District Attorney Calls For De-Escalation Training For Law Enforcement Who Encounter Mentally Ill And More Local News

Speaker 1: 00:00 Good morning. It's May 22nd I'm Deb Welsh and your listening to San Diego News matters. The county's 5,000 plus law enforcement officers will soon get training on how to respond to people facing mental health challenges. KPBS reporter Matt Hoffman says the initiative is led by the district attorney's office and comes after more than a year of research, Speaker 2: 00:21 a study by the district attorney's office found over the past 25 years, 80% of officer involved shootings in San Diego County included people who had drug or mental health issues. Last year there were more than 53,000 calls for service involving mental health district attorney. Summer Stephen says, training officers on how to better handle these situations balances public safety with compassion and understanding. Speaker 3: 00:44 The goal is one that I think our community can truly embrace or reduce, need to use deadly force improved officers' safety and it reduced likelihood of injury to those in crisis and the public. Speaker 2: 01:01 All of the law enforcement agencies in the county will receive this new mental health training starting in the summer. It involves simulations of what can happen when someone's in a crisis. Matt Hoffman Kpbs News. Speaker 1: 01:12 The mental health training is part of a regional study done by the DA's office, which has a number of recommendations. It includes creating a system for followup care and opening crisis stabilization centers. As Candido is making public new plans to knock down the old Palomar hospital and build more than 500 new homes in its place. KPBS North County reporter Alison Saint John says the project could redefine downtown Escondido, which is surrounded by single family homes. The Old Palomar Hospital building in downtown Escondido is slated to be torn down now that the new Palomar hospital is fully operational. This week the city held a workshop to solicit public comment on the developer's proposal to build 510 homes on the 13 acres site. The Palomar Heights development includes four story apartments and townhomes. There's Candido Mayor Paul Mcnamara says this is an important project to revitalize the city's downtown business district. Speaker 2: 02:08 It's part of the core of our city and so we want to get it right. Speaker 1: 02:13 Mcnara says he supports higher density housing downtown to avoid urban sprawl into Escondido's rural and agricultural areas. The public has till next month to provide comment on the proposed project. Alison Saint John Kay PBS news, water leaders from seven western states have signed a plan to deal with ongoing drought and less water from the Colorado River from Kmpr in Los Vegas. Rachel Christianson says the agreement was reached despite a lawsuit by the Imperial Valley. The drought contingency plan has been almost six years in the making. It spells out cuts to the river's biggest users. Should Lake Mead continue to drop? Brenda Burman is the commissioner of the US Bureau of reclamation. She says the plan will go into effect immediately right away. What that will mean first Speaker 4: 03:00 is the states are going to have more flexibility about how they can save water in lake mead, but second in August, we make, we make our determination for next year of whether there'll be a shortage or not. Right now we project that the lake will be below 10 90 elevation. Speaker 1: 03:16 The plan is facing a lawsuit from California is Imperial Irrigation district, the single largest user on the river. Pending that case. The plan to keep more water in the rivers. Biggest reservoirs, lake mead and Lake Powell will go forward. I'm Rachel Christiansen. Abortion rights advocates held rallies across the nation Tuesday to protest several states. New restrictive laws. KPBS health reporters. Susan Murphy talked to demonstrators in downtown San Diego. Speaker 5: 03:44 [inaudible] Speaker 1: 03:48 nearly 300 abortion rights supporters gathered outside the San Diego federal courthouse holding up signs, chanting and uniting in their message Speaker 5: 03:57 together. Speaker 1: 04:00 Instruction comes after some conservative states approved legislation that would restrict access to abortions. Poppy fits with women's March. San Diego helped organize the stop the band's rally. She calls the new laws a coordinated attack on women. We are willing to band together that we have a power in numbers and that people, men, women, all humans across the United States will stand up, fight and unite around this issue of reproductive rights. James Bond showed up to offer his support. He's worried about the potential impact on poor communities, Speaker 4: 04:35 poor people, people in the rural areas, people without privilege and access that may be don't have some of the the resources I have Speaker 1: 04:44 some abortion opponents. Hope the new laws lead the Supreme Court to overturn the 1973 Roe v Wade decision. Susan Murphy Kpbs News KPBS reached out to anti abortion groups and did not receive a response. The historic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is undergoing a big makeover to prepare it for the 2028 Olympics. Along with the renovations, the stadium is adding a corporate sponsor to its name, United Airlines. It's the first name changed as the Coliseum opened in 1923 as a memorial to troops who died in world war one and some veterans groups are not happy about it. From Los Angeles. Libby Digman reports for the American Home Front project Speaker 6: 05:28 rolling his wheelchair. Past Sun dappled stone columns inside the La Memorial Coliseum. Tom O'shaughnessy reminisces about a July day in 1960 he skipped Catholic school and came right here for the Democratic National Convention. The stadium was packed, but he squeezed into a spot where he could hear the speeches. I was able to stand in the back as a young high school student watching John Kennedy get the nomination. Decades later, the air force veteran is now the chair of the La County Advisory Commission. From this angle, O'shaughnessy can see construction crews busily finishing a new tower with fancy lounges and press boxes, evidence of a nearly $300 million renovation. Another alteration is coming. Starting in August, the stadium will be called the United Airlines memorial coliseum, but that's not sitting right with O'Shaughnessy. He testified at a recent meeting of the Coliseum Commission, the public body that oversees the stadium. This is a memorial and not just a sports arena. You don't see your name in front of Valley forge for a corporation. Speaker 6: 06:33 He's among the Los Angeles vets gathering signatures for a petition asking the University of Southern California to renegotiate a $69 million naming deal with the airline. They point out the arena was built with public funds and is owned by the city, county and state and the head of the Coliseum Commission. La County Supervisor Janice Hahn has become a vocal, yeah, critic of renaming. This venue was dedicated to the Los Angeles boys who marched off to World War One and never came home, but in recent years under public control, the coliseum fell into disrepair. In 2013 USC signed a 98 year lease and announce the naming deal last year. At the time it didn't make much of a splash. Todd Dicky is a senior vice president emeritus of USC. He says during lease negotiations, USC and the commission, we're on the same page about maintaining attribute to service members. Speaker 7: 07:25 They were very concerned as where we about honoring veterans. Speaker 6: 07:28 So it was agreed memorial would stay in the name, but the rest was up for sale to fund repairs Speaker 7: 07:34 and now the commission is changing the rules that they imposed on us that we followed. Exactly. Speaker 6: 07:41 The coliseum has a storied history. The site of two Olympic Games, two Superbowls, countless events, and even military exhibitions. When it opened, the country was still reeling from a staggering 116,000 dead in the first world war. Speaker 7: 07:56 That's a scale of loss that we can't even really comprehend today. Speaker 6: 07:59 Courtland Jindra with the California World War One centennial task force says in the 20s communities were weighing how to remember fallen troops. Speaker 7: 08:08 It kind of all culminated into, well, let's have a memorial stadium that we could have civic functions at as well. Sporting, yeah. Speaker 6: 08:16 Nowadays, as sports complexes regularly take on corporate names, memorial parks present a PR challenge. Chicago was forced to draw plans to pursue a naming rights deal for soldier field. After the September 11th attacks earlier this year, Jacksonville, Florida attached the name of a credit union to its veteran's memorial arena after the sponsor agreed to help fund local veteran's programs. Han says the best resolution in la would be a compromise like the United Airlines field at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Yeah, it's a mouse fold, but they will honor the veterans and honor this stadium for the reason it was dedicated. Speaker 1: 08:54 United, however, seemed to pour cold water on this idea. The company said it was prepared to pull out of the deal if the original agreement is an honored now mediation is underway that might determine whether veterans share billing with the airline in Los Angeles. I'm Libby Dank men. This story was produced by the American Home Front project, a public media collaboration that reports on American military life and veteran's funding comes from the corporation for public broadcasting. Thanks for listening to San Diego. News matters. Get more KPBS podcasts at k pbs.org/podcasts.