Paris Hilton's younger brother Conrad surrendered to federal authorities Tuesday to face charges of assault for allegedly attacking a flight crew during an hours-long tantrum on a Los Angeles-bound flight last year, threatening to kill flight attendants and unleashing profanity-laden tirades at them until they were forced to handcuff him as he slept, prosecutors say.

Conrad Hilton appeared in court Tuesday to face allegations that he assaulted and threatened the flight crew on the British Airways flight from London to LA on July 31. 

A judge ordered that he be released on an unsecured $100,000 appearance bond and continue mental health treatment and drug and alcohol testing. Conrad HIlton is due back in court March 5. His lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.

According to the criminal complaint against him, Hilton, 20, was in a rage for most of the 10-hour flight, saying he was angry over a breakup with a girlfriend and wanted to smoke pot. Flight attendants said they smelled him smoking pot and cigarettes in the bathroom during the flight, also.

He repeatedly told flight attendants "I will [expletive] kill you," and threatened to get them fired, the complaint says. 

"If you wanna square up to me, bro, then bring it on, and I will [expletive] fight you," he is accused of having told the flight crew's customer service manager, before then threatening to "rip through" and "own" him and all the other people on the plane, whom he is accused of calling "peasants."

"My father will pay this out; he has done it before. Dad paid $300,000 last time," Hilton told one flight attendant, according to the complaint.

His constant outbursts and threats were so disruptive that children on the plane were crying, and the flight crew was forced to handcuff him after he fell asleep, the complaint says.

Hilton told FBI agents he had taken a sleeping pill.

A 911 operator told a teenage girl to "stop whining" just after her father was fatally struck by a car as he tried to change a flat tire along the Baltimore Washington Parkway in Maryland last weekend.

The dispatcher has now been placed "in a position where he won't have citizen contact" while authorities investigate what happened, an Anne Arundel County fire official said Wednesday.

Rick Warrick, 38, and his fiancee were taking Warrick's two teenagers to Dave & Buster's at the Arundel Mills mall Sunday night when their tire went flat on the BW Parkway in Anne Arundel County.

Warrick, a car salesman from D.C., and his fiancee pulled to the shoulder and got out of their 2007 Hyundai Sonata to change the tire. Warrick had gotten the doughnut onto the car and was tightening the lugs around 9:15 p.m. when they were both struck by a car that did not stop.

Warrick's fiancee, 28-year-old Julia Pearce, suffered two broken legs, a broken pelvis and a fractured skull. She tried to encourage Warrick to keep breathing, but he died at the scene.

News4's Pat Collins obtained the audio from Warrick's teenage daughter's call to 911.

"Can y'all please hurry up!" the teen asks.

"Ma'am, stop yelling, I need a location," the operator said. The girl then tells him they're situated along I-295.

"OK, 295, that's good. We're located now on a highway. Now that's a pretty long road," he says.

The teen then says two people were struck.

"Yes, they both..."

"OK, let's stop whining. OK, let's stop whining. It's hard to understand you... two people were struck, correct?" the operator said.

When the teen describes that her father and his fiancee are motionless and lying on the ground, the operator asks to talk to someone else.

"Is there someone else there I can talk to, because it's so hard..."

The teen then explains the only other conscious person is her young brother.

Russ Davis with the Anne Arundel County Fire Department admitted the operator used a poor choice of words.

"However, what he was attempting to do was to get her attention, to start ascertaining information from her," Davis said. "It was pretty clear at that point they didn't know where they were."

He added the situation could have been handled differently.

"There could be a better choice of words."

The driver who struck Warrick and his fiancee has not yet come forward.

"It's hard on me, and I think the right thing will be to do just to turn yourself in. Accidents happen and we understand," said Warrick's mother, Scharmaine Ferrell-Anthony. "It was a tragic accident."

Anyone with information is asked to call 202-610-8737.

The mother of siblings killed in a fatal crash in Wilmington last week has revealed her son told her loved and missed her in their final phone call.

Elexis Garcia, 18, and Elias Garcia, 16, were killed last Thursday in a smash blocks away from their high school. Tonya Garcia, who lives in San Diego, opened up about the last time she spoke to her son, where they spoke about the siblings' excitement to be attending winter formal, which took place last Friday.

"I go... 'you're going to look so handsome,' he goes, 'Mom, I really miss you and I love you," Garcia said, "I didn't know that was going to be the last time i was going to hear his voice."

She said her children, who lived with family in Wilmington and attended Banning High School, were inseperable, and that her daughter Elexis "always had her brother's back."

Tonya also revealed she travelled to the crash scene when she discovered what had happened.

"My sister called and... I said 'those are my babies,' she said 'no they're not i don't believe it,'  and I said 'I don't believe it either, Ii need to get down there,' Garcia said, "They wouldn't let me see anything and all I wanted to do was see them, I just wanted to see them one last time, because i didn't believe it."

Both of her children will now be laid to rest in the clothes they had chosen to wear at their winter formal.

"It's hard to lose both of them you know? But neither of them could have lived without each other," Garcia said, "I can't wait to see them someday, I really can't."

The siblings were in a red Honda on Thursday when it crashed. Surveillance video showed their car speeding next to a pickup truck shortly before the crash.

The Honda somehow wound up on the wrong side of the road and crashed into a van, police said. Two passengers in the car were injured.

The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to NBC4 Thursday that the crash is being investigated as an accident and it is not considered a street race.

A Powerball jackpot that has been building since December is expected to reach $317 million by Wednesday night's drawing, marking the first time in about a year that the jackpot passed $300 million.

List: CA Lottery Lucky Retailers

Powerball's last major jackpot was in February 2014 when it reached $425 million. The total reached $326 million for a Mega Millions winner in November.

Here's a look at the latest jackpot, what's behind the lull and what it means to state lotteries.

Link: Prizes and Odds

Game Changes: The $317 million prize would be the 11th largest Powerball jackpot ever and the 22nd largest in U.S. history when including Mega Millions, the other national lottery game. The pot has been rolling since early December. Since 2012, officials have sought to increase revenue by tinkering with Powerball and Mega Millions, primarily changing some ticket prices and lowering the odds of winning jackpots. Thanks to those moves, jackpot sizes have repeatedly climbed to record levels. More than half of the top 10 U.S. jackpots have been reached in the past couple of years, including a $590.5 million Powerball jackpot in May 2013 and a $648 million Mega Millions jackpot in December 2013.

Jackpot Drought: Before the latest prize, Powerball's last major jackpot was in February 2014 when it was $425 million. There was a $326 million jackpot won for Mega Millions in November, that game's first major jackpot since March 2014, when it reached $414 million. Lottery officials said there's no particular reason for the lull. Terry Rich, president of the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries and CEO of the Iowa Lottery, said lottery jackpots are inherently random. The game is expected to have slow periods based on projection models, he added.

Ticket Sales: Fewer giant jackpots can mean smaller ticket sales because casual players are not jumping in as often. In this case, ticket sales for Powerball and Mega Millions slightly declined during the first six months of the fiscal year that began in July, according to data. For Powerball, more than $1.6 billion in ticket sales was collected between July and the end of December. For Mega Millions, it was just over $1.4 billion. Both figures reflect a decline from the halfway point of the previous fiscal year. During that period, ticket sales for Powerball were over $2.7 billion and for Mega Millions, it was more than $1.8 billion.

Overall Outlook: It's not all doom and gloom. Rich said it takes just one large jackpot to balance things out. Plus, people are still playing other games. In the fiscal year that ended in June 2014, total ticket sales from all of the nation's lottery games was about $70 billion dollars, up from about $68 billion the previous year. Popular options like instant-scratch games bring in consistent revenue. As a result, state lotteries do not always heavily rely on jackpot ticket sales, according to Paula Otto, lead director for Mega Millions and executive director of the Virginia Lottery.

Jackpot Fatigue: While huge jackpots draw more players, the downside is people become unfazed by smaller prizes. Otto called it jackpot fatigue and said lottery officials plan to do more research this year to examine the games.

"Why do people play? Why don't they play?" she said of the kind of questions they want to answer. "What could we do to change the game to make it more attractive at all jackpot levels?"

California lawmakers called President Barack Obama's recommendation to spend $5 million next year on an early earthquake warning system for the West Coast a significant breakthrough.

It's the first time Obama has included funding for the project in his annual budget recommendation. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Adam Schiff, both Democrats, said the change shows the president recognizes the importance of moving ahead with the project more quickly.

Lawmakers had previously secured $5 million for the early warning system and were seeking at least $16 million more. The money allows for the installation of more seismic detection stations and sensors.

Officials say an earlier warning of just a few seconds can save lives and limit damage. For example, it could allow trains to automatically brake before the shaking hits.
 

A bus crash in the South Los Angeles area left several people with minor injuries Wednesday morning, according to Los Angeles Fire Department officials.

A total of four vehicles, including a Metro bus, were involved in the crash at the 2000 block of W. 22nd Street of Los Angeles.

Five people reported having minor injuries from the crash, according to LAFD officials.

No further details are available at this time.

Collisions involving trains and vehicles have dropped dramatically despite increases in highway and rail traffic. The Federal Railroad Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, points to engineering improvements including flashing lights, gates and traffic dividers, stepped up enforcement of traffic regulations and motorist education. About 94 percent of collisions are a result of drivers’ risky behavior or poor judgment, according to the FRA.

A fire broke out at a bakery in Koreatown early Wednesday.

The blaze at Panaderia El Salvador at 4017 Beverly Boulevard was reported just after 5 a.m.

The flames extended to the west side of the bakery and into the salon, also spreading into the attic above.

Los Angeles Fire Department called a knockdown at 5:42 a.m, and no injuries have been reported at this time. The cause is still unknown, however several staff members were working in the bakery when the fire broke out.

Passengers who survived the Metro-North crash that killed six people and caused the front of the packed train to burst into flames experienced everything from loud explosions to small "jolts" when the train hit an SUV stopped on the tracks in Westchester Tuesday afternoon. 

Six hundred and fifty people were on board train No. 659 when it slammed into an SUV stopped at a crossing in Valhalla at about 6:30 p.m., less than an hour after leaving Grand Central. The train burst into flames and pushed the SUV nearly 10 car lengths down the track, killing the driver of the SUV and five passengers in the first car. 

Fifteen other people were hurt in the crash.

Passengers sitting in the front of the train described an alarming scene following the impact, with many hearing a loud explosion before smoke filled their cars. Commuters in the back of the train reported only feeling small "jolts" or "jerks" upon impact. 

Survivor Chris Gross, 24, was sitting in the front train car watching a movie on his laptop when he suddenly went airborne, he said. 

"I heard a loud bang and a lot of screaming. People were screaming, 'Call 911, fire extinguisher,'" he said. 

A quick-thinking passenger pried open the emergency exit and helped Gross escape. He said the five men who died on board the train were sitting right next to him. 

Jamie Wallace, who was sitting in the back of the second car, described escaping the train after the crash. 

"We started to hear people further up toward the head of the second car start to panic a bit, and they were calling for a fire extinguisher," he said. 

But as passengers rushed to help, "we could not get the head car doors open for some reason, it was jammed," he said. "We then were trying to break the glass to no avail." 

"A number of us started smelling fumes from the car, the fuel, and we said, 'You know what, we need to get out.' The fire was starting to spread back toward the second car, and the second car finally did ignite," he said. 

Another passenger named Fred was on the fourth car from the front. He hurt his fingers when he smashed his hand through emergency glass during the evacuation.

"The thing that precipitated people really starting to freak out and break the glass and open the door was there was a loud 'bam,' explosion-type thing, and once we jumped off the side, there was another explosion to a lesser degree," he said. 

Neil Rader of Katonah was sitting in the middle-back of the train when he felt a "small jolt."

"It felt not even like a short stop, and then the train just completely stopped," he said. 

He said passengers in his car also had to evacuate by breaking glass on the doors to get out. He said he saw 50 to 60 ambulances at the scene as he walked to a nearby gym, which was acting as a holding area for the escaped train riders.  

"I've never seen anything quite like it," said Rader. 

Stacey Eisner, an NBCUniversal News Group employee, was sitting in one of the rear two cars of the train, and said she felt the train "jerk" at some point. The conductor walked through the train to explain what had happened, and passengers were calm at first, but tension began to build when they learned the train had hit a car, she said. 

About 10 to 15 minutes after the train "jerk," Eisner's train car was evacuated, with ladders used to get people out. People were taken either to a nearby rock-climbing gym called The Cliffs or allowed to walk to the Hawthorne Funeral Home, she said. 

Amateur video captured at the scene shows frantic passengers crowding a train car's aisle to get out, then trudging through ankle-deep snow near the tracks. 

Ryan Cottrell, assistant director at The Cliffs, told NBC News that the passengers who were brought there appeared to be shaken up but generally OK.

Staffers who saw the incident from the front door went to the scene to help bring passengers into the gym, where they were providing shelter and warmth until MTA buses arrive to transport commuters to Pleasantville, Cottrell said. 

A 30-year-old horse named Phantom was dancing around her stall when she became stuck without a leg to stand on.

While frolicking around her stall in Orangevale, the Palomino/Appaloosa tripped over her food trough, a bathtub, and fell into it, Sacramento Metro fire crews said.

The horse got stuck in the tub with her legs pointed up in the air.

Firefighters worked closely with Phantom's owners and managed to get the horse back on her feet after a few minutes.

KCRA-TV contributed to this report.
 

What may have been a night of target practice for an unidentified gunman almost turned deadly for a young Philadelphia-area boy who was nearly struck by a stray bullet while he was sleeping.

"They could've murdered a child," said Zach Marino. "Like me."

The 12-year-old boy was asleep in his room inside his home on the 600 block Bryn Mawr Avenue in Radnor Township around midnight Wednesday when he woke to a noise in his room.

"It just sounded like, I don't know, like wood cracking in half, " he said.

Zach and his parents initially thought an animal had struck the outside wall of the home.

"We heard that noise, and we thought a deer hit the house," Zach's mother, Laura Marino, said.

It wasn't until Saturday that Laura Marino discovered a bullet-sized hole in the wall in her son's room. They then found shrapnel on the floor and, finally, a bullet that police believe came from a .38-caliber gun.

Police determined that a stray bullet had ricocheted off a wall inside the house and then pierced the wall of Zach's room as he slept just five feet away. The bullet then bounced off a dresser before it landed on the floor.

Investigators later found two bullet holes in the "Route 320 South" sign on the 300 block of Bryn Mawr Avenue, located about 70 feet away from Zach's home. Police determined that an unidentified gunman fired several shots at the sign and one of the bullets missed, ultimately striking Zach's house before it landed in his bedroom.

"We have somebody who was doing something extremely dangerous that could have caused very serious injuries to the family and we'd like to get it resolved," said Radnor Township Police Lieutenant Christopher Flanagan.

No arrests have been made, and police have not yet released a description of any suspects. They also told NBC10 recent snow on the ground is hampering the investigation, as they’ve been unable to locate any rounds on the street.

They are asking anyone who was in the area of Bryn Mawr Avenue at midnight on Wednesday and saw something suspicious to give them a call.

Federal accident investigators arrived in New York Wednesday to begin piecing together Tuesday night’s fiery Metro-North Railroad crash that killed six people and injured more than a dozen in what officials say is the commuter rail's deadliest accident in history.

The NTSB says it's looking to answer two big questions in the crash, one with a highway component, and the other a rail component: why a car was on those Metro-North train tracks in Valhalla, and what caused the accident to be fatal for the train occupants. 

Officials have said that train-versus-car accidents are usually not fatal for train passengers, and that the third rail coming up in this case was highly unusual. 

Five passengers on the train and the driver of a Mercedes Benz SUV were killed when the train slammed into the SUV, which was trapped between crossing gates in Valhalla, at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, 45 minutes after it left Grand Central with hundreds of commuters aboard.

After the collision, the train burst into flames and pushed the SUV nearly 10 car lengths down the tracks before coming to a halt. 

The force of the impact caused the electrified third rail to come up and pierce part of the train: 400 feet of the rail was shoved into the first rail car, breaking apart in 80-feet sections, and at least one piece penetrated into the second rail car, NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt said in a news conference Wednesday. Gasoline from the SUV fueled the ensuing fire. 

Gov. Andrew Cuomo called it "truly an ugly, brutal sight" shortly after visiting the accident scene Tuesday night.

The NTSB will look at all the rail signals, highway traffic signals and crossing gates at the scene, said Sumwalt. They'll also look at the alignment of the third rail to see if it complied with required specifications and if power to the rail was cut off when it encountered the car, as it should have been.

Sumwalt said a traffic detour from a nearby highway crash had vehicles streaming through the railroad crossing; investigators are looking into whether that detour "may have played any role in setting up this accident sequence." 

The SUV driver killed was identified Wednesday as Ellen Brody by the owner of the Chappaqua jewelry store where she worked, ICD Contemporary Jewelry. Among the five men killed aboard the train were financial executive Eric Vandercar of Bedford Hills and museum curator Walter Liedtke.

Officials initially said six passengers aboard the train and the driver were killed, but the death toll was lowered Wednesday morning to include five male passengers and the SUV driver, believed to be a married mother, a law enforcement source told NBC 4 New York.

Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino called the death toll reduction a “minor miracle." 

Fifteen train riders were hurt in the crash, some of them seriously. Twelve of those passengers were treated at Westchester Medical Center for injuries including, cuts, bruises, dislocations, open fractures, smoke inhalations and burns. One patient remains in critical condition.

The train engineer was also treated for his injuries at a hospital, but was not believed to be one of the casualties, MTA Chairman Tom Prendergast said.

Astorino said that all but one of the victims who were killed were burned beyond recognition and will have to be identified by dental records, a process that could take up to a day. 

“To think about what some of these commuters went through, they got on the 5:45 p.m. train, probably talked to somebody at home to say, ‘I’m on the way,’ and the world became upside down,” Astorino said. “That train had so many flames in it, so engulfed, the inside of that first car is just melted and charred with the third rail going right through it.”

Sumwalt said NTSB teams would likely be at the scene for about a week gathering facts and insight. Investigators will look at data from recorders from the train, the signal system and the crossing gates.

They'll also investigate medical records, highway conditions and will have fire officials on scene because of the blaze sparked by the crash, Sumwalt said. They'll examine the strength of the rail cars, the emergency response and the adequacy of the emergency exits on the train. 

"We've officially taken command of the accident scene," Sumwalt said. 

Investigators Wednesday began downloading data from event recorders and highway and rail signals and documenting what they called "perishable" evidence from the scene. They've requested aerial photos of the crash site and are asking witnesses to contact the agency at witness@ntsb.gov.

It may be a year before the NTSB issues its final report on the crash, Sumwalt said, but he added the agency may recommend some essential safety measures sooner based on preliminary findings. 

The MTA and the Federal Railroad Administration are also conducting their own investigations. 

Federal railroad administration guidelines -- which MTA complies with -- mandate a minimum 20-second warning for motorists at a railroad crossing. The design for warning times can range in seconds from 20 to the high 30s, with the timing depending on the speed of the train in that location, officials say. 

Crews were on the scene Wednesday to remove the train from the tracks so work can begin to repair the section of electrified rail that was damaged, Astorino said. The wreckage will be moved to an indoor hangar while NTSB teams investigate. 

Six hundred and fifty people were on board train No. 659, which departed Grand Central at 5:45 p.m. The train made one stop at 125th Street in Harlem before it proceeded express toward Chappaqua, the MTA said. Since the train wasn't stopping in Valhalla, the engineer had no reason to slow down or stop before seeing the SUV on the tracks, a law enforcement source told NBC 4 New York. 

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said preliminary information showed the train appeared to be going about 58 mph in the area at the time, well within limits. 

There was only one other recorded accident at the railroad crossing, back in 1984, but data from the Federal Railroad Administration shows the crossing was flagged as an intersection with a high probability of accidents, a figure determined by the number of trains and cars that cross daily. 

Passengers' accounts of the crash varied according to where they were sitting. Those in back reported feeling only small "jolts" or "jerks" upon impact, while those sitting toward the front heard a loud explosion and saw smoke quickly filling their cars. 

The collision comes a little more than a year after new Metro-North President Joseph Giuletti took over, with a vow to make safety the top priority.

Multiple derailments in 2013 and 2014 -- including one in December 2013 that killed four people when a fatigued engineer fell asleep at the controls -- had prompted a federal review in which investigators concluded that Metro-North sacrificed safety in 2013 to accommodate an obsession with on-time performance.

The MTA says it has made dozens of recommended changes, but big-ticket items like automated train control could still be months or even years away. It appears too early to tell whether safety controls could have prevented Tuesday's collision. 

Metro-North has established a family assistance center at the Mount Pleasant Town Hall at 1 Town Hall Plaza in Valhalla and a phone hotline at 1-800-METRO-INFO (800-638-7646).

After a long and checkered history of being the stadium that everyone loved to hate, the 'Stick is finally being torn down.

On Wednesday morning, crews were already in the process of demolishing Candlestick Park, former home of the San Francisco Giants, and more recently, the 49ers, paving way for a new shopping, housing and entertainment hub.

Taking apart the stands kicked off four months ago, and on Tuesday, the NBC Bay Area chopper flew overhead, taking note of the cranes and crews dismantling the outdoor stadium, which opened in 1960. On Wednesday, huge excavators were crunching up the stadium seats that weren't sold to collectors, which appeared to be about half the stadium's total. The rest of the seats lay in a crumpled heap on the mangled stadium grass.

Crews expect the demolition to take two months.

The 'Stick has a storied past in San Francisco. It was famous for its strong winds that swept in from the bay, swirling into the stadium, creating unpredictable playing conditions for the players and at times, uncomfortable viewing for the fans. The Beatles held their last live concert there in 1966.

The 49ers left Candlestick Park after the 2013 season for a new $1.2 billion stadium in Santa Clara.

Following an outpouring of community concerns, developer Lennar Urban caved to pressure and agreed to tear down the stadium, rather than blowing it up, which would have been faster but potentially more dangerous.

That's because residents in the mostly low-income Bayview Hunter's Point neighborhood and an environmental law clinic at Golden Gate University argued publicly that a planned implosion of the venerable stadium might create health problems for people living nearby. A change.org petition had cited exposure to dangerous dust clouds and possible asbestos. To make sure the current demolition doesn't spray dust, the contractors were spraying down their work with water.

Lennar Urban, along with partner and mall-owner Macerich Corp., have released drawings of the future development, including a 500,000-square-foot mall at an estimated cost of more than $200 million, 6,225 homes, 220 hotel rooms and 635,000 square feet of shops there. One highlight is expected to be an African-diaspora-themed market. A Lennar spokesman would not reveal any names of particular stores or hotels, nor did he say if the development would give any architectural nod to Candlestick.

Lennar Urban division president Kofi Bonner said in a November statement the two companies plan to complete construction of the outlet mall, a hotel and the first 600 homes at the site by late 2017 or early 2018.

NBC Bay Area's Bob Redell and Henry Jenkins contributed to this report.

An investigation has been launched following reports a teacher from a Santa Clarita school behaved inappropriately with students.

The sexual misconduct probe into the Albert Einstein Academy staff member was launched after several minors reported the alleged behavior, Los Angeles Police Department said.

Detectives have worked closely with school administrators to ensure the staff member is not in contact with students after the investigation began.

The alleged incidents were initially reported to the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, but it was later determined the alleged crimes occurred in the City of Tujunga, which falls under the jurisdiction of the LAPD.

The investigation is on-going, and is being handled by the LAPD's Sexually Exploited Child Unit, Juvenile Division. The suspect is on administrative leave with pay until the investigation is resolved.

Albert Einstein Academy for Letters, Arts and Sciences is a public charter school. According to the school website it has both an elementary and a secondary campus in Santa Clarita.

In a letter sent out to parents last Friday school Principal Edward Gika said: "Be assured that we are taking all proper and necessary action, and that investigation into this matter is being handled by the proper authorities. Right now, our focus and concern is exclusively for our students, and we are most concerned about rumors and misinformation that could be hurtful to them."

A 29-year-old man was shot in a home invasion robbery in Ventura and police were searching for the assailant.

The robber broke into the victim's home in the 3000 block of Channel Drive just before 8 a.m. Wednesday. The victim was shot in the chest during a struggle. He was expected to survive, police said.

The shooter was described as Latino, between 17 and 19 years old, and about 6 feet tall.

He took off in the victim’s car, a white Mercedes E300 with a California license plate number of 6MVL199, police said.

Neighbors were shocked.

"I woke up to a beautiful morning to the sight of a forensics team rummaging through this guy's house," said Ozzy Parrilla.

Anyone with information is urged to call the Ventura Police Department at 805-339-4309.

Gordon Tokumatsu contributed to this report.

An uptick in residential and car burglaries in El Segundo has officials reminding residents to lock their doors and keep valuables out of sight, away from the prying eyes of potential burglars.

Several vehicles were burglarized after items were left inside cars visible from the outside, according to officials from the El Segundo Police Department.

Recent burglaries included:

• 900 Loma Vista St. – Wallet stolen from center console
• 1200 E. Imperial Ave. – GPS unit stolen from dashboard
• 600 N. Nash St. – GPS unit stolen from windshield, briefcase stolen from floorboard
• 900 Cedar St. – Purse stolen from backseat

Anyone wishing to leave an anonymous tip may leave a message by texting 888777.

Almost one-third third of Southern California's drinking water comes from 300 miles away in an area between San Francisco and Sacramento known as the delta and travels through a century-old system of levees that could easily be destroyed in an earthquake, according to experts.

The delta is where the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers meet and fill hundreds of miles of streams with freshwater. Most of the delta, a system of dirt mounds and channels that protect property from flooding in the Central Valley, is below sea level.

The man-made barriers around the hub of California's water system are more than 100 years old and 55 percent of the most critical levees statewide are considered "high hazard," according to a December 2011 report issued by California’s Department of Water Resources. State engineers studied approximately 2,100 miles of these critical levees for the report.

"The most vulnerable spot in our water system is the Delta area," said Jeff Kightlinger, general manager of the Southern California Metropolitan Water District.

A team of UCLA engineers has been studying the delta and the soil used to build the levee system, first built in the 1880s using peat that was fertile for agriculture, but not the strongest choice for levee foundations.

His team has created simulations of an earthquake's impact on delta soil and found the earth under the levees could become unstable through a process known as "liquefaction" -- the strength of soil is reduced by shaking.

"The kind of earthquake we worry about would be similar to the earthquake that happened in Napa Valley, maybe a little bigger than that," Brandenberg said. "That would certainly result in strong enough shaking that would result in levee failures."

The magnitude-6.0 Napa Valley quake in August was centered just 35 miles from the delta. It shook a widespread part of the region and damaged older commercial buildings in downtown Napa.

"We dodged a bullet," said Kightlinger.

Levee failures consistent with Brandenberg's models could result in flooding and the mixing of salt and freshwater. Significant damage to the aqueducts that usher that freshwater to Southern California could take years to repair.

"It could be anywhere from three to five years until that's rebuilt," Kightlinger said. "So that would be severe rationing, crimps on business, basically a pretty dire situation.

"It would mean a loss of about a third of our water supply. There is no doubt that we would have very strict rationing after an earthquake."

There is a 66-percent chance of a magnitude-6.7 quake or greater in the delta region within the next 30 years, according to experts.

"You need to understand that issues in the California Delta that's 300 miles away from here, that you may never have heard of, have a real impact on our lives so they are worth paying attention to," said Brandenberg.

Steps are being taken to address the problem. In the 1990s, a $2 billion reservoir considered the jewel of the water system opened 90 miles south of Los Angeles. Diamond Valley Lake reservoir provides water to communities from San Diego to Ventura County.

Kightlinger calls the reservoir the region's insurance policy because it is designed to provide six months of emergency water in case of a damaging earthquake.

Gov. Jerry Brown has campaigned for a tunnel designed to carry freshwater under the delta. That expensive project would require years to build.

Brown's California Water Action Plan just made $150 million available to improve urban levees in the Central Valley. The funding comes from the 2006 Disaster Preparedness and Flood Protection Bond Act or Proposition 1-E.

To date, nearly 300 levee repair sites have been identified, and more than 100 of the most critical sites have already been completed with AB142 funds.

A truck driver leapt from his tractor-trailer after getting stuck in snow on train tracks, just moments before an MBTA commuter train smashed into it at a Braintree, Massachusetts, crossing Wednesday afternoon.

The truck driver escaped unscathed, while a few train passengers suffered minor injuries — a stark contrast to the deadly crash on a New York commuter rail line Tuesday, when a packed rush-hour train smashed into an SUV stuck on the tracks, killing six people.

The tractor-trailer driver, who identified himself only as Herman, had just made a delivery of racks and dollies to Frito-Lay when his empty truck had gotten stuck on snow and ice next to the tracks along Grove Street, wheels spinning in the path of an oncoming northbound train.

"It would spin, it wouldn't go forward or backward, then I hear him screaming, 'Train, train, train!'" said Herman. "'What do you mean, train?' I heard the dinging, and I saw it coming at the truck, so I jumped."

Herman, a Red Wings fan from Michigan, was wearing a borrowed Bruins hat and winter jacket but was still in his shorts, shaken up from the traumatic afternoon. "An explosion, a bomb. Boom!" he said. "It happened so fast."

One witness described just how narrowly Herman escaped from the path of the oncoming train.

"He waited until maybe 50 yards. It was a gray box over there. That train was going 45-50 miles an hour. And he finally jumped out at the last second," said witness Bill Bradford. "Personally, I think he waited a little too long. But if he ever fell, he would've been crushed by the train."

The damaged train made its way to Braintree station and train service was interrupted for a few hours after the crash. The tracks reopened later to commuter trains, which were more crowded than usual with revelers heading home from the Patriots' victory parade in Boston.

"Everybody's doing the best they can to keep up the roads as clear as possible," said Transit Police Deputy Chief Kenneth Sprague. "But, you know, sometimes, with these industrial areas, the trucks are coming out, and the tractor-trailers will keep hitting the snowbanks and constantly knocking snow back down. So it's a constant battle."

The debris field illustrated how fortunate Herman was to have escaped, as well as how much he had lost.

"Everything is in there. I think they found one of my phones. But that's my home. That's my home on wheels. That's what I do for a living. It's what I've been blessed with. Now it's all gone," Herman said.

The trailer was expected be towed away after rush hour Wednesday, around 7 p.m.