This morning the local fugitive
known as Fat Leonard is back in
custody after weeks on the run.
Thanks for joining us here
at 6:00 AM I'm Eric Connard
and I'm not at Ironport.
Leonard Francis is the mastermind
behind one of the biggest
corruption cases in U.S.
military history.
CBS 8 State and remake.
They go live outside the
federal courthouse downtown.
These are some major developments.
Dana Marie.
Yes, good morning, Eric Annetta.
We have a lot of information to
breakdown for you. That's new.
But what we do know is that US Marshals
say that Leonard broke his GPS ankle
monitor and fled from his home here
in San Diego and Tori Highlands.
He then used his own name and
passport to get on multiple flights.
He was actually found in Venezuela because
an international database was flagged
because he was using all of that information.
Now here's some background on why he's being.
Followed and. Why?
The military is is accusing him,
the military contractor,
Leonard or Francis,
pleaded guilty in 2015 to bribing Navy
officers in exchange for helping his
ship servicing company over in Singapore.
So turns out,
because of their deal,
the US government was overcharged
millions of dollars.
Now extremely wealthy Malaysian defense
contractor was the mastermind behind
a complex bribery scheme in which
Francis supplied naval officials.
Travel,
lavish gifts and prostitutes and
exchanged for classified information,
which Francis used to overbuild the
government by at least $35 million.
Now,
more than 30 Navy officers were
also convicted in this case for
divulging classified information and
accepting things like Cuban cigars,
watches and gourmet meals.
Francis was facing 25 years in prison,
and just weeks before that sentencing
hearing that was supposed to happen today,
he fled.
Now we're told that Fat Leonard was captured.
Alone in Venezuela.
And again,
he was originally supposed to be sentenced,
but right now the next step is to
extradite him back to San Diego.
So of course we've been following
this from the very beginning.
We will continue to do that as
he comes back to San Diego and
he awaits the courtroom.
And Dana Marie Mcnicol coming
to you live from downtown?
Dana Marie, thank you so much for that.
And now there this morning,
two people are dead after yet
another earthquake in Mexico
and the 6.8 magnitude quake.
It struck early this morning while
a lot of people were sleeping,
and it caused these tall buildings
to sway all the way in Mexico City,
Mexico City, east of where the epicenter is.
Mexico's president says it was an aftershock
from the 7.6 magnitude quake that hit
the area on Monday in that same region.
This one was also centered
in the Western state.
Of Michoacan,
right off of the Pacific Coast.
You see a lot of people coming
out into the middle of the street
in the middle of the night there.
New video this morning of a
violent incident in the air.
Take a look at this.
It happened on a flight from
Kabul to LAX yesterday.
You can see a man hit an American
Airlines flight boom right
there on the back of the head.
The airline tells us the plane landed
safely at LAX and the man was arrested.
No word on what led up to this assault.
The flight attendant was hurt,
but right now we don't know how.
Seriously.
The city of Chula Vista is now reviewing
community input from a meeting last
night over the future of Harborside Park.
It's a story we've been working on for you.
It comes because of growing
crime and drug use at that park,
including a shooting that forced
a nearby school into lockdown.
CBS 8 Chris Growe is live in Chula Vista
now with what happened during that meeting.
Good morning, Chris.
Yeah, good morning, nedi.
Look, this is a story that we've been
covering a very frequently because of
so many concerns here in the community.
Now, the encampments been cleared,
the park has been closed,
but a lot of people in this
community are still worried that
even when the park reopens,
we could potentially see
the same problems arise.
For me it was
a concern that they'll start seeing
it as OK, it's OK to live that way.
I feel bad because I have family in Mexico,
but this is for my future, for my kids.
I remember when this park was open,
a homeless encampment grew out of control.
There was multiple reports
of drug use crimes fights,
including a shooting that took
place days after the City
Council voted to close the park.
Now that closure was for 90 days.
Fast forward to today and again,
the safety is still the number
one priority for those involved in
last night's brainstorming session.
That's why we heard from
so many people about it,
including from those in the Chula
Vista Elementary School District,
parents as well as.
Residents, they want the city
develop a long term solution.
Unfortunately,
nothing specific to the park
and Harborside Elementary has
been finalized by the city.
That's why they're reviewing what's
been suggested at last night's meeting.
Now there was a City Council
member there that did mention a
homeless shelter that's opening up,
but that's not until next year.
So what's next again is still unknown.
And you have this the issue again
of safety and potentially that
homeless encampment coming back
once the park reopens.
Now something that we covered.
That initial vote took place is
that the city manager does have the
discretion to extend that closure,
but the people who live in this
area don't want to see the park
closed for a long period of time
or potentially forever.
They want to see the root
issue addressed Netta.
An interesting one on how they'll
handle that Chris growth.
Thank you for that this morning.
Local basketball legend Bill Walton.
You see him there?
He's calling out San Diego's mayor Todd
Gloria over our homeless crisis now.
He says he's been threatened,
chased and assaulted,
and he's specifically mentioned
the area right along Park Blvd,
near Oopa St that's right
near the San Diego Zoo.
Bill Walton and the mayor exchanged emails
over this issue in his latest message,
Walton said, quote,
you have failed to deliver a safe, clean.
Healthy and secure environment
for us to live,
work and play in our own neighborhoods.
In a statement,
the mayor's office says no one is
taking more action on homelessness now.
This morning, Oceanside is getting ready
to open a new navigation Center for homeless.
The shelter will provide healthcare
and connections to permanent housing.
The county offered $10 million in grants
to help cities tackle the homeless crisis,
yet three cities stepped up the program.
Program also awarded the City
of San Diego and Vista,
and that money will go for safe.
Parking programs.
New this morning 2 American prisoners
captured in Ukraine by Russia are now free.
This comes after an exchange
brokered by Saudi Arabia.
The men are military veterans from Alabama
who volunteered to fight for Ukraine.
They were captured in June.
They are expected to return
home after medical checks.
President Biden says the world must
continue supporting Ukraine as the
threat of nuclear war escalates.
This comes after Russian President
Vladimir Putin said they would use,
quote, every means at their
disposal in the war against Ukraine.
In a speech at the UN,
President Biden called those.
Remarks irresponsible.
A nuclear war cannot
be won. And must never be fought.
The president also denounced Putin's order
for a partial mobilization of reservists.
That news set off protests across Russia
and get this sparked an exodus of people
taking one way flights out of the country.
Take a look at this.
A time lapse of flights departing Russia
and this went viral this morning.
Former President Donald
Trump is on the defensive.
A federal appeals court just ruled
the Justice Department can resume
its review of classified documents.
Seized from his Florida home,
but Trump insists the documents
were declassified.
If you're the President of the United States,
you could declassify just by
saying it's declassified,
even by thinking about it falsely.
Meantime, the New York Attorney
General is suing Trump, his company,
and his three oldest kids for fraud.
The civil suit claims that Trump's
lied to lenders and insurers to
inflate the value of their properties.
Trump is calling this another
political attack.
The Federal Reserve is
raising interest rates again,
this time by 3/4 of a percentage point.
The goal is to curb record inflation,
the rate. Mike will now push up the
cost of borrowing to buy homes, cars,
any other large items and it'll likely
increase household credit card debt.
We're gonna take a closer look
at how to protect your finances.
That's in our next half hour.
Take a peek outside here on a Thursday
the 1st day of fall and we are to
feel like it a little bit here today.
But boy, Summer's gonna be
kind of coming back is yeah,
you would normally expect that
temperatures would drop as we head into
a new season and especially fall for us.
However, we're gonna see quite the opposite.
Temperatures are actually going to be
climbing over the next several days.
We're replacing a through of low
pressure that's been keeping our
temperatures cool over the last week
or so with a Ridge of high pressure.
That Ridge of high pressure is
going to shift our wind direction.
We're gonna be seeing offshore
winds much drier,
hotter air moving into the county
and that means that we will see a
gradual climb in temperatures each
day moving forward between now
and the beginning of next week.
Low 90s, mid 90s in play for your
inland valleys along the coast.
We will be in the 80s,
but it is a cool start to the morning,
mostly clear out there.
A couple spots are running into
patchy clouds,
but by the afternoon we're expecting
sunshine across the county.
We are also seeing that today
is a very mild day still despite
this gradual warming trend.
It'll really be felt as those temperatures
hit their peak on Monday and Tuesday
of next week as you walk out the door.
Right now we are in the 50s,
some pockets of 40s.
Ramona, for example, at 49 right now,
53 for Escondido, 58 in Encinitas,
12 degrees of a difference compared to
just 24 hours ago in Ramona this morning.
Julian is 13 degrees cooler,
Borrego Springs,
16 degrees cooler than 24 hours ago.
Along the immediate coastline, however,
just about a three to five degree difference.
Now.
By the time we get to the afternoon,
that difference is going to be.
In the positive direction,
we're going to be seeing those high
temperatures warmer than they were
24 hours ago, mid and lower 80s,
four year inland valleys,
upper 70s across the mountaintops coastline
staying mostly in the mid 70s out there,
a few clouds in the morning,
sunshine by the afternoon and
then that gradual climb in
temperatures into next week.
We'll take a look at the 8 day forecast,
talk about when this heat wave
will come to an end.