San Diego’s Ballast Point will celebrate its 20th anniversary this weekend in fashion fit for a brewery: a beer festival.

The Ballast Point 20th anniversary beer bash goes down Sunday at 5 p.m. at the Del Mar Race Track – after the final race, in the Seaside Concerts area.

Patrons will enjoy sips of more than 50 Ballast Point brews, plus live music from The Roots, of “The Tonight Show” fame, and other bands.

A $55 general admission ticket gets you 10 four-ounce tasters of beer, a specialty tasting glass and admission to the racetrack. For $15 more, you can access the beer fest an hour early, at 4 p.m. Designated Driver passes are also available for $35 a pop.

In addition to Ballast Point brews, craft beers that have won regional awards will be poured at the party, including the California creation, Weizenbock, from Doug Brown, and the Strong Bitter from Tristan McCoy and Kyle Jung, of the Pacific Northwest region.

For a peek at the tap list at the big event, check out this Facebook post from Ballast Point.

Ballast Point was founded in 1996 by Jack White, in collaboration with Pete A’Hearn and Yuseff Cherney. Today, the company operates six locations, including tasting rooms in Miramar, Scripps Ranch and Little Italy. The brewery is known for beers like its Sculpin India Pale Ale, the Longfin Lager and the Wahoo White, to name a few.

Six U.S. Department of Agriculture facilities in five states were closed Tuesday until further notice after the government agency received "anonymous" threats.

The messages, which arrived on Monday, raised concern "for the safety of USDA personnel and its facilities," spokesman Matt Herrick said in a statement.

The FBI and local law enforcement are now investigating, Herrick said.

The USDA operations that have been shuttered are in Fort Collins, Colorado; Hamden, Connecticut, Beltsville, Maryland, Raleigh, North Carolina, and in Kearneysville and Leetown, West Virginia, NBC News reported.

"Personnel at these locations have been made aware of the threats and will not report to these offices until further notice," Herrick said in his statement.

The USDA regulates farming, forestry and food safety.

After a three-month stay behind bars, ex-Stanford swimmer Brock Turner is scheduled to be released from custody on Friday. The early release has prompted demonstrators to schedule a rally in protest of what they say has been a far too lenient punishment.

Turner was sentenced to six months in jail, and is getting released in half the time for good behavior, a standard reduction for all inmates.

Michele Dauber, a Stanford University law professor and sociologist and a vocal critic of how the case turned out, will again call for the removal of Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky during the rally, which is scheduled to take place in front of the San Jose Hall of Justice at 10 a.m. on Friday.

Persky still remains on the bench, but last week, voluntarily recused himself from overseeing criminal trials. 

Turner was convicted in March of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman in 2015, and could have faced a possible maximum of 14 years in prison.

Prosecutors sought a six-year sentence, but Persky followed a recommendation by the county probation department to sentence him to six months in prison.

The 23-year-old victim read an impassioned statement at the sentencing hearing. She described the assault in graphic detail and said her "independence, natural joy, gentleness, and steady lifestyle I had been enjoying became distorted beyond recognition."

According to court records, Turner blamed his actions on binge drinking and a party culture on campus.

Hundreds of thousands rallied to the victim's cause in online petitions decrying Persky's sentence, and her statement was even read on the floor in Capitol Hill, so it could be entered into the congressional record.

Dauber said she worries that Persky's ruling sent a message to young women that the criminal justice system does not sufficiently police sexual assaults.

"That message is a really dangerous one," she said. "It sends a message to women that the justice system is biased."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A grueling trip to Latin American convinced Pope Benedict XVI that his resignation was "a duty," according to a new book released Tuesday.

In "Servant of God and Humanity: The Biography of Benedict XVI," the pope emeritus explains his decision to become the first pontiff to step down in more than 500 years, and opens up about his relationship with his successor.

A 2012 visit to Mexico and Cuba took such a toll on his health and strength that doctors advised him not to take any more demanding trips, Benedict told Elio Guerriero, the book's author, NBC News reported.

Benedict announced his decision to resign on Feb. 11, 2013, citing the physical and psychological strains of the papacy. He stepped down on Feb. 28 and his successor Francis was elected on March 13.

Benedict also opened up about Francis, with whom he said to be sharing a "wonderfully paternal-fraternal relationship."

The White House has ordered a special intelligence task force to examine the implications of Russia's recent hacks of U.S. political organizations, U.S. intelligence officials tell NBC News.

The classified national study is being conducted by the Foreign Denial and Deception Committee, a Cold War-era organization that is part of the Director of National Intelligence, the officials said.

The committee traditionally has advised the DNI on foreign attempts to thwart U.S. intelligence through trickery. But in the cyber era, the committee has increasingly looked at how nation states use computer attacks to conduct espionage and spread propaganda.

The consensus among U.S. intelligence analysts is that Russia can't directly manipulate the American presidential elections, but that Vladimir Putin's intelligence services may be seeking to undermine confidence in the U.S. system through the hacks.

An important new project is brewing at Starbucks – picking up steam first in San Diego. 

On Tuesday afternoon, the coffee giant announced the launch of the first-ever Starbucks “FoodShare” program, a project that will donate healthy, ready-to-eat meals to Feeding America food banks from company-operated Starbucks locations across the United States.

The FoodShare program is building on a successful pilot launch of the project in San Diego earlier this year. According to Starbucks, 190 of the company’s locations in San Diego will provide approximately 750,000 pounds of food to local Feeding America banks via FoodShare every year.

That’s the equivalent of 625,000 meals in San Diego County, annually.

The partnership was announced earlier this year, but now it is being put to practice. Eventually, Starbucks’ FoodShare program will operate across the nation.

"Starbucks has truly shown their commitment to hunger-relief," said Al Brislain, CEO of Feeding America San Diego, in a press release Tuesday. "With one in eight San Diegans facing hunger, FoodShare will make a huge difference for those we serve and exemplify what we can accomplish when we work together."

Through the program, Starbucks employees will “rescue” food that is still good at the end of their shifts, including Bistro Boxes, breakfast sandwiches, Paninis, salads, yogurts and baked goods. Instead of wasting the meals, they will be donated to food banks that will pass them along to San Diegans in need, including those living on the streets.

The company says FoodShare donations will be picked up in refrigerated vans from Starbucks stores seven days a week, year round. Drivers will check all items for food safety before delivering the meals to Feeding America San Diego or its distribution partners.

Brislain said Feeding America San Diego will be moving the food donations quickly, getting them to agencies daily so they can be eaten by locals in need.

Starbucks says the goal is to be able to provide nearly 5 million meals across the U.S. in the first year alone of FoodShare. Over the next five years, the company plans to be able to rescue 100 percent of its food available for donation nationwide.

"This is going to make a huge difference," Brislain told NBC 7 on Tuesday. "What started here in San Diego is going to spread throughout the country."

Tuesday’s announcement in San Diego included a “Behind the Bar” event with local celebrity chef Brian Malarkey. Sporting a green barista apron, Malarkey learned to make his favorite Starbucks drinks and helped promote the hunger relief initiative.

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To learn more about Feeding America San Diego, click here.

A day after a shootout on the Atlantic City Expressway left one man dead and four others hurt, with some victims going to a nearby Wawa for help, New Jersey State Police said five people were charged with weapons offenses as investigators searched for another vehicle possibly involved.

The crime scene stretched for miles in what state police called a "rolling shootout."

Five people have been charged and the police investigation continues as troopers search for a vehicle that witnesses said may have been involved in the shooting.

Troopers first received calls reporting a shooting along the expressway near milepost 12 in Egg Harbor Township shortly before 3 p.m. Monday. Around the same time, a bullet-riddled Ford Expedition — it was hit 21 times, according to police — missing a rear tire and windows, barreled into the parking lot of the Egg Harbor Township Wawa store along Tilton Road, witnesses said.

Inside were four men who pleaded for help from strangers. [[391687541, C]]

"The driver said he was shot," witness Erwin Ashworth told NBC10's Ted Greenberg. "The passenger was hanging from the window... He said everybody was shot at least a couple times."

Bloodied clothes sat crumpled on the ground outside the truck where the victims were treated by medics. They were eventually transported to the Atlantic City Medical Center for treatment.

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Around the same time, troopers were called to milepost 39 along the Garden State Expressway where they found Rosemund Octavius, 22, dead in the passenger seat of Anthony Hicks' Nissan Maxima. Hicks, who wasn't hurt, told police Octavius was shot while they drove on the expressway.

Investigators believe the shooting occurred on the AC Expressway eastbound between milepost 11 and milepost 12.

On Tuesday morning, police announced the arrest if Hicks, a resident of Mays Landing, on a series of weapons charges.

A police K-9 unit traced the Expedition's path to a location near the Wawa where investigators found several weapons — including an AK-style assault rifle — they believe are connected to the shooting, police said.

They also announced multiple weapons charges, including not being lawfully able to carry a firearm charges, against the occupants of the Expedition: Lenardo Caro, 24, of Little Egg Harbor Township; Yahshaun Stukes-Williams, 19, of Mays Landing; Shaun Stukes, 38, of Atlantic City; and a 16-year-old boy not identified since he's a minor.

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The three men in the Expedition also face a charge of using a juvenile in a crime, troopers troopers said.

Each of the five suspects was held of $250,000 cash bail, said police.

The investigation continued, including the search for another vehicle. Witnesses told police a black Dodge Ram pickup truck that exited the highway in the Pleasantville area was also possibly involved.

"It is not yet clear from which vehicles the shots were fired that killed Octavius or injured the people in the Expedition, so the current charges reflect the early phase of this case," state police said on Facebook.

Stukes and Stukes-Williams remained hospitalized Tuesday, police said.

Five bodies were found as crews sifted through a house fire in Temecula that burned early Monday morning, officials said.

The fire started just before 6 a.m. Monday in the 41000 block of Cruz Way in an unincorporated area of Temecula.

As crews were extinguishing the fire, they found the bodies of five adults inside, according to a news release from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.

Family members told NBC LA that the home was a 24-hour home care business for adults who have disabilities.

Family members identified one of the people killed as 50-year-old James Jennex, one of the owners of the business. The ages and names of the others found dead have not been released.

The fire has been ruled suspicious in nature and detectives with the sheriff’s central homicide unit are investigating.

Neighbor Jonathan Villalobos said he and another neighbor tried desperately to save the victims by breaking windows of the home, but the fire ravaged the property so quickly.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to call Riverside Sheriff’s Investigator Mullins at 951-955-2777.

"White Lives Matter" will soon be added to a list of U.S. hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the watchdog group announced Tuesday.

The SPLC contends that White Lives Matter is frequently used by white supremacists as a counter-slogan to "Black Lives Matter," and the movement has been organized into a separate white nationalist group.

White Lives Matter will officially join the list of 892 other hate groups in the country when it gets its annual update in February, said Heidi Beirich, the Intelligence Project director at the SPLC.

"Hate groups are, by our definition, those that vilify entire groups of people based on immutable characteristics such as race or ethnicity," SPLC's website says.

The SPLC added that Black Lives Matter advocates that "black lives also matter" and is not in any way anti-white.

Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson has filed termination charges for five Chicago police officers involved in the Laquan McDonald shooting following a report from the Inspector General’s office.

According to charging documents revealed Tuesday, officers Jason Van Dyke, Daphne Sebastian, Janet Mondragon, Ricardo Viramontes and Stephen Franko face administrative charges as the case moves to the Chicago Police Board. 

Van Dyke, the officer who shot McDonald, has also been charged with first-degree murder by Cook County prosecutors. He has pleaded not guilty and his trial is expected to commence next year.

Van Dyke shot 17-year-old McDonald 16 times in 2014. Dashcam footage of the shooting, which appears to contradict the police account of what happened, was made public late last year and sparked outrage and protests nationwide.

Five officers now face administrative charges, including making a false report. Four are accused of disobeying an order. It wasn't immediately clear if the Chicago police union, the Fraternal Order of Police, had a comment about the charges.

According to the documents, Van Dyke is accused of giving false official reports, including his allegation that McDonald raised a knife across his chest and pointed it at the officer, that McDonald attempted to kill him, and that Van Dyke was moving backwards when he fired the 16 fatal shots. Those contentions were contradicted by the dashcam video released by Chicago Police last fall, which showed McDonald apparently walking away from officers when he was fatally shot. 

The remaining four officers, Janet Mondragon, Daphne Sebastian, Ricardo Viramontes, and Sgt. Stephen Franko, face charges of making false reports about what they saw on the street that night. 

Among the charges:

• Sebastian is accused of reporting that McDonald advanced on Officers Jason Van Dyke and Joseph Walsh while waving a knife despite orders to "drop the kinfe." The statement also said McDonald "continued to move after he fell to the ground, or words to that effect," documents show. 
• The charges against Mondragon say she was either lying or gave misleading statements when she said she was looking down while putting her squad car in park, and did not witness the shooting.
• Viramontes allegedly said McDonald turned toward Officers Van Dyke and Walsh and after he fell to the ground McDonald attempted to get back up with the knife still in his hand. 
• Franko is accused of claiming McDonald's actions constituted an assault and said McDonald attempted to stab or cut Van Dyke and another officer. 

The charges follow a report from the Inspector General's office recommending 10 officers in the case that has made national headlines be fired. 

Of that 10, three have since retired and one resigned after Tuesday's charges were filed. The department is also disputing that one of the officers should be fired.

"CPD is committed to ensuring the highest levels of integrity, accountability and professional standards for all members of the Police Department. After considerable deliberation and a methodical review of the evidence presented by the Office of inspector General, we have filed termination charges against the affected officers for giving false statements during the investigation into the Laquan McDonald incident," the department said in a statement. "This matter will be now adjudicated before the Chicago Police Board and the Department continues to cooperate with the ongoing criminal investigations into this incident."

The names of the officers who had already retired by Tuesday have not been released, but two high-ranking officers retired earlier this month. Those officers include First Deputy Superintendent John Escalante, who accepted a position as the chief of police for Northeastern Illinois University, and Deputy Chief David McNaughton.

McNaughton is the Chicago police officer who signed off on the report that initially cleared Officer Jason Van Dyke in McDonald's shooting.

As for the one officer the department decided against firing, CPD said in a statement that "there is sufficient doubt" she made statements attributed to her in official CPD reports. 

"An analysis has shown that there is insufficient evidence to prove that she willfully made any false statement," the statement read. "Due to the ongoing criminal and administrative investigations, we cannot comment any further."

In addition to the Police Board matter, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office is conducting a separate inquiry, and the United States Department of Justice is in the midst of a wide-ranging investigation of the entire Chicago Police Department.

Two tropical depressions are moving toward the North Carolina coast, with one expected to hit late Tuesday and the other predicted to arrive there by Saturday, the National Weather Service warned Tuesday.

Tropical Depression 8 was located just southeast of Cape Hatteras as of Tuesday afternoon, and it's expected to hit the N.C. coast with 45-mph winds and heavy rains sometime late Tuesday, NBC News reports.

But it's Tropical Depression 9, say NWS meteorologists, that may really hit the area hard on Saturday — during Labor Day weekend beach traffic. The TD 9 weather system is currently situated and gaining power in the Gulf of Mexico, and it's on track to grow into a tropical storm that could move across the middle of Florida and hit the Outer Banks area of North Carolina sometime Saturday. Meteorologists warn the storm could bring strong undertows, large swells and heavy rain, making it "very dangerous for beachgoers" this weekend.

Several Democrats in Congress are asking the FBI to investigate whether there is a link between Donald Trump's campaign and a cyber-attack on Democratic Party institutions suspected to have been carried out by Russia.

The ranking members of the House committees on oversight and government reform, judiciary, foreign affairs, and homeland security sent a letter to FBI Director James Comey Tuesday asking for the investigation.

"Serious questions have been raised about overt and covert actions by Trump campaign officials on behalf of Russian interests," they wrote.

The FBI has been investigating cyber-attacks on the Democratic National Convention, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and a computer system used by Hillary Clinton's campaign, NBC News reported.

The letter asks the "that the FBI assess whether connections between Trump campaign officials and Russian interests may have contributed to these attacks in order to interfere with the election.

Signs and balloons in hand, very proud families, friends and fans gathered at the San Diego International Airport Monday night to welcome home the Park View Little League (PVLL) team after their run at the 2016 Little League World Series.

The teens arrived home around 7 p.m., decked out in their baby blue and yellow team uniforms. As they came down an escalator at Lindbergh Field, an awaiting crowd greeted them, cheering and chanting, “PVLL! PVLL! PVLL!”

The boys smiled.

The top-notch Little League team from San Diego’s South Bay earned a ticket to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania earlier this month. The team was eliminated from the competition last week after losing to a team from Tennessee.

Despite their loss, the team certainly had a memorable run this season. The players – all between 12 and 13 years old – won a total of 19 games.

The teens said they’re happy to be home and proud to have had the experience of playing in the Little League World Series.

Parents of the players were beaming with pride at the team’s homecoming Monday night. One mother chanted her son’s name, Devin, as he ate a snack and smiled. His mom gave him a big kiss and added, “We’re so happy he’s home.”

The PVLL team will be recognized for its outstanding season this Thursday at an official homecoming celebration at 5:30 p.m. at the team’s home field in Chula Vista.

A driver struck a fire hydrant in El Cajon Monday, leaving behind a broken water line and a geyser of water that reached overhead power lines.

Witnesses told NBC 7 a woman crashed into the fire hydrant on Dominguez Way and East Madison, shearing it off just before midnight. The woman then drove away.

Crews from the Helix Water Department were able to get the flow of water closed off a few minutes later.

As of 7 a.m. Tuesday, crews were working to clear away the excess water and replace the hydrant.

Joey Bosa said the hateful comments on social media against him and his family during his Chargers contract dispute were so rampant that he had to delete Instagram and Twitter off his phone.

During his Monday afternoon press conference announcing his deal with the Bolts, much of Bosa’s comments centered on the anger against him as he held out in signing his contract.

Bosa was picked No. 3 overall in the NFL Draft, a choice that sparked excitement that he could help bolster the Bolt’s defensive line, a much-needed fix in the offseason.

But in the ensuing months, his contract holdout prompted thousands of tweets and critical comments from Chargers fans.

The defensive end called the flood of nasty tweets and Instagram comments “noise” and said that, at times, it impacted his family.

“I know that it’s all noise and the second I make a good play they’ll all be on my side again,” he said.

A Facebook comment by his mom and a tweet last week that was critical of the Chargers stirred more anger among Chargers fans.

Bosa called his mom’s actions “dumb” but protective.

“What do you expect a mom to do? She wants what’s best for me. She made a dumb decision on social media,” he said.

What does he want Chargers fans to know now?

“Every single day when people were posting horrible comments on my Instagram and Twitter and saying horrible things about my family and parents and all this stuff about me, I was up early working to make your team win,” Bosa said.

“I hope you’ll support me now.”

ISIS' second-in-command, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, is dead, according to the media arm of the terrorist organization, NBC News reported.

The circumstances of Abu Muhammad al-Adnani's death in Aleppo, Syria, have not been confirmed. Officials in Washington — who had put out a $5 million reward for al-Adnani — had no immediate comment.

The 37-year-old Syrian, who was ISIS' director of external investigations and main spokesman, is best known for issuing an edict for lone wolves to kill Westerners in September 2014.

He was at the top of the U.S. government's kill list of ISIS leaders, senior American military and intelligence officials told NBC News in December. The U.S. wanted al-Adnani dead because he was considered the author of the strategy of wanton murder that has left more than 500 dead in attacks around the world since October 10 — and apparently helped inspire last year's massacre in San Bernardino.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is almost out of money to fight the Zika virus, the agency's director said Tuesday — just hours before Florida announced three fresh homegrown cases of the infection.

Zika has now infected 46 people locally in Florida, presumably in cases spread by mosquitoes. One case is part of an outbreak in Miami Beach and health officials say they're trying to trace the origins of two others.

And the CDC, which has been helping Florida track cases and fight mosquitoes, is almost broke, NBC News reported.

"Basically, we are out of money and we need Congress to act," Frieden told reporters.

Frieden said the CDC did repurpose tens of millions of dollars. Of the $222 million allocated for Zika, $200 million is "already out the door," Frieden said. "That money is already spoken for."

Turn lane closures on Mission Gorge Road in Allied Gardens will extend south to the intersection of Greenbrier Avenue starting September 1.

Starting this Thursday, left-hand turns from Greenbrier Avenue to southbound Mission Gorge Road and left-hand turns from southbound Mission Gorge Road to Greenbrier Avenue will be closed.

U-Turns at Mission Gorge Road and Greenbrier Avenue will also not be allowed.

The additional closures are expected to last for around a month. Once finished, traffic control measures at the intersection of Mission Gorge Road and Greenbrier Avenue will cease, but construction to the north on Mission Gorge Road will continue.

The closures come as part of an expansion of the Mission Gorge Road Settlement Emergency Project.

The City of San Diego encourages commuters to drive cautiously through the construction zone and to use alternate routes if possible.

Construction will be underway at the intersection from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Sunday.