Baseball And Black Lives
The San Diego Padres' game last night against the Seattle Mariners was postponed after the Mariners voted unanimously not to play. The move is in protest of the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in Wisconsin. The decision to cancel the game followed NBA teams’ boycott of all three playoff games scheduled for Wednesday, and the postponement of the Milwaukee Brewers- Cincinnati Reds game. The Mariners' Dee Gordon tweeted this statement Wednesday afternoon: ``There are serious issues in this country. For me, and for many of my teammates, the injustices, violence, death and systemic racism is deeply personal. This is impacting not only my community, but very directly my family and friends. Our team voted unanimously not to play tonight.'' *** An act of arson may have sparked that fire aboard the ship docked at the Naval Base San Diego last month. A U.S. Navy sailor is being questioned as a potential suspect. A senior defense official confirmed to KPBS on Wednesday evening that an investigation was taking place. The fire caused extensive damage on the warship and injured several emergency personnel. The fire raged for four days and smelly smoke filled neighborhoods throughout San Diego county. *** So...as San Diego County inches closer toward allowing schools and possibly more businesses to reopen, county officials announced that they would expand free testing for school staff throughout the region. County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher said yesterday that testing for school staff -- teachers and others -- will be made available for free at all of the county's 20 testing sites. Fletcher also said - by the end of September more testing sites will open to increase testing accessibility. Lower COVID infection numbers mean that schools can open in the county as soon as Sept. 1...although San Diego Unified and other districts won’t reopen to in-person learning until the numbers come down even more -- especially reducing the large number of community outbreaks we’re still seeing. *** From KPBS, I’m Kinsee Morlan, filing in for Anica Colbert...I’m so glad to be back, even if just briefly! You’re listening to San Diego News Matters, a podcast powered by our news team. It’s Thursday, Aug. 27. Stay with me for more of the local news you need. Midroll 1 San Diego County has refused to provide more detailed information about where COVID-19 outbreaks are occurring. So now... KPBS is joining Voice of San Diego in a public records lawsuit in the hopes of getting that information. Investigative reporter Claire Trageser says this comes after repeatedly asking the county for records. During news conferences when county health officials talk about COVID-19 outbreaks, here's what they say: SOT COUNTYPRSR 12P 8-24 CLIP1 16:30 "Eight outbreaks in businesses...four in restaurant/bar." KPBS and other journalists have repeatedly asked for more information, and the county has repeatedly denied those requests. So we are joining Voice of San Diego in a public records lawsuit. SOT 00:11:32:02 "That's a fundamental question to our activities as humans." Scott Lewis is the editor and CEO of Voice of San Diego. SOT con't If we find out the virus spreads really well on outdoor patios at restaurants, that will influence my decisions about whether to go to an outdoor restaurant." Lewis says without the more detailed information, residents can't make informed decisions about the relative risk of engaging in activities like eating out. He adds that it is also an equity issue -- if some neighborhoods are being hit harder by outbreaks than others, the public needs to know. Suzanne Marmion is KPBS's director of news and editorial strategy. SOT 00:08:56:10 "If we have outbreaks that happen more than once in a location, then this is where the public depends on news organizations and journalists to let them know. It gives an opportunity for enforcement, or to solve a specific problem." Instead of commenting, San Diego County spokeswoman referred KPBS to an op-ed saying outbreak locations should not be public because it could make businesses fearful of reporting cases to health officials. *** Scientists around the world are working on cheap and fast at-home do-it-yourself Covid tests, with the promise of catching and preventing more cases. But as KPBS science and technology reporter Shalina Chatlani explains, there are still some barriers to getting these tests up and running. Currently, when people are tested for covid they get the swab in the nose tests and often have to wait days for results.. And Scripps Research head Eric Topol says these tests only tell people if they've been infected... not whether they are currently infectious and able to spread the disease. So, daily at home tests, he says, which use samples like saliva, could tell people immediately if they need to stay home and quarantine. But he says, the companies producing these tests need more funding, and FDA regulations still prohibit such tests from being widely distributed. TOPOL: The government hasn't done anything to get behind these tests to fund them, to make production. You can't have a start-up company that can't get FDA approval and then has to make hundreds of millions of tests. Topol says these tests could cost around one dollar each, though he says the government should make them free. The FDA declined to say how many applications they've received, and confirmed that no at home tests have been approved. *** San Diego County supervisors on Tuesday passed a $6.5 billion budget. KPBS metro reporter Andrew Bowen says the COVID-19 pandemic made the budget the largest in history. AB: For years, progressives have criticized the county for sitting on billions of dollars in reserves while problems like homelessness and mental illness fester. The pandemic did what they couldn't do. The county dipped into its reserves, and federal CARES Act funding, to pay for new or expanded services including $24 million in rental assistance. Supervisor Greg Cox said he was pleased with a new staff position that will monitor water quality in his South Bay district, which is plagued by cross-border sewage spills. GC: I'm really glad to see that this is going to be an opportunity to have daily testing to ensure good water quality for people to use the beaches down in South County. AB: A big driver of the overall budget increase was a $100 million boost in spending on testing, tracing and treatment for COVID-19. Andrew Bowen, KPBS news. *** Families of the three women killed in a beach bluff collapse last summer in Encinitas are suing the city and state. The women died when tons of rock buried them on the narrow beach. KPBS Environment Reporter Erik Anderson has more. Three women were killed on an Encinitas beach last summer when a 30 foot wide rock slab slid off a coastal bluff and buried them. The wounds created that day are still raw for Curtis Clave, who lost his wife Annie in the incident. CLIFF 1A :16 00:19:55 – 00:20:13 “It feels like yesterday, honestly, I was forcing myself to write Annie’s eulogy. And I just could not commit because I could not accept the fact that this is actually a life that we are all living as a family.” Clave is angry that so little has changed in the past year. He regularly sees families camped near the dangerous bluffs on the narrow beach and he wants that to change. He supports state legislation that allow communities to do more to manage erosion along coastal bluffs, including building controversial seawalls. Clave is also part of a lawsuit against the city and state that alleges the governments knew about the risk, but did nothing. Encinitas city officials did not return calls seeking comment. *** Coming up on San Diego News Matters… if you’ve still got covid questions, we’ve got some answers. A COVID Q&A between our health reporter and KPBS readers, listeners and viewers after the break. Midroll 2 Nearly six months into the pandemic, there are still many questions about the novel coronavirus -- including from our audience. KPBS Health Reporter Tarryn Mento gathered inquiries from readers, listeners and viewers and put them to local infectious disease specialist Dr. Christian Ramers (RAY-murrs). IN: Jumping right into it…. OUT: ….That is probably safer. That was KPBS Health Reporter Tarryn Mento speaking with Dr. Ramers of the Family Health Centers of San Diego. And that’s all for today’s San Diego News Matters. Check out kpbs dot org for the latest breaking news….and watch or listen to the Republican National Convention live on KPBS Radio and KPBS TV. Anica Colbert will be back tomorrow. Thanks for listening.
