Kevin Berthia, California Man, Reunites With Officer 8 Years After Golden Gate Bridge Suicide Attempt

In March 2005, Kevin Berthia climbed over the railing of the Golden Gate Bridge. Desperate and distressed, the young man was ready to jump to his death.

But thanks to the compassionate intervention of a California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer named Kevin Briggs, Berthia was talked off the bridge, and today, the 30-year-old is happily married with two children.

Last Wednesday, Briggs and Berthia reunited for the first time since 2005. According to the AP, the emotional reunion was part of a public service ceremony organized by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to honor the life-saving work of the CHP.

During the ceremony, Berthia was given the opportunity to present an award to the man who saved -- and transformed -- his life.

“It was phenomenal,” Berthia told Yahoo News of seeing Briggs again. “I didn’t know what I was going to feel, or how I was going to react. But when I first saw him, he walked up me and I just shook his hand. It felt like I had known this man my whole life. The nerves weren’t there. It was just two old friends being reunited.”

Eight years ago, Briggs, who has been dubbed the "Guardian of the Golden Gate Bridge" for the hundreds of lives he's saved, spent about an hour talking to Berthia. The young man told Briggs about his troubles and the veteran officer, who has now worked for the CHP for more than 20 years, responded in turn with kindness and hope.

Kevin Berthia is talked down by Kevin Briggs at the north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge on March 11, 2005. Berthia went on to marry and today has two children. (Credit: John Storey/San Francisco Chronicle/Corbis Images)

"He never made me feel guilty for being in the situation I was in," Berthia, who still lives in the Bay Area, told the AP. "He made me feel like, 'I understand why you are here, but there are alternatives.' That an individual who doesn't even know me could listen to me and hear my story and show me compassion gave me another reason maybe to try again."

Though the Golden Gate Bridge is known as being one of the world's most active suicide locations, it is also a place where lives are frequently being saved. According to the AP, thousands of people have been talked out of committing suicide at Golden Gate by the CHP, U.S. Park Police and bridge security officers.

"I've never actually counted the number, but it's been numerous people," Briggs previously told Yahoo of the number of people he's saved. "Maybe two a month."

Though Briggs is unquestionably a hero, the humble officer insists that the life-saving work is a team effort.

"What I'd like to get across now is the amount of people I work with and what they go through with these efforts," he told San Rafael Patch last year. "We really do try to help the people out there. Each situation is independent of the other. I just try to get to the heart of the matter in each case, and I would expect my officers to do the same."

Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

For more on Briggs, watch this 2012 Yahoo video profile on the veteran officer:

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California High-Speed Rail Settlement Reached

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California agency overseeing the state's effort to build the nation's first high-speed rail line received a boost Thursday when a judge approved a settlement in a major lawsuit that sought to block the project.

However, the rail authority also faced a setback that could delay work and add to the project's soaring costs.

The rail authority reached the settlement with a group of Central Valley farmers who sued to block the bullet train on environmental grounds. The approval by a Sacramento County Superior Court cleared the last legal hurdle for the $68 billion project to break ground this summer.

Getting the environmental lawsuit out of the way is a significant win for Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, and other allies of the ambitious, much-criticized project. Brown said in a news release that it is a "very solid settlement" between farmers and the California High-Speed Rail Authority.

Under the deal, the authority agreed to establish a $5 million fund to preserve farmland and pay nearly $1 million in legal fees to the groups that filed the lawsuit, which include the Madera and Merced county farm bureaus. It also spells out how the authority will work with landowners to acquire land along the route.

Dan Richard, chairman of the rail authority board, said the agreement paves the way for construction to start this summer on the first 30-mile segment of track from Madera to Fresno.

The settlement also "shows that in working together with the agricultural community, we can build high-speed rail and work toward preservation of agriculture in the Central Valley," Richard said.

Also Thursday, the federal Surface Transportation Board ruled that it has authority over the California project, which could mean substantial delays and cost overruns if the state is forced to comply with federal railroad regulations.

The state has applied for an exemption to that oversight, and Richard said he is confident the board will approve its request next month, as it did recently for a Florida project.

Voters approved issuing $10 billion in bonds for the project in 2008, but public support has dwindled in recent years as the project's costs have soared.

Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley approved the legal settlement a day before a scheduled hearing on the merits of the case.

"We were able to achieve some significant additional protections for agriculture in Madera and Merced counties," Tom Coleman, president of the Madera County Farm Bureau, said in a news release.

The farm groups had previously sought a preliminary injunction that would have halted work while the case was being heard, but the judge denied the request last November. He said it appeared the California High-Speed Rail Authority acted reasonably and in good faith in trying to follow the state environmental laws.

That decision was an early indication that the farmers might not prevail in their lawsuit.

The rail authority had previously reached settlements in some of the other dozens of legal claims against the project. Earlier this year, it won a separate lawsuit filed by the San Francisco Bay area city of Atherton over its environmental review.

It still faces a 2011 lawsuit from Kings County that claims the state's plan violates the terms of the voter-approved bond measure because not all the track would be electrified.

The rail authority has been buying land along the proposed route and performing site surveys, engineering design work and geological testing. Officials this month announced that a bid by a joint venture of just under $1 billion had emerged as the top bidder.

Lawmakers approved the first phase of the planned 800-mile line last summer, allowing the state to begin selling $2.6 billion in bonds for construction and tap $3.2 billion from the federal government.

The money is contingent upon completing the first phase of the project by 2017, requiring what officials say is an unprecedented construction pace.

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California School Districts Misspent Millions Of Cafeteria Money, State Senate Report Finds

SAN FRANCISCO -- California school districts have misspent tens of millions of dollars intended to provide subsidized meals to low-income students, according to a state Senate report released Wednesday.

The California Department of Education recently ordered eight districts to repay about $170 million to programs that offer free and reduced-price lunches and breakfasts, according to the investigation by the Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes.

In most cases, the cash-strapped districts used the misappropriated funds to pay for other expenses, such as salaries and equipment, according to the report, titled "Food Fight: Small team of state examiners no match for schools that divert student meal funds."

The cafeteria fund diversions have led to cost-cutting measures, such as shorter lunch periods, inadequate staffing and serving processed foods instead of fresh fruits and vegetables, the report said.

The cases mentioned in the report may only represent a fraction of misappropriated meal money in California because the state doesn't have the resources to monitor how its nearly 3,000 school districts spend their cafeteria funds, the report said. Most of the investigations were prompted by whistleblowers.

Chief Deputy Superintendent Richard Zeiger said Wednesday that the Department of Education plans to hire and train more staff members to monitor district meal programs and conduct more frequent reviews later this year.

"Our goal is to be sure every dollar set aside to feed California's children is spent for that purpose, and that purpose alone," Zeiger said in a statement. "From my point of view, they are literally taking food out of the mouths of kids."

The department ordered the Los Angeles Unified School District to repay $158 million to its cafeteria fund after state officials found misappropriations and unallowable charges, according to the report.

The Los Angeles district, the nation's second largest, said in a statement Wednesday that it has been working with state education officials to "ensure full compliance to federal and state guidelines. All disputed costs for the years in question have been adjusted accordingly."

The Department of Education also ordered repayments, ranging from $369,000 to $5.6 million, from the Baldwin Park, Centinela Valley, Compton, Oxnard, San Diego, San Francisco and Santa Ana districts. Another six districts were ordered to repay smaller amounts.

The San Diego and Santa Ana districts are challenging the department's findings.

California school districts provide 2.4 million free and reduced-price meals every day. The U.S. Department of Agriculture provides more than $2 billion a year in meal subsidies to California, which provides an additional $145 million.

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Amir Yazdan, California Doctor, Saves 'Lifeless' South Carolina Boy Who Had Asthma Attack On Road (VIDEO)

An 11-year-old South Carolina boy having an asthma attack told his mother, "I'm dying," and then stopped breathing, the Orange County Register reports.

If not for a doctor nearby, Teigue "Tiger" Winge of Powdersville may have never said another word.

Amir Yazdan, a part-time ER physician from Irvine, Calif., happened to be taking pictures of his new car near where Tiger's mom, Marjie Britz, had pulled over on a rural road in South Carolina on New Year's Eve.

He heard the mother's screams for help and sprung into action. He began performing CPR on Tiger, breathing the inhaler drug albuterol into the child's airway, the Register reports.

Yazdan estimated Tiger's heart had stopped beating a minute or so before he arrived. Yazdan told Greenville Online the boy had turned blue and was in full cardiac arrest.

“He was dead,” Yazdan told the Register. “Completely lifeless. I really did not think he was going to come back.”

According to CBS affiliate in Los Angeles, about two more minutes passed without signs of life.

Eventually, Tiger's heart started to beat, and he took a breath on his own. An ambulance arrived 10 minutes later, and Tiger began breathing regularly on his own at the hospital.

"When I woke up, I was in the hospital," Tiger told WSPA. "Everything was blurry and all I could think of was, 'Who are you, where am I -- and what is stuck on my arm?'”

Yazdan said he didn't even think twice.

“It wasn’t an option for me to let this kid go," he told WSPA.

Britz, who's a professor at Clemson University, told USA Today there was no doubt that Yazdan saved her boy.

"What do you give a person who has given back your whole world?" Britz told USA Today. "It's just a Christmas miracle, delayed."

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Flushing Fish: Invasive Species Released Into California Ocean, Possibly From Aquarium Dumping

From Becky Oskin, OurAmazingPlanet Staff Writer:

In the film "Finding Nemo," a plucky clownfish escapes an aquarium tank thanks to some sage advice: "All drains lead to the ocean."

But in real life, flushing Nemo wouldn't end happily. Aquarium species are some of the hardiest fish and plants in the world, and tank owners and importers who dump unwanted marine life are introducing tough, non-native species to California waters, says a new report on the state's aquarium trade.

"Globally, the aquarium trade has contributed a third of the world's worst aquatic and invasive species," said Sue Williams, lead author of the report and an evolution and ecology professor at the University of California, Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory. That includes both marine and freshwater species, she said.

In California, 13 species found only in dentist's offices or other fish tanks have escaped to the state's marine waters, presumably due to release by aquarium owners or importers.

"We have no data on how many aquarists dump their organisms into natural waters, we only know that they do so because these are species that could only come through the aquarium trade," Williams told OurAmazingPlanet. A survey of aquarists (people who keep fish) in Texas, cited in the UC Davis report, found 20 to 69 percent of them admitted dumping, she said.

The report is one of six that the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory prepared for the state, each exploring a different vector, or pathway, through which invasive species can enter California ocean waters. The other pathways include aquaculture, live seafood, live bait, fishing vessels and recreation vessels.

Every year, San Francisco and Los Angeles ports see more than 11 million non-native, ornamental marine individuals — such as tropical fish, seaweed and snails — bound for aquariums, representing at least 102 species, Williams and her colleagues discovered. [Image Gallery: Freaky Fish]

One of the worst introduced species is a killer algae. Though actually a type of seaweed, the species Caulerpaearned its nickname when it infected two lagoons in Southern California in 2000, costing more than $6 million to eradicate.

Though most imported marine life comes from Indonesia and the Philippines, where ocean temperatures are warm, the report found 34 species could survive in California's chilly bays. "[Aquarium species] are highly likely to survive in the wild, because they have to be so tough to survive the trade," Williams said. Some can even survive a trip down the toilet, she said.

One potential invader is the lionfish, a venomous predator that gulps down smaller fish. In Florida and the Bahamas, authorities have organized fishing derbies to counter lionfish attacks on local reef fish.

Williams said a little outreach could prevent the lionfish and other predators from gaining a toehold in California. "[The aquarium trade] might be the vector that is most easily managed, because it really just requires public awareness."

Williams recommends aquarium owners who want to toss live fish call the pet shop that sold the fish, trade or sell fish on eBay (where it's legal to do so) or ask the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for advice. If all else fails, — or "if they're queasy about getting rid of it," William's euphemism for killing — she advises to remember it's for a greater good.

"When these species are released, they can do some major ecological and economic harm," she said.

Reach Becky Oskin at boskin@techmedianetwork.com. Follow her on Twitter @beckyoskin. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter @OAPlanet. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

Copyright 2013 OurAmazingPlanet, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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California Prison Population: Jerry Brown Challenges Inmate Cap

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Reducing California's inmate population further to meet a federal order would endanger public safety and require the state to ignore its own sentencing laws, Gov. Jerry Brown warned Tuesday as he challenged judges to reject those options.

After years of changes, the Democratic governor said California would have to grant shorter sentences to inmates convicted of violent or serious felonies to meet the court's mandate.

He also called for restoring the state's authority over its prison system, vowing to take that battle to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.

The prison population cap was imposed in 2009 after federal judges blamed crowding for dismal conditions that violated inmates' constitutional rights and resulted in the death of an average of one inmate a week due to neglect or poor care.

The judges gave the state until June to reduce the population of California's 33 adult prisons by about 33,000 inmates, to a total of 110,000 inmates.

"Under protest we're offering some options for further release. But make no mistake about it: Releasing prisoners who were convicted of serious and dangerous crimes is not in the public interest," Brown said at a Capitol news conference where he called for the judges to rescind the population cap order.

California already is sending thousands of less-serious offenders to local jails instead of state prisons under a 14-month-old state law designed to reduce crowding and prison spending. But the state is still set to fall short of the court-imposed population cap.

"It's not a smart idea or a sound idea to add further to the burden of the counties," Brown said.

Brown's administration said in court documents filed overnight Monday that it could comply with the court's current population cap only if the federal court waives numerous state laws and "orders the outright early release of inmates serving prison terms for serious and violent felonies."

The plan includes granting early release credits to "second strike" inmates who have serious prior convictions, the state said. State sentencing laws would also have to be changed, and inmates who would normally serve nine months or less in state prison would have to spend their time in county jails.

The state also could lower the threshold for sending inmates to firefighting camps, expand work furlough, restitution centers and alternative custody programs, and keep more inmates in private prisons in other states.

Attorneys representing inmates' welfare said the state could adopt those changes without endangering the public, while saving money.

"Incarceration is the most expensive of all the options for taking care of people in the criminal justice system," said Michael Bien, one of the lead attorneys for inmates.

Attorneys also argued in their court filing that, while conditions have improved, inmates still are needlessly dying of neglect and mentally ill inmates go untreated.

Brown's reasoning also drew swift criticism from reform groups.

"Rather than implement the kinds of sentencing reforms that would significantly reduce the number of people needlessly behind bars in California, Gov. Brown has instead committed to business as usual," said Allen Hopper, director of criminal justice and drug policy for the American Civil Liberties Union of California.

Spending more money on prisons means less money for other needs such as public schools, he said in an email.

Brown argued that the conditions that led to the court oversight – extremely poor medical and mental health care for inmates – have been solved and prisoners now receive care exceeding constitutional levels.

Brown ended a 2006 emergency proclamation by former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that let the state send thousands of inmates to private prisons in other states. Brown's move cleared the way for them to be returned to California starting in July.

"California is a powerful state. We can run our own prisons. And by God, let those judges give us our prisons back. We'll run them right," Brown said.

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Douglas Benedetti Searching For Owner Of Lost Wedding Ring He Found In California

KINGVALE, Calif. -- Finding a lost wedding ring along a snowy highway is hard enough. But a Good Samaritan in Northern California also has to track down the man it belongs to.

Douglas Benedetti says he met the man but doesn't know his name or phone number.

Benedetti says the man was searching for the ring on the shoulder of Interstate 80 near Kingvale in the Sierra earlier this month. He told Benedetti he'd lost the ring while putting chains on his vehicle.

Benedetti, who installs chains for people on the highway, decided to return to the area hours after the man left. After a little less than an hour of searching, he came across the ring in the snow next to a semi-truck.

Benedetti wants to return the ring. But all he has to go on is its inscription: "Lisa, 5th June, 2010."

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San Onofre: NRC Wants More Analysis At Ailing California Nuke Plant

LOS ANGELES — Federal regulators Wednesday pressed the operator of the San Onofre nuclear power plant for more analysis on its damaged steam generators, as the government considers when, or if, one of the seaside reactors can be restarted safely.

San Onofre, located between Los Angeles and San Diego, hasn't produced electricity since January, after a tiny radiation leak led to the discovery of excessive wear on hundreds of generator tubes that carry radioactive water.

Southern California Edison asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in early October for permission to rekindle one of the twin reactors, Unit 2, and then run it at reduced power. Company officials believe that operating at up to 70 percent power will end vibration and friction that prematurely eroded generator tubing.

In a letter to Edison, NRC officials raised a potentially thorny question for the company.

Under technical operating rules, the plant is required to ensure that generator tubes retain "structural integrity" during "the full range of normal operating conditions," including if the plant is running at full power. NRC said it wanted the company to demonstrate that Unit 2 could meet that threshold, or explain how generator tubes would interact with each other if the plant is operating at maximum capacity.

Any change in those technical rules could trigger a longer, more complex review by the NRC. Agency spokesman Victor Dricks declined comment when asked if meeting the full-power threshold could be a condition of restarting the Unit 2 reactor.

Edison spokeswoman Jennifer Manfre said in a statement that the utility would provide additional information to the federal agency, as requested. A thorough review of the restart plan "is important to both the public and Southern California Edison," she added.

The problems at San Onofre center on steam generators that were installed during a $670 million overhaul in 2009 and 2010. After the plant was shut down, tests found some generator tubes were so badly corroded that they could fail and possibly release radiation, a stunning finding inside the nearly new equipment.

Friends of the Earth, a group critical of the nuclear power industry, is among several environmental groups pushing the NRC to require Edison to seek an amendment to its operating license to restart the plant, a process that could take up to two years. Spokeswoman Kendra Ulrich said in a statement the group is "encouraged that the NRC is asking hard questions" about the restart and its implications, including on the operating license.

The ability of San Onofre to run safely at lower power – and whether that limit would require an amendment to its operating license – came up earlier this month at a hearing of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, an arm of the NRC.

Administrative Judge Gary Arnold asked an Edison attorney, Steve Frantz, if he was confident that the plant could operate at 99 percent power with its ailing generators.

"I do not say that," Franz responded. He argued that running at 70 percent power would fall within San Onofre's license and operating rules.

The generators, which resemble massive steel fire hydrants, control heat in the reactors and operate something like a car radiator. At San Onofre, each one stands 65 feet high, weighs 1.3 million pounds and has with 9,727 U-shaped tubes inside, each three-quarters of an inch in diameter.

Company executives have left open the possibility that the heavily damaged generators in Unit 3 might be scrapped.

Cracked and corroded generator tubing has vexed the nation's nuclear industry for years.

Decaying generator tubes helped push San Onofre's Unit 1 reactor into retirement in 1992, even though it was designed to run until 2004. The following year, the Trojan nuclear plant, near Portland, Oregon, was shuttered because of microscopic cracks in steam generator tubes, cutting years off its expected lifespan.

San Onofre is owned by SCE, San Diego Gas & Electric and the city of Riverside. The Unit 1 reactor operated from 1968 to 1992, when it was shut down and dismantled.

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