KPBS Senior Metro Reporter Alison St John explains the recent San Diego County Planning Commission hearings on future growth in rural areas.

Bus drivers for the North County Transit District can expect to see their wages fall significantly next year, after a private company takes over the public bus contract. Labor representatives say this week’s decision to privatize more than 300 jobs could be a sign of things to come.

San Diego County’s Planning Commission is working to reach a compromise on where to allow growth in the unincorporated areas.

San Diego County’s updated blue print for future growth in the unincorporated areas has been in the works for more than a decade. It’s back in public hearings today.

San Diego City Council voted five to two today to approve another water rate increase. It's the sixth rate hike in the last two years.

San Diego City Council will decide today whether to offer to be a host city, if the United States wins a bid to host the World Soccer Cup in 2018 or 2022.

San Diego County residents who want more information about crime in their neighborhood can soon register with a new service that updates them as crimes happen.

San Diego County has entered the field of veterans care to supplement the care provided by the VA. Thousands of new veterans are now returning to San Diego, and their families need help adjusting.

Seventy-five Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard service members became the newest citizens of the United States yesterday in a ceremony aboard the USS Midway in San Diego.

The San Diego City Council has voted to change the city’s ethics rules so unpaid volunteers do not have to register as lobbyists.

Therapists at the VA Medical Center in La Jolla are responding to questions about how a trained psychiatrist could have been responsible for the shooting at Fort Hood Army base.

Small businesses in San Diego that have felt shut out of opportunities provided by federal stimulus funding could get help qualifying.

Oceanside city council has approved water and sewer rate increases after a bond rating agency issued a negative credit watch on the city’s sewer bonds.

San Diego County has produced a video about what has changed since the wildfires of 2003 and 2007.

San Diego County Supervisor Ron Roberts wants information about road closures to be more available in the case of emergency evacuations.

A legal scandal that rocked the city of San Diego for years has finally made it to California’s highest court.

San Diego County Supervisors have approved a land swap with the state that could result in a new county courthouse downtown by 2015.

A military investigation is underway in San Diego to determine what caused a Coast Guard aircraft and a Marine Corps helicopter to collide 50 miles off the coast last week.

San Diego’s city attorney, Jan Goldsmith, said the city has defeated one of several lawsuits seeking higher pension payments for employees.

The Coast Guard is not giving up in its search for survivors of the aircraft crash that occurred off the coast of San Diego last night.

The mid year crime statistics for the San Diego region show property crime has taken an unexpected drop.

A new report analyses how San Diego could reduce carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

A young Marine based at Camp Pendleton was found dead in his Fallbrook home this week. His death has been ruled a suicide, and comes in spite of a recent suicide prevention initiative on the base.

A San Diego city budget meeting being held in Golden Hill this evening is the opening salvo to what promises to be one of the most difficult budget years in the city's history

The dream of a new main library for San Diego is still alive, but the city council’s day of reckoning is coming closer.

The San Diego City Council has voted to find out what it would actually cost to build a new main library by putting it out to bid.

The agency responsible for planning future growth in San Diego is trying some new strategies to get the public involved.

San Diego City Council will consider at its meeting tonight whether to change budget policy so that long term liabilities don’t grow out of control.

Hundreds of veterans lined up outside the regional office of the Veterans Administration in San Diego today. They were there to pick up an advance on their GI Bill checks.

The Veterans Administration has missed its October 1 deadline to issue checks to students enrolled under the new G.I. Bill. The Agency plans to open the doors of its Mission Valley Headquarters tomorrow morning to issue emergency checks.

The command of Marine Corps Installations West changed hands yesterday. For the last four years, Maj. Gen. Michael Lehnert has been in charge of support services at seven Marine Corps bases on the west coast, including Camp Pendleton, Miramar, and Twentynine Palms. He spoke about the current initiatives to improve quality of life for Marines and their families.

Residents of San Diego’s backcountry will be some of the first to see the benefits of Federal “Transit” stimulus dollars.

The Marine commander assigned to set up Guantanamo Bay Detention Center says the United State “lost the moral high ground” with its brutal treatment of prisoners there.

There are no official statistics on how many marriages break up after veterans return home from the Iraq war changed. But when a vet returns with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or Traumatic Brain Injury, it can put a marriage to the test. The VA Medical Center in La Jolla estimates almost 30 percent of veterans they enroll are diagnosed with PTSD, and 8 percent have TBI.

The new G.I. Bill promises veterans more generous education benefits than the previous one. But, because of last minute delays, neither students nor public universities have seen any money yet.

San Diego National Guardsmen are part of a unit deploying to Afghanistan this week. Their mission is to develop agricultural businesses.

More than 250,000 veterans live in San Diego County. Many of them are veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. KPBS reporter Alison St John spoke with Karen Scheonfeld Smith, chief counselor at the Veterans Center about the growing number of veterans coming to her with fresh, raw symptoms that affect their everyday lives.

Federal, State and local law enforcement agencies are teaming up to protect millions in federal stimulus dollars from fraud and abuse.

Several hundred people are expected to gather at the Veterans Museum in Balboa Park this afternoon to reflect on the events of 9/11, and honor those who are still engaged in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

A new analysis of what San Diego spends on firefighting suggests the region has not caught up with spending in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, in fact it has fallen further behind.

We're joined on Morning Edition by KPBS Metro Reporter Alison St John, who has the latest on the Los Angeles Station Fire.

An Encinitas woman says she is considering filing a civil suit over an incident where she was arrested and jailed by a sheriff’s deputy at a political fundraiser. Shari Barman presented her side of the story after District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis decided not to press charges against either Barman or the deputy.

The San Diego Port District will not halt construction of a new cruise ship terminal downtown, in spite of a lawsuit filed by a group of waterfront activists.

Gas prices in San Diego County have remained flat over the past few days. We're joined on Morning Edition by Phil Flynn, Senior Market Analyst at PFG Best Research in Chicago, and a Fox Business News contributor.

San Diego has 14 state parks, any of which could be threatened with closure next month as a result of the state budget cuts. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

A Little League team from Chula Vista is going to the World Series. We're joined on Morning Edition by North County Times Sports Columnist Jay Paris.

If you’ve been at the beach in Del Mar in the past week, you might have seen a group of about 20 youngsters in bright yellow T-shirts, wading into the surf to ride the waves for the very first time. Camp Yellow Ribbon is a summer camp for children of military families.

Citizen activists accuse the San Diego Port District of reneging on a promise to build an oval waterfront public park on the Embarcadero downtown. They take their appeal to the California Coastal Commission today.

The Deputy Commander of the Navy Region Southwest says the culture at U.S. detention facilities in Iraq has changed dramatically since the abuses were uncovered at Abu Ghraib. Admiral Gar Wright addressed defense contractors in the San Diego Chapter of the National Defense Industries Association today.

Scientists at the University of California, San Diego have devised a software program that once again challenges assumptions that electronic voting machines can be made secure.