Gretchen Newsom, president of the Ocean Beach Town Council and local community leader, has announced her candidacy to run for mayor of San Diego in 2016.

Newsom made the announcement at the San Diego County Democratic Convention Sunday.  

"I'm running for Mayor because San Diego deserves a leader who will stand up for our communities," Newsom said in a statement. "I am committed to the values that are important to us, and I have a vision for a better San Diego that will build bridges of opportunity for all."

Newsom will challenge current San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer come next year. 

During her announcement, she released ways in which she would acheive her goal to "raise" San Diego, saying she wants to create a government that is more responsive, affordable, innovative, sustainable and empowering. 

In a statement, Chair of the San Diego County Democratic Party Francine Busby praised Newsom's decision. 

"She is an experienced, informed, and articulate leader who is committed to the values that are important to San Diegans," Busby said. "She will be a formidable challenger to Mayor Faulconer."

The San Diego Police Officers who opened fire and killed an armed suspect in the Gaslamp Quarter have been identified by the department. 

Officer Scott Thompson, a 30-year veteran of the department, and Officer Gregory Lindstrom, a 25-year veteran of the department, were in the Gaslamp Quarter on traffic patrol when the incident happened. 

While on patrol, they observed Lamontez Ardelbert Jones, 39, of Virginia, disrupting traffic, according to SDPD Capt. David Nisleit. There was no radio call, he said.

"They got off their motorcycles right there at the intersection at 6th and F just as the suspect was removing his firearm," Nisleit said.

Department policy states an officer will activate the body camera after a radio call or before an enforcement contact. However, neither officer activated a recording.

“Things happened so very quickly I think everyone will understand it’s reasonable that officer safety and public safety will take precedence over an officer’s ability to record,” Zimmerman said.

As she answered multiple questions about the department policy, the chief said it's not known if the officers initiated a recording using the devices after the shooting.

"I don't believe they had the ability to hit the record button," Zimmerman said.

The homicide captain said the officers immediately rendered aid to the suspect which again is more important than starting the camera.

Moments before his death, Jones ran into the middle of the street, pulled what appeared to be a large caliber handgun from his backpack and pointed it at the officers, according to police officials.

Investigators later determined the weapon was not a real firearm but a steel replica with the same markings as a true weapon.

Officers opened fire, Jones fell, then sat up, raised what looked like a hangun, and officers shot him again, according to witnesses. NBC 7 has obtained mobile phone video showing the man on the ground moments before the fatal gunshot was fired.

“When our officers are facing the barrel of a handgun or some other life-threatening situation, we expect their first consideration is protecting themselves and our citizens,” Zimmerman said.

The department has distributed more than 950 body cameras to its force and Zimmerman said there is a learning curve for officers when it comes to activating the technology.

She said the department is constantly revisiting the body camera policy. The cameras are always on a 30-second buffer. Officers must activate a button to record video. Department storage does not allow continuous recording of body cameras, Zimmerman said. 

The chief has also sent a request to Taser, the provider of the department's cameras, to see if there is existing technology that would activate an officer’s body camera when a service weapon is drawn.

Investigators say Jones arrived in San Diego the day before the shooting.

Police in Hampton, Virginia, also identified Jones as the suspect in a May 31, 2015, armed robbery of a pharmacy.

Victims claim a man wearing a black mask and all dark clothing entered the store with a shotgun and demanded the combination to the store safe. When employees didn’t give the information, the suspect struck one of them with the shotgun. No arrest was made and a warrant was issued for Jones in connection with the robbery.

Nisleit described Jones as having a propensity for violence and served a prison sentence for a previous shooting beginning in June 2012.

Court records from Norfolk, Virginia, show Jones pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the 2009 shooting death of his roommate. He served three years in prison for the charge.

Once the weapon recovered from the suspect was sent to the crime lab, investigators determined it was a replica. Even seasoned officers at the scene say they believed it to be real not only at the time of the shooting but in the moments after.

The steel replica had markings the same as a true firearm, Nisleit said.

Zimmerman said her homicide investigators will examine the details of the shooting as will the San DIego County District Attorney's Office. The department's internal affairs team will also investigate. The shooting will also be part of a citizen's review board and a shooting review board that looks at tactics and training.

The department recently revised its body camera policy after a fatal shooting outside a Midway District adult bookstore on April 30.

The family of Fridoon Rawshan Nehad has filed a $20 million complaint against the department claiming SDPD Officer Neal Browder used excessive and unreasonable deadly force. The city denies that deadly force was unwarranted.

An investigation determined Nehad was carrying a pen not a knife.

Following the shooting, SDPD policy stated that instead of hitting record when they contact a suspect, officers must now turn on their cameras before they arrive at a scene.

The previous body camera policy allowed officers to wait until they had made an enforcement contact before recording. 

The family of Amber Dubois held a fundraiser Sunday on what would have been her 21st birthday.

Team Amber Rescue came together with Helping Paws, a nonprofit that gives veterinary assistance to military families, for a ‘Howl-O-Ween Fun-Raiser’ in Escondido. The day included a dog costume contest, rescue dog demonstration, free rabies vaccinations and microchips for dogs.

“She was a big animal lover so it’s all about the animals today,” Amber’s mother Carrie McGonigle told NBC7.

McGonigle founded Team Amber Rescue, a volunteer search and rescue group that helps find missing children, after Amber, 14 at the time, was abducted and murdered while walking to school in Escondido in February 2009.

“We like giving back to the community. We like helping families,” McGonigle said of Team Amber Rescue. “Helping out the families gives the families that closure and gives me the comfort of knowing I could be there for the families."

McGonigle said she chose to collaborate with Helping Paws because they once performed double knee surgery on her search and rescue dog and she wanted to say thank you.

“I’ve been crying all morning,” an emotional McGonigle said on Sunday. “I miss her – but we’re trying to make it a happy day so we’ll try.”

People who want to donate to either group can go to Team Amber Rescue’s Facebook page or Helping Paws’ website.

“She’d want all the dogs,” McGonigle said laughing. “And she’d probably get them all too.”
 

The North Carolina Central University campus was briefly on lockdown late Sunday as police searched for an “active shooter,” police said.

The school issued an emergency alert late Sunday saying there was “active gunfire”, NBC News reported.

Durham police told NBC station WNCN that one person sustained a non-life-threatening injury in a shooting on campus.

Police said the shooter hadn’t been found. The lockdown was lifted at 11:50 p.m. ET.

A tentative agreement has been reached between the United Auto Workers union bargaining committee and General Motors, averting a strike, NBC News reported.

The union said all of its GM members were prepared to strike, which means 52,700 employees would have walked off the job.

Talks between GM and the union had been ongoing since July.

The deal was approved 17 minutes before the deadline. Details of the four-year deal were not made public.

A judge sentenced a building manager for the General Services Administration to 16 months in custody Friday for accepting bribes and stealing property owned by the U.S. government.

The Lakeside man has also been sentenced to three years supervised release and must pay $50,057.32 in restitution.

The court found Timothy Francis Cashman, 54, used his position with the GSA – overseeing operations and maintenance at the Otay Mesa, San Ysidro and Tecate Ports of Entry – for his own benefit.

Over a span of several years Cashman showed favoritism in awarding GSA contracts.

For example, he demanded $10,000 in cash and thousands of dollars’ worth of construction and renovation services on his personal residence from government contractor Hugo Alonso Inc. (HAI) He eventually pocketed an extra $42,000 from HAI.

Cashman also illegally obtained thousands of dollars in valuable U.S. government property by making GSA contractors move the materials away from GSA facilities. He then sold the materials without GSA’s knowledge.

The materials included 25 stainless steel poles form the San Ysidro Port of Entry, 35 heavy brass letters weighing approximately 2000 pounds that spelled out ‘United States Border Inspection Station,’ 3000 feet of underground copper cable, a large quantity of underground copper cable and approximately five aluminum panels located at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry.

HAI and its principal, Hugo Alonso, previously pleaded guilty and were sentenced. In total, 11 people heave pleaded guilty in connection with Cashman.

Oklahoma police say a 25-year-old woman arrested after a car crashed into a crowd at a parade and killed four people is now being held on four charges of second-degree murder.

Adacia Avery Chambers initially was held on a charge of driving while under the influence. But Stillwater, Oklahoma, police said late on Sunday that the second-degree murder charges were added.

Three adults were pronounced dead at the scene of the Oklahoma State University homecoming parade and a 2-year-old boy died later at a hospital from injuries. Dozens more were injured.

Chambers will have an initial court appearance on Monday, police say.

Divers searching the Harlem River recovered a gun "consistent" with the weapon used to kill a police officer during a foot chase in Manhattan, the NYPD said Sunday.

Chief of Manhattan detectives Bill Aubry said the weapon was found around 3 a.m. Sunday. The gun will be tested for fingerprints and DNA; it will also be test-fired to determine whether it is the same .40-caliber Glock pistol used to shoot officer Randolph Holder in the head last week.

"That firearm is consistent with the firearm that we were looking for," Aubry said.

Police also shut down part of the FDR Drive for a few hours Sunday morning as they conducted a ground search. About 100 police officers volunteered to do the work, especially aimed at finding the fatal bullet.

Holder and his partner had responded to a report of shots fired near a public housing development in East Harlem on Tuesday night. When they arrived, a man said his bike had been stolen at gunpoint and the thief fled.

The officers caught up to a man with a bike on a pedestrian overpass that spans FDR Drive and traded gunfire, police said. After Holder was shot, the gunman ditched the bike and took off, apparently throwing his weapon into the river, police said. He was caught several blocks away with a gunshot wound to his leg, New York Police Commissioner William Bratton said.

Shell cases from the test firing would be compared with discharged cases police recovered on 120th Street next to Holder's body -- in addition to the cases at 102nd Street where the first shots were fired, Aubry said.

The chief of detectives said the searches were a "24/7 operation" since the night of the shooting.

He said the scuba team's work was "very difficult." The gun was under 20 feet of water and "they're on their belly and they're searching for it by hand."

Tyrone Howard, 30, has been charged with murder and robbery in Holder's death. His lawyer has said there are many missing details in the case.

Holder's funeral is scheduled for Wednesday. He is to be buried in his native Guyana.

A San Diego-area third-grader with a big heart celebrated his birthday Sunday with 20 friends, paintball and a pile of gifts.

Morgan Milhausen is no typical 9-year-old though. All the gifts his friends brought he plans to donate to Toys for Tots.

“It's a special thing because my family may be more fortunate than other families and so those families that might not be as fortunate, they get to have some things so they can be happy,” Morgan said during his party.

For his last three birthdays, Morgan has donated his gifts to Toys for Tots, and his parents said he’s even influenced some of his friends to ask their guests to donate gifts at their birthday parties too.

Parts of Louisiana were under water on Monday, NBC News reported.

Severe thunderstorms, formed partially from remnants of Hurricane Patricia, moved into the Gulf Coast area after hitting Texas over the weekend.

The heaviest rain is expected to hit parts of Louisiana and Mississippi. Baton Rouge, Louisiana got more than 8.5 inches of rain this weekend.

A few isolated, weak tornadoes hit parts of the south as well, according to the Weather Channel.

The lawyer representing the woman who plowed through a crowd of people at Oklahoma State University's homecoming parade, killing four and injuring dozens more, said he doesn't believe his client was intoxicated at the time of the horrific incident — but she has shown "warning signs" of a mental illness, NBC News reported. 

Adacia Chambers, 25, was arrested and charged with driving under the influence Saturday after she plowed through revelers on the sidelines of the Stillwater event, which draws thousands.

"She wasn't a drinker, she didn't do drugs," said Chambers' attorney, Tony Coleman, during a Sunday news conference.

Coleman said he interviewed Chambers for about an hour Saturday night and even though "her behavior wasn't consistent with drunken stupor ... I was not satisfied that I was communicating with a competent individual."

The worst loss the San Diego Chargers ever suffered at home to the Oakland Raiders was a 34-0 setback in 1971.

Although the numbers in that one were more lopsided, I can't imagine it felt any worse than what took place on Sunday at Qualcomm Stadium.

Oakland scored on its first seven possessions to take a 37-6 lead and blow San Diego out of its own building. The final score was 37-29 but that's because Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio, for the most part, called off his assault.

Del Rio and the Oakland coaching staff came in after a bye with a fantastic game plan while Chargers head coach Mike McCoy and his staff seemed to be making things up as they went along. The tone of the day was set on the third play from scrimmage.

Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers, who was not at all as sharp as he was a week ago in Green Bay, threw a pass to wide receiver Stevie Johnson. Johnson had the ball kick up off his hands and right to Raiders linebacker Malcolm Smith. Smith ran it to the San Diego two-yard-line. Running back Latavius Murray scored two plays later to put Oakland on top 7-0.

The teams traded field goals and then Oakland went about manhandling their long time rivals. Quarterback Derek Carr connected with tight end Clive Walford on a 23-yard touchdown pass when Walford burned Chargers safety Jimmy Wilson to give the Raiders a 17-3 lead.

On their next possession Rivers threw a pass one way, wideout Keenan Allen turned another way and Raiders defensive back DJ Hayden intercepted it. That led to another field goal and a 20-3 lead.

But the plays that really summed up the afternoon were yet to come.

Carr threw a short pass to rookie wide receiver Amari Cooper, who got by a few blocks and some truly awful "tackling" by the San Diego defense to run 52 yards for a TD and a 30-3 lead.

Then to start the 3rd quarter Carr found wideout Michael Crabtree on another short pass and again Crabtree scooted almost untouched for a 25-yard score.

The Chargers got a trio of 4th quarter touchdowns to make the final score look deceiving, at best. The Chargers fall to 2-5 for the year while the Raiders improve to 3-3.

San Diego plays an early road game against Baltimore next weekend.

I was flying back to the Bay Area — into Mineta San José International Airport —  this weekend from Japan and found that the force was with me.

The second I confirmed my flight with All Nippon Airways, the counter clerks and flight crew began commenting how lucky the passengers were to be part of the "Star Wars" flight.

A buzz began to make the rounds at Narita International Airport as people from various countries maneuvered to windows to take photographs of the Boeing 787 designed as R2-D2.

As we boarded, the Star Wars theme was evident on the seat backs as well as souvenirs.

As the plane prepared to take off, I was able to shoot a video of the Star Wars lighting and music for NBC Bay Area just as we were told to start putting away electronic devices. Whew!

It made the flight a little more unique and fun. However, despite friendly service and a smooth eight-plus-hour flight, many passengers would have liked the Dreamliner to go into hyperspace as part of the Star Wars experience.

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San Diego was one of only two cities in the United States named a "Smart21 Community" by the Intelligent Community Forum.

The other was Marlborough, Mass. There are eight communities from Canada, five from Taiwan, two from Australia and one community from Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Sweden, respectively, for a total of 21 communities.

The Intelligent Community Forum in New York is a global movement of more than 140 cities, towns and regions that promotes best practices of intelligent communities as they adapt to demands and opportunities within the information and communications technology sector, create inclusive prosperity, solve social challenges and improve quality of life.

All of these communities were selected for the world’s Smart21 Communities of 2016 and will be in the running for the Intelligent Community of the Year title announced in June 2016.

These nominations are based on six intelligent indicators, which are based off of a community’s competitiveness and its success in the broadband economy, and include: broadband, knowledge workforce, innovation, digital equity, sustainability and advocacy. This year’s theme, “From Revolution to Renaissance,” focuses on how intelligent communities are planning for the future when the economy, environment and patterns of urban and rural life are undergoing dramatic change.

“We are very excited to name 11 new communities from North America, Europe and Asia to this year’s Smart21,” said ICF co-founder Robert Bell in a news release. “We streamlined our selection process this year, increasing the quantitative portion of the data-gathering and analysis, and that has created opportunities for more cities and counties to be included in consideration for this prestigious group of Smart21 Communities.”

This list announcement concluded a one-day conference in Dublin, Ohio, in which a new Intelligent Community Forum Institute for the Study of the Intelligent Community was launched.

The next step in this process is an extensive questionnaire evaluated through an independent research firm. After the top seven cities are announced, one city will replace Columbus, Ohio, as the Intelligent Community of the Year.
 

Donald Trump on Monday described his beginnings in the real estate business, depicting a $1 million loan from his father, a self-made millionaire who was a real estate mogul in Brooklyn and Queens, as "small."

The Republican candidate was asked in a town hall in New Hampshire on "Today" if he had ever been told "no" to anything in his life. 

"Oh many times,'' Trump said about being told no. "My whole life, really, has been a no. It has not been easy for me. I started off in Brooklyn. My father gave me a small loan of a million dollars. I came into Manhattan, and I had to pay him back, and I had to pay him back with interest. But I came into Manhattan and I started buying properties, and I did great."

"Today's" Matt Lauer responded to Trump's characterization of the loan by saying, the loan "is going to seem pretty easy to a lot of people."

"You're right, but a million dollars isn't very much compared to what I've built," Trump replied. "I mean, I've built one of the great companies, but it's always been, you know, you can't do this, you can't do that."

Five people died and one was missing early Monday after a whale-watching boat sank off the coast of British Columbia in Canada, authorities told NBC News.

The U.K.'s Foreign and Commonwealth Office confirmed that all five were British nationals. 

The 64-foot Leviathan II had 27 people on board when it sank northwest of Tofino, a small community on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, officials said. Of those on board, five were found dead, 21 were rescued, while another person was listed as missing on Sunday, NBC News reported.

The reason why the boat sank was not immediately clear, according to The Associated Press.

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story used an image of a boat not related to this sinking. 

A new report by the World Health Organization declaring that processed meat, like bacon, hot dogs and corned beef, causes cancer — and that red meat probably does, too — has the meat industry furious and bacon lovers worried.

The report doesn't say that just one bite of meat causes cancer. It states that there are clear mechanisms for both processed and red meat to cause cancer, and that studies have shown across populations that the more meat people eat, the higher their risk of cancer.

Many reports over the years have shown that people who eat more red meat and more processed meat have a higher risk of several types of cancer, especially colon cancer and breast cancer. People who eat more meat often have other unhealthy habits. They usually eat fewer fruits and vegetables and they often exercise less, also. Exercise and plant foods can lower the risk of cancer.

Authorities in Beirut seized two tons of drugs on a private jet Monday and detained a member of the Saudi royal family and four others, according to Lebanon's state-run news agency and a government official.

Smugglers were attempting to transport the "huge quantity" of Captagon pills — which essentially contain amphetamine — to the Saudi capital of Riyadh, The National News Agency said. 

Monday's bust was the largest-ever smuggling operation uncovered at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport, according to the news agency.

Saudi Arabia's ministry of foreign affairs did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for comment.

Family and friends held a paddle out in honor of a 12-year-old hit and killed by a truck while riding his bike to school last Thursday.

Hundreds gathered in Oceanside Sunday to celebrate the life of Logan Lipton, a boy who loved the water.

"He surfed, he was loved by everybody," family friend Bruce Benedict said. "We're rattled to the core."

Lipton was hit around 7 a.m. Thursday morning by a truck pulling out of a driveway. He was transported to Tri-City Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

Logan's family used to be neighbors with Junior Seau, who gave Logan a football just two weeks before the Chargers player's death. Every Sunday, Logan would hold the football as he watched the Chargers game with family and friends, Benedict told NBC7.

A GoFundMe page has been set up for Logan’s family to help with expenses.