Fourteen tons of cocaine, seized this year by U.S. Coast Guard crews, arrived in San Diego Thursday.

The crew of USCG’s Bertholf hauled the drugs off the cutter at the Port of San Diego Broadway Pier on Harbor Drive before 8 a.m.

The drugs were seized by USCG crews and a U.S. Navy ship patrolling what’s considered a drug transit zone in the eastern Pacific Ocean, officials said.

Coast Guard officials say more drugs have been seized in that area last year than all of 2012, 2013 and 2014 combined.
 

Belgium authorities released a new video Thursday showing the so-called "man in white" behind the Brussels airport bombing and appealed for any information from the public in tracing his escape from the scene of the bombing, NBC News reported. 

Prosecutors confirmed that the unidentified man was still on the run and said he got rid of the light-colored jacket soon after the attack.

Surveillance video captured him near the Sheraton hotel and past an Avis car rental parking lot. He was later seen in the nearby town of Zaventem wearing just a bright shirt with rolled-up sleeves.

Earlier video of the suspect showed him at the airport next to two men who blew themselves up. He was wearing a dark hat, and glasses while pushing a luggage cart loaded with a black bag.

A fire sparked at a restaurant in Fallbrook early Thursday morning, officials confirmed.

The blaze began around 4 a.m. at 127 West Social House, a small eatery located at 127 W. Elder St. Flames could be seen stemming from a section of the business as crews worked to contain the fire.

Soon, the situation was upgraded to a second-alarm commercial fire.

Deputies with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department (SDSO) were called to the scene to help with traffic control as firefighters battled the blaze.

By 6 a.m., officials said the fire was fully contained.

The cause is under investigation. No injuries were reported.

127 West Social House celebrated its one-year anniversary this past January. The eatery serves gourmet burgers, stone-fired pizzas, salads and sandwiches, among other things.

The business is part of the Trupiano Restaurant Group, which also owns several other North County eateries including Trupiano's Italian Bistro and The Espresso Lounge -- both in Fallbrook -- and Dominic's at the Harbor and D'Vino Cafe & Wine Bar in Oceanside.

A storm arrived from early Thursday with rain first appearing in the southwest corner of San Diego County. Not only is there the chance for precipitation but residents should also prepare for the potential of a thunderstorm.  

A big batch of rain looks ominous but it was tracking to the west of the shoreline into the open ocean, according to NBC 7 Meteorologist Jodi Kodesh.

“Our humidity levels are coming up. Much of the county has the potential for mainly drizzle,” Kodesh said.

After 2 p.m., there is a potential for a thunderstorm. 

Download the free NBC 7 mobile app to track the storm using our interactive radar. 
 

A North County woman faces a year in jail for stealing thousands of dollars from Vista Pop Warner.

Rachel Marie Owens appeared in a Vista courtroom Thursday and entered guilty pleas to charges of embezzlement, grand theft and identity theft for filing a loan application in the name of the league president.

Owens will have to pay back the $114,000 she stole when she was volunteer treasurer of the youth football organization. However, she is unable to pay back the money immediately, the prosecutor said. 

The 41-year-old Vista resident stole the funds from Vista Pop Warner Football and Cheer between October 2013 and November 2015.

Deputy District Attorney Anna Winn said there were checks totalling $111,000 made out in Owens' name. 

“There was also approximately $15,000 to $14,000 that was cash money that she deposited into her bank account which was all taken from league fundraising functions,” Winn said. 

She said the money was spent on daily living. 

"There was no evidence that the money went directly to student loans or to a family lawyer," Winn said adding that Owens was in debt.

Owens was arrested February 24 at Guajome Park Academy where she was working as a math teacher. The school district superintendent described Owens as a non-permanent teacher on probation. She was placed on administrative leave.

Defense attorney Peter Liss said his client wanted to accept responsibility for the theft from the start of the investigation but that it just took some time to work out the details of a plea agreement with prosecutors.

“She got in over her head with household debt and unfortunately made a very poor choice to start writing checks from the league to herself,” Liss said.

When Owens was not caught right away, she kept doing it, her attorney said.

Owen faces a year in jail when she's sentenced next month. However her attorney said Owens will have to spend a lifetime repairing damage done to relationships with her family, friends and neighbors. 

"When she gets out she's going to literally spend the rest of her life repaying this debt," Liss said. 

Owens' husband was not aware of the theft and lost his job because of his wife's arrest, according to attorneys. 

San Diego County Sheriff's Department Lt. Greg Rylaarsdam with the Cyber Financial Crimes Unit said it appears Owens moved money around between several bank accounts. The league's cooperation and their records helped detectives make an arrest, Rylaarsdam said.   

A 79-year-old driver was killed in a crash in Ramona Thursday, officials confirmed.

California Highway Patrol (CHP) Officer Kevin Pearlstein said two cars collided just after 10 a.m. A 79-year-old Ramona resident was driving a Toyota Camry northbound on Green Haven Lane, turning left onto San Vicente Road, and failed to see an oncoming Ford F-150 traveling about 45 mph eastbound on San Vicente Road.

The Toyota wound up in the Ford’s direct path, and the driver of the Ford – a 64-year-old man – had no time to react. The vehicles broadsided one another, and Pearlstein says the impact caused the driver of the Toyota to then hit a Ford E-150 van that was parked nearby.

The woman behind the wheel of the Toyota Camry suffered major blunt force injuries to her head and body and died at the scene, CHP officials said. No one else was injured.

Pearlstein says the crash is under investigation but alcohol was not a factor. CHP officials at the scene said it also doesn’t appear that rainy conditions contributed to the crash.

No one was cited in the collision.
 

Many health insurance plans require you to designate a primary care physician. You want a kind, caring, competent one. But choosing Doctor Right is daunting.

It’s an important choice. Your primary care doctor is critical to your health. Evidence suggests that having a primary care doctor means you’re less likely to die of cancer, heart disease, or a stroke. You’re also less likely to need to go to an emergency room or be admitted to a hospital.

Here are some tips for finding a good doctor:

• Use your first appointment with any new doctor to make sure you’ll work well together.

•  Did he or she listen without interrupting? Did the doctor ask more than just a checklist of yes/no questions?
•  You want a doctor who also asks for your input. How do you feel about possible treatment options.

Patients who have a strong relationship with their physician not only report greater satisfac­tion with their care but also better overall health.

And above all, you want a doctor who orders the right tests and prescribes the best possible treatment. Reliable data on those measures are hard to find, although physician report cards are becoming more common. You can go to informedpatientInstitute.org to see whether there’s a report card for your doctor.

You also want a primary care physician you can afford. So call the office to make sure the doctor is in your insurance plan. And find out his or her hospital affiliation. If the hospital is outside your network, you could be hit by a big bill.

Police have confirmed that what was initially reported as a possible kidnapping near Hoyt Park turned out to be a 19-year-old brother getting his little sister into a car and not a kidnapping. 

A witness reported that he saw a man place a 12 to 13-year-old girl in a vehicle near Hoyt Park in Scripps Ranch around 5 p.m. Thursday. 

Police followed up on the report by looking for leads before confirming that it was not an abduction. 

In the first three games of this baseball season, the Padres not only have been losers – but shut out for 27 innings, setting a dismal, major-league record.

At a time when the Chargers are trying to get a new downtown stadium near Petco Park, could the Padres’ embarrassing start cast negative vibes on the Bolts’ public-relations efforts?

There already are online rumblings about Padres season ticket holders wanting refunds.

While it's way too early to extrapolate how the Padres season might end up -- much less, whether it could sour voters on a stadium ballot measure -- it's not the right foot to get off on.

Given Thursday’s rainy, gloomy weather, the Padres' ticket office was a lonely place, with the team out of town and looking to score their first run of the season against the Rockies in Denver.

Just a couple blocks away from Petco Park is the target site for the Chargers 'field of dreams' in East Village -- stadium and convention facility costing $1.8 billion, With $350 million coming from the taxpayers.

It’s a big 'ask', after the Bolts posted a 4-12 record last season.

But Coronado resident Todd Mondzelewski, who snagged a couple tickets for a game against Pittsburgh, offered this perspective: “I think as long as people go into the stands, regardless of how the team is performing, that’s a marker of whether there’ll be success at these kind of votes down the road.”

Longtime San Diego sports observers also discount the impact of competitive ineptitude on how voters might approach a ballot proposition that could advance the local infrastructure.

“When I moved here 30 years ago, the talk was about a state-of-the art sports arena, that maybe the NBA and NHL would come back, says Fox Sports Radio 1360’s morning co-host Dave Palet. “ What happens this year, I think, will change the landscape of sports in the city of San Diego and how they're looked at for years to come."

Voters approved the Mission Valley stadium by a landslide 72 percent majority in 1965; Petco Park, by just under 60 percent in 1998.

Project backers think it may have gotten a boost at the ballot box from the Padres winning the pennant and making it into the World Series that year.

But they firmly believe that the measure, Proposition C, would have passed even after a typical mediocre season.
 

A New Jersey man who's been flying Donald Trump's campaign flag in front of his home since February could face up to a $2,000 fine or jail time when he faces a judge in the case.

Joe Hornick has been flying Trump's "Make America Great Again" flag outside his West Long Branch home on a busy corner near the Monmouth University campus for months.

But he got a ticket recently citing him for illegally posting political signage more than 30 days before an election. The New Jersey presidential primary isn't until June 7.

"I'm not a football fan, I'm not a sports fan, but I'm surely a Donald Trump fan," he told NBC 4 New York.

Hornick actually flies two Trump flags day and night, and lights them up when it gets dark. They've been ripped down five times so far.

"Let them come, let them rip those flags down because I have a warehouse on alert, and I'll put up a flag every time they tear one down," he said.

Hornick is ready to face a judge. If he loses the flag fight in court. Hornick is prepared to serve the sentence.

"I'm not taking the flag down, and if I do 90 days in jail, I'll do 90 days in jail," he said.

Hornick says he once saw Trump at a Trump casino but didn't try to greet him.

"To be honest with you, I didn't get up because I was at the blackjack table and I was actually trying to rob him," he joked.

But that was then, he says, and this is now. And if Trump loses, Hornick says he'll shred his voter registration card and never vote again.

And he'll keep flying that flag.

A vehicle overturned and went over an off-ramp and down an embankment in Chula Vista California Highway Patrol confirmed. 

The crash happened Thursday around 8:08 p.m. on the southbound 805 to westbound 54 transition. 

The vehicle likely hydroplaned because of the rainy weather a witness said. 

The driver reportedly got out of the car and is okay. There is no word yet on injuries. 

No other information was immediately available.

Check back for updates on this breaking news story. 

A man was arrested on suspicion of felony hit-and-run following a collision in Carlsbad Thursday. 

A car crashed into a pole at the corner of Carlsbad Boulevard and Avenida Encinas just after 9 p.m., Carlsbad police confirmed. 

The driver would not come out of the vehicle for three hours.

Carlsbad police eventually pulled him from the car and booked him into jail.

The driver, identified by police as Kirk Hansen, 37,  is accused of felony hit-and-run, police said.

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz visited Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, where he hopes to gain the support of the neighborhood's Jewish population, NBC News reported. 

It's a crucial slice of support on which Cruz hopes to capitalize during New York's April 19 primary.

To many, the effort must look like a waste of time. How could Cruz, a Southern Baptist, do well enough among Jewish voters, who overwhelmingly support Democrats, that he overtakes Donald Trump in his home state?

But to team Cruz, the strategy is clear: In a state where Trump enjoys home-field advantage and is the odds-on favorite to win, rival Cruz is working to peel off as many delegates as possible.

A group of seniors aged 83 through 94 strapped themselves in, pulled on their aviator goggles and canvas helmet and soared across the cloudy sky above Fullerton, California on a WWII-era biplane Thursday.

A former prisoner of war in Germany, a WWII plane mechanic and a former navy wife were among the five Rowntree Gardens Senior Living Community residents with connections to the military who took flight one by one with a pilot in the restored 1942 plane maintained by Ageless Aviation Dreams Foundation.

Darryl Fisher, pilot and founder of AADF, and his volunteer pilots, honor veterans living in long-term care facilities across the country by providing "dream flights" on fully restored WWII-era planes. The foundation has taken flight with 1,500 seniors to date.

"I could see everything," said 83-year-old Chuck Iverson, a former corporal of the U.S. Army and first-time flier. He was the first of five passengers to take off Thursday morning. "Nothing else matters. You feel very comfortable," he said.

"'I was relaxed and felt no fear, no pain — just total joy,'" Jason Sherman of Rowntree Gardens Senior Living recounted Iverson saying after dismounting the plane.

For Iverson and some of his peers, an experience like this was just a number on their bucket lists. For those who once flew warplanes, ascending into the clouds once more took them back to their youth.

"It brought back a lot of memories," said 94-year-old Edwin Willems, who served as a plane mechanic during WWII. "It was the smoothest flight I've been on."

Loved ones cheered from below as they watched the plane glide across the cloudy sky above the Fullerton Municipal Airport with their relatives strapped inside. One family member traveled from Chicago to watch his brother take flight for the first time.

"It's not just a ride," said Fisher.

This was Fisher's first time flying veterans living in Orange County. He plans to return in the fall to fly with the three seniors who could not ride due to the rain.

"Their peers will ... hopefully be encouraged that they too can go do things that are on their bucket lists," said Randy Brown, chief executive of Rowntree Gardens.

"Just because you age doesn't mean you lose your dreams," said Fisher.

Bernie Sanders didn't back down on having called rival Hillary Clinton unqualified for the presidency, saying during an appearance on "Late Night With Seth Meyers" that "if people attack me and distort my record we will respond." 

“The Clinton campaign has been getting a little nervous,” Sanders said Thursday after Meyers asked him about comments from a day earlier. 

Sanders had said, "I don't believe that she is qualified if she is, through her super PAC, taking tens of millions of dollars in special-interest funds." 

Meyers asked if Sanders regretted his remarks. The Democratic candidate replied that the criticism came "after she and her campaign said that I was unqualified." 

"I didn't hear her say you were unqualified," Meyers corrected. "I heard her fail to say you were qualified."  

Sanders allowed that he hoped to return to an issue-oriented campaign but said he would defend distortions of his record.

He did not attack Clinton on the show. Instead, he said in a response to a question that Clinton is "100 times better than any of the Republican candidates.”

Sanders also addressed how he would work with, as he put it, an “obstructionist” Congress if he were elected president.

“If we are able to reach out to working people, middle class, young people and get them involved with the political process, then Republicans will have no choice but to work with us,” he said.

Senator Ted Cruz swept a third straight Congressional District convention in Colorado Thursday night, nabbing the three delegates that were listed on a slate put forward by the Cruz campaign, NBC News reported.

Trump's new Colorado state director Patrick Davis told supporters to vote for the three delegate candidates put forward by the GOP front-runner's campaign at Thursday's event. There was only one problem: Two of the three names weren't listed on the ballot.

There were, however, three other pro-Trump delegates on the ballot who weren't sanctioned by the campaign. Davis called it an "administrative error," but one official Trump backer on the ballot said it was indicative of the campaign's disorganization in the state.

Trump's advisers argue that the lack of focus on Colorado is a strategic decision, given that the state's political lean and complicated convention process favor Cruz.

Adobe issued an emergency security update for Flash Player on Thursday after researchers discovered a security flaw that hackers have been exploiting to infect computers with ransomware, Reuters reported.

The software maker urged the more than 1 billion users of Flash on Windows, Mac, Chrome and Linux computers to update the product as quickly as possible. Security researchers said the bug was being leveraged to deliver ransomware in "drive-by" attacks that infect PCs with ransomware when tainted websites are visited.

Ransomware encrypts data, locking up computers, then demands payments that often range from $200 to $600 to unlock each infected PC. 

Three men who were stranded on an uninhabited Pacific island were rescued on Thursday after a U.S Navy aircraft spotted the word "help" spelled using palm fronds on a beach, NBC News reported. 

"They had the word 'help' spelled out and were waving their lifejackets," U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer First Class Michael McCandless told NBC News.

The three mariners were trying to make a late-morning flight on the island of Chuuk after setting out in a 19-foot skiff early Monday. The Coast Guard was notified when they did not make their flight. 

Their names had yet to be released by the Micronesian authorities early Friday.

If you want to adopt a new best friend, California is the state to do it.

The Golden State boasted three cities, including San Diego, ranked among the most dog-friendly cities, according to a study by insurance firm SmartAsset released on Wednesday.

America’s Finest City was ranked at No. 4. San Francisco was the No. 1 most dog friendly city and Sacramento came in at No. 6.

The study noted that San Diego pooch lovers enjoy the most dog-friendly restaurants in the United States, with 187, and there are plenty of other spots you can bring your furry friend.

“While it ranks in the middle of the road for dog parks, walkability and housing price, San Diego does offer seven dog-friendly shopping areas so you and your pet can rock the latest trends,” the study noted.

The study considered several factors, including canine accessibility, such as dog parks and dog-friendly businesses, as well as walkability and weather.

Weather might be one of the reasons that seven of the 10 cities on the top 10 list are on the West Coast.

Behind San Francisco, Las Vegas ranked No. 2 and Denver came in at No. 3.

Albuquerque, Chicago, Minneapolis, Tucson and New York rounded out the list.

A child found living in a shed in the backyard of a Lakeside home was taken into protective custody Thursday, San Diego County Sheriff’s Deputies said.

The girl's condition was "surprisingly good, considering the deplorable living conditions," the Sheriff's Department confirmed. 

A probation compliance check in the 12000 block of Lindo Lane at 6 a.m. led to the discovery of the 9-year-old girl, the girl’s father and an adult woman. The group was living in a shed that had no bathroom or running water, deputies said.

Also in the shed, deputies say they found a number of weapons along with methamphetamine. Deputies believe the drugs were being sold from the property.

Thirteen people were detained. Six men and two women were arrested and booked into county jail, officials said.

They include, Kirsten Fleming, 22, Wesley Fleming, 27, Dustin Kemna, 21, Joe Tavolazzi, 60, Kimberly Bradeen, 29, Nathan Tavolazzi, 22, John Joe Carter, 22, and Harvey Garrison, 51. 

Charges include felony child endangerment, gun charges, drug charges, probation violations and sales of a controlled substance near a school.

The girl was in the custody of employees of the Child Protective Services Drug Endangered Children unit.

It's not clear how long they had been living in the shed. The investigation is ongoing.