Depression among local youth
Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Wednesday, September 14th.
Youth depression is on the rise. More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….
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The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously yesterday to continue the local Monkeypox health emergency.
The virus causes flu-like symptoms along with painful rashes and is spread through close contact.
351 cases have so far been reported in San Diego County, but the number of new cases has continued to decline in recent weeks.
Health officials say our region likely saw the peak in cases during the first week in August.
Monkeypox vaccines are in limited supply but allocations from the state have slowly been increasing.
Locally, 10 people have been hospitalized from the virus, with no deaths reported.
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The Port of San Diego is preparing to begin its busiest cruise season since 2010.
All ships are currently at or near full capacity, and the port is seeing a 45-percent increase from last year.
Officials say they’re expecting around 460-thousand passengers to sail from San Diego in the coming months.
The Port of San Diego is California's third busiest cruise port after Long Beach and Los Angeles.
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Gas prices are slowly creeping up again.
The average price for a gallon of regular gas in San Diego County rose yesterday to 5-dollars-and-36-cents.
The average price has increased nearly 15-cents over the last 11 days, according to triple-A and the Oil Price Information Service.
Gas price analysts say the price increase is because the West Coast is dealing with a tight supply, some refineries have taken some units offline for maintenance or have equipment problems.
The state Energy Commission says prices should start to drop again in the coming 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.
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Rates of depression among local youth have been on the rise for the last decade, according to San Diego County’s Behavioral Health Services.
The pandemic has only exacerbated the problem, not only here but across the state.
In California, rates of anxiety and depression among children shot up by 70-percent between 2016 and 2020.
Suicide rates increased by 20-percent in 20-20 alone.
And in many places there aren't enough mental health professionals to meet the needs of youth.
Amy Bintliff, who works in this space as a developmental psychologist with a focus on adolescent mental health and well being at U-C-S-D joined KPBS’s Jade Hindmon to talk about the growing problem.
As school starts back we get a better understanding of what students are struggling with. Can you talk about what you're seeing and what’s driving these issues?
All of that highlights the need for mental health professionals in schools and the community but there aren’t enough. You are a former teacher. From where you sit, why do you think that is?
What are teachers and counselors dealing with?
Governor Gavin Newsom announced the state is going to invest 4.7 billion dollars for mental health support for youth across the state and to address some of the issues you mentioned. Where do you see that funding needed most right now?
That was Amy Bintliff. A developmental psychologist with a focus on adolescent mental health and well being at U-C-S-D, speaking with KPBS Midday Edition host, Jade Hindmon.
If you or someone you know is experiencing thoughts of suicide or a behavioral health crisis, you can call 9-8-8.
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While a bill banning abortions nationwide was introduced in Washington D-C yesterday (Tuesday)… California launched a website to provide information on abortion access.
KPBS reporter Tania Thorne has more.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has launched a new abortion resource in California. “A resource for those seeking reproductive care, whether you live here or not. Abortion.ca.gov.” The website has information on abortion providers, financial resources, and help that’s available to those traveling from another state. “It includes information on your right to an abortionand info if youre traveling from a different state… Abortion remains legal and protected in CA. We have your back.” California voters will have the opportunity to amend the state’s constitution and enshrine the right to an abortion in the November elections. TT KPBS News
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Experts at U-C San Diego spent a year studying extortion in Tijuana.
They found that most business owners are too afraid to actually report this crime to authorities.
KPBS border reporter Gustavo Solis dug into this invisible crime wave.
Researcher Romain Le Cour spent a year walking the streets of Tijuana, talking to business owners about extortion. He calls the regular shake-downs invisible crimes because so few victims report them to the authorities. Romain Le Cour | Mexican Crime Researcher “The huge challenge about extortion and protection rackets in Mexico is that it is one of the most underreported crimes. Less than one percent of extortion cases are actually reported.” But even though they start as invisible crimes, extortion often leads to more visible acts of violence when business owners refuse to pay. Le Cour believes that addressing extortion at its root could reduce more visible and violent crimes in Tijuana. Tijuana averages more than 2,000 homicides are year, making it one of the most dangerous cities in Mexico. But he says politicians have no incentive to address extortion because no one is talking about it. “The authorities will tell you, my constituents ask me to do something about homicide because the numbers and figures for homicide are extremely visible. Why should I invest time, energy, money, my career, my reputation in tackling something that doesn’t appear on the records.” Gustavo Solis, KPBS News
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Coming up.... How 3-D printing technology is changing manufacturing. We’ll have that story and more, after the break.
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The San Diego City Council yesterday selected a team to redevelop the Sports Arena property.
KPBS metro reporter Andrew Bowen says "Midway Rising" proposes thousands of new apartments.
AB: 4,250 apartments, to be exact, plus a new arena, a hotel, retail and 20 acres of parks and open space. 2,000 of the apartments would be affordable to low-income renters. That's more than the other two competing proposals. Council President Sean Elo-Rivera says if the developers lower the amount of affordable housing in their final plan, he won't stand for it. SER: That 2,000, to me, is a floor that I struggle to see myself being okay with being diverted from. AB: Tuesday's vote is only the start of exclusive negotiations with Midway Rising. Talks between the two sides are expected to last two to four years with the project built out over about a decade. Andrew Bowen, KPBS news.
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San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria yesterday (Tuesday) signed off on a loan with the Environmental Protection Agency to fix up the city’s aging storm drain system.
But as KPBS reporter Alexander Nguyen tells us … environmentalists say a lot more is needed.
Last weekend … the remnant of Hurricane Kay brought some much-needed rain to San Diego. But the rain also washed debris, trash and other pollutants into the storm drain system. At Chollas Creek in Logan Heights trash and debris sit stagnant in the water. That’s why Lucero Sanchez from San Diego Coastkeeper is glad the mayor signed off on a 733 million dollar loan from the Environmental Protection Agency. But she says that’s just the start. Yes, $733,000,000 is a lot, it's only a drop in the bucket when it comes to the storm water infrastructure we need, It's continuing to grow every single year.” The city has a 1.4 billion dollar storm water infrastructure shortfall. The EPA loan will cover roughly 49% of the deficit. More than 80 projects will be funded under the loan and the says it will reduce the amount of pollution in the waterways. AN/KPBS
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Three-D printing has brought innovation and flexibility to the creation of goods that was never available in traditional factories.
KPBS Science and Technology reporter Thomas Fudge has the story.
(Ambient sound) Walk onto the factory floor of Incept3D in Mira Mesa and you hear the low din of machines and you see their more than 100 3D printers in action. They’re making everything from replicas of human bones to housings for electronics and tap handles for San Diego Breweries. MICHAEL It’s basically a very sophisticated hot glue gun. Company founder and CEO Michael Armbruster explains the process as he points to a role of thermoplastic cord on a 3D printer. MICHAEL “You’ve got filament that goes up through a tube. And it comes out of this very tiny nozzle. The 3D printer will then travel along the X & Y plane, depositing that filament onto the part. 15-04-12 And then it will stack each layer on the one before it, and that, in a nutshell, is how 3D printing works.” The printer nozzle darts across the object making, in this case, the model of a mold for a cement structure. Some objects are made in 24 hours. Some are made overnight. Armbruster says he got hooked on 3D printers ten years ago because he loved making things, and immediately saw the potential of 3D printing. “I was just blown away that this technology completely disregards complexity as a challenge. A part can be very simple or a part can be very complex. The machines simply don’t care. You can then build any shape that would then apply to any industry that needs to make things.” He says 3D printing is great as long as you are making a diversity of products or small volumes of the same thing. It cannot compete with conventional manufacturing if you want to make ten thousand identical items. Factories using predetermined molds can punch out product a lot faster. Caroline Freund is an economist at UCSD who is Dean of the school of global policy and strategy. She has studied how 3D printing has affected trade, and says it has increased international trade among those products that are commonly printed. She says 3D printing excels at the innovation end of product creation. CAROLINE “Three-D printing allows you to design many, many many parts and components and then test them. You can design them on the computer, print them out, find which one is the best, then develop a mold and use that one for your mass production.” And then there are products where every one of them needs to be a little bit different. CAROLINE “Three-D printers can customize products because you can literally scan whatever you need, and then individualize that product. One really good example of this customization is in hearing aids, where you can scan the cavity of someone’s ear, and create a product that uniquely fits that ear. Another example of that is making artificial limbs, which is what San Diego-based Limber Prosthetics and Orthotics does. UCSD Engineering doctoral student Joshua Pelz is the CEO of Limber P&E. He holds an artificial lower leg made of cream-colored plastic. “This is the Limber unileg. It is a single-leg prosthesis that is 3D printed in just half of a day. So you can press start at night. And you pull it off looking just like this in the morning ready to go on to an amputee, letting them get back out in the world.” (Ambient sound) Back at Incept3D Michael Armbruster shows me the printed spine of a young child, based on CT scans from a Children’s hospital. They’re preparing for a surgery on the child. Armbruster says while 3D printing seems very innovative, it’s not new technology. So why the recent explosion in their use? Expiring patents totally changed the industry. “So the technology is actually incredibly old. It was there in the 80s and 90s and it was just as good as it is today. But it was this tiny little market that only the most high-end people would use…But then some patents expired. Some big ones, the ones that allow for all of this.” There are new uses for 3D printing. In medicine, organic printing of some body parts like heart valves is in development. Some construction companies are beginning to make 3D-printed houses. It works off a computer program, of course, but their “printer” pours cement. SOQ.
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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. I’m Debbie Cruz. Thanks for listening and have a great day.
