Audit reveals challenges in transferring from community college
Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Thursday, September 26th.>>>>
A recent audit reveals significant challenges in California’s Community College transfer process.More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….######
A new report found the cost of homeownership in the city of San Diego dropped more than 7-percent last month.
The decline comes after a reduction in home-loan interest rates.
According to Reality-Hop, the average rate for a 30-year mortgage is down nearly half-a-point, at 6-point-3-percent.
San Diego remains one of the most unaffordable cities in the country, with median home prices above 9-hundred-thousand dollars.
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MTS says that starting this weekend, bus and trolley riders in East County can enjoy faster trips and more reliable service!
It’s launching its new Copper Line-– which will run from Santee to El Cajon – Sunday at 5 in the morning.
Riders can get more information about the new track at a celebration event at the El Cajon Transit Center tomorrow (Friday) afternoon.
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The Padres are headed back to the playoffs!
They will be at least a wild card team in the National League, when the playoffs start next week.
Right now, they are second in their division.
Depending on how they do in the last 4 games of the regular season, they could take the number 1 spot from the L-A Dodgers.
We’ll know what the postseason matchups are on Sunday.
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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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A new state audit shows that many community college students are not graduating or transferring to a university within four years.
North County reporter Alexander Nguyen says the complex transferring process is partly to blame.
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The report was released Tuesday. It found that only 1 in 5 students … or roughly 20 percent … who intend to transfer did so within four years. Bureaucracy is partly to blame. Both the University of California and California State University have different requirements. The report says the transfer system is too complex and students sometimes get lost in the maze. Chula Vista Assemblymember David Alvarez was surprised at how low the transfer rate was. He was the one who asked for the audit. It's a wake up call for sure, for our institutions of higher learning to get their act together and make sure that we are successfully getting students to complete and and to graduate. He says the audit unearths a number of roadblocks for the legislature to address to streamline the process for students. Alexander Nguyen, KPBS news.
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Supporters of solar energy systems will appear in court today (Thursday) to try to stop new regulations they say will make it harder for people to choose solar.
Sci-tech reporter Thomas Fudge says the issue is who gets to install and maintain their battery systems.
Californians who install rooftop solar energy systems that come with a battery storage unit have been able to hire their contractor to maintain the battery system and add to it over time. That will change on October 1, unless plaintiffs in a San Diego court case prevail in their suit. California’s Contractors State License Board wants to prohibit workers classified as solar contractors from working on battery energy storage systems. They would allow only licensed electricians to do that work. Some environmental groups and solar industry groups say the new rules limit consumer choice and there’s no good reason for it. Dave Rosenfeld is with the Solar Rights Alliance. “Their own research, and this is in the record, did not find a shred of evidence that there is any difference in performance and safety in batteries that are installed by licensed solar contractors, compared to batteries installed by licensed electricians.” Rosenfeld says the state license board is doing the bidding of utilities and their electricians union. The state board said it would not comment on the litigation. Thomas Fudge, KPBS News.
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46-years ago, two planes collided over North Park.
It was, at that time, the worst air disaster in U-S history.
Reporter John Carroll says family members and friends of those lost finally have not one, but two places to mourn.
On the northside of Saint Augustine High School Wednesday morning, chimes sounded… a call to remembrance.“To memorialize this tragedy, we have created this prayer garden for our community.”Saint Augustine’s President Ed Hearn, talking about a new prayer garden anchored by a memorial. It features 144 hand-painted tiles in muted versions of PSA’s red and orange colors… one tile for each of those who lost their lives that day.“Time does heal all, maybe not heal completely, but it softens the blow.” That’s Bea Terkel. Her daughter Marla Scavia was a 24-year old PSA flight attendant, heading home to San Diego on Flight 182. We met her at the other memorial… the new one just placed at the crash site at the intersection of Dwight and Nile.“It was a long time in coming, but they’ve done a fine job and everyone is to commended for that. But it’s been a tough 46 years cause you never forget.”And now, all these years later - family and friends of those lost, and all of us… have two places to remember. John Carroll, KPBS News.##########
San Diego lost its place as a Republican stronghold
Voice of San Diego CEO Scott Lewis tells us how …and why it matters.
I’ve been reporting on San Diego politics for the past 20 years and this is the first election cycle where no Republican is even running for an office in the city of San Diego. All the candidates for mayor, city attorney and City Council are either Democrats or nonpartisan. What happened? Can Republicans ever come back?Republicans really started to lose traction about 16 years ago when Barack Obama was elected president.Then Donald Trump won. And in San Diego, he was not popular. During that time, Democrats learned all they had to do was tie a local candidate to Trump and they could doom the candidate. Here’s why it matters:Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, one of the last Republicans in city politics, is running for county supervisor. He hopes to oust an incumbent, Democrat Terra Lawson Remer. The first thing to look for is that County supervisor race. If Faulconer the Republican wins, maybe former President Trump no longer is holding local candidates back. I’m Scott Lewis, and this is Why It Matters
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Arts Reporter Beth Accomando wants to kick off the fall season by introducing you to Greg De Fatta -- who scares people for a living.
Greg DeFatta and I just bonded over making people pee their pants.
GREG DEFATTA I do get a little satisfaction if somebody pees in their pants. Call me weird. But yeah, that's the ultimate tip of the hat.
The context for this bonding is that we both run haunted houses. I’m a home haunter and DeFatta has been running the epic Haunted Trail at Balboa Park for 25 terrifying years.
GREG DEFATTA … Sometimes I'll be in my office at the trail and I'm just listening. And you can just hear groups screaming and then laughter.
Haunted houses are addictive. Once you hear the sound of people screaming at what you’ve created, you just want more. That might sound sadistic but there’s a place for recreational fear.
GREG DEFATTA … It's just this exhilarating inspiration you get from being scared. But knowing that you're safe, you're not going to get hurt, that's an adrenaline rush.
DeFatta says his son Dylan was born into that.
GREG DeFATTA My favorite thing was he and his friends had no inhibitions about just getting down in the dirt and crawl up to people and scare the hell out of them.
But being a scare-actor at a haunt is demanding work, says Dylan.
DYLAN DeFATTA …The next day, it's hard to get out of bed. You're sore. Why did I jump out of that trash can 453 times last night? Or why was I holding the chainsaw and leaping over that barrel?
GREG DeFATTA You over staff the second night or the third night because a lot of people just don't make it back.
But that doesn’t stop people from applying to be a scare-actor at the Haunted Trail.
AUDITION So excited to be here, wanted to do this since middle school so just so joyous.
GREG DEFATTA First of all, you try and find people that can just abandon their normal interview.
AUDITION When I say go you are going to do your best rage zombie, go [growls]
GREG DEFATTA Let's just be honest, when you come into our interview, at some point you're going to be screaming and maybe crawling on the ground.
AUDITION Zombie attack… How can you not love this.
GREG DeFATTA What we’re looking for is energy and creativity. If they do work at a place that repairs chainsaws, they're in because we want that.
Not surprisingly, Dylan exudes that energy and creativity combined with pragmatism.
DYLAN DeFATTA You can really find inspiration anywhere. And working through that to find your horror product that's going to have repeatability every night that's going to have some awe, wow and awe factor to it, and it's going to work with the actors.
Greg has created some 2000 different rooms over the years and while the trail is only open for a couple months, it’s a year-round job prepping the mile long haunt and the 3500 square foot maze that kicks it off.
GREG DeFATTA You literally get to use every synapse in your head, trying to figure out how to design, to build, to run a business.
Over the years Dylan has worked every job from scare acting and front of house to sound, lights, and carpentry.
DYLAN DeFATTA From designing so many rooms over the years, you start to realize where you need your distractions, you need your spot for your actor to be able to disappear in the right moments and then reveal for a scare or something. Each scene takes a lot of time and versions until we get to a room that will have people screaming and running out.
And screams really are what Greg and his team listen for to know what’s working and what needs attention.
GREG DEFATTA We're constantly going through the rooms to see do we need to add something some shaker cans or air blasters or whatever it might be to boost it up. And the Sound and Light crew is also just going saying, Is this effective? What do we need to change? Do we need to add smoke? On the last night, we're still tweaking things. I don't think I'll ever stop running the trail because I just love it so much. I still think I have a lot to offer as far as coming up with ideas. And that's what it is. It's coming up with crazy ideas and seeing if it works. And you never know if it's going to work until you're testing it live on people that had just paid you to come in.
Creating nightmares can be a dream job.
Beth Accomando, KPBS News.
The Haunted Trail opens Friday in Balboa Park and will be open through November 2nd to scare you.
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That’s it for the podcast today. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. In tomorrow’s (Friday’s) podcast, we’re kicking off a series highlighting different Oktoberfests happening throughout the county. I’m Debbie Cruz. Thanks for listening and have a great day.
