Water and sewage rates will increase in the city of San Diego

Good Morning, I’m Lawrence K. Jackson. It’s WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29TH>>>>  [THE SAN DIEGO CITY COUNCIL VOTES TO  INCREASE WATER AND SEWER RATES]More on that next. But first... the headlines…#######

SAN DIEGO COUNTY OFFICIALS ANNOUNCED THAT DUE TO THE ONGOING FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, SAN DIEGANS WHO RECEIVE CALFRESH BENEFITS WILL SEE A DELAY IN THEIR NOVEMBER BENEFITS

THIS WILL HAPPEN EVEN IF A DEAL IS STRUCK IN WASHINGTON THIS WEEK

IT WILL IMPACT  MORE THAN 395 THOUSAND SAN DIEGANS 

AS A RESULT OF THIS, LOCAL NONPROFITS AND FOOD BANKS EXPECT TO SHOULDER MUCH OF THE BURDEN 

INFORMATION ON LOCAL FOOD RESOURCES CAN BE ACCESSED THROUGH THE 2-1-1 SAN DIEGO WEB PAGE OR BY CALLING 2-1-1 SAN     DIEGO 

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IN MORE SHUTDOWN RELATED NEWS … 

SAN DIEGO FLEET WEEK IS READY TO OFFICIALLY SET SAIL NEXT WEEK

BUT… CITING THE ONGOING GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, 

THE SAN DIEGO FLEET WEEK FOUNDATION JUST ANNOUNCED THE CANCELLATION OF SEVERAL KEY EVENTS

THE EVENT SCHEDULED FOR MONDAY AT BROADWAY PIER HAS ALREADY BEEN CANCELLED  

THE CANCELLATION COMES AFTER THE MARINES, NAVY AND COAST GUARD ADVISED THAT DUE TO THE SHUTDOWN, THE ARMED FORCES WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO PROVIDE THE EQUIPMENT AND SHIP  NECESSARY TO SUPPORT THE EVENT

OTHER CANCELLED EVENTS INCLUDE STUDENT STEM DAYS, 

A COMMUNITY BREAKFAST ABOARD THE U-S-S MIDWAY MUSEUM 

AND THE VETERANS AND MILITARY BOAT PARADE 

THERE ARE STILL MULTIPLE EVENTS BEING HELD, 

WHICH WE’LL TELL YOU MORE ABOUT AT THE END OF THE WEEK 

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AND NOW TO SOME S-D-S-U SPORTS NEWS 

FIRST UP IS SDSU’S FOOTBALL TEAM WHICH IS NOW BOWL ELIGIBLE FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2022

THIS COMES AFTER THE TEAM’S THIRD SHUTOUT OF THE SEASON. IT’S  THE FIRST TIME IN ITS DIVISION 1 HISTORY THAT THE TEAM HAS SHUT OUT THREE TEAMS IN THE SAME YEAR

AND AS WE TRANSITION OVER TO AZTEC BASEBALL, A FAMILIAR FACE HAS RETURNED 

FORMER 2019 WORLD SERIES MVP STEPHEN STRASBURG (STEE-VEN) IS RETURNING TO SDSU AS THE SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE TEAM’S HEAD COACH  

ANNOUNCED MONDAY, STRASBURG WILL LEND HIS SUPPORT TO ALL ASPECTS OF THE BASEBALL PROGRAM INCLUDING FUNDRAISING, SPECIAL EVENTS, AND ALUMNI AND DONOR RELATIONS WHILE ALSO OFFERING ASSISTANCE IN PITCHING DEVELOPMENT

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 SAN DIEGO CITY COUNCIL YESTERDAY (TUESDAY) APPROVED A SERIES OF INCREASES TO WATER AND SEWER RATES. METRO REPORTER ANDREW BOWEN SAYS THE RATE HIKES WERE SCALED BACK DUE TO AFFORDABILITY CONCERNS.

WATERRATES 1 (ab) 0:51 soq

AB: San Diego has made big investments in water quality and reliability in recent years. But rising energy and labor costs have made that infrastructure much more expensive. The city's Public Utilities Department had proposed four years of water rate increases totalling almost 63%. Instead, the council approved two years of rate hikes. Councilmember Stephen Whitburn said no rate hikes at all would be catastrophic.

SW: If we default on the city's debt, it would be awful for the city's reputation, it would drive up the cost of borrowing money, and it would result in even higher water rates in the future.

AB: It's unclear whether the city's water costs will stabilize by 2028. In the long term, climate change will likely make water more scarce and more expensive. Andrew Bowen, KPBS news.

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IT’S BEEN THREE MONTHS SINCE THE CITY OF SAN DIEGO STARTED CLEARING HOMELESS ENCAMPMENTS NEAR DOWNTOWN FREEWAYS

AN AGREEMENT WITH THE CALTRANS ALLOWS CITY CREWS TO GO ONTO STATE PROPERTY.

AS OF THIS WEEK [TUESDAY], THE CITY SAYS CREWS HAVE CLEANED UP 184 ENCAMPMENTS….AND OUTREACH WORKERS HAVE CONNECTED 43 PEOPLE TO SHELTER AND 37 PEOPLE TO OTHER SERVICES.

SAN DIEGO MAYOR TODD GLORIA SAYS CITY STAFF ARE ABLE TO MAKE FREQUENT OFFERS OF HELP.

ENCAMPMENTS2A [16s]

For those who say no, we're right back the next day to repeat that conversation again. Over time, what you find is that people either accept the services or they move on. Either way, the encampment is addressed and we get the result that we want, which is to reduce the unsafe camping situations along our high speed freeways.

SAN DIEGO’S AGREEMENT WITH CALTRANS LASTS FOR ONE YEAR.

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EMBATTLED POWAY COUNCIL MEMBER TONY BLAIN WAS CHARGED ON FRIDAY, BY THE D-A’S OFFICE WITH FOUR FELONIES AND A MISDEMEANOR.

HE IS CURRENTLY DEPLOYED IN THE BALKANS.

NORTH COUNTY REPORTER ALEXANDER NGUYEN LOOKS INTO WHAT HAPPENS WHEN DEPLOYED SERVICE MEMBERS ARE CHARGED IN CIVILIAN COURT.

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BLAINFOLO 1(AN) TRT: 0:40 SOQ

The charges council member Tony Blain is facing include perjury, bribery and destruction of public papers … all felonies.

He is also facing a recall effort.

Steph Kral is a former attorney with the Judge Advocate General Corps. She says the military has a system called flagging.

That will restrict the movement of deployed service members who are facing charges.

SOT

“So generally, service members who are deployed, who are facing charges in the civilian system will be returned from the deployed environment to appear at whatever court proceedings that they need to appear for in the civilian system.”

She says it’s highly likely that he is in the process of being returned to the U-S.

Blain is expected to be arraigned Monday … one day before the special election to recall him.

AN/KPBS News

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UC SAN DIEGO RESEARCHERS HAVE SHOWN THAT SOME SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS ARE BEAMED TO EARTH UNENCRYPTED. 

SCI-TECH REPORTER THOMAS FUDGE SAYS THE ORGANIZATIONS THAT SENT THEM RESPONDED BY FIXING THE PROBLEM.

SATELLITE 1 (tf) 1:11 ….soq.

Professors at UCSD set out to study signals received by a satellite dish on the roof of the computer science building. They thought they’d analyze the methods of encryption – how they turned messages into code – that were used in satellite traffic. What they found was much more surprising. Aaron Schulman, a professor of computer science and engineering, said a lot of the messages weren’t encrypted at all.

“And we realized very quickly we had to change the course of our project. Our scientific goal was to see if encryption was used well and now we’re like, Wait, there was no encryption! So we’re going to have to go in and analyze that traffic we saw unencrypted and just figure out who this is, and report to them so they could get it turned off.”

They intercepted phone calls, texts, sensitive corporate communications and even some unencrypted signals from US Navy ships. Schulman says the good news is when they contacted the senders, the problem was addressed.

“Depending on the organization, some fixed it within 24 hours. Some took a few weeks but indeed they realized this is very real very quickly.”

Their satellite dish was nothing fancy. You could buy the same one off the shelf for less than a thousand bucks. SOQ.

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THE NATIONAL CITY PUBLIC LIBRARY IS CELEBRATING ITS FIRST YEAR OF A NEW KIND OF BORROWING PROGRAM. 

SOUTH BAY REPORTER KORI SUZUKI SAYS, THIS PROGRAM DOESN’T CHECK OUT BOOKS OR DVDS – IT HAS POWER TOOLS.

NCTOOLS SOQ 4:26

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When you walk through the doors, the National City Public Library is everything you’d expect. The bookshelves. The bulletin boards. The tables of people quietly working or chilling out.

But if you head up the stairs, around the corner, past the water fountain, you’ll find something unexpected.

20251013_ksuzuki_iphone_nctools_3905 – Alex Neu tour 4:20

It's very much like a typical office space but instead of having desks in here and chairs it's just mostly shelving units full of tools.

Alex Neu is the systems librarian here. About a year ago, he started the library’s first tool lending program. Which checks out different kinds of tools to anyone with a library card. And we’re not just talking hammers or screwdrivers – this place has some serious hardware.

20251013_ksuzuki_iphone_nctools_3905 – Alex Neu tour / 5:04

Some of our more recent additions have been concrete tools, so we have a Concrete saw down here and and this case is a jackhammer.

The program is the first of its kind in San Diego County. It’s small but growing – and is open to anyone with a National City library card, which means anyone with a county address.

Over the past year, Neu says they’ve registered more than 100 patrons. And have checked out over 600 items.

At first, the program was only open for in-person checkout Monday and Wednesday evenings. But recently, they started using an online checkout system.

20251013_ksuzuki_iphone_nctools_3905 – Alex Neu tour / 7:30

Everything we have on our website, there's a full catalog of tools. People can reserve them in advance if they wanted to. Um, and then on each tool, we have a tutorial for how to use them

Tool libraries aren’t unheard of, but they aren’t common by any stretch. In 2021, one study found only 50 of them nationwide.

Neu first learned about them around a decade ago when he was living in Portland. He needed a lawnmower but didn’t have the money to buy one. His neighbor said there was a library just a couple miles down the road.

20251013_ksuzuki_iphone_nctools_Alex Neu Interview / 15:40

It was just like an aha moment. Like, oh, this is like a new treasure that I just stumbled upon

Neu dreamed about starting his own program. When he joined the National City library in 2018, he says it felt like a place that made sense. One of the poorer cities in the county – and one with a lot of older homes.

Neu applied for a state environmental grant. And used the money, thirty thousand dollars, to stock up on more than 200 tools. Focusing on electric hardware, gardening supplies, and equipment for cars, bikes and crafting.

20251013_ksuzuki_iphone_nctools_Allison and Johnny / 1:02

The tiller’s our favorite. [Laughing] Yeah.

Allison and Johnny Calderon moved to National City two years ago. They come by regularly to check out gardening equipment like the tiller, which is used to break up the soil before planting.

20251013_ksuzuki_iphone_nctools_Allison and Johnny / 1:49

We found out that there's a lot of gardeners in National City and some of our neighbors are pretty big gardeners. So they've kind of encouraged us to grow our own food and Allison's a vegetarian. So it's been like a fun project for both of us.

A couple days later, I stop by the Calderon’s to see their garden in person. Beds of vegetables crowd around the southwest corner of their house, blooming with tomatoes and stalks of corn. The bright smell of a small lemon tree fills the air.

Johnny bends down and picks up a small pumpkin .

20251015_ksuzuki_iphone_nctools_3948 / 12:04

We were able to clear this whole area out because this was all grass as well. And then we were able to like build some of the um the framing for the garden beds.

Along with the garden, the Calderons said the library’s tools have also helped them build what feels like a new home. The newly married couple are recent arrivals to National City. Allison says the garden has given them a way to become a part of the neighborhood.

20251015_ksuzuki_iphone_nctools_3948 / 39:56

we moved away from a lot of of our friends and family in Northern California and came down here not knowing a ton of people. So, um having people just want to stop by and go grocery shopping in our backyard.

20251015_ksuzuki_iphone_nctools_3948 / 40:19

it is really nice to just have a friendly face pop over

Back at the library, Alex Neu says these kinds of experiences are part of their goals for the program. He’s seen plenty of first-time homebuyers coming in, but also patrons working on folklorico dresses or looking to change their tires.

Last year, as Neu was leaving for his lunch break, someone came in and said their car wouldn’t start. Neu went straight to the tool library.

20251013_ksuzuki_iphone_nctools_Alex Neu Interview / 29:45

We have a battery pack that we can loan out.

20251013_ksuzuki_iphone_nctools_Alex Neu Interview / 29:50

I was able to just come out here grab it and jump his car for him.

Libraries, Neu says, are much more than just a building full of books. They’re always adapting to the needs of the places and people they serve.

20251013_ksuzuki_iphone_nctools_Alex Neu Interview / 28:41

This is like one way of us showing to the community that we're here for them, we're there to support them for more than just, you know, checking out media or finding information.

They’re still doing that, he says. Just in a different way.

In National City, Kori Suzuki, 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!