The start of San Diego’s guaranteed income program
Good Morning, I’m Annica Colbert….it’s Wednesday March 16th>>>>
Bringing San Diego families guaranteed income
More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….######
The median price of an existing, single family home in San Diego county is eight hundred and eighty eight thousand dollars – as of February. That’s over ten-thousand dollars more than last month, and a hundred thousand dollars more than a year ago. That’s according to data from the California Association of Realtors.
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A former Coronado resident and army veteran was sentenced on Tuesday to three months in prison for being part of the January 6th insurrection. 34-year old Jeffery Smith pleaded guilty last year to misdemeanor counts of parading, demonstrating and picketing in the Capitol building. According to prosecutors, Smith helped move iron benches in front of the closed doors of the capitol, allowing rioters access to the capitol.
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A Lincoln High School student suspected of having a gun on campus was arrested by police after a standoff that lasted over an hour. The incident happened Tuesday around 2:30 in the afternoon. The student had been brought to the principal’s office for questioning but then managed to lock himself in the room and refused to come out. According to SDPD’s Adam Sharki, the student had a ghost gun tucked in his pants when he was taken into custody.
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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.
San Diego's first ever guaranteed income project is officially underway. Families received their first checks Tuesday.
kpbs race and equity reporter cristina kim has more on the “san diego for every child” pilot project.
150 households across San Diego County received payments of $500 dollars on Tuesday as part of San Diego’s first guaranteed income project.
Khea Pollard is the Director of San Diego For Every Child. She’s been signing up families for the past few months and has heard first hand the impact this additional money will have on them.
I've heard families say things like, I want to use this to pay for my family's medical bills. I want to find child care for my son or daughter. I want to use this money to save. One family was talking to me about how to use this money to take her children out, you know, to have fun and do some bonding stuff. And all of those things are so important to what we're doing and how we want to strengthen and support families.
The 2.9 million dollar program will run for two years. The goal? To measure how it impacts participating families and evaluate the program’s ability to scale up if the pilot is successful.
Cristina Kim. KPBS.
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the san diego county sheriff’s department and the san diego police department are facing criticism over the deadly shooting of a woman earlier this month. kpbs reporter john carroll has more.
VIDEO RELEASED OF THE INCIDENT SHOWS A DEPUTY SERVING 47-YEAR OLD YAN LI EVICTION PAPERS AT HER LITTLE ITALY CONDO. SHE THREW THEM BACK AT HIM AND BARRICADED HERSELF. OVER THE NEXT 45-MINUTES, DEPUTIES AND SAN DIEGO POLICE OFFICERS TRIED TO GET LI TO COME OUT. THEY MADE ENTRY INTO HER APARTMENT TRYING TO SUBDUE HER WITH BEANBAG ROUNDS AND A K-9. BUT THE VIDEO SHOWS HER COMING AT THEM WITH A KNIFE… SHE WAS SHOT DEAD IN A BUILDING HALLWAY. COMMUNITY ADVOCATE TASHA WILLIAMSON SAYS THE INCIDENT WAS MISHANDLED.
“THEY SHOULD HAVE USED DEESCALATION TRAINING AND DEESCALATION. THEY DID NOT HAVE TO ENTER HER HOME BECAUSE SHE WAS NOT A THREAT TO ANYONE.”
THE POLICE DEPARTMENT IS HANDLING THE INVESTIGATION. THEY DECLINED COMMENT AS THE INVESTIGATION IS ONGOING. JC, KPBS NEWS.
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A local school is incorporating the war in Ukraine into its lessons. KPBS education reporter M.G. Perez has more
Some students at Canyon Crest Academy in Carmel Valley start every morning with a discussion on the latest news from the war zone in Ukraine. The Current Issues elective class is studying what is accurate and not fake news. The San Diego County Office of Education has also provided resources to schools to help students in learning about the conflict.
17-year old senior Elizabeth Campbell-Budilenko has family who was forced to evacuate to Poland
"Terrible…the war going on…the whole thing is a mess. It shouldn’t have happened in the first place. There are so many things that could have gone differently”
The County has also provided schools with social and emotional resources to help students process what they see on social media and the internet. MGP KPBS News
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Coming up.... New data says fear of racial discrimination plays a large role in how service members of color pick their careers. We have that story next, just after the break.
New research shows that fear of racial discrimination weighs heavily in career decisions among some military service members of color. Troops are turning down duty assignments because they don't want to move to certain bases or military towns. That can affect their careers … and America's military readiness.
Desiree Diorio reports for the American Homefront Project.
Almost a third of the military families in the survey say they’ve refused orders to relocate because of worries about the racial climate at the new installation. And more than half of them say the decision hurt their careers.
The study is one of a handful in recent years that explores how race and discrimination affect the everyday lives of service members. The results are mixed. Most respondents say the military has had a positive effect on them overall, but many also reported outright discrimination like racial slurs, and fear for their safety on and off base.
Jenny Akin is one of the researchers at Blue Star Families who worked on the study.
“Active duty family respondents of color are making very big decisions about military life, based on perceptions of racism and fear for their family’s safety.”
Akin says many of the service members who turned down relocation orders faced other consequences, like unfair negative performance reviews, or opportunities for career advancement that disappeared.
“Obviously, these are huge conversations. Decisions in all of them affect overall military readiness and retention.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Defense did not comment directly on the findings in the Blue Star Families report, but said in a statement that the department is now studying the roadblocks that keep service members of color from advancing.
Retired First Sergeant CT Moss says she never turned down an assignment in her 24 year Army career, but she’s wanted to. Now, she runs the Racial Equity & Inclusion Initiative for Blue Star Families. Back in 2014, she was a single mom trying to make her way up the Army ranks.
“I remember originally saying, ‘I do not want to go to Mississippi, I do not hear great things about that area when it comes to my family,’ just being an African American family. But we went because it was going to be great for my career.”
She says she was in Mississippi only a few months before she became concerned about the safety of her then-13-year-old son.
“My son was racially profiled in our neighborhood where we lived - twice. Twice. And once was from an undercover cop who didn't identify himself. And so it got to a point where I had to make a decision.”
So Moss sent him to Florida to live with other family members while he attended high school.
“That's a situation that I tucked away for many years. I never even thought to talk to my chain of command about it.”
But she says now, those conversations about what’s going on in military communities need to happen in the open.
“It's okay to have these uncomfortable conversations and to talk about this, even within our ranks, because we never know who else may have similar experiences.”
Blue Star Families says that the racial climate in military towns will become even more important in the next several years - as the American population, and the military, become increasingly diverse.
One of their key recommendations is to strengthen the relationship between bases and their surrounding communities so that military families of color feel safe enough to stay in the service.
I’m Desiree Diorio on Long Island.
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50 years after it opened, the san diego va will become the first va named after a female veteran of color. kpbs military reporter steve walsh has the story.
March 15, 1972, with the Vietnam War winding down, the San Diego VA Hospital opened its doors in LaJolla. Ironically, the day before the 50 year anniversary, president Biden signed the bill naming the hospital for Capt. Jennifer Moreno. The 25 year old Army nurse was killed in Afghanistan. Dr. Arnold Gass Has been with the VA since 1972.
“It will be a place where people should remember why it’s called a veteran’s facility. And why we need to take care of veterans of all types, all genders, all gender choices. That's what's going to happen for me.”
The San Diego VA is the first VA in the country, named after a woman veteran of color. Steve Walsh KPBS News.
A group called San Diego Oasis has opened a space at the Grossmont Mall where seniors can come and learn tech skills. KPBS reporter Thomas Fudge visited the Tech Tank.
The Tech Tank is a glass-in room full of homey furniture in the Headquarter of San Diego oasis. It’s a place where the instructors will try to close a digital divide that is holding back elderly people unfamiliar with computers and smartphones. Raul Bernal-gonzalez is one of the instructors there. He says many of the problems older people have with digital technology are familiar to most of us.
“Like how to save a picture to a phone. How to save an attachment from an email. If I take a picture how do I send it?”
He told a story of a woman who wanted to delete some email messages but was very concerned she’d also delete some photos of her granddaughter, embedded in the email. A donation from Cox Communications made the Tech Tank possible. Thomas Fudge, KPBS news.
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filmout san diego is screening john waters’ hairspray today at 7 p.m. –as part of its ongoing monthly film series. the film is set in waters’ beloved baltimore in the 1960s as teens deal with everything from beehive hairdos to racial integration.
kpbs film critic beth accomando reminds us why the film is important to celebrate.
Harris Glen Milstead was an actor who gave the world the gift of Divine, a 300-pound drag queen who was the unmistakable star of John Waters’ cinematic universe.
CLIP Honey stick with me and we’ll claw our way to the top.
Waters and the outrageously glamorous Divine brought bad taste to the level of art and launched an all out satiric assault on the middle class values that they saw as oppressive and hypocritical. Waters displayed a keen eye for social observation and genuine compassion for the social misfit. He would hone those skills to perfection in Hairspray in 1988 in which Divine played the mother of a rebellious teen.
CLIP It’s the times, they are a changing, there’s something blowin’ in the wind. Now fetch me my diet pills.
FilmOut is screening the Divine version of Hairspray, not the 2007 remake with John Travolta in a fat suit. Divine gave us a new definition of beauty, one that proudly did not conform to society’s norms. Milstead passed away in 1988 just as Divine was finding mainstream success. Filmout celebrates Milstead’s Divine legacy with Hairspray this Wednesday.
Beth Accomando, KPBS News.
That’s it for the podcast today. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. I’m Annica Colbert. Thanks for listening and have a great day.
