Trump Post-Impeachment, 4 Coronavirus Evacuees Hospitalized, Todd Gloria’s Mayoral Run, Cory Briggs’ Bid For City Attorney, New Space For Migrant Children In Tijuana, And IDW Publishing’s New Head.

Speaker 1: 00:00 He was only the third president in the history of the United States to be impeached and like the two before him, president Donald Trump was acquitted on Wednesday by the Senate. So now what the taint of impeachment will always be with the president and so will his acquittal joining us to talk more about impeachment and its political aftermath is Mesa college political science professor Carl Luna. Carl, welcome. Thank you for having me. Okay, so the vote yesterday went pretty much as everyone expected, even though you know we the, we won't be voting for another 10 months. What effect could this impeachment process and the acquittal have on the president's reelection campaign? Speaker 2: 00:35 Well, I think the presence of that comes out of this impeachment personally stronger than he went coming in, look at his approval ratings, his basis so solidly behind him that there is no room for, for daylight between you and the president, you saw that with the one Republican to vote with the impeachment in favor of article one Mitt Romney who is being absolutely pilloried on am talk radio on media. He's a rhino Republican in name only. It'll be interesting to see if he can even stay in the party. I guess one of his relatives, a niece dropped the Romney from her hyphenated name and she's high up in the Republican party. So the president comes out with his base fully unified. He did a victory lap this morning. Castigating his enemies Democrats are going to try to continue our investigation, but after this they look like the boy cried Wolf and I think, uh, throw on top of the Iowa caucus debacle, it gets them off to a very weak start going again to the 2020 presidential race. Speaker 1: 01:28 Well, what about politics here in San Diego County and the down ballot races? You know, do you think this will energize the Republicans and the democratic campaigns? Speaker 2: 01:37 Well, the advantage the Democrats have is the blueing of San Diego. It's a blue state to begin with, but you're seeing a in Republican primary races, particularly the 50th district with Carl de Mio and mr Eissa. That is basically who is the Trumpist of the trumps and you're accusing the other person of being disloyal to the president. That's where the Republican base is. That's where their election goes. It's an advantage. You got one issue, you support Donald Trump. You can mobilize your voters. Democrats don't know if they're going for the Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, a democratic socialist, or the more moderate kind of Biden booted Chegg. And until they sort that out, a divided house doesn't stand as well. Speaker 1: 02:16 So now, unlike president Clinton, who actually apologized for his behavior after he was acquitted, this president is not admitting to any wrongdoing, even though many members of his own party said that he did do the wrong thing, it was not worthy of impeachment. Do you think that this will make it more difficult for Republican candidates to take a more nuanced approach and support of the presidents where they have to be all on us? Speaker 2: 02:37 Not at all. It's an all or nothing thing because the presence denying that he looks at the result, it's binary. I one therefore I'm totally acquitted. If you look at what senators were saying, a majority of senators, uh, agreed that what he did was probably not right and maybe wrong and even impeachable. But even those Republicans who thought that like Lamar Alexander said, yeah, but you were close to the election, you don't want to divide nation up as much, which is kind of like worrying that the Titanic may be delayed between reach in New York when it hit the iceberg as opposed to the fact it's sinking. So the Republicans are not going to be dried down with their own base. And this is going to be one of the most polarized elections going for independence. Moderates in the middle is going to be hard to find on this one. Speaker 2: 03:18 People are picking sides. So do you think it's important to watch how Mitt Romney uh, survives or not this, uh, the incoming weeks in a sense that what happens to him will be a warning to any other Republican that does not turn the line? Well, that's what the president, his supporters are trying to do. Though. Mitt Romney has the advantage of being a Senator who's until 2024 and if lamp Romney's playing the long game, he's opening that. If the president doesn't lead the Republicans where they need to be, he can help to redefine it. Bring the Republicans in from the wilderness. I think it's very interesting to see how it'll affect the congressional races here in San Diego. We've seen in the 50th congressional race, for example, that Darryl Eissa who is running for the 50th a photograph of him grasping the president's hand was one of the reasons he stepped out of the race for the 49th last time round, and yet there it is right at the top of his ad for this year and that the, the, that defines the districts. Speaker 2: 04:09 If it breaks to purple to blue, you can't be pro Trump or even touching Trump. It was like Chris Christie back in 2016 should have been a strong Republican candidate as Republican governor of democratic New Jersey. There was the photo of him shaking hands with Barack Obama. That was it. And the Republican party. If you're in a Republican district, you double down on the president. And this presumably makes things more challenging for Democrat campaign, a jar Amar campaigner jr who's running for the 50th also, and when asked whether he would have voted to impeach, the president was not willing to come up with an answer because he's running in a Republican district and he was caught between a rock and a hard place. Because if you say in that district, I would vote to impeach the president. You've kissed away any chance of getting maybe some of the wafflers who'd say, look, the Republicans had been too corrupt with Dunkin Hunter, we'll move over. Speaker 2: 04:55 But then on his progressive left, you have people saying you're not pure enough. And there's a tendency, particularly on Democrats on the left to say, I'd rather lose on principle. Then when for getting that, if you don't win, you can't put any of your principles into place. So this whole thing complicated more for Democrats running in red districts. You're going to see that in the Senate in Alabama, possibly in Arizona. This could cost them seats. Uh, by 2022, 2024, they can make a comeback, but it's going to be a rough 2020, unless they get a top of the ticket that everybody can rally around. And one of the other important races here in San Diego, the supervisor's race, Kristin gas bar supervisor hoping to hold onto her seat, she may not be able to play such a nuance game in terms of her relationship with the president. Speaker 2: 05:41 And she, she before I think played it down, she may now be planting it yet while Republicans in the board of supervisor, but then having this problem for a while, the a, their areas are increasingly bluing out and you could reach to the middle, but anymore, and again, the pro, the purity test on the right. If you from the president, you lose that support. So, um, demographics as they shift will determine this in the long run. In the short run, it all comes down to turnout. If Republicans turn out in mass to vote for their president, it could save a lot of Republicans down. Yeah. Speaker 1: 06:11 And finally, you are a professor at Mesa college. What are your students saying? Are they reacting to this impeachment process? Does it matter to them? Uh, I hear that Speaker 2: 06:18 more discussion about politics in the background. My classes before I take over and start the lecture and all, then I've, I've heard for a while students are concerned, but I think they've really only woken up to it since you've had the end of the impeachment process and the acquittal vote. Now they're looking from either side of the spectrum at what brought us to this and where they're going to go into 2020. I do see them engaged. I don't know if they are seeing a pathway to really realize their ambitions. They're looking for Ron Democrats who their standard bearer will be, and there's so many people they've been divided amongst. Speaker 1: 06:50 I've been speaking with Mesa college, political science professor Carl Luna. Carl, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you. Speaker 1: 00:00 For people showing possible coronavirus symptoms are being evaluated at hospitals in San Diego. Here's dr Francesca [inaudible] with UC San Diego health. Late this morning during a news conference. Speaker 2: 00:11 They're all doing well and we are waiting results to return from the CDC and results could be coming back as early as Saturday morning. Speaker 1: 00:24 Those four were among the group of nearly 170 people evacuated from China who arrived at MCA S Miramar yesterday. The rest of the group is being quarantined at the base for 14 days to be monitored for possible symptoms of Corona virus. KPBS reporter Matt Hoffman has been following the story and joins us now from UC San Diego health, where that news conference just wrapped up. Matt, welcome. Hey Jay, you were just at that press conference with representatives from two local hospitals. What did they say about the status of the four people who were transported to local hospitals? Speaker 3: 00:59 Right in first, I'll just back up a little bit. So, uh, yesterday evening, uh, these two hospitals say that they got word from the CDC that there were four patients, three adults, and one child who were showing signs. Uh, just like flu, like symptoms, cough, sneezing, and they were taken to two local hospitals. So we had two adults, two separate adults not related, were taken to UC San Diego medical center in Hillcrest. And then we had a father and his daughter that were taken over to Rady children's hospital. Now the update that we're getting is that all four of the patients are doing very well at the father and their daughter. They wanted to pass along that they are doing very well. Um, and they're just continuing to monitoring on this is all out of an abundance of, of precaution. This was always the plan. Uh, when these evacuees were taken to Miramar 167 of them, if any of them showed any signs of the coronavirus, which is very similar to the flu, that they would be taken to local hospitals. Speaker 1: 01:48 And you know, you mentioned that those four people, um, you know, they were coughing, sneezing, had flu like symptoms, you know, are there any other symptoms associated with the coronavirus? Speaker 3: 01:57 The other symptom is high fever. Basically, we were just talking about it at this news conference here this morning. That cough and high fever are the big telltale signs of the coronavirus. Now, if somebody had a cough and no high fever and they'd be at a much lower risks risk, so high fever is a definitely a telltale indicator sign. Speaker 1: 02:13 You know? Why did they move these four people from quarantine at the base to the hospital? Was there any concern about the risk of spreading the illness and doing so? Speaker 3: 02:21 Right. Yeah. We're actually, I'm getting a lot of questions of that on social media. You're seeing a lot of people on social media saying, Hey, we know we thought we had them quarantine to Miramar. Why are we all of a sudden moving them out into the greater San Diego community now the CDC, this was the plan. Like I mentioned before that if anybody came down with any symptoms, they were going to take them to local hospitals. Basically we're talking about quarantine at Miramar versus isolation at a local hospital. Now you can think of isolation as beefed up security measures because in quarantine you're basically, they're putting like a OnBase hotel at Miramar and there's a perimeter made and they tell them, don't come out of this hotel. Now isolation is completely separate. That's a whole different thing. Um, where they're in special rooms that were, as we heard today at this news conference designed to house people who had Ebola, which is a much, much more contagious disease. And these isolation rooms have filtered air. They're special people that go in there to talk to them and they say that there's no risk to staff. There's no risk to any patients here. There's no risk to the general public. They want to let people know that both UC San Diego medical center and Hillcrest and Rady children's hospital, you can still go to them. There's no risk to the general public because there they are in isolation, which is a much higher security than just quarantine. Speaker 1: 03:27 And as I mentioned, the rest of those on the flight will be quarantined at MCA as Miramar for 14 days, uh, to be monitored for symptoms. What do we know about the 170 people evacuated? Speaker 3: 03:38 Well, we were told that most of them were doing, well, obviously four of them were taken over here. Now we were told that most of those people are American citizens. However, we know that some of those are like relatives of American citizens, whether it's you know, a spouse that hasn't gotten their visa yet. So American citizens and some Chinese nationals were on board that plane. Other than that, we don't know a whole lot about this. Obviously we're not being allowed on base to talk to them, interview them while they're under quarantine. So not a whole lot of information, but they are free to use their phones, the internet, they can Skype. So we're trying to get in touch with some of those people who are staying at Miramar to basically ask them how this is going. We know that um, health officials are trying to make things feel like home for people that are staying there. They're bringing in games for the kids, just trying to make things a little bit more comfortable while they're here for another at least 13 days. Speaker 1: 04:23 So is is MCIs Miramar expecting to have more flights arrive with evacuees from China. Speaker 3: 04:28 We were told by the CDC yesterday that the plan right now is to have more people come to MCA as Miramar. There's two locations on base including an OnBase hotel where they are going to be staying. Now the CDC says that those plans are constantly changing and we were told by Miramar officials that they could hold up to 350 people. So they still have room for nearly 200 more people. Um, but it's just going to depend on if flights are able to get out of [inaudible], if there's a need for flights, uh, for us citizens to come, uh, to the United States. Um, so really it's just gonna be depending, but once we learn more information, we'll be sure to update people on if there are more flights coming in one. Speaker 1: 05:03 And there was some concern by people who live on the base actually live on the base about the virus spreading. What did official say about that? Speaker 3: 05:09 Yeah. A couple of days ago they held a forum before this flight arrived at MCs Miramar. The CDC did with families on the base. And quite frankly, they said, yeah, there were a lot of people were concerned. I mean, we had families wondering if they could take their kids to school on the base. Um, and, and basically what the doctor from the CDC did was he just tried to assure them that, how it spreads, what the quarantine means, how they're going to be isolated. They're not going to be anywhere near them three to six feet to get the virus. You have to come in contact really close with someone who has it over multiple times. So having them far away, um, isn't going to be a threat to anybody on base. And that's what the CDC was trying to tell the families there to try to calm their fears, get them a little relaxed. Speaker 1: 05:48 You know, what, put this all into perspective for us, Matt, if you could, what, what, what is the real risk and catching the Corona virus? Speaker 3: 05:56 Well, we were just told this news conference today by these two doctors that, you know, so far this flu season, over 7,000 people have died from the flu. Um, and they said there's a 2% death rate from the coronavirus, which is much lower than the flu. I mean, a lot more people are dying from the flu here in the United States. Obviously we haven't had any death of the coronavirus yet. We know at least 12 people, um, have had confirmed cases inside the United States, but no deaths. So when we talk about this, we hear some people saying the deadly Corona virus. Um, we really have to be careful with that because right now the flu simply is just more deadlier. I've been speaking with KPBS reporter Matt Hoffman. Matt, thank you very much. Thanks, Jade. Speaker 1: 00:00 Todd. Gloria has spent the last four years representing San Diego in Sacramento, but now he wants to come back to city government where he spent eight years on the city council. Even taking on the role of interim mayor in 2013 after Bob Filner resigned, Gloria is now a candidate running to succeed Republican mayor Kevin Faulkner. We've already heard from his main opponents, fellow Democrats, Barbara Aubrey, and Tasha Williamson along with Republican Scott Sherman that today send them. And Todd, Gloria, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much for inviting me, Allison. So what prompted you to decide to come back to city politics? Don't you enjoy Sacramento? Actually, I do enjoy my time in Sacramento. It's a tremendous honor to represent my hometown in our state Capitol. But as I look at this work, and this is very much, uh, about, uh, giving to your community, I think that there's a lot of need here in San Diego. Speaker 1: 00:51 We have to address our homelessness crisis. We need someone who will tackle housing affordability, address climate change, invest in our infrastructure. Uh, and I want to be the leader that does precisely that. So now one of your democratic opponents of Barbara Bree believes that, uh, when we're looking at homelessness and the housing crisis, that the housing first model, uh, is failed. It doesn't work. So if you were the mayor, would you continue with the city's policies, which are basically based on that idea that housing first rather than dealing with the underlying root causes of homelessness, uh, investing money in a subsidized housing, for example, intents, that sort of thing? Or would you change it? I am a believer in housing first. Um, and it's not just me that feels this way. This is a national best practice. And when you look at cities across the nation that are successfully addressing their housing and homelessness crisis, they are using this approach. Speaker 1: 01:40 But I would disagree in terms of the question because while that may be the stated policy of the city, um, because leadership like current members of our city council who do not believe in this approach are not implementing it correctly. And that's exactly why Alison, your viewers and your listeners have seen tremendous investments in homelessness without any actual reductions and on street homelessness. They're not significant reductions. So what do you mean by they're not doing it right? Well, w when you, uh, a lot of, a lot of folks have seen politicians certainly say a lot of stuff but not actually follow through. I think this is a tickler case. The city has nominally adopted housing first. Yet when you see us spending millions of dollars on temporary tents, purchasing bankrupted indoor skydiving facilities for navigation centers, these are not in furtherance of housing first. This is largely a symbolic efforts to try and address what is the issue that is going on without really understanding how do we end homelessness. Speaker 1: 02:32 And that requires really tough decisions like actually citing permanent supportive housing in neighborhoods across the city, which some of my opponents have been unwilling to do. Ultimately, I do not believe we had been living the promise of housing first. And it's of course not housing only, it's housing plus services that actually end homelessness. And again, this is what cities across this nation are using to solve their problem. We have not done that here yet. That would change if I'm given the opportunity to be married. Would you continue the tents? For example? I think tents serve a purpose. Um, our recently adopted housing homelessness action plan actually endorses the continued use of that and that is fine. But the problem, Alison, is that people go in the tent and then they have nowhere else to go. Right? Because we're not constructing the housing. And in fact we were taking the money to, as meant for housing construction and using it to fund the tents, sort of robbing from Peter to pay Paul. Speaker 1: 03:19 This kind of approach is not sustainable. And while we may need a bridge shelter to get people off the streets, it has to be a bridge to somewhere currently under this existing leadership at city hall. It is a bridge to nowhere and that's going to have to change. And do we have enough resources to actually build enough new housing to solve this problem? Well, Oh, probably not currently, but the voters of the city of San Diego may have the opportunity to vote on a measure this fall that would fund the construction of more low income housing, particularly for low income San Diego, informally homeless B. I am supportive of this idea and concept. Unfortunately, other candidates in this race are not and I think that that's really at odds with a homelessness action plan that's been adopted that says we need additional resources to build this unit. I don't see how you can vote for a plan that says we must build this stuff and then simultaneously oppose the funding that actually will construct it. Speaker 1: 04:09 I'm interested in making sure that we have transformational change on homelessness. Our current state of affairs is unacceptable. San Diego are rightfully frustrated, but we can't have just the simple solutions that you've seen city hall currently doing, which is buying random things and just throwing a lot of money at the problem or criminalizing homelessness. It has to have a different approach. I'm offering that different approach course. It's not just about money. It's also about where are you going to build this housing. And Barbara Brie says, one of your legislative proposals to build more housing near transit would actually destroy some of the older neighborhoods. How do you convince the existing neighborhoods that higher density is going to work for them? Well, first off, it would require a leader that's not engaged in fear-mongering when it comes to additional housing development. You know, that's an easy thing to say to the public, but ultimately neighborhoods do change. Speaker 1: 04:55 I don't believe that new housing is necessarily bad for communities. In fact, I think it can be helpful in community improving. I've seen it in my own city council district and whether it's North park or little Italy, you see communities that have really gotten vibrancy or where we've maintained a certain historic assets but invited additional, um, uh, development where it's appropriate. I want to be really clear, you know, this is not about building anything anywhere. Building housing out in the back country than the fire prone areas is not appropriate. Building high-rises that are the most expensive form of housing longer coasts. Also not what we need. What we need is additional housing that is priced for working in middle-class San Diego near jobs, near existing infrastructure. And this would be important if we want to solve what I think is the biggest issue in the city, which is communicating to San Diego is that they have a place here that they can afford to live here, build a family here, raise, raise a family here. Speaker 1: 05:46 I don't think too many of our folks right now feel like they can and that is not a recipe for success for this city. Can you be specific about some of the neighborhoods or areas that you think density is appropriate? Well, I think any community, I think every community has to do its fair share and whether that's a granny flat or a row home or a Guidant garden style apartment or more transit oriented development, it has to be matched to the community itself. But this notion that all nature, all development is bad is just simply not true. And quite honestly it's counterproductive. I am interested in engaging with the community and finding out what the right mix is. Alison, when I was served on the city council, I had the responsibility of helping to site additional shelters for homeless people in my city council district. Speaker 1: 06:27 These were not easy conversations to have, but I engaged in them and worked with the community to figure out a way to integrate these things successfully into the community and we did precisely that as mayor. Would you be able to interact that intimately with your constituents? 100% I have a reputation for being one of the most accessible elected officials in this County and I that will not change as mayor. In fact, I don't know how you can do the work of public service without being out and engaged in the community and that's particularly true for the most difficult of subjects. Homelessness is by far the most complex problem there is. There is no simple solution and so it's going to require a level of engagement that perhaps we haven't seen before, but I believe that sanding is want change on this. They're going to willing to support an executive that's going to go out and do the hard work. Speaker 1: 07:10 And your listeners know that. I have never been afraid of hard work. So another of the contributing factors is the large, the explosion really of Airbnbs, of short term rentals. And the city's attorneys has determined that short term rentals are illegal under the city's municipal code. So if you are the mayor, would you enforce those codes? Yes, I would. And I say that as someone that is willing to have a longer conversation about this. But Alison, when your legal counsel tells you that something is illegal, I think you must listen to them. And if we don't like that opinion then we should go about the process of changing the law. Right now what I hear from San Diego ins is that to the extent that they are troubled by a vacation Reynolds in their community, it's largely having to do with quality of life concerns of noise, of parking, of other kinds of disturbances in the community. Speaker 1: 07:56 And I think the city should absolutely crack down on those kinds of things, create the kind of enforcement mechanism that actually will allow someone to come and respond to that. Um, I think that through a series of fees, fines, instruction and taxes, we can fund us of uh, uh, an enforcement, uh, effort that would make sure that these, uh, bad actors are cracked down upon. Um, I think it's disturbing that the city of San Diego in all of these years has not been capable of doing what many other cities have, which is successfully regulating, uh, this use in our neighborhoods. Um, when I was on the city council, I fashioned two motions that were approved by the city council to regulate the industry. And unfortunately the current mayor ignored both of those motions. I think it's time for this city council right now who could choose to enforce on this or pass an ordinance to do it today if they're incapable of doing it. Speaker 1: 08:43 And I'm the mayor, I will work to make sure we have a law on the books that we can actually enforce. And let's face it, I mean the city council has already passed laws about short term rentals and they haven't gone anywhere. They said they've been overturned. So what they would different that that has not been tried already. What, so the city council did approve an ordinance and then they ultimately repealed it. That's right. And then that repeal process, there's a one year cooling off after that happens, that period has passed. So if you are upset with the current state of affairs when it comes to, uh, Airbnb, uh, they could do something now. Um, what would I do differently? Well, you know, obviously I think you can take what the council was able to pass and then use that as a base of negotiations to figure out what can we get that can be approved by the city council and not be referendumed. Speaker 1: 09:30 Ultimately, I think whatever it would be would certainly be an improvement over the current situation, which is basically the city says they're illegal but there's no enforcement. Um, there are, uh, the, I think it's are questionable whether or not the city is receiving its fair share of the taxes, uh, that is generated, uh, by this use. And of course there are communities that have bad actors that are out there who are disturbing quality of life. This current situation cannot stand. It will change. The question is how long will it take? I hope to be the leader that would actually put this issue to rest because other cities have done it. We should be able to do it too. Right. It does sound like you're more determined to take care of the bad actors rather than perhaps put some restrictions on the number of short term rentals that could exist in a city. Speaker 1: 10:13 I think that would be a part of the negotiation. I mean there, but ultimately when I listened to San Diego, the people who were upset about this are the ones who you know have, you know, noise issues, parking issues, any number of issues and ultimately we have to listen to our constituents, understand the problem and work aggressively to solve it. Right now I'm concerned that no one at city hall is listening because I get the, I hear these complaints, I'm interested in acting. They don't apparently seem to be interested in acting. Now do you support SANDAG that's the San Diego association of governments there. That's the regional planning board. Do you support their five big moves to transform transit in the region? Which would get people out of their cars, perhaps onto bikes, people say and trains. And, and what about the fact that people are quite angry at the amount of money being spent on bike lanes? Speaker 1: 10:57 How do you balance all those priorities? Well, number one, I do support the five big moves. I think that it is time for our world-class city to have a world-class transportation system. And importantly I would use the authority under assembly bill eight Oh five that actually restructured SANDAG that puts the mayor of San Diego in a position to help lead the organization, um, to actually use that authority to make sure that we are making investments to give your listeners freedom of choice when it comes to getting from a to B right now, does that mean less money on roads? Cause some people are going to be very disturbed by that. Well ultimately what we have to do is follow what has been adopted. And you made mention of the fact that some people are upset about what's being spent on bikes, but Alison, the voters of San Diego approved that. Speaker 1: 11:38 Um, so I am in the habit of listening to what the people have voted to do and what SANDAG is chroming doing is implementing that. My objection is that this is going extremely slowly, uh, and that people can't really see the network that is attempting to be built. And so they understandably are skeptical. But honestly, Alison, when I look at what prob plans and I approve when I was on the city council years ago that have yet to be implemented, you recognize that this is less about a vision and more about implementation. I want to be the guy that comes in and helps actually construct this network that gives people the freedom of choice. Because right now I'm, I think that San Diegans have no choice when it comes from getting from a to B. And the choice is simply right now just to sit in traffic and be miserable. Speaker 1: 12:17 So if you were mayor, there would be more public transit, more bike lanes being built, more pedestrian opportunities, more high quality public transit and the ability to get in your car if that's what's appropriate. But again, I think that our current situation is not befitting of our region in two quick things. I don't think that our economy can continue to flourish if we're not making massive investments in our transportation infrastructure. And importantly, I know that our climate action plan necessitates us moving in that pretty clear direction. And so we must move in that direction too. Let's just talk quickly about police reform. One of your other democratic opponents, Tasha Williamson says she would replace police chief, uh, [inaudible]. Would you keep them on the job if you were elected? I'm not making any personnel decisions during the course of the campaign. Um, I think broadly speaking, I'm hopeful that, uh, folks who are currently at the city, if they believe in the vision that I'm painting in this campaign and that I want to carry out as administration, folks would be welcome to, to, to continue on. Speaker 1: 13:12 Um, if they don't see that as a part of what they can do, then they'd be asked to leave. But here's the thing. Ultimately I think that the next mayor of San Diego should make it a priority to work on improving the relationship between our police officers and our communities. I don't think that it's possible to properly police a city of this size without the trust of the neighborhoods that we are serving in and I've been able to, I've had a ability to bring people together in this regard. I am proud to have the endorsement of our San Diego police officers and the endorsement of assembly woman, Shirley Webber, folks who are often seen as on opposite sides of this issue, who both believe that I'm the best person to be the next mayor of San Diego. And I'm hopeful that that's proof to your listeners that I can bring people together on this very difficult and sensitive issue which relates to surveillance cameras for example. Speaker 1: 13:55 It's been very controversial. Well, and I'm very frustrated about that. Not because I don't want our police department to have the tools they need to keep us safe, but importantly we have to operate in a transparent fashion. And I believe that San Diego PR prize, their privacy. And right now to the extent that this, uh, technology, not just this technology by the way, Alison, whether it's license plate readers, sting Ray or other kinds of, of technology that is being used by our police department, the fact that the public doesn't understand how that's being used, how their data is being collected in what it's being used for. These are concerns. And again, it gets back to that question of trust. For me, we are w we will acquire appropriate technology, but we will disclose to the public and in advanced explain what we intend to do with it and how this will be used to actually get bad people off the streets, not to collect data about private citizens who are not doing anything illegal. Speaker 1: 14:42 Now you have been called a career politician compared to Barbara Brie, for example, who has been in politics much less than you. Uh, Barbara Reese has that the San Diego city government is not accountable. And uh, so what would you say to people who, who feel like the city really needs somebody to shake things up? Well, first off, I will make no apologies for spending my career serving my hometown. I love San Diego and I've done everything I can to give back to the city. That's given me so many opportunities with regard to this notion that someone with absolutely zero experience in the public sector is capable of leading um, government. But that's not true of Barbara Brie, of course. Well, there's that, but I, I would refer you to Washington D C and see what a president with zero public sector experience has done for us. Um, I'd also point out to someone who I look up to and who I have the endorsement of in this campaign. Speaker 1: 15:31 Uh, governor Jerry Brown, who has spent a career in public service, he took California from a state that people said was ungovernable and should be broken up into smaller pieces. Turn us around a situation where we have stable finances, a solvent budget, and we're doing big and bold progressive things. That's what experience can do. And humbly, this is the eighth largest city in the United States. It's a multibillion dollar budget with over 11,000 employees. I think you need someone who has experienced and your listeners know that I did this job for eight months under the most difficult of circumstances in this campaign. I'm asking for the opportunity to do it for eight years under more normal circumstances. If you were to give us an example of what you've learned in this past few years that would enable you to be more effective at city than you were before, what would that be? Speaker 1: 16:14 Oh my God. So many things. Our son, you know, when I was on the city council, I just thought the state was terrible and I thought they only live to do things to cities, and I'm specifically, I'm thinking about repealing redevelopment or taking away economic development incentives, the kinds of tools that we use to do good and important things like what we did in city Heights or in North park. But now here we are in a situation where, you know, I worked with Senator Tony Atkins last year to pass a bill to make sure that our city's pure water system, where we're going to get our water for many decades to come to actually get that project back on track and actually put billions of dollars of investment into our communities. That is what the state is able to do. And I want to take that experience and the relationships that I've created with people like governor Gavin Newsome with our attorney general and others. And to bring that to the benefit of San Diego, I think I will be a better mayor for having served in wa in Sacramento, uh, and combined with my experiences at the County of San Diego and at the federal government collectively. I think that that's something that I can bring that as a benefit, uh, to this, uh, to this candidacy and proof that I won't just be a mayor, but I'll be an effective and good mayor, assemblyman, Todd. Gloria, thank you so much for being with us. Thank you Alison. Speaker 1: 00:00 Hundreds of children from around the world are living in migrant shelters in Tiguan have right now waiting with their parents for their chance to claim asylum in the U S now KPBS reporter max Rivlin Adler tells us a few of those children will have a chance to play and learn in to new places, especially designed to help them grow during a time when their future is uncertain. Speaker 2: 00:25 Every day at eight 30 the doors open at a space called the nest where kids from the ages of zero to six are able to play, paint and build. There's a set of tubes they could build into fantastic shapes and said marbles tumbling through them. Light boards, they can decorate with translucent shapes and clay. They can pound into any form they choose. Each day begins with a song. Speaker 3: 00:46 Yeah. Speaker 2: 00:53 Then the children go off to different stations supervised by volunteers like hundreds of other migrant children in Tijuana. They're trying to make it to the United States to claim asylum with their parents. Some have been sent back to wait and Mexico under the remain in Mexico program while others are waiting to be admitted. To the U S to claim asylum after waiting on an unofficial list for months. The nest helps give them a routine, some smiling faces and a place to be kids says at least Ivy who founded the [inaudible], Speaker 3: 01:24 so, but the idea is to create a space where children who have been displaced and dragged across borders can have a place where they can just be where they can heal. Speaker 2: 01:36 The nest in Tijuana, which opened in September is one of four other spaces for refugees that Ivy has helped open with the pedagogical Institute of Los Angeles. The nest sits across from the [inaudible] shelter, which is where the children live for anywhere between two to five months as they wait to claim asylum. Family share a bed in the overcrowded shelter which receives no support from the Mexican government. The courtyard is filled with dry and clothes and children are left to entertain themselves in a small and chaotic courtyard. Parents there say the nest gives their children the opportunity to play in a safe space and gives them some time to themselves. Susanna Volos Torres 18 is from the Choa con. She fled last year with her two children after her husband disappeared and she received violent threats. Her three year old daughter Daniella attends the nest, which she describes as beautiful Speaker 3: 02:30 [inaudible]. Speaker 2: 02:31 Not only does it help her daughter, Susanna explains, but it gives her time to help around the shelter. Speaker 3: 02:39 [inaudible] Speaker 2: 02:40 she says she gets to work in the communal kitchen or to help clean up the shelter while the kids are occupied. The center isn't only helping occupied the youngest migrants. 17 year old Anna Medallia was chief pres is also from and show a con. She fled political violence with her parents and her two siblings. She's been volunteering at the nest for three weeks, helping the younger children play and learn. Speaker 3: 03:06 [inaudible] [inaudible] Speaker 2: 03:06 she says it helps her relax by getting to laugh with the kids during the day. She plans on becoming a teacher when she gets to the United States. Right now the nest across from the cadet to shelter serves around 30 children a day. This month. It's organizers plan on opening a second location in Tijuana and a Canyon that houses the in Baja daughters, the hazy shelter, which is one of the most isolated shelters in the city. It houses mostly central American migrants who have been returned to Mexico through the remain Mexico program. It's also near little Haiti where dozens of Haitians have settled while they decide whether to enter the U S Speaker 3: 03:43 well. There are so many children living in these shelters and they're stuck on mattresses all day long. There's nothing for them and we know that this is a time of enormous brain development. Speaker 2: 03:54 Ivy leads us on a tour of the new space which aims to serve 50 children a day. The conditions in the Canyon are extreme open sewage and burning trash, safe space with roosters and farm animals just a mile from the U S border. It's still the goal remains to create a space for children to have room to dream. Ivy is still fundraising to operate the space and is holding an open house next week for volunteers North of the border who want to get involved in to Quana and actually from an Adler. Hey PBS news Speaker 1: 04:26 and KPBS reporter max Rivlin Adler joins us now. Max, welcome. Hi. So we just heard about this new space for migrant children in Tijuana and another one that will soon open. But how big is the overall need for asylum seeking families in Tijuana? Right now Speaker 2: 04:43 the need is, is rather large. Right now there are thousands of uh, asylum seekers and migrants, some from Mexico, many from Mexico, some from central America as well stuck in Tijuana. There's no way to actually quantify how many children are living there. But I could just tell you from being in several shelters and, and from speaking with people, you know, there are so many children that are stuck in a situation where they don't have access to any environment that would foster growth or learning or things like that. And if they've already taken a perilous journey to get here. So where's the fun Speaker 1: 05:15 didn't come from to run this child center? Speaker 2: 05:17 The funding is entirely, you know, it's a nonprofit. It's a very small outfit. It's rather new. It's gotten some money, um, from, from other larger nonprofits. But, but really it's, it's kind of crowd funding. It's trying to get money on, on a smaller scale so that they can continue to build. One other thing that didn't quite get into in this piece is that they look for volunteers, especially from the San Diego area who would be interested in coming down and spending a week or two with the children and working down there. And they really want to encourage people who just want to, um, get time to give these kids a space and opportunity to, uh, to grow. I'm involved and with the large number of asylum seeking families in Mexico, are migrant children and T Quanta eligible to enroll in public schools? I mean, is that an option? Speaker 2: 06:08 It is a, I mean, especially for the Mexican citizens, but it's not really something that the parents are considering by just being migrants themselves. They're putting themselves in high danger of being targets for kidnapping, extortion, things like that. They are really reticent to step outside of, um, kind of exactly where they need to, which would be the shelter. They're very wary of. Um, you know, trying to spread themselves too thin. So these people very often live in a very circumscribed area and, and sending their kids to school is not really an option. What about the local, state and federal government? What are government officials doing to help shelter and address the needs of migrants in Tijuana? I spoke with the federal delegate to Tijuana yesterday, uh, to the federal government sends to, to kind of coordinate how it's responding to the migrant crisis at, into Juana. Speaker 2: 07:00 They've opened up one shelter, they plan on opening up another, but still the need is so great. The numbers are so large that it only scratches the surface. There is nowhere near enough bed space or shelter space or resources for all the people have that have come into Tijuana and over the past year or so. So they're really playing catch up. Uh, I think a lot of migrant organizations and people who speak on their behalf would say they haven't done near enough. Um, and, but as the federal delegate told me yesterday, it is the number one issue for the federal government in Tijuana, and that's how they're treating it. I've been speaking with KPBS reporter max Rivlin Adler max. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker 1: 00:00 Lawyer. Corey Briggs is well known for using nonprofits to Sue public agencies. Now he's running in the March primary to be San Diego city attorney. Our partner, I knew sources found problems with the nonprofits linked to Briggs here with more is I knew source investigative reporter Jennifer Bowman. Jennifer, welcome. Thank you. So I knew sources previously investigated nonprofits associated with Corey Briggs. Why did you look into them again and what did you find out this time? We have looked at him before, um, particularly his network of nonprofits. And in 2015 we found that his private practice had formed dozens of nonprofits and then sued on their behalf. And at the time we found that over half had been suspended by either the franchise tax board or the secretary of state for failing to file legally required documents. These documents show things like finances, mission statements, and board structures. Um, and now he's running for office again. Speaker 1: 00:57 He's, I'm challenging Mara Elliot along with another challenger Pete message. Um, and so we, we looked and reviewed these nonprofits again and, and what we found was that most still are out of compliance. Um, most had been suspended by the secretary of state or franchise tax board. Some, both in some cases. Um, the 11 nonprofits had received a cease and desist orders from the state attorney general for failing to, uh, to file as charities and a few owe $1,000 or more to the franchise tax board. Um, we asked Briggs, uh, for an interview to talk about our findings. He did not respond to our requests. Well, tell us about his practice of suing on behalf of nonprofits. I mean, what happens when he wins in court and what happens when he loses? So, most of his clients are nonprofits and he's closely associated with these nonprofits. Speaker 1: 01:49 Um, some of them he incorporated or his law firm incorporated, um, addresses match his law firms. Sometimes he's an officer, um, for these nonprofits and, and Briggs wins sometimes in court. And that means, uh, attorney fees and settlements, uh, that he wins. Uh, in fact, a candidate filing that he gave, uh, just last year in December shows, um, his law firm lists, uh, the city and other public agencies for, for each providing $10,000, at least in income to that law firm. Um, but Briggs also loses and, um, this has been challenged in court when he loses because he claims his clients have no money and inability to pay. And attorneys on the other side have challenged that before. So you've, you've heard attorneys argue that these groups are purposely kept penniless. And in fact, um, just a few years ago when Jan Goldsmith was still city attorney, his office filed court documents saying that San Diego is for open government, which is one of Briggs most frequent clients, um, was a mere alter ego of Briggs. Speaker 1: 02:54 Hmm. So why does all this matter? Why are nonprofits required to file documents about their finances and officers? Well, it's the law, but there's a reason for those laws. So nonprofits are required to follow those documents that talk about their finances, their board structures. And if they plan on receiving donations than the attorney general requires that they file, they register as, as a charitable nonprofits. Um, there's a reason for the laws. The point is to be transparent with the public. The ag has that so they can monitor charities, make sure that the donations are not being misused. Um, and, and it's to be transparent with the public and, and, and that includes the people who make those very donations and Briggs has hit Mara Elliot hard on issues like her failed public records act proposal. Um, and even the city smart streetlights program. How has she responded to his criticism? So, so Corey Briggs has said during his campaign that Mara Elliott consistently provides bad legal advice to the mayor and city council. Um, and, and points to things like the records bill when he says that Mara Elliot's office is obsessed with secrecy. Mara Elliot spoke with us for our story and this is what she had to say. Speaker 2: 04:11 It's unfortunate because the argument that someone like him will make is I am doing this for the taxpayers. I don't believe that for a moment because when he wins a pay out to, they're not substantial, but they certainly do add up. That money's coming from the taxpayers. Speaker 1: 04:28 So he, she argues that Briggs is actually part of the problem is she was trying to address what the public public records bill rising number of records requests as well as costly and sometimes frivolous lawsuits. And, and when it comes to the smart street lights program, she is largely dismissed that criticism. Um, she's been hit for, uh, owning some of general electric stock. GE owned the company that, uh, was installing the sensors. That's no longer the case. They've since sold that company, but she argues $18,000 worth of stock is going to help pay for her college education for her children. Um, and then it does not constitute a substantial holding and therefore there is no a violation of law that's been alleged and there are no conflicts of interest. All very interesting. I have been speaking with, I knew source investigative reporter, Jennifer Bowman. Jennifer, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for more on this story. You can go to, I knew source.org I knew source is an independently funded nonprofit partner of KPBS. Speaker 1: 00:00 This is KPBS midday edition. I'm Jade Hindman and I'm Ellison st John in for Maureen Cavanagh. IDW publishing just celebrated its 20th year in San Diego and has known for such comics as teenage mutant Ninja turtles. My little pony V Wars and lock and key which debuts as a streaming series on Netflix this Friday. KBB is arts reporter Beth, how commando checks in with president, publisher and chief creative officer Chris rial to see what's ahead for the company as it enters its third decade. So Chris you are back at IDW. Give us a little kind of recap of where IDW is right now cause you've gone through some changes here. Yeah, I returned Speaker 2: 00:41 the winter of 2018 so I was here for about 14 years, then took a year away and returned, came back as the company's publisher, president and chief creative officer. And since then we've just been sort of figuring out who we are as the company starts its third decade. We celebrated our 20th anniversary last year and so we've just been really trying to best position ourselves to go forward for what the company wants to be. Now. In 2020 and beyond. Speaker 1: 01:08 Comic-Con has received some criticism for drifting away from comics. But the question I have for you is it seems like all the big comic publishers are no longer just producing comics. Everybody seems to be going into entertainment as well. So do you think that like comic con is reflecting what the industry is going through? Speaker 2: 01:28 I'm always a little troubled by that complaint about Comicon anyway because to me Comicon is sort of all things to all people who love pop culture. Like if you want to just do tabletop gaming upstairs, there's a massive area for that. Or you know, the live action role play out Outback. And if you love comics, there's a massive section of retailers and toys based on comics and all of that panels with all old craters. There's an artist alley with all kinds of craters at all levels that you can meet and talk to. And then in the middle, yes there's the big film presence. Um, but I just, you know, Comicon is kind of what you want it to be. And so like when I want to go look at old comics and go talk to people, like that's all right there at all times. And then, yeah, I think as the lines have gotten fuzzier where publishers have a lot of productions that have shown up now on TV, streaming services, movies, what have you. I think the lines have blurred a bit more, but comics are always, you know, first and foremost a huge part of that convention. Speaker 1: 02:26 And IDW has developed an entertainment division and you guys are debuting a new show this week. Speaker 2: 02:33 Yeah, we're so excited. Locking key is, is kind of our flagship title. It's one that I'm really proud to have helped launch here in 2008 you know? And so it's been a long gestation period for the show. It changed hands and been developed by a lot of very competent people over the years. And I feel like all of those things have led us to where we are now, which is this Netflix show. It just feels like the perfect version of this show. And so just to have everybody worked so hard on this stuff, you know, largely independently in their rooms as they're drying pages or writing pages or what have you. To be able to see this thing finally come to life after, uh, a couple, you know, near misses is really, Speaker 3: 03:13 Hey, check it out. We're here. Welcome. The key house could never get your father. They talk about his life here. My kids need a home. [inaudible] yes. We're also Speaker 2: 03:43 doing some interesting partnerships. You guys are working with the Smithsonian. Yeah. A few years ago I'm primarily coming out of the, uh, Congressman John Lewis books March. You know, we, we saw that there was a real appetite for nonfiction graphic novels too. And so we followed that up with the George decay book last year. And then out of that we talked about, that was one of the things we talked about for our, our, you know, sort of next iteration of IDW is what do we want to be now? And we thought, well, we want to, we want to be more in that space to doing stories that have topical relevancy and historical relevancy. And telling these important stories that captivate a different kind of reader. And so we started this conversation with the Smithsonian and they have so many music, not only just the different museums but also the experts on site, you know, that that really know their area of expertise more than anybody else. Speaker 2: 04:33 And so to engage them in ways to pull stories out of out of these museums or how do these exhibits and tell graphic novel stories, whether it's nonfiction or it's fictionalized versions of, you know, past events, that kind of thing. Is, is just a way to who to put graphic novels in front of people in different ways. What do you think kind of defines IDW and makes them different from the other publishers? We have a very wide breadth of material that we offer people. So you know, we've long since since, except to the fact that superhero content is sewn up very capably by Marvel and DC. And so rather than try to compete directly, we always wanted to be an alternative to that. So we did stories originally that were more horror based or fantasy based or science fiction based that maybe hit an audience once they either aged out of superhero comics or wanted to something with a different flavor. Speaker 2: 05:24 From there we moved into trying to really cultivate the next generation of comic readers through things like my little pony. So in addition to doing content aimed at younger readers, we also do these archival books where we're taking either old newspaper strips and putting them in these really nicely presented archival, you know, very lasting bookshelf ready formats or in doing the same thing with comic book art and now doing a wider array of nonfiction graphic novels doing I think for the first graphic novel publisher to to present Spanish language content for the North American audience. And so just trying to hit all these different readerships in ways to not only captivate current readers but find ways to reach new audiences, reach younger audiences and help cultivate that next generation readers as well. Speaker 1: 06:08 And so what is your job like in terms of this is the 21st century. A lot of stuff is digital and, and things have changed a lot in the industry. So what do you do in terms of, you know, getting new comics or looking for new art or actually putting these things together? I mean, it's funny. That's still very analog Speaker 2: 06:26 development in a digital world. You know, a lot of it is just talking to authors and talking to artists, talking to creators, that conventions, you know, we'll meet here and brainstorm on things that we'd like to do. And sometimes we'll go out to people and say, we'd like to develop content based around this kind of idea or this genre, this, you know, whatever the case may be. Other times people will come to us, um, our reach out to various partners, you know, people like the Smithsonian or other perspective license owners. A lot of us are very prolific readers and so we'll read somebody and think, yeah, their sensibilities would lend themselves to comics to nachos pros. And so you just cast a very wide net and see what you can develop and, uh, try to just keep finding new content that fits into the company's overall. You know, drive and mission and what we want to do and then just keep, you know, trying to make good content, you know, that is compelling and, uh, worth people's time. Speaker 1: 07:21 So is walking around Comic-Con or WonderCon and looking at artist's alley still someplace where you can find talent? Speaker 2: 07:27 Oh yeah. I mean really that's, that's the best way is, you know, there used to be generations ago there was the Manila envelopes, you know, they would get sent in and end up on a slush pile and you would hope a, an editor might have spare time to read through them. And that still happens occasionally. But really it's, it's keep an eye online and seeing what people are talking about and who people are engaged by and walking around and conventions. And there's so many people I found where I just go that our style is beautiful. Like we should talk about it doing a thing together. And then it leads to this, this entirely new project that you never really even thought about. But the style sort of helps dictate what that book might be. Or if you have something in mind, you know, we're doing a Smithsonian project that is telling this story or looking at this historical event and you walk around and you find somebody whose art style might be perfect for what that story might need to be. And so it is very much still just a, I mean, it's still very much a relationship business. You know, you, you meet people and talk to them and just get engaged by their creativity and then hopefully good things happen from there. Speaker 1: 08:28 All right, well, I want to thank you very much for talking about what you're talking about. Thank you. That was Beth Armando speaking with IDW. Chris Ryle. IDW is Lacan and he arrives as a Netflix streaming show on Friday.