Some Businesses Prepared To Defy State Shutdown Orders

San Diego county reported more than one thousand new coronavirus cases ON SUNDAY. The spike in cases comes just as indoor operations for businesses were supposed to be shut down this weekend. Some business owners say they can't survive another shutdown and plan to defy the order. Others are just fed up with the state's tiered reopening system. El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells says he's asked the El Cajon police department to make COVID-19 related calls a low priority.. He says he's not encouraging businesses to ignore state mandates, but he's standing with owners making the tough decision to do so. "They're not doing it because they're criminals. They're not doing it because they want to hurt anybody. They're doing it because they have no choice in their minds ,that if they do this they're going to destroy their future and the future of their children, and I understand why they're doing what they're doing." Small businesses in San Diego have lost a lot of money, due to COVID-19. Many of them have run through their PPP stimulus loans. KPBS business commentator Myro Copic is the founder of Bottom Line Marketing. He says even if the virus is tamed and the economy can reopen, it won't be like the old days. "We are really moving into a whole new world. The economy that we knew before the pandemic will not be the economy we know, coming out of this pandemic." He says new technology and automation we've adopted with the coronavirus will likely continue, replacing and dislocating many workers. But for now small local businesses are just trying to survive, and many are not expected to succeed. The clamp down on indoor business operations in San Diego County will last for at least the next three weeks. It’s Monday, November 16th. This is San Diego News Matters from KPBS News. I’m Anica Colbert. Stay with me for more of the local news you need to start your day. Fifty-six percent of San Diego voters said "yes" to Measure E, which ends a 30-foot height limit on new buildings in the Midway District. KPBS metro reporter Andrew Bowen says change is coming to the neighborhood… eventually. AB: Midway is full of vacant and underutilized lots ripe for redevelopment. The city rezoned much of the neighborhood in 2018 for high-density housing. And with more flexibility on height, Midway property owners might be enticed to build something new. But Cathy Kenton, who owns property in Midway and chairs the neighborhood's planning group, says it'll take some time for landowners to realize what all they can do. CK: To be honest with you I don't think they've thought about it a lot yet, because this has been kind of a pipe dream for a long time. So now it's really okay this is real. But nobody really knows what it means yet. AB: Both the Navy and the city of San Diego are working on big redevelopment projects in Midway. Kenton says those could be a catalyst for revitalization. Andrew Bowen, KPBS news. President-elect Joe Biden has promised to get rid of travel bans that have kept refugees out of the United States. In Arizona, Most arrivals once came from countries blocked by the Trump administration. From the Fronteras desk in Phoenix, KJZZ's Matthew Casey reports. CASEY: In 20-16, most refugees starting over in Arizona came from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, Somalia and Iraq. The Congo is the only country still on that list, says Stanford Prescott with the International Rescue Committee In Arizona. PRESCOTT: Three of those top four countries were all listed on the travel ban and no longer make up a significant portion of arrivals to Phoenix or the United States. [Notes::10] CASEY: Biden also has promised to raise the national refugee resettlement ceiling to 125 thousand. His transition team did not respond when asked if the change will come in January or at the start of the next federal fiscal year. Prescott says increasing refugee resettlements would be a gradual process. NWS2749 EDITOR: KFS TIME :15 OUT: to welcome refugees. PRESCOTT: There will need to be some rebuilding on the international side. There will need to be rebuilding at the federal side. And of course at local offices around the country. For us here in Phoenix, I think we're still in a very good position to welcome refugees. [Notes::15] HOST: Prescott says this is due to existing local infrastructure, partnerships and bipartisan welcoming for refugees. Arizona has traditionally ranked among the top destinations for people uprooted by violence. The US election may have compelled some changes in the media landscape. Since November 3rd, The conservative media company Parler has become one of the most-downloaded apps in the United States. The company says the app's success is in large part due to its claims to focus on free speech. It may also be because of President Trump’s unhappiness with Fox News. KPBS’ Jacob Aere reports Parler is one of a handful of media companies with a largely conservative user base that has received an influx of users since election day in the United States. The app is seen as an alternative to Twitter. While Parler regards itself as a non-biased, free speech company, some see it as a safe haven for violent and racist voices, including Tammy Gillies from Anti-Defamation League San Diego "Free speech does not give you the freedom to slander, the freedom to incite violence, the freedom to threaten somebody else. The concern is that is potentially what is happening on Parler."Parler now has over 10 million registered accounts. Jacob Aere, KPBS News. Parler does not fact-check content. It says that verification will be driven by users on the platform. When Joe Biden takes office in January, he'll inherit the cornerstone of Donald Trump's legacy in the southwest: hundreds of miles of new border wall blocking off natural spaces at the border with Mexico. From our Fronteras Desks in both countries, KJZZ reporters Michel Marizco and Kendal Blust have this report. MARIZCO: In downtown Nogales, the Trump Administration draped the existing border wall in coils of gleaming razor wire 2 years ago. Nogales Arizona mayor Art Garino isn't optimistic that the incoming Biden Administration will take it down. GARINO: You know how the government is. Once they put something up, it very seldom comes down //AMBI: border wall construction MARIZCO: Construction on the border wall like this in Sasabe last June has raced across Arizona's desert all year. Since Trump took office, 400 miles of new border wall has gone up. MARIZCO: A coalition of plaintiffs sued the Trump Administration for using about 4 billion dollars of military funding to build 270 miles of the border wall. That case is heading to the Supreme Court in February. MARIZCO: ACLU attorney Dror Ladin leads that suit and he's waiting to see if the new president will withdraw the petition to the supreme court. And if he doesn't… LADIN: He will be substituted for Trump and the lawsuit will be against Biden as to what is to be done with these illegal wall sections and then he and his administration area going to need to decide if they want to defend this flagrantly illegal thing that Trump did and whether they want to work with border communities and environmental groups to redress it. MARIZCO: Candidate Biden has said he will stop wall construction but never said he would tear down the new border wall. GAUBECA: We need to also look at ports of entry and figure out ways to open up more channels for people to enter the United States in a way that allows them due process. MARIZCO: Vicki Gaubeca heads the Southern Border Communities Coalition in Tucson. She hopes the incoming administration will focus on more humane policies rather than following policies that drive people to try entering the U-S through remote areas. Now, Kendal Blust picks up the story in Hermosillo. BLUST: Many people in Mexico share their northern neighbors' concerns over the harms U.S. border wall construction has caused in the region: severing Indigenous lands, destroying sacred sites and devastating the natural environment. And they want building to stop. CARREON: ¡Que no se construya! (FADE) TRACK 1: BLUST: But Gerardo Carreon, who heads the nonprofit Naturalia, AC in Sonora, says simply halting completion of the wall won't be enough to counteract significant, and potentially irreparable, damage to the environment on both sides of the border. CARREON: Definitivamente se elimine el muro de las zonas más dañadas (FADE) BLUST: Instead, he says, the Biden administration should tear down existing sections of the border wall in critical areas where it cuts across rivers and wildlife corridors for jaguar, black bears, ocelots and other endangered species. But Duncan Wood, with the D.C.-based think tank the Wilson Center, rejects the possibility that the incoming president will take that step. WOOD: There's no way they're going to pull down a barrier that has been put in place on the U.S.-Mexico border because that would be political suicide. BLUST: He says there's little political will to undo what U.S. tax dollars have already paid for. And he thinks Mexico will continue to face diplomatic pressure to participate in migration enforcement within its own borders, as it did under the Obama-Biden administration. WOOD: What the Trump administration did was take that up several levels BLUST: But, Wood says, U.S.-Mexico relations during a Biden presidency likely won't be as narrowly focused on migration as they have been for the last four years. WOOD: I think that we will see a more nuanced bilateral relationship. BLUST: One that puts greater emphasis on trade, human rights, corruption and climate change. And that gives Carreon hope ... CARREON: Nos da una esperanza de que el tema ambiental (FADE) BLUST: He says a U.S. administration invested in fighting climate change and protecting natural resources might listen to conservation scientists studying the impacts of the wall on both sides of the border, and heed their calls to knock it down and begin restoration efforts. At least, he hopes so. SOC: Kendal Blust, KJZZ News, Hermosillo SOC 2: I'm Kendal Blust in Hermosillo Coming up on the podcast... Supporters of President Trump as well as a number of conservative media outlets have claimed widespread irregularities in the election. And a lot of those claims are simply not true. "All three of these groups were allowed to vote in Nevada's election. This was not evidence of any widespread fraud. And Politifact rated that false." CapRadio's politifact reporter Chris Nichols looks at some dubious assertions. That’s up next after this break. Election misinformation continues to spread nearly two weeks after Americans cast their ballots. This includes some false claims about California's election. CapRadio's Ed Fletcher spoke with PolitiFact California reporter Chris Nichols, who sets the record straight in this week's Can You Handle The Truth segment. That was CapRadio's Ed Fletcher speaking with PolitiFact California reporter Chris Nichols. That’s it for the podcast today, thanks for listening and how a great day.