County COVID Cases Down. Some Scripps Health Services Still Offline

Speaker 1: 00:01 COVID cases continue to decrease in San Diego. Speaker 2: 00:04 Five of the last seven days have been well under 100 new cases announced per day, Speaker 1: 00:12 Maureen Cavenaugh with Jade Heinemann. This is KPBS midday. Yeah. From a city council member highlights controversy at Lincoln high. Speaker 3: 00:29 It's made some community members feel like their school isn't getting the best leadership or the best help from the district. Speaker 1: 00:38 San Diego's women brewers cope with sexism in the industry and the latest excerpt from the KPBS Parker Edison podcast. That's ahead on midday edition. In the last few days, San Diego has seen something it hasn't seen for a very long time. The number of new COVID-19 cases daily has fallen below 100. It's a milestone, but concern lingers about, and apparently slowing rate of vaccinations in the county. And speaking of concern, scripts health is entering a fourth week of digital paralysis. After a suspected ransomware attack, Scripps has stayed largely silent on the issue referring only to a cyber security incident in a statement posted to its website. Joining me is San Diego union Tribune, medical reporter, Paul Sisson, and Paul welcome. Thanks for having me now, first of all, the number of new COVID cases seems to be getting lower and lower. What have we seen lately? Gosh, Speaker 2: 01:47 You know, I just looked at the, uh, the chart this morning. Uh, five of the last seven days have been well under 100 new cases announced per day. Many of them actually probably got sick on previous days, but even when you look by the day that people actually got sick, uh, we've seen a nice decrease, uh, over the last week or two. Uh, so you know, that really indicates that the vaccines are working. Speaker 1: 02:12 Yeah. Our hospitalizations and deaths also decreasing. Speaker 2: 02:16 Yeah. Uh, definitely deaths have decreased. Uh, we've seen kind of a steady trickle of, you know, it's, it's been very sad to see it continue, uh, hospitalizations, you know, they have decreased, but, but are pretty stable. I mean, kind of in the, just over 100 range. I mean, we were, we were well over a thousand at the peak, so, so, so yes, uh, hospitalizations definitely have really turned a corner. Speaker 1: 02:43 What about the percentage of those vaccinated in the county? Is that still going up? Speaker 2: 02:48 It is. Uh, but just more slowly than it was, you know, at first everybody was clamoring and we were, we were seeing double digit percentage increases, uh, you know, pretty much every week, uh, that, that has slowed somewhat. Uh, though we are, uh, approaching 1.9 million people, uh, in San Diego county, uh, age 12 and older who have had at least one dose, uh, we're now up to 69 and a half percent of the target population who have had both of their doses. Uh, I am included in that and, uh, and my two, uh, teenage kids, uh, have both just gotten their first dose, uh, last week, if that's any, uh, any indication of how far this is getting out into the community. I mean, we're doing well. I, I don't think we should be, uh, to, uh, to concern that, that nobody's getting vaccinated here, but they say we need to get to 2.1 million people to hit what they call her to immunity. Speaker 1: 03:44 So meanwhile, the cyber attack at scripts, which is one of San Diego's largest healthcare networks is still affecting their operations, but there was some good news. What do we know about the return of scripts, website, scripts.org, Speaker 2: 03:59 Right. Uh, kind of late last week, scripps.org, uh, went back to something resembling it's it's normal, uh, service level. Uh, you can go on there and look for doctors and, and, and do other kinds of research. Um, one real key is that the, my scripts app that most of their patients use to communicate with doctors and to check appointments and prescriptions and, you know, manage their medical life remains offline. I just checked that this morning and it's still down. So, uh, that's something that patients really, really are missing at this point. Speaker 1: 04:33 There also seems to be some access to digital medical records, those that were logged in before the attack began on May 1st, is that right? That's right. Speaker 2: 04:43 Uh, at first, when this attack happened on May 1st, uh, what we were told was that the medical record system, uh, was completely inaccessible and we continue to hear that, uh, all the way through, uh, midweek last week when suddenly, uh, we started hearing from sources that she, my doctor is now able to go in and look up my past test results, for example, uh, previous to May 1st, what we've heard is that all care delivered since May 1st, uh, continues to be documented on paper. And that, from what I understand continued through the weekend, Speaker 1: 05:16 You told us that that crucial patient portal is still down. Can you give us a sense of what other systems still seem to be affected at scripts by this cyber attack? Uh, Speaker 2: 05:26 You know, I just had a source check in with me over the weekend who worked at two emergency shifts. It sounds like the emergency area is really slowed down quite a bit and not really even close to getting back up to full speed. Uh, it really sounds like a frontline, uh, hospital workers especially are really starting to feel the strain of having a document, everything by patient and still handle, you know, kind of a normal patient load, uh, this, uh, this nurse whose identity I haven't independently verified, but who is remaining anonymous for fear of being fired, uh, said here in this email that they just sent me, uh, we operate physically tired that standard, but now we are mentally exhausted just like driving when you're exhausted, it's dangerous, dangerous. Someone will make a mistake and someone will get hurt. So there is a real concern that, uh, there is a lot of fatigue in the healthcare workforce as we're in our fourth week now, or this Speaker 1: 06:22 Now, Paul, do we know for sure this was a ransomware attack and attack where the hackers ask for money? Uh, Speaker 2: 06:30 You know, Scripps has still not confirmed that fact. Um, uh, the union Tribune obtained an internal memorandum on May 2nd, uh, that indicated that it was a ransomware attack. Uh, we had an independent source, uh, confirm that for us on May 2nd. Uh, and then the following week, California department of public health, uh, confirmed, it was ransomware in an email that they sent us. Uh, we don't know whether they've paid the ransom. We don't know what the ransom amount is. Uh, and we don't know if this is what they call a double extortion ransom attempt, where they take some patient records, uh, before they let the victim know, uh, that they're in their network and then threatened to put those, uh, records on the, uh, internet, if the ransom is not paid, uh, we've been checking, uh, various dark web websites where these ransomware companies tend to post those kinds of, uh, record disclosures. And so far we haven't seen anything out there. Speaker 1: 07:29 Do we have any sense how long the situation could go on Speaker 2: 07:33 Grips has been totally silent on that matter? They really have never given any kind of guesstimate about when they might be fully up and running again. I think the fact that they have at least read only access to medical records previous to May 1st is pretty telling that would seem to suggest from the security consultants that I talked to, that they do have good backups that they're able to rebuild from and get certain systems back online. Uh, this, this source that I was talking to, uh, at, uh, you know, at one of the local hospitals, um, they said that they, they really, aren't getting very many direct communications from management. Uh, but they've heard some talk that it might be another two weeks. Uh, I would, I would caution that that's significant speculation. Speaker 1: 08:21 I've been speaking with San Diego union Tribune, medical reporter, Paul Sisson. And thank you so much. Thank you. Speaker 4: 08:33 Concern is mounting over a host of issues at San Diego unified Lincoln high school. After a city council member submitted a letter highlighting longstanding concerns within the school's administration council member, Monica Montgomery step says high administrative turnover coupled with allegations of misspent funds and sexual assault at the school constitutes a failure in Lincoln high's service to its community. Joining me now to discuss the letter and its surrounding controversy is San Diego union Tribune education reporter, Kristin to Quetta. Kristin, welcome. Speaker 3: 09:09 Hi, thank you for having me. So what Speaker 4: 09:11 Particular incident prompted council member? Montgomery steps letter. And what did the letter express? Speaker 3: 09:17 Yeah, so it looks like there were a number of things that prompted the letter. One of them was one of Lincoln's directors or leaders was apparently moved from the school. And so I think that for the council member brought up the concerns again of the school's leadership turnover they've gone through, I believe four principals since 2014. So I think that kind of just prompted those concerns again. Speaker 4: 09:45 Can you remind us of what these long standing issues are at Lincoln high school? Speaker 3: 09:49 Yeah, so I think one of the big ones was the leadership turnover in terms of going through several principals and a relatively small number of years. And so I think just having to cycle through so many leaders in that time, really binge the morale of the community and has made them feel like their school isn't getting, you know, the best leadership or the best help from the district. And so that's why that has been, I guess, a source of discouragement to some, but they did want to note that like there have been some improvements at the school since the new principal has been appointed. And so, and then Stephanie Brown was appointed by, uh, a committee of P of community members and people who selected her for Lincoln. So since she came, the graduation rates have gone up from, I believe, 80 to 84% in the year she's been here. And then the suspension rate also fell significantly. Speaker 4: 10:48 How has San Diego unified leadership reacted to the letter that was written by council member Montgomery step Speaker 3: 10:55 In general and specifically the board vice president, um, Sharon Whitehurst pain whose area does include Lincoln. She believed that the letter ignored the progress that, um, the PR the new principal has made in the past two years. And I think in general, she wanted to stress that, that there has been progress. And I guess she felt it wasn't fair to only highlight negative events or elements about Lincoln and not focus on the positives. And Speaker 4: 11:27 Tell me about some of those positives. Speaker 3: 11:29 The graduation rate has gone up. The suspension rate has gone down and, um, the principal has, according to the school, the principal has been working on, for example, changing the career pathways that the school offers for students. And so, um, and then I think in general, there's also just a lot of community members, whether it's at the YMCAs or other organizations that are in the community that are trying to celebrate and support the students at Lincoln and in the surrounding community Speaker 4: 12:02 For years, community advocates have argued. The school has failed to address issues with leadership resources and equity for students, especially black students. What can you tell us Speaker 3: 12:14 Part of that is what we've seen about. Yeah, the leadership turnover that just signals to some community members that the district hasn't stabilized the school after a number of years, and they've also been pointing to gaps, racial disparities and discipline. So like in the district overall, there is a racial disparity gap between, um, black students who are suspended and students in general, who are suspended, black students, um, are more likely to be suspended from school. And so, um, yeah, those are just some of the signs that some community members they see and then that, that to them is proof that that Lincoln is still not where they wanted to be, or they don't think the district is doing enough to help the school. Speaker 4: 13:00 It's been the district's response to the multiple alleged sexual assaults and allegations of misused funds mentioned in Montgomery step's letter. Speaker 3: 13:09 Well, for the, um, regarding the funds, um, the district said that, um, the, to the, the money that the school had won the school council had wanted to spend on tutoring and textbooks. It was about $220,000. Um, that, that money, they, they said that money was actually never available in the first place for the school council to decide to spend. And so that's why, I guess that was their explanation for why the money didn't go to tutoring and textbooks. This is from 2019. And so the district said that, uh, an outside law firm conducted a report, um, looking into the matter to see why that money wasn't, um, allocated to tutoring and textbooks. And that's what that, um, law firm had found that the money wasn't available in the first place, um, and in terms of the sexual assaults, these are from a number of, uh, lawsuits and other cases that had come up in the past several years. Um, and each one I don't have in front of me, like the district response for each of those, Speaker 4: 14:18 Ultimately, what type of change do council member Montgomery step and community advocates want to see happen in the immediate future for Lincoln high? Speaker 3: 14:27 I think one of the things is they just, for the council members letter, she was mainly asking for answers to a lot of questions about why these things have been happening at Lincoln. Why, what, what is the state of Lincoln in terms of the data? And so, um, yeah, I think they, a lot of it, um, is they want answers and then also community members, um, they, some of them feel just ignored by the district. And so I think, um, this out, or they say that they just want to hear, um, or for the, um, for the district to listen to them. And so, um, yeah, I think that's what, one of the main things they were, they were hoping for. Speaker 4: 15:13 I been speaking with San Diego union Tribune education reporter, Kristin to Quetta, Kristen, thank you so much for joining us. Yeah. Thank you. Speaker 1: 15:29 This is KPBS midday edition. I'm Maureen Cavenaugh with Jade Hyman for a longstanding businesses. The COVID-19 pandemic has been brutal, but for restaurants that were just starting out surviving has been nearly impossible. A KPBS series as city Heights bytes has been checking in on restaurants in that neighborhood today. KPBS reporter max Rivlin Nadler looks at one city Heights restaurant that is not only trying to survive, but thrive as it shakes off losses from the past year. Speaker 5: 16:01 Ingenuity can not only help a business survive the worst climate for restaurants in recent history. Speaker 6: 16:07 Some of the fries, Speaker 5: 16:09 It can also be delicious when it's in the hands of trained naan and her co-conspirators at Tunda fungi, a Vietnamese restaurant that serves only vegan and vegetarian fare Speaker 6: 16:21 Around here. The Vietnamese traditional one, it usually come with the meat, the poor, like they don't provide much of the option for vegetarian and vegan options. Speaker 5: 16:33 The restaurant opened right before the pandemic quickly amassing regulars, Speaker 6: 16:39 Who then Speaker 5: 16:39 Switched over to pickup and delivery. Once indoor dining had to shut down that gave the owner and workers that the restaurant more time to perfect recipes, not trying to just replicate standard Vietnamese dishes, but create their own versions. Hinting on creative uses of soy tofu and other vegetable substitutes. Take this bond me for instance, then not only make their own bread every day. They make their own quote unquote meat Speaker 6: 17:07 For the same word. It's where the popular, because we combine two up there, the protein in here, one of the particu port, the auto one with car is paid for by the slide one you can see right here. And then the, a product Speaker 5: 17:22 Non who immigrated from Vietnam a decade ago. So is that people looking for Vietnamese food without meat didn't have any options in San Diego. Now they have one of the most cutting edge culinary experiences in city Heights, giving even those who grew up eating traditional Vietnamese food, a pleasant surprise Speaker 6: 17:41 For us. They really thought because like it's taste, it's not laid that the meat one, you know, the flavor of the frog Speaker 5: 17:47 Customers are free to choose a variety of sides and meat substitutes to supplement dishes. They can make at home Speaker 6: 17:54 The body. They don't have enough time to like weigh for a little bit to make the full. So they checked on the, on the rush and then just wrapped some of the items and then just go home and then hit it off. Well, Speaker 5: 18:06 Business is still way down from before the pandemic non hopes that his indoor dining resumed this week in the restaurant, there will be way more regulars looking for food that pushes boundaries while still feeling very much at home in the dynamic food scene of city Heights Speaker 1: 18:23 And journey me is KPBS reporter max Revlin Nadler, and max, welcome. Good to be here. It might've been risky to open a vegan Vietnamese restaurant even without the pandemic. So what inspired the owners to take that chance? Speaker 5: 18:38 They really saw an opening in the market that there was no vegetarian or vegan options for people in city Heights, kind of on the whole. And that Vietnamese food itself really went itself to, um, being vegan or vegetarian. And that in Vietnam itself, there are a ton of places that offer this type of food, but none so far in city Heights. And I think that might just have to do with the fact that a lot of, uh, Americans expect Vietnamese food to contain meat in it. Uh, so, so they saw an opening and they went for it. Speaker 1: 19:08 Now you've profiled other restaurants in this city Heights bites series. Remind us about a restaurant on El Cajon Boulevard called min key. What's their story. Speaker 5: 19:18 So they were started by a Vietnamese family as well, but it was it's Chinese food because the patriarch of the family, the father, he was a cook at Horton Plaza for many years at a Chinese food place there. And then decided that he wanted to open a restaurant in city Heights that met people at the price point that they were at. Um, and so he took the Chinese here that he was cooking and selling for a lot more at Horton Plaza and sold it for much more affordable prices in city Heights. And, and their specialties are really kind of comfort food, uh, noodle dishes, wonton soup, things like that, that people can get cheaply, that they could take home, that they could reheat. And they've been there for more than 20, 25 years at this point. So I thought it was really important to kind of profile them because they were really foundational to this entire neighborhood. And in fact, uh, the daughter, um, has now gone into business herself. She runs dumpling in and Kearny Mesa. So it's from humble beginnings comes this, you know, new culinary empire and Speaker 1: 20:21 You profiled one of the first Ethiopian restaurants in this city. Now there are quite a few, one of the first ones was called red sea on 47th and university. How have they stayed in business despite the competition that's come up? Speaker 5: 20:34 Yeah. I mean, one thing that they really stress at the place is how fresh everything is. I was able to join them in the kitchen. And, um, basically I got to see everything go from scratch to, um, the table played it on in JIRA and really like ready to eat 10 minutes after the cooking began to make it. So nothing is just sitting there. Everything is ready to, to be cooked together and, and they're not reheating or using the chef microwave or anything like that. On top of that, it's, it's a classic story in city Heights where you're able to not only build a reputation for good food, but like keep your regulars coming back where people have a real vested interest in making sure that this restaurant not only sticks around, but it does. So because they can't imagine not having a next birthday party or graduation party there and then having to drive by it and seeing it go out of business. Speaker 1: 21:26 All these small family owned restaurants, you're reporting on in city Heights have been through a very tough time during the pandemic, but they all have kind of similar stories of survival. How have they managed Speaker 5: 21:38 Everyone I've profiled so far has all benefited from the PPP loan program by the federal government, uh, that really kept these businesses alive. Not every business that took that money was able to make it, but without it, certainly none of these would have, they're still behind the eight ball. A lot of these places they're still building back up business. They're still deeply in debt, but for the time being, they are being kept afloat and it was thanks to these programs made possible by the government. Speaker 1: 22:06 Why did you want to profile restaurants in city Heights bites? What led you to this year? Speaker 5: 22:11 I wanted to visit these long-standing places in city Heights and some of the newer spaces that had developed a community based on eating inside and together and to see how they've done and how they were able to not only survive, but kind of thrive in these, you know, um, hybrid conditions of being both, you know, a delivery service as well as trying to do some outdoor dining limited contained indoor dining situations like that. Speaker 1: 22:36 And obviously there are some perks involved. I'm sure that you sampled the food. Speaker 5: 22:41 Yeah. I mean, why do you think I'm doing this? Speaker 1: 22:44 How important do you think these restaurants are to the identity of city hall? Speaker 5: 22:49 I think for the most part, these are really interesting stable footholds for families who had just come to America to enter the middle class and to not only, um, you know, find stability for their families, but to create other spaces and other opportunities, right? A lot of these business owners work with other, um, new immigrants to help them get started on their own businesses. They form associations, they work together, they share knowledge. I think this is a really important part of city Heights. And, and even if it's not necessarily formal in how each group is lifting each other up the competition, and basically the, the collaboration that does go on between these restaurants is super important. Speaker 1: 23:38 What type of restaurant are you going to be profiling next? I Speaker 5: 23:41 Would really like to see, uh, some more suggestions because really I generated it by just asking people around the neighborhood when I was doing interviews on other stories and going online and seeing what people liked. So if people want to see their favorite place profiled, they can reach out to me on Twitter at max or Nadler. And let me know what restaurant in city Heights. They want to see a profile. This part of city Heights bites. Speaker 1: 24:09 Terrific. I've been speaking with KPBS reporter max Revlin Nadler. Thank you so much. Thank you. Speaker 4: 24:22 So my air force members say they're being discriminated against because it's hard for them to shave many, have a skin condition that's especially common among black men. And they say it's preventing them from getting promotions and awards. Carson frame reports for the American Homefront project. Speaker 7: 24:40 Techstars Joshua Nixon joined the air force at 19 in hopes of becoming a recruiter like his older brother. He excelled in training, won awards and never got in trouble, but he struggled to keep up with the air force requirement that he shave his face every day. Speaker 5: 24:54 Like I was getting so many bumps into where even, you know, you pick at them and try to get the hair out and they leave like a little dark circle. Speaker 7: 25:03 A doctor diagnosed Nixon who was black with pseudofolliculitis barbae or PFB, it's a skin condition that causes painful bumps, which often scar creams and new shaving techniques sometimes help. But the only real treatment is not to shave so closely. The air force, granted Nixon, a shaving profile, a waiver that allowed him to wear short facial hair. But because of that, he found himself out of the running for certain opportunities, including the recruiting job he wanted so badly. Speaker 5: 25:29 My commander was like, yes, you will be the perfect ideal. And you're great with people, but I was turned down because I had a shape and waiver. And that's what kinda made me, uh, look at everything like kind of different because on paper, I'm the perfect airman, but because I have this medical diagnosis, I can't represent the air force. And that aspect, Speaker 7: 25:52 According to a recent study from the journal military medicine, other airman was shaving profiles, share Nixon's frustration in a survey, some said, profiles, disqualified them from prestigious positions, leadership opportunities or awards. Others said they were looked down upon by commanders and colleagues. 63% of those who perceived a negative bias were black. Dr. Emily Wong and air force dermatologist at joint base. San Antonio was one of the surveyors. Unfortunately Speaker 2: 26:19 I do believe there is a history of people who do not understand that PFP is a chronic medical condition. And that perception is sometimes that those members are not trying, or they're not conforming, or that they're just lazy. And they don't want to shave Speaker 7: 26:37 Many of the airlines. And the study said they were barred from positions where facial hair isn't an impediment like recruiting, teaching, or playing in the air force band. Others said they couldn't join the honor guard in elite unit that performs drill routines at high profile events on our guard. Policy allows airman was shaving profiles to serve, but they still have to shave before ceremonies. In other words, it treats shaving profiles as temporary, like a broken finger or other injury, Lieutenant Colonel, Jason Woodruff heads, the organization, Speaker 8: 27:06 It's really a uniformity thing and it's a medical profile. And just like every other medical profile, uh, the expectation is they're not going to be on that medical profile for our long period of time. They're striving to get off that profile Speaker 7: 27:20 Until a couple of years ago, the honor guard kicked out people with long-term medical shaving waivers. Now Woodrift says it tries to work with airman and their dermatologist to find a shaving regimen they can manage. Even if that means shaving only a few times a week, he adds that 27% of airmen in the honor guard are black. The air force recruiting command also has changed its policy. It started accepting people with shaving waivers in 2019, Dr. Wong, the dermatologist credit's air force commands that are trying to understand the issue, but she's still concerned that the honor guard treats shaving waivers as temporary. She says that could cause airman distress. Speaker 2: 27:54 There is a spectrum and not everybody's going to be able to maybe meet those standards, or they might feel really pressured to deal with pain or flares from shaving because they don't want to bring it up. Speaker 7: 28:11 Wong says the air force is now conducting a larger survey to learn more about the effects of shaving profiles, including whether they impact promotion rates, especially among black men on Carson frame in San Antonio. Speaker 4: 28:23 This comes from the American Homefront project, a public media collaboration that reports on American military life and veterans it's funded by the corporation for public broadcasting. Speaker 1: 28:43 Instagram posts about sexism in the craft brew industry have had a real impact here in San Diego. After Brianne Allen, a brewer in Massachusetts experienced two sexist incidents. In the same day, she asked others about their experiences. She got a huge response and posted stories from women across the country who work in the craft beer industry. I made the fallout from the social media posts, the CEO of San Diego's modern times brewing stepped down last week. The brewery faced allegations of sexual harassment and unsafe working conditions beyond that many San Diego breweries have come out in solidarity with women in the industry Mohandas brewing in Logan Heights is an all female brewery with a mission of educating and empowering women in the industry, KPBS San Diego news. Now podcast hosts, Anika Colbert spoke with one of the co-founders of Stella Davila. She started by asking a Stella if she had experienced sexist incidents while working in the industry. Speaker 2: 29:49 I I'm sorry to say that all women probably in beer have a, it's not an isolated incident and it's not something that, uh, people in the beer industry are proud of, but it does happen. Can you recount any personal experiences that you've had in anything it's just, men tend to think that some of the comments that they say aren't sexist or demeaning, just like, uh, I still get people on behind the bar, uh, serving beers, and I'll still get men that come in and say, but you don't even drink beer. You know, why do they say that? Why, why do they assume that we're another one that I get is, have you actually tried that beer? I'm like, yes, I kind of work here. I have tried all the beers in here. So, and I don't mean to like make light of it, but it's just, it's a daily thing that kind of occurs and, and you get the, oh, why don't you smile more? Speaker 2: 30:40 Or, you know, you'd make better tips if you smiled more kind of thing. And it just, yeah, it's, it's rough. It's rough sometimes. But I also want to point out that for the bad there's a lot more good. So I just think it's maybe a little bit of lack of, of education and maybe they just don't understand that what they're saying, you know, hurts people, but hopefully we're going to change that. And that's what we're trying to do at Makitas. What was your reaction when you saw these posts in the industry getting so much attention? I was glad about it, but, um, um, yeah, I guess I'm glad that it's finally out there and people are aware of what does happen. It, it seemed to start a conversation. Exactly. Yeah. And that, and I, I needed to be done and the conversations have been started before, but not to this level. Speaker 2: 31:28 There was incidents last year with Boulevard brewing. I don't know if you're familiar with that, but it was along the same lines and that started the conversation, but it eventually did die down. And I don't think it's going to die down after this. It can't die down after this. I'm hoping. So it did start this conversation. What have you been hearing just from a women you work with in the industry? What, what have they been also saying? I think I feel kind of the same, uh, sentiment. Uh, we're just, we're, we're glad that men are finally realizing to what extent it does go to, because I think a lot of them just thought that they were comments here and there, but some of the stuff that's coming out is it's horrific. And obviously a lot of these things, you know, we didn't know about. And I'm just, like I said, I'm happy it started a conversation and hopefully there'll be changes. Speaker 2: 32:15 And it's not just a conversation. You know, I haven't seen a lot of breweries already posts. Uh, these are the steps that we're doing. We stand with a women, but I hope it's not just them saying it. I hope it's actually them doing something about it. So that kind of makes me wonder, like when it comes to the next steps, are there any strategies that have been identified? Like what, what would change look like? Do you think? Well, I think it starts with getting everybody trained in sexual harassment. I know that steps that we've taken here at Mercatus and Makita is we are a little bit different because it is only women here and maybe we would, we don't handle things the same way everybody else does because we've been about this since, since the start. So this is a little bit different for, for us being here. Speaker 2: 33:02 But at the same time, we're honestly thinking of having security here now on very busy nights and stuff, because sometimes guys do tend to get out of control and guys do tend to just see some things that are just inappropriate and, and after you've had one or two beers, I guess, you know, judgment is just not there. I don't, I was just going to ask if there was anything else that other types of things you do at Mo HEDIS to prevent these types of incidents or things that you think could be implemented, uh, beyond the sexual harassment training? Well, we are very self-aware here and, uh, we never have anybody working by themselves because of that also just to kind of protect ourselves and just to be ready, we have opened the dialogue with the girls and said, you know, if there's ever anything that you guys need, if there's ever anything you guys want to talk about, please know that we're here for you. Speaker 2: 33:48 All the girls have my number. If they need to reach out to me, they also have Carmen the co-founders number, so they can reach out to her at any point in time, as well as this conversation about sexism in the craft brew industry kind of evolves. And it's, it's, we're expecting it to keep going. Are there any specific issues you really personally want to see addressed? Like anything specific that sticks out to you? One of the things that I've always had a problem with is I always debate what I wear before I come to work. And, um, just because, okay, if I, you know, bend down to grab something, you know, somebody's gonna say something. If I, you know, you know, um, I wish I could just wear what I wanted and not have to worry about that, but that's just something that we always have that we're conscious about. And, uh, that was one of the things that I saw. So many women talk about that they get certain comments when they wear certain things. And, you know, I wish that wasn't, that wasn't an issue that Speaker 1: 34:41 Was more Harris brewing. Co-founder Estella Davila speaking with San Diego news. Now podcast host, Attica Colbert. Speaker 4: 34:54 You're listening to KPBS midday edition. I'm Jade Hindman with Maureen Kavanaugh. Today, we bring you an excerpt from a new episode of the KPBS explore podcast. The Parker Edison project host Parker, Edison loves cinema and says it's played an important role in his life. He speaks to two San Diego based filmmakers, Ben Johnson and bill purine about their recent work. I'm Speaker 8: 35:18 Speaking with author musician and now director VIN Johnson. Then how are you? I'm doing well. How are you doing not bad, not bad. I'm talking to you because you made a movie and that's a really big deal. You didn't just shoot something in your backyard and show it to people on your you'd had screenings. And I wasn't able to get tickets, but to my understanding, the driving was pat, what is fanboy? Fanboy is a rock and roll thriller that follows a band called Xenos on tour and the obsessive super fan that follows them around. And then their relationship gets very uncomfortable and weird. And then the police get involved and try to track down a band on tour. So how did the police track down a band on tour, you know, wild industry? How did that come about? I was in the middle of my third book, but I put that on hold. Speaker 8: 36:11 And I just hammered out this script because you strike while the iron is hot pampered, bam, bam, bam, bam. And I just wrote it out, went over it like four or five times, edited it up, edited it up. So we started casting and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, five years later, I got it into the drive in and yeah. Um, I mean, I've benefited from the pandemic. I'm not going to lie because there was nothing else to do at all. When the tickets went on sale, the first one sold out in like four hours, the first screen was 180 cars. So it was like, that's the, you know, that was like, wow, 180 cars. So that one sells out. Another screen sells out. Then I like talked to the guy that drive in CEO guy. I was like, Hey man, these sold out in minutes. Speaker 8: 36:52 I can. How about the same night? I know you don't want to give me another night. You don't want to commit to that. How about the same night we do two more screenings, bam, like that five, five screens, total love being like 1500 people. Seeing this thing, you know, at the, at the drive in like some 700, over 700 cars you have, uh, so Cal rap producer, Milky Wayne in there, and he's also a contributor to the soundtrack. Do you know how that came about? And Wayne was great, you know, and I wish I could, uh, had him in a larger part. It came about because I met him a long, long, long time ago. And we used to sling sandwiches and smoothies together while he was slinging beats. And I was just making my first fans word. His resume is, is incredible. Matter of fact, Hey, this is Milky way and check out my new record, apple music everywhere. Speaker 8: 37:44 It's string. I haven't seen it yet. And I know some of my listeners are going to want to, how can we see fan boy? Uh, UPA is on Amazon prime and you can go there, uh, fanboy the movie.com and that has a link that takes you right to the watch link. We'll watch it tonight. Thanks a lot. Ben Johnson. Thank you. Ben Johnson just gave us a quick rundown on how his DIY thriller fan boy came about. Next. I called up documentarian bill purine, his 2017 project. It's going to blow examines. What happened when San Diego's rock scene started to get attention from the major rock labels? I'm on the scene. I saw Bill's movie in real time. It's been a minute since I spoke with him. Here's some of our conversation we're talking about your documentary. It's going to blow where's the title come from most accounts for instruments, water song called aroma of Jean Arles. Speaker 8: 38:38 It was basically Truman's waters kind of around about this local critic named Gino Arnold, who was sort of a cheerleader of alternative culture and grunge and that sort of thing. What inspired you to make this documentary is there's not really like one particular thing that, that inspired me. It wasn't like a flash of inspiration or anything like that. It was more a, um, feeling of why hasn't somebody done this already, but a lot of times things you do or because you wish somebody else would do them for you and you get tired of waiting for somebody to do it. You know what I mean? [inaudible] Speaker 8: 39:26 Plastic culture sucks and it's been a blow. And I thought that was just kind of a great encapsulation of maybe some of the spirit that a lot of these fans have. What's the hardest part of making a movie, all of it, it's all terrible. And I recommend nobody do it. Here's where I get pretentious. Keeping your vision and tabs like what we really want the movie to be about while also allowing the movie to kind of grow organically and become, become something else. If it needs to, you know, you go in with your own ideas and sometimes those, uh, those needs to be altered and you have to kind of figure out how to let it alter without completely going off the rails. How does someone get an interview with Henry Rollins? Well, I didn't get an interview with Enron, but nature, misremembering. I got an interview with Ian [inaudible] from, for Gaza. Speaker 8: 40:16 My efforts to get an interview with Enron's went nowhere. Although I did talk to him, we emailed back and forth, but he basically blew me off. And the nicest sort of Henry Rollins way. Was there any, was there any scene or story that you heard or recorded that didn't make the movie? I'll tell you one that I really regret didn't make the movie. And that was a guy named Jared Warren who was in a band called carb or based out of Olympia. He went on tour with strings water and back, right when back hit a big white one, went back was just started doing track like a huge audience. And sure enough, Jared had this where they funny stories about if I remember right, people would talk all the way through the CARF set, they would talk all the way through the train water set back would come out. Speaker 8: 41:06 They'd talk through his set until they got to loser. Then they start dancing around, put their hands up in the air. Then they would all leave, but it just didn't fit in the movie for the people that hit me on Twitter. In fact, the first two people who hit me with a tweet on Twitter about bill purine and documentary, it's going to blow off, send them a copy of the time. But for those people who don't do that in time, where can people watch it? If they go to my website, which is fillings gate.org as a link to my online story, but it's also it's out there. I don't know. It's on prime video. It's you know, wherever you buy, Maureen, thank you so much for taking the time, man. Speaker 8: 41:56 I'll be remiss. If I did not mention the part escapism plays in the movie going experience. It's a well-known fact that people watch familiar movies on repeat to create a feeling of stability. Even the films I've mentioned here may speak to my subliminal, longing for the normalcy of life before the pandemic. I say normalcy with air quotes, but you can't see that. I don't know who's to say in any case, if you're looking for some good places to get away, let me suggest these aviator. Sit in Nancy Mo better blues, painful Miyazaki's spirited away and Tam Popo. That's just my list. I'm gonna get you a couple more fire suggestions from my guy king dice. In an episode of MSM, you stay tuned. Well, Speaker 4: 42:43 That was an excerpt from the most recent episode of the KPBS podcast, the Parker Edison project, to hear the full episode, including a new installment of the segment movies, millennials should movie hosted by rapper king dice, go to kpbs.org or wherever you listen to your podcast.