Donald Trump was the third person in the room in August 2015 when his lawyer Michael Cohen and National Enquirer publisher David Pecker discussed ways Pecker could help counter negative stories about Trump's relationships with women, NBC News has confirmed. 

As part of a non-prosecution agreement disclosed Wednesday by federal prosecutors, American Media Inc., the Enquirer's parent company, admitted that "Pecker offered to help deal with negative stories about that presidential candidate's relationships with women by, among other things, assisting the campaign in identifying such stories so they could be purchased and their publication avoided."

The "Statement of Admitted Facts" says that AMI admitted making a $150,000 payment "in concert with the campaign," and says that Pecker, Cohen, and "at least one other member of the campaign" were in the meeting. According to a person familiar with the matter, the "other member" was Trump.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, which investigated Cohen's hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, declined to comment.

Two car theft suspects were still on the loose Thursday after crashing the stolen car they were driving into a Chula Vista home following a brief pursuit, police said.

The chase started shortly before 11:30 a.m. when officers spotted the stolen car around First Avenue and L Street, according to the Chula Vista Police Department.

Officers then discontinued the chase a few minutes later because it was deemed too dangerous. 

The suspects then crashed the black Hyundai Accent into a home on the 100 block of Kearny Street, near Saint John's Episcopal Church, police said.

Both the male driver and female passenger got out of the car and took off, police said. A police helicopter was looking for the suspects in the area.

The car, which was still drivable, was stolen in front of an apartment Tuesday, the car's owner, who did not want to be identified, told NBC 7. 

Police have not released a description of the suspects at this time but they know who the suspects are.

Damage to the home appeared to be minor, police said. No one was home at the time of the collision.

Health officials on Thursday issued an update to their previous warnings about romaine lettuce, urging consumers to find out where their lettuce originated.

In a statement Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises consumers to "not eat and retailers and restaurants not serve or sell any romaine lettuce harvested from certain counties in the Central Coastal growing regions of northern and central California."

"If you do not know where the romaine is from, do not eat it," the statement says.

Officials focused especially on three California counties — Monterey, San Benito and Santa Barbara — and warned the public not to "buy, serve, sell, or eat romaine lettuce" from those regions.

Some romaine lettuce products are now labeled with a harvest location by region. Consumers, restaurants, and retailers should check bags or boxes of romaine lettuce for a label indicating where the lettuce was harvested.

Read the full warning from the CDC here.

Ehab Amin let his Oregon teammates know that sleepwalking through another first half was no longer acceptable.

After the Ducks fell behind by nine points, the graduate transfer cut loose during a timeout, and the message hit home.

"It really started with Ehab yelling at us that we've got to put our hands up and play more defense," Bol said.

Bol had 20 points and nine rebounds as Oregon relied on its defense and rebounding to get past San Diego 65-55 on Wednesday night.

Payton Pritchard added 12 points and seven assists for the Ducks (6-3), who won the rebounding battle 35-31 after trailing 18-11 at halftime.

"The biggest change was the rebounding," Oregon coach Dana Altman said.

However, the defensive catalyst was Amin, who came off the bench after starting his first seven games for the Ducks. His last start was in a four-point loss at Houston that saw Oregon trail by 20 in the first half.

Amin wasn't about to let that happen again, so he let fly in the team huddle.

"Yeah, I had to," Amin said. "At home we can't let that happen, get down 10 or 20 and then start playing hard and getting defensive stops.

"We showed we can be a good defensive team. We just have to play hard the whole game."

Altman said the Ducks finished with a season-high 50 deflections because they were more active with their hands.

"I thought (Amin) gave us a big lift," Altman said. "He had four steals and three of them in the first half. Ehab's energy really turned the game around."

Oregon also held the Toreros (8-3) to 34.6 percent shooting in the second half and finished with a season-high 11 steals and six blocked shots, including four by Bol.

Bol was 9-for-14 from the field and 2-for-3 from the 3-point line, where he's shooting better than 50 percent on the season. For the third time, the 7-foot-2 freshman was one rebound shy of a double-double, of which he already has four.

Most of his other field goals came on mid-range jumpers or jump hooks in the lane.

"It was really just where my teammates were getting me the ball and where I was open," Bol said.

San Diego missed a chance for its best start to a season since it joined Division I in 1979-80. Isaiah Pineiro led the Toreros with 14 points, Olin Carter III had 12 and Tyler Williams 11.

The Ducks went ahead to stay on Bol's driving bank shot early in the second half and pushed its lead to eight points four times behind Bol's 12 points after the break.

With Pineiro, San Diego's leading scorer at 20.7 points per game, on the bench with two early fouls, the Toreros were up 29-20 with 4 1/2 minutes left in the first half behind Carter's 10 points. However, the Ducks cranked up their defense to close the half with an 11-3 run by forcing six turnovers to cut the deficit to 32-31.

"It's a good win for us," Altman said. "I've got a lot of respect for San Diego and the way they play.

"We've got to finish the nonconference really strong here. We've taken our lumps early, and we've got to finish the month strong."

BIG PICTURE

San Diego coach Sam Scholl ramped up his veteran team's nonconference schedule in his first season with four games against Pac-12 competition. The Toreros are now 1-2 with one to go against Washington State in Las Vegas before Christmas.

Oregon played from behind almost the entire first half and showed the defensive grit coach Dana Altman has been seeking with a smothering trap that produced 16 turnovers.

STAT OF THE NIGHT

San Diego was only the third opponent to shoot better than 40 percent against Oregon this season. The Ducks came in second in the nation in field-goal percentage defense at 35.5 percent.

HE SAID IT

Boise State comes in Saturday at 4-5 but has given the Ducks all they can handle the past few years, winning on a buzzer-beater last season and beating Oregon in Boise three years ago. The teams will play home-and-home two weeks apart this month. "It's been a great series for us, and even though they've popped us, it makes us better," Altman said. "They've struggled some just like us, and we both need to win on Saturday night."

UP NEXT

San Diego hosts Northern Colorado on Saturday night.

Oregon hosts Boise State on Saturday night.

Part of the Santa Claus lore, mostly to entice young children to be on their best behavior, is Santa Claus is watching and knows when they have been bad or good.

But the dependence of shopping online for holiday gifts also means someone else may be watching; the people you are buying gifts for. They do so by simply logging on to the family computer and looking at what ads are sprayed across the screen.

“Even if you don’t use the same computers, if you use the same wifi, then those banner ads can jump from computer to computer,” said web designer Mark Burgess.

“People don’t realize how much of a trail you leave on the internet.”

And, that can spell trouble when you’re doing your holiday shopping online, something that a growing number of people do every year.

“I’ve done like 90 percent of my shopping online, maybe more,” says San Diego resident Abigail Wiest, a mother of four.

“It’s a little creepy to me,” she said. “I’ll shop for something on Amazon and then a few hours later I’ll open Facebook and there are three or four ads on the screen.”

So just how can you stop giving holiday secrets away?

“First off, go to the retail store,” said Steven Osinski, a marketing professor at San Diego State University. “Because one thing is for sure, the concept of retargeting has proven very effective so it is not going away anytime soon.”

There are some other tips:

• Select the privacy mode on your internet browser. This mode deletes browser history and does not store web data.
• Also, some website, Amazon is one of them, allows you to create separate user profiles. This prevents any holiday snooping.
• Lastly, turn off notifications on your computer.

A divided U.S. appeals court Thursday blocked rules by the Trump administration that allowed more employers to opt out of providing women with no-cost birth control.

The ruling, however, may be short lived because the administration has adopted new rules on contraceptive coverage that are set to take effect next month and will likely prompt renewed legal challenges.

Thursday's ruling by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concerned changes to birth control coverage requirements under President Barack Obama's health care law that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued in October 2017.

States were likely to succeed on their claim that those changes were made without required notice and public comment, the appeals court panel said in a 2-1 decision.

The majority upheld a preliminary injunction against the rules issued by U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam last year. It, however, limited the scope of the injunction, applying it only to the five states in the lawsuit and not the entire country.

Another federal judge also blocked the rules, and her nationwide injunction remains in place.

An email to the Justice Department seeking comment was not immediately returned.

Obama's health care law required most companies to cover birth control at no additional cost, though it included exemptions for religious organizations. The new policy allowed more categories of employers, including publicly traded companies, to opt out of providing free contraception to women by claiming religious objections. It also allowed any company that is not publicly traded to deny coverage on moral grounds.

The Department of Justice said in court documents that the rules were about protecting a small group of "sincere religious and moral objectors" from having to violate their beliefs. The changes were favored by social conservatives who are staunch supporters of President Donald Trump.

California filed a lawsuit to block the changes that was joined by Delaware, Maryland, New York and Virginia.

The states argued that the changes could result in millions of women losing free birth control services, forcing them to seek contraceptive care through state-run programs or programs that the states had to reimburse.

The states show with "reasonable probability" that the new rules will lead women to lose employer-sponsored contraceptive coverage, "which will then result in economic harm to the states," 9th Circuit Judge J. Clifford Wallace, a nominee of Republican President Richard Nixon, wrote for the majority.

In a dissent, 9th Circuit Judge Andrew Kleinfeld said the economic harm to the states was "self-inflicted" because they chose to provide contraceptive coverage to women. The states, therefore, did not have the authority to bring the lawsuit, Kleinfeld, a nominee of Republican President George H.W. Bush, said.

The case became more complicated after the Trump administration last month issued new birth control coverage rules that are set to supersede those at issue in the lawsuit before the 9th Circuit. Under the new rules, large companies whose stock is sold to investors won't be able to opt out of providing contraceptive coverage.

Wallace said the new rules did not make the case before the 9th Circuit moot because they are not set to take effect until January.

Jurors in the civil case stemming from a 2012 drunken driving crash that killed a Dallas Cowboys player say his best friend and the now-defunct bar they visited are equally responsible for his death and have awarded his mother $25 million.

On Dec. 8, 2012, Josh Brent and Jerry Brown Jr, best friends and teammates with the Cowboys, left the Beamers nightclub in Brent’s Mercedes. Brent, who was driving, rolled the car while driving 110 mph in Irving a few minutes after leaving the club.

Brent's BAC that night was .189 — more than two times the legal limit. Brown's family sued the bar visited by Brent and Brown, saying they were overserved, and named Brent a party to the lawsuit.

Under a Texas law, known commonly as the "Dram Shop Act," a business that sells and/or serves alcohol can be liable for any damages or injuries that occur if it's proven they provided alcohol to an "obviously intoxicated" person.

After deliberating about five hours Thursday, jurors decided Beamers and Brent were each 48 percent responsible for the fatal crash and that Brown was 4 percent responsible for his own death.

Brown's mother, Stacy Jackson, was awarded $25 million in the civil suit; the law suit had sought up to $95 million in damages, mostly from the bar.

"I cant be more grateful or thankful and I'm sure Jerry's looking down and happy," Jackson said. "It weighs on my heart because you dont want no other family to go through what I have been through ... because, you know, us as parents we prepare our children for us passing away you dont prepare yourself for seeing them going before you."Lawyers for Brown’s family and his estate told the jury that Beamers should have done more to monitor how much Brent was drinking before he got behind the wheel.

Testimony during the trial pointed to surveillance video inside Beamers and to liquor bottles on the table. Lawyers questioned how much Brent may have served himself when he and other teammates partied together with bottle service.

“It’s not enough to say we close our eyes, we did not see anything else,” said Charla Aldous, attorney for the plaintiff. “No, it is your duty to monitor.”

The defense, representing the bar, argued Brent was not obviously drunk at Beamers and was not illegally over-served by the staff. The defense told the jury that Brent is the person responsible for Brown’s death.

Brent was in court one day to offer testimony. He is also listed as a defendant in the case. Monday, he told the jury Jackson has forgiven him and they remain close. He did not mount a defense in the civil trial. He testified he could not afford to bring an attorney.

The Geminid meteor shower lights up the night sky each December, and this week it will be at its most visible, according to a NASA blog post. 

The Geminid meteors become active when Earth passes through a particularly massive trail of rocky space debris. When this debris enters Earth's atmosphere, it burns up and lights up the sky with "shooting stars." 

The debris comes from a strange rocky object named 3200 Phaethon.

To catch a peek of the fiery rocks, you'll have to find the darkest place you can, as many of the fainter meteors will be invisible due to light pollution. Still, NASA predicts that those in suburbs may see 30-40 meteors per hour, with varying changes depending on how close you are to a city. 

NASA recommends looking for them after 10:30 p.m. local time. The peak of this year's shower is expected on Thursday and Friday, around 2 a.m. local time. 

You can look out for when the meteors will be visible in your neighborhood at this link.

Apple plans to open an office in San Diego, California along with several other cities, company officials announced Thursday.

"We know that it's going to be in the UTC area in the middle of the prominent tech cluster already," said Matt Sanford, Director of Economic Development, SD Regional EDC.

Apple plans to build a $1 billion campus in Austin, Texas, that will create at least 5,000 jobs ranging from engineers to call-center agents while adding more luster to a Southwestern city that has already become a bustling tech hub.

The decision, announced Thursday, comes 11 months after Apple CEO Tim Cook disclosed plans to open a major office outside California on the heels of a massive tax cut on overseas profits, which prompted the company to bring about $250 billion back to the U.S.

"Ultimately having a big name like Apple is good for San Diego. Similar to Google being here, Teradata being here, Walmart labs and Amazon, it draws exposure to talent that San Diego is the place to be," Sanford said.

The company said it will also open offices in Seattle, and Culver City, California, each employing at least 1,000 workers over the next three years. Apple also pledged to add hundreds of jobs each in New York; Pittsburgh; Boston; Boulder, Colorado; and Portland, Oregon.

UC San Diego engineering student Samir Damle believes it would be great to work in an environment a company like Apple provides. 

"You don't have to relocate to the Bay Area after you graduate and have to leave San Diego to find a job," Damle said. "That's fantastic."

Mayunk Kurkrna, another engineering student at UC San Diego, is also interested in working for the company. 

"They just make products so superior compared to others and I want to experience how the product development happens," Kurkrna said.

Read more about the company's overall announcement here.

The area near UC San Diego between the coast and Interstate 805 is known as the Golden Triangle. In the next four years, there will be at least 50 major public and private construction projects in this area, according to SANDAG. 

You can view the current and future projects using this interactive map. 

The owner of a chain of now-closed jewelry stores was sentenced Thursday to state prison for preying on U.S. service members, California’s attorney general announced.

Ramil “Randy” Abalkhad, the owner of Romano’s Jewelers, was sentenced to three years probation and 90 days in jail for illegal financing and debt collection practices targeting sailors and Marines in San Diego.

NBC7 Investigates first broke the story about Romano's Jewelers more than 3 years ago.

“(Thursday’s) sentencing should send a clear message to them and others looking to commit predatory crimes against our service members,” Attorney General Xavier Becerra said. “We intend to hold unscrupulous merchants and businesses fully accountable for their offenses.”

Abalkhad was also ordered to pay the victims back thousands of dollars.

According to the criminal complaint, between 2009 and 2014 Abalkhad instructed his employees to add unauthorized charges onto the store credit accounts of military customers. He also failed to fully disclose the terms of financing, such as monthly payments and interest rates.

When the service members fell behind on their payments, Romano’s Jewelers hired debt collectors who posed as attorneys and threatened the sailors and Marines with court-martial and other military disciplinary actions, according to the attorney general’s office.

Abalkhad was already sentenced on separate charges, filed by the San Diego District Attorney's office last year. 

Four other people, including Abalkhad's wife, Melina, were sentenced for their participation in the scheme.

HiCaliber Horse Rescue, which has been facing animal cruelty and fraud allegations for months, has been evicted from its Valley Center ranch Thursday.

The owners of the ranch told NBC 7 the county has been fining the property because of fire hazard and too many animals were living on the ranch. At one point, there were more than 200 horses living on the ranch, the owners said.

HiCaliber has been renting the ranch since September 2014. Brenda Fox, one of the owners, said she gave the horse rescue a warning but then HiCaliber and its founders, Michelle Knuttila and Romney Snyder, just stopped paying rent for seven months.

The owners won a judgment to evict HiCaliber last month and are now suing the horse rescue for $4.5 million in damages.

“The destruction of the property is unbelievable,” Fox said. “All the landscaping is gone. Inside, animals had lived – feces inside the houses. It’s just really is appalling.”

She believes Knuttila may have been killing animals to make more room and still has the carcasses on the property.

When San Diego County sheriff’s deputies arrived to evict the horse rescue, 23 horses were moved next door to a neighbor's and several others were left on the property.

President Donald Trump's inaugural committee is under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan for pay to play and misspending some of the $107 million it raised from donations, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The paper, citing people familiar with the investigation, said the probe was launched by the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan, NBC News reported.

The investigation, which is reportedly in its early stages, is looking into whether some of the committee's top donors gave money to gain access to the incoming Trump administration to influence policy positions, which could be a violation of anti-corruption laws.

NBC News has not independently verified the Journal report.

An overheated extension cord used for a Christmas display caught fire and damaged a University Heights apartment Thursday.

San Diego Fire-Rescue Department firefighters were called to the two-story building on Maryland Street at around 9:45 p.m.

Firefighters said smoke from the fire caused damage to the unit.

San Diego Gas & Electric crews were dispatched to the apartment to see if there were any electrical issues within the walls of the unit.

No one was injured.

Two people living in the apartment had to find another place to stay Thursday night, firefighters said.

A battalion chief told NBC 7 a power strip is a safer option when lighting Christmas decorations.

A Honduran woman and her son with Down Syndrome were granted entry into the United States after making a claim for political asylum at the border.

María Luisa Cáceres and her son Javi joined the migrant caravan with the dream of a better life removed from violence in their home country of Honduras.

Maria says that her journey through Mexico was very difficult because Javi fainted repeatedly.

"During the road my child fainted many times, but thank God the ambulance helped me and they took him to the hospitals," said Maria, who despite all the difficulties, never gave up and encouraged Javi to keep walking.

Maria remembers she was discriminated against several times because of Javi’s disability and because he didn’t have a father.

"When my son was born, the one who was my partner renounced us and I was left alone with Javi 2 days old," María told Telemundo 20.

Maria had to assume the responsibilities of both mother and father with Javi and her three other children. She says it’s Javi's innocent kisses that inspire her to get up every day and fight for the welfare of her entire family.

"He gives me strength with the hugs he gives me, my child is very affectionate," said Maria.

She also feels very grateful to the family that gave her shelter in her home in City Heights, where she shares a room with Javi. There she says she feels like part of a family.

"I do not want to return for everything I've gone through, but I start thinking about my other children, my mother who is sick and my brothers who stayed in Honduras and I feel very sad," María said while Javi dried the tears from her eyes.

Both were turned over to the authorities at the San Ysidro Port of Entry and three days later, they were released from the Otay Mesa Detention Center. Maria was given a GPS device that they put on her right ankle.

Maria's case was special, given that she was given priority by her son's condition. Despite the sadness that seizes her, she says that she will continue to fight to help her entire family in Honduras and other children who, like Javi, have been rejected and even abandoned by their parents.

If you would like to give a donation to this and other migrant families you can do so through the Minority Humanitarian Foundation.

The last time the Chargers went to the playoffs, in 2013, they had to come from behind to beat the Chiefs late in the season.

Then they lost nine straight games to Kansas City so it's awfully fitting that the next time the Chargers made the playoffs they did it by coming from behind to beat the Chiefs late in the season.

The Bolts overcame a 14-point 4th quarter deficit at Arrowhead Stadium to beat the Chiefs 29-28 and clinch a spot in the post-season, and they did it with one heck of a gutsy call at the very end.

The game could not have started any worse for the Bolts. The first pass Philip Rivers threw was intercepted, setting up the Chiefs on a short field. Patrick Mahomes capped a 10 play, 49 yard drive with a 5-yard touchdown pass to Demarcus Robinson and a 7-0 K.C. lead.

The Chiefs scored again on another Mahomes TD pass to take a 14-0 lead by the end of the 1st quarter and it looked like things would get out of hand but the Bolts put together a long drive, going 75 yards in 10 plays and setting up Rivers to Mike Williams for a 3-yard score that cut the lead to 14-7.

That was not the first time Williams would end up in the end zone.

After the Chiefs went up 21-7 in the 3rd quarter Williams scored on a 19-yard run, becoming the first Chargers wide receiver to score a receiving and rushing touchdown in the same game since Tim Dwight in 2002, also against the Chiefs.

Kansas City scored again on a 1-yard run by Damien Williams and, with just 8:15 to play and a 28-14 lead, seemed to be in control. But Rivers pulled a couple of rabbits out of his hat.

Philip engineered a TD drive that ended with running back Justin Jackson, who started because Melvin Gordon and Austin Ekeler were hurt, scoring from three yards out to make it a 28-21 game.

The Bolts defense got a 3-and-out that included a sack of Mahomes by Isaac Rochell and Melvin Ingram to set up drama.

On 4th and 7 with 1:11 to play Rivers threw a dart to Travis Benjamin for 26 yards. Then the NFL officials started doing NFL official kinds of things. They missed what should have been an obvious penalty on a high hit on Rivers then called a questionable pass interference in the end zone on Kyle Fuller but swallowed their whistles when Williams pushed off in the corner for a touchdown that made it 28-27 Chiefs with four seconds left.

Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn decided to go for two and the win. It paid off.

The K.C. defense got crossed up and Williams was standing all alone in the end zone to make a catch and give the Chargers their first win over the Chiefs in half a decade.

Next week the Bolts host the Ravens on Saturday night while the Chiefs head to Seattle on NBC's Sunday Night Football. Both teams are 11-3 but K.C. still holds the edge because of a better division record so if the Chiefs win out they will be AFC West champions while the Chargers earn a wild card and that is significant because they've been a better team on the road than they have at "home."

In games played in Los Angeles they're 4-3. In games played outside of L.A. they're 7-0.

Actress Cybill Shepherd said her 1990s CBS sitcom was pulled after she turned down advances from now-former network head Les Moonves, an experience she called "very painful," NBC News reported.

"My show could have run another five years, but I didn't fall on the right side of Les," she said during an interview on SiriusXM's The Michelle Collins Show that aired Wednesday.

Shepherd said that during a dinner date Moonves began telling her that his wife and mistress didn't "turn him on" and he asked to take her home.

Soon after she turned him down she was not allowed into the editing room to work on the final two episodes of her series, she said.

A request for comment by NBC News to Moonves’ lawyer and representative were not immediately returned. Moonves has been accused of sexual misconduct by 12 women and denied the allegations.

The CBS board has until the end of January to decide whether to deny his $120 severance package.

Juvenile arrests in the San Diego region are at the lowest rate they’ve been in a decade, according to a new report.

The report – released Friday by the San Diego Association of Governments’ (SANDAG) Criminal Justice Division – finds that, on average, San Diego law enforcement agencies made 13 juvenile arrests daily in 2017.

The report said the annual arrest rate was 13.9 per 1,000, which is a 76 percent drop from the arrest rate in 2008 of 56.9 per 1,000.

SANDAG Division Director of Criminal Justice Dr. Cynthia Burke said the statistics show the juvenile arrest rate in the San Diego region has declined over the past 10 years. This could be due, in part, to an increased focus across California on what the report cites as "prevention, diversion, and alternatives to detention."

However, San Diego County still had the second-highest juvenile and adult arrest rates in 2017 compared to the four other largest counties in Southern California. San Bernardino had the highest rate, followed by San Diego, Orange, Los Angeles, and Riverside counties.

The SANDAG report also looked at adult arrests in San Diego County in 2017, finding that, on average, 229 adults were arrested daily in San Diego County in 2017.

When comparing the juvenile stats against the adult stats, the report said the figures equate to about one juvenile arrest for every 19 adult arrests.

Also in comparison to juvenile arrests, the report shows adults were more often arrested for violent, drug-related and weapon offenses than minors. The report found that alcohol and drug-related offenses – including driving under the influence – were among the most common reasons for adult arrests. Adults between the ages of 20 and 29 had the highest arrest rate in San Diego County.

SANDAG said another notable statistic is the 9 percent decline in adult property offense arrests in 2017 compared to 2016.

“This decline in property-related arrests for adults may be related in-part to Proposition 47 which was passed in 2014 and reduced several property and drug-related offenses from felonies to misdemeanors,” Burke said in a press release.

The report also looked at gender across both the juvenile and adult arrests categories. On an average day last year, 172 adult males were arrested compared to 56 adult females. For all of 2017, SANDAG said 3,423 juvenile males were arrested across the San Diego region and 1,278 juvenile females.

SANDAG has been reporting crime statistics for San Diego since 1980. The data is used by local agencies to track public safety and improve the prevention of crimes.

To read this full report, click here.

Family members of a Miami woman whose body was found when she didn’t return from a vacation in Costa Rica now say they believe more people were involved in her death.

On a Facebook page that was created during the search for 36-year-old Carla Stefaniak, who had failed to return from a trip for her birthday, family members say sources close to the investigation have told them forensic results have investigators believing more people were involved.

“In fact, the doubt extends to that there may be up 3 or 4 possible people involved,” the family wrote in a message Thursday night. “We have been saying this since day 1. This was organized by more than one person as soon as Carla booked the place.”

A security guard at the Airbnb where Stefaniak had been staying, Bismark Espinosa Martinez, has been arrested in connection with the case.

Sister station Telemundo 51 reached out to officials in Costa Rica, who said information on the case is "confidential."

Stefaniak was traveling with her sister-in-law when she was last heard from by her family on Nov. 27; she was scheduled to fly home the next day. While her sister-in-law flew home early, Stefaniak stayed but told friends it was “pretty sketchy” at the resort.

A partially buried body was found in the woods near that resort close to a week later, which was identified by Stefaniak’s father. An autopsy revealed that Stefaniak suffered a blunt force wound to the head and cuts on the neck and arms.

Family members brought Stefaniak’s ashes back to Tampa, where she lived after moving to America in 2000 from her native Venezuela for 12 years before moving to South Florida.

Facebook revealed on Friday that a bug in its platform may have allowed third-party apps to have access to a broad range of user photos, including pictures that users uploaded to Facebook but did not share.

Facebook said in a statement on its website that the bug may have affected 6.8 million users and up to 1,500 apps between Sept. 13 and Sept. 25. The company did not say when it discovered the issue.

“When someone gives permission for an app to access their photos on Facebook, we usually only grant the app access to photos people share on their timeline,” Facebook wrote. “In this case, the bug potentially gave developers access to other photos, such as those shared on Marketplace or Facebook Stories. The bug also impacted photos that people uploaded to Facebook but chose not to post. For example, if someone uploads a photo to Facebook but doesn't finish posting it - maybe because they've lost reception or walked into a meeting - we store a copy of that photo so the person has it when they come back to the app to complete their post." 

The social media company said it will put out tools next week for the app developers to see which users were impacted by the bug, and it will help those developers delete the exposed photos.

Facebook said it will also notify its users who were potentially affected with a Facebook alert. It also encouraged people to visit the Help Center to see if they or apps they use were affected.

The problem comes in a year fraught with privacy scandals and other problems for the world's biggest social network. Revelations that the data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica improperly accessed data from as many as 87 million users led to congressional hearings and changes in what sorts of data Facebook lets outside developers access. In June, a bug affecting privacy settings led some users to post publicly by default regardless of their previous settings. This bug affected as many as 14 million users over several days in May. 

On Thursday, to counter the bad rap it's gotten around privacy as of late, Facebook hosted a one-day "pop-up" to talk to users about their settings and whatever else may be on their mind. Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan was on hand to answer questions. Asked by a reporter what grade she'd give Facebook for its privacy work in the past year, she said "B." By 2019, she said she hopes the improvements will result in an "A." 

Privacy experts might call it grade inflation. In any case, the company has its work cut out before it makes the perfect grade.

With two more weeks left of the year, it's possible there's still time for another privacy kerfuffle at Facebook.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.