Overseeing surveillance in San Diego
Good Morning, I’m Annica Colbert….it’s Wednesday April 6th.>>>>
San Diego’s first privacy advisory board
More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….######
It looks like the race to replace Lorena Gonzalez in the state Assembly will go to a runoff in June. Democrats David Alvarez and Georgette Gomez will face each other in that vote. Neither got the majority of the vote needed to win the 80th district seat outright. Whoever wins the June runoff will fill out the remainder of Gonzalez’s term. Though June 7th is also the primary for the recently redrawn 80th district for a new two year term. Visit KPBS dot org for the latest results from last night’s election.
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Anthony Ray was sworn in as San Diego county's interim sheriff on Tuesday in a brief ceremony. The board unanimously selected Ray, an assistant county sheriff, as a temporary replacement for Bill Gore, who resigned in february. Ray will hold the office until January when the winner of the November election takes over.
Among those running for the position are under-sheriff Kelly Martinez, former sheriff's commander David Myers, assistant san diego city attorney John Hemmerling, and sheriff's deputy Kenneth Newsom.
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It’s going to be really hot today with temperatures in the triple digits in some areas of San Diego. The national weather service has a heat advisory out for the San Diego county valleys and coastal areas. The advisory will be in effect from 11am today through 6pm on friday. The heat is expected to peak on Thursday and Friday before things cool off for the weekend.
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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.
The San Diego city council approved a new board on tuesday that will oversee the city’s surveillance tools.
kpbs race and equity reporter cristina kim has more.
Nearly a year and half after it was first passed….The San Diego City Council officially established the city’s first privacy advisory board.
Council Pro Tem President Monica Montgomery Steppe is the board’s top advocate on the City Council. She calls it an important first step for stronger privacy protections.
Monica Montgomery Steppe, District 4
Overisght is a good thing…. That doesn’t mean we get a blank check
The new board will give advice and recommendations on the city’s use of surveillance technologies and personal data and review how they are currently being used. It will also hold regular public meetings.
Cristina Kim. KPBS News.
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San Diego has a new independent budget analyst. The city council on Monday voted to appoint Charles Modica to the position, which serves as an independent check on the mayor's office. Mayor Todd Gloria will unveil a new budget proposal later this month.
Modica says his office will be comparing that budget with what the city council and the public have been asking for.
SO WE WILL CALL THOSE OUT IF THEY'RE INCLUDED. WE WILL CALL THEM OUT IF THEY'RE NOT INCLUDED. AND DO SO IN A WAY THAT HOPEFULLY ANYONE WHO READS OUR REPORT ON THE BUDGET CAN UNDERSTAND WHAT'S THERE, WHAT'S NOT AND MAKE SURE THAT WE HAVE A RESPONSIBLE AND BALANCED BUDGET.
The position of independent budget analyst was created during San Diego's 2004 financial crisis. Modica is only the second person to serve in the position.
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Two brothers have been arrested in connection with the mass shooting in Sacramento over the weekend.
KPBS reporter Kitty Alvarado tells us victims’ rights advocates and legislators say the shooting has strengthened their resolve to pass tougher gun laws.
The trauma, we immediately think of the trauma
LONNIE AND SANDY PHILLIPS SAY THEY IMMEDIATELY THOUGHT OF THE VICTIMS’ FAMILIES WHEN THEY SAW THE NEWS OF SUNDAY’S MASS SHOOTING IN SACRAMENTO, WHERE SIX PEOPLE WERE KILLED AND A DOZEN INJURED. THEY KNOW THAT PAIN. THEIR 24-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER JESSI, A JOURNALIST, WAS KILLED IN A MASS SHOOTING IN A COLORADO MOVIE THEATER IN 2012.
she was the light of our life and we were so proud of the woman she had become.
THEY ARE NOW DEDICATED TO HELPING VICTIMS AND SURVIVORS OF GUN VIOLENCE THROUGH THEIR NON PROFIT SURVIVORS EMPOWERED.
THAT’S WHAT JESSI WOULD HAVE WANTED US TO BE DOING. SHE HAD A HUGE HEART FOR OTHERS, SHE HAD A HUGE HEART THAT WERE SUFFERING OR NEEDED HELP
THEY SUPPORT CALIFORNIA’S TOUGH GUN LAWS AND THE PACKAGE OF NEW ONES, INCLUDING TWO THAT WOULD ALLOW PRIVATE CITIZENS TO SUE ANYONE IN THE GUN INDUSTRY WHOSE PRODUCT CAUSED THEM HARM.
ONE OF THEM IS MIRRORED AFTER THE TEXAS ABORTION BAN.THE COUPLE LOST EVERYTHING AFTER THEY ATTEMPTED TO SUE THE RETAILER WHO SOLD THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF AMMUNITION TO THE MAN WHO SHOT THEIR DAUGHTER.
Federal legislation passed in 2005 that shields the gun manufacturing industry specifically from some of these harms.
THAT’S STATE ASSEMBLYMEMBER CHRIS WARD, WHO REPRESENTS SAN DIEGO’S 78TH DISTRICT. HE SAYS PEOPLE LIKE THE PHILLIPS ARE WHY HE INTRODUCED AB 1594 … A LAW THAT WOULD OVERRIDE THAT FEDERAL LAW.
From production, manufacturing, down to the point of sale who is violating a state or local nuisance ordinance they would be held liable for the harm caused by their products
HE SAYS THIS LATEST MASS SHOOTING STRENGTHENS HIS RESOLVE TO CONTINUE THE FIGHT.
Heartbreaking, I think about the victims … I don’t want something to become so numb that we’re complacent that we accept this as a normal
WE REACHED OUT TO SEVERAL GUN RIGHT’S ACTIVISTS, BUT WE DID NOT HEAR BACK. BUT GROUPS LIKE THE SAN DIEGO GUN OWNERS ASSOCIATION ARGUE PASSING MORE LAWS IN CALIFORNIA ONLY PUNISHES LEGAL GUN OWNERS, NOT THE CRIMINALS WHO WILL CONTINUE TO COMMIT VIOLENT CRIMES DESPITE THE MORE THAN 100 STATE LAWS ALREADY IN PLACE. AND THEY WILL CONTINUE TO CHALLENGE THE LAWS, THEY SAY VIOLATE THE SECOND AMENDMENT, IN COURT.
THE PHILLIPS SAY IF CALIFORNIA’S GUN LAWS WERE TO BE IMPLEMENTED NATIONWIDE, IT WOULD PREVENT MORE TRAGEDIES LIKE THE ONE THAT TOOK THEIR DAUGHTER TEN YEARS AGO AND THE SIX PEOPLE THIS WEEK.
You can actually trace it and track it now so we know that better gun laws work
KITTY ALVARADO KPBS NEWS.
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It's been two months since a seal candidate died at a Coronado hospital after completing training known as “hell week.”
KPBS military reporter Steve Walsh says the cause of death still hasn’t been released.
24 year old Kyle Mullen died after the grueling Hell Week. Five days of near-constant motion with little sleep.. Naval Special Warfare consultant Dick Couch says the SEALs have made changes after previous basic training deaths, including allowing anyone to call safety halt for any reason.
“The objective is not to hurt people. The objective is to train them and to find out who possesses the ability to acquire the skills to be a navy SEAL.”
Last week, Mullen’s mother, Marie Knap, told Good Morning America that she spoke to him the afternoon of his death. Knap is a nurse, and she believes he showed signs of swimming induced pulmonary edema - where fluid build ups in the lungs. And that he wasn’t being carefully monitored. The Navy says it won’t release further details until the autopsy is complete. Steve Walsh KPBS News.
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The conservation group Sea Shepherd says a new partnership with the Mexican Navy has reduced the number of fishing boats in the only habitat for the critically endangered Vaquita porpoise.
Vaquitas live only in Mexico's Sea of Cortez, and a recent survey estimates there are only 8 adults and 1 to 2 calves left.
Pritam Singh is board chairman of Sea Shepherd. He said that while working with the Mexican Navy, they’ve reduced the number of Panga fishing boats in a Zero Tolerance Area, or zta, from more than 50 to less than four.
"So the pangas know that if they come into the ZTA, we'll know it, we'll see them, we'll report them and the Navy will respond.
The use of gill nets to catch fish in the Sea of Cortez has trapped and killed Vaquitas for many years. Sea Shepherd and the Navy have created the Zero Tolerance Area, where such fishing is banned.
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Coming up.... Record numbers of young people are seeking mental health treatment. We’ll have that story and more, just after the break.
A very special patient at Rady Children’s hospital got a very special sendoff on Tuesday after two years in the hospital. KPBS health reporter Matt Hoffman was there.
Go go go yay addy!
After 848 days, two-year-old Addy Smith is going home--for the first time ever.
She was born premature in December 2019 and developed chronic lung disease.. Her condition was so severe that she wasn’t able to leave the hospital.. There were even times it was unclear if she would ever go home. Her parents Aliesha and Chris have been by her side the entire time.. Her discharge was also the first time Addy has gotten to spend time with her little brother--
It’s really everything you know our son who is six months we haven’t been able to spend as much time because we’re here with addy just to be able to have both of them home under one roof together is everything
Doctors say they have never seen a case like addy’s before.. They’re hopeful that her lungs will continue to grow, even to a point where she can be off a ventilator one day.
MH KPBS News.
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One of the lingering effects of the Covid pandemic actually has nothing to do with the virus itself. Data released by the CDC finds over one third of high school students reported poor mental health with almost half reporting persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness in the past year.
In San Diego, Rady Children’s Hospital reports record numbers of young people seeking mental health treatment. Dr. Willough Jenkins is the Medical director of Inpatient Psychiatry at Rady Children’s Hospital. She spoke to KPBS Midday Edition host Maureen Cavanaugh.
That was Dr. Willough Jenkins speaking to KPBS Midday Edition Host Maureen Cavanaugh.
The Studio Door Gallery in Hillcrest is hosting Hashtag We Borrow The Earth From Our Children. It’s a new exhibit showcasing artwork about climate change by students aged three to eighteen.
KPBS arts reporter Beth Accomando says the exhibit was conceived in collaboration with two doctors who see climate change as a pediatric public health crisis.
Dr. Vi Nguyen calls herself a “Secret eco-warrior trying to save the earth one piece of ocean bound plastic at a time.”
VI NGUYEN So I'm a pediatrician. I'm a climate change and health advocate. And so the most important thing to me is to let the world know that climate change is a pediatric public health crisis. I wake up every day and think to myself, how can I help stop this? How can I bend the arc toward a sustainable future. And so it seemed crazy. But one of the simple things that a child can do is actually draw a picture.
And that’s how Hashtag We Borrow The Earth From Our Children at The Studio Door came to be. The art exhibit looks to climate change through the eyes of K through 12 students. C Fodoreanu is an artist but his patients know him as Dr. Andrei Fodoreanu.
C FODOREANU We thought that it's a good idea to involve the children through creating art and creating some positive experience about how to think about nature and environment and become a better citizen in this world.
Maya Satterberg is trying to be one of those better citizens. The 17-year-old Mission Bay High School student had her water-themed painting selected for the exhibit.
MAYA SATTERBERG: I just portrayed everyone's collective need for water and perhaps the ways we are affecting it. I've obviously surrounded the whole piece by making waves next to it to show how every aspect is being affected by climate change.
Making waves is exactly what the artists and organizers want the show to do.
MAYA SATTERBERG: I think that art is such a useful and powerful tool to convey any sort of messages so any visual communications is what I am interested in and I think it’s so interesting to see what everyone is coming up with.
Michelle Yu is a 12-year-old Oak Valley Middle School student and fellow artist. Her entry shows the side effects of ocean pollution.
MICHELLE YU: I'm really interested in animals and a lot of the animals that I like, they're slowly going extinct because of the changing climate and a lot of trash that we dump into their environments.
In addition to the visual art there will also be poetry. Exhibit organizer Tae Yun oversaw those entries.
TAE YUN: I really didn't expect a lot of the lower schoolers in particular to communicate such themes of climate depression, but some of them did, and that really struck me. It goes to show how much climate change has affected the minds and the mental state of even our youngest people here.
Fodoreanu says pediatricians see this firsthand.
C FODOREANU We see asthma more, we see obesity, we see depression, anxiety. I mean, we can only be healthy in a healthy environment and healthy nature and the reason I became a pediatrician is to change things from the start.
VI NGUYEN: These problems that we see in pediatrics – obesity, plummeting child mental health -- it's all connected to the climate.
Again Vi Nguyen.
VI NGYUEN: And so when you realize the intersection of climate and health and children and the Earth, it just opens the doors and makes us be more creative to kind of deal with these medical problems that kids have.
#WeBorrowTheEarthFromOurChildren lets the students address climate change.
VI NGUYEN: Children understand fundamentally what we adults make way too complicated. And I want adults to take away the message that this is an emergency, there’s no time left we have to act now.
Satterberg hopes the show will have an impact.
MAYA SATTERBERG: I hope that climate change obviously is discussed more. I hope that people are aware that youth are talking about this and I really think that the more we frame the issue of climate change as a debate, the more the actual solutions to the problem become deferred. So I think that we should really start focusing on positive action
Art can help convey that message. It can also enrich a student’s life.
MAYA SATTERBERG: Not only does it promote critical thinking and critically engaging with the topics that you're making artwork of because you have to understand a concept to break it down and then visually communicate it to an audience. I think also art actually does have a very great transformative power because it allows people to critically engage with the ideas that are being presented.
You can engage with the art of both young students and professional artists at The Studio Door with #WeBorrowTheEarthFromOurChildren.
Beth Accomando, KPBS News.
Hashtag We Borrow The Earth From Our Children opens Thursday night at The Studio Door in Hillcrest and runs through the end of the month.
That’s it for the podcast today. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. I’m Annica Colbert. Thanks for listening and have a great day.
