San Diego's Irwin and Joan Jacobs were among the high-profile guests invited to Thursday's White House dinner for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The co-founder of Qualcomm & Chair of the Board of Trustees, Salk Institute and his wife were photographed as they arrived for the formal dinner.

The tech executive has been known to contribute millions of dollars to Democratic presidential candidates.

The Jacobs hosted President Barack Obama at their La Jolla home for a fundraiser in May 2014.

They invited approximately 250 people to their home in October to raise funds for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. 

The City of San Diego has redesigned its website offering a tool designed to be more user-friendly and easier to understand, officials said.

The previous version of the city’s website was arranged by department. If a resident wanted to fix a pothole, he or she needed to navigate to the appropriate department to get that information.

With the new design, residents can find the most common services or requests for information at the top of the homepage.

It also should be easier to use via smartphone or tablet, city officials said.

The redesign took more than a year and cost $646,000, half of the approved budget according to a City of San Diego news release.

Those who find something that needs to be changed or fixed on the new website, can submit feedback using a yellow tab in the top right corner.

The website can be found at https://www.sandiego.gov/.

After a concerning number of wrong-way crashes in San Diego County, Caltrans is launching a pilot program to curb the devastating wrecks.

This past Saturday, a woman was killed and two others were seriously hurt when an SUV traveling the wrong way plowed into the center divide on State Route 52 in Kearny Mesa overnight.

The wreck is among an alarming number linked to wrong-way crashes. Starting in two weeks, San Diego and Sacramento counties have been chosen for the pilot program to alert drivers when they’re heading the wrong way.

In San Diego, it will entail installing flashing lights and sensors on 60 off-ramps along Interstate 15 between State Route 78 and Interstate 8.

“If you’re going the wrong direction, (there will be) a lot of red in front of you,” said Edward Cartagena, spokesman for Caltrans. “Red for most folks is there’s something wrong, so it gives you an opportunity to turn around.”

Following the pilot program, Caltrans will implement larger flashing wrong-way signs on nine of the 60 off-ramps that already have flashing lights installed.

Last December, there were three wrong-way crashes in San Diego County; there have been three already this year.

California Highway Patrol officers said they don't yet know if alcohol was involved in Saturday's wreck.

No surprise here: San Diego, with its beaches, museums, craft beer and never-ending sunshine, was named the No. 1 domestic destination by Money magazine.

Our city has "the best combination of outdoor attractions, cultural landmarks, great weather and affordable hotels in the country," the magazine said in a statement.

The magazine, in releasing its Best in Travel Awards, looked at scenery, hotels, restaurants and, of course, affordability. The ranking was compiled after considering 40 sources, including TripAdvisor and Hotels.com.

San Diego also was voted as having the best zoo.

So which cities did San Diego beat out? New York City came in second, followed by Memphis, Tenn.

A North Carolina sheriff's department mulled Monday whether to bring charges over Donald Trump's conduct at a rally in which a 78-year-old man was arrested for assault, but ultimately decided not to, NBC News reported.

North Carolina law makes inciting a riot a crime, and the Cumberland County Sheriff Department said Monday it was investigating "whether there was conduct on the part of Mr. Trump or the Trump campaign which rose to the level of inciting a riot."

Trump supporter John McGraw was arrested for allegedly assaulting a protester being escorted out of the event in Fayetteville on Wednesday. 

But in a statement issued Monday night, the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office said legal counsel had advised, and Sheriff Earl "Moose" Butler agreed, that evidence wouldn't support a conviction for inciting a riot.

SeaWorld is developing a new life science lab for middle school students.

The education and conservation department at SeaWorld is collaborating with the San Diego Unified School District and the San Diego Workforce Partnership to immerse students in the science of SeaWorld.

SeaWorld’s Ocean Link Lab is a project-based learning experience focused on the park’s Animal Rescue and Rehabilitation Program.

Part of the Linked Learning and California Career Pathway Trust Initiatives, the program allows students to participate in topics such as in water analysis, food supply and marine debris.

Starting Tuesday, around 30 students from Wilson Middle School in Normal Heights will try out the program.

The program will be a regular part of the park’s offerings beginning next fall.

Over the last 52 years SeaWorld has rescued over 16,000 mammals, birds, turtles and other marine life.
 

Fellow EMTs remembered their coworker and friend, an East County man who died several days after an incident in San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter, as a man they would trust with their own life. 

21-year-old Conner Kepple, who died Thursday on his 21st birthday, was a former Granite Hills High School student. San Diego Police investigators say Kepple was involved in a 'violent confrontation' in the Gaslamp Quarter five days before his death. The SDPD said homicide detectives are investigating the young man’s death which, at this point, is considered suspicious by police.

Investigators have interviewed several witnesses and people involved in the scuffle, but there are no suspects at this point. Authorities say there were clearly signs of inflicted injury on Kepple, but they still do not have any confirmation that injuries from the fight lead to his death. 

The San Diego County Medical Examiner (ME) will now perform an autopsy on the man to determine his cause of death. The results of the autopsy will not be available for several weeks, officials said. 

Monday, Kepple's coworkers remembered him as a "phenomenal" work partner, always striving to be the best he could be. 

"He always wanted to learn. He also did everything right," said Dylan Harper, a coworker and friend. "He always was ready and never nervous about anything."

Kepple worked as an EMT at MaxCare for about a year before he died at Sharp Memorial Hospital, one of the hospitals he had been to many times before to deliver patients.

"It was just emotional because I was right next to the hospital at that time," said Harper. "I was maybe two blocks away. I, I couldn't work the rest of the day."

Bryce Picone, who knew Kepple in high school and helped him become an EMT, remembered his close friend as a caring and loving soul. Picone told him managers that Kepple was the type of guy that he trusted with his own life. 

"He had the biggest heart of anyone I knew," Picone said. "Outside of work, people knew him as someone. When he was working, he was always concerned with the patient. He always wanted to know how he could help the person he was working with at that point in time. That's the type of man Conner was."

Saturday evening, friends and family members gathered to remember Keeple's exemplary life and mourned his sudden passing. 

"He could make you feel like you could talk to him about anything within the first 30 minutes of talking to him," Picone said. 

Police are now creating a surveillancefigure out how the young man died, and if anyone had a hand in it. Investigators say he visited several businesses in downtown San Diego on March 5, and they’re questioning multiple employees across those establishments, but say it's too early in the investigation to release the names of those businesses.

Police said they are examining surveillence video as well, look at the autopsy report, and then consult the District Attorney's office to assess if the actions warrant criminal prosecution. 

In the meantime, friends, family and coworkers await answers. 

"It's unexpected. We all lost a brother. Some of us lost a son. Some of us lost an uncle, an older brother and a younger brother," said Picone. "It's not supposed to be easy for anyone. It's hard to lose someone, especially at 21, on their birthday."

Officers in Encinitas have arrested two men who allegedly stole UPS packages according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.

After being followed by officers, the suspects abandoned their rented Toyota and took off on foot in the 900 block of Urania.

The car was rented from Hertz, according to the DMV.

No other information was immediately available.

Ahead of the next round of primaries on Tuesday, with the Republican presidential race in turmoil over the violence that has erupted at Donald Trump's rallies, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida is doing all he can to try to squeeze out a victory in his home state.

As Florida and Ohio go to the polls, Rubio's campaign is urging his supporters in Ohio to back Gov. John Kasich there on Tuesday in the hope that Kasich’s supporters will return the favor in Florida. The appeal mirrors a proposal from 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney to try to halt Trump as the New York businessman barrels toward the Republican nomination.

But the latest effort may be too late for Rubio, who is facing criticism for trying too soon for the presidency and running a lackluster campaign as a result. He trails the Republican front-runner in Florida by 21 percentage points in a NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released Sunday, with 22 percent of likely Republican voters supporting Rubio to 43 percent for Trump. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas follows Rubio at 21 percent and Kasich trails at 9 percent. The poll had a margin of error of 4.3 percentage points. 

On NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, the Ohio governor deferred a question about whether he would ask his supporters to vote for Rubio in Florida.

"My voters are not like robots where I can say, 'Go do something,' okay," Kasich said. "How do you run for office and tell people to vote for somebody else?"

Cruz meanwhile has made it clear that he wants a two-man race against Trump -- who could make an argument for being at least a part-time Florida resident at his private club at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach -- and hopes to force Rubio out with a loss in Florida. Other polls show Rubio behind 6 to 19 percentage points there.

“Right now this is Donald Trump’s to lose,” said Mark Weaver, a longtime Republican consultant based in Ohio. “It’s hard to see the momentum stopping.”

Weaver predicted a narrow win for Kasich in Ohio and a loss for Rubio to Trump in Florida. In both states, the Republican winner takes all of the delegates — 99 in Florida, 66 in Ohio.

“And I bet you it’s not enough to derail the Trump train,” Weaver said.

Four other contests will be held on Tuesday: primaries in Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina and a Republican caucus in the Northern Mariana Islands. For Republicans, Florida and Ohio stand out as a last chance for their favorite sons and for their winner-take-all rules. But Illinois and Missouri together will allocate 121 delegates by congressional district, and North Carolina has 72 delegates to be distributed on a proportionate basis.

Kasich has a 6-point lead over Trump in Ohio, but Trump is ahead in Illinois, according to NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist polls done there. In Florida and in Illinois, Trump is favored among most key demographic groups except for likely voters who describe themselves as very conservative. Among that group, Cruz has the advantage.

“For those who thought March 15 was going to be the end of the confusion, we’re going to know a lot more but the show will gone,” said Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute of Public Opinion.

Among the Democrats, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leads Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in Florida, Ohio and Illinois, according to the polls.

Rubio has won only three contests: Puerto Rico, Washington, D.C., and Minnesota. Going into Tuesday's vote, Trump had 460 delegates to 370 for Cruz, 163 for Rubio and 63 for Kasich. To win the Republican nomination, a candidate needs 1,237 delegates.

Rubio told his supporters in Florida over the weekend that Trump -- whose rallies have gotten violent -- would fracture the party if he became the party's nominee. Rubio has been saying he doubts the polls that show him trailing Trump.

“There’s a majority of Florida Republicans who do not want Trump to win or be the nominee,” he said on CNN.

In a sign of how dissatisfied Florida's top Republicans are, Politico Florida reported that a group of the state’s GOP donors and strategists has been trying persuade former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to run independently for president. A memo that the website obtained noted Rice was reluctant to make a bid.

April Schiff, a Tampa-based Republican consultant and strategist who is not yet supporting a candidate, said Rubio should have remained in the Senate for a few more terms before running for president. At 44, he had plenty of time, she said. As it is, he has angered supporters who worked hard to get him elected to the Senate and who think he did little once he got there, she said. What he did try to do — a failed effort at immigration reform with a group of senators who became known as the Gang of Eight — alienated others.

The son of Cuban immigrants, Rubio shot up through the political ranks and in 2006 became the first Cuban-American speaker of the Florida House while Jeb Bush was governor. Bush's camp was surprised when Rubio decided to compete for the nomination and, though Bush has suspended his campaign, some of the former governor's loyalists continue to see Rubio as an opportunist. Some even talk about writing in Bush's name on the ballot.

If Rubio loses Florida, he will be a particularly bad position politically, Schiff said. He has time to run again for his Senate seat or he could compete for the state’s governor race in two years, but she doubted he would be successful at either.

“He could very well have destroyed his political career by doing what he’s doing today and that’s kind of disappointing because he was basically a rising star,” Schiff said.

 San Diego Police are looking for a suspect accused of driving a stolen car in the College area. 

Police initially tried to stop the car around 6:28 p.m. Monday evening near Arosa and College Avenue. 

When they stopped the car, police discovered the car was stolen, they said. 

The drive fled on foot, and officers are setting up a perimeter as they search for him in the neighborhood and nearby canyon. 

It is unclear if he is wanted for other crimes. 

No further information was immediately available.

Refresh this page for updates on this breaking news story.

A stabbed San Diego Fire-Rescue Department (SDFD) firefighter described the harrowing moments leading up to the altercation, saying everything in his body sank when he saw the accused attacker standing across his partner. 

Ryan Allen Jones, 34, was trying to "help and calm" an intoxicated man on June 24 at a Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) station in downtown San Diego, his attorney said in court. He sat emotionless in court MTS security guards and one of the stabbed firefighters testified. 

The violent encounter with Jones happened while firefighters Benjamin Vernon, 37, and his partner, Alex Wallbrett, 32, were on duty responding to a medical call at a public transit station in East Village.

Wallbrett, one of the witnesses testifying as the trial got underway, remembers the day vividly, "a little too much," he said.

The call came in as a request for help with an intoxicated person. 

"It's a pretty routine call down here and it's nothing exciting or life-changing," he testified. When officials arrived at the transit stop, Jones allegedly tried to interfere as they worked. Wallbrett asked him to please step back, and he did, he said. 

The patient, who allegedly could not stand up without falling back down, was "a handful," Wallbrett said, and required all his focus. 

He gradually noticed a commotion to his left when MTS officials ran away, and then his partner. 

"At that point, when my partner left me, I then [focused] in my attention a lot more, that something was happening," he said. "You don't just run away from a patient or your partner. I actually focused for the first time on what was going on outside of our patient."

During the altercation, at some point Jones became enraged, pulled out a knife and charged at Vernon.

Wallbrett still remembers the look on Jones' face. 

"There was a look of rage and anger in his face that basically made everything in my body drop," he said.

Wallbrett rushed to his partner’s aid, only thinking about getting to his side, he said. Wallbrett was also stabbed.

Vernon suffered two stabs wound and a collapsed lung while Wallbrett sustained stab wounds. Both firefighters survived the attack and were hospitalized.

Upon being released from the hospital, Vernon and Wallbrett said they were “damn proud” to work for SDFD despite the traumatic event. Both men said they looked forward to returning to work.

In a short, 10-second clip – captured on a body camera worn by a security guard for the MTS – shows the chaotic moments when suspect Jones lunged at the firefighters. Several other firefighters and security guards can be seen rushing to the aid of the wounded firefighters while a guard yells out, “Cover now! Cover now! Cover now!”

Testimony will continue in the trial Tuesday. Jones faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted.

 A stroller for your child is essential. They come in all different shapes, sizes, and prices. Some look as fancy as a luxury vehicle, with high-end finishes like gleaming metal, leather, and designer fabrics. They have price tags to match, as high as $1,300! Consumer Reports tests dozens of strollers each year and says that you can find a good one that’s good-looking at almost every price.

Consumer Reports tests all strollers for safety, maneuverability, and ease of use. Those that transition as your baby grows are a good value, like the Chicco Bravo Stroller. It fits an infant seat with or without the stroller seat in place, and then accommodates a toddler up to 50 pounds. The Chicco folds with one hand, which is super-easy. And it stands by itself, which makes it easier to store. With similar strollers selling for over $500, the Chicco Bravo is a Consumer Reports Best Buy at $230.

If your child is a little older, you may appreciate the convenience of an umbrella stroller.

The Summer Infant 3DZyre is very lightweight and nimble, and has a very large canopy. Folding is simple, and you can carry it with just one hand. It’s a Consumer Reports Best Buy at $140.

If you don’t need as many bells and whistles, check out the Summer Infant 3D Lite for $80. It lacks the extended canopy but still has many of the same features as the 3DZyre.

No matter which stroller you use, your child should be fully buckled into the harness at all times. 

Thousands of Texans are being denied the chance to register to vote, violating federal voting laws, a new lawsuit alleges.

"Texas voters will continue to be shut out of the democratic process unless and until Defendants reform their registration practices," alleges the complaint, filed Monday in a federal court in San Antonio by the Texas Civil Rights Project.

Plaintiffs in the suit say they tried to update their drivers license and voter registration records through the website of the state Department of Public Safety, and believed they had done so. But when they went to vote, they were found to be unregistered, and forced to cast provisional ballots, which likely won't count.

"I felt that my voice was taken away from me when my vote wasn't counted," said Totysa Watkins, an African-American woman from Irving, Texas, who works for a health insurer. "Voting has always been something I value and is a right I have instilled in my children. Texas should not be able to take that away."

A car caught on fire in the parking lot of a Denny's in the 600 block of Mollison Avenue Heartland Fire confirmed.

The incident happened just before 8 p.m. Monday night.

Crews are investigating the cause of the fire. No one was injured according to officials. 

 No further information was immediately available.

Refresh this page for updates on this breaking news story.

A pedestrian was struck by a hit-and-run driver in the 1600 block of Hilltop in Chula Vista Monday night.

The victim was found lying on the street around 9:40 p.m. Chula Vista police confirmed.

The car was last seen fleeing north on Hilltop. Police have completely closed off two blocks of the street. There is no description of the vehicle yet.

The victim is a 37-year-old man. He had just gotten out of his car with takeout food and was hit in front of his house his family told NBC 7.

He was pronounced dead at the scene just after 10 p.m.

No further information was immediately available.

Refresh this page for updates on this breaking news story.

 A pedestrian was transported to the hospital with unknown injuries after being struck by a driver at the corner of Garnet and Mission Bay Drive Monday night.

The incident happened around 10:15 p.m. San Diego police confirmed.

The victim ran into the street before he was hit according to officials.

The driver stayed at the scene and is cooperating with law enforcement.

No further information was immediately available.

Refresh this page for updates on this breaking news story.

Hillary Clinton said Donald Trump is "inciting mob violence" that recalls lynch mobs Monday evening at an MSNBC townhall, where she also took tough questions on foreign policy and trade.

Clinton told MSNBC's Chris Matthews, who moderated the event in Springfield, Illinois, that she holds Trump responsible for the violence seen in recent days at his rallies, and believes his rhetoric is not only wrong and offensive, but also "dangerous." "He's been building this incitement," she said.

"When you are inciting mob violence, which is what Trump is doing," Clinton said, "there's a lot of memories that people have. They're in the DNA. People remember mob violence that lead to lynching, people remember mob violence that lead to people being shot, being grabbed, being mistreated. And it's something that has a deep, almost psychological resonance to people who have ever been in any position of feeling somewhat fearful, somewhat worried."

Clinton also took tough questions from Matthews on her history of supporting military intervention abroad, including the Iraq War.

Monday is Pi Day, a national celebration of the mathematical concept, which is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter and equals 3.14... Last year, 3-14-15, was the only day this century that matched pi, commonly approximated as 3.14159. 

As is the case every year, schools and museums across the country have planned events to celebrate the concept, which has fascinated humans for centuries. Look for pi-related deals and freebies, too. 

If you want to earn 3.14 years of free pizza from Pizza Hut, all you have to do is answer three math problems. Easy? Not so much. The questions have been devised by famed Princeton mathematics professor John H. Conway and range in difficulty from high school to PhD level. Pizza Hut said it will award three winners, one for each question.

Whole Foods is also celebrating Pi Day by offering a discount on its pies and pizzas. You can get $3.14 off sweet pies, and $2 off their take and bake pizzas.

In the spirit of the holiday, here are 3.14 things you may not know about pi:

1. No one is certain who discovered pi as we know it today

But we do have some ideas. It seems that the Egyptians used pi in the construction of the Great Pyramid because when the perimeter is divided by its height, one gets a close approximation to 2π. It’s the same result if one divides the circumference of a circle by its radius.

But the most significant pi research might have come from the astronomer, Archimedes, around 250 B.C.

His mathematical calculation showed that pi was "between three and one seventh and three and 10 seventy firsts,” Steven Strogatz, an applied mathematics professor at Cornell University, told NBC in a 2015 interview. “He approached that putting a six sided figure into a circle, then made it 12 sided, and went all the way up to a 96-sided polygon.”

He proved that pi was found somewhere between these two numbers, which applied to all circles.

2. You can find your identity in pi

One myth is that since pi is a continuation of numbers, people’s identities can be found in the pattern: like social security numbers or birthdays.

This theory became popular when this meme appeared on George Takei’s Facebook:

But Professor Strogatz stressed that the meme is misleading.  Even if it is true (which is not yet known), the digits in pi would tell us nothing about a person's life or identity, because along with correct social security numbers and birthdays, there will also be wrong social security numbers and birthdays.

3. Proving pi with matches

You can prove pi exists with matches, toothpicks, a pen, or anything else that is the same length, explained Johnny Ball, the author of “Why Pi? (Big Questions).”

“There’s a wonderful way to find pi for yourself. You find a floor with parallel lines; you find matches, pins, pens, exactly the same length. If you drop a hundred of them at random on the floor, the points touching a line will equal pi,” Ball said.

The matches' length must be equal to the distance of the two parallel lines. After the matches are dropped, you multiply the number of matches thrown down by two and divide it by the total number of matches that touched a line, which will equal pi.

This problem was discovered in the 18th century by French mathematician Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon.

Check out this video on Dr. Tony Padilla's YouTube channel Numberphile where he demonstrates Buffon's Needle Problem:

3.14...Legislating against pi

In 1897, Indiana state legislators tried passing a Pi Bill that legally defined pi as 3.2. Edward J. Goodwin, a physician, convinced a well-known mathematical monthly newspaper that he had solved what mathematicians had tried to do for generations: squaring the circle. Simply put, squaring the circle is the impossible task of finding the area of a circle by finding the area of a square around it. Goodwin claimed that pi was 3.2 instead of a continuous number. The bill never became a law thanks to Professor C. A. Waldo who convinced the Indiana Senate that Goodwin’s discovery was not possible.

A California Highway Patrol officer who was investigating a crash on Interstate 80 over the weekend has died, his agency said Monday.

Nathan Daniel Taylor, 35, succumbed to his injuries Sunday after getting struck by a vehicle Saturday about 2:25 p.m. on westbound Interstate 80 at Castle Peak Road, when he was struck by a vehicle, the CHP said in a statement. Taylor suffered major injuries and was transported to Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno, NV.

NBC affiliate KCRA said he was standing near his patrol vehicle providing traffic control for a previous injury crash near the Donner Lake Interchange when the driver of a Nissan Pathfinder changed lanes and lost control, striking the officer.

“It is an incredibly sad day for Officer Taylor’s family, the CHP, and the State of California,” CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow said in a statement. “The loss of an officer protecting our community is truly devastating.”

It’s the first fatality for the CHP since two officers were killed in Fresno County in February 2014.

Taylor, who was a resident of Rocklin, graduated from the CHP Academy in 2010 and worked in the agency's San Jose-area office before being transferred to the Gold Run area in January 2013.

"It's always a tragedy when anyone in the law enforcement community dies in the line of duty like that," said CHP Officer James Menard, who went to the academy with Taylor and worked him for two years in the San Jose office. "But when it's a classmate, someone you worked with, it's deeply personal."

Taylor leaves behind his wife Rebecca; three sons ages 3, 5, and 8; parents Jeff and Linda; and two brothers, one of whom is a CHP officer.

From 2010 to 2013, Taylor worked at the San Jose-area office, where he was assigned to patrol, CHP Officer Ross Lee said.

Taylor was an intelligent and "service-oriented" person who was devoted to his family, Lee said.

"You'd be very hard-pressed to find anything less than the highest level of service from him," Lee said.

Taylor's passing was "shocking and surreal," and many people in the San Jose office are still processing the news, Lee said.

NBC Bay Area's Ian Cull and Bay City News contributed to this report.