Hundreds gathered to demand the release of Haitian child taken into custody last week
<<<HEADLINES>>>
Good Morning, I’m Lawrence K. Jackson… ITS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER THIRTEENTH>>>> [ HUNDREDS GATHERED IN FRONT OF THE FEDERAL BUILDING DOWNTOWN TO DEMAND THE RELEASE OF AN EIGHT YEAR OLD BOY ]More on that next. But first... the headlines….#######
THE LA MESA POLICE DEPARTMENT IS RECONSIDERING ITS POLICY SURROUNDING AUTOMATED LICENSE PLATE READERS
THIS NEWS COMES TO US FOLLOWING A TIMES OF SAN DIEGO REPORT
AN ANALYSIS OF LA MESA’S A-L-P-R’S FOUND THAT ACROSS A SEVEN MONTH SPAN, LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES LOGGED MORE THAN 3 MILLION LICENSE PLATE SCANS IN THE EAST COUNTY-BASED CITY
… THAT EQUATES TO MORE THAN FOURTEEN THOUSAND SCANS PER DAY
THE TIMES SAYS THE HIGH RATE COMES FROM LA MESA AGREEING TO BE A PART OF FLOCK SAFETY’S STATEWIDE A-L-P-R NETWORK
THAT GIVES LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES ANYWHERE IN THE STATE THE ABILITY TO SEARCH ALL CAMERAS … INCLUDING LA MESA’S
THE TIMES SAYS CITIES INCLUDING SAN DIEGO ALREADY HAVE OPTED OUT OF THE NETWORK … AND NOW, LA MESA POLICE ARE RECONSIDERING THEIR OWN DEPARTMENT’S PARTICIPATION
THEY COULD DECIDE TO LIMIT WHICH AGENCIES THE DEPARTMENT SHARES ITS DATA WITH OR EXIT FLOCKS’ SHARED NETWORK COMPLETELY
#######
72 MILLION DOLLARS IS BEING USED TO BRING MORE AFFORDABLE HOUSING TO HILLCREST
HILLCREST HALL WILL BE ON THE CORNER OF UNIVERSITY AVE AND HERBERT STREET IN THE HILLCREST NEIGHBORHOOD
THE FUNDS WILL BE USED TO CREATE 97 HOMES FOR SAN DIEGO FAMILIES
- FOR A FAMILY OF 2 TO 4, THEY CAN EARN AS LOW AS 36-THOUSAND
- FOR A 3-PERSON HOUSEHOLD, BETWEEN 47-THOUSAND TO 110-THOUSAND
- AND FOR A FAMILY OF FOUR -- IF THEY EARN BETWEEN 52-THOUSAND AND 122-THOUSAND. .
HILLCREST HALL FALLS WITHIN THE BOUNDARIES OF WHAT THE STATE CONSIDERS A HIGH RESOURCE AREA -- PROVIDING RESOURCES TO IMPROVE PEOPLE’S LIVES AS IT’S LESS THAN A QUARTER MILE FROM THE NEAREST TRANSIT BUS STATION
THE DEVELOPMENT WILL FEATURE 3- 2-AND-ONE BEDROOM UNITS AS WELL AS -- A UNIT FOR THE PROPERTY MANAGER.
HILLCREST HALL ORGANIZERS SAYS THE PROPERTY IS TO REMAIN AFFORDABLE FOR THE NEXT FIFTY-FIVE YEARS
CURRENTLY, THE PROJECT IS PROJECTED TO BE COMPLETED THE END OF 20-28
########
ONE OF THE THINGS THE LATE DOLLY PARTON WILL BE REMEMBERED FOR IS HER IMAGINATION LIBRARY. AND IT’S EXPANDING ACROSS SAN DIEGO COUNTY
YESTERDAY, SOME OF OUR LOCAL AND STATE LEADERS GATHERED WITH THE DR SEUSS FOUNDATION TO HAIL THE NEWS
THE PLAN IS TO DELIVER ONE FREE, AGE-APPROPRIATE BOOK EACH MONTH TO CHILDREN FROM THE TIME THEY’RE BORN UNTIL THEY ARE 5-YEARS OLD…
REGARDLESS OF THEIR HOUSEHOLD’S INCOME LEVEL
From KPBS, you’re listening to San Diego News Now.Stay with me for more of the local news you need
<<<UNDERWRITING BREAK>>
######
<<<MUSIC BUMP INTO A BLOCK>>
##########
HUNDREDS OF PARENTS, TEACHERS AND ELECTED OFFICIALS PROTESTED IN FRONT OF THE FEDERAL BUILDING DOWNTOWN YESTERDAY (THURSDAY)
THEY ARE DEMANDING THE RELEASE OF THE HAITIAN BOY WHO WAS TAKEN INTO FEDERAL CUSTODY LAST WEEK.
REPORTER ALEXANDER NGUYEN WAS THERE AND HAS THIS STORY
==
ICERALLY 1(an) TRT: 0:47 SOQ
NATPOP “Bring him home. Bring him home. Bring him home.”
Protesters are angry after video footage shows the 8-year-old being escorted by two ICE agents out of an immigration courtroom.
“Visceral emotions to see that child being taken away by those two men.”
Jenny Fasone has a son at San Diego Unified. She says when she saw the video, she felt a flood of emotions.
SOT: Jenny Fasone // San Diego Unified Parent “I feel angry. I also feel empowered, you know, to be out here and say something, do something.”
ICE says it took the boy into custody because it could not determine who the legal guardian is.
He had been living with his uncle after his father was deported last year.
The boy is now in the custody of Health and Human Services. The agency has yet to respond to KPBS’ multiple requests asking where the child is being kept. AN/KPBSA MULTI-DAY “GLOBAL CONFERENCE FOR ISRAEL”
########## {no music bump to tie these 2 stories together}
… AND OVER IN CHULA VISTA SOME ARE DEMONSTRATING FOR AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT CAUSE …
A MULTI-DAY “GLOBAL CONFERENCE FOR ISRAEL HAS ATTRACTED PROTESTS IN THE SAN DIEGO COMMUNITY.
REPORTER JACOB AERE SAYS THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THE JEWISH NATIONAL FUND-USA HAS HELD THE EVENT IN THE REGION.
_____________________________________________________
ISRAELPROTEST 1 (ja) :50 SOQ
The conference officially kicked off Thursday at the Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center. Jewish National Fund-USA is the organization hosting the event.
The conference is described on its website as “four incredible days of visionary speakers, inspirational gatherings with fellow Zionists, and the world's largest Israel Expo.”
Nate Lacy is with Jewish Voice for Peace San Diego. He says his organization is one of many who will be protesting outside the hotel and convention center on Friday and Saturday.
“they really promote the goals of Zionism and we’re opposed to that.”
This is the first time the conference has been held in San Diego County in the organization's 125 year history. The conference runs through Sunday. It's a completely sold out event.
JA, KPBS News
##########
VOTERS MADE THEIR VOICES HEARD ON A RANGE OF ISSUES - FROM THE COST OF LIVING TO IMMIGRATION - IN LAST WEEK'S MIDTERM ELECTIONS
TOM WONG IS A POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR AT UCSD AND HEADS THE US IMMIGRATION POLICY CENTER. HE SAT DOWN WITH KPBS ROUNDTABLE HOST ANDREW BRACKEN TO TALK ABOUT WHAT MATTERED MOST TO VOTERS.
WONG (midday) TRT 4:40 last words “thanks andrew”
__
So, let's just start with the big picture question here. What role did immigration play in the midterm results we saw last week?
Yeah, I think if we kind of go back to the campaign trail and remember Trump and the mass deportation agenda, there was more support for it than expected.
Um, it helped propel him into the White House, but over the past year and a half, as the public saw how immigration enforcement was unfolding, you know, think large-scale military-style operations in places like Chicago and of course in Minneapolis, where you have the killings of Alex Prety and Rene Good, then I think the sort of public started questioning, you know, are we going too far?
You know, the midterm results, it's not just a single issue, so we're not going to just say it's immigration, right? So, affordability, cost of living, those things are sort of, you know, paramount for voters, but the AP surveyed uh, about 100,000 midterm voters and over six out of 10 said, yeah, immigration enforcement had gone too far.
Before the election, during summer, other sort of survey results were finding, well, independents, as well as those that previously supported democratic candidates, but then went to Trump felt a lot of unease with the way that immigration uh, enforcement was unfolding. Also, that they were less likely to support political candidates that sort of backed that aggressive interior immigration enforcement uh, that we were seeing.
So, now we have a, you know, historic midterm election where immigration enforcement definitely on voters' minds and now this administration has to decide where it goes from here.
So, you know, last month you, you know, you mentioned some of these polling, what we've learned from voters and you helped conduct a poll about San Diego voters and how they were feeling in the days leading up to the election. What did you learn from that?
Oh, yeah. In our Vital Signs Poll, we asked a lot of questions about what voters know about political processes related to voting. Uh, so basically like voting rights questions. When we think about elections, I think we take for granted, especially for for voters, to sort of basic processes.
We asked, you know, San Diego County residents whether or not they knew that if they were in line by 8:00 p.m. that they could still vote. And it's kind of concerning um, when you have about a third of San Diego County residents saying that they did not know that rule. Things related to ballot curing, things related to, you know, losing a ballot and obtaining a new one.
Hmm. I mean, that's interesting. I mean, anything else surprised you about the reaction from the voters you spoke with here in San Diego?
I mean, I think what we have sort of set out to do in Vital Signs is sort of a gauge just a range of opinions, uh, so that we can get at things like, you know, happiness, you know, people's perceptions about whether or not they can stay in San Diego based on costs.
And we've done two Vital Signs Polls now and it's pretty clear that residents feel very happy living in San Diego, but cost of living, affordability, especially renters are unsure whether or not they can actually stay.
And so, when we think about what the county may look like in the future and whether or not our neighbors will still be our neighbors, there are a lot of people struggling with affordability and the cost of living and that was very, very clear in the Vital Signs Polls.
I think what we sort of also saw is a sort of dissatisfaction with sort of local politics in general and this sort of sentiment that politics is really for advancing the interests of wealthy people.
So, we sort of asked residents whether or not they thought politics and politicians cared about sort of the issues that affect them or just, you know, the issues that affect wealthy people and donors. And we saw an overwhelming majority respond sort of special interests. Yeah, lots of nuggets in the Vital Signs Poll. Hopefully, we'll be able to do a post-election poll in a couple of weeks as well.
Always great to have you on. Thanks so much.
Thanks, Andrew
TAG: THAT WAS POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR TOM WONG WITH ROUNDTABLE HOST ANDREW BRACKEN
##########
DURING A HEAT WAVE EARLIER THIS YEAR, PEOPLE INCARCERATED AT RICHARD J. DONOVAN STATE PRISON SAID OFFICIALS LOCKED DOWN PARTS OF THE FACILITY… EVEN AS TEMPERATURES SOARED INSIDE.
NOW, REPORTER KORI SUZUKI HAS OBTAINED DATA CONFIRMING JUST HOW HOT IT GOT
PRISONDATA 1 (1:08) SOQ
______________________
KPBS obtained the data through a public records request to CDCR, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The agency oversees the state prison system. It’s legally required to keep a temperature log at each facility — although state inspectors have found the agency isn’t always consistent.
During a September heat wave, CDCR recorded eleven days where temperatures broke 90 degrees outside of Donovan. Twice, it soared close to 100 degrees.
Inside the prison, temperatures rose above 90 degrees in four separate facilities over the course of several days.
Those numbers confirm what several incarcerated people previously told KPBS — that it was dangerously hot inside Donovan when prison officials made the decision to lock down parts of the facility.
The incarcerated people said staff restricted their access to ice water and cooler areas. Here’s Lonnie Kocontes, back in September.
All you can do when you're in the cell is is you know try to keep cold water on your body. Like I said you you know wet a towel and and keep keep wet putting it and she, you know, wrapping it around your neck. That's all That's all you can do.
A spokesperson for CDCR did not respond to questions by KPBS’ deadline.
Kori Suzuki, KPBS News
##########
AFTER THE “AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT” PASSED IN 1990, THE UNITED STATES BECAME AN EASIER PLACE FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES TO GET AROUND. BUT REPORTER JOHN CARROLL TELLS US ABOUT ONE SAN DIEGAN WHO’S TAKING WHAT THE A-D-A ACCOMPLISHED TO A NEW LEVEL.
____________________________________________________
SDDISABILITY 1 1:21 SOQ
(Starts with NATs)
We met 47-year old bill volkmann at seaport village. it’s one of many public places he’s visited around the county to gauge accessability. volkmann has had cerebral palsy and a speech disability since birth. he uses a walker to get around.
Volkmann says seaport village is fairly good when it comes to accessability… but he says its stamped concrete walkways meant to look like cobblestones make it somewhat challenging for people with walkers or in wheelchairs.
Volkmann founded “empower your courage” not only to work on improving accessability but also to change the way the world treats people with disabilities. a kpbs staff member reads from a transcript of his comments.
“Like I take what I learned and I put that in the ethos of my company and that's what I want to do, is make it for society for all abilities.”
Seaport village… owned and operated by the port of San Diego… says it “works with members its accessibility advisory committee to identify improvements along the port waterfront where feasible."
Volkmann’s website is empower your courage dot com. jc, kpbs news.
<<<SHOW CLOSE>>>
That’s it for today’s pod which was edited by Traci Tong and hosted and produced by myself, Lawrence K. Jackson. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. Thanks for listening and have a great day.
