Trump administration puts UCSD research in ‘stop and start chaos’
Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Monday, February 10th.
UC San Diego scientists are worried the Trump administration could stop their research
More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….
THE CITY OF SAN DIEGO IS CANCELLING PLANS FOR A 1,000-BED HOMELESS SHELTER. THE PROJECT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE LARGEST LONG-TERM SHELTER IN THE CITY.
A PROPOSED LEASE AGREEMENT FOR THE 65-THOUSAND SQUARE-FOOT WAREHOUSE SPACE CAME UNDER SCRUTINY FROM INDEPENDENT ANALYSTS LAST YEAR. KPBS PREVIOUSLY REPORTED THE CITY WAS POISED TO PAY ABOVE-MARKET RENT FOR THE PROPERTY.
FURTHER COMPLICATING THE DEAL IS THE CITY’S LOOMING BUDGET DEFICIT OF 258-MILLION DOLLARS IN THE UPCOMING FISCAL YEAR.
MAYOR TODD GLORIA IS ANNOUNCING ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS AT A CITY COUNCIL MEETING TODAY.
This week, you can get free blood pressure screenings thanks to the annual Love Your Heart event.
The initiative is run by organizations from both the US and Mexico with the goal of preventing heart disease.
Love Your Heart is setting up several locations on both sides of the border for free blood pressure checks. At these sites you can also get your at-home blood pressure cuff calibrated by a nurse.
Go to Live Well SD dot org to find the closest location to you.
The deadline for CalFresh participants to use EBT cards for hot, prepared foods has been extended to March 10th.
Recipients in certain counties — including San Diego — are getting this added benefit due to the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles.
To get hot food, you’ll have to visit participating retailers. Go to CalFresh dot org for a searchable map of places in your area.
From KPBS, you’re listening to San Diego News Now. Stay with me for more of the local news you need.
UC San Diego scientists say they’re in quote “stop and start chaos.” That’s after the Trump Administration’s back and forth on a federal funding freeze. Researchers told Public Matters reporter Amita Sharma that their work is now at risk if it contains language deemed problematic by the White House, including the word…women.
The National Science Foundation is scouring thousands of projects for dozens of words that cover research that violates President Trump’s executive orders. That includes the words women, disability, bias, status, trauma, Black, Hispanic communities as well as socioeconomic, ethnicity and systemic. UCSD public health scientist Rebecca Fielding-Miller calls the list Orwelian, and says it will hamper crucial research, such as the effect of abortion bans on women’s health. She adds ultimately, researchers will leave, or shift focus. “I guess a word that's not on here is men, and I guess a word that I don't see on here is white, so I guess we'll see what's going on with white men and what they need.” Dr. Natasha Martin, a professor in infectious disease and global public health at UCSD, says banning words seizes scientists’ ability to describe the world accurately. “The terms on these lists are essential scientific terms, and they are critical for both clinical care and public health. This is not a political issue.” Her own upcoming paper on the effects of fentanyl on HIV and Hepatitis C epidemics has been paused by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention because it contains the word gender. Amita Sharma, KPBS News.
IT'S BEEN TWO YEARS SINCE THE SAN DIEGO COUNTY SHERIFF TOOK OFFICE... LAST WEEK SHE PUT OUT A REPORT CARD ON WHAT'S HAPPENED IN THE DEPARTMENT ON HER WATCH.
REPORTER ALEXANDER NGUYEN HAS THE DETAILS.
Kelly Martinez says the jails are now safer and overdoses have decreased by 65 percent thanks to some new protocols she implemented. “We're doing more routine checks of individuals who are unable to care for themselves. We have a multidisciplinary team that now goes around and checks on every individual at the Central Jail once a week.” Martinez credits those protocols for reducing in-custody deaths last year. The department has been plagued with that issue for years. Yusef Miller with the North County Equity and Justice Coalition says the department shouldn’t get credit for it. “Kelly Martinez and the sheriff's department, they don't do anything that they're not forced to do by outside entities. For example, the class action suit against the county for Ada requirements. The sheriff’s department is currently being sued for the conditions of its jails … which have been described as “filthy” and “deplorable.” Martinez says fixing the problem is an ongoing effort because of aging infrastructure. AN/KPBS
THE SAN DIEGO POLICE DEPARTMENT IS MAKING CHANGES TO ITS VEHICLE PURSUIT POLICY IN RESPONSE TO RECOMMENDATIONS BY THE CITY’S COMMISSION ON POLICE PRACTICES.
REPORTER KATIE HYSON SAYS POLICE DENIED ONE CHANGE COMMISSIONERS SAY IS KEY TO SAVING LIVES.
SDPD agreed to make changes to how they track and report vehicle pursuits. And to explore creating a vehicle pursuit review board. But Chief Scott Wahl says he won’t limit their reasons for starting the pursuits. If you don't have a vehicle pursuit policy or if you had a very high threshold, whether it's felony or violent crime associated, then for the infractions and misdemeanors and everything in between, it'll be sending the wrong message that it's okay to flee. There's no consequences. The commission’s policy recommendation said SDPD shouldn’t start car chases for violations that don’t threaten public safety. Things like unarmed car theft, speeding or non-working headlights. Commission research found San Diego police start the majority of high-speed chases over low-level violations, including the one that ended in the death of 4-year-old Mason and 8-year-old Malikai Orozco-Romero in December of 20-23. At least three more people, including Officer Austin Machitar, died in SDPD vehicle pursuits while the commission reviewed the policy. Katie Hyson, KPBS News
SOLITUDE IS TRANSFORMING AMERICAN SOCIETY. PUBLIC MATTERS REPORTER AMITA SHARMA IS BACK WITH US TO DISCUSS THE RAMIFICATIONS OF ISOLATION ON DEMOCRACY.
Amita, give me the numbers showing Americans are actually spending more time alone? There are two aspects to this solitude issue. One is loneliness that’s unintentional. It’s been well reported that the Surgeon General declared loneliness an epidemic in 2023. One poll found that 30 percent of adults, from the ages of 18 to 34, are lonely everyday or several times a week. And mental health experts agree across the board that social connection is positive for our mental health.” Tell me about people just deciding they want more me time. Right, so the second type of solitude is by design. More people are choosing to be alone. Or, as a psychiatrist put it to me recently some people have gone from FOMO, the fear of missing out to JOMO, the joy of missing out. TikTok has all these videos of people celebrating when people cancel plans with them.(links above) Writer Derek Thompson, who published a piece on social isolation in the Atlantic last month, put some sobering stats on social isolation on X recently. He says school aged boys and girls socializing with friends outside of school has dropped 50 percent since the early 1990s. A woman who owns pets interacts more with the animals than face-to-face contact with her friends. And for every one hour men are with their friends, they spend seven hours watching tv. Local tech worker Eduardo Rosenfeld is 27 years old. He says he’d rather stay at home and socialize remotely…and he doesn’t think he’s isolating himself…he says his social interaction is pretty much how it’s done now. “I'll go to the gym, I'll come home and I'll hop on my PlayStation and I'll talk to 8 of my friends that are also online and I don't have to go drive 20 minutes to go sit at someone's house and hang out with them in person. 6:18 I can do that while playing a game and it's just a different world now.” But Rosenfeld has isolated himself from social media. He tells me he unplugged about 10 years ago. “I was in college in San Francisco studying and I would see my friends at San Diego State having a great time. Why, why am I not enjoying myself and having fun and it just became something that was like really difficult to deal with and manage and so I just deleted everything and felt so much better after.” What does all of this mean for democracy? Well, unlike Rosenfeld, some people who isolate themselves by choice…do get their dose of interaction with other people via social media. The problem is when those conversations veer into politics, the tone can get brutal. Political chats can devolve into toxicity and threats, which is really quite a far cry from the days when social media was anticipated to be a platform for deliberative democracy among citizens. And it’s the anonymity, the lack of face to face nature of social media that only intensifies the hostility. Yale historian Tim Snyder told me last month when people are alone, they look for “big, false communities” to join. He calls social media an incubator for the angry. “The sad thing is if you’re driven into artificial isolation by the machine, your politics become generic and predictable. Your politics are just about how you feel grievance, you're, you're the victim, you're always the victim. You can't really change anything. Therefore, you need a big strong man to come in and clean things up for you. And that's predictable and it's sad and it's also incredibly boring. He says the solution is for people/children to get out there and join sports teams, take art classes, go on field trips and ban smartphones in schools. And just to close the loop on the solitude issue. I spoke at great length with a 92-year-old San Diego woman named Delores Lukemet…who is painfully lonely…She says she can go days without seeing or speaking to anyone. She says she spends hours watching FOX News programming everyday. Her view of the world is that California and the rest of the country are in awful shape. And she has placed her faith in President Trump to fix both.
PUBLIC MATTERS REPORTER AMITA SHARMA. AMITA, THANK YOU.
NEARLY A THOUSAND TEACHERS AND OTHER STAFF IN THE SAN DIEGO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT PLAN TO RETIRE AT THE END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR. EDUCATION REPORTER KATIE ANASTAS SAYS THEY’RE TAKING UP THE DISTRICT ON AN OFFER MEANT TO HELP CLOSE ITS 112-MILLION-DOLLAR BUDGET GAP.
The district made eligible staff an offer: retire at the end of the year, and get 70% of your current salary over the course of several years. District leaders expected 755 staff to accept it. Instead, 969 did. The district says it’ll help them avoid a large number of layoffs. Enrollment is expected to drop by about 750 students next year. If that happens, enrollment will have dropped by nearly 12% in the last decade. Drew Rowlands is the district’s deputy superintendent of operations. We have an opportunity and need to take the opportunity to reshape our district and best align to our realities. The school board will hear another budget update in March and adopt a final, balanced budget in June. Katie Anastas, KPBS News.
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 day.
