Surge Of Potentially Deadly Kawasaki Disease Continues In San Diego County And More Local News

Speaker 1: 00:00 Good morning. It's April 10th I'm Deb Welsh and you're listening to San Diego news matters. San Diego County continues to see a surge in the number of children diagnosed with Kawasaki Disease. KPBS health reporters, Susan Murphy tells us the disease is believed to be caused by unusual weather patterns that trigger an immune response in genetically susceptible children. Speaker 2: 00:23 So far this year we've had 45 cases, which is an very unusual uptick. Speaker 1: 00:30 Kawasaki disease generally affects children under the age of five. Symptoms start with the fever and rash along with red hands, feet an EIS. Dr. Jane Burns is a professor of pediatrics at Uc San Diego and director of the Kawasaki Disease Research Center. She says it's a treatable disease if children receive medical attention early, but left untreated, one in four children suffers extensive heart damage that can be fatal by young adulthood. Speaker 2: 00:55 They will require a followup with a Kawasaki specialist or cardiologist for the rest of their lives. Speaker 1: 01:03 Clusters of cases since January have been found in Chula Vista, Escondido, Temecula and Vista. Susan Murphy Kpbs News volunteers from the Julian fire department have barricaded themselves inside their station to prevent the county from taking over. KPBS reporter Prius Schreder has the story. Volunteers from the Julian fire department have locked themselves into their station to prevent the county fire authority from taking over. While citizens voted in a special election to dissolve the volunteer department, a judge ruled Friday that the previous fire boards application to dissolve the department is null and void. Bill Everett is a member of the current fire board. They have turned off our paging system. In other words, we're not receiving calls or somebody has an emergency and they dial nine one one. That information is not forwarded to us, so we're unable to respond, uh, to protect our community, which is our basic mission. There will be a hearing on the situation in Superior Court Wednesday morning, Priya Sri, there k PBS News Pack Art Spring Showcase kicks off its ninth year, tomorrow night with eight days of Asian cinema. KPBS film critic Beth Lycomato as this preview because there's an excess of great Asian Asian Speaker 3: 02:18 cinema. Pack Arts treats audiences to a pair of film festivals each year. The main San Diego Asian film festival is in the fall and this month we get the smaller spring showcase. The showcase highlights Asia pop discoveries, mystery Kung Fu theater and works for masters this year. At the most exciting sidebar is temptingly called from the claws of darkness, restoring Philippines cinema. One of the films is Homola from 1980 to about a curse town and the turmoil that erupts when a woman claims to see the Virgin Mary. The film typifies the beauty, melodrama and gripping power of Philippine cinema. The festival runs through April 18th that ultra star cinemas mission valley Beth like Amando Speaker 1: 03:00 key PBS news, Congress has approved a plan to cut back the use of Colorado river water if federal officials declare a shortage. KPBS reporter Eric Anderson has details, Speaker 4: 03:11 both the Senate and the House of approved drought contingency measures for the seven states that rely on the Colorado river for fresh water. Water managers in the basin states, including California, agreed to the voluntary cutback plan. If the water level in lake mead falls below a critical level, this year's wet winter may put off a shortage declaration, but congressional representatives say a plan needs to be in place anyway. The measure does not include money to manage the Salton Sea, but California Senator Dianne Feinstein has pledged to work with the Agriculture Department to secure the funding. The measure is still needs President Donald Trump's signature before it becomes law. Eric Anderson KPBS news. Speaker 1: 03:52 Tuesday the city of San Diego waves more than $2 million in library fines. KPBS reporter Matt Hoffman says now it means people who were bad due to late fees are welcome back Speaker 5: 04:04 more than 70,000 people or banned from using libraries in San Diego for not paying late fees. City Library director, Misty Jones has now those fines had been cleared. Speaker 6: 04:13 We don't want to penalize people. Um, we want them to bring the materials back, but we're saying it's okay. We understand if you're a little bit late and so we're going to get rid of those fines. Speaker 5: 04:22 Last year, the city stopped charging late fees at libraries and has now removed old fines. The city says, getting rid of fines and allowing people to use libraries will help communities that need it the most. Speaker 6: 04:32 We found that in our more underserved communities like, um, our Valencia park, Malcolm x library, the Logan Heights library in barrio Logan had over 40% of their patrons were barred from access to the library because they had fines they couldn't pay. And there those are the communities that really need us the most. Speaker 5: 04:50 Matt Hoffman, Tay Pbs News, Speaker 1: 04:52 because cities and farms in the south west relies so heavily on the Colorado River. It's the last 100 miles in northern Mexico run dry. It's a clear illustration that every drop of the river is spoken for. Luke Runyon traveled to the delta to see what that looks like firsthand. Speaker 7: 05:10 I started my journey in Sonora, Mexico. Something remarkable happened here five years ago. Water again float into parts of the Colorado River Delta. It only lasted for eight weeks, but it had a profound impact on those who witnessed it. In March, a March 23rd, uh, there was known as the pulse flow flew hope, who's so in Spanish. Around eight o'clock on a Sunday morning, water began spilling through the dam on the u s Mexico border. It took a few days for it to reach the bridge leading into the border city of San Luis, Rio, Colorado. Can you think of it as this wall of water that's going to come down? But it was really, it was this creeping tongue of water across the sand. That's Jennifer Pitt back then. She worked for the Environmental Defense Fund and says the pulse flow was a culmination of years of negotiation. We chatted in the sandy river bed where she remembers dozens of people sitting in lawn chairs waiting for the [inaudible] Speaker 8: 06:05 water. They started getting at just one by one. People coming over to the water and like getting down on their hands and knees and just putting their hand, you know, just touching it. It was like the arrival, the greatest rival of the river, Speaker 7: 06:18 a spontaneous festival started complete with Mariachi music, vendors, horses and boats. But from where we're standing now, you'd never know the West's mightiest river was supposed to flow here. Speaker 8: 06:31 We'd been saying for years, we want to do this for nature and for people. And I don't think any of us who were saying those words and for people quite understood the, and for people that happens that we saw here because it was a spectacle. Speaker 7: 06:49 Where's she been going to crease? So photo arcos can remember fishing in the river as a boy in the 1960s in work clothes with a silver mustache. He recalls seeing the flow from his small town of Miguel Alimama, which sits along the Colorado River's main channel in Mexico. They get, she is, there was the time here, everyone in the community, the people of San Luis, Rio, Colorado, came to the river to enjoy themselves. But it was a very low level of water. Very, very little. Yeah. This was years ago, and since then we haven't seen any water. So how did we get here? The Colorado River used to flow regularly into the delta until the 1960s now the river is tapped out. A massive plumbing system pulls its water away from its channel and sends it to farm land and cities on both sides of the border, right? Speaker 7: 07:46 It's around 10 at night and local writers have gathered for a poetry reading at loudly bread area, a bookstore in downtown San Luis, one by one writer stand at the front of the room and read their work. Much of it focusing on the river. It let Boosie [inaudible] after the event I talk with local architect Nancy sell donea outside on the sidewalk in the yellow glow of the streetlights. She was born in San Louis India Gate. The day it arrived was like you feel that a part of you has come back. I think it's like when you lose something in your gut, something inside you. That for us is the water. This is the river this way, so it's a lower sub. Danya says the pulse flow captured people's imagination. There are ongoing talks for the city to create a riverfront park, but they're still working on finding enough water to run through the channel on a regular basis. No, no karaoke. I don't believe that if they're heavy been the pulse flow, I don't think we would have had as much hope. Hope. She says in the radical idea that rivers can and should have water. I'm Luke Runyon in Sonora, Mexico. Speaker 1: 09:06 Tomorrow we visited another spot in the delta or wastewater has created an accidental oasis. Most high schoolers, maybe it focused on Aceing, their exams, homework and college applications. But in San Diego, a group of students at Hoover high school are tackling gun violence. The deans are behind it, upcoming piece coffers to help their peers overcome the threat that they say affects their communities. KPBS reporter Taryn middot speaks with youth organizers, mckayla, Sia Roth and mushy air. Adam, about the April 20th event. Speaker 6: 09:40 My name is Mikayla. I graduate. You're 2020 Speaker 9: 09:43 my name is Maria Adam. I graduate in 2021 Speaker 6: 09:47 tell me about the event you guys have coming up on April 20th Speaker 9: 09:51 well, we're holding a peace conference against gun violence and it started off when we went to an event I KPBS about gun violence after we wrote some essays on our experience with gun violence. And we thought that more youth should be involved in this topic about gun violence because I think the underlying issue starts at a very young age. Speaker 6: 10:11 Tell me about how youth are actually affected by gun violence. How is it impacting their lives and your lives? A lot of people were actually effective, but we just don't, we didn't speak out about it. What do you mean affected either a family member getting shot or just even hearing gunshots, gunshots at night. Just not feeling safe in the community. Speaker 9: 10:31 Like it starts young and if you are in a community where gun but community where gun violence occurs, like um, on an occasion like you, you feel like the need to protect herself and some, some teenagers that they wants to protect themselves so they carry guns and others, like it's a family thing. So if it's involved like a gang thing than they believe that like they're obligated to follow their family tradition and they keep going on it, but they don't know that they can get out and they need, um, well we're hoping that through this peace conference that they know there's ways that they can get out of this Speaker 6: 11:02 situation. How do you plan on opening up the door and having that conversation? What's going to be happening at the event to, to kick off that discussion? Well, I know that there's gonna be some resources there so that people can talk to and then we're also going to be like answering questions. Speaker 9: 11:18 Um, there's going to be other, um, people like who have been affected by gun violence and who have like gotten out. So that would encourage them that there is an opportunity to get out. And after that we'll, we're going to show them, show them signs that they have been affected by gun violence because most don't know that they are affected by gun violence Speaker 6: 11:38 are there, we're going to be put into classrooms. And then I think one is about mental health. Speaker 9: 11:43 There's going to be simple ways to like to help them get through it. Like breathing techniques, meditation, Yoga. Speaker 6: 11:50 Afterwards we were trying to plan out to have her own legs, student led organization based on gun violence and people are just welcome to come, like if they have been affected Speaker 9: 12:01 for like not only Hoover students but Crawford and middle schools such as horse men, men and Wilson. Speaker 6: 12:06 Do you know students currently struggling with, um, the fear of being at risk in their community of gun violence? Yeah, I do, but we just feel like we just don't talk about it and it's easy to just make a joke out of that then to like actually talk about what have other students been saying as they hear that you're planning this peace conference? Speaker 9: 12:28 I've talked to a lot of my classmates in my health academy class about them, about this event and most of them were really excited and they wanted waste when it, to know ways that they can help out with this event. Speaker 6: 12:39 Um, they're just very excited because it's just new to the school because no one really talks about gun violence. So I think they just find it like, I know that they want to attend the event. What do you hope students will take away from this after attending the event event? What's your goal? Um, I think we just want them to feel safer. At least get the awareness of, um, just the gun violence or they helped somebody out. Um, just just, um, talk to the resources that we provide at the event. Speaker 9: 13:11 I think, um, our most, the most important things that we've tried to get away from this is to spread awareness because awareness is a solution. Um, so even like, even if we help one person, like we, we ACC, we've have accomplished our goal. So like if we help like one person get away from the situation, then we've accomplished our goal. Speaker 1: 13:33 That was KPBS reporter Taryn middot speaking with the student organizers of an April 20th Conference on gun violence prevention. The date marks two decades is the Columbine high school shootings in Colorado. Thanks for listening to KGB is San Diego news matters podcast. For more local stories, go to k pbs.org.