Mayor Gloria’s $5.65 billion proposed spending plan
Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Monday, April 15th.
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How Mayor Gloria plans to spend his proposed 5-point-6 billion dollar budget for the new fiscal year. More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….
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San Diego county is set to receive 39-million-dollars in federal funding for the care of asylum seekers and other migrants who cross the U-S- Mexico border.
The money is part of FEMA’s shelter and services program.
Local leaders say half of the federal funds will pass through the county government to local nonprofits serving migrants.
The other half will go to Catholic Charities of San Diego and Imperial counties, which currently runs a migrant transition shelter.
Since last year, C-B-P has dropped off tens of thousands of migrants into the streets of San Diego.
Data show most migrants and asylum seekers only spend a few days in San Diego before moving on to their final destination.
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A former Camp Pendleton Marine is scheduled to be sentenced today (Monday), after pleading guilty to federal criminal charges for firebombing an Orange County Planned Parenthood clinic in March 20-22.
Last November, 24-year-old Chance Brannon pleaded guilty to conspiracy, malicious destruction of property by fire and explosive, intentional damage to a reproductive health services facility and other charges.
According to an affidavit from an F-B-I special agent, Brannon and another defendant allegedly ignited and threw a Molotov cocktail at the clinic entrance.
The two others involved in the incident are scheduled to be sentenced next month (May).
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An Imperial Beach man has been indicted on felony and misdemeanor charges for his alleged involvement in the January 6th U-S Capitol attack in 20-21.
23-year-old Joshua Kaleb Youngerman was allegedly seen on Capitol building security footage climbing up a rope on the northwest wall of the Capitol.
He’s being accused of being a member of a California-based group that coordinated to travel to Washington D-C that day.
Youngerman was charged last year with five misdemeanors, but an indictment filed last week includes a felony count of obstructing an official proceeding.
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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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San Diego mayor Todd Gloria Friday announced his proposed budget for the next fiscal year.
Metro reporter Andrew Bowen says it includes cuts to the city's efforts to tackle climate change.
AB: Mayor Gloria is proposing more than 5 and a half billion dollars in city spending. That's up 9% from the current fiscal year. But the cost of everything from paying city employees to buying gas for city vehicles has gone up. To balance the budget, Gloria wants to take money from the city's climate equity fund, which supports projects in low-income communities. He’d put the money into the general fund, which supports police, fire and library services. TG: These are one-time measures, made with the hope that we will see improved economic conditions in the very near future. While we've attempted to minimize service level impacts to the greatest extent possible, we did have to make some very tough choices to maintain our priorities. AB: The City Council kicks off its review of the mayor's budget proposal on May 1. Andrew Bowen, KPBS news.
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Former San Diego County supervisor Nathan Fletcher is using money from his abandoned state senate campaign to pay for legal defense bills.
Investigative reporter Scott Rodd reports.
Last March, a former San Diego Metropolitan Transit System employee filed a lawsuit against Fletcher…alleging he sexually assaulted her when he was chairman of the agency. Fletcher…who denies the allegations…dropped out of the race for the state Senate just days before the suit was filed. Now, he’s tapping the money raised by the campaign to pay for his defense in court. Campaign finance disclosures show Fletcher spent more than $300,000 on his legal bills last year. State election laws allow campaigns to spend money on matters reasonably related to political or legislative matters. But election experts are skeptical in Fletcher’s case. “I think there is a real question as to whether or not this is a legal use of campaign funds. Jessica Levinson is a professor at Loyola Law School. “This is a case where we’re potentially pushing the lines of what is allowed.” In a statement, Fletcher’s attorney said the lawsuit was only filed because Fletcher was running for state Senate. Therefore, he argued, the use of campaign funds is legal. SOC.
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Advocates worried about the mental health of San Diego County jail inmates rallied in downtown San Diego Friday.
They told health reporter Heidi de Marco that behind bars, people with mental health conditions often face neglect, abuse or even death.
David Settles’ brother, Mathew Settles, was schizoaffective. He died in custody at the George Bailey Detention Facility in August 2022. SETTLES He was delusional. He was off his treatment. He needed the help to get stabilized. My mom and I and his family, we feared that would be a death sentence for him and it absolutely was. The jails are not at all, you know, able to handle mentally ill. Sheriff Kelly Martinez has a $500 million plan to upgrade jails and decrease deaths in custody. But San Diego still maintains one of the highest rates of inmate deaths in the state -185 lost their lives from 2006 to 2020, according to a state audit. An additional 36 people have died since its release in 2022. Heidi de Marco, KPBS News.
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Marines are famously meticulous about their uniforms.
But for more than a year, they haven’t always been able to wear the ones they’re supposed to.
That's because of a shortage of camouflage tops and other clothing items.
Jay Price reports for the American Homefront Project.
PRICE: A recent training exercise with live ammunition at Camp Lejeune. One group of Marines was in their standard GREEN woodland camouflage. But mixed in with them were others in the tan, DESERT version. Civilians probably wouldn’t notice, but in normal times? Those desert cammies would stop a MARINE commander in his or her tracks. But… it hasn’t been NORMAL times for Marine uniforms in quite awhile. RIVERA: Back in December of 2022, we experienced a four-month delay in the delivery of the woodland and desert blouses. PRICE: Colonel Wilfred Rivera oversees the Marine Corps' maintenance and supply policy. He says labor shortages and inflation – lingering effects of the pandemic – affected the private companies that the military contracts with to make uniforms. For a time, those manufacturers couldn’t keep enough workers. So the Marines reduced the number of uniforms issued to new recruits. And tailor shops near bases began mending a lot of old cammies, because troops weren't able to buy new ones. Eventually, the top Marines had to step in. Commandant Eric Smith and the senior enlisted leader, Sergeant Major Carlos Ruiz <>>, addressed the troops in a video. SMITH: Marines, Sergeant Major Ruiz and I just came back from the Indo Pacific. Several themes emerged from individual Marines and units as we talked to there. The first was cammies, I can't get cammies. PRICE: The problem, General Smith told the Marines, would linger until manufacturers filled backlogged orders. SMITH: Until that time, local commanders, battalions, and squadrons are authorized to use FROG gear or desert cammies to mitigate. PRICE: FROG gear is a special flame resistant uniform. And “mitigating” …that’s what some of those Lejeune Marines were doing in the live-fire exercise. Resting their normal GREEN cammies and shifting some wear and tear to the tan ones. Lt. Col. Cassandra Stanton is a spokesperson for their command, the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force. She said leaders of its larger units have been given flexibility in deciding which uniforms to use in a given situation. STANTON: This means they may make decisions regarding the uniform of the day at their respective units for certain events that may be different than the actual uniform of the day. PRICE: So why does a uniform shortage distress Marines so much they’re willing to broach it with the commandant? Well, you might ask that if you haven’t been a Marine yourself. A Marine like retired Sgt Maj Eric Lopez of Northlake, Texas, a 26-year-veteran who served in Afghanistan and was the top enlisted Marine in an artillery unit. LOPEZ: We carry ourselves in a manner from day one. Once we graduate boot camp, we look good …no matter what uniform it is, we have that sense of pride. PRICE: In other words, it’s part of the ethos, the whole IDEA of being a Marine. He says it’s not that Marines are hung up on clothes, it’s about doing EVERYTHING right. LOPEZ: So having a uniform that’s squared away, we put our best foot forward… we're professional, we act professional, and we look professional. PRICE: No doubt to the great relief of many a sergeant, the Marines should SOON be able to look squared away again ALL the time.The Defense Logistics Agency, which runs the contracts for the Pentagon, has changed two of the three manufacturers it uses for uniforms and is paying more to cover higher material prices and the costs of hiring and retaining enough workers. Rivera says the shortage is expected to be over by the end of June. He says the Corps learned some lessons from those empty shelves. RIVERA: Our supply chain has become more resilient. And it also helps us train like we're gonna fight by allowing those commanders to be able to make decisions at the the squadron and battalion levels that allowed those units to really perform for the Marine Corps and answer our nation's call. PRICE: By adding a little temporary flexibility to that starched esprit de corps. Jay Price, North Carolina Public Radio WUNC.
TAG: This story was produced by the American Homefront Project, a public media collaboration that reports on American military life and veterans.
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An SD-SU anthropologist has devised a computer simulation to understand why animals die out.
Sci-tech reporter Thomas Fudge has the story.
The earth has seen mass extinctions when asteroids hit the planet or when ice ages have come and gone. Humans have also played a hand in making animals die off. Anthropology professor Isaac Ullah now has a computer simulation that can account for the many factors that cause extinction. Parameters that make up the model include hunting practices, populations, predator mix and environmental conditions. Run the system and it comes up with an extinction risk factor. Ullah has used this calculator to understand how an ancient African buffalo died out. He wants to see it used for today’s animal species. “Because we can encapsulate all of that information in a tool that can be used in any situation whether it’s understanding the past, or the modern day, the current day, or even the future. Ullah says human-caused climate change and predation today have created a new era of mass extinction. SOQ.
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One San Diego chef currently cooks above the rest.
Reporter Jacob Aere explains just why she's achieved something no San Diego chef has done before.
Inside Animae in downtown San Diego, executive chef Tara Luansing Monsod creates a masterpiece. “It's comforting, its warm, its satisfying.” With a balance between creativity and care … Luansing Monsod prepares and plates her signature, peanut-forward offering – short rib kare kare. “Kare Kare is a very Filipino dish that was one of the first Filipino items I put on the menu. And the reason it's a big deal is because you don't see Filipino food like this in a setting like this very often.” Dishes like that helped her become the first-ever San Diego finalist for the prestigious James Beard Award of Best Chef: California. The rankings are like the Academy Awards in the culinary industry. “I was overwhelmed, honestly. I didn't know how to describe how to feel. With kind of my mentality I'm never satisfied – or maybe I have imposter syndrome, like how the hell did I get it?” There are four other finalists. The winner will be announced June 10 in Chicago. Jacob Aere, 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. Join us again tomorrow for the day’s top stories. I’m Debbie Cruz. Thanks for listening and have a great Monday.
