President Donald Trump made several misleading or false claims on immigration and the border on Monday, after defending his administration's use of tear gas on migrants attempting to gain entry to the U.S. over the weekend.
His claims were made during a pair of campaign rallies and a law enforcement round table in Mississippi to bolster Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in her runoff election, NBC News reported.
One person was stabbed Tuesday morning in a possible road rage incident in Chula Vista, officials confirmed.
Chula Vista Police Department Lt. Chris Kelly said officers were called to Willow Street and Sweetwater Road at around 11 a.m. to investigate a car accident. When they arrived, they found one person had been stabbed.
That person was taken to a local hospital with a life-threatening wound, Kelly said.
No other information was available.
Please refresh this page for updates on this story. Details may change as more information becomes available.
Dozens of mezcal bottles line the walls of a trendy new bar in the heart of Old Town, one of the first dedicated spots where San Diegans can sip on the Mexican liquor.
Tahona Bar and Tasting Room, located next to the historic Campo Santo Cemetery in Old Town, opened in mid-November with the aurora of a Mexican hacienda.
The 2,000 square-foot bar features pieces of art and furniture created by local or Mexican crafters, like their rope seats and hand-painted tiles, but the highlight is Tahona's stock of more than 120 varieties of mezcal.
Mezcal is an agave-based liquor similar to tequila with a more intense, earthy flavor. The spirit became popular in Oaxaca before spreading to other parts of Mexico and, more recently, the United States, according to Mexico tourism officials.
Tahona’s founder, Amar Harrag, a French native and University of San Diego graduate who co-owns four local Mediterranean bistros, was inspired to bring a Mezcal tasting room to San Diego after visiting a similar establishment on one of his many trips to Mexico.
"When I first became intrigued by the mezcal industry I decided to visit Oaxaca, which is the epicenter of the mezcal world," Harrag said. "I loved the experience and I decided to bring that same level of experience to the United States."
He wants Tahona to be a hub for mezcal education as well as a place for visitors to revel in the agave-based drink.
The bar plans to host spirit-based events, like mezcal meditations, and even plans to coordinate group trips to Baja California and Quaxaca so guests can learn about the liquor first-hand. Steven Sadri will lead mezcal tasting events at Tahoma.
"While there are many mezcal aficionados in town, they have not had a lot of places to experience and drink really good mezcals," Sadri said.
For more modest experiences, the bar’s tasting room allows guests to explore the dozens of unique spirits through flights featuring four or five agave spirits each. Tasting flights range in price from $25 to $45 and individual samplings are also available.
There are more than 300 types of agave, according to Mexico tourism officials, meaning the possibilities for various types of mezcal liquor are virtually endless.
Sadri said that mezcal's unique flavor takes some getting used to at first.
"Our main advice is to give it more than one chance and try a few different kinds," he said. "The diversity in the flavor profiles is astonishing and once you’ve found your favorite agave you'll know what you like."
While bars that carry mezcal are not hard to find in San Diego — several local tequila bars have at least one bottle of the liquor – Tahona’s bar is stocked with more than 120 varieties.
Like Old Town itself, Tahona’s specialty cocktails are a fusion of both Mexican culture and San Diego lifestyle. For example, the Whaley House Punch, named after Old Town’s very own haunted house, is a combination of mezcal, lime, pineapple, salted watermelon and other liquors.
The cocktails were concocted by beverage directors Carlo Bracci Devoti and Blair Marano who bring international flair to their beverages.
Tahona's menu also features Oaxacan-influenced cuisine with local flair. Pair mezcal cocktails with Pork Belly Quemado, a seared pork belly covered in mole negro and topped with habanero-pickled vegetables or with Chicken Tinga, a chipotle chicken with green onions, queso fresco and cilantro crema, just to name a few.
Harrag said Tahona aims to be a socially-responsible business and will complete "social impact projects" along the way, the first of which will be to help open an art center at an orphanage in Mexico's Valla de Guadalupe.
Tahona is located at 2414 San Diego Ave. and is open daily from 5 p.m. to midnight. To book a reservation for Tahona’s tasting room, call (619)255-2090. For more information, visit here.
Two premature babies who contracted a bacterial infection at a New Jersey hospital in the throes of an outbreak, died last week, officials say.
It is the third death of a premature baby in Newark's University Hospital after the Department of Health became aware that the hospital had an outbreak of the bacteria A. baumannii in its neonatal intensive care unit.
The department says that, while the babies were infected with A. baumannii, it may not have been what killed them, as they also suffered from other medical conditions due to being born premature.
Four babies have been infected in total at the hospital, officials say.
At the end of September, a premature baby who had been cared for at the hospital and had the bacteria died after being transferred to another facility, and before the Department's notification of problems in the NICU, health officials say. Another baby was effectively treated for the bacteria and was discharged last month.
No new infections have been confirmed since October.
The department issued the news about the deaths of the other two babies Tuesday as part of an ongoing investigation into the outbreak of A. baumannii in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of University Hospital.
It said it was on-site at the hospital Tuesday to investigate the facility's internal processes around reporting deaths amid ongoing outbreaks. The department said as of Monday, the hospital's own infection control program was not aware of the most recent deaths when contacted.
A University Hospital spokesperson on Tuesday said the hospital has "continue[d] to reinforce proper procedures and protocols with our team."
"We have worked diligently since the Acinetobacter baumannii bacteria was discovered in our neonatal intensive care unit to control the outbreak, and there have been no new cases in the NICU since October," the spokesperson said.
Dozens of mezcal bottles line the walls of a trendy new bar in the heart of Old Town, one of the first dedicated spots where San Diegans can sip on the Mexican liquor.
Tahona Bar and Tasting Room, located next to the historic Campo Santo Cemetery in Old Town, opened in mid-November with the aurora of a Mexican hacienda.
The 2,000 square-foot bar features pieces of art and furniture created by local or Mexican crafters, like their rope seats and hand-painted tiles, but the highlight is Tahona's stock of more than 120 varieties of mezcal.
Mezcal is an agave-based liquor similar to tequila with a more intense, earthy flavor. The spirit became popular in Oaxaca before spreading to other parts of Mexico and, more recently, the United States, according to Mexico tourism officials.
Tahona’s founder, Amar Harrag, a French native and University of San Diego graduate who co-owns four local Mediterranean bistros, was inspired to bring a Mezcal tasting room to San Diego after visiting a similar establishment on one of his many trips to Mexico.
"When I first became intrigued by the mezcal industry I decided to visit Oaxaca, which is the epicenter of the mezcal world," Harrag said. "I loved the experience and I decided to bring that same level of experience to the United States."
He wants Tahona to be a hub for mezcal education as well as a place for visitors to revel in the agave-based drink.
The bar plans to host spirit-based events, like mezcal meditations, and even plans to coordinate group trips to Baja California and Quaxaca so guests can learn about the liquor first-hand. Steven Sadri will lead mezcal tasting events at Tahoma.
"While there are many mezcal aficionados in town, they have not had a lot of places to experience and drink really good mezcals," Sadri said.
For more modest experiences, the bar’s tasting room allows guests to explore the dozens of unique spirits through flights featuring four or five agave spirits each. Tasting flights range in price from $25 to $45 and individual samplings are also available.
There are more than 300 types of agave, according to Mexico tourism officials, meaning the possibilities for various types of mezcal liquor are virtually endless.
Sadri said that mezcal's unique flavor takes some getting used to at first.
"Our main advice is to give it more than one chance and try a few different kinds," he said. "The diversity in the flavor profiles is astonishing and once you’ve found your favorite agave you'll know what you like."
While bars that carry mezcal are not hard to find in San Diego — several local tequila bars have at least one bottle of the liquor – Tahona’s bar is stocked with more than 120 varieties.
Like Old Town itself, Tahona’s specialty cocktails are a fusion of both Mexican culture and San Diego lifestyle. For example, the Whaley House Punch, named after Old Town’s very own haunted house, is a combination of mezcal, lime, pineapple, salted watermelon and other liquors.
The cocktails were concocted by beverage directors Carlo Bracci Devoti and Blair Marano who bring international flair to their beverages.
Tahona's menu also features Oaxacan-influenced cuisine with local flair. Pair mezcal cocktails with Pork Belly Quemado, a seared pork belly covered in mole negro and topped with habanero-pickled vegetables or with Chicken Tinga, a chipotle chicken with green onions, queso fresco and cilantro crema, just to name a few.
Harrag said Tahona aims to be a socially-responsible business and will complete "social impact projects" along the way, the first of which will be to help open an art center at an orphanage in Mexico's Valla de Guadalupe.
Tahona is located at 2414 San Diego Ave. and is open daily from 5 p.m. to midnight. To book a reservation for Tahona’s tasting room, call (619)255-2090. For more information, visit here.
Two months before WikiLeaks released emails stolen from the Clinton campaign, right-wing conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi sent an email to former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone anticipating the document dump, according to draft court papers obtained by NBC News.
"Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps," Corsi wrote on Aug. 2, 2016, referring to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, according to the draft court papers. "One shortly after I'm back. 2nd in Oct. Impact planned to be very damaging."
The email was revealed in a draft court document, known as a statement of the offense, sent to Corsi by special counsel Robert Mueller's office. Mueller also sent Corsi a draft plea agreement stipulating that the special counsel would not oppose Corsi requesting a sentence of probation if he agreed to plead guilty to one count of lying to federal investigators.
As NBC News reported on Monday, Corsi said he has rejected the deal. He has described Mueller's team as "thugs" and insisted that he did not "intentionally lie" about his communications related to WikiLeaks.
A man was sentenced to 27 years to life in prison Tuesday in connection to the shooting of an off-duty San Diego sheriff’s deputy, according to City News Service.
Ray Koloset Pitoau, 38, was convicted in July of three felony firearm counts, but jurors were deadlocked on his other three counts of assault with a firearm, said Kelly Wheeler with CNS.
A second trial was granted in October to carry out a verdict on the outstanding charges but ended in another mistrial.
Before sentencing Pitoau for his current convictions, Superior Court Judge Melinda Lasater said a third trial was necessary due to new information. This included the arrest of Emory Zinga who was with Pitoau on the night of the shooting, according to Wheeler.
If Pitoau is convicted of the assault charges, he could face an additional 105 years to life in prison, CNS said.
On Aug. 7, Deputy Jason Philpot, an 11-year veteran of the department, was shot three times near Island and Sixth Avenues downtown at 1:17 a.m.
Pitoau reportedly pulled out a gun as Philpot and his family and friends walked by, pointing it at the deputy’s younger brother.
Philpot then charged the Pitoau, Wheeler said.
“He said ‘Help, he’s going to shoot me’ and the way he was grabbing my arm and the fear in his voice, I knew it wasn’t a joke,” Philpot testified at a pre-trial hearing.
Philpot said he tried to wrap his arms around Pitoau and get the gun away, but the defendant was able to pull the trigger, wounding the deputy in the upper chest and right arm, according to CNS.
"I fell down, and I remember trying to grab him and take him to the ground as well," Philpot said. "I know that he fell to the ground somehow. We both scrambled to our feet. Knowing that I got shot in the chest, I thought that I was going to die."
Pitoau was convicted of robbery in 2003 and residential burglary in the 1990s. He has been to prison four times, according to CNS.
“He has an issue with being violent,” Lasater said.
Pitoau fled to Mexico after the shooting and was arrested at a home near Tijuana a month later.
At this time, it is unclear when the third trial will take place.
One of the last-standing local costume shops is shutting down amid a shift to online retail, leaving hundreds of costumes up for grabs.
Buffalo Breath is the oldest and largest costume shop in the county, according to its website.
Established in 1972, the costume shop based in Kearny Mesa announced its closure in October.
“We need to be out by next month,” Buffalo Breath owner, Susie Issa told NBC 7.
While the final date is unknown at this time, Buffalo Breath hopes to make it through the holiday season.
“Santas,” Issa said. “Open all through December for them.”
Christmas, Comic-Con, Halloween, and Easter were all busy seasons when the store had to bring in extra help, Issa said.
Four full-time employees and as many as 25 seasonal workers will be impacted by the close.
Some of who were already let go as financial burdens became too much for the store, Issa said.
As to why the 46-year-old costume center has to call it quits, Issa said, “Amazon, the internet, we can’t compete with them.”
Buffalo Breath was struggling for the past three years, according to the owner. She said the retail industry has changed so much that physical stores are hurting.
“All the millennials and the new generations are ordering online,” Issa told NBC 7.
Sales and a final auction will try to find new homes for the hundreds of costumes.
“We want a good home for them,” Issa said. “They’re very special to us.”
Theatrical quality costumes are up to 75 percent off and everything else is up to 60 percent off in the costume shop’s liquidation sale, according to its Facebook page.
In a post, the store said, “The sale will continue until we close our doors forever, which will probably be at the end of December.”
Whatever is available will be first come, first serve.
People from all over the country have been placing orders online in the store’s last effort to ditch its inventory, according to Issa.
Buffalo Breath has previously done business in four different continents.
When the costume shop moved from Mission Hills to Kearny Mesa, some items were donated, and Issa hopes that the “stuff that is special” can be donated after the last auction.
Before Mission Hills, Buffalo Breath was in Little Italy in the 1990s and in Pacific Beach, its first home, before that.
“I would like the community to take the advantage to come and get the costumes they want at a good price,” Issa said.
Located at 5630 Kearny Mesa Road Suite B, the store specialized in high-end theatrical-quality period costumes.
Costume-lovers are able to buy items from the shop's website or in-person.
Efforts to control San Diego’s homeless problem carries a significant and growing cost for the city’s taxpayers.
Financial data released by the Police Department in response to a public records act request reveals the department paid $848,362 in overtime wages for “homeless related activities” from October, 2017 to October, 2018.
Overtime costs for police have increased dramatically since the opening of the city’s homeless storage facility at 20th and Commercial streets east of downtown.
The homeless stow their belongings at the warehouse while they work, look for jobs, or get medical care and other services.
The police department spent just $1,200 on homeless-related overtime from July, 2016 to May, 2017. But after the storage facility opened in June of this year, overtime pay jumped to $87,000 that month.
Homeless-related overtime pay for police spiked to $188,000 for the month of August, and $240,000 for October.
Neighbors near the storage facility have demanded the city maintain order in their neighborhood and prevent the homeless from loitering around the building.
In response to those requests, the Mayor’s office told NBC 7 Investigates the overtime pay helped assure “a higher level of (police) service to address quality of life issues… in a half-mile radius in the surrounding neighborhood." Mayoral spokesman Greg Block said the overtime is necessary “... to avoid negatively impacting calls for service in other parts of the city.” Block said other programs for the homeless, including the Bridge Shelters and Housing Navigation Center, also require more police attention.
“Mayor Faulconer has committed to ensuring that these programs are a benefit to the communities where they (are placed), rather than a burden. That commitment includes improved safety and cleanliness around the facilities.”
Homeless advocate Michael McConnell told NBC 7 Investigates he understands and respects the concerns of residents who live near the new homeless facilities. But McConnell questioned whether $850,000 in overtime pay -- the bulk of it spent in just five months -- is worth the result.
McConnell argues that when police arrest the homeless, ticket them for minor offenses, or urge them to move away from a facility, they are simply moving the problem to another neighborhood.
"This ‘whack-a-mole’ strategy of moving people from place-to-place is very expensive, and that's taking money away from real solutions,” McConnell said. “Every time we invest a dollar, five dollars, a million dollars into band-aids, we’re not focusing on the real issue.”
McConnell said the city must invest more in housing, supportive services and trained outreach professionals to make a lasting impact on the homeless problem. “Real outreach,” McConnell said. “Professionally-trained people who are out in the streets building long-term relationships with people to get them out of homelessness, not to move them from one place to another.”
A man police have dubbed “Rambo” is causing mischief in San Carlos.
A post on the Nextdoor app from a man named Dan details two frightening encounters he had with a suspicious stranger up to no good on his block on the same night. If the man is who the San Diego Police Department thinks he is, then he’s no stranger at all.
Dan first saw the man on his across-the-street neighbor’s property on Bobhird Drive Friday night as he took out the trash. He said the man triggered a light in his neighbor’s front yard.
The suspicious man was shirtless, which Dan thought odd given the temperature that night, and was moving toward Dan’s neighbor’s front door. Dan couldn’t see what the man was doing, but says he waited near the door for about a minute, and even jogged in place for a moment, before he broke into his neighbor Lisa’s car parked in the driveway.
At that point, Dan started walking towards the man. When he yelled to get his attention, the man took off on foot.
Lisa arrived home a short time later and he told her what happened. They both reported the incident to police.
Thinking he had seen the last of the man, Dan put on a movie. When it ended a few hours later, Dan again noticed the light was on in Lisa’s yard. He peered out the window of his front door and saw who he thought was the same man by Lisa’s front door.
As he picked up his phone to call 911, the suspicious man began walking quickly across the street toward Dan’s house.
“I don't know if he saw the light on my phone through the window, or what,” Dan wrote on his Nextdoor post.
Just as Dan was connected with a dispatcher, the man had reached his door.
“I obviously couldn't see exactly what he was doing outside; however, he either bumped the door, or tried the handle (definite contact with the door),” he wrote. “Not knowing if he was going to try to break his way in or not, I immediately went into my garage and grabbed a 45lb Olympic weight plate while talking to 911 with my other hand. A pretty ridiculous choice in hindsight, but that's all I could think to grab in the moment.”
Dan said the man walked along his front windows and gates for a few moments before he walked way heading south on Bobhird. Minutes later, several officers arrived at Dan’s house.
“Interestingly, the senior officer said our description sounded like someone they refer to as 'Rambo' (I've never heard this before). He said this guy is known to our neighborhood and that SDPD has had previous contacts for incidents with this guy,” Dan wrote.
SDPD has apparently been looking for a man they call Rambo for a while and say he’s been terrorizing the San Carlos neighborhood for years, engaging in similarly bizarre behavior described by Dan.
Rambo is described as a man in his 20s, 5 feet 8 inches tall, with a stalky build and shoulder-length hair.
Neighbors told NBC 7 they've seen an increase in transients coming through the neighborhood in the past year.
There has been an increase of illegal poaching in La Jolla, Bird Rock and Pacific Beach, experts said.
Conservationists said Tuesday illegal poaching for crustaceans, like lobsters, and fish, like sea bass, has been occurring at alarming rates in the area.
But people might not know that what they are doing is illegal. Many are not aware that there are only certain places off-shore where it is okay to fish and catch sea life in the state.
"This area is one of 11 marine protected areas in San Diego County," said Zach Plopper, director of Wildcoast Conservation.
Plopper said the protected area is from Diamond Street in Pacific Beach to Palomar Avenue in La Jolla and one mile out to sea.
"In this reserve, any take of living or non-living marine resource is illegal," said Plopper. "Even sand and other resources like rocks. All that stuff is very important to the marine habitat. It's important we protect every aspect of that."
Governor Jerry Brown passed legislation in August to crack down on illegal poaching. CA Fish and Wildlife, along with Wildcoast Conservation and other agencies are now implementing those rules.
"This area is really the epicenter of this problem in California and poaching is increasing," said Plopper.
Enforcers will be looking for anyone in the reserve area with spears, nets and other fishing gear. Boats in the reserve will also be monitored to make sure fishing is not happening off them.
Any person caught with illegally poached animals could face up to a $1,000 fine per animal and possible jail time. Activists are trying to make it up to a $40,000 for a first time offense.
Anyone who sees signs of potential illegal poaching is encouraged to call the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The Mayor of Tijuana, Mexico called actions by some members of the migrant caravan that forced a brief closure of the San Ysidro Port of Entry on Sunday “criminal” and said it was unfair to Tijuana residents.
Citing an economic study, Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastélum said the hours-long closure cost his city 129 million pesos, or roughly $6.3 million, in revenue.
“That’s not fair for the people in Tijuana,” Mayor Gastélum said.
Gastélum said the actions of some migrants were also unfair to others among the caravan.
“Bad people, not the good people, some of them, not all of them, came in and [participated in this], walking disorderly, trying to cross the border without [the United States’] permission. I mean, that’s a criminal way of doing things,” he said.
Gastélum said that if he had a “magic wand,” he’d activate his own government and the governments of the migrants, and anyone else who could support the situation.
“This matter is not going to be fixed with one solution. It’s a big issue where a lot of corners have to be, let’s say sharpened,” he said.
Gastélum said it wasn’t his place to criticize members of the migrant caravan, but said if they don’t meet the United States’ requirements for asylum then they should either return to their home country or stay in Tijuana and try and make a decent living.
“Tijuana is a migrant city. We are not afraid of migrants,” he said.
But offering members of the caravan a chance at prospering in Tijuana is difficult. Gastélum says that according to the National Commission of Human Rights, the Mexican government would be violating migrants’ human rights by asking them if they’d like to make a life in Tijuana.
“If they would say that [they want to stay here], they haven’t asked for that. We don’t know who they are, we don’t have them registered. We can’t even ask them ‘What do you want to do?’ because according to the National Commission of Human Rights, that’s violating their rights,” the mayor said.
President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's government signaled Tuesday that it would be willing to house the migrants on Mexican soil while they apply for asylum in the United States.
United States Customs and Border Protection confirmed the arrest of 69 people who tried to enter the country illegally on Sunday. Others in the group that tried to rush the border wall retreated into Mexico after CBP officers fired tear gas at the crowds.
The North County law enforcement community is heartbroken over the loss of one of its own.
Brett Ann Gregory, an Oceanside Police Department dispatcher, was killed in a fiery crash Saturday evening in Ocotillo Wells.
Her department is hurting, but members say her memory will live on through the lives of people she's helped over the last 13 years, including a co-worker whose life she saved.
“I'm not a person who normally eats healthy, so I'm a chicken tender and French fry guy, and a big soda,” co-worker Forrest Baxter explained. One day five years ago, Baxter ordered a salad in an effort to “be healthy, trying to do the right thang.”
The Marine veteran who’s now worked more than 20 years at the department said his decision to eat healthy that day would have cost him his life if it weren’t for Brett, who he called his angel and protector.
“I swallowed this cucumber then I stood up because I was choking. So I stood up and was trying to do Heimlich on the back of a chair,” Baxter said. Not having any luck, and fearing his time was running out, Baxter walked up to Brett and placed her hands around his waist. She understood the cue and began the Heimlich withal her strength.
“Everything that was in me came out except the cucumber,” Baxter recounted. “She said, ‘Is it up?’ I shook my head and she [squeezed] probably five or six more times and all of a sudden here comes this cucumber flying across the room.”
It’s an easy story to laugh about now, but Baxter wasn’t laughing when he finally caught his breath.
“Most people don't have a hero. They have a make believe hero,” he said. “I have a real live person that is actually my hero who actually saved my life and now I have to say that hero is gone.”
OPD gave Brett an award for her life-saving action.
Brett was driving on State Route 78 near Borrego Springs Road when a truck drifted into her lane and hit her. Both cars caught on fire and both drivers were killed. Just three days prior, Brett had become a grandmother.
Baxter says the circumstances of the crash make him angry.
“Now you're thinking, ‘Why? Why couldn't he have been on his side of the road?’ because you can't figure it out you get angry,” he said.
Baxter said Brett was a fine dispatcher thanks to her kindness and passion.
“When you talk about passion, you talk about passion for the job and passion to be able to help someone. That's her,” he said.
Brett started working at the department’s front desk as a customer service officer before becoming a dispatcher in 2015. She comes from a family that's helped serve Oceanside for decades. Her dad is a retired Oceanside fireman.
The Chula Vista City Council approved the results of Measure Q, a November ballot measure that called for the end to the recreational marijuana prohibition in city limits and set the groundwork for tax structure within the industry.
Sixty-four percent of Chula Vistans who participated in the last election voted in favor of the measure, but a City Council meeting Tuesday revealed there was a bit of confusion among some of them.
Two women who spoke at the meeting said they were under the impression Measure Q would help fund regulations of current illegal shops, not allow for more shops to open legally. Part of that is true.
The passing of the measure means that licensed dispensaries can open up and the city can tax manufacturing, cultivation and testing sites, as well as dispensaries and delivery services anywhere from 5 to 15 percent.
Some of the revenue from the tax will go toward setting up an enforcement unit focused on regulating legal pot shops and shutting down illegal ones. The rest of the revenue will go into the general fund.
But opening a new legal dispensary won’t be simple.
Every applicant will have to pass a criminal background check, financial check, and have their site approved through a permit process. They’ll also need a plan for security and money handling.
And Measure Q stipulates an eight-dispensary maximum in the city. If the maximum is reached then only four additional delivery services will be allowed. The city says owners of shops currently operating illegally will not be allowed to apply.
Long-time recreational and medical marijuana advocate Ken Sobel says the way the city has handled itself is impressive.
“The city of Chula Vista has handled this issue better than probably anywhere else in the United States, and that includes many states that I have been involved in,” he said.
But neighbors’ concerns extend past where the pot is sold. The thought of testing sites and manufacturing and cultivation plants sprouting in the city worries them, too.
“It seems reckless that the marijuana regulations allow for so many commercial marijuana production sites, like pot grows and edible factories,”
The city says manufacturing, cultivation and testing will be limited to industrial-zoned sites only, and those establishments will have to qualify for a permit.
The City Council reserves the power to raise civil fines on illegal pot shops which would provide more of a deterrent for illegal operators and additional money for law enforcement.
Sobel says a regulated industry will be the safest bet for the community, and will provide an economic lift.
“These products will be made by Chula Vistans. They will take home their paychecks, they will buy houses or rent houses. They will go to their local stores,” he said.
The city didn’t provide any estimates of future tax revenue, but the city of San Diego recently confirmed its Cannabis Business Tax, implemented in January, has brought in more than $3.6 million in the first three quarters of 2018.
Chula Vista says they have shut down 40 illegal businesses in the past three years.
The City Council adopted Measure Q with a 4-1 vote. The only councilmember who opposed was John McCann.
Pro-marijuana legislation was also passed in Vista and La Mesa.
One of the authors of the latest federal climate assessment, which warns of severe consequences for the country’s economy, environment and public health from global warming, quickly pushed back Tuesday against the White House press secretary’s statement that the findings were not based on facts.
Katharine Hayhoe, the author of the report’s climate scenarios chapter and co-director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University, accused Sarah Huckabee Sanders of misrepresenting the report.
Sanders said the report "is based on the most extreme modeled scenario, which contradicts long-established trends.”
Hayhoe responded: “That’s two false statements because: 1 we considered many scenarios including vv low ones; and 2, the chapter I wrote concludes this, based on actual data.”
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Hayhoe challenged the same assertion from the White House earlier, tweeting that the report had considered a very broad range of scenarios.
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The National Climate Assessment, mandated by Congress and produced by 13 federal agencies and outside scientists, warned that natural disasters were worsening because of global warming, threatening hundreds of billions of dollars in losses.
President Donald Trump immediately rejected the report’s projection of economic devastation, telling reporters “I don’t believe it.”
Trump, who has mocked climate change science, wants the United States to use more coal and roll back environmental protections put in place by the Obama administration that would restrict greenhouse gas emissions from vehicle tailpipes and from power plants.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke had similarly questioned the report, describing it as extreme and worst-case.
Hayhoe did agree with Sanders that modeling was complicated and said that was why she had a section on “Potential Surprises,” which included the worrisome conclusion that models tended to underestimate temperature change.
Models have done a “darn good job of reproducing observed changes,” Hayhoe added.
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The "Fearless Girl" is on the move.
The statue of a defiant little girl near Wall Street that became a global symbol of female can-do business spirit has been removed from her spot facing the "Charging Bull" and is moving to a location by the New York Stock Exchange by the end of the year.
The ponytailed girl in a windblown dress became a tourist magnet last spring when the artwork popped up confronting the famous bull that was a symbol of the American financial resilience in the wake of the 1987 stock market crash.
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State Street Global Advisors, the firm that installed the "Fearless Girl" statue in March 2017, said Wednesday that Fearless Girl had officially been removed from her original location at Bowling Green in preparation for her reinstallation.
"In her place at Bowling Green, people will find a plaque with footprints showing exactly where Fearless Girl stood for her first 20 months inspiring not only the next generation of women leaders, but also more than 300 companies globally to add a female director to their previously all-male boards," State Street Global Advisors said in a press release.
"Fearless Girl" was designed to call attention to a State Street initiative to increase the number of women on corporate boards.
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Six people, including four children, were killed in a house fire in Logansport, Indiana, early Wednesday, according to multiple reports.
Just before 2 a.m., fire officials responded to the fire at a home on Pottawatamie Road along the Wabash River, NBC affiliate WTHR reported.
Four children, between the ages of two months old and 10 years old, and two adults died after being trapped inside the home, the sheriff's department told WTHR.
Two people, a man and a woman, were able to escape the flames and were hospitalized in an unknown condition, authorities said.
"We began attacking the fire with a couple large attack lines, attempting to get the fire knocked down to where we could possibly do a rescue," said Steve Crispen, a lieutenant with the New Waverly Fire Department.
Without any nearby fire hydrants available, firefighters had to transport water in to battle the flames in below-freezing temperatures, officials said.
By 6 a.m., the fire had been struck out but the structure of the home had largely collapsed. A deputy at the scene said he did not hear smoke alarms upon arrival at the scene.
The fatalities were not immediately confirmed by the county coroner's office, and further details, including the victims' identities, were not available.
The cause of the fire was under investigation and authorities remained on the scene.
"It’s just devastating," Crispen said. "We want to try and help anyone that we possibly can - anyone that’s involved in a fire service - and save everyone that we possibly can and it just didn’t happen this morning."
Logansport is located roughly 80 miles north of Indianapolis, in Cass County.
A Hawaii man claims the false ballistic missile alert earlier this year caused him to suffer a heart attack, according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday.
The botched alert was sent to cellphones on Jan. 13, claiming a missile was headed toward Hawaii, causing mass panic, NBC News reported. James Sean Shields and Brenda Reichel, listed as plaintiffs in the complaint, were living in Honolulu at the time. They both "believed this message to be true and were extremely frightened and thought they were going to die," according to their complaint.
Around 8:15 a.m. local time, as the couple was calling loved ones, Shields felt a "severe and painful burning in his chest area," the complaint says. It took the state 38 minutes to correct its mistake. But the couple had arrived around 9:30 a.m. to Straub Medical Center, where Shields went into cardiac arrest and received life-saving CPR, defibrillation and surgery. The couple was unaware a second alert had been sent to correct the false alarm.
The suit names the state of Hawaii, the former administrator of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency and other unnamed defendants. Shields' and Reichel's attorney did not immediately return a request for comment made by NBC News.
Ahoy, matey! Boats decked out in glimmering, festive lights cruising the San Diego Bay can only mean one thing: a beloved holiday parade is back, continuing a longtime tradition started by the local boating community.
The 47th annual San Diego Bay Parade of Lights will bring dozens of vessels covered in twinkling lights and holiday decorations to the San Diego Bay to delight thousands of onlookers on Dec. 9 and Dec. 16.
Presented by the Port of San Diego, the waterfront procession features approximately 80 lavishly decked out boats illuminating the bay.
Usually, the parade takes about an hour to pass at any given point.
It begins at Shelter Island at 5 p.m. and, by about 5:30 p.m., will be making its way through Harbor Island. A half-hour later, the procession moves to the Embarcadero, passing the Berkeley Ferry and Star of India near the Maritime Museum of San Diego.
By about 6:30 p.m., the boat parade should be visible from Seaport Village and the San Diego Marriott Hotel and Marina.
For the third year, the route will then move on to the pier at Cesar Chavez Park before making the turn to Coronado where it can be seen from the Ferry Landing at around 7 p.m. The parade finishes at buoy 22A.
As each boat passes the viewing points, announcers will deliver a brief history of the vessels.
The San Diego Bay Parade of Lights typically draws about 100,000 spectators.
Two popular areas to perch during the parade are the Maritime Museum of San Diego on the Embarcadero and the Ferry Landing in Coronado.
The Maritime Museum will host its Parade of Lights Viewing Dinner during the event, an annual fundraiser aboard the Berkeley steam ferry where the judging and awards for the parade take place. The party includes a seasonal dinner and a cozy, prime spot from which to watch the parade. Tickets to this viewing dinner cost $50 for adults and $25 for kids. The parade is scheduled to reach this viewing area at around 5:30 p.m.
Spectators also tend to flock to Harbor Island, as well as the north and south ends of the Embarcadero. Parade organizers say another prime viewing spot is the park behind Seaport Village and the new pier at Cesar Chavez Park.
Boaters wishing to watch the parade can view from the water; organizers say the area where the parade turns west for Coronado – near the 10th Street Terminal – is a good point for spectators in boats.
As always, parking along the waterfront will be at a premium for this large-scale event.
These are some free of paid parking lots in the area:
Attendees can opt for public transit, as all three MTS trolley lines and several bus lines serve stations with parking lots where spectators can leave their cars – Fashion Valley, Old Town, American Plaza – and then take the trolley to the North Embarcadero area.
The Green Line can be taken to Santa Fe Depot and the Orange and Blue lines to the American Plaza station. Both stations are within walking distance from Harbor Drive – another solid spot from which to view the procession. You can check the MTS website for trolley schedules and updates.
This year, the theme is "Tropical Island Christmas," so decorations will likely include some pineapples and palm trees.
As San Diegans know, the décor for this unique parade is always festive and always flashy, a big part of what makes the San Diego Bay Parade of Lights a true local tradition.
