Local lawmaker reacts to US attack on Venezuela
Good Morning, I’m Lawrence K. Jackson … it’s TUESDAY, JANUARY SIXTH>>>> [A LOCAL LAWMAKER WEIGHS IN ON THE U-S ATTACK ON VENEZUELA]That next. But first... the headlines…#######
THE OB/ RAG REPORTS THAT THIS PAST SATURDAY, HUNDREDS OF SAN DIEGANS GATHERED IN FRONT OF THE COUNTY ADMINISTRATION BUILDING DOWNTOWN
THE GATHERING WAS TO PROTEST RECENT U-S MILITARY INTERVENTION IN VENEZUELA WHICH RESULTED IN THE CAPTURE OF VENEZUELA'S PRESIDENT AND FIRST LADY
ORGANIZERS SAY THE SAN DIEGO PROTEST WAS ONE OF MORE THAN A HUNDRED OTHER ANTI-WAR PROTESTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY
ABC TEN SAYS SIGNS LIKE "END ENDLESS WARS" WERE SEEN IN THE CROWD
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JANUARY IS NATIONAL BLOOD DONOR MONTH WHICH HAS BEEN GOING ON SINCE 19-70
THE AMERICAN RED CROSS YESTERD AY SAID IT IS TEETERING ON A BLOOD SHORTAGE THIS WINTER
YOU CAN DONATE OUT OF THE GOODNESS OF YOUR HEART OR TO POTENTIALLY GET A 'LIMITED EDITION T-SHIRT!
IF YOU DONATE AT A SAN DIEGO BLOOD BANK DONOR CENTER OR A MOBILE BLOOD-DRIVE, THROUGH JANUARY 25TH, YOU WILL RECEIVE A SHIRT … WHILE SUPPLIES LAST OF COURSE
OFFICIALS SAY ONE IN SEVEN PATIENTS ENTERING A HOSPITAL ARE IN NEED OF A BLOOD TRANSFUSION EQUATING TO SOMEONE NEEDING BLOOD EVERY TWO SECONDS IN THE U-S
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AS 1ST REPORTED BY THE UNION TRIBUNE, TWO DINING SPOTS IN SAN DIEGO HAVE LANDED ON 'ROBB REPORT'S 21 MOST BEAUTIFUL RESTAURANTS IN AMERICA FOR 20-25
'LILO' (LY-LOW) IN CARLSBAD AND 'LUCIEN' IN LA JOLLA BOTH MADE THE TOP TEN
ACCORDING TO THE U-T, 'LILO' WAS TRANSFORMED FROM A BOOGIE-BOARD FACTORY INTO A 22-SEAT TASTING-MENU RESTAURANT
A DIGITAL EDITOR FOR ROBB REPORT HIGHLIGHTS ITS SEAMLESS INDOOR-OUTDOOR EXPERIENCE
'LUCIEN' ON THE OTHER HAND FEATURES A 12-COURSE TASTING MENU WITH A QUOTE SHOWSTOPPING OUTDOOR GARDEN BAR
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K-P-B-S IS FOLLOWING LOCAL LAWMAKER REACTION TO THE U.S. ATTACK ON VENEZUELA AND THE ARREST OF PRESIDENT NICOLAS MADURO.
DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSMAN SCOTT PETERS SAT DOWN WITH K-P-B-S MIDDAY EDITION HOST JADE HINDMON. HE EXPLAINED HIS OPPOSITION TO THE RECENT MILITARY INTERVENTION. HERE’S THAT CONVERSATION.
VENEZUELA 1 (midday) (4:02)
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“So listen, on Saturday, you released a statement saying you were deeply alarmed by the US actions in Venezuela. Tell us more about your reaction. Well, first of all, no one's going to shed any tears for Nicolas Maduro, who's a uh repressive dictator.
He's illegitimate leader and um, you know, we're not sorry to see something like like uh bringing him to justice come about, but the problem is that there are always costs to these things that that come afterwards. So while this may be very popular at the moment, uh in Venezuela and among Venezuelans in America, um we've seen this movie before.
We've seen, you know, taken on small countries whether it's Vietnam or um or um, you know, Afghanistan or Iraq and we you know we we deposed Saddam Hussein, that was very popular at the time. But what it led to was two decades of war. It led to trillions of dollars of American taxpayer money out the door and we lost thousands of lives and that's the thing that concerns me here.
Leading up to this, you know, uh the Trump administration um had been bombing boats out there in the Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela as well.
In hindsight, what are your thoughts on that military action and then leading up to what's happened this past weekend?
without any evidence without any process uh we're just killing people on the open seas. That doesn't sound American to me. We want to we want to be a beacon to other countries of democracy, of the rule of law, of doing the right thing and this is a real setback for us, Jade.
I'm really really concerned about the damage this is doing to us reputationally, about what when we need friends in the future, whether we're we're going to be able to call on them uh because we're losing friends and we're making enemies. It's not a strategy for peace.
Given that we are in this situation, do you have any information on the role the US military might be asked to play going forward? I do know that um, you know, unlike in Ukraine, the president says he's got no problem with boots on the ground. Again, we've seen this before. We saw this in Vietnam. You know, we thought that was going to be a a weak opponent. Afghanistan, Iraq, we end up dedicating a lot of resources and a lot of lives.
And in San Diego, we know We know what that means. We We're a military town. We know the cost uh of these conflicts to um to our people and to uh their families and uh we don't take these kinds of things lightly. Meanwhile, um you know, this government is not it's not America first. We're making Venezuela great again if we're if we're paying any attention to Venezuela.
This is not about America and all the things we should be focused on here in Washington D.C., preserving health care, dealing with these these tariffs, um dealing with, you know, appropriate immigration policy. Uh, that's all pushed aside now because we've decided to go attack Venezuela, um, a country that's not even in our weight class. Um, it's it's horrifying and and embarrassing and I just can't imagine the confidence that's been lost around the rest of the world in the United States of America.
How do you expect Congress to respond as it returns to work this week? Well, I think we we are owed as the American people are owed an explanation of why this action was taken, what the objectives are, and what the plan is going forward, which I don't think we've seen. And that's that's that's job one is to get that information. And then, you know, going forward, we have the power of the purse.
Um, you know, we'll need some Republicans to help us to to say, no, you know, the power to declare war, if this is a war, is a power of Congress. So, we can reign this in. We can't do it as just Democrats.
But I know some Republicans might be concerned about this as well and we'll need their partnership to reassert our constitutional role under under the the found the founders intent and to make sure that we're we're together forming a foreign policy that's in the interest of the safety and security of the United States. And that's a process that, you know, really can't start soon enough this week.
TAG: THAT WAS REPRESENTATIVE SCOTT PETERS SPEAKING WITH MIDDAY EDITION HOST JADE HINDMON.
ANOTHER LOCAL CONGRESSMAN, REPUBLICAN DARRELL ISSA OFFERED A VERY DIFFERENT TAKE OVER THE WEEKEND. ISSA SAID IN A POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION HAS HIS QUOTE FULL SUPPORT.
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LAST MONTH ALMOST EVERY MEMBER OF THE U-S MILITARY RECEIVED A ONE-TIME PAYMENT OF $1,776 DOLLARS – PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP CALLED IT A WARRIOR DIVIDEND FUNDED BY TARIFFS. MILITARY REPORTER ANDREW DYER SAYS THE MONEY WAS IN FACT ALLOCATED TO TROOPS BY CONGRESS TO SUBSIDIZE THE HIGH COST OF RENT IN PLACES LIKE SAN DIEGO.
1776 (AD) :51 SOQ
THE SO-CALLED BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL PROVISIONED $2.9 BILLION TO THE PENTAGON TO QUOTE “SUPPLEMENT” THE BASIC ALLOWANCE FOR HOUSING SOME SERVICE MEMBERS RECEIVE.
JGJAN5.MP4 44;02 - 48;03
JANESSA GOLDBECK, CEO VET VOICE FOUNDATION
“NO ONE IS AGAINST BONUSES OR BETTER PAY FOR SERVICE MEMBERS.”
JANESSA GOLDBECK IS THE C-E-O OF THE VET VOICE FOUNDATION, A NONPROFIT THAT HELPS VETERANS GET INVOLVED IN POLICY MAKING.
BASIC ALLOWANCE FOR HOUSING, OR BAH, IS A MONTHLY PAYMENT TO SERVICE MEMBERS APPROVED TO LIVE IN PRIVATE HOUSING.
A LOT OF PEOPLE IN THE MILITARY DON’T RECEIVE BAH
JGJAN5.MP4 11;17;07 - 11;27;23
JANESSA GOLDBECK, CEO VET VOICE FOUNDATION
SO THIS ONE TIME CASH PAYMENT IS ACTUALLY A GREAT DEAL FOR THEM. BUT FOR THE E-5 SERGEANT LIVING OUT IN TOWN, WHO IS STRUGGLING TO PAY RENT …
11;35;23 - 11;49;02
…THEY ARE NO LONGER, ABLE TO SEE THAT ADJUSTMENT BECAUSE THESE FUNDS HAVE BEEN REALLOCATED, IN ONE FLAT WAY. SO IT REALLY DOES A DISSERVICE TO THE SERVICE MEMBERS LIVING HERE, WHO CAN'T AFFORD THE RENT IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY,
SEPARATE FROM THE $1,776, SERVICE MEMBERS ARE GETTING A 3.8 PERCENT PAY RAISE THIS YEAR AND AN AVERAGE BAH BUMP OF 4.6 PERCENT.
Andrew Dyer, KPBS NEWS
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FEDERAL IMMIGRATION AUTHORITIES HAVE MISSED A DEADLINE TO RELEASE MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE DEATH OF A CHINESE IMMIGRANT IN THEIR CUSTODY.
REPORTER KORI SUZUKI SAYS THE DELAY COMES AS MORE IMMIGRANTS ARE DYING IN FEDERAL DETENTION.
DEATHREPORT 1 (1:12) SOQ
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When a person dies in ICE custody, the agency has 90 days to publish a report about what happened. That deadline was established by Congress in 2018, during the first Trump administration.
The person in this case was Huabing Xie, an immigrant from China. ICE says Xie had a seizure at the Imperial Regional Detention Facility in Calexico and died on September 29. Last week, ICE missed their deadline to release more information about what happened. The agency has not responded to multiple requests for comment.
Jesse Franzblau [france-BLOW] is with the National Immigrant Justice Center. He says that delay is keeping crucial information from reaching members of Congress and local officials… who could choose to investigate further.
20260102_deathreport_jesse franzblau / 17:25
It is a pretty chilling that they can even meet these deadlines, particularly as they are simultaneously expanding the the detention system to to to far larger than we have ever seen before.
Marina Arteaga is with the Imperial Liberation Collaborative. She’s calling for state and county health officials to investigate Xie’s death. Arteaga says it’s becoming a pattern for ICE to violate its own rules and policies.
20251231_deathreport_marina arteaga 2 / 6:44
This is just going to repeat it off again and we're going to have this conversation again.
2025 was among the deadliest years on record for immigrants detained by the U.S. government.
Kori Suzuki, KPBS News.
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IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY, MORE THAN 850,000 PEOPLE RELY ON MEDI-CAL. HEALTH REPORTER HEIDI DE MARCO SAYS STARTING THIS YEAR, SOME MEDI-CAL PATIENTS MAY NOTICE CHANGES WHEN PICKING UP PRESCRIPTIONS OR OVER-THE-COUNTER ITEMS AT THE PHARMACY.
-TRT 0:57. soc
Several medications and over-the-counter products now require doctor approval.
At-home COVID-19 tests now need prior authorization. For children under 21, tests may still be covered with a pediatric prescription.
Adult combination multivitamins are no longer covered. Single vitamins and dry-eye drops may now need a doctor’s approval before Medi-Cal will pay for them.
For allergy medications, Medi-Cal now covers generic versions only.
Popular weight-loss medications, including GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy, are no longer covered when prescribed solely for weight loss.
State health officials say the changes help control rising drug costs. But research shows prior authorization requirements can also mean longer waits at the pharmacy, delayed care, and higher out-of-pocket costs for patients.
Heidi de Marco, KPBS News.
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THERE’S ANOTHER LEGAL CHALLENGE FOR THE HARMONY GROVE VILLAGE SOUTH DEVELOPMENT IN NORTH COUNTY.
REPORTER ALEXANDER NGUYEN SAYS A NEW LAWSUIT CLAIMS THE PROJECT DOES NOT MEET NEWER, STRICTER STATE FIRE SAFETY STANDARDS.
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HGROVESUIT 1 0:51 SOC
With the birds chirping and verdant hills … the scene is very serene and pastoral.
But that is what worries J-B Theberge with the Elfin Forest-Harmony Grove Town Council.
JB THEBERGE // ELFIN FOREST-HARMONY GROVE TOWN COUNCIL
“Come summer, it dries out. September, October, all that becomes tinder.”
He’s especially worried because the county recently approved the Harmony Grove Village South housing development here.
He says the 453-unit project is located in a very high fire hazard severity zone.
“Every decade there's been a fire, a major fire that destroyed homes.”
The town council is suing because of those fire safety concerns.
The suit claims the county used outdated information when approving the project in October.
The county declined to comment because of the active litigation.
This is the second lawsuit against the development. The Sierra Club sued in October, citing environmental concerns.
AN/KPBS
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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 Lawrence K. Jackson. Thanks for listening and subscribing; by doing so you are supporting public media and I really want to thank you for that. Have a great day!
