S1: Welcome to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. New rules limiting student protests on California's college campuses are taking effect as students return for the start of a new school year.
S2: They can't have anything that blocks movement on campus or , you know , obstructs access to buildings or other campus facilities.
S1: Then Escondido is seeing a rise in juvenile gang violence. We hear what's behind it and what actions the city is taking to curb it. Plus , we hear about other stories from the week on the roundup. That's all ahead on KPBS roundtable This week , many college students arrived on California campuses for the start of a new school year , including local universities like San Diego State and Cal State San Marcos. But the school year comes along with changes for public universities in the state. The University of California and Cal State Systems both recently announced new rules restricting protests and banning encampments. The changes come on the heels of last spring's pro-Palestinian student protests that took hold on college campuses across the country. So what are the new rules and how will they impact California's universities going forward , as well as student activism more broadly ? All while the Israel-hamas war continues , nearing one year since fighting began. Here to talk more about how California's colleges are addressing campus protests are Amy Di Pietro and Michael Burke. They're both reporters with Ed Soares , who focuses on higher education in this Golden State. Amy Michael , welcome to roundtable.
S3: Good to be here. Thank you for having us.
S1: So , Michael , I'm going to start with you. Let's take a look at the big picture here.
S2: But I think it really accelerated and picked up in the spring , especially Columbia University in New York kind of was the first campus to really , I guess , accelerate the protest that they had an encampment in April. And then after that , you just saw similar encampments popping up across the country , including in California. And I think the main driver of it was students wanting their their campuses to , you know , cut any ties they have with Israel and divest , whether that be from weapons manufacturers or , you know , companies that are are tied to Israel. So yeah , I would , I would say in the spring is when it really picked up.
S1: You mentioned Columbia University being one of the first campuses where protests arose.
S2: You really started to see them growing and popping up. Toward the end of April , like that last week of April , in the spring , and then kind of late April into the beginning of May was sort of when I'm sure maybe your listeners are familiar with with what happened at UCLA when there was Counterprotest activity and there was a mob that actually attacked the , uh , the pro-Palestinian protesters there. Uh , that was like the night of April 30th. And that was probably the most notable event that happened in California that got the most attention. Yes.
S1: Yes. And also here on the campus of UC San Diego , there was also an encampment that I think in early May , police raided and arrested dozens of protesters there. Tell us more about , you know , what we saw last spring on UC campuses ? Sure.
S2: So there were encampments at basically every UC campus , especially the the nine campuses with undergraduate programs. You touched on San Diego. I think there was also significant activity at Irvine , um , Santa Cruz , obviously UCLA. And when I say significant activity , like there was police presence there that police came in and arrested students , took down encampments at those campuses. There was also , um , encampments at Riverside in Berkeley , where they actually at those campuses did come to agreements with the administration there. And sort of especially at Riverside , I know that there was actually a peaceful end to their encampment , but I know it several of the other campuses , it was the opposite , you know , there was no peaceful end. It was , as you mentioned , like at San Diego , you know , police coming in breaking it down encampments , arresting students and other protesters. Obviously , faculty were involved too. So that was probably the more common set of events that happened on the UC campuses.
S1:
S3: These campuses , some of them are pretty small. Some of them , like San Diego State , are , you know , tens of thousands of students. And they also vary a lot in terms of the history and culture of protest that they've had. You know , not just this past school year , but but going back decades. And so , you know , I would say that within Cal State , there were some campuses , just like Mike was saying , where campus leaders decided things have gotten to a point where we need to call police. Uh , often because students had occupied buildings that happened at CSU LA and also at Cal Poly Humboldt. And then similarly , there were campuses where there was much more of an ongoing dialogue with students , which slowly but surely brought encampments to a close. We saw that at campuses like San Francisco State and Sacramento State , where , you know , at least as I understand it , presidents are still , you know , leading and working with their university foundations on revisiting the investment policies that their own campuses have in place , basically reacting to the pressure that they received from protesters last spring.
S1: Amy , so tell us about how last school year ended and the protests with them. We heard you both a little bit talk about some of the encampments and what happened with law enforcement there , but tell us what the protests looked like at the end of last school year.
S3: Yeah , I think it really depends on the campus. So I guess starting locally in your part of the state , you know , San Diego State just had like a one day march and rally. I believe , on April 30th. And then , you know , after that , there were no encampments. Police never made any arrests. I imagine that the student groups that led that rally are still active , but I'm not sure what they're planning. And , you know , then there were other campuses where they came to more of like a formal agreement of sorts with protesters. Again , I would , at least within the CSU , mentioned San Francisco State and Sacramento State as places where , you know , there was some plan to , you know , disclose where the university foundations have invested their money and commit to revisiting what those investments are and having kind of an ongoing dialogue with community members who who wish to see the university , you know , back off of certain investments. You know , and then I think the thing that we're watching closely this fall , the campus is called time , place and manner policies. This is really the written rulebook that school leaders rely on as a kind of constraint and check on gatherings on campus , not just protests. And so , you know , last spring , a lot of policies were already on the books as far as where students can gather and when. And , you know , times of day , you know , sort of limitations on which spaces are open to the public and which spaces are not. Um , including , I would say that there were campuses that already , you know , at least in their written policies , had bans on people camping on , on campus. But what we've seen in the CSU is that in policies that were governed strictly by individual schools are now having like a more centralized approach where the CSU is releasing a system wide document , and then it's up to each campus to have , you know , what they call an agenda , which just spells out the particulars at that campus.
S1: So yeah , let's let's delve into those rules. I mean , this was , um , separate guidance , one from the UX , one from Cal State. Michael. Right. Break us down. What these new policies are intended to do.
S2: Well , on the on the on the UC side of things , um , the uh , system president Michael J. He basically I don't want to say he delegated it to the campuses because he did. Each campus has to sort of come up with their own policy. But there are certain things that Drake has asked each campus or required each campus to include in those policies. So , um , their policies have to , you know , say that the encampments aren't allowed , um , that they can't have anything that blocks movement on campus or , you know , obstructs access to buildings or other campus facilities. The policies have to , uh , also prohibit anybody on campus from , like , wearing masks to conceal their identity. So you're going to see those rules on every campus. But the actual specific language of of each policy isn't clear yet because each campus has to come up with their own. So I think , uh , with two UC campuses are actually starting their classes next week , Berkeley and Merced. So I think those are going to kind of be the first , I guess , um , hints or examples of what we're actually going to see specifically in terms of the policies. But I think broadly , the biggest thing is that encampments are are not going to be tolerated. But whether students will follow that , um , is also unclear because , you know , the semester hasn't started yet. I know student protesters. They're they're definitely not satisfied. And they weren't happy with , you know , this announcement from the UC president's office. And , you know , I had one student , uh , from UCLA , UCLA , who told me that until or unless , you know , their campus divest that , that they're still , you know , planning to try to disrupt campus operations. So whether that's encampments or or something else , you know , we'll just have to see. But yeah , I think a lot is still up in the air in terms of what actually happens.
S1:
S3: They're really treading a fine line here. Um , on one hand , there's a long history of university campuses being an important gathering place and catalyst for protests in the US. And so there are people who I've spoken with , um , particularly folks who are First Amendment scholars , um , or have a concern for academic freedom and freedom of speech who have said that , you know , they see this kind of wave of colleges and universities and not just in California but around the country who are , you know , really trying to tighten and be more forceful in imposing these time , place and manner policies. These critics see those as constraining of free speech. And you know what one professor told me is that if if students are reading these rules and aren't exactly sure what they mean , like that could have a kind of chilling effect where , you know , if because of that uncertainty , because it seems to tell you that , you know , maybe you need permission in order to post this flyer on this bulletin board , but on this wall , you know , maybe that gives people pause and causes them , you know , to to not make their voices heard. So I think that that's the , the main criticism that , you know , universities traditionally have this vocation and really responsibility to be places where people can freely exchange ideas. And so some of these critics are saying , you know , that these time , place and manner policies are are signaling a kind of constraints and limitations along those lines.
S1:
S2: Uh , UC's president's office basically outlined , um , how they expect it to happen. Uh , they called it like a tiered response , although they clarify that it's not , you know , necessarily a rigid thing that campuses have to follow or that will capture , you know , every specific situation. But so , so broadly , the tiered response is going to look like first under sort of what the president's office is , is proposing or suggesting. The first part of it would be if , you know , a person did something that they that the campus believes , you know , violated their policy , the first step would be , you know , informing them that they , uh , violated it and asking them to change their conduct after that. If it doesn't , if nothing changes , they would , um , you know , get a warning about possible consequences if they don't change their conduct. Um , and then if that , if that , if , if it still continues , then uh , you know , the police or the campus fire marshal could come in and , you know , possibly , you know , issue an unlawful assembly announcement or ask them to disperse or give some other kind of order. And then sort of the final phase , if , if again , the the behavior or conduct isn't changing is they could be cited for a violation of UC policy or possibly , uh , detained and arrested if they're breaking a law. So yeah , there's a lot of layers to it. So it's not necessarily going to be right away that you're detained or that you're cited for , um , you know , a violation. The at least based on , you know , what the president's office said , that there's going to be more of a multiple steps of , you know , informing them , warning them. So it'll be interesting to see how it plays out. But , you know , based on that , I don't know if you necessarily see police coming in right away. Michael.
S1: Michael. In your in yours. And Amy's reporting , you note that money's playing a role here. Tell us about the role state lawmakers are playing in these changes ? Sure.
S2: So as part of the previous budget agreement that was reached this summer , the state lawmakers had basically asked the UC president's office to create sort of a system wide set of rules to make sure that campuses across the UC are consistently enforcing protest rules , and so that that system wide framework is basically what I talked about earlier , that , you see , President Michael Drake came out with , but they the lawmaker said that he needed to do that or they would withhold 25 million. So Drake basically has until October 1st to actually submit a report to the legislature detailing that framework. And until then , they're planning to withhold 25 million from UC's budget. But it seems like he they pretty much have that plan in place , and now they just have to submit it a report to the legislature.
S1: And , Amy , as we finish up here , just to put this in context , I think between the UX and the Cal states , we're talking about hundreds of thousands of students impacted potentially by this policy cross over some 30 campuses. How do you see these new rules impacting student activism going forward ? Yeah.
S3: You know , I think the challenge for students is , you know , sort of weighing the pros and cons of breaking these rules , weighing the different strategies that they could pursue , you know , if they're interested in continuing , you know , activism , like what we saw last spring , a spokesman that I would been in touch with at San Francisco State said that , you know , last spring , they kind of gave an exception to students who were camping on their campus and that this time around this , this fall , you know , they'll have to kind of communicate the urgency around these , um , regulations to , to students and make sure they understand what they mean. But the ball is sort of in students court in terms of how they react. And , you know , what they pursue.
S1: And Michael , what about you ? I mean , we know college campuses have a long history of student protest.
S2: But , you know , based on the few students and faculty I've talked to , like I said earlier , they're not happy with with these rules. And so I don't necessarily think that it's going to deter them. I do you know , obviously , a lot of students who participated in the protests last year have graduated. So I'm very interested to see just how motivated students are to continue protesting this year. But I don't think this , you know , order from or this new these new policies are necessarily going to , uh , deter them from protesting. I think there will be some form of protests and activity. If I had to guess , I just , um , have no idea exactly what it will look like or if there will be encampments or anything like that , but I would expect some sort of activity.
S1: Well , we'll have a lot to follow up on as students return to campuses and the conflict in Gaza continues. I've been speaking with Amy Di Pirro and Michael Burke. They're both reporters with Ed Soares covering higher education in California. Thank you so much for being here.
S3: Thank you. Andrew.
S2: Thank you for having us.
S1: When roundtable returns , the city of Escondido is dealing with a rise in juvenile gang violence. And both advocates and law enforcement are looking for solutions.
S4: The community advocate who I spoke to said it perfectly. We can't leave it up to the nonprofits. We can't leave it up to the city. We can't leave it up to the police. Parents need to be talking to their kids.
S1: That's ahead on roundtable. Welcome back to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken within our KPBS newsroom , we took a look at the damage gang violence can have on families and communities. The city of Escondido has seen rising juvenile gang violence in recent years. Both advocates and law enforcement in Escondido are looking for solutions to curb the problem. And one of those is bringing back the city's gang enforcement team. KPBS North County reporter Tanya Thorn joins me now to tell us more. Tanya , welcome back to roundtable.
S4: Thanks for having me , Andrew.
S1:
S4: And I have family and friends that live in the city of Escondido. And so I'm always on top of the news and the headlines. And I just kept hearing from my friends and families and the headlines about incident after incident happening , especially on the weekends and at night. Um , it was a stabbing. It was a shooting. And so this was already kind of on my radar , right ? I kept seeing these incidents pop up during the week , sometimes in the daylight. Um , you know , tragedies like one of the ones that was included in the story of a stabbing of a very young 14 year old. And it's it's tragic. Right. So these things were already in my radar , and I started taking a closer look at what the city and our law enforcement and our community advocates were starting to do about it , because if it was in my radar , it had to be in theirs.
S1: And do we know how much of an increase Escondido has been seeing in gang violence ? Yeah.
S4: So I did talk to Escondido police to see what they're seeing. Right. Their numbers. And they said this year , although it doesn't seem like a big number. Right. So this year , the first six months of 2024 , they've had 41 violent juvenile crime arrests. But in 2023 they had 57 total for the whole year. So it's only been the first half of the year and they're already at 41. They averaged it to about six arrests per month. So , I mean , we're not done with the year and we're already looking like we're going to beat last year. And it's just it's very tragic because these are very , very young kids who need guidance. And so they are aware of the numbers. And that's kind of the reason why they brought back this gang enforcement.
S1: And can you put that into historical context for the city. Where do these numbers sit with , you know , decades past ? Yeah.
S4: So I mean , I think people in North County know that there have been gangs , you know , in each city. But Escondido has been known to have rival gangs , rival neighborhoods. And so it's nothing new to Escondido police. I think what they're seeing now is just younger kids , like just younger kids hanging out , trying to prove themselves , maybe just very not aware of the consequences and what could happen. And I think they're starting to see that some of the consequences are leading to death and just very , very tragic Results. We met a young man here who is now in a wheelchair for the rest of his life because of gang violence. So I think for law enforcement , what is starting to look like is just very young kids and they need to start recognizing some of these younger faces. And so that is really part of this whole gang enforcement tactic.
S1:
S4: And so maybe it's not looking the way it used to be , where you would hear the term of they're getting jumped in. Right ? I think we're not seeing so much of that anymore. Maybe something happens , maybe a rival group of kids comes into that neighborhood and a fight happens. And what I'm starting to hear from Escondido police is that now kids are carrying weapons. And so what would have been justified is now turning into a homicide or an attempted homicide , leading these kids to actually have more serious consequences. Right. They're starting to see maybe juvenile jail time at a very young age. And so sometimes that just turns into a cycle , right ? We see that cycle where now they're they're going into the system. And unfortunately it's a cycle that can repeat itself , especially when there are not enough resources. And so I think I think that's what we're starting to see. And what community advocates and , and law enforcement are trying to do is get ahead of that.
S1: And you spoke with the former gang member from the city turned advocate. What did he have to say about this rise in gang violence there ? Yeah.
S4: So this man , Abner Medrano , he was a former gang member who's now an advocate , right. He's starting to see the violence , and he's kind of first on the scene when things happen , trying to talk to these youth. And so I know what he's trying to do is do more outreach he's Ritchie's putting together youth groups and trying to put together some sports activities. Right. This is this is something that he liked when he was hanging around with gang members. And so he's this one person trying to do this for his community. And and that's exactly what he's seen , that there's a lack of these programs within the city of Escondido. Um , it's also a cultural thing , right ? We have a lot of , um , people of color in Escondido , a lot of more lower income families in Escondido. And so a lot of the times there are families and parents who have to work two jobs to be able to pay for their rent and have a house over their head. And so , unfortunately , the parents aren't always physically there to watch over their kids. But sometimes , if they are maybe not from this country , they don't understand , you know , gangs , they don't understand how gangs work here in the city. Right ? You are just getting here from a different country. And so sometimes it's just a lack of education and knowledge of the city. The neighborhood. Um , understanding what gang related clothing behavior friends look like. Um , and so unfortunately , it's almost like a product of the environment they're in. Um , it sounds like in this stabbing fight with this young , uh , very young boy that died , um , he was just hanging out with with friends , with friends that live near him. Right. So these are the kids that you see next door you're hanging out with. Maybe you're going out to ride a bike , you're out skateboarding , but if another , you know , group of friends comes and starts a fight , all of a sudden you're tangled up into this gang related rivalry. And so his call of action was really , you know , we need to do something about it. The city needs to do something about it. Uh , all community members need to do something about it.
S1: The department had won a few years ago , but did cut it due to staffing problems. Decrease in gang crime.
S4: And we've seen those things kind of fade away. So I was trying to be really careful about how I worded things with this , and I'm really glad that I spoke to Escondido police. And it's not so much of an enforcement as it is an outreach team , right ? It's two police officers that are starting to go out into the community again and meet these young kids. So what , they're starting to put a face to the name , making connections with them , making connections with their parents. And so it's not so much of we're going to label you a gang member. It's trying to meet them , right. Connect with them. And unfortunately , that's something that the department says they lost during Covid , right ? We had very limited connection and interaction during Covid. Uh , even our police officers were limited to the kinds of calls they could respond to. And so these kinds of outreach and connections had to go kind of to the back of the , you know , line. They weren't priority. And so we're starting to kind of go back to those connections. Um , but unfortunately , I do think that this rise in juvenile gang violence is a is a direct consequence and result of those resources that were unfortunately taken away due to Covid restrictions and staffing. Right. Every , every department has seen staffing shortages and cash shortages , right ? A lot of , um , shortages within their budgets. But this is where we're starting to see those consequences.
S1: And you've reiterated here that we're talking about kids. These are juveniles involved here. Um , and one piece of it that you report on is the role social media is playing here. Can you talk about that , how the community is using it , but also the young people today , obviously it's an important part of how they communicate and socialize , right ? Yeah.
S4: Isn't that interesting ? I mean , you know , I grew up in the 90s and social media wasn't a thing for , uh , gang members , right ? It wasn't. You didn't have a gang group page , but apparently now there is there are pages for each , uh , for each gang. And so this is something new for the department as well , and something that they have to keep on their radar. And so I was it was really interesting to me to hear from the department that they have a specific officer who's in charge of just filtering through social media pages through the content because , um , you know , now we have so many numerous platforms. We have Snapchat and TikTok and Instagram , but Snapchat is one of those apps that is super popular within the younger kids. And what happens there is that you post a story and it disappears , but people screenshot it , people screen record it , and it's very private. And so what's going on , even with Instagram , is that these kids are using these pages and posting sometimes what they're doing , whether it's a fight , whether it's , uh , stealing , uh , any of these crimes that they are committing , they are posting it on social media sometimes , you know , there's emojis over their faces. And so the police really what they're trying to do is recognize some of these faces. You know , we see this kid here in this post. Does he look like this kid that's over here on this other post , but maybe has an emoji over their face. Um , and then going out into the streets and connecting with them. Right. And kind of preventing this from happening. Um , and sometimes a lot of their gang affiliation to starts to come out in social media. So maybe it's more more revealing on social media than it is in person. I think something Escondido police also mentioned was that the clothing isn't as obvious as it was back then , right ? The colors , the shirts. But on social media , they are just posting it more freely and being more open to who they are affiliated with. So it's very interesting that this turn in , um , social media and how the police now has to be aware of it and implement it into their policing.
S1: In your reporting here , you spoke with the young man who was , you know , severely injured due to the gang violence there.
S4: I mean , I will disclose he isn't even 21. And I spoke to his mother as well. And it was heartbreaking , right ? This it's just him and his mom. And they live in an upstairs apartment , and now he's in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. And his mom is his primary caregiver. And it is a sad situation. I mean , this is where you really start to see the consequences and how people have to live with some of these consequences for the rest of their lives. And it doesn't just impact him , it impacts his family. What I did see here , though , in this young man , is just how he realized how important family is , right ? He he mentioned to me how these kinds of things are where you realize who's really there for you , your homies , your , you know , some of the people you used to hang out with , they aren't there anymore. Who's next to him ? It's his mom. And so it's something that I think really made him mature at a young age , very , very unfortunate situation. I think he definitely learned from it and he's trying to move on from it. But unfortunately , with the way life is with how much it costs , you know , he's very limited to what he can do And so I know that him and his family , the first thing they're trying to do is just , um , save a little bit of money and get out of Escondido. But , um , I was happy to see that he is in good spirits , um , and looking at life positively , which sometimes it's hard to do , you know , when you're coming back from such a situation. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Very , very sad there. I mean , you talked a little bit about some of the things law enforcement in Escondido is doing to help bring these numbers down.
S4: And that's the city of Escondido , unfortunately , is having money issues. They're facing a very , very , uh , large budget deficit in the next 20 years is what they're facing. I believe it was about $18 million budget deficit for the next 20 years , every year. And so they're working to fix that. But as we know , sometimes community resources are again , what goes to the back of the line. And so there has been no room to grow any kinds of programs for kids , any parks for the kids , any additional sports or swimming pool. So just amenities and resources for the kids. So unfortunately , when it comes to the city , we're starting to see a lot of limitations there. And I would say that , again , this increase in gang violence is a direct consequence of that of maybe the , you know , law enforcement not having more outreach. Um , but I think Abner , the community advocate who I spoke to , said it perfectly. We can't leave it up to the nonprofits. We can't leave it up to the city. We can't leave it up to the police. Parents need to be talking to their kids , being aware of what their kids are doing , monitoring their social media , um , and just seeing what we can do. Right. Being present. I did speak to one of the city council members , Consuelo Martinez , who said she was looking into trying to get resources right , maybe opening up to the community if you have a space or ideas , if you have an empty parking lot. You know what ? What can we do here ? And so it really takes a lot of collaboration. I know another thing she was working on was also grief support for families. A lot of the families that are being impacted by this gang violence or grief support sometimes , you know , isn't the top of mind. And so it's a matter of being creative , talking to the community and seeing what ideas we can have coming together. Because unfortunately , the budget deficit isn't going to change anytime soon.
S1: Well , it sounds like a lot of different factors there at play , but we really appreciate you , Tanya , sharing more about your reporting about Escondido here , and we hope you'll join us again to share more about it later on. Tanya Thorne is North County reporter for KPBS news. Tanya , thanks so much for being here.
S4: Thank you so much , Andrew.
S1: When we come back , we catch up on some other stories we've been following on the weekly roundup. That's ahead on roundtable. You're listening to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. It's time now for our weekly roundup. And joining me today is KPBS web producer Laura McCaffrey. Hey , Laura. How's it going ? Good.
S5: How are you , Andrew ? Great.
S1:
S5: It's been eight months since the intense flooding in January that destroyed a bunch of homes and displaced a lot of people. But as you can imagine , people impacted by the floods are still struggling. Um , one of our stories this week , the San Diego Housing Commission , was given $7 million to help flood victims find new housing , get rental assistance , but they've only used about $1.3 million. And that's because even with assistance , affordable rentals are really hard to find.
S1: Right ? So it kind of ties back into the cost of living story that always seems to kind of crop up into these things. And these flood victims can't even with some of the resources , they can't even find the housing they need. Right. Exactly.
S5: Exactly. Yeah. So basically , the government can't even help with these rental prices. Um , and it's it's really tragic. Like this has been going on for so long , and there's still not a solution for some of the people that were impacted.
S1: Well , right. And a lot of the people's homes need to be rebuilt. There's like remediation. There's construction going on. So it's it's too bad that these problems are ongoing. But we , you know , that storm and the impacts are still being felt today as , as you said. Yeah.
S5: Yeah. Yeah. So I understand there's a little change up with the San Diego Wave. You're a fan.
S1: Yeah I am well there was a pretty big story with San Diego Wave FC , the women's soccer team out of San Diego. They play at Snapdragon , um , and local , you know , basically a legend of U.S. men's soccer. Landon Donovan is now the interim head coach. The wave had fired their very successful coach , Casey Stoney , earlier this season. The wave have been having , you know , a difficult season. Um , but it's just an interesting kind of confluence of just you know , big San Diego sports story. So it'll be interesting to see. They've played their first match with Landon Donovan as. As the coach. And they won. That was in Panama earlier this week. And the wave they're returning to Snapdragon this weekend on Saturday to play. It's a big rival match against Angel city FC. So that'll be that'll be a big one I know I think a lot of fans are excited to see where this is going to go. And also , you know , they say interim. So what does that mean. Is he going to stick around. No. Yeah.
S5: Yeah. So I think his job is only guaranteed till the end of the 2024 season. But he told the UT that he's open to anything. So maybe he'll be permanent. Maybe not. Maybe he'll get fired like the last coach.
S1: Yeah , it could be exciting. I know there's there's other just like league news too with the NWSL right. Yeah.
S5: So the league that the wave are a part of the National Women's Soccer League. Um , they reached a new collective bargaining agreement. Um , so they're getting more money , and that ends the draft.
S1: So it's more about basically free agency and just paying players and signing them rather than drafting them , like traditional. Like.
S5: Like. Exactly. Yeah. So who doesn't like freedom and more money , right ? Yeah.
S1: That's interesting. No , I'm just curious how that's going to work and how teams with different budgets will manage that. But it'll be interesting to see how that shakes out. So anyway , big match this weekend from the wave. And we'll see from there another story. This one is just something I am kind of like always following. I am so sick of seeing all the stories about hacks. And you get these alerts and then you get weird text messages or weird phone calls or whatever. But there was an enormous hack. There's been a lot of interesting reporting about it. There's wired had an interesting article about it. The New York Times has covered it. It's been all over the place. But basically this background check company called National Public Data. They were hacked and it's like a ton of stuff. The wired story kind of made the thing that this data involved , it's impacted the entire population of the US , Canada and the UK. And it's like a mixture of , you know , Social Security numbers , some email addresses. They don't. It seems like it's like hard to pinpoint exactly how much , but it's a lot. So there's an article in The New York Times and they kind of talk about a couple , you know , things you can do. Um , and basically kind of encouraging people not to freak out too much about it , but , you know , you can freeze your credit if you're concerned. And then it also just encouraged people to basically set up two factor authentication if they can. And that's where you just kind of add another layer of logging into your accounts. Um , things like that. So again , you know , it's like nothing new. I feel like we see these alerts and I almost like , ignore them. What do you do when you you know , see that ? You know , maybe your confidential info has been leaked.
S5: I just , like , assume it has been. It's already out there. Um , but I do freeze my credit. Um , it's pretty easy. You can just do it online at Equifax , Experian and TransUnion websites. Um , I do two factor authentication. Um , I have a password manager. It's pretty low tech. It's just like , I know some people say , like , you're not supposed to do this , but I did speak to a cyber expert , and she was like , it's fine. I keep all my passwords in my notes app. But I am kind of clever with how I label them. I use like emojis , and so I think the system makes sense to me. But if someone were to hack into my phone somehow , like maybe they wouldn't know what sense ? I don't know. Maybe if there's , like a dollar sign , they're like , oh , she probably got money there.
S1: I was afraid you were going to just say you have it , like written on a post-it note by your computer. But in some ways , like that might be safer because at least it's not on.
S5:
S1: In the cloud or something. But I have a similar weird hack system myself that I won't go into detail , but it's just something that I think it's part of modern life , and we just kind of deal with it , right ? Yeah.
S5: Unfortunately.
S1: So now on to the ocean. There's been some kind of seaworthy news. Tell us , tell us about that.
S5: Oh , yes. So , um , this this is super interesting. So a rare deep sea fish called an oarfish washed up on the shore or not onto the shore. It was floating around near La Jolla Cove. And just some random people , like swimming and kayaking found it. And this thing. So oarfish , they live deep , deep , deep in the ocean. And they're like 20ft long. They can grow longer than 20ft. Um , I think this one was about 12ft , which is like , that's huge. That thing is huge. And they're kind of described as like sea serpents. And then looking at pictures of this thing , it's like it looks like a snake or some sort of like sea serpent D big.
S1: Eel , like a yeah thing. Yeah. And does I mean , they found it , but it wasn't , it was dead. Yeah.
S5: Yeah.
S1: Yeah , exactly. But yeah , I think they brought it in on like a paddleboard or something in La Jolla. Right. And KPBS had an article from the Associated Press , and it said it was about the 20th time. An oarfish , um , is known to have been found in California since 1901. So this is very rare. Right.
S5: Yeah , I think also legend has it is they are , um , bringers of their predictors of natural disasters or earthquakes. Right.
S1: Which has been debunked I want to say. Yeah.
S5: Yeah. I mean , there's no like , scientific correlation , but , you know , legend has it. Um , so maybe that could explain the week I've been having. Either that or it is Mercury retrograde. I don't I don't know.
S1: Well on the the week you've been having. I'll move it over to me. The week I've been having , uh , I spent you know , water's warm. It's like peak summer temperatures.
S5: Nice out there. Right.
S1: Right. And I feel like I kind of had a sort of rite of passage of being a San Diegan. I got stung by a stingray earlier this week. Yeah. Oh , my God. And I was doing the stingray shuffle like , earlier , but just not the whole time. And , um , it got me and the lifeguards were great and made through it , but there was a period of time where it hurt. Pretty. Pretty ? Yeah. Pretty good.
S5:
S1: And they have buckets , and then they give you hot water , and you can just stick your foot in there and just kind of wait it out. Um , and then the pain for me kind of hit about 45 minutes after , you know that. But I soaked it pretty good and. Okay.
S5: Okay.
S1: Should I oh , I don't know.
S5: I mean , my brother went to the doctor. He serves and he got stung by a stingray and like , everybody like at the hospital were like , gathering around and like , oh my God , like , so amazed with it. But I think it's because nobody does go to the doctor for those like , servers are just like , oh , whatever , dude.
S1: Like the lifeguards , they just have a bucket and it just says Stingray or something on it. And then they just like , get the warm hose out and give you some hot water. Okay ? They seemed I mean , pretty they , you know , deal with it all the time. Yeah.
S5: Yeah. So everybody's like stingray foot like goes in there. Yeah. Hopefully they change out the water. Yes.
S1: Yes. Yeah. Well it was definitely an experience. And , uh , you know , maybe I might take a few days off from the beach , but I'm sure we'll be there soon with the weather we're having. Anyway , glad you're okay. Thanks Laura McCaffrey is a web producer with KPBS and author of our catch up newsletter , Laura. Thanks.
S5: Thanks for having me.
S1: That's our show for today. Thanks so much for being here. You can listen to KPBS roundtable anytime as a podcast. Roundtable airs on KPBS FM at noon on Fridays again Sundays at 6 a.m.. If you have any thoughts on today's show or ideas for a future one , you can email us at roundtable at PBS.org. You can also leave us a message at (619) 452-0228. Roundtables. Technical producers this week were Rebecca Chacon and Brandon Truffaut. The show was produced by Jacob Air. Brooke Ruth is Roundtable's senior producer. I'm Andrew Bracken. Thanks again for listening and have a great weekend.
