California lawmaker on abortion
Good Morning, I’m Annica Colbert….it’s Friday, May 6th>>>>
What the state is doing to protect abortion rights
More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….######
San Diego county released its recommended budget yesterday. It’s a 7-point-15 billion dollar budget, and includes major investments to provide mental health services and address homelessness, equity, racial justice and climate change.
The budget adds more than a thousand staff members. It also aims to maintain its public safety, land use, and health and social services departments
The total recommended budget is 1-point-1 percent smaller than the budget the county board of supervisors approved last year. That’s mainly because of one-time costs to respond to covid-19.
The supervisors must approve a new budget by june 30th.
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San Diego County is seeing an increase in COVID 19 cases. In the past three days the county has reported six deaths and nearly 2,000 cases. A total of more than 4-thousand cases were reported last week, compared to nearly 3,000 the week before. With prom and graduation season coming up the county health and human services agency is urging people to get up to date on their vaccines and boosters to avoid getting sick. We’ll have more on covid-19 cases and treatments later in the show.
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Voter information about San Diego County’s June 7th Gubernatorial primary election has officially been mailed out. If your voter registration information is up to date, officials say you should get your pamphlet by monday. Ballots for the election are expected to go out next week.
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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.
In response to the leaked Supreme Court decision, California lawmakers have come out in force this week to advocate for abortion rights.
State Senate president Toni Atkins from San Diego has been at the forefront. She spoke with KPBS Midday Edition Host Maureen Cavanaugh.
That was State Senate president Toni Atkins speaking with KPBS Midday Edition Host Maureen Cavanaugh.
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With covid-19 cases rising in San Diego, the county is working to make sure a potentially life saving COVID-19 treatment for those most at risk is getting used.
Evusheld is a preventative treatment for people who are immunocompromised and can’t get enough protection from COVID-19 vaccines.
It’s also for those who are allergic to the vaccines.
Dr. Jennifer Tuteur is the county’s deputy chief medical officer.
"We need to do that dual approach where we make sure providers are aware of it, and we make sure that patients are aware of it so we can make sure anyone that is vulnerable in our population, we can get them that treatment."
The good news is requests for treatments are up, and the treatments are available.
With more is KPBS Health reporter Matt Hoffman…
San Diego County’s deputy chief medical officer Dr. Jennifer Tuteur says the most recommended COVID treatment is the antiviral paxlovid.. its prescribed by a doctor and can be picked up at local pharmacies. Like other treatments, it has to be used within the first few days after symptoms start--
“What we see is when we have increasing cases of COVID-19 we have increasing demand. There is no shortage of therapeutics right now.”
The county helps run three sites where monoclonal antibodies are given.. The antibodies require an infusion and are done free of charge during a single visit. There’s good news about these existing COVID treatments and new variants--
“Those three top treatments that are recommended by the NIH are thought to be effective against the BA2”
MH KPBS News
And that was KPBS health reporter Matt Hoffman.
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In an unexpected move, the owner of a hotel in Old Town has canceled its contract with San Diego County, throwing the fate of a COVID-19 shelter program into question. Inewsource investigative reporter Cody Dulaney has the story.
DULANEY: As many as thirty-four people could be sent to a homeless shelter by the end of the month. They’ve been staying at the county-run hotel because underlying medical conditions make them vulnerable to COVID-19, and they don’t have anywhere else to go.
County officials hope to continue this program, but have struggled to find another location.
Homeless advocate Amie Zamudio says if the county doesn’t step up, she will.
ZAMUDIO: “I have been renting hotel rooms and leasing hotel rooms for homeless individuals for many years. It’s very easy to do.”
DULANEY: Even so, some still worry about living on the streets. For KPBS I’m inewsource investigative reporter Cody Dulaney.
inewsource is an independently funded, nonprofit partner of KPBS.
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San Diego Scientists are pioneering a new way to measure the strength of the smallest part of the ocean food web. KPBS Environment Reporter Erik Anderson has details.
Tools developed for genetic research are giving oceanographers a better glance at the diversity of the ocean’s basic food web. Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s James Chase calls the technique meta-barcoding. He says they take samples, filter them, then scan them for DNA from microscopic plants and animals.
“If you ever work in a grocery store and you’re making sure you’re taking stock of the inventory. You would go around and scan all the barcodes. In the grocery store, right? And that’s basically what we’re doing but in the ocean.”
The results give researchers a more complete picture of the ocean’s health. Teams have been collecting samples since 2014, which allows them to track changes over time. Findings are published in the Journal Nature Communications.
Erik Anderson KPBS News
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Coming up.... a new KPBS series explores the complexity of the Filipino experience in San Diego.
"I'd like to have us break the stereotypes of the culture. Filipino's are around and they have talents in all spectrums"
We’ll have that story and more, next, just after the break.
A new KPBS documentary series called "Out of the Boondocks" explores the question of Asian-American identity through the lens of San Diego’s vibrant Filipino community.
Midday Edition Producer Harrison Patino spoke with the series' hosts and co-creators, Rio Villa (VILL-uh) and Jay Jay Maniquis (MAN-uh-KISS).
That was Rio Villa and Jay Jay Maniquis speaking with producer Harrison Patino. The first episode of "Out of the Boodocks" can be streamed on the PBS Video App.
After a two year pandemic break and change of location – Digital Gym Cinema will reopen this weekend with the independent and internationally produced film Memoria. KPBS film critic Beth Accomando has programmed films at the venue and says Memoria sets the perfect tone for what this micro cinema brings to San Diego.
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San Diego music continues to rebound from the coronavirus pandemic.
Local bands who put new albums and concerts on hold during the pandemic are now releasing new music and returning to local stages more frequently.
One of those is local band Sure Fire Soul Ensemble. They play instrumental mixes of jazz, funk, and soul.
The band returned this week with a new album and has an album release show Saturday at the Quartyard in San Diego.
Sure Fire Soul Ensemble piano and organ player Tim Felton recently spoke to KPBS Midday Edition Host Jade Hindmon. Here’s that interview…
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Tomorrow is free comic book day in North America and around the world at participating comic book stores. Each store has different policies about how many you can recieve, but according to the event information you will receive at least one.
Some of the listed participants in San Diego include:
Comickaze Comics in Clairemont, Now or Never comics in downtown, and TC’s rockets off of Waring road.
That’s it for the podcast today. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. San Diego News Now is produced by KPBS senior radio producer Brooke Ruth and me, Annica Colbert. Thanks for listening and have a great day.
