Residents of a senior living apartment in El Cajon were evacuated briefly after smoke billowed through the building.

Heartland Fire responded to reports of smoke coming from the third floor of the Lexington Avenue Senior Apartments at 250 E. Lexington Avenue at around 6:47 p.m. Friday.

The smoke originated from food on an unattended stove, San Diego Police confirmed (SDPD).

Heartland crews worked to ventilate the building and clear it of smoke and residents were allowed to reenter the apartment just after 7 p.m., SDPD said.

When it comes to President Trump's actions over the last two weeks, people are not shy in sharing their opinions. Still, there is a group of people caught in the middle.

A lot of those voices are in the business community.

These are people who are empathetic to many of the marches and protests happening around the country. Many of the issues these demonstrations highlight directly impact their employees.

However, these businesses also say these demonstrations can get in the way of their ability to work.

“I was trying to get to San Diego from Portland, Oregon on Sunday and I was blocked access to the airport,” said Mike Cully. “Police had to actually escort us to the gate because of all the protest that were happening.”

Cully runs the San Diego North Economic Development Corporation.

“Of course we welcome and appreciate free speech, but when it prohibits and inhibits what you're trying to do, that's a problem,” he said.

Scotty Lombardi does Talent Acquisitions at Hunter Industries, the largest employer in San Marcos. The company is probably best known for sprinkler systems.

Lombardi said they are a global company and employees commute back and forth between here and their office in Tijuana--sometimes daily.

"The protest that are happening on the other side of the border, in Mexico certainly have an impact on our ability to travel logistically to and from Mexico," he said.

Although there a sizable number of people out there that wish these protests were not so disruptive, some protesters say that's exactly the point--to make these issues inescapable.

When it comes to President Trump's actions over the last two weeks, people are not shy in sharing their opinions. Still, there is a group of people caught in the middle.

A lot of those voices are in the business community.

These are people who are empathetic to many of the marches and protests happening around the country. Many of the issues these demonstrations highlight directly impact their employees.

However, these businesses also say these demonstrations can get in the way of their ability to work.

“I was trying to get to San Diego from Portland, Oregon on Sunday and I was blocked access to the airport,” said Mike Cully. “Police had to actually escort us to the gate because of all the protest that were happening.”

Cully runs the San Diego North Economic Development Corporation.

“Of course we welcome and appreciate free speech, but when it prohibits and inhibits what you're trying to do, that's a problem,” he said.

Scotty Lombardi does Talent Acquisitions at Hunter Industries, the largest employer in San Marcos. The company is probably best known for sprinkler systems.

Lombardi said they are a global company and employees commute back and forth between here and their office in Tijuana--sometimes daily.

"The protest that are happening on the other side of the border, in Mexico certainly have an impact on our ability to travel logistically to and from Mexico," he said.

Although there a sizable number of people out there that wish these protests were not so disruptive, some protesters say that's exactly the point--to make these issues inescapable.

President Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of the army withdrew his name from consideration late Friday, becoming the first Trump administration nominee to drop out before confirmation, White House officials confirmed to NBC News.

Viola, the billionaire founder of trading firm Virtu Financial Inc., and owner of the Florida Panthers, in a statement to the Military Times, said he was “deeply honored” to be nominated for the post, but concluded that he would not be able to successfully navigate the confirmation process.

“I appreciate the confidence President Trump showed in me,” he said. “I offer my continued support for President Trump and his administration, and look forward to redoubling my efforts to support the Army and its veterans as private citizens.”

Panthers president Matthew Caldwell confirmed the news to the Sun Sentinel after the team’s 2-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks Friday. Caldwell did not make any further comment.

Viola, a West Point graduate, was nominated in December for the position, joining a list of former military men already chosen for the Cabinet.

At the time, Trump praised Viola, the son of Italian immigrants, as "living proof of the American dream" and someone who has a lengthy history of involvement with national security issues.

Viola was the first member of his family to attend college. He was trained as an Airborne Ranger infantry officer and served in the 101st Airborne Division. A lawyer, he started multiple businesses and bought the Florida Panthers hockey team for $250 million in 2013.

Trump announced Viola's nomination from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where he was spending the run-up to Christmas with his family and working on the transition. The nomination also came as electors in all 50 states formally elected Trump as the 45th president.

Parents of a local high school claim their kids had been set up for failure in a college-prep program after more than half of the students fail the courses.

The San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) launched the STEAM Middle College program two years ago. It was designed to give students at Lincoln High School access to college classes at San Diego City College and help reverse the declining enrollment rate.

But according to parents, the program did just the opposite.

Out of 66 students who had enrolled in a college class during the fall semester, only 17 passed.

Parents gathered at a school board meeting on Jan. 24, saying that the district is letting their kids down.

"We can all stand around and be stoic about this and not be bothered but this was a deliberate attempt to fail the students at Lincoln High," one parent said. 

According to Mario Koran, from NBC 7's media partner Voice of San Diego, the STEAM Middle College Program saw some changes leading up to the fall semester.

Koran said in past years, students had the option to chose between Psychology, Hispanic Studies or a Personal Growth class. This fall semester, they were only offered the choice of remedial math.

"All the students who had signed up for college classes, all of them were routed into the math class...whether they had asked for it or not," Koran told NBC 7.

But Board Member Sharon Whitehurst-Payne said the school district had been attempting to make the program more economical. She added that it was also for students to get finish a required class.

"Whenever a college class does not have enough students in it, we have to subsidize it," Whitehurst-Payne said.

Parents argued students did not receive any support and there was no communication or intervention from the school.

"They knew 80 percent of the children failed that class and nothing was done," a parent said.

Whitehurst-Payne said the school should have monitored students even after the midterm but added that it was lesson to be learned from.

"For everybody, for the students, for the district--and I'm not going to say those children did not gain something from that experience," she said. "The second time around, they will do much better because they'll understand that math next time, right?" 

She said SDUSD will not offer only one course next time. The district has also worked out a plan to change the failing grades to a W, indicating that students had withdrawn from the class. 

The students will still have to take the course again if they want to earn credits.

But parents worry that this could impact the students' graduation requirements or even hinder them from getting accepted into colleges.

A drug tunnel had been discovered in Tijuana on Friday, a federal Mexican official confirmed to NBC 7.

The tunnel opening was found inside a home located just 20 meters from the U.S.-Mexico Border, just east of the San Ysidro Port of Entry.

According to the official, it is unknown at this time if the tunnel actually reached the U.S.

The house is currently being searched and is secured by Mexican army and local police personnel.

No other information was immediately available.

Check back for updates on this breaking news story. 

Homelessness all across San Diego County continues to rise at an alarming rate and El Cajon is one of the cities seeing a spike from previous years.

According to the Regional Task Force, in 2016, there were 218 people living on the streets in El Cajon.

Newly appointed El Cajon Councilmember Ben Kalasho told NBC 7 he has a plan to reduce homelessness in the city.

"It takes out of the box thinking and it takes a proactive, aggressive approach to handle it," Kalasho said.

Under Kalasho’s plan, the city of El Cajon would create 20 jobs for the homeless, including landscape work, removing graffiti and light handyman work. There is also an effort to make it as easy as possible to gain employment.

"We could offer to pick them up, we could offer to pay for the bus passes or trolley passes," Kalasho added.

Kalasho said the program would ban aggressive panhandling across the city. It would also ask liquor stores to not sell to the homeless and take away shopping carts from people living on the streets.

"You do want to become the city where in the homeless community, the chatter amongst them is 'don't go to El Cajon, they'll take their carts'," he said.

The people of El Cajon told NBC 7 they want something done about the homeless issue.

"It seems like everywhere you turn, on more street corners, the park," said longtime resident Tora Idos.

But some aren't sold that the new proposal is the answer and said it may be inhumane.

"I just don’t pay any regard to it, just mind my own business," said El Cajon resident Kelly Boland, when asked about the homeless situation.

The City Council recently opted against the plan and voted for a task force instead.

Councilmember Kalasho, however, said he's not done yet and he believes that a task force is "a little bit weak."

NBC 7 reached out to homeless advocacy groups in El Cajon for a response on the proposal but did not hear back by Friday night.

Councilmember Kalasho is holding a town hall regarding this issue on Thursday, at 7 p.m. at the El Cajon police station.

Dozens of people gathered for a candlelight vigil on Friday at the site where three family members lost their lives in Lemon Grove.

Some were friends and family, while others were complete strangers, all there to share their sorrow.

“All of us have lost someone very precious to our lives,” the prayer leader said.

Three members of the Soto family were killed in the head-on crash Wednesday on Massachusetts and Lemon Grove avenues, including 12-year-old Jose Alexander Soto.

“He was my real best friend. I am just hurt that he passed away,” Jose's friend Brandon Rodriguez said.

Jose's older sister, Lizbeth Soto, 18, was also killed.

Diego Arroyo, Lizbeth's high school sweetheart, helped organize Friday night's memorial service.

“That was my queen. I’ve been with her since we were 14,” Arroyo told NBC 7.

He said there is no preparing for such a tragedy and added that he is supported by friends and family.

“I know that she is smiling down on us right now, wishing she could be here. I wish she could be here too,” Arroyo said.

Lizbeth's niece, 8-year-old Camila Nava Cardenas was also killed in the tragic crash.

Her older sister, Emili Soto, who was behind the wheel when the crash happened, is still recovering from surgery at Scripps Mercy Hospital.

"She's probably going through a lot, recovering and everything. If everyone could pray for her,” Arroyo said.

Emili's 4-year-old niece, Melina Cardenas is in critical condition at Rady Children's Hospital.

Police identified the driver of the SUV involved in the crash only as a 40-year-old man.

He was not seriously injured.

Investigators said one of the two drivers ran a red light but have not identified which one yet.

A refugee from Somalia, one of the countries impacted by Donald Trump's travel ban, is running for city council in Boston.

"Boston has never had a candidate like myself," said candidate Deeqo Jibril, who recognizes she could be facing an uphill battle.

As a refugee from Somalia, it's a battle she says is more important now than ever.

"I unfortunately lost family to the civil war," she said. "We were the lucky ones to be here, and it's very disheartening that the chance I got, others are not getting now."

Jibril was 12 when she and her mother arrived in Roxbury - she hasn't left since, and is now an American citizen. She's become an advocate for the refugee community, successfully encouraging families to start businesses.

"Somali businesses are one of the fastest growing in Boston," Jibril said. "There are 17 in Dudley Square."

In Roxbury, the district she would represent, the decision for a Muslim refugee to run is encouraging. But other voters say they're more concerned about what she will do for the community than her religion or background.

Jibril will likely face tough competition. Candidates can't officially throw their hats into the ring until mid-April.

Federal Judge James L. Robart, who brought President Donald Trump's attempt to block people from certain countries from entering the United States to a screeching halt, has lived much of his life out of the spotlight, NBC News reported.

Until now.

What little is known of Robart, who's based out of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington state, suggests that he is a soft-spoken yet fearless man — someone of deep convictions and a jurist who does not mince words.

He suggested in court that Trump's 90-day entry ban on people from the countries of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen was not "rationally based," since no one from any those countries had been arrested in the U.S. on terrorism-related charges since 9/11.

A man apparently fell four stories to his death early Saturday at an apartment complex in San Diego’s Rolando area.

San Diego Police Department (SDPD) Lt. Mike Holden, of the Homicide Unit, said the circumstances of the man’s death are considered “suspicious.”

At around 2:50 a.m., the police department received a call reporting a man hurt near an apartment building in the 4600 block of 63rd Street. The man had apparently fallen from his apartment window; his unit was on the 4th floor of the building.

When officers arrived at the complex, they found a 25-year-old man unconscious in the courtyard. He was bleeding from a severe head injury, Holden said.

The man was rushed to a local hospital, but he died shortly thereafter.

The SDPD’s Homicide Unit is handling the case due to the suspicious nature of the man’s death. The victim’s name has not yet been released.

No further information was immediately available.

Frederick Douglass — the black 19th century journalist, dedicated feminist, and radical activist — might not be the most obvious cultural touchstone for President Donald Trump, NBC News reported.

And yet the president made the civil rights icon uniquely relevant again this past week by name-checking him — in present-tense terminology — during a sit down with African-American supporters at the White House on the first day of Black History Month.

"Frederick Douglass is an example of someone who's done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I noticed," he said on February 1st, without elaborating with details.

Family and friends gathered in San Diego's North County Saturday to pay tribute to a 5-year-old boy and his family friend killed when they were swept into a rain-swollen creek last month amid strong winter storms.

A “Celebration of Life” was held at SonRise Christian Fellowship in Fallbrook for pre-school student Phillip Campbell and the man he lovingly called “Pappy,” Roland Phillips, 73.

On Jan. 22, Roland and Phillip were driving to Riverside to look at a car that was for sale. It was the weekend that a series of powerful winter storms hit San Diego County, causing flooding in many parts of the county.

As Roland's Toyata Camry approached the area of Fifth Street, east of Interstate 15 in Rainbow, California, the car was carried away by rising water from Rainbow Creek, a normally small creek running across San Diego's North County to the Pacific Ocean.

The boy and Roland disappeared into the water.

Cal Fire and the San Diego County Sheriff's Department (SDSO) launched an extensive search for them that lasted five days. Winter storm conditions and water levels in the creek made the first few days of the search extremely difficult and dangerous.

The following day, Jan. 23, Roland’s body was pulled from the creek. However, Phillip was nowhere to be found.

One Rainbow resident told NBC 7 that she saw the boy clinging to a tree limb before disappearing downstream on Jan. 22. The ME's report said other witnesses called 911 to report the child floating in the creek.

The searched pressed on – by ground and air – over the next five days. On Jan. 24, SDSO officials searched by helicopter from the point where Roland’s vehicle was believed to have entered the creek to the ocean. A crew flew low enough for searchers to try and spot any sign of the child.

Again, nothing.

Deputies said their mission was a recovery effort, not a rescue, as Phillip was presumed dead. As the rain stopped and water levels dropped, the search resumed on Jan. 25 and again on Jan. 26.

Four swift water teams moved up and down the creek. SDSO search and rescue teams canvassed the area.

Finally, on Jan. 26, just after 11 a.m., Phillip's body was found in the water, buried under 6 to 8 feet of debris.

Cal Fire Division Chief Nick Schuler said the boy was found in very thick brush and trees, in an area referred to by officials as a “strainer.”

Schuler said strainers are areas where large trees have fallen across the creek and where debris and brush has gotten hung up as the water rushes through.

He said Cal Fire’s inmate hand crews were removing debris and brush in a heavily-wooded strainer area when they noticed a small shoe lying in the brush. As they removed more debris, they uncovered the body of a little boy.

The area where the body was found is near Moon Valley Nurseries on the west side of Interstate 15.

Schuler said the area was difficult to access, making for a “very technical search – very complicated and dangerous.”

“[The creek] probably flowed in excess of 15 to 18 feet deep and 80 feet wide,” he explained. “He was buried in approximately 6 to 8 feet of debris.”

“It literally was like a needle in a haystack to try and find this little boy,” he added.

Phillip's family told NBC 7 the boy and his "Pappy" were inseparable and did everything together. Roland lived with the boy's legal guardian and his grandmother.

"He followed him everywhere, everywhere," Phillip's grandmother said of the boy's friendship with Roland.

According to the ME's report, little Phillip had turned 5 on Jan. 13.

Firefighters rushed to northbound Interstate 805 Saturday morning to help a driver who crashed his semi-truck into a center divide on the freeway.

The collision happened around 11:15 a.m. at I-805 and Murray Ridge. California Highway Patrol (CHP) officials said the driver hit the median, and another vehicle was also involved in the crash.

San Diego Fire-Rescue Department (SDFD) crews helped pull the driver out of the semi-truck. The driver in the other vehicle was also trapped, and crews worked to also get that person out safely.

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CHP officials issued a traffic alert on northbound I-805 at Murray Ridge following the crash, saying the big rig was blocking the two left lanes. Traffic was at single-digit speeds, backed up from Interstate 8, CHP officials said.

At 12:15 p.m., officials confirmed the drivers of both vehicles were out. No further details on their conditions were immediately released.

The accident is under investigation.

Check back for updates on this breaking news story. 

A car carrying four people plowed into a large telephone pole in Paradise Hills overnight, rattling neighbors who said they could hear the passengers screaming during the accident.

“[The driver] had the engine revved real high,” one witness told NBC7. “And [at] this time you hear screaming. Yeah, it was pretty emotional.”

According to the San Diego Police Department (SDPD), the crash happened just before 1:30 a.m. in the 5900 block of Marmil Way. Four women were inside the car; two of them suffered minor injuries and the other two were not hurt.

When officers arrived at the scene, they found the car on its side and power lines down in the street.

According to a neighbor who helped pull the women out of the wreckage, the women were coming from a party where they got into an altercation with someone. The women got scared and sped off, and that’s when they crashed into the pole, the neighbor said.

Hours later, utility crews remained at the scene, working to repair the pole. There were no outages reported as a result of the crash.

No other cars were involved and no one else was injured in the incident.

A woman hiking on Cowles Mountain Saturday morning had to be airlifted off the trail after she fell and hurt her ankle near the top of the summit.

The call came in to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department (SDFD) just before 8 a.m. SDFD units and a helicopter responded to the mountain, located at Golfcrest Drive and Navajo Road in San Diego's East County. Officials had to determine how to safely get the hiker off the trail.

About a half-hour later, the woman was airlifted from the mountain and then taken to a local hospital.

According to Monica Munoz, public information officer for SDFD, these types of incidents commonly happen when hiking – that’s why SDFD highly recommends hiking with a buddy.

This wasn’t the only rescue of a hiker in San Diego on Saturday.

Just before noon, SDFD crews were called to help another hiker in distress in Black Mountain Ranch. The hiker was suffering from heat exhaustion. Units performed an open space rescue just a mile up the trail.

A man and woman riding a motorcycle were seriously injured in a suspected DUI crash early Saturday in Oceanside.

The Oceanside Police Department (OPD) said the driver of the motorcycle – a 46-year-old man – was traveling north on Pacific Street near Breakwater Way just before 2 a.m. He failed to make a turn just north of the intersection and suddenly hit a curb.

The impact threw both the driver and his passenger, a 38-year-old woman, off the Harley Davidson motorcycle. They each suffered serious injuries and were taken to a local trauma center.

Police said they are expected to survive.

OPD investigators said the man is suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol, and is believed to have been speeding at the time of the DUI crash.

A pedestrian was taken to Scripps La Jolla with serious injuries after being hit by a southbound Coaster commuter train in Del Mar Sunday afternoon.

The crash happened at 15th near Ocean Avenue around 2:30 p.m.

Train service is stopped and an investigation has started.

It’s unclear why the victim was on the tracks in the first place.

No other information was immediately available.

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Check back for updates on this breaking news story.