A rescued dolphin found trapped in the mud was returned to sea Sunday.

SeaWorld's Animal Rescue Team and Imperial Beach Lifeguards found the long-beaked common dolphin on Thursday, and removed it Saturday when the dolphin was unable to escape the muddy San Diego Bay estuary. 

Seaworld’s Team and the Coronado Police rescued the animal and brought him to the Oiled Wildlife Care Center. 

At the center, experts treated him by running bloodwork and having vets assess his condition. When vets determined he was healthy and could be released, SeaWorld officials returned him to the ocean Sunday. 

"It was pretty spectacular experience I mean to be able to be part of the team that actually rescued him and then to see it through to the end point of returning him back to the ocean, that's the goal, that's what we always shoot for," said Kevin Robinson with SeaWorld's Animal Rescue Team. 

Robinson said the dolphin had just gotten himself into a bad spot and was happy to see him returned. 

Here’s a look ahead at what is going on in San Diego sports for the week of December 14th-20th.

CHARGERS: The Bolts are back home against the Miami Dolphins at 1:25 p.m. Sunday. It’s the last home game of the season for the Chargers and potentially the last home game for the San Diego Chargers ever.

GULLS: After being away for weeks the Gulls are back at the Valley View Casino Center Friday. They host San Jose at 7:05 p.m. and it is Teddy Bear Toss Night so bring a stuffed teddy bear or two to throw on the ice after the first Gulls goal. The bears will go to charities that help children in need during the holidays. After a charitable Friday they head up the road to Ontario Saturday for a 6:00 p.m. road game to end the week.

SOCKERS: The Sockers host the Ontario Fury Saturday night at 7:05 p.m. at the Valley View Casino Center.

UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO TOREROS:
-WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: Tuesday vs. Hope International 5:00 p.m., Wednesday vs. BYU 1:00 p.m., Thursday vs. Pacific 4:00 p.m., and Saturday vs. Saint Mary’s 2:00 p.m. all at the Jenny Craig Pavilion.
-MEN’S BASKETBALL: Tuesday vs. UC Davis 7:30 p.m., Wednesday vs. CSUN 7:00 p.m., Thursday at Pacific 6:00 p.m., and Saturday at Saint Mary’s 7:00 p.m.

SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY AZTECS:
-MEN’S BASKETBALL: Friday vs. Grand Canyon 7:00 p.m.
-WOMEN’S SWIMMING: Friday at Cal Poly 10 a.m.
-WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: Saturday vs. Cal State Fullerton 2:00 p.m.

POINT LOMA NAZARENE UNIVERSITY SEA LIONS:
-WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: Saturday at California Baptist 5:00 p.m.
-MEN’S BASKETBALL: Saturday at California Baptist 7:00 p.m.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO TRITONS:
-MEN’S BASKETBALL: Monday vs. Western Oregon 7:00 p.m., Thursday at Cal State Dominguez Hills 5:30 p.m., and Sunday vs. Cal State San Marcos 3:00 p.m.
-SWIMMING & DIVING: Saturday at Inland Empire Diving Invitational 11:00 a.m. in Riverside.
-WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: Saturday at Alaska Fairbanks 6:00 p.m. and Sunday at Alaska Anchorage 7:00 p.m.

Good luck to all our local teams in action this week.

 A quickly evolving fire scorched three garage units and six cars early Sunday in Chula Vista, fire officials said. 

The blaze broke out around 2:36 a.m. Sunday on the 500 block of Telegraph Canyon Road off Oleyander Avenue, the Chula Vista Fire Department (CVFD) and San Diego Fire-Rescue Department (SDFD) said. 

When units arrived after the call, firefighters began evacuating people from their homes. The complex was too tight for multiple engines to get through, so they dragged hoses far down the street to reach the area. 

"Due to all the materials inside the vehicle fire, it's often difficult to put them out," said CVFD Battalion Chief Chris Manroe. "There are metals that flare up when you put water on them."

A nearby section of brush also caught on fire, further complicating the battle. 

Resident David, who lost one of his cars in the fire, said he was looking at the silver lining: he still has his house. 

"My daughter was asking me, if everything would be alright, and I said, you know, we're here, we're safe," David said. "Everything is going to be alright."

No injuries were reported as a result of the fire. 

No further information was immediately available. 

Donald Trump has moved back into the lead of the 2016 Republican presidential contest, while Ted Cruz has surged into second place, according to a new national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Meanwhile, Ben Carson — who was ahead in the poll back in late October — has dropped 18 points to fourth place in the GOP race.

In the current poll, Trump is the first choice of 27 percent of Republican primary voters, followed by Cruz at 22 percent, and Marco Rubio at 15 percent.

"Where Cruz picked up is where Carson lost ground," says Democratic pollster Fred Yang of Hart Research Associates, who conducted this survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff.

"This is a real shift," McInturff adds. 

Friends and family members gathered at Camp Pendleton Sunday to welcome home the first wave of Marines and sailors from the 15th Marine Expeditionary Force.

“Very anxious, very anxious and ready for it to be over," Brittany Naseer said of missing her husband. It's been seven months since she and her three children have seen him.

It's a lot to do on your own and I joke about the endless dishes and laundry because I miss the extra help around the house sometimes," Naseer explained.

Marines and Sailors from 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), I Marine Expeditionary Force, returned to San Diego following a seven month deployment. 

“I've gotten to maybe have spoken to him 72 hours this whole entire deployment,” Victoria Burris said of her husband. “It's hard. It's very hard. It's not easy. It's never easy.”

Service members part of the sea-based Marine Air-Ground ask Force went to the Western Pacific and Central Command, where they conducted amphibious operations, crisis response and limited contingency operations. 

Marines and sailors participated in more than 15 security cooperation and bi-lateral exercises abroad, including Combined Afloat Readiness and Training in Brunei, arms and desert survival training with French forces in Djibouti and multiple Middle East exchanges. 

During training in Kuwait, forces also flew flights in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. 

In total, the pilots with aviation combat flew 76 sorties and 500 combat flight hours. Those flight lead to 36 strikes against Da'esh positions, equipment and personnel.

“I do it for my family. I do everything I do for my family so that's just something that keeps me going," Sgt. Adil Naseer told NBC7 after greeting his wife and three kids.

The MEU will officially de-composite on Jan. 15, 2016.

A North San Diego community came together Saturday night to help land a hot air balloon coming down over trees and houses. 

Carmel Valley resident Rick Johnson, who caught the incident on video, said though hot air balloons have landed on neighborhood streets, cars and houses in the past, this situation was out of the ordinary. 

“I thought 'Oh no, they are running out of wind, and they are running out of time, where are they going to put this thing down?'” Johnson said. “I caught it coming over the tree line and I thought it'll clear that, it’s going to clear that, there's no way that guy is not going to clear that. He didn't clear it."

The closer the hot air balloon got to the ground, the more Johnson said he could see the people inside getting nervous. 

“The people inside the thing they are freaking out because they don't know what's going to happen,” Johnson said.

The hot air balloon, with a gondola full of people, dropped a line as it approached another section of houses. 

“Two guys make a diving grab for the thing, they grab the thing and they start pulling and they start pulling it away from the house,” Johnson explained. 

Residents sprung into action, holding tight to the rope to help guide the gondola to a safe landing.

“All of a sudden 10 people come out of the house, and then another 10 people, and they are all grabbing it (the line),” he said.  

In an urgent game of tug-of-war, the community helped tug the hot air balloon to the street. It landed on Sandshore Court in Carmel Valley safely. 

“It bounced a little bit and everybody came out that was around, jumped on it to hold on to it and they are holding on, holding on,” says Johnson. “I've just never seen a community come together that fast.”

The U.S. has joined urgent calls for an investigation into an alleged massacre of Shiite Muslims by Nigerian troops, but the country's military is calling the incident an act of self defense, NBC News reported. 

The bloodshed began over the weekend. Nigeria's military claimed that Shiites had attacked the Chief of Army staff's convoy in Zaria, located in the country's north, in an apparent assassination attempt.

It said soldiers had "no choice" but to defend the convoy "at all cost," adding in a statement two days later that the "loss of lives" was "most unfortunate."

The Shiite Islamic Movement of Nigeria, or IMN, rejected that account. A statement attributed to IMN spokesman said "about a thousand" members of the sect had been massacred.

The maker of a hoverboard pegged as one of the season's most popular holiday gifts is the target of a class-action lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, claims Swagway LLC and Modell’s Sporting Goods, Inc. failed to warn customers of the risk that hoverboards could “burst into flames.”

Michael Brown, of Chappaqua, New York, filed the suit on behalf of all consumers who purchased a Swagway Hoverboard nationwide from Modell’s, saying he purchased the hoverboard as a Hanukkah gift for his children but the device ultimately caught fire while charging, causing a blaze that damaged his home.

The lawsuit, which comes a little more than a week before Christmas, is the latest allegation that the devices can self-combust.

More than a dozen hoverboard fires have been reported around the country, mostly due to poor-quality chargers and batteries, prompting a federal investigation. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, fires have been reported in 10 states so far this year, and the commission most recently opened a case into a hoverboard fire reported in the San Francisco area this week.

According to the lawsuit, Swagway hoverboards are sold on Modell’s website and are also available at Swagway.com, Amazon.com, Target.com, Walmart.com, newegg.com and pedirect.com.

Amazon revealed earlier this week that is has pulled multiple scooter brands from its site, including the popular Swagway brand.

Indiana-based Swagway said in a statement to NBC News at the time that “safety is on the forefront for Swagway” and the removal “is not specific to Swagway, but includes 97 percent of the other branded hoverboards that were also selling on their site.”

Brown said the roughly $400 gift was removed from its box on Dec. 6, the first night of Hanukkah. The hoverboard was used for about 30 minutes before the device began to run out of battery and the family plugged it into an outlet to charge.

About 45 minutes later, the hoverboard burst into flames, igniting packaging materials nearby and causing a fire that damaged Brown’s home, the lawsuit claims.

The lawsuit seeks a trial by jury along with compensatory and punitive damages.

Swagway and Modell’s could not immediately be reached for comment on the suit.
 

A trio of hikers — an Army veteran, his hiking friend and a service dog — was stranded overnight Sunday amid freezing temperatures and blizzard-like conditions in the San Bernardino Mountains on a mission to plant an American flag at the summit, and somehow survived.

"We both knew we were going to die if we stayed up there," one of the hikers, Tiffany Finney, said from her hospital bed after being rescued.

Authorities said Finney was half an hour from death when they found her on the mountainside. She was overcome by frostbite and may need to have fingers and toes amputated.

Finney recalled the harrowing encounter that nearly took her life and the life of Army veteran Kenny Pasten, whose service dog, Rexitron, accompanied them on the day hike near Big Bear.

The trek started off as any other, but with one important goal: to place an American flag at the San Gorgonio summit. As the three made their way up the 11,000-foot mountain, the weather quickly changed.

"It was like a blizzard," Finney said. "You just got smacked in the face with snow, really hard."

They tried to build a snow shelter to keep warm by using a sleeping bag and the American flag. As the sun went down, the temperature continued to plummet and the trio couldn't take it anymore. Finney and Pasten were overcome by frostbite.

"We couldn't feel our fingers our toes," Finney said.

They wandered down the mountain for hours in the darkness, and somehow survived the brutal night. By morning, they finally found a spot with cellphone reception and called for help. Rescuers were able to find them and land a chopper amid dangerous wind conditions.

Finney said she was near death, with a core body temperature of 85 degrees.

"I saw her basically crawling on her hands and knees heading toward what I can only thing was the sound of the aircraft," said Sgt. Daniel Futscher of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.

Authorities said they were shocked by the hikers' conditions.

"That is probably most severe case of hypothermia I've seen in a conscious victim," said Eric Sherwin of the San Bernardino County Fire Department's air rescue team, describing Finney's injuries. "She had about a half-hour left before we would have seen a fatal injury to the hiker."

Rexitron was OK, but Pasten suffered frostbite and showed signs of kidney failure. He was recovering Tuesday. Finney suffered severe frostbite all over her body, with the worst of it affecting her hands and feet.

"My shoes were so frozen to my feet that they had to pour boiling water on it," Finney said. "I don't care if I lose toes or fingers. I'm alive."

Community members are raising money through GoFundMe to help cover Finney's medical expenses.

The city of Carlsbad declared a local state of emergency Tuesday as it seeks to repair erosion threatening a stretch of Carlsbad Boulevard, also known as Highway 101.

Starting on Dec. 11, high tides and high surf pummeled Carlsbad beaches. But as the water receded, it took stabilizing sand with it, leaving some areas vulnerable to damaging erosion.

One vulnerable stretch is along the shoulder of Carlsbad Boulevard north of the Encinas Creek Bride, which veers close to the beach.

During a Dec. 12 inspection, city staff discovered the road’s shoulder had been compromised, risking the integrity of the highway.

Cones are blocking the right lane of southbound Carlsbad Boulevard until repairs are made.

The city has not determined how much it will cost to fix the road or from where the funding will come.

By declaring a state of emergency, the city manager will be able to apply for state or federal financial aid to repair the erosion as quickly as possible.

The city hopes to start work on the road next week, but they are still waiting on permits to be approved.

Robin Robertis walks along the damaged stretch of road and beach nearly everyday. She said she's never seen so much erosion in such a short time.

"It's been pretty crazy down here," said Robertis. "One day you have a beach, and the next day you don't." 

A lifeguard with the Carlsbad State Beach told NBC 7 waves have eroded several feet of cliff along the coast just over the last month.

But the shrinking beach could not keep people like Michelle Panik and her kids away.

"We just love to come to the beach, even if this is all the beach we have," she said.

A man and woman stalked a delivery truck to steal packages dropped off in Encinitas, according the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.

At 2:45 p.m. Tuesday, the truck driver, delivering packages ordered on Amazon.com, noticed a Dodge Charger following him on his route.

After he dropped off each package, he watched a person from the car go up to the recipient’s home, steal the box and rush back to the Dodge, sheriff’s officials said.

The truck driver called 911 and kept dispatchers on the line until deputies arrived.

When they contacted the couple inside the Dodge Charger, they found several packages from the truck inside, as well as a loaded firearm, stolen mail from 13 people, suspected methamphetamine and heroin.

The suspects, identified by deputies as Kristina Green and Gary Withers of San Diego, were both on probation for theft, narcotics and weapons violations.

The couple will be booked into jail on charges of mail theft, possession of meth, possession of heroin, felon in possession of a handgun and possession of stolen property.

The investigation is ongoing, sheriff’s officials say.
 

With less than seven weeks to go until the country’s first caucuses in Iowa, Republican presidential candidates took the stage for a debate in Las Vegas Tuesday night, their race changed by the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California. Here are some highlights from the final GOP debate of 2015.

"A Chaos Candidate"

Businessman Donald Trump and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush insulted each other repeatedly over Trump’s foreign policy comments, including his call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States. A ban would make it more difficult for the United States to form a coalition with Muslims also opposed to the Islamic State, Bush said. Trump’s proposals are not serious, he said during the CNN debate.

“Donald is great at the one-liners, but he’s a chaos candidate and he'd be a chaos president,” Bush said.

Trump responded that Bush did not really believe that Trump was unhinged as he had said earlier. Bush made the comment because his own candidacy has failed, Trump said.

“It's been a total disaster,” the real estate developer said.

The tiff continued when Trump was asked about his statement that the families of Islamic State fighters should also be killed.

“I know you’re trying to build up your energy Jeb, but it’s not working,” Trump told Bush.

“You’re not going to be able to insult your way to the presidency, that's not going to happen, and I do have the strength,” Bush responded.

Jeb Bush is stuck at the bottom of the polls, with the most recent from NBC/WSJ showing him at 7 percent.

"I'll Get Donald Trump to Pay for It"

Another showdown came between the two Cuban-American first-term U.S. senators: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz versus Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. They have gone after each other over immigration and national security and continued the attacks Tuesday night.

The men first clashed over ending the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of American phone records, with Rubio accusing Cruz of weakening the ability to track terrorists. Cruz insisted that the new law, the USA Freedom Act, made it possible for the government to access cellphones and other technology that terrorists use.

“Marco knows what he’s saying isn’t true,” Cruz said.

On immigration, Cruz criticized Rubio over his part in an immigration reform bill, being one of the so-called “Gang of Eight” who put together the 2013 bill that passed the Senate but failed in the House.

Rubio said that he supported first getting illegal immigration under control, then giving some longtime residents work permits and only after 10 to 12 years allowing them to apply for green cards.

Cruz accused Rubio of trying to muddy the waters by minimizing differences between them. Cruz said he had never supported legalization and did not intend to.

“We will build a wall that works, and I’ll get Donald Trump to pay for it," Cruz said.

Trump laughed and said, "I'll build it." 

As a Woman in the Republican Ranks

Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and the only woman among the GOP candidates, quoted former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

“Margaret Thatcher once said, ‘If you want something talked about, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman,'” Fiorina said. 

In her opening statement, Fiorina said she had been tested. She had beaten breast cancer, buried a child and had been called every "b-word in the book," she said.

Trump and Cruz Renew Their Friendship

Any budding spats between Trump and Cruz fizzled on stage.

Asked about Cruz, Trump said he had gotten to know him. “He’s just fine," Trump said. "Don’t worry about it.”

For his part, Cruz minimized a report that at a private fund-raiser he had questioned Trump’s judgement.

Pressed, he said: “That is a judgement for every voter to make.”

Every Republican candidate on the stage would make a better commander in chief than either President Obama or Hillary Clinton, he said.

World War III

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was back on the main stage, and drawing jabs from U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky after Christie said he would shoot down Russian planes if they violated the no-fly zone over Syria.

“If you’re in favor of World War III, you have your candidate,” Paul responded and went on to make a mention of “someone who might shut down a bridge.”

That was a reference to the lane-closing scandal at the George Washington Bridge in 2013, in which some of Christie’s close associates have been charged, though the governor has not.

Christie has been gaining ground in New Hampshire. In a poll released by Boston radio station WBUR last week Trump maintained his lead among the state’s Republican primary voters but Christie surged to second place with 12 percent.

No Independent Bid for Trump

Trump said he would not run as an independent if he fails to get the Republican nomination.

He said he had gained great respect for the Republican leadership and would do everything he could to beat Clinton.

“I am totally committed to the Republican party,” he said.

Many areas of San Diego County saw below freezing temperatures Tuesday night.

A frost advisory has been issued for inland areas, until 8 a.m. Wednesday and will likely be issued again for tonight.

NBC 7 Meteorologist Jodi Kodesh advises that you take care walking to your car, this morning, as patchy frost may make for slippery grass and sidewalks.

"Our high today will be approximately 62 degrees," Kodesh said. "When that sun sets, about 5 p.m., we're going to see temperatures plummet again." 

On Tuesday, temperatures were so low in some parts of the county, people had to put their outdoor plans on hold. More than 140 golfers at The Vineyard Golf Club in Escondido had to delay the start time for a year-end scramble tournament.

Tee time was scheduled for 8 a.m., but it had to be postponed to 8:20 a.m. until the frost melted on the greens. One man who participated in the tourney said the first couple holes were tough in the bitter cold.

"Freezing yeah. You were hitting the balls like hitting a rock, you know. But an hour later everything started melting. It was pretty cool," Poway Resident Mike Shannon said.

NBC 7 called the San Diego Farm Bureau to see how local crops held up after night one of the frost advisory.

Andy Lyall, owner of Lyall Enterprises, which grows oranges and avocados, said he turned fans on his crops overnight for a couple hours to keep them from freezing. But he added that he begins to worry when temperatures get much colder and for longer periods at night - something that only happens every once in a while.
 

President Barack Obama is set to meet on Friday with the families of the victims of the San Bernardino mass shooting.

Obama is adding the stop in Southern California to a previously scheduled trip to Hawaii for Christmas vacation.

Fourteen people were killed and 21 others were injured at a workplace holiday party in San Bernardino by a gun-wielding husband-and-wife team. Federal authorities say the couple had become self-radicalized years before the Dec. 2 attack.

The California shootings came soon after attacks in Paris that killed 130 people on Nov. 13. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks.

Both incidents have heightened public fears of additional attacks on U.S. soil.

The Senate Intelligence Committee is looking into whether Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX) may have revealed classified information when discussing the government's ability to monitor phone records during Tuesday night's Republican debate, Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) told reporters Wednesday morning, NBC News reported. 

During a testy between Cruz and Sen Marco Rubio (R-FL) on the changes in the metadata collection program, the presidential candidate said "the old program covered 20 percent to 30 percent of phone numbers to search for terrorists, the new program covers nearly 100 percent."

Rebecca Glover Watkins, who acts as the Communications Director for Chairman Burr, tweeted "Cruz shouldn't have said that" just after the exchange.

Senator Burr says the Intelligence Committee, of which Rubio is a member but Cruz is not, is looking into whether the numbers Cruz mentioned were classified.

California unveiled precedent-setting draft rules Wednesday that would slow the public's access to self-driving cars of the future until regulators are confident the technology is safe.

That cautious approach requires that the cars have a steering wheel, and a licensed driver must be ready to take over if the machine fails.

The draft sets out the framework for how the state's Department of Motor Vehicles wants to move from the current small-scale testing of prototypes on roads and highways to giving consumers access to the fast-evolving technology. The DMV can change the rules over the coming months before they are finalized, and the industry is likely to contest them as overly burdensome.

Though no manufacturer has said it thinks the cars are ready just yet, at least a dozen are developing the technology, and the most aggressive suggest a model could be ready within a few years. Silicon Valley giant Google has pushed hardest, already building a prototype without a wheel or pedals but rigging the hardware back into the cars pending the long-anticipated regulations.

California is the largest auto market in the U.S., and its rules will be a landmark in the development of self-driving technology.

Under the draft rules, even if Google thinks its car is ready for sale, that wouldn't be immediately possible. Initially, manufacturers would receive a permit for three years, during which time consumers could lease the cars but manufacturers would be required to keep tabs on how safely they are driving and report that performance to the state.

Before granting that initial permit, both the manufacturer and an independent certifier would need to sign off that the car has passed safety testing. Any person who wants to lease or use one of the cars would need special training provided by the manufacturer, and then receive a special certification on their driver's license.

"Given the potential risks associated with deployment of such a new technology, DMV believes that manufacturers need to obtain more experience in testing driverless vehicles on public roads prior to making this technology available to the general public," the agency said in a written summary of the regulations.

DMV regulation writers struggled with how they would know the technology is safe before letting it go beyond prototype testing, which requires a specially trained driver behind the wheel. The agency was supposed to propose regulations at the start of 2015, but that process has dragged on over issues including how a person could take over when the car concludes it cannot drive safely, how to prevent hackers from seizing control of what amount to computers on wheels, and the privacy of data that the cars collect about their users.

California has grappled for several years with how to regulate the technology. The DMV has said it wants the regulations to protect public safety, but not be too onerous so that signature companies such as Google will be stifled in developing a technology with huge life-saving potential.

After all, cars that can safely drive themselves under all conditions wouldn't rely on drivers who may be drowsy, distracted, buzzed — or unable to drive because of their age or a disability. Boosters say the technology could prevent many of the more than 30,000 deaths on U.S. roads each year.

The cars use a suite of sensors — including radar, lasers and cameras — and onboard computers to drive. Many also rely on maps that detail everything from curb heights to the exact placement of lane stripes.

Eleven companies have permission to test on California's public roads, with Ford the latest addition. There have been scattered collisions, nearly all involving Google cars. Those collisions have been minor and the tech giants says each has been caused by other drivers, not its technology.

The road to Wednesday's regulations began several years ago, when Google approached a California legislator about getting formal approval for testing the company already was doing on California freeways. The DMV published a first round of regulations, which formally allowed the testing of the cars on public roads, more than a year ago.

Wednesday's draft rules come several weeks after the U.S. Department of Transportation signaled that it was reviewing its own guidance on self-driving cars with an eye toward getting them into broad public circulation. That guidance — published in 2013 and not an official policy — has said a person should be behind the wheel.

Google wants to move from current testing on the streets around its Silicon Valley headquarters to broader adoption.

In September, the safety chief at Google's self-driving car project, Ron Medford, said the technology is "close to working pretty damn well."

Google believes the safest path is to take people out of the equation by having control limited to stop and go buttons, with the leader of Google's project saying that humans are "the bug" in the driving task.

Google had no immediate comment Wednesday on the draft regulations.

Though the result of more than a year of deliberation, the draft regulations must undergo months of review before they are set. The DMV intends to hold informal workshops for public input in January and February, and hopes — after making any changes — to publish final regulations later in 2016.

An MV-22B Osprey aircraft that experienced a landing mishap aboard the USS New Orleans on Dec. 9 came up short on its intended landing area, a spokeperson confirmed in an update to the investigation Tuesday.

According to Capt. Brian “Scott” Villiard, public affairs officer with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), the Osprey attached to the MEU was carrying 22 passengers and four aircrew members when it experienced a landing mishap at around 5 p.m., as the military aircraft was flying U.S. Marines back to the USS New Orleans from a non-combatant training event ashore.

On Tuesday, nearly one week after the incident, Capt. Villiard released an update on the landing mishap, saying the MV-22B “landed short of its intended spot on the USS New Orleans, hanging its aft landing gears in the safety netting surrounding the flight deck.”

All passengers and crew members were safe and uninjured in the incident, Capt. Villiard confirmed immediately following the landing mishap. The USS New Orleans was operating off the coast of Camp Pendleton near north San Diego County at the time of the incident.

“The investigation is currently being conducted by VMM-166 (Reinforced), the air combat element of the 13th MEU,” Capt. Villiard explained in an email to NBC 7 Thursday morning. “Details regarding damage and events surrounding the mishap will be determined by the investigation.”

Due to the ongoing investigation, Capt. Villiard said it is “premature” to classify the incident as a “hard landing.”

“Further details will be provided as they become available,” he added last week.

For now, the captain said the incident is being treated as what’s called a “Class A mishap” amid the ongoing investigation. The final classification of the mishap will be ultimately determined by how much damage the aircraft sustained, he said.

“Class A mishaps are defined by the Naval Aviation Safety Management System as ‘one in which the total cost of damage to DoD or non-DoD property, aircraft or UAVs is $2 million or more, or a naval aircraft is destroyed or missing, or any fatality or permanent total disability of personnel results from the direct involvement of naval aircraft or UAV,’” Capt. Villiard added.

The 13th MEU is currently embarked on the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group conducting a training exercise for an upcoming deployment to the Pacific and Central Command areas of responsibility.

MV-22 Osprey aircraft is used by the U.S. Marine Corps in the transportation of troops, equipment and supplies from ships and land bases for support.

According to the U.S. Navy, the USS New Orleans (LPD-18) is a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship designed with increased vehicle lift capacity, a large flight deck and advanced ship survivability features. USS New Orleans was commissioned in March 2007 and is capable of transporting 1,200 sailors and Marines.

Trader Joe's Triple Ginger Brew is being recalled due to reports of bursting bottles, the company announced Tuesday.

In a press release, Trader Joe's warned that unopened bottles of the non-alcoholic carbonated drinks have reportedly bursted and advised customers who bought the product to "handle it with extreme care and dispose of it immediately in an outside container."

The nationwide recall effects all Triple Ginger Brew (SKU 51857) purchased from Nov. 9 to Dec.14. Trader Joe's said it will refund any purchases of the drink and has removed the product from store shelves.

The FDA said that the brew does not pose a health risk if consumed.

The company's customer relations can be contacted at (626) 599-3817, Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PT or be reached by email.

That's no moon... It's a space station. And now, it's a movie theater, too.

British astronaut Tim Peake tweeted on Saturday that he and his fellow crew members would get to watch "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" from the International Space Station, Time reported. Peake, 43, launched into space on Tuesday and will spend the next six months with the ISS on its latest expedition.

The film, which comes out in the United States on Dec. 18, has received near-universal acclaim, although many fans are purposely avoiding the reviews, for fear of dreaded spoilers.

Thankfully for them, there's an app for that. Force Block, an extension for Google Chrome, scans websites for "Star Wars" movie titles and the franchise's name and flashes a warning if it finds potential spoilers.