>>

Good Morning, I’m Lawrence K. Jackson….it’s TUESDAY, JANUARY 13TH

>>>> WHY PEOPLE LIVING IN THEIR VEHICLES ARE SUING THE CITY More on that next. But first… the headlines…#######

A COALITION OF MAYORS AND COMMUNITY LEADERS FROM ACROSS THE COUNTY ARE DEMANDING THE REPEAL OF NEW FEES TO PARK IN BALBOA PARK.  

SHANE HARRIS DESCRIBES HIMSELF AS SAN DIEGO’S PUBLIC ADVOCATE. 

HE SAYS SAN DIEGO MAYOR TODD GLORIA AND THE SAN DIEGO CITY COUNCIL ARE PASSING THEIR FAILURES WITH THE CITY’S BUDGET… ON TO THE PUBLIC.

PARKINGREPEAL 2A                  :20 

“Paid parking didn’t happen because residents demanded it. It happened because City Hall created a massive budget deficit, and instead of owning that failure, they decided to pass the bill onto the families, seniors, students, workers and visitors.”

GLORIA ISSUED A STATEMENT SAYING, IN PART, REPEALING THE PARKING FEES WOULD DISMANTLE THE CITY’S PROGRESS CREATING A DIRECT FUNDING STREAM FOR PARK OPERATIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS.  

HARRIS SAYS IF IT’S NOT REPEALED, HE MAY BRING FORTH A VOTER REFERENDUM TO FORCE ITS REPEAL.

#######

IN OTHER NEWS INVOLVING THE CITY OF SAN DIEGO AND ITS MAYOR… THE CITY’S SAFE PARKING LOCATION IN BAY PARK IS GETTING A BIT OF AN UPDATE.

YESTERDAY MORNING, MAYOR TODD GLORIA AND OTHERS HELD A RIBBON-CUTTING FOR A NEW COMMUNITY SPACE AT THE ROSE CANYON SAFE PARKING SITE.

IT FEATURES NEW APPLIANCES, A LIBRARY FOR CHILDREN AND A MEETING SPACE.

JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE OPERATES THE SITE, WHICH OPENED IN 2023.

MAYOR GLORIA SAYS IT’S A SUCCESS STORY FOR HIS APPROACH TO TEMPORARY HOUSING.

SOT 0:16

“People understand that the folks here at this project are getting their lives together and going on to somewhere better. And I always like to use this as an example for other shelter suggestions that we have around the city to help people understand that I get the concern. But I promise you this is going to work well.”

THE ROSE CANYON SAFE PARKING SITE IS OPEN 24-HOURS.

BUT THERE IS AN ENROLLMENT PROCESS.

DETAILS ARE AVAILABLE AT THE CITY’S WEBSITE.

########

THOUSANDS PEACEFULLY GATHERED OVER THE WEEKEND ACROSS SAN DIEGO COUNTY TO PROTEST ICE

PROTESTERS WERE SPEAKING OUT AFTER AN ICE OFFICER FATALLY   SHOT A MINNEAPOLIS WOMAN LAST WEEK

THE TWO LARGEST PROTESTS IN THE COUNTY WERE ON SATURDAY IN ENCINITAS AND ESCONDIDO. 

THERE WERE ABOUT ONE THOUSAND PEOPLE AT THE ENCINITAS PROTEST, AND ROUGHLY 500 AT THE ESCONDIDO PROTEST 

IN RESPONSE TO THE PROTESTS, DISTRICT 3 SUPERVISOR, TERRA LAWSON-REMER SAID QUOTE PEACEFUL PROTEST IS HOW COMMUNITIES HAVE ALWAYS FORCED CHANGE AND DEFENDED DEMOCRACY

From KPBS, you’re listening to San Diego News Now.Stay with me for more of the local news you need.

>

######

>

##########

THE CITY OF SAN DIEGO HAS BEEN ISSUING CITATIONS TO PEOPLE LIVING IN CARS AND RVS… IN AN EFFORT TO MOVE THEM TO ONE OF THE CITY’S SAFE PARKING SITES.

FOR OUR WEEKLY WHY IT MATTERS SEGMENT, VOICE OF SAN DIEGO’S SCOTT LEWIS SAYS PEOPLE LIVING IN THEIR VEHICLES ARE FIGHTING BACK

RVDISPUTE(vosd) (1:13) last words “why it matters” (SS)

_______________

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria spent a year trying to turn the H Barracks site near the airport into a campus of homeless services. The abandoned military training facility seemed like a perfect fit.

H Barracks opened last year and offered nearly 200 spaces for people living in their RVs and vehicles.

Then the city began a major crackdown on vehicle habitation, especially near Mission Bay.

And between July and September last year, the city issued more than 1,000 citations and referred hundreds of people to H Barracks. Only 59 of them ever went to the safe parking lot.

Now, the city is being taken to court. Plaintiffs who received tickets say the city is violating a 2024 settlement that said the city could not issue citations unless it offered “reasonably available” alternative sites for people to park and stay in their vehicles.

The plaintiffs claim H Barracks is not a reasonable alternative. They have to leave each morning and come back in the evening. And that costs money, and it’s difficult for them to pack up their belongings day-in and day-out.

Now it’s up to a judge to resolve. If he agrees with the plaintiffs, people will be allowed to stay in their cars indefinitely in Mission Bay and in other areas until the city has a better alternative for them.

For Voice of San Diego, I’m Scott Lewis and that’s why it matters.

##########

A FORMER SAN DIEGO SAILOR CONVICTED OF SPYING FOR CHINA WILL SPEND MORE THAN 16 YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON. 

MILITARY REPORTER ANDREW DYER WAS AT THE COURTHOUSE YESTERDAY (MONDAY).

WEISENTENCE 1 (ad)

At his sentencing Jinchao Wei apologized to the court and to the Navy.

Prosecutors say he was contacted by a Chinese intelligence officer in early 2022 while serving as a machinist mate, second class, on the U-S-S Essex.

For more than a year he sent thousands of pages from sensitive technical manuals to the Chinese. They paid him less than $13,000.Assistant US attorney John Parmley says he betrayed his military and citizenship oaths.

I talked to his shipmates. They feel he’s a traitor. They betrayed them personally. They can’t believe that he had done this.

And for was, relatively speaking, a small amount of money. So, in my view, when you betray your oath to your country, when you betray your fellow sailors, there’s really no other word other than that which is traitor.

Wei was convicted in August on six counts including conspiracy, espionage and violating arms control laws.

From the federal courthouse downtown, Andrew Dyer, KPBS News

##########

PHARMACISTS WORK IN NEARLY EVERY CORNER OF HEALTH CARE. NEW RESEARCH FINDS THE PRESSURES BEHIND THE COUNTER CAN BE INTENSE. 

HEALTH REPORTER HEIDI DE MARCO SAYS A NEW STUDY FROM UC SAN DIEGO SHOWS THEY ARE AT HIGHER RISK FOR SUICIDE.

–

RXSTUDY 1 1:14 SOQ

The researchers found pharmacists were about 20 percent more likely to die by suicide than the general population.

KELLY LEE

Anywhere where a medication is dispensed, researched, used, pharmacists have to be at the forefront of that.

Kelly Lee is a psychiatric pharmacist at UC San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy. Her team looked at centers for disease control data from 2011 to 2022. They found male pharmacists had about a 25 percent higher risk than men overall. And female pharmacy technicians faced about a 22 percent higher risk than other women.

KELLY LEE

Most of who you will see in a community pharmacy are technicians.

Lee says more research is needed to understand why people in the field die by suicide more often than others. But…When pharmacists struggle, she says stigma keeps many from seeking help.

KELLY LEE

Would they be concerned about our ability to provide care?

Lee says the goal now is action, not just awareness.

Heidi de Marco, KPBS News.

ANCHOR TAG: IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW NEEDS HELP, CONTACT THE 988 SUICIDE & CRISIS LIFELINE BY CALLING OR TEXTING THE NUMBER 9-8-8.

##########

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAS RULES IN PLACE TO LIMIT LOCAL TV STATION OWNERSHIP. BUT THOSE RULES COULD BE RELAXED–OR REVOKED–UNDER THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION. 

THIS COMES AS CONSOLIDATION EFFORTS ARE PLAYING OUT ACROSS THE COUNTRY. THE CORPORATE OWNER OF ABC 10 NEWS IN SAN DIEGO RECENTLY REJECTED A TAKEOVER BID BY CONSERVATIVE-LEANING SINCLAIR BROADCAST GROUP…AND NEXSTAR’S LATEST ACQUISITION EFFORT WOULD GIVE THE COMPANY THREE SAN DIEGO TV STATIONS. 

REPORTER AMITA SHARMA SPOKE WITH 10 NEWS ALUM LEE SWANSON AND POINT LOMA NAZARENE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM DIRECTOR DEAN NELSON ABOUT HOW CHANGES IN TV STATION OWNERSHIP RULES MIGHT AFFECT LOCAL NEWS.

SINCLAIR (AS) (4:43) “the whole situation changes.” (FEATURE)

Q. Dean, in its refusal of Sinclair’s hostile takeover bid last month, 10News owner EW Scripps Company said it’s open “to evaluating opportunities to enhance shareholder value.” How do you read that statement?

Dean Nelson: There are a lot of people who think it’s a signal of what is called a poison pill. The poison pill is to keep that hostile takeover from happening. The shareholder price of the shares would go down so that the current shareholders would buy more, and they would increase their ownership, which would elevate the price of the company. It’s a drastic way to go because it’s risky in that shareholders invest in things so that they can make more money. If they keep Sinclair from buying the station, is it possible that they ultimately won’t make as much money as they could? On the one hand, this is about journalism. But on the other hand, it’s actually about capitalism. This is the way the economy and big corporations work in America.

Q. Lee, as you know, the largest TV station owner in the country — Nexstar Media Group — owns two San Diego stations KUSI and Fox 5. It’s now in the process of trying to acquire a third – KFMB – the local CBS affiliate by buying rival media company Tegna. If the deal goes through, what would be the impact of one company owning three stations in the same market on local journalism?

Lee Swanson: First of all, they’re doing this because the TV news audience is diminishing. They essentially want a larger piece of a smaller pie so that they can keep their revenue up. And you can’t fault them for that. But they’re also cutting jobs, mostly in newsrooms. And in the case of Nexstar, they have a particular political point of view, and they want to express that through their stations. I don’t care if it’s liberal or conservative or what it might be. That’s not the way journalism ought to work. For them to have a plurality, at least, of the ownership of the markets in the station, there aren’t enough voices. You need more voices. You need as many voices as you can get to express the facts and the opinions in controversial stories.

Q. Dean, the FCC’s Local Television Rule limits a single entity’s ownership to two stations per market. The commission also has the 39 percent rule. Explain that rule. And what’s the point of both rules?

Dean Nelson: The purpose is to address Lee’s concern, which is just having dominant voices on media outlets. The 39% rule isn’t about how many stations you can own. The FCC’s 39% rule is how much of the market do you actually influence. For any station, whether it’s Sinclair or whether it’s Nexstar or whomever to have the voices that control maybe 39% or more of a particular market, that’s against FCC rules. Now, what the FCC is saying under Brendan Carr, and I think there’s actually some truth to it, is those FCC rules don’t matter anymore, given the internet. I look at my students at Point Loma Nazarene, and they aren’t getting their news from broadcast. They’re getting their news from YouTube. They’re getting it from Instagram. And so the FCC is saying it’s a shrinking market so why are we holding on to laws and regulations that were big and important when there were only three or four big broadcast outlets.

Q. So do you see those rules changing?

Dean Nelson: I don’t know how soon, but I definitely see them changing.

Q. Lee, Paramount is attempting a hostile takeover bid of Warner Bros Discovery which owns CNN. Is that attempt, along with the failed Sinclair takeover bid for 10News’ owner EW Scripps and the right-leaning Nexstar’s acquisition of a third local TV station all part of the same story of what’s happening to journalism?

Lee Swanson: I think so. As we talked about, the audience is shrinking, and so the revenues are down, and they’re looking for ways to stay relevant. And the companies are buying up more and more and merging more and more. And we’re not getting the television journalism we’re accustomed to. And the viewers are going elsewhere. And the potential Paramount combination of owning CNN, Paramount already has CBS, and if those two are merged, then the gloves are off. The whole market, the whole situation changes.

TAG: KPBS REACHED OUT TO NEXSTAR MEDIA GROUP, SINCLAIR AND THE FCC FOR COMMENT BUT DID NOT HEAR BACK.

>>

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 really want to thank you for that. Have a great day!

LA JOLLA – Recent King Tides in La Jolla and the crowds they drew also spotlighted a growing concern: Beachcombers checking out the tide pools at extreme low tide, damaging or destroying wildlife.

The low tides led to numerous transgressions of what might be termed proper “tide pool protocol,” as people were witnessed picking up marine life, along with bringing buckets and stealing lobsters and crabs. Both children and adults were seen walking on and crushing crustaceans.

So, what exactly are the dos and don’ts of proper conduct while tide pooling?

Cari Paulenich, director of education at Birch Aquarium in La Jolla, offered a few important tips to keep in mind to protect yourself — and the wildlife you’re viewing — when visiting tide pools.

“Watch your step and stay alert for incoming waves and make sure you aren’t stepping on any animals,” Paulenich said. “Anemones can look like small piles of shells when they’re exposed to air, and other creatures love to hide among the seaweed. Stick to stepping on sandy spots or bare rocks to avoid slippery algae and to prevent disturbing these fascinating animals.”

Added Paulenich: “Many tide pool animals use rocks and shells as a habitat, so it’s best not to move them. Your eyes are your best tools — look for small movements and little details. The most exciting discoveries can easily go unnoticed. Take your time and tread lightly, especially during busy tide pooling days.”

Cypress Hansen, who owns and operates North Star Naturalist, which offers guided nature tours including at La Jolla’s tide pools, warned that coastal wildlife needs — and deserves — greater protection.

“The tidepools are extremely rare, extremely biodiverse, and now, extremely popular,” she said. “Rocky intertidal zones occupy just five square miles across all of California. Yet they contain some of the highest biodiversity of any habitat in the state.”

Consequently, noted Hansen, “This tiny strip of life is now overwhelmed by unprecedented visitation, and there is next to no monitoring and enforcement.”

Hansen argued that signage alone will not protect the tide pools.

“The most realistic solution is a permanent, trained volunteer corps specifically for the tide pools — educating visitors in real time on the habitat’s fragility and calling in violations when needed,” she said.

“The goal is sustainable exploration — an understanding that each of our footsteps contributes to a collective pressure on this rare habitat.” 

During Gov. Gavin Newsom’s final annual address to the Legislature this week, he announced that the state’s principal homelessness program will get $500 million. 

That’s half the $1 billion that has been allocated for the program annually since 2019, reports our Nadia Lathan, except for this year when it was gutted completely. 

Service providers were disappointed by the news. Newsom previously suggested he needs to see more results before committing more dollars. 

But Mayor Todd Gloria is pushing hard to get that cash. He was in Sacramento last week rallying lawmakers to support restoring the funding, Lathan writes. 

Read more in the Sacramento Report here. 

Gloria is giving his State of the City address this week. We’ll have more deets and a summary for you later this week. 

Last year, he gave his speech from City Hall and declared that this was the “era of austerity” as city leaders faced a $350 million budget deficit. Our Mariana Martínez Barba looked out how the mayor’s plans to “right-size” the ship turned out in 2025. 

Read more here. 

VOSD Podcast: How About Them Parking Fees?

Our podcast crew is back for the new year, and boy has it been a busy controversial week for parking. The city of San Diego rolled out its parking program in Balboa Park last week and backlash from the public and City Council was swift. 

While some councilmembers wanted the mayor to suspend the fees, he said that wasn’t an option. It all went down in a memo war. The crew digs explains what this means for the city’s budget. 

Also on the podcast, the latest on the legal debacle between the city and people living in their RVs in Mission Bay. The city opened a safe parking lot, H Barracks, in May that would allow police to start ticketing vehicle dwellers in the area. But some people say H Barracks isn’t a viable option for everyone.

Listen to the Podcast here.

In Other News

• Fundraising for San Diego City Council races is kicking into high gear, with seats up for grabs in Districts 2 and 8. The possible entry of former Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey could shake things up in District 2. (Union-Tribune)
• Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Program, and other homelessness programs are facing big cuts this year. San Diegans who rely on food assistance, and immigrants who can no longer qualify for the state’s low-cost insurance could be some of the hardest hit. (inewsource)
• Unemployment across the region went down in November after holiday retail hiring brought the unemployment rate down from 4.9 percent to 4.6 percent. (Union-Tribune)

The Morning Report was written by Mariana Martínez Barba. It was edited by Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña.