San Diego, CA

San Diego organization fighting homelessness and addiction awarded $250K

Published

1 year ago

September 30, 2024

San Diego organization fighting homelessness and addiction awarded 0K

Aaron Barrett is lucky to be alive.

“I overdosed seven times,” Barrett said. “Twice, I was flatlined. No heart rate, no breathing, no pulse. And they were able to bring me back.”

Barrett spent decades addicted to drugs and alcohol, and for the last seven years of his addiction, homeless on the streets of San Diego.

“There’s a lot of despair and hopelessness amongst the homeless community. Every little bit they have, it’s so easily taken away,” Barrett said. “There were times where, you know, I slept out in the cold. I’ve eaten out of trash cans. I’ve gone and picked up recycling just to get some money, you know, to do whatever — either get high or maybe get a little bite to eat, maybe not. And that’s how it is for most people. That’s how they live every single day. They wake up cold and hungry, and usually they go to sleep cold and hungry.”

When Barrett overdosed the last time in 2021, his wife found him on the riverbed and took him to the hospital.

“That’s when they told me I had a fever of 103, I had already gone septic and I had enough fentanyl in me to kill 30 people,” Barrett said, “and that if she wouldn’t have made it there within the hour or two that she did, there would have been nothing they could have done to save me.”

That was the moment Barrett said he began to turn his life around.

For years, he had been attending dinners hosted every Tuesday night by We See You San Diego, a nonprofit organization that invites anyone experiencing homelessness for a home-cooked meal each week.

“We host these dinner parties. We call them lavish dinner parties to show lavish love, to show people we believe they’re worthy of a better life,” said Laura Chez, We See You San Diego’s executive director.

Chez, her husband and another couple began serving meals in 2017.

They began with just a handful of guests, but seven years later, they serve more than 100 people each week, providing dinner, clothing, hygiene products and more.

It also comes with an invitation for those battling addiction: We See You San Diego will pay for detox and residential recovery for anyone who wants it.

“We walk alongside people all the way through to sober living and help them plan next steps so that they can reintegrate and live healthy, wonderful, beautiful lives with limitless potential,” Chez said.

Barrett accepted the invitation three years ago. He’s still at every Tuesday dinner – but now, serving guests, some he remembers from his days living at the riverbed.

“For a long time, I was lost. I didn’t have a purpose. You know, I was just trying to fill this hole inside that couldn’t be filled, this emptiness,” Barrett said. “And I found my purpose. My purpose is to help others pull them out from where I was.”

Chez said they’ve walked 107 people through recovery since January 2023.

“We see this over and over, that there are plans and purposes that people have not yet stepped into, but they needed an assist, and they also don’t want to do it alone,” she said. “There’s so much fear, and so we’re there to help mitigate that fear. We tell them, ‘We’re never going to leave you.’”

We See You San Diego’s work caught the attention of the Lucky Duck Foundation, a privately funded group that looks for immediate solutions to the homelessness crisis.

“Not one kid ever raised their hand and said, ‘When I grow up, I want to be homeless. I want to live on the streets,’” said Lucky Duck CEO Drew Moser.

“There’s far too many people suffering on the streets,” Moser continued. “Sometimes government can get tunnel vision on ‘We need more housing,’ and I think a lot of people can agree housing is an ideal outcome, but if all we do is focus on housing, we say that’s kind of like telling passengers on a sinking ship, ‘Hang on, we’ll build you some lifeboats sometime in the next five to 10 years,’ because that’s how long it takes to add housing, unfortunately, and it’s really challenging to scale economically. We’re focused on the here and the now.”

In September, the Lucky Duck Foundation – long backed by late Padres owner Peter Seidler and basketball legend Bill Walton – awarded We See You San Diego its annual “Fr. Joe Hustler of the Year Award” in honor of Fr. Joe Carroll.

That award comes with $250,000 to help We See You San Diego expand. It’s part of Lucky Duck’s newly unveiled $3 million commitment to several initiatives aimed at combatting homelessness.

But the award comes with a challenge: it’s contingent on a match from local governments, like San Diego County or any of its 18 cities.

“We’re encouraging government to do its part to help expand a program that’s proven, that’s tangible, that’s immediate, that has a lot of value and that’s saved a lot of lives,” Moser said. “The bang for the buck is significant, especially compared to some of the existing strategies that they’re employing.”

On Sept. 26, Lucky Duck sent a letter to the San Diego County Board of Supervisors outlining the ask and noting that there are only 78 detox beds in the entire county that accept Medi-Cal. The county board said it received the letter and was in the process of reviewing the request.

Chez said the funding could make a world of difference.

“The only thing I see is faces. I see the faces whose lives could be transformed with that money,” Chez said.

Her message to local government is simple.

“Let’s save lives together,” Chez said. “It would be an honor.”

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Related Topics:Featured Homelessness San Diego

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San Diego, CA

Padres roster review: Germán Márquez

Published

6 hours ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

Padres roster review: Germán Márquez – San Diego Union-Tribune

GERMÁN MÁRQUEZ

Position(s): Right-handed pitcher
Bats / Throws: Right / Right
2026 opening day age: 31
Height / Weight: 6-foot-1 / 230 pounds
How acquired: Signed as a free agent in February 2026
Contract status: Will make $1 million in 2026 with a $750,000 buyout on a mutual option for 2027; can add up to $3.25 million in performance bonuses.
fWAR in 2025: 0.3
Key 2025 stats: 3-16, 6.70 ERA, 83 strikeouts, 48 walks, 1.71 WHIP, .317 opponent average, 126⅓ innings (26 starts)

STAT TO NOTE

36.9 — The percentage of groundballs that Márquez yielded in 2025, a career low and significantly below his career average (48%). Márquez’s groundball rate was regularly above 50% before requiring Tommy John surgery in early 2023. He made one start in 2024 and struggled mightily while making 26 starts last year.

Down — Márquez had a 4.40 ERA through his first seven years in the majors, not bad considering he pitched roughly half his games at one of the best hitting environments in the majors. In fact, Márquez has a 5.17 ERA in his career at Coors Field and a 4.22 ERA in road environments. But Márquez underwent Tommy John surgery early in 2023, made one start in the majors in mid-July in 2024 (4 IP, 3 ER) and struggled throughout his first full year back in the Rockies rotation. The season was so difficult for Márquez that he was actually worse on the road (7.32 ERA) than he was in 11 starts at Coors Field (5.98 ERA). His strikeout rate (5.9 per nine innings) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (1.73) were the worst of his careers, as was his walk rate (3.4 per nine innings), while his hit rate (12.0 per nine innings) was the second worst of his career. On top of that, Márquez’s groundball rate was also the lowest of his career (see stat to note) and ranked in the bottom 22nd percentile of the league and his hard-hit rate (48.5%) and average exit velocity (91.7 mph) both ranked in the bottom 2 percentile of the league. One reason: a 94.8 mph four-seamer is down a few ticks than the height of his effectiveness. Márquez reached free agency after the season and signed with the Padres in February.

2026 OUTLOOK

Márquez has a big-league deal with the Padres, but he’ll have to rediscover his pre-elbow-reconstruction form to hold onto a roster spot, as RHP Griffin Canning (Achilles) is expected to push for a spot at some point this season and the likes of LHP JP Sears, RHP Matt Waldron and minor league signees like Marco Gonzales could warrant looks if Márquez’s struggles continue into 2026.

German Marquez #33 of the San Diego Padres participates in drills during spring training workouts at the Peoria Sports Complex on Monday, Feb. 16, 2026 in Peoria, Ariz.(Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

ROSTER RANKINGS

1. OF Fernando Tatis Jr.
2. 3B Manny Machado
3. OF Jackson Merrill
4. RHP Nick Pivetta
5. RHP Michael King
6. RHP Mason Miller
7. OF Ramón Laureano
8. SS Xander Bogaerts
9. LHP Adrián Morejón
10. RHP Jeremiah Estrada
11. RHP Jason Adam
12. 2B Jake Cronenworth
13. RHP Joe Musgrove
14. RHP Randy Vasquez
15. OF Gavin Sheets
16. LHP JP Sears
17. RHP Yu Darvish
18. RHP Bradgley Rodriguez
19. RHP David Morgan
20. C Freddy Fermin
21. LHP Wandy Peralta
22. C Luis Campusano
23. LHP Yuki Matsui
24. INF Sung-Mun Song
25. RHP German Marquez
26. RHP Matt Waldron
27. OF Bryce Johnson
28. OF/1B Nick Castellanos
29. RHP Ron Marinaccio
30. RHP Bryan Hoeing
31. LHP Kyle Hart
32. INF Will Wagner
33. RHP Garrett Hawkins
34. RHP Miguel Mendez
35. RHP Daison Acosta
36. RHP Ty Adcock
37. RHP Alek Jacob
38. INF Mason McCoy

Removed from 40-man roster

OF Tirso Ornelas (designated for assignment)
RHP Jhony Brito (60-day injured list)

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San Diego, CA

Blount named Head Basketball Coach at San Diego – HoopDirt

Published

18 hours ago

March 9, 2026

Press Room

Blount named Head Basketball Coach at San Diego – HoopDirt

In today’s Daily Dirt, I mentioned that the search at San Diego was done. Here’s the official announcement from USD on the hiring of JR Blount as their next head men’s basketball coach:

University of San Diego Athletics has named JR Blount the 15th head coach in San Diego men’s basketball program history, USD Associate Vice President and Executive Director of Athletics Kimya Massey announced on Monday.

Blount arrives in San Diego with a reputation as one of college basketball’s rising coaching talents after helping lead Iowa State to four NCAA Tournament appearances in four seasons.

He joins the Toreros after five seasons on T.J. Otzelberger’s staff at Iowa State, where the Cyclones compiled a 95-45 record during his tenure, won the 2024 Big 12 Tournament Championship and reached the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 in 2022 and 2024 — one of the most successful stretches in program history. Iowa State finished in the AP Top 15 in each of those four seasons and climbed as high as No. 2 nationally in each of the last two years. During the 2025-26 season, the Cyclones opened with a 16-0 start, highlighted by victories over No. 1 Purdue, No. 2 Houston, No. 9 Kansas and No. 14 St. John’s.

“After a thorough and highly competitive national search, we are proud to welcome JR Blount as the next head coach of USD men’s basketball,” said Massey. “JR is an outstanding leader, a relentless competitor and one of the brightest rising coaches in college basketball. Even more importantly, throughout this process I came to know him as a humble leader with strong integrity and deep family values. JR has been a part of winning at every level of his career and understands what it takes to build a program that competes with toughness, discipline and consistency. Just as importantly, he believes in developing young men holistically and leading in a way that reflects the values of this university.

“This is a pivotal moment for our program and JR’s vision aligns with our belief that San Diego men’s basketball should compete in the upper tier of the WCC and position itself to be a regular NCAA Tournament participant. We are excited about what lies ahead under his leadership.”

“As a product of Catholic education and deeply committed to USD’s mission and values, Coach Blount is an outstanding role model for the young men in our Torero basketball program,” said USD President James T. Harris III. “He brings an impressive resume with deep experience, a winning track record and — above all — a commitment to the overall wellbeing of our student-athletes.”

“I’m incredibly honored and grateful for the opportunity to lead USD men’s basketball,” Blount said. “We are so thankful to Athletic Director Kimya Massey and President Harris for this opportunity. This is more than just a coaching position for me — it’s a chance to become part of a community and build something meaningful. My wife and our three daughters are excited to make this move together and we can’t wait to invest in this university and the relationships that make it special.

I come to USD with a deep desire to win — to compete relentlessly, to develop our young men to their fullest potential and to build a program our fans can be proud of. Winning championships is important, but so is building a culture of toughness, accountability and love. We’re going to work every day to represent USD the right way, on and off the court. I’m ready to get started.”

Blount played a key role in Iowa State’s rise under Otzelberger, helping orchestrate one of the most significant program turnarounds in recent Division I history. In his first season with the Cyclones in 2021-22, Iowa State rebounded from a two-win campaign the year before to finish 22-13 and advance to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16. The Cyclones quickly established a national reputation for defensive toughness, ranking among the nation’s best in scoring defense, defensive efficiency, steals and turnovers forced.

Over the next three seasons, Blount helped Iowa State sustain that momentum. In 2022-23, the Cyclones advanced to the NCAA Tournament and recorded nine wins over AP Top 25 opponents, tied for the most in school history. In 2023-24, Iowa State won the Big 12 Championship, finished 29-8, posted an undefeated 18-0 record at Hilton Coliseum and advanced to the Sweet 16. Most recently, the 2024-25 Cyclones finished 25-10, climbed as high as No. 2 in the Associated Press poll, earned another NCAA Tournament appearance and closed the season ranked No. 17 nationally.

Known for his work in player development, recruiting and culture-building, Blount has mentored multiple all-conference and All-America caliber players throughout his coaching career. At Iowa State, he developed some of the Big 12’s top performers while contributing to a program identity rooted in toughness, connectivity and competitive excellence.

Prior to Iowa State, Blount spent three seasons at Colorado State, where he helped elevate the Rams into one of the Mountain West’s top programs. During his tenure in Fort Collins, Colorado State signed the highest-rated recruiting class in program history and posted consecutive 20-win seasons, including a 20-8 finish and a run to the NIT semifinals in 2020-21. He also played a leadership role in Colorado State’s Together Initiative, which promoted social justice and racial equality on campus.

Blount also previously served in coaching roles at Drake and Saint Leo and began his collegiate coaching career as a graduate assistant at Wisconsin-Stevens Point, where the program won the 2010 NCAA Division III National Championship.

A former three-year team captain and two-time team MVP at Loyola University Chicago, Blount later played professionally for the Leicester Riders of the British Basketball League during the 2010-11 season. He earned degrees in psychology and sociology from Loyola in 2009 and later received his master’s degree in education from UW-Stevens Point in 2012.

A native of Milwaukee, Blount and his wife, Ashley, have three daughters: Maya, Zuri and Gema.

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San Diego, CA

SDPD investigating suspicious death

Published

1 day ago

March 9, 2026

Press Room

UNIVERSITY CITY (KGTV) — San Diego police are investigating the death of an 81-year-old woman who was found unresponsive in her apartment in the 6300 block of Genesee Avenue.

Officers and San Diego Fire-Rescue personnel responded to a 9-1-1 call at about 11:56 p.m. on March 6.

First responders found the woman in her bedroom, unresponsive and “positioned awkwardly on a bed.” Despite immediate life-saving efforts, she was pronounced dead at the scene.

Detectives from the San Diego Police Department’s Homicide Unit were called to the scene due to “unusual circumstances,” police said. The cause and manner of death remain undetermined.

Investigators are working with the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office to determine what happened.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Homicide Unit at (619) 531-2293 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.

This story has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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