Helping homeless veterans find housing
Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Friday, July 7th.
A new initiative is underway to help homeless veterans find housing.
More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….
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Nearly 400-thousand voter information pamphlets are on the way to registered voters who live in District 4.
They include info on how and where to vote in the upcoming special primary election.
The August 15th special election is to fill Nathan Fletcher’s vacant seat on the county’s board of supervisors.
The Registrar of Voters office says you should receive the pamphlet by July 17th if your voter registration is up to date.
Voters can also see their pamphlet online on the Registrar of Voters website.
The person elected will fill the seat for the remainder of the current term that ends in January 20-27.
If no candidate receives a majority of the vote during the primary, a special general election will be held on November 7th.
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Acting Governor Toni Atkins is the first person in 150 years to have served as both senate president pro-tem and assembly speaker.
Yesterday, she also became the first female senate president pro-tem in state history to sign legislation into law as Acting Governor.
Also the first openly L-G-B-T-Q plus person to do so.
Atkins, who represents San Diego, said she’s humbled to experience the other side of the process by signing bills into law.
Atkins was serving as Acting Governor because the Governor and the Lieutenant Governor were out of the state.
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Patricia McGurk-Daniel will be the first woman in charge of the San Diego sector of the U-S Border Patrol.
She’s a 24-year veteran of the U-S Border Patrol and most recently was in charge of the Yuma sector.
She says the San Diego sector has one of the most complex and challenging border environments in the U-S.
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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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County leaders are calling on landlords to make rooms and apartments available to homeless veterans who have been granted vouchers from the V-A, yet still can’t find housing.
Military and veterans reporter Andrew Dyer was at the initiative’s rollout yesterday.
County leaders announced the new Leave no Veteran Homeless initiative Thursday with the goal of effectively ending veteran homelessness in San Diego within 15 months. The initiative will streamline coordination from veterans service organizations with local and federal agencies to identify individuals’ needs and connect homeless veterans with available support services. County Supervisor Nora Vargas says there’s only so much local agencies can do and that homeless veterans need more local landlords to accept housing vouchers from the VA and other veteran rental assistance programs. “This is a call to action. All of us here are doing the leg work and we need now, landlords to come to really step up and help us in this process. If you have a spare room, a small unit apartment complex or a large development. Any space that could provide a dignified living condition is needed.” More than 300 San Diego County veterans have vouchers or rental assistance but can’t find a place to rent. More than 800 veterans in the county are currently homeless. Andrew Dyer, KPBS News.
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In other efforts to address the homelessness crisis, the city of San Diego's first safe sleeping campsite at the city operations yard at 20th and B has been open for a week.
Reporter Melissa Mae has an update.
MM: As of July 5th, 20 adults are enrolled at the city’s safe sleeping site and are using 14 tents. There are 116 more tents available and each tent can accommodate up to two people. MM: The city says the goal is to enroll three people a day until it’s full. MM: But Tracy Burgess, who is currently homeless, says she’s having a hard time getting enrolled because she lost her ID. TB “Take time and just get what I need done so I can get in cause I’m tired of living on the streets, I really am. It’s not fun.” MM: Along with a tent and sleeping accommodations, residents also get breakfast and dinner, water, access to restrooms and washing stations, cell phone charging stations and receive transportation to medical appointments, employment opportunities, laundry and showers. Melissa Mae KPBS News.
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Coming up.... You’ve heard of Comic-Con, but have you heard of PAWmicon?
“PAWmicon is specifically geared towards celebrating the superhero act of adoption of orphan pets.”
We’ll bring you more info on that and more, just after the break.
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Most people probably think of art as something hanging in a gallery not to be touched…
But Ann Hamilton designed her public art piece “Kahnop: To Tell a Story” as art to be walked on every day by hundreds of UC-SD students.
Arts reporter Beth Accomando explores the latest addition to the Stuart collection.
When you walk onto the UC San Diego campus from the trolley you’re greeted by a story that unfolds over an 800 foot pathway made up of 20,000 handcrafted pavers each bearing a single textured word like braille under your feet. JESSICA BERLANGA TAYLOR So some people have commented that when they step into the walkway, because you step into an artwork right, that you may not notice. That is definitely a reality. Jessica Berlanga Taylor began her tenure as Director of the Stuart Collection last April. JESSICA BERLANGA TAYLOR But maybe you'll notice it when you start walking because there is a sculptural quality to the artwork… And you feel the words… maybe your eye catches a word and that will then connect you to a phrase. The Stuart Collection is unique among U.S. universities in the way it commissions site specific art for the campus. Mary Beebe was the collection’s first director. In a 2016 interview, she noted the purpose of the collection is not to merely decorate the campus as if it were your living room… MARY BEEBE It's really important to have something inexplicable every day in your life. So that's what the art kind of is. It's inexplicable… you scratch your head and say, what could this be about? Public art of this kind explodes the boundaries of conventional art. It’s in spaces where you can touch it, walk over it, listen to it or maybe never notice it. And that’s fine with artist Ann Hamilton who created the latest addition to the Stuart Collection – KAHNOP: To Tell a Story ANN HAMILTON But whether you recognize that as art is maybe less important, than you just recognize that you've been touched and that your un-attention has been drawn. And I think that's actually where the art forms. So I love the fact that people are walking on it and over time that will become its own document of wear. Hamilton says when you go to a museum or a gallery you expect to see art. ANN HAMILTON And when work is placed in public, I think what it does is it invites a kind of what I might call an active finding, something that you didn't expect, that you find and in that finding a whole experience unfolds. KAHNOP invites you into its story with spine words running down the center of the pathway. ANN HAMILTON Step, now becomes then… And so that's a sequence of words that I compose that really just refer to the act of walking through the landscape and across this surface. Berlanga Taylor adds that a Kumeyaay story provides a continuous narrative within KAHNOP. JESSICA BERLANGA TAYLOR And the title comes from the collaboration with the two Kumeyaay women's scholars, Dr. Alexandria Hunter and Eva Trujillo. And KAHNOP means to tell a story. But also embedded in the walkway is UC San Diego history, says Berlanga Taylor. JESSICA BERLANGA TAYLOR …And what's contained in the walkway are a series of, sort of quotes and sentences from the work of many scholars at UCSD, from different disciplines. Hamilton says the art will tell a different story to each person. ANN HAMILTON Each passage across it is its own composition. Just as each student entering the labyrinth of the university is really in many ways making their own program. Hamilton hopes that the words will send you down a rabbit hole that might end at the Geisel Library website. ANN HAMILTON They have a website that actually has each line referenced by its spine word. And you can actually go to the text at its location in the library if you're interested in dipping further down. Kind of like found footnotes. And who better to find footnotes than students, which is another reason Hamilton loves the campus setting for public art. ANN HAMILTON You have a culture that's ready to embrace the questions and ready to embrace the experiment that works are and I would say that's probably not an atmosphere you always find in other public realms. Public art is less about whether you like something or not and more about, what do you think about it? Or how does it make you feel? And the Stuart Collection is about placing a diverse array of art on campus where you can notice it or just skateboard over it to class. Beth Accomando, KPBS News.
TAG: This story is part of an ongoing series at KPBS, focusing on public art.
To hear and see more, go to kpbs dot org slash public art.
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San Diego continues to see the fallout of an unusually large and toxic algae bloom that is sickening sea lions and dolphins along the southern California coast.
Environment reporter Erik Anderson has details.
SeaWorld’s marine mammal rescue team has taken in more than 20 sealions suffering from domoic acid poisoning. SeaWorld vet Kelsey Herrick says half of the federally protected marine mammals that came into her care did not survive. Kelsey Herrick SeaWorld Veterinarian “The care teams find a little bit of comfort in the fact that we’re doing everything we can to help them and we know that we’re going to lose some. The toxin comes from a large fast-growing algae bloom in the open ocean. The rapid growth of algae creates a neurotoxin that damages the brains and hearts of infected animals. SeaWorld officials say people should be careful around the sea lions because sick animals can be aggressive and dangerous. Erik Anderson KPBS News.
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And before you go… grab your four-legged superhero and the rest of the family and head to PAWmicon this Sunday at Alesmith Brewing Company.
“PAWmicon is specifically geared towards celebrating the superhero act of adoption of orphan pets, and so it’s a really fun way to see people enjoying the day, with their pets, they are superheroes to those pets and we know those pets save us right back once we adopt them.”
That was Jessica Gercke the Communications Director at the Helen Woodward Animal Center - the host of PAWmicon.
At the event, pets will be available for adoption.
There will also be themed photo ops, custom fan art, music, games, trivia, vendors, and a contest.
“The PAWsPlay contest to me is the whole reason for this event. At Comic Con cosplaying is all the rage, but at PAWmicon, pawsplay is all the rage. We’ve got three different competitions, we’ve got superheroes & super villains that’ll be one category; pup culture pets, and dynamic duos, trios & more… and that’s usually when an owner wants to dress up with their pet, you’d be amazed how many owners and pets we see dressed up together.”
Gercke says her pup will be there.
“I actually think my dog Wilson is going to be dressing up as Marty McFly, so we’ll see, he likes to strut his stuff.”
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That’s it for the podcast today. This podcast is produced by KPBS Producer Emilyn Mohebbi and edited by KPBS Senior Producer Brooke Ruth. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. I’m Debbie Cruz. Thanks for listening and have a great weekend.
