San Diego County’s unemployment rate inches up
GOOD MORNING, I'M ASHLEY RUSCH IN FOR LAWRENCE K. JACKSON.
IT'S MONDAY, APRIL 6TH. OUR UNEMPLOYMENT RATE IS INCHING UP. MORE ON THAT NEXT. BUT FIRST, THE HEADLINES.
CALIFORNIA IS ONE OF MORE THAN TWENTY STATES CHALLENGING PRESIDENT TRUMP’S EXECUTIVE ORDER TO FEDERALIZE VOTE BY MAIL BALLOTS.
STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL ROB BONTA ANNOUNCED THE LAWSUIT ON FRIDAY. HE ARGUES THE PRESIDENT IS OVERSTEPPING HIS CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY TO IMPACT THE 20-26 MIDTERMS.
"if everyone who is eligible to vote has that opportunity to participate to vote in the way that they wish, he will get crushed and he knows that. So, he's issuing this unconstitutional order to change the outcome. "
TRUMP’S ORDER WOULD PUT FEDERAL CHECKS ON HOW STATES ADMINISTER ELECTIONS, FOLLOWING UNFOUNDED CLAIMS OF WIDESPREAD VOTER FRAUD.
INSTEAD OF STATE OFFICIALS, FEDERAL DEPARTMENTS WOULD ESTABLISH A LIST OF ELIGIBLE VOTERS AND THE U-S POSTAL SERVICE WOULD SEND OUT BALLOTS.
THE COMMUNITY IS BEING ASKED TO WEIGH IN ON ANOTHER CAMPUS NAME CHANGE.
THIS EVENING, THE SAN DIEGO COLLEGE OF CONTINUING EDUCATION WILL HOST A PUBLIC MEETING TO DISCUSS RENAMING THEIR CESAR E. CHAVEZ CAMPUS IN BARRIO LOGAN.
THE MEETING STARTS AT 4 P.M. ON CAMPUS.
AFTER PUBLIC COMMENT, THE SAN DIEGO COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT BOARD WILL VOTE ON THE NAME CHANGE.
THE SAN DIEGO UNIFIED SCHOOL BOARD VOTED LATE LAST MONTH TO START THE PROCESS OF RENAMING CESAR CHAVEZ ELEMENTARY IN SOUTHCREST.
YOU MIGHT WANT TO CHECK THE CHEESE IN YOUR REFRIGERATOR.
RAW FARM’S RAW CHEDDAR CHEESE HAS BEEN LINKED TO AN E.COLI OUTBREAK THAT MADE 9 PEOPLE SICK... INCLUDING 2 PEOPLE IN SAN DIEGO.
LATE LAST WEEK, THE COMPANY ISSUED A VOLUNTARY RECALL ON BOTH ITS ORIGINAL AND JALAPENO FLAVORED RAW MILK CHEDDAR CHEESE.
COUNTY HEALTH OFFICIALS RECOMMEND THROWING AWAY ANY RAW FARM CHEDDAR CHEESE PRODUCTS PURCHASED AFTER JANUARY 4TH.
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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 COUNTY’S UNEMPLOYMENT RATE IS INCHING UP. NEW DATA FROM THE STATE EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT SHOWS UNEMPLOYMENT AT FOUR-POINT-SEVEN PERCENT… FOR JANUARY.
REPORTER JOHN CARROLL HAS THE STORY BEHIND THE NUMBER.
WHY NUMBERS FOR JANUARY… IN EARLY APRIL?
HADEN DOVER, WHO CRUNCHES SAN DIEGO’S ECONOMIC NUMBERS FOR THE STATE EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT… SAYS LAST YEAR’S GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, ALONG WITH PROBLEMS AT THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS CONTRIBUTED TO THE DELAY. SAN DIEGO COUNTY IS DOING BETTER THAN THE REST OF THE STATE… THE CALIFORNIA NUMBER IS FIVE-POINT-FOUR PERCENT. WE ARE EXACTLY IN LINE WITH THE REST OF THE COUNTRY AT FOUR-POINT-SEVEN PERCENT. DOVER SAYS SAN DIEGO COUNTY IS FORTUNATE TO HAVE A RESILIENT ECONOMY THAT RESTS ON SEVERAL PILLARS - PRIVATE EDUCATION AND HEALTH SERVICES, PROFESSIONAL BUSINESS SERVICES, GOVERNMENT, TRADE, TRANSPORTATION AND UTILITIES, AND HOSPITALITY.
“We can take a rough couple months and not one particular industry having perhaps, you know, a bad year will not affect our economy in the way that it will other counties and other economies.”
DOVER SAYS THE E-D-D WILL BE RELEASING UPDATED REPORTS OVER THE NEXT SIX WEEKS, SO THE NUMBERS SHOULD BE ALL CURRENT BY MID-MAY. JOHN CARROLL, KPBS NEWS.
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THE IMPERIAL COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS WILL VOTE TOMORROW ON A CONTROVERSIAL DATA CENTER COMPLEX.
REPORTER KORI SUZUKI SAYS THE DECISION IS A CRUCIAL ONE … THAT’S ALREADY FACED A COURT CHALLENGE.
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The vote on Tuesday will be on whether to combine several “lots”, or parcels of land, located next to the small city of Imperial.
That’s where a Southern California developer, Imperial Valley Computer Manufacturing, wants to build a ten billion dollar data center complex for artificial intelligence companies.
The developer says the project would bring new revenue and some jobs to the county. But they’re facing fierce opposition from a large group of county residents, who worry about the potential environmental impacts of the facility.
“We just purchased more land — stop, stop, stop. You can have Jake make your little videos later.”
Last week, residents protesting the project drowned out the company’s C-E-O, Sebastian Rucci, at a county meeting.
PROTESTORS: “We’ll take a recess from this meeting.” “No data center. No data center.”
County officials say this upcoming “lot merger” decision is the only step where they have discretion on whether the project moves forward.
The city of Imperial is against the project and tried on Thursday to convince a Superior Court judge to stop the upcoming vote from happening. The judge denied the city’s request, but the supervisors’ decision could still face an additional court challenge.
In El Centro, Kori Suzuki, KPBS News.
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THE PLAN TO BUILD THOUSANDS OF HOMES AND A NEW ARENA – KNOWN AS MIDWAY RISING – IS THE BIGGEST DEVELOPMENT PROPOSED IN SAN DIEGO RIGHT NOW.
FOR OUR WEEKLY WHY IT MATTERS SEGMENT, VOICE OF SAN DIEGO’S WILL HUNTSBERRY EXPLAINS HOW STATE LAW COULD CHANGE TO HELP THE PROJECT.
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Builders have been trying to change the California Environmental Quality Act for years. CEQA, as it’s called, forces builders to study the impacts of their projects on the environment… and also on traffic and noise and even views. They have to make a plan to reduce those impacts and get approval from the local government.
But if someone thinks the plan isn't good enough, they can sue. And that happens a lot. CEQA lawsuits stop and delay hundreds of projects every year.
So that's where we come back to Midway Rising… the plan is to redevelop about 50 acres of city land with 4,200 apartments and a new sports arena in Midway.
The project is supposed to bring new life to the area.
And to get it done… city leaders and one state lawmaker have decided they want to exempt Midway Rising from CEQA. They've proposed a state law which will carve out a CEQA exemption… for just this one project.
Some folks already had plans to sue on CEQA grounds. They said Midway Rising's plans to reduce traffic congestion weren't good enough.
But if this new law passes -- no one will be able to sue under CEQA. And that could prevent months or years of delay.
For Voice of San Diego I’m Will Huntsberry and that’s why it matters.
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MANY OF US HAVE NOTICED THAT GROCERIES AND DINING OUT FEEL MORE EXPENSIVE THAN THEY USED TO.
BUT FEW OF US LIKELY KNOW EXACTLY HOW MUCH WE SPEND YEAR TO YEAR.
IN THE LATEST IN OUR “PRICE OF SAN DIEGO” SERIES, REPORTER KATIE ANASTAS INTRODUCES US TO ONE MOM IN POWAY WHO DOES.
You want a strawberry? Ok.
Can you cut off the green?I can cut off the green.
Jen Sherman is a stay-at-home mom of two. One day, in 2019, she found a Trader Joe’s receipt she hadn’t thrown out yet.
And so I said to my husband, can you please build me a spreadsheet so that I can track everything we spend on food for this year? And he asked me why, and I said, ‘Because I want to.’
After every trip to a grocery store or restaurant, Sherman added to the spreadsheet.
For the very first entry in the spreadsheet. Trader Joe's mandarins in 2019, 2nd of January, they were $2 and 99.
By the end of the year, she had a lot of data. So she decided to share it.
Instead of sending a holiday card to everybody, we decided to write a newsletter that analyzed our food expenditure. And so that's what we did in 2019. And now it's a thing that we can't stop doing.
The last six years have given Sherman a thorough look at her family’s eating and spending habits.
Some changes happened as the kids got older. In 2019, their monthly average for going out to eat was $418.
Back in 2019, it was just my husband and I and our daughter was, what, two years old. So she wasn't even eating from the kids menus at that point. She was just nibbling at whatever we had ordered.
Restaurant food is more expensive now. And now they have two kids, both old enough to order off the kids menu.
Our average cost of eating out these days, if it's all four of us, it's usually about 60 to $75 depending on where we're going.
Sherman can also pinpoint when she started learning more about the American food system. It was 2021. She read about the poor working conditions at many slaughterhouses and the benefits of regenerative agriculture.
“That was when we started to consciously kind of ‘vote with your fork,’ as the saying goes.”
They soon learned that ‘voting with your fork’ often meant spending more money.
Take meat, for example. In 2019, the Shermans had spent about $800 on meat, mostly from Costco.
In 2021, Sherman found a website that sold meat from small farms.
“And we didn't change how much meat we ate. And so we spent a lot on meat that year.”
…more than triple what they’d spent the year before.
It was about 2,500 dollars on meat, and I thought, that's quite a lot of money. And so the following year, we didn't change the type of meat that we bought, but we started eating dried beans instead, and we cut the meat consumption by $1,000.
Sherman used to do most of her shopping at Costco or Vons. She still gets some things there, but she’s diversified her food sources.
But you can also see the cost of fruit and veg started going up after we started shopping at the farmer's market.
The kids still love Annie’s boxed mac and cheese. But they’ve also grown to love fruit from the farmers market.
If you stop feeding them the the cheaper, ultra processed stuff and start feeding them more of the really, really yummy strawberries and the really, really yummy apples, that's what they're going to start preferring. And not everyone can afford to do that. I know, but if you can and you want to make the choice, then that's a good way to start.
Her advice to families looking to start voting with their forks? Try a CSA box. CSA stands for community supported agriculture.
Sherman buys hers from Yasukochi Family Farms. They sometimes have sales on year-long subscriptions.
It's a cost efficient way of getting a diverse range of good plant foods in your diet.
Sherman goes to the farmers market once a week, and brings cash to avoid credit card fees. She knows vendors by name.
Ted!
Hey, you’re back!
Should I get carrots today?
Of course you should.
Once she’s bought what she needs, she steps aside, opens up a note on her phone, and types how much she spent.
The latest entry into the spreadsheet…and one more piece of data for this year’s holiday card. Katie Anastas, KPBS News.
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BIRCH AQUARIUM HAS SUCCESSFULLY HELPED RAISE AND SETTLE RED OCTOPUSES. ENVIRONMENT REPORTER TAMMY MURGA SAYS THIS IS GIVING RESEARCHERS A RARE INSIGHT INTO THEIR EARLY DEVELOPMENT.
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Something really small is getting a huge reaction from Maddy Tracewell. She’s an aquarist at
Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
“I was looking in the tank and I could see, like, little tiny red eyes looking at me, and I was like, oh my God, they’re fertilized.”
Six months ago, Tracewell noticed a female red octopus the aquarium was caring for… guarding thousands of eggs.
“It was a total surprise, wasn’t anything we planned for.”
Today, those eggs have grown and settled. That means they’re exploring the seafloor of their home at the aquarium.
Birch officials believe this marks the first time the species has been hatched, raised and settled in aquarium care. That’s because scientists rarely get to see their early stages.
“There's just not a lot of like knowledge about like this stage of their life.”
Tracewell says the hope is to display them eventually. Tammy Murga, 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. I’m Ashley Rusch. Lawrence K. Jackson will be back tomorrow. Thanks for listening and subscribing. Have a great day!
