We look into the potential impact of the Supreme Court’s ruling on mail-in ballots
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Good Morning, I’m Lawrence K. Jackson….it’s WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26TH>>>> [ WE LOOK INTO THE POTENTIAL IMPACT OF THE SUPREME’S COURT’S RULING ON MAIL IN BALLOTS ]More on that next. But first... the headlines….#######
THE RETIREMENT OF LONGTIME MAYOR RON MORRISON CLEARS THE WAY FOR A NEW MAYOR IN NATIONAL CITY
TWO NATIONAL CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS JOSE RODRIGUEZ AND MARCUS BUSH ARE IN THE RUNNING. THEY ARE BOTH DEMOCRATS AND THE UNION TRIBUNE SAYS THEY HAVE NEARLY IDENTICAL VOTING RECORDS.
THE NEWSPAPER ALSO REPORTS RODRIGUEZ HAS SECURED INSTITUTIONAL BACKING, LIKE ENDORSEMENTS FROM THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY WHILE BUSH SECURED AN ENDORSEMENT FROM THE SOON-TO-BE FORMER MAYOR MORRISON
ALSO IN THE MAYORAL RACE IS CITY TREASURER MITCHEL BEAUCHAMP AND ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST JACOBB CASTREJON [cas-tre-HONE]
THE U-T SAYS THE NOVEMBER RACE COMES AS THE CITY’S CURRENT DEFICIT OF 13 MILLION IS PROJECTED TO GROW TO 15 MILLION IN 2028
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58 WORKERS FROM STONE BREWING’S ESCONDIDO FACILITIES ARE BEING LAID OFF IN OCTOBER.
EVENTUALLY THERE WILL BE A TOTAL OF 220 LAYOFFS
THE UNION-TRIBUNE SAYS THE LAYOFFS COME MONTHS AFTER AN ANNOUNCEMENT THAT SAPPORO USA WOULD SELL STONE BREWING TO THE FIRESTONE WALKER BREWING COMPANY
FIRESTONE BOUGHT STONE’S BEERS, THE LIBERTY STATION BEER GARDEN AND SEVERAL TAP ROOMS.
THE ESCONDIDO PLANT AND BISTRO WERE NOT INCLUDED IN THE SALE.
FIRESTONE WILL MOVE THE PRODUCTION OF STONE’S BEERS TO PASO ROBLES AND KANSAS CITY
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NASCAR IS RETURNING TO SAN DIEGO NEXT SUMMER …
CORONADO NAVAL AIR STATION NORTH ISLAND WILL AGAIN SERVE AS THE HOST FOR THE WEEKEND EVENT
ON JULY 31ST THE O’REILLY AUTO PARTS SERIES STREET RACE TAKES PLACE AND THEN ON AUGUST 1ST, THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEKEND, THE NASCAR CUP SERIES KICKS OFF
AND EVEN WITH THIS YEAR’S RACE SELLING OUT …
NASCAR AND THE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT BOTH SAY THEY PLAN TO TAKE THE RACE TO ANOTHER BASE IN 2028
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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MONDAY’S SUPREME COURT RULING LIFTED THE INJUNCTION ON PRESIDENT TRUMP’S EXECUTIVE ORDER RESTRICTING MAIL-IN BALLOTS
BUT A POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR AT SAN DIEGO STATE SAYS IT MAY NOT CHANGE ANYTHING FOR THE MIDTERM ELECTIONS
PROFESSOR STEPHEN GOGGIN SAYS COURTS HAVE LONG-STANDING PRECEDENTS AGAINST CHANGING ELECTION RULES CLOSE TO AN ELECTION
BUT HE SAYS THE DECISION IS THROWING UNCERTAINTY INTO THE VOTING HABITS USED BY MANY SAN DIEGANS
MAILINVOTING 2A (0:10)
“There are still these other court challenges in other courts right around the nation that are being made. And so we don't have a final word yet on what this means for mail-in ballot in California or anywhere else in the nation.”
CALIFORNIANS OVERWHELMINGLY VOTE BY MAIL. IN THE LAST ELECTION, THE NUMBER WAS NEARLY 90 PERCENT. HERE IN SAN DIEGO, THAT NUMBER WAS 92 PERCENT.
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FROM THE COAST WHERE A HEAT ADVISORY IS IN EFFECT, TO THE DESERTS WHERE AN EXTREME HEAT WARNING IS IN PLACE… THE COUNTY IS ABOUT TO HEAD INTO SOME OF THE HOTTEST WEATHER OF THE YEAR.
REPORTER JOHN CARROLL TALKED TO A METEOROLOGIST TO SEE WHEN WE MIGHT GET SOME RELIEF
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HEATADVISORY 1 1:07 SOQ
TEMPERATURES NEAR 90 ALONG THE COAST… MID TO UPPER 90’S INLAND… AND WELL INTO THE 100’S IN THE DESERTS. WHAT HAPPENED TO SAN DIEGO’S TYPICAL SUMMER WEATHER? LOCAL NATIONAL WEATHER METEOROLOGIST PHILIP GONSALVES SAYS A COMBINATION OF FACTORS ARE AT PLAY. A STUBBORN RIDGE OF HIGH PRESSURE OVER THE SOUTHWEST ISN’T GOING TO START TO BREAK DOWN UNTIL THIS WEEKEND… AND GONSALVES SAYS THE USUAL UPWELLING OF COLD WATER IN THE OCEAN JUST ISN’T HAPPENING. THAT TYPICALLY MODERATES TEMPERATURES ALONG THE COAST. AND IT’S NOT JUST HIGH DAYTIME TEMPS WE HAVE TO CONTEND WITH.
“The temperatures overnight don't get as low as they would typically do when we are typically dry. And since we're not typically dry, that moisture contributes to lower temperatures during the day, but also higher temperatures at night.”
GONSALVES SAYS THE HEAT SHOULD START TO BREAK BY FRIDAY… AND OVER THE WEEKEND, HE SAYS NORMAL SUMMER TEMPERATURES SHOULD - FINALLY - RETURN. JC, KPBS NEWS.
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THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT THIS MONTH (FRIDAY) ANNOUNCED SHARP CUTS FOR CALIFORNIA AND TWO OTHER STATES THAT RELY ON WATER FROM THE COLORADO RIVER.
AS PUBLIC MATTERS REPORTER KEVIN TREVELLYAN SHARES, SAN DIEGO’S WATER AUTHORITY SAYS THE REGION IS WELL-POSITIONED TO WEATHER THE IMPACTS.
SDWATER 1 (0:43) SOQ
The Interior Department says California, Arizona, and Nevada each need to use less water next year through 2028… That’s while drought and rising temperatures continue to drain the Colorado River. California is absorbing the second-largest cut, at 440,000 acre-feet of water annually.
Dan Denham is general manager of the San Diego County Water Authority. He said in a statement that decades of investment have diversified the area’s water portfolio enough to provide stability amid the cuts.
For example, the Authority buys water from a seawater desalination plant in Carlsbad… the first of its kind on the West Coast.
Denham called for using innovative strategies going forward, including transferring water allotments across state lines when there’s a surplus.
KT, KPBS News.
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CONCERNS OVER FOOD SAFETY ARE GROWING THIS SUMMER AFTER A SERIES OF SCARES.
WHILE FOODBORNE ILLNESSES GENERALLY GO UP IN THE SUMMER, SOME EXPERTS SAY IT’S A WINDOW INTO A BROKEN FOOD SYSTEM.
≈ AARON GROSS IS THE DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER FOR FOOD SYSTEMS TRANSFORMATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO. HE SPOKE TO MIDDAY EDITION HOST JADE HINDMON ABOUT WHAT’S GOING ON WITH THE OUTBREAKS.
FOODSAFETY (midday) (4:20)
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[00:00]
So, the parasite cyclospora has been making headlines all this summer. While infections seem to be going down nationally, many people are really just reevaluating where they get their produce and how they prepare it. What's the rippling effect that you seen so far from this outbreak? Well, it's in some ways really good to see this much attention on our food system. Obviously, this is a, you know, really unfortunate and dramatic case of foodborne illness.
[00:28]
Cyclospora is something that can leave you sick for weeks. This is not your typical kind of 24-hour flu and,. This is pretty bad. So, I'm, you know, unfortunate circumstances raising really significant awareness. So, definitely people are asking what they can do, but what folks are going to find out is that this is a social problem. There are very minimal things you can do in your own kitchen and you're probably already doing them.
[00:56]
So, one of the things I'm really delighted to be seeing is people are, you know, wondering all these cuts in the government have an effect, what sort of responsibility infrastructure do we have? And those questions could lead to us all being safer.
. What tools do we have right now to identify outbreaks and other issues with food safety like if something needs to be recalled?
[04:22]
So, if we're talking about the food and drug administration or the USDA which in different ways are responsible for checking for food safety tracing back when we have outbreaks like we have holding people accountable. They've lost something like 20% of their workforce. And when we start to drill down and look at the parts of their workforce that they have lost, this is where to me it gets really alarming. We see that it's the most experienced personnel are being eliminated.
[04:51]
People with 15 to 20 years experience. We saw especially at the USDA that the cuts were concentrated specifically among the people doing investigative work. One of the kind of regulations put on hold by the administration was a traceability rule that would have basically required producers like like Co Citrus here in San Diego to provide a lot more information when uh a recall occurs.
[05:18]
As it turned out in the case of uh some of these recalls, recently we've had literally volunteer retirees compiling a list of retailers because they couldn't get it from the companies. So we've got a kind of demunition of the staff, particularly the investigative staff, the postponing of a traceability rule which the government developed and we could talk about other rules that have been suspended.
[05:42]
And when you You look at the picture and you look at who's lobbying for these various suspensions, it seems pretty clear we're talking about making it harder to identify who is responsible when these things occur. And that means they go on longer, there's less incentive for the companies to improve.
[06:11]
When did these policy changes start. The Well, the ones I'm referring to are with the Trump administration, but I would not want to say that we have a situation where agriculture was wonderfully regulated and then the current administration came in and changed it. This is from my perspective a bipartisan problem where the food industry simply has disproportionate power. I don't see any industry getting away with the kind of things that the food industry gets away with.
[06:37]
And 90% of the time, what I mean by that is really the meat, poultry, and egg industry.
g. What other vulnerabilities do these outbreaks reveal about our food system? Centralization you know with the the The cyclospora outbreak, the scale of it reveals one of the dangers in a system that's this big.
when we hand things over to these corporations and these more bureaucratic structures we get certain efficiencies. But if we don't build a regulatory apparatus, what we get is really big. big problems, because when they break, it is not just a local farm. It's this massive system.
[13:56]
So you point to a few solutions there in what you're saying some systemic solutions. What do you do individually? Yeah, so in terms of in terms of food safety, my, you know, behavior has not changed. When things are not cooked, you want to be a little more careful about them. you know, washing your hands, washing your cutting board, having separate sponges for different things, those are the ones I would follow.
[16:18]
And of course, you were you or someone will be continuously reaching out to as these issues persist. I've been speaking with Aaron Gross. He's the director of the Center for Food Systems Transformation at the University of San Diego. Professor, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Been great being here.
TAG: THAT WAS K-P-B-S’ JADE HINDMON SPEAKING WITH AARON GROSS, THE DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER FOR FOOD SYSTEMS TRANSFORMATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO.
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SAN DIEGO'S CITY GOLF COURSES ARE IN THE SPOTLIGHT
METRO REPORTER ANDREW BOWEN SAYS THE CITY COUNCIL IS RESPONDING TO A RECENT AUDIT.
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GOLF 2 (ab) 0:58 soq
AB: San Diego owns 11 golf courses, and eight of them are leased to private operators. Auditors found many of those leases were in holdover status. That means the city was likely charging less than fair market value for the use of its property. Auditors also found the city hasn't been inspecting its leased golf courses regularly. And that raises the risk of the properties degrading and losing value. Councilmember Vivian Moreno says the problem of expired leases is not isolated to golf courses.
VM: Around 25% of the city's leases are in holdovers, meaning we're leaving potential revenue on the table that could help fund critical services that our residents rely on, like arts and culture, libraries and parks
AB: City officials agreed to implement all of the audit's recommendations. The audit notes golf courses operated by the city produce more revenue on average than those that are leased to private operators. Andrew Bowen, KPBS news.
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That’s it for the podcast today. Today’s pod was 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 day.
