New homeless shelter near Vista opens

Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Tuesday, March 5th… Primary Election Day!

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A new homeless shelter near Vista is now open. More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….

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A man died while being taken into custody at the Vista Detention Facility on Sunday.

Jail safety advocates say this is the fourth in-custody death, so far this year.

The sheriff’s department says deputies applied a wrap restraint after the man began kicking and flailing against officers.

The device binds the legs and wrists together while keeping a person sitting in an upright position.

The maker of the device says it saves lives and reduces injuries.

Yusef Miller from the North County Equity and Justice Coalition says it’s not as safe as it claims.

“It is very problematic, especially when it comes to concerns of asphyxiation. and that's what this incident, it really brings back and haunts us memories of what happened to earl mcneil in national city.”

Per a countywide agreement, the case will be investigated by the San Diego Police Department as well as CLERB – the citizens' law enforcement review board.

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Today (Tuesday) is the primary election, which means it’s the last day to vote.

So don’t worry if you haven’t cast your ballot yet… there’s still time.

More than 200 vote centers and 146 official ballot drop boxes across the county are open extended hours today… from 7 a-m to 8 tonight.

If you’re in line at a vote center or an official ballot drop box by 8 p-m, you’ll be able to vote.

And if you're still not registered to vote, there’s also time for that.

You can conditionally register and vote provisionally at any vote center today.

For more information on the races and where to find the closest place to cast your ballot, visit our newsroom’s voter hub, at KPBS-dot-org-slash-voter-hub.

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There will be more sunshine today, before a chance of rain tomorrow (Wednesday).

So enjoy the clear skies, while you can.

The National Weather Service says it will start to get cloudy towards the end of the day.

Today’s temperatures in the inland areas will be in the mid 60s, by the coast, temps will be in the high 50s, in the deserts, it’ll be in the mid 70s, and in the mountains, temps will be in the high 40s.

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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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A new shelter has just opened to help the homeless in north county.

Reporter Jacob Aere says it's just outside the city of Vista.

The new Buena Creek Navigation Center is now open … and taking in homeless residents from both Vista and Encinitas. Retread is the organization that will operate the 48-bed shelter, which is located just outside of Vista, on county land. Vista Mayor John Franklin says the center is a bit of an experiment. “It does look and feel like a home … One of the things I’m excited is to be able to show the people were reaching out to that are living on the street what a wonderful place were offering here. That it's different than other places they may have been in the past.” It’s a low barrier, non-congregate shelter – that means there are private rooms and residents don't have to be sober outside of the facility. Three-quarters of the beds will be for Vista residents, and the rest  are for those from Encinitas. The facility is for adults who are referred by homeless outreach teams for each city. Jacob Aere, KPBS News.

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A new rapid bus line in the South Bay has survived a campaign to get rid of it.

South Bay reporter Kori Suzuki says the route just went into service a few months ago in Imperial Beach.

The Rapid 227 route was meant to make it easier to commute in the South Bay, between imperial beach and the Otay Mesa port of entry. But just weeks after the buses started running, a group of residents in Imperial Beach started sharing frustrations. They said the new buses were making a quiet street noisy and bright at night. And that MTS didn’t spend enough time reaching out to the neighborhood beforehand. Denise guntrum, imperial beach resident Denise Guntrum “I can hear the buses, I can see the buses. There are many many – much too many.” The debate came to a head at a big city council meeting last month. Here’s resident Denise Guntrum. Denise Guntrum contin. “We have two routes already that I think service Imperial Beach. Our small, four-square-mile city. And I think that is perfectly fine.” The campaign to get rid of the Rapid 227 route was met by dozens of people who spoke passionately about the need for stronger public transit. Resident Denise Ramos said many residents have to cross the border for work but don’t have access to a car. Denise ramos, imperial beach residentu “Porque no mucho gente no tiene carro, no tiene los medios para poderse transportare. Y estos bastante economico y muy rapido.” The City Council recommended that MTS look at moving part of the 227 route to a less residential street. But they said the bus line would stay – they would not recommend getting rid of it completely. Kori Suzuki, KPBS News.

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Hundreds of potential layoffs in the San Diego Unified School District could be approved at tonight’s board of trustees meeting.

Education reporter M.G. Perez tells us where the cuts could be made.

Resource teachers across the San Diego Unified School District could be the first to be laid off next school year to help cover a budget deficit…that 93-point 7 million dollar shortfall was caused by the end of supplemental federal COVID money and much less funding expected from the state. Those teachers are assigned from the district administration office..to school sites and provide services like literacy and language instruction…and professional development. Gisa Dang is the PTA secretary at Barnard Mandarin elementary magnet school. She says layoffs would greatly weaken the school’s language program. P-T-A secretary Gisa Dang “the only elementary school that offers Mandarin language instruction especially in an immersion program…which really helps children get a great grasp of the language.” School board trustees say they plan to use  attrition and put  a freeze on hiring for any vacant jobs. MGP KPBS News.

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A generation ago, congress passed the so-called motor voter law to reduce barriers to voting.

Fast forward to today, and voter registration has steadily increased... but turnout remains uneven.

Gloria Penner fellow, Elaine Alfaro, examines the impact of the law.

I just had to fill out the application and it asked if I wanted to register to vote or if I didn’t want to register to vote and I said “why not?” Raymond has lived in San Diego for two and a half years now. He went to the Hillcrest DMV office in late February for reasons not related to voting … but left as a registered voter in California … thanks to state and federal motor voter laws. If it skips a step for the average person that wouldn’t normally sign themselves up to you know vote, then I think it’s a good thing These laws have been on the books for a generation. The idea is  to make registration more accessible, with the hope that people would then actually go out and vote.  Thad Kousser is professor of political science at UC San Diego. Thad kousser The big picture here is that one of the reasons the United States lags behind other nations typically in voter turnout is that we have this extra step of registration. Three decades after the first Motor Voter Act, get-out-the-vote advocates are grateful for the law and others that have made registering to vote easier. But the hoped-for impact on voter turnout hasn’t always materialized. The efforts in the 1990s went beyond the DMV and included the MTV generation. In 1992, Joel Shulkin was a sophomore at the University of New Hampshire. He was running a new voter registration program. Shulkin Part of it was, and traditionally, students up to that point, really, and young people in general, the under 24 population really didn't turn out to vote and yet so many legislative decisions are made every day that affect that population. Shulkin was also an REM fan. Still image rem art: Courtesy of Warner Bros but sourced on Slate On the back of the band’s Out of Time album was a petition for the Motor Voter bill … and a program called Rock the Vote. The idea behind Rock the Vote was for celebrity volunteers to inspire young people. Shulkin wrote a letter to Rock the Vote. After they responded, everything changed. Joel Shulkin I actually remember going door to door with Sarah Jessica Parker, and she was so nice. She was like. “oh my gosh you were the one who wrote the letter.” She would stop and just talk to students and insist on talking to them for like 10-15 minutes, until they finally agreed to go ahead and sign up to vote. Shulkin says they were able to register 10,000 new voters at the University of New Hampshire alone. He says young voters were mobilized to turnout for the election too.  Joel Shulkin White House C-SPAN While many charged that the large number of unregistered students was due to apathy, my experience told me something different. Much of the problem is due to needless obstacles to registration. Even with efforts like Rock the Vote, voter registration and turnout continued to have its peaks and valleys. Registration obstacles and dismal turnout persisted, especially in California. A low point came in 2014. Mindy Romero is with the Center for Inclusive Democracy, which studies the impacts of Motor Voter laws. Mindy Romero Back in 2014 we saw a record low turnout period in California. The primaries, what the general election was. The lowest general election turnout that we’ve ever seen. Voting rights advocates sued the California DMV …  the suit prompted the state Legisla(ch)ure to pass the New Motor Voter Act in 2015.  This further streamlined the registration process at DMVs. Then, in 2021, a task force was established to ensure DMV offices were complying with the law. Registration is again on the rise in the wake of the updated laws. But it’s still not translating into higher turnout across the board. Dora Rose is the deputy director of the California League of Women Voters. She says automatic voter registration, or AVR, needs to be backed up by additional measures. Dora Rose I guess I would say that it's really important to note that AVR doesn't immediately translate into high turnout, right? For example, people who register through California's online system, where they have to actually proactively seek out registration, they turn out at much higher rates than the folks who are registering at the DMV and that means that it's very important to take the next step, which is to do the education and outreach work that's necessary to translate new registrations into actual votes. For Raymond at the Hillcrest DMV, participating in the upcoming local election isn’t a high priority. But, he says, at least he has the option for the November presidential election. It—kind of 50/50. I’m not really participating in anything local because I’m not up to date. But as far as presidential, I’d probably vote on that. Time’s are crazy so I want to make sure the right person wins. Elaine Alfaro, 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. Join us again tomorrow for election results, plus the day’s top stories. I’m Debbie Cruz. Thanks for listening and have a great Tuesday and happy Election Day!