13 MORE CALIFORNIA MEASLES CASES TIED TO DISNEY OUTBREAK: LOS ANGELES (AP) — California health officials confirmed that 13 new measles cases are connected to an outbreak at Disney theme parks last month, bringing the total number of illnesses to 39.
The new cases of the airborne illness reported Thursday include eight in San Diego County and five in Los Angeles County.
The San Diego County cases include several people who showed up with fevers and rashes Wednesday at a health clinic in the suburb of La Mesa.
Officials said 35 of the confirmed cases are in California, two are in Utah and one apiece in Colorado and Washington.
Most of the patients visited Disneyland or Disney California Adventure between Dec. 15 and Dec. 20, but some contracted the illness from others who visited.
VETERAN LOS ANGELES LIFEGUARD DIES DURING ANNUAL SWIM TEST: LOS ANGELES (AP) — A 42-year-old lifeguard for the Los Angeles County Fire Department has died during an annual swim exercise at a local high school.
The department says that Brian Kutil died Thursday and was a 20-year veteran of the Lifeguard Division.
He died while swimming in the annual 500-meter recertification swim exercise at Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach. He was immediately treated by lifeguards, paramedics and taken to Little Company of Mary hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Capt. Thomas Richards says it’s not clear what happened and the exact cause of his death is under investigation.
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LOS ANGELES POLICE OFFICER INJURED IN UNDERCOVER CASE: LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles police officer working undercover on a narcotics case has been seriously injured after a suspect hit him with a vehicle and fled.
Officer Jack Richter, a spokesman for the department, says the officer was reported down shortly after noon Thursday in the Granada Hills area and was taken to a hospital. The officer is expected to survive his injuries.
Hours later, police detained a man and were trying to corroborate his identity with available surveillance footage and witness accounts, Richter says.
Richter says the officer was working a drug sale in plainclothes when something went “very wrong” and the suspect hit him with his vehicle and ran away.
JAIL INMATE ESCAPES WORK DETAIL IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA: SANTA ROSA (AP) — A Northern California jail inmate has been captured after escaping from an outdoor work crew.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that 38-year-old Michael Brandon Gentuso was found and arrested Wednesday night at a homeless encampment near Rohnert Park, California, about 50 miles north of San Francisco. He is being held without bail.
Authorities say Gentuso took off his denim jail clothing and ran from a work detail in Santa Rosa on Monday morning.
He had been serving a 90-sentence on a drug possession charge since late December.
Police say he was allowed to be in the outdoor work detail because he was not considered a serious threat to public safety.
AUTHORITIES FIND BODY AT RESORT AMID SEARCH FOR EXECUTIVE: PALM DESERT, Calif. (AP) — Authorities have found a body at the J.W. Marriot resort in Palm Desert, where investigators have been searching for a missing Los Angeles finance executive.
City News Service reports Thursday that it’s unknown if the body is 33-year-old Omar Arce Meza who was last seen on Jan. 8.
Riverside County sheriff’s investigators have scoured the resort for days with dive teams and dogs to find Meza, the vice president for AIG Financial Distributors.
He’d traveled there for business and spoke to his wife at 11:20 p.m. as he left dinner with colleagues, telling her he’d call her as soon as he returned to his room. He never called.
KNBC-TV reports that colleagues placed Meza in an Uber car but there may have been confusion about which Marriott he was staying at.
FBI TRYING TO IDENTIFY ‘2 GUYS AND A GIRL BANDITS’: LOS ANGELES (AP) — Authorities are trying to identify a group nicknamed “two guys and a girl bandits” who’ve robbed at least two banks in Southern California.
The FBI says Thursday that the three armed suspects robbed a Wells Fargo bank in Rancho Palos Verdes on Dec. 12 and a CalCom Federal Credit Union in Torrance on Dec. 30.
During the robberies the suspects ordered everyone to the ground and demanded cash. In the first robbery, they fled in a stolen white sedan; in the second robbery a suspect fired a round into the ceiling before they fled in a stolen blue sedan.
They work nylon stockings over their faces and one wore an Oakland Raiders cap in the Rancho Palos Verdes robbery and a Chicago Bulls cap in the Torrance one.