Supervisor Desmond criticized for inaccurate tweet
Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Monday, January 8th.
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County supervisor Jim Desmond is being called out for an inaccurate tweet. More on why migrant advocates say it’s dangerous, next. But first... let’s do the headlines….
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Voters will be deciding this year whether to raise the county's sales tax by a half percentage point.
The "Let's Go San Diego" ballot measure is sponsored by a coalition of local environmental groups, businesses and labor unions.
The county registrar of voters, late last week, announced they had gathered enough signatures to put the measure on the November general election ballot.
Half the funds would go to new public transit projects, like a rail connection to the airport and moving the train tracks to L-A off the collapsing Del Mar Bluffs.
27-percent of the funds would go to highway maintenance and safety projects.
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Fallbrook residents are starting to see cheaper water rates.
That’s because the Fallbrook water District has fully detached from the San Diego County Water Authority.
It’s now buying cheaper water from Riverside County.
The Fallbrook and Rainbow water districts started a detachment process four years ago.
Jack Bebee is the general manager of the Fallbrook water District.
“For us, the key coming out of this was really to be able to do something to lower and then stabilize rates going forward. That’s what this is really about.”
The water authority filed a lawsuit in August to challenge the detachment… but that lawsuit was settled late last month.
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San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria will deliver the State of the City address Wednesday evening at the Balboa Theatre in downtown.
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, he plans to summarize accomplishments, announce new initiatives and evaluate the city’s progress.
You can watch it live on the city’s website, san-diego-dot-gov.
It starts at 6 P-M.
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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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County supervisor Jim Desmond incorrectly said taxpayer funds were going to migrants in Jacumba.
He later corrected the mistake.
But activists told border reporter Gustavo Solis, that such misinformation is dangerous.
These advocates are angry. And they were at the county administration building to confront Jim Desmond. “Shame, Shame on Jim Desmond. And shame on the board of supervisors.” Desmond is one of two Republicans on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. He’s an outspoken critic of state and federal immigration policy. Most recently, he took a tour of the open air camp in Jacumba that is temporarily housing asylum seekers and other migrants. Then, on Wednesday, Desmond posted a tweet stating, incorrectly, that San Diego County taxpayer funds are paying for tents, food and water for migrants at the Jacumba camp. These advocates know it’s not true. And they have the receipts to prove it. “Milk, ice, gas, I mean think about everything in your kitchen we have to do that in the wilderness. We have ice and coolers, a tablecloth.” Mia Garcia is a member of the Free Stuff Collective. A mutual aid group. “Here we have powered for infants because there are babies. We have lactide and milk formula. I’ve seen a woman who was unable to produce breastmilk because she was so malnourished.” The Free Stuff Collective is just one of several mutual aid organizations helping migrants in the open-air camps in Jacumba and San Ysidro. They’ve documented horrible conditions – mothers sleeping outdoors in freezing temperatures, fathers separated from their children, diabetics with no medicine. None of these groups have received public funds for this humanitarian work. Not from the federal government and not from San Diego County. This is not Desmond’s first time in the spotlight on immigration issues. He’s become a semi-regular on Fox News. And it’s not the first time he’s been called out for his rhetoric. In October , he said the border should be closed to prevent Hamas fighters from entering the United States … something Middle East experts called quote completely unhinged. However, to his credit, Desmond is the only County Supervisor who has taken the time to visit the open-air migrant encampments. In one video, he blasted the federal government’s handling of the situation. This is a broken immigration system, this is a terrible way to treat our fellow humans. Having them come in and live in camps like this is pathetic. But regardless of his intentions, the advocates say Desmond’s post puts people at risk. Amanda is one of the main organizers. She doesn’t use her last name publicly because she’s afraid of attacks from anti-immigration activists.“We’ve had aggressive encounters already with people that don’t agree with what we’re doing or how the migrants are choosing to come across the border.” Desmond didn’t respond to a request for comment from KPBS. And wasn’t in his office when the advocates showed up on Thursday. But his communications director – Miles Himmel – was. He took the blame for the mistake in Desmond’s tweet. “You know what, let me just say that’s my fault. I wrote the caption.” Activists told him that because immigration is such a divisive topic … spreading this kind of misinformation could put people in danger. “We’ve had people get hate messages. Because there are people that feel differently about this.” Himmel promised to issue a correction – which he did late that day – and offered words of encouragement to the humanitarian workers.“One thing that Jim has said throughout is he appreciates what you guys are doing it because no one else is doing it. CAN WE GET SOME FUNDING THEN. Well he’s not the only one in charge of the funding.” The original tweet, which got nearly 200,000 views, is still up. As of Friday morning, the correction had just over 30,000 views. Gustavo Solis, KPBS News.
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New statewide data confirms widespread racial disparities in law enforcement stops.
Reporter Katie Hyson has more on the unprecedented report.
The state’s 2024 racial and identity profiling act report, or RIPA, is massive in scale. It looks at millions of stops from hundreds of law enforcement agencies across California. The results support what many have voiced for a long time – that Black and brown Californians are stopped at higher rates than white Californians – even though officers are less likely to find anything illegal on them. San Diegan Andrea Guerrero co-chairs the state RIPA board. It's time to move past the question of whether it exists . . . And now it's time to answer the question of what we do about it. The problem extends to schools, where there are more law enforcement officers than there are nurses or counselors. The board’s top recommendation is to end pretextual stops – when you stop someone for one thing and then ask them about something else. San Francisco and Los Angeles police departments and California Highway Patrol have already ended pretextual stops. San Diego has yet to follow suit. Katie Hyson, KPBS News.
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San Diego researchers say old military munitions litter the ocean floor where chemical companies dumped massive amounts of D-D-T west of L-A.
Environment reporter Erik Anderson says new surveys are revealing more about the basin.
Oceanographers investigated the DDT dump site in the San Pedro basin in an effort to better understand the risk to the environment and people. Records indicate the DDT dumped there was released in large quantities, but most was likely released from barges directly into the water. Researcher Brice Semmens says, even so, the contamination persists. Brice Semmens, California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigation “There’s pretty clear evidence from preliminary findings to suggest that DDT is pervasive in these deep ocean sites we’re surveying. But the details of that are important. It looks as if the highest abundance of DDT is subsurface in the sediments by and large.” Many of the acoustic signatures first thought to be barrels of DDT may in fact be military munitions. The Navy is considering what to do about the find. Erik Anderson KPBS News.
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Coming up.... Some San Diego churches are addressing the affordable housing crisis. We’ll have that story and more, just after the break.
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Churches in San Diego are getting into the affordable housing business.
Metro reporter Andrew Bowen says the "Yes in God's Backyard" movement expects to complete its first project this year.
HV: The grading has already been completed. We have started the concrete pour. AB: Pastor Harvey Vaughn is walking me through the construction site of Bethel One, a 26-unit affordable housing complex that's under construction in Logan Heights. Vaughn is the senior pastor at Bethel AME San Diego. About five years ago, he was approached by a new organization called Yes in God's Backyard, or YIGBY. It was looking for churches interested in helping out with San Diego's affordable housing crisis. Vaughn and his congregation were an enthusiastic yes. HV: I think we should be applying the Gospel, to the situation. When I was hungry, did you feed me? When I was homeless, did you house me? I really believe that churches have a tremendous responsibility to not just our congregation, but to the community in which our church is located. AB: Evan Gerber is the project's consultant. He says the project is funded entirely by private donations and loans. EG: Government tax credits and public programs are a great tool to build affordable housing. The challenge with it is you really have to build a lot of units to really make it make sense. There's also a lot of soft costs and additional fees that go into using public subsidy. AB: The savings from avoiding government subsidies has meant the cost per unit is less than half of a typical affordable housing project. Bethel One is expected to be move-in ready by the end of this year. Andrew Bowen, KPBS news.
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Three groups challenging California's recently adopted solar rules are going back to court in an effort to roll back the regulations.
Environment reporter Erik Anderson says, the challenge argues the court based its decision on incorrect information.
The Center for Biological Diversity, the Environmental working Group and San Diego’s Protect Our Communities Foundation are asking the court to look again. A three-judge panel of the first district court of appeal in San Francisco rejected the challenge last month. Attorney Roger Lin says the court largely deferred to the rules made by the California Public Utilities Commission.“The same three justices to reconsider their decision given the, given what we have identified as a pretty significant error. Legal error and also the factual errors.” The legal error involves whether the C-P-U-C has to consider all of the costs and benefits of rooftop solar, or just some. Petitioners say the case requires regulators to consider all. The factual errors involve how regulators determined the value of solar. Erik Anderson KPBS News.
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Southern California artist Alexis Smith died last week at the age of 74.
In the San Diego region, she's best known for one of the most recognizable works of art at UC-SD: “The Snake Path.”
Arts producer and editor Julia Dixon Evans has more about this trailblazing artist.
Alexis Smith was known for witty collage style works — sometimes at massive scale. But her best-known work locally might just be… a footpath. Her "Snake Path" winds up a hillside towards UC San Diego's iconic Geisel Library. Completed in 1992, it's a 560-foot-long mosaic rendering of a serpent, drawing on themes of paradise, innocence and knowledge. Mathieu Gregoire has worked with UC San Diego's Stuart Art Collection since the 1980s. "This was the first work in the Stuart collection that was completely embedded in not just the physical landscape but also the functional landscape, because it's a pathway" On UCTV over a decade ago, Smith said there's one crucial difference between public art and museum art. "When you put something in a museum or gallery, the audience is the people who know that it's there and choose to go see it. And when you put something out in the world you get everybody." In 2021, Smith became the only artist to have two works in the Stuart Art Collection. JDE/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 me again, tomorrow, for the day’s top stories. I’m Debbie Cruz. Thanks for listening and have a great Monday.
