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2 Democrats running to represent San Diego in the state Assembly have very different resumes

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2 Democrats running to represent San Diego in the state Assembly have very different resumes


The two Democrats running to represent part of San Diego and East County in the state Assembly don’t have anything negative to say about each other.

When asked about his opponent, Colin Parent, a member of the La Mesa City Council, said, “I don’t have anything negative to say.” LaShae Sharp-Collins, a professor and education expert, in turn praised Parent as a “wonderful city council member.”

The choice for voters in the 79th District will largely come down to what kind of background they want representing them in the California Legislature, as well as whose ideas better resonate when it comes to public safety and affordability. Parent won the primary by a significant margin, but Sharp-Collins could make up the difference Nov. 5 by winning over thousands of residents who voted for the third candidate in the earlier race, Lemon Grove Mayor Racquel Vasquez, who is also a Democrat.

One key difference between the two: criminal justice reform.

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Parent said he will vote for Proposition 36, which would toughen sentences for petty theft and certain drug possession charges.

“We’ve got to prioritize public safety,” he added. “I was hoping that the Legislature in Sacramento was going to address those issues, but I think they failed.”

Sharp-Collins feels the opposite.

“You are rolling us back to what we had before,” she said, referencing the state’s earlier tough-on-crime policies. Sharp-Collins is open to revisiting rules established a decade ago by Proposition 47, which reduced penalties for some drug and shoplifting cases, but she believes the current proposal goes too far.

The council member

Parent is a 43-year-old attorney.

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He was elected to La Mesa’s council in 2016, where he’s supported increased oversight of police, voted to boost gun storage requirements, opposed new fees for developers because they could have driven up home prices and endorsed building one enormous housing complex even when it faced bipartisan opposition from all of his colleagues.

Parent is also CEO of the nonprofit Circulate San Diego, which advocates for expanding public transportation.

Critics have raised concerns about whether elected officials should simultaneously work for organizations that influence regional housing policy. Parent has said he’s always separated his advocacy work from decisions made as a La Mesa council member. He does plan to step down from Circulate if elected to the Assembly.

Parent believes his government experience — he’s worked for both the state housing department and the San Diego Housing Commission — position him as the best candidate to address sky-high home prices. For starters, he hopes California will consider dropping the minimum allowed lot size for condos and townhouses, potentially making it easier to create cheaper options for first-time buyers.

Homelessness is a major concern for both candidates. Parent cited a state audit that found homelessness spending has often been poorly tracked and evaluated and said officials needed to be more willing to pull funding from programs that, however well-intentioned, are ineffective. Supporting more sober-living facilities should be considered, he said. Sharp-Collins agreed.

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But Parent nonetheless would vote to boost homelessness spending overall and wants every means of doing so, from raising taxes to issuing bonds, to be on the table. “We need to treat this like the crisis it is.”

Another priority is road repair. Parent believes state funding must first go to the most dangerous and damaged streets.

He further said anyone trying to launch solar or wind farms should face fewer environmental regulations.

Parent has raised more than a half-million dollars from the start of the year through late September, according to records kept by the California Secretary of State. During the same period, Sharp-Collins pulled in a little more than half that amount, about $263,800.

The educator

Sharp-Collins, 44, works for the county’s Office of Education.

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As a community engagement specialist, she helps families navigate district bureaucracy, connects service organizations with local schools and aids in rolling out new curriculum, such as ethnic studies. Sharp-Collins is especially focused on reaching parents who, as a result of juggling multiple jobs or language barriers, may otherwise feel like they don’t have a say in their kids’ education.

In addition, Sharp-Collins teaches in San Diego State University’s Africana Studies department and previously worked on education policy as a staffer to former Assemblymember Shirley Weber.

She wants homeschooling parents to undergo more training and thinks the state should simplify the approval process for turning school-owned land into housing for teachers.

Red tape must similarly be cut for churches willing to build affordable units on their property, Sharp-Collins said. She’s open to boosting rental assistance for low-income residents and increasing taxes on their wealthy neighbors, but more significantly, Sharp-Collins is interested in establishing a state bank that could offer home loans.

Currently, North Dakota appears to be the only state with a government-run bank.

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Sharp-Collins further says developers should only receive incentives, such as reduced requirements for parking spots, if they build significantly more affordable units. Parent thinks the current limits, which can change depending on the area, are largely OK.

Regarding homelessness, Sharp-Collins hopes to explore using more state-owned land and decommissioned naval ships as temporary shelters.

She’s additionally concerned about methane that can leak from stoves in older homes and wants California to spend more money on swapping in electrical appliances.

Both candidates have deep roots in the district and they’ve split Democratic endorsements.

Sharp-Collins is the party’s official nominee and supported by a number of prominent Democrats, including Secretary of State Shirley Weber and state Sen. Toni Atkins. Parent has been endorsed by state Sen. Catherine Blakespear and U.S. Rep. Scott Peters, among others.

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The 79th District begins in southeastern San Diego and continues inland through parts of Lemon Grove, La Mesa and El Cajon. The area is currently represented by Akilah Weber, who’s now running for the California Senate.

Assembly members serve two-year terms and annually make $128,215. The longest someone can stay in office is 12 years.



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San Diego, CA

San Diego hosts Ejim and Gonzaga

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San Diego hosts Ejim and Gonzaga


Associated Press

Gonzaga Bulldogs (5-7, 0-1 WCC) at San Diego Toreros (4-6, 0-1 WCC)

San Diego; Saturday, 5 p.m. EST

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BOTTOM LINE: Gonzaga visits San Diego after Yvonne Ejim scored 20 points in Gonzaga’s 73-58 loss to the San Francisco Dons.

The Toreros have gone 3-3 at home. San Diego is 2-4 against opponents with a winning record.

The Bulldogs are 0-1 in WCC play. Gonzaga is 0-1 when it turns the ball over less than its opponents and averages 17.3 turnovers per game.

San Diego’s average of 3.2 made 3-pointers per game is 4.9 fewer made shots on average than the 8.1 per game Gonzaga gives up. Gonzaga averages 7.5 made 3-pointers per game this season, 1.7 more made shots on average than the 5.8 per game San Diego allows.

The Toreros and Bulldogs match up Saturday for the first time in WCC play this season.

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TOP PERFORMERS: Kylie Horstmeyer is scoring 11.7 points per game with 4.4 rebounds and 1.7 assists for the Toreros.

Ejim is shooting 57.0% and averaging 19.8 points for the Bulldogs.

___

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

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San Diego, CA

Fog upends holiday travel at San Diego airport. Hundreds of flights delayed in past 3 days

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Fog upends holiday travel at San Diego airport. Hundreds of flights delayed in past 3 days


Just as the holiday travel season gets underway, daily dense fog here has played havoc with passengers’ flight plans in and out of San Diego International Airport. And the potential for more disruption remains in play.

Over the past three days, nearly 800 flights coming into and leaving the airport were delayed, according to the flight tracking service, FlightAware.

While the National Weather Service is seeing signs that lowered visibility from fog may be moving inland, there still remains the possibility of a late night advisory.

“We think closer to the Interstate15 corridor we may see areas of dense fog tonight, but there’s still the question of when it becomes widespread enough for it to be an issue,” said Casey Oswant, a lead forecaster with the National Weather Service, on Friday. “The fog can be kind of finicky, but now most of the dense fog has dissipated from the coast, so we need to see dense fog observed along the coast before we pull the trigger on an advisory.”

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By early evening, there were only low clouds emerging near the coast, although dense fog could still form overnight, said National Weather Service meteorologist Brandt Maxwell.

It’s still too early to say exactly where there may be fog, although it could be most prevalent slightly inland from the coastal area, east of Interstate 5, as opposed to west of the freeway, which was the case Thursday night, Maxwell said.

San Diego airport officials are forecasting that as many as 1.3 million people will fly in and out of the airport over an 18-day holiday period that began Thursday. Some of the busiest times at the airport are expected to be Friday through Monday. The airport posted a travel alert Friday morning on social media advising passengers to be “aware we’re experiencing some flight delays due to fog. Check with your airline before leaving for the airport.”

Visibility could be as low as 1 mile this evening as a result of fog, Oswant said, but that’s not nearly as bad as Thursday night when visibility dropped to just a quarter mile around the airport at 8 p.m. It later fell to below a quarter mile up until 4 a.m. Friday, she added.

There were more than 300 flight delays in and out of the airport on Friday alone, according to FlightAware. Part of that is due to the ripple effect of consecutive days of delayed flights as airlines try to get passengers on later flights.

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“Year-round weather conditions can impact both departing and arriving flights,” airport spokesperson Nicole Hall said Friday. “Beginning on Thursday and continuing into Friday, a dense low fog cover impacted visibility at the San Diego International Airport. Consequently, more than 100 flights were diverted to other airports and about 30 were canceled. It is possible that fog will persist and continue to create challenges.”

She noted that Airport Authority staff and volunteers will be onsite to help passengers and minimize crowding in the airline gate areas.

As a precaution, she said that passengers should continue to check the status of their flights before getting to the airport. Fog or no fog, she added, delays are a fact of life when it comes to flying, especially during one of the airport’s busiest seasons.

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San Diego man forced friend to help hide wife’s body in freezer, autopsy report says

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San Diego man forced friend to help hide wife’s body in freezer, autopsy report says


A man suspected of placing his wife’s body in a freezer at their Allied Gardens home allegedly forced a friend at gunpoint to help conceal the death, according to an autopsy report unsealed Thursday.

The report by the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office also states the body of Margaret Haxby-Jones was only discovered last December after her husband suffered a stroke and the friend came forward to tell the woman’s family where the body had been hidden for approximately nine years.

The details come a week after San Diego police revealed their suspicions around the involvement of the husband, Robert Haxby, who died in February. Police said they investigated the possibility that Haxby hid the body so his wife’s benefits would continue to be paid out. However, investigators could not gather enough evidence to prosecute the case.

Police did not respond to requests for comment Thursday on whether the unnamed friend who allegedly helped hide the body was being investigated for any possible crimes. A spokesperson for the district attorney referred questions to police.

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The body was discovered at the home on Zion Avenue near Eldridge Street, where Haxby-Jones and her husband lived.

The friend who spoke with investigators said she had died from natural causes at 72 years old, the autopsy report says. She was reportedly obese, in a declining state of health and suffered from dementia. However, the autopsy report states that, due to the prolonged concealment of the body, the cause of death could not be determined.

Her husband concealed her death for financial purposes, according to the report. He coerced the friend, reportedly at gunpoint, to help move the body into a chest freezer in the backyard of the house, officials said. The body was concealed with a tarp, and the friend was sworn to secrecy.

Upon the discovery of her body, the life of Haxby-Jones became a mystery to solve for the Allied Gardens community.

Haxby-Jones had worked for 20 years as a nurse anesthetist before she resigned her post in 1999.

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Haxby-Jones purchased the Zion Avenue home in the mid-1980s, according to a woman connected to the family who spoke to the Union-Tribune. She married her husband but the two ran afoul of the Internal Revenue Service and a lien of $13,000 was put on the home.

The issue with the IRS was resolved around the same time as her disappearance in 2015.

Between 2013 and 2020, police responded to the home nearly 20 times for calls ranging from welfare checks to mental health situations to reports of elder abuse. None of these calls led to the discovery of her body.

According to the autopsy report, three weeks before her body was discovered, Haxby-Jones’ husband was admitted to the hospital. When his death became imminent, the friend told the family on Dec. 21 that Haxby-Jones was in a freezer on the property behind the house that was “excessively cluttered with belongings,” the autopsy report reads.

The family went over to the home and did not initially find the freezer that night. But the next day, the family returned and found the freezer tucked against the outside wall of the house, according to the report.

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It was determined that the last time Haxby-Jones had been seen alive was about 10 years earlier, according to the report. She would have been 81 years old at the time of her discovery.

Police last week said the case has been placed on inactive status pending new information.

Lunetta writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.



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