Nathan Fletcher turns to campaign cash for legal defense bills

Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Wednesday, August 14th.

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Nathan Fletcher, again, turns to campaign cash to pay for his legal defense. More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….

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As students return to school this week, the county's COVID-19 positivity rate is close to 21-percent.

That’s the second highest positivity rate recorded, since the start of the pandemic.

Edmund Milder is a pediatric infectious disease doctor at Rady Children’s Hospital. He has these recommendations:

“Make sure you're up to date on your vaccines, wash your hands frequently, stay home when you're really sick, and you have a fever, and then otherwise get back out there and enjoy yourself and get back to learning.”

Milder says masking continues to be a key measure for protection.

Although masks are optional in the San Diego Unified School District, a variety of masks will be available for students at all district schools.

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The city of San Diego wants to hear from residents about a potential trash collection fee.

Most single-family homes get their trash picked up by the city for free.

Two years ago, voters decided to let the city consider charging a fee.

City budget analysts estimated a monthly fee of 23 to 29-dollars would cover the current level of service.

The city also wants to hear what else homeowners might want, such as increased pickups for recycling.

It’s holding open house meetings for the next month.

The schedule and an online survey is available at clean-green-sd-dot-org.

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Students at Burbank Elementary School in Logan Heights were joined by the San Diego Padres yesterday (Tuesday) to celebrate the start of a new school year, and the grand opening of their new soccer and baseball field.

It includes a 16-and-a-half thousand square foot synthetic turf play field with soccer striping.

There's also a Little League sized baseball diamond, batter's box and a remotely operated scoreboard.

The new field replaces former basketball, volleyball and tetherball courts.

All new courts are now located at the center of the campus.

The project was funded by San Diego Unified's capital bond improvement program.

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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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Former county Supervisor Nathan Fletcher is again turning to his abandoned state senate campaign to pay for legal defense bills.

Investigative reporter Scott Rodd reports the spending could test the boundaries of campaign finance rules.

Last March, a former San Diego Metropolitan Transit System employee filed a lawsuit against Nathan Fletcher. She alleged he sexually assaulted her when he was chairman of the agency. Fletcher denies the allegations. He dropped out of the race for a state Senate seat just days before the allegations surfaced. By that point, his campaign had raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from contributors. More than a year later…he’s still using money from his dormant campaign to pay for his legal defense in court. Campaign finance disclosures show his attorneys have billed the campaign for more than half a million dollars. LEVINSON-1: “This is a somewhat legally murky area." Jessica Levinson is a Loyola Law School professor and campaign finance expert. State election laws allow campaigns to spend money on matters reasonably related to political or legislative matters…but not on personal expenses. LEVINSON-2: “All of it depends on whether the lawsuit is filed against Nathan Fletcher as an individual, or if it's filed against Nathan Fletcher because he's a candidate.” Fletcher’s campaign attorney did not respond to requests for comment. The campaign previously told KPBS that the lawsuit was only filed because Fletcher was running for state Senate. And therefore, the spending is legal. SOC.

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Wage theft is the most common form of theft in the U.S. economy — taking an estimated 15-billion-dollars per year from workers.

Metro reporter Andrew Bowen says one way employers steal from their workers is by withholding breaks.

AB: California law requires employers to offer workers a half-hour meal break in the first five hours of their workday. If the employee works more than five hours without that break, they're entitled to one extra hour of pay. Employees also get a 10-minute rest break for every four hours of work. Kyra Greene of the Center on Policy Initiatives says employees are entitled to bonus pay if their bosses won’t let them leave their work station during breaks. KG: "They're told, 'You can take a rest break but you still have to keep your eye on the counter or you still have to keep an eye out for people coming in.' That's not a rest break. That's still just working." AB: Some employees are exempt from meal break regulations, but their job has to pay more than $66,560 per year. Andrew Bowen, KPBS news.

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KPBS is embarking on a new series about volunteering.

Sharing stories of people who devote their time in unexpected ways.

South Bay reporter Kori Suzuki went to visit one volunteer who works as a guide at the Tijuana River Estuary – and who leads a unique kind of tour.

RON: Let me see if I can, Yes, this is Lemonadeberry. And the reason I know it's Lemonadeberry is because the leaves are thick and leathery, almost like the tongue of a leather shoe. I've learned to identify about almost 40 plants, uh, just by touch and also smell. Okay, Gidget, here we go. My name is Ron Peterson. I'm 73 years  old. I'm a retired scientist and engineer. I worked for the U. S. Navy,  for about 40 years.  I live here in Imperial Beach,  and I am blind. and  this is Gidget. This is my guide dog. And we are here at the Tijuana Estuary  This is  one of my homes away from home. there's a, I would say in the neighborhood of about 50, uh, native plants. It's also  an amazing bird sanctuary. So our nature walks here at the estuary, there's several nature walks and there's several bird walks. And one of those nature walks is mine. I'm a docent for the eye-opening experience without sight. Where a blind person leads a nature walk and introduces visitors to the native plants  with the emphasis on the other four senses besides sight. Well, let's start over here with a very special plant, right over here.  And Everyone take a whiff and tell me what you think.  I don't love it. Oh, okay, we have an I don't love it. Most people don't care for it all that much.  And this, this plant is actually called bladder pod, and I think you can see why it has the name bladder pod. I've worked here as a volunteer for about, for about nine years.  I learned the plants and I, and I did a lot of volunteer work here, planting, uh, native plants and clearing trails L but then five years ago, things kind of went sout h for me. Glaucoma. When I first realized that I was losing my vision and it was real,  and there's no going back, there's no cure for vault for, for glaucoma.  Um, I lost my vision and  and I couldn't work here anymore. I couldn't do the things that I was doing. It, it w as frightening.  I felt very much alone  and I felt that,  um, I F I didn't know how I was going to enjoy life anymore. And then, um, and then finally, a couple of years ago the idea came along  that since I had already learned many of these plants by sight,  I could learn these plants by touch and smell and then share that with people as one of the, during one of the nature walks. It's the experience. the wonderful feel and especially the smells and there's even sounds. The bladder pod, when they dry, they make little rattles and the wind blowing through the cottonwoods.  Kind of a whispering sound because of the shape of the leaves. And the sound of the bees in the lemonade berries. There's even taste. They really taste good. They taste like little lemonade, um, candy. But that's not something we do with visitors. The thing about giving to others is, not only is it a good thing to do, it's the right thing to do, but also,  it takes the focus off of yourself, it's  You don't feel sorry for yourself. You're putting the focus on others.  So to me, that just became an important part of my life. It's always been an important part of my life. But it has helped me  to, to wake up with a smile on my face, To wake up, uh, looking forward to the day. And feeling like I accomplished something at the end of each day – that I did something for someone besides me RON: Come on closer, folks.  Come on closer, so we  so you can hear me.  We are now beneath some special trees specifically the Fremont Cottonwood.  They are very distinctive. They're large, they're soft, the shape of these leaves, if there's a strong breeze, um, they'll vibrate a little bit. It's really an aerodynamics thing. And that vibration causes the tree to kind of shimmer, or some people say murmur, in a breeze. So that's an example of how, Hearing, or sound, can be associated with some of our native plants. I love the cottonwoods. KORI: Are you, um, are you hearing that sound right now? With all of the noise and the helicopters, and the wind isn't blowing quite hard enough,  no, I'm not hearing it now. But, if it was blowing harder, and if it were very quiet.  Maybe I can.  Maybe I can.  Yeah, I'm hearing, I'm hearing, I think I'm hearing the sound of the cottonwood. 

TAG: Ron’s story was produced by reporter Kori Suzuki.

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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 Wednesday.