As the window to locate survivors dwindles, local Colombians are stepping up

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Good Morning, I’m Lawrence K. Jackson, it’s FRIDAY, AUGUST 14TH>>>>  [ WE’LL TELL YOU HOW THE LOCAL COLOMBIAN COMMUNITY  IS STEPPING UP AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE  ]More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….########

HEADS UP SAN DIEGANS!  

NEW CITY OF SAN DIEGO E-BIKE REGULATIONS ARE NOW OFFICIALLY 

IN EFFECT 

AS A REMINDER, THE CITY’S NEW E-BIKE ORDINANCE SAYS:    

ALL E-BIKE RIDERS MUST BE A MINIMUM AGE OF 12 

CLASS 3 RIDERS MUST BE AT LEAST SIXTEEN YEARS OLD

PASSENGERS ARE ONLY PERMITTED ON AN E-BIKE WITH A FACTORY-INSTALLED GUEST SEAT 

AND HELMETS ARE A REQUIREMENT…

WE'RE STILL CURRENTLY IN THE 60-DAY WARNING PERIOD 

BUT BY OCTOBER 12TH, POLICE WILL BEGIN ISSUING CITATIONS

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NATIONAL CITY MAYOR RON MORRISON ANNOUNCED HE WILL NOT SEEK REELECTION

THE WEEKEND ANNOUNCEMENT COMES AHEAD OF THE UPCOMING GENERAL ELECTION IN NOVEMBER

MORRISON SAID HIS POLITICAL CAREER SPANS FOUR DECADES AND THAT AS WITH ANYTHING …  THERE'S A TIME FOR THINGS TO COME TO AN END

NCMAYOR 1A TRT :12

“BASICALLY TO BE HONEST WITH YOU, WE PRETTY WELL KNEW WHEN WE RAN IN 2022 THAT THIS WAS GOING TO BE OUR LAST ONE. AND, UH, YOU KNOW, WE KNEW THAT WE JUST CAN'T— YOU JUST CAN'T KEEP RUNNING FOREVER. ”

MORRISON ALSO SAID THE CITY IS USING ITS RESERVES TO BALANCE THE BUDGET THIS YEAR.

AND THAT MAY LEAD TO CUTS THAT COULD IMPACT CITY SERVICES

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SOUTH BAY’S ALL-STAR SWEET-WATER VALLEY 12-U LITTLE LEAGUE TEAM IS OFFICIALLY ADVANCING TO THE WEST REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

THE SWEETWATER VALLEY ALL-STARS WILL NOW GO UP AGAINST HAWAII

THE GAME TAKES PLACE TODAY AND WILL BE TELEVISED ON ESPN-2 

IF THE BONITA-BASED CREW CAN WIN TODAY’S GAME … THEY’LL BE ONE OF JUST 20 TEAMS TO HEAD TO WILLIAMSPORT, PENNSYLVANIA TO COMPETE IN THE LITTLE LEAGUE WORLD SERIES 

& JUST ACROSS THE BORDER, TIJUANA’S LITTLE LEAGUE HAS ALREADY CLINCHED THEIR SPOT AND TICKET TO THE LITTLE LEAGUE WORLD SERIES

From KPBS, you’re listening to San Diego News Now.Stay with me for more of the local news you need

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THE WINDOW FOR FINDING SURVIVORS FROM THE DEVASTATING EARTHQUAKE IN COLOMBIA IS CLOSING.

HERE IN SAN DIEGO, THE LOCAL COLOMBIAN COMMUNITY IS COLLECTING SUPPLIES AND RAISING MONEY TO HELP FRIENDS AND FAMILY BACK HOME.

NORTH COUNTY REPORTER ALEXANDER NGUYEN TALKED TO AN ESCONDIDO WOMAN WHOSE FAMILY WAS AFFECTED.

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COLOMBIA 1(an) TRT: 0:42 SOQ

Scenes of workers digging through the rubble to search for survivors are hard for Adriana Brunner to watch.

She has family in Cali, Colombia … one of the cities devastated by the 7-point-4 quake on Monday.

Adriana Brunner // Has family in Colombia

“I wish I could be there to pick one of those rocks, but I cannot be there. It's very hard.”

Instead, she channeled that energy into relief efforts. She’s been on the phone … and on social media to raise funds and collect items for the relief effort.

“You know, emergency kits, diapers, things like that.”

That’s her way to decompress. She says the best way to help right now is to donate money to reputable organizations, such as the Colombian Red Cross. AN/KPBS News

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HILLEL OF SAN DIEGO IS CREATING A NEW SECURITY FUND FOR ITS STUDENTS. THAT COMES AFTER A BREAK-IN AT A JEWISH FRATERNITY HOUSE AT U-C-S-D LAST WEEKEND. 

REPORTER KATIE HYSON SAYS VANDALS SPRAY-PAINTED ANTISEMITIC WORDS AND SYMBOLS ON THE WALLS.

FRATHOUSE 1 trt 1:13 SOQ (kh/mb)

Hillel was the students’ first call when they discovered the break-in.

That’s according to CEO Karen Parry.

She says the incident isn’t surprising.

SOT :18 But it hurts every time because you think things are about to get better and then boom, this sucker punch.

The organization serves 4,000 students across four campuses in San Diego.

Parry says last school year, they responded to over 50 antisemitic incidents.

That’s down from the year before.

SOT :10 But the challenge that we're seeing is that the types of incidents that we're seeing are more egregious. They're . . . deeper violations of young people's experiences.

As the new school year starts, Parry says the break-in has made some Jewish students nervous to host gatherings.

They asked Hillel to raise funds to improve the security of their homes.

SOT :11 They deserve to have places where they can invite their friends, and they can be in their full identities without worrying that somebody is going to break in and destroy what they've built.

The fraternity said in a statement the attempt to intimidate them won’t succeed.

They remain proud of their Jewish identity.

Katie Hyson, KPBS News

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APPLICATIONS ARE STILL BEING ACCEPTED FOR THE COUNTY’S RENTAL SUBSIDY PROGRAM FOR SENIORS.

PENNER FELLOW EMMY BURRUS SAYS THE DEMAND IS HIGH.

SENIORS 1 (eb) TRT 1:18 SOQ

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Seniors make up about a third of unsheltered people in San Diego County. That’s what the most recent federally-mandated homelessness count in January found.

The county just launched a new round of a rental subsidy program that helps prevent local seniors from falling into homelessness.

The program has 195 spots available for qualifying low-income adults. They’ll receive $500 dollars a month for 18 months to help pay rent. Dijana Beck with the county’s Office of Homeless Solutions says they also offer case management.

“We're all feeling the pinch of our housing market and rising costs of rentals, low vacancies. And so, a lot of seniors are getting priced out of that market.”

A qualified applicant is at least 60 years old, head of household, extremely low-income and spending 50% or more of their income on rent. Their landlord also has to agree to the program.

The organization Serving Seniors is a service provider for older adults in San Diego. Their CEO and President Melinda Forstey says these programs are proven to be effective.

“What we're finding is they just don't have that safety net. So these are folks they've worked their whole lives, they helped raise families, but they're on fixed incomes.”

Emmy Burrus, KPBS News

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(0:00) Alright SDNN listeners, it's been a bit, but we now return with another installment of Pod Behind the Package. (0:05) Pod Behind the Package is a deeper dive into a standout piece of journalism coming out of our KPVS newsroom. (0:10) Today, I'm so excited to be here with Kevin Trevelin.

He's a reporter and the newest member of our Public Matters team. (0:17) Kevin Trevelin is here with us. How are you, man? (0:18) Good, good.

How are you? (0:19) Good, man. Thank you so much for making the time. (0:22) Let's get to the beginning, you know.

How are you adjusting to things here? (0:26) Or is it really no adjustment at all and simply a return home for you here? (0:30) Yeah, it's, as you kind of alluded to, I did grow up here in San Diego in Rancho Panesquito's in North County. (0:36) So, I moved away after high school and I've kind of moved around a bit after that. I lived in Oregon for college, then worked in Idaho, Montana, and then Vermont most recently.

(0:45) So, I moved back to San Diego last year and it feels really nice to be back. (0:48) I got my whole family still here and whatnot. (0:50) And on the journalism side, it has been a bit of an adjustment because I was editor in my last job at Vermont Public, which is the NPR and PBS affiliate out there in the East.

(1:00) And it's been really nice to get back into reporting. I feel like I learned a lot in that role, kind of being on the other side of, you know, fielding pitches and whatnot and kind of sitting in those editor meetings and hashing out messy editorial stuff. (1:12) So, to come back to reporting is really nice and also they make me go to fewer meetings, which is really the best part of all.

(1:18) A few people have issues with less meetings. You transition, like you say, from an editor to a reporter, which I'm sure is part of the reason you got hired for that kind of editorial knowledge. (1:27) Let's go back before that.

I'm curious to know what initially even led you to journalism. Like, why be a journalist? Why story tell Kevin? (1:33) Yeah, so I went to Oregon State as an undergraduate for my first two years and I actually signed up to be a forestry student because I liked hiking and going outside and being in the trees and whatnot. (1:44) And I didn't realize I wanted to do journalism until I started taking writing classes and kind of got into it that way.

(1:50) I realized I really liked to write and kind of got into it that way and then I transferred to the University of Oregon for their journalism school. (1:57) And then that was kind of when I really started to get away, better idea of the social importance of journalism and kind of the role it plays in the country and then started getting really into it for those reasons also. (2:08) Gotcha, that makes sense.

I think the central theme that I'm kind of picking up from your life when I think of Vermont, Oregon, and San Diego, the central theme is hiking. (2:16) It's like, you can't live somewhere where there aren't good trails. Is that accurate? (2:19) Yeah, I think that that is a huge appeal to me and even I lived in Idaho.

I was in eastern Idaho about two hours from the Tetons and Yellowstone National Park. (2:28) And yeah, really, really enjoy the wide open spaces. (2:31) Nice, excited to see the stories you tell and bring us transitioning now to your package on ratepayers who call themselves interveners.

(2:38) Now, Kevin, I'm familiar with people taking on rising costs of energy and rising costs in general, but not so much with a formal term intervener. (2:46) How were you first made aware of this story? (2:48) When I started at KPBS, the beginning of June, one of the things we talked about was me picking up more coverage of the local utilities because, you know, it's really important. (2:58) It's something that impacts millions and millions of people here.

You don't really have a choice who you get power from for the most part. (3:03) And also, you know, people are aware there's rising utility costs, their power bills are going up. (3:08) The thing with the interveners came about because kind of right when I started SDG&E was starting this long process that I mentioned in the story, (3:14) where they basically are kind of requesting how much money they can collect from customers starting in 2028.

(3:21) And so that's like a, starts the beginning of a super long, complicated regulatory process with tons of hearings and, you know, evidence and testimony and whatnot. (3:30) And kind of the crux of it, or one of the crux of it is these interveners who kind of formally will intervene in the process, they protest. (3:39) And I thought it was a really interesting story because you have a really interesting kind of process because you have the utility on one side, which is in SDG&E's case, it's a really big company.

(3:51) It's owned by Sempro, which is one of the, you know, a Fortune 500 company based in San Diego. (3:55) And a lot of the interveners are kind of grassroots or smaller nonprofits, and they're, you know, digging into these huge, huge regulatory filings to try to, you know, pick apart places where maybe the utility could be more efficient. (4:09) Or maybe doesn't need to do this project or that one.

(4:11) Yes, one of the couples you profile who serve as a central voice is Diane Conklin and Joseph Mitchell. (4:17) How did you connect with them initially to begin using them as a vehicle to tell the story? (4:22) Yeah, so they've been doing this work for a long time. (4:24) And Diane Conklin, who you mentioned, she used to be a journalist in Florida, and then she also has a law degree.

(4:29) She never practiced, but I'm sure that helps go through these, this paperwork as well, the utility stuff. (4:34) And then, yeah, Joseph Mitchell is a particle physicist by trade. (4:38) He worked at Los Alamos, Los Alamos National Lab in the United States.

(4:42) And so they both have kind of interesting backgrounds. (4:44) And I got connected with them because they've been involved in this movement for a long time. (4:49) And, you know, talking to other folks who are affordable energy advocates, they, you know, commended that I connected them.

(4:55) And it just kind of struck me, their personal connection to this stuff. (4:59) They moved to Ramona in 1999. (5:00) They survived the Cedar Fire, and their home survived the Cedar Fire in 2003.

(5:07) And then SDG and E announced plans to build this other high voltage line through kind of the valley in their backyard, (5:13) the sunrise power link in 2006. (5:16) And so they had already kind of started this grassroots nonprofit called the Mussy Grade Road Alliance, (5:20) which is named for the road near their house. (5:22) And they had, you know, kind of banded together with other neighbors to fight other projects that they didn't think were good for the area.

(5:28) And so they kind of had that muscle already developed by the time the sunrise power link was announced. (5:34) Absolutely. (5:34) Conklin and Joseph started as you just spoke to the Mussy Grade Road Alliance.

(5:39) With that being a formal nonprofit, do you think that had a different impact versus just stories about someone who might be a protester? (5:47) You see a lot of protesters too. (5:48) I think, you know, I'm new to this beat, but it seems like every time a quarterly earnings report comes out, (5:52) you see people outside of Simpra's headquarter downtown. (5:55) But I think the thing with the Mussy Grade Road Alliance and other folks who do that work is that, you know, talking to people who intervene, (6:04) talking to other experts and lawyers and whatnot, you really build up a lot of expertise and kind of institutional knowledge (6:11) for how to approach these regulatory proceedings through the Public Utilities Commission (6:16) because it's kind of unlike any other like legal setting in the state.

(6:19) And so anyone can file a formal protest for an SDG&E plan or application or whatever proposal, (6:26) but there's really a lot of value in going through this process over and over (6:29) and kind of figuring out really how it works and knowing how to navigate the process, (6:34) which I think they've learned how to do over that since 1999. (6:38) You're almost like the journalist who's in the middle of both sides. (6:41) You're listening to SDG&E and they're like, we need more money and more profit to help you all and provide energy.

(6:45) And then you're talking to ratepayers and people in the city who are saying like, my bill jumped and I saw no difference, (6:51) you know, so you serve as that middle ground and that fair ground. (6:54) So thank you for doing that, Kevin. (6:56) Kevin Trevaland, thanks so much for your time for being here.

(6:58) Yeah, of course. Thanks for having me. (6:59) Awesome.

Once again, this was Public Matters New Reporter Kevin Trevaland here with us on SD&N to talk about his package. (7:05) Some things got to be done challenging SDG&E on behalf of ratepayers. (7:09) Thanks so much for joining me for another episode of Pod Behind the Package.

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A SAN DIEGO NATIVE IS BRINGING HIS TAROT CARD SKILLS TO THE SAN DIEGO MADE MARKET THIS WEEKEND. 

ARTS REPORTER AUDY MCAFEE TALKED TO HIM ABOUT HIS PASSION FOR THE CRAFT.

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TAROTSDMADE 1 (1:16)

Milo (MY-LOW) Corvino was given his first tarot deck when he was 7 and immediately became captivated by the practice.

“I also love educating people about like what tarot is, what tarot isn't."

Tarot reading uses a special deck of cards to answer questions through the symbolism on the cards.

Corvino says the practice can’t tell your future, but can help guide people as they consider the next steps in their lives.

“I hope that people are just feeling much more aligned with themselves at the end of the day. I know some questions cannot be answered in one simple, you know, three to ten card spread. But I hope that people feel more affirmed. I'm hoping that they feel a little bit more curious within their spirituality.”

Corvino usually does readings at coffee shops, night clubs, and sometimes at his home. But he’s also been working at the San Diego Made Market since last year, where he goes by the Mystic M.

“I feel like it gives people a space to really like express themselves, express their businesses, but also gives people a chance to kind of like see what's out there. ”

Not everyone believes in tarot, but Corvino says he’s confident the right community will find him.

“I think just kind of like reminding myself that like not everyone's going to be for you and I think that's okay.’

The Mystic M will be at the San Diego Made Market this weekend in Liberty Station.

Audy McAfee, KPBS News.

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AND AS WE DO FOR YOU EACH AND EVERY FRIDAY, HERE ARE SOME MORE WEEKEND EVENT IDEAS FOR YOU AND YOURS

TONIGHT, ‘THE NORTH PARK FILM FESTIVAL’ KICKS OFF WITH WHAT THEY CALL THE GOLDEN GHOST SHORTS :  A COLLECTION OF SHORT FILMS 

THAT’S AT RED BRONTOSAURUS RECORDS. 

THE FESTIVAL RUNS THROUGH AUGUST 30TH!

SATURDAY MIGHT JUST BE AN IDEAL DAY TO TRY AND GO STARGAZING OR GET A GLIMPSE OF A REAL METEOR SHOWER

THERE IS LIKELY TOO MUCH LIGHT POLLUTION NEAR WHERE YOU ARE …  WHICH IS WHY THE 20-26 SAN DIEGO DARK SKY FESTIVAL TAKES PLACE IN JULIAN

ATTENDANCE IS LIMITED SO IF INTERESTED … VISIT EVENT-BRITE DOT COM FOR MORE INFO

ON SUNDAY, YOU CAN PICNIC WITH GOATS!

FROM NOON UNTIL 1 AT THE LOS PENASQUITOS RANCH HOUSE YOU CAN BRING YOUR LUNCH AND ENJOY A PICNIC ALONGSIDE SOME LOCAL GOATS THAT MIGHT JUST WANT A PIECE OF YOUR SANDWICH …

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That’s it for the podcast today. This podcast is edited by Brooke Ruth and  hosted and produced by me, Lawrence K. Jackson. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. Thanks for listening and have a great weekend.