Advocates again urge San Diego Sheriff to limit cooperation with ICE
Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Friday, April 25th.>>>>
Advocates are again urging the San Diego Sheriff’s Office to limit its cooperation with federal immigration authorities.More on that next. But first... the headlines….#######
The fast-food chain “Jack in the Box” announced this week it will close dozens of its restaurants.
The San Diego-based company says the closures are part of a larger strategy to pay down debt and reduce assets.
A statement from Jack-in-the-Box says it will also explore selling the Del Taco brand it has owned since 2022.The closures will affect 150-to-200 underperforming restaurants.
Jack-in-the-Box says about half the closures are expected by the end of the year. The company has not said which specific locations will close.
#######Less than 1-in-5 San Diegans earn enough money to buy a home.
New numbers from the California Association of Realtors put the number at 15-percent.
That’s for a median-price home of 1-million dollars.
The Realtors association says people of color in San Diego are even less likely to own.Just 9-percent of Hispanic or Latino households… and 7-percent of black households… met the required income level.San Diego is a bit of an outlier with a more expensive housing market compared to the state of California overall.
But even statewide, the California Association of Realtors said just 18-percent of people can afford a median-price home.
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This Saturday will be the last day book lovers in Escondido can visit the city’s main library.
After that, it’s closing for repairs and renovations.
But its collection will be moving to a temporary home … in a space that's rather unconventional: the first floor of the north county mall.
Library Director Rino Landa says the new space will be open in late may.
“We are going to offer as much as we can. There is going to be some shrinkage because we're going from about a 40,000 square foot down to around 15,000 square feet spread across two primary locations and then some staff support areas around the storefronts.”
Construction on the main library is expected to last through spring 2026.
Then, everything that got moved to the mall will be brought back into the new and improved Escondido public library.
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From KPBS, you’re listening to San Diego News Now.Stay with me for more of the local news you need.
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Advocates are again urging the San Diego sheriff’s office to limit its cooperation with federal immigration enforcement agencies.
Border reporter Gustavo Solis has details.
Last December, the County Board of Supervisors passed a sanctuary policy. It prohibits the San Diego Sheriff’s Office from transferring anyone in their custody to federal immigration agents without a warrant.
Sheriff Kelly Martinez has refused to follow the policy.
But Martinez is facing pressure to reconsider her stance in light of the Trump administration’s increasingly harsh immigration enforcement tactics.
“When we passed the policy in December of last year, we weren’t even at the point where we are now. Nationally it’s every day we are hearing a different story on the news around immigration.”
That’s County Supervisor Monica Montgomery-Steppe. Speaking at a forum on Tuesday.
Martinez says all 30 people transferred into ICE custody had either criminal convictions or federal warrants. And transferring people in jails keeps Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents out of residential communities.
“It protects our communities when ICE is picking someone up in the jail that they’re going to look for anyway. It protects our community members from having collateral damage of having mothers, daughters, sons, children picked up as well.”
Martinez did not respond directly to calls to follow county policy.
Gustavo Solis, KPBS News.
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Autism has been in national headlines this week, as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior calls the increase in diagnoses an “epidemic.”
In south San Diego county, a mountain biking team is welcoming kids of all abilities.
Education reporter Katie Anastas has more on why kids on the autism spectrum can thrive in the sport.
“We do climbs, uphills, downhills, a little bit of everything. The goal is to be as fast as possible with your skill matching that speed.“
Kendra Gonzalez coaches the Eastlake High School and South Bay Composite mountain biking team. They practice three times a week at the Lower Otay Reservoir and compete against other teams in the Southern California league.
Her 11-year-old daughter, Delilah, is on the team.
“At the start of the race, you just feel so scared and your heart is beating. And when you hear them count down three, two, one. It's, it's so scary. And you just race ahead and you, you fight to keep that spot.”
The team is open to kids in sixth through 12th grade throughout South San Diego County. Gonzalez is one of several coaches with kids on the team.
“I don't think there's ever a practice or a team training that I come back from where I'm in a bad mood.”
Team director Allyn Olsen says that’s true for the kids, too.
“There's a lot of research about the benefit of being in nature with mental health. And just like emotional well-being. And we really see that in our kids. We really see them come back from a ride just in such a great mood, so excited.”
She says they’re working on building their inventory of donated bikes they can loan to kids who don’t have them.
“One of the challenges is as kids grow really quickly, making sure they've got a bike that fit. We are 100% volunteer and rely on some donations and sponsors to provide some of our kids with bikes who might not have those.”
This weekend, Ride 4 Autism is hosting a fundraiser for the team. The local group of mountain bike riders began organizing charity events for nonprofits that support the autistic community in 2022. Olsen says proceeds will help pay for things like equipment and team fees.
“Our team will be the recipient of those proceeds this year because they've recognized how much our team has done to be really inclusive of kids of all abilities.”
Some of the team members are on the autism spectrum. Andrew Schmidt is one of them. He’s 12.
“I love how, like, when you're going up hills, you feel like this burn in your legs. I like that ‘cause I know, like, my muscles are growing.”
He likes knowing that, with each ride, he’s getting stronger.
“Sometimes I'm like, hmm, I think we should get this ride over with so then I can go home and eat macaroni and cheese. But other times I'm like, I hope this ride never ends. I'm having so much fun.”
His dad, Jason Schmidt, is a coach.
“A lot of children on the spectrum really do individualized sports, ones that require less interaction.”
“A lot of the traditional team sports just really don't work for him. And so this, this team's been great because he's able to be outside and enjoy the outdoors and really, he's made friends on the team. It's been awesome.”
He says he’s seen his son grow in his first year on the team.
“When he first joined, he was just really not confident in himself. And now he's just so much more confident in his abilities. And he's almost like, overly confident. Like I can do that. And it's, it's great. Like, he couldn't conquer this one little hill, like, and now he's going up hills ten times that. And it's, it's truly a wonderful thing, this team.”
Andrew shared his advice for kids thinking about trying mountain biking.
“It may seem hard at first, but don't give up.”
Sign-ups for next year’s season begin in October. Katie Anastas, KPBS News.
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April 30th is UNESCO’s International Jazz Day.
While San Diego isn’t hosting official events this year, just across the border, Tijuana is keeping the spirit of jazz alive, with roots deeper than you might think.Video journalist Matthew Bowler takes us there.
Nats - jazz music - city scene
Jazz, a uniquely American art form.
“Doesn’t matter where you’re born. Or the color of your skin. Or how you worship. Through our instruments, musicians of all ages tell stories bursting with passion about every conceivable subject. “
That is jazz legend Herbie Hancock at the United Nations on the first International Jazz Day, April 30, 2012.
The now 85-year-old maestro led the charge to create International Jazz Day with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO.
Musicians and fans worldwide have celebrated jazz every April 30 for 13 years. But in our region, you’ll have to head south to Tijuana to participate, there are no official International Jazz Day events in San Diego.
But that’s ok, because Tijuana has its own rhythm.
Street scenes with Tijuana Moods under, slow build to drums
and a deep connection to jazz.
“We can see here. Herbie Hancock. We can see Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, and B Plummer.”
Jazz royalty in Tijuana in 1966.
Aurturo Arrizon, a self-appointed Tijuana historian, shows off his tome. A book he self-published called Tijuana, Cien Años de Musica.
Tijuana’s connection to jazz doesn’t start there; for that, you have to go back more than a century, to the early days of jazz itself.
Nats doctor jazz music
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe, better known as Jelly Roll Morton, worked in Tijuana from 1917 to 1922, according to Arrizon. At a bar called the Kansas City Bar where he is thought to have composed his hit Kansas City Stomp.
“Here's Jelly Roll Morton’s visa to work in Mexico.”
Decades later, another icon found inspiration in Tijuana.
Arrizon says world-famous composer and bassist Charles Mingus was going through some hard times and spent a month in the border city.
The experience inspired him.
“He spent a full month in Tijuana getting drunk. He listened to the mariachi bands and he listened to the bands in many houses and other places, and, he, recorded songs like a Isabel at the Table, The Mariachis and The Gift in Spanish regardless, and stuff like that. And he said that was the best record he ever made.”
Another Tijuana bassist is making waves. Marco Rentaría, plays bass in the world-famous rock band Caifanes.
But he loves jazz too.
Rentaria is humbled when anyone calls him a jazz musician.
“For me to be able to call myself a jazz player, I could be I have to be able to, like, live in New York and, you know, like play any standard in any key and anytime and any off meter, you know, that's the level there.”
Rentería is playing at the Museo del Taco for International Jazz Day.
“Let this be a tribute for the people who dream.”
That’s Natalia Velázquez, head of the Tijuana Jazz Society. Velázquez says she organized the concert, jam session, and master classes to pay tribute to the genre and the city she loves.
“It's such a good and rewarding thing for myself to be able to say, I love my job.”
Rentería says his Tijuana is full of brilliant musicians ready to soak up new music.
“The people here is hungry to listen to different music and they’re really respectful. I have a lot of friends here that are really really talented.”
If you can't cross the border but still want to enjoy Jazz Day in Tijuana, the April 26th concert will be live-streamed on O-H-J-a-z-z dot TV.
Whether you’re in the crowd or watching from home, International Jazz Day is a chance to celebrate music that crosses borders and brings people together.
Matthew Bowler, KPBS News.
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That’s it for the podcast today. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. This afternoon, look for the KPBS Roundtable podcast. They’ll be talking about the Trump administration’s focus this week on the cross-border sewage crisis. I’m Debbie Cruz. Thanks for listening and have a great day.
