San Diegans call for immediate ceasefire in Israel-Hamas war
Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Tuesday, November 7th.
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Local Jewish and Palestinian community members are demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….
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Today is the final day to vote in the 20-23 special election.
The special runoff election for District 4 will fill the vacant county supervisor seat, the City of Chula Vista is electing a city attorney to fill the remainder of the current term and Voters who live in the Fallbrook Public Utility District and Rainbow Municipal Water District will vote on a ballot measure.
The Registrar’s office and 22 vote centers are open extended hours for voters today, from 7 in the morning to 8 P-M.
For more information on the special election, you can head to our Voter Hub at kpbs-dot-org-slash-elections.
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The weather is expected to be a little cooler today.
Temperatures in the county’s inland areas will be in the low 70s, by the coast, temps will be in the low 60s, in the deserts it’ll be in the low 80s and in the mountains, temps will be in the mid 50s.
But the cooler temps won’t last long.
Forecasters say Santa Ana winds are expected to bring more warm and dry weather throughout the county, tomorrow and through the rest of the week.
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Gas prices in the county have been dropping for more than a month.
The average price of regular gas this week dropped for the 38th consecutive day, to 5-dollars-and-31 cents.
The streak of decreases is the longest since a 41-day streak last December.
The average price of gas has dropped 93-cents over the past 38 days, and is 19 cents cheaper than this time last year.
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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 voices calling for an immediate cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war are also demanding action from U-S senator Alex Padilla.
Reporter M.G. Perez tells us their message is loud and clear.
“What do we want? Cease fire!...when do we want it? Now!” Members of both the Jewish and Palestinian communities in San Diego want California’s U-S Senator Alex Padilla to take action in the current Middle East conflict. Protestors rallied outside Padilla’s local downtown office …demanding he sponsor a resolution or bill in the Senate calling for a cease-fire and an end to using taxpayer money to fund Israeli war efforts. Yasmeen is with the San Diego Coalition for Palestine. “we will never support the U.S. supporting genocide…and we demand our taxpayer money support our own communities here locally.” Supporters with the Jewish Voice for Peace also said they would continue to rally for an end to the violence. Senator Padilla was traveling to Washington and his spokesman said he would make a statement at a later time. MGP KPBS News.
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Crisis pregnancy centers have become a new focus in the debate over abortion.
Now, reporter Jacob Aere tells us, a San Diego County supervisor is proposing a local action.
District 3 Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer is asking the board to consider a policy regarding crisis pregnancy centers across San Diego County. “They're fake centers pretending to offer reproductive health care advice to women, luring unsuspecting women into their doors with misleading information – women who are looking for medical advice, looking for medical help.” Her proposal calls for exploring lawsuits against the centers… and creating -a public education campaign about them, as well as providing residents more information about reproductive health resources, including abortions. The director of the Hope Center in Fallbrook says if supervisors really wanted to help women in unsupported pregnancies, they would be promoting pregnancy centers, not trying to shut them down. Jacob Aere, KPBS News.
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Rady Children’s Hospital secretly surveilled a bed-ridden teenager and her parents using at least one hidden camera in a hospital room… and it was done without a warrant, according to a lawsuit filed by the family.
Investigative reporter Scott Rodd spoke with the family, in Part One of this two-part investigation.
Bill Meyer and Dana Gascay are shuffling through a thick file of photos, letters and drawings from their daughter Madison Meyer’s childhood. The papers are fanned out on the dining room table of the family’s Carlsbad home. GASCAY: “Here’s a picture of her carving a pumpkin…and here’s a picture of her making a pumpkin pie…” It looks like a scrapbook of keepsakes. But … it’s not. It’s actually a collection of exhibits from the parents’ legal battle to retain custody of Madison. GASCAY: “Our attorneys asked us to pull together some pictures in case we were needing to have them in trial.” For nearly a year…in 2019 and into 2020…Gascay and Meyer could only visit their daughter a couple times a week in the hospital…as they fought with San Diego County in juvenile dependency court. The county and a few employees at Rady Children’s Hospital suspected the parents were harming Madison and interfering with her treatment. It’s known as medical child abuse…or Munchausen syndrome by proxy…and it poses a serious risk of death to child victims. The parents proved their innocence…and regained custody of Madison. But it emerged during the dependency trial that Rady had been secretly surveilling the family in Madison’s private hospital room while the county conducted its investigation. The family alleges the surveillance went on for nearly 40 days …but captured no evidence of abuse. GASCAY: “It was horrific. It was a nightmare….They tore our family apart.” Gascay and Meyer are currently suing Rady and the county in federal court. Rady declined an interview request and would not comment on the Myer family’s case, citing patient privacy protections. The county also declined an interview request…but emphasized that social workers are required by law to report and investigate suspected child abuse. Madison is now 20 years old. She’s filed a similar lawsuit in state court and is represented by the same team of attorneys. She declined to be interviewed, but agreed to let her parents tell the family’s story. Madison was an active kid growing up. GASCAY: “I mean, she wanted to try everything that she could. It was always about wanting to try soccer and then wanting to do gymnastics. But this typical youthful exuberance came with unusual injuries. Between the ages of 9 and 12, she broke her foot, both wrists and a finger, and also required knee surgery. And then Madison dislocated her shoulder at a surf camp. That marked a turning point for her health. The shoulder never healed properly and kept dislocating. GASCAY: “She had a lot of pain…And we had seen several people in orthopedics trying to figure out what to do.” Doctors eventually diagnosed her with a genetic connective tissue disorder called hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos [ell-erz dan-los] syndrome. Madison had shoulder surgery…but the problems persisted. At her middle school graduation, she delivered a speech wearing an elaborate sling wrapped around her shoulder…After a second reconstructive shoulder surgery, doctors gave her another diagnosis: complex regional pain syndrome. They urged Gascay and Meyer to enroll their daughter in an in-patient pain management program. GASCAY: “She would talk to me about, mom, make this pain go away. And as a parent, when you hear that, you're like, have we done everything that's out there?” Meanwhile, the diagnoses kept piling up. By age 15, Madison had spells of dizziness from a nervous system disorder. Later, she would suffer from seizures and for a while needed a feeding tube. GASCAY: “She kept saying, ‘Is there something that can be done?’ I want to be like other kids. I want to be able to do fun stuff.’” Gascay and Meyer contacted specialists around the country…desperately searching for answers. But they’d soon have a new fight on their hands — trying to keep custody of Madison.
TAG: Tune in tomorrow for Part Two of this KPBS investigation, to learn how the hospital secretly surveilled the Meyer family… and to hear from experts about the use of surveillance in suspected medical child abuse cases.
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Coming up.... What you can expect at this year’s San Diego Beer Week. We’ll have that and more, just after the break.
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A court has ruled that a San Diego County Superior Court judge can not apply for the open public defender position.
Investigative reporter Amita Sharma says Judge Michael Washington is ineligible for the post because he wasn’t a practicing attorney in California in the year before the job was open.
Judge Washington had applied for the public defender job in June. But the county informed him in August that he was not qualified because of an obscure 1947 statute. It says a person has to be a practicing attorney “in the year preceding the date of his election or appointment” to be eligible for the office. Washington asked a court to interpret the statute. He argued that denying him the right to apply for the job is absurd, given that he worked as a deputy public defender for 19 years and as a judge has handled extensive criminal trials. But an Orange County judge sided with the county. The county had put its search for a new public defender on hold pending the ruling. It will now resume the search. Amita Sharma, KPBS News.
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The 15th annual San Diego Beer Week is now in full swing.
The event is presented by the San Diego Brewers Guild.
It’s happening through Sunday, at breweries, bars and restaurants throughout the county.
Individual breweries will host events and have beer specials all week.
And something new for beer week this year is “the guild on the street” happy hour series.
It features guild board members who will visit breweries to mix and mingle with patrons.
San Diego has the most craft brewery locations among all counties in the U-S, with more than 150.
You can find a list of each day’s events on the Brewers Guild’s calendar, at S-D-beer-dot-com-slash-events.
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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. I’m Debbie Cruz. Thanks for listening and have a great Tuesday.
