Mother says military negligent in sailor's Oceanside murder
Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Monday September 11th>>>>
A grieving mother says the military was negligent in a local sailor's murder
More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines…
There’s some 9/11 commemorations happening across San Diego today... This morning an event at University of San Diego will reflect on the World Trade center attacks... Organizers say it will review the past and look toward a more peaceful future… Outside USD’s school of peace studies is a 9/11 memorial with 3-thousand glass plaques naming those who died. East county leaders and first responders are also holding a memorial ceremony... 3-thousand american flags will be placed on the grass at Grossmont college... The event will honor those who lost their lives and the first responders who helped save lives that day..
The Chula Vista city council will discuss a minimum wage ordinance for health care workers this week... A majority of council members directed staff last month to prepare a draft ordinance for a 25-dollar-per-hour baseline pay for employees at health care facilities. The discussion is docketed for tomorrow (Tuesday) Similar efforts are moving through the state legislature.. And signatures are being collected for ballot initiatives to establish the minimum pay for health workers in San Diego, La Mesa and Chula Vista.
This past weekend saw temperatures 5 to 10 degrees above normal.. But cooler weather is expected this week.. Today (Monday) is expected to be in the low 80s inland with a high of 78 at the coast. The rest of the week is forecasted in the mid to low 70s. Some partly cloudy skies are expected throughout the week.
From KPBS, you’re listening to San Diego News Now.Stay with me for more of the local news you need.
AFTER COMPLAINTS FROM NEIGHBORS, THE CITY OF OCEANSIDE IS REVIEWING ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE BROTHER BENNO’S FOUNDATION.
THE ORGANIZATION PROVIDES RESOURCES TO THE COMMUNITY… BUT THE NEARBY BUSINESSES SAY THEY ARE BRINGING HARM TO THE AREA.
NORTH COUNTY REPORTER TANIA THORNE SAYS A DECISION ON THE ORGANIZATION'S FUTURE IS BEING MADE TODAY (MONDAY).
Oceanside’s planning commission is reviewing the Brother Benno’s Foundation’s conditional use permit today/Monday.
The permit lets the foundation operate in the business park on Production Avenue – as long as its operations aren’t detrimental to the public or nearby properties.
But business owners in the area say the people Brother Benno's serves are causing damage…. And Property managers in the business park say they’re having a hard time leasing vacant properties.
To help improve the situation, Brother Bennos has hired a third party security firm.
An expense Ben Meyer, the essential services manager says, is not within their budget.
Its not sustainable for us currently to do that. It is a move simply because of the stakes that have been laid out by the business park and these people. They want us shut down. And for us we need to do everything we can to keep the doors open we have hundred of people that depends on us.
Monday’s meeting will determine if a security condition will be added to Brother Benno's permit.
If the change is made, Meyer hopes the city and the businesses in the area can help with the expense.
We gotta work together to solve this problem. Its not going to just be Brother Bennos solving it. So… were hopeful.
The organization has also hired porter services and reduced their hours to help address the business parks complaints.
TT KPBS News
To San Diegans, rain is almost always welcome. And we got a very big gift of it two weeks ago when a tropical storm came to town. Sci-tech reporter Thomas Fudge says local plants have responded as if spring has come again.
SECONDSPRING 1 (tf) :52 …SOQ.
It was Sunday August 20th when tropical storm Hillary arrived in San Diego. It rained all day, dropping at least two inches in most places. Local plants reacted quickly. Many trees started to flower again. Native plants that were supposed to dormant showed new growth. Alex Kurz is with the California Native Plant society. He’s seen a lot of plants acting like it was spring.
“Black Mountain open space park, for example, the mission manzanita, those beautiful gnarly shrubs with the orange brown trunks, they have flowers there in September.
Plants experts say there was a downside of the rains, as exotic grasses and weeds sprung up, potentially increasing future fire risk. Also, the moisture in the soil could bring root rot to plants that are accustomed to being dry in August. SOQ.
A SERRA MESA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL HAS STARTED A BIG DONATION EFFORT TO HELP SOME OF THE YOUNGEST VICTIMS OF THE MAUI WILDFIRES.
EDUCATION REPORTER M.G. PEREZ HAS MORE ON THE PROJECT THAT PLANS TO EXPAND TO OTHER CAMPUSES.
A collection of spare change began in one second grade classroom at Wegeforth Elementary School just a week ago.
…and already, more than 7-hundred dollars in coins and other money have been donated…and the rest of the school has joined the effort now.
Students are learning math with their calculations and accounting of donations. They’re also learning empathy and compassion.
Just ask 8 year old are-EE-uh Hammond who has a message for the kids in Maui…
SOT: “We are raising money for you and we hope it's enough. And I hope you guys will have food and be learning.”
7 year old Eliana Kende has something to say, too.
SOT: “I feel worried, if some of the people is living, on the streets right now because they don't have the houses and cars and schools.”
weg-EH-forth Elementary families are also collecting school supplies for students in Maui and other schools have been invited to join the donation effort. MGP KPBS News.
For our ongoing series on public art, we’ll now meet a prolific San Diego artist. She has works at the airport, the North Park Target, and the Jacobs Center to name a few. Arts and culture producer Julia Dixon Evans has the story.
Kaori Fukuyama’s work is the kind of art that reminds you that light exists.
She works with mostly clear plastics, acrylics and films that refract and transform light.
In her sunny Rolando studio, Fukuyama cuts and arranges tiny slivers of dichroic film, jutting hundreds of pieces out from the wall in patterns that twist and loop.
INTERVIEW P4-006 [00:38-00:48]
"... make an incision, and then just stick this in here… I find my process very boring."
Colored Shadows scatter in countless directions. She was inspired by the movements of a group of starlings, known as a murmuration. Each bird communicates only with its seven closest neighbors, but somehow thousands of birds move flawlessly in intricate patterns.
[bite abt starlings/community]
INTERVIEW P1-001
[04:11-04:22]
"we feel very overwhelmed but just kind of focusing on your neighbor. It's your friends and your family and starting small and that would create this ripple effect"
This new work is a revision of an installation currently on view in a glass case at the San Diego International airport.
Fukuyama says she loves designing large works of art to fit each site. She sees public art as a form of arts education for passersby.
INTERVIEW P5 [01:34-01:39]
"Public art is the most democratic form of art"
Julia Dixon Evans, KPBS news
TAG: At the airport, Fukuyama's work is placed before security checkpoint 6, the main security line in terminal 2. To see a similar work without a glass barrier, it’s on view at City College Art Gallery through September 30.
Coming up.... A grieving mother says the military was negligent in a local sailor's murder..
We’ll have that story and more, just after the break.
THE FAMILY OF A NAVY CORPSMAN GUNNED DOWN BY A FORMER SERVICE MEMBER IS TAKING THE GOVERNMENT TO COURT. THEY SAY THE KILLER - WHO WAS FORCED OUT OF THE MARINE CORPS FOR MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES - SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN ABLE TO BUY A GUN. THE CASE SPOTLIGHTS PROBLEMS THAT THE MILITARY HAS SOMETIMES HAD … FAILING TO REPORT DISQUALIFIED SERVICE MEMBERS TO THE FBI'S GUN BACKGROUND CHECK DATABASE.
MILITARY REPORTER ANDREW DYER HAS MORE.
PETTY OFFICER THIRD CLASS DEVON RIDEOUT RETURNED TO HER APARTMENT IN SUBURBAN OCEANSIDE, CALIFORNIA AFTER HER SHIFT AT NAVAL HOSPITAL CAMP PENDLETON. IT WAS A FRIDAY IN 2018, JUST BEFORE 4PM, AND THE 24-YEAR-OLD NAVY CORPSMAN TOOK HER NEW PUPPY CHIP FOR A WALK.WHEN SHE RETURNED, HER UPSTAIRS NEIGHBOR – A MAN SHE DID NOT KNOW – WAS WAITING OUTSIDE HER DOOR. AND HE WAS HOLDING A REVOLVER.
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LESLIE WOODS
“SHE IS REALLY ENJOYED BEING IN THE NAVY. SHE WAS SHE ENJOYED HER JOB IMMENSELY. SHE LOVED HELPING PEOPLE.
HER MOTHER, LESLIE WOODS, IS DEVASTATED BY THE LOSS OF HER ONLY CHILD THAT DAY. SHE SAYS THEY SPOKE ON THE PHONE EVERYDAY, AND DEVON PLANNED TO BECOME AN OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST AFTER THE NAVY TO WORK WITH VETERANS.
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LESLIE WOODS
“I THINK SHE HAD TWO MORE YEARS LEFT FOR HER, FROM HER REAL ENLISTMENT. AND THEN SHE WAS GOING TO TRANSFER TO, YOU KNOW, GRADUATE SCHOOL.”
THE MAN WHO SHOT AND KILLED DEVON RIDEOUT WAS A MARINE DESERTER WHO’D BEEN ARRESTED IN 2016. HE WAS DIAGNOSED AS SCHIZOPHRENIC SUFFERING FROM DELUSIONS AND HALLUCINATIONS, FOUND INCOMPETENT TO FACE COURT-MARTIAL AND FORCED OUT OF THE SERVICE.
THE SCHIZOPHRENIA DIAGNOSIS SHOULD HAVE LANDED THE MAN, EDUARDO ARRIOLA, ON THE NATIONAL INSTANT CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECK SYSTEM USED TO SCREEN GUN PURCHASES.BUT THE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT DIDN’T REPORT HIM. SO, WHEN ARRIOLA WENT TO AN OCEANSIDE GUN DEALER TO PURCHASE A 5-SHOT REVOLVER, NOTHING CAME BACK.
EUGENE IREDALE, ATTORNEY
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“IN THIS CASE, IT CAME INTO THE DATABASE AND THERE WAS NOTHING THERE.”
EUGENE IREDALE REPRESENTS LESLIE WOODS IN TWO LAWSUITS – ONE AGAINST THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND ANOTHER AGAINST THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA. HE SAYS THE LAW IS CLEAR – ARRIOLA SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO BUY A GUN.
EUGENE IREDALE, ATTORNEY
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“NO ADDITIONAL LAW WAS NEEDED TO PREVENT THE DEATH. IN THIS CASE, ALL YOU NEEDED WAS COMPLIANCE WITH THE LAW THAT HAS BEEN IN EFFECT FOR OVER 30 YEARS – THE BRADY ACT. THAT’S WHY WE HAVE SUCH A POWERFUL CASE.”
FOR YEARS, THE PENTAGON INSPECTOR GENERAL HAS FAULTED THE MILITARY FOR VIOLATING THE LAW …
AND FAILING TO ADD DISQUALIFYING PERSONNEL TO THE FBI’S NATIONAL INSTANT CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECK SYSTEM, COMMONLY CALLED “NICS.”
THE MOST WELL-KNOWN CASE WAS THAT OF FORMER AIR FORCE AIRMAN DEVIN KELLY, WHOSE 2012 DOMESTIC ASSAULT CONVICTION SHOULD HAVE LANDED HIM IN THE FBI’S SYSTEM.
THE AIR FORCE FAILED TO REPORT HIM AND IN 2017 KELLEY KILLED 26 PEOPLE IN THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, TEXAS.
LINDSAY NICHOLS IS THE POLICY DIRECTOR OF THE GIFFORDS LAW CENTER TO PREVENT GUN VIOLENCE.
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LINDSAY NICHOLS, POLICY DIRECTOR, GIFFORDS LAW CENTER TO PREVENT GUN VIOLENCE
“YEAH, SO THE MILITARY HAS A LONG TRACK RECORD OF NOT REPORTING THIS INFORMATION WHEN IT SHOULD, I'M GOING BACK TO THE 1990 WHEN THE BACKGROUND CHECK SYSTEM WAS FIRST ESTABLISHED.”
IN 2020 THE INSPECTOR GENERAL FOUND THAT AFTER THE SUTHERLAND SPRINGS SHOOTING, THE SYSTEM IMPROVED.
PREVIOUSLY, THE SERVICES REPORTED DISQUALIFYING CRIMINAL INFORMATION TO AN INTERNAL PENTAGON MANPOWER COMPONENT BUT THE INFORMATION DIDN'T GET TO THE FBI. NOW, SERVICE BRANCHES SUBMIT IT TO THE FBI DIRECTLY.
BUT THAT 2020 INSPECTOR GENERAL'S REPORT LOOKED ONLY AT WHETHER SERVICE MEMBERS' CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS MADE IT INTO THE BACKGROUND CHECK SYSTEM. IT DIDN'T INVESTIGATE WHETHER MENTAL HEALTH DIAGNOSES GET INTO THE SYSTEM LIKE THEY SHOULD.
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LINDSAY NICHOLS, POLICY DIRECTOR, GIFFORDS LAW CENTER TO PREVENT GUN VIOLENCE
“THE MILITARY EXISTS TO PROTECT AND DEFEND OUR COUNTRY FROM ACTS OF VIOLENCE SO THE REQUIREMENT THAT DOD PROPERLY REPORT TO THE BACKGROUND CHECK SYSTEM FOR GUN PURCHASES DIRECTLY FULFILLS THE VERY PURPOSE OF THE MILITARY.”
RIDEOUT'S KILLER WAS SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRISON LAST YEAR.
IN JULY A FEDERAL JUDGE DENIED A GOVERNMENT MOTION TO DISMISS HER FAMILY'S LAWSUIT.
ANDREW DYER, KPBS NEWS
That’s it for the podcast today. 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 day.
