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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Another year, another missed budget deadline by California lawmakers. And Governor Schwarzenegger has been touted as the green governor, but his firing of the head of the state's resources board has l
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Former San Diego Congressman Randy Cunningham now spends his days at a federal prison in Arizona where he earns up to 40 cents an hour cleaning, doing yardwork or serving food. Former AP Reporter Seth
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Home sales in San Diego continue to plummet and one local economist says this means a turnaround in the real estate market will likely take longer than expected. Full Focus reporter Amita Sharma has m
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Molecular biologist Craig Venter, the pioneering scientist who mapped the human genome -- and one of UCSD's most famous graduates -- is back in San Diego. We talk to him about his work deciphering the
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A local aerospace company chief is defending his twenty-year military jet project that is under fire by congressional investigators who say it's a failure. Full Focus reporter Amita Sharma has more.
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One of the U.S. Attorneys dismissed by the Bush administration, David Iglesias of New Mexico, surfaces over and over again at the center of the scandal. He's gone public about the political strong-arm
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The legal dispute over police drone footage stems from a lawsuit filed by Arturo Castanares, publisher of La Prensa San Diego. -
KPBS Midday EditionAn investigation by CapRadio and NPR's California Newsroom has found that Gov. Newsom overstated, by an astounding 690%, the number of acres treated with fuel breaks and prescribed burns in forestry projects aimed at protecting the state’s most vulnerable communities. -
This is a breaking news blog for all of the latest updates on the conviction of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin on murder and manslaughter charges in the death of George Floyd.
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