3 Arrested After Stolen Boat Runs Aground

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Distressed Sailboat May be Stolen From Sausalito

Crews on Monday morning were trying to bring a wayward - and possibly stolen - sailboat to shore in Pacifica. By mid-morning, authorities were surrounding the sailboat, whose stranded passengers were refusing to come to shore. Christie Smith reports.

Coast Guard Crews Help Pacifica Sailboat in Distress

Crews on Monday morning were trying to bring a wayward sailboat to shore in Pacifica.The sailboat reported being in distress about 5:30 a.m. at the Linda Mar Beach in Pacifica with two people on board. The boat is about 20 yards from the beach. Christie Smith reports.

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Authorities were at first dispatched on Monday morning to save a wayward sailboat off the northern California coastal city of Pacifica. But hours into the odd rescue, the three aboard a sailboat named the Darling were arrested after the 82-foot boat was reported stolen from Sausalito, an affluent city about 20 miles away.

Two men and a woman were arrested about noon, following about five hours of drama and mystery that spanned 20 miles from Marin County to the shores off the San Mateo County coast.

The suspects eventually surrendered and were brought to shore by foot or jet ski. Police later identified them as: Leslie Gardner, 63 of Gillette, Wy.; along with Dario Mira, 54 and Lisa Modawell, 55, both of Aptos. They were booked into San Mateo County jail on suspicion of grand theft and conspiracy.

State park water rescue lifeguards said when they went aboard, they found a couple cases of Pale Ale beer and cardboard boxes of pizza. One of the suspects had a prosthetic leg.

The owner of the stolen sailboat arrived on scene Monday afternoon, but declined all media requests, saying that he didn't want the notoriety.

Their arrests capped a harrowing morning for the Coast Guard, Department of Fish and Game, San Mateo County sheriff's deputies, as well as Pacifica and Sausalito police.

The sail boat was first reported being in distress at about 5:30 a.m. at the Linda Mar Beach in Pacifica with two men and a woman on board. The boat was about 20 yards from the beach.

But surprisingly, the trio did not want to be brought to shore; instead they were hoping to sail back out to sea at high tides, authorities said during the early morning hours.

That's most likely because Sausalito police said that a sailboat had been reported missing about 1:30 a.m. The owner of a boat spotted what looked like his craft on television news. Police  said that the boat may have been stolen out of Sausalito.

Sausalito Sgt. Bill Fraass said that the sailboat is registered out of the Cayman Islands but docks at the Sausalito Yacht Harbor.

The Coast Guard, the San Mateo County Sheriff and Pacifica police were all on hand trying to get the passengers to come to shore. By 11 a.m., authorities had surrounded the edge of the beach near the sailboat. One of the passengers was heard saying, "Not gonna happen."

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The scene began though as a simple rescue of a stranded sailboat on a sandbar at Linda Mar Beach.  About 5:30 a.m., cameras caught the trio on board trying to rock the sailboat loose from the sand bar. The Department of Fish and Game was keeping an eye on the boat, which was carrying fuel, and the agency wanted to make sure that none of it seeped into the water. None did.

The U.S. Coast Guard had arrived by 7 a.m. in order to help. The Coast Guard sent in a 47-foot life boat crew to reach the passengers, but couldn't because of the surf. And the boaters apparently did not want to be pulled ashore, but were considering trying to float back out to sea.

An MH-65 Dolphin helicopter lowered down radios about 8 a.m. But the people on the boat chose not to communicate with authorities.

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Rangers Shakeup a Triumph of "Moneyball" Approach?

Local sports experts say they believe Nolan Ryan will choose to leave the Rangers.

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A local sports columnist says the recent shakeup of the Texas Rangers' front office is a move from the "old school" of baseball to the "new school."

Speculation that Texas icon Nolan Ryan was on his way out began to swirl soon after the Rangers announced that the "team president" job had been stripped from Ryan and added to general manager John Daniels' duties.

Ryan remains CEO and part owner -- for now.

"You go to a couple World Series and you average 93 wins over the last three years," said Randy Galloway, Fort Worth Star-Telegram sports columnist. "Why would you even fool with this thing right now? It's hard to believe."

Galloway says Ryan is "from the old school" and Daniels is "from the new school of baseball."

It seems ownership is siding with the "new school" that is focused more on stats and numbers -- commonly referred to as the "Moneyball" approach -- versus the "old school" that is geared more toward scouting with the human eye and getting a gut feeling about a player, he said.

The two often competing schools seem to have successfully co-existed in Arlington, Galloway said.

The changes could cause Ryan to walk away -- and even join another team.

"Clearly, John Daniels is running the baseball side of things and has the final say, according to ownership," said Chuck Cooperstein, 103.3 FM ESPN Radio personality. "Rick George controls the business side. Where does that leave Nolan Ryan?"

"On first blush, it sure looks like Nolan Ryan is getting pushed out," he said.

Fans are having trouble believing it.

"Nolan Ryan is a proven winner," Monney Martin said. "[Ryan] has enhanced the Texas Rangers to the playoffs and the World Series, which has never happened here. I think it's the wrong decision."

Local experts say the move seems to be less about Ryan and more about keeping Daniels and his staff intact, as some of Daniels' top assistants have been rumored to be on the move to other teams in the near future.

"Maybe this does keep it intact but, at the same time, I find it hard to believe that other teams won't come after these guys, as talented as everybody thinks they are," Cooperstein said.

Galloway and Cooperstein both agree that Ryan will choose to leave.

"My guess is that [Nolan Ryan] will move on, that he'll be leaving the Rangers," Galloway said.

"I can't see Nolan Ryan being a figurehead -- that's not his style. It never has been, never will be," Cooperstein said.

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Boy Suspended for Pointing Gun-Shaped Breakfast Pastry

A boy was suspended for pointing a breakfast pastry (not this one).

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A 7-year-old Maryland boy is expected back in class Tuesday after being suspended over a breakfast pastry.

The student at Park Elementary School in Glen Burnie, Md., called his dad to pick him up because school officials said he chewed a strawberry breakfast pastry into a gun shape and then pointed it at another child and said, "Bang, bang."

The boy's dad, B.J. Welch, told the Washington Post that it was harmless and just a boy doing what kids do. He said his son meant to chew the pastry into a mountain shape but it turned out to look more like a gun.

The boy was punished Friday with one day of suspension and one day of in-school suspension.

The school sent home a letter to parents saying, "During breakfast this morning, one of our students used food to make inappropriate gestures that disrupted the class. While no physical threats were made and no one was harmed, the student had to be removed from the classroom."

Parents should talk to their children if they're troubled by the incident, the school said, and the school counselor will be available for any student who needs to talk.

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Baylor Student Dies Rehearsing Backflip

Scott Gordon and Randy McIIwain, NBC 5 News

Kevin Signo, a pre-biology student at Baylor University from Frisco, died Sunday after an accident at a dance rehearsal.

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An 18-year-old Baylor University freshman died Sunday in a bizarre accident while doing a backflip, the private Texas school said in a statement.

Kevin Signo, a pre-biology student, was rehearsing traditional dances with the Filipino Students Association when he practiced a backflip and landed on his head, according to NBC station KCEN-TV in Waco.

The Waco Tribune-Herald quoted a justice of the peace as saying Signo hit his forehead and suffered a fatal spinal injury.

His parents, Henry and Jackie Signo, said their son was an introvert in high school but thrived at Baylor.

"Kevin was a very bright, well-liked and involved student on our campus," Baylor spokeswoman Lori Fogleman told Tribune-Herald. "He had so many friends here who will miss him terribly."

Signo's parents said their son wanted to be a doctor. He was an organ donor who had a legal document drawn up, donating his eyes, skin, bones and organs.

"He knew exactly what could be used for and what was important," Jackie Signo said.

Henry Signo said he thinks his son "knew that he would be helping others if something tragic had happened."

"We're very happy to have had him for a short time," he said.

Funeral services will be Saturday at the Turrentine, Jackson & Morrow Funeral Home in Allen, the university said in a news release.

At least two busloads of students from Baylor are expected to make the trip to Allen for the services.

Kevin Signo attended Frisco High School and was originally from Carol Stream, Ill., according to his Facebook page.

His parents said they plan to endow a scholarship in his name at Baylor.

NBC 5's Randy McIlwain contributed to this report.

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High Winds Down Trees, Power Lines

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High Winds Down Trees, Power Lines

High winds blew across the North Texas overnight, causing damage to trees and power lines.

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High winds blew across the North Texas overnight, causing damage to trees and power lines.

Two poles were downed when a large tree broke and fell into power lines in the 3700 block of Merrill Road. Those poles will have to be replaced. Additionally, about ten other poles are broken off at the top.

The blackout stretches along Marsh Lane to Walnut Hill and down to Royal Lane. Oncor says the downed lines on Merrill knocked out power to 1,000 customers because the line is a feeder to other nearby areas.

Oncor crews are working to restore power to as many customers as possible.At the peak of the problems overnight, Oncor says they had 10,000 people without power in DFW. Power has since been restored to all but around 2000 customers.

Currently, the outage information page provided by Oncor shows multiple outages in Dallas, Arlington, Fort Worth, and Denton. Crews are on their way to assess the conditions of the outages.

The continuing high winds are making repairs more difficult for power crews.

NBC 5 has crews working this developing story. As we continue to gather more information, some details in this story may be adjusted.

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Senate Committee Set to Vote on Obama's CIA Pick

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The Senate Intelligence Committee is scheduled to vote on President Barack Obama's pick to lead the CIA after weeks of wrangling with the White House over access to top-secret information about the use of lethal drone strikes against terror suspects and the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.

The committee's chairwoman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said the panel would move ahead Tuesday with John Brennan's nomination to lead the spy agency even as Republicans said they were frustrated with the Obama administration's reluctant disclosure of all the records. Feinstein would not describe the material the committee has received because it is classified.

"Certain documents have been made available to members," she said Monday.

Brennan's nomination has been held up as Democrats and Republicans on the intelligence panel have been pressing the Obama administration to provide them with a series of classified Justice Department legal opinions that justify the use of unmanned spy planes to kill terror suspects overseas, including American citizens. The senators have argued they can't perform adequate oversight without reviewing the contents of the documents.

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Key Senate Republicans have said they will oppose Brennan's nomination unless they get classified information, including emails among top U.S. national security officials, detailing the Obama administration's actions immediately following the Sept. 11, 2012, attack in Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., the Intelligence Committee's vice chairman, said, "We're making progress" on the documents but left open the possibility he might ask Feinstein to delay Tuesday's vote.

Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, said "no and no" when asked whether he was satisfied with the material the White House had provided. "They need to give us everything that's out there," said Risch, who is a member of the committee.

Brennan so far has escaped the harsh treatment that former Sen. Chuck Hagel, the president's choice to lead the Defense Department, received from Senate Republicans even though Brennan is one of Obama's most important national security aides and the White House official who oversees the drone program.

Brennan also served as a senior CIA official during President George W. Bush's administration when waterboarding and other forms of "enhanced interrogation" and detention practices were adopted. Brennan has publicly denounced the use of these tactics, but the cloud hasn't gone completely away.

Brennan's stance on waterboarding and torture is inconsistent, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has said. Although Brennan has decried these methods, he also has said they saved lives, according to McCain, who said he is awaiting an explanation from Brennan. McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., are also leading the charge for the Benghazi records.

"All we want is the answers," McCain said Monday. "I'm not threatening anything. I just think we deserve the answers."

Senate Republicans put Hagel through a bruising confirmation process. They labeled their former Republican colleague as a political turncoat for attacking the Bush administration's handling of the war in Iraq, and cast him as hostile toward Israel, soft on Iran and unqualified for the job.

In attacking Hagel, who served two terms from Nebraska, the GOP settled old political scores and won points with its conservative base by challenging Obama's nominee so aggressively. The Senate confirmed Hagel last week to replace Leon Panetta as defense secretary on a 58-41 vote, with four Republicans joining the Democrats in backing the contentious choice.

Criticism of Brennan, by contrast, has been less intense. He was grilled for more than three hours during his Feb. 7 confirmation hearing before the Intelligence Committee, but also won praise from several lawmakers as the best qualified candidate to lead the CIA. Brennan, 57, is a veteran of more than three decades of intelligence work.

Former Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., who spent eight years on the House Intelligence Committee, said she expects Brennan to be confirmed by a comfortable margin. Senate Republicans took Hagel's nomination personally, she said, and they're unlikely to take a similar approach with Brennan.

"I don't think they're going to try the same play twice and really seriously wound Obama's national security team at a time when it's very important that we project strength," said Harman, president of the Wilson Center in Washington.

Brennan vigorously defended the use of drone strikes during his confirmation hearing. He declined to say whether he believes waterboarding, which simulates drowning, amounted to torture. But he called the practice "reprehensible" and said it should never be done again. Obama ordered waterboarding banned shortly after taking office.

Drone strikes are employed only as a "last resort," Brennan told the committee. But he also said he had no qualms about going after U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in September 2011. A drone strike in Yemen killed al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, both U.S. citizens. A drone strike two weeks later killed al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son, a Denver native.

Graham, one of Hagel's most acerbic critics, said last month that the Obama administration deserved an "A-plus" for its drone program and he rejected an idea floated by Feinstein and other senators to establish a special court system to regulate drone strikes.

"I'm 100 percent behind the administration," Graham said. "I think their program has been legal, ethical and wise."

But Graham, along with McCain, said the failure to turn over the Benghazi records is a dealbreaker. Graham said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation" that he and McCain "are hell-bent on making sure the American people understand this debacle called Benghazi."

Brennan spent 25 years at the CIA before moving in 2003 from his job as deputy executive director of the agency to run the Terrorist Threat Integration Center. He later worked as interim director of the center's successor organization, the National Counterterrorism Center.

When Bush's second term began in 2005, Brennan left government to work for a company that provides counterterror analysis to federal agencies. After Obama took office in 2009, he returned to the federal payroll as the president's top counterterrorism adviser in the White House.

If confirmed by the full Senate, Brennan would replace Michael Morell, the CIA's deputy director who has been acting director since David Petraeus resigned in November after acknowledging an affair with his biographer.

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Wind Fuels Fire In East Fort Worth

Keaton Fox, NBC 5

Fort Worth fire officials say wind was a factor in a fire that burned two homes and a vehicle.

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Fort Worth fire officials say wind was a factor in a fire that burned two homes and a vehicle.

Firefighters were called around 7:45 a.m. to 4005 Hawlet Street to one home that was on fire. When they arrived, the fire had spread to a vehicle in the driveway and caught the home next door on fire.

Gusty winds were a likely cause for the fire spreading, crews said.

Five people were in one home, two in the other, firefighters said. All made it out safely.

No injuries were reported.

Flames gutted the first home, it is likely a total loss, fire crews said. The other home had significant damage, but mainly to the east side of the home.

The American Red Cross is on scene to assist the families.

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Willie's Picnic Returns to Stockyards

Scott Gordon, NBC 5 News

For the 39th time, country music legend Willie Nelson is hosting his huge Fourth of July picnic at Billy Bob's in Fort Worth.

On The Bus With Willie Nelson

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Country music legend Willie Nelson will be back in Fort Worth for Independence Day.

Billy Bob's Texas will host Willie Nelson's Fourth of July Picnic for the third year in a row.

Last year, the all-day music festival brought in huge crowds.

Nelson hasn't announced the line-up for the picnic's 40th anniversary show, but pre-sale tickets go up for grabs today.

Regular ticket sales will begin March 11 for the July 4 show.

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Pilot Spots Possible Unmanned Aircraft Near JFK: FAA

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The FAA says it's investigating a report of a small, possibly unmanned aircraft near New York's Kennedy Airport.

A pilot of an international airline was on the final approach to Runway 31 at about 1:15 p.m. when he spotted the unmanned or remote-controlled aircraft hovering at about 1,500 feet, according to the FAA.

The pilot reported seeing the aircraft about four to five miles southeast of the airport, which would put it roughly in the area of Atlantic Beach in Nassau County. 

In an air traffic control recording provided by LiveATC.net, the pilot is heard telling the controller, "We saw a drone, a drone aircraft."

The pilot continued on his path and landed safely. No other pilots reported seeing the aircraft. 

Passengers at Kennedy Airport were startled to hear of an unknown object possibly flying so close to planes landing and taking off at one of the world's busiest airports. 

"It makes me very nervous. Very nervous," said Manuel Infante of Rockville Centre. "A lot of cause for concern."

It's still not clear if the object was a drone, though a drone could pose a threat despite its small size. 

"Even the smallest drone is a substantial weight, and it could easily do damage like ripping off a part of a wing or impacting a cockpit area," said Dan Rose, an aviation expert and attorney specializing in aviation litigation. 

Drones are growing in popularity with government agencies and the public. The FAA is preparing a plan to regulate their widespread commercial use by 2015, though Rose wants to see more safety measures along with the increased use.

"All the indications so far is that we're seeing a lot more close calls and near-misses, and not more on the technology of how to avoid these near-misses," said Rose. 

The FAA is investigating. 

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