Philippines after a transgender person was found dead in a motel and the person in custody is a U.S. Marine, who may have ties to New England.

Activists are demanding that the U.S. hand over that Marine accused in the murder to Philippine authorities.

Jeffrey Laude, 26 who also goes by Jennifer, was found dead in a motel over the weekend.

She had apparently been strangled and drowned. People are calling Laude's death a hate crime.

Police have identified the Marine as Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton and NBC Rhode Island affiliate WJAR says he is from New Bedford, Massachusetts, and is being held on a U.S. warship.

Witnesses told authorities laude met Pemberton at a bar, and they later checked into that motel where laude was killed.

"We regret that this thing happened,” Gen. Gregorio Catapang said. “At the end of the day, he [Laude] is a Filipino, we have to protect his rights, we have to fight for his rights and we have to give justice for his untimely death."

A murder complaint is expected to be filed Wednesday by prosecutors.

About 3,000 U.S. Marines and Navy sailors concluded two weeks of military exercises with Filipino counterparts last Friday and were to leave the Philippines this week.

All San Diego Police officers will soon be wearing cameras on pockets and lapels maybe even behind an ear however the video recorded won't be easily accessible to the public.

That question was one of several poised by concerned citizens and members of the media at a panel held Tuesday night.

Under current department policy, recordings won't be made public unless San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman decides it's for the betterment of the community.

Zimmerman said some recordings are already being used to investigate current citizen complaints.

Unless there is a particular complaint of court case associated with the video, the clips will be removed from storage after six months.

Complaints of brutality, sexual misconduct and racial profiling lead San Diego police to outfit all officers by next year with their own body cameras.

The Society of Professional Journalists assembled a round table of community leaders including Zimmerman and representatives from the NAACP and the ACLU.

Audience member Letitia Flynn supported the use of the cameras.

" It would make me behave properly," Flynn said. "I want to be on the right side."

However, she disagreed with the policy on public access.

"They really need to make them available to the public," Flynn said.

Zimmerman says the cameras will activate at the point of enforcement. Officers are only required to tell a citizen they are recording if asked even if it's in a private home.

"It's accountability for our police officers. I's also accountability for the public too," Zimmerman said.

Officers are responsible for storing the video and turning cameras on and off, she said, adding that if an officer intentionally does not record a stop then they are going to be subject to discipline up to and including termination.

The police union, NAACP, and ACLU all represented on the panel back the use of body cameras on police officers.

A suspect in a Walmart burglary led police officers on a pursuit that ended in a crash along State Route 94 in National City Wednesday.

The suspect’s car overturned and rolled down an embankment just before noon near the junction between westbound SR-94 and Interstate 805.

Video shot by NBC 7’s Newschopper shows one man being detained near the crash scene.

No other details have been made available.
 

If you’re in the mood for a fall-filled day in sunny San Diego, the opportunities abound. From pancakes to purees, you’ll find local venues and restaurants serving up all things pumpkin, plus seasonal pastries, coffees and more. We’ve paired popular pumpkin patches and fall flavors with this guide from Yelp, filled with highly rated options and events.

Pumpkin Station + Parkhouse Eatery (Mission Valley/University Heights)

Pumpkin Station sets up its fall festivals in several San Diego locations. Pick one and then do a quick search for nearby pumpkin flavored foods using Yelp’s handy mobile app. We did the search and found this fall-flare combination. At Pumpkin Station’s Mission Valley location, there’s a petting zoo, giant slides and the much-loved El Paso train ride. There are also plenty of right-off-the-vine pumpkins and some killer coupons available online.

Nearby, you’ll discover the Parkhouse Eatery. The hot menu item this month is the pumpkin & spice pancakes. They’re served with whipped butter and covered in flavorful maple syrup. For a perfect prep before the pumpkin patch, pair them with homemade lemonade or coffee.

Farm Stand West + Baltimore Snowball (Escondido)

Grab your kids and head out to the Escondido Farm for a fantastic fall photo and pumpkin picking from the patch. While you’ll find the quintessential harvest atmosphere, the annual 2014 fall festival and boutique weekend kicks off Oct. 25 and Oct. 26 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It’s free to attend and you can enjoy a hayride, eat a BBQ lunch and check out the farm with many artists, crafters, bakers, canners and seamstresses on hand with goods for sale.

While you’re out in the North County, stop in and snag a snow cone at Baltimore Snowball. It’s not just for summer: there are fall flavors, such as the turtle pumpkin pie. This decadent dish is a concoction of butter pecan ice cream, a layer of caramel, pumpkin pie and butter pecan snow, plus a drizzle of chocolate and caramel on top. If you want to get a head start on the holiday season, go for grandma’s egg nog made with vanilla ice cream, egg nog snow, whipped cream and nutmeg.

Lavender Hill Pumpkins + Fallbrook Coffee Co. (Fallbrook)

Lavender Hill Pumpkins’ crop this year includes 10,000 pumpkins in about three-dozen varieties, including the famous North Atlantic Giant -- a pumpkin that can get as huge as 300 pounds. This organic farm isn’t like a county fair, with rides or face painting, but rather an old fashioned pumpkin patch. For the pumpkin purist, it’s a little bit of fall heaven!

Before or after your autumn adventure, head to the Fallbrook Coffee Co. to enjoy the pumpkin spice latte. It’s a locally owned joint with a quaint feel and an utterly charming front garden. Occasionally if you’re lucky, you’ll find a fall pastry that perfectly pleases the palate. This week we spied snicker doodle pumpkin muffins!

Trish Sanderson is the community manager and marketing director for Yelp North County San Diego. She leads the local community of Yelp reviewers both online and off.

A student-run café on the grounds of UC San Diego fought what it calls an "unlawful eviction" in court Wednesday.

The iconic student café has hosted music acts like Green Day, Blink 182, Descendants and Rise Against over its 34 years.

On June 2, the Graduate Student Association (GSA) voted 24 to 2 that the C.H.E. Café collective was not acting in the best interest of the students and the university should terminate the month-to-month lease.

An eviction notice was served in person on June 13 but the collective did not move out within 30 days so the university issued an eviction notice.

In a downtown San Diego courtroom Wednesday, the judge heard arguments from both sides regarding the most recent lease agree – a two-year fixed term lease – that ended in 2008 and an ongoing month-to-month tenancy that occurred for six years.

Despite six years of negotiating terms of a lease, no agreement was reached according to the university’s legal team.

University attorneys argued that in order to extend the 2008 agreement and maintain the use of the space, the C.H.E. Café Collective had to obtain certifications from the UCSD Associated Students and the GSA.

Associate Vice Chancellor Gary Ratcliff testified that the collective did not attempt to gain certification from either student group before the end of its 2008 agreement.

“The university, we were interested in the AS and GSA certifying them. If they had certified them, then the University Centers was interested in discussing extension with the co-ops,” Ratcliff said.

Attorneys for the C.H.E. Collective have challenged the GSA decertification. The collective’s legal team is also pursuing an injunction against all further actions against the C.H.E. on October 31.
 

A Dallas nurse who has Ebola and is being transferred to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta for treatment never should have flown on a commercial airliner, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.

The nurse, identified by Ohio health officials as 29-year-old Amber Joy Vinson, is reported to have traveled from Cleveland to Dallas on Frontier Airlines Flight 1143 on Monday, a day before she began showing symptoms of the potentially deadly disease, the CDC said.

Vinson had gone to Ohio to prepare for her upcoming wedding and to visit her mother and fiance, Cleveland Public Health Director Toinette Parrilla said Wednesday.

After returning to Dallas on Oct. 14, Vinson reported a low-grade fever and was isolated at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. On Wednesday afternoon Vinson boarded a charter jet that would ferry her to Atlanta so that she could be treated at Emory University Hospital, the same hospital that treated and cured Fort Worth Dr. Kent Brantly and missionary Nancy Writebol.

The Frontier flight crew from the flight Vinson took said she showed no signs or symptoms of Ebola while on board the flight.

However, because she developed Ebola symptoms so soon after flying, the CDC wants to interview all 132 passengers on the flight. Those passengers are considered low-risk but are asked to call 1-800-CDC-INFO (1-800-232-4636).

On Wednesday afternoon Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said he planned to enact a legal control order restricting the travel of health care workers who treated Ebola patient Thomas Duncan by blocking them from using public transportation, including buses and airliners.

The control order would give the county legal authority to restrict the movement of those being monitored for the potentially deadly virus.

CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden on a Wednesday conference call that the patient, or anyone who had contact with a known Ebola patient, should not have been onboard a commercial airliner.

“The second health care worker reported no symptoms and no fever. However, because at that point she was in a group of individuals known to have exposure to Ebola, she should not have traveled on a commercial airline,” Frieden said.

Frieden said that "from this moment forward,” the CDC will "ensure no other individual” monitored for exposure will travel by means other than what he called "controlled movement," a definition that includes travel in cars or chartered plane.

Fort Worth Family in Quarantine for 21 Days

A letter sent to parents in the Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD on Wednesday said a family member of a Lake Pointe Elementary School student was on the same flight from Cleveland with Vinson.

The district said the family member is in the military and is stationed at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth.

The family, none of whom are exhibiting symptoms, the district said, will remain in quarantine for 21 days as a precautionary measure, upon advisement from the military.

Ohio to Track Possible Ebola Exposure

Vinson flew from Dallas-Fort Worth to Cleveland on Frontier Flight 1142 on Friday, Oct. 10, the airline said, and visited family in Akron. She flew back three days later, on Monday, one day before she was hospitalized.

The Cleveland Clinic and The MetroHealth System had employees on the Frontier flight from Dallas to Cleveland, returning from a nursing conference in Texas. In a joint statement with University Hopital, both health systems have placed those employees on plaid leave while their health is being monitored.

"We are confident that these nurses are at low risk of exposure since we understand that the Dallas nurse did not have symptoms at the time. We have taken this measure as an extra precautionary step for our employees, patients, and visitors," they said.

State and local health officials in Ohio are working with the CDC to identify people who may have been in close contact with Vinson while she was in the state, the state health department said Wednesday. They will quarantine as necessary and are confident in their efforts to "respond efficiently and effectively."

Vinson has three relatives who are employees of her alma mater Kent State University in Akron, school spokesman Eric Mansfield confirmed, but he said she did not visit the campus and no one has been quarantined as a result of her visit.

The university is, however, asking Vinson's family to remain off campus for 21 days and to self-monitor, per CDC protocol.

"It's important to note that the patient was not on the Kent State campus," said Kent State President Beverly Warren. "She stayed with her family at their home in Summit County and did not step foot on our campus. We want to assure our university community that we are taking this information seriously, taking steps to communicate what we know."

Vinson graduated from Kent State with degrees in 2006 and 2008, after having graduated from Firestone High School in Akron in 2003.

Airport, Airline Clean Up After New Diagnosis

The Frontier Airlines plane on which Vinson had flown Monday was decontaminated twice and was being put back into service on Wednesday for a flight to Denver, Cleveland officials said Wednesday.

The airline had removed the plane from service earlier in the day after Vinson tested positive for Ebola. The plane was cleaned again at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport on Wednesday, airport spokeswoman Jacqueline Mayo said.

Key parts of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport were also being disinfected, and all airport employees have been provided personal protection equipment, city officials said. The airport has implemented its infectious disease protocol, and efforts are said to exceed CDC guidelines.

Frontier said the flight Vinson had flown to Dallas-Fort Worth on Monday had landed at 8:16 p.m. that night and was parked overnight at the airport.

It was cleaned, consistent with CDC standards per normal end-of-day procedures, and returned to service Tuesday, the airline said. The aircraft was cleaned again, per normal procedures, in Cleveland at the end of the flight day Tuesday, Frontier Airlines CEO David Siegel said.

In a statment to his employees on Wednesday, Frontier Airlines' CEO David Siegel announced that he has placed two pilots and four flight attendants on paid leave for 21 days "out of an abundance of caution."

Airline stocks tumbled Wednesday after the news that Vinson had flown just before her diagnosis. Shares of the major U.S. airlines were down between 4 percent and 6 percent in midday trading Wednesday.

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story misidentified Frontier Airlines CEO David Siegel.

The pilot who died this month fighting the Dog Rock Fire in Yosemite when his air tanker crashed most likely hit a tree with its wing, which separated from the airplane, investigators say.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators said in preliminary findings released Wednesday that that assessment came from a crew member of another airplane also fighting the fire.

Air tanker pilot Geoffrey "Craig" Hunt, 62, of San Jose, was killed Oct. 7 when his 1950s-era Cal Fire Tanker 81 had crashed into a mountainside near Arch Rock.

Cal Fire Director Ken Pimlott said in a statement that what firefighters do by air is a dangerous job.

"Aerial firefighting is not simply flying from one airport to another. The wildland firefighting environment  is a challenging one, both on the ground and in the air," he said. "We look forward to the final NTSB report to see if we can use the findings to help mitigate the inherent dangers of the job. We owe that to Craig, who traded his life in an effort to protect the lives of others."

Hunt was a contractor for Dyncorp, who worked for Cal Fire for 13 years. He is survived by his wife, Sally, whom he married in September 1975, and his children.

"My dad died a hero," one of his daughters, Sarah Hunt Lauterbach, said in a statement. "There was not a day that went by that I didn't talk to my dad."

Hunt served as a U.S. Navy P3 Pilot from 1975 to 1984 and was in the reserves for 20 years. He earned a masters in business from the University of Southern California and a masters in biochemistry from the University of Santa Cruz, and served as a chemistry teacher in the off-season at the University of Santa Cruz.

He had a love for flying, golfing, fishing, hiking, bird watching, scuba diving, math/sciences, teaching and dogs.

A 21-year-old Harvard student who took his dying mother to Mexico to receive treatment and in turn violated immigration rules has been granted permission to return to the United States after being stranded for months.

Dario Guerrero Meneses and his mother left Long Beach in July to find medical help in Mexico when chemotherapy had failed, aware that his illegal status could prevent him from ever returning to United States once he left.

“I don't think I’d be able to forgive myself for letting her basically continue the decline in her condition,” Meneses said.

Meneses mother died in August.

The third-year Harvard student arrived in the U.S. illegally but had been granted reprieve from deportation under the Dream Act. When Meneses left the U.S. without getting permission to leave, he violated those terms. When he tried to return, his attempts were denied.

“Unfortunately it’s been very sad what happened to him…but I think that is going to make him stronger,” his father Dario Guerrero Sr. said.

Tuesday, Meneses was granted permission to return home.

“I think he's the reason we have immigration. He fits why we have a statue of liberty and why we want people to immigrate to the United States,” lawyer Alan Klein said.

Meneses is expected to return to Long Beach in a few weeks. He will have to reapply for the Dream Act, a process that could take several months.

Sam's Club has issued a recall for Simply Right baby wipes due to a possible bacterial contamination that can make kids sick.

The company notified its customers through e-mail on Oct. 10 about possible contamination with B. cepacia bacteria.

According to the Center for Disease Control, the bacteria does not pose a big risk to healthy people but could be harmful to those who have weakened immune systems, especially children with cystic fibrosis.

Sam's Club said in the email that is has instructed its stores to remove the baby wipes, which have been sold across the country since June 30, 2014, from shelves.

While there isn’t an FDA recall on the product, Sam’s Club is urging customers to stop using the wipes and return them for a full refund.

Customers who purchased the product can reach Sam's Club toll-free at (888) 746-7726 or online at www.samsclub.com and click on "Contact Us" for more information.

By Lance Williams and Katharine Mieszkowski

Broadcast story by Joel Grover and Jacquelin Sonderling

Mike Soubirous is a prodigious water user, pumping more than 1 million gallons per year at his lushly landscaped home on a hot, windy Southern California hilltop.
Soubirous also is a member of the Riverside City Council, which in July voted unanimously to impose tough new water conservation rules in this desert city of 317,000.

Yet as California's drought worsened from 2012 to 2013, Soubirous consumed enough water to supply eight California households -- more than any other top water official in the state, records show.
 
Soubirous knows he should cut his water use to set a good example, he told The Center for Investigative Reporting. But he has a 1-acre lot with cascades of flowering shrubs and a weeping willow tree, and summer temperatures hit 100 degrees. Conservation isn't that simple, he said.
 

"Do I have to sell my house to set that example, or do I have to just abolish all my shrubs?" Soubirous said. "I don't know what to do. I don't know how I can reduce my water rate."

Like Soubirous, many of the local officials urging the public to save water during California's crippling drought actually are profligate water users themselves, a CIR investigation has found.

Water bills obtained via the state's Public Records Act show that in 2013, nearly half of the officials who supervise the state's biggest water agencies used more water than the typical California household.

And water officials tended not to cut back as the drought persisted. Even as their agencies scolded ratepayers on conservation, 60 percent of these officials used more water in 2013 than they had in 2012, records show.
 
Some officials used extraordinary amounts.
 
In addition to Soubirous, two other officials -- a Fresno city councilman and a member of Riverside's utilities board -- pumped more than 1 million gallons in a single year during the drought, records show.

Eight other officials used more than 1,100 gallons per day in 2013. That's triple the state's average. Among them was Randy Record, chairman of the board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which recently launched an advertising blitz to persuade 19 million people to save water.
 

Fifteen additional officials used double the statewide rate. One was Ashley Swearengin, Republican candidate for state controller and incumbent mayor of Fresno, where residents are allowed to water lawns twice a week now and not at all in winter.
 
As the drought has worsened,local agencies have kept up a steady public relations drumbeat, urging Californians to take shorter showers, limit car washing and even tear out their lawns in the name of conservation.

This summer, the state told local agencies to enforce tough new rules: Ratepayers can face $500 fines for offenses such as permitting excess runoff from outdoor watering or cleaning sidewalks with hoses. Around the state, according to news reports, neighbors have begun reporting neighbors for wasting water.

When contacted, some water officials bemoaned how much they were spending on water and blamed undetected sprinkler leaks, overzealous gardeners or heavy use of the family swimming pool. All said conservation is important. All vowed to do better.

But not all are following their own water rules. Last month in Riverside, an NBC I-Team crew collaborating with CIR on this story caught on video sprinklers running seven nights in a row at Soubirous' home. Yet in July, Soubirous joined the council in forbidding watering more than four times a week. When asked about it, he acknowledged he might have unintentionally overwatered.
 
Trent Orr of the Earthjustice environmental law firm in San Francisco said the officials were "blatantly defying" the conservation ethos they impose on ordinary citizens.
 

"You should be leading by example," Orr said, "not telling the little people you regulate that they need to tighten their belts while you proceed as if nothing had happened and in fact use more water."
 
Water bills for most Californians are confidential. But bills for officials who set water rates and policies are public under the state's open records law. CIR obtained more than two years' worth for the elected and appointed officials who oversee 22 of the state's biggest water agencies - about 150 officials in all.
 
For comparison, a 2011 study commissioned by the state Department of Water Resources found that occupants of a single-family home in California use, on average, 361 gallons per day -- or nearly 132,000 gallons a year.

North and south, Californians use about the same amount of water indoors, the study found. But Southern Californians use far more outdoors to keep their landscaping lush and swimming pools full. Overall, Northern California households use about 295 gallons per day, while Southern Californians use 523 gallons, according to the study.

CIR's analysis found a similar variance: Water-guzzling officials were concentrated in the drier, thirstier parts of the state - the Central Valley and hot inland areas in Southern California. Bay Area officials used far less: 255 gallons per day -- slightly below the Northern California average.
 
In the Central Valley, where summers are scorching, water officials included in the CIR analysis averaged 855 gallons per day in 2013. The Central Valley's average use was less than 565 gallons. Because cities in the region have been slow to install residential water meters, bills weren't available for many officials.
 
Fresno City Councilman Oliver Baines said a horrendous malfunction in his sprinkler system made him a million-gallon user in 2013, the first year that water meters kept track in his west Fresno neighborhood.
 

Baines' first metered bill showed he used 4,000 gallons per day -- about 11 times the state average. The city, which says it has the lowest water rates in California, charged him $182.43 for that water.
 
One year and 1.24 million gallons later, Baines finally solved what he called a "freak situation" involving his sprinklers: In the middle of the night, water would stream from defective sprinkler heads, flooding the yard. The ground became so saturated that a sinkhole opened up behind his house, he said.

After repairs, Baines used 149 gallons per day in March. But the memory still rankles.
 
"Well, you know, I apologize," he said. "Clearly, I am not a model of water usage."
 

Nobody in the valley rivaled Baines, though. Swearengin, Fresno's mayor, averaged 850 gallons per day in 2013. She didn't respond to a request for comment.
 
In Southern California, water officials averaged 541 gallons per day, exceeding both the state and regional rates. Officials in coastal cities tended to have far lower water bills than those in hotter inland areas.
 
Riverside Councilman Soubirous was the only official to use 1 million gallons in successive years, but he was not the only mega-user in the Inland Empire city, which has outlawed watering between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.
 
Andrew Walcker of the city Board of Public Utilities used 1 million gallons in 2012. In September 2012, he pumped 6,000 gallons per day -- enough water for 16 households.
 

Walcker's 2-acre property once was a grapefruit grove. Starting 18 months ago, he said he began a landscape makeover, installing a state-of-the-art sprinkler system and pulling out 12,000 square feet of lawn.
 
Water bills show Walcker's use dropped by 35 percent in 2013 and is on a pace to drop 50 percent this year. Nevertheless, in June, he used more than 1,500 gallons per day, triple the Southern California average.
 
The other big Riverside user was utilities board member Nick Ferguson. He used enough for six households in 2012 and slightly less in 2013.
 

Ferguson declined to be interviewed, but his bills may continue to decrease. In May, according to a news release, he won a $10,000 Waterwise Landscape Makeover contest sponsored by the city and the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce. His prize: a turf-free front yard.
 
Big water bills also prevailed on the board of the Coachella Valley Water District, which supplies desert resort cities and golf courses near Palm Springs.
 
Water board President John Powell Jr. used 1,800 gallons per day in 2013 at his home on an Indian Wells golf course, slightly more than in 2012.
 
In an interview, Powell blamed his landscaper for favoring a green lawn over water conservation. Recently, Powell said he took drastic action: He locked up his irrigation timer to prevent overwatering.
 

He said he also replaced lawns with rock and artificial turf. He expects big savings. But through Aug. 27, his water use was down 4 percent from 2013, records show.
 
Fellow Coachella board member Peter Nelson used 1,500 gallons per day last year, a 10 percent increase over 2012. Nelson says a big water bill seems unavoidable in his home near the Palm Royale Country Club in La Quinta, where his son hosted his water polo team for weekly swim parties in the family's pool.
 
Also struggling to conserve water is Record, a Riverside County rancher and local water district official who was elected chairman of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California in May.
 
For years, the consortium of 26 Los Angeles-area water agencies has promoted water conservation. Now, facing cutbacks from Northern California, it has redoubled its efforts. In May, Record and other Metropolitan Water District officials held a news conference to warn that if voluntary conservation measures fall short, water rationing would begin.
 

At his ranch house on the outskirts of San Jacinto, Record has a history of letting the water flow: In both 2012 and 2013, he used enough water to supply four families, with a summertime spike.
 
But this year, in the name of conservation, he told CIR that he has dramatically cut back, turning off the sprinklers for a "big part of our lawn."
 
The result: In August, Record's water bill was half what it was a year ago. But he still used 1,300 gallons per day -- more than twice the Southern California average.
 
In the Bay Area, where summer nights can be cool and foggy, local water officials don't use much water: 70 percent were under the state average in 2013.
 

The region's biggest user was Martin Koller, vice president of the board of the Alameda County Water District. He used 604 gallons per day, double the regional rate. Koller said nine members of his extended family live with him, and his wife operates a day care center for 14 children out of the home.

"That's taxed our water usage," he said.
 
Otherwise, Bay Area officials dominated the list of water misers among their peers.
 
The most miserly official in California was Eric Mar of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, who lives in a condominium in the Inner Richmond district, part of the city's fog belt. He used 45 gallons per day in 2013 -- about enough to fill a bathtub.
 
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee was not far behind: He used 53 gallons per day at his Glen Park home.
 
The mayor believes "conservation is a way of life," said spokeswoman Christine Falvey, and he's often out of town on official travel.
 
As a result, Lee had some extraordinarily low bills.
 
In July, he used 24 gallons per day -- enough to wash a load of clothes. In March 2013, he used 12 gallons per day -- the equivalent of one six-minute shower. And in December 2013, after trips to China and India, the mayor's bill was even lower: zero gallons.
 
Actually, the zero is a billing anomaly, said Tyrone Jue, spokesman for the city Public Utilities Commission.
 
In San Francisco, water use is rounded off on monthly bills, he said. Customers get zeros when they don't use enough water to make the meter tick -- 748 gallons in a billing period. Their minimal use is carried over to the following month's bills, Jue said.
 
There's no way the mayor went an entire month without using a drop of water, Jue said. "Essentially, it is normal," he said of the bill.
 
This story was edited by Amy Pyle and copy edited by Nikki Frick and Christine Lee.
 
This story was produced by The Center for Investigative Reporting, an independent, nonprofit newsroom based in the San Francisco Bay Area. For more, visit cironline.org. Williams can be reached at lwilliams@cironline.org, and Mieszkowski can be reached at kmieszkowski@cironline.org. Follow them on Twitter: @LanceWCIR and @kmieszkowski.

A Carlsbad woman who claimed she fatally shot her husband in self-defense will be tried again on second-degree murder charges.

A jury acquitted Julie Harper on first-degree murder charges last month, but deadlocked on lesser charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter.

Prosecutors said Wednesday they intend to re-try Harper in April.

In her weeks-long September trial, Harper told jurors that she shot her husband, Jason Harper, on Aug. 7, 2012, because she feared he would kill or rape her.

Harper was a math teacher at Carlsbad High School.

Prosecutors, on the other hand, said Harper was angry and spiteful over the marriage. They questioned why, if she were innocent, she would bury the gun and not immediately report the shooting to police.

In closing arguments, defense attorney Paul Pfingst said that there was no evidence Harper was angry or spiteful, just a victim of months of verbal, physical and sexual abuse. Pfingst said she feared for her life and that her actions were out of love for her children.

“One could say that neither one is irrational, neither one is unreasonable,” Pfingst told jurors in his closing argument. “But if there is an argument that has reason to support it that comes to the benefit of Ms. Harper, she's entitled to the one that supports her."

Harper is free on $2 million bail.
 

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas is apologizing for initially misdiagnosing the country's first Ebola patient in testimony prepared for a Thursday hearing on Capitol Hill.

In remarks prepared for delivery before a House committee, the hospital's chief clinical officer, Dr. Daniel Varga, admits mistakes were made during Thomas Eric Duncan's care when he first arrived at the hospital's emergency room.

"Unfortunately, in our initial treatment of Mr. Duncan, despite our best intentions and a highly skilled medical team, we made mistakes," Varga is prepared to testify. "We did not correctly diagnose his symptoms as those of Ebola. We are deeply sorry."

Duncan died at Presbyterian Hospital on Oct. 8, two weeks after he had first gone to the hospital because he was feeling ill. He was initially treated and released but returned three days later and was put in isolation.

Varga's prepared testimony calls Duncan's death "devastating to the nurses, doctors, and team who tried so hard to save his life." 

"We keep his family in our thoughts and prayers," Varga said.

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Thomas Frieden, has said caregivers improperly donned protective gear, using more layers than recommended because they believed it would better protect them.

In fact, he said, it may have put them at higher risk.

But in his prepared testimony, the hospital executive said doctors and nurses followed guidelines.

"The hospital followed all CDC and Texas Department of Health Services recommendations in an effort to ensure the safety of all patients, hospital staff, volunteers, nurses, physicians and visitors," Varga said in his prepared testimony.

Varga admits that the hospital didn't provide accurate information about an electronic records system after it was discovered they were caring for the nation's first Ebola patient.

"Also, in our effort to communicate to the public quickly and transparently, we inadvertently provided some information that was inaccurate and had to be corrected. No doubt that was unsettling to a community that was already concerned and confused, and we have learned from that experience as well," Varga's testimony said.

As a result of the hospital's admitted mistakes, Varga said there have been "a number of changes based on the preliminary lessons learned from our experience."

Read Varga's full statement below:

With 20 days left before Election Day, accusations between the candidates for California’s 52nd Congressional District are heating up, with Democrat incumbent Scott Peters claiming Republican challenger Carl DeMaio crossed an ethical line.

At a press conference Wednesday, Peters said an ad on behalf of DeMaio suggests the current congressman did something illegal. The issue comes a week after DeMaio accused Peters of running ads that were false and deceptive.

“It’s an assault on my integrity, my wife’s integrity. It almost suggests illegal behavior,” Peters said.

He called on DeMaio to speak out against the campaign ad, which was paid for by the Republican Party, just as he spoke out about a video run on his behalf by the Democratic Party.

“The one with kids holding up signs, and I objected to them using kids,” said Peters. “I thought it was the wrong thing.”

DeMaio told NBC 7 the ad in question was paid for by a political action committee and was not approved by him.

The Republican added he is prohibited by law from getting involved with the PACs.

“What I will say is I don’t believe these outside super PACs are healthy things for politics,” said DeMaio, “but this is outrageous. Mr. Peter is running ads under his own control, falsely accusing me.”

He claimed Peters is trying to portray him as a Tea Party extremist who wants to cut Medicare and is against student loans and equal pay for equal work.

“For him to stand in front of a camera and say he’s an innocent bystander here is breathtaking, and it’s what we see from politicians,” said DeMaio. “They say one thing and do another. My ads are all positive and I’m proud of that.”

According to Peters, people can come after him on his record because in a campaign, voters have to contrast the candidates and understand their differences.

“There’s nothing illegal about being in the Tea Party. It’s not an assault on his integrity. What I’m saying is that’s a fair attack” said Peters. “If he said my political views are extreme, if he said I was a communist, that would not be an attack on my personal integrity. That would not be suggesting he’s breaking the law. That why that’s different.”

As for those who want the whole truth and nothing but the truth, both candidates say voters should look closely at their political records.