Rady Children’s Hospital to end medical gender-affirming care
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Good Morning, I’m Lawrence K. Jackson … it’s MONDAY, JANUARY 26TH>>>> [ADVOCATES WORRY A RECENT DECISION PUTS TRANSGENDER YOUTH AT-RISK..]More on that next. But first... the headlines…#######
A NUMBER OF DEMONSTRATIONS AGAINST ICE WERE HELD AROUND THE COUNTY AND ACROSS THE COUNTRY ON FRIDAY.
ONE OF THE LOCAL PROTESTS WAS HELD IN MIRA MESA NEXT TO A HOMEWOOD SUITES HOTEL. IT'S PART OF THE HILTON NETWORK.
THE PROTESTERS HERE AND ELSEWHERE ARE CALLING ON HILTON TO STOP HOSTING ICE AGENTS AT THEIR PROPERTIES ACROSS THE NATION.
PROTEST LEADER MARGARET DOLLEY-SAMMULI (dolly-SAM-you-lee) SAYS IF THEY DON’T, THEY’RE GOING TO FACE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES.
ICEPROTEST 2A :11
“Hilton is going to lose business and a lot of reputation if they continue to house ICE and not just collaborate, but make money off of this totally un-American abuse.”
THE PROTESTS WERE IN SOLIDARITY WITH ONE IN MINNESOTA, WHERE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE TURNED OUT IN BITTER COLD TEMPERATURES TO CALL ON THEIR FELLOW AMERICANS TO RESIST ICE IN PEACEFUL, LEGAL WAYS.
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THE CITY OF SAN DIEGO IS OFFERING FINANCIAL HELP TO COVER ITS NEW TRASH AND RECYCLING FEES
TO QUALIFY YOU NEED TO OWN A HOME AND IT NEEDS TO BE YOUR PRIMARY RESIDENCE
AFTER THAT, AT LEAST ONE PERSON IN YOUR HOUSEHOLD NEEDS TO BE ENROLLED IN A PROGRAM ALREADY PROVIDING ASSISTANCE LIKE MEDI-CAL OR CAL-FRESH...
YOU ALSO NEED TO HAVE A HOUSEHOLD INCOME AT OR BELOW SIXTY PERCENT OF CALIFORNIA'S MEDIAN INCOME
IF APPROVED, THE CITY WILL PICK UP THE TAB FOR YOUR YEARLY TRASH AND RECYCLING FEES
YOU CAN GO TO M-A-A-C PROJECT DOT ORG FOR MORE
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THERE IS AN UPCOMING COUNTY BUDGET WORKSHOP TOMORROW
TIME IS ALSO BEING SET ASIDE FOR YOU TO GIVE INPUT ON WHAT YOU FEEL SHOULD BE PRIORITIZED IN THE UPCOMING BUDGET
THE WORKSHOP STARTS AT 3 PM AND THE COMMUNITY INPUT
PORTION WILL BEGIN AT 5
BOTH ARE BEING HELD AT THE COUNTY ADMINISTRATION CENTER ON PACIFIC HIGHWAY
THIS IS FOR THE COUNTY’S 20-26 TO 27' BUDGET THAT TAKES EFFECT ON JULY 1ST
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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RADY CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL SAYS IT WILL STOP PROVIDING GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE. THEY SAY THREATS OF FEDERAL CUTS COULD IMPACT HOSPITAL FUNDING.
HEALTH REPORTER HEIDI DE MARCO SAYS ADVOCATES ARE WORRIED THE DECISION PUTS TRANSGENDER YOUTH AT RISK.
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RADYCARE 1 trt: 1:08 SOQ
Rady Children’s Hospital says it will no longer provide medical interventions for transgender youth, including prescriptions and procedures starting February 6. Counseling, mental health support, and care coordination will continue. In a statement, the hospital says the decision is in response to federal actions that could impact its Medicaid and Medicare funding.
DAVID VANCE
There are a lot of youth and their families who were already in the process of receiving this care from Radys.
David Vance manages advocacy for the San Diego LGBT Community Center.
DAVID VANCE
Who are now going to have to very likely stop accessing that care.
Kaiser pediatrician Chandani DeZure says abrupt interruptions can increase health risks.
CHANDANI DEZURE
It disrupts ongoing medical relationships, it increases the mental health risk. It deepens the inequities in health care systems, and it fractures the continuity of care.
She says Kaiser is already seeing patients from Rady. But switching providers isn’t an option for many families.
Heidi de Marco, KPBS News.
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MOST OF SAN DIEGO’S MILITARY COMMUNITY IS COMPOSED OF SAILORS AND MARINES. MILITARY REPORTER ANDREW DYER TAKES US TO CAMP PENDLETON WHERE A SMALL ARMY UNIT IS DOING BIG THINGS … FOR ANIMALS.
PENVET 1 (ad) (:51)
(:05)
Lt. Col. Craig Calkins: most people don't realize there are a lot of veterinarians in the Army.
Army veterinarian Lt. Col. Craig Calkins is the commander of the clinic.
*nat of ribbon cut*
This small unit of soldiers is opening a brand new state of the art clinic.Staff Sergeant Temujin Benton says their main mission is to care for military dogs but most of their patients are service members’ pets.And It’s quite a benefit.
(:12)
Staff Sgt. Temujin Benton: “our price is significantly cheaper than out in town, where if you came in to us and you got all the vaccines, it'd be like $150, 160. Out in town you're looking at paying 4 or $500 for the same exact vaccines”
The new clinic has the latest technology and all the capabilities of a veterinary hospital, including surgery.
Andrew Dyer, KPBS News
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OCEANSIDE IS GETTING TOUGH ON RECKLESS E-BIKE RIDERS AFTER A SURGE OF COMPLAINTS FROM RESIDENTS.
NORTH COUNTY REPORTER ALEXANDER NGUYEN SAYS THE CITY’S CONSIDERING A NEW RULE THAT WOULD LET POLICE SEIZE E-BIKES FROM OFFENDERS.
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OSIDEEBIKES 1(an) TRT: 0:55 SOQ
Popping wheelies … and darting in and out of traffic …
These are some of the dangerous behaviors that Oceanside Police Captain Scott Garrett says contributed to the deluge of complaints from residents.
“We haven't seen much of a decrease in our calls for service and community complaints.”
He says since 20-21, there has been a ten-fold increase in complaints … from less than 100 (69) in 20-21 to nearly one-thousand (918) last year (2025).
Garrett says handling these complaints is a burden on police resources and time … and the current regulations don’t seem to be working.
So the police department went back to the drawing board …
SOT 4038 18;55;15;16 → 18;55;24;15
CG: Capt. Scott Garrett // Oceanside Police Department
“We decided that using utilizing temporary seizure of e-bikes would provide a sufficient and immediate deterrent for a lot of the youth.”
Riders will be able to get their e-bikes back once they’ve completed an e-bike safety course.
The city council is expected to give final approval to the rule Wednesday… then enforcement would begin 30 days later.
In Oceanside, AN/KPBS News
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AS WE MOVE FURTHER INTO THE 21ST CENTURY, REMNANTS OF THE OLD FRONTIER OF THE AMERICAN WEST ARE GETTING HARDER AND HARDER TO FIND. BUT THERE’S A PLACE IN EAST COUNTY WHERE YOU CAN IMMERSE YOURSELF IN THAT TIME AND PLACE.
REPORTER JOHN CARROLL TAKES US THERE IN JANUARY’S MUSEUM A MONTH.
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WIEGHORSTMUSEUM 4:34 SOQ
((EXTERIOR NATS))
You could almost miss it in the shadow of El Cajon’s Civic Center… a museum that’s a time capsule into the old American West.
“It gives younger generations who weren't exposed to that part of history a little influence to preserve the Western heritage of this country.”
John Stauffer is talking about the Olaf Wieghorst Museum and Western Heritage Center… he’s the Chairman of the Museum’s Board.
“The interesting thing about the United States of America, we have a rather recent frontier, which has gone by the wayside over the last 100 years because the frontier phased itself out.”
But the frontier - through the eyes of Olaf Wieghorst is very much alive here. It comes to life through Wieghorst’s paintings.
“Olaf Wieghorst loved horses.”
Jim Daniels founded the Olaf Wieghorst Museum in 1999 in an old Goodwill store. Now its walls are covered with Wieghorst’s art.
“The big one in the center there is an original oil.”
Wieghorst was born just about as far away from the western U-S as you can get. A boy from Denmark that made his way on an ocean liner to the United States…
“When the ship docked, he jumped ship and got off in New York. A teenager, a couple of dollars in his pocket. Didn’t speak English, didn’t know anybody.”
Wieghorst ended up in the U-S Cavalry… in those days, if you stayed in three years, you automatically became a U-S citizen. After that, he worked as a cowboy in Texas, and eventually made his way west - ending up in El Cajon in 1945.
There, he honed his skills as an artist, specializing in the American West, his love of horses shining through most of his works.
((SNEAK IN MUSIC))
His paintings appeared in a couple of John Wayne movies, and so did he - with a couple of bit parts in films like the 1967 Paramount Pictures movie - El Dorado. Once again - John Stauffer.
“Since Olaf Wieghorst spent half his life in El Cajon, this is a perfect place for the museum to be. And being that the museum is located in the center of town, it is an ideal, I would say, jewel of what there is to see in El Cajon.”
Something that really makes this museum stand out is the house Wieghorst and his wife lived in… it was moved years ago to the museum grounds…
“We didn’t have to change much inside the house. We had to do some code issues for safety. But the house is the way it was. It’s the way they lived.”
You enter the house through the garage, through the kitchen and finally to the living room… and there on the north side, a large window that brought in indirect, diffused sunlight… perfect for painting. It became Wieghorst’s studio. On the wall under the window, something unintentional - and very special.
“You can see little flecks of paint on the wall where he would flick his brush.”
Wieghorst didn’t just appear in a couple of John Wayne movies… the two were good friends. Stauffer says Wayne was a frequent visitor… and he says they liked to drink whisky together!
((NATS/GARDEN))
Between the house and the museum, a perfect place to pause and think about the western part of this country… surrounded by plants that are native to the region.
“I originally started as a volunteer with the garden.”
Mike Bostwick is now the curator of this botanical garden and he has the kind of experience you want in that role. He retired as curator of horticulture at the San Diego Zoo! He says this garden had about 650 plant species in the ground when he took over. It now has about 1,000.
“It really shows the botanical world that we live in. It’s pretty spectacular.”
From the house where you can see how Olaf Wieghorst lived, to the beautiful botanical garden with its southwest desert vibe - to the museum itself, full of the works produced by a man now considered to be among the finest western artists ever - the Olaf Wieghorst Museum is worth a trip to El Cajon to take a journey into the history of the American West. JC, KPBS News.
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(0:00) All right, SDNN listeners, we are back with another installment of the pod behind the package. (0:04) Each week, I sit down with a reporter, anchor, or a video journalist for a behind-the-scenes chat (0:09) around a standout piece of journalism that they did. This week, Corey Suzuki brings us (0:14) a hefty three-part series focusing around a massive $10 billion data center that's moving (0:20) forward in the Imperial Valley.
Corey Suzuki is here with us. What's up, man? Hey, Lawrence. (0:23) Thank you for making time.
This is a lot. This is a hefty story that we are tackling. Can you (0:29) talk to me how you even got alerted about this? I have to say, I found out about this data center (0:34) project like a lot of folks who live in Imperial County did.
This was close to the end of November (0:40) when the city of Imperial, city officials in the city of Imperial, which is one of the smaller (0:46) cities in the center of the county, put out some information about the data center. They did a (0:51) little sort of press release, an online announcement on social media and on their website, (0:56) and in it, they said that this project was moving forward, that it was very large, (1:01) and that it was close to the final stages of approval through the county's planning process (1:07) because this data center was planned for unincorporated land in Imperial County. (1:12) I think, like a lot of people, I started to have some questions about where exactly the project (1:17) was, how long this had been in development, what kind of the plans were when it came to (1:24) the potential environmental impacts of data centers, which as we are seeing kind of across (1:30) the country are becoming a bigger and bigger conversation.
So it was just a lot of questions (1:35) at that point. I think I was in the same place as a lot of people who live in Imperial County. (1:40) Those in support of data centers would argue they are needed for us to progress into a more (1:44) modern digital world.
Those in opposition list reasons like community disruption, (1:49) an eyesore, environmental impacts like needing hundreds of thousands of gallons of water per (1:55) day. When you speak with people in general around data centers, both developers, non-developers, (2:01) community members, talk to me about their pros and cons for those of who are for or against it. (2:06) Let's start with the pros.
So Sebastian Rucci and his supporters are pitching the data center (2:12) as something that would be an economic boost for the county. Imperial County, (2:16) one of the poorer regions in California. It's a majority Latino county.
It's very heavily (2:21) agricultural. It's a rural place. And the developers say that this project would bring (2:27) tax revenue for the county government, that it would create local demand for the wealth of (2:32) renewable energy that the valley produces, that it would create a burst of construction work in (2:37) a region where jobs are pretty hard to come by.
Imperial County has historically had among the (2:43) highest rates of unemployment in California. So those are all reasons why the developers and some (2:49) of the local officials who support them are sort of saying that this data center could really be (2:55) an economic boon for the region. Now, I think that what critics of the project see (3:03) is a real lack of clarity when it comes to how the project will affect the environment.
(3:09) The people that I've talked to and from the concerns that I've heard in public meetings, (3:13) there is a really big focus on these worries that the project will strain the Imperial Valley's (3:20) power grid and water supply and will not bring very many benefits for the people who live here. (3:28) And, you know, number one, although Imperial County does produce all of this renewable energy, (3:35) there are still a lot of questions nationally and across California about how data centers (3:40) really affect power grids. You know, what it means for a power user of that scale to (3:48) be added to the grid, whether that means that people who are paying for electricity will be (3:55) paying for infrastructure upgrades.
And then secondly, when it comes to water, that is a worry (4:04) too. Imperial County also has these longstanding claims to the Colorado River. That's where all of (4:12) the region's water comes from.
And two, most of the water that comes to the valley goes to (4:17) agriculture. Just, I mean, a vast majority and a much smaller amount goes to residents. And access (4:24) to clean water can sometimes, and the price of clean water can sometimes depend a lot on where (4:28) you live in the Imperial Valley and what kind of local municipal treatment you have access to.
(4:35) Now, I should say again, just really quick, the project's developers have pledged to take these (4:41) steps to especially use reclaimed water, have said they plan to recycle large amounts of municipal (4:51) waste water from two of the neighboring cities, that they plan to pay for the infrastructure (4:56) upgrades to get that water, and that they plan to pay for upgrades that will recycle much more (5:02) water than the data center actually needs and that they would release the remainder of that (5:05) water that's left over into the Salton Sea. And so that it could potentially provide some relief (5:12) to the sea, which is drying up. So there are, I think, to me, there are just still a lot of (5:22) unanswered questions, a lot of open questions about the project and about how exactly it will land.
(5:28) And in a large part, the lack of answers is in some ways due to the fact that there has not been (5:38) a formal environmental analysis. Corey Suzuki here with us on SDNN. Corey, my last question (5:42) for you, outside of clever writing and a calm pace to your work, you've also gotten attached to your (5:46) camera, Corey.
We've used one of your photos for our episode artwork. We want to thank you for that. (5:51) Here's your official art credit for that.
Can you tell our audience more about the artwork that you (5:56) took for this episode? The response to this proposal, the response to people finding out (6:01) about this project in November has been very mixed. And there has been a lot of resistance (6:07) to the data center as a whole. And there have been sort of throughout December and in early January, (6:15) a lot of people attending county meetings, since the county is the agency that's overseeing and (6:20) working with the developer on this project.
There have been a lot of people attending these meetings (6:24) and protesting. And so that's the image that you see on the podcast artwork, which is people, (6:32) just neighbors, Imperial County residents there to voice their opposition to the project, (6:37) to raise questions and to ask about the process. I think there are a lot of people who are still (6:43) trying to understand this process and how exactly a project of this scale might be able to avoid (6:48) going through an environmental review.
So that's what you see here is people attending a county (6:53) meeting holding signs in protest. Corey Suzuki with us on Pod Behind the Package. Thank you for (6:57) your time, Corey.
<<<SHOW CLOSE>>>
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!
