S1: It's time for KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. Coming up in the aftermath of an immigration raid at a San Diego painting business , we hear about the impact it's had on one local family and what it tells us about immigration enforcement today. George Lopez is back home after nearly a month in federal detention.
S2: He said there was a lot of depression in the facility. Every night he could hear men crying over the uncertainty of the situation.
S1: Plus , reporting from Cal Matters leads to calls for an investigation into financial aid fraud coming from Bart students. That's ahead on KPBS roundtable. In late March , U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided a paint company near El Cajon. U.S. citizens were eventually allowed to leave , but 15 people who could not prove citizenship were transported to the Otay Mesa Detention Center. One of those was George Lopez. Now , after a month in federal detention , he's now free and back with his family. And he's shared his story with KPBS border reporter Gustavo Solis. So , Gustavo , tell us more about Jorge. Who is he and what happened to him that day in March ? Yeah.
S2: Well , George , he was born in Mexico. Uh , came to the US when he was 13 years old. Graduated from orange Glen High School up in North County , married his high school sweetheart , and has four U.S. citizen children. A big , big soccer fan and player. And as you said in the intro , he was one of the 15 men arrested in that immigration raid back in March.
S1: You begin your story , you know , talking with his wife , Blanca Corona. Um , what was it like for her after his arrest ? Yeah.
S2: So I actually , I met Blanca the day of the raid , right outside the business. She she went there kind of same as me. She heard the news. She got a call from people. Hey. Something's happening. Went over there , and she was one of several family members I talked to day of. And I remember how stoic she was. It was a pretty gnarly scene. A lot of people were were visibly shaken , crying , angry , yelling. Blanca was mellow. Um , and she told me straight up like , yes , um , I may appear calm on the outside , but on the inside I'm freaking out. But I need to be strong for my four children. And she has maintained that mindset throughout , uh , the immediate impact of what happened. The financial situation of the family changed overnight. Right ? Obviously she worked , but you lose half your income a little bit more because George was the primary earner. She just had to work double triple shifts. She's been working on stuff on top of being the sole parent in the house of four young children , right ? Two of them play soccer. One of them is boxing. They're all in school. She has just been exhausted. So she talked a little bit about the emotional challenges that her children are facing. And here's a little bit of what she told me.
S3: My other daughter will sleep with either his shirt or a picture of him all night crying.
S2: Another daughter was her birthday was coming up as part of the story , right ? She was just obsessed with whether or not her dad was going to be there for her birthday. So imagine the mother not having an answer to that question. She also told me about her son , the youngest. Uh , regressed a little bit. Right. He had hadn't wet the bed and started wetting the bed again. So she was dealing with that kind of stuff ? Yeah.
S1: I mean , that's that's real trauma for a family. And then , you know , putting yourself in Blanca's shoes. Is you also have to be a mother to these young kids. So kids have to go to school. They do. They have their lives to write.
S2: Oh , totally. And I did think an important part of the story was to point out the fact that these are all blank , and the four children born here , U.S. citizens directly impacted by deportation. I think folks outside San Diego , or maybe who aren't familiar with the immigrant experience , think that deportation is something that doesn't impact U.S. citizens , and that is this is a clear example of why that is wrong. Right.
S1: Right. So George spent , you know , a month away from his family at this Otay Mesa detention center.
S2: It was a little less than a month that he was in there. He said there was a lot of depression in the facility. Every night , he could hear men crying over the uncertainty of the situation. He like Blanca , I don't know if one got it from the other or they just have the same mindset. But he kept his head down and try to stay busy. Right. It's a detention center , technically , not a jail. So it's a different facility. He was playing basketball every day. They have access to an Xbox. They could watch TV , play , uh , dominoes. He was doing whatever he could to stay busy and distracted and just focus on the deportation case that is pending.
S1:
S2: Yeah. They have an app. Uh , inside the detention center. You can download an app and , uh , talk to the family. They have a little voice memo. Um , actually , one of the kids would see him. Now they have green uniforms in the facility. And the kid , for some reason , asked him like , oh , dad , are you are you in Squid Games ? That's something black like. That was funny until she was like , oh , I hope the kid doesn't remember what happened to the people in Squid Games. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. It's.
S2: It's. Yeah. Yeah. So it was just really challenging , unique experience for the family.
S1: So George was there for about a month , as you said. Then an immigration judge on April 18th released George on Bond. Um , but he's still in touch with other coworkers that that are still there.
S2: So they're still calling on an almost daily basis. And he. I could hear him over the phone and say , you know what ? Uh. Stay strong , keep fighting. You got this , you know , positive attitude. Just talking them through them , right ? I alluded to folks being depressed about the situation earlier. Uh , so he's still in touch with the people , his coworkers. But he was also surprised by other people he saw in the detention center who were not his coworkers. Right. Um , you expect and you hear , you know , detention center , unauthorized immigrants , uh , there's allusions to a criminal aspect of it. And what he saw was , I mean , one guy was , uh , retired and in a wheelchair. Several people there with no criminal records. Uh , here's a little bit of what he had to say about what he noticed.
S4: You see , like a different people from different cells , and then you start talking to people. Oh , yeah. I'm here for for , like I said , license or , like , for a DUI that I had 20 or 30 years ago. Right.
S2: Right. And think about that to what we're hearing on national TV , either from Trump himself or Stephen Miller or Tom Homan. The borders are they framed this as we're going after the worst of the worst the public safety threats , the murderers , the violent people. And we are all doing this for the safety , the public safety of Americans. It's a stark contrast to what's actually happening in the ground. And if you look at federal data from Customs and Border Protection , only about 12% of the men in the facility are categorized as criminal.
S1: So a really departure from from what you said , like the Trump administration has emphasized this public safety issue and going after the criminals , but it's really not in the.
S2: Data , right ? And that's not to say folks who don't have legal status commit horrible acts of violence like it does happen. I don't want to downplay that. And those people should be charged and prosecuted and deported. But that doesn't reflect the the full scope and diversity and size and scale of this population.
S1: You mentioned this kind of , you know , this shift in immigration enforcement we've seen over the last year. I think it's the 100th day of 100 days of the Trump administration.
S2: Right. You're you're fearful , I don't know. The surprise element is difficult to to touch on because obviously he's undocumented. Right. And this is something undocumented people live with the this cloud hanging over you. It's a possibility that it could happen at any time. There are studies , uh , documenting increased levels of stress just from not having legal status , that uncertainty. He had a , um , a family member go through this. So he had already kind of mapped out in his mind. If I get detained , this is what I could do. He had it from the beginning , this mentality that if this happens , I'm I'm going to fight it. I'm not going to sign away. I'm not going to make it easy for myself to be deported. Deportation is almost not an option because he's been here as a kid. He actually told me about what he thought about life in Mexico. Here's kind of what he had to say about the thought of deportation.
S4: I haven't been in Mexico in so long. My whole family is here. Yeah. So the guys asked me , hey , do you want to go to Mexico ? What do you want to do ? Like. No , I want to fight.
S1: Yeah , like you said , he hasn't even been to Mexico in a long time. It sounds like a lot to juggle there. You kind of mentioned , you know , his decision to to legally fight this. And you spoke to Jorge's immigration lawyer , Tessa Cabrera. Can you talk more about the process of what Jorge is going through ? But but also what she told you about what she's seeing in her work today.
S2: Well , first , it's an immigration court process. The official term is an order of removal proceedings. Removal is what they used to call deportations , basically deportation proceedings. Uh , they'll make a case to. Well , first , they'll see if there's any way he can stay in the country , if there's any sort of humanitarian parole or maybe a temporary visa that's available to them , they'll exhaust all possibilities and kind of see what happens there. And , uh , I don't know the details of the case. I don't want to talk on that. But one thing that the lawyer did note was that George's background , at least in the previous administration , wouldn't be one that would call for detention. Right. The fact that he's been here such a long time , married to a US citizen , has U.S. citizen children , uh , has been actively working and paying taxes for decades. Historically , this person would be somebody that's like , okay , we recognize that you don't have legal status , but we take all these other factors into consideration. You're impacting the community , yada yada , yada. So we're going to pursue the deportation case , but we're not going to detain you. We're going to let you stay in your home and kind of carry on. So we don't disrupt that family life. That's a shift from the Trump administration now , where more people are being put in detention and they are less likely to to get bonded out like Corey did.
S1:
S2: You see different parts , the different executive actions working together to to make this happen. Right. One executive action allowed for other federal agencies to work as immigration enforcement agents. Right. US marshals , DEA , ATF. And when I went there at the raid , I noticed a lot of DEA agents. So I was asking , oh , maybe this is a drug bust , and DEA is here. And they invited us to come along. But no , it was the opposite. There were no allegations of drug trafficking , drug use , drug selling. I asked the Ice agents straight up , hey , did you find any drugs in here ? And they looked at me confused , like , no , there's no drugs here. If you look at the charges , the charges have all been immigration related , like knowingly hiring workers who didn't have legal authorization , harboring , you know , immigrants who are in the country illegally. There was no drug component to it , but the DEA was there. So you see how that executive action plays out. The other one was an action that removed this Biden era priorities for Ice enforcement , right. These priorities made sure that Ice understanding that Ice has limited resources , they focus on people with violent convictions , people who are genuinely public safety threats. They would go into a house and if there were ten people without status , they would just get the one person they were there to detain. Now that priority has been removed. So if that same thing happens , right , you're looking for one person. You find out that there are nine others who don't have legal status. You do what is commonly referred to as a collateral arrest , right ? You get them just because you can without waiting.
S1: Because they're. There.
S2: There. Right. If you're in the country , you're subject to detention. So it's a judgment call. It's not I don't want to say it's illegal or nefarious. It's totally on board. But it's a change in policy from the Biden administration before they would weigh in , whether , you know , like in his case. Right.
S1: I'm just curious , you know , how it's impacting your job and , you know , getting some of this information because it sounds like , you know , what they're saying publicly might be different than than the facts on the ground.
S2: Uh , Border Patrol is the people that work there are helpful in the media team , and they can get you data when they have access to it. But if they don't want to or they don't have access to it , it can be very difficult to extract data from them. I specifically , when it comes to things that happen in detention centers , some of them are privately owned , but they're don't have the best reputation among journalists and public , uh , advocates for being transparent. Now , in the Trump administration , it's gotten significantly harder. Uh , looking at the raid , for example , I have asked Ice 3 or 4 different times now to give me the names of the people they arrested during that raid. We don't have them. Uh , they I've asked them multiple times , like I said , and they allude to privacy concerns. And then I point out , wait a minute , your Twitter page is full of mugshots with names and charges of individuals like you have no problem naming them , but these 15 people. So it doesn't always make sense. It's not always consistent. And that is really frustrating. So I have been in touch with other members of the families trying to piece together what happened and who they are , but we don't have an accurate accounting for every single person that they detained that day.
S1: So , you know , in this story , you told a story of George and his family. You're also kind of looking into his other coworkers that , like you said , it's kind of hard to figure out what's going on there. But , you know , tell us what's next for George's case , but also , what do we know about his coworkers and the other folks that were swept up in this ? Yeah.
S2: Well , George's case , he's relatively in a better position than most , right ? He has a lawyer. He's back home. They're going to be fighting the case. Um , he still doesn't have a work authorization. He's trying to get a work permit to help Blanca out , but that's still up in the air with the other folks. Um , I'm aware of at least three have been deported already. At least one that I know of has been transferred to another facility outside of the state , which makes it more difficult to stay in touch with the family and hire an attorney to represent the case. And the rest , I don't know. I mean , I assume there's still a lot of people in there , but I don't know if more have been deported or more have been transferred , or if more have been released. It's very difficult to track track all of it. So I am in touch with the families trying to do more follow ups and see what we can put out there.
S1: This reporting really shows the humanity involved of all these numbers we see. We see the headlines , but to see it close up , like you said , a soccer coach , and with young kids too. So thanks so much for your reporting and for joining us on roundtable today. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. Appreciate it.
S1: Thank you. Gustavo Solis is KPBS investigative reporter. Coming up on roundtable , we hear about some reporting on fraud involving Bot students in community college classrooms and how they're now leading to a call for a federal investigation. Stay tuned. Roundtable's back after the break. You're listening to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. So recently on our weekly roundup , we talked about bot students and how they're taking up space in San Diego community college classes. It's part of a financial aid scam and having impacts across the state. Calmatters higher education reporter Adam Eshelman has been following this story for for over a year now , and that reporting has caught the attention of California Congress members , who are now calling for a federal investigation into that fraud. And Adam joins me now to talk more about it. So , Adam , tell us about this fraud. You call them Pell runners. Can you break it down ? What are Pell runners ? Yeah.
S5: So what's really happening is that scam artists are essentially posing as community college students applying to community college so that they can get government aid. This is financial aid , you know , like a Pell Grant , for instance , which can give a student over $7,000 a year , but that student's supposed to support tuition or in some cases , housing or food. It's not just supposed to go into somebody's pocket who's not really a student.
S1: And so tell us about how this fraud got started.
S5: Um , colleges that I spoke to say , you know , there's always been instances of fraud like this. And one example they talked about was , um , fake students who would create an edu , uh , email address so that they could get , you know , discounts on Amazon or other products. But this problem got a lot worse during the Covid 19 pandemic when colleges went online and all of a sudden it was a lot harder to verify a student's real identity. In 2021 , California's community college system said that around 20% of applicants to community college were suspected fraudulent. Then last year , I checked in with them again. It was 25% , and when I checked in just a few weeks ago , they said that now about a third of community college applicants are suspected fraudulent , and those are just the ones that they're catching.
S1: So what impact is that having on on the students then and the teachers as well , because they have to deal with this fraud as it kind of infiltrates their classrooms as well.
S5: They're really frustrated. I mean , I've talked to students who say that bots are filling up classes that they need to graduate , and teachers are telling me that they are spending more time trying to suss out who is real time that they say should be spent teaching. That's all you know , not to mention the fact that I've found in the last 12 months alone , these scammers have stolen over $10 million in federal financial aid , as well as a few million dollars in state aid to Two.
S1: Then I guess the question is , you know , what are the fixes ? You're saying this is a growing problem ? What are colleges doing to address it ? And why isn't it working ? Because it's not stopping. It's it's increasing now. Yeah.
S5: Yeah. Well , the state has actually been working on this for years. So the state has put over $150 million towards increasing and improving its cyber security. But what college leaders say is , as they get better , as they hire tech companies and create other tools to stop this , the hackers are getting better at scamming the system. The other thing that's happening here is the federal government. They are also responsible for preventing and investigating fraud. And since the election of President Donald Trump and all of the cuts that have happened to the federal government , the department that investigates this fraud has seen cuts. They say that that could hamper their ability to prevent and investigate fraud.
S1: So now there are these calls for investigation. It sounds like it's both at the state and federal levels now. And I want to talk a little bit about because you're you're reporting has been , you know , cited in these calls for investigations.
S5: So Republican representatives to Congress and they have called for really an investigation into California , saying that the state hasn't addressed this issue properly and calling on the state to do more. There's also a Democratic state lawmaker who has called for a state audit of this issue. You know , they're not blaming California in the same way , but they do want to understand the scope of this problem and the extent to which the efforts to fix it have actually worked. One thing I just want to add here. You know , when you're looking at the total scope of financial aid. This is , at least according to the reports , a drop in the bucket. It's less than 1% of the total aid that's gone to community college students in the last year. Um , so , you know , it is it's a it's a lot of money , but there are billions of dollars that go to students every year to help them with their higher education. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. And I want to talk more about , really , the role of community colleges. This problem you're talking about , this this fraud is also sort of like points to one of the aims of community colleges is to increase access. Right. We hear a lot about the student debt crisis today , and how many formerly college students are in debt from going to college and community colleges. Add this additional accessibility.
S5: You know , California's community college system is really an example across the country of accessibility. I mean , the state has spent lots of money , and lawmakers and college leaders have worked really hard to lower barriers to access. They've made applying to college really easy for low income students. Community colleges effectively free. And California is pretty unique in that respect. On the flip side , that also opens us up to these scammers who realize it's a little easier to apply to community college in California and scam the system than it might be in , say , other states.
S1: I want to talk a little bit about the role artificial intelligence is playing here. You know , it's kind of infiltrating so many stories , but it does play a part in this fraud. And I think you kind of allude to it in how it's adding to this growing problem of fraud. Can you talk about how AI is being used really to commit this fraud , but maybe also to combat it as well at this point.
S5: So back in 2021 , what students and teachers were really seeing were kind of traditional bots. So the idea , or at least , you know , the theory was that these scammers are using algorithms to , you know , create hundreds of fake student accounts , uh , and then use an algorithm to apply to college. And , you know , it was pretty easy to figure out who these students were and the fact that they were fake. So , you know , often they would scrub addresses from Zillow and then plug that in as proof of their California residency. And it was pretty easy to compare that and say , oh , this address isn't real , or this student is , you know , living in an abandoned lot or something. Its address isn't real. But over the past few years , faculty have been telling me it's starting to get harder to tell who is real and who is not. Often they'll say that the students that they suspect to be fake are using ChatGPT or other tools to submit assignments. I talked to one faculty member who , you know , the first week of class , they were able to figure out that a number of students were bots , but there were a number of other students who submitted these really suspicious kind of written responses that didn't answer the prompt. But , you know , we're nonetheless following along. And now a lot of teachers suspect that students are using or these these scammers are using AI to kind of continue this masquerade.
S1: Yeah , it's really interesting because these tools are advancing so fast. You hear about some new large language model or some new AI tool. It seems like every day at this point , but I imagine also the tools the schools would use would advance alongside some of the strategies the scammers are. They just have haven't kept up , it sounds like. Yeah.
S5: Yeah. There's a number of companies. One is called IDM that's used by the DMV. There's another one called End to end. I mean , there's a number of tools that are , you know , trying to prevent this. And the state has spent lots of money , in some cases , hiring these firms to , you know , basically use the same AI or use other tools to combat them. Um , and , you know , these companies say that they are making a difference. But , you know , as you can see from the numbers , it does appear to be getting worse.
S1: So you're reporting , as we said , you know , you've done a number of stories at this point on this. It's gotten national attention and even got the attention of Elon Musk. Elon Musk retweeted someone's tweet that referred to your reporting. And I just wanted to ask , I'm not sure how I'd react if , you know , someone told me , hey , Elon Musk retweeted your reporting , but how was your reaction to that ? And what do you take from the reaction to your reporting and the attention it's garnering.
S5: I'm happy that people are reading it. Um , and , you know , I it's my job to put information out there. I think it's important that we , um , cover this issue. It is getting worse. And I'm hearing from students and from faculty who say this is really impacting their everyday lives. Um , that's why I wrote about it. And of course , I'm also , you know , deeply concerned about the use of taxpayer dollars to scammers. Whether that is properly summed up in a tweet by Elon Musk or even properly reflected in some of the federal and state investigations. That's a whole other matter. But I am really happy that folks are engaging with this , because it is a real issue and something that seems to be getting worse.
S1:
S5: And as we know , this is a big priority of the Trump administration and the Department of Government Efficiency , or Doge , that's led by Elon Musk. You know , they're really trying to cut down on a lot of government activities that they claim are producing fraud. You know , this is an example where we are seeing , uh , taxpayer dollars going to scammers. But as we've discussed , it's complicated. The state has also put a lot of money and time into this issue. And the federal government , the same one that Doge is , you know , really cutting down on is partially responsible for preventing and investigating this fraud.
S1: I want to bring it back. Now , you know , to the students who we've talked a little bit about , but , you know , thinking about the impacts , the impact on their education , kind of first and foremost here. I don't know.
S5: You could argue that's good , right ? You want to engage. You want an online class to be engaging. And there's a broader movement , um , among professors to really , you know , treat online classes as these engaging spaces where people are on video , where they're actively talking to their classmates. And so I suppose if you know , one , uh , silver lining here is that it could encourage these online classes to be more interactive. Um , and , you know , one benefit of that is it would help teachers suss out who's real and who's not. But , you know , the the faculty unions and the academic senates , these college leaders that I've talked to , they say this isn't their job. Their job is to teach. It's not to find out who's fake and who's not.
S1: It's a fascinating story. I mean , what's next for these calls ? Investigation.
S5: The federal , you know , the call for federal investigation. As far as I know , the Department of Education and the attorney general have yet to respond officially. So we don't know exactly what's going to happen there. And I don't cover the federal government as much. So I'm not as familiar with that timeline. I can't tell you on the state level. Um , so this one Democratic , uh , state lawmaker , Blanca Rubio. She called for an audit , and that process takes a while. So it'll get approved in June , assuming it is approved. It could take a few more years for us to glean more information. In the meanwhile , I will continue to write about this and continue to follow up on schools asking , you know , if it's getting better , if it's getting worse , and how it might be changing.
S1: Well , a lot to keep track of a lot of intersection of technology and education. You report on it so well and we appreciate your time telling us more about it. I've been speaking with Adam Eshelman. He's the higher education and workforce reporter with Cal Matters. Adam , thanks again for being here.
S5: Thanks for having me.
S1: Up next , we take a look at some other stories from the week , including the death of a former San Diego mayor beset by scandal. Stay tuned. The roundup is ahead. You're listening to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. It's time now for our weekly roundup of some other stories we've been following from the week. Joining me to do that is KPBS producer Ashley Rush. And , Ashley , we've seen a lot of stories marking Trump's first 100 days in office. Yesterday , the president signed an executive order looking to end federal funding for public media. That includes NPR and PBS , which get a piece of their funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. And this is something , you know , we should know he's been talking about since he took office. Part of his larger effort looking to cut back in federal spending. And obviously , you know. KPBS is a member station here. Yeah.
S6: Yeah. And if you're wondering how all of this could impact KPBS , in short , it's kind of up in the air. But according to KPBS general manager Deanna mackey , the executive order doesn't cut funding directly to KPBS today. But it does affect CPB funding , which provides federal funding to public media stations like KPBS. So it's unclear yet how the directive will impact KPBS. But we do use some of that CPB funding for some of our programs. And if you want to know more about this story , it's obviously developing. You could check out more at npr.org. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. So there's a lot more questions involved with that too. And actually , our next story is on the passing of a former San Diego mayor. Yes.
S6: Yes. So former mayor of San Diego , Bob Filner , died on April 20th. He was 82. He was a California Democrat who served ten terms in Congress and then won election in 2012 as mayor of San Diego. And he was actually the first elected Democrat in 20 years to be mayor of San Diego. But , you know , people will remember that he didn't even make it a year into his term before he faced allegations of unwanted touching and verbal sexual harassment. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. I mean , as someone that lived in San Diego at that time , it's sort of yeah , it seemed like much longer than that that you mentioned. It was so quickly into his term. I mean , he was a , you know , a figure in San Diego politics for a long time. He was a representative , you know , representing San Diego in Congress for many years. But this was , you know , a real , you know , seminal story. And I just remember it not being just like one single story. And then it was done. It was sort of like more and more information came out over a couple of months. Yeah.
S6: Yeah. Long process. Former City of San Diego communications director Irene McCormick actually came forward with her story first. And then , as you mentioned , at least 19 women came forward over the next several weeks. So it was a lot of stories pouring in. And five weeks later , Filner announced his resignation. That was just nine months into his term.
S1: And I think , you know , the role local reporting played in that was pretty important. You know , our colleague KPBS , Amita Sharma , interviewed several of the women as part of that. And , yeah , kind of like you mentioned. I mean , it was also interesting. It was like a watershed moment because it was something of a precursor to the MeToo movement , which came , you know , just a few years after that , but really important piece of San Diego's political history and kind of , you know , how politics and power and the limits of that and just , you know , people coming forward and that sort of power in that.
S6: Yeah , exactly. And the power of what happens when one person speaks up the wave that follows that. So the women's rights lawyer Gloria Allred , who was , you know , representing this case against the city , she said the Filner case proved that courage is contagious. And we should note that later , Filner pled guilty to felony false imprisonment and misdemeanor battery charges. And then in 2016 , city voters actually passed a ballot measure inspired by the Filner scandal to create a process to remove elected officials who are convicted of crimes or those that fail to perform official duties.
S1: I want to take us to a story back. You know , earlier this year , it was a major story , and it affected the Los Angeles area significantly in those were , you know , the impacts from those major wildfires back in January , the two biggest being the Palisades and Eaton fires. Right. They caused so much damage and death. And I think it spurred a lot of conversations. I think we talked about on Midday Edition about what can we do to better protect our homes from wildfire , from these , you know , these greater threat of wildfire that we face throughout California. And there's a story published this week from Calmatters Ben Christopher , and it's on the nation's first , you know , what he calls wildfire resistant neighborhood. It's a , you know , housing subdivision in Escondido , the Dixon Trail neighborhood. And it's like a project from from a developer. And they built all of these homes kind of with wildfire , you know , housing protection in mind. Okay.
S6: Okay.
S1: I mean , it's interesting because there's like there's pictures in his story and it looks just like , you know , normal kind of suburban home. But when you look up close , a lot of the materials are not maybe what you expect. There's something that may appear wood. And then you look up close and it's made of metal. Or , you know , they have actually a picture of , uh , of a window shutter. And again , it looks like wood , but it's actually just stucco. So it's a lot of stucco. Um , there's um , also separation. There's not obviously much vegetation and the separation between between the structures and important piece. Um , you know , there's obviously challenges with that. Only half of the I think it's like 60 some homes for this project have been built. So , you know , there are challenges and you have to kind of come up with new solutions. But it is interesting to see just some way to kind of address what we saw from those fires earlier this year. Right.
S6: Right. And one thing we saw with the fires was that so many of the homes just quickly engulfed because , you know , they're all so close together and built with these older materials.
S1: And the embers getting through. And that was like another piece is a lot of it's , you know , grading the , the vents like that's an important part of what they mentioned in these homes. One part of Ben's piece that he talks about is there's a larger challenge in how you retrofit homes rather than like build from , from the get go. Right. And that can be very expensive. Um , and it's , you know , it's a challenge , but a lot of , you know , there are things we can do to at least , you know , mitigate sort of like some of these , these embers getting into the homes. I think like eliminating the open eaves is something that , that they talked about.
S6: In their open. Eaves.
S1: Eaves. It's just like holes between like the roof and the house. These ways where like , embers can get in there , can get can get inside the home and then burn the material that's in the home. Right. And then of course , having these like buffer zones between the house and , and vegetation , Ben Christopher's piece gets into a lot of it. And also the home insurance part of it , which is like really important. And it's going to be a challenge for all of us in California. And so our next story is from KPBS education reporter Katie Anastas , and it's on a study from nonprofit United Ways of California on the cost of living in California. Yeah.
S6: Yeah. So by that real cost of living , that means things besides the cost of food , it's factors like housing and child care and health care. And the most recent census data show a family of four with two adults , one preschooler and one school aged child , would need at least $116,000 in income to cover all of those costs right here in San Diego County.
S1: And that mean , you know , that sounds like a lot. But as people , you know , we both live in San Diego. It kind of , you know , doesn't honestly. Right. I mean , the they go on to say that roughly , you know , a third of households don't get enough basic needs involving all these costs. And it goes up to nearly half with households with children under six. So that was really striking , um , at this , you know , at the same time , I get it as someone that has kids , anybody knows , just the cost of childcare is a real challenge for families and for working families. And in San Diego , where the , you know , cost of so many other items like housing is also high. Yeah.
S6: Yeah. So in this report , United Ways recommends policymakers do a couple things to address this. That's expanding affordable child care , of course , expanding public benefits and even tax credits for families with young children. So hopefully fingers crossed all of those things will happen.
S1: I mean , I still remember the day like my kids finished at preschool and we didn't have to pay for preschool costs. I mean , it's it's that it's a big deal. Yeah. You know , it's a big part of your budget.
S6: Also this week , Katie Anastas reported that federal funding cuts are impacting two area school districts. That's la mesa , Spring Valley and Lemon Grove. And those reduced funds are going to affect mental health care workers and the mental health needs of students. So on Tuesday , those districts were notified with letters from the US Department of Education that those grants will be terminated two years early.
S1: Yeah , and it sounded like in Katie's reporting there , it was very sudden. And the , the , the local districts were trying to figure out how to react to it. As we know , coming out of the pandemic , like the mental health of children was a major issue , and the federal government did invest in kind of increasing some of those. Those needs that we saw there. So it'll be interesting to see where that goes. But more important reporting from Katie this week. Yeah okay. So I kind of want to end here on a on a lighter note , um , I saw this this was in , uh , Axios San Diego. It's from Andy Keats , and it's a piece about a music festival happening here in San Diego in South Park neighborhood. But it's kind of like a different kind of music festival in that it's like neighborhood community driven. It's a neighborhood led festival where homeowners allow bands to perform on their porches , and it's called Porch Fest. I hadn't heard of this. Love it. I don't know if you've heard of this or been to it , but it's been happening since 2016. Um , and the idea is like , they do it without permits. You know , permitting can be expensive. I guess it's like a nationwide movement. So other cities have tried this , but , you know , you know , just local folks offer up their , their porches and people come grab a lawn chair and , um , you know , his piece , it talks about , like , how there's all kinds of bands , like , there's like kid bands , there's bands with senior citizens , and it just sounds really fun and a and a nice model. And it's happening this Sunday in the afternoon in South Park around 29th and Columbia streets , if you know where that is. Yeah.
S6: Yeah. No , definitely sounds like my kind of festival. You know , I want to avoid any of the big Coachella hour plus bathroom lines , that kind of situation paying hundreds of dollars for , you know , a wristband might be some people's speed , but not necessarily mine. Um , so this sounds really fun. It sounds like a really good , you know , way to build community and just kind of have a chill , friendly vibe while you're listening to music. I think A porch is a very accessible , stripped down way to kind of enjoy that music.
S1: I mean , would you offer up your house for it ? Because there is a there's a picture in this thing. I don't know if you saw it , but there's like a picture where it's like , you know , a lot of people in the yard there , kind of. So I was just curious. Yeah.
S6: Yeah. And I was just thinking as I was talking like , wait , what bathroom are we using ? If , you know , if it's Porch Fest.
S1: Without a permit ? Because that's what you probably get , like porta potties and stuff if you have a thing. Exactly. Um , you know , I mean , it is mentioned , you mentioned like the larger music festivals , and this is such an interesting alternative model to it. But we are in this area. You know , San Diego has like really well known. Yeah. Really good. Like , you know , Music Fest and Waterfront Cross. There's quite a few. You mentioned Coachella not not far away , but um , it is just like a cool , like DIY model. Um , I wonder if there's a limit to like , going to big for it.
S6: You know what I mean ? Eventually it loses its appeal.
S1:
S6: Yeah.
S1: I've been speaking with KPBS producer Ashley Rush. Ashley. Thanks.
S6: Thanks , Andrew.
S1: That'll do it for our show this week. Thanks so much for listening. You can listen to the show anytime as a podcast. KPBS roundtable airs on KPBS FM at noon on Fridays again. Sundays at 6 a.m.. If you have any thoughts on today's show or ideas for a future one , you can always email us at roundtable at KPBS. You can also leave us a message at (619) 452-0228. Roundtable's technical producer this week was Brandon Truffaut. The show was produced by Ashley Rush. Brooke Ruth is roundtable senior producer. I'm Andrew Bracken. Thanks again for listening and have a great weekend.
