The legal fight over who controls the California National Guard continues
Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Tuesday, June 17th.
A refugee from Afghanistan is the latest to be arrested at an immigration hearing.
More on that next. But first... the headlines….#######
Today (Tuesday), the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments over who controls California’s National Guard… the state or the federal government?
Last week, a lower court judge ruled President Donald Trump must return national guard authority to Governor Gavin Newsom.
But, the appeals court put a hold on that ruling.
The case deals with the 4-thousand national guard members activated to help protect federal property in Los Angeles.
But, it does not touch on the issue of using active duty Marines.
President Trump ordered 700 marines from Twentynine Palms to help with the response.
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City leaders today (Tuesday) will review the military equipment used by the San Diego Police Department.
The department will deliver a presentation to the city council this afternoon, on its arsenal and how it's used.
In last year’s presentation, dozens of items were reviewed, from drones to various guns.
The session starts at 2 p.m. and will include public comment.
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And tomorrow (Wednesday), a vote will be held to determine the new, permanent superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District.
Fabiola Bagula {ba-GOO-la} has served as interim superintendent since September, after the former superintendent, Lamont Jackson, was fired for alleged misconduct.
If appointed, Bagula would be the 1st Latina and the 3rd woman to be superintendent in the district’s 171-year history.
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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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REPORTS OF IMMIGRATION DETENTIONS AFTER COURT HEARINGS ARE GROWING.
THE LATEST TARGETING AN AFGHAN REFUGEE WHO HELPED U-S TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN.
REPORTER TANIA THORNE HAS VIDEO THAT WAS TAKEN AFTER HIS IMMIGRATION HEARING IN SAN DIEGO.
The video shows Sayed, an Afghan refugee, - being detained by ICE agents at the federal immigration court in San Diego last week.
Sayed is allowing us to use his first name only for his safety.
Sayed says he escaped Afghanistan after being targeted by the Taliban for being an interpreter to US troops.
In July 2024 he was lawfully paroled into the US after a CBP One appointment in San Ysidro.
He has a pending Special Immigrant Visa and an active asylum application.
He was detained when he went to his first official hearing..
“June 12th was his very 1st hearing. He was there with his attorney and the Government suddenly moved to dismiss the case which mean, and they moved to dismiss it, because they said that the the notice to appear had been improvidently issued which means there was a mistake or something along those lines. The Government's lawyer refused to clarify why, it was improvident. And then, moments later, ice detained him on site.”
Shawn VanDiver with the organization Afghan Evac says this case serves as a warning.
“No one can define it. There's no appeal. It's being weaponized to put lawful parole compliant asylum seekers in cells and kicked out of the country.”
He says immigration detentions following court hearings are happening to people trying to get lawful status in the US.
“They've shut down refugees from coming here. They've canceled tps. They're canceling parole, and now they're trying to dismiss cases for valid asylum seekers. This is a really dark time for our country and I don't know how anybody anywhere in the world is going to trust the word of the United States. If this is how we treat our wartime allies once they get here.”
Sayed remains in detention.
VanDiver says his attorneys plan to challenge the decision.
Tania Thorne, KPBS News
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PRESIDENT TRUMP RECENTLY SAID PROTESTERS SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO WEAR MASKS.
THAT COMMENT IS RAISING CONCERNS AMONG HEALTH EXPERTS.
HEALTH REPORTER HEIDI DE MARCO EXPLAINS WHY ONE SAN DIEGO PHYSICIAN SAYS MASKING IS STILL AN IMPORTANT OPTION.
In a social media post on June 7, Donald Trump claimed masks were banned at protests, saying it prevents law enforcement from identifying violent agitators.
Pediatrician Maya Kumar says people, especially those at higher risk, should have the freedom to protect themselves.
“I would just encourage everyone to carefully weigh the risks of going to, you know, a crowded gathering without wearing a mask, particularly if you have not been vaccinated…or you have underlying health conditions that predispose you to more severe illness.”
Studies show immunocompromised people are still more likely to be hospitalized or die from COVID, even if vaccinated. And during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, where up to 96% of people wore masks, 11 out of 12 cities saw no spike in COVID cases.
“A person with a serious illness like asthma or heart disease, or maybe who's pregnant, or who's elderly… It only takes one exposure to one sick person to potentially land you in the hospital.”
Kumar says decisions about masking should be personal, not political.
Heidi de Marco KPBS News.
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KPBS LISTENERS KNOW THE VALUE OF RADIO, NOT ONLY FOR NEWS OR MUSIC, BUT ALSO FOR VITAL INFORMATION DURING AN EMERGENCY.
IN THE NORTH COUNTY, THERE IS A LOCAL STATION THAT KEEPS ITS COMMUNITY INFORMED, AND IS HELPING TO PRESERVE INDIGENOUS CULTURE.
VIDEO JOURNALIST CAROLYNE CORELIS TUNES US INTO PALA REZ RADIO
Turn on your radio while you’re driving east on highway 76, and you can find a station that you can’t hear anywhere else.
“Rez Radio” has been owned and operated by the Pala Band of Mission Indians since 20-11.
Before then, the quiet town of Pala was often isolated from news coverage in San Diego County.
It had the Pala Casino and Mission San Antonio de Pala… but it didn’t have a lot of options for news and information.
Then came 2007.
“There were some bad fires in North County, and communication around here was terrible. San Diego had its own fires to deal with, so local media had completely ignored North County. “Pala was evacuated because there were fires on two sides of it. Most people stayed out of town for about four days, not realizing they could have come back after about four hours.The communication was that poor.”
That’s station manager - John Fox, a veteran of the San Diego broadcast market. He was brought in at the very beginning.
“So when a window opened up for new radio stations, the tribal council decided to apply for one. Hoping to avoid things like that in the future.”
And Pala Rez Radio was born. Fox says the station exists to provide critical information to tribal members.
we're here for an emergency. It may only be one tenth of 1% of the time, but when you need it, you need it. And that's where cell phones fall down. I mean, no matter how good broadband gets, when it hits the fan, everybody's going to be on there and the bandwidth is gone and you can't get through.
“If you've got a car, you've got a radio and you've got a way to get emergency information and not worry about whether you're fighting with 10,000 other cell phone users
Fox says their goal is to give all tribal communities in San Diego county vital information, and preserve tribal culture.… They have the radio station, a website and the Pala Rez Radio App. .
“We've done a number of interviews with elders, some of which some of them have already passed now. And, so we're certainly glad we were able to talk to them.”
Eric Ortega is the station’s only other employee. He’s also a tribal member. And even before coming to Rez Radio, he was recording tribal elders’ stories. He took those archives and created a radio show called Pala Life: Past and Present…. sharing stories, and the language. .
“When I was doing my Pala Life: Past and Present I started incorporating some of the language into that, and it just kind of built from there. We started it and incorporating more language into it. So, well, we came up with the idea... about doing the time checks in the language.”
“I figured it was a way for people to learn how to learn the numbers, because you can hear it, hear what we say, and look at the clock and you go, okay, that's what they’re saying, you know, and started doing our, top of the hour has “cupeno language” which means, “we are the people of Kupa”, and it says, KPRI”
And they’re preserving more than language.
“I got a call one time from a lady in our community. she wonders why we don't play more bird songs… local music, you know native american music…bird songs are a type of native music, particularly to the southwest.
Fox again.
If you go to the Midwest, Upper Midwest areas like that, you're going to hear drumming. You're going to hear powwow music. But how powwows, while they happen here, they're not quite so much a Southern California thing. Bird songs are and they tell stories”
Ortega made it his mission to go to as many events as he could where there would be birdsong performances, regardless of tribal affiliation. If the songs were social, and deemed shareable, he broadcasts them on his other radio show, Songs of the Southwest. Often, he would make new friends and learn more about the traditional songs.
“I learned more about bird songs that I never thought I, you know, I didn't even know.”
“When I came to the radio station, I was thinking of it just as a radio station. After I started working here, and with John's prompting, we made it ours…A lot of beautiful things are done here.”
“I believe we made it, like, a great piece of art, at least as far as our community is concerned.”
From Pala, I’m Carolyne Corelis, 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 Debbie Cruz. Thanks for listening and have a great day.
