San Diego U.S. Attorney fired by Trump speaks out

Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Thursday, February 27.

The San Diego U.S. Attorney fired by President Trump is speaking out.

More on that next. But first... the headlines….

U-C SAN DIEGO HEALTHCARE, RESEARCH, AND TECHNICAL PROFESSIONALS ARE ON DAY TWO OF A THREE-DAY STRIKE TODAY (Thursday). IT’S PART OF A STATEWIDE ACTION ACROSS UC CAMPUSES, HOSPITALS, CLINICS AND LABS.

AFSCME AND UPTE ARE THE TWO UNIONS REPRESENTING OVER 55-THOUSAND EMPLOYEES THROUGHOUT THE STATE.

UPTE MEMBER REUBEN BARBA IS A UC SAN DIEGO MICROBIOLOGIST. HE SAYS UC HAS INCREASED WORKLOADS FOR EMPLOYEES, BUT HAS NOT INCREASED STAFFING.
“So the main issue is that staffing crisis, UC says that we do not have that, but we experience that every day right there and on the front lines and in our jobs.”

IN A STATEMENT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT SAYS QUOTE THERE IS NO STAFFING CRISIS AT UC. THEY SAY THEIR DATA SHOW THE NUMBER OF UP-TEE UNION MEMBERS ON STAFF ARE INCREASING AND STAFF DEPARTURES ARE DECLINING.

An East County house cat is thought to be the first cat in the county to die of bird flu.

County officials say the indoor cat fell ill and died in January after eating raw pet food.

Other cats in California have also died after consuming raw food or milk.

Officials say the virus can spread to humans through the eyes, nose or mouth, but it’s rare and the risk is low.

A new shuttle in mid-city will take you between North Park and City Heights for free.

The Mid-City GO shuttle aims to serve lower-income areas and fill so-called “last mile” gaps between bus stops and destinations.

The Union-Tribune says the shuttles are funded by state grants and managed by local non-profits.

Residents can access the shuttles by downloading the VIA app.

From KPBS, you’re listening to San Diego News Now.

Stay with me for more of the local news you need.

IT’S NOT UNUSUAL FOR NEW PRESIDENTS TO SACK THE NATION’S 93 U.S. ATTORNEYS AND HIRE NEW ONES ALIGNED WITH THEIR OWN PRIORITIES. SAN DIEGO U.S. ATTORNEY TARA MCGRATH WAS ONE OF THEM. BUT SHE TOLD PUBLIC MATTERS REPORTER AMITA SHARMA THAT THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S SHIFT IS SO DRAMATIC THAT PUBLIC SAFETY IS AT RISK.

I'm concerned about public safety and the changes that are occurring within the Department of Justice. And I'm also concerned about the way that federal public servants are being demonized and demoralized in the public discourse. So, Tara, I want to get a public safety. But before I do that, you left on February 12th. Give me a second of what life has been like for federal prosecutors in the San Diego U.S. attorney's office in the few weeks before you left. I have worked for, I think, eight attorneys general, and I've worked for Republican administrations and Democratic administrations. And I have never seen anything like the shift in the culture and temperature in the office. In all of the years that I have worked for the Department of Justice, there has been turmoil and stress and demoralization and insecurity throughout the federal workforce in the last month, certainly within the Department of justice and the U.S. attorney's office included. And what specifically is causing that turmoil? Oh, it's the. It's not the change. People are used to change. We're used to working for one administration and then another. It's the shift in rhetoric about the lack of respect and appreciation for what federal employees do. What's the problem is the shift from certain law enforcement components and their expertise to doing work that's outside of the expertise. So how does all of this affect public safety? Public safety is impacted, I think, primarily in this region due to the shift in the direction of certain agencies being refocused on immigration enforcement. It's the movement of agencies like FBI who normally are focused on domestic terrorism, responding to guardian complaints. A guardian complaint is when a teacher is concerned about how a student's behaving or, or a neighbor is worried that their next door neighbor is spending too much time in his garage or making weird statements. And they report that information to the FBI. And the FBI generates this information in a guardian complaint, and then they go out and question, does this person have access to guns? Are they trolling on social media sites? That could set off alarm bells? That's what a guardian call is that. That's what the FBI does. So they are preventing mass shootings, they're. Preventing mass shootings, they're preventing terrorist attacks, they're preventing hate crimes. And they do that through generating intelligence. And they have an expertise in IT analysts and agents who track this information in our district and across the United States. And they do that day in and day out to keep track of who might be setting off alarm bells. And then they respond also equally. The atf, for example, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. They are the preeminent experts in investigating wildfires. That's who we send out nationwide to figure out the source of a wildfire so we can prevent a wildfire from happening again if we understand why it occurred. Another example, the Drug Enforcement Administration. They are experts in identifying where a fentanyl dealer might. Might have obtained the fentanyl, tracking it back to the smuggling operation, and then the overseas cartel that funneled that toxic poison into our country. That's what DEA does. So we have these organizations that are specialized in really essential components of what keeps people in this country safe from mass shootings, from ghost guns, from fires, from fentanyl. And now those organizations are devoting significant time to immigration enforcement. What you're describing sounds really scary. Where do you find hope in all of this?  Unquestionably, it's in the public servants. They're doing the work because they care about their neighbors and their federal citizens. And where I find hope is in those people, but also in engagement and people paying attention. The turmoil, the demoralization, and the lack of accountability that we have seen in the last month is not what Americans expect or deserve from their government. This is not the norm, and we can't allow ourselves to expect or accept this as the norm.

THE SAN DIEGO POLICE DEPARTMENT RELEASED FOOTAGE LAST WEEK OF AN OFFICER SHOOTING AND KILLING A TEENAGER NEAR THE SANTA FE DEPOT DOWNTOWN. INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER SCOTT RODD SAYS THE INCIDENT IS DRAWING SCRUTINY.

WARNING: THIS STORY INCLUDES DESCRIPTIONS OF VIOLENCE

Security camera video shows three teenagers standing near the train platform at the Santa Fe Depot. After a brief exchange, one of them pulled a gun and started shooting. The teenager being shot at took off running down a corridor.  San Diego Police officer Daniel Gold was nearby responding to an unrelated call. Body camera video shows he started running toward the transit station when he heard gunfire.  Seconds later, officer Gold and the fleeing teenager nearly collided coming around a corner. “WOAH” WOAH… officer Gold shouts, and immediately shoots the teenager. The officer then identified himself.

“San Diego Police”Although the teenager was not holding a gun … officers providing aid to the teenager found a pistol under his clothes, according to footage released by SDPD. The teenager died from his injuries. Criminologist, Bowling Green State University “In my view, there are serious questions as to whether this shooting was legally justified.”Philip Stinson is a professor of criminal justice at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. He says the officer could not have known the teenager had a gun in his waistband…since the exchange happened so fast. Criminologist, Bowling Green State University “Sometimes police officers make the wrong split-second decision.” In a statement, San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said the department is committed to transparency and ensuring a thorough investigation. 

THE "DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY" – OR DOGE – HAS LISTED A SOCIAL SECURITY OFFICE IN CARLSBAD FOR A LEASE TERMINATION.

THE DOGE WEBSITE SAYS IT WOULD SAVE NEARLY 600-THOUSAND DOLLARS OVER FIVE YEARS.

BUT CARLSBAD DOES NOT HAVE A SOCIAL SECURITY OFFICE. THERE IS ONE IN OCEANSIDE, JUST ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CARLSBAD CITY LIMITS.

KPBS TALKED TO STAFFERS THERE YESTERDAY (WEDNESDAY) – AND THEY SAID THEY DON’T KNOW ABOUT ANY PLANNED CLOSURE OR LEASE TERMINATION.

THE OFFICE IS IN CONGRESSMAN MIKE LEVIN’S DISTRICT. HE SAYS HE’S BEEN TRYING TO GET ANSWERS.

And so it's just more questions. And it tells me one of two things. Either it's really Keystone cops, like really incompetent or there's news to come. And I don't know which it is. 

DOGE HAS AN AUTOMATED A-I ACCOUNT ON X, AND IT POSTED A RESPONSE TO LEVIN’S CONCERNS.

DOGE A-I SAID, “THE CARLSBAD CLOSURE IS A SMART MOVE, CUTTING BLOAT AND SAVING TAXPAYER DOLLARS.”... AND ADDED THAT “CRITICS ARE JUST PROTECTING INEFFICIENCY.”

WE ALL KNOW COVID THREW SCHOOLS INTO CHAOS. IN OUR NEXT WHY IT MATTERS SEGMENT, VOICE OF SAN DIEGO’S JAKOB MCWHINNEY (MICK-win-NEE) SAYS IT’S STILL HAVING AN IMPACT.

It’s clear that COVID negatively impacted most schools in San Diego County. We now know that many local schools still haven’t recovered. In fact, less than half have shown they’re on the road to recovery. And to be clear, that doesn’t mean those schools are performing as well or better than they were before the pandemic. It just means that school performance has been improving over the last two years. We have all this information from the Voice of San Diego’s Parent’s Guide to San Diego Schools. Taken all together, the data shows that the shadow of the pandemic is long. Students, families and the schools that serve them will likely be working for years to come to dig out of the learning loss hole. That’s bad news, because the halcyon days of school funding are over. Federal relief packages during COVID that injected billions in funding into schools across the country have ended.  San Diego Unified is grappling with a more than $100 million deficit. And now it and other districts are facing the prospect of having to cut the very services they implemented to try to help kids recover. I’m Jakob McWhinney for Voice of San Diego and that’s why it matters.

IN WATER SPARSE CALIFORNIA WE DEPEND ON WINTER PRECIPITATION. BUT THERE’S A WILDCARD CONFOUNDING OUR SEASONAL FORECASTS FOR RAIN AND SNOW. REPORTER THOMAS FUDGE TALKS ABOUT ATMOSPHERIC RIVERs. 

Atmospheric rivers are jets of skyborn water vapor over the Pacific Ocean. When they arrive in California, our mountains push them upwards and squeeze rain and snow from them. Often huge amounts. UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography has new research, showing atmospheric rivers can make our winter forecasts, based on La Nina and El Nino, practically obsolete.  Forecasts of a La Nina winter, when ocean waters are cold, say it’ll be a dry winter. But Meteorologist Alexander Gershunov, at Scripps, says in the 21st century, strong atmospheric rivers have turned many La Nina predictions upside down. “The really wet years have been La Nina years.” Like 2011 and 2017. And then there was 2023, another La Nina winter that nonetheless brought record snowfall to the Sierra Nevada. “There are certain storms that don’t care about El Nino and La Nina. And the atmospheric rivers are those storms.” When atmospheric rivers are strong they can make up 60 percent of California’ annual precipitation. Gershunov says predicting when and where they’ll arrive in our state is something we need to get better at.

Stargazers are in for a somewhat rare celestial event in our evening skies this week. Seven planets of the solar system will be visible in the western sky … five of them without a telescope. Lisa Will is the resident astronomer at the Fleet Science Center and a professor at San Diego City College. Astronomical events in the sky are communal events. I think we saw that over the last couple of years with the partial solar eclipses that we were so lucky to see here in San Diego that there’s something very human about being under the stars and looking up at the sky. She says Venus will be the brightest planet in the sky, but Mercury, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter will all appear just after sunset.

For Uranus and Neptune you’re going to need a backyard telescope or a good pair of binoculars.

Will says the best time to see all the planets will be Friday evening.

That’s it for the podcast today. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. For your next listen, tune into the Midday Edition podcast this afternoon. Today is their weekly arts and culture show. I’m Debbie Cruz. Thanks for listening and have a great day.