The county has now confirmed a fourth human case of West Nile virus
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Good Morning, I’m Lawrence K. Jackson, it’s FRIDAY, AUGUST SEVENTH>>>> [ A FOURTH HUMAN CASE OF WEST NILE VIRUS HAS BEEN CONFIRMED]More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….########
MAYOR TODD GLORIA IS URGING CONGRESS TO EXTEND PROTECTED STATUS FOR HAITIANS WHO ARE LIVING HERE IN SAN DIEGO AND IN THE REST OF THE COUNTRY.
TEMPORARY PROTECTED STATUS FOR HAITIAN NATIONALS ENDED ON JULY 27TH FOLLOWING A SUPREME COURT DECISION IN JUNE.
T-P-S GRANTED INDIVIDUALS AND FAMILIES TO LIVE AND WORK LEGALLY IN THE U-S BECAUSE OF VIOLENCE OR NATURAL DISASTER IN THEIR HOME COUNTRY.
BY ENDING THE PROGRAM, THEY ARE VULNERABLE TO ARREST AND DEPORTION BY ICE.
GLORIA SAYS NO FAMILY SHOULD FACE DEPORTATION TO A COUNTRY THE U-S STATE DEPARTMENT IDENTIFIES AS EXPERIENCING WIDESPREAD VIOLENCE, KIDNAPPING AND INSTABILITY
HE SAYS CONGRESS HAS THE AUTHORITY TO ALLEVIATE THEIR FEARS AND GIVE THEM SAFETY AND SECURITY THEY DESERVE.
A BILL HAS BEEN INTRODUCED TO EXTEND T-P-S FOR HAITIAN NATIONALS THROUGH MARCH 20-29
WE WILL UPDATE YOU AS THIS NEWS CONTINUES TO DEVELOP …
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SAN DIEGO’S LIFE GUARDS HAVE BEEN BUSIER THAN USUAL THIS SUMMER … WITH AN UPTICK IN THE NUMBER OF WATER RESCUES.
SAN DIEGO FIRE RESCUE SAYS THAT IN JUST THE LAST TWO MONTHS ... LIFEGUARDS HAVE HAD TO MAKE MORE THAN FOUR THOUSAND RESCUES…
AND TODAY, FROM 8 AM UNTIL 5 P-M AT LA JOLLA SHORES BEACH, THE CITY IS HOSTING A WATER SAFETY EVENT
ATTENDEES WILL LEARN HOW TO SPOT A RIP CURRENT AND ESCAPE SAFELY...
AS WELL AS TIPS ON HOW TO REDUCE EMERGENCIES ANYWHERE ALONG THE CITY'S 17 MILES OF COASTLINE
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CONGRATS ARE IN ORDER FOR THE HUMANE SOCIETY'S RAMONA WILDLIFE
CENTER...
AS THEY'VE RELEASED THE FIRST THREE GRADUATES FROM THEIR NEW RACCOON NURSERY
THE THREE ORPHANED JUVENILES ARRIVED SEPARATELY BETWEEN MAY AND JUNE AND WERE RECENTLY RELEASED TOGETHER LAST WEEK AT MISSION TRAILS REGIONAL PARK
AT RAMONA WILDLIFE, THEY WERE VACCINATED, DE-WORMED AND FED A DIET OF THINGS LIKE FISH, INSECTS, EGGS AND FRUIT
SD-HS SAYS THAT BY CARING FOR THE RACCOONS IN THEIR NEW CENTRALIZED SETTING,THEY ARE GETTING THE BEST POSSIBLE CHANCE TO RETURN AND THRIVE IN THEIR NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
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 SUMMER HEAT IS BRINGING MORE PEOPLE OUTSIDE…AND WITH IT, A REMINDER TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM MOSQUITO BITES. SAN DIEGO COUNTY HAS CONFIRMED ITS FOURTH HUMAN CASE OF WEST NILE VIRUS THIS YEAR.
HEALTH REPORTER HEIDI DE MARCO EXPLAINS WHY EXPERTS SAY PEAK MOSQUITO SEASON IS STILL AHEAD.
TRT 1:08 soc
While four West Nile virus cases may seem low, Scripps Health microbiologist Ian McHardy says it could be an early warning sign.
IAN MCHARDY
It's entirely possible that this could represent a significant start to the season.
He says four cases matter because most people infected with West Nile virus never develop symptoms.
IAN MCHARDY
About 80% of cases are asymptomatic, 20% generate a mild to moderate flu-like illness, and then less than 1% will go on to develop meningoencephalitis, or some kind of neuroinvasive disease.
There is no specific antiviral treatment for West Nile virus, so McHardy says prevention is the best defense. Especially for the elderly and immunocompromised.
IAN McHARDY
If the patient has high fever, stiff neck, disorientation, confusion…vision loss, all of these would be indications of a severe infection.Health officials recommend using insect repellent, and wearing long sleeves and pants during peak mosquito hours.
Heidi de Marco, KPBS News.
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COMMUNITY ACTIVISTS TODAY [THUR] RALLIED IN SUPPORT OF AFFORDABLE ENERGY IN FRONT OF THE DOWNTOWN HEADQUARTERS OF SDG&E’S PARENT COMPANY.
PUBLIC MATTERS REPORTER KEVIN TREVELLYAN HAS MORE.
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Speakers denounced the steady rise in local utility costs, which have far outpaced inflation in recent years.
Anthony Dang with the Climate Action Campaign said the system is QUOTE “rigged” to produce profits for SDG&E, an investor-owned utility.
Anthony Dang | Climate Action Campaign, Policy and Community Outreach Manager
BOWLER_9047 - [00:02:34.14 - 00:02:44.24] “Our state legislators, our incoming governor, and the CPUC commissioners who are supposed to protect us have looked the other way while a monopoly robs San Diego blind.”
SDG&E’s parent company, Sempra, this week [Thurs] reported 762 million dollars in adjusted earnings for the second quarter.
Logan Heights resident Barbara Pinto is among those who have had trouble paying their power bill in recent years.
Barbara Pinto | Logan Heights resident
BOWLER_9052 - [00:02:16.20 - 00:02:27.27] “We're living in very inflationary times, and everything is rising. And for people on fixed incomes, it's— a lot of us have gone back to work. Let's just say that.”
In response, an SDG&E spokesperson said in a statement the utility takes affordability concerns seriously.
KT, KPBS
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ESCONDIDO RECENTLY ADOPTED NEW GUIDELINES FOR BATTERY STORAGE SYSTEMS… ALSO KNOWN AS BESS
THIS CAME AFTER A MORATORIUM FOLLOWING A FIRE AT AN S-D-G-AND-E FACILITY
NORTH COUNTY REPORTER ALEXANDER NGUYEN SAYS THE GUIDELINES LARGELY MIRROR THE COUNTY’S.
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BATTERYSTORAGE 1(an) TRT: 0:51 SOQ
NATS “beep/beep”
Two years ago, a fire forced the evacuations of nearby schools and businesses.
This incident prompted Escondido’s moratorium on battery energy storage systems … or BESS.
SOT Tyler Batson // Escondido Fire Department
“It really highlighted some of the possible hazards of having a BESS facility in your densely populated part of your city.”
Tyler Batson is the acting fire chief for the Escondido Fire Department. He says the city has been working closely with the county on the guidelines.
SOT
“They were doing a lot of due diligence with subject matter experts to develop a very detailed guideline moving forward on the requirements.”
Under the new guidelines, BESS facilities are required to have a fire suppression system, an explosion control system and a 100-foot setback.
Batson says that’s the minimum. A plume analysis showing how far fire smoke could reach would also increase the setback area. AN/KPBS
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THIS MONTH MARKS FIVE YEARS SINCE AFGHANISTAN FELL BACK INTO THE HANDS OF THE TALIBAN. A NEW REPORT SHOWS THE U-S GOVERNMENT STILL HAS A LONG WAY TO GO TO FULFILL THE PROMISES IT MADE TO ITS AFGHAN ALLIES DURING THE 20-YEAR OCCUPATION.
AFGHANREPORT 3 (ad) :55 SOQ
San Diego-based nonprofit AfghanEvac released the report this week.
It highlights U-S government numbers showing hundreds of thousands of Afghans unable to access resettlement options.
That’s because of President Donald Trump’s ban on refugees, visas and travel for Afghans.
The report says there are more than 175,000 Afghans with approved Special Immigrant Visas pending an interview. Their background checks and paperwork? Done.
Shawn VanDiver is the co-founder and president of AfghanEvac.
SVD: President Trump has completely shut down arrivals for Afghans in the United States of America. There have been zero special visa applications. Principal applicants issued a visa since January 1st, 2026 zero. Not a few zero. It’s wildly out of the norm.
A bipartisan bill to extend temporary protected status to Afghans is already in the House. A Senate version was introduced Thursday.
Andrew Dyer, KPBS News.
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THE SAN DIEGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM HAS A NEW CURATOR OF INVERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY. SINCE INVERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY INCLUDES THE STUDY OF INSECTS, ARACHNIDS, AND CRUSTACEANS
ARTS REPORTER BETH ACCOMANDO WAS EAGER TO MEET HIM AND GET A TOUR OF THE NAT’S COLLECTIONS.
THENATBUGS (ba) 4:01 SOQ
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Shahan Derkarabetian loves his job. SHAHAN DERKARABETIAN I can see some worms in here, and who knows what else is in these samples. So it's a little treasure chest.I mean he really loves his job.
SHAHAN DERKARABETIAN …it's like that feeling of when you wake up for Christmas and you're looking through the boxes and you get that thing you wanted, you know? Yeah, it's like that for me. Every box has something cool in it.Even a tiny jar of sediment excites him.SHAHAN DERKARABETIAN …there's probably dozens and maybe hundreds of things, specimens in here. We just need the time to kind of sort through it and pull them out…Derkarabetian is the new curator of invertebrate zoology at the San Diego Natural History Museum.
SHAHAN DERKARABETIAN Yeah, so as a curator, my job is to kind of direct the research of the invertebrate zoology department. So I guide where we're going to collect, what we're collecting, what projects we're taking on, but also to figure out what's important and what we should be doing. And in the case of bioservices, what we're— what we need to do to help conserve the region or species.
It used to simply be called the Department of Entomology, but now it bears the more inclusive title of Invertebrate Zoology.
SHAHAN DERKARABETIAN Invertebrates cover every animal without a backbone that is more than a single cell, so it's a lot of things. Um, it's 90% of life on this planet, probably. So that includes things like insects, arachnids, worms, corals, crabs, shrimp, all the crustaceans, everything you can imagine that is uh, all the little weirdos, basically. So yeah, it's a huge amount of diversity that falls under invertebrate zoology.
Derkarabetian oversees more than 8 million specimens spanning 150 years and kept in multiple collection spaces across the museum. His particular expertise is in arachnids
SHAHAN DERKARABETIAN So I've been working on arachnids, specifically a group called the opiliones, for about 20 years. So since I started working here, arachnid research has become important. One of the projects I started was to go after the arachnids of Southern California, especially in the mountaintops, and really kind of build our collection and let people know that we have arachnids here.
Because not all of them have been identified.
SHAHAN DERKARABETIAN…there's an estimate out there that of all species that exist on the planet, only about 20% of them have actually beendescribed and studied. So we're at 80% unknown diversity. A good proportion of that diversity could already exist in collections.
Derkarabetian points to a sacred cabinet tightly locked up and bearing holotypes or the name bearing specimens for an entire species.
SHAHAN DERKARABETIAN So that single specimen holds that name. So any scientist that wants to know what that species looks like, they go back to that holotype. So we have our type specimens here. And this is perhaps the most important case in our entire collection because holotypes are irreplaceable if something happens. So if there was a reason to evacuate this building and this room, I would carry this case on my back down the stairs.
The cabinet also contains a lacewing that is not a holotype but is special for a very different reason..
SHAHAN DERKARABETIAN But the important thing is what's on the label. I don't know if you can read the label from there. So this is a specimen collected by Charles Darwin on the voyage of the Beagle, 1836, I believe it was February when he visited. So this is Hobart Town, so that's Hobart, Tasmania. It is the only Charles Darwin specimen in this museum, and it is well protected with the most important specimens in this invertebrate zoology collection.
But Derkarabetian treats every one of the millions of specimens under his curatorship with care because even the tiniest of creatures could reveal something amazing about our world.
SHAHAN DERKARABETIAN Again, it's Christmas at some point in the future.
From deep in the collections at TheNat, I’m Beth Accomando for KPBS News.
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AS WE DO FOR YOU EACH AND EVERY FRIDAY, HERE ARE SOME WEEKEND EVENT IDEAS FOR YOU AND YOURS HAPPENING AROUND SAN DIEGO COUNTY
ON, FRIDAY AT THE CARLSBAD LAGOON YOU CAN ROW IN THE DARK!
IT’S A “GLOW IN THE DARK,” LATE NIGHT EVENT FEATURING KAYAKING, PADDLEBOARDING OR AQUA CYCLING
INTERESTED PARTIES CAN VISIT CARLSBAD LAGOON DOT COM AND SEARCH ROW IN THE DARK
ON SATURDAY IN CELEBRATION OF CHICANO HERITAGE MONTH, THE CHICANO BLOCK PARTY MAKES IT RETURN!
THE LADY LOWRIDERS CAR CLUB WILL BE IN ATTENDANCE AS WELL AS LIVE MUSIC AND A LOCAL ARTIST MARKET
AND BONUS! THE EVENT IS FREE
AND ON SUNDAY YOUR SAN DIEGO PADRES ARE SET TO TAKE ON THE HOUSTON ASTROS AT PETCO PARK
FIRST PITCH IS SCHEDULED FOR ABOUT 5:20 P-M
IF YOU HAVE KIDDOS, THEY CAN RUN THE BASES ON THE FIELD AFTER THE GAME!
WHATEVER YOU DO THIS WEEKEND, ENJOY !
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That’s it for the podcast today. This podcast is edited by Traci Tong.
This podcast is hosted and produced by me, Lawrence K. Jackson. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. Thanks for listening and have a great weekend.
