A 62-year-old man has died after witnesses reported seeing him collapse in the water while surfing at a fundraising event, San Diego Lifeguards said. 

The man, who has not been identified, was surfing in a UCSD Heart Cancer fundraiser event near the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. 

One moment, he was on the surfboard, lifeguards said, and the next he was found face down in the water. 

Lifeguards said they pulled the man out of the ocean and began to perform CPR on the beach. 

Officials said they believe the man collapsed due to a medical emergency, caused by an existing medical condition. 

When the man did not regain his pulse, emergency crews took him to Scripps La Jolla Hospital. He was pronounced dead at the hospital. 

No other information was immediately available.

A veteran and defense contractor at MCAS Miramar killed in a crash Friday was a father of two who served in "Operation Desert Storm". 

Scott Chmura, 52, was driving his motorcycle east on Miramar Way when a 26-year-old woman driving a white Toyota Carolla crashed into his motorcycle. The crash happened at approximately 3:39 p.m. on the 9600 block of Miramar Way near Kearny Villa Road.

He had been on his way home from work, turning onto an on-ramp to the Interstate 15, when he was hit. The impact from the crash was so severe, the veteran died at the scene.

Chmura's wife declined an interview with NBC 7 San Diego, but said the army veteran spent the last seven years fueling planes at MCAS Miramar, working for the Department of Defense. 

His wife said Chmura had a big Dodge Ram truck and would rotate between the truck and the motorcycle when he went to work.

"God how I wish he took his truck that day," she told NBC 7.

The couple inside the Toyota did not suffer injuries but are shaken up from the incident. Authorities say the driver may face charges. 

Police say it doesn't appear that speed was an issue. Both parties seem to not have seen each other.

State regulators have signed off on San Diego Gas & Electric’s proposal to build lithium-ion battery projects in Escondido and El Cajon capable of storing a combined 37.5 megawatts of energy.

The California Public Utilities Commission’s approval follows a request by the agency that electric utilities in Southern California fast-track storage projects that will enhance the region’s energy reliability.

Both projects —a 30-megawatt facility in Escondido and one storing up to 7.5 megawatts in El Cajon — will be built by Arlington, Virginia-based AES Corp. Construction is expected to begin immediately and finish early next year.

SDG&E said in a news release the addition of storage projects not only improves power grid reliability but also accommodates greater amounts of renewable power and helps ease congestion. It said it plans to charge the batteries when solar and wind power are most abundantly available, then discharge them during times of peak demand for energy, in the early evening.

The CPUC has ordered SDG&E to get 165 megawatts of storage capacity by 2020, and have them operational by 2024.

[[283098621,C]]

A significant closure planned Monday evening for State Route 15 has been canceled, Caltrans announced later in the day.

Construction crews were scheduled to move concrete safety barriers in preparation for the SR-15 Mid-City Centerline Rapid Transit Stations Project.

As of 4:30 p.m. Monday, Caltrans announced that all closures were canceled and will be rescheduled for another day.

The announcement came after several changes throughout the day.

Caltrans has announced that the following closures would be in place.

• Ramps from eastbound and westbound I-8 to southbound SR-15 will be closed.
• Ramps from northbound SR-15 to eastbound and westbound I-8 will be closed.
• On-ramps at University Avenue and Camino Del Rio South will be closed to both northbound and southbound traffic.
• On and off-ramps at Adams Avenue will be closed to northbound and southbound traffic.

But around 3:30 p.m. Monday, Caltrans told NBC 7 that the SR-15 will remain open while ramp closures from Interstate 8 to Interstate 805 will be in place from 8 p.m. Monday until 12 a.m. Tuesday.

An hour later, Caltrans said it would cancel the closures altogether for Monday.

But Friars Road near Oualcomm Stadium will still experience some disruptions due to "pavement rehabilitation", a spokesperson told NBC 7.

The $65 million SR-15 Mid-City Centerline Rapid Transit Stations Project will build San Diego’s first freeway-level transit stations along SR-15 at El Cajon Boulevard and University Avenue.

The project is expected to be completed in 2017.

Rudy Giuliani, former New York City mayor and now Donald Trump's adviser, continued to insist Monday that Hillary Clinton's physical and mental health is failing, citing debunked theories on the Internet, NBC News reported.

While on Fox News over the weekend, he urged people to look for videos on the Internet that support such theories. He continued the attack on Monday, saying on Fox News that the Democratic presidential candidate is "tired" and recently "looked sick."

Conservative media outlets have fueled speculation about Clinton's health in recent weeks, showing old photos and debunked reports, such as Clinton faking medical records or false accusations that she uses a defibrillator. Trump himself said last week that Clinton "lacks the mental and physical stamina to take on ISIS."

In response to the rumors, Clinton's physician, Lisa Bardack, said the candidate "is in excellent health and fit to serve as President of the United States."

In a chilling moment captured on video Sunday night, a would-be suicide bomber, just 14 years old, is stripped of his explosive belt in front of a crowd, NBC News reports.

Officials say the teen tried and failed to detonate explosives in northern Iraq's city of Kirkuk. Video shows the teenager quivering as Kurdish security forces hold his arms and carefully lower what appears to be an explosives belt from his waist. The boy's shirt lies discarded on the road nearby.

The dramatic video was first aired by local television channel Kurdistan24. Military officials in Iraq told NBC News the boy in Kirkuk was 14.

Two other attacks hit the same city that evening, and a child suicide bomber was initially blamed for killing more than 50 at a wedding in Turkey the day before, though Turkey's prime minister said Monday it isn't known if the bomber was a child or an adult.

A wildfire in central California that destroyed 47 structures and forced the closure of the famed Hearst Castle has chased more people from their homes.

Fire spokeswoman Diley Greiser said early Monday that residents of at least 50 mostly rural homes near Lake Nacimiento were ordered to leave late Sunday.

The fire in San Luis Obispo County has burned 43 square miles of timber and dry brush since it began August 13. It's partially contained.

Hearst Castle was closed over the weekend, though officials said Sunday that the fire was growing in the opposite direction of the popular tourist attraction built by media magnate William Randolph Hearst.

San Diego police say a man was run over and killed Sunday after lying down in front of a car to keep a friend from leaving his birthday party.

Officer Robert Heims says Jonathan Merkley and his friends were drinking at a hotel on Mira Mesa Boulevard in Sorrento Valley.

Around 12:30 a.m., a female partygoer decided to leave. Merkley apparently did not want her to go and lay down in front of her BMW. Heims says the woman did not stop and ran over his chest.

Merkely was rushed to a hospital, where he died. The Garden Grove resident turned 34 on Saturday.

The Orange County Register reports the woman has not been arrested.

Classes begin Monday for thousands of college students in San Diego.

Students at City, Mesa, Miramar, Palomar, Grossmont, Cuyamaca, MiraCosta and Southwestern colleges are all back to school today.

Among the features awaiting new students at Mesa College is a free valet service for students. Those who wish to participate can head to Lot #2, drop off their car and keys and head to class. The service will be offered during the first couple weeks of school.

A bartender had to have his finger amputated after a drunk patron bit it off, San Francisco police said on Sunday night.

Police released the information and two surveillance videos about a month after the alleged finger-biting attack occurred. The videos do not show the finger biting, but police say the suspect is pictured in the video after the fact.

Officer Carlos Manfredi said that the bartender was trying to close the Silver Clouds bar in the 1900 block of Lombard Street on July 17 at 2:15 a.m. when the suspect, who had been drinking inside earlier that evening, tried to get back in.

The bartender told the man the bar was closed, which made him irate, police said and he began kicking and pulling on the bar door.

The bartender went outside to tell the customer to knock it off, police said, which is when he allegedly started climbing on top of the bartender, hitting him in the face several times and bit his ring finger, severing it, Manfredi said. The customer then left the bar with some friends, police said.

Surveillance video released by police shows the suspect an hour or so before the attack outside on the sidewalk, eating something with a pink button-down shirt on, and then wrestling, without his shirt, with a heavyset friend wearing a leather jacket.

The bartender was taken to the hospital with swollen eyes, contusions to the head, scrapes and an amputated finger, police said. On Monday, police said the bartender is back at work.

Police are asking anyone who recognizes the suspect to please call the department. The suspect is facing felony charges of assault and mayhem, which in the criminal code is described as the intentional maiming of another person.

San Diego law enforcement officials are searching for an escaped inmate who was detected missing Sunday night.

Demetrius B. Robertson stands 5-feet, 9-inches tall and weighs 195 pounds according to San Diego County Sheriff’s Deputies. He has been known to use the name Demetrius Roberson.

He was missing during Sunday's 7 p.m. headcount at Facility Eight near the George Bailey Detention Facility on Alta Road in Otay Mesa.

An overnight search on the air and the ground turned up nothing. Now, the San Diego County Fugitive Task Force (FTF) is checking places where Robertson has been known to visit in Chula Vista, College Grove and Chollas View.

The escapee was last seen wearing black sweatshirt, jeans and a baseball cap.

Only inmates listed as "low-medium security" are housed in Facility Eight. Robertson was arrested May 23 on a probation violation and was considered low-risk in terms of security risks.

"Based on our classification system, classified him as a low and medium inmate. He was in for theft related charges, so he doesn't present a violent background. He's not a documented gang member or anything like that," said Assistant Sheriff Richard Miller.

Anyone that spots Robertson should not approach him and should call 911, deputies said. Anonymous tips can be left with Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest pushed back at critics who have scolded President Obama for his response to what has been called the country's worst natural disaster since Hurricane Sandy, saying on Monday that "there is all too common temptation to focus on politics and optics."

"Survivors of flooding aren't well served by political discussion," Earnest told reporters. They're "well served by coordinated government response."

During the flooding in Baton Rouge, which killed 13 people and left tens of thousands of homes devastated, Obama opted to remain on vacation in Martha's Vineyard — a fact noted in a scathing op-ed published Wednesday in the Baton Rouge Advocate, among other places, NBC News reported.

On Tuesday, Obama will travel to Louisiana to survey the damage, speak with officials and "offer comfort to citizens whose lives been thrown into chaos," Earnest said.

A North Carolina state trooper killed a deaf man after an attempted traffic stop, authorities and neighbors said Monday.

State trooper Jermaine Saunders shot Daniel Kevin Harris on Thursday after what North Carolina Bureau of Investigation described in a statement as "an encounter."

"An encounter took place between the driver and the trooper causing a shot to be fired," the statement reads. The driver died at the scene, the statement adds, and the trooper was placed on administrative leave.

But a neighbor of Harris', Mark Barringer, who witnessed part of the confrontation, criticized the trooper's actions.

"They should've de-escalated and been trained to realize that this is an entirely different situation," Barringer told NBC affiliate WCNC. "You're pulling someone over who is deaf. They are handicapped."

Sen. Mark Kirk claimed President Barack Obama was “acting like the drug dealer in chief” for making a $400 million cash payment to Iran that was tied to the release of American prisoners.

During an interview with the State Journal-Register editorial board last week, Kirk claimed Obama gave “clean packs of money” to a “state sponsor of terror” and warned that “those 500-euro notes will pop up across the Middle East.”

The payment was reportedly made in euros and Swiss francs.

“We’re going to see problems in multiple (countries) because of that money given to them,” Kirk said during the interview.

Last week, the Obama administration claimed the $400 million payment was used as leverage to push for the release of four U.S. prisoners, NBC News reported.

The payment was announced in January, a day after the four Americans were freed and on the same weekend U.N sanctions against Iran were lifted. The White House and State Department have denied Republicans’ claims that the transaction served as a ransom payment, claiming that the timing was coincidental.

Secretary of State John Kerry released a press release at the time, noting that the $400 million was used by Iran to purchase military weapons and equipment from the U.S. while the shah was still in control, prior to the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

“Iran will receive the balance of $400 million in the Trust Fund, as well as a roughly $1.3 billion compromise on the interest,” Kerry said in a statement in January.

On Monday, the Kirk campaign continued to call the payment into question.

“After using unmarked cargo planes to deliver pallets of foreign currency totaling over $400 million to Iran to get our hostages back, the (Obama) Administration is now attempting to change the literal definition of ‘ransom,’” Kirk spokesman Kevin Artl said in a statement. “Sen. Kirk believes the administration’s actions, which Tammy has supported, were reckless in the extreme. The administration’s pay off will endanger more Americans abroad (and) is almost certain to fund terrorism."

According to his campaign, the senator will hold an oversight hearing on the payment next month as part of his role as chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on National Security and International Trade and Finance.

Earlier this month, Kirk issued a release about the “ransom payment.” The senator said Congressional hearings were “the only way for the American people to fully know whether their tax dollars went directly to Iran’s terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.”

Kirk is facing a tough bid for reelection against Rep. Tammy Duckworth in November. The congresswoman’s campaign responded to Kirk’s comments Monday, calling for an apology.

“Senator Kirk’s comments are misguided and deeply offensive, and beneath the dignity of the office he holds,” Duckworth spokesman Matt McGrath said in a statement. “He should apologize.”

SEIU Healthcare Illinois Executive Vice President Greg Kelley also responded to Kirk’s statements Monday, calling for an apology.

“What (Kirk) said about President Obama was totally inappropriate and he must apologize,” Kelley said in a statement. “It’s another example of Kirk’s long history of insulting the president which is now matching up with the hateful and ‘birther’ space carved out in the public sphere by fellow Republican Donald Trump to dehumanize Barack Obama.”

“Either he doesn’t know what he’s doing, which is alarming; or he does know what he’s doing, which is despicable,” Kelley added.

More than 80 percent of U.S. mothers breastfeed their newborns, a new survey finds, but fewer than a third keep doing so for the recommended minimum of one year, a new survey finds.

Many studies support breastfeeding for as long as possible, and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies get nothing but human breast milk until the age of six months — and that they continue to breastfeed for at least a year, NBC News reported.

"Breastfeeding decreases the possibility that your baby will get a variety of infectious diseases, ear infections, diarrhea, etc.," the Academy says in its guidance.

The survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 81 percent of U.S. babies born in 2013 were breastfed from birth. "Less than a third (30.7 percent) of infants were breastfeeding at 12 months," the CDC said.But then it drops off.

A 4-year old boy was taken to Rady Children's Hospital Monday evening after he fell into a pool at the Hyatt Hotel in Mission Bay.

The incident occured at approximately 4:52 p.m. on the 1400 block of Quivira Road, the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department (SDFD) confirmed.

SDFD says the boy appears to have been awake and alert when he was transported.

No other information was immediately available.

Check back for updates on this breaking news story. 

One person was arrested following a slow-speed chase through San Diego Monday.

A vehicle drove on the shoulder of northbound I-805 south of University Avenue at 7:50 a.m. A California Highway Patrol officer tried to stop the driver but the driver would not pull over.

The man behind the wheel of the car threw something out of the window twice during the pursuit, according to CHP Sgt. Dan Kyle.

When the pursuit came to an end on Swift, CHP officers took the man into custody.

Kyle said methamphetamine was found in one of the places where the suspect allegedly threw something out of the car window.

A 73-year-old Torrey Pine in Ocean Beach was removed Monday morning, several weeks after a public protest delayed the move.

The decades-old tree was the site of a sit-in protest earlier this month. The tree has been deemed unsafe, according to the City of San Diego.

“This is a moderate threat and we don’t know when this tree will fail,” said Jeremy Barrick, City of San Diego Planning Department Urban Forestry Planning Department.

City officials met with members of the community last week, Barrick said. He acknowledged that there was a community forum planned for August 24 but the action had to be taken because of the increased risk.

“In this case, this is a public safety issue. We need to move forward with this before it comes down,” Barrick said.

However, several nearby residents dispute any real risk from the tree.

The tree on Saratoga was named "Esperanza" by the community according to Ocean Beach Planning Board Chair John Ambert.

Ambert said he met with city officials on Aug. 11 to discuss what residents considered a conflict of interest in having the same company assess the health of the tree and removing it. He was also upset about what he called a lack of community engagement.

In a written statement Ambert said the tree's removal has taught him, "...community action and oversight is very much needed to ensure the City is working with the community, and is following the same rules and guidelines of the Municipal Code imposed on the general population."

Virginia Wilson lives two streets from the Torrey Pine and was not aware the tree was going to be removed Monday.

“I feel betrayed by the city because they have not produced any evidence that this tree is a risk to anyone, an imminent danger,” Wilson said.

She said a report from an independent arborist shows the tree was low-risk.

“It does not need to come down today,” she said.

Bill Posey lives a few blocks away from the Torrey Pine and has lived in Ocean Beach for 40 years.

He also mentioned the report from an arborist hired by residents.

“The community paid $750 for an independent arborist who said the tree is low-risk,” Posey said.

“And the City just comes in and cuts it down,” he added.

When news of the tree's removal was initially made public, residents were angered.

In an act of protest, Ocean Beach resident Crystal Rose Speros scaled the tree and sat in a groove for most of the day. About a half-dozen residents on the ground joined Speros in protest, claiming the city was not transparent in its plans for the doomed tree.

The City told NBC 7 that four different arborists have looked at the Torrey Pine and determined the tree is hazardous. NBC 7 was able to obtain these reports.

The tree is rooted adjacent to where two other similar large Torrey Pines were removed earlier in the year, after El Nino storms caused them to uplift.

According to this Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve website, Torrey Pine trees are the rarest native pines in the United States, and were first seen in San Diego’s Sorrento Valley area as early as 1769.

In 1850, the tree was official discovered and named the Torrey Pine by Dr. Charles Christopher Parry – a doctor with an interest in botany – when he was in San Diego as a botanist for the U.S.-Mexico Boundary Survey. Parry named the tree after his mentor, Dr. John Torrey, of New York, one of the leading botanists of his time.

A man accused of raping a woman at knife-point in Hollywood was arrested after he left his wallet at the scene of the crime, police said.

Christian Alexa Londono Castro, 25, was arrested Sunday on charges of sexual assault with a weapon and aggravated battery, according to a Hollywood Police arrest report.

Londono Castro appeared in court Monday, where he was ordered held without bond. It was unknown if he has an attorney.

Speaking through an interpreter, Londono Castro told Broward Judge Stephen Zaccor he is from Colombia but has lived in Hollywood for more than five years and works in construction.

According to the arrest report, the woman was walking to her car in the 800 block of Tyler Street late Saturday night and was talking on the phone with her friend. The woman said she thought someone was following her and her friend hung up and called police.

But after her friend hung up, the woman told police she was approached from behind by Londono Castro, who put a knife to her neck and forced her to a bush on the lawn of a nearby home, the report said.

Londono Castro said "pants" and directed the woman to take her pants off, the report said. He then held the knife against her face and forced her to perform oral sex on him then raped her, the report said.

"The violence involved in this episode is extreme," Zaccor said.

At one point, Londono Castro fell down and the woman was able to run to a nearby home, where she was let inside until police arrived.

"We were inside just watching TV and then we heard banging on the door frantically," said Caterina Schraiber, one of the people who helped the woman. "Her pants were kind of hanging off, so obviously we let her in because she looked like she needed help."

When the woman went back to get her keys from the scene, she found Londono Castro's wallet, which had his Florida license inside, the report said.

Londono Castro was found at his home in Hollywood and taken into custody. The victim suffered superficial knife wounds to her stomach and right arm and had redness on both sides of her neck.