The Office of Personnel Management announced Wednesday it will upgrade its cybersecurity measures after major breaches of federal employees' personal information.

Officials will hire a cybersecurity advisory, overhaul its information technology department and review the encryption of databases.

The personal information of as many as 4.2 million current, former and prospective federal employees was compromised in recent hacks. OPM did not confirm that figure in its report Wednesday.

The full report can be viewed on OPM's website.

Two nurses and a nurses aide have been arrested for allegedly dragging a disabled, bleeding patient across the hallway at a Queens nursing home, and neglecting to treat that patient for 20 minutes as he lay on the floor with an open head wound, authorities said Wednesday. 

Surveillance cameras captured the alleged abuse at Peninsula Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Far Rockaway in October. The company that operates the nursing home said it reviews surveillance tapes on a daily basis, and contacted the attorney general's office when officials saw the abuse on tape. 

According to prosecutors, the 51-year-old nursing home resident seen in the Oct. 23 video, who suffered from multiple debilitating conditions including altered mental status, fell in front of Esohe Agbonkpolor, a nurse at the rehab center, while in a hallway and Agbonkpolor did nothing to help.

Court papers allege the resident was left lying on his back on the floor for 12 minutes, at which time a certified nurse aide at the facility, Emmanuael Ufot, grabbed the injured man by his arm and dragged him into his room.

About 25 minutes later, the resident, wearing a backless gown that was pulled up over his naked body, emerged from his room, crawling along the floor on his back, bleeding profusely from a wound to the back of his head and another serious wound on his jaw, according to court documents.

Prosecutors allege in court papers that, for the following 20 minutes, Agbonkpolor and another nurse at the facility, Funmilola Taiwo, largely ignored the resident and never appropriately treated the resident’s wounds, though they were working just a few feet away.

As they allegedly neglected the man, Ufot, in another attempt to get the resident back into his room, allegedly grabbed him by his hospital gown that was by then twisted around his neck, dragged him along the floor and dropped him in front of his room.

Taiwo, 34, Agbonkpolor, 39, and Ufot, 36, all face charges of endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person, a felony, and willful violation of health laws, a misdemeanor. The three defendants were either fired from their jobs at Peninsula or resigned during the course of the investigation.

They were arrested Wednesday. Information on attorneys for them wasn't immediately available.

In a statement, nursing home administrator Elliot Norman said it has "zero tolerance toward any type of misconduct, abusive or negligent behavior by staff toward patients." 

He noted that Cardiff Bay Center LLC took over the nursing home in February 2013 when it was bankrupt and devastated by Sandy, and immediately installed a video surveillance system and established a daily review protocol. 

The nursing home is cooperating with the attorney general's office and "will continue to maintain absolute vigilance including the extensive use of our video surveillance system to ensure patient safety and the high standard of care we demand our employees deliver to our resident," Norman said. 

“My office will not tolerate nurses who callously fail to treat or endanger injured patients under their care,” Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement. “Caregivers must know that we will vigorously prosecute behavior that endangers our most vulnerable citizens. New Yorkers in nursing facilities deserve quality care and their loved ones deserve to know their caregivers act like the professionals they are."

If three is a lucky number, six parents in North Texas just hit the jackpot. That's because all three sets gave birth to triplets within three days at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Plano.

"To have three sets over three days is sort of unheard of for any hospital,” Dr. Randall Burt said.

Gretchen Whitehead has been all smiles since she and her husband Andrew brought home Owen, Nicholas and Juliette. They remember the moment they learned they were having triplets.

"Knuckles were bright white and we were like, 'what's happening, what does that mean?'” Whitehead recalled.

The day after their babies were born, Holly and Jason Bennett gave birth to triplets, too.

The next day Jessica and Brad nelson had three more.

"Pretty strange, pretty odd, this whole deal has been pretty odd,” Brad said. “It was definitely shock, it was overwhelming,” Jessica said.

"I was surprised that everybody went to deliver at the same time, but I had heard that there were other multiples on the same floor,” Holly said.

Dr. Garrett Garner delivered six of the nine babies. He says one in 8,000 spontaneous pregnancies are triplets.

"Three sets at the same time in one week is crazy. Very abnormal,” Dr. Garner said.

But Texas Health Plano may see more multiples than normal because of its IVF treatment program and its advanced, level-three neonatal intensive care unit. The couples say fertility treatments helped them get pregnant.

All three sets of triplets born are doing well.

The Bennett babies will go home within a week. The Nelsons will be there soon, too. Three sets of parents on cloud nine with their new families, even if it isn't the way they always pictured.
 

Firefighters in Southern California were battling a three-alarm brush fire in the Newhall area Wednesday night, prompting about 500 homes and about 1,000 people to be evacuated.

Evacuations for most areas were lifted around 10 p.m. Only Crescent Valley Mobile Estates remained evacuated.

The so-called Calgrove fire broke out along the northbound 5 Freeway at 1:15 p.m., in the Stevenson Ranch area, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department. As of 10 p.m. the fire had scorched 350 acres and was 45 percent contained, according to the LA County Fire Department.

About 450 firefighters responded to the blaze by 5 p.m., joined by four air tainkers and seven helicopters. Two hand crews and a flight team from CAL FIRE are also headed north to assist with the effort, according to the agency's San Diego-area spokesman Kendal Bortisser.

Around 2 p.m., evacuations were ordered for a nearby mobile home park at 23500 The Old Road in Newhall.

A center for evacuations was set up at West Ranch High School. Animals were taken to a private ranch after evacuation to Hart Park.

One structure was damaged, but it appeared to be just a garage, according to Tripp, the LACFD deputy chief.

The Old Road was closed to non-emergency traffic just before 2 p.m. The Six Flags Magic Mountain theme park six miles away has not yet been affected other than by smoke.

CHP issued an alert to motorists traveling to the Santa Clarita area during rush hour. Several lanes on the 5 Freeway just north of the interchange to State Route 14 remained blocked as of 4:30 p.m.

Crews will remain on scene to extinguish the last of the flames overnight.

California has already had 2,486 wildfires since the beginning of the year, up from 1,654 the state has averaged over the last five years, according to Cal Fire. Eighty-six hundred acres have burned.

Willian Avila, Robert Kovacik and Patrick Healy contributed to this report.

Two months after a roaring blaze scorched more than 1,000 acres around David Mejia’s house east of Los Angeles in Riverside County, the retired businessman keeps his important papers at the ready and a watchful eye for another wildfire.

"It’s always in the back of your mind," he said.

"Especially since we’re in a drought," he said. "It’s supposed to get hot and stay hot. We didn’t have much of a winter."

California is in the fourth year of a drought — a bone-dry spell that has brought unprecedented water restrictions -- and blazes like the one that threatened Mejia's house are becoming more frequent. Wildfire season traditionally runs from May through September, but with vegetation so parched the season now stretches through the year in places, straining budgets and leaving some people in fire-prone areas increasingly anxious.

"This drought is definitely taking its toll on the state," said Lynne Tolmachoff, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection or Cal Fire. "We need all the help we can get."

Mejia admits he was unprepared when an unattended cooking fire sparked flames around the Prado Dam over the Santa Ana River on April 18 — even though a wildfire swept through the same area about 13 years earlier. He packed papers and photographs into his SUV when one of his brothers insisted he evacuate.

"You just forget about it," he said of the earlier fire.

Last month, a dozen fire chiefs used a scarred landscape east of Sacramento as their backdrop as they warned that this year’s fire conditions were the worst on record. California has already had 2,486 wildfires since the beginning of the year, up from 1,654 the state has averaged over the last five years, according to Cal Fire. Eighty-six hundred acres have burned.

The chiefs assembled in Pollock Pines where in October the King Fire raced through more than 97,000 acres and burned Sally and Garry Dykstra's house to the ground on their 51st wedding anniversary. With only 10 minutes to evacuate, they grabbed a suitcase packed for a cruise they were about to take, Garry Dykstra's medicine and a couple of guns, Sally Dykstra said.

"They were yelling at us to get out so we couldn't grab anything else," Dykstra, a 72-year-old retired hair dresser, said.

Left behind were their passports, expensive roller skates, costumes and trophies from years of competing in dance roller skating and Garry Dykstra's 50-year-old train collection. They went on their cruise but without passports had to remain aboard the ship when it docked.

The Dykstras were always aware of the possibility of a fire. One had burned nearby while they were building their house 20 years ago, forcing evacuations and leaving ashes everywhere.

"I had a box near the door that looked just real cute and had baby pictures," Sally Dykstra said. "We didn't grab them. We didn't have time."

After months in an RV parked in a friend’s driveway, the Dykstras have moved into a new house on their property. But since the fire, Sally Dykstra has had a stroke, and Garry Dykstra, a former sheriff's deputy, was hospitalized with pneumonia. They found their cat, "Precious," missing after the fire, but have had to find her a new home. They plan to move away in a year or two, closer to a hospital and doctors.

Sally Dykstra said she was not worried about another fire because the vegetation around their house is gone. Their immediate problem is the 75 to 100 burnt trees on their property. Their neighbors were able to sell their trees for lumber, but now there is a glut and it will cost the Dykstra’s $90,000 to have them removed — most of which insurance will not cover.

"That has me very nervous," she said.

Lorraine Barber, an accountant for the County of El Dorado’s treasurer and Tax Collector’s Office, had only smoke and ash to clean up after the King Fire, which authorities say was the result of arson. Her photos and documents are already on an external hard drive.

But she said in an email: “It does change your view of your surroundings. Our property was overgrown with brush and low lying pine tree branches. We are busy clearing all low growing brush and removing all bushy dry plants near the house.”

One sign that things have returned to normal, she said: The neighborhood bear returned for the first time in a year with her cub.

The American Red Cross and Cal Fire recommend ways to prepare for wildfires, from removing brush and weeds to create buffers around houses to making buildings more durable to having an evacuation plan and practicing it.

Merritt Schreiber, the state coordinator of the California Psychological Association’s Disaster Response Network, said whether residents were evacuated, how much notice they received and whether they or their families were in danger or were injured all can contribute to their recovery from a crisis. Children may be particularly affected, he said.

If residents are not prepared for a disaster, they may need to make snap judgments about what to take or to leave before they are ready, Deborah Hopper, the acting chairwoman of the Disaster Response Committee of the San Diego Psychological Association, said in a statement. They may risk their lives by staying too long.

Her suggestions: Plan for a disaster, including preparing a to-go bag and getting supplies to remain at home if necessary, learn how to become more resilient, let others help after a crisis and seek additional professional after a month or two later if feelings of distress continue.

“For someone to be able to assess and let you know what you could do to help yourself,” she said.

Normal reactions to a disaster — flashbacks, trouble concentrating or making decisions, strained personal reactions, trouble eating or sleeping or physical symptoms such as headaches, nausea or chest pain — typically subside within a few months, according to the American Psychological Association.

But people who lose everything or who are grieving after a death can be affected for a long time, Hopper said.

Wildfires have long threatened lives and property in California. Since 1991, California has experienced seven of the country’s 10 most costly fires according to a ranking from the Insurance Information Institute. The most catastrophic was a brushfire that swept through the Oakland Hills in 1991 and killed 25 people. At the time, damage was estimated $1.7 billion.

But the drought has brought new dangers. Dry conditions have resulted in more than 270 new wildfires last week alone. California had budgeted $209 million to fight wildfires for the fiscal year beginning July 1; through last week the state had spent $241.5 million, said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the state’s Department of Finance. For the coming fiscal year, the state has increased the firefighting budget to $392 million.

In September, a fire devastated the small town of Weed, California, along Interstate 5 about 50 miles south of the Oregon state line. The Boles Fire forced more than half the people who live there to evacuate and destroyed or damaged about 150 buildings, including the Holy Family Catholic Church and Grace Community Evangelical Presbyterian Church. A month later, police arrested a man suspected of starting the blaze.

Dee Houck, a 42-year-old mother of four whose husband works at the College of the Siskiyous, the community college in Weed, watched the fire race up a hill and burn a neighbor’s house.

“I was scared to death,” she said. “We had minutes to evacuate our six pets, our children and anything we could grab.”

She and her family stayed with friends for a night and were able to return the next day. Since the fire, they have bought renter’s insurance, leave their pet kennels clipped together in a spot easily reached and have assembled a fire box with important items.

Weed is a historic logging city at the base of Mount Shasta in the Cascade Mountains. Some residents were already struggling financially, Houck said.

“There’s a fear here that maybe we didn’t have before,” Houck said. “Because you know, “That’s never going to happen to us.’ And it did. And so when the wind blows up or you see a campfire or something like that, you have a really healthy fear now of fire and what it can do and what it’s all about, how quickly it can move and change lives.”

About 60 percent of the residents who lost their homes are rebuilding, Weed Mayor Bob Hall said. Some were not insured or were under-insured, others do not have the resources to meet new building requirements, but the rebuilding is going well, he said.

Houck, who is originally from Minnesota, said she had thought about moving to somewhere greener and wetter but also that she had made a home in Weed.

Had her house burned, she said, “It’s scary to rebuild in a fire zone.”

In the end, Mejia’s house was undamaged. One of the first things he did after the fire was trim plants back. Even now he finds burnt sticks and leaves in his yard. He worries about the vegetation that remains by the Prado Dam, eucalyptus trees that didn't burn for example.

"The summer isn't over yet," he said. "There is still a lot of vegetation down there."

A 30-year-old Baltimore County man was arrested Tuesday after police say he allegedly arranged to have sex with a 15-year-old boy via text message and social media — and then was met by police officers instead. 

Howard County Police charged Philip Warren La Rocca with sexual solicitation of a minor and two counts of second-degree sex offense.

Officers began investigating La Rocca nearly a month ago after a man notified them his 15-year-old son was engaging in inappropriate communication online on the social media site Jack'd. 

Police said La Rocca sent the teen sexually explicit photos and messages. Investigators then took over the juvenile's account, continuing to communicate with La Rocca while posing as the teen.

La Rocca and the 15-year-old had also previously met twice and engaged in sexual activity, according to police. He arranged to meet with who he thought was the teen on at a parking lot in Ellicot City Tuesday, but upon arrival at the designated location, La Rocca instead was met by police and put under arrest. 

La Rocca is being held at Howard County Detention Center without bail. Police remind parents to be aware of children's presence on social media and call 410-313-STOP if they believe their child has had inappropriate contact with an adult.

A Montgomery County man died during the fierce storm Tuesday night after he struck a recently fallen tree with his pickup truck.

Elmer Henry Froelich, Jr., 79, was traveling east on Darnestown Road near Cattail Road around 8:30 p.m. when he hit a fallen tree with his 2003 Chevrolet S-10. He was pronounced dead on the scene. He was the only occupant of the truck.

Froelich's family was shocked by the death of the beloved Marine and carpenter who had just celebrated his 79th birthday.

"He was a great man," son-in-law Tom Kirkpatrick said Wednesday in front of the home Froelich built himself more than 30 years ago and shared with his wife. "He'd give the shirt off his own back to help anybody."

The tree that sparked the crash came down in severe storms that swept through the area Tuesday night. Strong winds, heavy rain, hail and lightning kept emergency responders busy. A tree fell on top of a Fairfax home, a Greenbelt apartment building caught fire after being struck by lightning and tens of thousands of people lost power.

Detectives are still investigating the crash. Anyone who witnessed the collision is asked to call the Montgomery County Collision Reconstruction Unit at 240-773-6620. Callers may remain anonymous.

A San Diego veteran says he is heading back to Iraq in a mission to fight the Islamic State. 

Roberto Pena will not be going for religious reasons or because he loves his country. He says, his willingness to fight the militants is about compassion. 

“It's about humanity itself," says Pena. "We cannot let atrocities continue to happen and history keep repeating itself, where we just turn a blind eye."

The Marine veteran says he is part of a growing group called, Veterans Against ISIS, who are planning to return to Iraq to fight. 

“We're not going to wait around until they grow or they are on our soil,” he said. 

Pena joined the Marines in 2001 and was deployed to Iraq in 2003. The 0311 Rifleman fought in the Battle of Fallujah in 2004, one of the toughest battles fought in the Iraq war. He says in house to house combat, “you could see the features of the person in front of you, just literally across the street from you, from window to window from street to street.”

He survived that battle, and says he knows returning to Iraq to fight ISIS is dangerous.

“I understand the risk," he said.

ISIS has placed a high bounty price on Americans. Pena believes it's because they know what U.S. veterans are capable of.

“When we go over there they do fear us," Pena said. "So they want to deter any way they can and that is the way I see it.”

When asked about the risk of being captured, he says he does not expect anyone to rescue or attempt to save him.

“I put myself in that position because I truly believe that we need individuals there to fight against ISIS," he said. "And I’ll do everything in my power to make sure I don’t get caught. But if I do get caught, I just want my family to know, my loved ones to know, my friends, America, humanity to know, it’s not for nothing. We need to take a stand against them.”

Despite the risk, Pena's family and wife support his choice to go.

“She absolutely understands," Pena said. "She was with me since I was in the Marines, so she has the same kind of dedication I do.”

Pena says his group is working with Kurdish fighters who have had victories against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. In final preparation, he is raising money online to pay for gear, travel, and help support his wife while he is away.

He is one of about 36 American veterans, he says, that plan to go to Iraq to fight. There are other American and foreign figthers battling ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

According to a State Department Spokesperson, the U.S. government does not support private U.S. citizens traveling abroad to fight against ISIS. Recently, a Massachusetts resident was killed while fighting ISIS in Syria. Keith Broomfield, 36, who joined a Kurdish militia fighting ISIS on Feb. 24, was laid to rest last week. 

Pena says he's not being paid a dime for his efforts. 

“The only thing we are walking away with is pride, knowing we did something for humanity, “ he said.

The 22-year-old man accused of fatally shooting a 16-year-old boy just seconds after the teen stepped off a bus has been charged with murder.

Derryck Antjuan Decuir, 22, of Southeast D.C., has been charged with second-degree murder while armed and assault with intent to kill, the Metropolitan Police Department said in an update Wednesday.

D.C. police said they identified Decuir as a suspect due to tips and information received from the community. He was arrested Friday.

Police said Malik Mercer, 16, of Clinton, Maryland, was shot shortly after 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, June 16, just seconds after stepping off a bus near the intersection of 28th Street and Naylor Road SE near his home, police said.

Sources told News4 Mercer stepped off the bus and was followed by a man who asked him for something. When the teen said he didn't have it, the man pulled out a gun and fired two shots into the teen's back.

Mercer was pronounced dead on Saturday.

In the wake of the shooting, police said they were seeking three persons of interest. Video distributed by D.C. police late Tuesday shows three men riding a bus.

Longtime resident Sharon Wise said she heard the shots on Tuesday and then saw the teen in the grass.

"I just started praying," she said as she placed a plant at the scene of the crime later Tuesday.

The teen was shot just blocks from where reporter Charnice Milton, 27, was gunned down late last month. That case remains unsolved.

Tesean Dorsey had just celebrated his 25th birthday with friends and gone to sleep when he was hit and killed by a stray bullet.

Dorsey, 25, is being mourned after he was killed in Fredericksburg early Saturday.

"The family really wants everyone to know he was an outstanding young man, he was an awesome brother, he would do anything for everybody," family friend Georgette Agnew said.

Dorsey was sleeping on an air mattress in the Fall Hill complex when neighbors were startled by gunshots about 4:20 a.m. Saturday.

Officers responded to the building and spoke with residents, and were told everyone was OK. Police returned about 8 a.m. when another resident found a shell casing in a stairwell. Then, Dorsey's friends told officers they had found the man dead, with a single gunshot to the head.

Dorsey's mother moved the family from Maryland to Fredericksburg in search of a safe community, Agnew said.

"What a tragedy for the entire community," she said.

Police believe another person was the shooter's intended target.

Retired D.C. police inspector Joseph O'Brien, 76, was struck and killed by a drunk hit-and-run driver in 2004. On Wednesday, that driver was finally sentenced to jail time.

After an international manhunt, Wilfred Olhlo was sentenced in Montgomery County Circuit Court to 3 years and 60 days, the maximum penalty for killing someone while driving impaired.

The crash occurred Dec. 17, 2004 on Montrose Road near Rockville Pike. O'Brien, a father and grandfather with an impressive career, was struck by Olhlo's car and then died five days later.

Off. John Powell arrested Olhlo, who admitted to having been drunk and pleaded guilty in 2006. But before he could be sentenced, he fled to his native Kenya.

"I figured that once he fled the country and had gone wherever, that we probably wouldn't catch him," Powell said.

Olhlo hid in Kenya for 10 years and was one of the 10 most-wanted men in the country. He was finally arrested by local police, together with INTERPOL.

O'Brien's daughter said seeing Olhlo sentenced provided some relief to the family's longstanding heartache.

"It's wonderful," Debbie Eckstein said. "It's not enough, but you can only do what the laws allow."

"I feel like we did right by him, and that makes us happy because he always did right by us," O'Brien's daughter added.

Olhlo will return to court in about a month and could face an additional sentence of as much as five years for leading police on an international chase.

A 10-year-old girl drowned and her two brothers remain hospitalized after all three were pulled from beneath the surface of a cloudy community swimming pool Wednesday as their mother, who was apparently unable to swim and tending two her two younger children, pleaded for help.

The five siblings were swimming in the shallow end of the pool with their mother at the MacArthur Place at 183 apartment complex on the 2300 block of North MacArthur Boulevard Wednesday afternoon when, according to police, the three drifted into the deep end as their mother's back was turned.

"When she didn't hear the sounds of the children playing anymore, she turned around and didn't see them anymore," Irving Police Department spokesman James McLellan said. "They appeared to have gone below the surface [of the water]."

The mother then began screaming for help, as police said they think she was unable to swim. A nearby maintenance man jumped into the pool and pulled two of the unconscious children out.

"That [drowning] can happen so quickly," McLellan said. "And very quickly, it becomes overwhelming for a single person to handle."

The three children were all transported to Children's Medical Center in Dallas where the woman's daughter, identified by the Dallas County medical examiner as 10-year-old August Smith, died. Irving police said the woman's two sons remained in the intensive care unit at the hospital Thursday morning in grave condition.

"According to [the] original officer that arrived first, she was not made aware that there was a third child in the pool," said McLellan. "In fact, she expressed a little frustration that she didn't know that."

Police are looking into the pool water's murky appearance for a possible reason no one noticed the third child. The pool was open and the water samples from the pool are being analyzed by code enforcement and the health department.

Irving city leaders released the following statement:

"We have established that this pool was in compliance with all City of Irving regulations when it was last inspected on November 10, 2014. Those standards and regulations mimic those established by the Texas Department of Health, and inspections occur every twelve months.

 

• Guard Traded Tools for Escaped Killers' Paintings: DA

Officials said though the drowning appears to be accidental, they are trying to determine how the three children ended up under water. Police said the mother does not face any charges, but police are still looking for any criminal signs that point to negligence.

NBC 5's Johnny Archer Ellen Bryan, Jocelyn Lockwood, Holley Ford, Todd L. Davis and Frank Heinz contributed to this report.

A news crew from an NBC station in Pittsburgh helped save a man who accidentally overdosed on heroin behind the wheel Wednesday night.

The crew was setting up for a live shot in Washington, Pennsylvania, when WPXI photographer Dave Clark noticed the man slumped in his car and began to give him CPR.

"I’m thinking, ‘OK, if we can just keep a pulse going till the paramedics get here, we'll be cool,'" he said. "But his pulse got weaker and weaker."

While Clark pulled the man from his car and administered CPR, reporter Cara Sapida dialed 911.

Medics arrived shortly after and were able to revive the man, who they said had overdosed on heroin. They said without Clark's quick action, the man likely would have died.

"Your cameraman originally brought his pulse back,” police officer Matt Karlowsky told WPXI. “He probably would've died if your crew wasn't there.”

Heroin and opioid overdoses are the leading cause of accidental death in Pennsylvania, with more than 800 heroin-related deaths in 2014 alone, WPXI reported.

Gov. Chris Christie will announce his presidential campaign next week at his high school alma mater, sources familiar with the decision confirm to NBC 4 New York.

The New Jersey governor plans to announce his candidacy at an event at Livingston High School -- where Christie was once class president -- on Tuesday, the sources say. 

Christie has been widely expected to join the increasingly crowded field of Republicans seeking the party's nomination, and was at one time considered a 2016 front-runner. Thirteen candidates, including former New York Gov. George Pataki, have already announced campaigns. 

Christie had been a popular figure both in his home state and nationally thanks to his brash demeanor and actions in the wake of Sandy in 2012, but his approval ratings have dropped in the wake of the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal last fall.

Christie was never implicated in the traffic-jamming political payback scheme, but two of his top aides were arrested in the aftermath of the scandal.

Christie has been touring his state and New Hampshire, an important state in the nation's primary elections, hosting a series of town halls.

In April, he told Matt Lauer in an interview on NBC's "Today" that he thought a governor would be the Republican party's nominee. 

“If I decide I want to do this, I’m going to do it honestly, and I'm going to go at as hard as I can and try to win every day,” he said. “I will never give being who I am, because that's a thing that stays with you forever."

A 10-year-old girl and her 2-year-old sister left alone in their family's car escaped from the moving vehicle Sunday as a thief climbed inside and made his getaway from a Southern California parking lot.

The mother had left her daughters inside the car at a 7-Eleven gas station at 1161 Lugonia Avenue Sunday afternoon while she went inside to pay, according to a Redlands Police Department news release.

Surveillance video showed a man getting into the car, which the mother had left with the motor running. As the mother ran toward the car, the man began to drive off. The passenger side door opened and the two girls tumbled out of the car while still in the parking lot.

The girls suffered minor scrapes.

The 2002 Acura TL, with California license plate 4UWT026, was last seen on San Bernardino Avenue entering the westbound 210 Freeway, police said.

The suspect, who police say had made a purchase at the store prior to the car theft, was identified by investigators as 24-year-old Cory Michael Ahumada of Highland.

Police released the surveillance video in hopes the public can help find him.

Anyone with information regarding the incident or Ahumada's whereabouts was asked to call Redlands Det. Mike Merriman at 909-389-6675.

Federal authorities say customers lined up around a corner on Chicago's West Side in broad daylight in hopes of a getting heroin. 

Now, 42 people now face state or federal narcotics charges for their alleged roles in supplying and distributing heroin around West Grenshaw Street and Independence Boulevard in Chicago's North Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side.

Authorities allege 33-year-old James Triplett, also known as “Trell,” was a wholesale supplier of heroin and ran the heroin trade in the area. 

A photo included in a more than 200-page federal criminal complaint shows a line of people waiting on June 16 in the 3700 block of West Grenshaw to get heroin from Triplett's organization.

The area where the photo was taken, south of the Eisenhower Expressway corridor, has been referred to as “Heroin Highway” because of the accessibility it provides to city and suburban heroin customers. 

Authorities claim Triplett’s suppliers, who authorities identified as 34-year-old Levaughn Collins, also known as "Sweet Bobby," and Collins' associates, would use clear bags or ones with logos of green playboy bunnies, brown Hershey kisses, orange basketballs, Batman, black pandas or purple ladies stamped on them.  

Sixteen people now face federal charges, including Triplett, who was charged with drug conspiracy and faces at least a 10-year sentence if convicted. Twenty-six other people face state charges.

Authorities said 32 people were arrested Wednesday morning and police confiscated 12 firearms, $50,000 in cash, nearly a half-kilogram of heroin and more than a half-kilogram of cocaine. They also searched several homes, three alleged stash houses and seized two vehicles, including a 2014 Maserati GranTurismo.

Chicago police and Drug Enforcement Administration agents on the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force led the investigation.

"Too many lives in Chicagoland are forever lost due to heroin use," Dennis Wichern, special agent in charge of the Chicago Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration said in a statement. "I'm proud of the work done by these agents, officers and prosecutors, who worked tirelessly to achieve these results and I’m confident that with our continued partnership, we will have increasing success."

Four firefighters were injured fighting a massive 7-alarm fire at the Anglo Mill Complex in Webster, Massachusetts, on Thursday afternoon.

The fire tore through the abandoned mills at 103 N. Main St. and spread to some nearby homes, fire officials confirmed.

Webster Fire Chief Brian Hickey said four firefighters were taken to the hospital; however, two of the firefighters have since returned.

There are no active businesses in the Anglo complex, which was scheduled to be demolished.

"Right now we've got the upper hand on the fire," Hickey said at a 4 p.m. news conference. "There's still a lot of smoke, a lot of embers."

Because of the products in the building, which include building and roofing materials, he said some small explosions occurred as the fire burned, but they were nothing to be concerned about.

Hickey said the fire spread to the roofs of some nearby homes, but did not cause any major damage. Some homes were evacuated, and he said those residents will be allowed to return as soon as things calm down a bit.

"We're into our mop up right now," he said. "We've got it contained to the main building. The secondary building's still got quite a bit of fire."

Acting Webster Town Administrator Pamela Regis said the fire involved several buildings at the old mill complex. She said no one was inside the building, but there is severe property damage.

The towns of Auburn, Douglas, and Oxford, among others, responded to the scene to provide mutual aid.

Massachusetts State Fire Marshal Stephen Coan said the mutual aid provided by nearby departments were critical to controlling the fire.

"We're in a very dense neighborhood here, and if not for the aggressive nature of the fire departments it could have been much worse," he said.

Coan said it is too early to say what the cause of the fire might be or whether it was intentionally set. He urged anyone with information about the fire to call 1-800-682-9229.

National Grid said it had a crew nearby and was able to quickly turn off gas and electricity in the area.