Some San Diego residents to head back to polls for special council election

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Good Morning, I’m Lawrence K. Jackson … it’s FRIDAY, NOVEMBER SIXTH>>>> [ THE MIDTERMS ARE NOW BEHIND US BUT SOME SAN DIEGANS WILL BE VOTING AGAIN IN A FEW MONTHS ]More on that next. But first ... the headlines ...#######

TODAY IS THE FINAL DAY OF A THREE-DAY, CAL-FIRE FLIGHT TRAINING PROGRAM

THE PROGRAM CENTERS AROUND NIGHTTIME AERIAL-FIREFIGHTING MANEUVERS AND CAPABILITIES

CAL FIRE SAYS THAT BY FACILITATING NIGHT OPERATIONS ACROSS EVERY BASE, IT ENSURES THAT CREWS ARE ABLE TO SEAMLESSLY INTEGRATE INTO ASSIGNMENTS ANYWHERE IN THE STATE 

CREWS GO THROUGH ADVANCED TRAINING AND INSTRUCTION ON THINGS LIKE USING NIGHT VISION GOGGLES, FLIGHT-SIMULATORS AND OF COURSE THE REAL THING, NIGHTTIME FLYING ITSELF

THE STATE AGENCY SAYS THE TRAINING WILL LEAD TO AN EXPANSION OF NIGHTTIME AERIAL FIRE-FIGHTING AT ALL ELEVEN CAL-FIRE HELICOPTER BASES

THE EVENING FLIGHTS HAVE BEEN TAKING OFF FROM CALFIRE’S HELITACK BASE IN RAMONA AND TWO OTHERS OUTSIDE OF SAN DIEGO

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GOVERNOR GAVIN NEWSOM SAYS HE WILL SPARE THE LIVES OF EVERYONE ON CALIFORNIA'S DEATH ROW

YESTERDAY’S (THURS) ANNOUNCEMENT IMPACTS 548 PRISONERS

IN A LETTER TO CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS, NEWSOM WROTE THAT HE BELIEVES, QUOTE, "STATE-SANCTIONED KILLING IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH CALIFORNIA'S VALUES,  UNDERMINES THE FOUNDATIONS OF OUR LEGAL SYSTEM AND DIMINISHES EACH OF US."

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FIVE SAN DIEGO COUNTY BASED RESTAURANTS RECENTLY LANDED ON OPEN TABLE’S LIST OF THE ‘2026 TOP ONE HUNDRED RESTAURANTS’ IN THE U-S

CESARINA IN POINT LOMA 

LILO [LY-LOW] IN CARLSBAD 

LEILA [LAY-LUH] IN NORTH PARK

AND BOTH CALLIE [CALI] RESTAURANT AND COWBOY STAR IN DOWNTOWN’S EAST VILLAGE MADE THEIR LIST 

OPEN TABLE SAYS THAT IT LOOKS AT INSIGHTS FROM REVIEWS OF DINERS AND ALSO INCORPORATES TABLE DEMAND WHEN COMPILING THEIR LIST

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YESTERDAY, A WARMING TREND BEGAN MOVING IN ACROSS OUR REGION 

FORECASTERS EXPECT TEMPS THIS WEEKEND TO FALL ANYWHERE FROM FIVE TO FIFTEEN DEGREES ABOVE AVERAGE FOR THIS TIME OF YEAR …

AND MODERATE SANTA ANA WINDS

EXPECT TEMPS AROUND 70 DEGREES IN OUR MOUNTAINS, 

MID TO UPPER 70’S IN OUR COASTAL AREAS,

LOW 80’S IN OUR INLAND VALLEYS …

AND DESERTS TEMPS STARTING AT 85 DEGREES AND HIGHER IN SOME AREAS

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 MIDTERM ELECTIONS ARE IN THE REAR VIEW MIRROR. BUT KPBS METRO REPORTER ANDREW BOWEN SAYS SOME SAN DIEGANS WILL BE VOTING AGAIN IN A FEW MONTHS.

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D5SPECIAL 1 (ab) 0:49 soq

AB: San Diego's fifth City Council district will soon be vacant. That's because Councilmember Marni von Wilpert is projected to win her bid for Congress. District 5 includes Scripps Ranch, Rancho Peñasquitos and Rancho Bernardo. Under the City Charter, the city must hold a special election to fill the vacancy within 90 days of von Wilpert's official resignation. It's unclear exactly when that will happen. Council President Joe LaCava says District 5 staff will still be working during the vacancy.

JL: You'll have someone that can respond to constituent services and participate in other discussions. But we do not have a voting councilmember for that district.

AB: If no one wins a majority in the special election to fill District 5, it'll go to a runoff. Candidates interested in running for the open seat should contact the City Clerk's Office. Andrew Bowen, KPBS news

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THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA AND WORKING FAMILIES PARTY HAD STRONG SHOWINGS NATIONWIDE IN TUESDAY’S ELECTION. 

REPORTER ELAINE ALFARO SAYS THEIR CANDIDATES WERE ON THE BALLOT IN SOME OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY’S HISTORICALLY CONSERVATIVE PLACES.

DSAELECTION 1 SOC (X:XX)

“When we fight, we win! And tonight we won!”

Cheers erupted in Barrio Logan’s Mujeres Brew House on Tuesday night. It was election central for the local chapters of the Working Families Party and Democratic Socialists of America.

They were celebrating the Blue Tsunami that swept many of their members into office across the country. And also those who showed up on ballots in the San Diego region. Ryan Hill is DSA San Diego’s co-chair.

SOT 3:36-3:52

“It’s a big sign to see that politicians are willing to associate themselves with socialist politics, to collaborate with us as an organization and to show up and see that socialism is not a dirty word in San Diego County.”

Two who stood out were mayoral candidates in El Cajon and Vista.

In Vista, Kenneth Zuniga is currently running just a few points behind the independent Joe Green, according to the most recent count by the Registrar of Voters. He says his showing is a sign of things to come.

8:01-8:15

“I know, like, DSA the San Diego chapter has been slowly growing, but I think with running, helping run my race Kraft’s in El Cajon, I think it's helped grow membership and really bring in those skills that we need to help other people run races.”

Alexander Kraft is a member of the Working Families Party. In El Cajon, he’s running roughly 20 points behind Bill Wells, the conservative incumbent.

Visit the KPBS voter hub online to stay up to date on results.

Elaine Alfaro, KPBS.

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THE MIDTERM ELECTIONS ARE OVER.  

FOR THE MOST PART, SAN DIEGO COUNTY SAW FEW COMPLICATIONS. 

BUT FOR IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES, THERE WAS A FEAR OF ICE AGENTS SHOWING UP AT POLLING PLACES.

IN RESPONSE, THE CHICANO FEDERATION AND PANA [PANN-NUH] STEPPED UP TO HOST VOTE CENTERS AT THEIR OFFICES. 

REPORTER ALEXANDER NGUYEN SAYS IT WAS AN EFFORT TO PROVIDE A SAFE SPACE FOR PEOPLE TO CAST THEIR BALLOTS.

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COMMVOTE 1(an) TRT: 0:55 SOQ

In front of Barrio Station in Logan Heights, the lines stretched out the doors on Election Day … Tuesday.

Barrio Station hasn’t been a polling place since 20-20.

Jimmy Figueroa is the senior director of youth and community programs at Chicano Federation of San Diego.

He says it was important for the Federation to re-establish the location as a polling place to ensure the community felt safe and knew the staff.

“Especially the community, the members of our community that have been historically marginalized, underserved, that feel that they have not been included or fear has been used as a tactic against them to not engage in our election process.”

This comes amid the Trump administration's surge in immigration crackdowns in recent weeks. Some people were worried about seeing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at voting centers.

A recent ProPublica investigation found that more than 500 U.S. citizens have been detained by ICE since the start of the second Trump administration.

AN/KPBS

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ACROSS GENERATIONS, HIGH SCHOOLS IN SOUTHEASTERN SAN DIEGO HAVE PRODUCED A STATISTICS DEFYING NUMBER OF PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES. IN PART FOUR OF THIS SPECIAL SERIES, REPORTER KATIE HYSON LOOKS AT HOW THE REMARKABLE LEGACY CONTINUES TODAY.

FIVEMILEPT4 trt 4:47 SOQ (kh/mb)

Lincoln High School was bulldozed in 2003. Replaced with a brand new campus.

They lost a lot of athletes during the four-year closure. Coaches had to rebuild legendary Lincoln teams from sparse rosters.

The school hired David Dunn to coach football. Former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver. And Morse High School alum.

Despite the new campus, he faced budget challenges.

MDAMRON_6092.MXF 22;43;23;11 - 22;43;37;01

SOT :12 We're talking 400 to $500 per helmet, $300 for a good pair of shoulder pads. And uniforms, and we can't keep up with some of the other things out there. We losing a bunch of kids to the private schools.

At the time of recording, the school district hasn’t answered questions about athletics funding. Coach estimates his team gets 12-thousand from the district each year, including travel.

He has to fundraise the rest in an area with some of the lowest household incomes in the county.

By 20-24, the need was even clearer.

MDAMRON_6092.MXF 22;55;22;15 - 22;55;33;28

SOT :10 The field was not safe. Everyone knew it wasn't safe. There were areas on the field where we can pull back the turf . . . and see, like cement under, concrete.

He tried to mark every problem area with a red flag.

MDAMRON_6092.MXF 22;56;01;23 - 22;56;04;16

SOT :03 There was over a hundred flags and we ran out.

He convinced the school to fix it. Leaving Lincoln with no field of their own that season.

They bused to facilities willing to share a field. Left school early. Stayed up late. Squeezed odd hours of practice into whatever field time was available.

MDAMRON_6092.MXF 22;58;45;26 - 22;58;48;19

SOT :03 We lost so many hours of practice time.

Sometimes buses were too small. Or came late.

MDAMRON_6092.MXF 23;03;20;29 - 23;03;29;17

SOT :09 You'll see us all sitting outside with water bottles and uniforms and all the extra things and trying to get over to practice, and ‘Coach, it’s been 45 minutes!’

He says the fields weren’t always well equipped.

MDAMRON_6092.MXF 22;58;11;26 - 22;58;17;20

SOT :06 They don't have football lines, football markings, football equipment, or even goalposts.

MDAMRON_6092.MXF 22;59;03;01 - 22;59;10;06

SOT :07 We didn't have a weight room going on at the time. We didn't get to get sled work in or anything.

The players had so many valid reasons to skip practice. But they didn’t take them.

Players like Jesus “The Beast” Jimenez, center and guard.

CG: JESUS “THE BEAST” JIMENEZ / LINCOLN FOOTBALL PLAYER

MDAMRON_6161.MXF 00;00;59;01 - 00;01;10;02

SOT :11 It was so, so crazy . . . all of us were just tired, but, you know, all of them, everybody on that team really wanted it and wanted to show everybody wrong.

Wide receiver and cornerback Dareyen Bridges said something that echoes Lincoln alum across the decades.

CG: DAREYEN BRIDGES / LINCOLN FOOTBALL PLAYER

MDAMRON_6160.MXF 23;47;44;14 - 23;47;54;15

SOT :10 As much as we went through, we was just playing on a chip on our shoulder because we know nobody else was doing this. So we had to go out there and win, win every game.

It paid off. Despite all these challenges – the team went all the way to the state championship that year. And won.

Coach again.

MDAMRON_6092.MXF 23;02;54;17 - 23;03;06;04

SOT :06 You guys don’t even know what you just did . . . to have none of the stuff available to you, you don't really know how much this really meant.

He says the team still doesn’t have a secondary utility field to practice on like most schools.

They’re traveling farther to play harder schools, but without a bigger travel budget.

And, like alumni across the decades, they still face racism.

MDAMRON_6092.MXF 22;48;06;04 - 22;49;19;01

SOT :18 I remember playing youth football . . . we were always told, hey, make sure you don't retaliate. You may get called out of your name. We may get, I mean, something as disgusting as being spat on . . . It's heartbreaking to have to tell my same kids 40 years later, I’m telling them the same thing.

Even this year.

MDAMRON_6092.MXF 22;52;23;08 - 22;52;39;27

SOT :15 We had an incident this year already where where a coach was out of line with some of his comments, you know, towards our kids, you know. ‘Oh, you'll definitely be working at McDonald's in three years,’ or you know . . . ‘We're going to college and you guys will be going to jail.’

Dareyen has noticed.

MDAMRON_6160.MXF 23;48;46;25 - 23;48;57;17

SOT :11 They just think like, we grow up, like, this is like, hood. But I wouldn't say that. I feel like we have, like, great kids here who take very good responsibility.

Jesus agrees.

MDAMRON_6161.MXF 00;02;35;20 - 00;02;42;16

SOT :07 People call it ghetto. But for me, I don't think it’s ghetto at all. I think everybody around here knows each other, and I think it's just like a big old family.

Coach says that stigma is still causing enrollment challenges for the school and football team.

Like the teams of the ‘60s and ‘70s, they hold high expectations regardless.

And that chip on their shoulder that turns adversity into power.

MDAMRON_6092.MXF 23;04;35;24 - 23;04;45;10

SOT :10 No matter what they put in front of us, watch how we come out of this. So developed a motto of . . . ‘Man, they hate to watch us win, but they have to watch us win.’

Nat pop MDAMRON_5966.MXF cheering current team in onto homecoming field 

Generations of alumni cheered them on at this year’s homecoming game. Some, with remarkable pro athlete careers behind them.

More than half a century of shared struggle and power filled the stands.

And they watched today’s students win, 43 to 15.

MDAMRON_6092.MXF 23;14;29;22 - 23;14;33;25

SOT :04 It's always been a struggle. But it's our struggle and it's our story.

Katie Hyson, KPBS News

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IN 2023, A NEW MUSICAL ADAPTATION OF "THE OUTSIDERS" PREMIERED AT LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE BEFORE MAKING ITS WAY TO BROADWAY. 

ARTS REPORTER JULIA DIXON EVANS SAYS THE TONY-WINNING SHOW IS BACK IN SAN DIEGO.

OUTSIDERS 1 (1:18) SOQ

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"...I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman, and a ride home."

"The Outsiders" is set in late-1960s Oklahoma, and follows two rival gangs of teenagers.

Director Danya Taymor said the characters are just trying to get by.

"It's a story about class warfare, it's a story about chosen family and belonging, and it's also a story about masculinity and all its forms, and its tenderness and its aggression and rage, and its love."

The show has some spectacular fight choreography —

— and LOTS of dancing on cars.

Deb Hatch was the Playhouse's props supervisor at the time. She says the show required some creative thinking.

"I found the Ford Falcon on Facebook Marketplace. It was this guy out in La Mesa somewhere, He goes, 'You know, it doesn't have a motor.' And I'm like, 'Perfect,' because we have to take them out anyway.

The touring production of “The Outsiders” runs at the Civic Theatre through November 8.

Julia Dixon Evans, KPBS News

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IT'S FRIDAY AND THAT MEANS … WEEKEND EVENTS!

TODAY, THE CITY OF SAN DIEGO IS CELEBRATING ‘KATE SESSIONS DAY’ WITH A TREE PLANTING EVENT

SESSIONS IS KNOWN AS “THE MOTHER OF BALBOA PARK” AND IS CREDITED WITH INTRODUCING HUNDREDS OF VARIOUS TREE SPECIES TO OUR REGION

THE CITY IS CELEBRATING HER LEGACY STARTING AT 7:30 A-M AT PACIFIC BEACH TAYLOR BRANCH LIBRARY 

THEY’LL PLANT SOME TREES, SPREAD SOME MULCH AND SPREAD SOME JOY ! 

ON SATURDAY, YOU CAN SPEND SOME TIME CELEBRATING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF ANOTHER SAN DIEGO LEGEND … BILL WALTON

THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY BILL WALTON CLASSIC IS A COLLEGE BASKETBALL DOUBLEHEADER

BOTH GAMES TAKE PLACE AT PECHANGA [CHAN-GUH] ARENA WHERE WALTON PLAYED AS PART OF THE-FORMERLY NAMED SAN DIEGO CLIPPERS 

THE BILL WALTON CLASSIC IS THE FINALE EVENT THAT ALSO FEATURES A BLOOD DRIVE, A HAPPY HOUR AND A TIE-DYE DAY … ALL CELEBRATING BILL’S JOYFUL SPIRIT 

ON SUNDAY, INSIDE THE ENCINITAS LIBRARY’S COMMUNITY ROOM YOU CAN CHECK OUT A FREE EVENT FOR POETRY LOVERS 

‘OCEAN OF POETRY’ IS ENCINITAS' POETRY SERIES – WHERE YOU CAN LISTEN TO THEIR FEATURED POETS RECITE POETRY 

IT TAKES PLACE FROM 1 TO 3 P-M  

WHATEVER YOU DO THIS WEEKEND, ENJOY AND BE SAFE !

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That’s it for today’s pod which was edited by Elma Gonzalez and is hosted and produced by myself, Lawrence K. Jackson. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. Thanks for listening and have a great day.