Tourism hits record high in San Diego
Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Tuesday, November 12th.>>>>
A new California law caps overdraft fees at credit unions.More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….#######
California voters rejected a ballot measure that would have changed the state constitution to ban forced prison labor.
The constitution already prohibits involuntary servitude.
But an exception lets it be used as punishment for crime.
Prisoners are often paid less than one dollar an hour for work like fighting fires, cleaning cells and landscaping cemeteries.
The failed measure was part of a package of reparations proposals.
It was meant to help repair a history of discrimination against Black Californians.
And end what some reform advocates call modern-day slavery.
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Tourism hit a record high in San Diego.
32 million tourists visited San Diego during the previous fiscal year that ended in June.
That’s up 2 million from the previous year.
And they’re staying longer and spending more.
Kerri Kapich is with the San Diego Tourism Authority.
"And once you put that through the total economy of San Diego, it’s 22 billion of total economic impact. Those are the highest numbers that we have ever seen.”
Kapich expects international visitors could increase this year as visa wait times come down.
Possibly making 20-25 another banner year for San Diego tourism.
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The San Diego City Council will hear an appeal today (Tuesday) against a proposed housing development in Encanto.
The development proposes building 25 houses in an area typically zoned for 12.
But a footnote in city code lets developers build much more densely.
Only in formerly redlined areas in Southeast San Diego, that remain mostly Black and Latino, and low-income.
Community members call the footnote discriminatory.
They are asking the council to halt all projects that rely on the footnote, including this one.
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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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Many credit unions in California rely on overdraft fees as a source of revenue.
Scott Rodd reports state lawmakers took notice, and passed a new law to protect customers.
Credit unions chartered in California collected more than a quarter-billion dollars in overdraft fees last year. Susan Weinstock…CEO of the Consumer Federation of America…says these fees can be devastating. “Too often, overdraft fees can push people out of the banking system. We want people to stay in the banking system, we know ultimately that’s better for financial empowerment and financial inclusion.” Now, state lawmakers are putting up guardrails. Starting in January, California-based credit unions must notify customers every time they receive an overdraft fee. In 2026, those fees will be limited to $14 or less. Many credit unions currently charge upwards of $25. State lawmakers cited KPBS’s reporting on overdraft fees when voting on the new law. KPBS found some credit unions easily could have lost money in past years without revenue from overdrafts.
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Many veterans face unique financial challenges that come with the sacrifice of serving in the military.
Tony Teravainen is the CEO and co-founder of Support the Enlisted Project -- or STEP -- a nonprofit dedicated to helping military families and veterans improve their finances.
He sat down with Midday Edition producer Andrew Bracken as the nation commemorated Veterans Day.
So what are some of the unique challenges that military families and veterans are facing today? That's a great question. And I think we need to kind of start before they join the military. And what we see really in America, the culture is, you know, most of America has poor financial habits, right. So three out of five Americans spend their entire paycheck or more each month. Half of all Americans have less than $400 for an unplanned emergency. And these are the financial habits that America's children gain, you know, from their parents or whoever's raising them. And those behaviors are institutionalized inside them before they even turn 10 years old. And really from 10 to 14, they learn how to operationalize that. And that's what America is. And what happens is, you know, every year, 150 to 200,000 of those people join the military. And then what do we do to them? Right. The first thing we do is rip them out of their home environment that would have kept them solvent and, you know, away from their aunts, uncles and friends. We're going to move them around the country every two or three years. That's going to put the spouse in a 50% unemployment or underemployment rate. So that'll lock them into that low income wage that most all our young service members earn. And then we're going to deploy one, deploy that service member a third of the time. So you're going to be going back between one and two parent households. If you started with two parents, every day that service member is going to work in the nation's third most deadly occupation. So for the last 40 years, more service members have died from work related accidents than any other cause. And then really, if that's not enough, they're going to tie their performance evaluation and their security clearance to their ability to manage money. So you're taking somebody with average financial habits, which are kind of poor, and you're put in a situation with higher family stress, higher financial stress and higher work stress and then holding them to really a higher bar. And even in the kind of military recruitment process that can kind of exploit some of those financial difficulties. Right. I mean, I think our colleague KPBS Scott Rod featured some reporting on some predatory sort of credit, aggressive credit tactics for military members. Can you talk about that? I mean, as you mentioned, these are young people, Right. They're young folks. Yeah. And they don't have, they don't have the years of history and experience that they have. There's a lot of folks out there that know that the military people get paychecks every two weeks. And it comes, you know, rain or shine. California and San Diego specifically have done a pretty good job at really curbing that. There's been a little bit of that coming back. And a lot of times what you see too is, you know, that military population, they have their own wants and desires. You know, even our single service members that live on base, you know, they're giving up this part of their life and they're living at work, they're being consumed by their jobs, they're deploying overseas, they're doing just a lot of hard work. And, you know, it's easy to judge why they're going to spend their money and buy a Dodge Charger, let's say, is often the thing. And it's like, well, you know, it's like he just, he's doing all this because he wants to have a nice car. He wants to have something nice that he can go enjoy other than sitting and staring at his barracks room's walls. And, you know, maybe it's not the smartest decision. So this comes back to the behavior piece and this is really what we created. Step four. We wanted to help these families that get into a financial crisis, these transitioning veterans to get into financial crisis. And we want to do it in a way that makes this their last crisis. You're also helping families meet their basic needs, right? Can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah. So our core program is this emergency financial assistance program. A family facing repossession, disconnection, eviction. You know, let's get them, let's help them through this crisis in a way that makes this their last crisis. But to begin that conversation, they have to know about us and they have to come to us and ask for help because they're really going to be driving the bus during that process. We're not going to push them, we're not going to pull them. They don't sign a contract, they don't have to keep coming back to us. This is all their desire. They have to say, I want to change, I want your help. So with all that said, how can the community support veterans and how can veterans themselves reach out? Well, everybody can go to our website, teamstepusa.org and in the top right corner it says, apply for services, volunteer your time or donate.
That was Tony Teravainen with Support the Enlisted Project speaking with producer Andrew Bracken.
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Hundreds of veterans and North County residents came together in Escondido to celebrate Veterans Day.
Reporter Jacob Aere says the celebration brought the community together with a parade, a ceremony and a tribute to sacrifice.
Patriotism, honor … and fun … were front and center at Escondido’s fifth annual VetFest Parade. There were classic cars, horses, military and emergency vehicles … with the main focus being active duty service members and veterans themselves – like Gina Burke, who served in Vietnam. “I suffered when I was there, suffered a lot. And when I came home, suffered more because they didn't accept us. So being around other veterans that have experienced what I have, it made me feel better.” Service members of all eras were in attendance. After the parade… the event transitioned to a military ceremony at the Wall of Courage in Escondido’s Grape Day Park. Escondido VetFest continued into the afternoon with a party at the local American Legion.
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A new production of Charles Busch’s 2003 dark comedy ‘Die Mommie Die’ opened over the weekend.
Arts reporter Beth Accomando says you have three more chances to enjoy this campy classic.
Psycho biddies, hagsploitation, grand dame guignol… not exactly politically correct terms but they did describe a subgenre of horror in the 60s and 70s where aging stars like Bette Davis chewed scenery with ravenous gusto. CLIP Now sit down. It was precisely these films that playwright Charles Busch drew on for his campy melodrama Die Mommie Die. CLIP Maniacal laugh. Joey Kirkpatrick plays aging star Angela Arden in a new production of Die Mommie Die from Michael Mizerany. JOEY KIRKPATRICK a lot of these psycho biddies and these old kind of B-horror films are very special to the queer community partially because it had strong female leads that were kind of stepping outside of the box of what society expects of women being really strong characters who know what they want, even if it's murder. Murder, deceit, betrayal, ambition, twins, plot twists… Die Mommie Die has it all and Kirkpatrick gives it his all. CLIP This time it’s for me. This guest production of Die Mommie Die at Diversionary’s Black Box Theatre has one final weekend of over the top performances. 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. Tune in tomorrow for more of the day’s top stories. I’m Debbie Cruz. Thanks for listening and have a great Tuesday.
