Officials in Seaside Heights took another big step in rebuilding the shore town’s hurricane-ravaged boardwalk today, installing the first piece of the new boardwalk.

The ceremony took place at 3 p.m. on Ocean Terrace and Dupont Drive Avenue in front of the Beachcomber Bar. It marks the completion of the first phase of the boardwalk reconstruction in that Ocean City community.

In February, the first pile was driven into the sand to replace boardwalk that was torn apart during the storm. Heavy equipment including a gigantic drill and a pile-driving machine were brought onto the sand and workers quickly began drilling holes in the sand and pounding wooden pilings into them, shaking the ground for blocks around.

“It’s a positive step forward, it’s a visual reminder that we’re on our way back,” Seaside Heights Mayor Bill Akers told NBC10’s Ted Greenberg. “The excitement is in the air. You feel like it’s Christmas.”

Seaside Heights’ boardwalk was badly damaged last October after Hurricane Sandy spun into New Jersey. The storm had so much power; it caused an amusement pier to partially collapse, sending a roller coaster into the surf.

The Mayor vows to have Seaside Heights open and ready for business by summer.

“It’s our intention that it looks as close to last summer as humanly possible,” Akers said. The boardwalk rebuilding effort is expected to cost about $7 million. Officials hope at least 75-percent of the cost will be covered by FEMA.

For Ocean County residents who’ve been working hard to come back from Hurricane Sandy, the sight of the rebuilding effort is welcomed.

“I’m very excited to see it happen and come back to life again,” Linda Sodl said. She and her husband came to watch the event. “My grandchildren can’t wait for it to be back and working again.”

"We have a clean washing of the old and we're going to come back bigger, better and brand new," said Michael Carbone, the owner of the Beachcomber Bar.

The boardwalk draws millions of people to the borough every summer, according to officials.

Related Stories:

• NJ Town Wants to Use ‘Jersey Shore’ Money to Protect Boardwalk
• NJ Roller Coaster Submerged by Sandy Won’t Stay Under Water
• NJ Beaches 30-40 Feet Narrower After Sandy

If you ask Brad Baer how confident he was before he made that unbelievable, $10,000 half-court shot and gained overnight fame, luck did not appear to be on his side.

“I wasn’t nervous at first but at the end of the half I started getting a little nervous," Baer said.

He was about to take his best shot from half-court at Saturday’s NCAA Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament at Brooklyn’s Barclay Center.

“When I got on the court there was a guy right before me that missed (the shot), I said well hopefully I won’t do that bad.”

And then there was that staff member from the Barclay’s Center.

“He said, ‘No one has ever hit a half-court shot at a Nets game.’ I thought, well thanks that takes the pressure off a little bit,” Brad joked.

The 29-year-old adjunct professor from Temple University’s architecture department was at the Butler - St. Louis matchup with five of his childhood friends. On a whim, they each sent a text message to enter the half-court shooting contest before the game. Just before halftime, Brad got a message from organizers on his phone informing him that he had been selected and to come to the court.

“When I got to the court, my first thought was not to let my foot cross that line and then I wanted to make sure that I shot as hard as I could so that I didn’t come up short,” Baer said.

And he didn’t.

In front of an anxious crowd, blaring lights, and rolling cameras Baer hit the ball through the net with ease setting off an improbable sports moment that will be re-played and talked about for quite some time. Video of the amazing shot was posted on YouTube.

“It was definitely the epitome of my five minutes of fame,” Baer said. “This is the most exciting thing I’ve ever experienced. You are on the opening of Sports Center, which has been my biggest life achievement to this point,” Brad laughed.

We’re sure Brad meant to say his second biggest life achievement. The sports fanatic, who was recently married to his wife Katie, says it was three hours before he told her he’d be bringing home a little more bacon.

“She was at a bridal shower and when I told her she said ‘are you serious’, Baer said. “I was fortunate that they took that video so that she could see it.”

Pictured: Brad and pals at Del Frisco's Steakhouse

As for Brad's friends, he did what all sports superstars do when they win a big championship, he took everybody out for a celebration dinner. The group chowed down on Del Frisco’s steaks, seafood, and took in a drink or three to the tune of $1,100 - which is now chump change for Baer.

“The money is cool, but everything is better, like being with my buddies,” Baer said. “A guy came over and had me touch his son’s hand. “I thought it was kind of funny at first, but I think the kid was a little confused."

Baer says he expects to get his prize money in the next few days, with the take away to be about $6,000 after taxes. He says he plans to use it to pay off his graduate school loans and put away some of the money for a down payment on a new home.

Youtube.com/0302JD

Bay Area community and religious leaders will gather at a San Francisco church Sunday afternoon for a forum aimed at establishing an easier path to citizenship for immigrants.

Organized by the Campaign for Citizenship, attendees of the event include Illinois congressman Luis Gutierrez, and a number of local Catholic Church leaders.

They say they want President Obama and Congress to make immigration a top priority this year.
According to the campaign, 11 million people work and live in the United States as undocumented immigrants.

The forum will be held at the Episcopal Church of St. John the Evangelist, 1661 15th St.

Facebook will hire 150 programmers for a temporary office in Vancouver, B.C. while they wait to get permits to work in the United States.  

The new hires will be recent engineering graduates and will partake in Facebook's "boot camp" to get full-time work in places such as Seattle or Menlo Park, according to the Vancouver Sun. Not surprisingly, the temporary office will exist for 12 months -- coincidentally the same amount of time needed to get a work visa. The workers will be recruited from within Canada and abroad, according to the report.

We wrote last week about tech companies wanting a streamlined process for highly-skilled immigrants to work in the country, and one of the prominent proponents was none other than Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg.

Is Zuckerberg making a point about the current American immigration laws and how he and Facebook are willing to skirt the law for up to a year to get highly-skilled foreign workers? Perhaps, but the idea that it is using the Vancouver office as a "boot camp" means that it's culling the herd of foreign workers to find only the best to move to its U.S offices. Essentially, this temporary office will be a huge den of interns learning Facebook's ways and policies.

Apple created a website to sell the iPhone and take on the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the Android platform.

The Cupertino, Calif. also emailed similar information to its customers, according to 9to5Mac. The website states, "There's iPhone. And then there's everything else." It also continues to promote the iPhone and its abilities. From the site:

Apparently love can be measured. In eight straight studies by J.D. Power and Associates — that’s every study since the first iPhone was introduced — iPhone has been ranked '"Highest in Customer Satisfaction with Consumer Smartphones."

The Rolando family of San Jose is hoping a four-legged friend will help their 7-year-old autistic son, Armen, if they can raise enough money to pay for one of these specially trained dogs.

It’s a new method parents of autistic children are trying and they’re able to do so, thanks in part, to a small non-profit organization based in Oceanside.

“Good Dog Autism Companions” trains Labradors to deal specifically with the hardships of autism. A representative from the organization says these dogs are trained to help keep the child distracted from negative behaviors, such as running away, which Armen is known to do.

Sharice and Luis Rolando say they’ve exhausted all the typical options to help their son so they’re excited to try “Good Dog.”

But, the price tag for one of these service dogs is $10,000. 

On Saturday night, the Rolando’s held a fundraiser in Los Gatos. 

If you’d like to contribute to their cause, log onto gooddogautismcompanions.org. Or call 858-245-0032 or email gooddogautism@gmail.com.

 

Human statue David Mulder is being investigated after he punched a passerby who taunted him while he was performing at a mall in Australia.

Mulder apologized for his actions. But the organization who hired him as a street performer said it will launch an investigation this week.

"While I sympathize with the busker, it's clear both parties didn't behave as best they could. Harassment and assault are not welcome in Surfers Paradise,'' Surfer Alliance chair Laura Younger told Australia's News.com.

Mulder became an Internet sensation after a mobile phone video was posted on YouTube showing him being poked and prodded by a passerby. He lost his cool when the heckler licked his index finger and stuck it in the performer's ear. The video shows Mulder throwing a punch at the young man, leaving him with a bloody nose.

Mulder's wife told News.com that his husband will meet with Alliance officials today to state his case.

"He will tell them that this sort of behavior is extremely rare and is not something he'd like to repeat,'' she said, speaking on behalf of her husband. "He's been hassled before but doesn't normally come out swinging - it takes a lot to provoke him."

The performer was back at work on Sunday at his usual post at the Cavill Mall. He said he was not proud of his actions.

"He was in the wrong, but at the same time I was in the wrong for striking out," Mulder said.

Each year, park rangers at Ano Nuevo State Park in San Mateo County lead tours so that the public can see the colony of elephant seals that mate, give birth and leave their pups to fend for themselves along this stretch of the Pacific Ocean.

Elephant seals used to be slaughtered for their oil in the 1800s, but because of strict federal laws against hunting them, now number about 150,000 in the United States. The first elephant seal was sighted at Ano Nuevo in 1955, and now, there are typically 2,000 pups born here each breeding season.

Breeding season begins in December and the pups are born later that month. The pups are weaned in March, and start to head out to sea by the end of April.

Ranger-led tours are the only way to get up close and personal with the seals through breeding season: Dec. 15 to March 31. Tours cost $7 a person. For more information on the mammals and making reservations, click here.

 

Mayor Bloomberg wants stores throughout New York City to hide cigarettes behind counters, curtains or cabinets as part of his next anti-smoking effort.

"Such displays suggest that smoking is a normal activity, and they invite young people to experiment with tobacco," Bloomberg told reporters Monday.

Stores could still post cigarette ads and prices, the mayor said.

The law would apply to retail stores and requires City Council approval; it will be introduced on Wednesday. A spokeswoman for Council Speaker Christine Quinn said the measure would get a legislative review but added that she supports the goal of the bills.

At least one tobacco maker opposes the legislation.

"We believe it goes too far," David Sutton, a spokesman for Altria, which owns Marlboro-maker Philip Morris, told NBC 4 New York.

Bloomberg, a billionaire former smoker, has made anti-tobacco efforts a major part of his mayoralty and private philanthropy.

Bloomberg banned smoking in bars and restaurants during his first term, a move that was not common at the time. He has also committed $600 million to programs that seek to curb smoking around the world.

City officials said display restrictions are already in place in other countries, including Canada, England, Iceland and Ireland.

--Melissa Russo contributed to this story 

Bicyclists will be able to ride on trains all day, including  commuting hours, beginning  today, with some restrictions.

The program runs through Friday, and follows on the heels of another BART trial with bikes that limited the efforts on five Fridays last summer. As part of the five-day pilot, bicyclists will be able to take their bicyclists on board, but not ride in the first three trains.

The program runs through Friday, and follows on the heels of another BART trial with bikes that limited the efforts on five Fridays last summer.

BART's Bicycle Plan aims to make it easier to use a bicycle to get to and from BART, and has a goal of doubling the percentage of riders who access BART by bike from approximately 4.5 percent currently to 8 percent by 2022, according to BART.

Most everyone agrees in theory that getting more people to bike to BART is a good thing, for clearing up congestion on roads, helping the environment, even for people’s personal health in increasing exercise. Yet BART trains are more crowded, with ridership at record levels, so the challenge is finding ways to accommodate bikes that don’t significantly disrupt the experience for others.

The survey will be live at www.bart.gov/bikes starting on the first day of the pilot. In addition, other feedback on bikes can be emailed to bikes@bart.gov.  The results of the second bike pilot will be presented to the Board of Directors at a future meeting, with opportunity for public comment, before determining what happens next.

   

Newspaper newsrooms and local TV stations across the country are seeing shrinking reporting power amid diminishing resources, according to a new report by the Pew Research Center.

Newsroom cutbacks in 2012 are putting the industry down 30 percent since its peak in 2000, and for the first time since 1978, there are fewer than 40,000 full-time professional employees.

"This adds up to a news industry that is more undermanned and unprepared to uncover stories, dig deep into emerging ones or to question information put into its hands," the report said.

This was the most evident in the political reporting during a contentious election year, when campaign reporters functioned "primarily as megaphones, rather than as investigators, of the assertions put forward by the candidates and other political partisans," according to the report.

It added that this trend is seen in other beats, as cutbacks have left a void that is being filled by other means like public relations employees.

Local television stations have been hit the hardest, as live stories fell 30 percent from 2007 to 2012. Interview segments, which take up fewer resources, were up 31 percent.

The public has taken notice, the report says.

Thirty one percent of adults have stopped turning to news outlets, saying they were no longer getting the kind of coverage they expected. People surveyed cited lack of beat expertise, fewer stories and less complete news stories as reasons they abandoned a news outlet.

Some newsrooms, however, have begun charging for their online content to subsidize and improve reporting quality. The report says 450 of the country's 1,380 dailes have implemented a pay wall for online content and that the practice could have big payoffs.

"The rise of digital paid content could also have a positive impact on the quality of journalism as news organizations strive to produce unique and high-quality content that the public believes is worth paying for," the report said.

According to ComScore.com, digital news consumption from the top 25 news sites increased by 7.2 percent in 2012. Pew data indicated that 39 percent of respondents get their news online or from a mobile device, up from 34 percent the last time the survey was conducted in 2010.

Still, newsrooms have failed to harness the power of digital advertising as a revenue source, according to the Pew report. Local digital advertising — a critical ad component for local news — grew 22 percent in 2012, but improved geo-targeting has pushing national advertisers to turn to Google and Facebook for ad space that once went to local media.

Social media is also taking on a larger role as a source for news information. Fifteen percent of adults get their news from friends on social media, and about 77 percent of them are reading news stories through links on these sites, according to the Pew study.

About 2,000 pounds of marijuana was found in about 50 bales on a beach in California Sunday after a panga-style drug smuggling boat washed ashore.

The bales were found on Arroyo Camada Beach in Santa Barbara. The 30-foot panga boat (pictured, below) -- an open, outboard powered boat -- equipped with about 20 fuel containers was found on the shore.

The 50 bales of marijuana have an estimated street value of about $4 million, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department. The drugs were found partially hidden in bushes near a road leading from the beach.

About 20 panga-style boats have landed on the Santa Barbara County coastline during the past two years, according to the sheriff's department. The boats are commonly used to transport drugs and other contraband.

The boat and fuel containers were turned over to federal agents. Santa Barbara Sheriff’s narcotics detectives seized the marijuana, which was wrapped in plastic.

For full U.S. news coverage, visit NBCNews.com

A sheriff's canine unit searched the area, but authorities have not located the smugglers.

In December,  U.S. Coast Guardsman was killed when he was thrown from a boat that was rammed by a panga boat under investigation for smuggling off the Southern California coast. Drugs onboard the panga were seized and two smuggling suspects were taken into custody.

In an effort to stem crashes attributed to distracted driving, police plan a blitz of California freeways in April to ticket motorists caught using their phones while driving.

Hundreds of police agencies across the state are planning a crackdown on the five-year anniversary of a law that was put into place to help stem the problem. The push is happening during Distracted Driver Awareness Month.

This month is close to home for one mother, whose 16-year-old son Conor Lynch was struck by a car near Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks in October 2010.

A makeshift memorial with candles and flowers sits at the location near where Conor was hit, a visible reminder to motorists that the toll on distracted driving can have, said his mother, Jeri Dye Lynch.

Although the case was not prosecuted as such, Conor's mother said she's committed to working to prevent it.

“It’s the CHP and police officers who see the bodies on the road,” said Jeri Dye Lynch, who started a foundation in her son's memory, www.InHonorOfConor.com.

Out of the 1.3 million distracted driving crashes each year across the country, some 3,300 people die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and the National Safety Council, a non-profit that works to prevent crashes involving distracted driving.

“Studies show that 90 percent of drivers think they can drive better than everyone else -- everyone thinks they’re special,” said Chris Cochran, spokesman for the California Office of Traffic Safety, which tracks roadway statistics.

In California, police issue hundreds of thousands of tickets for distracted driving every year -- over 400,000 alone in 2012. That's a 31 percent jump over 2009, according to the California Office of Traffic Safety.

The number of tickets issued for texting alone in the state jumped sevenfold, from nearly 3,000 in 2008 to over 21,000 in 2012.

Cochran shared the excuses drivers give when pulled over for texting and driving.

“A lot of people will use the ‘prayer while driving’ excuse,” Cochran said. Some people, he added, say "I was checking out my shoelaces.”

New cell phone laws took effect July 1, 2008 in California. They said drivers age 18 and over may use hands-free devices while driving. Drivers under the age of 18 may not use any type of hand-held or hands-free wireless phone while driving, according to the California Department of Motor Vehicles.

That year, police began ticketing motorists for texting while driving.

Despite the intent of the to law to try to discourage the practice, the number of tickets that police have issued has doubled every year since, according to the state's Office of Traffic Safety.

At least two bills are making their way through the state legislature that are designed to strengthen the penalties for distracted driving.

The penalty for a first offense for talking on the phone and driving is $159. A motorist caught a second time can face a $279 fine.

A driver who's caught breaking the law more than twice will not lose his driver's license.

Some companies are stepping up to try to further restrict the temptation to multitask while driving.

A North Carolina-based company recently created a “Dock-N-Lock” system that would only allow the vehicle to start when a mobile phone is docked into the dashboard.

The company plans to roll out the system in June.

Lynch said she doesn’t see the need to text while driving, and this is clearly an epidemic.

“It might be you who gets killed, or your brother, or you might kill someone,” Lynch said.

A new recommended reading list is available online for parents in California who are looking to find the right level reading material for their students.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced a new collection of more than 7,800 titles for students from pre-Kindergarten through high school.

The California Reading List is organized so that parents can find books based on grade level as well as scores achieved on the California English-Language Arts Standards Test taken last spring.
It’s also searchable by title, keywords, author or illustrator.

Find out more information on the Recommended Literature list.
 

A Japanese diplomat found guilty of using a screwdriver as well as kicks and punches to settle dispute with his young wife has been sentenced to a year in jail.

Yoshiaki Nagaya, who still serves as vice consul at the Japanese Consulate in San Francisco, has been ordered to turn himself in at San Mateo County Jail by May 4 to serve close to six months behind bars, the San Mateo County Times reported.

He will get credit for time served after pleading no contest to two counts of felony domestic violence, the newspaper reported.

Yuka Nagaya testified that her husband abused her for a period of 18 months and feared that he would kill her over such "common domestic squabbles" as disturbed sleep, the newspaper reported.

Yoshiaki Nagaya avoided a battery of other more serious felony charges by pleading out to the lesser charge.
 

Some of the top female cyclists in the world are coming to the Golden State to compete in The Amgen Tour of California, according to reports.

Among the Olympians, top cyclocross racers and triathletes who will pedal in C Germany's Ina-Yoko Tuetenberg, who is the reigning time trial champion and finished one spot away from a medal at last summer's London Olympic Games.

There are 15 riders in the race, which is May 17. The 19.6-mile women's race will be held before Stage 6 of the men's Tour of California, which is a weeklong event that ends in Santa Rosa.

Other women in the race include two-time U.S. time trial champion Evelyn Stevens, Olympian Amber Neben, and cyclocross silver medalist Katie Compton, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
 

Five days into the strike, the San Francisco Symphony canceled a trip to the East Coast, where musicians would have been playing Mahler's Ninth Symphony, Brahms and more to a crowd of adoring fans at Carnegie Hall.

The no-go on the four-concert tour in New York, as well the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., is not a huge surprise: The musicians' union said if they couldn't come to an agreement with management over salaries and benefits, they wouldn't go.  The tour was supposed to have started Sunday and continue through March 23.

The strike has already canceled four other concerts in San Francisco.

The base salary of an average musician is about $141,000.

Since Wednesday, the two sides have been meeting all week with a federal negotiator in an effort to resolve the dispute. But on Sunday afternoon, an agreement was not reached.

Executive Director Brent Assink said that the mediator had proposed a "cooling-off period" that would have allowed the tour to go forward while the talks continued. But he said the musicians had rejected that idea.

"We are deeply disappointed that the musicians are continuing to reject proposals for a new agreement," he said in a statement. "We have negotiated in good faith since September, have shared volumes of financial information, and have offered many different proposals that we had hoped would lead to a new agreement by this time. We will continue to work hard to resolve this situation."

Violist David Gaudry, the chairman of the musicians' negotiating committee, was not immediately available for comment on Sunday. In a previous interview, he said "We don't feel we're getting the support we need and have come to expect traditionally in the past.

Symphony officials said on Sunday that their most recent proposal  included a new minimum annual salary of $145,979 with annual increases of 1  percent and 2 percent.

The proposal also included a $74,000 maximum annual pension, 10  weeks paid vacation and full coverage health care plan options with no  monthly premium contributions for most options. Additional compensation would  include radio payments, over-scale and seniority pay, which raises the  current average pay to more than $165,000, symphony officials said.

The musicians said earlier this week that they were unhappy with a  proposal by management that would include a pay freeze in the first year and  1 percent increases in the next two years.

Musicians say expensive instruments and the costs of living in the  Bay Area hurt their ability to compete with other top orchestras. 

They also say that while their salaries may seem significant, the musicians pointed out that their counterparts in the Los Angeles and Chicago symphonies earn about $7,500 more annually. They have been playing without a contract since Feb. 15.

Patrons with tickets to canceled concerts can exchange them for  another concert, donate their tickets or get a refund, officials said today.

Information is available by calling the symphony's box office at  (415) 864-6000 or visiting online at www.sfsymphony.org.
   

The Associated Press and Bay City News contributed to this report.

Related stories:

San Francisco Symphony Threatens to Strike

San Francisco Symphony Goes on Strike

It's time to live like the Woz. Or at least live like the Woz lived -- for a time. Minus the iPhone and iPad.

A Los Gatos home designed for Steve Wozniak -- the Apple co-founder who departed the company before the "other" Steve made it the icon it is today -- in 1986 is on the market for a cool $4.395 million, according to reports.

The home, which is nestled into a hillside and has some spectacular natural scenery, was built in 1986 and designed for the Woz during his entrepreneurial heydey. No word on the identity of the current owners, but it's at a discount: those owners listed the home last year for $5 million but withdrew after no buyers materialized, according to the San Francisco Chronicle's real estate blog.

The "modern contemporary" is sleek as can be, with pristine white finishes throughout its six bedrooms, eight (?!) baths, and 7,500 square foot home of living space. It's on a 1.19 acre lot "of prime Los Gatos property," the blog reported.

Make sure you peep the koi pond and the pool with waterfall.

Juana Morales says she never imagined she’d be an activist, but she never imagined that her childrens’ neighborhood school would close either.

Her childrens’ campus, Sloanaker Elementary School, is one of two that could be consolidated as the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District seeks to close an $8 million structural deficit and declining enrollment.

“It will be hard for families that don’t drive to go to a farther school,” Morales said, adding, “What happens if there’s no room at the new school? Where will my children go to school then?”

At school dismissal time, Morales used a PA system to encourage parents to show up at the district’s community meeting Tuesday evening at Fischer Middle School.

Grandmother Patricia Galicia is planning to attend, she says, because losing the school could end up costing some parents their jobs.

“The school also provides a daycare so it’s easy for the parents to drop off the babies, then bring the kids over here,” Galicia said. “It’s not only affecting the kids but our community. This community needs support.”

Sending Sloanaker’s 274 students and the 228 students at Rogers Elementary school to their next nearest neighborhood schools would save the district about $750,000 annually. It would also free up the facilities for the district to lease to a charter school at market rate.

Also on the table are larger class size for kindergarten through third grade, asking the community to support a parcel tax and teacher layoffs. Nearly 90 teachers got state-mandated layoff warnings last week.

Superintendent Stephen Fiss says that the district has done all it can with state funding that’s now less than $5,000 a student instead of the $6,400 per student it should be under California’s Proposition 98, which guarantees mandatory education spending. That decrease created an $48-million dollar gap between what the district spends and the revenue it gets.

“California funding is near the bottom in the nation,” Fiss said. “So everything we do at this point, because we’ve made adjustments already, will affect students .”

The superintendent must present a plan to the Santa Clara County Board of Education on April 25. While the parents rally to save their schools, they’re also trying to figure out what to say to their kids.

Kristina Ivers’ son Angel is in the first grade at Sloanaker.

“I don’t know how to explain to him that they decided to close the school because there’s no funding. He’s too young to understand that so it’s hard, Ivers said.

“I don’t feel that excited because actually I like this school,” said Sloanaker third grader Noemi Colon.

There are two other meetings scheduled for March 21 at Ocala Middle School and March 25 at Mathson Middle School.