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Roundtable: Jessica's Law Ruling, PUC Investigations, City Permit Process

Roundtable: Jessica's Law Ruling, CPUC Investigations
Roundtable: Jessica's Law Ruling, PUC Investigations, City Permit Process
Jessica's Law, PUC Investigations, City Development Permits HOST:Tom FudgeGUESTS:Dana Littlefield, U-T San Diego Jeff McDonald, U-T San Diego Andrew Keatts, Voice of San Diego

KPBS round table with your host Tom Fudge coming up next on KPBS. Thanks for Jameis today. KPBS supported by the Irving Group President Craig Irving's locally owned San Diego-based company commemorates 25 years of providing specialization a tenant representation helping San Diego businesses that the expansion, renewal and relocation needs. More information at the Irving Group .com. Support for MPR comes from constant contact committed to helping small businesses and nonprofits succeed with email and online marketing tools. With coaches to provide guidance and help organizations meet their goals. More@constantcontact.com. Said it was with the forecast high pressure here for the next couple of days warmer temperatures Saturday highs generally in the 70s and 80s. Overnight lows about normal upper 40s and the over 50s to expect around San Diego and the Imperial Valley. You are listening to KPBS for news matters Area prerace when our view on the 163 big construction truck and an accident on the left shoulder left behind some debris stay to the far right kind of a solo spin out type of thing it too on the right-hand side and we have a car broken down south 15 by the 52 struggling to get over the right shuttle state he or left. Report brought you by the Spring home and garden show. John Monty, for KPBS. Jessica's Law that to get tough on sex offenders but the state Supreme Court said preventing parolees from finding housing was going too far. The California Supreme Court ruled housing measures in Jessica's Law were so restrictive as to be unconstitutional. Today on the roundtable, we will look at the dramatic ruling that started with San Diego lawsuit. Also we will talk about the connections with utility companies that could lead to criminal charges against some members of the Public Utilities Commission and how hard is it really to get a permit to build in San Diego? That and we will bring you some of the best state and regional features stories from the past week. I am Tom Fudge in for Mark Sauer. Stay tuned for the roundtable first, this news. From NPR News in Washington . The Labor Department is saying the nations and up when the rate is down 5.5% the lowest it has been in nearly seven years hiring prove stronger than economists expected we have details on this . Employers added 290,000 jobs to payrolls last month much games in service sector are taken orally restaurants though businesses, professional services construction and help care also Chris is a low price of oil continues to pressure gas produces mining employment fell during the month. While the employment picture improves overall there is still a substantial number of people working part-time seeking more work or who have been out of work for a long time. There are still 2.7 million people who have been out of work for six months or more. NPR News, Washington. Job gains going strong seems to be fueling concerns the Fed may move towards higher interest rates and that's been reflected in sharp declines in US stocks in midday trading we see the Dow off 273 points, 1.5%, 17,866. NASDAQ off more than 1% at 4929. S&P 500 also down 1.3% at 2072. After 24 hours of debate the Wisconsin assembly has approved right to work legislation. Station UWM in Milwaukee, Latoya Dennis has the latest. Right to work laws prohibiting us from hiring nearly all employees to pay union dues. The legislation first introduced in Wisconsin two weeks ago and since then Democrats have argued the fast track bill would lower wages and cut benefits. Republicans point to numbers they say show workers in right to work states are better off. GOP member Dean Knutson says everyone should have a choice when it comes to union membership. It should also be their rights, the right at the individual to decide whether he wants to belong to decide whether he wants to have his money taken from him and given to the union . The right to work legislation expected to be signed into law by Gov. Scott Walker on Monday. For NPR News , Latoya Dennis and Milwaukee. President Obama says the pattern of racial discrimination found in Ferguson, Missouri goes far beyond the city's Police Department. He commented today for the first time since the Justice Department reported its investigation into Ferguson found systematic racial bias in unconstitutional police in targeting blacks. Obama speaking on the eve of his visit to Selma, Alabama which is commemorated the pivotal Selma to Montgomery marches 50 years ago. Soma is not just about commemorating the past, it is about honoring the legends who helped change this country through your actions today in the here and now. Obama speaking today at a Town Hall Meeting at the historically black that a college in South Carolina. This is NPR News. The California Spring Court strikes down the section of Jessica's law restricting were all paroled sex offenders may live. The man who engineered the deal to stick ratepayers fourth the bill in San Onofre is and how water along with other PUC commissioners and surprise, the city's process for getting development permits is getting easier. I'm Tom Fudge and the KPBS roundtable starts now. Joining me at the KPBS roundtable today are Dana Littlefield, criminal justice reporter for U-T San Diego, welcome . Hello. Jeff McDonald, watchdog reporter also for U-T San Diego, nice to have you back. Thank you for having me. Last but not least Andrew Keatts, land use reporter for Voice of San Diego. Good to see you again. How is it going, Tom. It is going okay we will start with Jessica's law. Now, Jessica's Law is named for Jessica Lunsford a young Florida girl who was sexually molested and murdered in 2005. California passed its version of Jessica's Law in 2006 and it is still on the books. But the state Supreme Court this week struck down part of the law as unconstitutional. It was the requirement that convicted sex offenders on parole cannot live within 2000 feet of a school, park or other place where children congregate. Dana, overall, what was Jessica's law designed to do? Well, basically it was designed to increase the penalties for people convicted of sex crimes. It also changed some definitions of a certain type type of sex offender. Specifically a sexually violent predator which is a distinction that is different from most of the sex offenders in California, actually less than 1% are actually given that designation and it also increased some of the penalties specifically for her but you sex offenders. There are a number of changes the law made. Okay but what of course the court was concerned about was these residency requirements. Tell us a little bit of background about the lawsuit that came before the Supreme Court? Well this had to do with this 2000-foot buffer zone that was created by Jessica's law. And that basically meant that anyone who is a parolee , sex offender parolee, who is required to register as a sex offender, would not be allowed to live within 2000 feet of thousand feet of a school, of a park, daycare, anything like that where children might be. This was fought specifically here in San Diego County by the Public defender's office. It was a San Diego lost the? Yes it was. That specific part of Jessica's law was challenged because basically the public defender's office was saying that there were so many parolees who were able to live anywhere and they were essentially being forced into homelessness. We will get to some of those details in just a little bit but first the ruling. Judge Marvin Baxter wrote the courts opinion was the ruling went to the court essentially tell us? Will the court essentially said that buffer zone is unconstitutional. That it doesn't violate some of the right these parolees do have however limited their rights might be. So essentially , they can't get to the very services they need and it doesn't fulfill the overall goal that Jessica's Law had, which was to make the public safer. I think you talked to Richard Gates of the San Diego Public defenders office. Why did his office object to the way state authorities were applying this rule? Will specifically the problem that they identified with this rule was that it was being applied in a blanket fashion. Essentially anyone who is a sex offender with probably required to register as a sex offender would not be able to live within this saves on this 2000-foot buffer zone and what the public defender's office was saying was that untenable, no one can find any place to live . They are being forced to live in vans and on the streets and by riverbeds and that sort of thing. So basically authorities weren't able to track them and this would be a problem. It also kept those offenders from being able to get to the services they need. Mental health, drug abuse and so forth. When you think about not being able to live within 2000 feet of a park or school or something like that it is kind of hard to picture how much of the actual city that would affect but I think they had some very interesting and I guess alarming figures coming out of the San Diego case. Yes actually this was actually included in the court documents when the case was still being handled on the trial court level. There was documentation of I think 90 something% of the rental properties available in San Diego County all fell within that 2000-foot buffer zone. Really? Yes. More than 90%? More than 90%. From amid the point in addition to that even if an apartment is available to you it doesn't mean you can afford to live there. Absolutely, guess. So there is only a certain amount of available rental property ; it is public knowledge that a sex offender is a sex offender. You can look that up online, so you have got to be able to find a place that will rent to you as well. So my understanding is that it was also study out of San Francisco that said it was 100 percent like no rentable locations. Definitely. In the city of San Francisco. So I wonder if there is going to be any sort of legislative fix to this? The notion of a buffer zone in general has been upheld by courts previously, so it is not that you can't impose some sort of restriction about where people could live, it is that this was so onerous it was untenable. So I wondered you expect to see something coming out of Sacramento that would basically patch the situation and give either a smaller buffer or some sort of appeals process, something along the lines that would allow people to find a place to live? I do know specifically about what legislative efforts would be taken in that regard but what I do know is that the ruling leaves room for the Department of Corrections, state Department of Corrections and rehabilitation to impose a buffer zone. It just can't be done on a blanket basis. It has to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis with the individual. So actually, the state Department of Corrections and rehabilitation can actually save for a particular offender that your buffer zone is more than the 2003. It. It can be more restrictive than what was outlined in Jessica's Law. And he keeps mid interesting point talking about San Francisco which is a more densely populated city than the San Diego. I mean there's got to be no place where you can live if you're a sex offender. But, lest we misunderstand, Dana, this ruling this ruling does not mean that you can't restrict for sex offender parolees live. Absolutely right. It does not mean that there are zero restrictions. Certainly there are. It is basically the means by which this restriction was being applied specifically in San Diego. It was being applied to everyone who was a sex offender, parolee required to register and the public defender's office said that is not there and it is not working. As we move forward what happens now? Does this just mean unless the Legislature acts in some way that every case is going to be viewed as a separate case by the judge in terms of restrictions on where you can live? Well, it means that the state has to now evaluate how it will apply these restrictions. Does the court have to evaluate every case? That is not my understanding of how this would work. And finally, what did our district attorney Bonnie D Man essay about this really nothing she's very much in favor of Jessica's Law? For very long time since it was proposed and she has been an outspoken supporter of Jessica's Law. She issued a statement the other day through a spokeswoman from her office basically saying that this was just one part of the law that she continues to support the rest of it and that Jessica's Law has done a lot to improve public safety within the State of California. And they will thanks very much that was Dana Littlefield with U-T San Diego. The California Public Utilities Commission, PUC needs needs a lawyer. The need for defense counsel came out of here this week in which the PUC's new presidents of the commission itself may soon be the target of a criminal investigation. In recent months investigators have executed search warrants for the home of former president Michael Peevey and the offices of the PUC. And Jeff, what are the general charges right now against Peavy and also Commissioner Mike Florio? Will there are no charges pending. There is an investigation we learned this week there are actually three investigations by the state Attorney General's office and by the Department of federal department of justice the story that broke this week regarding the hearing up in Sacramento, the Senate oversight hearing committee Chand -- chaired by Ben Hueso looking at what other agencies around the state of the reporting that his allegation is favoritism by regulators over the utilities that are supposed to be regulated. We have uncovered e-mails that show they have traveled trips together, they dined together, they, they accommodate the utilities in proceedings before the PUC at the utility's request, they have done that numerous times. So there is a lot of questions about how thoroughly the commission is regulating the utilities they are charged with overseeing. One question I have has there been a lot of sort of private conversations between these members of the commission and executives at utility companies like California Edison? Is that illegal? Are they not supposed to do that? It is not a legal there allowances for having the so-called ex parte medications. They are not supposed to rise to the level of substantive conversations, meaning you can talk about issues that are pending before the commission. Some of the emails we have gotten show they have done just that however so that's very problematic for the commissioners. Mr. Peavy was not appointed to a third term so he is out of the picture but he is confronting this potential criminal or case. Mr. Florio has engaged in some of the same dealings and meetings and dinners that Mr. Peavy has. He remakes on the commission so it's a going question as to whether he will stay on the commission or whether he will be forced out by the legislature. Obviously people who are -- you want to protect consumers are saying that this access that they are giving to executives of these big utility companies is unfair. It matters a lot, yes. The evidence we've gotten is alarming because the commissioners have so much authority. They regulate billions of dollars a year in revenue that ratepayers pay their utility company they have a lot of influence over what's allowed and that is why the position matter so much and if they're having a secret conversations that lead to deals that are favorable to the utilities is only good for the utilities and the stockholders and maybe not so good for the consumers. There was one line and one of the you uncovered that the word of choice was really interesting to me where I think it was Florio said specifically I am just trying to go over the way you have trained me or that the training that you have provided is like he could have chosen a worse word of his goal was to make you crazy about what sort of relationship was going on. I of course thought so, too. And the follow up what was, I don't see a problem with ex partake because we are only going over the numbers here which is totally not allowed. So, like I say, it remains to be seen what will happen. Those sorts of conversation on their face they don't pass the smell test and it is problematic as I say because ratepayers get stuck with the bill. There's the smell test and then there are actual situations where they had to make decisions about whether they would favor the utilities are consumers. One was the explosion of a gas line in San Bruno in 2010 . Was Peavy, for instance involved in that? And you didn't pay his involvement had any effect on their decision? I would never say he was involved with the gas line explosion, it was a terrible tragedy. Will he didn't cause the gas line explosion but -- What advocates would say is that Peavey's familiarity and friendliness with the utilities lead to a condition where in which the utilities didn't properly maintain or keep control over their equipment including gas lines. Is problematic in San Bruno 's case because the whole neighborhood exploded and eight people lost their lives. Is problematic in San Onofre because their decisions led to the failure of the power plant worker all been asked to pay billions of dollars for the cost of a plant that is not producing electricity. So the allegation is this familiarity that Mr. Peavey a former executive of Edison, his friendliness with these companies has led to a culture where these sorts of decisions are routinely made in favor of utilities. Let's talk about the case that really does affect San Diego. Let's talk about their decision to charge ratepayers for most of the cost of the shutdown of the San Onofre powerplant. What did Peavey have to do with that if anything? We learned last month or in late January that Mr. Peavey attended a meeting in Warsaw, Poland as part of the study group paid for by a nonprofit and that one of the Edison executives was at that meeting. And during that meeting, they wrote some notes, sketching out a framework for a settlement a settlement of the San Onofre costs. Now that's very significant to the investigators. It was included on a search warrant affidavit that was returned in late January and I got a copy of it in I think the last day of January and reported on a. But that did is it linked the PG& E corruption case as it is unfolding in San Francisco, with the commission , alleged commission corruption in San Diego County and Senate of remitting it wasn't just limited to the San Bruno case. And consumer advocates are very concerned about that decision having to do with San Onofre and how much ratepayers have to pay. They think that ratepayers are paying too much and I guess that is why they would be concerned about these kinds of communication. California already has some of the highest utility rates in the country . This multibillion-dollar settlement is adding to that and this is from a plant that is not producing any electricity and hasn't for three years. By the way, Jeff, who is investigating the PUC and Michael Peevey? The state Attorney General's office. I knew of one investigation prior to this during a hearing this this week the new PUC president acknowledged there were two investigations underway by the state Attorney General's office. The US Department of Justice also is investigating. Now it is not clear how well they are cooperating because the state AG's office was late coming to the criminal side of the investigation. The feds have been at it for more than a year now. Dana, do you have any questions about this? We haven't heard from you? Not at this time, no. Okay. Just, in addition to the criminal investigation that is going on I know that Mike a Geary has has filed suit against the commission over the San Onofre shut down. How does that fit into what else is going on? That is a federal law side filed I think in November right after the commission ratified the settlement which was negotiated in secret, by the the way. And then the utility and one consumer group came up with this multibillion-dollar settlement and then sent it out to the community and it was approved. Mr. a Geary filed a lawsuit in November challenging that. Interestingly the defendants in the suit are not just the PC but also Edison is a codefendant. So that's kind of a longshot lawsuit, we will see if that prevails. He is also availed himself of the in internal remedy called a hearing request request where the commission is asked to reconsider its November decision approving the settlement. It is not clear that the commissioners would approve something, approve a request to we hear something they just approved a few months ago so we will see what happens if there is a criminal complaint at some point, maybe that would affect the political dynamic that is underway. But right now, we're on the hook for about $3.5 million through 2022 for the plant that hasn't produced electricity since 2012. Yes, we are. Jeff, who appoints commissioners? Are. Jeff, who appoints commissioners? These are gubernatorial appointments of Jerry Brown has appointed the majority I think all of the current appointees are from Jerry Brown. This year Peavey was the last told a. And so what is next year? I guess we are waiting to find out what is going to be the result of the criminal investigation? We are waiting to see what comes of the criminal investigation. Is very complicated stuff. They're reluctant to talk about their progress. Is likely going to be months before any decision is made on the charges. They have to reach a very high bar to convince a jury of 12 people but they committed a crime. Thanks very much. And Jeff as a reporter, watchdog reporter for U-T San Diego. People in the construction business like to complain about government red tape, but there has been very little information from the city of San Diego on what it takes to get a permit to actually build something. Weather is adding a room or direct to your house or constructing a block of condos. We really had no idea how long the process took until now. Andrew Keatts of the Voice of San Diego has boldly gone where few reporters have dared to go into the city's permitting process and Andy, we are here to explore this distant galaxy with you. Why did you want to do that? This is a major function of any local government and certainly a major function of San Diego's. It was one that was called out specifically by a city audit in 2012 as a major risk of fraud because it was so opaque and there was such little information about it. Specifically the only people who were aware of what was going on within the system that tracks all permits within the city were people in the city's permitting system. Development services department. That was one thing and also just when you cover any sort of land use or development or any of the sorts of issues you hear two things all the time. One is from the development community that is saying that the city is this bureaucratic nightmare, it is an ability to give you any firm answers at the same time you are hearing from the community that is always saying the city does nothing but bend over backwards for the developers and they approve everything they would ever want they are bought and paid for and of course these two ideas are in complete conflict. They can't be true simultaneously. And yet doing any sort of basic fact checking on any specific issue about what was going on at large was impossible because the information was in public. So whenever I have come forward and say how what is the average time to get a permit or that permit. People would say we can't really tell you no one knows that information or the specifics , everything is so particular to each specific incident that is not useful to talk about things in the hole and so it just took a long time at badgering and saying this is public information you need to put forward. And they also said that the system couldn't export all of the data . It was an old system that was incapable of exporting the data so that our first public records to get it they said we can get that you it cost $5000 to get that information. They have to rewrite new program light which text export that information. But you got the records at a lower cost not $5000? Free we got them free. Ultimately what happened, I think you could say it's a success of the city's open data push was that we prevailed upon the Mayor's office and city staffers that this would be a good opportunity to demonstrate what open data is capable of so they just put all that information online. Okay so you got the data. What did you find? Over some of the general conclusions you were able to come to? We started basically said okay how long does it take and started separating things into relevant categories of this and that and it basically found that for the most complicated permits, the permits that not getting your deck permit, that can happen pretty quickly but for building a block of apartments or something you are looking at a median time to approval right now I'm about nine months. In recent years it has been well over a year and for certain different permit types you are looking at well over a year still. There are permits in the system, outliers that are 10 years. It takes 10 years to get your permit approved or permits that have been active for 10 years that still aren't approved. Know what other articles on permits permit listed discretionary review as a process that can take many months. You want to talk about that? And tell us what kind of projects come under discretionary review? To speak in a broad generalization, you could kind of describe everything as either ministerial or by right which is basically you have every right to do this project you just need to prevent the city you are following relevant safety codes it's not going to collapse on anybody but you don't need their permission to do it you just need to show that you are following the law. You get those permits quickly and quickly is a month some of them on the day you turn them in some maybe 30 days something like that but nothing that anyone could really say is going to increase the cost of doing business. It's a couple weeks. And then you've got discretionary permits. These are things that either what you are trying to do is expressly against adopted restrictions and regulations so we have sold this property you could build a single-family house or in some cases will I don't want to being a single-family house I want to build 10 apartments you need to go through discretionary process to do that. So that requires environmental review it requires a back-and-forth between you and the city planners about this or that or the other thing and you got to have public hearings. That is when things get really wrong. The kind of development projects we cover in the media are things like One Paseo which was recently approved by the City Council in Carmel Valley . Six years. Six years for that one and I had to go before the local planning group before the planning commission, the City Council , that takes a long time. Yes to most of the time comes down to I mean the two things at the time are the public testimony, public hearings and of course when there's opposition then you need to hash things out and that takes time. But then the other thing is just the environmental review. The process of figuring all the environmental effects of a project are timely, they themselves require 45 day period for public review and that sort of thing any type of change you make restarts the clock so the more competent it the longer things get but we were able to find that over the last 10 years which is the period we have data for, things are getting faster. They been getting faster every year since 2008 and they are the fastest they've ever been right now. And why is that? More staff? What's going on? So the mayor's office would love to tell you see, we promise to cut red tape and streamline regulations and evidenced here we have done it unfortunately for them there is no they took office about a year ago we don't have any evidence that has happened. There have been some streamlining and regulation changing that is taking place over last two years and it accounts for some of it but the thing that counts for most of it is actually develop her behavior their own. Interesting things got at their longest things became very very time containing in 2008 also very long in 2007 and 2009 caliber able to find that is basically because people had considered these problems when times were good and the real estate market was going well they by their project forward and the economy collapsed and they really weren't in that big of a hurry to start selling condo. Arete indicates with Voice of San Diego and that wraps up another week of stories at the KPBS roundtable. Thanks you, Dana Littlefield of U-T San Diego. Thank you. Jeff McDonald, U-T San Diego. Thank you. And he keeps, Voice of San Diego. Thanks for joining the. A reminder all of the stories we discussed today are available on our website, KPBS.org. I'm Tom Fudge and thanks for joining us today on the roundtable. Stay tuned coming up on Midday Edition we will examine some of the top stories in our state and region including a hearing where we heard that passionate plea of Chargers fans to do whatever it takes to keep the NFL team in San Diego. That and more coming up after this break. After Netanyahu spoke a lot of people had to defend how how they got for him plus Texas Jupiter returns to our show to talk music, drinking and what happens of the other. Join us for this weeks weight wait don't tell me. Wait wait don't tell me Saturday morning 9:00 Sunday morning 10:00 right here and KPBS for news matters. Thanks for joining us for the roundtable on KPBS . To the point comes your way at 1:00. KPBS supported by the law firm of Higgs, Fletcher and back with over continued service to San Diego more than 70 at Turner's and practice in over 20 different disciplines including two newest attorneys Brian fashioned Scott Engel. KPBS also supported by think he reminded me that when it rains you can help keep trash and debris out of the street gutters around your home loose material can clog storm drains and increase the potential for flooding in your neighborhood a reminder from think blue San Diego proud supporter of KPBS Sunday the. Weather forecast a pressure in town for the next couple days expect warmer temperatures over the weekend. Overnight lows generally in the upper 40s, lower 50s look for 70s and lower '80s in much of San Diego and Imperial Valley for Saturday. You're listening to KPBS 89.5 FM San Diego. Welcome back to Friday Midday Edition I am Tom Fudge and here are some of the headlines we are following in the KPBS is in. San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer seeking to reform the way capital improvement contracts are issued. Part of an effort to fix 1000 miles of roads in the next five years. Currently the city doesn't start a project until it is fully funded so a lot of money sits around for partially funded work. Falkner says the process can and should be sped up. In Oceanside assemblymen now in the running against state Attorney General for a U.S. Senate seat in California. Republican assemblyman Rocky Chavez links national security as his top concern the former Marine Col. says he is a fiscal conservative and a social moderate. The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in San Diego County fell about half a cent today put it into 35 day streak of increases. Today's average price is $3.49. You are listening to Midday Edition. The group given the job of proposing a new Chargers stadium site and a stadium financing plan heard from a lot of spirited fans at a Monday night public forum this week. KPBS Metro reporter Tarryn Mento says the hundreds of supporters who turned out the full of appreciation, gratitude and even some ideas for the task force. It might have been a Monday in the off-season but it felt like a Chargers game day . Gold and blue jerseys filled the parking lot some fans brought hope he said an ice cold beverages. Many had facemasks, flax and homemade signs to spread a message. Stadium security estimates at least 2500 people showed up at Monday night public form a few hundred got us the inside thousands filled the stands in the rainy cool night about 200 to 300 remained outside in the parking lot. Those in favor of a new stadium turned out to tell the citizens Stadium advisory group where they wanted a new Chargers facility and how they wanted to pay for it. Overwhelmingly, the speaker supported building a new stadium right where they were standing at the Q in Mission Valley. It is all great the right here would be ideal we love to tell day don't take that away. A multipurpose facility right here not downtown, right here here where we have highways and everywhere around us. My family we share to tickets. We rotate two of us will go to the game the rest of us be out here in the parking lot tailgating. If you move this location downtown there is no tailgating, there is no family for us. Only a handful of speaker supported building a new facility downtown that would possibly pair with the convention center expansion. San Diego Stadium coalition Jason Briggs pointed out one other important party who agrees, the San Diego Chargers. The mayor could do one thing is to get the hotelers aborts would really suck at this very solid plan they have for a downtown site because that is the only with the team is going to stay in San Diego. Many speakers didn't have a preference. David Agre not who helped found the grassroots group spoke for many many criticize the church's proposal for a shared Los Angeles area stadium with the Oakland Raiders. Like many you can put in my backyard and I am there. As long as we don't have to share with the Raiders. (laughter). They continued ignoring the beeping telling his time was up. If you think we can raise an army to get a two thirds vote all these people you are going to knock on doors, right? Cristy and Hoffman shared his support who has a long history. A family has had season tickets since 1982 back with the used to drive from Los Angeles to San Diego for every home game. She has since Mintier. My gosh I would buy a personal seat license, seat license, I renew season tickets, I don't know what's amounts all my taxes, $1000? I want them here as much as I could afford I would make it work. Sun came prepared with ideas to raise money elsewhere. A surcharge of 2% 25% on everything sold Wetherbee tickets, soda pop, year, T-shirts, what ever it is. When the bill is paid remove the surcharge. The other idea brought up by a young lady downstairs, we were all sitting on the cold, which is worth being here tonight, was, when we turn on the stadium, sell it off . Fill up seats, sell off autographed locker room doors, sell off things like that and use that to help put the money towards the stadium. [Applause] Jan called for $350 million each from the team and NFL. And $130 million from selling personal seat licenses. Something the Chargers seat licenses. Something the Chargers have opposed but warmed to during the meeting. The other idea ? $70 million from the naming rights of the game possibly -- no pressure no pressure. Task force actually works -- San Diego Mayor says whatever proposal the task for pitches it will go before city voters next year but some speakers called for a countywide measure because many fans with outside city limits. By the end of the two-hour 26 minute forum task force member and former NFL executive Jim Steeves walked away with pages of notes but it was the enthusiasm of the fans this drug in the most. As I think you are working hard at in every once in a while you need that reinforcement that you are not just out there on your own and I think everybody 's passion was great. The nine-member task force meeting today to debrief about Monday's event. It's been more than two weeks of the group announced it would fast-track its mission to present a plan within 90 days. That leaves 81 to go. Tarryn Mento, PBS news. The race to build a football stadium in greater Los Angeles is on. Last week the city of Inglewood which is right next to the LA airport approved plans to build a new stadium presumably for a future LA Rams team. The NFL has yet to approve any such move from St. Louis and of course the Oakland Raiders and the San Diego Chargers say they are building a stadium in nearby Carson. We know the Los Angeles market is expected to be a big moneymaker for any NFL team but what's the financial boost if any from a pro sports team for the cities they are and? Ben Bergman for the California report has the story. There a lot of things economist disagree on. The economic impact of sports stadiums isn't one of them. If you ever had a consensus in economics this would be at the there is no impact. A sports economist at Temple University says we talk about sports a lot. We pay a lot of attention to them but when it comes to the actual revenue teams generate is minuscule. A baseball team has about the same impact on the community as a midsize Department store. That's with 88 home games here year. NFL teams only play eight regular-season home games. Still it seems everyone wants their own team these days. Last week he was Jim dear the mayor of Carson, south of of LA pronounced plans to build a stadium to house the Raiders and the Chargers. It is fun to say that this opportunity for the people of Carson is an enormous opportunity. It will change Carson for the better and a very dramatic way. In this week Inglewood City Council unanimously approved construction of a stadium to begin later this year to rapturous applause. [Applause] Inglewood is projecting more than $800 million worth of economic activity a year will be added to the city was a new football stadium is up and running but Massachusetts-based sports economist Victor Matheson is dubious. A good rule of thumb that economist uses take whatever the stadium boosters are telling you and just move that decimal .1 place to the left and that's usually a pretty good estimate of what you are going to get. Economist say the biggest reason sports teams don't have much impact if they don't tend to spur new spending. Most people have a limited entertainment budget so the money they are spending when they go to a Dodgers game is money they would have spent elsewhere maybe at a restaurant or small business where more money would of stayed in the community. Plus Matheson says rather than draw people to a neighborhood, games can actually repel them. Sporting events can cause significant crowds and congestion that keeps people from coming to other events in the area. Is part of the reason why at 2003 LA city's controller's report included a surprising surprising finding. Economic activity in Inglewood actually increased after the Lakers left town. That is, Inglewood sales-tax revenue went up when the Lakers moved to downtown LA. But leading developed of the new stadium site says he doesn't leave the two are related. To argue Inglewood is better off because downtown LA took away the Lakers and Kings is to stretch credulity. We met at the site many hope to turn into a major sports and entertainment destination. It's 300 acres it used to be part of the Hollywood Park racetrack before it closed two years ago. The owner of the St. Louis Rams bought 60 acres of the parcel last year which man he is now in charge of transforming. This is much, much more than a stadium this is about developing a new node for this part of Inglewood and that node includes some and a thousand square feet of retail , office, 25 acres 5 acres of parks, 2500 homes. Performance venue. Some Inglewood residents say building the stadium represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that will revitalize their town of 111,000 residents. Derek round old Bourbon Street finish and grill serving gumbo and crawfish special spread across the street from where the 80,000 seat stadium stadium would stand. That 80,000 along with that new mall and all that that they are going to have over here is going to be a major impact on our business. When we visited rounds restaurant during lunchtime there were more employees and customers. Is is a gets busier when there are shows that the forum or concert venue that we opened last year across the street. On the actual days of the events, our business is probably double. There's no reason to doubt Brown would see even greater boost from a stadium. Economist say this is right next to stadiums to benefit but go further than a few blocks and you would hardly see a dance. For the California report, I am Ben Bergman. The city of San Diego is working on big plans for the future that will help the environment. KPBS reporter tells us more about the city's climate action plan and a group that has a watch DOC. San Diego continues to grow in size and population. All of that growth can hurt the environment. Last fall, Mayor Kevin Faulkner released a plan for how the city will tackle climate change. As it stands now that plan has several ambitious goals. Here are a few of them. One, to change the way people get around. Right now 87% of San Diego's commute by car by 2035 the plan helps that hopes that will drop to 50%. That means a number people taking public transit will go from 10% to 25%. The number of people who walk to work will go from 1% to 7% and the number of people who bike to work will go from 1% to 18%. Never tookak, to have 100% of the city's energy come from renewable sources by 2035. That means solar power, wind power and Hydro power. Three, to install 30,000 electric vehicle charging stations by 2035. Four to have 90% of our garbage not go into the Miramar landfill. That means it would be recycled and composted instead. Sound like a lot? Faulkner recently told KPBS evening edition he is confident the city can do it. Is important and I know we can achieve those goals. I know it won't be easy but at the same time when we look at the world-class leadership we are doing already on solar energy as one example here in San Diego, we can build upon that. But the plan isn't final yet. It will go to a long review process for could be changed. The cold compress is worried that might mean the ambitious goals will be scaled back so a few months ago she started the nonprofit climate action campaign to be a watchdog over the process. There might be some interest that would like us to water down the plan and so I don't know who those interests are, but given past history it seems like that's a possibility so we will be watchdog in to make sure the city stands its ground and the mayor stands the ground and the Council stands there Graham. And stands behind the amazing groundbreaking climate plan. She is one of two paid staff members and is funded by grants and private donors. She did not want to say who. She has been meeting with community and business groups to explain the climate plan and ask for their support. I think it's important for you to know the city doesn't really have a plan to figure out what we are going to do when the sea level rises what is going to happen when the flooding starts coming to the convention center in into the gaslamp Quarter. She made those comments to the gaslamp Quarter hospitality committee. The groups cochaired Nathan wing like 20 hurt. Based on her presentation at the gets a cause we can get behind from what is a personally I think it's definitely an interesting thing to talk about definitely things businesses can benefit from. That is her goal to get as many smaller groups as possible on board with the bigger climate plan . Part of the climate plan is figure out how to we provide transportation alternatives other than the automobile. The fact that we can say hey the larger context for the reason for the city is looking at transforming our streets so they are more people friendly is not just because there is a specific developer who wants and needs to put in bike lanes to get maybe a green certification, we are actually doing it because it makes the community held there, reduces our carbon paper, provides alternatives. When you put in the larger context again people see things differently and are more open-minded maybe essentially with the city or private developer comes of the project. The climate plan also could involve something even more ambitious cold community choice aggregation which could change the way the city gets its energy. We will explain it more and part two of this story next week. Clara Treggis are, KPBS news. You're listening to Friday Midday Edition on KPBS I am Tom Fudge. Stay tuned to just a minute we will hear about a recent study that looked into the lives of California children forced to live on the streets. Stay tuned. On the next morning edition, Syrians rebelling against the destruction of their cultural heritage. Archaeologist and curators braving snipers and bombs to protect antiquities. They are the heroes of our stories. The guys who risk their lives everyday , visiting archaeological site. IM David green. Meet Syria's monuments men on the next morning addition. Start your Monday morning with morning edition here on KPBS where news matters. Thanks for doing this to the round table the point coming your way at 1:00 in the world at 2:00. San Diego repertory theater presenting a contemporary adaptation of the famous Greek tragedy that trades the temples of classical themes for the urban areas of Southern California. Running through March 29 tickets at SD repp .org. And by Jackson design and remodeling. Inviting you to attend an informational design and remodeling seminar Saturday March 7 from 10 A.M. to one P.M. in their Kearny Mesa show room you can meet JDR designers and art talks and explore new trends in materials and living spaces. Resident -- reservations at Jackson design you are listening and remodeling .com you are listening to the Roundtable on KPBS. 89.5 FM San Diego. And K cue video 97.7 FM Calexico where news matters. Welcome back Tom Fudge sitting for Mark Sauer you are listening to Friday Midday Edition on KPBS. A recent study counted more than half 1 million children without a home in California. The California report explains that for these children living on the streets have a bad effect on everything from homework to health. She is taught preschool for eight years in the Pomona unified school District during that time she has seen many students without a stable home. Including some in her class right now. Parents to have a job so they move I think it's Tyer they moved to grandma, grandma gets tired they moved to uncle, uncle gets tired in the two sisters that is what I have at this moment. A classic definition of homelessness it is called doubling up and the majority of homeless children under five fall into this category. Am I not sound so bad even kind of nice to get to spend time with relatives but experts agree that appending a young child repeatedly and have emotional and psychological impacts. It's need a secure foundation for healthy development Rodriguez says. Anytime a child is miss it can still to that child like a death because it is so dramatic. She sees the effects in her classroom. It makes it hard for kids to make connections with other children they are now worried are you going to play with me their word about where they are going to sleep. Across town and North Hollywood Miami Corey starting a ritual of looking over her son's homework. Put your shoes away and then this your homework and check your homework. A self-employed actress and singer but two years ago shoot her husband who for Pepsi were passengers in a horrible car accident. The injuries they sustained meant they could not work in both eventually lost their jobs. With no health insurance the bills started piling up . Three months later they were evicted from their home. The hardest part McCoy says. We have two children that still need even though we have injuries. In children that need a lot of attention. McCoy's husband the bounce between relatives homes staying until the welcome wore out then on to motels and finally and room in a transitional housing shelter where I meet them. Our children are everything to us that was my biggest thing I did what my kids thinking we were in the worst position ever. But they were in as much as McCoy and her husband tried to shield their two little boys and the hardship there's no masking the fact that they had lost everything and had no home. The boys are now four and seven younger son justice has been homeless for half his life. Her elder son acted out. In school he would be very rebellious . Was elected previously? Know he definitely wasn't. One plus one equals two. Awesome. Justin reading and math chart his mother's talk on the bare walls of the room trying to re-create home. It gets all of a sudden we see little kids. Chris read runs LA family housing where they are staying. I hold quite a few babies here we see a lot of these little kids grow up . Homelessness has an impact on children that is over and above poverty. Barbara Duffield a policy director at the national Association for homeless children and yet she cites the federal government study that compared kids in head start all of him with the link below the poverty line permac, as children fear the worst. They have higher rates of chronic and acute illnesses, more trauma, more social emotional difficulties more than any difficulty. My all will do whatever it takes to make sure her boys are not part of the statistics but there are daily challenges like the notion find in her son school back. This is our goal $18,030 per student we can do it. The latest school fundraiser each student has to come up with $30 head start teacher says she would never put her students and families in a situation. In fact for homework our project recently she collected all the items necessary . I ask parents could you please come and take some of these materials he can build something with your child so than that takes away the shame of not having the money or not having a place to store it for the night. Shuffle canceled the popular preschool activity of shared it. When a child has no toys a home share day can feel like public humiliation. For the California report . San Diego Opera provides an underutilized service called audio description and allows visually impaired to enjoy an opera performance more fully. KBS arts reporter explains what goes into providing the service. If you go to opera and all you get is this -- [Music Playing] You're not getting the whole picture you have no super titles to translate the libretto no sense to let you know the action is taking place and no costumes to convey the time period is. Opera isn't just music and singing it is basically a full place /performance set to to music and singing. Bobcat Esch has been blind since birth when he first began attending a he said he simply wasn't as engaged as the sighted audience. But I wasn't able to do I wasn't able to follow along with what was happening I knew the synopsis but didn't know what part I was in what is going on now everybody in the audience laughed why are they laughing? That is where K Neil comes in in. The set has been formed to be two buildings where we saw the inside of the cafe in the last thing that we see the outside Street view. I do audio describing and no one knows what that is. We describe a goes on in the opera for someone who can see it. If you do not have your site and you enjoy what an opera can offer to you, you will be amazed at how much more the description cells in and allows you to enjoy the experience. That is true because O'Neill and her colleagues are passionate about what they are doing. Look at the curtains are them -- those marvelous? How would we describe them. O'Neill got this see the sets up close and she could describe them better and make sure she conveyed have a look at the set color the production. The grayness and everything gives you that cold feeling. Audio describing speak in their work at the first rehearsal with a pick up a script at the super titles and begin taking notes about the production. O'Neill says her goal is to provide patrons with as much information as she can fit in between the measures . We are trying to give them as much of what is happening that they would see. You use your words very carefully and very clearly and judiciously so they get as much as they can. The challenge for them is to read and not of the dialogue and describe enough of the action so you can be engaged in the parts of the opera you can't gain auditorily but still allowing you to hear the beautiful singing and music that is going on . When she hears with all for coming she hides her cell phone in the corner of the building where she can clearly hear . As a former opera singer O'Neill understands this and she volunteers as an audio describe her to bring opera to life in a new way. He appreciates the enthusiasm of O'Neill and other volunteers. They do not read in a monotone voice come at the to inject life into it and really help to guide you along so whenever the opera is going to deliver to you next you can pick up with your years, you are ready for. He oversees audience services at KPBS attends each opera preview and provides feedback to the audio describe first . His wife Angela used to work for the opera and she initiated the audio description program because her husband used to bug perjuring performances for updates about what was going on. Now and a patron can obtain a headset before the opera to listen to the audio description service, which begins with program notes, says O'Neill. Program notes are just like if you open the program and look at it and read it for our patrons they can do that. Welcome to the 50th anniversary season of San Diego Opera. IM Kit Lynch and member of the audio describe first team. He says he has always been impressed by the music and voices in Opera but the audio description service helps bring a performance in two focus so he can enjoy the opera more fully. Never you know what is going on and you can then focusing on how brilliantly the composer paints the picture with music. KPBS news. The San Diego Opera provides audio description services for all of its opera's. The next one Nixon in China, opens next week. Thanks for joining us for access to any of the interviews, feature stories or news stories that I've been on KPBS radio or TV, go to our website KPBS.org. You have been listening to Midday Edition, I'm Tom Fudge. Have a good weekend. You are listening to KPBS were news matters up next is to the point with a warrant only. Smart phones, smart watches, wearable fitness trackers are collecting so much data about the bodies of people that wear them doctors and hospitals may be overwhelmed and so when records exist about your heart rate, steps taken and all that could insurance companies use your information against you? That conversation and more coming up next on to the point. After Netanyahu spoke various members had to defend on television how hard they had Clapper him. Find out what noises are panel made plus Texas troubadour Robert Earl King returns to our show to talk music, drinking and if whatever happens without the other. Peter Seeger join us for wait wait don't tell me the news quiz from NPR. Start your Saturdays with wait wait don't tell me Saturday mornings at nine Sunday morning to 10 on KPBS. KBS supported by the spring home garden show featuring products , room ideas, gardens and seminars which can help improve your home or garden. The spring home garden show March 6-eight at the Delmar programs. KPBS your vehicle donation will help us continue to provide the high-quality of cramming you expect. Donating is easy we will pick up the vehicle wherever it is located and send you the following paperwork including any IRS documents. Call 1877 KPBS car or donate online KPBS.org/vehicle. You are listening to KPBS. Look at your freeways right five we have a two-car accident starting to clear up the right shoulder state your left. Is bound 94 your avocado looks like a car hood in the left lane stay to the far right in the case an accident North 15 by the 215 if you are heading out of town. Traffic reports made possible by stellar solar voter first it is best solar planner company learn why stellar solar .net.

Provision Of Jessica's Law Is Out

The section of Jessica’s Law that bars paroled sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of parks and schools has been ruled unconstitutional by the California Supreme Court.

The court agreed that blanket enforcement of this provision of the law forced many parolees to be homeless, hindered their access to treatment and services, and did very little to protect the public.

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The court did acknowledge that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation could impose special conditions on registered sex-offenders on a case-by-case basis.

The enforcement of the 2006 law, passed in California as state Proposition 83, was challenged by the San Diego County Public Defender's Office, which noted that the state applied the restrictions to all sex-offender parolees, including those whose sex crimes were decades old and may not have involved children.

The law's other provisions, including increasing penalties and expanding the definition of sex offenses, remain intact.

PUC Regulators In Hot Water

Michael Peevey, former president of the California Public Utilities Commission, is being investigated by the state Attorney General's Office and federal government for his cozy relationship with the utilities he was supposed to regulate.

State agents raided his home in January. And the PUC has requested outside criminal defense counsel.

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Emails also implicate a current commissioner. They appear to show that Mike Florio engaged in back-channel talks with Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric, even when the Edison representative questioned the propriety of the communications.

San Diego attorney Mike Aguirre is suing the PUC over the shutdown costs of San Onofre, which was operated by Southern California Edison. Peevey and Florio approved the agreement to charge ratepayers $3.3 billion (out of $4.7 billion) in shutdown costs for the nuclear facility, after the failure of its steam generators (and multiple private discussions with utility officials).

Getting City Permits Is A Process

Mayor Kevin Faulconer pledged to streamline the permitting process for discretionary development in the city of San Diego for anything from adding a bedroom to a single-family house to a major new mixed-use development. His predecessor did the same.

Voice of San Diego's Andrew Keatts wanted to find out whether the city's permit process was really moving faster. It took awhile.

When the recession was at its peak in 2009, getting permits for conditional uses, neighborhood uses, coastal developments, planned developments and site developments took longer than in previous years as funding dried up and staffing decreased.

As of 2013, all areas had returned to pre-recession wait times, and some had even improved. The city would like to take credit for changing its regulations and therefore lowering the wait times. Keatts says his reporting found those changes are not yet reflected in the data he reviewed.

Some projects are not approved as fast others, especially those which require a discretionary review (approval by community planning groups). They can sometimes take more than a year to get an OK, like the One Paseo project that was just approved in Carmel Valley.