New Biden border wall plans would put an end to Friendship Park

S1: The fate of Friendship Park as Biden's border wall plans loom.
S2: This plan would essentially destroy one of , if not the only legal way these families have of seeing each other right now.
S1: I'm Jade Hindman with Maureen CAVANAUGH. This is KPBS Midday Edition. A look at how wastewater testing finds COVID variants.
S2: The wastewater genomics data is incredibly valuable because it is an early indicator. We know when the wastewater levels go up that that precedes the cases going up , which then precedes the hospitalizations.
S1: And a homicide case at the Veterans Village of San Diego. Plus , a preview of a new book about horror and exploitation cinema. That's ahead on Midday Edition. A long standing cross-border gathering place will soon be replaced with a set of 30 foot walls , according to recently confirmed plans by Customs and Border Protection. Friendship Park , closed since the beginning of the pandemic , has for decades been a place families separated by international borders could meet amid increasingly high border tensions. The decision comes as yet another apparent indication that the Biden administration is continuing the legacy of Trump era border policy. Joining me now with more is KPBS investigative reporter reporter Gustavo Solis. Gustavo , welcome back to the show.
S2: Hello , Jade. Thanks for having me again.
S1:
S2: I mean , as you said in the intro , right , this is a unique spot along the border where families who are separated by the border can walk right up to the fence and see and talk and even hold each other. It's the only place that this happens along the border. Before the pandemic , Customs and Border Protection agents would let people visit loved ones on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 to 2 p.m.. So it's kind of like a formalized official place to do this , and people would come from all over the U.S. and Mexico. I've heard stories of people flying from Seattle and New York City just to come to this part of the border. This section , like you said , has been closed since a little bit before the pandemic had closed originally because of heavy rains that make the area difficult to access. But CBP kept it closed because they say it's staffing issues. Advocates are quick to kind of hit back and say it's not really a matter of staffing , it's a matter of priorities. Right. If CBP , CBP makes a decision of where to send its limited staff and leadership is making the decision not to send them to Friendship Park.
S1:
S2: Right. I mean , if you talk about long border wait times or why PED West is still closed , even this with with Friendship Park , their answer is always staffing levels , which I mean at least is a consistent answer. But the the agency has something like more than 40 billion in its budget. So you kind of have to wonder where staffing and resources are being allocated right now.
S1:
S2: Most people impacted by this are what advocates called mixed status families. Some relatives have been deported , so they cannot come to the U.S. or some people in the U.S. they have go or some kind of special work visas that prevent them from leaving the U.S.. So it's not just people who are in the country illegally , these people who are in the country legally but have restrictions on their travel because of certain visa requirements for those families. Like I said , this is the only legal option to physically see and spend time with their loved ones , the border , and they would be most impacted by it.
S1:
S2: What they told me is that about a week ago , CBP officials from the San Diego sector called them to a meeting and basically told them that this was a done deal and it'll happen within the next couple of weeks , if not months.
S1: And you've spoken to some people in the community about this decision.
S2: I did. And they're I mean , they're sad , angry , and they're betrayed. A lot of the frustration comes from the fact that President Joe Biden ran on a campaign promise not to build another foot of Trump's border wall. And that's exactly what he's not doing right now. He's extending it here in San Diego. Advocates told me that they remember Democrats framing the 2020 campaign as a direct response to Trump. But at least along the border , they're not seeing much of a difference between Trump and Biden in these first couple of years. And that's a main source of frustration , not just with Friendship Park , but with other border and immigration issues.
S1:
S2: Part of that project was not really new walls , but mostly replacing existing fences. And that's what's happening here in San Diego. All right. To be clear , there are fences in the park already all along San Diego. There are actually two fences. CBP calls them a primary fence and a secondary fence. There's this weird no man's land in the middle between the two fences that they use to patrol the area. And what's unique and awesome about Friendship Park is that there's a gate between the first and second fence so people can walk right up to the fence that that's right along the border and talk to people there with these to the new design. They don't have a gate in between the two fences. There are some spaces specifically dedicated to visit families with each other.
S1: And again , you know , as you've mentioned , there is this larger discussion here about the Biden administration's continuation of Trump era border policy , in this case , the construction of a 30 foot wall.
S2: The other one is Title 42 , which the Biden administration kept in place for years after. Her being elected is trying to get rid of it now , but it's facing push back the courts kind of like he did with remain in Mexico , which was another Trump era policy that Biden had been and even as of today has been unable or unwilling to to get rid of. So there's a track record that doesn't look great for Democrats and specifically for Biden when it comes to the border and in what comes to rolling back some of Trump's policies.
S1:
S2: In terms of what the park would look like in the future , I'm not sure. I mean , border field , State Park is still there and you'll still be able to access it and walk over there. But this idea of this place , of it being the one and potentially the only place along the border where you can actually go and see people who can't physically cross in the US , I don't think that will ever come back if it goes away.
S1: I've been speaking with KPBS investigative border reporter Gustavo Solis. Gustavo , thank you for joining us.
S2: Well , thank you , David.
S3: A technique developed at UC San Diego and Scripps to detect the COVID virus in wastewater is now being used around the world. That's the message of an article in today's online edition of the magazine Nature. Researchers say the process is cheaper and faster than clinical COVID testing and has the potential to keep up with and identify emerging variants. Joining me to talk about how testing wastewater has helped in the fight against COVID is Dr. Chris Longhurst , chief medical officer and chief digital officer at UC San Diego Health. And Dr. Longhurst , welcome.
S2: Thank you very much for having me.
S3: Now I want to start by asking you about the current level of COVID 19 in San Diego's wastewater.
S2: But of course , we're seeing case rates increase. And that's probably a reflection of the fact that it takes a week or two once you get infected to really become symptomatic and sick. We know with Bay four and five , which are now the predominant lineages in San Diego , that these are more likely to have immune escape , meaning people who have been previously infected or vaccinated are more likely to get this than they were with prior variants. So while the wastewater is level , the cases are going up and our hospitalizations are also going up.
S3:
S2: So with wastewater , we know when these circulating levels of COVID are increasing , when they're decreasing , regardless of whether or not people are coming to health systems or doing home testing. In fact , we estimate now that 90% of cases are discovered with home testing , which is great. That's how we want people to test , which is conveniently , frequently , cheaply in their homes. But the wastewater gives us a really good understanding of how the virus is circulating in our community. This is the first time that we've done really broad wastewater surveillance for a virus with COVID , but it's possible with a number of other viruses. In fact , just recently we heard stories in the United Kingdom of discovering some circulating virus that was concerning and required further investigation.
S3:
S2: And so the paper that was just published in Nature today by Dr. Rob Knight and colleagues , I was fortunate to be part of this effort , and it showed that the wastewater surveillance preceded our discovery of variants in the clinical cases by 2 to 3 weeks. In fact , you remember when al-Muqrin was first announced in South Africa , which was right at right after Thanksgiving last year , we actually found evidence in our wastewater here in San Diego of al-Muqrin before the announcement was made by South Africa.
S3:
S2: We know when the wastewater levels go up that that precedes the cases going up , which then precedes the hospitalizations we showed with the Delta surge last summer that the wastewater actually predicted it by three weeks. So it helps us to put in place mitigation techniques. In fact , here at UC San Diego , a couple of weeks ago , when the wastewater was increasing , we moved to our our local red tier. We asked all employees on site to test in a mandatory fashion and we shifted to pre procedure testing for all of our patients. And so that that was really valuable for us because it gave us a bit of a crystal ball looking into the future.
S3: It seems like this wastewater testing started out about two years ago on the UC San Diego campus , and now it's being used around the world.
S2: It's been around for about 20 years , but it really hasn't been broadly used. We're certainly one of the first colleges to use this to find cases , and that was extraordinarily helpful for us as part of our Return to Learn program. And we're partnered here at UC San Diego with the County of San Diego to do the wastewater monitoring , not only at the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment plant , where we've been doing it now for over a year , but now also at the ENCINA and other wastewater treatment plants locally. And so this gives us really tremendous insight that not all counties in California have , even though this is part of the governor's record. Commendation and smart plan.
S3: And the reason that it has caught on so well , while at least one of the reasons is because it is so much faster and economical than the usual form of monitoring for COVID.
S2: I can't quote you the number , but every one of our wastewater tests is in the , let's say , hundreds of dollars , whereas testing a clinical sample to find out , let's say if I'm COVID positive , which genomic variant I'm carrying , it's much more expensive , but it's also not clinically valuable in an individual. We don't treat you differently or give you a different medicine because you have a different variant. But understanding what variants are circulating , that population helps us to plan things like vaccination strategies and antiviral availability and prevention and mitigation techniques.
S3:
S2: We're working hard to be able to correlate those wastewater viral levels with number of cases. It's not always easy because different variants can actually shed different amounts of particles in the gut. And so a a single surge is comparable within itself , but not always to other surges. Now they're not exponentially different. So we we can make some estimates , but we have to learn with each surge and each variant how those wastewater particles behave.
S3: And have institutions such as the CDC and the World Health Organization promoted wastewater testing as sort of an official diagnostic tool for communities.
S2: It's really gaining a lot of steam. So the Center for Disease Control has made this a strong recommendation that communities begin wastewater testing. As I mentioned , the governor made this a requirement as part of the smart plan for the state of California , but it requires substantial infrastructure. You have to have testing facilities. You have to have the ability to monitor this on a regular basis. We're partnered closely with Dr. Sima Shah in the County of San Diego Public Health to make sure that we're getting these samples in a timely fashion. And then we're shortening that turnaround time from when we get the samples at UC San Diego to when we produce those results. And you'll see that on the search website where we now have results as quickly as 3 to 7 days from time of sampling.
S3: I've been speaking with Dr. Chris Longhurst. He's Chief Medical Officer and Chief Digital Officer at UC San Diego Health. Dr. Longhurst , thank you so much.
S2: Thank you very much for having me.
S1: You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman with Maureen CAVANAUGH. A few weeks ago , we brought you a story about concerns over safety conditions at a drug and alcohol treatment program run by Veterans Village of San Diego , a nonprofit that helps veterans and their families. Now , a 29 year old Army veteran was allegedly killed by her neighbor last week at a different property run by Veterans Village. I new source investigative reporter Cody Dulaney has this story from someone who says she witnessed the killing and a warning to our listeners. Some details may be disturbing. Deborah Berg says it happened fast. Maybe 30 seconds. She was sitting in her truck outside of an apartment complex in southeast San Diego run by Veterans Village. She was there to see her friend , Army veteran Janelle Self.
S4: And then all of a sudden , I didn't really hear anything else , but I heard Genelle yell , Call 911 , call 911.
S1: San Diego police say it started as an argument between neighbors. It ended with a 44 year old woman under arrest for the killing. Berg says she saw the entire thing.
S4: I couldn't believe it. It was just a plain and simple murder. It really was.
S1: The woman who died reached out to I news source last year to share her concerns about Veterans Village. At the time , the single mother said she and her toddler were living in a mold infested apartment owned by the nonprofit. She had moved there to join a housing program which offers services like therapy and case management. But she worried about violent and aggressive neighbors. The vast majority of these residents have a significant history of trauma. Suzanne Harmon is a former therapist with Veterans Village. She warned management about unstable , violent people at the apartment complex when she resigned last year. She says it was a disaster waiting to happen. I mean.
S3: You know , the biggest safety concern that I saw was just that there were all these volatile personalities.
S1: Last month , I news source published an investigation into Veterans Village that revealed widespread drug use , staff misconduct and violence at its celebrated rehab center near Mission Hills. The complex where the killing occurred is in a different part of the city. But police activity has been on the rise there , too. Calls to San Diego police have more than doubled in the past four years. The killing happened last Monday afternoon. Police officials say it started with a dispute. Berg isn't sure exactly what happened. She only saw it spill out into the parking lot when her friend started yelling at her to call 911.
S4: I thought she was kidding. I really I thought she was kidding. I was sitting thinking and then she comes walking out and the lady's right behind her.
S1: The woman accused of the crime , Samantha muniz , then climbed into a car and started the ignition.
S4: She noticed it right in front of her car with her camera. She's like going to take a picture.
S1: Muniz started slowly inching forward while South stood in front , slowly backing away , keeping the camera pointed on the driver in front of her.
S4: The lady's right here. Right now. And the lady. Get out of the way. And she was like , You're not going anywhere.
S1: Then she saw the driver accelerate and plow into South. She didn't think it was real until cell flew through the air and landed on her back in the middle of the road. Berg says she gasped. She remembers the swing of her friend's hair.
S4: And I walked up. I mean , I'm dialing 911 and there's a car stopped on both sides , and I could see that she's breathing.
S1: Within minutes , she says , police were on the scene and the crowd started to gather further up the road , apparently where the driver had come to a stop. San Diego police later said the suspect stayed at the scene. All the while , the two year old son of the woman who died was in his car seat waiting for her to return. She was later pronounced dead at the hospital. Her child is now with family out of state. Munoz was arrested for murder , but later charged with lesser offenses. Berg is still trying to cope with what she witnessed.
S4: Well , it kind of makes me really angry that it was senseless. And that is the end of a beautiful person's life. It really , really , really big.
S1: The death is the latest in a string of serious safety issues that have critics raising alarms about the nonprofit's operations. In a statement , Veterans Village CEO Akilah Templeton said she was devastated to hear what happened. According to Templeton , the nonprofit has done everything it can to protect its tenants and is providing counseling. Security guards are now at the property. For KPBS , I'm new source investigative reporter Cody Dulaney. This story is co-reported by Jill Castellano at eye new stores and into. In Italy , funded nonprofit partner of KPBS.
S3: The death of a Navy SEAL candidate in February is raising questions about the safety of basic training. Kyle Mullen died of pneumonia just after a so-called hell week at the SEALs boot camp in Coronado. His family recently released an autopsy that concluded he received inadequate medical care even though he was seriously ill. KPBS military reporter Steve Walsh has the story.
S2: Regina Mullen says she trusted the SEALs with her son Kyle's life and they failed him.
S4: You're torturing our men. You can't do that to prisoners of war. There's war crimes and they're doing it to our own athletic , young , bright men that are willing to give up their lives to serve the country. They're torturing them. It's not training.
S2: Mullen had played football at Yale and Monmouth University. He died February 4th , hours after finishing Hell Week. The endurance test is part of the notoriously difficult seal basic training. The autopsy confirms her son was left alone in the barracks with other candidates who had also showed signs of being sick. Kyle Mullen was found unresponsive on the barracks floor after another candidate called for medical help for himself.
S4: Severe pneumonia. Untreated severe pneumonia. There's no way a 20 year old people should die of severe pneumonia. And that's a disgrace that he was not treated for days. They knew he had it.
S2: He was found with a 36 ounce bottle filled with his own blood and mucus. The autopsy revealed Mullan died of Streptococcus pyogenes , a type of pneumonia often associated with military bases. Regina Mullen is a registered nurse. She says her son was struggling to breathe when he called her a few hours before he died.
S4: You all knew my son was compromised. The medical team , the instructors will tell you. The commander had to have known the girl , seen the guy spitting up blood. You step into the barracks , get the medical team home , and you let them die.
S2: How weak is virtually unchanged since at least the 1970s. For nearly a week , candidates are submerged in the Pacific Ocean , forced to continually swim or march with boats on their back. They get little sleep , some SEALs say. By the end , they were hallucinating. Regina Mullin says her son was told he could get medical help if he rang a bell three times. But that was also the signal that he wanted to give up.
S4: You have to ring a bell and then they'll give you medical and ringing. The bell is quitting.
S2: Now that that is a game that the instructors play , that's absolutely true. That they say stuff like that is absolutely untrue , that they meant it. Robert Adams is a medical doctor and former SEAL. He wrote a book about how we. Adams says medical teams are there to monitor candidates , at least during the exercise. I've , over the years , followed SEAL training as a physician looking back at numerous reports of pneumonia. Usually in somebody that's pulled out of Hellwig and told , you can't go on , you know , and they're screaming , Please don't pull me if they don't continue. Candidates either leave or they can be rolled back to try again with a later class. Mullen had already been rolled back once. Regina Mullen says SEALs told her that instructors like Kyle and they pushed him to finish the last couple of days. But she says candidates shouldn't have to decide if they can do it.
S4: Probably don't even know what day to week it is the prior , delirious , altered mental status.
S2: Week is more of a test of physical and psychological endurance. Instructors try to push candidates past what they think are their limits. Jeff Butler is a former SEAL. Really , the goal of it is to weed out people that aren't going to just have the.
S5: Mental fortitude.
S2: To not quit when it gets absolutely terrible. I mean , guys , that will.
S5: Go until they have literally.
S2: Life threatening pneumonia. Butler's father was also a SEAL. While warfare has changed dramatically over the decades. Hell week hasn't.
S5: It's a ritual to see who gets to be part of their their organization that.
S2: They're considered themselves gatekeepers of , who is good.
S5: Enough to be in the community. That's health instructors often saw themselves.
S2: Secretary of the Navy Carlos del Toro told Congress in May that after Mullen's death , the SEALs now have medical staff available instead of just on call after hell week. His mother says that's not enough. She says they need an outside investigation. Steve Walsh , KPBS News.
S3: Joining me is KPBS military reporter Steve Walsh. And Steve , welcome.
S2: Hi , Maureen.
S3:
S2: We learn about these when they happen. Maybe not right after they happened. So I don't have a tally of just how many SEALs have died. We know that back in 2017 , Jason Lovelace drowned very early on during Bud's years earlier. We also know that a couple of instructors have drowned during what's called a drown proofing exercise where they were practicing their underwater breathing.
S3:
S2: It's incredibly common. It's in fact , it's really kind of baked into the cake. You know , in the class that Mullen was in , there were over 200 SEALs who started or SEAL recruits that started BUDS , and then less than 20 ended up finishing. It's you know , it really is one of the hallmarks of seal basic training. So most of them drop out within the first day of hell week , which which comes , you know , a few weeks in. But still , this is the real crucible that where most people end up dropping out , many of them just decide it's not what they want , even though they may have been thinking about doing this for years. There are also a number of injuries which render people unable to get through the course. Broken bones , strained muscles and such pneumonia is quite common. It's basically baked into this whole process. They weed out anyone who doesn't seem willing. To sort of push through the pain and deprivation. CEOs are also they recruit candidates from outside the Navy. You know , college athletes like like Mullen , you know , they go through Navy boot camp and then go right into the buzzard. Coronado So they've really only been in the military for a couple of months before they're there. They're faced with hell week.
S3: Steve , can you give us some insight into the attitude of Navy SEAL instructors and trainees during hell week ? The kind of attitude that could lead to the sight of a young man spitting up blood and not being taken for medical treatment. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. So there are two things there. As I've said , that the candidates have to impress their instructors as they push past any obstacles. They have to show them that they they really have the what it takes to to endure anything. So , you know , they have every incentive not to complain and just to keep going. No matter what's going on with their bodies , the instructors are telling them that they can push back and push beyond what they think are their real limits.
S3: Mrs. Mullen , of course , who lost her son , Kyle , says young men under such extreme physical and psychological stress should not make their own decisions on whether to continue through hell week.
S2: That's the medical teams that the instructors , that's the command itself. They have to have the processes in place to keep cadets safe or candidates safe. There are standards. The SEALs are expected to release their own investigation into this incident. We're going to have to find out going forward what changes they might want to make after Mullen's death.
S3: Now , the former Navy SEAL you spoke with kind of made it sound like the extremes of hell week are more like a hazing ritual than a real training exercise.
S2: So the SEALs would take issue with calling it hazing. Specifically , though , you know , hell week isn't really training in the typical sense of the word. You know , they're learning some skills. But Hellwig specifically is more about testing endurance. Structure instructors are screaming at the candidates , telling them that they can quit any time , that they will get food and a warm blanket. The candidates are put into a state of continual exhaustion. They're wet in their core body. Temperature starts to drop. You know , the instructors see themselves as gatekeepers. They're looking for who they want to lead them or who they want to serve alongside with in combat. So on the last day , as they start to hallucinate , instructors may tell them they still have one more day to go. So there's a real psychological component to this for the people who get through it , it's an experience which they can draw upon. You know , if they were in combat or other difficult situations. But for the most part , it's not really skill training.
S3: Now in your report , you say Mrs. Mullins wants an outside investigation into her son's death.
S2: And one of the big issues is how the the military is allowed to police itself. You know , these SEALs are especially secretive sometimes that reflects the kind of missions they're called upon to undertake. But as we've seen in the past couple of years , with cases like SEAL chief Eddie Gallagher accused of war crimes , there have been attempts by the SEALs themselves to sort of police themselves and and sort of clean up their ranks with only really mixed success. The commander who was running SEAL basic training when Mullen died , he left in May in the case of Mullen. It'll be interesting to see how much the Navy allows the SEALs to handle their own investigation , or whether a so-called big Navy will take a look at this and take this out of the SEALs hands. Now , Secretary of the Navy Carlos del Toro told Congress in May that the SEALs were looking into changes at Bud's. We're going to have to see what those changes are. There's a report , a command investigation by the SEALs that's expected to come out maybe as early as this month.
S3: I've been speaking with KPBS military reporter Steve Walsh. Steve , thank you.
S2: Thanks , Maureen.
S1: Collecting food waste for composting is something that often happens in backyards. But now two cities are doing it in the landfill as part of new state legislation to actually keep food out of landfills. Carlsbad and Chula Vista have updated their facilities to comply with the new legislation. So now residents in those cities are taking part in a new green effort. Here to talk about it is KPBS environment reporter Eric Anderson. Eric , welcome.
S5: Thank you , Jake.
S1: So the purpose of these new state requirements is to keep food waste out of landfills.
S5: In fact , one thing that happens when you put a bunch of organic or food waste table scraps , etc. , into a landfill , is they start to decompose. It's the natural course of things , right ? When they decompose , though , one of the byproducts of that decomposition is a gas that's known as methane gas. And so it produces methane gas , which just so happens to be a very dangerous greenhouse gas , emission gas. So it causes a lot of trouble. It doesn't last very long once it gets into the atmosphere. But in that short amount of time that it's in the atmosphere that causes a lot of issues on greenhouse gas warming conditions.
S1: And the city landfill where this food waste is going , has had its issues in the not so distant past with high levels of methane gas , particularly as homes near the site were being built. Right.
S5: Right. It's been identified as a toxic air hot spot in the state of California. And so they have additional requirements to try to get these methane emissions under control. And this composting should help lower the amount of methane that is produced once the garbage is buried there.
S1: And as of July 1st , Republic Services , as you mentioned , has started picking up food waste from Chula Vista and Carlsbad.
S5: What they've gone ahead and done is that they've handed out these kitchen caddies right there , basically little , small , three or four gallon size plastic containers with lids that can be sealed. That's kind of important. And what they're asking people to do is to use those containers to put all of their food scraps in stuff like coffee grounds and the filters that come with those stuff , like any kind of leftover food that they normally would put in their garbage , put them in these kitchen caddies. And then at the end of the week , you add the contents of that container to your green yard waste bin. The company will then come pick up that yard waste , take it to a composting site that's onsite at that landfill , and turn both the yard waste and the organic waste into compost that can then be resold. Right now , it's just for single family residents. Apartment complexes are not included. They do hope to include apartment complexes moving forward.
S1:
S5:
S1: And there's a grace period here for residents and Republic Services , right ? Yeah.
S5: The Cal Recycle has been really , I think , very generous on the implementation of this law. We knew for a long time that it was going to be coming , but it's expensive to build a composting facility that can handle the kind of waste that's going to be generated. So they wanted to give municipalities and private trash haulers a little bit of leeway. The law went into effect in January. Technically , we should have had it up and running by then , but it's July now and that's only six months past the deadline. I think Cal Recycle is of the mind that they're willing to give communities , you know , kind of the first year to try and get things together and get things up and running. And then , you know , if they still aren't in compliance by next year , maybe that's the time that they start to look at other ways to encourage municipalities to move in that direction.
S1:
S5: It's basically chopped up. They add water to it. They put it over these areas which basically force air into the to the piles of the chopped up green waste and organic waste. And that allows the composting process to begin. And after about eight weeks , they have instead of a big pile of green waste and organic waste , they have a big pile of compost. And one interesting thing about SB 1383 that people may not realize is that one part of that bill also requires the cities , in this case , Chula Vista and Carlsbad , to buy back that mulch , that compost product. So in essence , it creates part of the market. They can sell it to other sellers as well or other buyers as well. But but the municipalities are obliged to kind of buy back some of that. And then , you know , you take that compost , you add it to your soils , it makes your soils richer , etc..
S1: So if the buyback provision in this new legislation is part of the state plan to create a market for the end product. Which is mulch.
S5: That helps , yes. It's kept separate from all the other things , recycled stuff. It's kept separate from the regular landfill. So there's no way that it's going to be , you know , accidentally buried or mixed in with recycling processes. I think the challenge that municipalities will have or the trash local trash haulers will have is to make sure that it gets sold on a regular basis. You know , one thing that you can you know , you use mulch on your garden , you can use it in your yard. But if you're a small single family residence , that's not going to have much of an impact. You're not going to need that much. But if you're a municipality , maybe you're carrying out caring for lots of landscaped area , that could be a really valuable thing for those cities.
S1: I've been speaking with Eric Anderson , KPBS environment reporter. Eric , thanks.
S5: My pleasure.
S3: This is KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Maureen CAVANAUGH with Jade Hyneman. Back in 2018 , Matt Rothman decided to start a blog focused on the genre films he loved. Now , the San Diego based author and filmmaker has a book inspired by the blog called Bonkers Ass Cinema A Guide to the Wildest of Horror and Exploitation Cinema. The book takes a deep dive into 100 films from nine genres and includes filmmaker interviews. KPBS arts reporter Beth ACCOMANDO spoke with the author about the book and the appeal of genre cinema. Matt , you have written a book called Bonkers Cinema A Guide to the Wildest of Horror and Exploitation Cinema. So in the intro you describe Bonkers as cinema , as an ethos.
S2: It guides the book. It just guides my film criticism in general. And the way I describe it in the book is basically , I say there are two types of people in this world and two types only people who laugh at Plan nine from outer space. They come from the bowels of hell. A transformed race of walking dead zombies guided by a master plan for complete domination of the Earth , Plan nine from outer space and the weird , crazed hermit uncles that genuinely love it. And my book is a manifesto for all those crazed hermit uncles. A lot of people think of me as like a bad movie guy. Things like that. I find it a little offensive. You know me , I know you. I love all of film , but I always only gear myself towards genre film , horror film , exploitation films. And in the mode of traditional criticism , they kind of get the lower end of the room. They get denigrated a lot , and in my opinion , that has a way of making films disappear. They are obviously got buried due to the time period they were in their last on all formats. And then in the meantime , you've just had a generation after generation of film critics that just beat these films in the ground. And that way films just disappear outright. As long as they're not talked about , they're not watched. It's my goal to bring that with my blog , the Bonkers Cinema blog , and the book is to bring these films , give them a little life , bring them into the mainstream a little bit. I approach each film on its own terms from in the context of its time period , its genre , the filmography of the filmmaker. I just treat it with respect. The book is a work of humor. I have a little fun with it , but I don't poke fun at the films themselves , and I think that's what the ethos is. I think a lot of people who are into this type of cinema , they they approach this with an ironic lens that I absolutely despise.
S3: Well , and if people want a point of reference sort of for you , it's kind of the job of Briggs approach to films.
S2: He's like a hero of mine because , I mean , I caught him in the late eighties and nineties and it kind of guided my film taste in general. He was the first one to really take these exploitation films seriously. As a film critic , obviously he had fun and did a shtick , which is what I do to have fun , and I have my shtick. But he took them seriously. He championed films that would otherwise not been championed. His ethos guides my ethos.
S3:
S2: I went back and forth with myself for 15 months on that very question. It has to have a certain quality. It doesn't have to be crazy or wild or anything like that , but a certain quality that I haven't just seen before. And that's what I always look for. That's what's entertaining to me. Just like usually the films I pick are like singular visions of a filmmaker that only makes sense to the guy who made the film. And that's what draws me to it. I'm drawn to the most extreme things , either extreme metal , extreme punk rock , extreme filmmaking. I'm always looking for that next high. Looking for that next piece to juice me up. And just watching this weird , just singular vision of a weirdo who had $10,000 is all I need to get through the day sometimes.
S3: So what can people expect to find in your book in the sense of how do you break the films into categories ? Is it just films ? Do you include filmmakers ? Kind of.
S2: There is a whole action chapter , and I deal with your favorite film of all time , Dangerous Men. And then there are certain filmmakers I wanted to follow. Jason So I have little sub chapters , director spotlights for the likes of like Dawson Fishman and Rene Cardona Jr.
S3: Well , I wanted to ask you about dangerous men because I feel like if you talk a little bit about dangerous men , it may give people a better sense of what defines bonkers as because it's not simply sometimes what's on the screen , but also what went on into that whole process of bringing these films to life. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. So Dangerous means a hilarious example of , as you say , what we're talking about this the ethos , the bunkers , that cinema , the guiding force of why I would pick a film to be included in the book. And it's directed by a guy named , I believe , John s read. But basically , he started making dangerous men , I believe , in the early eighties and finished it in the mid-nineties , and it just got released a few years ago. So , I mean , you're talking about a process of 30 plus years to get where we are now. Guaranteed. It's like nothing you've seen before. It's just a guy with no budget. Spent ten years on the bulk of the production with different actors playing different parts and people that are fatter , older in the meantime. It doesn't address it at all. It's the best.
S3: You are going to be having a book signing and you're going to be showing a film called Night Beast.
S2: The movie that will change the face of modern science fiction cinema night beast terror from Beyond. Like it's directed and written by Don Dola , who was this just this true underground , inspirational figure who lived in Baltimore before he was doing filmmaking. He was involved in publishing. He started , I believe , a magazine called Cinemagic in the late seventies. And this , like magazine found its way into the hands of people like J.J. Abrams because they just , like , influenced a whole generation of filmmakers. But he not only could teach you how to do it , he did it himself. And so he made a series of the wildest , cheapest , most handmade science fiction action films. They always usually featured a crash landing of an alien. And you never know what the motivation of the alien is. He just likes to walk around and kill people and utilizing just the most handmade special effects you've ever seen. Like he wasn't afraid to get gory. And Night Beast is one of those films you can look at and you can make fun of. Sure. Like it's very easy to watch Night Beast and make fun of it. But just to imagine , it was made for like $30,000 of what they able to get on screen. It's inspirational and like , you know , really appreciative to be able to show night beast and get everyone in there to to watch the night beast , dude. Night beast.
S3: All right. Well , I want to thank you very much for talking about your bonkers cinema book.
S2: No , thank you. What a pleasure.
S3: That was Beth ACCOMANDO speaking with her friend and fellow film geek Matt Rotman. Rotman will be signing copies of his book and presenting the film Night Beast at Digital Gym Cinema this Saturday at 1 p.m.. Both ACCOMANDO and Rotman are volunteer programmers at Film Geeks San Diego , which is hosting the event.