San Diego’s COVID response
Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Friday, October 28th.
A milestone in the city’s response to COVID.
More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….
######
The first flu death of the season in San Diego County was announced yesterday.
The man was 55, had underlying medical conditions and was not vaccinated against the flu.
New flu cases in the county continue to increase.
According to the county, nearly one-thousand-800 flu cases were reported this month.
That’s more than a thousand cases compared to last month.
########
The November Election is almost here, and you have just over a week to cast your ballot.
You can mail it, or drop it off at any of the Registrar’s ballot drop boxes.
Starting tomorrow, you can also vote in person at one of the 39 vote centers across the county.
They’ll be open everyday from 8 a-m to 5 p-m.
For a list of vote centers, check out KPBS-DOT-ORG-SLASH-VOTER-HUB.
########
San Diego’s new electric street sweeper needs a name.
And the city’s stormwater department wants your help.
The sweeper prevents pollution from reaching waterways and the ocean.
And the city wants its name to reflect that.
You can submit suggestions via email to ‘think-blue-at-san-diego-dot-gov’ until November 10th.
Then, three finalists will be selected and the community will vote on its favorite.
#########
From KPBS, you’re listening to San Diego News Now. Stay with me for more of the local news you need.
##########
As San Diegans adjust to living with COVID-19, so are city officials.
KPBS Health reporter Matt Hoffman explains.
San Diego’s COVID response and recovery committee met for the last time this week. They’ve helped oversee half a billion dollars in federal relief money. The county health department's Dr. Jennifer Teuter has been briefing the council committee. Teuter says they are concerned about increases in flu and RSV cases and are anticipating some type of a winter COVID surge. She says the omicron subvariant BA5 is still the dominant strain here-- with vaccines and treatments still working well. Tuteur This bivalent booster what’s called the updated booster is really something that’s giving us extra protection while we’re in this omicron phase of variants The COVID response and recovery committee responsibilities will be transferred to the council’s economic development and intergovernmental relations committee. MH KPBS News.
##########
And now a follow to a story we brought you yesterday.
San Diego County Air Pollution officials ordered a San Diego biofuel company to contain pungent odors that neighbors have been complaining about for nearly a year.
But the fix won’t come for six weeks.
KPBS Environment reporter Erik Anderson has details.
Air pollution control district official Ruth Rodriquez-Figueroa is asking Barrio Logan residents to wait a bit longer. “I’m asking for a little bit of patience. And a little bit of time. And respectfully, I am, we are committed to them, to ensure that we actually come to a sustainable solution.” Regulators are giving New Leaf Biofuel until December ninth to fix an odor problem neighbors began complaining about since last November. The smell comes from used cooking oil that the Barrio Logan firm turns into diesel fuel. “I live directly across from this place which puts me directly in the intensity zone.” Peter Colon says the pungent smell is there all the time, but it is worst in the morning and evening. Regulators will meet again next month to check on the company’s progress. The fan and filters have to be operating by December 9th. Erik Anderson KPBS News
##########
California Attorney General Rob Bonta is demanding Albertsons delay a four billion dollar payout to stockholders until after a review of their proposed merger with Kroger.
At the same time, union leaders are meeting in Chicago to talk about both actions.
KPBS reporter Kitty Alvarado has more.
Albertsons and Kroger have 700,000 employees across the U.S. In San Diego County those workers are represented by UFCW Local 135… which is calling on regulators to stop the merger… and a planned 4-billion dollar dividend payout to Albertsons stockholders. Mike Ryan has been a member of Local 135 for 34 years … He says he’s seen this before and says it’s not good Mike Ryan Member, UFCW Local 135 The first thing that you think about when you think of when you think about when you talk about a company coming in and purchasing our company is store closures. The two chains own 5000 stores between them. Grocery Store Union leaders are in Chicago to talk about the proposed merger and the payout. They’re not the only ones calling out the grocery store giants. California Attorney General Rob Bonta is among six attorneys general who sent a letter to Albertsons demanding they delay their payout until the Federal Trade Commision and they review the merger and payout. We reached out to Albertsons and Kroger for comment but have not received a reply. Kitty Alvarado KPBS News.
##########
Coming up.... We have some weekend arts events worth checking out. We’ll have that story and more, just after the break.
##########
Governor Gavin Newsom took an uncommon step yesterday when he publicly endorsed a local proposition.
It was Measure D, which would allow the city of San Diego to require “project labor agreements” for city-funded construction projects.
KPBS Reporter Thomas Fudge has more.
Project labor agreements, called PLA’s, require building contractors to enter into a work agreement with a union or other employee group. Ten years ago San Diego voters approved a measure to ban PLAs from city funded construction projects. Approval of Measure D next month would overturn that city law. Carol Kim, with San Diego’s Building and Construction Trades Council, supports Measure D. Kim 1530 This is actually very simple. The simple thing is that it’s about making sure city law is clearly and definitely in alignment with state requirements, and we are allowed to get our fair share, period. Project labor agreements are politically controversial… favored by labor and opposed by free market conservatives. But labor-backed supporters of the measure also say San Diego risks losing state construction money. That’s because a state law withholds state funding to cities that ban PLA’s. But has San Diego lost any funding? Hameed. 256 The reality of it is that San Diego has never been denied funding because it doesn’t have state union project labor agreements. Abdur-Rahim Hameed, president of the National Black Contractors Association, says the argument for Measure D is an empty threat. Hameed 134 It’s the Democratic party that is funded by labor PAC money, in Sacramento telling the Democrats locally, just tell them that we're not going to fund you. And use scare tactics and fear mongering, to push the voters to support a measure of exclusion. Hameed, and other opponents of Measure D also point out that San Diego law has an exception to the ban on PLA’s when state funding is at risk. SOQ.
##########
San Diego City Council District 8 is voting this November on whether to give Vivian Moreno another four-year term.
KPBS metro reporter Andrew Bowen says her opponent is a familiar one.
AB: Antonio Martinez lost the District 8 seat in 2018 by fewer than 600 votes. He's a staffer for congressman Juan Vargas and a member of the San Ysidro school board. AM: I feel that our communities in District 8 have been neglected. AB: Martinez says he's running because he thinks District 8 hasn't been given its fair share of city resources, and he can do a better job fixing that inequity. ANTONIO MARTINEZ SAN DIEGO CITY COUNCIL D8 CANDIDATE AM: Frankly I feel that the current person that's there now is not doing the job to get that done, so I feel that it's appropriate – or necessary for me to put my hat in. VM: You know one of the things that I often tell my colleagues is that we've been left behind. AB: Councilmember Vivian Moreno agrees her constituents haven't seen the same level of investment as other communities. But she says she's made progress on raising the priority of projects in District 8 — like the planned expansion of the San Ysidro Transit Center. Here she is at a town hall last April. VIVIAN MORENO SAN DIEGO CITY COUNCIL MEMBER VM: When I joined SANDAG board and when I joined MTS, I said this has to be our number one project. Why? Because 12,000 people go on this trolley on any given day. AB: The 2022 election is unlikely to be as close as the 2018 matchup between Moreno and Martinez. They were the only candidates in the June primary, and Moreno won that race by 27 points. Andrew Bowen, KPBS news.
##########
San Diego Opera is premiering “The Last Dream of Frida and Diego” tomorrow.
The new Spanish language opera explores the relationship between iconic Mexican artists Frida Kahlo [KAW-LOW] and Diego Rivera.
It also uses the celebration of Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead as the backdrop for a love story that crosses into the afterlife.
KPBS arts reporter Beth Accomando attended the dress rehearsal on Wednesday and has this preview.
A picture might be worth 1000 words but a Frida Kahlo self-portrait speaks volumes about her life. LORENA MEZA She painted her autobiography always. Lorena Meza is directing The Last Dream of Frida and Diego. LORENA MEZA … Her art was so personal. And I think the more personal, the more universal. She dignified herself through her painting. Kahlo’s intensely personal, often witty, and always boldly imaginative paintings reveal more about her life experience, than any carefully researched biography. GUADALUPE PAZ … She just painted her reality… Mezzo-soprano Guadalupe Paz sings the role of Frida. GUADALUPE PAZ … People thought it was, like, surrealism and it was not. She was very original in that sense. And I think that appeals to us because when we see a painting of her, it's like she's talking or telling us a story about that moment in her life. Bringing Kahlo’s story to life through opera fell into the hands of composer Gabriella Lena Frank and librettist Nilo Cruz. NILO CRUZ I heard a piece that Gabriella had composed which the theme of it was The Day of the Dead. And when I heard the piece and heard the beautiful music, I said to her, that is the entry into this world, and we should not do a biopic of Diego and Frida, but maybe, perhaps Frida coming back to the world on the Day of the Dead. Día de muertos or Day of the Dead gave them something to artistically build on says Frank. GABRIELLA LENA FRANK … There's an element of fantasy, there's an element of fiction that is more real than a nonfiction and you have to stretch, I think, as an artist to be able to imagine a universe that doesn't really exist, but seems very authentic. The dramatic trigger for the story is Rivera’s last day on earth says Meza. LORENA MEZA And he comes to the graveyard on Día de Muertos to invoke Frida and call her back to help him cross to Mictlan, to the underworld, the Aztec underworld. In the opera, Kahlo returns from the dead without any of the pain she experienced in the real world from a horrific accident and dozens of surgeries. But she re-enters the world of the living with a warning, says Meza. LORENA MEZA … But don't you dare touch Diego. Don't you dare touch your painting brushes. You cannot do that because if you do that, you'll feel the agony again. But pain defined Kahlo’s life and her art, says Paz. GUADALUPE PAZ …And the relationship that she has on stage in this opera with the paintings is so beautiful because in the moment that she finds the easel, she revisits, like the pain. Kahlo discovers that she cannot paint without the pain. Her suffering and her art were impossibly intertwined so she can’t help but embrace both Rivera and her former agony, says Meza. LORENA MEZA … She allows him to embrace her in order for her to remember the pain. Because it's only then that she can regain her identity as a painter. It's the pain when she was alive that really was her inspiration for painting. Kahlo died almost seven decades ago yet her art remains vibrantly alive in pop culture where her depictions of femininity, sexuality, and disability all seem strikingly relevant. LORENA MEZA… What is amazing is that every new generation takes her image and makes it their own again and again and again. San Diego Opera is poised to introduce its Frida Kahlo to the world this weekend in a new Spanish language opera that sings the praises of Mexico’s iconic artist. Beth Accomando, KPBS News.
San Diego Opera’s ‘The Last Dream of Frida and Diego’ has its world premiere tomorrow and runs through November 6th at the Civic Theatre downtown.
##########
And before you go, we have weekend arts event recommendations for you.
KPBS Arts producer Julia Dixon Evans joined KPBS’s Jade Hindmon to talk about some halloween and day of the dead events.
That was KPBS arts producer Julia Dixon Evans, speaking with KPBS Midday Edition host Jade Hindmon.
##########
That’s it for the podcast today. This podcast is produced by KPBS Senior Producer Brooke Ruth and Producer Emilyn Mohebbi. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. I’m Debbie Cruz. Thanks for listening and have a great weekend.
