What you need to know about Tuesday’s special election
Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Monday April 7th.
Tomorrow is Election Day for District 1 county supervisor. More on that next. But first... the headlines….
Officials are warning seafood lovers to avoid San Diego County shellfish that isn't from a state-certified commercial harvester or dealer.
Dangerous levels of domoic acid have been detected in locally harvested mussels. The toxin is produced by harmful algal blooms. It can cause illness or death.
Recently SeaWorld San Diego has seen an increase of marine life poisoned by domoic acid.
Tomorrow the San Diego County Board of Supervisors will consider a proposal to expand its Immigrant Legal Defense Program to help more people.
The program provides legal counsel for immigrants in danger of being deported.
Right now the program represents only those in detention. Supervisor Terra Lawson Remer says she wants to direct the Office of the Public Defender to represent non-detained individuals.
She also wants to implement a sliding scale fee structure.
so if you have uh you know the wealth and the resources to pay for an attorney great you know you you can go ahead and pay for an attorney but that our program is really targeted at those who don't have those resources who can't afford an attorney and we make sure that we're targeting um our our dollars to where the need is the most acute
The third change would be to reject cases that have no chance of prevailing. For example, people convicted of murder or drug trafficking.
The City of San Diego gave its website that tracks infrastructure projects a makeover. Officials say it’ll make it easier for users to find details about projects in the city.
There’s a few new dashboards … one where users can search for all active capital improvement projects or CIPs … another lets users look up CIPs located near a particular address … and the final one shows the City’s street resurfacing information for the current fiscal year.
There’s currently 1300 active projects.
From KPBS, you’re listening to San Diego News Now. Stay with me for more of the local news you need.
TOMORROW IS ELECTION DAY TO FILL THE COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS DISTRICT 1 SEAT. REPORTER JOHN CARROLL HAS THE DETAILS LAST-MINUTE VOTERS NEED TO KNOW.
THE DISTRICT 1 SEAT BECAME VACANT WHEN FORMER SUPERVISOR NORA VARGAS DECIDED NOT TO SERVE A SECOND TERM. VOTE BY MAIL BALLOTS WENT OUT ABOUT A MONTH AGO. 29-BALLOT DROP BOXES THROUGHOUT DISTRICT 1 ARE AVAILABLE, AS ARE SEVEN VOTE CENTERS SPREAD AROUND THE DISTRICT. TOMORROW, 13-VOTE CENTERS WILL BE OPEN FROM SEVEN AM UNTIL 8PM. IF NO ONE GETS MORE THAN 50-PERCENT OF THE VOTE, THE TOP TWO VOTE-GETTERS WILL MOVE ON TO THE GENERAL ELECTION… ON JULY FIRST. IF YOU’RE UNSURE WHETHER YOU LIVE IN DISTRICT 1, JUST CHECK OUT OUR VOTER HUB AT KPBS DOT ORG SLASH VOTER HUB. GENERALLY, IT SPANS AN AREA FROM THE OCEAN ON THE WEST, THE OTAY AND SAN MIGUEL MOUNTAINS IN THE EAST, BARRIO LOGAN TO THE NORTH, DOWN TO THE SOUTHERN BORDER. THE WINNER WILL SERVE THE REMAINDER OF THE TERM, WHICH ENDS IN JANUARY OF 2029. THOUGH THE RACE IS OFFICIALLY NON-PARTISAN, THE OUTCOME WILL DETERMINE WHETHER THE BOARD IS CONTROLLED BY REPUBLICANS OR DEMOCRATS. John Carroll, KPBS NEWS.
THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LAST MONTH CUT FUNDING TO LEGAL AID ORGANIZATIONS WHO REPRESENT UNACCOMPANIED MIGRANT CHILDREN IN DEPORTATION HEARINGS. REPORTER GUSTAVO SOLIS SAYS THE ORGANIZATIONS ARE NOW SUING TO RESTORE THE FUNDING.
The Trump administration’s cuts to legal aid for unaccompanied minors would have far-reaching impacts. “We represent over 160 children below the age of six under this funding… Mickey Donovan-Kaloust is director of legal services for the Immigrant Defenders Law Center. She says that without lawyers, those children would have to represent themselves. It’s simply not possible for children that age to try to navigate that system alone. It makes a mockery of the idea of due process.” Donovan-Kaloust says more than 26,000 children are facing deportation nationwide. They include extremely vulnerable cases. “We work with child victims of forced labor and sexual trafficking in their home countries. Children who have faced death threats, persecution because of their LGBT identity, victims of child abuse.” Legal aid organizations impacted by the cuts are suing the Trump administration. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order requiring the administration to restore funding while the lawsuit plays out. Donovan-Kaloust called it a legal victory. But as of Friday, that funding still had not been released. Gustavo Solis, KPBS News
THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION CUTS TO HEALTH CARE PROGRAMS HAVE HIT SAN DIEGO COUNTY. REPORTER THOMAS FUDGE SAYS 40 MILLION DOLLARS IN FUNDING TO SAN DIEGO HAS BEEN REVOKED..
The federal grants that have been rescinded were going to come from the Centers for Disease Control. And they were going to help pay for a 93 million dollar health center, under construction in Kearny Mesa. County supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer says she thinks the Trump revocations will undermine the CDC and give the impression that government doesn’t work. “And this is money that has already been promised to us. Some of it we’ve already spent. Some of it we’re planning on spending around some of the most important disease control efforts that we’re doing in San Diego County.” County officials say the CDC grants were for things like laboratory capacity and vaccines for children. Local services that could be affected include administration of flu, COVID and hepatitis A vaccinations. California and more than 20 other states have sued to stop Donald Trump’s health care funding cuts and for now, it looks like they have. The California Attorney general’s office says a Rhode Island judge has granted them a temporary restraining order. But Lawson-Remer points out Trump has been known for disregarding court orders. Thomas Fudge, KPBS news.
FOR MORE THAN 100-YEARS, IT STOOD IN DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO - TELLING PASSERS-BY THE CORRECT TIME OF DAY. BUT IN 2018, THE ICONIC JESSOP’S CLOCK WAS PUT INTO STORAGE. Here’s REPORTER JOHN CARROLL again. He TELLS US ABOUT AN EFFORT TO PUT THE CLOCK BACK INTO SERVICE… IN A NEW PLACE.
The year was 1907… Joseph Jessop had relocated his family from England to San Diego. He opened a jewelry store downtown on 5th street... what is now the Alma Hotel. He built a 22-foot clock and put it out in front to advertise his new store. There it stood for almost the next 80 years. In 1985, Jessop’s Jewelers and the clock moved… to the then brand new Horton Plaza. It stayed there until 2018, when after being vandalized for a third time… Joseph Jessop’s grandson Jim Jessop decided to remove it. The clock was packed up and moved to the San Diego History Center. “The History Center is the perfect location for it.” Jim Jessop opened the case the top of the clock has been in, exclusively for KPBS… It’s the first time the case has been opened since 2018. It is still in very good condition… the glass face with roman numerals painted in black enamel. And… something you might not know, the clock is not really a clock, per se. “The Jessop Clock is made like a giant pocket watch.” That’s because Joseph Jessop was first and foremost a maker of pocket watches. “There is no other clock in the world like the Jessop Clock. He made it the way he knew how to make it. He estimated all the gear ratios that would turn the 22 hands in the clock, and it kept good time for 100 years.” The clock is a marvel of engineering. One day, Jim Jessop was talking to a clockmaker… and he asked how, in the days before even slide rules, much less digital technology - how his great grandfather did it. “And the clockmaker shrugged and said, I just don’t know. But it took some real magic for him to be able to put this whole clock together.” In addition to San Diego… the clock showed the time for 12 other great cities of the world. Places like New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Mexico City - Calcutta… and when it came to Calcutta, the elder Jessop had to get creative… the introduction of daylight saving time years later meant a bit of extra magic was needed for the clock’s movement. “When you go to daylight saving(s) time, we move one hour. Calcutta would move one half hour, so he built all of those ratios into the settings of the clock, the hands on this dial, so it would adjust half an hour for Calcutta.” Many San Diegans will remember in the center of the clock are the words “correct time.” And Jessop says there’s a funny story about that which involves the Santa Fe Depot… just a few blocks away. “My great uncle Joe Jessop was talking to a fellow that ran the train, the train station several blocks from the store. And he said, you know, when the train whistle blows, we set the clock. And the guy laughed and he said, well you know, we come by the clock and set the train whistle, so you know, there were two ways to tell time in downtown San Diego and the Jessop Clock was only one of them.” So many stories, so much history - but now Jim Jessop has his sights set on the clock’s future. The family, in coordination with the History Center, is in the process of raising money… to restore the clock and to bring it to a final, fitting place. They need two million dollars to do that and to place it in what will be a redesigned History Center gallery. Then, they need two million more to endow the clock. “So that it will be taken care of forever. So when San Diegans come to see the clock, they will be seeing something that is just like it was on the streets of San Diego and they’ll be seeing it forevermore.” Jessop says they want that all to happen by 2028, a time when the clock will begin its final chapter - when all of us can enjoy it for time immemorial. JC, KPBS News.
IF YOU’D LIKE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE CLOCK FUND, GO TO SAN DIEGO HISTORY CENTER DOT ORG - CLICK ON “SUPPORT” AND THERE YOU’LL SEE THE JESSOP CLOCK FOUNDATION.
That’s it for the podcast today. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. For your next listen, check out the KPBS Midday Edition podcast this afternoon. They’re talking about the impact of tariffs on San Diego and how local libraries and museums could be impacted by federal cuts. I’m Debbie Cruz. Thanks for listening and have a great day.
