A woman was arrested for smuggling marijuana into the U.S. after a flat tire gave her away officials said Wednesday.

U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested the 24-year-old woman at the Interstate 5 checkpoint near San Clemente Tuesday.

Agents say the woman was driving a Nissan Xterra that had a flat tire.

As the driver pulled the SUV over to the side of the road, agents say they saw something bouncing inside the wheel of the tire.

Inside the vehicle’s four tires, agents found 24 bundles of marijuana in steel cases.

The marijuana weighed more than 140 pounds with an estimated value of more than $211,000 agents said.

The woman, identified by officials only as a U.S. citizen, is now in the custody of the Drug Enforcement Administration. 

FBI agents in Southern California served search and arrest warrants Wednesday morning as part of an ongoing investigation involving an international sports gambling ring, according to officials.

Eighteen members of a group working mainly in California and Peru were arrested and charged with operating "Macho Sports" — an illegal Internet and telephone gambling business, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Four people were arrested abroad and 14 were arrested in Southern California. One arrest was made at a La Jolla home at 5848 Soledad Rd. owned by Amir Mokayef, confirmed FBI spokesperson Darrell Foxworth.

The investigation has been going on since 2011 and employed wiretaps and undercover agents.

Officials called the gambling ring "violent," because the group allegedly used intimidation and threats when it interacted with delinquent customers. The investigation also found that participants took millions of dollars in illegal sports wagers throughout the last decade in the San Diego and Los Angeles areas.

According to the indictment, brothers Jan and Erik Potocarrero ran Macho Sports from Lima, Peru, using the Internet and toll-free telephone lines to accept bets from customers in California. They then utilized bookies in Southern California to assist with operations.

Officials claim Mokayef was a bookie responsible for recruiting customers and collecting on bets. They also believe the La Jolla home was purchased with illegal funding.

Other locals arrested today were Michael Iaco, 30; Howard Blum, 51; Michael Massey, 44; and Salvatore Groppo, 37. Mokayef allegedly served as the booking manager for the men and worked with them to pay and collect bets.

Check back for updates on this story.

Tiger Woods will miss next week's AT&T National at Bethesda's Congressional Country Club -- a tournament that he hosts and which benefits his own foundation -- with an elbow injury.

"I was examined after I returned home from the U.S. Open, and the doctors determined I have a left elbow strain," Woods said in a statement. "I have been advised to take a few weeks off, rest and undergo treatment. I'll be ready to go for the British Open, and I'm looking forward to playing at Muirfield. I would like to extend my regrets to AT&T, our sponsors and the fans in the Washington, D.C., area. The AT&T National means a lot to me and my foundation. It's especially difficult not defending at my own tournament. It's going to be a great event, and I look forward to being there to provide my support."

Woods admitted during last week's U.S. Open that he has been suffering from a left elbow strain since The Players Championship in early May. He finished 13-over, his worst score in an Open since 1996.

For those still interested in attending, professional play begins next Thursday, June 27, and runs through June 30.

Follow Adam on Twitter @AdamVingan and e-mail your story ideas to adamvingan (at) gmail.com.

The daughter of Yankee legend Joe Torre made the catch of a lifetime in Brooklyn on Wednesday, saving a baby who got out of a window and then fell off an awning and into her arms, law enforcement sources said.

Cristina Torre caught the 1-year-old baby after he fell from the awning on 3rd Avenue and 91st Street in Bay Ridge. The baby was unharmed, sources said.

The parents of the child were taken into custody and will be charged with neglect and endangering the welfare of the child, sources said. It was not clear where the parents were or what they were doing when the baby got onto the awning. The couple will be arraigned in Brooklyn on Thursday.

The state Legislature is reversing course on a move to make certain provisions of the California Public Records Act optional for local governments.

Bombarded with criticism from media and government watchdog groups, the Assembly will vote Thursday to remove portions that address California's open records law from a trailer bill headed to Gov. Jerry Brown's desk.

At the same time, an identical budget bill that cleared both houses Saturday maintains language that recasts public record laws as "best practices" rather than state mandates. That bill is already waiting to be signed into law.

"It's sort of a genius thing for the Assembly to do because now the governor will have two versions of the same bill to sign - one with the changes and one without - and the Assembly is free and clear to say, 'We voted down the changes, and voted to support transparency,'" said Mark Reeder, a spokesman for Senator Mark Wyland (R-Solana Beach), who opposed weakening the public records law. 

The changes, originally proposed by Brown in January, would allow local governments like water districts, school boards, cities and counties to announce whether or not they want to opt-in to following state law. That law requires they respond to requests for information within 10 days, provide records electronically if they already exist in that same electronic format and assist the public with identifying which records they seek.

Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez issued a statement Wednesday that the bill would move forward without the proposed changes to the California Public Records Act. 

“To be clear, this means that the California Public Records Act will remain intact without any changes as part of the budget – consistent with the Assembly’s original action,” Speaker Pérez said.

Open-government advocates have urged Brown to leave existing public records laws untouched. But, the Legislative Anaylsts Office estimated the changes would save the state tens of millions of dollars a year by reducing costs to local governments that may, someday in the future, seek reimbursement for complying with the state mandate.

Those estimates were not based on any claims or billings submitted to the state by local governments because none have ever been received. The state has never paid out any claims from local governments to comply with the law, and no local governments have ever submitted a claim for reimbursement. 

"We didn’t do a detailed analysis. We lacked the hard data," said analyst Brian Uhler with the LAO.

But, Uhler says the costs are still being incurred annually, even if the bills have not yet come due.

The state is in the middle of the process of finalizing instructions for local agencies to make their claims, and Uhler says the state could be on the hook for bills that date back to 2001.

The LAO based their estimates on what it costs for the state's some 5,000 special districts; nearly 500 cities; 58 counties and 1,000 school districts to abide by the state's Brown Act laws, which require agencies post agenda items and conduct meetings in public.

State Senator Ben Hueso, who served in local government as a San Diego City Council member, said he supported making the cost-cutting changes to public records law so the state could allocate more money to education, mental health programs and dental benefits.

"I am a strong supporter of government transparency and enforcing the Public Records Act. Even with the budget trailer bill passing, public agencies are still required to produce public documents," Hueso said. "We simply cannot continue to subsidize something these agencies are required to do on their own."

San Diego County sheriff’s deputies were called to a home on the Viejas Reservation for a fight involving a large group of people.

As many as 10 people were involved according to initial reports.

Witnesses told deputies that some of those fighting were using bats.

Several patrol cars were parked outside the homes on Alto Court off of Viejas Grade Road west of the Viejas Recreation Center.

Emergency crews were treating several people at the scene including one woman.

Check back for updates on this developing story.

San Diego police are investigating alleged illegal gambling in Paradise Hills.

Undercover detectives raided Neighbor Korner Market Monday night. They discovered three electronic gaming machines inside the convenience store and car wash.

Residents that knew of the alleged gaming operation were glad to see the machines go.

“You never know. When there is bad things around, bad things happen,” resident Brian Hackner said.

Hackner has lived on Potomac Street his entire adult life. He said the machines have attracted the wrong crowd.

“People I see in there gambling, I have never seen in this neighborhood before,” Hackner said.

Around the corner at Big Time Market, owner Saher Daud said the machines have caused him to lose business. With the temptation of gambling so close, even his regulars sometimes chose the Korner store over his.

The Neighbor Korner Market was open normal hours Tuesday, but no one from the store would comment on the matter.

It’s unclear if Monday’s raid was part of a larger investigation. There haven't been any arrests or charges filed in connection with operating the machines.

Regardless, Hackner said he’s pleased to see the corner cleaning up.

“I can have my mom go through there and not have to worry about anything happening,” he said.
 

A 52-year-old Escondido man died in a car accident in Poway Wednesday after his vehicle struck a brick wall and then a metal pole, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said.

The crash happened just after 8 a.m. in the 13200 block of Pomerado Road.

Investigators say the man was driving his 2004 Nissan Sentra northbound when, for unknown reasons, the car veered off the road and onto a sidewalk. The driver struck a brick wall along the roadway, followed by a metal pole.

When emergency crews arrived, they found the driver non-responsive. He was wearing his seatbelt, officials said.

The man was transported to Pomerado Hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later.

The crash is under investigation.

The medical examiner’s office will determine the driver’s official cause of death, as well as his identity. Those details are forthcoming.

A lawsuit over a fading, painted sign on a historic downtown building has now become political ammunition for critics of a proposed "arts and entertainment" district.

They say it reinforces their concerns about a "Times Square-West" -- festooned with gaudy signs, billboards and digital displays -- materializing in downtown’s financial district.

A court order in a federal lawsuit, issued on Monday, seems to set the case on a trial track -- or toward potential settlement talks between the owner of an outdoor advertising firm and the city of San Diego.

The plaintiff is seeking hefty damages over the city's revocation of a sign permit for the west wall of the long-vacant California Theater building, across Third Avenue from City Hall.

"The city wants to prevent those ads from going up there; they're probably going to have to pay him maybe millions of dollars," says Pamela Wilson, director of Scenic San Diego, which has mustered strong opposition to the proposed arts and entertainment district that would cover dozens of blocks north of Broadway.

"The court order, to me,” Wilson explained in an interview Wednesday, “ appears to say that as soon as that permit was issued and he spent the money for the lease on this wall, he has a vested right to this money, the flow of income."

The sign company proprietor pegs that expected flow of income at $40,000 dollars a month -- quite a profit over his monthly rental payments of $10,500 to the California Theater interests.

City officials didn't realize that the building’s historic designation ruled out tampering with the sign in question – a decades-old promotion for Tijuana’s Agua Caliente Racetrack -- when they issued a permit for new advertising there, then had to revoke it.

Historic preservationists say the money involved in the litigation shows what's at stake for outdoor advertisers -- potential landlords who’d rent out their exteriors -- relaxed in the arts and entertainment district.

The proposal is now under review by the City Attorney’s office after a heated, adversarial hearing in May before a City Council committee that sent the district’s proponents back to the drawing board to shore up their case.

Even folks on the street who'd welcome some economic stimulus are wary.

"If you're going to put it on things, put it on the right buildings,” says downtown resident Monique White. “ Not the wrong buildings."

But "visual blight" opponents have zero tolerance.

"The effort of our organization is to keep San Diego scenic, keep it unique,” Wilson says. “It's not Times Square. It's not Las Vegas. That's what people love about it, and that's how we want it to stay."

The city attorney's office declined comment for this story, as did executives of the Downtown San Diego Partnership, backers of the arts & entertainment district.

The sign firm's attorney tells NBC 7 that the lawsuit preceded the politics surrounding that issue – and should not be linked to it.

The family of a man who died after a fiery explosion along Interstate 8 more than a year ago is suing the federal government.

The family of 25-year-old Alex Martin said he was on his way back to Texas from San Diego after visiting friends on March 15, 2012.

According to court documents, Border Patrol agents got a call around midnight that Martin was going the wrong way on I-8 near Pine Valley. Agents say he failed to yield so they deployed spike strips and were able to pull him over.

At that time the Border Patrol claimed that an agent approached Martin's car window to arrest him, when Martin ignited something, causing his car to explode.

The family claim border patrol agents mistakenly used a taser, which caused an explosion and resulted in their son's death.

The family has since filed a wrongful death lawsuit this past week and said this could've been avoided if the federal government had properly trained agents.

“What caused the car to ignite was the spark from the taser that they shot at him,” said Attorney Eugene Iredale who is representing the Martin family.

Border Patrol has yet to say whether they used a taser, but Iredale claims their report shows that they did. He said said Taser International manufactures most tasers used by law enforcement officers.

According to a disclaimer that the company issues to officers, the taser can ignite explosive materials: including gasoline and other flammable liquids.

"This was a car that had driven over spike strips and then pulled over into a rough area,” explained Iredale. “So it's highly likely that there were fumes either from the engine or from the gas line,” he said.

More than a year later the Martin family calls their son's death a big mistake.

"This young man must have been in agony for the last minute or minutes of his life, he was burning up inside a car."

The U.S. Justice Department and U.S. Border Patrol has declined to discuss the case.

Officials at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park are searching for a lost stork that got swept up in a wind gust Monday and flew away from the park.

Zoo officials confirmed Wednesday that the painted stork has been gone since Monday afternoon. Animal care staffers are actively searching for the exotic bird in the North County and surrounding areas, and have alerted other local bird experts about the lost stork.

According to the website the Internet Bird Collection, the painted stork is a broad-winged, soaring, tropical species that breeds in lowland wetlands with trees in Asia, India, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.

Typical of all storks, the painted stork flies with its neck outstretched. It has mainly white and black feathers, a red head and a long, downcurved, yellow bill, according to the Internet Bird Collection.

Safari Park officials say it is unknown how far the stork could have traveled.

According to website The Big Zoo, the painted stork is classified as a near-threatened species due to a moderately rapid population decline influenced by hunting, wetland drainage and pollution.

 

A crowd gathered before the California Regional Water Quality Control Board Wednesday afternoon to discuss a toll road in Southern California.

The Board’s meeting on Wednesday began discussing the 5.5 mile portion of toll road, that’s proposed to go from Oso Parkway near Tesoro High School to Cow Camp Road near Ortega Highway in San Juan Capistrano.

It was a continuance of a meeting in mid-March, which Los Angeles and Orange County residents and workers attended.

The Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency (TCA) wants to be granted a waste discharge permit. TCA needs this in order to move one step closer to constructing the State Route 241 Tesoro Extension.

Their goal is to begin construction in early 2014 and it would take approximately two years to complete the 5.5 mile stretch of toll road. More than 2,400 new construction jobs would be created, according to the TCA.

A TCA spokesperson told NBC 7, the project is designed to make traffic flow smoother in southern Orange County and provide an alternate route to the I-5. Lisa Telles, Chief Communication Officer for TCA, said the only decision before the Board today is regarding the 5.5 mile stretch.

“There is support and you will hear that people are against the project." Telles said, “I would challenge to say that they do not live where this project is going to be and they are talking about a project that they’re not going to benefit from and so why do they care and that’s my question to them.”

Opponents said, however, this is an important issue for people living in San Diego County.

“Yes, this permit is for the 5 miles in Orange County, but the thing is, if they get that permit for that first section, it essentially creates a domino effect for them to continue to build the road all the way to San Onofre State Beach which is entirely in San Diego County,” local resident Stefanie Sekich said.

Those against expansion of the 241 toll road told NBC 7, Trestles will eventually be negatively affected if the 5.5 mile toll road stretch is eventually built. They say while bodies of water in San Diego County may not be directly impacted with the stretch that’s before the Board today, there’s a domino effect that should cause great concern to residents here.

What’s more, another point of contention surrounds the Environmental Impact Report from 2006. Proponents say no supplementary EIR would be necessary.

Opponents say the problem relating to the 2006 EIR is two-fold. On the one hand, the TCA said another EIR is unnecessary, but is also saying the 5.5 stretch has nothing to do with the 2006 proposal that was denied. The 2006 proposal called for the 241 to be expanded from southern Orange County all the way through San Diego County. Opponents claim the TCA is saying two contradictory things.

Opponents also said building the toll road in chunks without additional studies is not legal.

If the Water Quality Board does approve the permit, opponents say they will appeal to the State Water Board.

Investigators have arrested a San Diego man on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment and criminal storage of a firearm after the shooting death of a 10-year-old boy.

Todd Francis, 52, surrendered to authorities Tuesday at San Diego police headquarters downtown.

Two weeks earlier, Francis' 9-year--old daughter was playing with Eric Klyaz in the family's garage in Miramar Ranch North. The children were playing with a firearm.

Klyaz was shot once in the chest with the gun, which investigators say was loaded and not locked. The boy died from his injury.

Francis' daughter was uninjured but shaken up, police said. She was questioned by investigators about the events leading to the fatal gunfire.

Homicide investigators said the gun was found in an area easily accessible to children.

However, through his attorney, Francis said he doesn’t know how the kids were able to get a hold of his gun. 

He also said the gun “... was not loaded and hidden in a separate location from the ammunition. Neither the gun nor the clip were immediately accessible to children and were hidden separately for home security."

As a result of a search warrant on the family's home, investigators took into custody a Sig-Sauer 9 mm handgun wrapped in a white T-shirt, a single bullet casing, a Remington 970 shotgun, a holder and blood evidence.

Francis was booked into the central jail at 12:24 p.m. Tuesday and released just before 1:30 a.m. Wednesday on $100,000 bail, officials said.

His attorney wanted to stress that her client surrendered himself to authorities voluntarily.

Meanwhile, the San Diego County District Attorney said its prosecutors are reviewing the evidence and will determine whether to file charges. An arraignment date was set for June 25.

On Wednesday, SDPD Lt. Jorge Duran told NBC 7 that all three charges filed against Francis are felonies. If convicted of all three charges, the San Diego Count District Attorney's office says Francis faces up to seven years and eight months in state prison.

Duran said police found two guns inside Francis’ home at the time of the shooting. One firearm was secured while the other -- a semi-automatic handgun -- was not. That was the weapon that was accidentally discharged in the garage.

Duran said Klyaz was killed by a single bullet to the chest. He said investigators are still trying to determine exactly how the weapon discharged. Duran said investigators do not yet know which child actually pulled the trigger and fired the fatal shot.

Duran said Francis’ daughter told investigators that she and Klyaz were both handling the gun at the same time, and both apparently had their fingers on the trigger.

Francis was not in the garage with the children at the time of the shooting, Duran said.

Meanwhile, Duran said Klyaz was laid to rest and buried Tuesday. A neighbor of the Klyaz family told NBC 7 that Francis and his family have moved out of their home in the Miramar Ranch North community.

Todd Francis is the brother of former mayoral candidate and millionaire businessman Steve Francis.

The county medical examiner’s office has released the name of a man recovered from a drainage channel who may have gotten stuck in the mud and fell victim to the rising tide officials said.

The medical examiner’s office says 37-year-old Titus Martin was found in the San Diego River near Ocean Beach Thursday, just east of Sunset Cliffs Boulevard.

Lifeguards and police recovered Martin’s body and confirmed his death at the scene. The medical examiner’s office attributes his death to drowning.

Martin, dressed in camouflage pants, was spotted in the drainage channel south of Sunset Cliffs Bridge and north of the Ocean Beach bike path.

Authorities used a yellow raft to reach the body and pulled Martin to shore around 9:45 a.m.

Lifeguards said they believed the man may have wandered down into the flood control channel and may have gotten stuck in extremely thick mud.

“The muck that’s there is very hard to walk through,” said SDPD Lt. Natalie Stone. “It almost becomes like a quick sand.”

There were no obvious signs of trauma officials said.

No one fitting the man's description has been reported missing police said.

What authorities do know is it doesn't appear the man's body had been out here very long and that, likely, he lost his life during the most recent high tide.

Three people broke into Chicago's Trump International Hotel and Tower overnight and jumped from the top of the building with parachutes, police said.

The trio of BASE jumpers used "a cutting device to gain entry" at 401 N. Wabash Ave. and then jumped from the building's highest point at about 12:30 a.m. Thursday, police News Affairs confirmed.

Police said there were no injuries. Trump Tower stands 1,389 feet on the Chicago River.

It's not known how long the trio was in the building before the jump, and according to an initial investigation, nothing appeared to be stolen.

Surveillance images released Thursday showed three white men in a stairwell of the building.

The incident remains under investigation and police are looking for the jumpers, who could face trespassing charges if arrested.