Two men admit their charity was fake and they pocketed the money
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Good Morning, I’m Lawrence K. Jackson, it’s FRIDAY, MARCH 13TH>>>> [AN OLD TRADITION THAT TWO MEN TURNED INTO A SCAM]More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….
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GOVERNOR GAVIN NEWSOM SAYS THAT DESPITE A WARNING FROM THE F-B-I, THERE IS NO IMMINENT THREAT TO THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA FROM IRAN
THE FBI RECENTLY SENT WARNING TO POLICE DEPARTMENTS THAT IRAN COULD SEND DRONES TO THE WEST COAST AS AN ACT OF RETALIATION
CBS8 SAYS THAT CAMP PENDELTON ALSO CONFIRMED THEY RECEIVED THE WARNING
THE FBI MEMO SAID THAT QUOTE IRAN ALLEGEDLY ASPIRED TO CONDUCT A SURPRISE ATTACK USING UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES FROM AN UNIDENTIFIED VESSEL OFF THE COAST UNQUOTE…
IT ADDED THAT THE INFORMATION WAS BASED ON UNVERIFIED INTELLIGENCE
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NEW E BIKE RULES COULD SOON BE COMING TO THE CITY OF SAN DIEGO.
THE SAN DIEGO CITY COUNCIL'S PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE ON WEDNESDAY UNANIMOUSLY APPROVED OF THE NEW SAFETY REGULATIONS
IT NOW HEADS TO THE FULL CITY COUNCIL IN THE COMING WEEKS
IF PASSED BY THE FULL COUNCIL, ANYONE UNDER 12 YEARS OLD WILL BE RESTRICTED FROM RIDING AN E-BIKE
IT ALSO ONLY ALLOWS PASSENGERS IF THE E-BIKE HAS A DEDICATED SEAT FOR THEM
COUNCILMAN RAUL CAMPILLO PROPOSED THE MEASURE
BOTH CARLSBAD AND CHULA VISTA HAVE ALREADY ADOPTED E-BIKE SAFETY GUIDELINES AND RESTRICTIONS
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THE U-T SAYS THAT NEARLY ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS IS BEING ALLOCATED TO A COUNTY-PROPOSED BEHAVIORAL HEALTH-WELLNESS CAMPUS IN THE MIDWAY DISTRICT
NORTH COUNTY'S PALOMAR HEALTH ALSO RECEIVED FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS IN GRANT FUNDS TO GO TOWARDS BUILDING A 120-BED BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CAMPUS AT THEIR ESCONDIDO LOCATION
THE MONEY IS FROM THE SECOND ROUND OF PROPOSITION 1 FUNDING. THIS ROUND IS INTENDED TO GO TOWARDS MENTAL HEALTH AND SUBSTANCE USE TREATMENT
PROPOSITION 1 WAS APPROVED BY VOTERS IN 20-24. IT REALLOCATED FUNDS GENERATED BY A STATE-WIDE, ONE PERCENT TAX ON PERSONAL INCOMES EXCEEDING 1 MILLION DOLLARS.
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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STADIUMS AND ARENAS HAVE LONG RELIED ON VOLUNTEER ORGANIZATIONS TO RUN CONCESSION STANDS BUT FOR THIS WEEK’S WHY IT MATTERS SEGMENT, VOICE OF SAN DIEGO’S SCOTT LEWIS EXPLAINS HOW FEDERAL PROSECUTORS GOT TWO MEN TO ADMIT THEIR CHARITY WAS FAKE
FAKECHARITY (vosd) TRT 1:53 SOQ "why it matters"
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The Padres continued an old tradition of allowing nonprofits to operate concession stands with volunteers. A volunteer group would run them in exchange for about 10 percent of the money collected at the stands. It was a win-win: A community benefit organization would get much-needed money and the stadium operators were able to staff concession stands even with the irregular scheduling of games and events.
But someone took advantage of it.
In August 2023, Voice of San Diego revealed what appeared to be a fake charity operating concession stands at Petco Park. Chula Vista Fast Pitch was the biggest operator at Petco Park. They said the money was going to Chula Vista Fast Pitch, a youth softball league.
But no such league existed.
This week, the two men who ran the fake charity and paid supposed volunteers under the table and below minimum wage admitted to collecting $3.75 million meant for youth softball mostly at Petco Park but some at Snapdragon Stadium. And they put $2 million of that into their own pockets.
Martin Rebollo and Noly Ilarde both pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.
After our reporting began more than two years ago, the operators at Petco Park and Snapdragon Stadium kicked Chula Vista Fast Pitch out of their facilities.
The charity system is in place in hundreds of stadiums and arenas across the country and they are often publicly owned facilities. The city of San Diego owns Petco Park. San Diego State University owns Snapdragon Stadium.
There is still very little oversight ensuring nonprofits taking the revenue from big events are legitimate charities and no major reforms have taken place, meaning workers may still be getting paid below minimum wage and under the table. Legitimate charities may be losing opportunities to scams.
For Voice of San Diego, I’m Scott Lewis and that’s why it matters.
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LAST YEAR, ICE AGENTS ARRESTED MORE THAN 250 CHILDREN FROM THE SAN DIEGO REGION. AND MANY MORE KIDS HAD AT LEAST ONE PARENT GET TAKEN AWAY BY FEDERAL AGENTS.
EXPERTS TELL REPORTER GUSTAVO SOLIS HOW THESE EXPERIENCES TRAUMATIZE CHILDREN.
CHILDDETAIN (4:40) SOQ
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It’s a parent’s nightmare … not being there to pick up your kids from school. Leaving them alone, wondering what happened to mom and dad.
That’s what happened to Reinaldo Chirino and his wife Estefany Pineda in January. When ICE agents arrested them in Chula Vista right after the couple dropped their kids off at school.
BOWLER_5934 00:03:46:13 / 15:13:30:16“As they were being processed the mom in particular was very very local about her children that there was no family that was going to be able to pick them up. There was no help with childcare.”
Nerea Sholl is their immigration lawyer. It took her about a month to reunite the family. But even in that short amount of time – the parents noticed changes in their kids.
BOWLER_5934 00:06:20:15 / 15:16:24:28“We won’t know the full impact because this is still so fresh. But already the parents have told me ample examples of things their kids have said that it’s clear they’ve been traumatized.”
The older son – a 14-year-old, already had a healthy fear of ICE, but now he is terrified. And the youngest son – who is 5 – is showing signs of separation anxiety.
BOWLER_5934 00:08:09:26 / 15:18:13:29“That first night, when the mom was home, she was putting the kids to bed, the little boy looked at her and said if I go to sleep are you going to be here when I wake up in the morning?”
It’s unclear exactly how many children in San Diego have been impacted by the immigration enforcement system. But federal data does tell us ICE agents arrested nearly 260 minors in San Diego and Imperial counties last year. A massive increase from 2024 when ICE agents only arrested 27 children.
While we don’t know how many kids are impacted - we do know that any contact with the immigration enforcement system is traumatic for them.
CHILDSAFETY 00:04:38:09“Immigration enforcement and the harms it caused, were nothing new to immigrant children and families and we have enough science out there to be able to state facts that we knew there was enough evidence to support.”
Dalal Katsiaficas is an associate professor of educational psychology at the University of Illinois Chicago. She says decades of research reveal a long list of negative impacts.
CHILDSAFETY 00:08:32:06“Increasing risk for depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, separation anxiety, we’re seeing negative impacts developmentally in terms of meeting milestones.”
That’s something that Mickey Donovan-Kaloust has witnessed first-hand. She’s the director of legal services at the San Diego-based Immigrant Defenders Law Center - which represents dozens of children in federal custody.
IMMDEF 00:07:08:22“The children are really suffering. We are seeing a lot of tearfulness, a lot of mistrust of adults – you know they will shut down and won’t want to meet with their attorney anymore.
In San Diego, adults in immigration custody are housed at the Otay Mesa Detention Center. But children are kept in smaller facilities spread throughout San Diego.
Those facilities are overseen by the Office of Refugee and Resettlement, or ORR.
IMMDEF 00:03:51:24“ORR custody can look like a shelter or group home setting, it can look like a foster care setting, it can look like a locked juvenile facility and at different times in history it can look like an abandoned Walmart or a tent city depending on what the administration in charge is doing at the time.”
The spaces are meant to be temporary. But lawyers have noticed the Trump administration keeps them detained much longer than previous administrations. According to federal data - the average length of stay was 30 days in 2024 and more than 110 days last year.
Donovan-Kaloust says it’s because the agency is making it harder for sponsors to get children out of detention.
IMMDEF 00:06:10:12“They’re supposed to decide that application within 10 days and what we’re seeing is family members are submitting those applications, showing that they’ve completed every step that’s been asked of them and then there’s no response for months and months.”
And the longer they stay in detention, the more these kids suffer. Donovan-Kaloust says some children have been hospitalized with psychiatric holds due to the stress of living in those facilities.
In a statement, a spokesperson for ORR says its placement decisions are guided by child welfare best practices … and designed to ensure each child is housed in the safest, most developmentally appropriate setting.
Gustavo Solis, KPBS News
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THE CALIFORNIA DMV SAYS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS REQUIRING THEM TO CANCEL ROUGHLY 13 THOUSAND COMMERCIAL LICENSES FOR TRUCK DRIVERS WITHOUT CITIZENSHIP OR LAWFUL PERMANENT RESIDENT STATUS.
REPORTER JACOB AERE SAYS IT APPLIES TO DRIVERS WITH SOME WORK VISAS, REFUGEE OR ASYLUM STATUS… AND DACA RECIPIENTS.
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TRUCKDRIVERS 1 (:58)
It’s the latest in a months-long bureaucratic saga between the federal government, state of California, and advocacy groups.
The federal government completed a nationwide audit on what are called "non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses” last year.
It said in California alone, more than 25 percent were improperly issued.
Gurvinder Singh is International Humanitarian Aid Director for United Sikhs. About 40 percent of West Coast truck drivers are Sikh. He told KPBS Midday Edition the new federal rule means fear and uncertainty.
“We feel the administration has jumped the gun. They have arbitrarily and we feel discriminatorily …. denied everyone access to a livelihood without any data, without any substance.”
The DMV says a recent court ruling lets affected individuals apply for new licenses, but the federal rule bars the agency from processing them. Jacob Aere, KPBS News.
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HOUSING IS THE NUMBER ONE EXPENSE FOR MOST SAN DIEGANS. NUMBER TWO IS TRANSPORTATION…THAT'S ACCORDING TO THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.
IN OUR LATEST INSTALLMENT OF "PRICE OF SAN DIEGO," METRO REPORTER ANDREW BOWEN LOOKS INTO WHY TRANSPORTATION IS SO EXPENSIVE HERE, AND HOW SOME ARE FINDING WAYS TO SAVE.
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CARCOST (ab) 4:26 soq
AB: The first car Monica De La Cruz ever bought was a black 2012 Honda Civic. It was also her last.
MDLC: I only had the car for maybe six months. I've just started making payments on it, and then just as we moved back to San Diego, actually, I got in a crash. The car was totaled.
AB: Suddenly, what had been an expense costing hundreds of dollars a month turned into a pretty big check.
MDLC: Yeah, money was tight at that time. (00:03:19:17) I had this decision where I got the full value of the car from my insurance, but we had just moved to North Park. I had just accepted a job actually that week in Balboa Park, and our new apartment was maybe a mile from my new office. And so I just thought, let's see how long we can make this work.
AB: De La Cruz put the insurance money into savings, bought a bike off Craigslist and decided to become car-free. That was eight and a half years ago, and she has no regrets. She still shares a car with her husband, Alex Gerlock. But since they both got remote jobs in 2022, neither spends much time behind the wheel. Gerlock says it helps living in a walkable neighborhood with decent access to public transit.
AG: The benefit, or the biggest change that I see is just spending more time either at home or near home instead of feeling like, oh, I can go anywhere at any time because I can drive there. And now there's just a lot more thought in, is it worth driving there? Is there an alternative method like going to North Park, Hillcrest? Any places within five miles I don't really want to drive there — and now we don't most of the time.
AB: And in terms of dollars and cents, being a one-car household has helped them feel more financially secure.
AG: Knowing that you have a cushion, yeah, you can go out a little bit more often or know that a little higher expense here and there is not really going to hurt you, hurt your bottom line.
AB: Car payments, maintenance, insurance and gas take up almost a fifth of the average household budget in San Diego. The most recent consumer spending survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics found San Diego has the third highest transportation cost burden in the country.
NK: Household auto debt has been going up for the past several decades. It's been rising dramatically.
AB: Nicholas Klein is a professor of city and regional planning at Cornell. He says cars can definitely increase a household's earnings potential. But they come with hidden costs. As households take out longer-term auto loans, more of their money is going toward interest rather than paying off the vehicle. And the cost of repairs can hit you like a truck.
NK: We can expect they will happen and maybe we can cross our fingers and hope the transmission doesn't break and cost us $2,000 or whatever to repair, but it probably will at some point, but we don't know when. And for households who don't have a ton of money, that can be very difficult and challenging.
AB: Klein says San Diego's high transportation costs are likely because people here own more cars than their peers in other cities, and drive longer distances. Building a city with lower transportation costs, he says, requires investing in alternatives to car ownership, like biking and public transit.
NK: And that takes a long time, right? To rebuild our landscapes, to rebuild our built environment, our cities and neighborhoods is not a quick fix. But sort of setting that in place and being able to sort of begin investing in that, can have long-term benefits for people's budgets, for the city's budgets, for public health, for transportation outcomes.
AB: Monica De La Cruz now lives in Golden Hill, right on a bus line and within walking distance to the trolley.
MDLC: I have an e-bike as well as a traditional bike. Alex has an e-bike as well. These are our car replacers.
AB: Living car-free has gotten a lot easier in recent years, and doesn't really feel like a sacrifice to her. As much as it's helped her finances, one of the greatest benefits of riding the bus is feeling more connected to her community.
MDLC: I love how often, you know, there'll be a parent with a young child and I get to see like a baby and there'll be other people, passengers on the bus that try to make them laugh. And it's just really nice to see. And it's just like a spontaneous thing that you don't really expect in your commute as you're going to do errands and going to the grocery store, but (00:25:35:19) it just feels way more like you're part of a community. And these little interactions all make it feel worth living here and that I am a part of San Diego so much more so than when I was alone stuck in a car.
AB: Andrew Bowen, KPBS news.
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ON SATURDAY, A NEW EXHIBIT OPENS AT THE CALIFORNIA CENTER FOR THE ARTS, ESCONDIDO — A MAGICAL FOREST WITH CREATURES MADE FROM PERSIAN RUGS.
ARTS REPORTER JULIA DIXON EVANS SAYS IT'S INSPIRED BY THE ARTIST'S CHILDHOOD IN IRAN.
PERSIANART 1 (1:12) SOQ
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Maryam Bayat Marry-um Bye-ut spent her childhood summers in Iran's bucolic north —
"it's a place beside the sea full of trees and breezes and wild animals"
— and exploring her father's rug shop in Tehran.
"my childhood was uh running through these um um stocks of rugs and the light coming through and the smell you know I think you're sensing the smell here"
Now, Bayat uses old Persian rugs as a canvas.
She paints new designs, and sculpts them into animals and trees — adding her own stories to those of the women who first wove the rugs.
"they used to sit down and weave thinking of their life, their story. all of the rugs had a story behind it. "
The exhibit, Unrolling Paradise, coincides with the Persian celebration of spring, Nowruz (no-ROOZ) — happening amid war in the Middle East.
"This year it's very different. Yes, it's it's hopeful, it's sad, it's um it's it's full of mixed feelings. it's a nowruz so it's a new in everything, you know? It's a start. It's a new start and and I hope it has a good start to it."
Julia Dixon Evans, 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
THE ANNUAL CHERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL RUNS THROUGH SUNDAY AT THE JAPANESE FRIENDSHIP GARDEN
YOU CAN GO TO ENJOY THE BEAUTY OF THE CHERRY BLOSSOMS, AND ALSO CATCH SPECIAL PERFORMANCES, AND CHECK OUT THE WALL
OF LANTERNS AND COMMUNITY ART
ITS OPEN NOW THROUGH THE WEEKEND FROM 10 UNTIL 7 P-M EVERY DAY
ON SATURDAY YOU MIGHT JUST BE SEEING GREEN AS THE 44TH ANNUAL ST. PATRICKS DAY PARADE AND FESTIVAL KICKS OFF
IT STARTS AT 9 A-M AND GOES UNTIL 6 PM IN BALBOA PARK
THE PARADE WILL BE FILLED WITH DANCERS, BANDS, FLOATS AND
MORE AND IS FOLLOWED BY A FAMILY-FRIENDLY FESTIVAL WITH IRISH FOOD, CULTURAL EXHIBITS AND LIVE MUSIC
ALSO ON SATURDAY, YOUR SAN DIEGO WAVE F-C HAVE THEIR HOME OPENER AGAINST THE HOUSTON DASH
SNAPDRAGON STADIUM WILL GIVE FANS IN ATTENDANCE A RALLY TOWEL AND THERE WILL BE FAMILY-FRIEND ACTIVITIES BEFOREHAND
AS WELL
THE MATCH KICKS OFF AT 5:45!
WHATEVER YOU DO DECIDE TO DO THIS WEEKEND, ENJOY!
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That’s it for the podcast today. This podcast is edited by Brooke Ruth and 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.
