Improving public transit at the airport
Good Morning, I’m John Carroll, in for Debbie Cruz….it’s Monday, August 7th.
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A new idea to improve public transit at the airport would cost billions. More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….
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San Diego is one of seven new cities with expanded curfews for asylum-seeking families.
The heads of asylum-seeking families must wear a G-P-S ankle monitor and be home every night from 11 p-m to 5 a-m.
The curfews are intended to keep tabs on migrants with children, without putting them in detention, while they wait for an initial asylum screening interview.
The curfews began in May as pandemic-related asylum restrictions expired.
The Biden administration plans to expand the number of cities to 40 by the end of September.
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We are almost one week away from District 4’s Election Day.
The special primary election is to fill Nathan Fletcher’s seat on the county Board of Supervisors.
Seven vote centers are now open across the district if you’d like to cast your ballot in person.
The vote centers will be open daily from 8 a-m to 5 p-m.
Other voting options include dropping off your ballot at one of the official ballot drop boxes, or sending it in by mail, as long as it’s postmarked by August 15th - the final day to vote.
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North County’s newest hospital is preparing to open on Wednesday.
Kaiser’s San Marcos Medical Center has room for about 200 beds, but they’ll start with fewer and grow as needed.
Officials say they needed the hospital for their more than 180-thousand members in North County.
Kaiser’s C-O-O for the region, Max Villalobos, says to get to full staffing they had to recruit locally, plus in Orange and Riverside counties.
“It was a challenge we spent the last six months working on recruiting and hiring and we were able to hire 1,000 new positions but it was not easy.”
Kaiser officials expect the new hospital’s emergency department to be busy.
It’s not a trauma center though.
Palomar Health's Escondido Medical Center is the only trauma center for the North County area.
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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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Planning officials have long discussed improving public transit at the San Diego airport to help reduce nearby traffic.
Their latest idea could cost billions of dollars.
inewsource reporter Crystal Niebla has more.
NIEBLA: The San Diego Association of Governments says its latest study has found an aerial people mover would be the best option for riders headed to and from the airport. A people mover is a driverless, train-like shuttle. It would take riders along a route south of the airport and make stops every two to four minutes. It could cost anywhere from two to six billion dollars to build. Ryan Kohut is SANDAG’s director of strategic projects. He says this option would be the most cost effective. KOHUT: “We have a prime opportunity to move this critical project forward to address a growing problem before it gets worse.” NIEBLA: But some have raised concerns on whether North County would equally benefit. Here’s Del Mar’s Terry Gaasterland, who sits on the SANDAG board. GAASTERLAND: “I love the South County solution. It looks great. It’s really gonna help people in National City and Chula Vista a lot, but we can’t leave out all of the northern part of our county. We just can’t.” NIEBLA: SANDAG will need an environmental review … and funding … before any concept moves forward. For KPBS, I’m inewsource reporter Crystal Niebla.
TAG: inewsource is an independently funded, nonprofit partner of KPBS.
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An analysis of this year’s devastating earthquakes in Turkey holds lessons for California, which is home to a very similar fault called the San Andreas.
Sci-tech reporter Thomas Fudge tells us about the research done at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
In February, two massive earthquakes occurred in Turkey that killed 50 thousand people. The biggest one, 300 kilometers long, began on a short branch of Turkey’s East Anatolian fault. Yuri Fialko, a geophysics professor at Scripps Oceanography, says it was a cascade of ruptures that overcame many geographic obstacles. “It’s known that earthquakes sometimes jump from one fault to the other. The element that was surprising was that it actually jumped and started propagating in both directions.” What happened in Turkey, with its 7.8 magnitude earthquake, could happen here. He says the faultline there should look very familiar to Californians. “It’s almost one to one correspondence to the San Andreas in terms of the total length, the total displacement and maturity.” Turkey’s earthquake gives an idea of how much power the San Andreas fault could pack. The stress along their fault line caused it to slip between 8 and 10 meters. The Northridge Earthquake from 1994 had only 3 meters of slippage. SOQ.
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Other research done locally has found that Psychedelic drugs may be helpful in addressing eating disorders.
Health reporter Matt Hoffman has more.
Psilocybin is the hallucinogen found in psychedelic mushrooms that temporarily alters someone’s consciousness.. Past research has shown promise in the drug helping people with depression, alcoholism and PTSD.. A new UCSD study says it could also help people with anorexia nervosa..The condition causes people to substantially reduce their food intake and have a distorted view of their body. Stephanie Knatz-Peck is a psychologist & UC San Diego professor.. Knatz-Peck Lots of people came out of the experience saying like i spent so much time and energy thinking that my whole self worth was based on what i looked like or needing to be this weight or otherwise i was worthless and i have this reprioritization of what’s important for me -- and I no longer -- that’s not my full identity Four out of the 10 study participants showed significant drops in their eating disorder symptoms and that continued after three months. More research is needed to replicate that in a larger, controlled trial but that’s a really promising finding compared to what we currently have available for people It’s unclear at these early stages if one trip is enough to make a lasting impact.. The researchers are currently part of a larger trial to find some of those answers.. And they’re looking for more participants. MH KPBS News.
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Coming up.... Tijuana’s All-Star baseball team is heading to Pennsylvania this week, to represent Mexico in the Little League World Series.
“We know we have a great team. We’re not going on vacation, we’re going to try to win. We want to try to be on the championship game.”
We’ll have that story and more, just after the break.
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Oceanside Unified school officials are continuing to make house visits this last week of summer vacation.
They’re hoping it will help prevent chronic absences.
Here’s Education reporter M.G. Perez with more.
There was an 18-percent increase in the number of students who missed more than three weeks of school last year at Oceanside Unified. That’s about 3-thousand students across the district in kindergarten through 12th grade. A team of 20 counselors, support staff, and a social workers are making house calls to those students and delivering back packs full of school supplies to get them back in class for the fall semester. Maria Al-Shamma is the district’s Social Worker. “parents don’t realize when you have your kids out a day or two here and there…that really adds up. So, two days a month ends up being 10-percent of the school year.” Oceanside students go back to school next week on August 15th. MGP KPBS News.
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Coastal shores have been shrinking and cities have had to replenish sand to keep beaches open.
But that sand is also disappearing faster.
North County reporter Tania Thorne tells us how the city of Oceanside is responding.
Every year the city of Oceanside replenishes beach sand by dredging the harbor. But that sand isn't enough and doesn’t reach beaches south of the pier. So the city of Oceanside is enlisting help from experts to come up with innovative solutions, some from around the world. The international call to action got the attention of dozens of different design firms that formed teams. We have selected three design teams to move forward into a competition to design a sand retention project for the city. Jayme Timberlake is the coastal zone administrator with the city of Oceanside. The final 3 teams are from Staten Island, New York, Australia, and the Netherlands. Three public workshops will be held for community feedback and design input. The first workshop will be August 29th in council chambers. TT KPBS News.
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Tijuana’s All-Star baseball team is representing Mexico in the Little League World Series.
Border reporter Gustavo Solis caught up with the team as they practiced before heading to Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
That’s the sound of Mexican baseball announcers losing their minds over the grand slam that sent Tijuana to the Little League World Series. Alberto Mejia, Tijuana Little League President “The way that they won the championship, I don’t have the words to explain how I feel especially because it was my son who hit the grand slam.” That’s Alberto Mejia. President of Tijuana Little League and proud father of Marco, who hit the home run. Marco says he wasn’t sure he hit the ball hard enough for a home run. He thought it’d bounce off the wall. Marco Mejia “Yo pensé que a lo mejor la podían agarrar o iba pegar en la barda. Nunca me imaginé que iba ser grand slam.” But the ball cleared the fences. And now the team is going to the biggest youth baseball tournament on the planet. “Muy curada ser el equipo de México. Y que todo Mexico, todo Tijuana este con nosotros.” Marco says it’s amazing to be Mexico’s team – to have the entire country supporting them. The team will leave August 10 for Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where the tournament is held every year. 12-year-old Jorge Lizarraga can throw a 73 miles-per-hour fastball. He says this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Jorge Lizarraga “La verdad, se siente muy padre representar a tup ais en un torneo que solo hay una vez al año. Una vez en tu vida. Va ser un recuerdo que no se va olvidar nunca.” Whatever happens in Williamsport, Tijuana’s all-stars have become local celebrities. They’ve done rounds of interviews with local media, been invited to public events, and even signed autographs for little kids. Max Leyba’s favorite part has been the free swag. The players got new chains and jerseys. Max Leyba “Nos han regalado esta cadena … también nos regalaron estas camisetas, la gorra. Dice Leyva. Nos han Regalado más camisas.” They also got hats with their names and numbers embroidered on the back. Despite the distractions Mejia says the team is focused and playing to win. “We know we have a great team. We’re not going on vacation, we’re going to try to win. We want to try to be on the championship game.” The road to the championship won’t be easy. Their first game will be on August 17 against the winner of a game between Cuba and Japan. Leyba says they’re very strong opponents.“Si, son equipos demasiado fuertes. Pero con los entrenamientos que hemos hecho y con el esfuerzo que le hemos echado a los entrenamientos creo que podemos ganar.” But he’s confident that the effort they’re putting into practice is going to pay off. The team spent the last couple of weeks practicing the fundamentals of hitting, fielding, bunting, sliding and pitching. And they aren’t the only one’s training. The moms came up with new cheers. Ones for team Mexico instead of just team Tijuana. Cheer One Gustavo Solis, KPBS News.
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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 John Carroll. Thanks for listening and have a great Monday.
