Title 42 preparations
Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Tuesday, May 9th.
Local leaders are asking for help, ahead of the end of Title 42.
More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….
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Two new safe sleeping sites will open in the city of San Diego later this year.
The sites will be a place for people living on the streets to set up tents.
They will have security, bathrooms, provide meals, and connect people to resources.
The first site is expected to open in July and the second site this fall.
Councilmember Stephen Whitburn says the safe sleeping sites are a critical addition to the ordinance he proposed that would prohibit people from setting up encampments in certain areas and on all public property, if shelter beds are available.
A city council committee forwarded that ordinance to the full council with no recommendation.
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Eastbound 78 is back open, after more than a month of closures.
It was closed for emergency repairs after a sinkhole formed during this winter’s storms.
But Caltrans says work will continue on the 78 between the 5 and 15.
Everett Townsend is Caltrans’s chief deputy director for maintenance and operations for San Diego and Imperial counties.
“This project will not only help ensure that the roadway is protected from drainage impacts but will also improve roadway quality, function and service life.”
He says any closures will happen overnight, to avoid affecting people’s daytime commutes.
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KUSI-T-V is being sold for 35 million to Nexstar Media Group.
The independent T-V station has operated in San Diego for over 40 years.
Nexstar owns the C-W Network and Fox-5 San Diego.
The deal could open the door for K-U-S-I to become a C-W affiliate station.
The acquisition still needs to go through regulatory approvals, but Nexstar officials expect the deal to close later this 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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Title 42 is coming to an end on Thursday.
Reporter Kitty Alvarado spoke with local leaders to find out if they’re ready for the influx of migrants.
Right now county is not prepared financially or otherwise to endure having 1000 people street released every day. That’s San Diego County District 2 Supervisor Joel Anderson We have estimates that say maybe we get 100 people a day being street leased and then we have others that say it could be as much as 1000 or 10,000. So we don't know … But if FEMA was here, I'd rather be over prepared than underprepared and let’s do an outstanding job Vino Pajanor the CEO of Catholic Charities of San Diego and Imperial Counties … he says his organization is just one NGO that is helping. But, He says they too have been left guessing about how the process will work. They’rere asking the federal government to help control the flow of people if there is a surge and they are not able to hold them to ensure that we create whether it is a county or city, there are temporary overflow locations instead of people being on the streets, Customs and Border Protection did not respond to our requests for comment. Kitty Alvarado, KPBS News.
TAG: Anderson has since learned San Diego County expects to receive 33-million-dollars in federal funding… but he says they still need FEMA’s support to help process migrants.
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What would happen if there was no childcare?
Likely total economic upheaval.
Reporter Tania Thorne says that’s the point childcare providers and parents wanted to make yesterday at an event called “A Day Without Childcare.”
In San Diego, members from the Child Care Providers Union organized the event. They say childcare providers should get better pay. . Rosa Estrada, has been a childcare provider for 18 years …ROSA ESTRADA CHILDCARE PROVIDER Even though we don’t get benefits like retirement… or vacation time… we've been there providing this service. She says that even though she doesn't get benefits like retirement or vacation time, she’s been there to help families. The income we get is…. Ridiculous. She says the income they get is ridiculous. Childcare workers hope their voices can be heard to pave way for legislation that supports affordable care and quality jobs for care workers. TT KPBS News.
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For generations, their fur was worn on collars and coats, and they’ve been portrayed as sly, conniving, wily characters in popular culture.
But, as my colleague Maya Trabulsi reports, a rescue sanctuary in Santa Ysabel wants to show the world that foxes, although mischievous, have so much more to share, including their potentially life-saving skills.
“The stillness on this hilltop in Santa Isabel doesn't last long, as the sounds of woodland creatures provide nature's concert. Their home is the Judith a Bassett Canid center, and the work being done here could be groundbreaking. Dog trainer Anita Cheeseman is not working with dogs today. “This is Dimitri” She's training foxes to do nose work detecting specific odors inside plastic boxes. “He made a uturn because he smelled the odor and now he found it and he looks to me for his reward.” Cheeseman lives up to her name and provides a morsel of cheese with each positive odor detection, these foxes have a unique talent that could one day save lives. “Good boy.”These are no ordinary foxes.“Sit” These are Russian domesticated foxes.“Good job…pretty good” Amy and Dave Bassett, who own and run this conservation center, care for 14 of them brought over from Russia ten years ago. “At that point, no one had ever brought one to the United States.” The foxes were part of what is called the Russian Domesticated Fox program, started by Soviet scientist Dmitry Belayov in the 1950s, his goal was to recreate the evolution of wolf to domesticated pet dog, a process that took thousands of years. But with foxes he wanted to do it in a matter of decades, the foxes evolved to behave more like dogs. “They'd breed only the most friendly ones found. After about ten generations or so, they actually were getting more friendly. The foxes were excited to see people. They'd come up and wag their tails.” Unlike a wild or fur farm bred fox, these domesticated foxes are not timid and resemble the behavior of human loving dogs. They're happy to see us and even enjoy being held, kissed and treated like babies. So why is this type of nose detection work so important to the Bassets? The answer lies in the unique way foxes hunt. “Their hearing is very well attuned to hearing the types of frequencies of things under the snow.” And while their noses are highly sensitive and their hearing extraordinary, it's something else that seemingly sets them apart as hunters. It's called magneto reception, a trait whereby they can see the magnetic field of the earth and align their bodies for precision. “So we said, well, that works perfect for avalanche rescue because someone's stuck under the snow, they're kind of moving around and that's what they're designed to detect that.” “We can train them to do search and rescue work, to do avalanche rescue, boy, would people see them in a different light.” The Bassets say too many people see foxes as animals to be killed for their fur or for sport. They want foxes to be seen as creatures with a positive purpose. You can call it fox PR. “If we actually had them seen as saviors and going into like, you can imagine an earthquake and somebody comes down off of the helicopter with their six foxes all strapped around them and showing people their skill set and finding things underneath the ground, it would really give people a different perspective of them.” But first, there are biological and geopolitical challenges. The Russian program was partially funded by the NIH, but since the invasion of Ukraine, those ties have been cut. This means, at least for now, no more foxes can be imported into the United States. “If they go extinct there. They’re extinct.” The Bassets say the foxes are also considered a source of pride and their genetics intellectual property of the Russian government. So each one is sterilized to discourage any breeding outside of the Russian program. But even through generations of domestication, one little genetic hurdle remains. “Bad girl” “No, you're not going to do that.” “No, no he can't bite that one.” The fox's curious and mischievous nature stands true. “Yes, I know guys you've never eaten before in your life.” And since they don't have the same recall as dogs, the Bassets say releasing them to rescue people at this point is a dicey proposition. “Yeah, they may run and find your people, but then they're going to go, okay, well, now we're going to go look for some mice.” The key, he says, is to train them as young pups. But it remains to be seen if the Bassets will get access to pups anytime soon. Even so, they're holding out hope that we could one day see these animals saving human lives. “When people say you can't teach a fox to do search rescues, we say, just watch us.” Maya. Trebolsi. “Good girl.” KPBS news. “There you go.”
TAG: And the Bassetts added that owning a pet fox is illegal in most states, including in California.
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Coming up.... Our KPBS metro reporter joins me to talk about his new podcast, Freeway Exit. We’ll have that and more, just after the break.
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KPBS News is out with a new podcast today.
Let’s take a listen to the trailer for Freeway Exit:
FREEWAYEXITTRAILER
And joining me to talk about it, is creator and host Andrew Bowen, who is also the metro reporter here at KPBS. Welcome Andrew.
How did you come up with the idea for the podcast?
Having done a good amount of reporting on transportation issues previously, was there anything that you were surprised to learn?
What do you hope listeners take away from the podcast?
Where can people listen to the podcast?
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Tonight, Digital Gym Cinema kicks off Science on Screen… a series of four films that will each be paired with a guest speaker.
Film critic Beth Accomando previews the series.
Science on Screen uses imagined futures to explore a current range of issues from race to A.I. First up is Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men. It depicts normalized violence to people of color and undocumented migrants. Refugee Studies Researcher Şevin Sağnıç says the movie is no longer futuristic sci-fi. ŞEVIN SAĞNIÇ One thing that I'm really hoping to achieve is making people notice that such a dark, dystopian future is actually the reality for millions of people. And it make us empathize more and maybe look deep down in ourselves to understand what brings hope to us. Next week’s film Teknolust stars Tilda Swinton as a scientist who clones herself. Max Schaffer is in UCSD’ Integrative studies program where he combines music technology and gender research. They see the film raising questions about genetic engineering. MAX SCHAFFER Concepts like can you patent life? Can you patent a genome? Can you have sort of these birthed children by accident out of sort of AI technologies, out of genome technologies that maybe achieve a level of humanity that makes you kind of wonder if you're even allowed to parent it or allowed to control it or whatever. Expect these questions and more at Science on Screen at Digital Gym Cinema in East Village every Tuesday in May. Beth Accomando, 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. I’m Debbie Cruz. Thanks for listening and have a great Tuesday.
