A knife linked to O.J. Simpson’s property and handed over to the Los Angeles Police Department last month was not used in the 1994 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, LAPD confirmed Friday afternoon.

Sources had previously told NBC News that it was likely not the murder weapon, and forensic tests have confirmed that belief.

The weapon, described as a buck knife, was reportedly given to now-retired officer George Maycott when he was working security on a film shoot near the former Simpson property in 2003. A construction worker apparently discovered the knife while doing work on the Brentwood estate after it no longer belonged to Simpson.

Attorney Trent Copeland said the officer had tried to turn it in to LAPD’s West Division, but was told the case was closed and to not bring in the knife.

O.J. Simpson was acquitted of murder charges in the death of his ex-wife and her friend.

A locally owned all-natural grocery store will open at the site of a former Fresh & Easy store in North Park.

Barons Market will open at 3231 E. University Ave. sometime at the end of 2016, the store chain announced on Friday.

It will be the fourth Barons opening in San Diego County; there are already locations in Point Loma, Rancho Bernardo and Alpine.

The new location will offer an olive oil and vinegar bar; a soup, antipasto and salad bar; and will boast more than 400 microbrews.

The chain’s vice president of marketing calls Barons and the uptown North Park neighborhood  a “match made in food heaven.”

“We stock our shelves with good food, craft beer and locally grown produce – all things that the North Park community values,” Rachel Shemirani said in a statement.

The store’s opening will mean the addition of 30 new jobs in the North Park area.

Fresh & Easy, the Southern California convenient grocery store chain, closed all eight of its San Diego County locations last fall, citing a failed reorganization attempt.

The City of Poway will host a benefit concert event Friday April 1st at 8 p.m. to jump start fundraising efforts for the Tony Gwynn memorial.

The memorial design will also be unveiled towards the end of the evening.

Gwynn’s former Padres teammates Trevor Hoffman and Mark Grant plan to share memories of the hometown slugger and former Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman is also expected to attend.

The concert will feature Lonestar’s Richie McDonald, Tim Flannery and the Lunatic Fringe, Poway Mayor (2010 Grammy winner) Steve Vaus, Glen Erath and Eve Selis.

The celebration honoring Poway’s hometown hero includes a live auction featuring unique Gwynn memorabilia as well as an opportunity to be recognized on the memorial’s donor wall.

The event takes place at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts.

All proceeds directly fund the Tony Gwynn memorial.

Donations may also be made at: https://www.crowdrise.com/tonygwynn.

A rider died after three motorcycles collided at Pala racetrack Friday California Highway Patrol confirmed.

The medical examiner was called to the racetrack where the cyclist was pronounced dead at the scene, CHP officer Mary Bailey said.

The crash happened around 1:50 p.m. in the 12000 block of SR-76 near Magee Road.

The other two motorcyclists were transported to the hospital with major injuries.

CHP and the Sheriff’s Department both responded to the accident.

No other information was immediately available.

Check back for details on this developing story.

El Niño storms are not only good for California’s drought – they may also be the reason for fewer brushes with rattlesnakes across San Diego County.

According to Daniel E. DeSousa, deputy director for the County of San Diego Department of Animal Services, the rainy season has led to a decrease in local rattlesnake sightings reported to Animal Services – even in rattlesnake hotspots like Tierrasanta.

DeSousa said rattlesnake calls are down this season: 162 calls compared to 219 at this same time in 2015.

Last year, DeSousa said Animal Services received nine rattlesnake calls in January, 36 in February and 174 in March. This year, Animal Services received eight rattlesnake calls in January, 53 in February and 101 in March.

With San Diego’s climate, DeSousa said there isn’t necessarily a defined “rattlesnake season.” They do tend to hibernate in the fall and winter and awaken in the spring months of March and April.

“Rattlesnakes can actually be found in San Diego County year-round,” DeSousa explained. “We have this wonderful, mild climate, but springtime – ‘tis the season.”

The critters tend to come out when it’s very warm, so DeSousa said San Diego’s recent milder weather is likely linked to the decrease in sightings.

“Most like it’s because of the weather we’ve had,” he said. “February of this year we saw more rattlesnake calls than last year. February of this year was really warm. March has been kind of a cooler month – little bit wetter [of a] month – so maybe they’re not coming out as much.

But just because the rattlesnake calls are down now, doesn’t mean the critters aren’t a threat.

“They’re very much related to the weather and their food source,” DeSousa said.

Southern California is home to several species of rattlesnakes, including the Western Diamondback, Red Diamond, Southern Pacific, Speckled and Sidewinder. Rattlesnakes can be found in every habitat in San Diego County, from coastal communities to inland and desert regions.

“I would still expect, unfortunately, a bumper crop of rattlesnakes to be coming out and springtime is the season when we’ll start seeing the babies out and when we’ll start seeing more and more rattlesnakes just throughout the county,” DeSousa said. “They’re just hunkered underground at this point in time. When it gets warm and starts drying out we will see them.”

When that happens, DeSousa said residents should call Animal Services to report sightings.

According to Animal Services, the simplest way to identify a rattlesnake is by seeing or hearing the critter’s traditional rattle hiss or buzz.

Rattlesnakes can lose their rattles, however, so some identifying marks are also important, including a wide, rectangular head, a distinctly thin neck regions and long, pointed tails. Rattlesnakes can be a variety of colors, including brown, tan, yellow, green, gray, black, chalky white and dull red. Many could have diamond, chevron or blotched markings on their backs or sides.

DeSousa said San Diegans can take several precautions to keep rattlesnakes away from their homes, including trimming overgrown plants and clearing brush.

“[A rattlesnake] is there for a reason. It’s there because there’s a good food source – namely mice or rats. Or it’s there because it’s a really good hiding spot under the bushes or in a debris pile in your yard,” he said.

For more tips on what to do if you encounter a rattlesnake, read this brochure from Animal Services.

New information in a deputy-involved shooting early Sunday morning in Vista, in which officers fired at a man allegedly trying to run them over with a car, revealed the off-duty Sheriff's deputies had been celebrating at a colleague’s retirement party before the incident.

The four deputies involved were at Jim’s Vista Lounge late Saturday night the Sheriff’s Department confirmed.

When the deputies left the celebration around 2 a.m. Sunday they saw several people in front of the nearby 7-11 store in the 1500 block of East Vista Way in an ‘escalating altercation.’

One of the people was wielding a metal magazine rack as a weapon toward the others the Sheriff’s Department said.

The deputies tried to ‘deescalate a felony assault in progress’, but without warning one man put his car in reverse and struck three officers the department confirmed. One deputy fired five shots at the car to stop the threat.

Alejandro Blanco, 32, who was driving the car, was shot at least twice the department said.

He was in court Monday charged with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon for trying to run over the three officers.

A part of the ongoing criminal and administrative investigations will be to determine if the off-duty deputies had been drinking that night, and if so, how much the Sheriff’s department confirmed.

The case has been turned over to the District Attorney’s office.

The deputies, like other citizens licensed to carry guns, are entitled to use force when confronted with death or great bodily injury attorney Marc Carlos told NBC 7.

It is not known if the deputies had to give a blood alcohol test at the scene.

A 30-year-old man was riding his off-road motorcycle at Pala Raceway Friday when he lost control attempting a jump and collided head-on with a 49-year-old rider California Highway Patrol confirmed.

The medical examiner was called to the racetrack and the 49-year-old man from Oceanside was pronounced dead at the scene, CHP officer Mary Bailey said.

The 30-year-old was taken to the hospital with serious injuries but is expected to survive. 

The crash happened around 1:50 p.m. in the 12000 block of SR-76 near Magee Road.

CHP and the Sheriff’s Department both responded to the accident.

 It's unclear whether alcohol or drugs were a factor. 

The accident is under investigation. 

A motorcyclist went down at 54th and University around 4:39 p.m. Friday San Diego police confirmed.

Witnesses said the biker gunned it off the light going 70 to 90 mph when he lost control and slammed into a parked Ford Explorer. 

"I just saw pieces of bike and him go flying. He skidded pretty far as you can tell," one witness told NBC 7. 

"I'm still shaking," another witness said. "I just can't believe I just witnessed the whole thing, and I just hope he's going to be okay." 

SDPD and the San Diego Fire Department responded to the scene. 

The rider has 'possible major trauma' to his legs, police said. 

A woman told NBC 7 she raced to comfort the man telling him he's going to be okay. 

He was transported to the hospital. There is no word on his condition.

No other information was immediately available.

The U.S. Navy is loosening its stance on tattoos, allowing service members to have visible markings, as a way to attract more millennials.

The Navy has announced that sailors can now have visible tattoos below the elbow or knee, and the military agency no longer restricts their size and the number of them. The Navy will also allow one tattoo on the neck, so long as it doesn't exceed one inch in any direction.

The news came on Thursday and takes effect April 30.

The police update came in response to the increased popularity of tattoos among current service members and those the Navy aims to recruit: millennials.

Already on Friday, a tattoo parlor in Barrio Logan, just a few blocks from Naval Base San Diego, was already seeing the impact of the police changes.

Nemo, the owner of Deville Tattoo, said he already had 30 to 40 messages on Friday from service members seeking tattoos.

“That’s how these boys are receiving (the news),” he said.

Nemo is the son of a retired Navy SEAL who understands the mindset of his military customers.

"They don't like being barred down by not being able to do what they'd like on their body,” he said. “Then you have the ones who are all about maritime tradition who would love to have the sailor marks cause they are sailors."

A Chula Vista community rallied together Friday afternoon to make a little boy feel special after the Easter eggs were stolen from his front lawn last weekend.

Dozens of families held a make-up Easter egg hunt in Montevalle Park for Gabriel and his family after hearing about his Easter theft.

Gabriel’s parents, the Fords, were excited to celebrate Gabriel’s first Easter last Sunday. He has Down syndrome and was born with his ring finger and middle finger bound as one.

He recently had surgery to have the fingers separated and now loves to pick up and throw small objects like eggs.

His family was hugely disappointed when the eggs that they had left on the lawn for Gabriel were stolen.

“I want him to feel really happy,” young volunteer Joshua Perry said. “I want him to feel like 'oh my gosh, did these people do this, just for me?' I want him to feel like this was his best day ever."

Gabriel’s mother spoke to the group after the egg hunt saying the most touching part about all of it to her was, as the mother of a child with a disability, she worried about kids not accepting her child; To see the kids gathered around Gabriel at the park, lavishing him with attention and gifts, she was so grateful it wasn’t the case.

The egg theft was entirely caught on surveillance video.

While walking the beach just north of Scripps Pier Clint Rosser stumbled upon the remains of a harbor seal pupped just last year. The animal appeared tied with bailing wire to boards connected like a cross.

“To me it looks like a mock crucifixion,” Clint Rosser, who found the seal said.

With his phone Rosser recorded video of the scene and took still pictures in case the animal washed away with the tide.

While the ocean is full of debris that wildlife gets caught in, it seemed like something different to Rosser.

“It looked intentional to me because the wire was going around the board on both sides of the sea lion and the boards were pretty well together,” Rosser explained.

The Sea World Rescue Team sent to investigate said the death is suspicious for the same reasons.
One piece of bailing wire was around its neck, a second around its midsection.

“I was watching the sea lions at fisherman's wharf and they are the funniest things of all time. They are so fun to watch and then I came here and saw one that looked like mutilated and it was such a stark contrast,” he said.

High tide and darkness made it impossible for the rescue team to recover the remains Friday. Saturday morning investigators plan to return for another try.

According to the Sea World Rescue team, the video indicates the harbor seal has been dead for a while but not a long time.

They said they’ll have a better idea if they can retrieve the remains.
 

In 2012, the CIA proposed a detailed covert action plan designed to remove Syrian President Bashar Assad from power, but President Obama declined to approve it, current and former U.S. officials tell NBC News.

A former CIA operative reveals in a book to be published Tuesday that senior CIA officials were pushing a multi-tiered plan to engineer the dictator's ouster.

Doug Laux, 23, describes spending a year in the Middle East meeting with Syrian rebels and intelligence officers from various partner countries as part of the CIA's Syria task force.

Laux said the White House and CIA leaders made it clear that the goal of his task force was to find ways to oust Assad from office. "We had come up with 50 good options to facilitate that."

But the president, who must approve all covert action, never gave the green light.

Former CIA Director David Petraeus and others who supported the plan believe it could have prevented the rise of ISIS and the European refugee crisis, the former officials say.

A third suspect has been been charged in connection with the foiled French terror attack, the Belgian federal prosecutor said Saturday, NBC News reported.

A Belgian national, identified only as Y.A. by the prosecutor, was arrested as part of the investigation into Reda Kriket, a French terror suspect officials nabbed two days after bombers attacked Brussels' airport and a subway station on March 22.

Kriket's apartment in the French suburb of Argenteuil had an arsenal of weapons, including assault rifles and explosives, the Paris prosecutor said earlier this week.

Meanwhile, the head of the Brussels Airport said Saturday that some passenger flights will resume Sunday for the first time since twin blasts devastated the departure hall last month.

The airport has been closed since the March 22 suicide bombings that killed 16 victims at the airport and another 16 in the Brussels subway and wounded 270 people.

A Mexican restaurant in North Park known for its tasty tacos will expand its menu next week to include Tijuana-inspired burritos – and you could score one for free.

Tacos Perla, located at 3000 Upas St., plans to add burritos to its menu starting Monday, which will cater to both carnivores and vegetarians. To celebrate, the eatery will give free burritos to the first 50 customers Monday who purchase an Agua Fresca or Michelada.

The new burrito menu will include creations approved by Chef Oso Campos, the eatery’s consulting chef from Tijuana’s Tacos Kokopelli. Campos has spent the past couple of weeks developing new burritos for Tacos Perla.

The result: three so-called “TJ-Style” burritos, including “El Califas,” a different version of San Diego’s popular California Burrito made with roasted adobada and stuffed with beer-battered onion rings instead of French fries.

Then there’s “El Pacifico,” a burrito boasting smoked tuna, chorizo and guacamole. The veggie enthusiasts, “El San Quintin” burrito is filled with roasted veggies and Mex-inspired hummus. The new burritos cost $4.75 a pop.

Reps for Tacos Perla say the eatery will also roll out lower prices on its gourmet tacos, also starting Monday. The restaurant has been able to “gain better pricing from its local vendors,” so the business now wants to pass on the savings to patrons. Taco prices are decreasing from $4.75 to $3.95.

Tacos Perla is housed in Jonathan Segal’s North Parker building and is open every day – 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11:30 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday. The eatery is known for its authentic, Tijuana-inspired fare, including traditional options like carne asada street tacos as well as non-traditional items like the "Ocho," a braised and grilled octopus taco with poblano, pesto and cheese.

The eatery often invites top chefs from Mexico and the Baja region to take over the kitchen for a series dubbed “Guest Taco Nights.”

It's April Fool's Day, which means the slew of ridiculous products popping up in your social media feed are probably not real. Companies around the world have joined the pranking, producing elaborate hoaxes to fool customers.

From hilarious to cringeworthy, here are top 10 corporate April Fool's jokes of 2016:

Google's Mic Drop Button
Google thought it would be hilarious to put a "Mic Drop" button on Gmail, which replies to an email with a picture of a Minion dropping a microphone before automatically closing down an email thread and muting all future responses. But a number of furious account holders took to Google’s support forum to complain of the professional strifes it caused, forcing the company to apologize and turn off the feature. [[374279661, C, 620, 409]]

Mark Zuckerberg for HXM 
Tech bros everywhere can now own their very own Mark Zuckerberg uniform: a pair of blue jeans and a basic gray T-shirt. Sold as a box set, the collection comes with a pack of seven gray T-shirts and a pair of jeans. It's "one less thing to think about in the morning." [[374279891, C]]

YouTube Snoopavision
YouTube claims to have made it possible to click on a Snoop Dogg icon under any video on the site, allowing the viewer to watch it in "Snoopavision," a 360-degree video experience in which the hip-hop artist will appear. [[374276661, C]]

Lyft Pranks Warriors' Festus Ezeli
Golden State Warriors star Festus Ezeli was the target of a hilarious prank by some of his teammates, including Finals MVP Andre Iguodala and shooting guard Klay Thompson, who executed an elaborate plot to convince Festus he'd been cut from the team.  [[374278011, C]]

Quilted Northern Rustic Weave
Quilted Northern "rolls back 100 years of innovation" with Rustic Weave, artisanal toilet paper "hand-pulped and hand-perforated, the way toilet paper used to be." Ouch. [[374279011, C]]

Honda Emoji License Plates 
In response to demand by younger car buyers, Honda in the UK unveiled plans to introduce emoji license plates by 2017. [[374277711, C]]

National Geographic's Animals Cover Up
The media group announced it will "no longer degrade animals by showing photos of them without clothes." [[374278561, C, 620,416]]

John Stamos Takes Over Netflix
Netflix subscribers will get an overdose of John Stamos on April 1. The streaming service gave many of its video categories a Stamos makeover and unveiled a promotional clip for a new project: "John Stamos: A Human, Being." The documentary will "premiere" on April 31. [[374279401, C]]

Sony's Proton Pack
Sony announced it has developed the world's first ghost-catching device. The Proton Pack is equipped with a state-of-the-art, miniaturized superconducting synchrotron, which accelerates injected protons from a hydrogen plasma cell. And not to mention, "water and slime-proof." [[374279201, C]]

They may not have made the top 10, but these "honorable mentions" are also worth checking out:

Man Crates jerky meats from extinct animals, because the "Future of meats is in the past."

BMW's X Drive Baby Boots, designed to help toddlers keep their balance as they learn to walk.

U.S. Army announced its scientists successfully "teleported" soldiers from a Massachusetts research and development facility to a training area in Germany, the Natick Soldier Systems Center.

Google introduces the self-driving bicycle in Amsterdam, the world's premiere cycling city, in an effort to reduce bicycle-related injuries.

Albuquerque police have released body camera video from an undercover drug bust that shows a chaotic scene unfold as a lieutenant mistakenly shoots a fellow detective during an undercover operation, NBC News reported. 

The video was made public late Thursday, a day after the city announced a $6.5 million settlement with Jacob Grant, who was shot eight times by Lt. Greg Brachle in January 2015. Grant has undergone numerous surgeries and the city agreed to pay the detective's medical expenses for life as part of the settlement.

Video from Brachle's lapel shows him running up to a vehicle that Grant was sitting in with suspects and yelling "gun," then promptly firing his weapon.

An officer is heard yelling "Jacob hang in there man!" after the accident. The lawsuit later filed by Grant said the officer lost 80 percent of the blood in his body.

Brachle was accused in the suit of missing a morning briefing about the potential drug bust, according to NBC affiliate KOB. 

U.S. Coast Guard officials are investigating why a harbor cruise ship failed to stop while docking in San Diego on Thursday, crashing into the Embarcadero and narrowly missing pedestrians.

Video captured people running for cover as the 150-foot Adventure Hornblower slammed into the sea wall near the Broadway Pier on Thursday afternoon.

Three people were sent to the hospital with injuries.  

The boat that crashed was out of service 18 months ago with a "control problem," Jim Unger, general manager of Hornblower Cruises and Events, told NBC 7 San Diego.

Unger said at the time an adjustment was needed for the engine controls, the mechanism that operates the engine.

He can’t say whether this was the same problem that caused yesterday’s accident.

The company’s boats go through daily, intensive inspections, Unger said, and there was nothing to indicate there was any problem.

"Boat was operating perfectly," Unger said.

Coast Guard officials said the investigation is ongoing.

The Port of San Diego will be working on repairing the Embarcadero. 

Sen. Bernie Sanders said Hillary Clinton owed him and his campaign an apology in response to accusations from the Democratic front-runner's campaign that he and his team had been "lying" and misconstruing Clinton's relationship with the oil and gas industry, NBC news reported.

"Secretary Clinton, you owe us an apology. We were telling the truth," Sanders said Friday evening at a Wisconsin rally in Sheboygan South High School.

Sanders, citing an analysis done by the environmental organization Greenpeace, argued that Clinton's campaign and Super PAC have received "more than $4.5 million from the fossil fuel industry" and said "57 oil, gas, and coal industry lobbyists have directly contributed to her campaign."

Clinton team quickly responded, saying they will not apologize "for calling out these kinds of schemes for what they are: a desperate move from a campaign that has clearly decided that the only hope for a path to victory is through misleading attacks."

An unidentified person was taken into custody late Friday night after jumping the White House fence, the Secret Service said.

The person tossed a backpack over the north fence before climbing over around 11:45 p.m., the agency said in a statement. The person was immediately taken into custody by the Secret Service Uniformed Division officers.

The individual was charged with unlawful entry and taken to the Metropolitan Police Department.

Officials did not identify the person or comment on the contents of the backpack. A security sweep of the White House complex failed to turn up anything unusual. Normal operations resumed shortly afterwards.

The incident is only the latest in a string of fence-jumping episodes that forced the National Park Service, which helps oversee the White House grounds, to boost fence security.

Sharp metal spikes were added to the fence last year as a a temporary security measure pending a new design for the White House fencing system.
 

 San Diego Police (SDPD) are investigating after a woman was found struggling to breathe at a Navy housing complex. 

Police officers responded after a 911 call reporting a woman in her mid-50s outside a home on the 1600 block of Sandy Shore Street in San Diego's Paradise Hills neighborhood. 

The woman was on the ground, struggling to breathe, police said. When medics arrived, they took the woman to the hospital, where she died several hours later. 

Doctors found several suspicious markings on her upper body, what they determined to possibly be the result of trauma. It is unclear if those marks were linked to the woman's death.

SDPD's Homicide team was called out to investigate the incident out of caution, police said. 

San Diego County Medical Examiner's office (ME) will perform an autopsy to determine her cause of death. 

Officers know the identity of the woman, but it will not be released until the family is notified. 

SDPD officials are asking anyone with information to call the Homicide Unit at (619) 531-2293 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477. 

No other information was immediately available.

Check back for details on this developing story.