Bird and Lime have recently become as much a part of the Santa Monica landscape as the pier and the Ferris Wheel, but a key vote on Tuesday could change all that in an instant.

According to an e-mail sent out by Bird Monday night, a committee recommended giving control of the shareable scooters in the city of Santa Monica to two ride-sharing companies for Santa Monica's electric scooter pilot program, which launches in September.

The Santa Monica Daily Press reported that the committee recommended awarding contracts for Lyft and Jump (which is owned by Uber) Friday to launch their electric bike and scooter operations in Santa Monica.

In response, Santa Monica-based Bird Scooters suddenly shuttered its operations on Monday afternoon, per the Santa Monica Daily Press.

Bird's e-mail to customer pleading for help ahead of Tuesday's key vote came along with news that the company would make all its scooters inoperable in the city until Tuesday's vote--possibly forever.

"All Birds are unrideable today and will return depending on the outcome of the City Hall meeting on Tuesday at 5:00 p.m.," the e-mail read.

The e-mail also argued that "Giving complete control of sustainable transportation alternatives to two ride-share corporations is like giving Exxon and BP Oil a monopoly on solar power."

The Santa Monica City Council approved a pilot program earlier this year that will award contracts to two electric scooter companies and two bike share companies, and each company vying for the contracts submitted detailed plans.

Per the Santa Monica Daily Press, Bird and Lime each performed poorly on the compliance portion of the assessment, while Lyft coming out strongest in the assessment.

Recently, the city of Beverly Hills banned all shareable electric scooters from its city limits. While Santa Monica may not be rushing to ban electric scooters, a vote on Tuesday could quickly transform which companies control the market.

A woman immigration officials put on a plane to El Salvador last week despite government promises not to deport her said she was "very sad and scared" on the flight, according to a statement in court documents filed Monday, NBC News reported.

"While we were in the air, no one told me anything about what was happening," the woman said.

She and her daughter stayed on the plane and returned to the United States because an outraged federal judge demanded Thursday that immigration officials turn her plane around. He threatened to hold Attorney General Jeff Sessions and other administration officials in contempt of court if they didn't get her back to the United States. 

The woman and her daughter are plaintiffs in a case challenging the Trump administration’s changes to asylum regulations that Sullivan was holding a hearing on when the woman and her daughter — identified in the lawsuit as Carmen and J.A.C.F — were deported.

Immigration officials blamed the incident on a data error and confusion over why her deportation had been delayed.

Police are cracking down on illegal street racing in Pacoima where people have been arrested and vehicles have been impounded.

Racers around that area are known to meet up in places like parking lots and dead-end streets, which are usually marked by tires from the vehicles' screeching.

On Sunday, August 12, officers surrounded Foothill and Balboa boulevards in Sylmar by laying out spike strips and blocking off the area where 50 to 60 people gathered.

Fifteen people were arrested and one man was locked up for reckless driving and his truck was impounded.

Police also said there have been deaths involving street racing. On July 4, a woman who was 8 months pregnant and her boyfriend were killed in Northridge.

Authorities believe that social media is intensifying the trend.

"The more risqué behavior that is associated with social media and them trying to show off to their friends and others," said Sgt. Gregory Fuqua from the Los Angeles Police Department Special Enforcement team. "What they don't realize is that somebody gets injured, it's not just a misdemeanor anymore, it's a felony and they will be prosecuted and they will go to jail."

Two years ago, IKEA recalled millions of dressers because the dressers could tip over and crush young children. Now, four safety groups say IKEA has not done enough to remove the recalled dressers from consumers homes, posing a safety risk for everyone, especially young children.

Curren Collas, 2, was found crushed under an IKEA dresser by his mother. 

"I didn't see him anywhere," his mother said. "I went over and kind of pulled everything apart and I saw the top of his little head trapped between the dresser and the edge of the bed."

Curren was killed as a result of being crushed by his dresser. 

Camden Ellis, also 2, was also killed in an eeirly similar situation. 

"He was under the dresser trying to gasp for air," said his mother. "He was unable to breathe, unable to scream while we were in the room next to him."

Curren and Camden are two of the eight children killed by toppling IKEA furniture since 1989.

IKEA announced a voluntary recall of the dressers due to a serious tip-over hazard after the 2016 death of toddler Teddy McGee. However, safety groups are saying that that is not enough. 

"There just has not been enough effort by IKEA to make sure that people understand or know that the product was fully recalled," said Nancy Cowles of the safety group Kids In Danger. "They need to spend the same marketing know-how and dollars they use to sell products to get these products out of homes." 

IKEA did re-announce its recall of the dressers in question in November 2017 — but that was only after another child died.

IKEA released a statement saying it has taken "extraordinary steps" to communicate the recall to its over 13 million consumers. 

However, the retailer of the dresser said they have been sold for more than 30 years and there is no way to determine how many units are still in use. 

"About 175,000 people have gotten the refund, of some 17 million people at least, probably more," Cowles said.  

IKEA has reported 186 tip-over accidents and 91 injuries since the recall. 

If you have an IKEA dresser that is part of the recall, you are eligible for a refund or repair kit. The list of items involved in the recall can be found here. 

There are many McDonald's restaurants, tens of thousands of them, of course, but only one McDonald's can wear the lofty crown of Oldest Operating McDonald's in Existence.

It isn't the first McDonald's ever constructed — San Bernardino can boast about that singular title — but the Downey's McDonald's has been sizzling up burgers and serving soft drinks since 1953.

A quick bit of math, then, tells us that this iconic eatery, which McDonald's mavens and pop culture fans regularly flock to for photographs, is turning 65 in 2018. And, as befits its historic status, there's a celebration planned for its 65th anniversary, on Saturday, Aug. 18.

The host? The Downey Conservancy, a group that has actively worked to protect and raise the Downey McDonald's profile over the years, as well as other mid-century structures.

The address? Roll your hot rod, or whatever stylin' vehicle you're driving, for 10207 Lakewood Boulevard in Downey.

The time? Picture "late lunch" in your mind, and show up to buy those classic fries and that classic burger from 1 to 3 in the afternoon. You'll want to raise a bun-and-meat to a famous fast-foodery's most famous location, surely?

Well, there are other well-known McDonald's around the globe, restaurants that are famed for their size or unusual menu items or architecture. But holding the record of "oldest operating" is a smooth as a milkshake and as snappy as the secret sauce that tops a Big Mac.

More details are to come on the fast food festivity, so check in with the Downey Conservancy, or make plans to do lunch at the sure-to-be-bustling landmark on Aug. 18.

The search has concluded for a Camp Pendleton-based Marine who went overboard from an amphibious assault ship in the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. Marine Corps said Tuesday.

"After 5 days of searching and more than 110 sorties covering over 13K square NM, the 13th MEU concluded its search for their missing Marine," officials said.

The unidentified Marine, with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) was reported overboard at 9:40 a.m. local time on August 9 while USS Essex was conducting routine operations southeast of the Philippines.

Shortly after the Marine was reported missing, a search and rescue operation involving the U.S. Marines, the U.S. Navy and Philippine ships and aircraft was launched.

Searches were conducted onboard the ship while aircraft searched the Sulu Sea and Surigao Strait, covering about 3,000 square miles, for the missing Marine.

The Marine's family has been notified but the name was being withheld while the search is ongoing, the U.S. Marines said.

USS Essex is homeported at Naval Base San Diego. 

The Essex ARG/13th MEU is currently deployed to the 7th fleet area of operations

The body of a shooting victim was found Tuesday in Santa Ana on a street near Century High School.

No arrests were reported early Tuesday. 

Police received a call of shots fired about 2 a.m. and found a victim in the 1400 block of Wilshire Avenue, according to Cpl. Anthony Bertagna with the Santa Ana Police Department. The victim died at the scene.

In addition to the street where the victim was located, police also conducted an investigation at a location at Edinger Avenue and Grand Street, Bertagna said.

Grand Street was closed between McFadden and Edinger avenues for the investigation.

Classes at nearby Century High School were scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. Drivers were allowed to enter the property off Grand Avenue. 

Former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman says in her new book that President Donald Trump and his chief of staff, John Kelly, "referred to Puerto Ricans with derogatory terms many times," NBC News reported. Manigault Newman did not detail what those terms were.

In "Unhinged," Manigault Newman also says that the president tossing rolls of paper towels to Hurricane Maria victims during his visit to the devastated island was a moment of "cavalier behavior in the face of human tragedy."

She also asserts "many of the problems and delays with getting aid to Puerto Rico were partly political." Kelly fought efforts to secure aid for Puerto Rico, believing its government was trying to exploit the tragedy to get money from Washington, she alleges.

Manigualt Newman instead cast herself and former homeland security adviser Tom Bossert as fighters for resources for Puerto Rico.

The White House had no immediate comment on Manigault Newman's allegations.

The Los Angeles Fire Department responded Tuesday morning to a reported explosion in a Studio City neighborhood.

The explosion was reported around 9:45 a.m. on Moorpark Street. 

Aerial footage from NewsChopper4 showed firefighters securing the area around Moorpark Street and Farmdale Avenue due to smoke from a manhole cover. 

There was a reported power outage in the area.  At least 843 customers were affected, according to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. 

There were no reported injuries and no reported damage to any structures. 

Refresh this page for updates.

A routine TSA screening turned into a dance battle after a young boy showed off his moves as he passed through a checkpoint at Newark International Airport.

The boy and his family were heading through security at the airport's Terminal B when the young traveler started to dance, according to TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein.

After TSA officer Joshua McCall complimented the boy’s dance moves, the boy challenged McCall to a dance-off, Farbstein said.

Video captured by a bystander shows the boy toss his stuffed animal aside as he fully commits to the competition.

"The family was very appreciative of the TSA officer’s engagement and overall demeanor, and they requested that McCall take a group photo with the family, which, of course, he agreed to do," Farbstein said.

Tom Carter, TSA’s federal security director for New Jersey, said Tuesday the agency's officers would "be happy to accept any dance challenges from passengers,” as long as they’re not too busy.

“It’s a good example of the human side of our great and dedicated professionals on the front lines of homeland security,” he said.

“Officer McCall not only helped keep this family safe, but also made their checkpoint experience both pleasurable and memorable.”

Spent some time on the sand this summer?

Chances are solid that you broke out a bottle with "SPF" on the label (fingers crossed), that you hydrated (again with the crossing of fingers), and that you felt swept away by the majesty of the Pacific, whether you spied a pod of playful dolphins, a postcard-pretty sunset, or the beautiful beams at play on the water's surface.

If you also spied an empty bottle or a wrapper or some larger piece of litter that found its way into the ocean, you likely didn't feel quite the same majesty stirring in your heart. Rather, you put the item in the nearest appropriate bin (yep, fingers crossed).

There's a way, though, to dig deeper into the detritus that accumulates around the ocean's edge, and various river banks, and places where H2O laps at the land: You can sign up for California Coastal Cleanup Day, which is just about a month out, as of mid-August.

The 2018 date for "the state's largest annual volunteer event" is Saturday, Sept. 15. The California Coastal Commission is behind the effort, which sees thousands of pounds of trash removed from our waterways and adjacent areas each year.

How thousandy is "thousands" here? Check it out: Some 23,054,067 pounds of trash were hauled out from 1985 through 2016.

Hoo. That's super trashy.

You can be part of the solution: Check out what your favorite nonprofits or organizations are doing for the day, like Heal the Bay or California State Parks.

This is a fine place to begin the research and registering process: the main site for California Coastal Cleanup Day.

With a few weeks to go, there's still time to round up family/friends for your pitch-in, trash-out outing. 

You'd never leave your water bottle or sunblock squirter on the sand, surely. Now help clear the sand and waves of stuff, lots and lots and lots and LOTS of stuff, that's been left behind.

A Pineville, North Carolina, store manager has been fired after a pregnant woman says she was falsely accused of hiding merchandise under her shirt.

"I'm very pregnant, I don't need any additional stress," said Shirell Bates, who is 34 weeks pregnant with twins.

Bates decided to make a quick run to Staples to stock up on some back-to-school supplies for her son Friday afternoon.

"I figured I would go in there, grab a few items and be on my way," she said.

She said she spent about 15 minutes walking around the store.

"About half of the time, I had a store employee helping me find the items I needed," Bates said.

When she was finishing up, she checked her cart to make sure she had everything she needed and got in line to pay.

"Things took a turn at the register, mid-transaction," Bates said.

The mom said a police officer approached her and asked her to step aside.

Read more from WCNC

Mayra Alejandra Haro de la Cruz was granted asylum by a US immigration judge on May 11, 2018.

It comes more than a year after she appeared at the San Ysidro border crossing with her three young children, covered in 3rd degree burns.

"We spent the night on the street that night because the border patrol said we couldn't cross until morning," she remembers of that January day in 2017.

Haro de la Cruz didn't mind the wait — she's suffered far more than a rocky bedspread.

"I am the victim of domestic violence," she says. "My ex-husband beat me, punched me in the face, and burned me."

Her scars are obvious — her arms, her legs and across her forehead — 75 percent of her body disfigured as a result of one night of anger she says she'll never forget.

"I just saw something dripping in the door," she says, remembering the June 2016 night she says her ex-husband splashed gasoline on the bedroom door she shut to get away from his abuse.

She says he held her captive in the bedroom they once shared only to set the house on fire.

"And I remember thinking, oh my God, I have no way out of here," she says."It hurt so much. I cannot describe how much it hurt. I was desperate."

Her screams reached neighbor's ears who finally came to her rescue by using hammers to break out the windows of the bedroom and pull her through.

"I thought about my kids. And I felt so sad," she says. "I asked God to please, take me. Because I couldn't ... it was so painful."

Doctors didn't think she could survive the night, let alone three months in a Mexican burn unit.

"You don't know how many women are murdered in Mexico because of this," Haro de la Cruz says.

She tried getting a restraining order against her husband, but every time she called police when he'd break the order, they'd claim they were too busy to help.

She says she believes the culture allowed for the abuse, too, and a local saying that "dirty laundry is best cleaned in your own home."

"We're really at risk, our government is not giving the attention it needs to," she says.

She said she felt she had no other option than to seek asylum in the U.S.

But her story, while somewhat common among Central American asylum-seekers, has become less obvious an asylum-winning case.

In June, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions canceled a provision in immigration law that grants asylum to victims of domestic violence. It's a point of contention that immigration judges and attorneys have argued the AG overturned 15 years of legal precedent.

"It's really important because it saves lives," Haro de la Cruz says, believing she would be dead if she were forced back to Mexico. "That's the most important, it saves lives."

It's the reason she wanted to share her harrowing tale, in the hope that those who make immigration policy will reconsider this policy and allow for a reprieve for domestic violence victims like her.

It's been 40 years since the gruesome death of 15-year-old Barbara Nantais, and investigators from the San Diego Police Department are asking the public for help.

Nantais was found beaten and strangled to death on the shores of Torrey Pines State Beach on the morning of August 13, 1978.

She was raped and had one of her breasts cut off.

She went to the beach the night before with her boyfriend, James Alt, SDPD said.

They were lying together on the sand when they were attacked, according to SDPD.

Alt, 17 at the time, suffered a major head injury and couldn’t remember what happened the night before. His skull was crushed with a rock and a fire log.

He was found semi-conscious near Nantais’ body.

In 2013, investigators used updated equipment to follow a new lead, but no suspect was caught.

Crime Stoppers is offering $1,000 to anyone with information that can lead to an arrest.

If you have any information about the attack or murder, call SDPD’s Homicide Unit at (619) 531-2293 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.

Tucking a small notebook into your shirt pocket or fanny pack, all to take notes about the various noshes found at a major food event and their levels of num-o-sity?

You don't have to be some fancy food critic to go that route (and, true, most food critics probably wouldn't deem themselves fancy, though, if they do, that's cool). For keeping track of all of the bites you're biting, when there are a lot of bites, just makes sense, especially if you want to connect again with the chef behind the dish that delighted you.

So stick a small spiral pad in your fannypack and make for the Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival, a five-day feast-around that puts multiple spotlights on multiple esteemed food pros.

Will you know every chef on the lineup?

Perhaps, but you may have not tried all of their well-sauced, beautifully basted, spiced-to-perfect output. So snap up a ticket to the event or events you'd like to be a part of (and, yes, as always, the festival prices each happening in an a la carte fashion, so you will only attend want you really want to attend).

Tempting to-dos?

There's a Power Lunch at Rossoblu with Chefs Steve Samson & Alex Seidel on Aug. 24, as well as a Power Lunch at Viviane at Avalon Hotel with Chefs Michael Reed & Robert Irvine, also scheduled for the 24th.

And the large-of-scale, large-of-flavor Lexus Grand Tasting lands at Barker Hangar on Saturday, Aug. 25 and Sunday, Aug. 26.

Look for "25 Celebrity Chefs" and over 200 vinos to make that snack-around scene.

So break out the tiny spiral pad, take notes, and remember the chefs you'd like to call upon again, the eateries, the meals, the experiences. Beyond a traditional food fest, the Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival is all about helping dine-outers get to know their favorite gourmet SoCal stars, and some that may be new to them.

The glittery gourmand-a-rama runs from Aug. 22 through 26, 2018.