They say never to cry over spilled milk, but motorists headed for Los Angeles on busy Interstate 5 Tuesday night very well might have.

Two tractor-trailers, one of them a tanker loaded with milk, collided on the interstate, which serves as California's main north-south artery, just before 9 p.m. near Santa Clarita, police said.

The accident and accompanying milk spill closed three of the four southbound lanes of the interstate, causing a backup for almost two hours, California Highway Patrol Officer Cheyenne Quesada said.

The milk truck's driver might have shed a tear as well. He was traveling at 65 mph and apparently did not see the other truck pulling out from the road's shoulder and into his lane, Quesada said. He required medical treatment after the fierce impact, but both drivers left the scene under their own power, the officer said, adding that an investigation was continuing.

Traffic was light when the crash occurred, Quesada said, so the incident could have been significantly worse for other motorists, too. "If it was northbound when people were still leaving for work, it might have been a different story," he said.

As for the people who found themselves tied up at the scene, Quesada offered just one tip: "I said they needed some cookies."

LOS ANGELES- Guards at a downtown Los Angeles jail fired rubber pellets and pepper spray to swiftly quell a racially charged brawl involving more than 60 inmates, and several injured prisoners were taken to a hospital, a jail spokesman said.

The altercation between Hispanic and African-American inmates erupted shortly after noon local time in a third-floor recreation area inside Tower One of the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, said Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which runs the jail.

Whitmore said corrections officers fired rubber "sting balls" and pepper spray into the fracas, managing to break up the disturbance in one or two minutes.

"This is something that does occur throughout our jail system from time to time," Whitmore said. "People in our jails are under a lot of tension ... and it does regrettably happen."

Whitmore said four of the inmates were taken to a hospital with cuts, bruises and other non-life-threatening injuries.

But Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Erik Scott told Reuters six patients were transported to the hospital, two in serious condition, though he did not know whether all of them were inmates.

The precise cause of the fight was under investigation, Whitmore said. The Twin Towers facility, one of eight detention centers run by the sheriff's department throughout the county, houses roughly 4,500 inmates, Whitmore said.

The jail system as a whole, the largest in the United States, comprises more than 18,000 prisoners and has long been plagued by overcrowded conditions. 

AP

Keana Barnes, who was serving a 25-year sentence for manslaughter, escaped from a Louisiana prison but has now been recaptured in Los Angeles. This photo was released Jan. 4, 2013, by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections.

LOS ANGELES -- A nationwide search for a convicted killer ended in Los Angeles when police spotted a fugitive who has been on the lam for months after escaping prison in Louisiana, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.

Keana Barnes broke out of the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women in January. She was arrested on Monday near Skid Row, some 1,800 miles west of the prison where she was being held.

The U.S. Marshals Service added Barnes to the agency's 15 Most Wanted list 11 days before she was captured. Barnes initially refused to give the officers her name, but ultimately confessed her identity.

Prison officials discovered the window was broken in Barnes’ cell. She was serving a 25-year sentence after being convicted of two counts of manslaughter in 2002, U.S. Marshals officials said.

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Authorities said Barnes’ “extremely violent criminal history” dates back to 1999. She has prior convictions of aggravated assault, battery, theft and manslaughter.

In 2002, Barnes fatally stabbed one victim 17 times, U.S. Marshals officials said.

While awaiting the outcome of her murder trial, Barnes allegedly shot and killed a man while he slept in 2003, authorities said.

LOS ANGELES — A 9-year-old girl hiked a steep embankment in darkness early Sunday to get help after the sport utility vehicle she and her father were travelling in crashed and rolled into an embankment, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The girl’s father, 35, was driving southbound on a semi-rural stretch of the Sierra Highway in Acton at 2 a.m. when the crash happened, according to the CHP collision report. The girl's father died at the scene.

The Ford Escape skidded down a dirt embankment, rolling numerous times before coming to rest near Soledad Canyon Road, officials said.

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The 9-year-old girl left the car after the crash and went in search of aid.

She hiked "difficult terrain" in a "threatening environment" for about a mile before knocking on the door of a home, but no one answered, the collision report noted. She continued her trek and ultimately flagged down a passing car.

It was not immediately known why the driver lost control, but California Highway Patrol officials suspect that alcohol may have been involved. The cause of the crash is still under investigation.

The driver’s daughter was transported to Children's Hospital Los Angeles for minor injuries, according to the report.

The girl’s condition was not immediately known Sunday, a CHP official told NBCLA.

A 14-year-old honor student from Northridge, Los Angeles, died this week after inhaling computer keyboard cleaner, a growing trend among students as young as eighth grade.

"I'm positive my daughter didn't realize it had the potential to kill her," Carolyn Doherty said.

Aria Doherty, a straight-A student at Nobel Middle School, died Monday. She’d been home alone for a couple of hours when she inhaled the duster.

Her parents believe it was her first time huffing -- also known as bagging or dusting.

Her older sister found Aria in bed with a can of compressed air still attached to her mouth, her nostrils taped shut. A plastic bag was found nearby.

"I would give anything to have her back," said Richard Doherty, Aria’s father. "It just took her, like that."

"I just miss her. I wish she was here. It doesn't seem real," he said through tears.

'Death can happen very quickly'
The Dohertys kept no dangerous weapons in their Porter Ranch home, stored prescription drugs under lock and key, and recently purged their home of all alcohol. They talked to their teen daughters about the dangers of substance abuse.

But authorities said the practice of huffing does not involve the typical chemical culprits. Inhaling household cleaners, paint or glue offers a quick high and they’re accessible.

"Death can happen very quickly. It can happen the first time," said Kezia Miller, a counselor with the Los Angeles Unified School District.

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Counselors are available at Nobel Middle School and are planning an inhalant education program for Aria's peers.

"These are substances that are poison," Miller said. "They're toxic and they're being ingested."

Long-term effects of inhalants include damage to the kidneys, liver and brain. Short-term dangers include heart problems.

"When you mess with the cardiac system, the electrical system of the heart, you can have a lot of issues, like arrhythmia," said Dr. Michael Lewis, with Northridge Hospital Medical Center.

It’s possible the computer cleaner caused cardiac arrest or the teen asphyxiated. An autopsy is pending.

The Dohertys said they want their daughter’s death to be a message to other parents to be aware of this developing threat.

"We didn’t know," Carolyn said. "But clearly, the kids do know."

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LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles Unified School District has agreed to a multimillion-dollar settlement with 58 current and former students at a school where an ex-teacher was accused of taking bondage-style photos of pupils, a lawyer for the district said on Tuesday.

The settlement would resolve nearly half of the 129 claims filed by former students of Miramonte Elementary School, attorney David Holmquist said.

Holmquist, who represents the school district, declined to disclose the amount of the settlement, which must be approved by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge, but said it totaled millions of dollars.

"When we set up this early resolution process back last summer, the goals were to promote healing in the community and provide for the emotional health needs of the students into the future," Holmquist said. "It's in everybody's best interest, but primarily the students'."

The Los Angeles Times reported on its website that the district would pay a total of $30 million to settle the claims, with each student receiving about $470,000.

Allegations of abuse at Miramonte last year touched off protests by infuriated parents and prompted Los Angeles County school officials to temporarily replace the entire staff at Miramonte during an exhaustive investigation.

Mark Berndt, the first of two former Miramonte teachers accused of molesting students there, made headlines when he was charged in January 2012 with 23 counts of lewd acts on children, all aged 10 and younger.

Berndt is accused of taking bondage-style photos of students, some with large, live "Madagascar-type cockroaches" on their faces. In others, students were seen with spoons of semen held to their faces, according to authorities. He has pleaded not guilty.

The investigation began after a company that does photo processing turned over pictures to detectives. Authorities said a search turned up hundreds more photos.

Berndt, who taught at Miramonte for more than 30 years, was fired by the school district in early 2011, shortly after the investigation began. He could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted.

In February 2012, then-Miramonte teacher Martin Springer was charged with three counts of lewd acts on a child. Springer also pleaded not guilty.

Holmquist said dozens of claims filed by parents or guardians were not part of the settlement agreement, but that the district was seeking to resolve the remaining cases.

Methane gas from the sea floor caused a foul odor on Sunday that prompted nearly 100 emergency calls from residents reporting the stench from Santa Monica to West Los Angeles, officials said.

The odor, which smelled like sulfur, was first reported late Saturday, air quality officials said. The smell wafted in from the Santa Monica Bay.

Justin Walker, a Santa Monica Fire Department spokesman, said hazardous-materials crews found small increments of methane gas in the air at 8:30 a.m. 

The amount of methane in the air was not considered dangerous, Walker said, adding he's heard of this type of incident happening up to six times in the last four years.

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Hazardous-materials crews were called out after dispatchers reported some 80 calls to 911 of residents reporting the stench.

Methane is usually released when the tectonic plates shift, Walker said. This shift was small and did not cause an earthquake, he said.

A cold weather front that moved in overnight and brought onshore winds with it caused the smell to waft inland, he said.

"The marine layer vacuumed it up because it had nowhere to go out," Walker said.

Inspectors from the South Coast Air Quality Management District, Southern California's air pollution control agency, were also investigating.

Maria Carlito Covarrubias, writing on the NBC4 Facebook page, said she smelled the odor Saturday night at about 11:45 p.m.

Another Facebook user, Summers McKay, said she called her building manager because she was worried that the smell was a gas leak.

Two former guests at a downtown Los Angeles hotel where the decomposing body of a 21-year-old Canadian tourist was found in a water cistern have sued the hotel.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court by Steven and Gloria Cott against the Cecil Hotel, one week after Elisa Lam was discovered at the bottom of a 4-foot-by-8-foot tank on the building's roof, The Associated Press reported.

The Cotts say that when they paid $150 for a two-night stay at the 15-story hotel they were promised running water safe for drinking and washing.

During their visit, Lam's body was found by a maintenance worker after hotel guests complained the building's water pressure was too low, police said.

The Vancouver, B.C., native had been last seen on Jan. 31 and is the subject of an LAPD homicide investigation, according to NBC Los Angeles. An autopsy was performed, but the official cause of death has not been disclosed.

Los Angeles health officials announced last week that water from the hotel's tanks does not contain harmful bacteria.

Ho / AFP - Getty Images

This undated image released by the Los Angeles Police Department shows Elisa Lam of Vancouver, Canada.

Samples taken from inside the water cistern and within the building all tested negative for fecal coliforms and total coliforms, according to Angelo Bellomo, director of environmental health for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

"It's likely there was sufficient chlorine in the tank to destroy any bacteria that might have otherwise been present," Bellomo said.

A do-not-drink order is still in place in the building, according to NBC Los Angeles.

Representatives for the Cecil Hotel did not return calls for comment.

Related: No harmful bacteria in hotel water tank where dead tourist was found