Images from a San Diego County casino surveillance camera document the last known location of a Fullerton couple reported missing on Mother's Day.

In the images, Cecil Knutson and Diana Bedwell can be seen walking outside Valley View Casino located in the North County. The video was recorded just before 2 p.m.

The couple's son, Robert Acosta of Riverside County, said he knew something was wrong when the couple didn't arrive for a planned family get-together later that afternoon.

Acosta contacted the authorities and has been driving the route he believes his parents would've taken in their white 2014 Hyundai Sonata.

Investigators with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, Orange County Sheriff's Department or Riverside County Sheriff's Department are helping in the search. Helicopter crews followed the roads that  Knutson, 79 and Bedwell, 67 would have taken from the casino to their son's home in La Quinta.

On Tuesday, family members tacked up missing person fliers in Valley Center stores and gas stations.

The couple's daughter, who came in to town from Nevada, said they're hoping someone -- anyone -- spotted her parents.

"It's actually been harder for me knowing what he's dealt with before I even got here," daughter Debbie Apple said of her brother. "I wish I was a part of that."

Bedwell's phone was tracked to the Deer Springs Road on ramp to Interstate 15, according to family members.

Acosta said it’s very uncharacteristic for his parents to go somewhere without communicating with their family. He's worried they may have been in a car wreck or may have fallen victim to thieves. 

“I know my mom is telling my dad, ‘He’s coming for us,’” Acosta said.

Both are diabetic and dependent on insulin. Acosta has their medicine with him, in hopes that he can give it to them in person.

He's also brought their financial records from their home to give to investigators.

The Florida-based daughter of the missing couple has started a GoFundMe page to raise money for a $5,000 reward. She says the family is coordinating with law enforcement to dispense the money should a tipster find clues to the couple's whereabouts.

Acosta said the family has a special gift waiting for his parents: tickets to the Donnie and Marie show.

"The tickets and that card is still sealed and we're waiting to give it to them," he said.

Two former funeral home employees are out of a job after they stopped for coffee at a Dunkin' Donuts, leaving a hearse carrying the flag-draped coffin of an Army veteran in the parking lot.

NBC affiliate WFLA reports that the body of Lt. Col. Jesse Coleman was on its way from Veterans Funeral Care in Clearwater to a funeral service Tuesday morning. The two employees stopped at a Dunkin' Donuts in New Port Richey around 8:50 a.m.

Rob Carpenter, who was headed into the Dunkin' Donuts that morning, did a double take when he saw the hearse. Carpenter's own father served in the military, so he decided to confront the drivers.

"I'm like, 'Is this really a body in here?' and he says, 'Yes,' and I said, 'So you have a dead soldier in the back of your hearse and you're stopping to get coffee?' And he didn't say anything," WFLA reports.

Carpenter decided to pull out his cell phone and take a video and photos of the hearse. He passed them along to local group, Veteran's Warriors.

Lauren Price, the head of Veteran Warriors, posted the photo on Facebook and it went viral.

"None of our brothers or sisters deserve to be an afterthought," Price told WFLA. "And if it's an imposition to transfer one of our brothers or sisters to their final rest, then the person who's doing that transporting should be in a different business."

Funeral home director Jim Rudolph said the employees were in violation of strict company protocol which dictates that drivers take the body straight from the funeral home to the service with no stops.

Rudolph said that only in the case of an emergency, which this was not, one of the drivers must remain with the body, and the curtains must be closed in the back to conceal the coffin from outside viewers.

He told WFLA that the men are brothers in their 70's who have worked for the funeral home for several years with stellar employee history. He adds that the men are actually sons of veterans themselves.

Rudolph said he considered suspending the long time employees, but ultimately decided it was necessary to terminate them both. He said both men were "heartbroken."

"They were good employees and didn't want to go out like this," Rudolph said. "In this business, you can't have a redo, if you tarnish someone's memory."

He says Coleman's family, however, was surprisingly forgiving and didn't want the men to lose their jobs, even praising their work at the funeral.

The family says Coleman, who died at age 84, served one tour in Korea, two in Vietnam, and was the recipient of numerous medals from the military, including two Bronze Star Medals and two Army Commendation Medals.

Plans have been made to bury Coleman at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

You may no longer be able to peruse all of McDonald's menu items when ordering at the drive-through.

In a Monday webcast with franchisees, McDonald's executives unveiled plans to display only the fast-food giant's top-selling items on their drive-through menu boards, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The company hopes the new cut-back menus will speed up the ordering process with customers and in turn improve their quality of service, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Although they plan to display much fewer items in the revamped drive-through offerings, they will be adding more to their "mid-price" tier of dishes — those in the $1.50 to $3 range.

The Journal reports that the move towards a simplified drive-through menu has been a long-awaited one for McDonald’s franchisees, who have for years complained that customers typically always choose from either the high-end or low-end items because they don’t have enough mid-tier meals to select from – and those premium items eat up a lot more manpower to make.

The franchisees hope the additional mid-price dishes and smaller menu will reduce the overall time spent creating some of the premium items such as the snack wraps and complex McCafe espresso drinks.

The plans are the latest move from new CEO Steve Easterbrook who has been given the undertaking of helming a massive turnaround plan after months of rapidly declining global sales.

The hammer-wielding suspect believed to have attacked four strangers within a span of six hours in Manhattan earlier this week was shot in midtown Wednesday after attacking an NYPD officer with the weapon on the street, authorities said, and the chilling altercation was caught on video.

The suspect, an image of whom had been captured by surveillance cameras and released by police Tuesday, was shot near West 37th Street and Eighth Avenue around 10 a.m. Authorities identified him as 30-year-old David Baril, whose last known address was in the Bronx; he has a history of mental illness, including paranoia and schizophrenia, and a lengthy criminal record.

Dramatic video of the confrontation shows the uniformed officers approach the suspect, wearing a hood and mask, from across the street. The suspect lunges at 27-year-old officer Lauren O'Rourke with a hammer, claw side facing out. He chases O'Rourke into the middle of the road and repeatedly hits her over the head with the hammer as she falls to the ground. Officer Geraldo Casaigne, 36, follows his colleague and the suspect into the street, weapon drawn, and fires.

Casaigne fired four shots at Baril, and the suspect was hit at least three times -- in the head, arm and torso, NYPD Deputy Chief Will Aubry said at a news briefing Wednesday. Police and multiple sources initially said Baril was dead, though police later said he was taken to Bellevue Hospital in extremely critical condition. He underwent surgery there and remained in critical condition later Wednesday.

O'Rourke, who has been assigned to Midtown South since 2009, and Casaigne, assigned to the same precinct since 2003, were in the area responding to a call about an unrelated assault when they recognized Baril from the surveillance images obtained Tuesday and followed him, Aubry said. Aubry said at some point the suspect apparently realized he was being followed, and attacked the cops.

A white-claw hammer similar to the one described in the series of attacks Monday was recovered at the scene. Aubry said investigators looking into Baril's history spotted a photo that appeared to be of the same hammer on his Facebook page in May 2014. The hammer in that photo was bloody.

NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said O'Rourke was treated at a hospital for abrasions to her upper shoulder area; she underwent a CAT scan at the request of doctors concerned about any potential injuries from the hammer. Bratton said authorities were awaiting the results of that test. Casaigne was not injured in the fray; he was taken to a hospital for evaluation as a precaution.

Both officers were expected to be released from the hospital later Wednesday.

"These officers acted professionally and heroically this morning," Bratton said, adding that Casaigne likely saved O'Rourke's life.

Authorities had been looking for Baril after identifying him Tuesday through facial recognition, an NYPD source said. The suspect has eight prior arrests, including for assault, weapons possession and drug possession, police said. One of the attacks involved an assault on a police officer; in another, he jumped a counter at a fast-food restaurant. Baril voluntarily left a mental health facility in December and has had no recent address, authorities said.

Police believe Baril has been living in parks and subways since he left the facility, and frequented the area near Union Square, where he allegedly attacked two women with a hammer in separate ambushes within minutes of each other Monday. NBC 4 New York first reported Tuesday that authorities believed he was behind two similar attacks that occurred in Manhattan earlier that day.

All four victims were attacked in Manhattan within a span of five hours, police said. The first, around 1:45 p.m., involved a 20-year-old man in Herald Square; Baril yelled profanities at the man before hitting him with the hammer, then ran off, Aubry said. The victim refused medical attention.

About three hours later, police say the same suspect swung a hammer at the head of a 34-year-old woman in Madison Square Park, near 27th Street and Madison Avenue.

The attacks near Union Square unfolded in a span of 10 minutes between 7:36 p.m. and 7:46 p.m. One of those victims, a 28-year-old woman, was sitting on a bench in the park when she saw the suspect looking at her, police said. When she made eye contact, he took a silver hammer out of his bag and struck her, according to police. 

The other woman attacked in that short time span, who is 33, was walking on West 17th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues when the stranger approached her from behind and hit her in the back of the head with the hammer, police said.

The woman on West 17th Street was taken to a hospital with a scalp injury, authorities said. Both women attacked near Union Square were treated at Lenox Hill Hospital and released Monday.

The NYPD said it was working with the district attorney's office to determine what charges should be filed against Baril. Authorities said he has not been linked to additional attacks at this time, but they ask that anyone who feels they may have been victimized by him to contact police.

Nick Cearley, who said he was on the corner of Eighth Avenue and 37th Street at the time of the shooting Wednesday, said he heard gunshots and ran for cover. In an email, he called the experience "one of the scariest and terrifying mornings in NYC to date."

Thomas Vasicak was walking by Eighth Avenue when he saw the suspect go after the female NYPD officer; he heard shots ring out and "got out of the way" because he didn't know what was happening. Bystanders screamed and pointed toward the bloodied suspect on the pavement.

"I heard the shots and I saw the guy go down. I saw the guy go down and they're screaming, 'That's the guy with the hammer,'" Vasicak said.

Other witnesses said they abandoned their coffees at bodegas and left their partially-eaten breakfasts in diners as they fled the sound of gunshots.

Anina Boise, who saw the suspect on the ground after he was shot, found the situation unsettling.

"When I heard the story I was scared about it because I'm in Union Square all the time, and I had no idea he was in my neighborhood where I work," she said.

Baril's most recent address in the Bronx has no phone number. 

Passengers aboard Amtrak train 188 described a normal commute before Tuesday night's derailment in Philadelphia that turned chaotic.

Six people were killed and more than 200 treated for injuries at area hospitals after seven cars derailed in Philadelphia's Port Richmond section, officials said. Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter described the scene as "an absolute disastrous mess."

Here are survivor accounts from passengers who were aboard the train:

"It Looked Like We Were Going to Flip"

“We were going along nice and smooth, and then all of a sudden we were on our side," passenger Don Kelleher told NBC Philadelphia hours after the accident. "Then it looked like we were going to flip, but we never flipped. We went on the side and then back off the side. And then we came to a halt."

"People Were Bleeding From Their Head"

Max Helfman, 19, of Watchung, New Jersey, had been riding the train with his mother when the crash occurred. Helfman said they were in the last car of the train when they suddenly felt it shake, and then the car flipped over.

"People were thrown to the ground," Helfman said. "Chairs inside the train became unscrewed and suitcases were falling on people. My mother flew into me and I literally had to catch her. People were bleeding from their head. It was awful."

"I Realized That Nothing Good Was Going to Happen Here"

Jeff Kutler, who was sitting in the train's quiet car, was heading from Washington, D.C., to his home in New York. He said his first indication of trouble was when the car started tipping to the right.

"And after a couple of seconds, or maybe it was a half a second, I realized that nothing good was going to happen here," Kutler said. "This train was tipping over." After the accident, Kutler was rushed to the hospital.

"It Was Terrifying and Awful"

New York Observer reporter Jillian Jorgensen told The Associated Press in an email that she was also seated in the quiet car and that the train was going "fast enough for me to be worried" when it began a hard bank to the right.

When the train derailed, the lights went out, and Jorgensen was thrown from her seat and she "flew across the train.” She said she landed landed underneath seats.

"It was terrifying and awful, and as it was happening it just did not feel like the kind of thing you could walk away from, so I feel very lucky," Jorgensen said.

"People Just Started Asking, 'How Do We Get Off the Train?'"

NBC Nightly News producer Janelle Richards told NBC New York she heard a loud crash around 9:20 p.m. She said people flew up in the air and there was a lot of "jerking back and forth."

She said the train "started to fill with smoke and I looked to my left and there was a woman in the aisle with blood coming down her face. And after a second, myself and other people just started asking, 'How do we get off the train? How do we get off the train?'"

"I Walked Off as if, Like, I Was in a Movie"

Another passenger, Daniel Wetrin, told the AP he was among more than a dozen people who were transported to a nearby elementary school after the incident.

"I think the fact that I walked off (the train) kind of made it even more surreal because a lot of people didn't walk off," Wetrin said. "I walked off as if, like, I was in a movie. There were people standing around, people with bloody faces. There were people, chairs, tables mangled about in the compartment ... power cables all buckled down as you stepped off the train."

"There Were Some Pretty Banged-Up People"

Patrick Murphy, a former congressman from Pennsylvania's 8th District and an Iraq War veteran, was in the cafe car when the train crashed.

"There were some pretty banged-up people," Murphy said. "One guy next to me was passed out. We kicked out the window in the top of the train car and helped get everyone out."

"The Whole Thing Is Like a Pile of Metal"

AP manager Paul Cheung was watching Netflix when "the train started to decelerate, like someone had slammed the brake."

He said he saw passengers trying to escape through the windows of cars tipped on their sides. "The front of the train is really mangled," he said. "It's a complete wreck. The whole thing is like a pile of metal."

The son of a couple reported missing on Mother's Day is a former San Diego Police officer who was once accused of trashing his million-dollar home when they lost it to foreclosure.

Robert Acosta has been searching for his mother and stepfather, Dianna Bedwell and Cecil Knutson, for several days.

Surveillance images from a casino north of San Diego show Knutson and Bedwell leaving the facility just before 2 p.m. These are the last known appearance of the couple.

San Diego County Sheriff's Deputies launched a "Silver Alert" for the couple. The last last cell phone signal was tracked to 10 miles away from Valley View Casino on Interstate 15 at Deer Springs Road.

Acosta has spent several days driving along the winding roads in this portion of the county looking for signs of the couple's white Hyundai Sonota.

Bedwell and Knutson were expected to arrive to Acosta's La Quinta home for dinner but they never showed.

In October 2010, NBC 7 once reported on Acosta after he and his wife, Monique, turned themselves in to face a felony charge.

The couple was accused of trashing their home in the French Valley area of Riverside, near Temecula.

At the time, Robert was a San Diego police officer and was placed on administrative leave. Monique Acosta was a real estate agent at the time of the allegations.

Robert was convicted of larceny after a jury convicted him of causing more than $65,000 in damage.

He was sentenced in July 2012 to 270 days in jail.

Neighbors told NBC 7 that former home - which they called "The Castle" - was the nicest on the block.

The cause of Tuesday night’s deadly Amtrak crash in Philadelphia is still under investigation, but funding for the national passenger railroad has long been a source of friction amid complaints of aging infrastructure and unprofitable routes.

From Amtrak's beginnings in 1971 as a for-profit company, it has been under pressure to make money. Republicans have repeatedly promised to end its subsidies, and have tried to privatize the profitable Northeast Corridor — the busy line that Amtrak Northeast Regional Train 188 was traveling on Tuesday when it derailed.

David Gunn, a former Amtrak president, said that designating the railroad as a for-profit entity was never reasonable.

"The whole idea was they were going to just gently lower the passenger train into a grave," he said.

Hours after seven people were killed and 200 hospitalized in the Tuesday night crash, the House Appropriations Committee began Wednesday considering a transportation and housing bill that would slash $251 million from Amtrak's budget for next year, leaving it with $1.1 billion. An amendment to fully fund Amtrak failed along party lines.

"Every day, tens of thousands of passengers travel our nation's railways on Amtrak — a majority of those along the Northeast Corridor where yesterday's tragic accident occurred," said Democratic Rep. Chaka Fattah, who represents Philadelphia. "These riders deserve safe, secure, and modern infrastructure."

But Chairman Harold Rogers of Kentucky said that the Republicans, who are in the majority, are hamstrung by automatic spending cuts.

President Obama had asked for almost $2.5 billion for capital investments in tracks, tunnels and bridges, $400 million of it for construction along the railroad's Northeast Corridor.

The Appropriations Committee's budget falls far short of the amount the House had authorized in March in longterm funding for the railroad -- $1.7 billion a year over four years for Amtrak, just above the $1.4 billion the often beleaguered railroad now receives. The money must be appropriated before it goes to Amtrak.

The last longterm funding plan was approved by Congress in 2008, to run through 2013.

Even the earlier $1.7 billion amount disappointed rail proponents who had hoped for more money for repairs and upgrades. Conservatives, meanwhile, wanted to end all subsidies. The White House supported passage of the bill, which then moved to the Senate. But in a statement the White House said that while it would improve service, it did not address safety. 

The head of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department, Ed Wytkind, told The Associated Press that the $1.7 billion failed to provide money to replace 100-year-old tunnels on the railroad’s Northeast Corridor between Boston, New York and Washington, D.C., and to make other improvements.

The earlier House bill did separate the Northeast Corridor service from other long-distance routes and allow Amtrak to reinvest its profits in the popular route to improve service. Those profits are now used to help subsidize the 15 unprofitable routes elsewhere in the country.

Amtrak carried 11.4 million passengers on the Northeast Corridor in the fiscal year ending in September 2013, making it the busiest railroad in the country. More than 2,200 trains operate on some portion of the route each day.

Across the country, the railroad had a total of 31.6 million passengers that year, the largest total in its history, according to the railroad.

Amtrak has struggled since it was created in 1970 with the passage of the Rail Passenger Service Act. It began service in May 1971 with a total of 21 routes.

Gunn, who was fired by Amtrak's board of directors in 2005, said the railroad was formed to relieve freight lines of the obligation of having to carry passengers.

"Amtrak was not set up with a vision that there should be a high-speed or an inter-city passenger network," he said. "It was set up to help the freight railroads get rid of a deficit.

From the start Amtrak was operating against federally subsidized highways, he said. Even the Northeast Corridor would not be profitable if it had to cover both its operating costs and capital improvements, he said.

"You don't have a policy on the part of the federal government," he said. "It hasn't figured out what role it wants passenger rail to play."

A passenger on a Megabus is being hailed as a hero after he tackled a gunman who fired at least one shot on the bus, according to authorities.

Illinois State Police said they were called to the scene off Interstate 90 in Des Plaines around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday for a report of a shooting on a Megabus that was traveling from Chicago to Minneapolis. Police said a gunman fired a shot in the bathroom of the vehicle and was later taken down by passengers.

Witnesses said they heard a loud bang come from a bathroom on the vehicle.

“It was real loud,” said passenger Kenneth Smith. “We didn’t know what it was until we saw the gun.”

A man later exited the bathroom and started harassing the bus driver, passengers said. One witness said it appeared the man was trying to grab the wheel of the bus.

Smith stepped in and told the man to return to his seat, but witnesses said the man came back with a gun.

“He came back downstairs, he was grabbing at his hip, I had already seen that and I told him he was getting too close,” Smith said. “As he kept coming that’s when I rushed him, I choked him, he fell to the floor, the clip came out of the gun and that’s when I saw it so I pulled it out, gave it to my cousin and I held him down until the police arrived.”

Megabus said in a statement that the driver pulled over and “police quickly arrived and arrested the passenger.”

Passengers on the bus say without Smith, things could have been much worse.

“He saved us,” said passenger Ken Hasley. “The bus could’ve crashed or anything the way that guy was aggravating the bus driver so that guy right there is a hero.”

No injuries were reported in the incident, police said.

“Out of an abundance of caution the bus was changed and continued on their journey without additional incident,” Sean Hughes, director of corporate affairs for Megabus, said in a statement.

Authorities said the man did not threaten the driver, but was not cooperating with officers. State police said the suspect was taken into custody at the Des Plaines Police Department and charges are expected. 

Passengers' and witnesses' cameras caught the harrowing moments after an Amtrak train derailed in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, killing at least seven people and injuring more than 200 more.

Video shot by passengers shows people helping each other crawl off the derailed train, lying on its side, and first responders helping injured victims into ambulances. In another clip, passengers push open a door. "Go, go, go, go," they tell each other.

Watch footage of the train crash's aftermath in the players above and below.

County officials used the anniversary of the May Fires of 2014 to update the public on how prepared public agencies are for a similar scenario this year. The message to residents was that the county is more prepared for wildfires than we've ever been.

For five days residents watched as 14 separate fires burned across 14,000 acres, destroying 65 structures and causing an estimated $30 million in property damage.

“This canyon looked a lot different the last time we were here,” said Supervisor Bill Horn when fire officials gathered in Carlsbad Wednesday.

But the damage could’ve been much worse, Horn said, crediting an unprecedented response from local, state and federal agencies.

Carlsbad Mayor Matt Hall recalled the beginning moments of the Poinsettia Fire when he and Carlsbad Fire Chief Mike Davis saw a large black cloud and called for help. 

“We realized at that moment in time, given the wind conditions and what was happening, it was not going to be a good day,” Hall said.

There are ongoing investigations into what caused some of the fires, according to Cal Fire Deputy Chief Kevin Lawson.

He noted a teenager was convicted of starting the Cocos Fire in San Marcos and there was an arrest in connection with an Oceanside Fire.

As for the Poinsettia Fire, Lawson said the cause is still undetermined.

“I don’t know if you could put your finger on one simple person as a cause for all of these fires,” Lawson said.

Looking ahead to this summer, the statewide drought has intensified the fire danger in San Diego County.

“We’re better prepared for wildfire than we’ve ever been,” County Supervisor Diane Jacob said.

Agencies are working under the goal of extinguishing wildfires when they are 10 acres or less, she said.

A third firefighting helicopter will go into service in September and would insure there were two operating at any time across the county.

County Office of Emergency Services has also formed partnerships with religious organizations and other community groups who can jump in to spread information to non-English speaking residents.

“Every single person out there has a role in our mission to save lives and protect property,” said OES Director Holly Crawford. She urged residents to register for “Reverse 911” with their mobile phone numbers so they can be informed of evacuations in their area. 

Chief Mike Davis said defensible space saves homes. If potable water cannot be used to maintain these areas in the statewide drought, he suggested homeowners look for other ways to maintain this space.

Davis said there may be ways to remove vegetation without harming the environment or destablizing cliffs and advised homeowners to check with local agencies.  

Police are searching for a suspect who tried to grab a woman as she was loading items in her car outside the Walmart store in Oak Park.

The attempted kidnapping happened at about 11:15 a.m. Wednesday in front of the store in the 3400 block of College Avenue.

The man wrapped his arms around the woman's neck, covered her mouth and tried to drag her off, said San Diego police Lt. Christian Sharp. The woman's 3-year-old grandson was in the van at the time.

The woman struggled and screamed and the man ran off, police said. The child wasn't hurt in the ordeal.

San Diego police say the suspect jumped over a guardrail to the freeway toward Federal Boulevard. Officers were sweeping the Lemon Grove area Wednesday afternoon.

Police are also reviewing surveillance video in hopes of tracking down a photo of the suspect.

He is described as in his late 30s, 5 feet 7 inches to 5 feet 9 inches tall, dark skinned with tattoos on his neck, chest and both arms. He was wearing a black T-shirt and orange shorts.

This Walmart location, just north of State Route 94, is the same place where a man fired three shots inside the store a year ago, leading customers to flee for the exits.

Police believe the gunman had been involved in a robbery there six months prior.

Wednesday's case initially was reported as an attempted kidnapping of a 3-year-old girl. However, police later clarified the kidnapper had targeted the mother and they weren't even sure the suspect knew the child was in the car.
 

A motorcyclist given CPR on the side of the freeway by firefighters and paramedics Wednesday morning has died, officials confirmed.

At around 10:40 a.m., fire crews, police, CHP officers and medics responded to a report of a downed motorcyclist at the on-ramp on westbound State Route 52 at Genesee avenue.

First-responders gathered around the man and gave him CPR on the ground. The area was temporarily blocked off to traffic as crews worked to revive the motorcyclist.

He was pronounced dead a short time later.

It is unclear what caused the motorcyclist to go down in the first place. The incident is under investigation. The motorcyclist's name was not immediately released.
 

Don't shake your head and declare it only “rabbit food.” Salads – when done right – can burst with flavor in every bite, too. In honor of National Salad Month, our Yelp gal-about-town has rounded up a list of local joints that serve mouthwatering versions of the healthy meal. Pass the dressing, please.

Big Front Door (North Park)
This savory urban deli boasts big bites of leafy goodness with its salad selections. The Cobbler caught our eye: house-smoked turkey, avocado, egg, tomato and cucumber topped with crumbled Maytag and a red wine and blue vinaigrette. The Southwest is another solid choice, loaded with chicken, corn salsa, jicama, pico de gallo, avocado, jack cheese and black beans, plus a tasty orange dressing.

Bushfire Kitchen (Carlsbad)
This organic local eatery opened about six weeks ago and is already a neighborhood favorite. Here, you’ll find an array of farm-fresh food made the old-fashioned way. Drop by and grab an option from the menu of beautifully crafted salads. Choose from options like a Rustic Greek, The Strawberry and Spinach mix or Quinoa and Beet with wild arugula.

Urbane Café (Linda Vista)
This family-owned company tosses stunning salads like the current special: chopped mixed greens, avocado, goat cheese and cashews, topped with mango salsa and jicama and mango miso vinaigrette dressing. Other options include the BBQ chicken with house-made coleslaw or the Urbane Cobb, all served with fresh bread.

Café Secret (Del Mar)
If you can make it past the empanadas (we dare you), you’ll find a Peruvian spread that will wow your palate. Try the Quinoa Mediterranean with organic quinoa, greens, roasted bell red peppers, onions, olives, queso fresco, avocado, tomato and balsamic vinaigrette. The café also has a beautiful caprese on the menu with pesto and crostinis.

Healthy Creations (Encinitas)
This completely gluten-free and organic café has a healthy menu full of flavor. The Wild Salmon Salad is made with spinach, a spring mix of greens and smoked fish, plus tomatoes, carrots, red onion, apple slices, dried cranberries and sliced almonds with a sweet, tangy dressing. An alternate option is the Middle Eastern Plate: it’s a mix of greens, sprouts, tomatoes, feta, olive and dressing topped with homemade falafels.

Slater’s 50/50 (Multiple Locations)
No mistake here: a salad is still a serious Slater’s experience. Purists should snag the Chipotle Kale option with roasted corn and cilantro. The bacon and burger-loving bold can opt for the Bacon Cheeseburger salad, a bed of romaine topped with a Brandt beef patty, bacon, dill pickle, red onion, tomato and cheese plus 1000 Island dressing. There’s also the unique Beet, Barley and Brussels salad: a spring mix plus pickled beet, barley and Brussels sprouts with an apple cider mustard dressing, onions and cotija.
 

The route children take to school in El Cajon will become a little safer.

The newly announced Safe Routes to School Programming plan will work to improve pedestrian safety at six local schools in the Cajon Valley School District. 

El Cajon plans to  team up with Rady Children’s Hospital to implement the program.

The three-year project will begin in July with a focus on Lexington and Anza Elementary schools for the first year, Montgomery Middle School and Madison Elementary in the second year, and Greenfield Middle School and Bostonia Elementary in the third year.

El Cajon was recently awarded $500,000 from Caltrans as part of the “Active Transportation Grant” to implement Safe Routes to School Programming.

It will focus on evaluation, education and encouragement of pedestrian safety for school-aged children by improving walkability and safety in the areas around these schools.

The programming will educate students, teachers, and parent groups in schools through Safety Education Lectures on how to increase pedestrian safety around schools and neighborhoods.

A man accused of attacking an 18-month-old toddler on the side of a Southern California freeway as the boy’s family changed a flat tire on their car was formally charged in the bizarre attack Wednesday.

Nicolas Lopez Garcia, 44, was charged by the Riverside County District Attorney’s office with seven felonies and one misdemeanor, including the attempted murder and attempted kidnapping of the toddler and several counts of assault with a deadly weapon.

Garcia pleaded not guilty on all counts at his arraignment.

If convicted on all charges, he faces 25 years to life in prison, the Riverside DA’s office said. Garcia is currently being held at the Southwest Detention Center in Murrieta, Calif.

On Monday, at around 1:30 a.m., Garcia allegedly attacked an entire family from San Diego on the side of the 215 Freeway in Menifee, Calif.

Investigators said Garcia crossed both directions of freeway traffic to get to the family as they tried to repair their flat tire.

As he approached the disabled vehicle, CHP officials said Garcia broke a couple of windows using the jagged edge of a plastic freeway sign paddle marker and tried to pull the toddler out of the car. He then began stabbing the boy with the marker.

Four adults who were inside the car – including the child’s mother and father – got out and tried to stop Garcia. They all sustained cuts in the confrontation.

The victims then fled and called 911.

When CHP officers got to the freeway shoulder, Garcia was setting fire to the group’s belongings. He resisted arrest, officials said, but was ultimately taken into custody.

The boy and the adults inside the family car were all taken to a nearby hospital with non-life threatening injuries and are expected to make full recoveries.

Investigators called the freeway attack random in nature, and said Garcia was under the influence of drugs.

The Riverside DA’s office said Garcia is scheduled to appear in court again on May 21.

An additional safety measure that is being installed across the country was yet to be put in within Philadelphia railways where the Amtrak 188 train derailed Tuesday night.

The Positive Train Control or PTC, aimed at preventing collisions and derailments, likely would have prevented the accident by forcing the train to stay below the speed limit, according to National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt.

“That type of system is designed to enforce the civil speed to keep the train below its maximum speed. So we have called for positive train control for many, many years. It’s on our most-wanted list," Sumwalt said Wednesday evening after spending the first day with a full team of NTSB investigators, touring the wreckage and downloading data from the locomotive's black box.

"Based on what we know right now, we feel that had such a system been installed in this section of track, this accident would not have occurred."

Sumwalt said just seconds before the derailment, the train reached 106 miles per hour entering a curve where the speed limit drops to 50 mph. The speed limit just before the bend is 80 mph, he said. The engineer applied the train's emergency brake, Sumwalt said, but it was too late. The engine and 6 cars shook and careened off the track, killing at least seven and injuring more than 200.

PTC has been installed at other locations along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor line, including stretches from Boston to New Haven, New Brunswick to Trenton and a 30-mile stretch of track in eastern Maryland. Congress has mandated installation along the Philadelphia tracks by year's end.

PTC was developed after the U.S. Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008, which urged these changes to be finished by December 2015. 

The most important goals of PTC are to prevent train-on-train collisions, focus on rail worker safety, and monitor or enforce temporary speed restrictions, in addition to line speed enforcement.

The National Transportation Safety Board has confirmed NBC10's report that the Amtrak 188 train was traveling at speeds of over 100 miles per hour just before the train's derailment.

A fire sparked at a sign printing business in downtown San Diego’s East Village community early Wednesday morning, sending heavy smoke into the air.

That smoke is what alerted neighbors to the blaze, which began around 4:15 a.m. at the Green House Sign & Design shop in the 400 block of 13th and J streets.

Residents in an apartment building next door called firefighters and then evacuated their apartments as a precaution.

Fire crews had to force their way inside the printing business in order to attack the fire. It was knocked down a short time later.

Fire officials said no one was inside the printing shop and no injuries were reported.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, but officials believe it may have been an electrical fire.

The shop also houses several pedicabs, some decked out with lights. Several of those pedicabs inside the shop were damaged in the blaze.

Firefighters said this blaze was challenging because the building's roof is made of metal.

San Diego County is footing a $2.3 million bill for security at the popular Waterfront Park along the Embarcadero, a cost deemed “excessive” by a grand jury.

A San Diego Grand Jury report released Wednesday finds that the county plans to spend $2.3 million on security at the park for the initial budget year ending on June 30.

Currently, security at the widely-visited park consists of two sheriff’s deputies on-duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There are a total of 12 deputies from the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department assigned specifically to this park.

In addition, the report says the County of San Diego also has two or more private security guards patrolling the park during operating hours. The park is open daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

The aforementioned security crews are in addition to the existing deputies and private guards already assigned to provide security to the County Administration Center, which shares space with Waterfront Park at 1600 Pacific Hwy.

The report says the park is an improvement to the area and is widely used, but the cost of security is still “excessive.”

According to the document, no other park in San Diego County has full or part-time sheriff’s deputies assigned specifically for security of safety purposes.

Though the grand jury recognizes the importance of maintaining a safe environment at Waterfront Park, it questions whether the high cost of security “represents the best use of tax-payer’s dollars.”

“In a review of the incident logs and research of other parks, the Grand Jury found that incidents at the park appeared to be no different from those recorded elsewhere in the county and at parks in other parts of the country with less security. None of the parks investigated nor any of the other County parks had sworn officers assigned full time,” the report states.

The report also says the grand jury “found no evidence” that county officials investigated the level of security used at other similar public parks in other cities when coming up with a security plan of their own for Waterfront Park.

The security program was created to “allow families to visit the park with assurances to their safety,” the document states.

In the end, the grand jury recommends the County of San Diego hire an independent security specialist “to determine the most cost-effective method for providing security services for Waterfront Park while maintaining/ensuring a safe and secure environment prior to the adoption of the next fiscal year budget.”

The full grand jury report can be seen here.

NBC 7 reached out to the County of San Diego for comment on the matter Wednesday. Mike Workman, director for the County Communications Office, released this statement:

"The County has already reduced next year’s budget for security at the one-year old Waterfront Park. The Grand Jury has been advised. This is an urban park in an urban setting. Security is needed to protect the patrons of the park as well as the park itself. We are confident that the San Diego County Sheriff is well qualified to determine the level of security needed."

Waterfront Park opened in May 2014 with great fanfare. The park spans 12 acres, eight of which used to be parking lots north and south of the County Administration Center.

The space boasts large, open grassy areas, a playground, shaded sitting areas, gardens and an expansive interactive fountain. Being in Embarcadero, the park also has a breathtaking waterfront view exclusive to San Diego.

In March, the CRSDD Electronic Music Festival was held at Waterfront Park, resulting in more than $64,000 in damages to the space, the County of San Diego confirmed.

The repair costs – which included replacing more than 500 damaged plants – will be paid for by festival organizers who rented the park for $33,000, nearly one-third of the revenue officials hope to generate this year through private events at Waterfront Park.
 

A relative of a couple missing since a trip to a San Diego County casino on Mother’s Day is desperate to find her loved ones safe and alive.

“I’m sure somebody will find them. I hope they’re alive,” said Marleen Johnson, holding back tears, as she spoke with WTHR in Indianapolis.

Johnson, who lives in Indiana, is the cousin of Dianna Bedwell, 67.

Bedwell and her husband, Cecil Knutson, 79, have been missing since Sunday. They were last seen leaving Valley View Casino in Valley Center around 2 p.m. and were expected at their son’s home at 4 p.m. that evening to celebrate Mother’s Day.

The couple never showed up.

From afar, Johnson said she and her siblings are awaiting any sort of updates on the search.

The family has experienced tragedy before. In 1965, Bedwell’s teenage sister, Sylvia, was tortured and murdered in Indianapolis.

The search for the missing couple continued Wednesday with investigators from San Diego, Orange County and Riverside County working together.

The couple’s son, Robert Acosta of Riverside County, has also been driving the route he believes his parents would’ve taken in their white 2014 Hyundai Sonata on their way to his home in La Quinta, Calif. The couple’s car also seems to have vanished.

Family members have posted flyers in north San Diego with the missing couple’s photographs and information.

Investigators said the couple’s last cell phone signal was recorded 10 miles away from Valley View Casino at the on-ramp at Interstate 15 and Deer Springs Road.

Acosta said it is unlike his parents to take off without communicating with the family. He worries his parents may have fallen victims to thieves or may have been in a car wreck.

Both are diabetic and dependent on insulin. Acosta has their medicine with him, in hopes that he can give it to them in person.

He's also brought their financial records from their home to give to investigators.

Officials have identified the body found in the rubble of a fire that broke out at an Alpine home. 

54-year-old Darrell Thomas King was found inside the home after firefighters arrived on scene and found the home near fully engulfed, according to the Medical Examiner's office.

He died of thermal injuries, the office said. 

Sheriff's deputies said they responded to a report of a potentially intoxicated man yelling at the home when 911 callers indicated the house was on fire. 

The fire broke out shortly before 2 p.m. Tuesday on the 1400 block of Marshall Road. Firefighters put out the fire at the single story family home. 

The Alpine Fire Department, sheriff’s officials and SDG&E workers responded to the fire.