Amita Sharma
Investigative ReporterAs the public matters investigative reporter, Amita leads KPBS’ coverage on efforts to undermine democracy, including threats to public officials, bolstering the Big Lie, chipping away at voter’s rights, attempts to overturn election results, eroding institutions and weakening the government's capacity to do its job, as well as civic efforts to engage people with opposing views without rancor.
The goal of the position is to report on the stakes, from a San Diego County perspective, on the United States’ current political moment.
She has spent the last two years reporting on local threats to democracy, including regional extremism, the shrinking of local news coverage while the number of hyper partisan “news” websites grow, censorship at libraries and incivility at public meetings.
Her previous coverage includes: exposing abuses in local nursing homes at the height of the pandemic, including a serial rapist who had worked in several El Cajon facilities and was arrested following her reporting; unearthing a contract between the city of Chula Vista and Motorola that allowed the company to sell data collected by the Chula Vista Police Department; and reporting on discrimination and retaliation in the San Diego County Public Defender’s Office that led to court settlements and the retirement of the Public Defender.
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In a hearing Thursday, a judge ordered Grecia Figueroa to preserve all potential evidence on her electronic devices in her sexual assault lawsuit against former San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher. -
In an era of rising book challenges and censorship, learn how one librarian is defending the freedom to read. -
A lawyer sent the city a demand letter alleging that a local mom was discriminated against because the library denied her request to host reading events based on religious and patriotic books. The letter also objects to books with depictions of adult nudity. -
Alden Global Capital, The San Diego Union-Tribune’s new owner, quietly ceased publication of the UT En Español, ending a nearly 25-year run. -
Monumental Interventions, which takes a critical look at the military’s impact on the San Diego region and the world, will debut at the Athenaeum Art Center in Logan Heights Saturday. -
The library joins other big cities to skirt censorship by expanding availability of books deemed inappropriate in nearly two dozen states.
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County requiring employees of grocery stores and many other retail outlets to wear masks as of midnight Friday. That’s a tall order, says the California Grocers Association.
- Study: Half of San Diego County families with young kids struggle with costs
- La Jolla, Encanto and … MCAS Miramar? Here's where San Diego wants to tighten ADU regulations
- 50 years later: San Diego’s USS Midway and the fall of Sàigòn
- La Mesa-Spring Valley, Lemon Grove school mental health grants cut early by Trump administration
- Two San Diego nonprofits are poised to lose promised environmental justice grants — but the EPA has yet to tell them