Poll Shows San Diego Mayor Race A Dead Heat, Wildfires Give Heightened Awareness To Clean Air Day, District 2 Supervisor Race, Nursing Home Sexual Assault And 5 Songs For October

Speaker 1: 00:00 New polling reveals the San Diego mayor's race is neck and neck Speaker 2: 00:05 As a head of Barbara re 39% to 38%. But that's well within the 5.3% margin of errors, Speaker 1: 00:11 I'm Maureen, Kevin all with Alison st. John. This is KPBS mid day edition. During these most uncivil time, San Diego hosts a conference on civil civic duty, Speaker 2: 00:30 But you can engage in really robust, often heated discussion, but you have to respect the person on the other side, Speaker 1: 00:38 This clean air day, we'll ask how healthy is San Diego's air. And we'll hear five new songs from local bands to help get us through October. That's a head on mid day edition. New polling, four races in the city of San Diego finds the battle for mayor is still almost neck and neck between Democrats, Todd, Gloria, and Barbara Bray. The new numbers from the San Diego union Tribune, 10 news survey USA poll. Also give an indication which way voters are leaning on city measures that would increase housing for the homeless and establish a new police review board. Joining me is San Diego union Tribune reporter David Garrick. Hi, David. Welcome. I'm Ryan. Thanks for having me. Is there a clear leader in the San Diego mayor's race? Speaker 2: 01:25 No. And the, and the latest poll we've done Todd Gloria as a head of Barbara Reed, 39% to 38%, but that's well within the 5.3% margin of error. So it's basically a dead heat or as close as I can get to a dead heat. Speaker 1: 01:38 Where is breeze support coming from? Speaker 2: 01:40 It was already more so among Republicans and independence, and that seems to fit because she seems to be taking some more centrists and Republican friendly positions. And that's something that she sort of had to do because she was the underdog in this race and she's running against a fellow Democrat. So, you know, taking similar to positions to him, doesn't help you when you're an underdog Speaker 1: 02:00 And who's supporting Gloria Speaker 2: 02:03 You're hardcore Democrats. He's been endorsed by the San Diego County democratic party, despite the fact that he and Bree are both Democrats, they chose him. And he's also getting more support in recent days from, uh, young people, uh, and Latinos, which he's a native American, Latino and Filipino. Uh, and he was actually leading with Latino voters on our last poll, but now he's leading with Latino voters. So that's sort of been a surge for him. Speaker 1: 02:27 Now, this mayor's poll finds almost a quarter of the voters polled still undecided. So does it seem the race really could go either way? Speaker 2: 02:36 It does. Yeah. 23, 24% are undecided with only four weeks left and voting is actually underway. So, uh, and it's hard to know how those voters are gonna go, especially with two Democrats you don't know, or a lot of those late voters Democrats, I mean, typically they are. And so if it's a Republican versus Democrat race, you can guess where they're going to go, but here we have two Democrats. So it's very hard to guess where those votes will go. You know, speaking of undecideds, Speaker 1: 03:00 The poll finds a full 50% of voters undecided in the race for city attorney, that race pits, incumbent city attorney, Mara Elliott against challenger Corey Briggs. Who's ahead in that poll. Speaker 2: 03:12 Uh, Elliot is ahead, but her lead is shrunk on our last poll. She was 10 points ahead. And now it's down to six points, which is just barely larger than that margin of error. I keep mentioning a 5.3%. One thing interesting to note is that Briggs has made inroads with Republicans. They're both Democrats also in the city attorney race, but breaks is a support among Republicans has been. Speaker 1: 03:31 Now, when it comes to the measures facing San Diego voters, the polling is not looking good for measure a, can you remind us what measure a would do Speaker 2: 03:40 Measure? Hey, is a $900 million housing bond. It's really designed to sort of a local solution to homelessness and an effort for San Diego to get its sort of fair share of state money because a LA and San Francisco I've passed bonds like this. And so they're getting a huge amount of state money. Uh, anyway, it's a housing bond, uh, and it would build housing for homeless people. Uh, but the poll shows that it needs to third support and the poll shows that's not close to that, but it's barely ahead about five points ahead and it needs to be much farther ahead than that, to have any chance of reaching two thirds on election day Speaker 1: 04:11 And measure B, which would give more power to a police misconduct oversight panel. That one seems to be doing well with city voters. Doesn't it? Speaker 2: 04:21 Yeah. Beyond, well, I would call it a lock. If I were a gambler, I would, I would be willing to bet on it. It's leaning up 53% to 21% and it only needs a simple majority. So I would say that's a that's as good as a, as a. Speaker 1: 04:33 And how are the two other measures on the city ballot polling? Speaker 2: 04:37 Yeah, well measure E is the really interesting ones. That's the one that's to raise the height limit near the sports arena, which could allow a new sports community to be built and would allow sort of intense housing around the sports arena area, which a lot of people feel is our area, right for redevelopment that is leading in our poll by 12 points. And the poll we did a month ago, it was only leading by two points, which seems to indicate that the more people are hearing about the proposal, the more they're liking it. I mean, hard to say for sure, but that's what it seems to indicate. Uh, and at that passes that that's a game changer for the sports arena area. The other one was with the school districts. It changed the school district voting for at-large district by district. That also looks like it's going to pass. It's leading, but there's a lot of people who are undecided on that one. So it's not Speaker 1: 05:20 Now David, there were questions raised about the methodology and accuracy of the last survey USA poll on local races. What can you tell us about whether that was corrected and what the best practices are to ensure polling data is as accurate as possible? Speaker 2: 05:36 Yeah, you know, it's a complicated thing, especially in the world where people have more cell phones in the old days when people would do these polls, everyone had a landline. So the shift of people to cell phones has created some more uncertainty and confusion about, are you getting a representative sample and a swath of the population? I'm not a statistician and I'm not an expert, but I know those are some of the key issues. Uh, the criticism of last month survey USA, 10 news union Tribune poll was that there weren't enough independence. Uh, and the poll independence are typically about 30% of the local electorate. And in that one, I think it was 18%. Uh, this poll was better. It was about 23%. Uh, but when I talked to the head of the polling company, he said, they didn't really do anything differently to try to make that number better. Speaker 2: 06:18 It just got better on its own. Uh, and the other criticism of the poll one month ago was that there were too many likely voters out of the folk survey. Uh, that number was like 90 something percent, which does seem enormously high. Uh, this time it was lower. And, uh, I talked to the polling company guy and he said that was something that they did make happen. They were sorta more aggressively screening folks, instead of just asking them when they were being surveyed, are you likely to vote? They asked them other questions about, well, how do you plan to vote? Where do you plan to vote? Just to sort of figure out exactly what the person's plans were in during the course of doing that. They realized some folks who had maybe identified themselves as a likely voter, maybe weren't really a likely voter. And so that number shut down to a more, uh, common, common result that you would expect to see. Speaker 3: 07:02 Okay. Then I've been speaking with San Diego union Tribune, reporter David Garrick. David, thank you so much. Thanks for your time. Speaker 3: 07:15 Today is clean air day a day, to focus on the air. We breathe, how it affects our health and what we can do to keep it clean. This year. Our awareness is heightened by the weeks of smoke drifting from wildfires that have hung over the County. We had unhealthy smoke billowing over the South Bay, after the fire on the USS Bonham Rashard and of course climate change is affecting everything here to give us a better understanding. How about how changing air quality is affecting us is dr. Bruce Becker, an OB GYN who is on the climate action campaigns, board of directors, and is a volunteer with the American lung association. Dr. Bocco welcome to the show. Great to be with you. You say that it's a misnomer that because we live by the ocean, we have pretty good air quality. Talk to us about that. Speaker 2: 07:59 Everything's relative. I guess I grew up in Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley and, and air was something you could see on many, many days out of the year, and it definitely hurt our lungs as kids running around. So the air seems clean in coastal environments and in San Diego most of the time. But in fact, we have data for instance, from the state of the air report, from the American lung association, which they put out every year that shows that Southern California in San Diego specifically is in the top 10 worst areas in the country for two very important types of air pollutants, both ozone and fine particulate matter PM 2.5, which are very serious health risks, and also tightly related to the climate crisis. So they're increasing Speaker 3: 08:42 In general. Talk about how poor air quality affects our health, Speaker 2: 08:48 Poor air quality in particular, uh, ozone and fine particulate matter have access to the bloodstream and they directly affect inflammatory processes. We're hearing a lot about that now with COVID, uh, infections that, that COVID elicits a, an intense inflammatory reaction in the lungs, which can be deadly and often is. So that's one example of the inflammation, uh, aspect of air pollutants that can cause adverse health effects. In addition, we know that asthma attacks in children and adults are often triggered by elevated levels of air pollution. Speaker 3: 09:23 Well, now there are these apps notice that can tell us exactly what the air quality is like is our neighborhood in our neighborhood. You know, for example, the purple air app tells us the, the, the particles per million, what are we to make of readings that show particles per million like today, they're showing over a hundred in many parts of the County. Speaker 2: 09:42 These readings tend to fluctuate, but, uh, it is really important that we have access to this information. There are air quality monitoring stations across the state, but basically the higher, the number, certainly when it gets over a hundred, uh, the more people that are going to be effected, whether or not they can tell the air is polluted. Uh, that's why apps like this and information on the air quality is really important for people. Again, especially if they fit into the vulnerable groups of the elderly people with preexisting heart and lung conditions, uh, people that are chronically ill children, um, anyone with asthma and as our recent study would suggest, uh, pregnant women. Speaker 3: 10:24 Talk a little bit more about your research on how it affects patients. Speaker 2: 10:28 I was very fortunate as an OB GYN to be able to connect with some other climate minded scientists who actually have a background in research. And we ended up doing the, what has become the first ever large scale review of common climate change type exposures heat. And these two types of air pollutants we've been talking about and adverse pregnancy outcomes in the U S uh, the journal of American medical association published our findings in mid June. And what we were able to show was that 57 out of 68 studies showed a very strong, significant association between those exposures heat and the air pollutants that we've been talking about and bad birth outcomes. Speaker 3: 11:10 How can people make use of any data they have about air quality, uh, to make decisions about their daily lives? You know, um, possibly for someone who's pregnant or someone who has young children, you know, what's a good day to take the kids to the park, for example, how should it affect our daily lives? Speaker 2: 11:27 I think we're still learning how to answer that question, but at its most basic level, it's not a bad idea to get in the habit of, of checking with that app and looking at it to see, uh, what the air quality is like in your town, your place, where you live or work. And then certainly if you're in one of those vulnerable groups that we were talking about, um, modifying your activities, spending less time outdoors, more time inside where there is hopefully cleaner air. That's not always the case, but it, it should, I think, uh, make us more prone to use this information, to reduce our exposures. And then if you have an elderly parents that certainly somebody with COPD or preexisting heart disease to be in touch with them and also make, uh, recommendations to them about trying to avoid exposures on a particular day, or being more attentive to when these symptoms discomfort they may have, or shortness of breath, so that you can be more on top of making sure they get the care that they need on those days of unhealthy air quality. Speaker 3: 12:27 If you have one of these apps that tells you the parts per million, uh, what would you say is a level at which you start as a doctor to be getting concerned about the average person Speaker 2: 12:37 Somewhere between a hundred and 150? Uh, I don't think the science is fully worked out, uh, exactly how to quantify the risk, but I think that the higher, the number, certainly the more precautions, the more attention we should be paying to this. And I think there's a bigger point to be made as well. We are seeing again in Southern California, a lot of unhealthy air days, and we shouldn't be fooled just because we live in a coastal city that we're free from this. And I think that there are a number of things that we can do to help improve the air quality, both indoors and outdoors. Some of it is personal actions and some of it also is community-wide. Uh, and I think it's really important for us to engage in this topic more, more than just from the perspective of trying to limit our personal exposures and those people in our family, and think of the larger picture and the opportunity that exists for us to, to make air quality better over the long term for everyone's sake, Speaker 3: 13:34 We get to what we can do to make air quality better. I want to ask you as a doctor, how concerned have you been about the effects of the smoke from the wildfires drifting through our region? Speaker 2: 13:44 I'm very concerned. Uh, the pollutants that come from wildfires they're are particularly noxious things like carbon monoxide, which is a odorless colorless, poisonous gas, ozone, and fine particulates. And other toxics that come with wildfires are polite enough to stay within range of the fire itself. They often travel tens or even hundreds of miles from where the fires are burning. So many people are affected, even if they're nowhere near the actual danger of the fire itself. Speaker 3: 14:13 No, the San Diego association of governments held a webinar last week, asking people to take an honor pledge to help clean the air. You know, SANDAG is a, is a transit agency. So they're focused on getting people out of their cars and taking public transit or biking, but what else can we do to help the quality of the air that we breathe? Speaker 2: 14:32 If we can eventually move housing more to a centralized plan, as opposed to being so spread out there's less transportation needed, uh, making public transportation more affordable and accessible is important. Not sitting idling in your car for 30 minutes while you catch up on all your texts would be a great habit that could all get into. Speaker 1: 14:52 Well, thank you so much for your perspective on this. We've been speaking with dr. Bruce Becker, who is an OB GYN, uh, and active with the climate action campaigns, board of directors, dr. Becker, thank you so much. Thanks for having me. This is KPBS mid day edition. I'm Maureen Cavenaugh with Alison st. John after last week's presidential debate devolved into frequent insults and interruptions, mostly by president Trump. America is holding its breath to see what tonight's vice presidential debate will be like. In fact, so often these days, the statements of America's political candidates feel like assaults rather than information. And so the ninth annual conference on restoring civility to civic dialogue, which takes place virtually today could hardly come at a better time. Speakers will address what conspiracy theories and verbal vitriol are doing to the health of our democracy. Joining me is political science professor, Carl Luna director at the Institute for civil civic engagement and organizer of the conference on restoring civility to civic dialogue. And Carl, welcome back to the, Speaker 4: 16:04 Yeah. Thank you for having me, Maureen, Speaker 1: 16:06 You've been advocating for a civil civic dialogue for many years now. What was your reaction to the presidential debate last week? Speaker 4: 16:16 A lot of Pepcid on the parade, uh, it was, as everybody wants to point out a low point in modern presidential discourse, the sad fact is neither of the candidates are probably going to pay much of a price at the polls. People now put partisanship over any sense of propriety and civility, and it's at the detriment of our democracy. Speaker 1: 16:38 Why do you think our political dialogue has come to this? Is, is it the president's fault or are there more factors involved? Speaker 4: 16:46 Oh, it's more complicated than anyone, a political leader, Marine, president Trump. He plays into it because he's good at doing it. He knows his strong suit and he's always been the bully and it works. And I'm not saying that derogatorily, he himself likes to push people around and his supporters kind of like that. Uh, but this goes back for years. I think at the end of the day, it comes down to a simple fact, we're confronting so many different problems and crises as we move through the 21st century, neither of the political parties really have a handle on how to address it. So if you can't solve the problem, what you're left with is demonizing the other side. Speaker 1: 17:21 Now this incivility in our politics is not restricted to national politics just recently in Carlsbad, a city council woman took out a restraining order against what she calls the threatening conduct of constituents online. How big a role does social media play in this breakdown of civility? Speaker 4: 17:40 Well, if lead was in the pipes is what the water is. What took out the Roman Republic. The social media is in danger of doing that to our Republic, unchecked, unfiltered social media, and with monopolies, basically of these big purveyors reaching into every home allows a firehose wall full of falsehoods, myths of information are conspiracy theories, the flood in our daily news newsfeeds. And then you don't know, what's what I mean. Even discerning viewers can be fooled by things they see on the internet. Speaker 1: 18:13 Now, as the featured speaker at today's conference, you have Cindy McCain, the widow of Senator John McCain, who has been working on the issue of civility. Tell us about that. Speaker 4: 18:25 Well, mrs. McCain spoke this morning and a webinar that one went out from the university of San Diego and the San Diego community college district. And she spoke passionately about her husband's dedication, the late Senator John McCain to civility. It did for him. It didn't mean that you just give up on your viewpoints, but you can engage in really robust, often heated discussion, but you have to respect the person. On the other side, you have to begin with an assumption unless you're given real evidence to the contrary that the other person is acting in good faith and also wants a better America too. You just sort of disagree on how to get there Speaker 1: 19:01 Now, who and what else is featured at the conference? Speaker 4: 19:04 Well, this afternoon, we have a panel on misinformation and conspiracy theories and their impact on democracy, which features, uh, historians from around America. Uh, also, uh, locally Matt hall, Natalie Walsh will be on the panel, looking at it from a journalist perspective. And we're going to focus on a small part on Q Anon, as an example of a conspiracy theory. That's hijacked, uh, the child trafficking issue, talking with a couple of experts in child trafficking. I mean, all these weird things circulate about conspiracies, which spell trafficking, the distract from really good public policy. And that's the problem, these conspiracies. And then after that, we'll have at the two o'clock Michael VU, and that gal was there from UCS D or you Thiel from their league of women voters talking about voting in 2020 fact from fiction. Another example of falsehoods, which are interfering with our democracy, how you can know your ballots are going to be safe. And the fact that if we don't know who won on election night, no big cheese, that's supposed to be normal Speaker 1: 20:03 Now because of our contentious in our polarized politics. Are you concerned about the November election? Speaker 4: 20:11 I am more concerned about an election at any point in my life Marine. I hate to be hyperbolic about it or sound emotional for it. But the 2000 election was one that came down to problems in Florida, neither party going into the 2000 a launch. And prior to that, we're talking about how you can, truck's the outcome, how the whole thing's going to be stolen. We've created such an environment of fear, uh, about the election for the Republicans. They think fraud will steal the election from them, for the Democrats and archaic electoral college system and voter, uh, laws that restrict the votes. They're afraid to steal the election from them. Neither is well positioned to credit the other side with winning. And that's the sort of a crisis we have never faced it in a Republic. Speaker 5: 20:55 Well, after today's conference, there is the vice presidential debate tonight. How do you think that will compare to the presidential debate? Last week? Speaker 4: 21:03 One would hope it would be better, but already I hear there's arguments going on about whether or not you'll have plexiglass on the stage. You have a big basic question about will Mike Pence come out swinging, see his problem is there's more of a spotlight on him because with MacDill, with president Trump and his recent illness, the VP debate now takes on a whole new unimportance. And mr. Pence is usually kind of quiet if he doesn't come out swinging like the prison did last week, he may look weak to his face and that could cause it all to disintegrate and Kamala Harris, a veteran prosecutor might actually be able to take him down if he does that, which will help her, but she may be sucked into it too. My hope is some policy gets discussed tonight or in the debate. Uh, I'm not as hopeful. Speaker 5: 21:50 Okay. Then I've been speaking with political science professor, Carl Luna, organizer of the conference on restoring civility to civic dialogue. Carl, thank you so much. Thank you to join in this afternoon session of the conference register at San diego.edu/civility, and look for the upcoming events bar. Attendance is free. San Diego county's board of supervisors will change more this year than it has in the last two decades. As new term limits kick in and three of the five seats are on the ballot. The race for the second soup of Israel district will determine who gets to succeed. Republican Diane. Jacob who's held that East County seat for the past 28 years. The Duke candidates running to replace Jacob are both Republicans. The outcome of the race will be an indication of how the Republican party is reframing itself as a blue wave sweep, San Diego County. So here to tell us more about the candidates is KPBS and [inaudible] Maya. Speaker 5: 22:55 Thanks for joining us. Thank you so much, Alison. So now briefly, who are these two candidates running to replace the NJ? Given what political background? Okay. So we have the two candidates, both Republicans, as you pointed out, we have Steve Voss who has been the mayor of Poway since 2014. He's also the chair of the San Diego association of governments for the last two years. Also known as SANDAG. Joel Anderson has some more legislative experience. He's represented the 77th district and the state assembly for four years, which includes a lot of district two. He moved into the state Senate in 2010, where he served there for eight years now, in speaking with Steve Voss, how does he define the differences between them? So the two candidates are fiscal conservatives, both running in a historically red district and they share a lot of what sets them apart. They say is their performance record as public servants. Here's what mayor Steve Voss had to say about it. Speaker 2: 23:54 I think the distinctions between myself and my opponent could be summed up with three things, track record, temperament and trust. As far as track record, I'm the only candidate with executive experience in running a jurisdiction. I think I've been pretty successful. Speaker 5: 24:10 Los went on to talk about his temperament and trust. He talked about the shooting at the Habbat of Poway, where he says that he mourned with the congregants and the rest of the world. Really saying that you cannot fake compassion. When I talked to Anderson, he said, if you think that we're in a great place in district two, then don't vote for him. He says, he's not your guy because he intends to change it. Speaker 3: 24:34 Okay? So bearing in mind that there's a good chance that the whole board of supervisors will change this year from being dominated by Republicans, to having a democratic majority. What did the two candidates say about how they can work across the aisle? Speaker 5: 24:46 Chronic influence is undoubtedly growing in the district in the primary election, the lone Democrat, Kenya Taylor, she brought in 27% of the votes in the district. Registered voters are broken down like this 36.2% are Republicans. 33.8% are registered Democrats. And 3.9 are independence. Both candidates are making it quite clear that they look forward to working across party lines. Specifically Anderson points to his experience in Sacramento. He says for four years, he didn't go to a Republican caucus. Here's more on what he had to say about his experience. Speaker 2: 25:22 You know, and in the time I had in the legislature, I did over 450 bills across party lines, either joint or coauthored, my Democrat colleagues. If you added all the Republicans I served with collectively, I did more bills with Democrats than all of them combined. Speaker 5: 25:39 Voss says he's not a professional politician. And he is quote, not part of any political machine. He says whether or not it's a race to the middle, it's where he lives. And he says, he's happy with that. Speaker 3: 25:52 Well briefly, what did they tell you about their priorities? Speaker 5: 25:55 Voss has always said that his number one priority is crime and fire protection on his campaign page. He also lists protection and expansion of open space and infrastructure. He wants to reestablish the County business development office that was eliminated 15 years ago. Mental health and homelessness are issues. He says are particularly important to him after he witnessed his own sister struggle with schizophrenia and homelessness. Similarly Anderson wants to improve mental health response in the region by bolstering the counties, psychiatric emergency response team, also known as PERT to respond to 51 50 calls, safely career opportunities and housing attainability in the County are paramount to him as he is. He says, he's tired of seeing people moving out of the state. They can't afford a home here. He also wants to work on developing the area around Gillespie field airport to create jobs and tax revenue. Speaker 5: 26:52 And that will help in turn pay for public safety, no income and time. Jacob remains pretty popular with her East County constituents. Even after all this time, who does she endorse? It's been no secret that Diane Jacob has passionately supported. Steve Voss and Voss has had countywide bipartisan endorsements, including from Chula Vista, mayor Mary Salus. Who's a Democrat. He's had endorsements from four current supervisors, mayor Kevin Faulkner, and nine other city mayors have endorsed Vos as well. Deputy Sheriff's association, Cal fire and law enforcement agencies in the district. Now Anderson has a long list of endorsements by community leaders and elected officials, including former California, governor Pete Wilson. And he is officially endorse In the wake of George Floyd's death at the hands of police. Many law enforcement agencies are wrestling with how to more justly serve the communities they've sworn to protect in Los Angeles. The LAPD thinks that it has a program that works. It's called the community safety partnership program. And it's about strengthening relationships between cops and residents. Kcrws Benjamin Gottlieb has more Speaker 6: 28:11 Lieutenant Gina Brooks is an officer in charge of the community safety partnership program or CSP in South Los Angeles. How are you doing man? She walks a beat every week at several housing projects in Watts and tries to connect with as many people as she can. Speaker 7: 28:26 I can move in this place in this community being African American and nobody, if I'm in my street, clothes knows that I'm the cop. My costume is part of, one of the faces I wear. I'm a mother, I'm a black female before I'm anything else. Speaker 6: 28:45 Brooks represents an idea that police reform activists in Los Angeles have worked on for years. And it goes like this. If the community, even one hindered by systemic racism and violence knows its police on an intimate level, there's less opportunity for conflict. Right now, the LAPD has teams of CSP officers at 10 different locations across LA, mostly stationed around housing projects. But the goal is to scale this up in the coming years. So friendlier more approachable cops. They're just part of the equation. The CSP program wouldn't work. Brooke says without the support of community leaders, I'm here, I'm DC. Everybody knew DC in Imperial court. DC has lived in the Imperial courts, housing projects, his entire life. And he's someone that officer's like Brooks rely on to help the escalate conflicts between the community and the cops. But he, that cooperation only goes so far. They still look at me as if I'm a criminal. So what big deal? And once they throw the yellow tape up, then I'm not permitted to even go up underneath. That goes, you're not going to do is say, y'all need me. I don't need your research does show. This model can work a study from the UCLA Luskin school of public affairs of two housing projects in LA found the program helped reduce crime rates. But some activists like Melina Abdullah with black lives matter LA say community policing is not the answer. Speaker 7: 30:19 All you're given as a solution to public safety is policing. Then of course, you look for the most palatable form possible. If that's all you think you have is a brutal way or a kinder way, you're going to of course pick the kinder way Speaker 6: 30:34 He's calling for defunding police departments and redirecting resources to economic and public health programs. That's something that Dominic miles can get behind. She lives and works in Nickerson gardens and other housing projects with these specialized officers we do, Speaker 8: 30:52 And we're still being thrown on a hood of a horse. The hole on the sidewalk are kicked out. Speaker 6: 31:00 Miles says she gets it. Why many are compelled to protest? Keeping your head down. She says and waiting for the police to change. Just isn't getting them anywhere. I'm Benjamin Gottlieb in Watts, Speaker 8: 31:18 Move into nursing homes, expecting safety and care. A woman said she experienced the opposite at avocado post acute nursing home in El Cahone. She told KPBS as Amica Scharmer, she was sexually assaulted by a caregiver. A state investigation revealed that avocado's mishandling of her case, put her and others at further risk on a warning. This report contains graphic content that may be disturbing to some listeners Speaker 7: 31:47 That was going into shock. Speaker 8: 31:49 73 year old. Catherine [inaudible] says a certified nursing assistant at avocado post acute shoved her face into a pillow and sexually assaulted her early one morning in June of 2019 during a diaper change, Speaker 7: 32:05 I asked him to stop. He kept telling me that he kept saying no you're hurting me. I just went limp. Speaker 8: 32:20 Geraldo says she immediately told other caregivers that nursing assistant Matthew Flueckiger had sodomized her with his fingers. She was confident. Avocado management would act swiftly against blue Goodyear. Speaker 7: 32:32 I expected them to inspire you immediately. Speaker 8: 32:36 Instead avocado suspended him and then allowed to return to Speaker 9: 32:40 Work. Three days later, according to an investigative report by the California department of public health. Speaker 10: 32:46 That's one of the most alarming aspects of the case. Speaker 9: 32:49 Scott fixe represents. Gotcha. [inaudible] who no longer lives at avocado, but is suing the facility. He said, seeing the caregiver again, horrified. Gotcha. Geraldo. Speaker 10: 33:01 She'd been through the trauma of a sexual assault. And then now you have the almost disorienting and terrifying event of seeing this person back where you live Speaker 9: 33:10 Avocado, eventually fired fluke. Ger KPBS went to his home and alcohol. Hi bear. Where with KPBS are you [inaudible] Speaker 10: 33:20 Hi Speaker 9: 33:23 Sexual assault. The delay in firing flu Kutcher was one in a series of decisions by avocado management that traumatized gotcha Jeroma and jeopardized her and other residents. Every member of avocado staff is required by law to report sexual abuse allegations to the proper authorities. Within two hours, the state investigation found that the abuse was not reported within the two hour period, nor did the facility submit an investigation of the complaint to the state within five working days as required this, despite the fact that gotcha. Geronimo told two staffers immediately after the alleged attack, she also met with avocados administrator Dina McKeany later that day. Yet McKeany said to investigators that she was only immediately aware of quote, rough handling, not sexual abuse, but gotcha. Geraldo says, she stated clearly to McKinney that she was sexually assaulted report. This whole thing properly. They should never be allowed to work in nursing homes. Again, avocado management also waited eight days to report the allegations to the ELCA home police hampering efforts to gather vital evidence. So far, no charges have been filed. There's more state investigators also revealed that flue Kutcher had been accused of sexual misconduct at Parkway Hills nursing and rehabilitation in Lamesa before avocado hired him. Speaker 10: 34:55 It was alleged that he propositioned a patient there that he would provide them a carton of cigarettes in exchange for oral Speaker 9: 35:02 Records also showed that flicker was hired at San Diego post acute another nursing home in El Cahone just weeks after avocado fired him. And he allegedly sexually assaulted another woman there more than a year after his alleged assault on [inaudible]. The department of public health finally revoked his license to practice as a certified nursing assistant lawyer. Mike Darik of California advocates for nursing home reform says poor pay for caregivers and lacks oversight. Make nursing homes, fertile ground for sexual Speaker 8: 35:38 There isn't often much due diligence given to these people when they begin, because they need someone who will do very difficult work for almost no money. Gotcha. [inaudible] says she is now left feeling insignificant, protected immediately. Of course, the person it is to me is still out there. I meet the Sharma KPBS news avocados lawyer declined comment for the peace citing litigation tune in tomorrow for the second part of this two part series. This is KPBS mid day edition. I'm Maureen Cavenaugh with Alison st. John with touring on pause and no bands coming to town. It's nice to know that local bands are still releasing new music, KPBS arts editor, Julia Dixon Evans is here with five new tracks from bands in the San Diego and Tijuana region. And one that got away. Welcome, Julia. I am Maureen. First up is a solo work from an artist you may have heard of from the redwoods music band, Danny bell and the Taranto. Just what has Danny bell come up with on her own? Well, she's been working on some new cellar work and just dropped a single got you. It's a quick ramp, just two and a half minutes that her vocals are hypnotic and delightful and the track has a helpful romance to it. Let's listen. Speaker 11: 37:32 [inaudible] Speaker 8: 37:36 That was got you a new single by Danny bell. And if you want more from Danny, she just performed at the Casbah alongside low volts. This past weekend, the venue is empty, but it streamed live from Twitch. I've been really loving these shows and you can watch the saved videos still on their Twitch channel. And next, we have a track from emerging act Ingo noir from a benefit compilation. So tell us about alien boy. Yes. I've mentioned this compilation before it's by Craig Oliver's Volare records. It's called presence, not absence, a benefit with proceeds going to SD queer black housing and a few other regional organizations, but local RMB duo in Guidewire offered two tracks, including the summers alien boy Speaker 11: 38:35 [inaudible] Speaker 8: 39:03 Alien boy by England wire. Those vocal layers are really impressive and I love the production. It's both sparkling and raw, and the track feels somewhere between a love song and a surrender. It's really devastating song craning. That's kinda toe-tapping at the same time and the full compilations worth of lessons. So check out all our records band camp. I also really love the take on Dylan's ballad of Hollis Brown by Cody bland shirt of Shannon and the clams. Okay. So moving on, she won a born, a Vanessa Samora has a new single let's have a listen to ya. Speaker 8: 40:17 So that's a air by Vanessa Zamora. I air translates to yesterday and Zamora has a really unique mix of indie folk pop and RNB. And this track has it all. And I air is packed with longing regret and desire, and it's the third single she put out in 2020. So I'm watching out for a bigger release from her on the horizon. Next up is local band strange ages. The album cover on this on said piano music is very 2020 and abandoned piano in the Bay and the band standing around it wearing masks. Is this a quarantine themed album in some ways, very much. It's a four song EAP and was conceived, written and recorded entirely during the pandemic, mostly at home, but they also drew upon everything else going on protests and injustice and how everyone's basically living on social media strain. Gauges is a guitar free indie band, really enchanting and lyrically, rich music. My favorite tracks, the albums closer your last day. It's a slow burn waltzing its way through the modern day of hospital. Speaker 11: 41:33 [inaudible] Speaker 8: 41:58 What was your last day by strange ages? And I should add that no new pianos were harmed by the band, a local piano repairment caught wind. That one was already unfortunately dumped in the base. So word spread and strange ages sees the opportunity. As far as time capsules go, it's pretty spot on. That's great. And finally, we have a new album from cults called host, but even though this is a New York band, apparently it has some San Diego roots. Yeah. Cults, Madeline fallen. And Brian oblivion were both raised in San Diego, but form the band after they moved to New York. And it's been almost a decade since they skyrocketed to fame with their first album, after an iTunes commercial featured go outside, which is kind of an ear worm and the new full length released a few weeks ago. It's really nice addition to their catalog. Lots of synth tinge, pop, seventies aesthetic, and a really good dose of darkness. Let's listen to the opening track trials. Speaker 11: 43:23 [inaudible] Speaker 8: 43:26 Trials by cults. It has this deceivingly cheery and timeless tune, but also feels kind of detached and resigned. A little heartbreaking. I personally really love a good, upbeat, sad song. You can find a playlist of these songs@kpbs.org or follow KPBS on Spotify. And we'd love to hear what you're listening to tell us in the KPBS art Facebook crew. I've been speaking with KPBS arts editor and producer Julia Dixon Evans. Thank you, Julia. Thanks Maureen. Finally, we take just a moment to remember the passing of Eddie van Halen virtuoso guitarist. The band van Halen came out of Pasadena and blasted to superstardom in the 1970s. Eddie van Halen died yesterday at age 65. Speaker 11: 44:37 [inaudible].