Smoke will be seen hovering over part of San Diego County over the next several days.

Cal Fire crews said Monday they will be burning piles behind homes in the Ramona Country Estates area in hopes of creating a defensive zone if a wild fire should spark.

Smoke will be seen for several miles throughout the county, as crews work the next few days constructing the defensive zone in an area southeast of the San Diego Country Estates at the base of Mount Gower.

The area is in a community with a history of wild fires. In 2003 and 2007, fires ravaged the country estates in Ramona.

So residents like Dixie Chadwick welcome the controlled burning behind her house.

“Fire is fire and it’s very dangerous and I really appreciate the work they’re doing,” Chadwick said.

But it’s more complicated than setting the entire hill on fire, crews said. Crews had to start cutting and piling brush weeks ago -- and they can’t just burn it all.

“Some of this is endangered itself and some of it is the habitat for some of the endangered species that live out there,” said Cal Fire Chief Burke Kremensy.

If the weather cooperates, crews will continue the controlled burns for the next two weeks.

President Barack Obama may be the leader of the free world, but on Monday night he took a stab at hosting Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," temporarily unseating host Stephen Colbert for a segment.

"You've been taking a lot of shots at my job, I've decided to take a shot at yours," Obama said before taking over for Colbert on the "The Word" segment, a regular fan-favorite feature of the program that was renamed "The Decree" in honor of the president.

"Nation," Obama began, referring to his audience as Colbert famously does. "That guy is so arrogant, I bet he talks about himself in the third person."

The president also spoke about Republicans trying to repeal Obamacare, and their ability to pass a bill now that they control both the House and the Senate.

"But the president still has the veto, and if I know that guy, he is willing to use it," Obama said to a cheering audience. 

"And let's face it, even if Republicans somehow did repeal it, they would have to replace it with their own health care plan," the President said before making a joke about a future with "Mitch McConell-care," as "Walk-It-Off.gov" flashed next to the president.

He wrapped up the segment by taking a stab at the failed rollout of Obamacare, claiming that it is "Where Disney got the idea for "Frozen."

After returning from break, Colbert talked to the President about the underwhelming turnout of young voters in the midterm elections.

"I think they felt discouraged with what's happening in Washington," the president said regarding the congressional gridlock in D.C., adding: “At a certain point, people say, ‘You know what? It’s just not going to make a difference. Part of my job for the next two years, and hopefully part of the job of Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, is to convince people that even in divided government, we can still put the American people ahead of politics.”

Colbert then moved on to the state of the economy where the President defended his record by highlighting steady job growth numbers regular pushed by the White House.

"You have employed a lot of people — mostly as secretary of defense," Colbert joked, referring to Obama recently nominating his fourth top civilian at the Pentagon.

"That's boosted our numbers a little bit," Obama replied.

Colbert then commented on Obama's move on illegal immigration, adding that the President is now an emperor. "Everything we have done is scrupulously within the law and has been done by previous Democratic and Republican presidents," Obama said.

The interview was not all politics. The president opened up about his home life, and revealed that his wife and two daughters keep him humble by mocking his "big ears and suits."

It was Obama's third appearance on "The Colbert Report," his second as president. It marked the beginning of the final two weeks for the Comedy Central show. Colbert will take over for David Letterman on CBS' "Late Show" next year.
 

Firefighters continued to watch and douse hot spots Tuesday morning even as arson investigators began probing a blaze that destroyed a seven-story apartment building and damaged two other high-rises in downtown Los Angeles.

Twenty investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are expected Wednesday to join Los Angeles Fire Department and LAPD teams to begin determining the cause of the fire, which is estimated to have caused tens of millions of dollars in damage.

Arson investigators began the task of interviewing those who were the first to respond to the blaze, and some firefighters continued to monitor unburned fuel that remained at the site.

Flames consumed the seven-story, wood-framed structure and radiated enough heat to shatter the windows of office towers on Figueroa Street, reaching inside to melt computers onto desks. The Department of Water and Power reported cracks in at least 160 of its 10-by-4-foot windows.

Caltrans officials said overhead signs on the 110 Freeway were melted and will need to be replaced.

Even as the ignition source remains unknown, there is no question what fueled the ferocity of the flames: five stories of wooden framing sprawling an entire city block.

Like other midrise apartment buildings developed by Geoffrey Palmer, the complex called the DaVinci was designed with concrete and steel for the bottom parking and commercial floors, and wood framing for the residential levels above.

The building code permits a maximum of five levels to be framed in wood, according to Luke Zamperini with the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety. Taller building requires reinforced concrete or steel framing.

With fire sprinklers and other precautions built into midrise buildings, apartments with wood framing are not considered more vulnerable to fire when completed, but the exposed wood can be a fire hazard during construction.

As a matter of policy, the city of Los Angeles is encouraging highrise development in downtown, according to City Councilman Jose Huizar, who represents the area.

"Not so much because of the safety, but because of the density," Huizar said.

San Francisco launched a review of construction practices after an October fire caused millions of dollars in damage to a commercial building under construction with both wood and steel structural
elements.

Prevention is a goal of post-fire followup, said Deputy Chief Joseph Castro, of the Los Angeles Fire Fire Department, who directed the response to the DaVinci blaze. He said changes to the building code could be considered.

All lanes of the Harbor (110) Freeway and transitions roads reopened in downtown Los Angeles Tuesday morning just in time for the morning commute after the massive fire forced closures the day before.

A U.S. Navy captain partially to blame for a deadly helicopter crash is up for promotion according to a published report.

Commander Jana Vavasseur is now eligible to command cruisers, amphibious assault ships or warships, the Navy Times reports.

She was the commanding officer of the San Diego destroyer William P. Lawrence when a wave hit the ship last year, causing a helicopter on deck to crash into the red sea.

Pilots Lt. Cmdr. Landon L. Jones, 35,  and Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jonathan S. Gibson, 32, were both killed.

A Navy report said Vavasseur was partially to blame because she changed course as soon as the chopper landed.

The report, released in April, faulted the ship's commander with putting the ship into rough “quartering seas,” causing it to roll as it was struck by large waves, the Stars and Stripes reported.

The Navy Times says the widows of Jones and Gibson are outraged and plan to write letters to Navy officials, hoping to stop the promotion.
 

Chargers players and local officers from across San Diego County are coming together to deliver thousands of teddy bears to children in need.

Law enforcement will drive through up through San Diego en route to Rady Children’s Hospital Tuesday as part of the 24th annual Law Enforcement Teddy Bear Drive hosted by the San Diego County Sheriff's and Probation Departments.

The annual drive brings together 15 agencies and more than 100 local officers to collect an average of 40,000 bears every year, which helps stock up the hospital's supply for the coming year.

A caravan of approximately 80 motor and police cars will leave the U.S.S. Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum and travel down streets and highways to the hospital. Once they arrive at the Rose Pavilion, officers break into groups and visit patients in various departments to deliver the teddy bears.

The Teddy Bear Drive began back in 1990 when Coronado police Officer Brian Hardy delivered a single car load of teddy bears to the hospital for young patients spending the holidays there.

That year, Hardy gathered 12 teddy bears. More than two decades later, more than one million stuffed animals and teddy bears have been donated through the annual drive.
 

San Diego-based USS Anchorage arrived in San Diego Monday carrying the Orion spacecraft back to U.S. soil.

NASA’s new spacecraft test mission made a successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean Friday after a 3,600-mile journey through space.

The crew aboard USS Anchorage, a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship, worked for several hours Friday to recover the spacecraft, which landed 600 miles off the San Diego coast.

A team of specially trained Navy drivers worked in small boats and used tending lines to guide Orion to the Anchorage.

The Navy trained for months for the mission. Navy divers worked with NASA to orchestrate the recovery.

“This is a little bit more critical on how we recover it. Typically, if we’re recovering something for a salvage job, the condition in which we bring it up isn’t that important, but here, that’s the most critical factor," said Master Diver Tim Roff with the Navy.

Six Navy units participated in the recovery, according to Navy spokeswoman Lt. Chelsea Irish

An amphibious ship like USS Anchorage was picked for the mission for a number of reasons, ranging from its well deck to its strong radar used to track the capsule, Irish said.

The spacecraft will be at Naval Base San Diego before it’s sent to a NASA location.

Friday's test flight of Orion ushered in a new era of human exploration. NASA is counting on future Orion spacecraft to carry astronauts beyond Earth's orbit, to asteroids and ultimately the grand prize: Mars.

One woman was injured after an 80-year-old woman slammed her SUV through the front of a sushi restaurant in Grantville Monday evening.

Saddened and shaken, driver Mary Parkinson tried to piece together what led up to the accident, while the pieces of it lay in front of her. She drove her Honda Element through Kimmi's Sushi and Japanese Cuisine.

Robert Parkinson, who was sitting next to his wife at the time of the crash, said her foot slipped off the brake and onto the gas, rocketing the SUV through the front doors and into the lobby with dinner guests. The hole left in the restaurant stretched about 20 feet.

The collision caused a bench seat to pin one restaurant patron against the wall. The woman's injuries were minor, and she was taken to Sharp Memorial Hospital as soon as emergency crews freed her, according to San Diego Fire-Rescue.

Kimmi's owner told NBC 7 she saw the SUV coming just before she was about to step into its path, nearly killing her.

Next door at Brooklyn Pizzeria, patrons were startled by the crash.

“We hear bang! You know, like someone hitting...like a bomb,” owner Joset Barest said.

Robert said despite her age, his wife is a careful driver.

“We would back into something once in a while but they were fender benders,” he said.

Police verified their accounts, but they have decided to temporarily suspend Parkinson's valid driver's license.

“We have concern with any driver, whether young or old, not operating a vehicle safely. We'll take action to make sure they are," San Diego Police Lt. Paul Connelly said.

When asked if he thought his wife should be driving, Robert said, "I don't know what happened, but it sure did, and we are going to be very careful from now on."

A Del Mar doctor was sentenced Monday to nearly five months in prison for selling oxycodone and other addictive painkiller prescriptions for cash and gifts, according to U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy.

Osteopath William Joseph Watson, 59, will spend 57 months behind bars after pleading guilty in August to one count of conspiracy to distribute and dispense oxycodone without legitimate medical purpose.

Still, on his way to his sentencing, Watson defended his actions.

“I’m a great doctor. I’ve treated so many people,” he told NBC 7.

But in court, prosecutors said Watson “disrespected his profession” and did “insurmountable harm” to patients by selling them thousands of dangerous pills, including oxycodone, hydrocodone and Xanax.

In his plea deal, Watson admitted to giving painkiller prescriptions to addicts and dealers, who would use the drugs themselves or sell them on the street.

In return, the doctor was given thousands of dollars in cash and luxury gifts like designer handbags, wines and jewelry, according to DEA agents. Documents obtained by NBC 7 Investigates reveal Watson charged about $170 for a month’s supply.

The doctor’s actions contributed to the overdose death of a young patient, prosecutors said.

But Watson told NBC 7 patients pressured him for the drugs, ignoring his advice that they try natural remedies.

“I don't think they needed it,” he said. “I tried them to say, 'Breath in ease, breath out disease.' Eat a healthy diet. If you're eating a healthy diet and you're breathing, you don't need it. I would try that and they wouldn't do that. If they still thought they needed the medicine, I would give them the medicine."

At the Monday sentencing, prosecutors argued for a significant prison sentence as a warning to other doctors who may try to do the same.

Duffy said physicians who ignore the law and write prescriptions for drug-seeking patients are no better than drug dealers.

“This is part of what is creating such a problem in this country and this community,” said Duffy. “So doctors should expect that if they're involved in this kind of behavior, that they will be targeted for prosecution."

But Watson’s attorney told the judge his client had been diagnosed with bipolar and manic mental illness and suffers from alcohol problems.

For that reason, the judge reduced his sentence, settling on the 57 months. He was ordered to surrender to prison on Jan. 8, 2015. His sentence also included three years of supervised release after he serves the time.

Despite two broken knees and a fractured ankle, a retired San Diego Police lieutenant says he feels lucky to be alive after a hit-and-run crash during a funeral procession sent him flying 20 feet in the air.

Gary Morris, a 30-year veteran of the SDPD, was one of two motorcyclists securing roads for the motorcade traveling from St. Rita’s Church to Greenwood Memorial Park Monday afternoon.

As it passed 45th Street and Imperial Avenue, Morris started making a U-turn to catch up.

"I hear screeching, bang. Next thing I know I’m on my back, and this guy was going eastbound I guess. And he must have been moving pretty good because when I looked up there, he wasn't coming,” said Morris in an exclusive interview with NBC 7 from his hospital bed.

Investigators say the driver was going about 80 mph on the city street before slamming on the breaks and striking Morris from behind, going at least 25 mph at the time of impact.

Morris was sent flying 20 feet into the air, witness Jesse Ortega told NBC 7.

“I did not see it, I heard it” said Gary Stewart, Morris’s partner who is also a retired SDPD officer now working for the private company called California Motor Patrol. “I turned around and looked and saw smoke coming from the car that applied its brakes and Gary flying through the air.”

He then saw Morris lying on the ground with his motorcycle wrapped around a traffic pole.

The sedan didn’t make any attempt to stop and almost drove into other vehicles as it sped away from the scene, according to Ortega.

Police say they found the suspect’s vehicle about one block away on West Street, but the driver ran off on foot. Since his California Motor Patrol uniform looks like that of a police officer, Morris believes driver may have thought he or she hit a cop.

Unfortunately, this is not the first major wreck for Morris. With over 50 years riding on two wheels, he’s flipped over a car while turning left and broke both arms when a drunk driver crashed through a center divide.

"When you've been through it, first thing you do is look down, make sure both your feet are pointing the same way. Then you kinda know you don’t' have any major injuries,” said Morris.

Morris’ wife, daughters, and granddaughters surrounded his hospital bed, where they found out he would be OK Monday evening.

“Let’s just say Gary had someone looking out for him today” said Janice Morris, Gary’s wife who had hoped his days of danger ended with his police retirement. “Motorcycles are motorcycles, but no, I thought we were through with that.”

Morris, on the other hand, said he’ll continue to ride motorcycles until the day he dies. He and his family are just thankful this was not that day.

Approximately 2,000 U.S. Marines in and around the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean have been placed on alert ahead of the release of the torture report, NBC News is reporting.

On Tuesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee will release its report on treatment of CIA prisoners during the Bush era.

The Marines were put on alert as a precaution to respond to any potential threat against American embassies in the region.

The Navy has amphibious ships in both the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Aden in the Middle East. Marines have a permanent presence in the region to provide additional security to U.S. embassies.

Last week, Secretary of State John Kerry called Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein to express concern over the timing of the report’s release, citing issues such as "our ongoing efforts against ISIL and the safety of Americans being held hostage around the world," State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said in a statement.

If you thought it was extra loud during Sunday night’s Chargers game against the New England Patriots at Qualcomm Stadium, you weren’t alone.

New England coach Bill Belichick said it felt more like a home game, as Pats fans packed the Q, arriving early and cheering on their team all night.

“There were a couple times when I was talking to somebody or talking to one coach or another while the other side of the ball was out there and you hear the fans start yelling and (you’re) like, ‘Uh oh, what happened?’ and it was us making a good play and our fans cheering,” Belichick said. “It was a little bit of a different sensation.”

The parking lot was, if not an even split, pretty close between Pats and Bolts fans. They loudly cheered as Tom Brady led their team onto the field and booed audibly for the Chargers.

Chargers players noticed it too. Quarterback Philip Rivers said the matchup between two playoff contenders felt like a postseason game.

“It definitely had that type of atmosphere,” he said.

The majority of Patriots fans congregated behind the team’s bench, making it that much louder in the stadium.

“I don’t think I’ve ever quite seen that before,” Belichick said. “They were just all kind of in the same spot.”

Despite the competing fan bases, there were relatively few incidents. The same can’t be said about Monday night’s Packers-Falcons game at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, where 11 people were arrested and 36 more ejected from the game.

Maybe it’s the nice weather that kept everyone happy and playing nice in San Diego?

A threat at Castle Park High School in Chula Vista early Tuesday resulted in a short lockdown before police determined the campus to be safe.

At 10:15 a.m., the school received a phone call of a bomb on campus and notified police, the Chula Vista Police Department said.

The school was on lockdown for nearly an hour before the CVPD conducted a physical sweep of the school and found no devices, police said.

There are no suspects in custody and there is no continuing threat to the public, police said, though the investigation is ongoing in hopes of finding the suspect that phoned in the threat.

No injuries were reported, Sweetwater Union High School District official Manny Rubio said.

Check back for updates on this developing story.

Shots were fired during an armed robbery at a medical marijuana dispensary Tuesday in Spring Valley.

Gunfire was reported just after 11 a.m. at Spring Valley Greens, an unlicensed marijuana distributor located at 9026 Campo Road.

An employee at Smoke N Stuff next door was shot in the robbery. The 32-year-old man was taken to Sharp Memorial Hospital with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to the leg, according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.

Two suspects were taken into custody on Camino Paz, about a half mile away from the dispensary. The suspects have been identified as James Crutcher, 29, and Frank Daley, 30.

El Cajon resident Ray Shealy was in the smoke shop when someone came in and said there was a robbery at the pot shop.

“That’s when the owner of the smoke shop and me walked out to the place that was being robbed. He rang the bell, and you hear the guy in the back saying, ‘yeah, we’re being robbed,’” Shealy said. “We both ran out to call the cops and heard a gunshot.”

Shealy said he took cover inside the Spring Valley Inn Cocktail Lounge before hearing another gunshot.

“Hoping I didn’t get shot before the holidays,” he said.

According to deputies, Crutcher was the robber, and Daley was the getaway driver. Deputies said Crutcher was shot multiple times by the smoke shop employee as he tried to rob the dispensary.

The suspects tried to escape in a silver sedan, but people from the plaza chased them with a bat, according to witnesses.

Witnesses say one suspect jumped onto the hood of the car as it sped away but fell off.

Deputies soon detained Crutcher, who had suffered multiple gunshots wounds. They sent a K-9 to reach Daley, according to officials. 

“They pulled the dog on him. He was on the ground getting dragged across the street. It was kind of crazy,” said witness.

Both suspects were taken to the hospital. Their conditions have not been released.

Lt. Chris May said deputies were not involved in the shooting. May said they recovered at least two handguns. 

The sheriff's department says it is now investigating Spring Valley Greens and plans to serve the business with a Cease and Desist Order.

The family members of six people killed in a tragic plane crash are mourning those lost, as NTSB investigators work on determining exactly what caused the crash.

A private jet crashed in a Gaithersburg, Maryland, neighborhood Monday, killing all three men aboard, as well as a mother, her newborn and her small son inside a home that caught fire from the crash.

Marie Gemmell, 36, died on the second floor of her home cradling her sons, 7-week-old Devin and 3-year-old Cole.

"No words can describe the enormity of our loss and sadness over yesterday’s tragedy," Marie's husband, Ken, posted on Facebook Tuesday. "We lost Marie, the love of my life and college sweetheart, and our two young, innocent and joyful sons -- a loss that no person should ever endure."

The Gemmells' 5-year-old daughter was not home at the time of the crash.

"There will be a lot of grieving over the coming weeks, and we request that the media respect our privacy so I can provide my daughter with some degree of normalcy as we try to re-build," Ken Gemmell's Facebook post read.

As of 12:20 p.m. Wednesday, Good Samaritans nationwide helped raise more than $337,000 for the Gemmell family through a GoFundMe page. Damage to their home was estimated at more than $400,000.

Family friend Jill Lyons organized a donation center at Kid's Town Learning Center on Waring Station Drive in Germantown.

"Donations of clothing and toys have just been pouring in. What they're really looking for are gift card donations; quick-serve restaurants, coffee, Rite-Aid, CVS, Wal-Mart," Lyons said.

Meanwhile, friends and strangers alike dropped off mementos and flowers at the crash site. 

"As soon as you drive by it, that's when you just feel it, that's when it hits you and you just break down in tears," neighbor Ariella Rice said.

The three men aboard the plane have been identified as Michael Rosenberg, the 52-year-old CEO of a North Carolina-based biopharma corporation; 66-year-old David Hartman, a vice president at a pharmacology consulting firm; and 31-year-old Chikioke Ogbuka. They were from Raleigh, North Carolina.

A dispute over an express checkout line at a Miami Beach grocery store ended with one man in a coma and police looking for the suspect in the attack that was all caught on video.

Mohammad Hussein was waiting to check out at the M&L Market on Collins Avenue at 74th Street last Monday behind a man with a basketful of groceries.

Hussain called out the other shopper for using the express line with so many groceries in his basket, and the shopper knocked him to ground, police said.

“He got into an exchange of words with the subject over the use of the line,” said Officer Ernesto Rodriguez. “The subject became agitated, turned around, and smacked the victim to the ground.”

Police said Hussein was knocked out before he even hit the ground, and when his head hit the ground, it whipped back with such intensity that blood immediately began to pool around where he was lying.

Hussein suffered a head laceration and has been in a coma for the past week, police said.

“We’re under the impression the subject does live in the area,” Officer Rodriguez said.

If you have any information about the suspect or the attack, call Miami Beach Police or Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS (8477).

You might not, on a daily basis, give much thought to the water that comes out of your faucets, and flushes your toilets.

But city security officials do.

They're spending lots of ratepayer dollars to keep that water, and wastewater, safe.

Now, when it comes to public utilities "infrastructure" -- dams, reservoirs, water and sewage treatment plants, pump stations and related facilities -- San Diego is looking at paying $14 million over five years to protect them from threats.

The ambient noise, smells and occasional sights at Pump Station 2 on North Harbor Drive, along San Diego Bay, quickly tell visitors the basics of what goes on in the raw sewage treatment process.

NBC 7 was on-site there Tuesday with clearance from the city’s Public Utilities Department, being observed from above by a security camera -- and careful not to make any false moves that would summon a security guard.

The City Council has just approved a new contract with a New Jersey-based company that'll assign several dozen security guards to provide specialized services at "critical" water and sewage facilities where hazardous materials are abundant.

"We have a significantly higher training requirement because of the facilities that we are using and because it's a resource for the city of San Diego,” said Dan Stone, the utility department’s manager of safety, security and training programs. “We want to insure that we have the best folks on it."

Back in the "Psychedelic Sixties" there were threats to put LSD in reservoirs.

And in the aftermath of the 9-11 terrorist attacks, the city temporarily shut down access to Lake Miramar until more security precautions were installed.

These days, the trouble generally comes from metal thieves, vandals and graffiti taggers.

City officials don't want anyone getting paranoid about the extent and nature of other threats to the water and sewer system.

“I don’t personally see an imminent threat to what we’re doing,” Stone told NBC 7. “But I would also say that San Diego is very well positioned with our law enforcement community, with the partnerships that we make strategically to make sure that we have a lot of intelligence available."

The contract is with the local branch of New Jersey-based Securitas Security Services USA.

The city's first-year cost will be nearly $2.5 million.

If all four annual renewal options are exercised, total cost to ratepayers will be $13.7 million.

By just putting pencil to paper, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department’s new sketch artist proves old school police work is still highly effective, even with the high-tech gear, gadgets and computers available to law enforcement.

Sketch artist Deputy Mike Moeller works with little more than someone else’s memory, and if the witness had a quick or traumatic encounter, that memory may be pretty shaky.

But with the right questions and talent, Moeller turns a vague recollection into someone you could recognize.

He begins with a series of questions, for example: Do you remember his eye color? What was his skin complexion? Did you see his hair?

Then Moeller has the witness flip through the FBI’s facial identification catalog, which has page after page of different eyes, ears, cheeks and mouths. The witness will tell Moeller which images most closely resemble the features of the suspect being described.

“When all the features are done, I'm going to go back through and draw the items he picked into one face, which is why it's called a composite sketch,” said Moeller.

On Tuesday, Moeller sat down with witness Mark Almazar, a county employee who saw a man throw a suspicious package over the gate of the Vista Detention Center on Nov. 25.

Almazar told the deputy he got a good look at the suspect for about two to three minutes as he made a delivery to the jail. He spotted the suspect, who appeared to be another delivery person, riding up on a bicycle.

“When they opened the gate, that’s when he threw the bag, hopped on the bike and just bolted out,” said Almazar.

Officials say the suspicious package was full of animal bones, teeth and jaws.

With agonizing detail, Almazar described the suspect to Moeller, who sketched each feature until it became a face.

"Since I started doing this, usually the last question I ask on every sketch is if I were standing in front of the guy you saw and I had this drawing in my hand, would I know it's him? And if they say yes, then I'm done,” said Moeller.

Since he started sketching in July, Moeller has finished ten sketches – one of which led to the arrest of a juvenile suspect.

"And when I looked at the picture of him when they talked to him, his head was shaved. But when I did the drawing he had long hair. And they found a picture of him with long hair, and it looked so much like him. It was bizarre," said Moeller.

He told NBC 7 the juvenile was found guilty after his sketch led officials to the right person.

“It was at least some validation that I’m doing it the right way,” Moeller said.
 

Former Chula Vista City Councilwoman Mary Salas made history Tuesday when she was sworn in as the city’s first Latina mayor.

“It’s a great privilege to be to be the first anything, a trailblazer,” Salas told NBC 7. “But I hope that people realize first and foremost I’m the most qualified to be the mayor of Chula Vista through all my experience, both professionally and politically.”

Mary Casillas Salas’ path to become mayor stems from a history of family service to her East County hometown.

Joseph Casillas Elementary School was named after her uncle, a POW known for his community involvement. Her uncle Armando, also known as AY, served on the school board and even ran for city council.

Salas counts him as one of her early political influences.

“At gatherings, I would bring up political things. I’m sure there’s some influence there," said Armando.

First elected to the city council in 1996, Salas has served three terms as a councilmember and worked for the state assembly.

She said the political bug hit her at the age of 37, when she went to college at San Diego State University to motivate her two daughters.

Now at the age of 66, she has the power to be an inspiration to so many more as the first Latina mayor.

When voters ask about her Latino agenda, she talks about being inclusive to all, getting more public input and more civic engagement.

She also wants to carry out development plans laid out by previous administrations.

“That’s the development of the bay front with the hotel and convention center, the establishment of a four-year university and the millennium project that’s being built in the east and urban center, and that’s going to create thousands and thousands of jobs,” said Salas.

While serving in her new seat, she said she’s committed to creating walkable communities in Chula Vista – one reason she has moved into the downtown.

Salas plans to use her background in economic development to spark continued growth in the area and across the city.

“We certainly have to set a goal and be proactively seeking those businesses out, and that’s what I’m going to do,” the new mayor said.

A fire sparked within the walls of a University of San Diego building Tuesday night. 

San Diego fire crews found the reported fire in the 5400 block of Linda Vista Road at about 8:30 p.m.

They say the flames were inside the walls, but they since have been put out.

Investigators later determined workers had been in the building and had left something smoldering between rooms.

The small fire caused about $10,000 in damage, fire officials say.

A bizarre mishap that sent a chuck of blasting material through a Tierrasanta home led the California agency in charge of investigating workplace accidents to cite two companies for violations.

NBC 7 obtained copies of the citations issued by California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health Mining and Tunneling Unit after a rock quarry explosion along Mission Gorge Road sent a large piece of clay into a nearby neighborhood.

The August incident left a hole in the side of John Cruz’s garage and damaged his large blue recycling bin.

“Judging by the size of the hole, penetrating the side of someone’s garage, definitely if someone was standing there… it would not have worked out well for them,” said Cruz.

Cal/OSHA issued two citations: one to Superior Ready Mix Concrete L.P., which operates the quarry, and another to California Drilling & Blasting Co. Inc., which has the blasting contract.
Both citations point to inadequate inspections saying “they did not have a written plan or procedure to identify hazards when blasting the South bench of the Superior Ready Mix Mission Gorge quarry.”

“It sounds to me like definitely human error. You’ve got to cross those t’s and dot i’s and that didn’t happen,” said Cruz.

Both citations carry fines between $400 and $600. Superior Ready Mix Concrete says this is the only event of its kind in 23 years.

“I’m probably a pretty forgiving guy,” said Cruz. “So, I get it, that was the first time that happened, first time I’ve ever heard of something like that happening, so I’ll go with that for now. It’s a freak thing.”

Cal/OSHA says both companies had already adequately addressed the violations by the time the citations were actually issued.