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San Diego’s District 7 Race Features Four Political Newcomers And More Local News

 January 21, 2020 at 2:49 AM PST

Speaker 1: 00:00 It's Tuesday, January 21st I'm Deb Welsh and you're listening to San Diego news matters from KPBS coming up after a record setting, deployment sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. Our home in San Diego and for people with very different backgrounds are running for San Diego city council district seven now. I'm a deputy city attorney, popular restaurant group, dirty birds working and gun violence prevention practice law here since 1980 that more coming up right after the break. Speaker 2: 00:37 [inaudible] Speaker 1: 00:39 the USS Abraham Lincoln arrived at its new home port in San Diego Monday after a record setting deployment for U S carrier KPBS military reporter Steve Walsh. Watch the families being reunited. Speaker 3: 00:51 Tia Spence has been waiting at the docket, Naval base core Nado with their three small children's since early in the morning. In fact, she'd been waiting for her husband for the last 10 months. He's been deployed before, but this record breaking deployment has Speaker 1: 01:03 been hard. Very hard, hard raising the kids by myself and not having anyone out here. No support, but we made it through and I found some, some local friends to help me out. Speaker 3: 01:16 294 days. This was the longest deployment since the Vietnam war. The Navy has been pressing to keep deployments under seven months, mainly to lessen the stress on families, but the head of the carrier strike group rear Admiral Michael Boyle couldn't guarantee there wouldn't be other long deployments in the future. Steve Walsh KPBS news, Speaker 1: 01:36 some Republicans blasted California assemblyman Brian main shine in 2019 for deserting their party and becoming a Democrat. Voters get to weigh in during the March primary on whether they think the party switch was a good move. KPBS reporter I meet, the Sharma has more Speaker 4: 01:53 main shine, who represents the 77th district abandoned the Republican party saying the democratic platform was more aligned with his values. He followed up by backing a bill that toughens the rules on when police can use force, Republican challenger and lawyer. June cutter, it says Maine shines. Failure to oppose that bill is one reason she wants to win the seat. Mesa college political science professor Carl Luna says short of slinging mud cutter faces an uphill struggle in trying to unseat main shine. Speaker 5: 02:24 There's no race. You can't lose with enough money on negative advertisement. So you know Brian man shine loves criminals. If you put a lot of money into it, you might be able to pull that off. Speaker 4: 02:33 Democrats narrowly outnumber Republicans in the 77th assembly district. Luna doesn't believe non democratic voters will abandon main shine, Speaker 5: 02:41 so he's already won independent voters and some of the Republicans he left behind are still going to stay with them because they know him. He's got all the personal community connections. Speaker 4: 02:49 The 77th assembly district includes Rancho Santa Fe, Fairbanks ranch, Poway, and some areas in San Diego. I meet the Sharma KPBS news. Speaker 1: 02:58 New have emerged Speaker 6: 03:00 regarding the investigation into the death of SDSU student Dylan Hernandez after a fraternity party KPB as educational reporter Joe Hong has more on the current status of the investigation. A report published in the San Diego union Tribune calls into question the thoroughness of the SDSU police department's investigation into the death of 19 year old Dylan Hernandez, who died in November following an event hosted by the fraternity, Phi gamma Delta. According to the union Tribune, which obtained a copy of the investigative report through the Hernandez family's lawyer university. Police did not interview any members of the fraternity despite finding videos on Hernandez phone depicting violent hazing and excessive drinking and an email university police spokeswoman Raquel Harriet said the investigation report received by the family is not complete and was not meant to be shared with the public as it compromises the ongoing investigation. The Hernandez family, his attorney George Kinley, could not be reached for comment on Monday. Joe Hong KPBS news, Speaker 1: 04:00 San Diego state men's basketball team keeps climbing higher in the polls after beating Nevada this weekend and remaining undefeated as techs are now ranked number four in both the associated press and coaches polls. KPBS has Alexander wen has more. Speaker 7: 04:16 This is the highest. SDSU has been ranked in the program's history and the Aztecs second appearance and number four in the AP and coaches polls. The last time they were ranked this high was in 2011 when Kawai Leonard was on the team. Lennar will have his Jersey retired of February 1st during a home game against Utah at via has arena. Lennar is the first player in the program's history to have his Jersey hung in the arenas. Rafters. The Aztecs will host Wyoming on Tuesday. They are one game shy of their all time winning record. SDSU remains the only undefeated division. One team in the nation. Tip off is at 8:00 PM Alexander Quinn K PBS news. Speaker 1: 04:53 Martin Luther King jr day was a day of service and city Heights where a group of volunteers went to work in an immigrant and refugee community garden. KPBS city Heights reporter Ebony Monet tells us what's next for the garden Speaker 8: 05:07 on 54th street near Oak park in San Diego city Heights community, you'll find busy streets and a crisscross of overhead power lines. You'll also find a small farm new roots community garden includes 89 plots maintained by 80 growers. Monday they had some extra health. 20 LISC AmeriCorps volunteers spent their morning cleaning the garden. They're volunteering to honor Dr. Martin Luther King jr Ugandan refugee Luchea lucquin. Ian says she finds peace through gardening now, an Apple garden. I faded wind real Africa after being managed by the international rescue committee for 10 years. City Heights community development corporation has announced it's taking over management of the garden, Ebony Monet, K PBS news. Speaker 1: 05:57 If you ever Speaker 9: 05:58 collected action figures or Japanese toys, then KPBS arts reporter Beth like Amando as the perfect art show for you. Batteries not included a custom toy show tonight at basic bar and pizza Victoria via, once again, guests curates thumbprint galleries, pop-up art show batteries not included. Accustomed toy show. The show highlights custom toy designers of all kinds from two-bit hacks, action figure of ducky from pretty in pink to via zone experimentation in kit bashing. It's kind of an older thing, but it's kind of blown up recent years with a Japanese models. It's basically just taking existing model kits and just kind of putting them together and coming up with your own characters kind of designs and stuff. Speaker 1: 06:41 People will have the opportunity to purchase one of a kind toys and maybe indulgence. Some nostalgia about childhood obsessions. This custom toy show takes place tonight from seven to 11:00 PM at basic bar and pizza Beth like Amando KPBS news residents of Linda Vista, mission Valley allied gardens in Tierrasanta. We'll have four choices when voting for a new city council member this March. The top two vote getters will compete in November to replace termed out Councilman Scott Sherman. KPBS reporter Claire Traeger. Sir introduces us to the candidates. Speaker 10: 07:14 Four candidates means there's a lot to keep straight. So here's a quick rundown. First up is Knollies OSA. Speaker 9: 07:21 I am a partner in the, uh, popular restaurant group, dirty birds. Speaker 10: 07:26 He's also on the city's parks and recreation board and chairman of the Linda Vista planning group. He's the only Republican in the race. The rest are Democrats. Then roll can PO. Speaker 1: 07:38 Now I'm a deputy city attorney. I work in Mara Elliot's office and the criminal division. Speaker 10: 07:43 He used to be an elementary school teacher and has worked on democratic presidential campaigns. Next, there's Wendy Wheatcroft. Speaker 1: 07:51 I've spent the past three and some years working in gun violence prevention at the local, state and federal levels. Speaker 10: 07:58 She volunteers with moms demand action for gun sense in America and also was an elementary school teacher. Finally, we have Monte McEntire practice law here since 1980 for 40 years next year and I've been a mediator and an arbitrator in the last 19 years. He also was president of the San Diego County bar association and works on a nonprofit that provides music therapy. The candidates mostly agreed that homelessness and a lack of affordable housing, our San Diego's most pressing issues, but their opinions differ when it comes to solutions. Nolisa says city leaders must better understand what homeless people are going through before deciding what they need. Speaker 9: 08:46 Really treating people as um, individuals and not data. Just providing a house or a housing for them or prefer feeding them is not. Um, there's, there's mental issues. There's substance abuse issues, there's alcohol related issues, there's relationship issues. There's so many different reasons why people are homeless. Speaker 10: 09:04 Sosa also wants the city to lower taxes on small business owners and cut its spending on bike lanes. Speaker 9: 09:12 Right now San Diego is spending, uh, 200 and I believe the figure is $276 million on building a bike lanes and that money should have been spending, should be spent on roads and expanding highways. 99% of the commuters in this city still use their car as their main mode of transportation. Speaker 10: 09:35 Housing and homelessness are tops for a row, will compete Oh two but he favors the approach the current city council is taking. Speaker 11: 09:43 Georgette Gomez said we're going to have a compromise plan on an inclusionary rate for housing costs. So when a new project comes up, uh, the developer has to set aside a percentage to keep the, either the rent or the housing cost, the purchase costs lower. Speaker 10: 09:57 He also wants more supportive housing for the homeless along with job training among compose. Other big issues are improving bus and trolley service and increasing pay for police officers. Wendy, we craft also puts homelessness as her top issue, but she says city leaders have to think big if they actually want to make a dent in the problem. Speaker 11: 10:21 We need sweeping regulatory and land youth reform. So that we can change some of the zoning and neighborhoods to allow us to build more housing. Speaker 10: 10:30 Monty MacIntyre is the only candidate who puts city hall culture, not a specific issue as his top priority. Speaker 12: 10:37 Do we have to try to make our decision making process better Speaker 10: 10:41 and how would he do that? Speaker 12: 10:42 We really have to use a critical analysis process, so you have to first get all the facts. Then you have to figure out if there are any best practices anybody has developed. Speaker 10: 10:51 Then get expert opinions in analyze. He also wants to help housing affordability by removing red tape and changing community plans so more homes can be built and wants to boost salaries for city employees. The top two vote getters will face off against each other in the November general election. Claire Treg assert KPBS news Speaker 1: 11:16 for all our election stories. Go to kpbs.org/election that's it for San Diego news matters today. Consider supporting this podcast by becoming a KPBS member today. Just go to kpbs.org/membership.

Four candidates will vie to replace Scott Sherman on the San Diego City Council. Plus, after a record-setting deployment, sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln were greeted by their families at North Island Monday morning. And Brian Maienschein switched parties and is now running for state assembly as a Democrat.