Some of the relatives of the 43 students who disappeared last September in Mexico marched in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday to bring attention to their cause.

The march began at the Olvera Street plaza and end at the Mexican consulate.

The family members are visiting more than a dozen U.S. cities to rally support from Mexican Americans and others.

The students have not been seen since Sept. 26, when they were stopped by Iguala police.

Supporters said they can’t imagine the pain the families feel in the face of so much uncertainty.

"We all can sympathize with their cause. It’s such an aberration, such a horrific situation what they are living in Mexico," said demonstrator Ana Quintero.

Mexican prosecutors say they have been able to identify the remains of one student who was burned in a garbage dump.

Mexican authorities investigating the disappearance said they were turned over to a drug gang, which killed them and incinerated their remains. But the families of the victims say they have not seen definitive proof of their deaths, and hold hopes that the students missing are still alive.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A woman was stabbed to death Sunday morning inside a hospital room in the Chicago suburb of Elk Grove Village in an alleged domestic incident.

Elk Grove Police received a call at about 11:30 a.m. for a report of battery at Alexian Brothers Medical Center, located at 800 Biesterfield Road. Police were told someone had attacked a family member while visiting the patient's room.

The victim was identified as 42-year-old Francisca Quintero of Burlington, Wisc., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

A 44-year-old man identified as a family member of the victim has been taken into custody and is being questioned by Elk Grove police. The weapon was also recovered at the scene.

"Police are reporting that this was an isolated domestic incident and no patients or employees were in danger or harmed. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of the victim," officials at Alexian Brothers Medical Center said in a statement.

No other patients were harmed in the incident, police said.

On Sunday evening at Staples Center, Jeremy Lin set a new season-high with 29 points to lead the Los Angeles Lakers past the Philadelphia 76ers 101-87. With the victory, the Lakers snapped a four-game losing streak and won their 18th game of the season.

In the first half, Lin and Jordan Hill led the home team with two impressive shooting performances. Lin started out by making his first three shots and went into the halftime break with eight points. However, the 26-year-old point guard would hold of on truly stamping his mark on the game until the second half.

Hill would make his first six shots, and only a missed free throw to put a blemish on an otherwise perfect performance by the power forward in the first half. Hill also had grabbed five rebounds to tie as top-rebounder at the break; Tarik Black and Ed Davis also had five rebounds at the intermission.

While Philadelphia struggled with its shot early and only managed to shoot 40.9 percent by halftime, the visiting Sixers still built a 10-point lead in the first half. By halftime, though, the Lakers had cut that deficit to six points and trailed 47-41. Thomas Robinson's 10 points off Philly's bench at halftime certainly helped the visitors' cause.

In the third quarter, the Lakers would battle back and momentarily take hold of the lead. Lin continued his strong play from the first half. In the final 5:25 of the third period, the point guard scored nine points and dished two assists. Lin would enter the fourth quarter as the leading scorer in the game with 17 points.

At the start of the fourth period, Davis would emerge as a defensive presence on one end and a clinical finisher on the other. With Lin finding the Lakers' big man in transition, the Lakers rode that energetic combination to an 11-point advantage with about six minutes left to play.

From there, the Lakers would cruise behind the Davis and Lin combination and even build out a 15-point lead. Davis scored six points and blocked four shots in the final period. Lin, meanwhile, added 12 more points and three more assists in the final period to take his final figures to 29 points, five assists and five rebounds.

Next, the Lakers play the Thunder in Oklahoma City on Tuesday.

Notes: Lakers coach Byron Scott will miss the next two games to attend the funeral service for his late mother. Assistant coach Paul Pressey will assume the head coaching seat in the interim. Scott expects to re-join the team on Friday in Toronto.

About 4,000 young people are living on the streets of Los Angeles, many come to Hollywood with stars in their eyes. But when they don't get discovered, they end up homeless.

Others are escaping abusive environments. The nonprofit Covenant House California is working to rescue them.

Four nights a week street outreach worker Nick Semensky drives the streets of Hollywood looking for kids in trouble.

NBC4's chief photographer Sean Browning and I went along on a recent outreach mission.

Just minutes into our ride we spot Ricky, a boy who briefly stayed at Covenant House months ago. Ricky is walking Hollywood Boulevard with two friends. Semensky pulls over and gets out to talk to them.

"How are you with housing tonight? Where you gonna stay?" Semensky asks.

Ricky says he's been approved for government subsidized housing but hasn't yet found an apartment. He and his friends accept some food and blankets.

Semensky encourages Ricky to come back to the shelter but Ricky insists he's fine, so Semensky hits the road again.

Semensky understands these kids because he used to be one of them. When he was 12 years old he was homeless in Pittsburgh.

"If you need a blanket or food, I understand where you're coming from. I've been there myself," Semensky says.

He was eventually able to make it to college and ended up with a job at Covenant House California.

Located on the outskirts of Hollywood, this shelter provides housing and support services for hundreds of kids. Some spend just one night, others live in the dorms for up to 2 years while getting education and job training.

Many of the kids ended up homeless after coming to Hollywood hoping to become stars, the shelter's director Bill Bedrossian says.

"The idea perpetuated on TV and movies that Hollywood is a place you can get your dreams filled. The reality is most of these youth that are coming here aren't coming here from great situations," Bedrossian says.

Tiara Smith is one of those kids. At 19, she aged out of foster care and ended up homeless and eventually in jail.

"I picked up lighter fluid and I put it on a girl and tried to light it on fire, but thank God my brother stopped me," Tiara tells us from her dorm room.

Tiara says after coming to Covenant House, she's learned how to control her anger and is getting her life back on track.

One of the things that has helped the most is music therapy, which is conducted in a music room built by Motley Crew founder Nikki Sixx.

Tiara is learning to play piano and drums. She tells us she's going back to school to get her high school diploma and wants to go to college to become a nurse.

Meanwhile, as night falls on Hollywood Boulevard, Semensky is still hard at work. He spots a 21 year old who goes by the name Tree Walker, a panhandler who gets violent when easily aggravated by crowds.

Tree Walker tells us he can't handle life in a shelter.

"Especially since they almost always require you to be completely sober, which I can't really do - not in crowds," he says.

Tree Walker prefers to camp in the mountains outside LA, but he accepts some food. He says when street kids see the Covenant House van, they're reminded somebody cares.

And for tonight, that's enough.

If you'd like to learn more about Covenant House California - or donate to help - visit their website at covenanthousecalifornia.org.
 

Crews are searching for a cruise ship passenger who went overboard near the Florida Keys late Sunday night, authorities say.

Crews have been searching for the man overnight into Monday morning, U.S. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Ryan Doss said.

The USCG was alerted of the incident aboard the Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas late Sunday night between 11 p.m. and 11:30 p.m., WPTV reported.

The man reportedly fell or jumped overboard about 20 miles off the coast of Marathon. Doss does not believe the man was pushed, or that any foul play was involved.

Two Canadian Coast Guard ships, a Coast Guard Cutter, a helicopter and a boat crew are all involved in the extensive search.

The cruise ship was also involved in the search, but has since continued on towards its destination while the search for the victim continues.

Two men and a woman were injured when an SUV drove off a freeway and crashed into a yard in Boyle Heights on Sunday, fire officials said.

The crash took place about 4 p.m. near the northbound 5 Freeway lanes at Calzona Street, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.

A man and woman were critically injured in the crash, officials said. Another man was in fair condition.

It was not immediately clear how the SUV drove off the freeway or if any of the victims were in the yard at the time of the crash.

Preliminary reports from the scene indicated the SUV crashed on a freeway ramp, the California Highway Patrol said.

Overtime for California's state workers rose 20 percent last year and topped $1 billion even though there are 20,000 fewer employees than in pre-recession 2008, the last time the state paid out so much, according to new payroll data.

The increase comes after years of recommendations from the state auditor and budget analyst calling for reducing vacancies, using more relief staff and negotiating less-costly labor contracts for workers in state prisons and hospitals, which generate the most overtime pay.

According to the state controller's payroll data reviewed by The Associated Press, California spent $1.13 billion in 2014 in overtime pay for its 220,000 workers, compared to $947 million in overtime for roughly 215,000 workers in 2013.

Overall payroll went up 7 percent from $15.3 billion to $16.4 billion as California enjoys a second year of budget surplus.

Some of the increase in overtime can be attributed to unanticipated costs, such as last year's severe wildfire season. But departments with the highest overtime were not able to explain what drove the spike beyond usual challenges to fill vacant positions and cover critical shifts when employees take time off.

One taxpayer advocate said it's unfortunate that because the economy is doing well, politicians lack the incentive to adopt personnel practices to restrain overtime.

"California remains the land of milk and honey for public employees,'' said Jon Coupal, president of the anti-tax Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. ``It's always been that way.''

State officials acknowledged that more needs to be done to minimize overtime, particularly at institutions that treat patients and inmates for psychiatric and medical care. Half of all the overtime billed in 2014 came in the chronically understaffed Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Jim Evans, a spokesman for Gov. Jerry Brown, said the administration is trying to make sure vacancies do not become an issue that drives overtime, but noted that some types of workers are difficult to recruit and retain because there's a shortage of workers for some positions, such as psychiatrists.

Some overtime costs are difficult to budget. The Department of Forestry and Fire Protection had $139 million in overtime last year, the most in the past 10 years, according to payroll data. The state battled 5,620 fires in 2014, nearly 1,000 more than the state's five-year average.

But the bulk of overtime charges stem from long-standing vacancy and staffing problems at the 34 adult prisons run by corrections. In 2014, the main department logged more than $542 million in overtime pay, up 31 percent from $414 million in 2013.

Bill Sessa, a corrections spokesman, said the state experienced a high rate of retirement in recent years while budgets were slashed with the recession. As a result, the department stopped training recruits, further exacerbating the vacancy problem, he said.

Since August, the academy has graduated 3,000 officers, and the goal is to hire 7,000 more over the next three years. "Our ambition is to minimize overtime, in part, because officers work better when they're not working 16-hour shifts,'' Sessa said.

The federal court-appointed receiver overseeing inmate health care is also in the process of reviewing telemedicine capabilities to reduce costly overtime billing by physicians and nurses at prisons, said Joyce Hayhoe, a spokeswoman for receiver J. Clark Kelso. In one year, overtime has more than doubled for this branch of corrections, from more than $12 million to nearly $30 million.

In all, about 1,500 correctional-related staff billed more than $100,000 in overtime in 2014, including physicians, psychiatrists, nurses, lieutenant, sergeants and officers.

Hayhoe said California struggles to find enough primary care physicians despite competitive pay, in part, because of the location of prison health care facilities.

The Department of State Hospitals, which serves mentally ill patients, most of whom have committed serious crimes, is taking to social media and created a dedicated recruitment unit to attract applicants, spokesman Ken August said. The department charged nearly $104 million in overtime last year, up 5 percent from 2013.

For years, the California state auditor and Legislative Analyst's Office have made governors and lawmakers aware of staffing inefficiencies and issued recommendations such as hiring more staff, increasing the use of relief staff similar to how substitute teachers are used in schools and re-negotiating labor provisions that require overtime shifts to be offered to senior officers first.

Some of the recommendations don't appear politically viable.

"No union will give up the right of seniority,'' said Nichol Gomez-Pryde, a spokeswoman for the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which represents correctional officers. The union is among four labor contracts up for negotiation this summer.

Here are the top five state departments with the highest overtime spending in 2014:

-- Corrections and Rehabilitation, $542.6 million

-- Forestry and Fire Protection, $139.2 million

-- California Highway Patrol, $115.3 million

-- Department of State Hospitals, $103.7 million

-- Transportation, $51.6 million

Source: State Controller's Office
 

Search crews are looking for a veteran that has been missing since Thursday morning. 

76-year-old Robert Cricks was last seen in unincorporated Murrieta at around 2:30 a.m. Thursday morning.

Sheriff's officials said they found his car Sunday at 5:35 p.m., 45 minutes away from the Cal Fire station on 39400 De Luz Road, just west of Temecula. 

His wife told Sheriff's deputies Crick was waiting for her in the car with the engine running while she went into a restaurant near Winchester Road and Murrieta Hot Springs Road. His wife said she then saw him driving toward Temecula on Winchester Road. 

Cricks suffers from severe dementia and does not have a cell phone or any money. He was last seen wearing a a black baseball cap with military pins a blue jacket, a long sleeve blue shirt and blue jeans. 

He was last seen driving a 2007 Silver Infinity G35 Sedan with a California license plate. Officials have since located the car but have not located Cricks. 

Anyone with information is asked to call the Riverside County Sheriff's Department at (951) 696-3000 or the San Diego County Sheriff's Department at (858) 565-5200.

An off-roading passenger jet carrying families bound for Walt Disney World got stuck in the mud at a Delaware airport late Sunday.

Frontier Airlines flight 1435, carrying 105 passengers bound for Orlando, Florida, was taxiing at New Castle County Airport at 9:30 p.m. when the pilot veered off the concrete taxiway and onto a grassy area filled with mud, airport officials tell NBC10.

The Airbus A319 jet couldn't propel itself out of the mess and was left slightly tilted with its front and right-rear landing gear stuck. The passengers were led off the plane and the flight canceled, officials said. No one was hurt, but one passenger said his daughter was bummed that the hiccup delayed their trip to Disney World.

Service members from the Delaware Air National Guard were brought in on Monday morning to help pull the plane from the mud.

Just like you would do with a car, the guardsmen are digging around the tires and placing plywood underneath the 70 ton jet's wheels. They will then tow it back to solid ground, officials said.

A representative from the airline said they will be flying the passengers to Orlando on Monday using a different jet.

Watch on @NBCPhiladelphia a Frontier Airlines Plane off the taxiway at Wilmington Airport. pic.twitter.com/eVDPoE6mmW

— Jeremiah (@Haasie20) March 23, 2015

A police officer was taken to the hospital after their motorcycle was involved in an traffic collision, officers said.

The Monterey Park Police Department officer was in stable condition and the only person taken to the hospital, according to a department spokesman.

Police believe only one car was involved in the crash, which took place at 7:30 a.m. near the intersection of Atlantic Boulevard and El Repetto Drive in Monterey Park.

Refresh this page for updates on this developing story.

The convicted killer at the center of the popular podcast "Serial'' is making his case that an appeals court should toss his conviction because his lawyer failed to interview an alibi witness and never inquired about the possibility of a plea deal.

An attorney for Adnan Syed, now 34, filed a brief Monday with the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, which has agreed to take up Syed's case.

Syed was at the center of the wildly popular podcast that raised questions about the integrity of the case, the fairness of the trial and his guilt.

Prosecutors maintain that Syed strangled his former high school sweetheart Hae Min Lee in 1999 after the two broke up and she began dating someone else. Syed, who was 17 at the time of Lee's death, has been in prison since 2000, serving a life sentence.

The Court of Special Appeals agreed to hear Syed's appeal in February after two unsuccessful attempts.

The basis of Syed's appeal is that his former lawyer, Christina Gutierrez, failed to interview Asia McClain, a student at Syed's school who said she was with him in the library at the approximate time of Lee's death. McClain had written to Syed after his arrest offering to speak with investigators and his attorney. In her letters, McClain also mentioned two other witnesses who said they saw Syed at the library. But Gutierrez, who was later disbarred by consent after questions arose about her handling of client funds, never interviewed McClain nor called her as a witness.

"It is hard to imagine that Gutierrez could have done anything worse than failing to pick up the phone and call Syed's witness,'' Syed's appeals attorney, Justin Brown, wrote in the filing.

Additionally, Brown argues that Gutierrez told Syed that prosecutors would not offer him a plea deal when in fact she never inquired as to whether one was on the table.

Brown characterized Syed's former lawyer's failure to inquire about a possible plea deal and interview a potentially crucial alibi witness as running "deeper than the typical error or omission that is considered under the umbrella of `effective assistance of counsel.'''

"It not only violates something fundamental to the trial process,'' Brown wrote, "but it violates the duty of loyalty that is at the heart of attorney-client relationship ... his lawyer effectively stopped representing him.''

The attorney general's office, which is prosecuting the case, declined to comment Monday.

Oral arguments are expected to be scheduled for June.

Toni Garrett’s criteria for choosing the University of Dallas was simple: she wanted a college that was small and filled with nice people.

She was surprised to find, upon arriving, that she had picked a Catholic university steeped in religious tradition. But the Baptist-raised Texan discovered both the school and faith to be a good fit as she studied politics and business — even traveling to Rome to see Pope John Paul II speak.

After graduation, she landed a job as a bank teller. 

“I was really excited about my career,” Garrett, now 34, said. “I thought my future was going to be me in my spacious condo with my glass of wine.”

As her career grew, so did the love for the Catholic Church that began in college. A pull to become “closer to God, more authentic” led her to a spiritual director and, eventually, the realization that her true calling might not be in the bank, where she would advance to become a vice president managing 200 people, but in the convent. 

But when she turned to Google to learn more about becoming a nun, she realized she had a $60,000 problem: her student loans.

“I saw that I had to be debt-free and for me this was going to be impossible,” Garrett said. “With what I made with my salary, I would have been an old lady.”

Garrett’s dilemma reflects a growing challenge facing the United States’ nun population, which has declined significantly over the past 50 years. Young adults called to the church, like graduates pursuing many professions, are finding themselves saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in debt that can take decades to repay. But unlike in other fields, long-standing requirements that nuns are debt-free by the time they take their vows can delay — and sometimes deter — those interested in joining religious life. 

Eighty-five percent of applicants to congregations affiliated with one leading association of women religious reported carrying educational debt at the time of inquiry, a major 2012 study commissioned by the National Religious Vocation Conference found. The average amount owed by those applicants, the study found, was $31,000. Both figures track with nationwide figures for student loan debt.

While some religious institutions have the resources to take on debt for some applicants, many cannot. Two-thirds of religious institutions that received inquiries from individuals with educational debt had to turn people away for that reason over the past 10 years, the NRVC study, conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, found. 

“This is a really sad statistic,” said Kathleen Sprows Cummings, director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame.

"They don’t want educational debt to be the primary factor in whether to accept a woman or not, but where does it fall, how do you deal with that?” she added.

Historically, Cummings says, women pursued higher education after pursuing religious life, often at a women's college affiliated with their organization. Now, the opposite is largely true — 61 percent of women who took their vows in 2014 had already obtained a bachelor's degree, according to one survey. More than half the institutes responding to the NRVC study said they had seen an uptick in inquiries from people with student loans. 

While the trend toward heading to college before the convent can equip congregations with sisters who have skills and experience to enhance their service missions, especially in fields like teaching and health, the high costs of the debt that comes with degrees is creating lasting financial strain. Pay earned by sisters who join active, or apostolic, communities can vary greatly, depending on the type of ministry work and level of experience. The salary goes to the community, though sisters can receive a stipend to cover personal needs.

“The challenge now is how to deal with this thorny problem in a way that’s going to be best not just for the immediate term, but to sustain these congregations over time," Cummings said.

At Daughters of Mary of Nazareth in Boston, created in 2011, three of the community's seven sisters have struggled with student loans, according to the congregation’s Mother Olga of the Sacred Heart. One woman, who had $60,000 in loans from undergraduate and graduate degrees, worked full-time for five years in an attempt to clear her debt. She still had about $15,000 to pay at the end of that period.

“It’s a blessing that in our country we have so many resources for education, but at the same time is breaks my heart,” said Mother Olga, who previously worked in campus ministry.

She encourages women exploring religious life to set and stick to a strict budget — and take steps like selling their cars, discontinuing cellphones and moving back home with their parents in order to save money — and ask family and friends to consider donating to their cause in lieu of birthday or other holiday gifts. One woman has even created an online fundraising campaign to help her finish paying off the $20,000 that remains from her bachelor degrees in theater and English. She’s raised about $2,500 so far. Often they work toward the goal during the yearslong process of becoming a nun, called formation. 

A number of Catholic organizations, from small nonprofits to major associations, have also stepped up to help women and men gain the financial freedom to pursue a religious life. The National Religious Vocation Conference created a new fund after reviewing its survey results and hearing for years that its member vocation directors are seeing “more and more” strong candidates with educational debt that their communities cannot afford to take on, Executive Director Paul Bednarczyk said.

“We don’t grow sisters on trees, so naturally they’re coming with educational debt,” Bednarczyk, a Holy Cross brother, said. “Those (institutions) that can afford it, they will assume the debt as long as they are in formation. Other communities don’t necessarily have the resources to do that, so we’re losing people.”

The National Fund for Catholic Religious Vocations, seeded with $2.5 million from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, will cover educational debt for accepted candidates as they go through formation, assuming the balance of the loan once they take their vows. Bednarczyk said they plan to issue the first grants to religious communities in June of this year, timed to capitalize on interest and inspiration related to Pope Francis’ September visit to the United States. Individual donors, institute endowments and groups like the Knights of Columbus Fund for Vocations also assist with debt relief. 

Garrett turned to one such organization, The Laboure Society, to help pay down her loans before entering religious life.

The concept behind Laboure was born almost two decades ago, when Cy D. Laurent, then a businessman, met an aspiring nun held back by student loans. With the help of friends, he raised enough to pay off the roughly $12,000 she owed. The organization, which he launched years later, now teaches aspirants leadership and communication skills while they work as a group to raise money to pay their loans as they go through formation. One hope is that the process, which emphasizes the sharing of personal stories, will encourage more people to explore religious life. 

“One of the things that affects religious vocations today is that there are less sisters out there ministering in the parishes and the schools and so we have girls that may not have that interaction, that may not question whether they are called," said Cialinett Colon, a Bronx Family Court legal program coordinator who is working with Laboure to help pay off $100,000 in undergraduate and law school loans so she can join Sisters of Christian Charity. 

Laurent said the need for aid has grown as both the cost of education and the age at which young people are ready to make significant life commitments — in both religious and secular life — rises. Because of that, he's planning to significantly expand his effort, which he says has helped 260 women and men pursuing religious life.

Garrett was able to meet her goals in 2012 by following the program’s structure of asking family, friends or acquaintances for a “contribution of prayer, a contribution or money or a contribution of referrals.” She said she easily sent more than 100 letters and scheduled at least 25 in-person meetings over the course of the year.

Now Garrett, whose religious name is Sister Josephine, is undergoing a two-year period of praying, studying and reflecting in Chicago with the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth.

“Being in religious life for me, I’m starting to become the best version of myself,” she said. “And so it’s really neat to discover who God made me to be.”

She’s hoping to take her vows in the early fall, around the time Pope Francis arrives in Philadelphia for the 2015 World Meeting of Families.

“I’m sending the Pope an invitation, actually,” she said with a laugh.

A driverless car took off from the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge for its cross-country trip to New York.

The 10-day, 3,500-mile trip will be the first and longest coast-to-coast drive by an automated vehicle. The Delphi will navigate highways and other roadways with no human hands on the wheel.

But there will be an operator in the driver's seat at all times in case of trouble.

A four-year-old child that appeared to wander into a neighbor's pool in Ramona has died, Sheriff's officials said. 

At approximately 3:33 p.m. Saturday, Sheriff's deputies were called to help fire officials with a child that had possibly drowned in a residential pool on the 16000 block of Swartz Canyon Road in Ramona, said Lt. John Maryon. 

Sheriff's deputies said the child appeared to wander into a neighbor's backyard pool and drowned. 

When the dog started barking, the homeowner saw the child and called 911. She was given instructions on how to perform CPR over the phone. 

Paramedics arrived shortly after and tried to resuscitate the child, Sheriff's officials said. The four-year-old was taken to Rady Children's Hospital in an ambulance later, said Maryon, but the child did not survive. 

Detectives from the Sheriff's Child Abuse Unit and Homicide Detail will investigate. 

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the Homicide Detail at (858) 974-2321/after hours at (858) 565-5200 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-TIPS(8477).

Missing hiker Michael "Mic" Dahl was found alive Monday morning in Yosemite National Park, according to the Marin County Sheriff and National Park Services.

Marin Search and Rescue along with other teams efforted the search to find the missing 20-year-old man, who as last seen Saturday morning near the lower Yosemite Falls area.

Dahl was spotted by visitors on the Yosemite Valley Loop Trail around 11 a.m. The visitors recognized him from the missing person flyer. He was found about a quarter mile east of the Lower Yosemite Fall trail, in a large boulder field below Sunnyside Bench with multiple injuries — including to his head —  and hypothermia. He was taken to a local hospital in an ambulance.

Dahl, who attends UC Santa Barbara, was hiking three friends who reported him missing after they got back from "scrambling" on the rocky area just below the Lower Fall, according to a Yosemite Park news release. After two hours of looking for him, the friends called park rangers.

Approximately 50 search and rescue crew members, including the California Highway Patrol, have been searching for Dahm since he was reported mssing.

@MarinSheriff MarinSAR reports missing hiker found in Yosemite alive but inured with head injuries

— Marin County Sheriff (@MarinSheriff) March 23, 2015

Two months after hundreds of seabirds coated in mysterious goo turned up in the East Bay, lawmakers are trying to recover some of the cost.

On Monday, California senators Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and Loni Hancock (D-Oakland) introduced legislation in an effort to close a loophole that freezes state funding for the crisis.

According to the Leno office, the jointly-authorized Senate Bill 718 will “authorize the Office of Spill Prevention and Response to borrow up to $500,000 from the state’s oil spill prevention fund for the rehabilitation and rescue of wildlife in spill events where the substance is non-petroleum based.”

While the California Department of Fish and Wildlife investigated the incident, no significant state resources were available to support non-governmental agencies in their cleanup, rescue and rehabilitation efforts, Leno's office said. The International Bird Rescue center, a publicly supported non-profit group, spent about $150,000 on animal care.

Under current law, money is only available when fuel or oil is spilled.

Lab analysis concluded the goo is not petroleum based, meaning wildlife rescue organizers can’t recoup the money spent collecting, cleaning, and caring for the injured birds.

A total of 170 birds were found in January along the Alameda, San Leandro and Hayward shorelines covered in the substance. The substance impaired their ability to regulate their own body temperature.

The bill will be heard in policy committees this spring.

Emily Bockian contributed to this report.

A Los Angeles schoolteacher allegedly used a racial slur and made racist remarks about black people in class, according to a lawsuit filed on behalf of a mixed-race student against LA Unified School District last week.

But dozens of parents and students are defending the eighth-grade instructor at Paul Revere Charter Middle School and Magnet Center in LA's Westside as a good, culturally sensitive teacher after he was removed from the classroom pending a review of the accusations.

The teacher, identified in the lawsuit as Steven Carnine, allegedly used the N-word in a lesson about the Civil War and denigrated Michael Brown, the teenager whose death in Ferguson sparked a national conversation about crime and race, according to the lawsuit, filed in LA Superior Court Wednesday, March 18.

"That guy was a thug and got what he deserved," the suit accuses Carnine of saying in class, along with other stereotypes about black people and Jews.

The school district said the teacher named in the suit had been removed from the classroom, but did not comment on the lawsuit. It accuses administrators of brushing aside the concerns of the student, who is half white and half black, and her family.

"District policy is adamant that all students are to be treated with respect. The safety of students is L.A. Unified’s highest priority," an LAUSD statement read.

Students and parents rallied in support of Carnine Monday morning, describing him as a dedicated teacher who celebrated Martin Luther King Day and Hannukah.

"I had him as my sixth grade History and English teacher and the whole time I had him he was not racist at all," student Jamie Mazur said. "He was probably the best teacher I've ever had."

The lawsuit accuses Carnine of making racially insensitive comments during a lesson on the Friday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, when he allegedly said, "black people are judged for not being smart because they are not smart. A lot of them are just athletes."

Two weeks later, Carnine allegedly smirked at the student when using the N-word to explain why people didn't like President Abraham Lincoln -- the same day Principal Christopher Perdigao heard concerns about the teacher from the girl's parents, according to the suit.

Perdigao did not reply to a request for comment.

In an online petition supporting Carnine, a student who said she was in the class said he was describing historical stereotypes and quoting others, not stating his own beliefs. She also said Carnine never used the N-word and said the teacher believed Michael Brown did not deserve to be harassed by police.

The suit seeks damages for emotional distress for having her civil rights violated.

Before hopping a 2 p.m. flight to Oklahoma City for Tuesday night's game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Los Angeles Lakers met for practice on Monday morning.

Lakers coach Byron Scott led the session, but he will not be travelling with the team to Oklahoma City for family reasons. Scott recently lost his mother, and the coach will stay behind to attend his late mother's funeral service.

"Anyone who has been as close as I was with my mom, has lost a mom, they understand what I'm going through," a softer sounding Scott said after Monday's practice. "It's just a very difficult time for myself and my family."

Scott admitted that working with the team had helped take his mind off the loss, but he could not help but think about his mother when he had time to himself.

"(I'm) just trying to stay busy and not think about it as much as possible, which is impossible," Scott said before trying to be positive about the passing. "She's in a much better place, and she's not in pain anymore."

While Scott stays back home for a couple extra days, the Los Angeles Lakers will travel to Oklahoma City and then to Minneapolis to face the Minnesota Timberwolves. After that, Scott expects to re-join the team for Friday's game in Toronto. Assistant Paul Pressey will lead the team, and Scott said he did not hesitate in temporarily handing his post over to Pressey. 

However, before the Lakers embarked on their five-game road trip, which is the longest of the season, Scott decreed a few changes to the starting lineup. Jeremy Lin will start alongside Jordan Clarkson in the backcourt, which means the Lakers will play without a true point guard off the bench. Wayne Ellington will make way for Lin and move into the reserve unit. Lin scored 29 points, which was the player's season-high, in Sunday night's win over the Philadelphia 76ers.

Along with Lin, Ryan Kelly will return to the starting lineup and play as a power forward. Wesley Johnson and Tarik Black will retain their positions in the starting five.

The Lakers and Thunder get the ball rolling at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time on Tuesday.

A 12-year-old Boulder County, Colorado, girl is accused of trying to kill her mother on two separate occasions with bleach, after she took away her iPhone.

The girl first tried to kill her mother on March 2 by pouring bleach into her smoothie, police told NBC affiliate KUSA. The mother told police she smelled bleach in the drink, but thought her daughter had cleaned the glass and didn't rinse it thoroughly.

Later that week, police said, the girl put bleach into a water carafe her mother kept in her bedroom. That's when the mother confronted her daughter.

Police said, during the confrontation, the daughter told her mother she planned to kill her because the mother took away her iPhone.

"Most kids don't try to kill their parents," a police official said, according to KUSA. "We're not sure where she came up with the idea to do it the way she did."

The mother was taken to hospital, where police were notified. She was not injured.

The girl was arrested on March 20 on two counts of attempted first-degree murder and is in a juvenile detention center. Charges haven't been filed, according to KUSA.