A man was escorted in handcuffs from a Chula Vista home after a SWAT standoff Wednesday night.

Chula Vista police started diverting traffic from the 200 block of East Oneida Street -- just north of East Palomar Street -- at about 5 p.m. after someone called 911 for help with a domestic violence suspect.

Neighbors say the standoff had been going on for about four hours.

According to police, the suspect has a history of drug abuse and had several knives.

SWAT officers were to arrest him without incident.

An armed robber held up a jewelry store inside a popular East County mall Wednesday night.

Just before 8 p.m. in the Parkway Plaza Mall, a man entered Weisfield Jewelers and asked about buying a ring. 

Once an employee began to show the man some jewelry samples, the man showed a firearm, grabbed merchandise from the display case and ran off, El Cajon Police said.

The suspect left the mall through the north entrance heading in the direction of Fletcher Parkway.

He was described as having a thin build and standing approximately 5-foot, 2-inches tall wearing a black hat, black jacket and dark colored pants.

No one was injured in the robbery.

The El Cajon Police Department uses the website CrimeMapping to share reports of crimes with its residents. Since the beginning of the year, there have been close to 60 reported crimes ranging from robbery to shoplifting to drug and alcohol violations in the vicinty of the mall.

Parkway Plaza Mall, which sits near Fletcher Parkway and Johnson Avenue, has dozens of stores, a movie theater and a carousel for the kids.

Mall management told NBC 7 that stores will open as scheduled Thursday.

"We're aware of the incident and are fully cooperating with the authorities' investigation," said spokesperson Ken Gray.

Anyone with information can call the El Cajon Police Department at (619) 579-3311.

You could call Chris Banner’s love of Batman a true passion. Well, it’s actually more of an obsession.

“I’ve got a problem,” he confessed. “Everything I have is a bat. All my tractors have bats; my trucks, bats. Socks, underwear, you name it. I’m bat.”

From the boots to the bat-cave and a custom-built Batmobile, Banner has made his being Batman his third job. He even patrols his hometown of Valley Center, San Diego, as the Caped Crusader.

His ride, he built from scratch, stripping down a 1947 Ford Galaxy and rearranging its engine and radiator. The work took about a year to complete, and it includes a camera to help him back up, a custom-made dashboard, lights and a smoke machine.

“It's all made of fiber glass,” Banner told NBC 7 Wednesday. “It’s 22-feet long, and it’s one heck of a machine to drive, especially when you're Batman."

The batty fanatic started collecting his favorite superhero’s gear after he got his first Robin costume at age 7. Now, he's turned his love toward a good cause. He produces live Batman shows about 40 times a year, sometimes for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

“You know some of these kids only have so much time left, and to put a smile on their face, it makes them happy. It’s worth it to me,” he said. “Makes that whole day better so hopefully I got to a good place."

When he takes off the mask, it’s no Bruce Wayne-style existence for Banner. He instead works in real-estate and weed trimming, for which he uses the bat-themed tractors.

But to neighbors and students, he’ll always be a silent guardian, a watchful protector, a dark knight: the North County Batman.

“I've gone into their classrooms and stuff, and I think I make a positive reaction and hopefully help them out in life and teach them to be good kids,” Banner said. “There's a lot of troubled kids out there, so keeping them safe and on the right path."

The first significant rainfall since mid-December brought improved drought conditions to parts of California, but the February storms did not bring much-needed snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountain range where snowpack figures suggest no relief from the dry spell, according to this week's U.S. Drought Monitor report.

Most of the precipitation from the subtropical storms that swept through northern California fell as rain. Snowfall was limited to higher elevations, generally above 8,000 feet. Improved conditions in California rely on snowpack in the Sierra Mountains, where melting snow in spring provides freshwater for an estimated 25 million residents.

"Overall, the storms had little impact on the well-below-normal snowpack conditions across the Sierra Nevada and Cascades ranges," according to the report.

California's statewide snowpack remains about 27 percent of normal for this time of year.

Water runoff from the northern California storms provided about 500,000 acre feet of water flow to four major reservoirs -- Folsom, Oroville, Shasta, and Trinity -- that have been at critically low levels. As a result of the storms, parts of northwestern California and areas between San Francisco and Santa Cruz saw improved drought conditions compared to a week ago.

An acre-foot is a commonly used unit of volume used to measure large-scale water resources, such as reservoirs. It refers to the volume of one acre to a depth of one foot.

Nearly 100 percent of California remains under some type of drought, the severity of which falls under four Drought Monitor categories -- moderate, severe, extreme and exceptional. Last week, 77 percent of the state was under extreme drought, but that figure improved to 67 percent in the report released Thursday.

State climatologists estimate the state would need at least 150 percent of normal precipitation by the end of the water year, which is Sept. 30, if California has any chance of significant drought improvement.

Gov. Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency in January 2014 and asked Californians to reduce water use by 20 percent. State records show its a figure residents have had difficulty meeting, except for in December when statewide figures showed a 22-percent water-use reduction.
 

Whenever an endangered animal dies at the San Diego Zoo, researchers race out, regardless of the hour, to remove its sperm or eggs, maybe a bit of ear or eyeball, and carefully freeze the cells in liquid nitrogen.

Today, the survival of the northern white rhinoceros and dozens of other species could hinge on the collection amassed over nearly 40 years that has become the largest gene bank of its kind: The Frozen Zoo in Escondido, north of San Diego.

The icy vials may someday even be used in experiments to resurrect recently extinct animals, like the Hawaiian Po'ouli bird. The stainless steel tanks hold the genetic material of more than 10,000 individual animals from more than 1,000 species and subspecies.

The Frozen Zoo's work has taken on renewed urgency since the San Diego Safari Park lost 42-year-old Angalifu to cancer in December, leaving only five northern white rhinos left in the world, and all unable to reproduce.

Scientists are racing against the clock to find the best way to utilize the bank's frozen sperm to produce another one before the northern white goes extinct, which could happen within a decade.

Critics question whether it's worth spending millions of dollars on species that are down to so few.

The bank is valued as a genetic archive that has helped advance artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, cloning and stem cell technology. But debate is stirring over how far such research should go.

"The frozen zoo is basically re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic," said Paul Ehrlich, a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University.

He noted the world needs to address the problem's root causes, such as population growth and climate change.

"Screwing around with science to save a white rhino might be fun and I would like to see it preserved and am all for biodiversity, but it's so far down the list of things we should be doing first," he said.

With species going extinct at a faster rate, zoos are taking on greater conservation roles and facing deciding which animals are worth focusing efforts on saving. Some may be extinct by the time another one is reproduced and possibly never live in the wild.

The northern white's natural habitat is in war-torn countries like Sudan and Congo, which have been unable to stop poachers. The horn is coveted in Asia as an aphrodisiac, creating a market that threatens all rhino species.

There's also the hurdle of producing enough offspring to avoid inbreeding.

"We can do all kinds of razzle dazzle things but it's one thing to make another animal or two or three, but it's quite another to make a sustainable population from a genetic standpoint," said George Seidel, a Colorado State University professor who has written about resurrecting the wholly mammoth.

The challenges, however, are not insurmountable for critically endangered species or possibly recently extinct species, said Barbara Durrant, director of reproductive physiology at The San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, which houses the Frozen Zoo.

"We're not so much interested in bringing back dinosaurs or mammoths," she said. "There's really no place for them now."

The Frozen Zoo holds the cell cultures from 12 northern white rhinos -- more than the living population: "There have been other species that have come back from numbers that small so we think there is good reason we can do this with the northern white rhino," she said.

Sperm from the Frozen Zoo has been used in artificial insemination to reproduce endangered animals from the giant panda to the Chinese monal pheasant. Its frozen cells also were used to clone two endangered types of cattle. The gaur lived only a few days while the banteng survived for seven years before being put down after breaking a leg. Both animals, however, had genetic defects.

The northern white rhino and the drill monkey were the first endangered animals to have their cells transformed into stem cells and stored at the Frozen Zoo.

Theoretically stem cells can produce any body tissue. That means thawed stem cells from a male rhino could produce both sperm and egg in the lab, but the method has been done only once _ in a mouse.

Artificial insemination has seen success in producing other rhino species. Northern white rhino semen could be used to impregnate the closely related southern white to make a hybrid.

Scientists are also looking at in vitro fertilization but that technique has never been done on any rhino species.

On a recent day, the only northern white left in the United States, 40-year-old Nola, munched on apples at the San Diego Safari Park. When she dies, there is talk of placing her in the Smithsonian so future generations can see a northern white rhino.

A high-profile San Diego trial attorney has settled a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a woman who accused him of offering "quid-pro-quo" sexual proposals.

While continuing to deny those allegations, John Gomez and Gomez Trial Attorneys have agreed to resolve the legal action, which was filed on behalf of Alexa Zanolli in October, 2014.

As part of the settlement, the Gomez law firm will make a financial donation to an unnamed charity that helps female victims of sexual harassment or abuse. Zanolli will select the charity, and the contribution will be in her name.

Zanolli, a female attorney who had applied for a job at the Gomez firm, claimed in her lawsuit that Gomez “refined and honed his techniques in carrying out his ‘quid-pro-quo’ sexual proposals…without explicitly proposing an exchange of employment… for sex.”

The lawsuit listed text messages that allegedly prove how Gomez tried to find out if Zanolli would “be willing to satisfy his sexual desires in exchange for a job…”

She claimed Gomez used his knowledge of the law to protect himself against lawsuits. Zanolli was not hired at the Gomez firm.

Gomez’s attorney Regina A. Petty released a statement to NBC 7 in November, saying “It is an injustice that John Gomez has been forced to defend himself against meritless claims.”

“Ms. Zanolli was interested in following one of John’s trials,” the statement continued. “Only once was a text conversation anything other than professional.”

Another sexual harassment lawsuit, filed by Elizabeth Castelli, is still pending against Gomez and his firm. Castelli worked as a paralegal at the Gomez firm. She claims she endured sexual harassment for more than a year because she is a single mom and needed a job. That lawsuit was filed in September, 2014. Court records show the case is now being heard by an arbitrator, instead of a superior court judge.

Petty told NBC 7 both claims are baseless.

“Anyone can allege anything in a lawsuit. Both women have no facts behind their claims of sexual advances and are attempting to win the lottery,” Petty’s November statement said.

A Yale University Law School graduate, Gomez is the founder and president of Gomez Trial Attorneys, which boasts high-profile and very lucrative courtroom victories for victims of accidents, defective products and dangerous drugs.

The San Diego Police Department has handed its case involving the death of a San Diego man at a Midway District gentleman's club over to the District Attorney's Office for further review, according to a member of the department's homicide division.

SDPD does "not anticipate an arrest" in the death of a Joseph Thomas outside Pacers Showgirls International in December.

NBC 7 learned Wednesday night his death was ruled a homicide, according to an autopsy report.

Thomas' death was caused by asphyxia due to “neck and torso compression during prone restraint,” according to a deputy medical examiner. The autopsy report was released to NBC 7 Wednesday.

Cocaine and alcohol were also in his system at the time of his death, and Thomas had an underlying hear condition, according to the report.

Thomas, 37, had been at Pacers in the Midway District when police investigators say he reportedly punched another patron. Police said he began struggling with bouncers and struck one when they “then ‘dog piled’ him to subdue him.”

Click here to see the original story Thomas's death.

According to police, Thomas was face down under the bouncers.

When officers arrived, police say, Thomas was unresponsive and not breathing. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

“It’s a relief to some extent to know after having to wait all this time to get a final [answer]," Arthur Thomas, the victim's twin brother, said. "It’s very hard to hear this because we suspected this. It’s very emotional."

NBC 7 reached out to Pacers Showgirls International Wednesday evening. An employee said they were instructed by their attorneys not to comment.

Thomas's death is one of two men who have recently died in San Diego County after a night out at a bar.

NBC 7 Investigates recently uncovered what local security experts are calling an "underground industry" of unlicensed, untrained security officers and bouncers in the area. Former San Diego Police detective and CEO of Security Nightclub Consultants, Robert Smith, said, "probably 70-75% [of working security officers] are not licensed properly."

Click here to see the full investigation.

The names of the bouncers involved in the incident have not been released.

San Diego Unified School Superintendent Cindy Marten says the district is focusing on neighborhood schools, high achievement and keeping students safe.

“You hear a lot of things about schools and you want to make the best choice. We do have a great choice program in our district but our message is go to your neighborhood school first if you haven’t been there our principals are ready to welcome you take you on a tour.The programs in our local schools are decided by the local community. “ said Marten.

It’s part of a plan called Vision 2020.

Marten appeared on NBC7 News Today to discuss the plan and the current measles outbreak in California.

So far the district has not had a case of measles. State legislators are proposing to remove the “personal beliefs exemption” for parents who don’t want to get their children vaccinated.

“There is great concern we certainly want to just keep our families informed,” she said.

Marten said lawmakers are making decisions but says “right now we want the message to be that our students are safe we take precautions we over-communicate to our teachers to our families making sure we are getting accurate timely information out how to keep our kids safe,” she said.
 

A school bus matron was arrested for allegedly grabbing the throat of an 11-year-old Bronx boy, scratching him and pushing him into his seat, leaving him with scrapes on his arms and a red ring around his neck, according to court documents and authorities familiar with the case.

Melanie Evans, 35, was arrested Tuesday in connection with the Jan. 15 attack on the boy aboard a moving bus near Webster and Tremont avenues after school.

Photos obtained by NBC 4 New York (above) show redness around the boy's neck and cuts on his arm.

According to a criminal complaint, Evans, who is not an employee with the city's Department of Education, allegedly told the boy loudly to sit down in his seat, then put her hand around his neck and squeezed, causing him to have trouble breathing. The boy told authorities he put his arm up in self-defense and the bus matron scratched him, the complaint says.

Evans was arraigned Wednesday on charges of criminal obstruction of breathing and acting in a manner injurious to a child. Information on an attorney for her wasn't immediately available and it wasn't clear if she entered a plea.

She will not be allowed to work with the education department in any capacity pending the outcome of the investigation.

"This alleged behavior is alarming. While Ms. Evans is not a DOE employee, she has been removed from her position and will no longer be a bus matron," DOE spokeswoman Devora Kaye said. 

Every time you buy a new tire, you pay a $1.75 fee into a state recycling fund, but NBC7 Investigates found tires are not recycled with the money.

Many end up as hazardous waste in San Diego’s border region.

“Of course I don’t want my home built on tires, but I have nothing else, what can I do?” Ana reluctantly stands outside of her Nuevo Milenio home in Tijuana, explaining to a San Diego news crew why she uses hundreds of tires as the foundation for her home.

“Of course it’s dangerous. If it rains, my home could wash right down this hill and into the street,” she says in Spanish. “Again, what can I do about it?” 

A widow with three children and two grandchildren living in a small makeshift shack in Tijuana, Ana resells discarded items a family member scavenges from alleyways and dumpsters in San Diego. She declined to give her last name.

Down the dirt road a bit, Candrea Gonzalez-Montes explains how the tires are embedded for erosion control into the hill on which her home and the small tienda her family owns precariously sit.

“For the moment, we’re happy to have them (the tires). We don’t have any other resources for protection, so they’re very necessary for the moment,” she explains in Spanish.

Gonzalez-Montes hopes Tijuana city officials will step-in and improve her squatter village’s sprawling unsanctioned development with materials like concrete and infrastructure improvements, but she isn’t holding her breath.

She knows living so close to thousands of tires may have a negative impact on her health, but stresses that people in her community are resourceful and use what material they have.

“Yes, it worries us because it seems like it wouldn’t affect you but then it does affect you, for example my baby gets sick, or sometimes the tires catch on fire and breathing that in gives you asthma,” she said, pointing out tires that have slipped into the creek and are now filled with fouling water and hosting mosquitos.

The Tire Recycling Management Fund

Every year, as many as four million California tires end up south of the border in Tijuana.

It starts at the auto store, when you buy a tire and pay a fee to Cal-Recycle’s tire recycling management fund.

Last year, that fund had a $60 million ending balance, but despite being named the “Recycling Management Fund,” the money is not used for recycling tires.

Cal-Recycle spokesman Mark Oldfield said state law dictates how the money is spent, which is on tracking haulers, oversight of hauling operations and storage of tires for later recycling and, most importantly, to help create a U.S. market for recycled tire material.

"We don’t actually engage in the recycling of tires. Private businesses do it," Oldfield said.

According to data on its website, Cal-Recycle permits nearly 1,200 haulers across the state to pick up tires from tire stores or storage facilities and transport them, sometimes to the border or to ships bound for Asia.

“Keep in mind that there are some 40 million used and waste tires produced in California every year that have to be hauled somewhere, so the number of tire haulers is certainly going to be somewhat proportionate to the number of tires that have to be hauled,” Oldfield said.

The agency funds about $7.5 million a year for enforcement and another half million a year on the hauler and manifest program, according to its July 2013 five-year plan.

“They have to manifest how many tires they haul, where they take them and they have to indicate to us that they’re taking them to an approved end-use or end destination, whether that’s a storage facility or perhaps to a port for export because there is demand for this commodity,” Oldfield said.

So, after you get new tires, the old ones might be sold to haulers who are permitted by the state to take them to the border, where they are resold at thousands of llanterias, tire stores, that line the U.S.-Mexico border.

Then the tires are put on Mexico vehicles and used sometimes until the tread is bald. Finally, they are discarded again to folks like Ana and Candrea who put them to use as fixtures of Tijuana architecture.

When it rains, the loose tires wash down Tijuana hills into canals and right back across the U.S.-Mexico border into the Tijuana River Valley.

It’s then that Cal-Recycle steps in and cleans up the mess.

In 2009, the agency managed a $1.6 million grant to clean up tires and other pollution in in the Tijuana River Valley and Goat Canyon Estuary in Border Field State Park. It also awarded $2.27 million in clean-up grants to local jurisdictions in the area since 2005.

Environmental Groups Want More Done

Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina said the agency isn't doing enough.

“Frankly, everybody in California should know that when they pay a tire recycling fee, it’s not being used for recycling and that is outrageous and it’s unacceptable,” Dedina said.

Oldfield clarified that the fee is not actually called a “tire recycling fee” but rather just a “tire fee.” That fee goes into the California Tire Recycling Management Fund, which according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget spent $30.3 million in fiscal year 2013-2014, but ended the year with a $60.2 million fund balance.

For years, lawmakers have struggled with fixing what people are calling a broken system.

“We know that it’s not the most effective way to spend those Cal-Recycle dollars to just clean-up the Tijuana River Valley every once in a while when the pile of tires gets too high,” said former state senator Denise Ducheny.

Ducheny authored legislation (SB-167) in 2009 that she thought gave Cal-Recycle the authority to recycle tires south of the border, where she says the cost is much lower.

The environmental group WiLDCOAST estimates it costs $30,000 to recycle 2,000 tires at La Pasa, a recycling center on the eastern outskirts of Tijuana. On the contrary, it costs the state government millions to clean up fewer tires after they cross back into United States and become hazardous waste, the environmental group argues.

Cal-Recycle says there’s no legal way to spend money from its $60 million fund to clean up tires in Mexico.

“This is a fee that’s paid for by Californians to manage tires in California, so there’s a constitutional issue. Where can you spend a California fee? Well, you have to spend it in California,” Oldfield said.

Legal Issues

The entire discrepancy comes down to just six words in Ducheny’s approximately 1,800 word bill.

According to SB-167, money can be spent recycling tires that are “eventually disposed of in California.”

Cal-Recycle interprets those words very literally, saying it can’t touch the tires until they move back across the border into California.

Legal Analyst Dan Eaton said the law would allow for money to be spent on programs in Mexico, but there’s an important limitation.

“How do you exactly tell which tires are ‘Mexico tires’ and which tires are ‘California tires’ that are coming across the border and causing environmental pollution here? That’s the tricky thing,” Eaton said.

Officials with the Jackie Robinson West All-Stars said Thursday the team is still Little League World Series national champions, despite the league's decision to strip them of their title over allegations of residency violations.

The team’s attorney, Victor Henderson, said he advised the boys and the team not to relinquish their title, as Little League International has not provided the team with anything in writing informing them of their decision or the circumstances surrounding the investigation.

"I'm taking the position, and I think they should take the position, that they are still champions,” he said.

Henderson said the players, parents and the team’s leaders were unaware of the league’s decision Wednesday until they saw it in the media.

Little League spokesman Brian McClintock announced the news of the vacated title Wednesday morning, saying an investigation revealed that coach Darold Butler and Illinois District 4 Administrator Michael Kelly knowingly violated rules by using a falsified boundary map for their 2014 tournament and used players who didn't qualify because they lived outside the team's actual boundaries.

Henderson acknowledged Thursday that the team did have some boundary changes, but said he couldn’t comment on the circumstances surrounding those changes.

"Until we know that the process for attacking the title was fair, was transparent, the story's not over yet,” he said. "We're going to give the league the benefit of doubt, and simultaneously we're going to ask you to give the team the benefit of the doubt."

Officials said the players did not play together at the beginning of the season, instead coming together at the end to be a part of a so-called “all-star” team.

"Any suggestion or belief that this was a team put together solely to win a championship just doesn't hold water,” Henderson said. “There was no intent on anybody’s part to put together some master human race team."

While team officials say they don’t have any immediate plans to file a lawsuit, Henderson said they do plan to ensure the rules applied to JRW are applied to other teams in the league.

“We’re not raising the race card. We’re not raising claims of unfairness,” Henderson said. “I want to make sure any rules or regulations that are applied to Jackie Robinson West are applied to every other team."

Following in the steps of arguments from Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other city leaders, officials maintained the boys shouldn’t be punished for the alleged actions of adults or parents.

"As long as we stay focused on the young men, that part of the story shouldn't change,” Henderson said.

The team’s director Bill Haley also spoke Thursday asking supporters to stand by the team as they have “one battle to face.”

"You were not wrong for sticking with our boys then, and you are not wrong for sticking with our boys now,” he said.

The town of Julian is best known for apple pie and cider, but for people who call the mountain town “home”, it takes more than just dessert to survive.

Julian residents are upset about their favorite bank closing down, but it also happens to be the town’s only bank.

“Every town needs a bank, said Rebecca Vargas who manages Julian Imports. "At least an ATM.”

Rabobank recently sent customers letters saying the branch will close May 1st.

A Rabobank spokesperson says it’s a business decision.

Now locals are left with two inconvenient options: they can keep their accounts and have them transferred to the nearest Rabobank branch in La Quinta, 100 miles away, or they can transfer everything to a new bank in Ramona which is still an hour drive round trip.

“It’s going to be tough for all the merchants cause we walk across the street, we do our banking, we’re done in 5 minutes” Vargas said.

Julian business owners are particularly troubled because many of their tourist customers pay with cash.

“We don’t want to keep a lot of cash sitting around the stores, and we also are constantly needing to update our registers with change from the bank, especially during Apple Days” Vargas said.

The bank isn’t the only business to close up shop in recent months and years. The town drug store, pharmacy, hardware store and feed store all closed up shop for good.

Legoland’s latest attraction is made up of more than 500,000 Lego pieces, weighs more than 1,900 pounds and took a crew of construction workers to assemble.

Rest your eyes on the Death Star, the planet-shaped model that’s the latest addition to the LEGO Star Wars Miniland. You can check it out for yourself starting March 5.

Workers used a fork lift to perch the Death Star above the Star Wars display, which was no small task, as the model is 8-feet wide and 13-feet high.

The Death Star is inspired by Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, which featured the famous trench run scene where Luke Skywalker steered his X-wing fighter through the combat zone to destroy the Death Star.

The opening of the Death Star is a precursor to the Star Wars Days even on March 7 and 8, which will include various activities centering Star Wars.

Some 20 people were injured in a training area on the Marine base in Twentynine Palms.

An official with the naval hospital on the base said that preliminary information was that the Marines suffered from "inhalation exposure" during a large-scale, combined arms exercise on one of the training ranges of the base.

The official did not immediately say the condition of those injured but said there were no reported deaths.

On Jan. 24, a helicopter crashed during a training exercise on the base, killing two Marine Corps officers.

When the Democratic National Convention descends on Philadelphia next year, it will bring with it thousands of delegates, press from around the globe and possibly the next leader of the free world.

The quadrennial political gathering could also bring a bigger boost for one of the country's most formative cities: a multi-million dollar injection of cash into the region and its local businesses.

“Our hospitality community is on fire," Mayor Michael Nutter said Thursday, shortly after the pick was announced. "We do have this opportunity literally to make history again with hosting this convention."

Organizers and party officials estimate that the July 2016 convention will generate an overall economic impact of between $170 and $250 million in direct and indirect spending. That includes everything from hotel room rates and restaurant tabs to security details, infrastructure upgrades and construction jobs.

And while economists and others caution that figure won't necessarily translate fully to cash in the coffers of the city and its businesses, local backers say the lasting economic impact could extend beyond the dollars spent heading into and during the political production.

“First and foremost, landing the DNC for us is huge, huge visibility for the city," said Julie Cocker Graham, executive vice president of the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, said in an interview Thursday. "It puts us on an international and national stage in terms of visitors and convention attendees coming to Philadelphia, and it really does prove what we’ve always known — that we are the city that offers the complete package."

Projections for how much Philly could take in during the convention are comparable to figures reported by other recent host cities, including 2012 convention host sites Tampa, Florida, and Charlotte, North Carolina.

The 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa injected $214 million directly into the local economy, with the bulk of that going to infrastructure upgrades and security reinforcements, according to local reports on a study commissioned by the host committee. Taxable sales in the region increased by $363 million year over year in the month it was held, even though organizers shortened the convention by one day because of a storm.

In 2008, when Denver hosted the Democratic National Convention, the convention translated to a regional economic impact of $266.1 million in the city's metro area, its host committee estimated. Visitors spent more than $42 million during the convention, according to a report released by the committee, including $15.6 million on lodging and $19 million on food and drink.

But Dr. Dan Murrey, who was executive director of Charlotte's host committee in 2012, said the effect there went far beyond the roughly $170 million in economic impact they estimated that the event generated.

“Before the convention, we had people who had asked where in South Carolina Charlotte was, when we were in North Carolina," he said. "So that was a big plus for us. Since then, there is a sense that people get more of what Charlotte’s about.”

Murrey said the city sought to make the effects of the convention bump last, dispatching volunteers to work on projects like community gardens and installing new recycling baskets to benefit residents long after the delegates had gone. They also used the convention to make a pitch to businesses, foreign representatives and others who might make return visits or investments.

Charlotte Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Bob Morgan said that while a convention might not necessarily transform a city's economy, it's still significant. His city, he said, was able to treat the 2012 convention "like a debut" for national and international audiences.

"It was an opportunity to spiff things up, to tell the story of Charlotte as a New South kind of city that’s on the rise, and we had just unprecedented opportunity to do things," he said.

It paid off, he and Murrey said, with business deals and roughly 25 ambassador visits coming out of conversations and connections made during the event.

Philadelphia, already a major convention hub, is hoping to see its profile rise even higher with the Democratic convention and a visit by Pope Francis this fall. One major winner of the convention will likely be the region's hospitality industry, which Cocker Graham of the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau said employs 120,000 workers.

In 2000, when Republicans flocked to Philly to nominate George W. Bush, attendees spent $24.9 million on hotels, according to a tourism report cited in local media. This time around, a top Democratic National Committee official cited "proximity of their arena and venue to the hotel rooms" as a major factor in the decision to award the contract to Philly over rival cities Brooklyn, New York, and Columbus, Ohio.

"The fact that there are 18,500 hotel rooms within a 15-minute walk of the arena, the Wells Fargo arena, the fact that you would have an opportunity for delegates to be coming back and forth and interacting very cohesively in Philadelphia was a big strength of theirs," DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz told reporters in a conference call.

Still, economists and veterans of conventions caution that even with the major investment, the actual impact can be mixed for local businesses and residents. The economic impact on Tampa varied, its committee report found, with some businesses near the convention site taking a hit because of too few workers at local offices and increased security.

Murrey, who headed Charlotte's host committee in 2012, said his city's convention wasn't a boon for all, either. "Some restaurants won, and some didn't," he said. "I wouldn’t say that every restaurant and every venue would say it was a home run."

The events also come with significant price tags — an estimated $85 million in Philadelphia's case — and economic impact projections don't always reflect the full picture.

Marc Stehr, a professor of economics at Drexel University, said that while Philadelphia "probably going to make some money on this," the actual revenue that is both generated and kept at the local level is "nowhere close to the full amount that would be spent."

“When people are tallying up sort of the benefits of bringing up a big convention like this they tend to count benefits, but not cost, and they tend to ignore things like substitutions," he said.

For example, workers from the suburbs might decide to stay home instead of brave traffic to go to a favorite restaurant, even if it's off the beaten path of the convention crowd. Or a family might decide to change their summer plans once they learn about the convention.

Still, local boosters say they still believe the city will come out ahead in what would otherwise be a slow month for convention business, especially given the lasting impression the city will be able to leave for an international audience.

"You’re at the center stage for three nights for the world," Nick DeBenedictis, a former Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce president who helped work on the 2000 convention, said. "It basically puts you in the big leagues."

The 2016 Democratic National Convention will be held in Philadelphia, party leaders announced Thursday.

Philadelphia beat out two rival cities for the chance to host the party’s nominating convention in July 2016. Both Brooklyn and Columbus, Ohio, were in the running through the final round of the bidding process.

Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said the city’s “deep rooted place in American history provides a perfect setting for this special gathering.”

“I cannot wait to join Democrats across the country to celebrate our shared values, lay out a Democratic vision for the future, and support our nominee,” she said.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter said the city's "proven track record of hosting big events safely and efficiently with a dynamic team of top-tier professionals to organize and manage a conference of this magnitude, paired with our City's tremendous amenities, its accessible location and historical significance" made it an ideal pick.

"We're all delighted to make history again, here in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection," he said.

The final contract between the DNC and Philadelphia was signed Thursday, Wasserman Schultz said. The convention will take place the week of July 25, 2016. The decision was made following a meeting between Wasserman Schultz and President Barack Obama Wednesday night in the Oval Office, a source involved in the selection process confirmed to NBC10.

"The president enthusiastically signed off," said the source.

The meeting of Democratic politicians and delegates will be the second major event for the city in less than a year's time. In September, millions are expected to flock to Philadelphia to see Pope Francis during the 2015 World Meeting of Families.

Philadelphia last hosted a national convention in 2000, when Republicans gathered there. Republicans have already announced plans to hold their 2016 nominating convention in Cleveland.

"James Bond" star Pierce Brosnan watched from the street as a fire burned at his Malibu, California, home Wednesday night, damaging a bedroom and garage.

The fire started in a garage of the residence in the 31000 block of Broad Beach Road around 9:48 p.m, then extended into one of the rooms in the house, Los Angeles County Fire Department said.   

It took 50 firefighters around 40 minutes to fully extinguish the blaze. No injuries were reported.

When asked by a photographer at the scene what had happened, Brosnan, 61, replied, "What do you think is going on."

The property's garage burned and smoke damage was reported in one bedroom, firefighters said. Details regarding a cause were not immediately available.

Best known for his time as "Bond," the Irishman initially rose to fame in 1980s television series "Remington Steele" and was last seen in 2014 spy thriller "The November Man."

A burglar swiped two handguns, a badge and a police radio from an Alcoholic Beverage Control officer's vehicle parked at Westfield UTC mall Wednesday evening.

The officer was on his way home when he stopped and parked behind the 24 Hour Fitness Center at 4425 La Jolla Village Drive.

When he returned to his car, he discovered a black duffel bag was missing from it. The bag held a state-issued handgun and a personal gun, as well as the badge and radio.

The SDPD has asked all neighboring agencies to lookout for the black bag. Officers are trying to calculate the total loss.

A death at Naval Air Forces Headquarters in San Diego is under investigation by base security and NCIS, officials confirmed Thursday.

An enlisted member of the U.S. Navy was found unresponsive at 5:50 a.m. at a location on the Naval Air Forces compound.

Base officials said they are working to notify family and next of kin.

The cause of death has yet to be determined but officials say there were no indications of foul play.

Naval Air Forces is located within Naval Air Station North Island along with dozens of other commands and activities.