Local expert reacts to 'test to treat' COVID-19 plan
Good Morning, I’m Annica Colbert….it’s Thursday, March 3rd.
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The “test to treat” covid-19 plan
We’ll have more on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….######
San Diego Governments and clean water groups have reached a settlement with the federal government over cross-border sewage flow issues. If approved, the deal would retire the lawsuits filed to get the federal government to fix the problem.
Settlement terms include… more water quality testing… construction of temporary berms to capture cross border flows …and improvements to canyon collectors. The deal comes after the EPA unveiled its sweeping plan last year to fix the cross border sewage situation.
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The county board of supervisors voted on Wednesday to spend nearly one hundred and forty three million dollars from 20-23 transnet funds for street projects. Planned projects include revamping a stretch of cole grade road in valley center to improve traffic flow and add a multi use pedestrian and equestrian pathway. improvements to Dye road in Ramona, and improvements to the Ashwood street corridor in Lakeside addressing traffic safety, adding traffic signals and pedestrian access…among other projects. Transnet funds come from a half-cent sales tax meant to pay for local transportation projects. Voters first approved the transnet measure in 1988.
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A pair of storms are moving through southern california. They’re expected to bring rain and mountain snow . A winter storm watch will be in effect for San Diego and Riverside county mountains starting late tonight through Sunday morning. The national weather service is forecasting up to 2 feet of snow above six-thousand feet and strong winds.
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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.
During his state of the union address Tuesday, President Joe Biden announced a new “test to treat” plan for COVID-19 using Pfizer antiviral pills
“So people can get tested at a pharmacy and if they test positive, receive the pills on the spot at no cost.”
Dr. Eric Topol is the director of the Scripps Research Translational institute in La Jolla. He spoke to KPBS midday edition host Jade Hindmon about the new plan and more on some of the latest covid-19 issues. Here’s that interview…
And that was Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational institute in La Jolla. He was speaking with KPBS Midday Edition Host Jade Hindmon.
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A new report from the United nations’ panel on climate change lays out a grim picture of the future.
As kunc’s alex hager reports, that includes more shortages for the already-dry colorado river basin.
The U.N. panel says intense drought and earlier runoff from mountain snowpack will make water scarce during the summer… stressing economies that depend on it and increasing pressure on limited supplies of groundwater. Abby Burk is a river expert with the Audubon society.
Burk: The report to me is just one more line in the sand of saying that climate change impacts are here, they are intensifying and that we need to make change and that window of change is closing.
The dire situation has driven up public and government attention to issues of water scarcity. The report also lists interstate drought agreements and a broader push for equitable clean water access as positives.
I’m Alex Hager
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California has ambitious goals for making all new cars zero carbon emission. That means more electric cars, and a lot more car batteries that will need to be reused or recycled. KPBS science and technology reporter Thomas Fudge has the story.
A lab at San Diego State University is filled with bundles of wires, some of them testing battery cells. Near the center of the room is a black, steel case containing about 300 cells and weighing more than a thousand pounds. It’s a car battery that once inhabited a Nissan Leaf.
Now imagine about a million battery cases like that being dumped into California’s waste and recycling stream every year, as electric vehicles and their batteries reach the end of their lives. That’s what could happen soon after 2035, when all new cars sold in California must be zero carbon emission, based on an executive order by Governor Newsom
San Diego State Electrical Engineering Professor Chris Mi is one person, looking for an answer.
“Some of them may have enough power and energy capacity to use for an energy storage project. If you extend their life for another ten years, you can delay the whole life cycle of the battery.”
When Mi speaks about using the batteries for energy storage, he’s talking about storing solar energy. That would turn car batteries into solar energy banks for businesses and agencies that can make withdrawals whenever the sun doesn’t shine.
Kevin Wood, professor of mechanical engineering at SDSU, is also working on the demonstration project that's funded by the California Energy Commission. He says lithium-ion car batteries are typically retired when an electric car loses that crucial mileage range. But the batteries still have 60 to 80 percent of their energy life left.
“So why don’t we try to utilize those batteries, right, and use those things that are already in place, and there no more energy input required and use those for grid scale energy storage.”
California is leading the way in the use of electric vehicles. The governor's office reports California has ten percent of the nation’s cars but 40 percent of all zero emission cars
Caroline Godkin is Deputy secretary for environmental policy at the CalEPA and, for two years, she’s been leading the Lithium-Ion Car Battery Advisory group.
Godkin says used-up EV car batteries are hazardous waste and their elements ultimately need to be recycled even if they have a second life as an energy storage vessel. But there’s another good reason to recycle them.
“As you think about our circular economy, and the critical materials that are in these batteries, they are also a source of these critical materials to be put back into the manufacturing process.”
Those valuable materials include lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese, all of which have to be mined.
Scientists Chris Mi and Kevin Wood say one key issue is finding a way to make battery reuse economically feasible. Wood said China imports newly mined lithium ion phosphate batteries. They’re not as good as car batteries but they're quite inexpensive and good enough to use for solar energy storage.
Wood says it may not make sense to buy a repurposed car battery when a new one from China will cost not much more.
“we have to figure out how to minimize cost. Sustainability and cost are two really, really important things, and they’re not always correlated, right? Sustainability sometimes costs more money.”
CalEPA’s Car Battery Advisory Group expects to finalize its report on reuse and recycling of batteries this month. Then it’ll be passed on to the California Legislature, with the expectation that new laws will follow.
Some big questions remain, like ‘Who will be responsible for reusing or recycling these batteries?’ Wood says that is one of several challenging debates people will have to have before 2035, when all new cars in California will have to be zero carbon emission. SOQ.
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The 20-22 major league baseball season will not start on time.
KPBS reporter john carroll says padres fans and business owners who rely on games at petco are upset with owners and players.
FOLLOWING THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF A DELAY TO THE START OF THE 2022 SEASON FROM MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL, PADRES CHAIRMAN AND OWNER PETER SEIDLER TOOK TO THE TEAM’S FACEBOOK PAGE, SAYING THE TEAM NEEDS THE CONTINUED SUPPORT OF FANS. BUT MOST OF THE COMMENTS BELOW THAT ANNOUNCEMENT SHOW FANS AREN’T HAVING IT… ONE SAYING, “I’M MAD AT THESE GUYS, BOTH SIDES! AT THIS TIME, I DON’T CARE IF THERE’S A SEASON OR NOT…”
BUSINESS OWNERS IN THE EAST VILLAGE WHO RELY ON FANS SUPPORT ARE ALSO UPSET. SOCIAL TAP OWNER BRANT CRENSHAW SAYS WITH THE DAMAGE ALREADY DONE BY THE PANDEMIC, THIS IS ANOTHER GUT PUNCH.
WE’VE GOT MILLIONAIRES FIGHTING BILLIONAIRES OVER MONEY…”
“IT’S PRETTY CRUSHING. WE’RE ALL PRETTY DEFLATED AROUND HERE RIGHT NOW.”
SO FAR, THE TWO OPENING SERIES’ OR 91 GAMES ARE CANCELLED. JC, KPBS NEWS.
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New regulations for street vendors are expected to take effect at the end of this month.
KPBS Speak City Heights reporter Jacob Aere talked to some vendors in Balboa Park about what it could mean for them.
The new ordinance will cut back street vending in Balboa Park and other tourist spots during the summer months, and creates year-round limits for vendors in other high-traffic areas of the city.
Supporters say it will ease overcrowding and help with enforcement of licensing and permits.
But vendors like Angela Herrera are afraid of losing their primary source of income.
Angela Herrera | Street Vendor
“If the park can give us a permanent place … of course we dont mind to pay a little fee. That's good for us too. If they could put us into a lottery system like the performance, we would love to have this system running. Because for us it would be fair.”
The ordinance was adopted on a 8-1 vote with Councilwoman Vivian Moreno voting no. It would go into effect at the end of the month if signed by Mayor Todd Gloria, as expected. Jacob Aere, KPBS News.
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The Carlsbad flower fields are open.
KPBS north county reporter Tania Thorne has more.
The Carlsbad flower fields have opened and Fred Clarke, the general manager, says he’s excited to offer a colorful escape to visitors.
You come here and you cant help but have a smile on your face, feel like your cares and worries are lifted off at least for a little bit and then you get back to regular life.
The flower fields are open until Mothers Day from 9am to 6pm and a time slot must be reserved in advance for entry.
No tickets will be sold at the door.
Bret Schanzenbach with the Carlsbad Chamber of commerce says retailers look forward to the window of business the flower fields bring in.
“ its feeding our restaurants, its feeding our local hotels its feeding the retailers in the area it really does drive quite a bit of activity here.”
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Coming up....we go behind the scenes of La Jolla playhouse’s new musical that draws from Bhangra [bang-gruh], an energetic and expressive folk dance.
“It has such an effervescence to it.”
That’s next, just after the break.
Next week, La Jolla Playhouse hosts the world-premiere of "Bhangin’ It: A Bangin’ New Musical." The play draws on competitive Bhangra, a dance style that mixes Indian and Western influences. KPBS arts reporter Beth Accomando spoke with the creative team.
The metaphor of America being a melting pot suggests that the diverse cultures pouring into the U.S. must lose their individual identities in order to be blended into one homogeneous mixture. Perhaps pop culture provides a better analogy with its idea of a mash up.
REHANA LEW MIRZA I'm like a big fan of the mash up.
That’s playwright Rehana Lew Mirza. Her new musical "Bhangin’ It" mashes up diverse elements in a way that allows audiences to experience something fresh. Her husband Michael Lew co-wrote the play with her.
MICHAEL LEW It's a blend of sort of classic Western musical theater and Indian and sort of bhangra sound to it and the sound of it feels like it's our hive brain… all of our influences kind of poured together. And yet I think it sounds very coherent.
Director Stafford Arima agrees.
STAFFORD ARIMA We all work together to tell one story and that is what makes the collaboration of a musical so enthralling is even though we're coming at it from different points of view, we're all there to tell the story in the most succinct, in the most entertaining and the most inspiring way.
CLIP Bhangra music
Lending inspiration to this show is bhangra, a buoyant and energetic folk dance and type of music that originated in the Punjab region of Northern India and Pakistan. In the play, Mary is a young woman who, not unlike playwright Lew Mizra, is mixed race.
REHANA LEW MIRZA So she's white and Indian. And so in order to connect to her Indian culture, she's joined her College Bhangra team.
CLIP bring music back up
Director, Arima, who is mixed race and multinational, immediately connected with Mary’s story.
STAFFORD ARIMA We all know what it feels like to not quite fit in and it doesn't matter if you're from the United States or from Canada or maybe you're from another country. It's a universal idea of how to find one's place.
Mary uses dance as an expression of herself, her past, and her family. Bringing those elements together is another kind of mash up in the play says co-writer Lew.
MICHAEL LEW Because we're constantly thinking about as Asian American artists, should our plays reflect our background? What is the politics to what we are doing? And that actually felt like it lent itself to these intercollegiate teams that are doing bhangra, like if we choose if we choose to blend in other forms, like hip hop. What does that mean politically? And should we be doing the sort of traditional folk that came out of the Punjab region of India, or should we be doing our own thing because we're in the US, and all of those kinds of questions in a college team's sort of echo chamber felt like it was ripe for marrying like a political cultural inquiry to something that was just really joyous.
The joy of bhangra won Arima over.
STAFFORD ARIMA The music in "Bhangin' It" has such an effervescence to it.
Lew says bhangra music is simply irresistible.
MICHAEL LEW when you hear that sound you want to get dancing and your shoulders start popping and you start nodding your head. But one of the things that's really amazing about bhangra tradition is that there's like this component of teaching newcomers basic moves.
So there's a sense of inclusion that makes it feel accessible, like you are being invited to participate. And that’s what the play hopes to do as well, to send a message of inclusivity on multiple levels. That excites choreographer Rujuta Vaidya.
RUJUTA 'ROUGE' VAIDYA I am working on a piece that is monumental for the South Asian community. We are really setting a standard for South Asian actors and the youth to know that there is a place for South Asians in the musical theater space. I think anyone that comes to this show will just be able to understand how it is so easy to embrace this dance and this music because, as I said before, the root of it is to build communities. So anyone that walks into that theater is going to be part of our "Bhangin' It" community.
An invitation to join that community awaits you at La Jolla Playhouse.
Beth Accomando, KPBS News.
TAG: "Bhangin’ It: A Bangin’ New Musical" runs March 8th through April 17th at La Jolla Playhouse’s Mandell Weiss Theatre.
That’s it for the podcast today. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. I’m Annica Colbert. Thanks for listening and have a great day.
