Some San Diego pharmacies have updated COVID-19 vaccines
Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Thursday, August 29th.>>>>
Updated Covid-19 vaccines are already in some local pharmacies. More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….######
The Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board, also known as CLERB, has a new executive officer.Officials say attorney Brett Kalina will be taking on the role starting Tuesday.The position became available after the last executive officer resigned in March.
Kalina was also an F-B-I special agent for 20 years.
CLERB is an 11-member board that investigates citizen complaints against Sheriff’s deputies and probation officers.
The executive officer is responsible for managing and directing the department, and also investigating in-custody deaths and serious injuries by law enforcement officers.
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The state has announced nearly 70-million-dollars in grant awards to support innovative recycling sites around the state, including 20 new locations in the county.
The grant money will fund over 250 new recycling locations around the state, including mobile recycling centers that move to different locations throughout the week.
The money will also fund bag-drop sites and recycling machines in grocery stores.
As our newsroom recently reported, the state lost half of its bottle recycling centers over the last decade.
And as a result, the recycling rate also dropped.
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Parking at the San Diego International Airport just got a little bit easier.
A new five-level parking structure steps away from the existing Terminal 1 is now open to the public.
There are 28-hundred parking spaces… More than double the number available in the previous lot.
Kim Becker is the president and C-E-O of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority.
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“We have close to 25 million passengers on an annual basis, and construction right in the middle of that is quite difficult. So we’re trying to make it as convenient as possible and this opening will make it even more convenient. People can bypass the front of the roadway, the terminal roadway and come right into the parking and get away from that traffic in front of the terminal."
The new Terminal 1 parking plaza comes just ahead of the busy Labor Day travel weekend.
Becker says the airport expects their busiest travel days to be today (Thursday), Sunday night and Monday morning.
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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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Updated Covid-19 vaccines targeting the FLiRT variants are already in some local pharmacies.
Health reporter Heidi De Marco says the new vaccines are for everyone 12 years and older.
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CVS Health pharmacist Saif Namiq says the updated Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have already arrived at CVS pharmacies throughout San Diego County, including at the Chula Vista location. SAIF NAMIQ Patients can make an appointment. They can make an appointment for up to four patients at a time. So if they want to bring their family members, their caregivers or just friends, they can just make an appointment at the same time and they just come into the store. Namiq says access to the vaccines might become more difficult for people who are uninsured or underinsured. The Center for Disease Control program offering free boosters to those groups ends on August 31. SAIF NAMIQ Most insurance companies do cover for the vaccine and if the patient does not have insurance, the out-of-pocket costs is $201.99. Namiq recommends the elderly and immunocompromised get boosted right away. And to get tested if you’re feeling unwell. Heidi de Marco, KPBS News.
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Fentanyl is a dangerous narcotic that kills more than a hundred thousand Americans each year.
Donald Trump and many other politicians say this deadly drug is regularly smuggled into the U-S by undocumented immigrants.
But experts tell border reporter Gustavo Solis that those claims are largely false.
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If you’re following the presidential election, you’ve probably heard something like this. Look, no one has ever said a wall keeps out 100 percent of illegal aliens. But if it keeps out 98 percent I’d say we’re doing pretty good. And that means less fentanyl, less drugs and less crime coming into our communities. That was JD Vance … the Republican nominee for Vice President. You’ll hear similar rhetoric from politicians here in San Diego. “Two other things that are very important that are concerning about the border and how people are just able to walk across the border and get here. The two things are fentanyl and also human trafficking.” That was Republican San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond. For years, politicians … mainly Republicans … have drawn a clear line between the country’s fentanyl epidemic and illegal migration. They say border walls and other harsh measures will prevent fentanyl from entering the country. But what they aren’t saying is the vast majority of fentanyl is smuggled into the U.S. by … U.S. citizens. KPBS spoke with local prosecutors, experts, and border patrol officials to get a better understanding of how fentanyl gets here and who brings it in. Tera McGrath U.S. Attorney Southern District of California Tera “80% of the people who we prosecuted and convicted, and by we I mean the federal government, of people convicted in 2023 of drug trafficking offenses were U.S. citizens. They are people who have the ability to cross, obviously, but also are going to be able to slip under the radar.” That’s Tera McGrath. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California. Tera “The narrative that it’s the illegal immigration or asylum seekers or people who are coming into the United States because they’re fleeing violence and they also happen to have a baggie of fentanyl as they’re trekking through the desert – that narrative is a dangerous misconception because that is not who we’re seeing.” Federal records show more than 90 percent of all fentanyl, cocaine, heroin, and meth is seized at legal ports of entry or border checkpoints on major roads. Cecilia Farfan is an expert on international crime. She says Mexican drug cartels control virtually all drug smuggling along the border. And putting their product in the hands of desperate migrants risking life and limb to cross illegally … is just bad for business. Cecilia Farfan Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime Cecilia “It would not make sense to put your merchandise in such a risky situation. Is this migrant going to cross, is he not going to cross, is he going to get stopped, what is going to happen?” It makes much more sense to smuggle drugs through legal crossings. Sydney Aki U.S. Customs and Border Protection “Tell us where we are? We are at the San Ysidro port of entry. The largest port of entry in the world. We process – strictly at this port of entry – more than 100 thousand people per day.” Sydney Aki is the director of Field Operations for the San Diego Field Office. The San Ysidro Port of Entry is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It has 24 vehicle lanes that are often backed up for hours. To smugglers, each of the 100,000 people that cross the border on a daily basis is an opportunity to get drugs into the U.S. In most cases, agents at inspection booths have less than a minute to decide if they want to send somebody for a secondary inspection. Aki says the sheer volume of cars and people make finding drugs incredibly difficult. “Could be anywhere. In their spare tires, the roofs, floorboards, the dashboard, the engine compartments, spare tires. A whole host of different areas.” Farfan argues that narratives linking migrants with drug smuggling are distracting and dangerous. Cecilia “There is a tendency to always make it about someone else. The foreigner that brings in illicit drugs, and it’s never a homegrown issue but rather more of a racist discourse that links someone else, this foreigner, this unwanted presence that brings drugs.” Prosecutors agree. McGrath says laming migrants shifts focus away from the people really behind the epidemic. Tera “When I talk about a dangerous misconception, it’s placing the responsibility and the target on drug smuggling on economic migrants. That’s not who is doing it. The focus of who’s pushing these poisons into this country is the cartels.” Both civilian and law enforcement experts told KPBS that if politicians are serious about solving the fentanyl crisis … there are real solutions. Invest in non-invasive scanners at legal border crossings … committing to drug prevention efforts on both sides of the border … and pursuing more bi-national crackdowns on drug cartels. Gustavo Solis, KPBS News.
TAG: This is the second in a series of stories focused on separating the facts from the myths regarding border security.
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Another North County city is discussing whether to adopt a ban on homeless encampments.
North County reporter Alexander Nguyen has more on Tuesday’s Carlsbad city council meeting.
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Carlsbad right now doesn’t have an encampment ban … and that residents say is bringing more people experiencing homelessness into their city. Following the Grants Pass ruling by the U-S Supreme Court … more cities in San Diego are implementing encampment bans … including Escondido and Vista. The Grants Pass ruling allows cities to enforce a camping ban even if there aren’t any shelters available. Now … Carlsbad is exploring its own encampment ban … but homeless advocate Rebecca Nussbaum says camping bans don’t work. Rebecca Nussbaum Community Resource Center “Criminalization strategies such as encampment evictions and punitive measures are not only costly, but have repeatedly been shown to be in effective. They fail to provide lasting solutions and instead drain city resources” Others … however … disagree saying it’s a safety issue and camping bans help people get off the streets. The City Council directed staff to explore the issue further … before bringing it back to the council for further discussion. AN/KPBS News.
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A former Chula Vista councilmember was sentenced yesterday (Wednesday) on charges of grand theft.
South Bay reporter Kori Suzuki has details.
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Yesterday, Andrea Cardenas was sentenced to two years of probation and 100 hours of community service. That’s after the former city councilmember pleaded guilty earlier this year to stealing more than two hundred thousand dollars from state and federal taxpayers. Along with her brother, political consultant Jesus Cardenas. County prosecutors said they used the money to pay off personal expenses, including credit card bills. And made contributions to one of Cardenas’ campaign accounts. Pedro Bernal is Cardenas’ attorney. In a press conference after the hearing, he emphasized that Cardenas was a young politician who overcame many challenges. I think the court saw this case just like we did, that the punishment that she has already served, having to resign her position, losing her job is punishment enough. Deputy District Attorney Chandelle Boyce argued that Cardenas’ actions as an elected official would increase mistrust in local government. It has a trickle down effect because the public is watching. There's a lot of news stories about these cases, and it causes the people in our community to lose faith in local government. So it's an additional harm. Cardenas will serve just one day in custody with the San Diego County sheriff. She will have to pay back all of the money she fraudulently obtained from state and federal agencies. In November, Chula Vista voters will choose a new city councilmember to serve in District 4, in the southwest corner of the city. The winner of that election will represent District 4 for another four years. Kori Suzuki, KPBS News.
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After three years and 125-million-dollars worth of renovation, the Jacobs Music Center is almost ready to welcome audiences once again.
Reporter John Carroll got a special sneak peek earlier this week.
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The sound of the San Diego Symphony… rehearsing Tuesday night in their newly renovated home. “Oh my God. We are super, super excited because already what we hear, it’s a completely different instrument.” That’s the San Diego Symphony’s music director, Maestro Rafael Payare… and the instrument he’s talking about is the newly renovated Jacobs Music Center. After three years of work the changes are astonishing. New lighting, new seats and new sound technology, including floating acoustic panels above the stage. It all makes for an experience of sight and sound that Symphony CEO Martha Gilmer says is on par with the world’s finest symphony halls. “Watching it emerge and knowing all of the details that I do to really see them come to life is an experience in life that I never expected to be able to have, and that is just, it’s truly a gift.” This sound, recorded at the highest point in the balcony, is crisp and clear… a foretaste of what is to come for generations of audiences. JC, KPBS News.
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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 Thursday.
