The dangers faced by Tijuana journalists
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Good Morning, I’m Lawrence K. Jackson….it’s THURSDAY, MAY SEVENTH>>>> [ COME ALONG WITH US AS WE SPEND THE DAY WITH SOME SEASONED TIJUANA JOURNALISTS ]More on that next. But first... the headlines….#######
THERE'S A CITIZEN-LED INITIATIVE TO HELP THE CITY OF SAN DIEGO UPDATE ITS MISSION BAY PARK MASTER PLAN
THE MISSION BAY PARK CONSERVANCY ALSO WANTS TO CREATE A RELIABLE REVENUE STREAM TO HELP THE CITY MAINTAIN THE STRUCTURES IN THE PARK
THAT INCLUDES THE VISITOR CENTER AND 25 RESTROOMS THAT ARE AT-RISK OF SEASONAL CLOSURE BECAUSE OF THE CITY’S BUDGET DEFICIT
THE PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER OF THE MISSION BAY PARK CONSERVANCY SAYS THE NON-PROFIT WAS PUT TOGETHER TO BE A COMMUNITY CATALYST… BRINGING TOGETHER BOTH PUBLIC AND PRIVATE EFFORTS TO TURN VISION INTO ACTION
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76 ADULT STUDENTS PARTICIPATED IN A GRADUATION CEREMONY THIS WEEK AT THE SAN DIEGO CENTRAL LIBRARY IN DOWNTOWN.
THE STUDENTS EARNED THEIR HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMAS THROUGH TWO ONLINE PROGRAMS OFFERED BY THE CITY’S LIBRARIES
THE PROGRAMS ARE FREE FOR PARTICIPANTS
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THE SAN DIEGO FOOD BANK ANNOUNCED THIS WEEK THAT IT RAISED A RECORD AMOUNT OF MONEY AT THEIR 14TH ANNUAL GALA LAST WEEKEND
THEY RAISED MORE THAN ONE AND A HALF MILLION DOLLARS ...THE MOST-EVER IN THEIR ORGANIZATION'S HISTORY
THE FUNDS WILL GO TO THE 'FOOD FOR KIDS BACKPACK PROGRAM'
THAT PROGRAM ORGANIZES WEEKEND FOOD PACKAGES FOR ELEMENTARY STUDENTS FACING FOOD INSECURITY
CURRENTLY, THE PROGRAM FEEDS JUST SHY OF FOUR THOUSAND STUDENTS ACROSS ALMOST ONE HUNDRED SCHOOLS IN THE COUNTY
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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BEING A JOURNALIST HAS MANY CHALLENGES, BUT OUR COLLEAGUES JUST ACROSS THE BORDER FACE A UNIQUE SET OF OBSTACLES.
VIDEO JOURNALIST MATTHEW BOWLER SPENT A DAY CHASING DOWN LEADS WITH A FEW OF TIJUANA'S BEST JOURNALISTS.
TJ JOURNOS (MAB) 4:37 SOQ
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P1320618-037.MP4
13;08;21;00
Giovanny Urenda | El Sol de Tijuana
Me encanta mi trabajo, a pesar de todas las situaciones que a veces uno pasa.
I love my job, despite all the situations one sometimes has to go through.
That 's Giovanny Urenda, he says he loves his job as a general assignment reporter at the El Sol de Tijuana newspaper.
We met up with him on a cool morning before his first of three assignments.
He is from Tijuana.
P1320618-037.MP4
13;09;27;27 - 13;09;49;10
Giovanny Urenda | El Sol de Tijuana
Es una ciudad de oportunidades. Actualmente estamos pasando una situación económica difícil para todo México y se nota aquí en Tijuana, pero tiene sus partes buenas, sus partes nobles, Tijuana, Tijuana. Siempre he estado recibiendo a quien llegue.
He says Tijuana is a city of opportunity that is going going through a difficult economic situation like all of Mexico but the city has always welcomed anyone who arrives.
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13;18;49;21
Giovanny Urenda | El Sol de Tijuana
Adelante.
We follow Urenda upstairs to his news room
He sits at his desk and starts to bang away on his keyboard
Keyboard nats
He’s the first one in today. His desk has luche libre figurines and a New England Patriots souvenir helmet.
He showed me the filing cabinet with memorial stickers for Margarito Martinez and Lourdes Maldonado. The two Tijuana journalists were murdered less than a week apart in 2022.
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13;40;57;24
¿Conoces Margarito y Lourdes?
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13;40;59;03 - 13;41;29;14
Giovanny Urenda | El Sol de Tijuana
No, no los conocí. No dudo que en algún evento los haya topado, pero no los conocía. Cuando ellos son asesinados llevaba siete meses de reportero. Llevaba muy, muy poco. Cuando asesinaron a Margarito. Recuerdo que estábamos. Estábamos antes en el piso de arriba y le comentó un compañero Mataron a Margarito. Dije no sé quién sea, pero me dicen que era fotógrafo
I ask, did you know Margarito and Lourdes?
He says he didn't know them. That he had been a reporter for 7-months when they were murdered
According to Reporters Without Borders, two journalists have been killed in Mexico so far this year. In the first six months of 2025, eight journalists were killed.
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Vicente Calderon | Tijuanapress.com
11;35;07;22
I began in 1985 and by 1988 I was aware of my first colleague being killed. Hector “Gato” Felex.
That’s Vicente Calderon, he’s been a journalist in Tijuana since 1985. Héctor “Gato” Félix helped to found the famous investigative weekly Zeta Tijuana.
Calderon’s office is filled with his journalism awards, books about journalism and the memorabilia of old stories.
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Vicente Calderon | Tijuanapress.com
11:43:54:07
When you see that there are consequences people think twice. We haven't seen that in the recent killings in Mexico and here in Tijuana.
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14;16;31;50
Si es aqui
(Turn signal nats)
Back on assignment with Urenda we pull into the museum hosting a Baja security conference.
We walk into the Comité Ciudadano de Seguridad Pública de Tijuana or the Tijuana Citizen Public Security Committee meeting.
Urenda dives right into questioning the president of the committee.
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14;26;59;10
Giovanny Urenda | El Sol de Tijuana
Cuánto tiempo dura su antecesor y por qué es importante estar haciendo este.
He asks - How long will your predecessor last? And why is it important to be doing this?
Old fashioned beat reporting, like covering committee meetings, isn't the only kind of journalism in Tijuana.
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15;22;52;31
Joebeth Terriquez | Photojournalist
NATS shutter
That's the sound of photojournalist Joebeth Terriquez at work. Nicknamed Joe Black, he specializes in social issues.
We met up with him at the migrant shelter Movimiento Juventud 2000.
He’s known for immersing himself in his work.
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14;52;49;57
Joebeth Terriquez | Photojournalist
“I used to sleep in the camp with them and still I do that sometimes.”
Time equals access for Terriquez. But that comes with its own set of dangers.
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15;07;33;09
Joebeth Terriquez | Photojournalist
“If you want to be a journalist, this type of journalist, you got to know that some day, because of what you’re doing, something is going to go terribly wrong.”
Mexico has a system to protect journalists called the Mecanismo de Protección Para Personas Defensoras de Derechos Humanos y Periodistas.
In 2019 Tijuana journalist Lourdes Maldonado told the then president of Mexico she feared for her life.
Lourdes Maldonado y AMLO.mp4
00:00:08:18 - 00:00:41:16
Lourdes Maldonado | tijuana journalist
Porque temo por mi vida,
I fear for my life, she said.
Maldonado was shot in front of her home on January 23, 2022. She was the second Tijuana journalist killed in less than a week. The first was Margarito Martínez, killed on January 17 of that same year.
Since then Calderon says being a journalist isn’t any safer and there is a new kind of threat on the rise.
CARLOS_0554-003.MXF
Vicente Calderon | Tijuanapress.com
11:24:29:17
“Legal harassment or the stigmatisation from the government, politicians complaining about journalists being sicarios of the pen. Those things are making the situation more complicated.”
Terriquez says his wife has asked him to stop.
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15;04;11;13
Joebeth Terriquez | Photojournalist
“My wife she kind of told me to drop it because I got a lot of threats.“
[but sots together]
15;06;40;00
“She knows that if they kill me it’s because I did something right.”
The risks don’t stop them.
In spite of the threats Terriquez will dodge Tijuana traffic to get a photo.
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15;25;28;36
Nats of running road and shutter
Urenda will question authority
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Giovanny Urenda | El Sol de Tijuana
“Que le corresponde a las autoridades, y que le corresponde a la comunidad?
What falls to the authorities, and what falls to the community?
And though it all Calderon says there is hope.
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11;53;11;25
When the authorities are not paying attention when things are not going according to the law, they call the reporters. And the reporters from Tijuana are answering.”
Matthew Bowler KPBS News
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SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY IS USING A-I TO TRACK THE MIGRATION OF HOMELESS PEOPLE IN THE COUNTY.
REPORTER KATIE HYSON SAYS THE SCIENCE IS SURPRISINGLY HUMAN.
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San Diego County measures its homeless population with an annual Point-in-Time Count.
SOT :06 But we know that homeless population is actually very dynamic. They're moving every single days.
Ming Tsou (tsoh) is a geography professor at S-D-S-U. He leads the project.
It uses AI to identify tents in aerial and streetview images – like those you can see on Google Maps. It estimates how many people live inside by their size.
The information could help decide where to place resources like shelters, handwashing stations, and street medicine teams.
The project relies on artificial intelligence. But it’s also very human.
His students drive around to see where AI is making errors and why.
They survey the people living outside. Ask questions like – why here? Where did you stay yesterday and why did you leave?
SOT :10 When we analyze the data it’s just a number. Digital numbers, digital maps. But every single number behind that is a story of a unhoused individuals.
He plans to one day use the model to make predictions. To help communities prepare before homeless people move.
Katie Hyson, KPBS News
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MORE NEWS COMING OUT OF SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY…
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 20 YEARS A DISABLED VETERAN IS BACK ON A BICYCLE… AND HAS S-D-S-U ENGINEERING STUDENTS TO THANK FOR IT.
MILITARY AND VETERANS REPORTER ANDREW DYER SAYS FOR THE STUDENTS IT WAS MORE THAN JUST A HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT.
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At the start of the fall semester a team of San Diego State engineering students connected with Marine veteran Josh Doyle.
Doyle was injured in Iraq in 2003, leaving him unable to ride a bike.The students, led by senior Will Brandenberger, decided to change that.
WB: , there was a couple of designs we went back and forth with a flywheel design or a crank design, but ultimately decided something that would feel similar to riding a bicycle itself is more important.
The solution is a modified pedal that allows Doyle to evenly pedal with both legs even though one has a much shorter rotation.
The team won’t get its final grade until next week but Doyle gives them an A plus.
JD: It's been great. It's been actually very easy, a lot more intuitive, easier than I thought I was going to be with my leg. So I'm very excited about that. I thought it was gonna be a lot more awkward and caused a lot more pain, but it's really, really flawless.
Andrew Dyer, KPBS News.
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THE RECORD BREAKING MARINE HEAT WAVE ALONG SAN DIEGO AND THE REST OF THE WEST COAST CONTINUES.
ENVIRONMENT REPORTER TAMMY MURGA SAYS NOW, SCIENTISTS ARE LOOKING AT A NEW HEAT WAVE FORMING FAR OFFSHORE.
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At the end of the Scripps pier, researchers take daily measurements of ocean temperatures.
18.95 is what the surface is what we got. That’s warm.
For months, temperatures have risen 3 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit above normal.
Melissa Carter is with Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
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“In January and February, we started seeing these consistent, 90th percentile, 95th percentile, record breaking temperatures that were occurring along the coast.”
Scientists say this event is an anomaly because the coastal ocean has remained warm without an El Niño at the equator.
Andrew Leising is with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He says a separate heat wave is forming hundreds of miles off the Pacific coast.
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“Every year we seem to be getting these heat waves that start way offshore about this time of year, get bigger and get to the coast and impact us, typically get us in the late summer and fall.”
He’s monitoring whether the two marine heat waves will merge. The question he’s raising is…if an El Niño forms…how will the long exposure to warm water impact marine wildlife.
NOAA’s latest El Niño forecast shows a 61% chance the weather system will form by July. Tammy Murga, KPBS News
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DOZENS OF ARTS AND CULTURE ORGANIZATIONS SPOKE OUT AGAINST PROPOSED CUTS AT THE CITY COUNCIL BUDGET REVIEW MEETING YESTERDAY (WEDNESDAY)
REPORTER ALEXANDER NGUYEN SAYS SEVERAL COUNCILMEMBERS VOICED THEIR SUPPORT FOR THE ARTS AND CULTURE GRANTS PROGRAM.
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ARTSFUNDS1 (an) TRT: 0:49 SOQ
The proposed budget slashes arts funding by $11.8 million.
Councilmember Kent Lee … who ran the nonprofit Pacific Arts Movement before being elected … says the cuts would devastate the arts community in San Diego.
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CG: KENT LEE // SAN DIEGO CITY COUNCIL, DISTRICT 6
“If we're going to be making cuts, we need to think about what the potential impact is and how we ensure that we don't just decimate one part of our economy here in San Diego, just in the name of accomplishing a reduction in numbers.”
He says these arts and cultural institutions help to increase tourism, which generates revenue to support other city services.
According to the city’s latest Arts and Economic Prosperity report, the nonprofit arts and culture sector generated 1-point-2 billion dollars in economic activity.
The city council will continue to review the budget until Friday. The mayor is expected to release his revised budget proposal by May 13th. AN/KPBS
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HALLOWEEN IS STILL SIX MONTHS AWAY. ARTS REPORTER BETH ACCOMANDO SAYS IF YOU’RE IMPATIENT FOR THE WITCHY SEASON TO START, YOU CAN CHECK OUT THE THIRD ANNUAL FRIGHT MART THIS SATURDAY.
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Jennifer Cooksey and fellow artist Attiba Royster love horror but they got tired of having to go to L.A. to find spooky themed conventions and events.
JENNIFER COOKSEY So my partner Atiba and I decided that we wanted to bring it all here. So we created Fright Mart as a means to celebrate our local horror community, and we don't have to travel all the way to LA to do it. Fright Mart is an art and entertainment pop up market that focuses on San Diego and SoCal horror creators.
JENNIFER COOKSEY It celebrates spooky season when it's like halfway to Halloween, when you miss it the most.
It’s a family friendly event featuring a vendor market, art show, hands on classes, and for the first time a Scholastic… umm, I mean Ghoulastic Book Fair.
JENNIFER COOKSEY It's basically a play on the book fairs of old, but the book fair is all horror and spooky themed, and we have comics as well. So it's going to be really fun.
Fright Mart takes place Saturday at the Handlery Hotel in Mission Valley. Tickets are $10 and attendees are encouraged to cosplay. And since it’s Mother’s Day weekend, you can take a photo with Norman Bates’ mom.
MUSIC Psycho music sting.
Beth Accomando, 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 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!
