The Southern California sky was illuminated by a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 20 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit out of the company’s base northwest of Santa Barbara.

news Dec 29, 2023

SpaceX sets new rocket record with 96 successful launches in 2023

The rocket and its exhaust plume are sometimes visible for hundreds of miles as it soars along the coast, if skies are clear. Launches just after sunset and before sunrise usually provide the best views as the rocket reflects the sun’s rays against the backdrop of a darkened sky.

Hawthorne-based SpaceX launched 96 successful missions with its Falcon rockets in 2023, eclipsing its previous annual record of 61 orbital launches in 2022.

SpaceX has a Starlink constellation of satellites orbiting Earth about 340 miles up, shuttled into space by the company’s rockets. The Starlink network is designed to deliver high-speed internet anywhere around the globe.

If light conditions are right, the satellites appear in a train as they parade across the night sky. The satellites are sometimes visible in the first few minutes after sundown and before sunrise when the sun is below the horizon, but the satellites are high enough to reflect direct sunlight.

Use the FindStarlink tracker to find the best upcoming viewing times.

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Caleb Adams, 46, and his friends in his open water swim group were swimming on June 2 when the day took a turn.

“It was a strong hit to my body. I didn’t feel more of a pain or a crushing, but I knew I had been hit by a shark,” Adams said in an exclusive interview that aired on “TODAY.” “I tussled with the animal for what was seconds.”

Then, the fighting became intense, according to Adams.

“It came back towards me again, and I used my hands to fend off the animal, positioning my hands on the mouth or nose. It felt kind of like holding a basketball, and then striking it twice with my right hand. The first time landing somewhere on the body, and the second time in the mouth,” Adams said.

He said the escape was made possible by friends in the area.

“When I was swimming him in, the blood was just pouring out of his chest, and we really just needed to get him onshore as quickly as possible,” Kevin Barrett, Adams’ friend, said.

Adams was transported to a local hospital, where he was rushed into surgery.

Shark attacks remain an uncommon thing.

“It’s certainly important for everyone to know that shark bites are very rare. We can talk about the statistics and compare them to other things like vending machines falling down on people,” marine biologist Dovi Kacev said.

While Adams continues to heal, he plans on leaning on the local community, which he thanks during this time.

“We are going to be fine,” Adams said.

The off-duty agent fired his service weapon, but it was not immediately clear whether the suspect was hit.

An image of a 2004-2006 Silver Infinity FX35 vehicle was caught leaving the scene, police said.

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U.S. Secret Service officials confirmed the incident to NBC News, adding that the agent was not injured in the incident. It’s unclear what the member’s assignment was Saturday night.

The armed robbery happened about an hour after President Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Hollywood celebrities gathered in downtown Los Angeles to raise millions of dollars for the president’s reelection campaign.

Anybody with information about the incident is encouraged to contact the Tustin Police department.

The windsurfer got stuck on the sand of a cliffside beach south of Davenport Landing, Cal Fire CZU said in a post on social media. He told rescuers that despite being a veteran windsurfer, he found himself in a situation that he couldn’t escape from.

The windsurfer took off from Davenport Landing Beach and got pushed down the coastline to the point where he got trapped.

“It was actually very windy out as well, probably 25-plus MPH wind,” Cal Fire Capt. Sean Ketchum said.

On the beach, the windsurfer was surrounded by 100-foot cliffs and a rising tide.

“It is an extremely beautiful place to work and live,” Cal Fire Capt. Skylar Merritt said. “That being said, it can lull people into a false sense of security around those cliffs. Those beaches are notorious for strong winds, rip tides and cold water.”

A private helicopter flying by spotted the windsurfer’s “HELP” rock formation and called 911, according to Cal Fire.

A team of first responders worked together to hoist the windsurfer to safety.

“It was a good feeling being there and being able to help just get him out of there,” rescuer Jesus Acosta said.

Cal Fire said the windsurfer was physically OK and happy to have been rescued.

“This person was definitely lucky that that person saw him,” Merritt said. “It’s no excuse not to have a plan where you communicate with your family, your friends.”

First responders said the way the windsurfer was found felt like a movie. “It definitely was the thought that we had when we heard the way that this call came in,” Merritt said.

Cal Fire didn’t say how long the windsurfer had been stranded on the beach.

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Video posted by the Truckee High School football team showed the bear jogging across the field as players looked on.

“One never knows what’s going to take place at a football practice in Truckee,” the team wrote in a post on social media. “Snow, lightning, hail, birds of prey swooping for voles on Surprise Stadium before the Coyote pounces on one, or a black bear just strolling through your 7 on 7.”

Players said every now and then animals will cross the field to get back into the woods.

Bears showing up in populated areas is becoming increasingly common, prompting the state to work on a conservation plan to minimize conflict between humans and black bears.

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But a group that was supposed to clean a house in Alhambra, California was in for a surprise.

When they saw guests, who stayed at a house in the 1400 block of Ethel Avenue last month, left behind multiple boxes, they called police.

After investigators with the Alhambra Police Department responded to the call, they learned those boxes contained about 235 pounds of methamphetamine.

As authorities checked footage from the RING camera at the property, they saw people engaging in suspicious activities.

“The suspects were caught on RING camera footage using a U-Haul van to transport the narcotics,” Alhambra Police said in a social media post.

While officers were at the house, the same vehicle caught on camera somehow returned to the location and tried to get away by making a U-turn.

But officers caught up with the two suspects in the car and arrested them for transporting narcotics, the police department said. 

In response to the incident, Airbnb said it has removed a booking guest from the platform, adding it’s working closely with the Alhambra Police Department with the investigation. 

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The incident happened around 9 a.m. about 100 yards offshore from the Beach Safety Center at 17th Street, according to the City of Del Mar.

The victim was bitten in his torso, left arm and hand, which are significant injuries, but are non-life-threatening, according to city officials. An ambulance transported him to Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla.

He was swimming in a group of about a dozen ocean swimmers who regularly meet to train in Del Mar.

Jenna Veal, a friend of the victim who was just feet away from the attack, told NBC’s “TODAY” that the victim punched the shark in the face.

“He was incredibly conscious and brave. I mean, he truly fought for his life on multiple fronts today, from the fact that he got bumped by the shark and bit, and then he punched it in the face, and then he was able to still call for help,” the eyewitness said. “Then when we got all the way onto shore, he was able to respond to questions. Where we were, what the date was. He said, ‘Could you call my wife? Here’s her phone number.'”

Lifeguards have posted signs and closed Del Mar beaches for surfing and swimming for one mile in both directions from the location of the incident — which is from about 6th Street to North Beach — and have notified neighboring jurisdictions, as in accordance with shark attack protocols developed by the California Marine Safety Chiefs Association and the Shark Lab at California State University Long Beach.

The beach closure will remain in effect through 9 a.m. on Tuesday.

Chief Lifeguard for the City of Del Mar had expert help on the scene to guide them with their next steps.

“We actually have the shark lab from Long Beach here now. They’re a resource for us here in the state, specifically Southern California, to receive the latest and greatest information on how to respond to incidents like this,” City of Del Mar Chief Lifeguard John Edelbrock said.

Del Mar is known to have a significant juvenile great white shark population. However, it is still unclear if that was the type of shark involved in the attack.

“This is the second time in about a year and a half here in Del Mar, so not a good day for ocean lovers,” Edelbrock said. “If we, as in everyone, paid attention in the last 4+ years between here and Torrey Pines and like Black’s [Beach] area, we have had quite a few juvenile white sharks in the area.”

In November 2022, a Lyn Jutronich was out for a swim with her swimming partner when she was bitten in the thigh by a shark. She was wounded but survived.

Also in 2022, on Christmas Eve, a surfer in the Northern California town of Morro Bay was attacked and killed by a great white.

Last week, a stretch of San Clemente beach, just north of San Diego County, was closed due to what authorities called aggressive sharks.

Marine Biologist and Assistant Teaching Professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at University of California, San Diego, Dovi Kacev, says even still, shark attacks are not common.

“It’s certainly important for everyone to know that shark bites are very rare. We can talk about the statistics and compare them to other things like vending machines falling down on people,” Kacev said.

Kacev gave his tips for encountering a shark:

“Be aware when you’re in that environment. If you see a large fish or a large shark that makes you feel uncomfortable, of course get out of the water and tell the lifeguards and let other people know,” Kacev said.

NBC 7 spoke with some of the many people gathered on the beach on Sunday.

“I was shocked, honestly. This is the beach that I go to, I’m a local and this is the restaurant I frequent every Sunday for brunch,” said beachgoer Marina Vassiliades.

As local leaders prepare to reopen the beach in a couple days, beachgoer Vassiliades is thinking about when and how she will enjoy the beach in the future.

“A little too close to home, but the water is their home,” Vassiliades said. “I will still come to the beach.”

Chicken and beef parts spilled off a truck on Interstate 880 in Oakland, California, causing a huge traffic backup during the Friday evening commute, according to the California Highway Patrol.

CHP said the meat spilled across all northbound lanes just before 5 p.m. Officers said they were not sure if the driver even knew what was happening because the truck continued along the freeway and never stopped.

Several spinouts were also reported in the incident, which also forced a few lane closures on the freeway, according to the CHP.

Caltrans was called in to clean up the mess, which led to a 9-mile backup and diverted traffic on High Street in Oakland. All lanes were reopened just after 9:30 p.m.

The incident happened not far from the Oakland Coliseum, where singer Zach Bryan performed on Friday night. It impacted those who were trying to get to the concert and others trying to get back home from work.

For Zach Bryan concertgoers like Brian Navarro of Santa Cruz, the drive wasn’t exactly ideal.

“We see the ETA on Google Maps. It’s just as bad,” he said.

As of Friday night, the CHP said they were still looking for the truck that carried the meat. They are asking drivers who were on the freeway at the time of the incident or have any information to contact CHP’s Oakland office.

San Clemente officials said Monday they decided to restrict water access at all its beaches for security purposes.

A surfer said he was bumped off his surfboard by something dark gray Sunday night, according to city officials. When he got out of the water immediately, he saw his board was damaged.

After another man reported a dark object swimming toward him, lifeguards closed the water access because sharks’ behavior of swimming toward or coming near people is considered “aggressive.'”

“’Aggressive’ would be the way it’s swimming, makes any contact,” San Clemente Marine Safety Lt. Sean Staudenbaur said. “If its mouth is open, rushing at a swimmer – those are our criteria of what determines ‘aggressive.’”

Lifeguards said the incidents involving sharks’ aggressive behavior are rare.

Authorities said they flied drones to locate any sharks that may be in the area and monitor their activity.

Shark behavior in the vicinity of T-Street Beach has restricted water access to all San Clemente beaches until 8 p.m. — pending no additional shark sightings, according to a city officials in a news statement.

Sherman, together with his late brother Robert, won two Academy Awards for Walt Disney’s 1964 smash “Mary Poppins” — best score and best song, “Chim Chim Cher-ee.” They also picked up a Grammy for best movie or TV score. Robert Sherman died in London at age 86 in 2012.

The Walt Disney Co. announced that Sherman died Saturday in a Los Angeles hospital due to age-related illness.

“Generations of moviegoers and theme park guests have been introduced to the world of Disney through the Sherman brothers’ magnificent and timeless songs. Even today, the duo’s work remains the quintessential lyrical voice of Walt Disney,” the company said in a remembrance posted on its website.

Their hundreds of credits as joint lyricist and composer also include the films “Winnie the Pooh,” “The Slipper and the Rose,” “Snoopy Come Home,” “Charlotte’s Web” and “The Magic of Lassie.” Their Broadway musicals included 1974’s “Over Here!” and stagings of “Mary Poppins” and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” in the mid-2000s.

“Something good happens when we sit down together and work,” Richard Sherman told The Associated Press in a 2005 joint interview. “We’ve been doing it all our lives. Practically since college we’ve been working together.”

Their awards include 23 gold and platinum albums and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. They became the only Americans ever to win first prize at the Moscow Film Festival for “Tom Sawyer” in 1973 and were inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame in 2005.

President George W. Bush awarded them the National Medal of Arts in 2008, commended for music that “has helped bring joy to millions.”

Most of the songs the Shermans wrote — in addition to being catchy and playful — work on multiple levels for different ages, something they learned from Disney.

“He once told us, early on in our career, ‘Don’t insult the kid — don’t write down to the kid. And don’t write just for the adult.’ So we write for grandpa and the 4-year-old — and everyone in between — and all see it on a different level,” Richard Sherman said.

The Shermans began a decade-long partnership with Disney during the 1960s after having written hit pop songs like “Tall Paul” for ex-Mouseketeer Annette Funicello and “You’re Sixteen,” later recorded by Ringo Starr.

They wrote over 150 songs at Disney, including the soundtracks for such films as “The Sword and the Stone,” “The Parent Trap,” “Bedknobs and Broomsticks,” “The Jungle Book,” “The Aristocrats” and “The Tigger Movie.”

“It’s a Small World” — which accompanies visitors to Disney theme parks’ boat ride sung by animatronic dolls representing world cultures — is believed to be the most performed composition in the world. It was first debuted at the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair pavilion ride.

The two brothers credited their father, composer Al Sherman, with challenging them to write songs and for their love of wordsmithing. His legacy of songs includes “You Gotta Be a Football Hero,” “(What Do We Do On a) Dew-Dew-Dewy Day” and “On the Beach at Bali-Bali.” His sons went on to popularize the terms “fantasmagorical” and “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”

The Shermans teased songs out of each other, brainstorming titles and then trying to top each other with improvements. “Being brothers, we sort of short-cut each other,” Richard Sherman said. “We can almost look at each other and know, ‘Hey, you’re onto something, kiddo.'”

Away from the piano, the two raised families and pursued their own interests, yet still lived close to each other in Beverly Hills and continued working well into their 70s. When “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” came to Broadway in 2005, they added new lyrics and four new songs.

Richard Sherman is survived by his wife, Elizabeth, and their two children: Gregory and Victoria. He also is survived by a daughter, Lynda, from a previous marriage.

A private funeral will be held on Friday; Disney said a celebration of life service will be announced later.

Though they were estranged for a number of years, the brothers largely avoided sibling rivalry. When asked about that, Richard Sherman was philosophical, touching and jokey all at the same time — much like the trunkful of songs he wrote with his brother.

“We’re human. We have frailties and weaknesses. But we love each other very much, respect each other,” he said. “I’m happy that he’s a successful guy. That makes me a successful guy.”

Firefighters with the Orange County Fire Authority came to her rescue after she had crawled through a small plumbing access door and got stuck. 

Faye was caught in this predicament for about two hours “and not giving in to her family coaxing her out,” the OC Fire Authority said on X.

Firefighters lightly tapped the wall with a hammer to help get Faye out. As pieces started to break off, the curious dog started peeking out.

Another firefighter tried to help speed up the process by ripping away more pieces of the wall. 

As they made a bigger hole for the dog to come out through, firefighters whistled and backed away to give Faye some space so she would come out. 

She stuck two of her paws out and just looked around the room as she slowly started crawling out of the small space. 

“According to the family, Faye is probably already planning her next bit of mischief. Who knows, maybe we’ll see her again soon,” the OC Fire Authority said in a social media post. 

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The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department sought help this week to find the woman who abandoned an infant at a store in Lomita, California.

The agency said the baby, who is believed to be 7 to 9 months old, was left behind at a store on the Pacific Coast Highway on Tuesday. A pregnant woman was captured on surveillance video entering the business around 5 p.m. carrying the infant in her arms before placing her in a shopping cart.

According to law enforcement, the woman asked a store employee for a taxi. While the employee arranged for a taxi, the woman went to the restroom. Once the vehicle arrived, the woman left the store and left the baby behind in a shopping cart.

It is unclear where the woman headed to.

The infant has since been placed into the care of the Department of Children and Family Services.

Anyone with information on the case is encouraged to contact Lomita Sheriff’s Station at 310-539-1661. Anonymous tips can be made by contacting Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.

After Angelo Quinto’s death, his family also pushed for reforms that led to city and state changes in how law enforcement agencies respond to people who are in a mental health crisis.

John Burris, one of the attorneys, said in a statement that while no amount of money can compensate for Quinto’s death, “his family is to be commended for their unwavering commitment to improving the relationship between the community and Antioch police.”

The lawsuit alleged that Antioch police officers used excessive force when restraining Quinto. It named as defendants the city of Antioch, then-Police Chief Tammany Brooks and four officers who responded to a 911 call from Quinto’s family.

The family called police on Dec. 23, 2020, because the 30-year-old was in mental distress and needed help. One officer pressed a knee on his neck for nearly five minutes while another restrained his legs, according to the complaint.

After about five minutes of the prone restraint, Quinto appeared to become totally unresponsive, the lawsuit said. He lost consciousness and was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he died three days later.

Quinto’s death came months after the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police and amid a nationwide outcry over police brutality.

In the aftermath, Antioch police officers were equipped with body cameras and city officials created a mental health crisis team and a police review commission.

Quinto’s mother, Cassandra Quinto-Collins, thanked the city of Antioch for the policy changes and said her family’s fight is not yet over.

“I thank you for what has been a courageous beginning to bring about transparency and accountability to the Antioch Police Department so that it may serve our diverse community with respect and mutual trust,” Quinto-Collins said.

Quinto, who was born in the Philippines, served in the U.S. Navy and was honorably discharged in 2019 due to a food allergy, according to his family.

He had depression most of his life, but his behavior changed after an apparent assault in early 2020, when he woke up in a hospital not remembering what had happened and with stitches and serious injuries. After that he began having episodes of paranoia and anxiety, his family said.

Someone called the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department about noon Tuesday to report that the goats, assigned to eat vegetation to reduce potential fuel for wildfires, broke through a gate and gathered in a homeowner’s backyard in the 6100 block of Arrowroot Lane.

A few minutes later, deputies arrived and a goat wrangler was at the scene. The goats were eventually rounded up and herded off the property.

Goats are deployed in several wildfire-prone Southern California communities to eat dry brush that could otherwise become fuel for wildfires.

Los Angeles May 11, 2016

Wildfire Protection Goats Chew Through Brush at Reagan Library

Etienne Constable, from Seaside, California, was told in July last year by local government officials that he had to build a 6-foot fence to hide the boat from view of his neighbors.

But in a light-hearted jibe at officialdom, Constable decided to follow the directive, which said nothing about how the fence should be decorated, and asked local artist Hanif Panni to create a mural that makes it look as if the fence isn’t there.

“I’m not a rule-breaker but I like to make a political statement as necessary as well as a humorous statement and a creative statement,” he told NBC affiliate KSBW of Monterey Bay.

He is yet to have had any contact from the city about the mural — but added that he considers it to be covered by the right to freedom of expression as enshrined in the First Amendment.

“The reaction is extremely more than we ever expected and we’re both just tickled about it,” Constable said, referring to the stir the image has made on social media, where it has been shared many times.

Panni, who paints images across the Central Coast area, told KSBW: “I’m a big proponent of public art in spaces. It engages people in ways that reaching out and having conversations doesn’t sometimes.”

And Panni added that since the Seaside boat mural has gone viral, other boat owners have approached him to see if he can do the same for them.

This article first appeared on NBCNews.com. Read more from NBC News here:

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The San Francisco Chronicle reported late Friday that prosecutors made the request ahead of a sentencing hearing for David DePape, saying he has not shown remorse for the October 2022 attack.

“There is nothing about the history and characteristics of the defendant that warrant leniency,” federal prosecutors wrote in court documents. “The defendant has admitted — indeed bragged — that he knew what he was doing.”

DePape was convicted last year of attempted kidnapping of a federal official and assault on the immediate family member of a federal official. He is scheduled to be sentenced Friday.

The attack on then-82-year-old Paul Pelosi, which was captured on police body camera video just days before the midterm elections, sent shockwaves through the political world.

DePape admitted during trial testimony that he broke into the Pelosis’ home intending to hold the speaker hostage and “break her kneecaps” if she lied to him. He also admitted to bludgeoning Paul Pelosi with a hammer after police showed up at the home, saying his plan to end what he viewed as government corruption was unraveling.

Defense attorneys said DePape was motivated by his political beliefs and caught up in conspiracy theories.

Nancy Pelosi was not at the home at the time of the attack. Paul Pelosi suffered two wounds on his head, including a skull fracture that was mended with plates and screws he will have for the rest of his life. His right arm and hand were also injured.

The recommendation was made by UC president Michael Drake and will be voted on during a regents meeting Tuesday at UC Merced.

In order for the Regents to affirm UCLA’s move to the Big Ten in December, 2022, the university agreed to pay UC Berkeley between $2 million and $10 million because of how the move would affect the Cal athletic program.

Cal agreed to join the Atlantic Coast Conference last year after the Pac-12 couldn’t negotiate a media deal, causing eight of its members to leave.

Besides increased travel costs, Cal will have a reduced share of the ACC’s media rights deal.

According to a report by UC’s president, the difference between UCLA’s annual media rights distribution from the Big Ten and UC Berkeley’s share from the ACC will be approximately $50 million per year.

Drake is also recommending that if there is a significant change in revenues and/or expenses for either school, exceeding 10% over 2024-25 projections, UCLA’s contribution can be reevaluated by the regents.

UCLA and the University of Southern California announced on June 30, 2022, that they were leaving the Pac-12 for the Big Ten. USC is private and not part of the UC system.

The Regents became involved shortly after the announcement when Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom criticized UCLA’s move because chancellor Gene Block and athletic director Martin Jarmond did not give advance notice to the regents.

In 1991, campus chancellors were delegated authority by the UC Office of the President to execute their own contracts, including intercollegiate athletic agreements. But the regents heard during an August 2022, meeting that they retain the authority to review decisions impacting the UC system, meaning they could affirm, overturn or abstain from following up on UCLA’s decision.

The Regents voted four months later to let the move go ahead. Besides the payments to its sister school, UCLA agreed to make further investments for athletes, including nutritional support, mental health services, academic support while traveling and charter flights to reduce travel time.

“From the very beginning we said we understand we may need to help Berkeley. We’re OK with it and happy it is resolved,” Block said after the regents approved the move.

A runner from Fountain Valley, California, was disqualified Sunday as winner of the OC Marathon for taking water from his father during a grueling race that he led for most of the 26.2-mile course.

Esteban Prado, who spent months training for the marathon, received water from a spectator — his dad — in violation of a rule that participants can only get water at official hydration stations.

“During yesterday’s Hoag OC Marathon, we were forced to disqualify a participant after it was confirmed they received unauthorized assistance from an individual on a bicycle, in violation of USA Track & Field rules and our race regulations,” race director Gary Kutschar said in a statement. “We take these rules seriously to ensure fairness and the integrity of our event for all competitors.”

Jason Yang of San Pedro was declared the men’s marathon winner in 2 hours, 25 minutes, 11 seconds.

Prado said he is relatively new to marathon running, but had high hopes entering Sunday’s race after months of rigorous preparation.

“About like a three- to four-month period of just 100-mile week trainings,” Prado said. “Just kind of balancing that with work, and also just including that in the weekend.

Prado led for most of the 26.2-mile course.

“Because I was first place, a lot of the volunteers were just like scrambling,” Prado said. “By the time I got there, they were… grabbing the water. So a lot of the time the water stations, they really had nothing for me.”

Prado said he wasn’t aware that receiving water from a spectator, family in this case, was not allowed.

Yang crossed the line 17 seconds after Prado.

In her first marathon, Gabriella Smith of Lynchburg, Virginia was the women’s winner in 3:05:30, 12 seconds ahead of Annika Mellquist of Gardena.

The race served as the national championship for the Road Runners Club of America, the nation’s oldest and largest distance running organization. The event drew 3,500 entrants.

There were seven water/hydration stations on the front half of the course and another eight stations on the second half, according to the marathon’s web site. Electrolyte drinks were available at some of the stations.

The marathon course began in front of the VEA Marriott Resort Hotel & Spa and ended at the OC Fair and Event Center in Costa Mesa.

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Marc Shultz, 66, of Chula Vista, is facing charges of transmitting interstate threats to injure Willis. Prosecutors alleged that Shultz posted comments to YouTube livestream videos in October 2023 that threatened Willis, including stating that the prosecutor “will be killed like a dog.”

“Sending death threats to a public official is a criminal offense that will not be tolerated,” Ryan Buchanan, the U.S. attorney in Atlanta, said in a statement Friday.

The April 24 indictment was unsealed Thursday. A federal public defender listed as representing Shultz didn’t immediately return emails seeking comment.

Records show Shultz appeared before a judge in San Diego on Thursday and was released on bail. Buchanan said Shultz would be formally arraigned in Atlanta in June.

Also Friday, Fulton County leaders testified before a special state Senate committee that they had no legal power to control Willis’ spending or her hiring of former special prosecutor Nathan Wade.

The Republican-led committee is probing Willis’ hiring of Wade to lead the team that investigated and charged Trump, lawyers and other aides in the Georgia case. Willis and Wade have acknowledged a romantic relationship with each other.

Trump and some other defendants in the case have tried to get Willis and her office removed from the case, saying the relationship with Wade created a conflict of interest.

Wade stepped down from the prosecution after Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee in March found that no conflict of interest existed that should force Willis off the case. But he ruled that Willis could continue prosecuting Trump only if Wade left. Trump and others are appealing that ruling to a higher state court.

The allegations that Willis had improperly benefited from her romance with Wade resulted in tumultuous months in the case as intimate details of Willis and Wade’s personal lives were aired in court in mid-February. The serious charges in one of four criminal cases against the Republican former president were largely overshadowed by the love lives of the prosecutors.

Willis told reporters Friday that she had done nothing wrong.

“They can look all they want,” Willis said. “The DA’s office has done everything according to the books. We are following the law. I’m sorry that folks get mad when everybody in society can be prosecuted.”

Willis is running for reelection this year and faces a Democratic opponent, Christian Wise Smith in a May 21 primary. Early voting for that election is ongoing.

But the lawyer who initiated the effort to remove Willis, Ashleigh Merchant, has also claimed that Wade’s firing violated a state law that required approval of the hiring of a special prosecutor by the county commission.

Fulton County Commission Chairman Rob Pitts, a Democrat, and Fulton County Attorney Soo Jo both told the committee that while the law appears to require county commission approval, judges decades ago interpreted the law in such a way to give Willis the freedom to hire who she wants without approval. Jo, who represents the commission, cited three separate Georgia Court of Appeals cases backing up that point

“What I have found is that the court has rejected the proposition that this particular statute requires a district attorney to obtain explicit permission from a county prior to appointing a special assistant district attorney,” Jo said.

State Sen. Bill Cowsert, the Athens Republican who chairs the committee, disputed that interpretation when questioned by reporters after the hearing.

“I think the clear language of the statute says that that requires county approval, and especially where it’s funded by the county,” Cowsert said.

He went on to suggest the committee, which doesn’t directly have the power to sanction Willis, might change the law to give counties more control over spending by state officers funded by counties, including district attorneys and sheriffs. Fulton County officials said they don’t believe they currently can control how Willis spends money once it’s appropriated to her.

Cowsert said increased county oversight would be “extraordinarily complex” for district attorneys managing funds contributed by more than one county. While Willis and 15 other district attorneys in Georgia only prosecute cases from one county, others prosecute cases from as many as eight counties.

Senate Democratic Whip Harold Jones II of Augusta said the hours of questioning over details of how Fulton County budgets money shows the panel is “on its last legs,” noting three of six Republicans didn’t appear for a committee meeting called on short notice.

“They’re not even interested in this anymore,” Jones said. “There’s nothing else to talk about, quite frankly. And we found that out today.”

The Middle Eastern country was the 193rd Hsu had traveled to.

“There are not many people who have visited every country in the world,” Hsu said. 

“One hundred ninety-three is the total that is recognized by most travel clubs because that represents the number of UN members who do vote in the UN,” the 43-year-old Hsu said.

Although there is no official tally, it is widely estimated that roughly 400 people in the world have been to every country. By comparison, more than 600 people have gone into outer space.

Hsu, a second-grade teacher at Cadwallader Elementary School in San Jose, didn’t get her first passport until she was 23. Hsu’s parents immigrated to the United States from Vietnam and the family had little in their budget for international travel.

“They were in a new country. They never had formal education being from Vietnam, like little village kids. They were starting really from zero,” Hsu said. 

After graduating from UC Berkeley and working for a year, Hsu had saved up enough for her first international destination: London. Hsu, who had been fascinated by geography and history since she was a little girl, wanted to keep going.

As her teaching career started to take off, so did Hsu. During every break from teaching, Hsu was traveling. It was during summer breaks that Hsu added the most countries to her tally.

“Every year I would plan a big trip,” Hsu said. “And so then my next trip was to Australia and New Zealand. Then the next summer it was a different part of Europe. Then it was Central America. And by the time I had taught for six, seven years, I think it was already 50 countries.”

Once she learned from other travelers there was something called the “Century Club,” made up of people who had been to 100 countries, that became her goal. Once she surpassed that number though, she didn’t slow down.

“I started researching these extreme countries that I could go to,” Hsu said. “And so by the time I was in this club for maybe five years, then I reached close to 150.”

During that period, for Hsu, not only did the number of countries change but her perspective on them. She shifted from being a mere tourist to volunteering around the world, staying with locals and truly experiencing their cultures.

Then she brought those meaningful experiences back to her classroom.

“When I ask the students, what were they grateful for? You heard answers like, ‘I’m grateful for diversity, my freedom. I’m grateful for my education opportunities,’ ” Hsu said. “Those answers, I would say, are directly correlated to discussions I’ve had with them.”

Beyond her classroom, Hsu has been invited to share what her journeys have taught her about the world at various travel conventions. 

“I feel a lot of confidence in knowing that I can be anywhere and have peace. I can be anywhere and find work and be useful and have a purpose,” Hsu said.

The bill supported by the Hilton Hotel heiress and media personality aims to pry open information on how short-term residential facilities for youth dealing with substance abuse and behavioral issues use disciplinary methods such as restraints or seclusion against minors. It would require such centers to notify parents and the state any time they use restrains or seclusion rooms for minors. It’s authored by Republican state Sen. Shannon Grove and Democratic state Sens. Aisha Wahab and Angelique Ashby.

“I know firsthand the horrors that happened behind the closed doors of youth residential treatment facilities,” Hilton said at a Monday news conference at the state Capitol. “In troubled teen industry facilities in California, Utah and Montana, I was subjected to abuse disguised as therapy, isolated from the outside world and denied even the most basic rights.”

She added: “I will fight until every child is safe and keep shining my huge spotlight on these abuses.”

Hilton has become a prominent advocate for more oversight and regulation of teen treatment centers after publicly sharing the physical and mental abuse she suffered as a teenager at a boarding school in Utah. She alleged staff members would beat her, force her to take unknown pills, watch her shower and send her to solitary confinement without clothes as punishment.

In 2021, her testimony about her experience at Utah’s Provo Canyon School helped pass a bill to impose stricter oversight over youth treatment centers in the state. Hilton has also traveled to Washington D.C. to advocate for federal reforms and helped changed laws to protect minors in at least eight states. Earlier this month, she spoke in support of boys sent to a private school for troubled teens in Jamaica.

She’s scheduled to testify in a legislative hearing on California’s bill later Monday. Under the bill, facilities would have to report details such as what disciplinary actions were taken, why and who had approved the plan. The state department regulating the facilities also would be required to make public the reports and update the database on the quarterly basis. It would not ban the use of such practices.

Between 2015 and 2020, California sent more than 1,240 children with behavior problems to out-of-state facilities due to the lack of locked treatment centers for youths, according to Sen. Grove’s office. As reports about abuse happening at these programs emerged, including an incident where a 16-year-old boy died after being restrained for about 12 minutes at a Michigan facility, California also found significant licensing violations at these facilities and decided to do away with the program in 2020. Legislation passed in 2021 formally banned the use of out-of-state residential centers. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom also authorized $8 million to bring all the minors home by last year.

Minors with behavioral issues are now sent to in-state short-term residential centers, which were created in 2017 to replace group homes. But under current laws, these facilities are not required to share information on how often they use seclusion rooms, restraints, and how many times those methods result in serious injuries or deaths.

“We must require the highest level of transparency and accountability in care for our vulnerable population,” Grove, the author, said Monday. ”This is a small but critical measure.”

Now one California startup has developed a technology that reduces carbon dioxide in the making of cement and could have the potential to operate at large scale. Fortera intercepts carbon dioxide exhaust from the kilns where cement is made and routes it back in to make additional cement. In its first effort at commercial scale, the technology is being added to a CalPortland facility in Redding, California, one of the largest cement plants in the western U.S. It opens Friday.

“Our target is about being a ubiquitous solution that can work really at any plant,” said Ryan Gilliam, Fortera CEO.

Initially Fortera will produce enough to mix with about one-fifth of CalPortland’s product in a blend that reduces carbon by about 10%. Gilliam said there is a strong demand for higher blends that reduce carbon by 40-50%, and for a pure product the company makes, which has 70% lower carbon.

The first large sacks are scheduled to move out the door of the Redding plant the first week of May.

Fortera evolved in part out of an earlier company called Calera that was among the first to convert carbon dioxide into cement starting in 2007. It poured some 100 tons of its low-carbon cement into California office buildings and sidewalks but shuttered in 2014 due to financial challenges. Building on that knowledge, Gilliam founded Fortera in 2019 with several former Calera employees.

There is “pretty much a cement plant every 250 miles in the world,” he said, and most are located near a limestone quarry. Because it works with these existing plants and uses the same material the industry already uses, Fortera says its technology is an economically competitive option to quickly prevent carbon emissions from warming the planet.

One difference from some other low-carbon cement and concrete efforts is it offers at least the possibility of being installed widely at cement plants instead of changing how the industry currently runs.

Fortera’s is one of many efforts to reduce the climate impact of concrete. The American Institute of Architects educates many of the world’s largest architecture firms about carbon emissions from building materials.

Some jurisdictions including Vancouver, British Columbia have building standards that encourage lower-carbon concrete. California passed a law in 2021 that requires the state’s Air Resources Board to develop a strategy for the state’s cement industry to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2035 and achieve net zero by 2045.

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The First Movers Coalition, an organization of more than 90 companies, has an initiative announced in 2021 to create greater demand for low-carbon cement through their immense buying power.

The same year, 40 of the largest cement and concrete manufacturers announced a commitment to making concrete that does not contribute to climate change by 2050 through the Global Cement and Concrete Association. They agreed to reduce emissions from cement, fossil fuel use in manufacturing processes and to develop new ways to capture carbon.

Concrete is the second -most used product on Earth, aside from water. Cement makes up 10-15% of concrete by volume, but accounts for 88% of concrete’s considerable emissions. Other ingredients in concrete are sand, gravel, crushed stone and water.

Manufacturing one ton of cement emits nearly one ton of carbon dioxide. There hasn’t been a simple replacement.

“The societal benefits of concrete are absolutely immense … it’s the backbone of modern society,” said Thomas Guillot, CEO of the Global Cement and Concrete Association. Other materials sometimes fail to compete because they are not as durable, can’t support as much weight, or can’t stand up as well to heat, he said.

How Fortera’s technology works

Cement manufacturers heat kilns to about 2,500°F (1,400°C) to break down limestone and separate it into carbon dioxide and calcium oxide.

Fortera’s process sucks the carbon dioxide out and pipes it into a machine where it is turned into a solid. Its technology works at around 1,800°F (1,000°C), which requires less energy and emits less carbon.

When the captured carbon dioxide is mixed with calcium oxide, it turns into a kind of limestone that becomes cement-like when wet. This product, which Fortera calls ReAct, is blended with other ingredients to make concrete.

Fortera uses a 15% blend of ReAct in concrete because that is all that is allowed under existing industry standards that regulate material strength and durability.

The company is trying to get a product that is 100% ReAct approved as a replacement for cement and says its testing has shown it can meet international requirements, but the regulatory process will take over five years.

Some of the fastest-growing consumers of cement are in Southeast Asia and Africa, so global solutions are critical.

“The United States has to do what it can and be a leader to help other countries,” said Mike Ireland, president and CEO of the Portland Cement Association, the national trade association for U.S. cement manufacturers. “But we have to get the rest of the world, particularly the Global South, as they industrialize to leapfrog some of the technologies we had.”

Carbon emissions from cement manufacturing is “an existential threat to the world and for our industry,” he said.

___

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

If you’re having a drink at Happy Does on Fifth Avenue you are also welcome to a free chaser, of sorts. It’s a date-rape drug test strip.

“We’re in a super busy district. There are a lot of people coming from out of town and a lot of people in town. It’s just a case of better safe than sorry,” bartender Jon Hayes said

Hayes says the company started offering the tests at all its properties in January 2024. Hayes says he hasn’t had a customer ask for one yet.

“It’s a new thing we are adapting to as a bar and I am glad this bar is one of the first ones,” Hayes said.

The test strips are quick and easy to use. Just place a few drops of your drink on the designated areas of the card. If it turns blue or black there is a good chance you were “roofied,” which is when someone has slipped Rohypnol (another name for flunitrazepam) into a drink.

Women from the area say it adds an extra layer of protection for those who might be out alone or out with their guard down. It also gives them better control over their evening.

“Good idea,” Gaslamp visitor Odilia Olivares said.

 “I think anything you can do to protect women would be good,“ downtown resident Heather Strohm said.

The state law requires establishments with title 48 liquor licenses — those that don’t admit minors or serve food — but sell, spirits, wine and beer, to provide such date rape drug tests to customers upon request.

The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control published examples of signs that must also be posted.

“Women take a little too much to drink without eating as much as they should so they don‘t know their environment.” Olivares said.

However, nothing can replace common sense

AB 1013 is not intended to replace common sense. Take it from a bartender.

“Know who you got your drink from and if they are buying a drink, try to watch the bartender make it. Make sure it’s handed directly to you,” Hayes said.

Not all businesses where alcohol is sold may have the test kits. When in doubt, throw it out and ask for something else.

Bar and night club owners that don’t comply could face penalties that could impact their licenses.

The law goes into affect July 1.

A 35-year-old San Jose, California, man was arrested last week after police say he placed a hidden camera in a Starbucks restroom and filmed dozens of victims, including juveniles, over the course of one day in January.

Louie Juarez Jr. was arrested on March 15 and booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail on charges of possession of child pornography and installment of a hidden surveillance camera with audio, police said.

Juarez also faces weapons charges after detectives found about 20 guns and other miscellaneous micro cameras during a search of his home, police said. The firearms and ammunition recovered include high-capacity magazines, an assault rifle and an unregistered gun.

The hidden camera was first reported to police on Jan. 31 at a coffee shop in the 600 block of Coleman Avenue, police said. Responding officers found the camera hidden beneath the restroom sink facing the toilet.

Detectives with SJPD’s Sexual Assault Investigations Unit determined there were more than 90 victims ranging in age from 4 to 85 filmed while using the restroom, police said. The footage obtained was recorded on Jan. 30 from about 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

It was unclear how long the hidden camera had been in place.

San Jose resident Marta Gonzalez told NBC Bay Area Wednesday that she and her two children frequently use the restroom at the Starbucks and is concerned they may have used it the day the camera was under the sink.

“That is just horrible. This is like a community, everyone comes here and just to have people looking at you. That’s insane,” she said.

San Jose resident Scott Picanco said that after learning about the hidden camera, he may be making some changes.

“It makes you also think about how common this is in other places. It will make me think twice about using a public restroom,” he said.

A spokesperson for Starbucks released the following statement on Wednesday:

“This is a deeply disturbing incident, and we are grateful for the quick and thorough response from the San Jose Police Department in apprehending the suspect. We cannot overstay the importance of providing a safe environment for our customers and partners (employees). We will continue to cooperate fully with law enforcement on this matter.”

Anyone who believes they were captured on the hidden camera or have any other information about this case should contact Detective Lippert of the San José Police Sexual Assault Investigations Unit via email: 4583@sanjoseca.gov or 408-277-4102.

Tips can be anonymous by using the P3TIPS mobile app, calling the tip line at 408-947-STOP, or on www.siliconvalleycrimestoppers.org.

The 2-year-old girl was standing near a taco stand at the edge of a parking lot at a gas station in the 300 block of West Street in Woodland when she was struck Saturday afternoon, Woodland police said.

Police responded to the scene shortly before 4 p.m. local time and determined the toddler girl had been hit and was transported by family members to a hospital, where she passed away from her injuries. 

Officers found a man at the scene who was the owner of a truck that was left running while parked at a gas pump.

A 3-year-old child was in the backseat of the truck in a carseat. When the man entered the gas station store, the 3-year-old exited the car seat and got into the driver seat, police said. Then the truck began moving and collided with the 2-year-old. 

The 2-year-old was identified by her family as Ailahni Sanchez Martinez.

“She was always happy, she loved to dance and brought joy to the family,” her mother Rosa Martinez told NBC affiliate KCRA of Sacramento, noting Ailahni was one month away from her third birthday.

Ailahni’s family was setting up their taco stand when they saw the truck moving backwards towards her.

“I heard a scream and ran because I saw it going toward my daughter, but it was too late,” her father, Sandro Sanchez, said.

He said “what happened is not right,” adding “We want justice… I lost my daughter because of someone else.” 

An online fundraiser to aid with the family’s expenses has been set up. 

“Everyone involved has cooperated in this investigation,” police said. 

No arrests have been made in the case, but the investigation is ongoing. When it’s completed, the case will be forwarded to the local district attorney’s Office for review.

This article first appeared on NBCNews.com. Read more from NBC News:

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“Those are the types of things that make me happy,” he said this week in an interview outside the state Assembly chambers, where he’s served as a lawmaker for a dozen years.

Now Rendon, a Democrat who was one of the longest-serving Assembly speakers in California history, is spending his last year in office trying to make happiness more central to policymaking. He created a first-in-the-nation group to study the issue, called the Select Committee on Happiness and Public Policy Outcomes, which held its first public hearing this week.

It would be “silly” for lawmakers to not study how they can make people happier, Rendon said.

“Because if we have everybody clothed, everybody housed, everybody has a job and they’re miserable, then we’ve failed at what we’re trying to do,” he said, adding that lawmakers should think about happiness as a priority in policymaking.

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In California, three-quarters of adults say they are “very happy” or “pretty happy,” while 26% say they are “not too happy,” according to a September 2023 survey from the Public Policy Institute of California. Adults age 18 to 34, people who are renters, those without a post-high school degree, and Californians with an annual household income of $40,000 or lower tend to be less happy than others.

California is breaking new ground in the United States. At least 12 state legislatures in the nation have committees focused on mental health and substance abuse issues, but no other state legislature has a committee devoted to happiness, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

But the idea to consider happiness in public policy isn’t unprecedented: The landlocked country of Bhutan in South Asia prioritizes happiness as a goal of public policy, measuring it through something written into its constitution called the Gross National Happiness Index. The country surveys residents on their level of happiness, and officials work to increase happiness by providing residents with free health care and education, protecting cultural traditions, and preserving forests, said Phuntsho Norbu, consul general of the Kingdom of Bhutan to the United States.

The government cannot make every person happy, but it should “create the right conditions that will allow people to pursue happiness,” Norbu said.

Lawmakers on California’s new committee heard this week from experts about the things that make people happy, what public officials can do to help and what role state and local government can play. The committee isn’t set on any solutions yet but plans to release a report with its findings after lawmakers adjourn for the year at the end of August, said Katie Talbot, Rendon’s spokesperson.

Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo, a Democrat representing part of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, hopes the committee’s work can address poor mental health among youth in California, which her 11-year-old daughter has told her is a big issue in her class at school.

“It’s a true crisis that we have on our hands right now,” Schiavo said. “This is really getting to the heart of what that crisis is about.”

Research demonstrates that leisure activities, social relationships and life circumstances contribute to a person’s happiness, said Meliksah Demir, a professor of happiness at California State University, Sacramento. Public officials can work toward improving happiness by investing in mental health resources, making green spaces more accessible and teaching about the value of happiness early on in schools, Demir said.

Happiness has wide-ranging benefits that include making people more likely to vote, more creative and healthier, he said.

The Public Policy Institute of California’s September survey found that 33% of adults overall say they are very satisfied with their job, 31% say they are very satisfied with their leisure activities and 44% are very satisfied with their housing.

Californians’ level of happiness decreased during the pandemic, but experts are still researching the decline, said Mark Baldassare, the group’s survey director.

California, which is often ahead of other states on issues such as climate policy and civil rights, is behind many parts of the world in prioritizing happiness in policymaking, Rendon said. He was inspired to create the happiness committee in part by a report on happiness released annually by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

Last year’s report said that how people view the effectiveness of government — including how well it raises money, delivers services and avoids civil war — can influence their happiness. The United States was 15th in a world happiness ranking based on a three-year average from 2020 to 2022, according to the report. Scandinavian countries, including Finland and Iceland, ranked the highest.

Rendon’s decision to create the happiness committee aligns with his approach to making state policy that focuses on “bigger picture” social issues, longtime labor lobbyist Kristina Bas Hamilton said. People have different perspectives on government involvement in their lives, but the creation of the committee evokes the ultimate purpose of government, she said.

“Government’s role is to provide for its people,” Bas Hamilton said. “The goal is to have happy citizens. That’s the goal of all public policy.”

A 2021 Associated Press investigation that found a culture of abuse and cover-ups at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin brought increased scrutiny from Congress and the Bureau of Prisons. The low-security prison and its adjacent minimum-security satellite camp, located about 21 miles (34 kilometers) east of Oakland, have more than 600 inmates.

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers called the prison “a dysfunctional mess” in her order. She did not name someone to be the special master but wrote that the court would appoint one quickly.

“The situation can no longer be tolerated. The facility is in dire need of immediate change,” she wrote, adding that the Bureau of Prisons has “proceeded sluggishly with intentional disregard of the inmates’ constitutional rights despite being fully apprised of the situation for years. The repeated installation of BOP leadership who fail to grasp and address the situation strains credulity.”

The order is part of a federal lawsuit filed in August by eight inmates and the advocacy group California Coalition for Women Prisoners. They allege that sexual abuse and exploitation has not stopped despite the prosecution of the former warden and several former officers.

“This unprecedented decision on the need for oversight shows that courageous incarcerated people, community and dedicated lawyers can collectively challenge the impunity of the federal government and Bureau of Prisons,” Emily Shapiro, a member of California Coalition for Women Prisoners, said in a statement Friday.

The Bureau of Prisons declined to comment on the special master appointment.

FCI Dublin opened in 1974 and was converted in 2012 to one of six women-only facilities in the federal prison system. The prison has housed well-known inmates such as actors Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin from the Varsity Blues college admissions bribery scandal.

FCI Dublin’s sexual abuse scandal has been one of many troubles plaguing the bureau, which is also beset by rampant staffing shortages, suicides and security breaches.

Since 2021, at least eight FCI Dublin employees have been charged with sexually abusing inmates. Five have pleaded guilty. Two were convicted at trial. Another case is pending. Roughly 50 civil rights lawsuits against FCI Dublin employees are also ongoing.

Rogers wrote that “in making this extraordinary decision, the Court grounds itself in BOP’s repeated failure to ensure that the extraordinary history of this facility is never repeated.”

All sexual activity between a prison worker and an inmate is illegal. Correctional employees enjoy substantial power over inmates, controlling every aspect of their lives from mealtime to lights out, and there is no scenario in which an inmate can give consent.

Rogers made an unannounced visit to the prison Feb. 14, touring the facility and its satellite camp for nine hours. She spoke with at least 100 inmates, as well as staff.

Many of the inmates told her that they did not fear sexual misconduct and said “no” when asked if it was still prevalent at the prison, Rogers wrote. Still, the plaintiffs in the August lawsuit have “presented incidents of sexual misconduct that occurred as recently as November of 2023.”

While she did not find that the prison has a “sexualized environment,” as alleged in the lawsuit, the judge wrote that she does not believe that sexual misconduct has been eradicated in FCI Dublin.

“The truth is somewhere in the middle—allegations of sexual misconduct have lingered but to characterize it as pervasive goes too far,” she wrote. “However, and as the Court finds herein, because of its inability to promptly investigate the allegations that remain, and the ongoing retaliation against incarcerated persons who report misconduct, BOP has lost the ability to manage with integrity and trust.”

Friday’s special master appointment follows days after the FBI searched the prison as part of an ongoing, years-long investigation. The current warden has also been ousted after new allegations that his staff retaliated against an inmate who testified against the prison, according to government court papers filed Monday.

Despite recent attempts at reform, Rogers wrote that the prison “cannot seem to leave behind, however, is its suspicion that it is the system, not incarcerated women, that is being abused.”

The fire was reported at about 4 a.m. when firefighters were called to the model’s mansion. Flames and smoke rising from the burning two-story house could be seen from nearby freeways.

One firefighter was hospitalized in fair condition. A resident suffered minor smoke inhalation.

The fire began in the rear of the 6,650-square-foot mansion built in 1971 and spread to the attic, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. One room was consumed by flames before the fire spread to the attic and triggered a roof collapse, the LAFD said.

Details about what caused the fire were not immediately available. The fire was knocked down just after 6:30 a.m.

TMZ first reported that the house is the home of actress and model Delevingne, who has appeared in “American Horror Story,” “Only Murders in the Building,” “Suicide Squad” and other productions. The 4-bed and 6-bath home was featured in a June 2021 Architectural Digest video with Delevingne.

TMZ reported that she was not home at the time.

Delevingne later thanked firefighters in an Instagram post.

“Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all the firefighters and people that have showed up to help,” the post said.

She later posted an image of her two cats with caption, “They are alive! Thank you to the firefighters.”

NBC News has reached out representatives for Delevingne for comment.

The mother says she even moved out of the home she was renting with her parents to avoid conflict. But the lawsuit came anyway, asking for a court to declare the child a “nuisance.”

“He’s a happy, loving, innocent little boy who just cares about his McDonald’s,” Serena Arvayo said of her son, Ezequiel, who is also known as Zeek.

The boy suffers from what is referred to as Level 3 autism — a severe form of the disorder.

“My son isn’t able to speak, so he only able to produce sounds,” Arvayo said. “And it’s called vocal stimming.”

The family used to live in a west San Jose home with Zeek’s grandparents. But Arvayo said she had to move her son out because their next door neighbor complained about the noise coming from the backyard.

Arvayo said it was Zeek’s grunting, the only vocal sound he is able to produce.

The family now only returns to the home to visit Zeek’s grandparents, and now they have been hit with a lawsuit.

In the lawsuit, the neighbor is suing the family and the landlord claiming the child should be considered a nuisance and should not be allowed around the home again.

Zeek’s mother has now countersued, saying at one point the neighbor called the grunts “disgusting.”

“It was deeply offensive,” Arvayo said. “I think the issue is the lack of understanding for this form of autism.”

The neighbor’s lawyer said the complaint speaks for itself. That lawsuit also said there are frequent loud parties at the home with amplified music.

NBC Bay Area has seen the lawsuit and is withholding the neighbor’s name until it receives a statement.

A separate neighbor told NBC Bay Area she has to close her door when Zeek is playing in the backyard because of the noises.

Arvayo’s lawyer said the neighbor’s lawsuit also asks for monetary damages for the loss of use and enjoyment of their property.

“Since COVID we’ve seen a lot more what I call crazy lawsuits. Mean-spirited lawsuits,” said Ron Rossi, Arvayo’s lawyer.

The countersuit claims Zeek’s family has suffered emotional distress and is asking for the harassment to stop.

“It was deeply, deeply hurtful,” Arvayo said. “Especially because my son can’t defend himself because he’s innocent-minded. That’s why I’m doing this because I’m defending him and I’m his voice.”

Arvayo studied the effects of autism and has written a children’s book in two languages so children can be more understanding and accepting of a child on the spectrum.

But now Arvayo said she is confident it might be a good read for some adults as well.

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Government lawyers said in court papers Monday that Art Dulgov was removed as warden of FCI Dublin in the wake of allegations that his staff had retaliated against an inmate who testified in January in a lawsuit against the prison. The inmate was transferred to a different prison despite the judge’s order not to transfer any witnesses without court approval, filings in the case show.

The federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed the leadership shakeup, saying in a statement that “recent developments have necessitated new executive employees be installed” at the low-security Bay Area facility. The agency did not specify what the developments were and declined to comment on the FBI search.

Deputy Regional Director N.T. McKinney will replace Dulgov on an interim basis effective immediately, Bureau of Prisons spokesperson Randilee Giamusso said. McKinney is at least the fourth person to be put in charge of FCI Dublin since former warden Ray Garcia was placed on administrative leave after the FBI raided his office and vehicle in July 2021.

An associate warden and prison captain working under Dulgov were also removed from their positions, along with an executive assistant who oversaw the prison’s minimum-security satellite camp, government lawyers said.

A message seeking comment was left with Dulgov.

More than a dozen FBI agents searched FCI Dublin on Monday, seizing computers, documents and other evidence and seeking to interview employees, a person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and did so on the condition of anonymity.

FBI spokesperson Cameron Polan confirmed that agents were there conducting “court-authorized law enforcement activity,” but declined to give details.

Monday’s search came days after a new wave of civil lawsuits alleging abuse at FCI Dublin and as a federal judge weighs appointing a special master to oversee the prison’s operations. The prison, about 21 miles (34 kilometers) east of Oakland, has been known as the “rape club” because of years of rampant staff-on-inmate sexual abuse.

An AP investigation in 2021 found a culture of abuse and cover-ups that had persisted for years at the prison, which currently has more than 650 inmates. That reporting led to increased scrutiny from Congress and pledges from the Bureau of Prisons that it would fix problems and change the culture at the prison.

Last August, eight FCI Dublin inmates sued the Bureau of Prisons, alleging the agency had failed to root out sexual abuse. Amaris Montes, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said inmates continued to face retaliation for reporting abuse, including being put in solitary confinement and having belongings confiscated.

Since 2021, at least eight FCI Dublin employees have been charged with sexually abusing inmates. Five have pleaded guilty. Two were convicted at trial. Another case is pending.

All sexual activity between a prison worker and an inmate is illegal. Correctional employees enjoy substantial power over inmates, controlling every aspect of their lives from mealtime to lights out, and there is no scenario in which an inmate can give consent.

The sexual abuse scandal has been one of many troubles plaguing the federal Bureau of Prisons, which is also beset by rampant staffing shortages, suicides and security breaches.

Dulgov was put in charge of FCI Dublin after the former warden, Thahesha Jusino, retired late last year. Jusino had vowed to rebuild broken trust when she took over in March 2022. Before that, then-deputy regional director T. Ray Hinkle was interim warden. He had pledged to staff that he would help Dublin “regain its reputation,” but his tenure was marred by allegations that he targeted staff whistleblowers and clashed with a visiting congresswoman.

Dulgov’s personal website lists several accolades for his corrections work, including the Bureau of Prisons’ Golden Apple Award and an award from California federal prosecutors in 2019 for helping implement the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy. He has also been a federal prison warden in Arizona.

The website also notes that Dulgov, who taught middle school before entering the corrections industry, has served as an Equal Employment Opportunity counselor and has regular trained his staff in equal employment policies and procedures, civil rights and federal regulations.

McKinney, FCI Dublin’s new interim warden, “has been charged with developing a plan for the future of the facility,” Giamusso said. She said the change was made “consistent with unprecedented and ongoing actions” by Bureau of Prisons’ leadership “to create a positive change in the culture at FCI Dublin.”

Garcia was convicted in 2022 of molesting inmates and forcing them to pose naked in their cells. Prosecutors said he tried to keep his victims quiet with promises that he’d help them get early release and told one victim he was close friends with a prison official responsible for investigating staff misconduct and couldn’t be fired.

The FBI arrested Garcia in September 2021, months after questioning him at the prison and searching his office and vehicle. He is serving a six-year prison sentence.

Testifying on his own behalf, Garcia conceded that he had made mistakes but claimed that some of his alleged wrongdoing — like taking pictures of naked inmates — was done as part of his official duties to document violations of prison policy.

Prosecutors countered by calling a prison lieutenant who said he’s never seen a case where it was appropriate for an employee to take photos of a nude inmate.

Among the other employees accused of sexual abuse were former chaplain James Theodore Highhouse, who was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to abusing an inmate in his chapel office and lying to authorities, and ex-safety administrator John Russell Bellhouse, who was convicted last June of sexually abusing two inmates.

Prosecutors said Bellhouse “began to express an interest in a particular female inmate and started calling the inmate his ‘girlfriend’” in 2020. They said he inappropriately touched the woman and that she performed oral sex on Bellhouse twice in the prison’s safety office. He was sentenced to more than five years in prison.

The case became national news days after Beverly Vista Middle School officials began investigating the incident in February and the Beverly Hills Police Department launched its own criminal investigation, which is ongoing. No arrests have been made and no charges have been brought. 

The five students and their victims were in the eighth grade, according to the school district. Sixteen students were targeted, Superintendent Michael Bregy said in an email to the district community, which was obtained by NBC News. 

“This incident has spurred crucial discussions on the ethical use of technology, including AI, underscoring the importance of vigilant and informed engagement within digital environments,” Bregy wrote. “Furthermore, we recognize that kids are still learning and growing, and mistakes are part of this process. However, accountability is essential, and appropriate measures have been taken.”

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The expulsions, which the school district reportedly approved on Wednesday, are a turning point in how schools have publicly handled deepfake cases so far. The expelled students and their parents did not contest the district’s decision and will not be identified, according to the Los Angeles Times. 

The Beverly Hills case followed a string of incidents around the world over the past year involving AI-generated fake nude images of school-age children. The number of cases has exploded as AI technology has reached mainstream audiences, and apps and programs that are specifically designed and advertised to “undress” photos and “swap” victims’ faces into sexually explicit content have proliferated. False and misleading AI-generated images, videos and audio clips are often referred to as “deepfakes.”

Today, it is faster, cheaper, and easier than ever to create sophisticated fake material. 

The same week that the Beverly Hills case became public, NBC News identified ads running on Facebook and Instagram throughout February for a deepfake app that “undressed” an underage photo of a teen celebrity. It is already illegal to produce, distribute, receive or possess computer-generated sexually explicit content that features the faces of identifiable children, but that hasn’t stopped such material from being posted online for decades. 

Fake nude images and fake pornographic videos overwhelmingly victimize women and girls, and such material is easily searchable on major social media platforms and search engines. 

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Italy’s highest Cassation Court ordered a new trial last year, saying it hadn’t been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendants, with limited Italian language skills, had understood that they were dealing with Italian police officers when they went to meet an alleged drug dealer in Rome.

Finnegan Lee Elder, 24, and Gabriel Natale-Hjort, 23, who were teenagers at the time of the July 26, 2019 slaying, sat side by side as an appeals court judge made opening remarks in the new trial. The two are being held in separate prisons near the Italian capital.

The friends from California were found guilty in the killing of Carabinieri Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega and on four other counts and sentenced to life in prison, Italy’s harshest punishment. The sentences were reduced to 24 years for Elder and 22 years for Natale-Hjorth on appeal.

Prosecutors alleged Elder stabbed Cerciello Rega 11 times with a knife that he brought with him on his trip to Europe, and that Natale-Hjorth, then 18, helped him hide the knife in their hotel room. Natale-Hjorth testified that he grappled with Cerciello Rega’s partner and was unaware of the stabbing when he ran back to the hotel.

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The two friends had arranged to meet a small-time drug dealer, who turned out to be a police informant, to recover money lost in a bad deal and return a backpack they had snatched in retaliation, when they were confronted by the officers.

According to the defendants’ lawyers, the Cassation’s decision changed the evaluation of the incident, suggesting that the two Americans didn’t know they were facing Carabinieri police officers when the attack happened.

“Our strategy remains the same,” Elder’s lawyer Roberto Capra told The Associated Press. “We always said that Elder didn’t know he was confronting a police officer … This changes the whole reconstruction of the incident and we believe it will have an impact on the punishment.”

Elder and Natale-Hjorth were school friends from northern California who were meeting up for a few days in Rome, where Natale-Hjorth had family. The two young men have both studied Italian during detention and are now enrolled at university, their lawyers said during the hearing.

The killing of 35-year-old newlywed Cerciello Rega shocked Italians, who mourned him as a national hero.

“What we care about is that (the defendants’) responsibilities are clarified,” Cerciello Rega family’s lawyer Franco Coppi told AP. “We said since the beginning that there are no vengeful intentions or desire to punish at all costs.”

The next hearing has been set for April 10, when the general prosecutor will present his own indictment. The following hearings will be held in May, with lawyers expecting the trial to be closed before the summer.

An 8-year-old girl walking to school was injured Thursday when she was attacked by a dog in a Victorville, California, neighborhood.

Deputies responded at about 7 a.m. to the 13800 block of Mesa Linda Avenue in the San Bernardino County community after a report of a dog who bit two children. One child ran away, but the 8-year-old girl suffered multiple injuries, according to the sheriff’s department.

A neighbor ran outside to help the girl, and the dog ran off, authorities said.

Maria Hernandez said she was getting her daughter ready for school when the girl noticed the attack. Security camera video showed the dog dragging the girl in front of a home.

“I found the first thing that I found, which was my broom,” said Hernandez.

The dog and girl were on the neighbor’s front yard when Hernandez arrived on the scene, wielding her broomstick. The dog appeared to rip off some of the girl’s clothes and drag her by the hair.

“I was able to pull the little girl away from the dog, and tried to keep him away with my broom,” Hernandez said. “He just kept insisting to come after her.”

Video showed Hernandez, broomstick pointed at the dog, holding onto the girl as they walked toward her home. She told the other children to run inside her house.

The 8-year-old girl was hospitalized and received several stitches for her injuries.

“All I know is that I got attacked and my legs started hurting bad and my head,” said Genesis, who was the young girl injured by the dog.

While Genesis continues to recover from her injuries, her mother, Ronika Jones, is seeking answers.

“They always walk up and down the street and no child should be attacked by a dog,” Jones said. “Makes no sense.”

She has stitches here and on her back. Bruises all over her body. They always walk up and down the street and no child should be attacked by a dog. Makes no sense. 

The dog was captured and taken to animal control, authorities said. Hernandez said the same dog was seen overnight in the neighborhood.

The dog does not have a microchip ID. The sheriff’s department was attempting to find an owner.

A naked woman armed with a medieval-looking bat got into a fight with another woman on the boardwalk at Venice Beach, California, as onlookers watched and recorded the bizarre altercation.

Video obtained by NBC Los Angeles shows the two women – one of them in the nude – swinging at each other with what appeared to be a spiked club and a bat. The shocking incident, which occurred in broad daylight on Monday, wasn’t out of the ordinary for locals who say many in the community suffer from mental health issues.

Phil Bourque, who works at a nearby store, captured footage of the unusual fight.

“Like, they were fighting and then people were gathering around watching,” he said of the crowd. “I mean, entertaining, that’s all I can say.”

At some point during the fight, the clothed woman threw her weapon, giving her nude opponent the chance to scoop it up and swing both of them in the air before strutting down the boardwalk.

“It looks like she was kind of winning,” Joe Ayala said of the unclothed woman.

Ayala said he’d seen the naked woman before drinking nearby and riding a bicycle along the beach. According to Ayala, it isn’t unusual to see that woman in the nude.

“You have to remember that a lot of the people that are homeless out here, 85% of them have a mental issue or some kind of trauma that has pushed them to like where their limits get exceeded,” he said. “Somebody should have helped. Somebody should have stepped it, but a lot of people were probably freaked out by a naked woman fighting.”

Although the daytime duel caught the attention of several spectators, no one called the police. A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department said the crimes seen in the video are assault with a deadly weapon and indecent exposure. However, no report was filed with the department.

Satellite images released by NASA shows the lake forming in the Badwater Basin over several months, starting last year when Tropical Storm Hilary dumped a furious 2.2 inches of rain on Aug. 20, roughly the amount of rainfall the park usually receives in a year.

“Two inches of rain does not sound like a lot, but here, it really does stay on the surface,” Matthew Lamar, a park ranger, told The Associated Press at the time.

The lake that began to take shape after Hilary was 7 miles long, 4 miles wide and 2 feet deep, park officials said.

“Most of us thought the lake would be gone by October,” said Death Valley National Park ranger Abby Wines in a news release. “We were shocked to see it still here after almost six months.”

And while some of the water evaporated and absorbed into the ground over the following months — shrinking to about half the size by January — when storms returned in February, the lake continued to expand as the rain runoff drained into the area.

The temporary lake, informally known as Lake Manly, is about 6 miles long, 3 miles wide and 1 foot deep. Now, tourists are flocking to Death Valley National Park for an “extremely rare” opportunity to kayak.

“The lake was deep enough to kayak for a few weeks after Hurricane Hilary, but unfortunately people couldn’t come enjoy it then,” said Wines. “Every road in the park was damaged by flash floods, and it took two months to open the first road into the park. Now most of the main roads are open, so it’s a great time to come visit!”

Park officials say they don’t know for how long the water will stick around, but believe it will create beautiful reflections through April.

Death Valley is a narrow, 282-foot basin that is below sea level but situated among high, steep mountain ranges, according to the park service’s website. The bone-dry air and meager plant coverage allows sunlight to heat up the desert surface. The rocks and the soil emit all that heat in turn, which then becomes trapped in the depths of the valley.

The park, which straddles eastern California and Nevada, holds the record for the hottest temperature recorded on the planet — 134 degrees Fahrenheit, reached in July 1913. During last summer’s heatwave, temperatures climbed past 130 F in July. Hiking trails in summer months advise against venturing out after 10 a.m., though nighttime temperatures still hover over 90 F.

More than 1.1 million people visit the desert park annually. At 5,346 square miles, it’s the largest national park in the Lower 48.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Deputies responded around 9 a.m. following reports that the children were swept away near Shasta Dam, the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

Rescue crews including a dive team searched the water and later recovered the bodies, the office said in an afternoon update.

Water flows from the dam were temporarily reduced during the search.

It wasn’t known how the children fell into the river near Shasta Lake, about 175 miles (280 kilometers) north of Sacramento.

“The Shasta County Sheriff’s Office and allied agencies extend our deepest condolences to the families of the victims,” the statement said.

Several roads were closed during the recovery operation and later reopened.

Several majestic palm trees that usually flank the Refugio State Beach just north of Santa Barbara have come crashing down in recent days. Images show how the massive, 100-year-old trees were completely uprooted as they fell into the ocean. 

Local officials say a combination of factors caused the trees to fall: several years of beach erosion, combined with powerful high tides and oversaturated soils from the back-to-back atmospheric rivers that brought heavy rains and high winds across the state.

“As the ground gets saturated, the trees start to fall, the eucalyptus, the palm trees, the ground gets so wet with water the roots can’t hold in the ground anymore and the trees come falling over,” Craig VanderZwaag, Santa Barbara County fire battalion chief, told NBC News. 

Dena Bellman, district superintendent of California State Parks’ Channel Coast district, said officials have tagged several more trees at the beach that they say are at high risk of falling, especially with a new round of rains hitting California.

Due to this threat, the park is now temporarily closed to the public.

The dramatic images are a symbol of the power of these atmospheric rivers, which climate experts say are intensifying as the Earth’s temperature rises.

Los Angeles has seen 75% of its annual average rainfall in just the first three weeks of February. The city has had more rainfall than Seattle, New Orleans and Miami, and is also only about 2 inches shy of breaking its record for its wettest February.

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Over time, food scraps and other organic materials like yard waste emit methane, a gas more potent and damaging in the short-term than carbon emissions from fossil fuels. California’s goal is to keep that waste from piling up in landfills, instead turning it into compost or biogas.

Everything from banana peels and used coffee grounds to yard waste and soiled paper products like pizza boxes counts as organic waste. Households and businesses are now supposed to sort that material into a different bin.

But it has been hard to change people’s behavior in such a short period of time and cities were delayed setting up contracts to haul organic waste due to the pandemic. In Southern California, the nation’s largest facility to convert food waste into biogas has filed for bankruptcy because it’s not getting enough of the organic material.

“We’re way behind on implementation,” said Coby Skye, the recently retired deputy director for environmental services at Los Angeles County Public Works. “In America, for better or worse, we want convenience, and it’s very difficult to spend a lot of time and effort educating people about separation.”

Meanwhile, some communities that ramped up collection now have more compost than they know what to do with, a sign that more challenges are yet to come as the nation’s most populous state plows ahead with its recycling plans.

Only a handful of states mandate organics recycling, and none are running a program as large as California’s, which seeks to slash by 75% the amount of organic waste it sends to landfills by 2025 from 2014 levels.

Reaching that goal within a year would be a stretch, experts said.

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About three-quarters of communities are currently collecting organic waste from homes, said Rachel Machi Wagoner, CalRecycle’s director. While some places are lagging, her aim isn’t to punish them but to help them get started, adding that every bit helps the state move towards its goal of reducing emissions.

“My goal is about figuring out where the challenges are and getting us as quickly as possible to success,” she said.

“I don’t know when we will reach our 75% goal, but we will reach it,” she added.

CalRecycle hasn’t tallied data yet on how much organic waste was diverted from landfills in 2023. Jurisdictions reported diverting 11.2 million tons (10.1 million metric tons) of organics at the end of 2022, up from 9.9 million tons (8.9 million metric tons) the prior year, Wagoner said.

Some challenges include getting residents on board with sorting their trash into a third bin and knowing what goes where. Others concern what to do with the nutrient-rich compost once it’s been created from collected grass clippings, tree branches and food scraps.

At Otay Landfill near the Mexican border, workers pick through heaps of branches and leaves to pull out plastic bits before the material is placed under tarps. The site processes 200 tons (181 metric tons) of organic waste daily and hopes to double that amount as more cities ramp up collection, said Gabe Gonzales, the landfill’s operations manager.

Once the compost is made, California’s law requires cities to use much of it. But many say they don’t have enough space to lay it all out.

Chula Vista, a San Diego County city of 275,000 people, is supposed to use 14,000 tons (12,700 metric tons) of compost a year but uses a few thousand at best, said Manuel Medrano, the city’s environmental services manager. Some is doled out in free compost giveaways for residents, while heaps of the material are stored in a fenced area of a local park.

“To transport it is really expensive, to spread it is really expensive,” Medrano said. “We’re nowhere near meeting that requirement.”

Communities with more open space might fare better. Cody Cain, head of marketing and sales for compost-maker Agromin, said his company has developed a plan to link cities struggling to meet these requirements with farmers who need the material for their soil.

“We basically are matchmakers. Call us the ‘Tinder’ of compost, and we’ll bring the farmer together with the city,” Cain said.

Food waste also can be converted into biogas to fuel vehicles or industrial operations. But a massive facility built three years ago in the Southern California city of Rialto now finds itself facing bankruptcy after Los Angeles was slow to ramp up collection, leaving the plant with insufficient waste, said Yaniv Scherson, chief operating officer for Anaergia Inc.

“It’s because the cities didn’t enforce on time the market is struggling,” he said. “If it doesn’t get feedstock this year, there is a chance it shuts down completely.”

LA Sanitation & Environment, which handles trash and recycling for the city of nearly 4 million people, had no immediate comment.

Heidi Sanborn, founding director of the environmental National Stewardship Action Council, said she supports the state’s law but wants more done to keep plastics out of compost and to develop alternative energy solutions. Some of California’s challenges stem from the fact the state is trying to build a system on a scale the country hasn’t seen, she said.

“We’re trying to fix incredibly tough problems. We’re not going to find the perfect solution out of the gate,” she said.

But, Sanborn added, “we’re on our way.”

A friend of the victim found the man dead in the backyard of the home with 13 dogs on the property.

Details about when the man died were not immediately available. 

Video showed several dogs in the yard of the home. A body was located inside a fenced kennel at the rear of the house.

The victim suffered injuries to his upper and lower body. It was not immediately clear how many dogs attacked the man, but authorities said they are reviewing video that appears to show the attack. 

“Our victim was in the backyard, apparently feeding them, and it sounds like they attacked him ultimately he succumbed to this injuries,” sheriff’s Lt. Michael Gomez said.

According to authorities, the man bred and sold pit bulls and pit bull mixes. He had five adult dogs and six puppies, aged 4 to 6 months old, at the home. The fate of those dogs will be determined by the county.

Animal services will conduct an investigation, the sheriff’s department said. The dogs will be transported to the Downey Animal Care Center for exams. 

A neighbor told NBCLA she saw at least two dogs being taken from the property by authorities. She said she was not aware anyone was living there. 

“They were not even barking or anything,” April Ramirez said of the dogs. “It’s scary. It’s absolutely scary because I have a 7-year-old and we were not aware of this.”

Herbert Wigwe, chief executive of Access Bank, was among the six people on board when the aircraft went down shortly after 10 p.m. All six people were killed, including two pilots and Bamofin Abimbola Ogunbanjo, former chair of NGX Group, the Nigerian stock exchange.

The deaths of Wigwe, his family and Ogunbanjo were confirmed Saturday by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former Nigerian finance minister who is now the director-general of the World Trade Organization.

“Terribly saddened by the news of the terrible loss of Herbert Wigwe … his wife and son as well as Bimbo Ogunbanjo in a helicopter crash,” Okonjo-Iweala wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “May the souls of the departed rest in perfect peace.”

The death of Wigwe, 57, shocked many in Nigeria and in the banking sector. He was widely seen as an industry leader, having been involved in two of the country’s biggest banks, including Guaranty Trust Bank, where he was previously executive director.

Under Wigwe’s leadership, Access Bank’s assets and presence grew beyond borders in several African countries.

His death is “a terrible blow” for Nigeria and Africa’s banking industry, Nigerian presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga wrote on X. “Wigwe had a big vision to make Access Holdings (the parent company) Africa’s biggest, with all the unquenchable thirst for acquisitions,” Onanuga added.

Wigwe’s interests also spanned the education sector. His private university, founded in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta region where he was from, is scheduled to open in September. Last year he said the university was “an opportunity for me to give back to society.”

“This is surreal and I am lost for words,” Festus Keyamo, Nigeria’s minister of aviation and aerospace development, wrote in a post on X. “May Almighty God comfort his aged parents and sibling … his immediate family members, his staff, friends across Nigeria and dependents.”

The crash happened south of I-15 near Halloran Springs Road, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) northeast of Barstow, according to Michael Graham of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash.

Graham said he did not have information about the helicopter’s crew, which included a pilot and a safety pilot. The aircraft did not have a cockpit voice recorder or a flight data recorder and was not required to have them, he added.

The Airbus EC-130 left Palm Springs Airport at around 8:45 p.m. on Friday and was traveling to Boulder City, Nevada, Graham said. Boulder City is about 26 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of Las Vegas, where the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers are set to play in Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday.

It was a charter flight operated by Orbic Air LLC. Several people traveling on I-15 witnessed the crash and called 911, Graham said, and he urged them to contact the NTSB with more details, including photos and videos.

Witnesses reported that it was raining with a “wintry mix” at the time of the crash, according to Graham. People also reported a fire on the helicopter plus some downed power lines.

“This is the beginning of a long process. We will not jump to any conclusions,” Graham said during a news conference Saturday night. He also “expressed our deepest sympathies to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives in this terrible tragedy.”

The crash site is not far from the California-Nevada border. Halloran Springs Road crosses the highway in an area known to travelers for an abandoned gas station with a sign declaring “Lo Gas” and “Eat.” It’s a remote area of the desert, with an elevation of nearly 3,000 feet (914.40 meters), and about a 60- to 80-mile (100- to 130-kilometer) drive from Las Vegas.

The crash comes just three days after a U.S. Marine Corps helicopter crashed in the mountains outside San Diego on Tuesday during historic downpours. Five Marines were killed.

___

Richmond reported from Madison, Wisconsin. Beam reported from Sacramento, California.

As of Saturday morning, no survivors had been found, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.

“We were made aware of a downed aircraft at approximately 10:12 p.m., on February 10, 2024. The scene of the crash was determined to be east of the 15-Freeway, near Halloran Springs Road,” the sheriff’s department said.

The FAA identified the helicopter as a Eurocopter EC 130.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.

Nipton is a small town in San Bernardino County located about 12 miles southeast of Primm, Nevada.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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The Queen Victoria, operated by Cunard Cruise Line, left San Francisco Wednesday night to Hawaii. The ship is carrying 1,800 passengers and 970 crew members.

The cause is unknown. Cunard told the CDC that the ship increased cleaning and disinfection, and isolated ill passengers and crew.

The reported cases are totals for the entire voyage and do not represent how many people are actively sick at any one time, the CDC said.

The company did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking more details.

The ship originated in Germany Jan. 9 and departed Florida Jan. 22, according to ship tracker Cruise Mapper. Its next stop is Honolulu, Hawaii, on Feb. 12 and ends in Australia next month.

The abduction and subsequent trial of Hearst, then a 19-year-old college student and the granddaughter of wealthy newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, was one of the most sensational and captivating cases of the 1970s.

Hearst will turn 70 on Feb. 20. She is now known as Patricia Hearst Shaw after she married a police officer who guarded her when she was out on bail, the late Bernard Shaw. She has been in the news in recent years for her dogs, mostly French bulldogs, that have won prizes in the Westminster Kennel Club dog show.

Hearst’s allegiance to the Symbionese Liberation Army raised questions about Stockholm syndrome, a common term deployed to describe the bond that victims of kidnappings or hostage situations sometimes develop with their captors.

Stockholm syndrome got its name from an August 1973 failed bank robbery in Sweden’s capital. Rather than a diagnosis of a disorder, experts describe it as a psychological coping mechanism used by some hostages to endure being held captive and abused.

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Hearst, who went by the name “Tania” in the group, denounced her family and posed for a photograph carrying a weapon in front of their flag. The self-styled radicals viewed aspects of U.S. society as racist and oppressive, and they were accused of killing a California school superintendent.

As a member of a wealthy and powerful family, Hearst was kidnapped to bring attention to the Symbionese Liberation Army, according to the FBI. The group demanded food and money donations for the poor in exchange for Hearst’s release, though she remained a captive even after her family met the ransom through a $2 million food distribution program.

Hearst took part in the group’s robbery of a San Francisco bank on April 15, 1974. Surveillance cameras captured her wielding an assault rifle during the crime.

She wasn’t arrested until the FBI caught up with her on Sept. 18, 1975, in San Francisco, 19 months after her abduction.

Her trial was one of the most sensational of that decade. The prosecutor played a jail cell recording of Hearst talking with a friend in which she was confident, cursing and fully aware of her role with the Symbionese Liberation Army.

While Hearst was sentenced to seven years in prison, President Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence in 1979 after she served 22 months behind bars. She later was pardoned by President Bill Clinton.

Alan Winston Filion, 17, was arrested Jan. 18 by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department on a warrant from Seminole County, Florida, according to court records. He was extradited to central Florida on Tuesday to face three charges of false reporting and one charge of unlawful use of a two-way communication device. He is being prosecuted as an adult.

“Swatting is a perilous and senseless crime, which puts innocent lives in dangerous situations and drains valuable resources,” Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma said in a statement. “The substantial law enforcement response in this swatting case underscores our unwavering dedication to community safety and holding offenders accountable, regardless of where they are located.”

Filion entered a not guilty plea to the charges, NBC News reported. He is being held without bail at the John E. Polk Correctional Facility.

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The FBI has formed a national database to track and prevent ‘swatting'

Swatting is the practice of making a prank call to emergency services in an attempt to bring about the dispatch of a large number of armed police officers to a particular address. Bomb threats go back decades in the U.S., but swatting has become especially popular in recent years as people and groups target celebrities and politicians.

Seminole County law enforcement received a call last May from someone saying that he was entering the Masjid Al Hayy Mosque in Sanford to conduct a mass shooting, according to the sheriff’s office. About 30 law enforcement officers responded but found no shooter and determined the call to be a swatting incident.

The sheriff’s office began working with the FBI to investigate several accounts on websites offering swatting services. Various IP addresses connected to these accounts led to Filion’s home address in Lancaster, California, and the FBI served a search warrant at the home in July, officials said. Based on evidence collected during the search, investigators obtained a warrant for Filion’s arrest.

The SCSO Domestic Security Division continued investigating the incident alongside the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Investigators believe that Filion is also connected to other swatting incidents across the United States targeting historically Black colleges and the homes of FBI agents. According to court records, Filion appears to have been responsible for hundreds of swatting incidents targeting high schools, colleges, mosques, government offices and military bases in multiple states.

A defense attorney listed for Filion in court records didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment from The Associated Press.

San Diego Police confirmed to NBC 7 that the Rancho Bernardo High School campus is safe and has been swept for any explosive devices.

Police received several reports last Friday saying the suspected teen was showing concerning videos and making threatening statements against the school for Tuesday, Jan. 30, SDPD said. That same day, the student, who was not named because he was underage, was arrested and taken to juvenile hall.

“I want to commend the students who acted responsibly by reporting what they heard. Please use this opportunity to remind your children, if they see something, say something to continue to keep our community safe through our collective vigilance,” read a letter from Principal Hans Becker that was sent out to students over the weekend.

Police took out a gun violence restraining order at the teen’s home located on the 11000 block of Avenida Sivrita, just blocks away from the school. On Tuesday morning, unregistered, un-serialized firearms; manufacturing supplies to make ghost guns (both rifles and handguns) as well as a large number of explosives and rocket-propelled grenades were found at the home, police said.

The father, 45-year-old Neal Anders was arrested and booked into San Diego County jail on several charges.

Officers say the wife and other children were home at the time. They were allowed to leave during the arrest.

NBC 7 reached out to Poway Unified for a statement but has not heard back. NBC 7 has obtained a letter sent to students this past weekend where they informed the Bronco families about the threat.

Dear Bronco Families,

Late yesterday afternoon we were notified by students that they had witnessed another student showing concerning videos and making threatening statements against others and the school. Law enforcement was contacted immediately and launched an investigation yesterday evening. After deputies met with the student, they were taken into custody and all families of impacted students were notified. We want to assure you we will be working very closely with law enforcement and the city attorney’s office to address the matter appropriately, according to PUSD and police procedures. We appreciate our partners taking this very seriously.

I want to commend the students who acted responsibly by reporting what they heard.  Please use this opportunity to remind your children, if they see something, say something to continue to keep our community safe through our collective vigilance.The PUSD Tipline is monitored 24-7 by law enforcement: 1-844-PUSD-TIP (1-844-787-3847). 

The San Diego Police Department will be on campus next week following up on their investigation and providing a reassuring presence. I want to reiterate that Rancho Bernardo High School remains a safe place for our students and staff. 

Respectfully,

Hans Becker 
Principal

Neal Anders is set to be arraigned on Thursday.

Please refresh this page for updates on this story. Details may change as more information becomes available.

Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story stated police referred to the dad as a “doomsday” prepped-style person. That has been removed. The information came from an SDPD sergeant on the scene Monday night after a member of the media asked about some boxes of MREs spotted in Anders’ garage. However, a LinkedIn page appearing to belong to Anders lists him as a volunteer for the San Diego Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). The description says he works as a Disaster Service Worker, which could explain the MREs.

Following government rules, Weber’s company, Sunrise Farms, had to slaughter its entire flock of egg-laying hens — 550,000 birds — to prevent the disease from infecting other farms in Sonoma County north of San Francisco.

“It’s a trauma. We’re all going through grief as a result of it,” said Weber, standing in an empty hen house. “Petaluma is known as the Egg Basket of the World. It’s devastating to see that egg basket go up in flames.”

A year after the bird flu led to record egg prices and widespread shortages, the disease known as highly pathogenic avian influenza is wreaking havoc in California, which escaped the earlier wave of outbreaks that devastated poultry farms in the Midwest.

The highly contagious virus has ravaged Sonoma County, where officials have declared a state of emergency. During the past two months, nearly a dozen commercial farms have had to destroy more than 1 million birds to control the outbreak, dealing an economic blow to farmers, workers and their customers.

Merced County in Central California also has been hit hard, with outbreaks at several large commercial egg-producing farms in recent weeks.

Experts say bird flu is spread by ducks, geese and other migratory birds. The waterfowl can carry the virus without getting sick and easily spread it through their droppings to chicken and turkey farms and backyard flocks through droppings and nasal discharges.

California poultry farms are implementing strict biosecurity measures to curb the spread of the disease. State Veterinarian Annette Jones urged farmers to keep their flocks indoors until June, including organic chickens that are required to have outdoor access.

“We still have migration going for another couple of months. So we’ve got to be as vigilant as possible to protect our birds,” said Bill Mattos, president of the California Poultry Federation.

The loss of local hens led to a spike in egg prices in the San Francisco Bay Area over the holidays before supermarkets and restaurants found suppliers from outside the region.

While bird flu has been around for decades, the current outbreak of the virus that began in early 2022 has prompted officials to slaughter nearly 82 million birds, mostly egg-laying chickens, in 47 U.S. states, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Whenever the disease is found the entire flock is slaughtered to help limit the spread of the virus.

The price of a dozen eggs more than doubled to $4.82 at its peak in January 2023. Egg prices returned to their normal range as egg producers built up their flocks and outbreaks were controlled. Turkey and chicken prices also spiked, partly due to the virus.

“I think this is an existential issue for the commercial poultry industry. The virus is on every continent, except for Australia at this point,” said Maurice Pitesky, a poultry expert at the University of California, Davis.

Climate change is increasing the risk of outbreaks as changing weather patterns disrupt the migratory patterns of wild birds, Pitesky said. For example, exceptional rainfall last year created new waterfowl habitat throughout California, including areas close to poultry farms.

In California, the outbreak has impacted more than 7 million chickens in about 40 commercial flocks and 24 backyard flocks, with most of the outbreaks occurring over the past two months on the North Coast and Central Valley, according to the USDA.

Industry officials are worried about the growing number of backyard chickens that could become infected and spread avian flu to commercial farms.

“We have wild birds that are are full of virus. And if you expose your birds to these wild birds, they might get infected and ill,” said Rodrigo Gallardo, a UC Davis researcher who studies avian influenza.

Gallardo advises the owners of backyard chickens to wear clean clothes and shoes to protect their flocks from getting infected. If an unusual number of chickens die, they should be tested for avian flu.

Ettamarie Peterson, a retired teacher in Petaluma, has a flock of about 50 chickens that produce eggs she sells from her backyard barn for 50 cents each.

“I’m very concerned because this avian flu is transmitted by wild birds, and there’s no way I can stop the wild birds from coming through and leaving the disease behind,” Peterson said. “If your flock has any cases of it, you have to destroy the whole flock.”

Sunrise Farms, which was started by Weber’s great-grandparents more than a century ago, was infected despite putting in place strict biosecurity measures to protect the flock.

“The virus got to the birds so bad and so quickly you walked in and the birds were just dead,” Weber said. “Heartbreaking doesn’t describe how you feel when you walk in and perfectly healthy young birds have been just laid out.”

After euthanizing more than half a million chickens at Sunrise Farms, Weber and his employees spent the Christmas holiday discarding the carcasses. Since then, they’ve been cleaning out and disinfecting the hen houses.

Weber hopes the farm will get approval from federal regulators to bring chicks back to the farm this spring. Then it would take another five months before the hens are mature enough to lay eggs.

He feels lucky that two farms his company co-owns have not been infected and are still producing eggs for his customers. But recovering from the outbreak won’t be easy.

“We have a long road ahead,” Weber said. “We’re going to make another run of it and try to keep this family of employees together because they’ve worked so hard to build this into the company that it is.”

A witness, who ran along the center divider to help the fallen man, described the moment of chaos and panic.

Alf Smithey, who was driving along the southbound 14 Freeway about 30 miles north of Los Angeles at around 11:30 a.m. Monday, said he saw the RV going from the right lane to the left before eventually crashing into the median barrier.

“You just see dust, smoke. [The driver] slides along the center divider for 600 feet or so,” described Smithey, who stopped his car and ran out to help, thinking there could be children trapped inside the crashed RV.

When he reached the RV, Smithey said he quickly figured out someone may have flown out the window.

“She kept saying, ‘My husband is not here. My husband is not here.’ Then she kept looking out the window behind her.”

Smithey, who said the female driver fell asleep at the wheel, immediately jumped to action and ran back along the center divider to find the fallen man.

“He had a big old gash on his forehead. I think it was from hitting the window. He was the passenger. He flew across her and hit the window. I think that’s what saved his life because if the window was open, he could have landed into oncoming traffic.”

Smithey said the man was conscious and able to have a conversation despite apparent broken bones. And what struck the good Samaritan was the man, who fell out of the moving car, appeared to be more fearful for his wife behind the wheel.

“His biggest concern was, ‘How was my wife?’ I was like, ‘You’re the one who flew out of the vehicle.’ He was more concerned about her.”

The CHP confirmed the ejected passenger was later found near the Los Pinetos exit on the northbound 14 Freeway. He was taken to a hospital in critical condition.

The teenager, who was identified in juvenile court only by the initials R.I. because of his age, was ordered to remain in custody. If convicted of four murder charges, he would be held in juvenile hall until he turns 25.

Prosecutors have filed a motion asking that he be tried as an adult, with a possible sentence of life in prison without chance of parole.

The teen lived next door to the victims in the small town of Reedley, southwest of Fresno.

He is charged with killing 81-year-old Billy Bond; his son, 61-year-old Darrell Bond; granddaughter-in-law, Guadalupe Bond, 44; and grandson, Matthew Bond, 43.

The bodies of Billy Bond, Darrell Bond and Guadalupe Bond were found in the backyard of their home Saturday, including one that was buried in a shallow grave, police said. Matthew Bond’s body was found in the detached garage of the teenager’s home on Tuesday before he was arrested, authorities said.

Police haven’t released details of the killings but have said a safe inside the victims’ home that held guns and money had been forced open and emptied, suggesting a possible motive, The Fresno Bee reported.

Several of the teen’s relatives were in court for the hearing, including his mother. She and her boyfriend have been charged with being accessories after the fact to the killings and are free on bond.

The avalanche occurred about 9:30 a.m. and prompted Palisades Tahoe to close as search crews combed the area under the K-22 lift, which 30 minutes earlier had opened for the first time this season. It serves “black diamond” runs for skilled skiers and snowboarders.

Skier Mark Sponsler said he arrived at the KT-22 lift amid howling winds and white-out conditions to find it shut down. Unbeknownst to him, the avalanche had just hit.

He spoke to someone who was in the second group to ride up the lift that morning. That person was in the lift and watched the disaster from above, said Sponsler, a veteran weather forecaster and founder of stormsurf.com.

“There was screaming, there were skis and poles and a hand sticking up out of the snow,” Sponsler said the witness told him.

The avalanche debris field spanned about 150 feet wide, 450 feet long and 10 feet deep, the sheriff’s office said.

“This is a very sad day for my team and everyone here,” said Dee Byrne, president of Palisades Tahoe, her voice emotional.

The Placer County Sheriff’s Office identified the person killed as Kenneth Kidd, 66, a resident of nearby Truckee and Point Reyes. One person suffered a lower leg injury and two others were treated for unspecified injuries and released, officials said.

The avalanche occurred on steep slopes in the GS Gully area. Michael Gross, vice president of mountain operations, said ski patrols had been on the slopes checking the avalanche conditions since Sunday.

“They’ve been up there doing control work, evaluating weather conditions, setting up all safety markings, hazard markings, et cetera, to get them prepared for today’s opening,” Gross said at a news conference Wednesday.

The cause of the avalanche is under investigation, officials said. It happened as a powerful storm was expected to bring as much as 2 feet of snow to the highest elevations by early Thursday.

Palisades, the site for the 1960 Winter Olympics, is on the western side of Lake Tahoe, about 40 miles from Reno, Nevada. Winds at the top of Palisades resort were gusting between 31 mph and 38 mph at the time of the avalanche.

Dan Lavely, 67, of Reno is a season pass holder at Palisades and skied mostly at Alpine Meadows on Monday when there was very little snow and the KT-22 lift was closed.

The KT-22 run along the side of the lift is where the giant slalom was held during the 1960 Olympics, he said.

“Really good skiers love it because it’s really steep,” he said. “I remember when I was really young I was skiing around there. I fell over and slid like two-thirds of the way down the mountain. There was no way to stop because it’s just so steep.”

The death Wednesday was the first U.S. avalanche fatality of the season, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, which monitors nationwide.

A 2020 avalanche at Alpine Meadows killed one skier and seriously injured another a day after a major storm. Another avalanche at the resort in March 1982 killed seven people, including several employees.

Associated Press writers Jason Dearen and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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The body, discovered in the community of Arvin about 100 miles north of Los Angeles, was identified through DNA testing as that of 64-year-old Ada Beth Kaplan, of Canyon Country.

Kaplan’s naked and decapitated body was found in March 2011 in a grape vineyard off Sebastian Road, just north of the Los Angeles County line. Her thumbs also were missing and the body, which appeared to have been posed, was drained of blood, investigators said.

“I remember looking at the detectives and the sergeant on scene and the coroner investigator who had arrived on the scene and we were all kind of speechless,” Ray Pruitt, formerly of the Kern County Sheriff’s Department, told KGET-TV in an August 2018 interview. “We were all just looking at each other trying to get our minds around what we were looking at.”

Few clues were left at the gruesome crime scene. There were no hits in missing persons databases. Two missing persons cases from outside Kern County caught investigators’ attention, but they were eventually ruled out by DNA.

It was later determined that no missing persons report was filed.

The body, identified only as a Jane Doe at the time, was buried at Union Cemetery after all identification leads were unsuccessful, the sheriff’s department said.

The case went cold until 2020, when the Kern County Medical Examiner’s Office worked with the DNA Doe Project to track down the victim’s identity.

Working to piece together a family tree, they discovered DNA matches to distant cousins.

“Our team worked long and hard for this identification,” said team leader Missy Koski, “Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry is often complicated to unravel. When we brought in an expert in Jewish records and genealogy, that made a huge difference.”

In July 2023, two potential family members who lived on the East Coast were identified. They provided a DNA sample, allowing for the identification of Kaplan, announced this month by the Kern County Sheriff’s Department.

What led to her death remains a mystery. No suspect has been identified.