Hear from the 71-year-old San Diego immigration court watcher who says she was handcuffed and detained after an ICE agent accused her of assault.
Then, will the county allow a neighborhood golf course to be converted into a sand mine?
Also, in part two of our interview, hear what it is about the U.S. that keeps the author of “How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them,” up at night.
And, Voice of San Diego’s education reporter Jakob McWhinney is back to talk about the impact of declining public school enrollment.
Finally, what are the long-term consequences of last year’s South Bay battery fire?
Immigration court observer says ICE detained her for hours
July 10, 2025 at 5:00 AM PDT
Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Thursday, June 10th.
An immigration court observer was detained by ICE earlier this week.
More on that next. But first... the headlines….
According to a new survey most people living in the South Bay say Tijuana River pollution is altering how they live their lives.
In November, the C-D-C asked more than 2,000 residents, how ongoing sewage pollution affects them.
It found most people — 70 percent — are drinking bottled water with just 21 percent saying they drink from the tap.
Sixty-seven percent say they don’t believe the area is safe to visit, work or live.
The county says the survey will inform its actions moving forward, including sharing more information, education and health service resources with residents.
San Diego Unified is banning cell phones.
Beginning with the first day of school in August, students won’t be able to use their phones unless there’s an emergency.
But, not everyone will have to be offline all the time.
High school students will still be able to use their devices between classes and during lunch.
The district approved the ban this week, saying it’s following state guidelines that go into effect next year.
The city is relaxing its ban on digital-only grocery coupons in response to retailer backlash.
The ban is meant to help seniors, people with disabilities and others who aren’t tech-savvy have equal-access to discounts. According to the Union-Tribune, it’s the first such ban in the nation.
The relaxed rules were approved last week and will allow retailers to stop short of printing digital coupons, as long as they provide some means to access them.
The change also includes a carve-out for coupons offered under loyalty and subscription plans.
The city council is also delaying the ban from going into effect from July 1st to October 1st.
From KPBS, you’re listening to San Diego News Now.
Stay with me for more of the local news you need.
A VOLUNTEER LEGAL OBSERVER SAYS SHE WAS LEFT BRUISED AFTER BEING DETAINED BY ICE AGENTS IN SAN DIEGO’S FEDERAL IMMIGRATION COURT THIS WEEK (Tuesday). KPBS VIDEO JOURNALIST MATTHEW BOWLER SAYS SHE’S ACCUSED OF PUSHING AN ICE AGENT.
“You just walked right in front of me.”
That was the moment an ICE agent accused Barbara Stone, a volunteer legal observer, of pushing her.
“She pushed me so…”
Stone volunteers as a legal observer in San Diego’s immigration court. The 71-year-old grandmother of 2 says her job is to observe and film, not to interfere.
I had my phone up in the air and they, started chasing me
“Do you want to file charges? Which officer does? Sure Yea … Hey, detain that lady!”
The agents followed Stone down the hall and handcuffed her.
Now at home, Stone has bruising on her wrists and the back of her arm.
She says it’s from the handcuffs and where an agent grabbed her when she was detained.
Stone says she won’t let her detention stop her volunteer work.-
“And whatever I can do, I want to do.”
KPBS contacted Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but did not receive an immediate response.
Matthew Bowler, KPBS News
IT WAS A PACKED HOUSE… AND A SPLIT VOTE YESTERDAY (WEDNESDAY) AT THE COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION’S HEARING ABOUT THE CONTROVERSIAL COTTONWOOD SAND MINE PROJECT IN RANCHO SAN DIEGO.
REPORTER ALEXANDER NGUYEN TELLS US WHAT’S NEXT.
The vote was split three to three, and under the county administration's code that means the project is denied.
But it also means the developer can appeal to the board of supervisors.
Through cheers and applause … Rancho San Diego residents were relieved that the project was rejected by the planning Commission.
Barry Jantz is with the group “Stop Cottonwood Sand Mine.”
“we don't anticipate this is the end. We anticipate that the applicant will appeal. I think there's a ten day or so process to appeal. And then this will be going to the Board of Supervisors, within the next couple of months.”
Residents raised concerns about traffic, noise and health issues related to mining operations..
Developers and the building industry say they need sand from the mine to produce aggregate for construction…without a high cost.
Alexander Nguyen, KPBS News.
UC SAN DIEGO POLITICAL SCIENTIST BARBARA WALTER STUDIES THREATS TO DEMOCRACY AND IS THE AUTHOR OF “HOW CIVIL WARS START: AND HOW TO STOP THEM.” TODAY, SHE SAYS THE UNITED STATES IS NOT FULLY A DEMOCRACY, NOR COMPLETELY AUTOCRATIC. IN THE SECOND PART OF KPBS’S INTERVIEW, WALTER TELLS REPORTER AMITA SHARMA WHAT CIVIL UNREST IN THE UNITED STATES MIGHT LOOK LIKE.
Most people, when they think about another American civil war, they think about an 1860s version of a civil war, and they immediately think that will never happen again. And they're right. And the way to think about that is really to think about it more like an insurgency, more like guerrilla warfare, where you have militias that are operating in different parts of the country. Sometimes they're coordinating with each other, and sometimes they're operating independently, and they're not interested in engaging in government. If these militias were to try to attack the US Military, they'd be destroyed. And so they're smarter than that.So part of the title of your book, How Civil Wars Get Started, is also, how can they be prevented? How can they be stopped?Well, if you go back to first principles—if having a weak democracy and having your population be sort of fixated on identity rather than unity are the key drivers—then if you fix those two things, you're going to be in the Denmark category. Nobody worries about a civil war in Denmark. So reforming our political system would be the very first and most important thing to do. Then the question is, what are the other ways that we can prevent the rise of political violence? I think the single easiest and most immediate thing that we could do, and also the cheapest—for everybody except maybe a few tech moguls—is to regulate social media. The five biggest tech companies in the world are all American companies, and they are essentially unregulated. When I say regulation, I do not mean regulating content. I am all for Facebook or Google allowing anybody to put whatever content they want on social media. I mean regulating the algorithms that these tech companies have produced that disproportionately spread particular types of messages. And they're spreading messages that we know tap into people's deepest, darkest emotions.Their fear, their anger, their sense of threat. So let people put whatever content they want on the Internet, but don't allow tech companies to take the most incendiary types of information and spread it to the widest possible audience.It is absolutely unfathomable for people to believe that civil war can happen here. Why is that?It's because we love our country. I love my country. I love my neighbors. I'm so proud of living here. And I think it's human nature.To deny, to try to ignore, to gloss over our worst tendencies until it's too late, until there's no possible way that we can deny it anymore. So I think, you know, we've lived in a time since the end of World War II that has been the most peaceful, the most prosperous, the most democratic time in American history. And everybody has a status quo bias. We all think that the way we're living, the way things are today, are the way they're going to be tomorrow. And life has been really good. And so it's really very, very hard to think that anything different can occur. But America has had a civil war. We have had one of the most destructive civil wars that any country in the world has ever had. So it is absolutely possible here, and Americans are capable of that. It's just that we don't like to think about it, because who wants to think that way?What keeps you up at night and what gives you hope?Actually, what keeps me up at night is the thought of Donald Trump or Donald Trump 2.0 actually succeeding and the United States becoming a dictatorship. And that keeps me up at night not only for my country, my family, but also for the rest of the world.
That was UC San Diego political scientist Barbara Walter speaking with KPBS’s Amita Sharma.
SCHOOLS IN THE COUNTY HAVE LOST TENS OF THOUSANDS OF STUDENTS OVER THE LAST DECADE. IT’S PART OF A NATIONAL TREND THAT HAS FORCED DIFFICULT DECISIONS IN MANY DISTRICTS. AND ACCORDING TO SOME PROJECTIONS, IT MAY ONLY GET WORSE IN THE COMING YEARS. IN OUR WHY IT MATTERS SEGMENT, VOICE OF SAN DIEGO’S JAKOB MCWHINNEY EXPLAINS.
For many years, San Diego County’s population grew steadily. And school enrollment also increased year by year. That’s no longer the case.After peaking in 2018, school enrollment has declined rapidly. There are now thousands of fewer students in local public schools than there were just one decade ago – about 27,000 fewer, to be exact.Put simply, there are fewer children in San Diego County than there used to be. There are a couple of reasons for that.For one, people have just been having fewer children. The number of children born in San Diego County has dropped by nearly 20 percent over the past decade. Also to blame is San Diego’s rising price tag. The cost of everything from housing to utilities has increased steadily, a pattern that’s likely driven many families with children from the region.Schools can’t control these factors. But the impacts on them have been massive.Schools are funded partly based on enrollment. So the declines could be a big blow to budgets.And the pain may not stop anytime soon. California’s Department of Finance projects that by 2044, enrollment at San Diego County schools will have dropped by about 112,000 additional students. Declines of that magnitude could reshape the county’s educational landscape – and lead to a whole lot more closed schools.For Voice of San Diego, I’m Jackob McWhinney, and that’s Why It Matters.
THE E-P-A SAYS IT HAS REACHED A SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT WITH GATEWAY ENERGY STORAGE. THE COMPANY RUNS A BATTERY STORAGE FACILITY IN OTAY MESA THAT CAUGHT FIRE LAST YEAR. SCI-TECH REPORTER THOMAS FUDGE SAYS THE EPA DEAL MAY REVEAL HOW IT VIEWS STORAGE OF RENEWABLE ENERGY.
Lithium ion batteries in the Gateway facility caught fire in May of last year, and burned for about two weeks. The EPA said its settlement requires the company to conduct environmental monitoring during all battery handling and safely dispose of all battery packs damaged in the fire. But EPA administrator Josh Cook went on to say he was alarmed by fires like this and the broader battery storage fire issue, quote, requires additional attention and EPA enforcement. End quote.Battery facilities like this store solar energy, so it can be used when the sun doesn’t shine. Jason Anderson, with CleanTech San Diego, pointed out the Trump administration has been opposed to renewable energy goals and the tone of Cooks' comments were clearly negative.
“What the EPA administrator is saying as it relates to this particular project may not be about this particular project but more about the opinions of the administration on renewable energy, green energy.”
Gateway’s parent company said the EPA settlement instructions are nothing new. A spokesman, quoted in the Union Tribune, said a thorough testing of all the batteries at the facility was completed earlier this year. Thomas Fudge, KPBS News.
IN A STORY THAT AIRED MONDAY ABOUT SAN DIEGO PRIDE, WE DID NOT INCLUDE APPROPRIATE CONTEXT. AS WE REPORTED, SOME GROUPS ARE BOYCOTTING SD PRIDE. THEY SAY THAT’S BECAUSE KHELANI – AN ARTIST HEADLINING THE PRIDE FESTIVAL – MADE EXPLETIVE-LADEN STATEMENTS AGAINST ISRAEL AND ZIONISM. MANY VIEW THESE STATEMENTS AS ANTISEMITIC.
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.