Fire Damages 2 Popular Dallas Dining Spots

Ellen Goldberg, NBC 5 News

A fire at a next-door restaurant has put Sal's Pizza out of commission for the first time in three decades. The restaurant hopes to reopen for delivery orders by next week.

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A Dallas pizza institution has been closed since Sunday after a fire broke out at a restaurant next door.

Sal's Pizza in a popular strip center near Wycliff Avenue and the Dallas North Tollway has been closed since Sunday after a fire broke out in the kitchen of Oishii, the sushi restaurant next door.

About 40 firefighters managed to keep the blaze contained to the two restaurants.

"It's devastating," Sal's manager Amy Jakova said. "Our employees are out of work. We have no business coming in."

The "we're closed" sign is not one customers are used to seeing on the doors of Sal's Pizza.

"We don't close," Jakova said. "We close three days out of the whole year -- Fourth of July, Christmas and Thanksgiving."

Her father, Sal, opened the restaurant 30 years ago. It still uses much of the same equipment to serve up its New York-style pizza.

"Our dough machine is over 30 years old; I call her old faithful," Amy Jakova said. They don't make them like her anymore."

Investigators still haven't said what caused the fire.

But customers of both restaurants are anxious for them to get back up and running.

"Our phones -- as you can hear; they are still going off -- we have a voice mail, and it's full every five minutes," Jakova said. "I have to check them and call people back and say, 'I'm sorry; I can't deliver today.'"

Sal's hopes to reopen its kitchen for delivery orders by next week.

But it could be months before Oishii reopens.

"It's sad. I know they need the money," said longtime Oishii customer David Schneider. "I don't know what they're going to do; it's going to be a long time."

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Dallas Power Outage Closes Museum Early

Omar Villafranca, NBC 5 News

A power outage in Dallas darkened apartments and forced the Perot Museum to cut its evening short.

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An equipment failure left more than 700 customers without power in Dallas on Wednesday night, forcing the Perot Museum of Nature and Science to close early.

Oncor Electric Delivery spokeswoman Jeamy Molina said the first reports of the outage came just before 6 p.m.

The outage darkened 26 of the 31 apartment buildings in a nearby complex.

Becky Mayad, a spokeswoman for the museum, said people who were forced to leave early because of the power problem can use their tickets another day or get a refund by sending an email to info@perotmuseum.org.

Power was restored just after 830 p.m.

Tyler Dumar and Joanie Swearingen both live in a nearby complex that was without power for hours. Swearingen made a trip to Target to buy candles to light up her apartment.

Dumar was readying for a night without a heater.

"We're probably going to just get every blanket that we can and from everywhere we can find and probably just bundle up," he said.

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Victim's Mother: Officers Should Be Fired Over DWI

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A woman whose daughter was killed by a drunken Fort Worth police detective three years ago says the department hasn't learned its lesson after yet another officer was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of drunken driving.

"It's been three years ago in December," Stella Lopez said. "That should have been a wake-up call."

Her daughter, Sonia Baker, was killed in December 2009 when Officer Jesus Cisneros' car slammed into hers.

Cisneros was convicted of intoxication manslaughter and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was on his way home after drinking with other officers at a Fort Worth bar, police acknowledged at the time.

After the tragedy, Police Chief Jeffrey Halstead ordered the entire department to undergo alcohol awareness training.

Early Wednesday morning, Nicolas Ramirez, a Fort Worth DWI enforcement officer, was arrested in Westlake on a DWI charge. Blood alcohol tests showed he had drank more than twice the legal limit.

Nearly 20 Fort Worth officers have been arrested in drunken-driving cases in the past four years.

Ramirez's arrest follows the DWI arrest of Maj. Paul Henderson last month in Parker County. Henderson was Halstead's chief of staff and had spoken out against drunken driving in the past.

Henderson was demoted but still works for the department. His criminal charges are still pending.

"What is it going to take? Police officer after police officer after police officer," Lopez said. "What is it going to take?"

Lopez said Halstead should fire officers for drunken driving instead of reprimanding them.

"Halstead needs to change the rules," she said. "He needs to fire these people (so they) know what it feels like to lose your job because of the almighty alcohol."

Halstead declined to comment Wednesday but has said he judges each case individually.

In a written statement after Ramirez's arrest, Halstead apologized.

"It is extremely troubling that one of our police officers, especially a DWI enforcement officer, has been arrested in this manner," he said.

Halstead promised the matter "will be handled expeditiously."

Lopez acknowledged that Halstead can't be a babysitter for every officer but said drunken-driving convictions should lead to automatic termination.

"Police officers, of all people, are out there teaching us, teaching our young kids to trust them," she said. "And this happens? Who are we to trust?"

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Woman Sexually Assaulted at Lewisville Park

Amanda Guerra, NBC 5 News

Two men attacked and sexually assaulted a female jogger at L.L. Woods Park in Lewisville on New Year's Eve.

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Lewisville Police Investigate Sexual Assault

Lewisville police are looking for two men who sexually assaulted a woman at L.L. Woods Park on New Year's Eve.

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Lewisville police are looking for two men who sexually assaulted a 32-year-old woman on New Year's Eve.

Investigators said the woman was jogging at approximately 7:30 p.m. at L.L. Woods Park in the 1000 block of Arbour Way.

The two men hid behind a tree and confronted the woman when she ran past them, police said. Investigators said she tried to fight off the men but failed and was knocked unconscious. The men dragged the woman away from the jogging trail and sexually assaulted her.

Lewisville police say it's unusual and extremely dangerous for two men to be working together.

"This is the first one that we know of that has occurred like this," Capt. Kevin Deaver said.

"It's somewhat unusual that there were two attackers. That's real unusual for this type of offense, so that's something that's alarming and that's why we're reaching out to the public," he said.

Anyone with information on this crime is urged to contact Lewisville Police at 972-219-TIPS (8477) or Denton County Crime Stoppers at 800-388-TIPS (8477).

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Couple Buys "Field of Dreams" Site with Plans for 24 Baseball Diamonds

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The "Field of Dreams," a nearly 200-acre parcel of Iowa land made famous in the 1989 Kevin Costner film of the same name, will live on and give young people a lesson in life.

An investment group led by an Oak Lawn, Ill., couple, Denise and Mark Stillman, finally closed last week on the deal after more than two and a half years.

Denise Stillman said she got inspiration for her dream by listening to the movie's audio, and recalled Wednesday the moment she told her husband they should buy the property.

"[It was] over pizza by a swimming pool the night that he told me it was for sale. I said we should build a Cooperstown facility like that at the 'Field of Dreams' movie site," she called.

In the future, the site will be a sprawling sports complex built specifically for youth sports, including 24 baseball diamonds and 60 clubhouses.

"We're going to do things like build a summer camp where kids from the inner city came come to Iowa and learn about how to be a great human being through sports," she said.

There are some eerie coincidences in the real life purchase.

"We've actually talked about the similarity between the movie and real life except the tables are turned in the genders. The wife is that one that's proverbially the crazy one," Stillman said with a laugh.

She said she knew convincing her husband wouldn't be difficult, recalling their early days together in college at Bradley University.

"It came out on tape and we watched it in the dorm and he cried, so I thought he was pretty OK," she said.

Stillman also has the support of actor Kevin Costner. She said the star lauded her effort and thanked her for keeping the dream alive.

"He just chuckled and said, 'I'm so glad that someone is saving that. It's my favorite place on earth,'" Stillman said.

The first phase of the $40 million project should be complete in the spring of 2014. Stillman said youth baseball teams from as far away as California and Florida are already signed up to compete in tournaments.
 

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Sandy Hook Students Head to "Safest School in America"

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Classes resumed Thursday for the students of Sandy Hook Elementary School for the first time since last month's massacre in Newtown, where a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six educators.

 

With their original school still being treated as a crime scene, the more than 400 students are attending classes at a refurbished school in the neighboring town of Monroe. Law enforcement officers have been guarding the new school, and by the reckoning of police, it is "the safest school in America."

The school district said parents who want to be close to their children are welcome to visit and stay in classrooms or an auditorium throughout the day. Parents were encouraged to have their children take the bus to help them return to familiar routines.

Still, Newtown Superintendent Janet Robinson said officials will do their best to make the students feel at ease.

"We will go to our regular schedule," she said. "We will be doing a normal day."

Returning students, teachers and administrators were met by a large police presence on a sunny and cold day with temperatures hovering near 10 degrees. Several police officers were guarding the entrance to the school, and were checking IDs of parents dropping off children.

On Wednesday, the students and their families were welcomed at an open house at their new school, which was formerly the Chalk Hill Middle School in Monroe but renamed as the Sandy Hook Elementary School.

The new building was decorated like a winter wonderland, filled with snowflakes people from around the world sent to the Connecticut PTSA to help make the students feel welcome. Students received gift boxes with toys inside and shared joyful reunions with teachers.

"Right now, Chalk Hill has been transformed from a middle school to a very cheerful, nurturing elementary school," Robinson said.

Former principal Donna Page is leading the school, and Robinson called this a "godsend" to help the transition process.

One father, Vinny Alvarez, took a moment to thank his third-grade daughter's teacher, Courtney Martin, who protected the class from a rampaging gunman by locking her classroom door and keeping the children in a corner.

"Everybody there thanked her in their own way," he said.

The gunman, Adam Lanza, also killed his mother at the home they shared in Newtown before driving to the school and gunning down 26 people, including the school's principal. Lanza fatally shot himself as police arrived. Police haven't released any details about a motive.

 

Numerous police officers on Wednesday guarded the outside of the Monroe school, which is about 7 miles from the old school, and told reporters to stay away.

"I think right now it has to be the safest school in America," Monroe police Lt. Keith White said.

Teachers attended staff meetings at the new school on Wednesday morning and were visited by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy before the open house, White said.

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Most Lanes of WB I-20 Closed in Parker County

Keaton Fox, NBC 5 News

An overturned 18-wheeler had the westbound lanes of Interstate 20 in Parker County shut down for several hours Thursday morning.

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All but one of the westbound lanes of Interstate 20 in Parker County will be closed for several hours Thursday following a crash involving an 18-wheeler.

At about 2:45 a.m., an 18-wheeler carrying wood chips overturned on westbound I-20 at Gilbert Pit Road in the western part of Parker County, according to the Mineral Wells Department of Public Safety.

The driver of the 18-wheeler suffered minor injuries.

One lane on westbound I-20 opened at about 8 a.m. The remaining lanes are expected to remain closed until further notice.

Wood chips spilled onto the highway after the semi overturned. Crews are still working to clear the scene.

NBC 5's Keaton Fox contributed to this report.

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N.Y. Town's Sandy-Battered, Century-Old Boardwalk Faces Demolition

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Workers will begin to demolish the famed century-old boardwalk in Long Beach, N.Y., on Saturday, months after it was battered beyond repair by Superstorm Sandy, city officials said Wednesday.

The city council for the Long Island city, just miles from New York City, decided to tear down the entire structure last month, after Sandy badly damaged its two-mile beachfront stretch of wood and concrete.

"It looks like King Kong came in and ripped up the whole place," said Barbara Herr, who has visited Long Beach for 15 years.

An American flag and a holiday wreath hang on a pile of twisted wood in one of the boardwalk's hardest hit areas. The boardwalk has been closed since the storm, and while not every inch was destroyed by Sandy, city officials thought it best to demolish all of it.

"To be prudent, it's better to look at the entire boardwalk, take the whole thing down and rebuild stronger and smarter," said city councilman Scott J. Mandel.

The demolition should take about a month, said Mandel. The reconstruction is expected to be finished by the start of the all important summer season, Mandel added.

The estimated cost of the project is $25 million. Long Beach hopes to recoup the entire amount from Federal Emergency Management Agency, Mandel said. But the city decided to move ahead before securing any funding guarantee.

"Long Beach is known for its boardwalk," Mandel explained. "So, this is a symbol that Long Beach will recover from Sandy."

The boardwalk was first built in 1907, as Long Beach's founders looked to create a destination to rival Atlantic City. Elephants from New York's Coney Island were used during the original construction, said city historian Roberta Fiore.

At first, the boardwalk was private, Fiore added. Visitors needed to secure a special invitation to enjoy the boardwalk and its adjoining amenities, like tennis courts.

Parts of the boardwalk were rebuilt in the late 1930s after a fire, Fiore said. Since then, the boardwalk has survived numerous storms and hurricanes, remaining the focal point of the waterfront community.

"Our boardwalk has always been the alpha and the omega of the city of Long Beach," Fiore explained.

A special ceremony attended by city officials and residents will mark the start of demolition Saturday.

"It's part of their heritage, part of them, part of their blood," said Terri Powers, of the nearby town of Oceanside, N.Y., who has been walking the boardwalk for three decades.

"I look forward to walking here again," added Kevin McCormack of nearby Lynbrook, N.Y., as he took pictures of what was left of the boardwalk.

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Cigarette Ashes Blamed for Devastating Fire

Kendra Lyn, NBC 5 News

A fire forced a family in Dallas out of their home and into the cold weather Thursday morning.

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A fire destroyed a Dallas family's home Thursday morning, forcing them out into the frigid winter cold.

The fire inside the home on the 11400 block of Gatewood Drive was first reported at about 1:40 a.m. after homeowner Sue Sobieck said she and her husband Don woke up to the smell of smoke. Sobieck said she then saw flames shooting from their adult son's bedroom on the back side of the house.

Don Sobieck told NBC 5 that he believed his son had been smoking and accidentally started the fire. Dallas Fire investigators later confirmed the fire was not intentionally set and that clothing and an air filter caught on fire from cigarette ashes.

Though the family managed to escape the fire without injury, most of their belongings were destroyed. The family, which had lived in the home for 15 years, also lost their 16-year-old cat in the fire.

With all that is lost, the family is trying to focus on the positives.

"We're in great hands. We've got a good insurance company. The cat's dead. My son's cared for. So everything's going to work out in the end," said Don Sobieck.

As firefighters battled the flames, the family kept warm inside of an ambulance. The Red Cross is providing the family with clothing, food and a place to stay while they begin to rebuild their lives.

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