CDC to contact South Bay residents about impact of sewage spills

Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Friday, October 4th.

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Some South Bay residents will soon be contacted about the impact of the cross-border sewage spills. More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….

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Tomorrow, we’ll be one month away from the election.

And starting next week, registered voters in the county will start receiving their ballots in the mail.

Early voting at the Registrar’s office also begins next week.

For more information about the election, visit our newsroom’s Voter Hub, at K-P-B-S-dot-org-slash-voter-hub.

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More than 5 months after the Oceanside Pier caught on fire, demolition of the damage is about to begin. (April 25)

“Next on the pier is to start scaffolding installation so that we can start bringing down the old Ruby's restaurant, the Brian Box, and remove the two burned up planks so that we can take a look at the substructure of the pier, do a structural assessment and find out what we need to rebuild.”

Brian Thomas is Oceanside’s city engineer.

He says they’ll set up scaffolding on Monday underneath the pier to prevent debris from falling into the ocean.

Mid-October is when the actual demolition is expected to start.

Thomas doesn’t expect long closures of the pier, but parking lot 29 will be closed to accommodate machinery.

Demolition is expected to last through the end of this year.

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The Padres are in L-A to face the Dodgers in the first game of the National League Division Series tomorrow (Saturday).

The Padres clinched a spot in the N-L-D-S after sweeping the Atlanta Braves in the Wild Card round.

The series is the best of five.

The Padres were eight and five against the Dodgers in the regular season.

Game two of the N-L-D-S series will also be played in L-A on Sunday.

Then the teams will head back to San Diego for game three on Tuesday at Petco Park.

If game four and five are necessary, they will also be held next week.

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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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Later this month, the C-D-C and the county will be contacting some South Bay residents about how they are being impacted by the cross-border sewage spills.

Reporter Andrew Dyer says it’s all part of an effort to understand how people are affected.

In the south san diego community of nestor, county workers and volunteers are trying to get the word out about a new survey to assess the health impacts of tijuana river valley sewage coming later this month. seema shah is the interim deputy public health officer for san diego county. she says they’ve been preparing for the survey for several months. “we've been putting a lot of work in the background to make sure that we have all the right volunteers, because this is no small feat to to be able to canvass 6000 homes and then get ready for the cdc to, to arrive.” she says the next two weeks are really more of an awareness campaign. shah wants the community to understand what they’re doing and for people to participate if asked. “we are pushing information out on social media. we have door hangers, they have qr codes, we have fliers. we really want this information to be disseminated into the community so that people are fully aware.” more information about this survey and other efforts to address the problem is available on the county’s website. andrew dyer, kpbs news.

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President Joe Biden this week expanded his crackdown on asylum seekers at the southern border.

Democrats credit the new measures for a big drop in illegal crossings.

But border reporter Gustavo Solis says legitimate asylum seekers are being sent back to dangerous situations.

 Apprehensions along the southern border have dropped dramatically since June when President Joe Biden announced a series of executive actions that have all but blocked asylum for people who cross the border illegally. Leading up to the presidential election, Vice President Kamala Harris and her campaign surrogates are pointing to the lower numbers as proof of their tough on border security bonafides. Here is Democratic San Diego Congressman Mark Levin on a local TV news station. “But really in the last couple of months things have gotten much better. 48 percent reduction across the southern border.” The executive orders subject adult migrants to cross illegally to a fast-track deportation process. Those who claim that sending them home will put their lives at risk now have to pass a higher legal standard to establish credible fear. The administration says Biden’s new rules are meant to weed out fraudulent asylum claims. But critics say they’ve created a chaotic system in which people who would have had solid asylum claims just a few months ago are being deported to dangerous situations. “There are a lot of factors of why we’re seeing numbers down and it’s not because people don’t need help. It is because the people that need help are being literally blocked.”Margaret Cargioli is with the Immigrant Defenders Law Center. She says the new process is rushed. It doesn’t give migrants access to lawyers or enough time to prepare their cases. “The time for which people can try to get an attorney is restricted much further than before. People are being processed and interviewed a lot more quickly than before. As we know, the standards for being able to pass these credible fear interviews has been heightened.” The rushed process has sometimes left migrants detained in makeshift holding facilities.  One of Cargioli’s clients had their interview in a tent with little privacy. “There have been connectivity issues. I have been on calls where my client has been on the phone for two and a half hours and then the call drops or we lose the interpreter. I was on another call where the asylum officer repeatedly asked my client to speak up, they couldn’t hear quite a few times. And just the fact that it’s just an interview over the phone, they’re not allowed to present evidence, to have witnesses.” Cargioli says the new process results in questionable decisions – including family separation. Consider the plight of Angie, an indigenous woman who fled Colombia with her husband earlier this summer. “En Colombia, salimos siendo victimas de violencia y desplacamiento forzado.” Angie says they were persecuted in Columbia because of their indigenous identity. The couple faced violent threats from guerilla groups trying to take their land. “No gustaban de mi forma de verme. Aquellos eran de diferente color y yo Tambien.” They crossed the border illegally last summer and turned themselves into Border Patrol agents in San Diego.  The two were separated in custody. And even though they fled under identical circumstances, Angie was able to pursue her asylum claim while her husband was deported. “Ultimamente e tenido pesadillas. Me siento cansada. Como pesadillas y me despierto muchas veces en la noche.” She says she isn’t sleeping or eating and is constantly crying. Longstanding U.S. law explicitly states anyone present in the country can apply for asylum irrespective of how they entered the U.S. The ACLU and other advocacy groups have sued the Biden administration – claiming his new rules violate that law. Meanwhile, Vice President Harris is doubling down on Biden’s policies in the waning days of the election. “And if someone does not make an asylum request at a legal port of entry and instead crosses our border unlawfully, they will be barred from receiving asylum.” Immigrant advocates are dismayed by what they describe as a dramatic shift to the right. “If the border policy is meant to have no one have asylum, irrespective of what they suffered then that’s the results we’re getting.  Emily Robinson is an immigration lawyer based in Los Angeles. Robinson represents a Colombian woman who was kidnapped and sexually molested multiple times by multiple men.“ She entered the U.S. on the 13. Less than 48 hours from entering the country, less than a week after her last gang rape, traveling between her home country of Colombia to the U.S. she was given less than 48 hours until she was given her first credible fear interview.” Under normal circumstances the woman could have been given more time to process her trauma, meet with her lawyer or even a therapist before that interview. “Usually when you have clients with this kind of trauma if you are representing them you want to create a safe space where they feel comfortable sharing this information with you.” The asylum officer found her client’s story credible – but denied her request to pursue asylum because they did not believe she belonged to a persecuted group. Robinson is appealing the decision. But as things stand, her client will be sent back to Colombia. Gustavo Solis, KPBS News

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San Dieguito Union High School District recently announced it is conducting an independent audit of all foundations associated with the district.

North County Reporter Alexander Nguyen spoke with two students who published a report questioning the foundation's practices.

NATS students, cars. Kevin Wang and Litong Tian are high school seniors at Canyon Crest Academy.

Over the summer, they collaborated on an investigation into the nonprofit Canyon Crest Academy Foundation. A non-profit fundraising organization. 

Wang was the treasurer for the school’s robotics team his sophomore year and noticed some irregularities in the foundation’s booking keeping. “What I saw in those records were pretty disturbing. For some years, they would take excess of $15,000 alone at the end of the year from the robotics team, the CCA Foundation.” According to their report, the foundation charges a 25 percent fee for student clubs, while other school foundations charge between 5 to 10 percent. The two also found that more than a third of CC-AF’s spending was categorized as “other expenses.” The district declined to comment but says in the posted announcement that “all recent questions regarding [the foundation’s] operations must be answered.” The foundation disputed the students’ findings but did not offer any specifics. 

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San Diegans can honor their lost pets with a Day of the Dead display at two county animal shelters.

Anyone can bring a photo of their deceased pet to place on the ofrendas in the lobbies of the Bonita and Carlsbad shelters through November 2nd.

The ofrendas, will feature traditional decorations and marigolds, candles and treats for those pets who “have crossed the rainbow bridge.”

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That’s it for the podcast today. This podcast is produced by Emilyn Mohebbi and edited by Brooke Ruth. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. Join us again on Monday to start the week together with the day’s top stories. I’m Debbie Cruz. Thanks for listening and have a great weekend.