The Alameda County Coroner’s Bureau positively identified 10 more victims of the Oakland warehouse fire late Monday night.

The latest victims named released were Em Bohlka, 33, of Oakland; Micah Danemayer, 28, of Oakland; Chelsea Dolan, 33, of San Francisco; Justin Fritz, 29, of Berkeley; Alex Ghassan, 35, of Oakland; Michela Gregory, 20, of South San Francisco; Edmund Lapine, 34, of Oakland; Jennifer Morris, 21, of Foster City; Benjamin Runnels, 32, of Oakland; and Jennifer Kiyomi Tanouye, 31, of Oakland.

The fire's death toll stood at 36 on Monday, with about 75 percent of the building searched. Officials say they've identified a total of 22 victims and notified their families. They've released 17 names.

An 18th name, Draven McGill, 17, was confirmed Monday by officials at McGill's school in San Francisco. He is the son of an Alameda County Sheriff's deputy.

The seven victims previously identified are Donna Kellogg, 32, of Oakland; Cash Askew, 22, of Oakland; David Cline, 35, of Oakland; Nick Gomez-Hall, 25, of Coronado; Sara Hoda, 30, of Walnut Creek; Travis Hough, 35, of Oakland; and Brandon Chase Wittenauer, 32, of Hayward.

The death toll in the warehouse fire may rise in the coming days, officials said.

Kellogg, one of the first people to be confirmed dead, was going to culinary school and worked at High Wire Roasters coffee shop in Berkeley. Her coworkers learned Sunday night that she was killed in the fire.

Kellogg was a former resident of Chico who graduated from Chico High. One friend described her as a freewheeling, free-spirited, candid person.

Wittenauer, better known by his stage name Nex Iuguolo, was an electronic music artist and vocalist for the band Symbiotix Fungi.

Hough was a musician with the Oakland-based electronic band Ghost of Lightning. Hough often went by the stage name Travis Blitzen.

Askew, another musician, was a member of the Bay Area dream pop band Them Are Us Too.

Gomez-Hall was an administrative assistant at Counterpoint Press who called himself a decomposer of music.

Cline was a UC Berkeley graduate, having earned degrees in cognitive science and computer science.

Hoda's friends on Facebook said she was a teacher, gardener and a hardworking person who loved children.

Hoda taught a first through third-grade class at the Urban Montessori in East Oakland. On Monday, Hoda's family attended a small meomrial on campus where students shared stories about their teacher and presented them with cards and art work.

The victims' families have been notified. Other names are expected to be released in the coming days. Some of the victims are non-citizens, officials said.

A vigil in honor of victims of the deadly Oakland, California, warehouse fire briefly turned into a political confrontation Monday night as saddened, angry participants shouted down the city's mayor with obscenities and boos, NBC News reported.

Several hundred people showed up at the Oakland Pergola and Colonnade at Lake Merritt for speeches and remembrances three days after at least 36 people were killed as flames engulfed the converted warehouse during a concert and party.

Amid an emotional outpouring from people who knew the victims, some speakers urged the city to protect "nontraditional warehouse residences" and "fringe places" where some Oaklanders have sought shelter as the city's housing costs skyrocket.

Boos and calls to resign greeted Mayor Libby Schaaf, whom some have criticized as emphasizing the warehouse's code violations in the hours immediately after the fire, instead of the shortage of affordable housing.

This so-called Roll Mole is giving Pizza Rat a run for its money.

A rat was recorded dragging a comically large dinner roll on the subway tracks on the Upper East Side last Thursday, another sign of the determination the city's rats apparently possess when it comes to acquiring food bigger than them. 

Christian Waugh told NBC 4 New York he was waiting for a train home from a Christmas concert rehearsal when he noticed the rat trying to drag the large dinner roll along the subway tracks at the 51st Street subway station.

Waugh said as he reached for his phone, the rat seemed to give up and dash away. However, the rat came back moments later to fight for his dinner. Waugh was able to take a quick video on his phone.

“I started recording his actions but noticed that no one else on the platform was paying attention whatsoever,” Waugh told NBC 4 New York. “Most were just on their phone with no clue regarding the epic activity that was taking place.”

Waugh said the event reminded him of Pizza Rat, but found the furtive antics of the dinner roll rat to be hilarious.

Waugh’s friend dubbed the rodent the “Roll Mole.”

A bipartisan bill to speed government drug approvals and bolster biomedical research cleared its last procedural hurdle in the Senate on Monday in an emotional moment for outgoing Vice President Joe Biden, NBC News reported. 

The overwhelming 85-13 vote put the measure on track for final legislative approval by the Senate as early as Tuesday. President Barack Obama has promised to sign the measure, one of the last for the president and the 114th Congress, whose leaders hope to adjourn by week's end after a two-year session that has seen them clash frequently with the president. 

The bill envisions providing $6.3 billion over the next decade, including $1.8 billion for cancer research. Obama had placed Biden in charge of a "moonshot" to find ways to cure and treat the disease, which killed his son Beau, 46, last year. 

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., sought approval for renaming a portion of the bill after Beau Biden. The Senate agreed, and lawmakers of both parties applauded and lined up to share quiet words and pats on the shoulder with the vice president, who sat teary-eyed in the presiding officer's chair of the chamber where he served as senator for 36 years. A clerk handed Biden a tissue.

The seven-year-old girl from Syria who has recounted on Twitter her family's struggle in the nation's conflict is back online, after the account went dark amid an attack nearby.

Bana al-Abed lives in besieged Aleppo, and says she is fine, despite a recent bombardment. Her Twitter account disappeared from the internet on Sunday, sparking speculation online that the mother and daughter had been captured.

The account's last tweet before the account was deactivated read, "We are sure the army is capturing us now," and was written by Bana's mother, Fatemah.

Some worried that the Syrian army had found the family's hiding place and deleted the account. The hashtag #WhereIsBana surfaced, as users wondered why the account disappeared. Author J.K Rowling, who has spoken with the girl before, tweeted messages with the hashtag.

But a spokesperson for humanitarian group Syria Charity told NBC News that the family was not captured, and the Twitter account returned Monday, though with Bana and her family apparently still in danger.

"Under attack. Nowhere to go, every minute feels like death. Pray for us. Goodbye," Fatemah al-Abed said.

Tuesday brought better news and direct word from Bana, though bombing was still on her mind. She said she was fine in her slightly more up-beat tweet, and that she is "getting better without medicine with too much bombing."

The al-Abed family has chronicled the horrors of living in Aleppo as the Syrian conflict continues. Their account has garnered 213,000 followers.

Relieved users sent positive messages to the family once the account resurfaced, urging them to stay safe and offering prayers.

For just $85, your pet rock memories from childhood can come back to life -- all thanks to Nordstrom.

The department store recently added a "unique rock" or "medium wrapped leather stone," to its website. Made by Los-Angeles based company Made Solid, the stone was handmade by artist Peter Maxwell.

Some wondered whether the item was a real product or not. 

"A paperweight? A conversation piece? A work of art? It's up to you," an ad on Nordstrom's website reads.

People took to social media, as well as the comments section of the website to poke fun at the stone.

Melissa Kitcher had full intentions of completing her first half-marathon Sunday, but it's safe to say she pictured it ending a little bit differently.

Kitcher went missing for nearly 12 hours after running off the trail during the Trail Hog Half-Marathon at the Carlton Reserve near Venice in Sarasota County, Florida.

"I kept thinking to myself, 'Wow, how do people run these trails? I can't even walk them,'" she said. "When I hit the power lines I said, 'Yes I'm definitely way off course. I'm lost.'"

But how did she manage to get lost?

Kitcher said there was no marking to indicate or properly direct her. “The website says you're supposed to be on Jeep trails. So when I came out there was a Jeep trail and I figured that was the path I needed to be on," Kitcher explained.

The runner ended up six to seven miles off course with no phone — it inconveniently froze up two minutes before the start of the race, she said.

Race director Thierry Rouillard had this to say about the situation: "It's the worst nightmare for a race director. I love what I do and want everyone to be happy. That was her first half-marathon. That was her first trail run. She learned the hard way.”

Kitcher ended running over 16 miles before the park’s department located her in the reserve about 7:30 p.m.

She was uninjured. Thirsty, of course, but just happy she could go home.

“She was happy when we found her. I'm going to send her a gift package with racing stuff. A finisher's medal and award for the longest Trail Hog half-marathon in the history of the event," Rouillard joked.

Despite going a little off course, Kitcher already has sights set on redemption.

"There's the Sarasota Half Marathon on March 19th. I already have that in my head," she said. "Everybody keeps telling me no more races, I said I'm lucky this one's on the street."

A New York City police detective seen on camera rolling dice in uniform with several people in the Bronx has been stripped of his badge and gun, the NBC New York investigative team has learned.

The NYPD said David Terrell of the 42nd Precinct is off active patrol and on modified assignment in the Manhattan court system, but didn't comment specifically on the dice incident or the specific reason he was placed on modified duty.

Terrell's modified assignment also comes as several young men in the Bronx told the I-Team he and other officers in the 42nd precinct falsified arrests and coerced witnesses to lie in criminal cases.

Not getting enough sleep every night doubles the risk of crashes on the road, according to a new study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

The study, released on Tuesday, states that drivers who get one to two hours less sleep than the recommended seven hours every night nearly double their risk of being involved in a crash.

“You cannot miss sleep and still expect to be able to safely function behind the wheel. Our new research shows that a driver who has slept for less than five hours has a crash risk comparable to someone driving drunk,” said Dr. David Yang, executive director for the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 35 percent of drivers sleep less than seven hours. Also, one in five fatal crashes every year involves drowsy driving, AAA said.

The research also reported that sleeping only four to five hours more than quadrupled the crash risk—getting less than four hours of sleep, the risk went up 11.5 times.

Signs of drowsy driving include drifting from lanes and having trouble keeping eyes open, AAA said.

AAA Foundation recommends giving yourself a break every two hours on long drives, not eating heavy foods, traveling with people and taking turns driving.

The data used by the study was taken from the NHTA’s National Motor Vehicle Crash Causation Survey.

The Oakland warehouse artists' enclave was supposed to be a safe place, emotionally and spiritually, for the artists and free spirits who chose lives off the beaten track. An electronic music party had also attracted many in the transgender community, who had come together on Friday night, as they did regularly, to dance with friends and blow off steam.

But physically, the enclave wasn't safe at all on Friday. A fire ripped through the illegally converted warehouse at 1305 East 31st Avenue in the city's Fruitvale neighborhood, killing at least 36 people.

It's the deadliest blaze in Oakland history, and it counts at least three transgender women among the victims: Cash Askew, 22, of Oakland; Feral Pines, 29, of Berkeley and Em Bohlka, 33, of Oakland.  

The father of one is lamenting how few spaces trans people have to gather safely.

"My heart goes out to the entire trans community who feel as if they must gather in unsafe buildings to experience their community and celebrate their identity," said Jack Bohlka in an Instagram post remembering his daughter, Em. 

Friends and family prefer their new names be used to identify them, instead of the ones they were born with, following commonly accepted tradition in the trans community. And that means authorities are now also dealing with an unorthodox situation; one they said they're willing to comply with, albeit with a few mistakes.

What's in a Name?
When Feral Pines was identified as a victim in the fire, the Alameda County Sheriff's Office on Monday first gave her name as Justin Fritz, her birth name. That was corrected later and the sheriff tweeted an apology.

In an interview on Tuesday, Alameda County Sheriff’s Sgt. J.D. Nelson said the coroner's office is now identifying the victims to the public by the names their families — not their friends — ask for, and will note the legal name, if different, on the official death certificate, which is the law. Alameda County sheriff's Tya Modete added that department was working with an LGBT advocate to report the proper gender identification.

A name means a lot in the trans community, a fact that was known by most, if not all, of the creative, musical and artistic party goers at the warehouse on Friday night.

"It's called 'dead naming,'" Carol Dauley, an audio engineer and past president of Transgender SF said in an interview with NBC Bay Area on Tuesday. "That means their old name no longer exists. It's disrespectful, and in the eyes of the trans community, there is never a good reason to use the old name."

Scout Wolfcave, executive director at the Trans Assistance Project in Portland and a friend to one of the victims, said using the right names and pronouns is especially important for trans people when they die.

"Many in the transgender community don't want to be referred to by the names they were given at birth, because when they transition from one gender to another, they want to make a clean break from the past," Wolfcave wrote on Facebook.

Pastor Megan Rohrer, of Grace Lutheran Church in San Francisco, said she appreciated that first responders were taking great pain to get pronouns correct.

"I just want to lift up how great I think that is, that they're taking the time to do their best, even though it's really hard," they said. (Rohrer uses they/their as gender pronouns.)

Rohrer also noted that the LGBT community at large has a long history of holding celebrations in unsafe places on the margins of the community, going back to the days of vice squads patrolling San Francisco.

"The trans community and the LGBT community, when they don't feel safe in other parts of community, often find safety amongst artists," Rohrer said.

And yet the warehouse was beautiful, according to Rohrer, and it seemed to them that it was a great place to have a party: "That's kind of the transgender experience. There's so much beauty and there's so much risk, all the time.

Here are brief portraits of the three women who died in the fire.

Feral Pines: 'Shined in the Sun'
Wolfcave was roommates with Pines, who moved to the Bay Area from Indiana and was originally from Connecticut. She graduated from Staples High School in 2005 and attended the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, where she studied offset lithography, her father said. She had always loved music.

"I had just texted her on Friday, telling her about something I was doing with my daughter that she and I use to do together and I know that she saw it, so that makes me feel better," Pines' sister, Amanda Parry, told News 12 in Connecticut. And in an email, friend Sarah Patterson said that Pines was a "syth genius with impeccable musical taste," who was also an "anti-facist" who was seen taking down swastikas inside the Ghost Ship.

On Facebook, Wolfcave reminisced about being really close with Pines — they loved and hated most of the same things.

"We also all had eerily similar senses of humor and were constantly joking about death, burners, body horror, poop, tiny glasses, gogurt," Wolfcave wrote. "Conversely, there were a few things that Feral and I would always argue about, like ... whether one would rather go to Burning Man or the Gathering of the Juggalos."

Pines moved to California recently and just "blossomed," Wolfcave wrote.

"She went from the comically sad basement dwelling synth collector," Wolfcave wrote, "to a person that shined in the sun, and moved up and down the 1, and took in the fresh air and saw all these fresh possibilities open up before her."

Cash Askew: 'Brilliant, Talented, Unique' Student
Askew, a graduate of Urban High School in San Francisco, was active in the Bay Area music and art scene and was part of a band called Them Are Us Too. "Them" is a preferred pronoun for many in the transgender community instead of "him" or "her."

The band's debut album on Dais Records, Remain, was released in 2015.

"Cash Askew was an absolutely loved and treasured member of the Dais Records family," the label and band's management team said in a statement.

"We were in awe of her talent, her gentle kindness, and her creative momentum," it continued. "Her passing is an excruciating loss that we may never fully process or recover from."

Askew also was a 2008 graduate of the Children's Day School in San Francisco. "She was a brilliant, talented, unique, nonconformist student," Head of School Molly Huffman wrote in a letter, noting that Askew transitioned to female after middle school.

CDS teacher Terry Askhinos wrote a letter to the school remembering Askew as "a gentle, free spirited 13-year-old who always found ways to be an individual, whether it was in her class work, her fiction writing, her fashion, her art, or her political convictions. Cash was always one step ahead of the rest of us and I often held her up as an example to the class of how to make learning a work of art."

Em Bohlka: Beginning her Transition
Her father, Jack Bohlka of Claremont, Calif. took to Instagram to document his child's life.

"Many of you will remember her as Matt. But recently she was transitioning to become a beautiful, happy woman. She took the name Em. I just wish with all my heart that she had more time to live her life as she truly wanted. My heart goes out to the entire trans community who feel as if they must gather in unsafe buildings to experience their community and celebrate their identity. Our communities must become more open and accepting of all people, all identities, so that everyone can enjoy a great party or concert in a space that is not a death trap."

He also told NBC Bay Area in a statement he will be establishing a fund at his local LGBT center in memory of Em, so that more transgender people will be able to become who they truly are, and so that there will be more safe spaces available.”

Donations to the Oakland warehouse fire victims can be made at YouCaring.com

NBC's Asher Klein contributed to this report. 

An NYPD officer got in to the Christmas spirit in a particularly touching way: he bought a homeless man who rummaging through the garbage a pair of much-needed diabetic socks.

Joshua Lagon of Long Island City said in a now-viral Facebook post that he was waiting for a train at Grand Central Terminal when he saw an NYPD officer running toward a man digging through a garbage can. Lagon said that after initially reprimanding the man for opening the trash can they asked why he was collecting cans.

Lagon said that when one of the officers found out he was trying to collect enough money for some doctor-prescribed socks, the officer -- later identified as Frank Rendina -- found out, he told the man "I’ll buy you socks. It’s Christmas soon right? I’ll buy you socks for Christmas. Merry Christmas. Let’s go to the store.”

Rendina said that he had known the homeless man, Ron Brown, for a couple of years and had celebrated a birthday or two with him with some candy bars. So when he heard about the man's request -- he didn't hesitate. 

"His doctor told him he needed diabetic socks," Rendina said. "I said, 'No problem. For Christmas, I will make sure you get the socks."

Brown, who Lagon said was taken aback by the gesture repeatedly asked "Are you serious?", said Tuesday he knew Rendina to be a good guy.

"What he did, he did from his heart and people shouldn't think negative of the police," Brown said. "They're good people."

More than 2,000 people have shared Lagon's post about the touching exchange. NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill got word of the act of kindness as well.

"We can all learn something. I'm so proud of #NYPD cops, and of all NYers," he said in a tweet.

A USC graduate student pleaded not guilty Tuesday to murder charges in the fatal stabbing of a psychology professor on the school's campus, prosecutors said.

David Jonathan Brown, 28, of Los Angeles was charged with one count of murder along with "a special allegation that he personally used a deadly and dangerous weapon, a knife," according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

Brown is accused of stabbing psychology Professor Bosco Tjan, 50, to death in his office Friday afternoon, authorities said.

Tjan served as a co-director of the Dornsife Cognitive Neuroimaging Center and was an expert in perception, vision, and vision cognition. He joined the USC faculty in 2001.

"This was not a random act of violence," according to a statement posted on the department's website. "The Los Angeles Police Department believes this was the result of a personal dispute."

The killing occurred on the final day of classes before finals.

He could face 26 years to life in prison if convicted as charged, officials said.

Hundreds of USC students, faculty members and administrators gathered in the center of campus Monday in remembrance of Tjan, 50, of Cerritos, who had taught at USC since 2001.

Tjan leaves behind a wife and son.

"May each of us, as members of the Trojan family, resolve to bring comfort and support to his wife and child," USC President C.L. Max Nikias said during the ceremony near the Tommy Trojan statue on campus.

"We've really lost an incredible mind and extremely generous person," said Irving Biederman, Howard Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience and director of the Image Understanding Laboratory. "You could not ask for a better colleague. He was brilliant, knowledgeable and helpful to others."

City News Service contributed to this report. 

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The son of a former New Jersey mayor has been charged in connection with the death of a Hofstra University graduate who prosecutors say was stabbed 15 times in the chest in a luxury Manhattan apartment last month and then buried in a shallow grave in New Jersey.

Max Gemma, 29, of Oceanport, was arrested Tuesday after turning himself in to police.

The son of former Oceanport mayor Gordon Gemma appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court to plead not guilty to charges of hindering prosecution and tampering with physical evidence in the death of 26-year-old Joey Comunale, of Stamford, Connecticut.

Comunale's body was found in a shallow grave behind an old police station in New Jersey Nov. 16. James Rackover, 25, and Lawrence Dilione, 28, were arrested shortly afterward in his death. Though police initially charged them with murder, prosecutors have so far only charged them with concealment of a corpse, tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution in the criminal complaint, pending further investigation. 

Prosecutors said Tuesday they believe Gemma was in the apartment where Comunale died and that Gemma changed his clothing and hid evidence.

But Gemma's lawyers said there was no evidence or witness testimony to support the claims.

A charge of tampering with evidence "should involve more than changing his clothes. And we think it's something else," his attorney Mark Bederow said outside court. 

Bederow declined to specify the relationship among the three men. 

Gemma posted the $100,000 cash bond late Tuesday afternoon and left court in a waiting car without speaking to reporters. His father also declined to comment.

Gemma is due back in court on Jan. 17. He works in software sales, according to his attorney in court, and is free to return to work until the next court date. 

Police have said Comunale was stabbed to death in some sort of dispute after he, Rackover, Dilione and three women returned from the Gilded Lily nightclub on 14th Street late Saturday, Nov. 12, or early Sunday, Nov. 13.

According to a criminal complaint, an informant told authorities Rackover was seen late Saturday leaving his apartment building and putting a large duffel bag into the trunk of a black Mercedes with tinted windows that was registered to Rackover's father. Records show the car leaving Manhattan and traveling through the Holland Tunnel to New Jersey, the criminal complaint says.

Dilione allegedly admitted he and Rackover dumped Comunale's body and told them where to find it. The young man had been stabbed more than a dozen times in the chest; his legs were burned and a gas canister was discovered nearby, the criminal complaint says.  

Bloody clothing, sheets and towels were found in Rackover's apartment during the course of an investigation, prosecutors said. The black vehicle that Rackover had been seen driving was later returned to Manhattan, left in a parking garage on East 58th Street, and a cadaver dog made a positive alert for a body or bodily fluids in the trunk area, the complaint says. 

Shortly after Comunale's body was found, his father, Pat, who had reported him missing, described him as "one of a kind."

"This is not something that happens to kids like this," Pat Comunale said of his son, who was an avid hockey player. "He didn't deserve this. He didn't go looking for trouble. It wasn't right. This is not right."

A surprising new study finds that mosquito populations have exploded in parts of the U.S. but not because of a warming climate. Instead, the study finds, growing cities and the ban on the insecticide DDT may be responsible, NBC News reported.

The trend doesn't bode well for the spread of new diseases — not just Zika virus, but West Nile virus, dengue virus, chikungunya and others, the team at the University of California, Santa Cruz found.

They tracked mosquito populations in New York, New Jersey and California. 

"Mosquito populations have increased as much as tenfold, and mosquito communities have become two- to fourfold richer over the last five decades," A. Marm Kilpatrick and colleagues wrote in their report, published in Nature Communications.

A man accused of pulling a sweetheart scam by luring women through dating apps and then stealing from them was busted in a sting operation, Riverside, CA, police said Tuesday.

Perris resident Oscar Mandujano-Quinonez, 29, was arrested on grand theft and booked into jail Monday.

Riverside police accused Mandujano-Quinonez, who goes by the nickname Manny, of meeting women through dating apps like "Meetup" before stealing their purses.

In November, he met a woman through the app and they decided to meet in a local park. He allegedly invited the woman to sit in his car. Once she set her purse down inside the silver Saturn, police said he asked her to step out for just a second.

Once she got out, the victim said he sped off with her purse.

Once police began investigating this incident, they discovered he was wanted in connection with a similar theft in Moreno Valley during summer.

Investigators say there are at least five victims. But after searching the suspect’s home in Perris, they found evidence of more victims.

One of the women, who wished not to be identified, said she fell victim to the scam in October.

"The first date I didn't bring my purse, so I think that's why I'm the only one who's had a second date because everybody else had their purses the first time," she said. "I didn't. I almost didn't take it the second time, but I did."

The woman said Manny parked near orange groves and asked her to get out of his car, claiming he had engine trouble. Then she said he took off with her purse and phone.

The victim said she’s concerned after learning he bailed out of jail Tuesday afternoon.

"That's a very big worry that we have, especially those of us that he knows where we live because he knows now that we are banding together to prosecute him," she said. "Now my family is in jeopardy as well."

After he was accused of robbing the women, police say he would sell their stolen belongings online.

Police are asking anyone who may have been victimized to give them a call at 951-235-7863.