Valentine's Day, like all major holidays, comes with a few tested tropes, and a few trendy tropes-of-tomorrow, too. Chocolates are popular, of course, and roses, too, and the occasional stuffed animal, while more au courant gifts involving fancy pastries and liquors.

These are not typically gifts crafted for a heat wave, or warm weather. Candy can stickify and/or liquify, flowers prefer a mistier setting, and a teddy bear made for cuddling gets a mite warm.

What is made for a toasty day, however, is a swimming pool.

Attention: Everyone reading this post from a snowier clime are now advised to avert their eyes, if they so wish, while we wade into this next bit, which will involve SoCal sweethearts swimming on Valentine's Day.

It turns out that Saturday, Feb. 14, 2015 will flirt with the high 80s, which means that the ocean-snug Annenberg Community Beach House is throwing one of its surprise wintertime "Bonus Days" at its watering hole. The swimsuit-ready story? That pretty, and pretty famous, pool will be open for busy business on Valentine's Day due to the fine weather. 

Nope, you can't reserve your spot -- er, if swimming pools even had actual spots to reserve, which might be hard to measure -- but you can be in Santa Monica at 9:30 a.m. to nab the passes when they go on sale. First come, first served is the rule, and if you're buying for you and your honey, arriving early will keep any disappointed squabbling to a minimum.

Passes are ten dollars per person.

And we shouldn't worry, right? Why would you squabble when you're at a sunny spot that's technically closed from October to May, on a warm February day, a day when many many many people are scrambling to find the perfect date possiblity? It's hard to surpass a cooling swim or the applying of sunblock to a sweetheart's shoulders.

Okay, everyone in snowier climes, please feel free to re-join this post again. Happy Valentine's Day to all, wherever you are, and, truly, teddy bears, chocolates, and roses are classics for a reason. Just keep them indoors, out of the sun, and enjoy them when you get home from your refreshing, 80-degree-day swim.

A man who led police on a short pursuit that ended in a standoff in Arleta was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his utility truck. A small dog in the cab with him survived.

The pursuit began at 11:35 a.m. in the Arleta area. It wound along side streets and on the Golden State (5) Freeway before ending near where it began on Terra Bella Street and Beachy Avenue.

The man, in his early 40s, was wanted on multiple warrants including domestic violence and assault with a deadly weapon, according to Sgt. Frank Preciado with the Los Angeles Police Department. At least one of his assaults involved pistol-whipping his ex-girlfriend's boyfriend.

Police have been looking for the man for about two weeks. He was located in Burbank Wednesday morning and put under surveillance. He detected the officers and smiled at them before taking off in the utility truck, Preciado said.

At one point during the chase, the pursued truck crashed through an apartment complex gate, injuring a man 71-year-old man who knew the driver he and family members called "Shorty." The driver's ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend lived in the apartment complex. They had recently moved for fear he would come after them, Preciado said.

"I know he didn't mean to hurt my dad," said the 71-year-old man's son, Louis Calzada. "He just panicked."

Calzada says his dad was trying to get the driver to give up.

"He tried to tell him to stop. He loved him like a son."

The truck continued through the other side of the complex, rammed through another gate and sped back onto the street.

Police tried at least twice to spin out the truck, but failed. The chase ended when the driver of the truck abruptly stopped after police used a spike strip, which they deployed before he could return to the complex.

He then drove past the school where his ex-girlfriend's child attends, Preciado said.

Police were in a standoff for 45 minutes. Several streets and schools in the area were locked down as a precaution. Police went door-to-door ordering residents to stay inside their homes.

After the driver of the truck appeared to not move, police checked on his status using binoculars from a house rooftop.

A SWAT team, clad in riot gear and using a shield, opened the driver's side door, allowing paramedics to assess the man.

He was dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, Preciado said.

Investigators said the man worked as a freelance mechanic, and an aircraft engine was found in the bed of the truck.

Animal control officers reunited the dog with family members.

Calzada said he can't believe the person he thought of as a big brother, the man who worked as a diesel mechanic who moved out after breaking up with his girlfriend, is the man who led police on a deadly chase.

"When it came to stress, he never worried too much," Calzada said. "He was happy go lucky."

Kathy Vara contributed to this report.

Police officers shot a 15-year-old boy in the back in a South Los Angeles alley after confronting someone next to him who was holding what appeared to be a handgun, officials said Wednesday.

Gang homicide officers were driving in the 7200 block of 10th Avenue about 7:45 a.m. Tuesday when they spotted a group of people in an alley, one of whom was aiming the gun at another person in the group, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Officers ordered the gunman to drop the weapon, which turned out to be a replica gun, but he allegedly refused.

"This individual was in an alley with a gun, a fake gun," said LAPD Commander Andrew Smith. "And, he was fooling around with it and our officers, of course, assume it's a real gun because it looks exactly like a real gun."

Police opened fire, striking the teen standing next to the subject with the fake gun once in his upper back, LAPD officials said. The teen was taken to the hospital, where he was treated and released to his mother, officials said.

Officials said Tuesday that an officer-involved shooting had occurred, but did not release details on who had been struck by police gunfire.

No officers were injured in the shooting. No arrests were made, but the individual who was holding the fake gun could still be considered criminally responsible for brandishing a replica firearm near a police officer, police said.

NBC4's Hetty Chang contributed to this report.

Paleontologists have uncovered ancient fossils — that could be as ancient as 7 million years — belonging to a leatherback turtle at a San Juan Capistrano construction site.

Experts believe the fossils are between 3 million and 7 million years old. They say that the creature still exists today due to its ability to regulate its own body temperature. 

"It spends a lot of its time at the surface but it goes into the really very deep water into the darkness of the ocean to hunt and that water is freezing," paleontologist Lloyd Sample told NBC4. 

Scientists now want to know how the leatherback has evolved over time. 

However, turtle fossils aren't the only thing that has been unearthed at the La Pata Road construction site. Since construction began in April 2014, seals, shark teeth and even a walrus have been discovered. 

A curator from the Cooper Center research facility in Orange County will curate the collection. 

The site is a mere 500 feet above sea level today. But in the leatherback's day it was likely thousands of feet underwater, scientists said. 

Whenever a bone is found, tractors are told to work around the area. 

"There's a lot of grading going on with this project so we are able to make adjustments as we go," Nardy Khan of Orange County Public Works said. 

The construction project is scheduled for completion in 2016. But, in the meantime, there's no telling what else might be unearthed there. 

Nearly 200 dogs were rescued from filthy conditions at an abandoned home in a remote area of the Southern California high desert.

San Bernardino County animal control officers received a tip last Friday about a dozen dogs being kept at the home in Lucerne Valley. When they arrived, they found 191 dogs, some of them puppies, stacked on top of each other in small kennels and fenced off by planks of wood.

There was no water or power at the home, said Brian Cronin, chief of Animal Control.

Their owner has not been identified.

The dogs, which covered a wide spectrum of breeds, were taken to the Devore Animal Shelter, where groomers were preparing them for adoption.

“They’re in pretty bad condition,” said Amy Morrissey of Cutie Pies Grooming Salon. “They have a lot of matting and it seems like they’ve been sitting in a lot of urine and feces.”

The dogs cannot be put up for adoption right away because an owner has not been found and the case is under investigation, officials said.

“I’m willing to take one or two home. We have one at home but they need friends,” said a visitor at the shelter.

Dozens of rabbits were in need of homes after they were taken from their owner, who police say "lost control" as they multiplied at her Santa Ana home.

Police responding to a complaint on South Broadway Tuesday night said the woman was living in unsanitary conditions with 40 to 60 rabbits in a single-car garage, Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said.

Officers, who described her living conditions as a "possible hoarding" situation, said the woman did not have a restroom in the 200-square-foot garage and was instead using buckets.

The rabbits appeared to be in good condition, Bertagna said. About 10 of them were pregnant.

The woman, whose named was not released, agreed to give up the rabbits to police and was not cited, despite a city ordinance restricting residents to four rabbits, Bertagna said.

Santa Ana Animal Control was searching for homes for the rabbits.

City News Service contributed to this report.
 

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday rejected a proposal that would allow Live Nation to take over operation of the Greek Theatre, and suggested instead that the city seek new bids for the management of the coveted Griffith Park venue.

The council's 11-3 vote came after more than an hour of debate before hundreds of backers of each bidder - dressed in their respective colors of red for Live Nation and green for Nederlander-AEG.

Several council members said a competing proposal by longtime venue operator Nederlander-AEG offered more guaranteed revenue for the city in the form of rent, but the vote did not automatically grant the contract to Nederlander.

Los Feliz neighborhood groups lined up to say they were happy with Nederlander-AEG, the current operator of the Greek Theatre.

The city's Recreation and Parks Commission had earlier unanimously agreed to move the Greek contract to LA-based Live Nation, which promised more events, money to the city and contemporary artists.

City Councilman Joe Buscaino said Live Nation had done everything the city asked and was the clear choice. He said backing off would set a negative message to businesses.

"Come to Los Angeles, apply for a contract, but at the bottom of the 9th inning, there's your proposal," Buscaino said as he symbolically tore a piece of paper.

However, some councilmembers believed not enough attention had been paid to residents who live around the theatre.

The matter now goes back to the Recreation and Parks Commission.

A deputy involved shooting took place in Altadena early Thursday.

No one was hit when the lawman discharged his firearm at the 2000 block of El Molino Drive at around 12:20 a.m, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said.

No deputies were injured during the incident and a suspect is in custody

One block is shutdown on each direction of El Molino Drive while investigators comb the scene. 

The 2016 Democratic National Convention will be held in Philadelphia, party leaders announced Thursday.

Philadelphia beat out two rival cities for the chance to host the party’s nominating convention in July 2016. Both Brooklyn and Columbus, Ohio, were in the running through the final round of the bidding process.

Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said the city’s “deep rooted place in American history provides a perfect setting for this special gathering.”

“I cannot wait to join Democrats across the country to celebrate our shared values, lay out a Democratic vision for the future, and support our nominee,” she said.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter said the city's "proven track record of hosting big events safely and efficiently with a dynamic team of top-tier professionals to organize and manage a conference of this magnitude, paired with our City's tremendous amenities, its accessible location and historical significance" made it an ideal pick.

"We're all delighted to make history again, here in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection," he said.

The final contract between the DNC and Philadelphia was signed Thursday, Wasserman Schultz said. The convention will take place the week of July 25, 2016. The decision was made following a meeting between Wasserman Schultz and President Barack Obama Wednesday night in the Oval Office, a source involved in the selection process confirmed to NBC10.

"The president enthusiastically signed off," said the source.

The meeting of Democratic politicians and delegates will be the second major event for the city in less than a year's time. In September, millions are expected to flock to Philadelphia to see Pope Francis during the 2015 World Meeting of Families.

Philadelphia last hosted a national convention in 2000, when Republicans gathered there. Republicans have already announced plans to hold their 2016 nominating convention in Cleveland.

A mother of two children who was trying to help her stranded husband was hospitalized after a crash on 5 Freeway in Orange County early Thursday.

Her white car was hit by a red sedan as she arrived to help her husband, who was fixing a flat tire on another vehicle just after midnight at the city of Orange, the California Highway Patrol said.

She was taken to a nearby hospital, but details regarding her injuries were not immediately available. Her two children in the back of the vehicle were not injured.

The cause of the crash is still unknown.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will be partially closed for the holiday weekend starting Thursday due to an ongoing labor dispute.

The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which represents port employers, made the decision to stop the loading and unloading of ships after another round of contract talks with dockworkers broke down Wednesday. Yard, gate and rail operations will continue.

The decision affects all 29 U.S. West Coast ports, and the PMA claimed the refusal of workers to accept a new employment had forced the decision.

"Last week, PMA made a comprehensive contract offer designed to bring these talks to conclusion," PMA spokesman Wade Gates said. "The ILWU responded with demands they knew we could not meet, and continued slowdowns that will soon bring West Coast ports to gridlock. What they’re doing amounts to a strike with pay, and we will reduce the extent to which we pay premium rates for such a strike."

However the International Longshore and Warehouse Union has denied this, and claimed the decision is an attempt to pressure workers over the negotiations, which have dragged on for nearly nine months.

"It seems to us that the employers are trying to sabotage negotiations,” ILWU President Robert McEllrath said added. "They are not just hurting workers, families and communities."

"What our employers are doing is bad for the industry and the US economy," he said.

McEllrath also said the union is ready to return to the negotiating table with employers.

The National Retail Federation says a full, extended shutdown of the ports could cost the U.S. economy $2 billion per day.

A generous donor has offered a private plane to a family whose 6-year-old son needs cancer treatment at a hospital over 2,000 miles away.

Reef Carneson, a boy who beat an aggressive form of leukemia at 5 months old, developed cancer on his scalp and face at the end of 2014. He has been hospitalized with infections several times during the past few weeks.

With his worsening condition baffling doctors in LA, his family was desperate to see a team of specialists at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

Since NBC4 aired the Carneson family's story on Tuesday, the family got several offers for transportation to help Reef. But the family chose a Texas-based nonproit who saw Reef's story on Facebook and offered a private plane for free to fly the family to Ohio.

"We were just overjoyed. It was the first night’s sleep that we had gotten in a while," Reef's father Ryan Carneson said.

The Carnesons moved from South Africa to Los Angeles three years ago to ensure Reef received the lifesaving medical treatment he needed.

The boy has a severely compromised immune system and is unable to fly commercial due to germs. Private planes and an RV were offered to assist the family in their trip from California to Ohio.

Sky Hope, a Texas-based nonprofit, saw the Carneson's story on Facebook and wanted to help.

"He’s a fighter. You can tell that," said Robin Eissler, chairman and president of Sky Hope. "If all we need to do is give him a flight to give him more of a chance that’s all we need."

The charity connects private pilots and corporate jets with people in need. Eissler, who had a sick child of her own, started the program 10 years ago.

The family thanked Sky Hope for their generosity via Skype on Wednesday.

"We are so, so grateful," Reef’s mother, Lydia Carneson said.

While Reef’s parents are relieved he’ll get desperately needed medical treatment, his family told NBC4 all the 6-year-old can think about is seeing snow for the first time.

Reef and his family will catch their private flight Sunday morning out of Long Beach. They will spend a week at Cincinnati Children's Hospital meeting with cancer specialists. They hope to return with a plan that LA doctors can help implement to get Reef's treatment back on track.

To learn more about Reef's battle, visit the Facebook page here.

An armed robber dressed as a doctor threatened to shoot a cashier during a failed heist in Signal Hill.

The masked man marched into the Munchies in the 2300 block of 2331 Orange Avenue with his arm extended and pointed a revolver with a 10-inch barrel at the worker at around 2:30 p.m. last Friday, officials said.

But he ended up fleeing the scene empty-handed when the cash register malfunctioned.

"(He) threatened to shoot the cashier if she didn't give him money," Signal Hill Police Sgt. Brian Leyn said.

She was unable to open the register, and rather than following through on his threat, the man, who was described as 20 to 30 years old with short dark hair, ran away, police say.

He was wearing a white long-sleeved lab coat, surgical mask, dark shirt, black pants and shoes, and was wearing a surgical mask over his face.

Security cameras captured the gunman parking his car, a blue Ford Fusion with paper plates, before he entered the store, and caught him again as he fled the scene.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Kelli Brown at 562-989-7215.

Three lucky Californians are now millionaires after they matched five Powerball numbers.

While they missed out on the mammoth $564.1 million jackpot, they are now each worth $1,428,692, the California Lottery said.

A ticket with five numbers was sold at a 7-Eleven in Cypress, and stores in Alameda and Mono counties. The Cypress outlet is now perhaps the luckiest lottery store in the whole state, as it has now matched five of six numbers twice in the last three months.

"Oh my goodness, that is great," store owner Ingeeta Jetalpuria said when she learned of the shop’s latest win.

Tickets with all six numbers were sold in North Carolina, Puerto Rico and Texas and their owners will share an estimated jackpot of $564.1 million. One Match 5 Winners Power Play ticket was sold in Pennsylvania and is worth $2 million.

It is the fifth largest Powerball jackpot in U.S. history. The odds of matching all five numbers and the Powerball number is 1 in 175,223,510, according to the official Powerball website.

The game is played in 43 states, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia.

SANTA CLARA - Legal pot stores across California? It's something you'll likely vote on next year.

Marijuana shops have rolled out in Colorado and Washington. Oregon and Alaska just passed recreational pot laws as well. Next year, California could vote to do the same.

"It's a really hot topic all around the country,” said Santa Clara Law student Jeff Madrak.

That possibility brought 13 Santa Clara Law students to the classroom of Professor W. David Ball, who is teaching a class on marijuana policy

"If this industry takes off it could be a big thing down the road,” Madrak said.

The students are diving into the legal issues surrounding a recreational marijuana market. They discuss what states like Colorado are doing right and wrong, and what aspects of the law leaders are still trying to refine.

"This is a really new field, and there isn't a lot of information out there,” Ball said.

Some of the questions Ball thinks California would have to answer: how driving under the influence will be measured, how would marijuana sellers be regulated, and should employee drug testing rules be changed?

“I don't think I can answer very many of those. Some of it is just going to be pointing out where the questions are,” Ball said.

Ball is currently the Chair of the Public Safety Working Group for Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Marijuana Law and Policy. He says the students work could help shape future marijuana regulations in California.

“It’s exciting…your work is going to have effect on the legal policy, and the legislation that's going to be proposed in 2016,” Santa Clara Law Student Bethany Brass said.

It's one of the few law classes in the country focusing on marijuana. Students say it’s a rare opportunity. They'll post research updates to a blog available to the public.

They hope next year California will be prepared, whether voters decide to puff or pass.

"There isn't just one way to regulating recreational cannabis, and so we want to figure out what are the best ways,” Professor Ball said.

The students’ blog can be accessed here: druglawandpolicy.wordpress.com.

You could call Chris Banner’s love of Batman a true passion. Well, it’s actually more of an obsession.

“I’ve got a problem,” he confessed. “Everything I have is a bat. All my tractors have bats; my trucks, bats. Socks, underwear, you name it. I’m bat.”

From the boots to the bat-cave and a custom-built Batmobile, Banner has made his being Batman his third job. He even patrols his hometown of Valley Center, San Diego, as the Caped Crusader.

His ride, he built from scratch, stripping down a 1947 Ford Galaxy and rearranging its engine and radiator. The work took about a year to complete, and it includes a camera to help him back up, a custom-made dashboard, lights and a smoke machine.

“It's all made of fiber glass,” Banner told NBC 7 Wednesday. “It’s 22-feet long, and it’s one heck of a machine to drive, especially when you're Batman."

The batty fanatic started collecting his favorite superhero’s gear after he got his first Robin costume at age 7. Now, he's turned his love toward a good cause. He produces live Batman shows about 40 times a year, sometimes for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

“You know some of these kids only have so much time left, and to put a smile on their face, it makes them happy. It’s worth it to me,” he said. “Makes that whole day better so hopefully I got to a good place."

When he takes off the mask, it’s no Bruce Wayne-style existence for Banner. He instead works in real-estate and weed trimming, for which he uses the bat-themed tractors.

But to neighbors and students, he’ll always be a silent guardian, a watchful protector, a dark knight: the North County Batman.

“I've gone into their classrooms and stuff, and I think I make a positive reaction and hopefully help them out in life and teach them to be good kids,” Banner said. “There's a lot of troubled kids out there, so keeping them safe and on the right path."

Family members joined police and Los Angeles city officials on Thursday to announce a $50,000 reward to help solve the slaying of a beloved father who was shot and killed while walking on a South LA street late last year.

Moses Nelson, father and brother, was walking near 57th Street and Naomi Avenue the morning of Nov. 23, 2014, when a man riding a bicycle came toward him, Los Angeles police said.

The man on the bicycle then shot Nelson several times, killing him, police said.

Nelson's family spoke at a news conference Thursday and said he was raising three children while recovering from the loss of his own mother in 2009.

"I wish my son was still here, it's a big loss in the family," Nelson's father Eligh said. "The family's hurting, sisters and brothers and nieces and nephews. His kids (are) really taking it hard. I wish that somebody would come forward and let us know who'd done it."

The LA City Council approved a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Nelson's killer. The man riding the mountain bicycle was described as 18 to 20 years old, wearing a red and gray sweatshirt at the time of the killing.

A man was fatally shot at a gas station in the Moreno Valley Wednesday evening, authorities said Thursday.

Gunshots were reported at about 7:15 p.m. an AM/PM gas station at Perris and Alessandro Bouelvards, according to a Riverside County Sheriff's Department deputies.

The victim died at a local hospital, according to Sgt. Raymond Huskey. Deputies haven't revealed the man's identity.

No arrests have been announced so far, though authorities said sheriff's investigators and detectives from the Moreno Valley Police Department are investigating.

Police ask anyone with information about the shooting to call 951-486-6700 or 951-955-2777.

The first significant rainfall since mid-December brought improved drought conditions to parts of California, but the February storms did not bring much-needed snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountain range where snowpack figures suggest no relief from the dry spell, according to this week's U.S. Drought Monitor report.

Most of the precipitation from the subtropical storms that swept through northern California fell as rain. Snowfall was limited to higher elevations, generally above 8,000 feet. Improved conditions in Californians rely on snowpack in the Sierra Mountains, where melting snow in spring provides freshwater for an estimated 25 million residents.

"Overall, the storms had little impact on the well-below-normal snowpack conditions across the Sierra Nevada and Cascades ranges," according to the report.

California's statewide snowpack remains about 27 percent of normal for this time of year.

The storms didn't bring a snowpack punch, but parts of northwestern California and areas between San Francisco and Santa Cruz saw improved drought conditions compared to a week ago. Water runoff from the northern California storms provided about 500,000 acre feet of water flow to four major reservoirs -- Folsom, Oroville, Shasta, and Trinity -- that have been at critically low levels.

An acre-foot is a commonly used unit of volume used to measure large-scale water resources, such as reservoirs. It refers to the volume of one acre to a depth of one foot.

Nearly 100 percent of California, entering its fourth dry year, remains under some type of drought, the severity of which falls under four Drought Monitor categories -- moderate, severe, extreme and exceptional. Last week, 77 percent of the state was under extreme drought, but that figure improved to 67 percent in the report released Thursday.

State climatologists estimate the state would need at least 150 percent of normal precipitation by the end of the water year, which is Sept. 30, if California has any chance of significant drought improvement.

Gov. Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency in January 2014 and asked Californians to reduce water use by 20 percent. State records show its a figure residents have had difficulty meeting, except for in December when statewide figures showed a 22-percent water-use reduction.
 

A fire at the Malibu home of "James Bond" star Pierce Brosnan Wednesday night damaged the actor's garage and left a piles of debris in the driveway.

The fire started in a garage of the residence in the 31000 block of Broad Beach Road around 9:48 p.m, Los Angeles County Fire Department said. A bedroom also sustained minor smoke damage

It took 20 firefighters around 40 minutes to fully extinguish the blaze. No injuries were reported.

When asked by a photographer at the scene what had happened, Brosnan, 61, replied, "What do you think is going on." The actor stays at the home with his wife and two children.

Arson investigators are at the scene and the cause of the fire could be released later on Thursday.

YouTube user Mr Malibu captured footage of the fire, which he provided to NBC4. Damage was estimated at $1 million.

Best known for his time as "Bond," the Irishman initially rose to fame in 80s television series "Remington Steele" and was last seen in 2014 spy thriller "The November Man."