Avocado distributors in San Diego say a recent worker strike in Mexico is the biggest disruption to the fruit's imports in history and they don't expect the problem to improve any time soon.

A spokesperson for Henry Avocado Corporation said that while the worker strike ended about a week and a half ago the issue will have lasting impact on the prices and number of avocados imported to the United States.

At its lowest, about 8 million pounds of avocados are imported to the U.S. each week, distributors say. That’s down from the usual 40 million per week.

And it’s impacting all parts of the business chain, from everyday buyers to local restaurants, which are now paying up to five times as much for the fruit.

“It was $25 a box back then and went to $30, $40, $55 and now it’s $120,” said Guillermo Fragoso, co-owner of La Vecindad in Hillcrest.

Trader Joe’s grocery stores in San Diego normally receive 12 to 15 cases a day of avocados. Now, the store chain receives one or two cases a day.

While the strike has ended and avocados are coming across the border again, distributors say don’t expect the quantity to instantly pick up.

Considering travel and ripening time, it could take days for the supply to normalize in San Diego and elsewhere in the country.

And even with a normalizing bounty, the prices are expected to be much higher. Distributors say they expect prices to remain high unless the demand increases and growers in Mexico to drop their prices.

The Justice Department has overhauled the New York-based team probing the death of Eric Garner over a difference in opinion between officials in the city and in Washington on whether civil rights charges should be brought on the federal level, officials familiar with the case told The New York Times. 

Garner, 43, died on July 17, 2014 after being put in a chokehold on a Staten Island street corner by an NYPD officer after he was stopped for selling loose, untaxed cigarettes. The chokehold was captured on video, which showed him calling out "I can't breathe" as he was held down. Garner's dying words became a rallying cry at protests nationwide over police killings of black men amid a nationwide debate over police use of force. 

Federal authorities have been investigating whether there's evidence to warrant charges that the officers who confronted Garner deliberately violated his civil rights. But, according to the Times, the investigation has been slowed by disagreement between federal officials in New York and Washington. According to the Times, those investigating the case in New York recommended against bringing federal civil rights charges. Officials in Washington, however, thought there was sufficient evidence to do so. 

In a rare shake-up, the Justice Department moved to switch out the investigative team in recent weeks, according to the Times, moving federal prosecutors in Brooklyn off the case and bringing in FBI agents from outside New York to take a fresh look at the evidence. 

To bring charges in the Garner case, prosecutors would have to convince a federal grand jury that a crime occurred, according to the Times. That poses additional challenges in the wake of a New York grand jury's 2014 decision not to indict Pantaleo, who remains on desk duty, stripped of his gun and badge, while police officials await the results of the federal probe. 

The city medical examiner found the chokehold by Pantaleo contributed to Garner's death. Chokeholds are banned under NYPD policy, but Pantaleo's lawyer said the officer had used a permissible takedown maneuver known as a seatbelt. Pantaleo's attorney has maintained his client didn't violate Garner's civil rights and that he was performing his duties, which he was trained to do. 

Over the summer, on the second anniversary of Garner's death, Garner's sister, Ellisha Garner, said the years-long wait for the Justice Department to conclude its probe has been trying on the family, but that they'd wait as long as it takes to get justice. 

Garner's family reached a $5.9 million settlement with the city last year, but relatives said it was not a victory, adding they would keep pushing for federal charges.

According to the Times, any movement in the federal case is likely months away. 

With the presidential election two weeks away, Donald Trump is giving his supporters a new way to get their news — directly from him. 

The Republican on Monday announced that for the remainder of the election, supporters can tune into "Trump Tower Live," his campaign's new nightly news feed, on Facebook. The coverage will broadcast on Facebook Live from Trump Tower weeknights at 6:30 p.m. ET.

Two campaign advisers, Boris Epshteyn and Cliff Sims, are among the hosts, along with current talk show host for conservative online publication the Blaze, Tomi Lahren. The broadcast comes after months of rumors that Trump, relentless in his criticism of "mainstream media," which he believes is trying to sabotage the election, was considering starting his own TV network. 

But the hosts were clear that "Trump Tower Live" is not the beginning of such a network, which Trump told a radio station Tuesday he has "no interest in," as Politico reported.

"This is just an effort by us to reach out to you guys, give you the message straight from the campaign," Sims said in his introduction. "You don't have to take it through the media filter and all the spin they put on it, you can hear it from us directly."

In the debut broadcast Monday, Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway made an appearance to talk about Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton, and the election's final stretch. Republican National Committee Communications Director Sean Spicer also appeared Monday.

Sims said other Trump surrogates, as well as the Trump children, will join the show in the future. The stream ran for about 38 minutes before leading into Trump's rally in Tampa, Florida.

As of shortly before noon Tuesday, the feed had 1.4 million views. But not everyone online was enthusiastic about the foray into broadcasting — many Twitter users poked fun at the Republican presidential candidate's initiative Tuesday, using the hashtag #RejectedTrumpTVShows.

Some played on the titles of current TV shows, while others joked about the controversies that have weighed on Trump's candidacy.

Police in New Jersey say they've found the 32-year-old backup dancer from New Jersey who vanished near the Port Authority Bus Terminal over the weekend after making a cryptic comment to friends.

North Bergen Police said in an Instagram post Tuesday evening that Shirlene Quigley has been found safe with the help of NYPD. She was at an undisclosed medical facility, and her father was en route from Los Angeles to reunite with her, police said. 

Rihanna and Missy Elliot had posted emotional pleas on Instagram for information on the whereabouts of Quigley, who has also performed with Beyonce.

Calling Quigley a "beautiful soul," Rihanna wrote, "My heart aches thinking of how heavy this is on all who love her!" The Instagram post included a video of the missing woman contemplating peace and love.

"Those who have met her know her spirit is always bubbly and kind & uplifting energy! Sending countless prayers," wrote Missy Elliot.

Quigley, who lives alone in North Bergen and teaches dance at Peridance Capezio Center and Broadway Dance Center in Manhattan, according to her Facebook page, was last seen getting on a bus at Port Authority around 1 a.m. Sunday, her father said.

Her father, who lives in California, said Quigley normally calls him every day around 6 p.m., and he became concerned when he hadn't heard from her.

"I just want her to come home, or if someone has her to let her be," the father said. "She's everything to me. She's why I live."

Police say Quigley's phone was found at a bridal store in Chelsea; her father says she could've been there to pick up something for a show.

Quigley's father said his daughter made a strange comment to her friend recently along the lines of "Get ready, it's about to happen and I'm going to need you to sub for me."

Quigley attended Liberty Church in Brooklyn; her father says that she is very religious, and that lately she has seemed "euphoric."

Her landlord saw her leave her New Jersey home Saturday afternoon and later called a friend to say Quigley did not seem well, the friend said.

According to her personal website, Quigley's dance career launched when she was 18 and earned a role as one of the "uhh ohh girls" on Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love" music video. She has performed on an array of awards shows, including the VMA's, Grammy's and ESPY Awards.

Quigley created the first high heel dance class at a studio in her hometown of Los Angeles and later brought the workshop to New York City. She has also taught at dance studios around the world, her website says.

Google's parent company is halting operations and laying off staff in a number of cities where it once hoped to bring high-speed internet access by installing new fiber-optic networks.

The Mountain View-based company also announced that Craig Barratt, a veteran tech executive who led the ambitious - and expensive - Google Fiber program, is stepping down as CEO of Access, the division of Google corporate parent, Alphabet Inc., that operates the 5-year-old program.

In a statement, Barratt said Google Fiber will continue to provide service in a handful of cities where it's already operating, including Atlanta; Austin, Texas; and Charlotte, North Carolina.

But it will put further plans on hold in at least eight more metropolitan areas where it's been holding exploratory talks with local officials. Those include Dallas; Tampa and Jacksonville, Florida; Los Angeles; Oklahoma City; Phoenix; Portland, Oregon; and San Jose. San Diego was also once considered a candidate for Google Fiber.

Barratt didn't say how many jobs will be cut. His statement described the Access business as "solid," but said it would make "changes to focus our business and product strategy" and incorporate new technology.

A recent report by tech news site The Information said the business was under pressure by Alphabet CEO Larry Page to cut costs after failing to meet financial goals, including a target of signing up 5 million subscribers.

Barratt said he'll continue to serve as an adviser to Page.

Donald Trump's campaign is pushing back against a new report that says Trump has all but stopped raising money for the joint fundraising effort with the Republican National Committee, insisting that the campaign is continuing to support the Republican Party, NBC News reported.

Trump finance chairman Steven Mnuchin told NBC News that the report by The Washington Post was "completely misleading" and that "we continue to do fundraising for Trump Victory."

The Post reported Tuesday evening that the Trump campaign has "wound down" its joint fundraising effort, holding its last major fundraiser Oct. 19 in Las Vegas, and that it would still raise money online. The Post has since changed its headline but kept the contents of the story.

The report caused a stir because most of the money raised through Trump Victory goes to help the Republican Party implement an effective ground game and a get-out-the-vote effort and to help candidates down the ballot.

Russia has released the first image of its newest thermonuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile, NBC News reported.

The RS-28 Sarmat, also known as “Satan 2,” has the capability to wipe out a landmass “the size of Texas or France,” according to the Kremlin-aligned Sputnik news agency. It will replace the RS-36M, also known as “Satan,” which entered service in the 1970s.

Former nuclear weapons expert at the U.S. Department of Energy, Robert Kelley, said the upgrade was likely the electronic aspect of the weapon. The range and explosive power are likely the same as previous missiles, but the reliability, flexibility and confidence are new, he said.

It is expected to enter service late next year.

Connor Garcia Whitehill made a bold prediction last spring, before the baseball season even started. He didn’t just put it in writing – he put it on YouTube.

The 14-year-old from Oakland, California, said the Chicago Cubs would make it to the World Series, and win for the first time in 108 years, against the Cleveland Indians.

Why was he so confident in his prediction? Statistics.

"The fun thing about statistics is that they help you to understand the world around you, be it baseball, politics or just numbers in general,” he said.

Fun? Many people would say statistics are useful, but most wouldn’t say fun.

But math is one of Connor’s favorite things. So he decided to combine it with two other passions – video and baseball – when he tackled his eighth grade project.

With the help of a couple of dedicated math teachers at Berkeley’s Black Pine Circle School, he created a spreadsheet with formulas that analyzed MLB statistics and gave each team a number to predict its final ranking in each division.

Of course, the Cubs came into the season strong. It doesn’t take a crystal ball or statistics to say they would have a good season.

But Connor called the winners of four out of six divisions.

"The more surprising thing to me was the Cleveland Indians, and that actually made me doubt my metric a little bit," he said.

His analysis failed him in the West divisions. Maybe his love for the Giants led him astray.

“I think they were unlucky. They should’ve won,” he said ruefully.

His dad, Bob Whitehill, helped him edit the video and suggested he read “Moneyball,” the Michael Lewis book that documented how the 2002 Oakland Athletics rethought baseball’s conventions to field a winning team on a budget.

His mom, Ingrid Aguirre Happoldt, forwarded the video Connor made to friends and family across the country.

Then, when Connor’s predicted teams won the pennants, they started calling and texting.

“They’re saying, ‘Didn't Connor predict the Cubs and the Indians? Did it really work out that way?' So it's been fun to see that the predictions he made have come to pass,” she said.

She’s grateful that her son has the opportunity to plan and execute a long-term project over the course of several months.

“He was eager to be done with the video editing part by the end of it,” she said. “He’s getting a big confidence boost from this.”

Her son is now taking geometry at Bishop O’Dowd High School.

He calls his metric, “The Connor Curve.” There are only a few more games until his statistical analysis is tested by real life.

In 1973, New York City school teacher Annette Gandy Fortt was looking for a decent place to live. A listing for an apartment in a building owned by Donald Trump's father, Fred, caught her eye — but she says the super told her there were no units available.

"I was black," Fortt said recently. "I was not wanted."

As NBC News reports, after Fortt was turned away from the Queens apartment building twice, the New York City Human Rights Commission sent a white person to the property to apply for an apartment — and the tester was offered the apartment, according to court papers.

The commission took on Fortt's case, and she says a young Donald Trump appeared with a lawyer at a hearing on behalf of the family real estate company, Trump Management.

Her case also became part of a federal racial discrimination lawsuit filed by the Justice Department against Donald and Fred Trump that was resolved with a consent decree two years later in which they agreed to terms aimed at preventing discrimination.

That lawsuit is the basis of a new video from Hillary Clinton's campaign, released Tuesday.

The inbound upper level of the George Washington Bridge was closed by an immigrant rights protest on Wednesday morning, snarling traffic on one of the region's most important crossings at the height of rush hour.

Delays at the bridge for traffic heading into New York from New Jersey were up to nearly 90 minutes; traffic cameras showed bumper-to-bumper traffic barely inching along. 

The protesters apparently chained themselves across the roadway to block traffic, unfurling large banners in an attempt to spread their message. One banner appeared to read "Resist, Organized, Act Up!"

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Drivers were clashing with the protesters in an effort to get the bridge open, according to witnesses. Police quickly detained the small group and traffic began moving again about 15 minutes.

The Port Authority said 10 people who were blocking the eastbound lanes were arrested. No injuries were reported. The agency said it is investigating. 

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The protest organization, Laundry Workers Center — which was using the hashtags #WeAreVisible and #SomosVisible on social media — was already planning a rally in Union Square Park Wednesday night. 

"We are a Grassroots Autonomous Movement campaigning for the right of every member of our communities to be visible, to be able to take part in the decision making process that affect our communities in our 'democratic' system, and for the ability to determine our destinies," the New York-based nonprofit said on its Facebook page. 

Also according to its Facebook page, the group works to improve the living and working conditions of workers in the laundry and food service industries. 

"Our work aims to combat abuses such as landlord negligence, wage theft, and hazardous and exploitative working conditions, all of which are endemic in low-income communities in New York City and New Jersey," the page says.

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Nearly 200 pumpkins were stolen from a family-run farm stand in New Jersey overnight Tuesday, authorities said.

A van was caught on camera pulling up to steal the produce from the Farms View Roadstand in Wayne on three separate occasions early on Tuesday, according to Todd Kuehn, the owner's son.

Images released by the farm stand -- which has been operating at the location for more than 100 years -- shows dozens of pumpkins missing from the normally pristine lines of produce.

Kuehn said that the stolen pumpkins would have likely sold for between $2,500 and $3,000.

The family is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

Anyone with information on the pumpkin thieves should call the Wayne Police Department at 973-633-3530.

If Vice President Biden was serious about taking Trump "behind the gym," it sounds like Donald Trump is in.

Rounding out a full day of rallies in Florida Tuesday night, the Republican presidential nominee went off on a tangent against Biden, calling him "Mr. Tough Guy" for comments the VP made last week that if it were high school he'd take Trump "behind the gym."

Trump remembered the comments slightly differently — he said, "did you see Biden wants to take me to the back of the barn?" — but wasn't deterred by the sentiment behind them.

"I'd love that," he said of the idea of the two men tussling, NBC News reported.

Remember Fergus, the resilient golden retriever who captured the hearts of many after he suffered third-degree burns from an acid attack in Southern California last year?

He's making a tremendous comeback.

The lovable pup is now training to become a therapy dog for burn victims, as well as make an appearance on famed "dog whisperer" Cesar Millan's new show.

The dog behaviorist taped an episode of "Dog Nation" Tuesday at Fergus' family's home in Calabasas to help the pooch with obedience training.

"The more you went through, the more you can empathize," Millan said. "So for Fergus to go through burns, then go and help (other people) move on from that experience, I think he is the right ambassador for it."

Fergus was surrendered at a Lancaster animal shelter in August 2015 with a third-degree burn along his back, from his neck all the way to his tail.

The then-injured dog's story received an overwhelming response from loving strangers, who donated a truckload of treats, toys and more to the shelter where he was recovering.

An offensive against ISIS in Syria to retake Raqqa is set to begin within weeks, Defense Secretary Ash Carter told NBC News in an exclusive interview in Paris where he has been meeting with his counterparts from other Western countries.

Raqqa is the terrorist organization's de facto capital and Carter said the plan is part of a larger offensive. He added, "It's been long a part of our plan that the Mosul operation would kick off when it did. This was a plan that goes back many months now and that Raqqa would follow soon behind."

When asked whether U.S. special forces or other troops would be sent inside Mosul or Raqqa to gather intelligence or hunt "high-value combatants," Carter replied: "They are not near [Mosul] at this time ... Our forces do accompany .... the Iraqi security forces and the Peshmerga. So they will get nearer to the city as those forces get nearer to the city ... We are not going to be part of the occupation or hold forces."

It's unclear what military force would lead the attack on Raqqa nor what role, if any, US forces would play in the planned attack.