S1: Hey there , San Diego , it's time for KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. This week , San Diego City Council voted to increase the minimum wage to $25 an hour for many tourism workers in the city.
S2: Corporate America has proven itself unwilling to share fairly with the workers who make their extravagant wealth possible. So if forced to choose a winner , you're damn right I'm choosing the workers.
S1: We take a look at what the wage hike for hospitality workers means for the greater conversation around San Diego's high cost of living. Then local news coverage is shrinking. But one San Diego news site is looking to turn that around and double down on local coverage. That's ahead on KPBS roundtable. San Diego City Council voted this week to increase the minimum wage to $25 an hour. For most hospitality workers. That's a sizable increase from the current minimum wage right now , which is set at $17.25. Joining us to break it all down is KPBS , KPBS , Metro reporter Andrew Bowen. Along with Scott Lewis , he is editor in chief and CEO with the Voice of San Diego. I want to welcome you both to roundtable Andrew. Tell us more about the details here.
S3: And so hotels have to have at least 150 rooms. So smaller hotels got a special carve out. Event centers are named specifically in the ordinance as Petco Park , Pechanga Arena , the San Diego Convention Center and the Civic Theater , and then amusement parks have to be at least 75 acres. So the only site that actually meets that criteria is SeaWorld San Diego. So all employees of these businesses covered by the ordinance are covered by these wage increases. So that includes janitors , room cleaners , front desk receptionists at a hotel , parking attendants. If a hotel has a restaurant , then the servers , the cooks , the dishwashers are all included within that. Um , employees , also of businesses that lease a space from a covered employer. So , um , you know , a business within a hotel is also covered. Uh , there was an owner of a jet ski rental company that operates out of a hotel in mission Bay that showed up to the ordinance and or the city council meeting and said , you know , she felt it was unfair that she's covered while her competitors who aren't tied to hotels are not. Um , and then the ordinance also includes contracted services , so a hotel couldn't get around this by just like hiring a janitorial services company and then arguing that these janitors are not direct employees. Um , you know , they they have to be covered by this ordinance as , uh , contracted services within that hotel.
S1: So a lot of , you know , technical details there about who qualifies here. But , Scott , these increases are also kind of , you know , coming in over time , right. Tell us about , you know , how they're being phased in.
S4: Well , the last week leading up to the ordinance as it was drafted was a pretty , um , you know , intense frenzy of negotiations. Uh , the last couple of weeks really is the zoo was removed. Uh , they had been included in a previous draft. Um , the San Diego states. Uh , arena and stadium were eventually removed. And then there was a lot of of wonder about if the hotels , the large hotels and SeaWorld and the Padres at Petco would would have to pay. You know the. Increase right away. So , you know , if you're paying a minimum wage at 1725 , to go to $25 an hour would be a really big jump. Um , and so they spent the last few days negotiating phase ins. And so the , the SeaWorld and the large hotels , uh , made a deal for a phase in at $1.50 per year up until it gets to 25 , and then it would increase by inflation. And the Padres , um , at Petco Park , they already pay the living wage , which , uh , entities that either work with the city or at least city facilities have to pay. And so they were already at $21. And so they're going to go a little more slowly up to 25. And uh , and then again continue at that , at that inflation. So there was a big frenzy of dealmaking and , and uh , and in exchange , those entities all agreed not to fund a referendum to try to , you know , with overturn the the ordinance.
S3: And the the phase in terminates or it reaches the the $25 wage in 2030. So there was some disagreement between is that a four year phase in because it's going to take effect in July of next year , or is it a five year phase in. Because , you know , we've got almost a year until July. Um , regardless , you know , that $25 an hour , a wage won't actually apply until July 1st , 2030.
S1: Got it. So , you know , this vote by the city council , you know , the larger picture here. It seems to tap into these issues around around San Diego's cost of living. And I want to dig into that a bit.
S3: Some neighborhoods are more expensive than others. But , you know , several people in the meeting referenced the MIT , living wage calculator , and that just tries to kind of come up with an average cost of living for a city or a metro area , and then calculates what someone needs to earn if they're working full time , uh , to be fully self-sufficient , you know , be able to cover all of their basic living expenses. And that tool says that a single person needs to earn $30.71 per hour to , uh , to , you know , earn a living wage in San Diego County. Obviously , that's higher if you have kids or other people in your household , uh , who can't work , maybe an elder grandparent or something like that. Um , so , you know , even at the $25 an hour wage , uh , that that again , won't take full effect until 2030. Um , you know , there's still a pretty big delta between what , uh , you know , this academic tool says would be a living wage. And what , this , uh , what , this living wage ordinance will ultimately require. And then for comparison's purposes , you know , you mentioned the city's minimum wage is currently 17 , 25 an hour. Uh , the city also has this living wage ordinance that applies to , uh , businesses that that work with the city or do business with the city , and that's currently 2106. So , you know , even that I think is still pretty far from what someone would need to earn to , you know , fully be able to support themselves. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. And I think even Scott earlier mentioned that living wage , um , piece of it. And I think that there's some overlap here to , to what was passed , including like convention center workers. Right. Scott , I mean , talk more about , you know , this this , uh , you know , cost of living issue here. Yeah.
S4: Yeah. Well , this this originated from the city council's new committee on addressing the Cost of Living. And , I mean , there's a lot of people pointing out , uh , the irony that the city council itself is raising the cost of living in so many different ways , with fees and trash fee and other different things they are doing to close the budget. The city itself doesn't pay that high of a minimum wage. It's still at the regular minimum wage. I've talked to several city leaders who point out that union leaders of city employees say that's fine. I think that's probably part of the the discussion here that you might say , like , well , those those workers are going to come back and wish that they made more. And I think that's part of the point. They they want to see not just the workers at these entities directly affected see their compensation rise. They want to see the compounding effects. The managers that are supervising them get a bump. They want to see competitors. Even the small hotels that were exempted are going to have to compete with with large hotels paying a better wage now. And and I think , you know , city workers may very well come back to the city and say like , okay , you pass this minimum wage , we'd like to see a bump or a way to get up to that , that rate as well. So there are not just the direct effects of the requirements , but then this compounding one. And I think that's what businesses were worried about when they were seeing it. And , you know , go through as far as just adjusting to that in increasing cost. Um , but you know , what they'll point out is like the cost of living , you know , may go up. Uh , going to SeaWorld may be more expensive. Going to Petco May already. It's already very expensive. Maybe even more. Um , and so , you know , the money doesn't just come from nowhere. So we'll have to see now what the trade off for it was.
S1: Andrew , you know , we've touched on organized labor a little bit here. We'll talk more about their role here. But , um , San Diego City Council member Sean Rivera really pushed for the minimum wage increase along with local labor leaders. How has he characterized the state of of the economy.
S3: Well , Shani La Rivera has said many times in many different venues at the City Council that San Diego has grown to become this really world class tourist destination. We have multibillion dollar corporations , you know , owning and operating these hotels like Hyatt and Marriott Bonvoy , and they make a lot of money here. And of course , you know that tourism industry provides employment. It provides tax revenue that funds city services. But in Isla Rivera's opinion , local residents just haven't gotten a good deal in this bargain with these these big corporations that are , you know , sort of the big players in the tourism industry and and , you know , he said employees , especially in the tourism sector , have gotten a particularly bad deal. We have a clip from him. Let's hear what he said.
S2: Corporate America has proven itself unwilling to share fairly with the workers who make their extravagant wealth possible. So if forced to choose a winner , you're damn right I'm choosing the workers.
S1: So , you know , some pretty strong wording there. Scott , you know , you talked a little bit about some of the arguments the hotel operators were making in the run up to this.
S4: The there are a lot of hotels are looking and looking at the bookings for next year and the year after. And , and because of some of the national and international news and changes , there's a lot fewer people at least planning to come to San Diego. Um , I think that there was a lot of people in these hotel and , and padres and in these different interest groups that were remarking about how interesting it was that Brigitte Browning , the the secretary executive secretary of the Labor Council , the Union of Unions , was , you know , basically their negotiating partner at City Hall had basically a seat at the table. And if they if they made various deals , then then they could get , uh , the phase ins and such. Um , it was very clearly a very strong move by the Labor Council and by Bridget and , and , and I think that it was also a kind of coming out for a new way of politics sort of being arranged in San Diego. So Shawnee Lo Rivera is obviously very progressive and has a very strong principles , but he's also quite open to talking to the businesses and said , look , I'm not going to buy the argument that you're going to , you know , your businesses are going to fail in this tourism , you know , hotspot. But if you want to talk about like some , you know , common sense things that we should do to make sure it doesn't really hurt you right now or that we can accommodate different things you bring up. I'm going to listen then. By all accounts , he did that. And and it was also the first major policy issue that Chris Kate , the new CEO of the Chamber of Commerce , um , was engaged with as a as the new chamber CEO. And he really pushed hard to , to , to kind of strike a , um , you know , a point that the businesses weren't going to go down too easy on this. And they sent out all kinds of text messages and campaign style things to try to adjust it. So it's interesting. I feel like the business community is starting to get more organized. Uh , you know , after Trump first election , they really sort of fell in line almost with Democrats or , you know , you could almost see them with their skateboard over their shoulder saying , hey , fellow Democrats. But but they. They're now starting to get their own independent kind of right a center voice and alignment going. And it'll be really interesting to see how that looks in coming in.
S1: Andrew Scott just mentioned Bridget Browning , local label labor leader. You know , I want to throw it to you.
S3: When I got here in San Diego in 2015. Democrats had A54 majority on the city council , so enough to pass something , but not enough to override a veto from the mayor , who was a Republican and the city attorney at the time was Republican as well. And now in 2025 , it's kind of hard to imagine any Republican winning elected office in the city. We have nine Democrats on the city council , a Democratic mayor and city attorney and unions have played a role in that shift. They spend money in elections. You know , they they are sympathetic to the Democrats who are sympathetic to their concerns. But I think that they've gained all of this influence , not just by spending money and electing their allies , but also by just making arguments that a lot of people find pretty convincing. Uh , the middle class used to be , I think , more insulated from San Diego's high cost of living than they are today. But as we've seen , the gap between the Uber rich and everybody else growing in recent years , not just in San Diego , but really across the country. I think that's part of what has made San Diego more sympathetic to unions that represent the lowest wage workers. And , you know , also more democratic. And I do believe also , yeah , we have a clip from Brigitte Browning , the head of the hotel workers union Unite Here local 30. Here's what she said.
S5: I want to say that I am so proud of you all because you are standing up for invisible workers. Because for many , many years , no one cared about our community as long as they kept their heads down and cleaned the rooms and did what they were supposed to do. Everybody was happy with that. But now times are changing. We have to reinvent the economy. You can be rich , but you don't have to be billionaires.
S1: Scott , just jumping off. You know what Andrew had to say ? That that clip from Brigitte Browning there is , you know , illustrates his points. I mean , your thoughts on on organized labor and how you've seen that shift over your time here.
S4: Well , I'm a little older than Andrew and yeah , when I , when I started here , it was it was a very Republican city. In fact , the I think that what was interesting is not only was it a very dominated political landscape by Republicans , but they were the professional political operators to the restaurants , the business , the building industry. They all hired professional lobbyists and operators and campaign consultants , and that professional class is now Democratic. So either they left San Diego , the old Republican professional , or they became Democrats. And , you know , the infrastructure fully flipped over to the Democratic side. And like I said , I think the , um , you know , the business community starting for the first time , I think , since that really switched , uh , about ten years ago to get their voice back and try to realign something. Um , I think in a , in a weird way , you know , they might have been happy that Trump won nationally , but it really set back , I think their hopes that they could get back to a post or get to a post-Trump world where they , the Republicans , could compete again. But yes , uh , labor unions have significant influence at San Diego City Hall and now , uh , a majority influence at the county of San Diego. And you're seeing that play out in in the choices they're making for leaders of the bureaucracies and the kind of arguments and priorities they're showing. And , you know , in the county of San Diego , they they got into reserves , a goal they've been going for , for for a long time to tap into the vast reserves that the county has. And one of the first things those reserves will do is , is give the city or the county employees a a bonus. And , you know , that's the kind of thing that , um , the , the that , that influence , you know , shows in outcomes. And so , uh , it is a different time in San Diego and , um , we'll see how far it goes. Andrew.
S1: Andrew. And we have about 30s left. But , you know , Scott touched on this earlier. For workers more broadly , San Diego's minimum wage remains at that 1725 an hour.
S3: It is a marketplace. So , you know , if you are covered by this ordinance , you're going to get a raise. If you're not covered by this ordinance , then , you know , maybe those other jobs that that do pay higher wages are more attractive to you. And you , you know , are motivated to leave your current employer. So we could definitely see I think it'll be interesting to see how this higher minimum wage in the , in the hospitality sector impacts not just those that are directly covered by the ordinance , but , you know , really the industry as a whole.
S1: Well , I appreciate you both being here and kind of breaking some of this down. I'm sure there'll be more conversations to be had here. I've been speaking with KPBS Metro reporter Andrew Bowen , along with Voice of San Diego's Scott Lewis. Andrew Scott , thanks so much.
S3: Thanks , Andrew.
S4: Thank you.
S1: When roundtable returns , local news has seen significant declines over the past couple of decades. How one local news outlet is expanding its coverage in San Diego. You're listening to KPBS roundtable. Welcome back to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. It's hard to put it any other way , but local news has been struggling. One study released earlier this year found a 75% drop in the total number of local journalists since 2002. Other research finds the number of local news outlets is shrinking , leaving some communities without coverage at all. But The Times of San Diego is one local news outlet that's expanding its coverage in new ways and with new incoming leadership as well. Chris Genuine is the founder and senior editor with Times of San Diego , and Andrew Keats is its newly minted general manager and editor. I want to welcome you both to roundtable. Chris , can you tell us the original vision for Times of San Diego ? Sure.
S6: And it's great to be on on the roundtable today. Um , I started Times of San Diego in 2014. Um , I had just come off , uh , running patch for Southern California , and that company was , was sold. And I reflected on , um , what do I want to do in journalism ? And what I wanted to do was create an online news site that would pick up where newspapers were leaving off because they were laying off staff. They were putting in expensive paywalls. And that made it harder and harder for readers to get authoritative local information. Um , I also wanted to , in this difficult media environment , try to create a model of sustainability , a model that could perhaps be used in other places to to make sure that local news thrives. And after 11 years , it's great to be able to pass it on to , uh , to Andy. Uh , it's really the next generation taking , uh , taking over this vision.
S1: And , Andy , I think you're just getting started there.
S7: And so I have done more than my share of that for the last little while. Uh , but luckily here , towards the back half of the week , I've been able to get my hands dirty and do some journalism.
S1: And , you know , Chris , you've had a long career working in journalism , much of it here in San Diego.
S6: And interestingly , just a week before nine over 11 , the San Diego Union-Tribune was the dominant newspaper. Uh , there was another very strong newspaper based in Escondido. I came in to run a sign on San Diego , which at the time was a money losing newspaper website. Um , what I focused on was making it sustainable , making it profitable and increasing the news coverage. So it was doing primarily breaking news. You know , in that period of time , you know , we could always rely on the newspaper. We really can't do that anymore. And , um , by , um , by I think it was 2008. The Copley family had already sold the newspaper. It's now gone through. I forget how many ownership changes. And it's really now incumbent on new startups , a new generation of , uh , of publications to take the , you know , to run with the banner and and provide local news here.
S1: And Andy , you yourself , you know , no stranger to the world of San Diego journalism , you've produced award winning work for places like Voice of San Diego. More recently , Axios San Diego. What did you learn from those experiences ? And you know how it fits into an online news news outlet that can be successful today.
S7: Well , you know , I think every little , every outlet in San Diego does something somewhat differently. Um , the thing that I've has become clear to me over the last 15 years in local journalism , um , is just how far we are. I mean , we are just light years away from anything that could be described as resembling , like a full news environment. We're so far , um , we're so far in the hole from where we were even when I got here. Which , by the way , when I got here , it's not like anyone thought we were living through the golden age of journalism where there was more , more , more reporters and more stories than anybody could could possibly want. It already felt like we had we had been diminished and broken down and things were , were , um , were receding. And even from then until now , we I , you know , you could I could list run off the names of 3 or 4 different publications that no longer exist. Um , and so most of that work has not been replaced. And so while , you know , Voice of San Diego , where I worked for a long time , does incredible investigative reporting , and they have sort of run into the to the building while it was on fire and tried to , um , put back together some of what was lost in political coverage , in education coverage , in investigative resources. Um , you know , they remain a , uh , a publication that can focus on those things very well. Um , Axios was an interesting , uh , is an interesting publication that can do a lot of stuff that people like , and it produces a newsletter that can , I think , connect people to its audience. But , you know , I mean , both of those organizations together , um , represent a tiny , tiny fraction of what's been lost in the journalistic world , even From 15 or 20 years ago. I mean , you know , like you said , you said the study there was over like 40 were reporters per 100,000 residents at the turn of the century. And we're now down , you know , around like 7 or 8 reporters per 100,000 residents. So times of San Diego , we have a big job ahead of us. But even if we were wildly successful , we would be only scratching the surface of getting back to where to ? To where ? You know what I think people would consider something like a healthy news environment.
S1: Chris , your career in online journalism goes back a long ways , even before your time here. I think you mentioned , you know , patch , which was one , you know , entity you were with for some time. But it goes back even further. Tell us more about , you know , your start bringing newspapers online and some of the challenges that came about with that.
S6: Well , I , I began my career as a , as a reporter and editor at newspapers , but I was always intrigued with where technology might , might take this , this media industry. Um , back in the mid 80s. Uh , Knight Ridder , which I later worked for , had a very , um , well-funded experiment called neutron in South Florida. They spent $40 million on it. It required a special terminal. Uh , never did pan out. But what happened was the technology kept getting less and less expensive. Soon there were personal computers , and then there were modems , and then there were internet connections. I started an early online site for the Atlanta newspapers , Access Atlanta. It's still there. Access Atlanta. Com although it's now now the entertainment vertical. They have did the same thing in Silicon Valley at the San Jose Mercury News. Uh , and then after that came to , to San Diego. What I've always tried to do is innovate and try out new things. And I always thought that local news would ultimately prosper if we , you know , if we as journalists were flexible enough and kept changing and kept trying new ideas. And I think that's exactly what you're going to see with with Times of San Diego over the next several years.
S1:
S6: It's it's all over. It's , um , if you go get a newspaper from , say , the 1940s or 50 and you start flipping through it , it's amazing how much they covered. Um , articles were shorter , but there would be dozens of articles every day on everything from the women's club to a new subdivision going up to , um , uh , the latest statement by a local Congress member. And we've kind of gotten away from that. We focus on a few things every day , even at times of San Diego , although we we cover a lot of stories , 20 to 30 on a typical day , there's a lot out there we still don't cover. So I see I see gradually building staffs up , I see gradually covering more and more. I think it's important to provide comprehensiveness and depth. Andy.
S1: Andy.
S7: Um , you know , honestly , city halls covered fairly well. You know , Voice of San Diego does a great job covering City Hall. Union-Tribune does a very good job covering City Hall. City News Service will reproduce stories , um , you know , that come out of City Hall every day. Uh , there's there were more people covering City Hall 15 years ago than there are now. But the risk of something , something really gigantic happening at City Hall in plain sight on a given day , and no one being around to see it is , is fairly small. That's not true in other city halls around the county , in Oceanside City Hall , or in Vista City Hall. Um , or , you know , you know , God forbid , in every little school board around the county , all the water districts around the county , there's public meetings , there's all sorts of information happening all over the county that just just outnumbers the number , the amount of reporters around to to write it up , even if , even if they had , you know , more time or , or more demands or more places to put it , there's just more stuff happening than there are reporters to cover it. And I kind of I do think that there is sort of a , um , a a facade of more coverage in the county than there really is because we have many more small sites that have popped up. And so if you look at the mastheads around town , you would say , you know , San Diego's got a lot of news. You know , there's a lot of news happening in San Diego. You know , we've got different nonprofits and we've got different , you know , places like Axios , San Diego. But all those places have so many fewer reporters than , you know , than the Union-Tribune in the North County Times did , um , a while ago. So so they're the sort of number of titles I think obscures the loss of journalists , you know , actual actual reporters.
S1: And on that , you know , emphasis on , you know , reporting more on specific communities. You mentioned just the size of the county , right. Earlier this year , Times of San Diego announced incorporating a stable of local community papers to its roster. And when we're talking about papers , we're actually meaning these are still actually printed papers , right ? Tell us more , you know about some of those and your vision for those. Yeah.
S7: Yeah. So we've got the community newspaper group. There's , you know , seven , seven local community papers , um , Mission Times , Courier Peninsula , Beacon Beach and Bay press and these this , this group of papers , they are still relied on by the community. They still provide community news that people , you know , people in those places pick up and read and they they learn about what's happening in their community. They , you know , they it might be anything as small from a business open to a , you know , city council decision with a direct impact. Um , so those are those are real papers and we're really proud to have them. It's a big part of what we're going to do. I , you know , the the task ahead of us is to sort of combine the newsroom that Times of San Diego has built under Chris , with the sort of disparate newsrooms that have been put together , those community papers into one collective entity and to sort of be a force multiplier. So , you know , the way that those two things can work together is , I think a lot of , you know , information that make decisions that may be happening at school boards or at city halls are playing out in a very specific way in these specific communities. And if we can cover those things in those communities and then reach up to what their broader significance is as opposed to covering them from the , uh , you know , position of the city council or the school board as decisions that are trickling down to the community. So a grass , a grass roots up as opposed to a sort of big picture down scenario. I think we might have an ability to to make those decisions more real for people , and an opportunity to hear more voices in the community on a daily basis , and to to react better to what people are worried about and what they say they want to know more about. Um , and so if we , if we and then at the same time , we'll still have Times of San Diego , we'll still have reporters who are looking at the city , uh , from a big picture perspective. And so I think it's going to be a very symbiotic relationship , and we'll sort of be able to be both be better together. Chris.
S1: Chris. Earlier.
S6: Earlier. Ashley.
S1: Go ahead. Chris.
S6: Go ahead. I'm sorry. I was going to just add one thing that it's amazing how much interesting local coverage that , um , I frankly didn't know about. But when you have seven the content from seven newspapers going online , it really dramatically increases what we're covering.
S1: I mean , Chris , earlier you mentioned this idea of news , you know , sustainability and the challenges that come with that. I mean , the economic realities for news are , you know , pretty difficult.
S6: Um , time to San Diego , uh , at its , um , two , two years ago was , uh , analyzed by the Financial Times. And they considered us what they called an archetype , archetype of sustainability. Uh , we found a way to cover a lot of news at very low cost , uh , using the wonderful internet environment that has developed , um , when you , um , one of the challenges that newspapers were has always been an extremely high cost structure. You've got presses , and even if you outsource printing , printing is still 75% of your costs. And then a lot of traditional ways of managing traditional ways of editing are just too expensive. You have , you know , you have large staffs , you have large overhead , you have , um , you have bureaucracy. I think what we can do in the online space has become much more nimble and much , uh , and operate much more efficiently with Times of San Diego. Now , we've gone from being a for profit to a hybrid nonprofit. We're still selling advertising because for many readers , advertising is important additional information. But we're also taking donations and we're also taking philanthropic grants. And I think those things combine , combined with very efficient operation will make it sustainable. And also we've got the backing of , um , of Newsweek , which is a nonprofit affiliated with , uh , Arizona State University and the Walter Walter Cronkite School of , of Journalism and the communication they have now , providing a lot of the back end support for what we're doing so that we we as a we Andy and team can focus on , uh , can focus on the journalism.
S1: So , Andy , you know , we've kind of covered some of the , you know , challenges with with local journalism.
S7: I think it the the the base reality of what's going on in the industry is unavoidable. And I don't take that lightly. Um , but I'm optimistic about what we have in front of us as a plan. Um , the association with news. Well , and ASU , um , is not a small thing. You know , I imagine that sort of the business operations could be , um , a less interesting topic than how we get out in the community and write more stories. But it's a real thing to to be able to take HR and IT and finance costs off of our plate and have a newsroom that's just focusing on on doing as much , as much good journalism as possible. And I should add , you know , there's a news well , has its own investigative editor. It's got a California wide , uh , managing editor. And we have a , you know , they've hired a , uh , immigration reporter who answered who's , you know , technically a staffer for news. Well , but who will be based in our , um , Times of San Diego office and will be , you know , doing , you know , immigration reporting here out of San Diego. Um , so it really is creating a system that allows us to do more good journalism , you know , in in the world where we have fewer resources than we'd like.
S1: Well , I want to thank you both for being here , and we'll have to leave it there for now. I've been speaking with Chris Genuine and Andy Keats from Times of San Diego , and I hope to talk to you again soon on some of your reporting. Andy. Chris , thanks so much.
S6: Thank you for being here. Thank you.
S1: Up ahead. We hear about a few other stories in our weekly roundup , including the latest one from a KPBS investigation into county run animal shelters. Stay tuned. Round tables back after the break. Welcome back to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. It's time now for our weekly roundup to catch up on some other stories. And I'm joined again by KPBS producer Ashley Raj. Hey , Ashley.
S8: Hey , Andrew.
S1: So what stories are at the top of your list this week ? Yeah.
S8: So this is a big story out of the KPBS investigative team , and it's a follow up to some long form reporting into euthanasia at San Diego County run animal shelters by Scott Rod and Elaine Alfaro. They found that the dog euthanasia rate at county run shelters has more than doubled in recent years. Volunteers and former employees claimed that dogs and those shelters were regularly and unnecessarily put down due to mild behavioral issues things like fearfulness , separation anxiety , and resource guarding. But the big news is that this week , Scott Rod published another follow up story to the piece , and KPBS obtained text messages from a top official in the Department of Animal Services. Her name is Rachel Borelli , and in a text thread that KPBS found , you know , she's discussing the county's euthanasia policies. And one of the voice messages sent in that thread was pretty disturbing. So brace yourself. We're going to play it now.
S9: Yeah , but in Carlsbad , they don't euthanize anything , even if the dog bit a kid. So that's why I was like , euthanize the dog. Like , I'm so sick of us keeping dogs that aren't going to get adopted. That's why we're overcrowded.
S1: Well , it's a pretty strong word. So , I mean , how did they respond to to hearing about these comments ? Yeah.
S8: So Borelli , the person you just heard , declined to comment when KPBS reached her by phone , but a county spokesperson said they can't comment on specific personnel matters , but that the information provided doesn't reflect their values or their mission. And that statement went on to say that they're working on better policies and training to support their employees and animals in their care , but they did not specify which changes they plan to make. So check out that full story and all the stories that preceded it on our website , KPBS.
S1: For the next story I have is around schools , and we had an education roundtable at the start of the school year where this topic kind of came up. But Jacob McWhinney from Voice of San Diego reported last week on this plan , announced to eliminate certain middle school grades at some K through eight schools. These were a few schools in southeastern San Diego , and the idea was to kind of trim those top level grades at those schools and have them go into a , you know , specific , dedicated middle school. These include Golden Hill , Fulton , Audubon , and Bethune. Those are the schools that the San Diego Unified announced. They were going to make this change. But and the reasons for that , they cited lower performance. But in later reporting this week , Jacob wrote that the district is now reconsidering that move for Bethune. That was one of the local schools after , you know , considerable community pushback , parents mobilized. They kind of went on the news , wrote letters , all sorts of stuff. One local parent just cited the frustration with the lack of public input in this decision and said , Told Jacob , quote , I have issues with the lack of input , lack of communication , lack of consideration , and it sounds like that community effort is sort of having an impact here in Santa Unified. You know , looking into how to handle Bethune differently. KPBS Katie Anastas also covered this , you know , kind of wrote about some of the reasons the districts district's looking to make this move , said. I guess those middle school grades have more. Basically , just like options , more electives , they can choose more services at those middle schools specifically. So it's it's an interesting topic and something that'll , you know , I'm sure we'll be following through through the school year as it progresses. And now next you have a story about some changes coming for recommendations around Covid vaccines , particularly here in California. Yeah.
S8: Yeah. So this next story is out of Cal matters. And it looks at new vaccine guidelines out of the West Coast Health Alliance. And if you haven't already heard about that , it's this newly formed alliance between California , Oregon , Washington and Hawaii. And they're releasing their own recommendations for vaccines , kind of in the face of all the turmoil at the CDC. Just a refresher on that. You'll remember that in June , Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr dismissed all 17 members of a federal vaccine panel at the CDC , and then he replaced them with 12 new members , some who are documented vaccine skeptics. So this West Coast Health Alliance is now issuing their own recommendations for Covid , flu and RSV vaccines.
S1: So actually , one thing I know , sometimes it's hard to kind of find the information for all this stuff. So now this is a little change here. We don't I don't know , I was used to going to like CDC and all that stuff. But now this is going to be a separate set of recommendations. Where can people go to find those. Yeah.
S8: Yeah. So it looks like you can find all those guidelines and updated information at CDC gov. That's the California Department of Public Health. And another thing to note. Governor Gavin Newsom also just signed this bill , Assembly Bill 144 , which among several things , would require insurance plans to cover the vaccines the state of California endorses. So there's some more information about that legislation as well on that website CDF gov.
S1: For this next story , I had just briefly wanted to talk about it. New York Times has been doing a series of stories on the health struggles facing wildfire firefighters. I mean , we know we're in wildfire season now. Governor Gavin Newsom named September Preparedness Month , and we know California will continue to face the challenges from wildfire. And firefighters are just , you know , the firefighters who battle them are essential to that. But many are working , you know , in really dangerous conditions. And a lot of them are inhaling toxic chemicals and without facial protection in a lot of cases. And I didn't realize this. But , you know , they go into these , you know , huge flames with toxic smoke without protection and many are having health impacts from it. This most recent story in The New York Times from Hannah Dryer , tells the story of one wildfire firefighter who battled blazes in California who now has an aggressive form of leukemia , and he found that out on the eve of his 25th birthday. So he's quite young , but , you know , he worked 24 hour shifts fighting these just massive fires and has gone into , you know , debt from from the health struggles. Another thing about , you know , wildfire firefighting is a lot of cases. It's not just national and state firefighters. It's a lot of private companies. And they may not have benefits and low wages. So it just really is an interesting look into the challenges these firefighters face as the World Health Organization , you know , does say firefighting does cause cancer. So it's an interesting some interesting reporting there from The New York Times. Okay. So we're at time here , but I just want to finish with just a little , I guess a little bit of good news here. And this weekend there's a lot of stuff happening around town. I just wanted to remind folks the Adams Avenue street fairs this weekend. There's also an Oceanside. The Supergirl Surf Festival is back. It's been going for a few years , and Axial San Diego actually highlighted this. The Pacific Islander Festival is happening this week at Ski Beach , so we did a little thing on Midday Edition on local summer. Those are a couple examples of ways you can , you know , take advantage this weekend. So with that , I've been speaking with KPBS producer Ashley Rush. Ashley. Thanks.
S8: Thanks , Andrew.
S1: That'll do it for our show this week. Thanks so much for listening to KPBS roundtable. You can listen to the show anytime as a podcast. KPBS roundtable airs on KPBS FM at noon , Fridays again , Sundays at 6 a.m.. If you have any thoughts on today's show , you can always email us at roundtable at KPBS or leave us a message at (619) 452-0228. Roundtables. Technical producers this week were Brandon Truffaut and Ben Redlich. The show was produced by Ashley Rush and Giuliana Domingo. Brooke Ruth is roundtable senior producer. I'm your host , Andrew Bracken. Thanks again for listening and have a great weekend.
