Missing Navy SEALs from San Diego unit
Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Tuesday, January 23rd.
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Two San Diego Navy Seals missing off the coast of Somalia, have been identified.
More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….
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Mayor Todd Gloria declared a state of emergency in the city of San Diego following yesterday’s heavy rainfall.
The San Diego Fire Department said there were 24 rescues from the Tijuana and San Diego Rivers, as well as car rescues and rescues from hundreds of flooded homes.
Jessica Calix lives in South Crest.
She says her house and her neighbor's flooded within hours.
“And she facetimes me and is like, 'jessica, jessica, look at this.' And she and her children were in the water in the living room."
The city says it’s coordinating efforts with other local, state and federal agencies to respond to the flooding.
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The heavy rain and flooding has also led to closures at some schools across the county today.
They include the La Mesa Spring Valley School District, KIPP Adelante Preparatory Academy, Monarch School, America's Finest Charter School high school campus, Harriet Tubman Village Charter School and SOUL Academy.
You can go to s-d-c-o-e dot net for more school closure updates.
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Members of the California Faculty Association are on a week-long strike against the California State University.
The walkouts are happening at all 23 campuses, including SD-SU and Cal State San Marcos.
While the C-S-U did not cancel classes yesterday, the strikers were joined by some students like Rachel Sellke, who is a sophomore at S-D-S-U.
“Any student who cares about their education is here supporting their faculty and supporting their teachers and not going to cross this picket line.”
The union is demanding an immediate 12-percent pay raise across the board for 29-thousand professors, lecturers, librarians and coaches across the C-S-U system.
The demands also include a full semester of parental leave… and workload relief.
The C-S-U says it’s offering 15-percent over three years… and eight weeks paid parental leave.
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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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Two Navy Seals declared dead after going into the ocean off the coast of Somalia this month were identified yesterday (Monday) as members of a San Diego-based unit.
Military reporter Andrew Dyer has more.
Petty Officer First Class Christopher Chambers and Petty Officer Second Class Nathan Ingram went missing more than ten days ago. Both SEALs were boarding an unflagged vessel near the coast of Somalia when one fell into the ocean and the other dove in after him. Chambers was 37 years old and originally from Maryland. He joined the Navy in 2012 and has been part of San Diego SEAL teams his entire career. Ingram hailed from Texas and joined the Navy in 2019. He’s been stationed in San Diego since 2020. He was 27 years old. U.S. and allied ships and aircraft searched more than 21,000 square miles of ocean during their 10-day search but could not find the men. Andrew Dyer, KPBS News.
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Worker advocates say the Cheesecake Factory and two janitorial contractors have paid one-million-dollars in connection with a state wage theft investigation.
K-Q-E-D’s labor correspondent Farida Jhabvala Romero reports.
According to state investigators, roughly 600 (590) janitors at Cheesecake Factory restaurants in San Diego and Orange counties were underpaid from 20-14 to 20-17. One of them was Naxhili Perez, a mom of four. She says she worked night shifts of up to 12 hours. But she was only paid $70 dollars a day by a contractor. Now, she’s grateful she’s finally set to recover at least some of those wages. PEREZ: Estoy agradecida con las personas que nos ayudaron y pues es lo que pudieron ellos lograr But Perez says she wishes the settlement had recovered more of the $4.2 million dollars in citations state regulators initially levied on the companies. Still, workers rights advocates say this is a landmark settlement. Because it’s the first time a company has paid for wage violations by its janitorial contractors. The Cheesecake Factory did not return requests for comment.
TAG: That was K-Q-E-D’S Farida Jhabvala Romero.
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San Diego nonprofit, Pillars of the Community, held the first of what they say will be regular clinics to help San Diegans seal their criminal records.
Reporter Katie Hyson followed one man through the process.
Nearly 50 people wait in Total Deliverance Worship Center in the Grant Hill neighborhood. Among them is 46-year-old Michael Whyte, who works as an organizer. Whyte was convicted for armed robbery in his early 20s. Even after he served his time, the record haunted him. Out of all the expungement clinics I done help run, this is actually going to be my first time getting a crack at it myself, so I'm excited. A California law took effect in July that allows most felony records to be sealed. Which, unlike expungement, makes arrests and convictions mostly invisible. Millions of Californians now qualify. A clear record offers a much better shot at employment, housing and credit. Organizers say it also frees people to chaperone field trips or coach little league. It can affect the whole community. Whyte says clinics like this help make record clearing more accessible. You get to sit down and talk to lawyers one on one and figure out if you qualify for it . . . You ain't got to go far out or pay for parking or nothing. It’s right here in the community . . . * fade under * I ask Whyte what he plans to do if his record is cleared. I'm going to apply for a job at NASA! No, I'm playing. [laughs] Nah just keep doing what I'm doing, helping my community members . . . So even if I don't get it . . . * fade under * Even if I don’t get it, he keeps saying. He doesn’t want to get his hopes up. But when he meets with the public defender, she tells him he qualifies, and helps file the paperwork. He waits until he exits the room to celebrate. . . . I’m about to get expunged! Yeah? It seems like it! She said I qualify! New man . . . Organizers say they hope to hold a clinic like this once a month. Katie Hyson, KPBS News.
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School buses to transport students on field trips can cost hundreds of dollars that districts can’t cover.
Education reporter M.G. Perez tells us about an organization that has had to temporarily put the brakes on new requests for field trip funding, to support children who need it most.
“This person looks like she’s posing for this photograph or even a show.” There’s a lot to see at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Balboa Park. This group of 4th and 5th grade students is from Wegeforth Elementary…a school in the San Diego Unified district. Along with touring the I-C-A’s art galleries, this field trip includes hands-on learning. 11 year old Sofia Adrian joins her classmates in cutting, pasting, and creating with some paint, glue, and a cardboard tube… Sofia Adrian 5th Grade Wegeforth Elementary School “...just decorations …like pink ..that’s my favorite color…(PINK?) ..yes.” Students started the morning on board a school bus that transported them from their campus in Serra Mesa …to the museum in Balboa Park…about an 8-mile ride…at a cost of 6-hundred dollars for the round trip. “we’re often referred to as the missing link because we’re the ones that can provide that funding to get the kids to the institutions that have reduced the cost for them.” Julia McMeans is Executive Director of the ArtsBusXpress…a small San Diego non-profit that raises money to pay for buses that take children on field trips to arts and science destinations. “we need money!” McMeans says the ArtsBusXpress takes requests for funding from any of the 42 local school districts …priority is given to students attending public and charter schools kindergarten through 12th grade who come from low-income families recognized under federal Title I poverty guidelines. Julia McMeans Executive Director ArtsBusXpress “If I wanted to send every kid attending a Title I school in San Diego County on a field trip, every year at the beginning of the year I would need about 5 million dollars..which is a huge sum of money…but that’s how much it would cost.” On average, a field trip costs about 21-dollars a student for transport and entrance to many museums and attractions. “it’s just fantastic how people can make random things into art.” 11 year old Jason Metcalf and his classmate Alex Brush worked together on their cardboard tower cut, paste, and color project.…Alex says he’s glad he’s getting experience on this field trip to improve his skills… Alex Brush 5th Grade Wegeforth Elementary School “I’m going to have to train with art…draw stuff…paint stuff and make towers like these every single day.” Jason likes the other benefits of this trip off campus… Jason Metcalf 5th Grade Wegeforth Elementary School “the entire class can go have fun with each other…most of the people here are friends and going places together is bonding time.” ArtsBusXpress has kept the wheels on the bus going round and round… transporting 7-thousand students to museums this school year. But there’s a wait list with requests from more than 2-hundred teachers with another 7-thousand students…that’s forced a pause on any new requests until 140-thousand dollars can be raised. Some support from the city and county of San Diego helps…but private donations are needed most. Special education teacher Megan Salcido is grateful her request was funded for the I-C-A trip at no cost to parents…and providing an adventure for the children. Megan Salcido/Special Education Teacher Wegeforth Elementary School “...for free! It’s amazing. It never crossed their minds or maybe their families haven’t brought or weren’t able to bring them here. It’s just something new and exciting.” The I-C-A is free to the public Thursday through Sunday…making the museum a partner in the investment field trips can be…says Executive Director Andrew Utt… Andrew Utt Executive Director/Institute of Contemporary Art “our world is filled with screens. We’re on our phones all the time…we see so many billboards that didn’t exist 100 years ago…we need to make sure that kids understand how to visually interpret the world around them.” As the ArtsBusXpress slogan goes…enriching student learning…one field trip at a time. “What do we see? What kind of objects do we see.” MGP KPBS News.
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The San Diego Blood Bank and San Diego Padres are hosting their annual Padres Winter Blood Drive today.
The event is from 9 this morning to 4 p-m, at the Lexus Premier parking lot across from Petco Park.
Claudine Van Gonka is the Director of Community Relations and Media for the blood bank.
She says blood donations are typically needed more during this time of year, because not many people donate during the holiday season.
Van Gonka also says the Blood Bank currently has a shortage of type O “oh” positive and negative blood types, and that one blood donation can save up to three lives.
To donate blood at the drive, you must be at least 17 years old and in good health.
Appointments are encouraged, but walk-ins are also welcome.
To make an appointment, visit San-Diego-Blood-Bank-dot-org-slash-Padres.
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Comic-Con Museum just extended the run of its Stan Lee exhibit, to April.
Arts reporter Beth Accomando previews the new additions to the collection.
Stan Lee, the late founder and editor in chief of Marvel Comics had a career spanning more than half a century as an icon of the comics industry. It's fitting that Comic Con Museum has an exhibit dedicated to him, says curator Michael Uslan. MICHAEL USLAN: It's called Excelsior: The life and legacy of Stan Lee. Stan was inarguably the most important editor and writer and co creator of comic books and comic book superheroes in history. He and his co creators actually have created our modern day mythology, the ancient gods of Greece, Rome, Egypt all still exist except today, thanks to Stan and the group, they wear spandex and capes. You can see the origins of some of that mythology in the new Curator Corner featuring historic original art. That any of this art still exists is amazing since comic books were once a denigrated art form. No one really considered preserving any of it, especially back in the 1950s. MICHAEL USLAN: There was a public outcry in America against comic books because there was a post world war two rise of juvenile delinquency in America and something had to be blamed for it. So it must have been comic books. Comic books were being burned reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s. And these artists had to endure that. As the late founder and editor in chief of Marvel Comics Lee helped usher in a new generation of superheroes that readers could identify with because they dealt with such real world issues as racism. MICHAEL USLAN: For me and for most of my friends and my kids and my kids' friends growing up, everybody really truly believes that these comic books helped mold our own sense of ethics and morality. What a gift to give to one generation of children after the next and that's one of the important things that Stan and his co-creator accomplished that they really don't get enough credit for. But you can appreciate the legacy of Lee and his co creators with the newly expanded Comic Con Museum exhibit – including a page from X Men number one and the one and only Iron Man and Sub Mariner cover. ‘Nuff said. Beth Accomando, 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 Tuesday.
