Ukrainian woman arrested after green card interview has now been released
Good Morning, I’m Lawrence K. Jackson….it’s THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11TH>>>> [WE HEAR FROM A WOMAN WHO WAS DETAINED BY ICE FOR SEVERAL DAYS …]More on that next. But first... the headlines…#######
SAN DIEGO MAYOR TODD GLORIA YESTERDAY ANNOUNCED AN INITIATIVE THAT SEEKS TO ALLOW MORE AFFORDABLE HOMEOWNERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES.
80% OF LAND IN SAN DIEGO THAT'S ZONED FOR HOUSING IS RESTRICTED TO SINGLE-FAMILY HOMES. THEY’RE OFTEN THE MOST EXPENSIVE KIND OF HOUSING.
THE NEIGHBORHOOD HOMES FOR ALL OF US INITIATIVE WOULD OPEN SOME OF THAT LAND TO LOWER-COST OPTIONS LIKE TOWNHOMES. GLORIA SAYS SAN DIEGO HAS BEEN FAIRLY SUCCESSFUL AT ADDING TO THE CITY'S HOUSING SUPPLY.
HOMESFORALL 2A 0:14
TG: But generally speaking, it's a lot of luxury rental housing and a fair amount of subsidized, deed-restricted affordable housing. What we're looking for is that middle-income housing, and hopefully, specifically, homeownership.
GLORIA SAID THE INITIATIVE'S DETAILS WILL BE DEVELOPED OVER THE NEXT YEAR IN A SERIES OF PUBLIC WORKSHOPS, FOCUS GROUPS AND SURVEYS.
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12 MILLION DOLLARS IN STATE GRANT FUNDS WILL GO TOWARDS COUNTY PROGRAMS AIMED AT PROVIDING SUPPORT FOR PEOPLE CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING OR AT-RISK OF HOMELESSNESS
THE SAN DIEGO COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS ACCEPTED THE FUNDS ON TUESDAY.
THE MONEY WILL SUPPORT A PROGRAM THAT TAPS PARTICIPATING HOTELS TO SERVE AS EMERGENCY HOUSING
THE COUNTY SAYS THAT PROGRAM HELPS UP TO 250 HOUSEHOLDS EVERY NIGHT…
WITH 40 PERCENT EVENTUALLY MOVING ON TO PERMANENT HOUSING
OTHER PROGRAMS INCLUDE THE LOCAL RENTAL SUBSIDY PROGRAM AND THE HOUSING OUR YOUTH PROGRAM
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YOUR SAN DIEGO PADRES WILL RETURN TO MEXICO'S CAPITAL IN THE
NEW YEAR
THE 20-26 'MEXICO CITY SERIES' TAKES PLACE ON SATURDAY, APRIL 25TH AND SUNDAY THE 26TH
THE SERIES WILL SEE THE PADRES FACEOFF TWICE AGAINST DIVISION RIVAL, THE ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS
THIS IS THE LATEST INSTALLMENT OF MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL'S
‘WORLD TOUR’
THE EVENT ALSO MARKS THE THIRD TIME THE MLB HAS VISITED MEXICO CITY IN THE REGULAR SEASON, THE SECOND FOR YOUR SAN DIEGO PADRES
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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ICE HAS RELEASED AN IMMIGRANT FROM UKRAINE WHO WAS ARRESTED AFTER HER GREEN CARD INTERVIEW LAST WEEK.
SHE SAYS SHE WAS HELD FOR DAYS INSIDE A FEDERAL BUILDING IN DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO. REPORTER KORI SUZUKI HAS THE DETAILS.
RELEASE 1 (1:13) SOQ
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Viktoriia Bulavina and her husband, Victor, clasp their hands in front of each other — wrists together, palms apart. Showing how Viktoriia says ICE officers shackled her hands and feet. Victor, a U.S. citizen, translates for her.
“Victoria managed to get in the van but it was really painful it like it cuts your legs basically by some shorter women they couldn't and they were kind of screaming.”
Viktoriia came to the U.S. three years ago through a temporary humanitarian program, after fleeing the war in Ukraine. She was in the final stages of the green card process when federal agents detained her late last week.
For three days, Viktoriia says, they held her in the basement of a federal building. She says she and other women had to use an open toilet in view of the guards. They were given expired food and didn’t have room to sleep. When they were moved, she says, ICE officers put them in shackles and chains.
“She felt like they were like telling her that she broke the laws on of the United States and that she might she was scared that she would not be able to get her life back.”
ICE released Viktoriia on Tuesday morning. She’s still not sure why she was released and what will happen with her green card application. And she says she’s still thinking about all of the other women she was detained with.
ICE did not respond to questions on Wednesday.
Kori Suzuki, KPBS News.
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THE SAN DIEGO CITY COUNCIL VOTED TUESDAY TO CONTINUE USING AUTOMATED LICENSE PLATE READERS.
METRO REPORTER ANDREW BOWEN SAYS IT WAS OVER THE OBJECTION OF PRIVACY ADVOCATES.
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SURVEILLANCE 2 (ab) 0:51 soq
AB: San Diego police say ALPRs are a force multiplier, helping detectives find stolen vehicles and solve crimes faster than ever. Critics say they create mass surveillance data that can be hard to contain and protect, in particular from federal immigration authorities. Councilmember Marni von Wilpert voted to continue using the technology, saying the benefits to local law enforcement were immense.
MVW: I cannot in good conscience take away a factual, evidential tool to prevent crimes and keep San Diegans safe on the theoretical possibility that this government, which is doing atrocious things, I agree, could access our data.
AB: City law requires an annual report on surveillance technologies, and an annual vote from the City Council to reauthorize their use. Andrew Bowen, KPBS news.
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THE DEMOLITION OF THE SAN ONOFRE NUCLEAR GENERATING STATION IS WELL UNDERWAY. BUT WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO ITS RADIOACTIVE WASTE SITTING ON THE COASTLINE?
ENVIRONMENT REPORTER TAMMY MURGA SAYS COUNTY LEADERS ARE LOOKING INTO SOLUTIONS.
The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station stopped producing electricity more than a decade ago. Its nuclear fuel is stored about 100 feet from the shoreline.
“There’s 1,400 tons in over 100 canisters sitting at the San Onofre site of spent nuclear fuel right now.”
The plant is in San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond’s district. He says having the used fuel idle there indefinitely is a problem.
“That spent nuclear fuel is still cooking for about the next 1,000 years, and those canisters aren't going to last that long.”
In 20-15, county leaders asked the U.S. Department of Energy to get rid of the nuclear fuel.
They said earthquakes and damage to storage canisters pose risks to the region.
The problem is … the federal government doesn’t have a permanent place to store all of the nation’s spent fuel.
Desmond says San Diegans shouldn’t have to keep waiting. His board colleagues agree.
Yesterday (Tuesday), they approved a plan to see if the fuel can be relocated and recycled into new fuel.
“Reprocessing it could unlock enormous amounts of energy.”
National laboratories and reactor companies are tapping into recycling technologies.
Medhi Saraam is a retired nuclear engineer. He says the challenge of removing and recycling is complex, expensive and …
"There's still a lot of opposition in America. Many states, the nuclear power, they feel is dangerous.
Southern California Edison owns the nuclear plant. A spokesperson told KPBS that they appreciate the attention to the issue but that any solution, quote, “should hold the federal government accountable to its obligations related to spent fuel storage and disposal.”
The county will look to partner with laboratories researching fuel recycling. Board members are expected to receive an update in 90 days. Tammy Murga, KPBS News.
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A NEW FEATURE ON THE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM X REVEALS SOME INFLUENTIAL POLITICAL ACCOUNTS ARE ACTUALLY FOREIGN ACTORS. REPORTER AMITA SHARMA SAYS THE REVELATION IS MORE EVIDENCE OF OUTSIDE EFFORTS TO FAN DIVISION AND SPREAD DISINFORMATION IN THE UNITED STATES.
SHE RECENTLY SPOKE TO IMRAN AHMED (IM-RAN AHH-MEDH), THE FOUNDER OF THE CENTER FOR COUNTERING DIGITAL HATE, ABOUT THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN AMERICA’S POLARIZATION AND WHAT EACH OF US CAN DO ABOUT IT.
DIVIDE PT3 (4:47) “...touch a bit of grass" (FEATURE)
Q. Some of the world’s largest tech companies are American owned. Many people blame their algorithms for intensifying political and cultural polarization. But policy experts tell me they don’t foresee regulation to address this problem anytime soon. Tell me what you are doing to tamp down the spread of disinformation and hate in the online space?
The first thing that we do is we want mandatory transparency of these platforms. We want to have enhanced access to data so that we can actually tell people facts like that, which help to help to inoculate people against the distortive lens of social media. So transparency first of all, and second of all, where they lead to real harm, and sometimes these things are innocuous or they are in the realms of free speech, but where they lead to, you know, perhaps violence or they lead to when it's disinformation about say healthcare, which can mean people take actions that harm their lives, may even kill them. That we want people to be able to hold them accountable if they're negligent in, in, in spreading lies that actually cause real world human harm.
Q. In the Charlie Kirk case, how much of what was posted online was coming from the right and left?
Just 0.4% of total posts were calling for retaliatory violence and 1.2% were glorifying his death. And they reached the same number of views, approximately around 50 million views each. But that's still staggering if you consider that 98% of people were basically saying this is horrible, you know, I wouldn't wish this on anyone, and they received a fraction of the number of views.
Q. How successful has your center been in countering digital hate?
We've managed to persuade lawmakers in the UK and the EU to actually put in place statutory transparency for these platforms to create mechanisms for holding them accountable if they harm kids or society. And in the US we've been working with lawmakers across the political spectrum who care about the impact on kids in particular, but also want to have greater transparency of how these platforms work. Any business that harms a consumer. that consumer can take legal action against them. You can't sue a social media company if they harm you or your kids,
Q. You reported last year that Instagram, in the majority of cases, took no action against people who posted toxic content against women politicians, even when those posts violated the platform's own rules.
Do you have any updates on that?
The truth is that Instagram has made no real progress in enhancing its ability to both detect and deal with real hate, you know, threats of rape, threats of murder, threats to harm people's families, harassment and stalking. The truth is that what's happened in that time is Mark Zuckerberg announced that he was actually getting rid of a lot of the enforcement that they had for their rules, for their community standards, and we found that actually things have degraded on that platform since our report came out.
Q. The social media platform X now shows the location of an account, the number of times a username has changed, and when it joined. What is your take on this new tool?
In the very short time that this transparency drive has been there, they've already come back and said, oops, it doesn't work very well, so don't take it too seriously.
That's not real transparency.
That is a simulation of transparency, a desperate attempt to make themselves part of the conversation around transparency.
When in reality, what we want to understand is how their algorithms work, how their content enforcement decisions work, how the advertising reshapes what we see on those platforms.
Q. What can people, regular citizens do to constrain the divisive effect of social media?
The best way to make sure that social media algorithms aren't. Reprogramming your understanding of what people are saying and what is normal in society is to put down your phone and go and talk to your other citizens, talk to other people, because the truth is that social media is inherently, by design, distortive. It seeks to present a world that is completely different to the real world that you live in. For only one purpose, which is to keep you addicted, to keep you scared, to keep you emotionally affected so you stay on that platform. There are incredibly unhealthy places to find information and to understand the world around you. And it's better to actually go out and have a conversation. You know, the kids, the Gen Z, they call it touching grass. I think it's time that we all put down our phones and touch a bit of grass.
TAG: THAT WAS KPBS’S AMITA SHARMA IN CONVERSATION WITH IMRAN AHMED (IM-RAAN AAH-MUDH) FROM THE CENTER FOR COUNTERING DIGITAL HATE.
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ANOTHER MAJOR AIRLINE IS RETURNING TO PALOMAR AIRPORT IN CARLSBAD.
THE COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS MADE IT OFFICIAL YESTERDAY DESPITE NEIGHBORS’ COMPLAINTS ABOUT NOISE.
NORTH COUNTY REPORTER ALEXANDER NGUYEN TELLS US … THERE’S STILL TURBULENCE OVER THE ISSUE
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UNITEDPAL 1 TRT: 0:53 SOQ
The supervisors approved the lease with United Airlines to operate out of McClellan-Palomar Airport.
NATPOP 4677_04 01;21;23;06 → 01;21;25;04 “Chair Lawson-Remer, the motion passes.”
But not without some questions about the legality of the deal.
The city of Carlsbad has insisted that Palomar is a general aviation airport … and opening it up to commercial flights constitutes an expansion.
Jason Haber is the city’s director of intergovernmental affairs.
“The city has consistently asserted its role in jurisdiction in making final land use decisions for new or expanded airport land uses, which requires the county to obtain an amendment to the airport’s conditional use permit.”
A county spokesperson says commercial airlines are using the airport facilities as-is … and therefore an amendment is not needed.
Carlsbad has joined a citizens’ group lawsuit against the county over its approval of American Airlines' lease earlier this year.
A lawyer for the citizens’ group says another suit will be filed. AN/KPBS
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ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN THE SOUTH BAY ARE COMPETING IN THE CHAMPIONSHIPS FOR A NEW SPORT IN THEIR DISTRICT TODAY (THURSDAY)
REPORTER JACOB AERE SAYS IT’S NOT PLAYED ON A FIELD, OR COURT BUT INSIDE OF A ROOM … ON A CHAIR … IN FRONT OF A SCREEN
SBESPORTS 1 (ja) 1:27
*nats of esports tourney, fade to ambi**
Inside of Imperial Beach’s West View Campus … game controllers and video screens fill the auditorium. Family and friends gather to watch their 3rd through 6th graders compete in the Bay Clash Championship …
6th grader Roel Araujo plays for Pence Elementary School.
“I was recently moving into my new school and my mom was looking through clubs because she has work. And she found esports and I asked her what's this about? And I got signed in.”
Students like Roel are taking part in the playoffs for the new South Bay Union School District esports league. It’s an organized video game competition.
In this case, the game they’re playing is Super Smash Bros on Nintendo Switch.
Mendoza Elementary esports coach Adrian Castro says esports are similar to any other sport.
“Esports teaches them a lot of life skills. It teaches them about discipline. This particular game itself, it teaches them how to work with a teammate.”
And in some cases… gaming is helping in the classroom too.
“They were coming in every day. Some of our students who had a lot of absenteeism issues, they were actually coming into school excited to participate.”
The San Diego county office of education says South Bay Union is the first elementary district in the region to have an esports program.
District leaders say season two starts in February. JA 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 thank you for that. Have a great day!
