The new People Street plaza sits in a small alley beside an Indian restaurant and a fitness center, and it's supposed to open up space for pedestrians; what it's done is open up a discussion about the disconnect in North Hollywood.

The plaza, just north of Magnolia and west of Lankershim boulevards in the NoHo Arts District, opened Monday for the first time to welcome anyone wishing to use the space for whatever they wished to do. It has been repurposed with tables, chairs and umbrellas for people to enjoy. It is the first official project of the LA Department of Transportation's "People Street" Program, designed to bring together community leaders and city government to make spaces into community gathering places.

At a cost of about $54,000, it's a small project that's supposed to transform the health of the entire neighborhood. Now that it’s open, pedestrians who caught a glimpse decided it was a good addition, for the most part.

"I think it's really nice," says Jeff Cohn who works at Lankershim Elementary School and stopped to take a phone call at one of the tables Monday. He said he was appreciative of the city's attempt to convert useless space into something useful.

"It was just an alley that was dark and nobody really walked through it," Cohn said, adding that it's an area he said he enjoys to visit now. "This is actually the only area I like to go through in North Hollywood. The rest of it's not bad, but there's a big difference in what you see."

Just two miles up near the intersection of Lankershim and Victory boulevards, the contrast is stark: weeds are overgrown, graffiti marks its territory and Monday a pile of broken glass left drivers looking for alternatives to using one of the lanes of traffic. Yet, city leaders say change is coming.

"We want to spread the success of NoHo to the rest of North Hollywood," says LA City Councilman Paul Krekorian, who represents the area.

He points to Mayor Eric Garcetti's "Great Streets Program," where each councilmember got to choose one street in his or her district for extra attention. Krekorian says he chose Lankershim, north of Chandler all the way to Pacoima, but so far, he admits change is slow to come.

"We're still in the design phase, we're trying to bring all those design elements together and develop the best plan of attack," he said.

Krekorian says the LA Department of Water and Power still has work to do in the area and roads still need to be fixed before the facades of businesses and street lights can be repaired and replaced.

But for some who live or work in the area, political promises have come and gone in the last few decades in this part of LA with very little change coming forward.

"I'll believe it when I see it," Rachel Citron said as she stood outside a coffee shop near the new People Street plaza, calling the green paint on the pavement an "eyesore."

"It's better than what it was," she said. "It was just an alley. However, it did provide extra parking and outlets so traffic wasn't backed up."

Garcetti says the program aims to connect communities.

"We all have cars and cars are important," he said, "but they're not the only things in this city. People are important, too. People that are actually in those cars or who take public transit or who walk or bike."

Garcetti congratulated Krekorian on helping to promote the People Street plaza in North Hollywood. "The lifeblood of the city are the people who come to it because we come to this city to find each other," he said.

A San Gabriel Valley city is expected to take drought plans to the next level by authorizing fines for households and other customers that fail to cut back 30 percent or more.
 

The item will go before the Sierra Madre City Council Tuesday night for final approval. It passed its initial review two weeks ago.
 

"It's time for us to demonstrate that we are serious about it, because our water supply is still in jeopardy," said John Capoccia, mayor pro tem of a city especially hard hit by the drought and entirely reliant for the past year and a half on water imported on an emergency basis.

The 3-square-mile city of 11,000 people has its own municipal water division.

The city's conservation goal was upped from 20 percent to 30 percent a year ago, and voters approved rate annual rate increases on the order of 15 percent.

Since then, 75 percent of the city's water customers have achieved the conservation goal, Capoccia said, and about 20 percent more are close, with the remaining five percent considerably exceeding the usage limit. The fines are intended as incentive.

"It's necessary to do it to force the conservation," Capoccia said.

The fine would effectively double the cost of water for all usage that exceeds the customer's bimonthly allocation.

When Gov. Jerry Brown declared a statewide drought emergency in January 2013, he asked all Californians to conserve 20 percent.

Last summer, California's Department of Water Resources banned specific practices such as washing off driveways as wasteful. Some cities, including Los Angeles, have authorized fines for violators, but as a matter of policy, declined to do so in favor of education.

Few water districts have enforced mandatory conservation targets with financial penalties, as Sierra Madre is poised to do.

Until 2013, wells supplied all of Sierra Madre's water, and the city never joined the Metropolitan Water District (MWD), the Southland's largest wholesale importer, bringing surface water from the Colorado River and the State Water Project.

Since September of 2013, Sierra Madre has relied entirely on water purchased from the San Gabriel Valley Municpal Water District.

Sierra Madre is hopeful it can again tap groundwater before the end of the year,
Capoccia said, but the city will be dependent on importing water at least two more years.

Despite the recent rains, Sierra Madre counts barely seven inches since October, far from its once-typical 25 inches a year. In California, February historically is the wettest month of the year, with precipitation declining significantly after March.

In the state's fourth straight year of below average precipitation, more districts may have to impose mandatory conservation measures. The State Water Project plans to deliver only 15 percent of historic allocations, it was announced last month, though that could be increased if late season storms bring more snow to the Sierra.

The MWD indicated that in April, it will consider cutting back allocations by 5 to 10 percent.

In Sierra Madre, July would be the first billing cycle that could include fines, for usage during the May-June period.

A groundbreaking study released Monday argues that the key to preventing peanut allergies in children may lie in early and regular exposure to the food.

But some parents aren’t quite ready to expose their children.

"We just can’t take a chance. We don’t eat out. We don’t travel on planes. We have to live differently than the normal family," said Debbie Adler, whose 6-year-old son suffers from allergies.

Adler first discovered her son’s allergies when he experienced a severe reaction after eating frozen yogurt.

"He started vomiting profusely. I had never seen anything like this. Nonstop. Nonstop. Went on and on until he turned blue and passed out in my arms," Adler said.

In addition to milk, doctors found Adler’s son also had a peanut allergy. Allergies like his are not only a nuisance, but they can also be deadly. In some cases, just smelling peanuts is enough to cause a child to go into anaphylactic shock.

Adler’s son is not alone: one in six children are allergic to peanuts, and that number is only climbing. However, a new study could help reverse this upward trajectory.

Researchers at King’s College London enrolled 640 children under age 1 who were at high risk for peanut allergy. Half were given a peanut snack at least three times a week, while the others were told to avoid all peanuts until five.

Although counterintuitive, the results confirmed avoiding peanuts did not help ward off peanut allergies. In fact, 17 percent of the kids who avoided peanuts developed an allergy by age five, whereas only three percent who ate the peanut snacks did not.

"Consumption rather than avoidance seems to protect against developing peanut allergy," said Dr. Gideon Lack, of King’s College.

"You need to be introduced to these proteins very early in life," Lack continued.

There is also a new patch designed to desensitize peanut allergy patients by exposing them to a small dose of peanut protein. The common thread appears to be that a little bit of exposure and consumption seems to teach the body that peanuts are not an enemy.

Adler hopes this technique will free other families from the debilitating effects of nut allergies.

"It would change our lives significantly is he could eat all of the things he’s allergic too."

Dr. Bruce’s Advice: If your kid has a lot of allergies, speak with a doctor and begin exposing them to tiny amounts of the allergens under supervision. If your child gets a rash or other symptoms, stop.

A Southern California city will meet for a special council meeting Monday evening after a viral video showing a dog being dragged by the neck down the hallway of an animal shelter sparked outrage.

The 5 or 6-year-old dog named Mia is seen in the video struggling against her leash as a worker at the Hesperia Animal Shelter drags her down the hallway while others look on.

Mia's owner, Tracie Carpenter, said the pup escaped from her Hesperia home earlier this month. She saw the video on Facebook after a friend told her about it.

"The fact that there's three people in the video watching the dog being (dragged) by its neck all the way down the hallway — and nobody said anything — is beyond frustrating," Carpenter said.

Mia had escaped from home and was picked up after a few days by shelter workers, Carpenter said. A neighbor saw Mia get picked up, so Carpenter called the shelter, which kept the dog overnight so it could spay her. Mia was picked up on Friday, Feb. 12.

Hundreds commented on the video, outraged at the staff for ignoring that the dog was being dragged.

The Hesperia City Council is scheduled to hold a special meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday so residents can voice any concerns about the video.

In a post on the Hesperia Animal Shelter's Facebook page last week, officials said city management is investigating what happened, and offered "our sincerest apologies."

"Shelter animals, as well as members of the community, deserve better and we vow to do better," the post said.

The city is encouraging anyone with concerns to email socialmedia@cityofhesperia.us.

Asher Klein contributed to this report.

Nearly 200 dogs rescued from an abandoned home in the desert northeast of Los Angeles were available for adoption Monday after weeks of care from animal shelter workers and an unsuccessful search for the owner.

The 191 dogs were brought to the San Bernardino County Animal Shelter in Devore Feb. 6 after they were discovered in what authorities described as deplorable conditions at the abandoned home in Lucerne Valley, located in the Mojave Desert of western San Bernardino County.

The dogs were living on an isolated property, accessible only by passing through rugged terrain, with no water or electricity service. Some were sitting in urine and feces, many were starving and had matted fur that required grooming.

The homeowner has not been identified, allowing them to be placed in new homes. Animal services officials said they have had overwhelming interest from people who want to adopt the dogs.

"They are all getting wonderful homes," said Orange County resident Jill Hageman. "They've been in the shelter, today is the day they start their new lives."

Some of the dogs were transferred to shelters in Upland, Rancho Cucamonga and Pomona, all of which have spay and neuter services. Breeds included gold retrievers, Weimaraners, cocker spaniels, Labrador retrievers, poodles and others.

A line of potential new owners, including a woman from Oregon, lined up outside the Devore shelter before about 150 of the dogs were available for adoption at 10 a.m. Monday. Those interested received a numbered chip for the dog they want as part of a lottery system.

"Today is a happy day," said Doug Smith, supervising animal control officer. "When they first came in, it was like, 'Oh my, that's a lot of animals.'"

"That's more than our shelter has ever taken in the past. To have this many get adopted at once is truly tremendous."

Tammie Hill won a Yorkie, but gave it away during the raffle to a crying girl whose dog recently died.

"All little kids who have earned the right to have a dog should have one," she said.

Little Savannah Briano said she was thrilled at Hill's gift.

"He's going to make me so happy again."

The adoptions will likely continue for two or three days.

Adoption Shelters

Upland Animal Shelter: 909-931-4185

Rancho Cucamonga Animal Shelter: 909-466-7387

Inland Valley Humane Society & SPCA 909-623-9777

San Bernardino County Devore Animal Shelter: 909-386-9820

Armed guards, thumping music, and parties that last past dawn. In areas of greater Los Angeles, homeowners are making big bucks illegally renting their homes out for all-night parties, causing a nightmare for sleep-deprived neighbors. An NBC4 I-Team investigation found that despite dozens of complaints to the cops, these so-called "party houses" are often operating unchecked by the LAPD and city officials.

"It's like torture," said Steve Ginsberg, who lives in LA's Mount Olympus neighborhood, right behind two houses that are rented out for large, loud parties.

During the day, Mount Olympus is a quiet hillside neighborhood. But at night, Ferraris and Lamborghinis clog the streets, as alcohol-fueled, all-night parties get underway.

That's because a handful of homeowners are cashing in, renting their homes to the well-heeled who want to throw big parties.

Homeowner Eric Oster is openly -- and apparently illegally -- renting out his Mount Olympus home on the Internet for parties, starting at $2,750 a night. Three doors away, Gary Pagar has been renting his home for parties for $5,000 a night. Another party house in the Hollywood Dell area rents for $8,000 to $10,000 a night, depending on the number of guests.

"You're living in a place where, literally, you can't sleep," said Ginsberg about the frequent parties in his neighborhood.

On one recent night, the I-Team's cameras recorded a party at a rental house that began after 2 a.m., when Mercedes, Bentleys, and Range Rovers disgorged high-heeled partiers, who drank and danced and filled the streets until the sun came up.

And it's all illegal. Under LA'S zoning laws, renting a home in a single-family neighborhood for parties is a criminal misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1000 fine. The police know all about the parties.

In just six months, neighbors have called the LAPD 42 times just about those two party houses on the block behind Steve Ginsberg's home. "It's infuriating that the police and local politicians have known about it and have basically done nothing," he said.

"We should be doing something," said LAPD Captain Peter Zarcone, after the I-Team showed him video of raging, all-night parties in the area he oversees. Zarcone said the LAPD knows of at least 11 nuisance party houses that chronically disrupt neighborhoods.

Neighbors in Mount Olympus have also emailed and called the office of their city councilman, Tom LaBonge, dozens of times, but haven't heard back in months. "I'm very sorry that these people have had poor service from my office," LaBonge told the I-Team. "It's absolutely wrong."

The I-Team's cameras documented parties, week after week in various LA neighborhoods, often with armed guards toting guns standing outside, to keep out partiers who aren't on a list.

When the I-Team confronted the owners of these party houses, some claimed they didn't know they were breaking the law. "I had no idea it was illegal to rent for parties," says Gary Pagar who rents his Mount Olympus home for $5,000 a night. After questions from the I-Team, Pagar said he will no longer rent for parties.

"We feel horrible for the neighbors" who've been kept up at night, Pagar said.

Three doors down, homeowner Eric Oster, who rents his place for $2,750 a night, told the I-Team, "I do not allow parties at my house." When the I-Team offered to show Oster video of frequent, all-night parties at his home, he said "I think we've said enough. I don't have anything new to say."

Oster walked into his house.

Now, in the wake of the I-Team's investigation, police and city officials are promising to shut down illegal party rentals that keep neighborhoods up all night.

"I will get together with city departments and the city attorney's office to find an effective way to calm this problem," says Councilman Tom LaBonge.

LAPD Captain Peter Zarcone pledged to enlist undercover vice detectives to stop landlords from illegally renting their homes, like the two in Mount Olympus. "I can promise you that we'll be taking action on those," Zarcone told NBC4.
 

Amber Alerts have been canceled in several states including New Jersey after a 3-year-old Delaware girl who police said was in "imminent danger" after being abducted from her home by her father was found safe in Massachusetts Tuesday.

Elinor Trotta was taken from her home in New Castle, Delaware, Monday evening, police said. Officers said they responded to the home on a domestic assault call, and Trotta's mother told them that 43-year-old Michael Trotta, her ex-boyfriend and Elinor's father, came into the home, attacked her and took the girl.

Trotta and his daughter were found in Spencer, Massachusetts at about 3 p.m. Tuesday, and he was arrested without incident, authorities said. The FBI, Massachusetts State Police and the Spencer Police Department took him into custody.

He's expected to be arraigned in East Brookfield District Court on a fugitive from justice charge, and was being held without bail. 

Police said earlier they believed the girl was in danger based on several statements her father made, though they didn't elaborate further.

Elinor's mother, Dawn Parkas, had pleaded Tuesday at a police news conference for Trotta to bring her daughter back.

"Please bring her home, she doesn't have any of her clothes or her toys," she said, weeping. "We have a routine every night and she's out of the routine and my heart's just broken."

State police in Delaware, New Jersey and Ohio issued Amber Alerts. New Jersey State Police had said the severity of the situation was "extreme," and that there was an "extraordinary threat to life or property."

Police originally said Trotta fled with Elinor in a gray 1989 Mazda 626 with Delaware plates, but that car was later found near the scene in Delaware and towed away.

Police said the abduction followed a Feb. 15 assault on Trotta's mother. Arrest warrants were issued for that attack and Monday's abduction, police say.

Thieves have stolen a disabled 5-year-old girl’s wheelchair from outside her home in Apple Valley.

Ileeya Tavera’s beloved pink custom chair was taken from the family’s unlocked truck, which was parked at the side of their house on the 20200 block of Serrano Road.

Her mother Eileen Tavaera said she would have been using the chair extensively in the coming months due to a forthcoming operation on her hips, as her bones have not grown as doctors had hoped.

“So we'll be facing another major correction surgery where iIeeya will need to be in her wheelchair for three to four months depending on recovery because she won’t be able to walk, Tavaera said.

Ileeya suffers from proximal femoral focal deficiency, a rare birth defect that affects the pelvis, particularly the hip bone, which causes the hip to be deformed and the leg shortened. Before receiving medical attention her left femur was 52 percent shorter than her right one and she was missing her fibula.

She got the chair when she was just 2-year’s old, and while she has made progress and can now walk around with the aid of a prosthetic leg, she uses the chair for longer distance trips. As well as its distinctive pink color, the wheelchair’s front wheels also light up when they roll forward.

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department has confirmed it is investigating the theft.

A California Metrolink commuter train became engulfed in flames after colliding with a truck on the Ventura County line between Osnard and Camarillo just before 6 a.m. Tuesday.

Witnesses took to social media to share video and photos from the scene, including Ventura County photographer Johnny Corona who's Instagram video pans the chaos. 

The Los Angeles-bound train crashed about 80 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Amazingly, no one was killed, but 28 people were injured and 4 sustained critical injuries. 

The driver of the vehicle was detained by police two miles away after fleeing the scene, according to fire officials. An investigation continues at the scene of the collision. 

Two men in dark clothing, ski masks and ski goggles bound a New Britain bank manager and his mother in their Bristol home overnight Monday, then forced the man to wear what looked like a bomb and empty his bank vault, police said.

Police released more information about the case Tuesday and said two men with distinct accents confronted Matthew Yussman, 46, when he arrived home at 133 Lufkin Lane in Bristol early Monday morning and bound him and his 70-year-old mother.

When daylight broke, the two men forced Yussman to wear what appeared to be an explosive device and sent him to the Achieve Financial Credit Union in New Britain to take out money, police said in a news release Tuesday. Law enforcement sources previously identified him as the bank manager.

Police said they were alerted to the incident Monday morning when Yussman contacted an Achieve Financial official. The official, in turn, called 911.

Emergency responders arrived at the bank before Yussman and kept his car at the edge of the parking lot, according to New Britain police. Yussman never entered the building and did not take out any money.

Police worked to "render the device safe," then seized Yussman's car and brought him in handcuffs to the hospital for treatment of exposure.

Yussman's mother, Valarie, did not need medical assistance, and New Britain police said the FBI brought the device to a lab for analysis.

Investigators with a search warrant collected evidence from Yussman's home Monday night.

Police are now calling him a victim but said he is still being questioned and has not yet been ruled out as a suspect.

"Certainly, we're identifying any person that could be potentially involved in this, any and all, and we are very actively pursuing all leads," New Britain Police Chief James Wardwell explained Tuesday night.

He added that the incident was "very focused, very targeted" but said there is nothing to indicate Yussman and the suspects knew each other beforehand.

The New Britain States Attorney is overseeing the investigation of a joint New Britain-Bristol Task Force, which released information Tuesday about two suspects linked to the plot.

Police said one has a medium build and both speak with accents that indicate they are not Connecticut natives.

They were wearing dark clothing, ski masks and ski goggles and might have been in an older model white four-door Mazda, which police believe was in the area of Tunxis Mead and Route 10 in Farmington on Monday morning, police said.

Although suspects are still on the run, police said the public is not in any danger.

"It was a very personal connection there, we are finding through our investigation, and there is just nothing that we have uncovered that would lead us to believe the public is in any jeopardy," said Bristol Police Capt. Brain Gould.

The investigation prompted lockdowns at multiple schools in Avon, Bristol, Farmington and Plainville.

Avon Supt. Gary Mala wrote in a letter to parents that the lockdown was issued as a precaution because "the perpetrator of the Bristol incident was identified as traveling in Farmington at the time."

Law enforcement officials said they couldn't elaborate on the Farmington link.

"We are investigating information that there was some connection to Farmington, but that is still part of the investigation," said Gould.

The Achieve Financial Credit Union issued a statement Tuesday expressing relief over the fact that Yussman and his mother were not hurt.

"The Credit Union is fully cooperating with the police while they investigate the incident. We would like to apologize for any inconvenience this situation has caused our members and note that all of our credit union locations are back to full operation," bank officials said.

Police are asking anyone who spotted the Mazda or who lives in the area and has security cameras facing the road to contact authorities.

Residents can call New Britain police at 860-826-3131, the New Britain Police Tip Line at 860-826-3199, submit a tip online at newbritainpolice.org.

You can reach the Bristol Police Department at 860-314-4570. 

A student was struck by a vehicle outside Harry S. Truman Middle School in Fontana Tuesday morning while walking in a crosswalk, according to officials from the Fontana Fire Department.

Emergency personnel responded to 16624 Mallory Dr. shortly after 7 a.m. where it was reported a vehicle hit a student at the intersection of Skyland Court and Mallory Drive, officials said.

The student was trasported to a hospital for precationary reasons with non-life threatening injuries

The age and gender of the victim was unclear.

The driver stayed on scene of the crash and was cooperating with investigators, a spokeman from the Fontana Police Department said.

The crash remains under investigation.

Police released dashcam video of a gas explosion that leveled an Ocean County, New Jersey, home, injured 15 people, and shook homes in every direction Tuesday morning, including one of a young mother.

"My windows blew out of my house, and I dropped, and I covered my daughter, because she was next to me," said Stafford Township resident Melissa Lewis. "I stood up, and I heard them screaming outside, and there were people being taken to the ambulance."

• What to do if you smell gas

Police received the initial call for an odor inspection in the Cedar Run neighborhood of the township near U.S. Route 9 around 8:55 a.m., about an hour and a half before the blast occurred, according to Stafford Twp. Police Captain Tom Dellane.

Officers, firefighters and emergency crews who were dispatched to the neighborhood, quickly confirmed a gas leak, called in the New Jersey Natural Gas Company and evacuated 75 nearby home.

Gas company employees were working on finding the source of the leak diagonally across from Lewis' home on Oak Ave. when the blast occurred, completely destroying one home and damaging many others. Dashcam video from a Stafford Township police cruiser shows the blast as it happened as workers and firefighters were next to the house.

"The house has been disintegrated," said Stafford Township Mayor John Spodofora.

Seven gas workers were injured in the explosion, said NJ Natural Gas Spokesperson Mike Kinney. One suffered extremely critical injuries and required CPR at the scene. That man and another gas worker were medivaced to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center's Trauma Unit, said Kinney. They are both in critical condition.

Six firefighters also suffered minor injuries, most experiencing concussion-like symptoms. They were transported to Southern Ocean Medical Center. All but one were treated and released, said Stafford Twp. Volunteer Fire Chief Jack Johnson

Two EMTs were also taken to Southern with minor injuries and have been released.

As SkyForce10 hovered over the scene, debris could be seen scattered all over the place as some trees in the area burned. Only the home's foundation remained.

"I saw pieces of house floating all over my yard," Lewis said. "The insulation was all over the place and you could see the ambulances and people running around and there were big flames coming from the house."

The blast could be felt up to one mile away, said officials.

Gas and electricity to nearly 300 homes were turned off and police urged people to avoid the area.

"We're working on a plan to restore that service, but that plan will take time," said Kinney.

How much time is unknown.

Spodofora urged residents who smelled gas in their homes to open all their windows, report it to police and leave the area immediately.

"The gas is kind of hanging in there," said Spodofora.

The Marlton Area Office of OSHA headed to the scene Tuesday to investigate exactly what caused the blast.

Officials announced NJ Natural Gas Company workers would restore gas to the homes on Oak Avenue around midnight. They also said however that the residents must be inside their home in order to get restored.

Stafford Police officers will remain in the area throughout the night.

An airborne SUV that landed on top of several other cars in a Main Line car dealership parking lot Tuesday morning caused approximately $80,000 in damage, according to investigators. .

An elderly woman lost control of her Jeep SUV, crashed through a guardrail and landed on top of three unoccupied cars in the Acura dealership parking lot on the 100 block of Lancaster Ave. around 9:30 a.m., said officials on the scene.

The woman was pulled from the passenger's side of the white SUV and rushed to a nearby hospital in unknown condition.

No one else was hurt in the accident.

The SUV and two Acuras were totaled bringing the damage to around $80,000, said police

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, believe they have discovered the "root cause" of Type 2 diabetes — a molecular link between obesity and diabetes that may lead to new treatment.

Inflammation that results from obesity leads to insulin resistance, the first step in developing Type 2 diabetes, the study found.

One inflammatory molecule in particular, LTB4, is released by immune cells living in extra fat, called macrophages. Positive feedback then signals for the body to release more macrophages, which then release more LTB4 into the fatty cells in the liver, researchers found.

"This study is important because it reveals a root cause of type 2 diabetes," the study's senior author Dr. Jerrold M. Olefsky, professor of medicine and associate dean for scientific affairs, said in a statement. "And now that we understand that LTB4 is the inflammatory factor causing insulin resistance, we can inhibit it to break the link between obesity and diabetes."

Those LTB4 then bind to nearby cell surfaces, the researchers found. In people who are obese, those cells become inflamed and the body becomes resistant to insulin.

In the UC San Diego study, Olefsky and his team of researchers used genetically engineered mice to look for ways to reverse insulin resistance.

The team created genetically engineered mice that did not have the LTB4 receptor. Without the receptor, the health of obese mice “dramatically improved.”

The study was authored by Pingping Li, Da Young Oh, Gautam Bandyopadhyay, William S. Lagakos, Saswata Talukdar, Olivia Osborn, Andrew Johnson, Heekyung Chung, Rafael Mayoral, Michael Maris, Jachelle M Ofrecio, Sayaka Taguchi, Min Lu. All of the researchers are at UC San Diego.

The research was funded in part by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and Merck Inc.

A driver whose truck sailed off the upper roadway of Interstate 93 and landed on the one below told NECN that while he escaped the harrowing caught-on-camera crash relatively unscathed, he's just relieved nobody else was hurt. 

"I'm just glad I didn't hurt anybody else, you know," Vannak Sao, 33, of East Boston, told NECN. "Me, I'm fine — broken bones, bruised up, fractures, whatever — but if it happened to somebody else and I was the cause of it, that would be something else."

Sao, 33, is facing drunk driving charges after he careened off the upper roadway of I-93 northbound in Boston and landed on the lower deck early Sunday morning. The dramatic crash was caught on breathtaking surveillance video footage.

He said that before the crash, he had just left a friend's house, had had a little bit to drink and was tired. He told NECN he has been tired from working the third shift at his job and taking on extra hours shoveling.

In the crash, Sao took out a light pole, an exit sign and several lengths of a chain link fence before he launched off the upper deck of I-93 around 6:25 a.m. Sunday, state police said. His truck came to a rest on the lower deck, the southbound side of Interstate 93.

Sao was rescued from his truck and transported to Massachusetts General Hospital. He was summonsed to court on charges of operating under the influence and negligent operation of a motor vehicle following a brief investigation.

State records show that Sao has had issues on the roads before, including speeding infractions and accidents. His license was revoked due Monday's crash.

"Would I consider myself an irresponsible driver? No. Was I irresponsible the other night? Yeah," he acknowledged.

It's unclear if slick road conditions contributed to the crash, police said. Sao said the roads were slick in spots but said he took responsibility for the crash and wouldn't blame it on the roads.

We live in a moment when any pop culture-famous quip, any movie line, and any oft-repeated on-screen joke can be summoned, in seconds, with the help of our thumbtips.

But that wasn't the way of things when "Airplane!" debuted to re-quoting acclaim in 1980. The Internet didn't exist — well, in your hands, anyway — which meant that all of the serious memorization that was done, regarding the cult-favorite laugh-it-up, was done in theaters, and not via YouTube or fan sites.

A tweenage Mayor Eric Garcetti was one of those "Airplane!" super fans, if we might call him one, because he's named the comedy as his very favorite film, a film that will screen, for free, at the Million Dollar Theatre downtown on Thursday, Feb. 26.

Will the mayor be in the house? Oh, you betcha; we just wonder if he'll want to quote along, a time-honored "Airplane!" tradition at many a screening.

The gratis evening is part of the Zócalo/My Favorite Movie series, from KCRW, and, for sure, there shall be a Q&A with the mayor, as well as the creators of the film: David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, and Jim Abrahams.

Talk about your power quartets.

KCRW's Madeline Brand leads the discussion, which, fingers crossed will include a contemplative, highbrow study of all of the film's many sight gags, which about a million later movies, give or take, went on to homage, borrow from, and re-intrepret.

Leslie Nielsen starred, as you know, because you memorized his every move back in 1980. Remember how you begged your mom to drop you off at the cineplex every Saturday, for five Saturdays in a row? Good times.

And remember when clips couldn't be instantly revisited on the Internet? Should we be nostalgic for that? Because it, just perhaps, made viewers watch a bit more intensely, if they were unsure when they'd see the film again?

If you want to know the mayor's favorite scenes, and sit in a historic movie palace while doing so, and applaud the creators of the funny phenom, and not pay to see it, and have Grand Central Market next door, for your pre-film noshing, turn your wings/point your nose for downtown on Feb. 26.

A landmark in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, Forum Restaurant will be closing its doors on March 1, its owners confirmed.

Boston Nightlife Ventures, the company that owns the restaurant among others, cites rising rent at the 755 Boylston St. location as the reason it's closing Forum.

Forum rents space from building owner 755 Boylston LLC. We reached out to that company's manager, Paul Roff, through his office at Heath Properties in Boston, but we did not get a response before this story went online.

"Very welcoming. Great food, great spirits. So, it's disappointing," Paul Kamisky, of Middleton, Massachusetts, carved a recent memory at Forum. "It's one of the reasons we chose to come here. And be in this area when we do team events, we think about those things and we actually reminisce about it, as well," he said.

For worse, Forum is indelibly tied to the day that darkened Boston. For better, only as an inspiration of rising up in the months that followed that second blast on April 15, 2013. Now a year and a half after renovations, the owners have made the decision to close the Back Bay restaurant down.

"It's sad, but sad to see no one in there. Tough, tough winter," said Daniel Fitzpatrick, of Somerville, Massachusetts.

"I don't think it's right. I think they should keep it open. Lower the rent," said Zack Elrhoul, of Somerville, Massachusetts.

Emily Holland of Londonderry, New Hampshire, whose aunts have run the Boston Marathon, said, "I think it's sad, because it's obviously like a big part of the history of Boston now."

Nancy Socol, who lives a few blocks away from the Forum on Huntington Avenue, said, "I hate to see something like that happen after they went through what they went through with the bombings ... It took them a long time to come back. They were one of the last places that opened after the horror. So it's sad. I don't know how else to characterize it. I feel bad for them."

The group that owns Forum also owns the Tap Trailhouse near Faneuil Hall, Wink & Nod in the South End, and Griddlers Burgers & Dogs on Cambridge Street at the foot of Beacon Hill.

One of two bombs in the April 2013 attack exploded in front of the restaurant. Three people were killed in the explosions, and more than 260 others were injured. The trial of the surviving suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, is currently undergoing voir dire in jury selection.

A teen girl who deputies said told authorities she freed herself from two men who abducted her made the story up, LA County sheriff's officials said.

The 15-year-old told deputies she was "abducted" by two men in Palmdale Tuesday morning, according to the LA County Sheriff's Department Palmdale Station.

She said she was taken away in a van, and that she was sexually assaulted but eventually escaped, officials said.

Deputies later confirmed to NBC4 her story was false. A friend of the girl said the teen made the story up after running away from home.