Allegations of racial profiling on the USC campus are creating a stir after an actress from the hit show "Empire" said she would not send her son to the Southern California school because he was racially profiled.

Some students said they are not surprised by the allegations.

The issue dominated the national discussion after actress Taraji P. Henson's said she wouldn't send her 20-year son to USC after she said he was stopped by police because of the color of his skin.

"I never feel comfortable without my ID on me because I know I'm going to get stopped," said Skylar Dunn, a senior at USC.

On the schools campus, some students say the moment highlights a common occurrence.

"These things are happening every year, every semester," said Ama Amoafo-Yeboah, a senior.

Amoafo-Yeboah was there when several black students were arrested by the LAPD at a party in 2013.

It set off protests and discussions about race relations on campus.

"It's not being addressed to the entire student body that it is something that's necessary," she said.

She points to the site, "I, Too, Am USC," launched on Martin Luther King Day, before the recent controversy.

It features stories of marginalization among students.

The actress from the current FOX show, "Empire," tells Uptown magazine her son was on campus when police stopped him "for having his hands in his pockets.

"I'm not paying 50K so I can't sleep at night wondering is this the night my son is getting racially profiled on campus," she said.

In a statement, the chief of the schools Department of Public Safety said he, too, has been racially profiled and encourages reporting any allegations of bias.

That triggers an investigation with the University's Office of Equity and Diversity.

It's unclear who was involved in the alleged incident involving Henson's son. The chief says no report was made to his office.

"There's no system of checks and balances," Amoafo-Yeboah said.

Students said they have never seen the outcome of any report. The school would not return calls for comment.

"At an institution where we are only 4 or 5 percent, it's really hard," Amoafo-Yeboah said.

Students say they have worked with the chief before but insist there should be more training for officers and a continuous open discussion.

Henson's representatives have not commented since the magazine article was released nor have they contacted the school. The chief wants to meet with mother and son to discuss the allegations.

FIVE SIGNS YOU MIGHT HAVE FOOD POISONING:

Most signs of food poisoning cause one or more of these symptoms, which start within hours after eating contaminated food, or they might begin days or weeks later:

• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Watery diarrhea
• Abdominal pain and cramps
• Fever

Seek medical attention if you experience any of the following symptoms:

• Frequent episodes of vomiting and inability to keep liquids down
• Diarrhea for more than three days
• Bloody vomit or stools
• Temperature higher than 101.5 F
• Blurry vision, muscle weakness, tingling in the arms
   

A mother and her young child were in critical condition after a fire broke out at an apartment building in Long Beach early Thursday.

The 47-year-old woman and her 4-year-old daughter were both given emergency treatment then taken to a hospital after being rescued from the blaze, a Long Beach Fire Department spokesman said. Two dogs was also found dead at the scene.

The fire broke out in the three-story complex in the 1000 block of Stanley Avenue just after 12 a.m., and was confined a single apartment on the top level. It was unknown how much the loss was, nor if smoke detectors inside were working, fire officials said.

After the fire department's helicopter raised the alarm, nine units were sent to fight the two-alarm blaze, fire officials said.

Firefighters found the mother and daughter inside a bedroom. Two other people who live in the apartment were not inside, fire officials said.

A neighbor rushed to the apartment when he saw flames.

"I was trying to open the door, I kicked it and then I finally turned the knob," Alejandro Arevalo said. He saw flames from the balcony to the living room, he said.

Investigators were working to determine the cause and origin of the fire. Those evacuated during the fire later returned to their homes.

It was an emotional day in court, as jurors viewed the autopsy photos of Boston Marathon bombing victim Krystle Campbell.

One juror grabbed a tissue as she wiped away tears, while another juror overcome with emotion put his head in his hands.

Medical examiner Dr. Jennifer Hammers testified that Campbell died from blast injuries to her torso and legs, saying that she lost so much blood that she likely survived less than a minute before succumbing to her injuries on Boylston Street.

The autopsy photos were only shown to the jury, witness and attorneys on either side, but defendant Dzhokhar Tsarnaev turned around in his chair and glanced quickly at the display screen before being told to turn back around.

Earlier in the day, jurors heard testimony from FBI agent Edward Knapp, who pieced the thousands of bomb components found on Boylston Street and in Watertown back together and created mock ups of the devices.

He let the jurors handle and examine each replica bomb and explained to them how the components were modified - from remote controlled car transmitters, receivers and batteries to send energy to a modified Christmas tree light, and how fireworks powder was placed into pressure cookers and pipe bombs, fashioned with hobby fuse as a back up detonator.

Agent Knapp then showed the jury how the electrical components worked, by arming the inert replica devices and pressing the trigger on the transmitter which lit the Christmas tree light that glowed brightly green.

He explained in the actual device the filament on that light would have set off the bomb.

A driver was airlifted to hospital after a crash that closed the 57 Freeway at Diamond Bar early Thursday.

Two vehicles were involved in the smash, in which a car is reported to have overturned and struck a pole at around 1:13 a.m. north of Sunset Crossing Road, a California Highway Patrol spokesman said.

It is unclear if the two vehicles collided first or if the second vehicle collided after the first vehicle overturned.

THE driver of the overturned was trapped in the vehicle, and was given emergency treatment before being taken to the hospital. There is no information on the extent of their injuries.

The sig alert was cancelled at 3:42 a.m.

Four people have been arrested in connection with the kidnapping and murder of a 3-week-old little girl in Long Beach earlier this year, police said Wednesday.

Little Eliza Delacruz was taken from her home Jan. 3, after assailants broke into her family’s home and shot her mother, father and uncle.

The infant’s body was found the following afternoon in a trash bin behind a strip mall in Imperial Beach.

Police said the suspects were part of an elaborate plot that began with a woman who told her boyfriend she had given birth and went looking for a newborn to present as her own.

Giseleangelique D'Millan, 47, of Thousand Oaks, allegedly told a boyfriend that she had given birth to two children by him, and then went on a search to find two babies that she could represent as her own.

She convinced Anthony McCall, 29, of Oceanside, to help her in her attempts to find a child that she could present to her boyfriend as her own.

Both have been charged with murder, kidnapping, attempted murder and conspiracy.

Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna said D'Millian stalked baby Eliza's mother before the kidnapping.

"Based on our investigation, D'Millan never gave birth to any children last year and in order to continue with this deception, she needed to produce two children who matched the ages of her fabricated twins," he said.

The investigation stalled after the kidnapping until early February, when a man went into an apartment complex in El Segundo and beat a woman with a baseball bat and tried to steal her 3-month-old child.

Detectives linked the two cases and last week, officials released sketches of the suspected assailants.

Chief Luna also said the two had told people they were heading up a nonprofit to help young mothers with children under the age of one, in an apparent attempt to gain access to babies.

The boyfriend that D'Millian told about the twins was not part of the plot and lives elsewhere with his own children and family, Luna said.

Two others, Todd Boudreaux, 44, of Fontana, and Charisse Shelton, 30, of Corona, were also arrested for allegedly assisting in the scheme after the fact. Shelton is the adult daughter of D'Millan.

A major step was taken toward getting an NFL stadium built in Carson after a petition was delivered to city hall.

While 8,041 signatures were needed, the group Carson2gether managed to get almost double that number.

More than 40 boxes full of paper were handed over to officials Wednesday calling for the city council to immediately discuss the proposed joint San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders stadium.

It comes after a rally was held last weekend in the city in an attempt to secure the required number of signatures. The council will now be able to approve the proposal outright or make the issue a ballot measure. 

The San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders announced in February they are working on a joint proposal to build a 72,000-seat stadium at Del Amo Boulevard and the San Diego (405) Freeway in Carson. However, this is dependent on them being unable to strike deals for new facilities in their respective cities.

Inglewood City Council has already approved a plan by St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke to build a stadium at the former Hollywood Park racetrack site.

Members voted unanimously on February 24 to approve the mooted 80,000-seat stadium. Despite this, the Rams have not announced any plans of moving back to the Los Angeles area.

LA has not had an NFL team since 1994.

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft said Monday it is not good enough the city does not have a franchise.

"I don't think it's good that we've let a generation of fans, young kids, grow up without a team," Kraft said. "It's not good for the NFL. I really believe within the next year we'll have two teams in this market. We have some real good options."

A Brentwood middle school teacher accused of racism is to return to class Thursday morning following protests from pupils and parents who came to his defense.

Steven Carnine was not allowed to teach at Paul Revere Charter Middle School and Magnet Center after claims were made against him by the parent of a mixed-race eighth grader in a lawsuit filed against the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Administrators notified parents of the decision Wednesday, which follows an internal investigation into his conduct.

"The review has concluded, and any and all administrative action has been taken," stated the email from Principal Christopher Perdigao.

In the parent's lawsuit he was accused of using the N-word during a lesson about the Civil War, making disparaging comments about black people and denigrating Michael Brown, the black teenager whose fatal shooting by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri sparked nationwide protests.

However dozens of students and parents came to his defense, saying he was only making a point about stereotypes and not voicing his own personal beliefs.

They 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."

Parents echoed her sentiments.

"It's very hurtful and they're very, very upset and they know he would never say anything like that and I feel he was unjustly accused," said Kelly Aluise

The majority of Californians say their neighbors are failing to do enough to respond to the state's severe drought, according to a new poll from the Public Policy Institute.

Two-thirds of residents surveyed, 66 percent, said people in their part of the state are not doing their share when it comes to water conservation and drought-relief measures. About 24 percent said their neighbors are doing just enough and 6 percent said they were doing too much, according to the poll.

"The ongoing drought is raising concerns about the long-term water supply," said Mark Baldassare, PPIC president and CEO. "Most Californians think their neighbors could be doing more to save water today."

The poll, released Wednesday, showed that 66 percent of those surveyed believe their regional water supply is a "big problem," near a record high of 68 percent in October. The problem seemed most urgent in the Central Valley, the heart of California's agricultural operations, where 76 percent said the water supply is a major problem.

When asked about the most important issue facing California, poll participants were just about as likely to indicate water and the drought as they were jobs and the economy. Those issues were much higher priorities than education and immigration, according to the poll.

More than 93 percent of the state is under severe drought, according to this week's U.S. Drought Monitor report, which categorizes drought into five levels of severity -- abnormally dry, moderate, severe, extreme and exceptional. Nearly 42 percent of California is under exceptional drought, an increase of nearly 2 percentage points over last week.

One year ago, 24 percent of the state was under exceptional drought.

The state's critically low reservoirs received little relief this winter as California nears the end of its wet season. In the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where springtime water runoff benefits an estimated 25 million Californians, precipitation since October is 10 inches below normal.

The poll comes a week after the governor, who declared a drought emergency in January 2014 and called on residents to reduce water use by 20 percent, announced a plan to accelerate funding for water projects. That $1 billion proposal to speed up spending and offer about $75 million in immediate aid to residents and wildlife was sent to the governor's desk Thursday.

The legislation accelerates water infrastructure spending, some of which can boost local water supplies in future years. It includes $267 million to give out grants for water-recycling projects and expand drinking water in small and poor cities.

Earlier this month, the State Water Resources Control Board extended and expanded restrictions on water use, admitting that its actions so far have been focused on the easier ways to immediately cut down urban water use. Members voted to extend statewide outdoor water limits imposed in July, barring washing down driveways, decorative fountains without recirculating pumps and sprinklers that spray pavement.

New rules will require local water departments to restrict the number of days residents can water their lawns. If they don't, residents must follow a state rule limiting their sprinkling to twice a week. Homeowners are also barred from using sprinklers on days when it rains and for the next two days.

Editor's Note: The Public Policy Institute of California poll results are based on a telephone survey of 1,706 California adult residents conducted March 8 to 17.

A man slammed into a parked truck in front of a home in El Cajon Wednesday night to allegedly avoid another driver who was going the wrong way in his lane, California Highway Patrol officials said.

The crash happened around 11:40 p.m. at Pepper Drive and Somerlane Street.

CHP Officer Brian Pennings said there were no witnesses to the crash, but the driver claimed he saw a wrong-way driver and swerved to avoid an even bigger collision.

He wound up plowing through some wooden fencing and crashing into a parked truck in the driveway of a home.

Pennings said the driver was taken to a local hospital with unspecified injuries.

He said the crash is under investigation and there is no information on the alleged wrong-way vehicle. Pennings said investigators were also working to determine whether alcohol or drugs may have contributed to the collision.
 

California Attorney General Kamala Harris asked a state court on Wednesday for permission to reject a proposed ballot initiative stipulating that anyone who engages in gay sex be killed.

Harris issued a statement saying she was making the unusual request to stop the measure filed by a Southern California lawyer late last month. The initiative seeks to amend the California penal code to make sex with a person of the same gender an offense punishable by "bullets to the head or by any other convenient method." The distribution of gay "propaganda" would be punishable by a $1 million fine or banishment from the state.

"This proposal not only threatens public safety, it is patently unconstitutional, utterly reprehensible, and has no place in a civil society," Harris said.

Matthew McLaughlin, the Orange County lawyer who paid $200 to submit the initiative, did not respond to a telephone call seeking comment. A Democratic state senator, Ricardo Lara, has asked the California bar to investigate whether McLaughlin's actions make him unfit to practice law.

The measure puts Harris in a difficult position. Although the bill has no discernible momentum or likely chance of success, she said unless a judge rules otherwise, she will have no choice but to give McLaughlin the go-ahead to seek the nearly 366,000 votes needed to qualify the measure for the November 2016 ballot.

California is one of 21 states where citizens can petition to have laws put on the ballot through the gathering of voter signatures. Under California's initiative process, state officials do not have authority to refuse to administer initiatives they find objectionable, the California Supreme Court has ruled. Although few of the dozens submitted to the attorney general each year make it on the ballot, the ease with which a resident with a pet peeve can gain clearance to circulate their proposals while seeking signatures has prompted calls for reform.

University of California, Davis law professor Floyd Feeney, an expert on California's initiative process, said Harris alone cannot impede the proposed law. And despite the numerous legal problems with McLaughlin's proposal, Feeney said he was not convinced a court would agree to halt it at this stage.

"The courts, rightly or wrongly, treat the initiative as sort of the citizen right and they are reluctant to get involved in trying to get rid of it, at least in advance, by using the law to keep something from being presented to the electorate," he said.

On Wednesday, a Southern California real estate agent, Charlotte Laws, countered the so-called "Sodomite Suppression Act" with an initiative of her own. Titled the Intolerant Jackass Act, it would require anyone who proposes an initiative calling for the killing of gays and lesbians to attend sensitivity training and make a $5,000 donation to a pro-LGBT group.
 

Anthony Mancilla was riding his bike home from a convenience store on Tuesday evening, when gunfire erupted along Senter Road.

He saw a lot of police officers, "more than normal," and heard two gunshots - one of them that ended up fatally hitting Officer Michael Johnson, a 14-year-veteran of the San Jose police force and the first to die in the line of duty since 2001.

Mancilla took out his cell phone and took some video. The scene showed San Jose police cars lined up along Senter Road. A horn  blared. People walked up and down the street. One man said "He shot a cop. He shot a cop." Another man said: "He's f---ing dead. Oh my God."

NBC Bay Area is not showing the entire video because it is laced with expletives and shows the officer's body down on the street.

Johnson was killed by 57-year-old Scott Dunham of San Jose, who Police Chief Larry Esquivel described as “despondent” when family members called for help about 6:48 p.m. Tuesday, police said. When Johnson arrived to help, police say Dunham fired at him from his apartment balcony in the 2600 block of Senter Road. Johnson died at the scene.

On Wednesday morning, Police Chief Larry Esquivel said that Dunham was found dead on the balcony about 3:20 a.m. He had suffered at least one gunshot wound. It's still unclear, however, if he killed himself, or if he died as a result of the ensuing police gunfire.

A bear caught in a tree in Tracy is now being cared for by biologists.

The bear created a scene Wednesday afternoon with dozens of people watching. The animal was eventually tranquilized and ended up falling out of the tree.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife said the bear is a young female, about 175 pounds and was not hurt in the fall.

Wildlife experts are now debating on where to release the bear.

More coverage from KCRA News.

The co-pilot of the Germanwings jet that crashed in the French Alps this week apparently brought down the plane deliberately, killing all 150 people aboard, officials said Thursday, as Tuesday's tragedy took a horrifying turn.

Andreas Lubitz, 27, appears to have intentionally flown the plane into the side of a mountain while he was alone at the controls, while the plane's pilot pounded on the locked cockpit door, officials said flight recordings showed.

Deliberate crashes of commercial passenger jets, while rare, are believed to have occurred before. Here are some of the most well-known of them. 

2013 — Mozambique Airlines Flight TM470
Bound for Angola from Mozambique, this flight went down in heavy rain in Namibia on Nov. 29, 2013. Mozambique aviation experts said they believed the crash, which killed all 33 people on board, was intentional. The pilot, Hermino dos Santos Fernandes, locked himself in the cockpit and refused to let the co-pilot back in until just before the plane hit the ground, the BBC reported.

1999 — EgyptAir Flight 990
This plane crashed into the ocean en route from New York City to Cairo on Oct. 31, 1999, killing all 203 passengers, four crew members and 10 flight attendants. A National Transportation Safety Board report released two years later blamed co-pilot Gamil al-Batouti’s "manipulation of the airplane controls"; U.S. investigators said he cut power to the engines, turned the plane down and repeated the phrase, "I rely on God." He had been demoted hours before the trip over accusations of sexual misconduct, The New York Times reported. Egypt's aviation authority charged, however, that American investigators had failed to consider evidence supporting the possibility that multiple failures in the airplane’s elevator control system may have caused the crash.

1997 — SilkAir Flight 185
A SilkAir airplane crashed into a river shortly after leaving the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, on Dec. 19, 1997, killing all 104 people on board. American investigators believe that the pilot acted deliberately, the BBC reported. The investigators said the pilot, Tsu Way Ming, did not try to stop the plane’s nosedive. In addition, the cockpit voice box recorder appeared to have been disconnected. An Indonesian investigation was not conclusive.

1994 — Royal Air Maroc Flight 630
All 44 people aboard a turboprop were killed when a captain deliberately flew the plane into a North African mountainside on Aug. 21, 1994, the Los Angeles Times reported. The co-pilot could be heard screaming, "Mayday, mayday, the pilot is..." The captain had disconnected the autopilot, according to Moroccan officials, and newspaper reports suggested he was upset over a love affair. The flight union disputes those findings.

1982 — Japan Air Lines Flight 350
A Japan Air Lines captain crashed his plane into the ocean on its approach to Tokyo on Feb. 9, 1982. His fellow crew members struggled with him in the cockpit, The New York Times reported, but 24 of the 174 people on board died. Days afterward, the airline's president said the pilot had had a "psychosomatic illness" in 1980 but had later been found fit to return to duty.

One person was killed Thursday morning after a report of a man armed with a knife led to an officer-involved shooting in the Wilmington area.

Police received a report at about 9:30 a.m. of a suicidal person with a knife in the 1500 block of Bay View Avenue, just northwest of Long Beach. Neighbors told NBC4 the man's mother likely called police.

Officers opened fire after encountering the man in the street. Details regarding the events that led up to the shooting were not available late Thursday morning.

Aerial video showed a knife at the scene in front of a house.

A U.S. Army National Guard soldier and his cousin have been charged with conspiring to support ISIS, federal prosecutors say.

Army National Guard Specialist Hasan Edmonds, 22, and Jonas Edmonds, 29, both from the suburban Chicago community of Aurora, are accused of plotting to provide material support and resources to the terror organization, U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon announced Thursday.

They also allegedly planned to use Army uniforms and military knowledge to attack a U.S. military facility in northern Illinois.

According to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday, the pair allegedly devised a plan in late 2014 for Hasan Edmonds to travel overseas and use his military training to fight on behalf of ISIS. As part of the plan, Hasan Edmonds booked a flight scheduled to leave Wednesday from Chicago and arrive in Cairo Thursday.

Both men also met with an FBI undercover employee to present a plot to carry out an armed attack against the military facility where Hasan Edmonds had been training, according to the complaint. As part of the plan, Jonas Edmonds and the undercover officer would use Hasan Edmonds’ uniforms and his knowledge of the facility to access the grounds and target officers for the attack.

“Disturbingly, one of the defendants currently wears the same uniform of those they allegedly planned to attack,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin said in a statement.

Hasan Edmonds was arrested at Midway Airport during an attempt to fly to Egypt, and Jonas Edmonds was arrested at his home in Aurora, prosecutors say. Both were charged with conspiring to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization.

"We will pursue and prosecute with vigor those who support ISIL and its agenda of ruthless violence," said U.S. Attorney Fardon. "Anyone who threatens to harm our citizens and allies, whether abroad or here at home, will face the full force of justice."

Conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.