Overdraft fees are subject of new federal report
Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Friday, June 14th.
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A new report is shining a light on how much money credit unions collect in overdraft fees. More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….
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There will soon be more California National Guard service members deployed
statewide and at ports of entry, including here in the county to combat the flow of fentanyl and other drugs into the U-S.
Governor Newsom said yesterday that the number of Cal-Guard service members will be increased from 155 to nearly 400.
Last fall, Newsom announced the number of servicemembers would be
increased by 50-percent at four ports of entry along the U-S-Mexico border, including San Ysidro and Otay Mesa.
That resulted in going from 40 to 60 soldiers at ports of entry.
The governor's office said that increase helped support a record seizure of over 62-thousand pounds of fentanyl.
So far this year, nearly six million pills containing fentanyl have been seized.
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Ever since people were flooded out of their homes in January, volunteers have been working to clean up and repair damaged homes.
But funding that’s kept people in hotels since the flood, runs out a week from today (June 21st).
So, San Diego City Council President Sean Elo-rivera and fellow council members Vivian Moreno and Henry Foster are issuing a call to action… a plea for volunteers to turn out this weekend to speed the cleanup and repair effort along.
Elo-rivera says people with certain skills are needed the most.
“What we need help with is getting people with a special focus on people who have skills with electricity, with carpentry, with plumbing.”
The work will happen from eight to two tomorrow (Saturday) and Sunday.
Volunteers can sign up at “together san diego dot org.”
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We’re heading into a hot weekend.
According to the National Weather Service, tomorrow (Saturday) is expected to be the hottest day… with inland and mountain temps in the high 80s.
And an Excessive Heat Warning is in effect in the county’s desert areas through 8 P-M tomorrow (Saturday), where temps could reach 115 degrees.
If you need a place to cool down, the county’s Cool Zones are open.
To find the Cool Zone site closest to you, visit the county’s website, or call 2-1-1.
The weather will be cooler by the coast, with temps in the high 60s.
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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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The federal government is shining a light on how much money credit unions collect in overdraft fees.
Investigative reporter Scott Rodd says the industry has fought the release of this information.
A recent report from the National Credit Union Administration found the nation’s largest credit unions collected upwards of $900 million in overdraft fees between January and March of this year. The report revealed that overdraft fees have become an important revenue stream for some credit unions across the country…including ones in the San Diego region. It’s the first time the federal government has published this kind of data. And the industry isn’t happy. Here’s Kelly Lay with the National Credit Union Administration speaking during a press briefing last week. “We did have some interactions with credit unions and some credit union trade organizations that expressed concern around the agency collecting the data and how it may be interpreted.” The agency will continue to collect and publish the data every three months. SOC.
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A new report documents how the California Coastal Commission blocks and delays housing.
Metro reporter Andrew Bowen says it comes in the midst of efforts to reform the agency.
AB: The Coastal Commission has broad authority over 1.5 million acres along the state's coastline. The report from think tank Circulate San Diego cites examples of the commission delaying approval of mixed-income apartment buildings by as much as four years. The report's author, Will Moore, says that makes housing more expensive and forces people into longer commutes. WM: We trust the Coastal Commission… to be the guardians of the coast. They have this lovely green halo of environmental protection around them. But that's not how they're behaving. AB: Circulate San Diego is sponsoring a bill that would force the Coastal Commission to streamline approvals of apartment buildings that include affordable housing. Andrew Bowen, KPBS news.
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Pentagon officials leading the V-22 Osprey program testified in front of a congressional subcommittee earlier this week, to answer concerns about the aircraft’s safety.
Military reporter Andrew Dyer has more.
Over a two-year span from 2021 to 2023, twenty service members were killed in four separate v-22 osprey crashes. the military’s hundreds of ospreys were grounded after a november crash killed eight airmen but have been allowed to resume limited operations. the commander of naval air systems command vice admiral carl chebi testified wednesday that won’t change for at least a year. democratic representative stephen lynch of massachusetts told chebi the aircraft should be grounded completely until deemed safe. rep. stephen lynch, (d) - mass. “we’ve already lost too many good men and women that have they’ve joined for all the right reasons to serve their country and then we have failed them by not providing them with safe aircraft. i don’t believe this aircraft is safe.” families of service members killed in ospreys attended the hearing. last month the families of four of the camp pendleton marines killed in a crash in imperial county two years ago filed a lawsuit against the aircraft’s manufacturers.andrew dyer, kpbs news.
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Twenty years ago the Imperial Valley began transferring excess water from the valley’s farm fields to the water taps of San Diego.
The water conservation that made it possible landed hard on the Salton Sea.
Sci-tech reporter Thomas Fudge examines a new study, that shows the transfer deal is drying up the lake… and making dust pollution a bigger problem.
The Salton Sea is a terminal saltwater lake. It’s a flooded basin with no natural outlet. And the Saltan Sea is shrinking. One of the reasons for that is the Imperial Water transfer deal that brought hundreds of thousands of acre feet of water to San Diego. San Diego State economics professor Ryan Abman says the biggest effects of that conservation plan were seen about seven years into the agreement.“So really after 2011 we see a noticeable increase in the rate of decline of the water level and that leads to an increase in the increased rate of playa exposure. So more of this dust-emitting surface is being exposed every single year.” The playa he talks of is the bare lakebed left behind after the water recedes. The result of reduced farm water runoff, linked to the water transfer deal. Abman was co-author of a study that examined the resulting dust pollution and who it affected. He says areas with high poverty rates saw the greatest impact. “What we found is that after 2011 the change in pollution has been much more dramatic for these historically disadvantaged communities than for the non-disadvantaged communities.” Those findings are borne out by data collected by the California EPA. Their maps show census tracts in the Imperial Valley that are burdened by air pollution are typically the same ones that are home to disadvantaged communities. Dust pollution can lead to asthma, for one thing. Dr. Stewart Fleischman is with Coachella Valley Volunteers in Medicine, a free clinic in Indio. He says all that dust and sand comes in windstorms, causing inflammation and asthma in local residents who breathe it in, especially those who work outside. STEWART FLEISHMAN/PRIMARY CARE DOCTOR, COACHELLA VALLEY FLEISHMAN Yeah. It can get really bad, where you’re sitting in a chair and you’re wheezing and you can’t catch your breath and you have to use these medicines to open the airways. Because of the chronic inflammation inside you’re also very subject to infections. The report's conclusion that pollution is hitting low income communities is no surprise to Tina Shields, the water manager at the Imperial Irrigation District, or the IID. SHIELDS “I think the entire region can be characterized as low income or disadvantaged communities. The area where I live, all but one of the towns is classified, according to the California criteria, as disadvantaged communities.” The IID and the State of California are trying to reduce dust pollution and ensure that some of that Colorado River water runs to the Salton Sea. Dust mitigation projects include planting rows of salt tolerant plants to catch the particulates. Also, plowing furrows to roughen the soil and make it less flat. “You have to put the right project on the right soil though. Surface roughening is not appropriate for sand because you’re just stirring the pot, essentially. But if you have land, such as in the southern region, where you have the clay soil and you do the surface roughening we’ve found it to be upward of 99 percent effective for controlling those emissions.” Some people have called the Salton Sea a mistake, caused by a Colorado River dike rupture in 1905. But back in the days when the river ran wild it would flood and fill up that lakebed quite often. Sometimes the lake would cover an area from what’s now Palm Springs in the north, all the way to Mexicali in the South. Geologist Tom Rockwell says at times it may have shrunk to the size of a puddle, but there’s almost always been a Salton Sea, fed by the Colorado river. “For instance, in the last thousand or 11 hundred years, it’s flipped course and drained into the Salton Trough six times, the last one being around 1730 CE. And when it does it fills up to around plus-13 meters elevation, and then drains back to the gulf.” Today’s Salton Sea remains a habitat for fish and migratory birds, and its the best way to contain windswept dust. I asked Tina Shields if she thinks it will eventually dry up. SHIELDS “Not if we can help it. The goal of the Imperial Irrigation District is to continue to have water resources for our community and our agricultural water users. And as long as you have agriculture, you will have runoff.” That runoff is still the most important source of water for the Salton Sea. The way things are going the IID estimates the Salton Sea will stabilize in 2047. It will be two-thirds its current size, with an estimated 130 square miles of exposed lakebed. SOQ.
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Father’s Day is on Sunday, and we’ve put together some well wishes from the KPBS newsroom to share with you in celebration of all the dad’s and caregivers out there. Let’s listen together.
“Hi. My name’s Elaine Alfaro, and I’m the Gloria Penner Fellow at KPBS. My favorite thing about my dad is the way he loves our family so well, through acts of service and quality time. He shows love through home-cooked meals, providing things for our family, and fixing things I often thought were unfixable. I love you, dad, and thank you for all that you do.”
“Hello, my name is Alina Ajaz. I am a student assistant at KPBS for radio news. And somethings I love about my father is how generous he is to his kids, and how he never fails to show up for us and make me laugh when I’m feeling upset.”
“This is Andrew Bowen, KPBS metro reporter. And this Father’s Day, I’m incredibly grateful for my dad Chris. When I came out as gay at the end of high school, he loved and accepted me unconditionally. He would always get really excited when I would open up to him about a guy I was dating or just what it’s like being gay, because he knew that meant he had earned my trust. He never taught me that being a man is about being tough or hiding your emotions, he said it’s about having integrity and knowing right from wrong and always doing the right thing. I hope that, if I become a father someday, I can live up to the example he set for me.”
“This is Natalie Dudas-Thomas, and I am the social media strategist here at KPBS. This Father’s Day, I’m thinking about my dad and all the important things he’s taught me, including everything from how to change a car tire on the side of a freeway, to how to operate a chop saw and the real ever important life skill of how to properly prank somebody. In short, he’s a pretty remarkable person who would go out of his way to help anybody in any way he could and I feel really grateful that he’s my dad.”
“Hi, everyone. This is Emilyn Mohebbi. The producer of this podcast. You may remember hearing me or my name before. But today, I’d like to share a message to my dad. My dad, to me, defines what a father is. He puts his children first, he teaches us life lessons, continuously supports us, and always reminds us to be kind to everyone. My dad will do anything for our family and is one of the hardest-working people I know. I also admire that he sees the beauty in everything. My brother and I recently made him an Instagram so he can look at videos of all the things he loves… like animals, nature, food and cars. And now he won’t stop sending us videos [laughs]... it’s cute. Thank you dad, for being the rock of our family. For always making us feel safe and feeling that no matter what, everything will be okay. I’m so grateful for you. I love you so much. Happy Father’s Day.”
“My name is Brooke Ruth. I’m the senior producer of audio news here at KPBS, and I edit this podcast. I enjoy staying behind the scenes, but my dad, Don Ruth does not, so I wanted to take this opportunity to put him in the limelight and wish him a Happy Father’s Day. I admire my dad in many ways. His work ethic is amazing to me and I can’t keep up with him and I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to. Also I admire that he’s always trying to learn and grow and improve and is never stagnant. He’s also my rock and I appreciate him and want to wish him a Happy Father’s Day.”
TAG: Hearing all those messages from my colleagues was so sweet. I’d like to wish a Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers and caregivers out there. I hope you have a wonderful Sunday celebrating all that you’ve done.
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That’s it for the podcast today. This podcast is produced by Emilyn Mohebbi and edited by Brooke Ruth. We’d also like to thank editor Joe Guerin and web producer Lara McCaffrey for helping the podcast team this week. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. Join us again on Monday to start the new week together with the day’s top stories. I’m Debbie Cruz. Thanks for listening and have a great weekend.
