San Diego, CA
Celebration of life for San Diego philanthropist
![Celebration of life for San Diego philanthropist Celebration of life for San Diego philanthropist](https://cdn.kpbs.org/dims4/default/812eb3e/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1400x735+0+333/resize/1200x630!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fkpbs-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fimg%2Fpodcasts%2F2020%2Fpodcast_1400-SDNewsNow.jpg)
Good Morning, I’m Emilyn Mohebbi in for Debbie Cruz. It’s Tuesday, May 14th.
Local leaders pay their respects to one of San Diego’s leading philanthropists. More on that next. But first, let’s do the headlines.
San Diego’s next chief of police will officially take over June 7th.
Scott Wahl received final approval from the city council yesterday.
He was chosen by San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria to be promoted to the chief position after current chief David Neisleit announced his retirement.
Wahl has been with the department for decades and currently holds the position of Assistant Chief.
San Diego County leaders will spend this week talking about how to spend billions of taxpayer dollars.
This morning begins two days of budget presentations from departments like maintenance, roads, sanitation, flood control and fire protection.
County budgets for the next two fiscal years are expected to be in excess of 8-billion dollars.
These meetings will help determine how to share that money among the various agencies and departments.
Today’s meeting begins at 10 a-m.
Another session will be held Thursday and these meetings are open to the public.
A prominent figure in San Diego sports during the 2000s has died.
A-J Smith was 75.
His family says he spent the past several years in a battle with prostate cancer.
Smith was the San Diego Chargers general manager from 2003-to-2012 – a period that featured stars like LaDainian Tomlinson, Philip Rivers and Antonio Gates.
Smith’s teams won 98 games over 10 seasons… along with five A-F-C West division titles.
From KPBS, you’re listening to San Diego News Now.Stay with me for more of the local news you need.
A celebration of life was held for the late Joan Jacobs yesterday.Reporter Melissa Mae brings us the remembrances.
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MM: Joan Jacobs was a champion for the Rady Shell at Jacobs Park. Just a day after Mother’s Day the venue welcomed hundreds of community members to her celebration of life. Jacobs died on May 6th at the age of 91.
MM: San Diego Padres Executive Vice President Tom Seidler says the Padres are fortunate to partner with the Jacobs family.
TS “They just set a high bar for how to lead in San Diego and give back to the community and so we’ve been fortunate to try to follow their lead and help make San Diego the best version of itself.”
MM: Along with the Rady Shell, the Jacobs family has donated millions of dollars to the the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the La Jolla Playhouse and San Diego Symphony… Who is dedicating their 2024-25 opening season of Jacobs Music Center to Joan Jacobs. Melissa Mae KPBS News.
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The Jacobs family are also major donors to us here at KPBS.
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If you’ve walked along the beach lately, you may have noticed clear, oval shapes dotting the shore.
Reporter Katie Anastas (a-NASS-tis) says they’re washing up all along the west coast.
The round, translucent shapes have rings and a thin sail running down the middle. While they might look like plastic, they’re actually a kind of zooplankton [ZOH-plankton] called velella velella, or by-the-wind sailors.
Anya Stajner [sch-TY-ner] studies zooplankton at U-C-S-D’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Because of that sail they often get blown ashore in times of high shoreward winds and currents.
Out on the ocean’s surface, velella have a bright blue ring around their edge. Their color fades away once they wash up on shore.
If you’re out there swimming or surfing you should keep your eye out. You can surf right alongside those little sailors.
Velella catch their prey with tiny tentacles dangling from their bodies. Their stings aren’t usually harmful to humans, but scientists recommend avoiding touching your eyes or mouth after handling them.
Katie Anastas, KPBS News.
In the meat industry, pink slime is known as pieces of cow steamed with ammonia and used as beef filler.
In media circles, pink slime is a term for websites that pose as unbiased local news providers but actually have a political agenda.
Investigative reporter Amita Sharma says two of these sites are in San Diego.
“I know you want to Hildy, but you can’t quit the newspaper business. Oh? Why not? I know you Hildy and I know what quitting would mean to you. And what would it mean? It would kill you.”
More than eight decades after that scene from the comedy His Girl Friday, the American public has largely quit newspapers. As a result, thousands of newsrooms have gone dark in the past two decades. Today, there are only about 1,200 daily newspapers left in the United States.
Experts say this is bad enough…making matters worse, there is now an equal number of so-called pink slime sites.
“A pink slime site is a news outlet that is presenting itself as a traditionally local-focused news publication, free of bias and free of political ties with human journalists on their team.”
But NewsGuard’s McKenzie Sadeghi says that’s not the full story.
“They also mix in some very partisan content that promotes certain candidates or ideologies that favor the goals of their political founders or backers.”
There are two such websites in San Diego County: San Diego City Wire and sister outlet East San Diego News. At first glance, they look like a traditional newspaper site…with sections for local government, politics, business and sports. But look closer and there are striking differences. There are no human bylines. And a lot of the articles are actually press releases or content generated by AI.
“They use software that analyzes large sets of data. For example, campaign finance records or unemployment data and turn it into a report, making it specific and tailored to that specific county
San Diego City Wire recently ran stories about the number of local FDA inspections and political committee contributions…Then there are other stories … that reveal a political agenda…like pieces referring to undocumented migrants as “illegal aliens” or disclosing how many teachers in a district pledged to teach critical race theory.
These are right-leaning news sites.”
The San Diego websites have no phone numbers for their leadership, only a single email address. Emails KPBS sent seeking interviews bounced back.
Longtime news analyst Ken Doctor, runs a Pulitzer-Prize winning digital news website called Lookout Santa Cruz. He says the ongoing decline of local newspapers has paved the way for pink slime.
“I fear we’re entering a Blade Runner era of the news business, given what artificial intelligence can do in the wrong hands. That is part of what is going to make this pink slime problem far worse very quickly.”
Especially in an election year.
“I fear we’re headed toward a dumpster fire.”
Tim Franklin is a dean at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He says these are treacherous times.
We have a hyper-partisan environment that we’re all living in. We have hotly contested elections coming up. We have growing news deserts and frankly we need reliable, accurate information to make informed decisions as voters. Pink slime is only gonna muddy the situation.”
Franklin says the antidote to pink slime is a national media literacy campaign to help people distinguish between news AND information designed to mislead.
Amita Sharma, KPBS News.
Mexico’s presidential election is less than a month away and KPBS wants to include our audience in our coverage.
We will hold a virtual conversation later this month, answering your questions in English and Spanish.
To participate, go to KPBS-dot-org and look for the banner at the top of the homepage to click through and submit your question or topic.
Then be sure to join us on the evening of Wednesday, May 29th at 5-30 on YouTube or Facebook for the virtual event.
That’s it for the podcast today.
As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org.
Tomorrow on the podcast a Mindfulness Expert will join me for a discussion on mental health as we mark Mental Health Awareness Month.
I’m Emilyn Mohebbi. Thanks for listening and have a great Tuesday.
![](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/np-logo.png)
San Diego, CA
Padres Daily: Manny’s baseball smarts; beautiful frame; home run chase; perfect Pérez
![Padres Daily: Manny’s baseball smarts; beautiful frame; home run chase; perfect Pérez Padres Daily: Manny’s baseball smarts; beautiful frame; home run chase; perfect Pérez](https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/sut-l-padres-0831_ac5a78.jpg?w=1024&h=682)
Good morning from St. Petersburg, Fla.,
After all that happened last night, we are going to go back to the first inning and begin today’s newsletter with Manny Machado’s part in it.
In newsletters earlier this week, we discussed his importance to the Padres based on his offense.
And Machado hit a home run in last night’s second inning as part of a game in which he went 3-for-5 with four RBIs.
He is batting .306 with a .935 OPS over the past 60 games, a span in which the Padres have gone from three games under .500 to 17 games over. They are 22-0 this season when he has multiple RBIs.
His OPS since June 19 is third highest in the National League behind the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani (1.004) and the Mets’ Francisco Lindor (.936).
Machado talked earlier this week about how much better he is feeling physically, which he reiterated last night.
“I feel pretty good right now, obviously,” said Machado, who has five home runs in his past 50 at-bats and 10 home runs in his past 120 at-bats. “My swing is where it needs to be. My body is feeling great, too. Trying to stay as consistent as I can possibly be. Hopefully, it stays like that. But you know how baseball can be. It’s up and down. So try to keep working.”
His bat is by far the biggest reason will have made more than $450 million over 15 seasons with the Padres by the time his current contract runs out in 2033. His play at third base is also widely celebrated, highly valued and will be factored in when his Hall of Fame case is considered some day.
But in the Padres’ three-run first inning last night — a wonderful baseball sequence I highlighted in my game story (here) — Machado did something that has to be talked about and is the kind of thing that probably should be talked about more.
On Xander Bogaerts’ sacrifice fly to center field that scored Jake Cronenworth from third base, Machado tagged up from first and beat the throw to second.
The hustle paid off when Jackson Merrill singled on the next pitch and Machado scored easily from second.
Scoring Probability? 100% pic.twitter.com/wOTZO0Uoo7
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) August 30, 2024
The irony is that a player who is derided by many fans and media members for his sometimes-lackadaisical runs to first base does something like what he did last night fairly often.
Machado runs when he has to run. He knows when that is, and he knows how to get an edge — be it with a big lead when appropriate, taking an extra base, stealing a base or even sprinting to try to beat out an infield dribbler.
“He’s legitimately, like honestly, probably the smartest player I’ve ever been around,” Padres third base coach Tim Leiper, who has been in professional baseball since 1985, said recently.
The conviction with which Leiper speaks of Machado’s baseball IQ is something I wish could be properly conveyed in the written word.
“When he’s running by you, you realize how hard he runs and how much ground he covers,” Leiper said. “He knows exactly what he needs to do to get it done, and I trust him every single solitary time.”
Good frame
The Padres have scored nine runs in an inning twice this season. They began one of those with seven consecutive singles, and every one of those players scored. In the other, the first nine batters reached base and all of them scored.
So it might be a stretch to say last night’s three-run first inning was the best example of what the Padres’ offense has been about in 2024.
But it was incredibly aesthetically pleasing.
I wrote about it in my game story. But the details are worth mining further.
It all began with Jurickson Profar getting a piece of a 1-2 splitter from Taj Bradley and fouling it down and into Rays catcher Alex Jackson’s glove. Jackson lifted up his glove to show he had caught the ball, and home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt started to go into his strikeout motion. But Profar protested the ball had hit the ground. Wendelstedt checked the ball and, seeing dirt, signaled it had been a foul.
Profar lined the next pitch over the second baseman. After Donovan Solano flied out on a drive to the wall in right field, Profar stole second while Cronenworth was up. On a 2-2 count, Cronenworth also went the other way through the hole on the left side against a splitter. Profar only made it to third after holding up because the ball appeared it might be caught by third baseman Junior Caminero.
Machado followed with another single the other way on a full-count splitter, scoring Profar and sending Cronenworth to third.
On his way back to the dugout, Profar spoke briefly with Bogaerts and then Merrill about the action on the splitter, which was not darting down in the zone.
Bogaerts hit a first-pitch cutter to center field — the sacrifice fly on which Machado advanced. The other notable aspect of that play was that Cronenworth sprinted home full speed, not because there was any way he was going to be thrown out, but because he knew he had to get there before Machado was possibly tagged out at second.
Merrill then lined a first-pitch splitter into center field to score Machado.
“It was masterful,” manager Mike Shildt said. “It was really fun. It was good baseball. The whole game, really, from an offensive standpoint, whole way. It’s how we like to compete. … It’s how the game is supposed to be played.”
Closing in
Machado’s homer was his 161st with the Padres, tying him with Adrián González and leaving him two behind Nate Colbert for most in franchise history.
“That’s huge,” Machado said when asked about pulling even with González, who played for the Padres from 2006-10 and was an Eastlake High graduate. “I mean, obviously, a San Diego great. To be on that list in such a short period of time is awesome. To be on that same level is an honor for sure.”
On the MLB all-time home run list, Machado’s 336th career homer moved him out of a tie with Darryl Strawberry and Robinson Canó and into a tie for 113th with Joe Adcock.
The ‘W’
Martín Pérez allowed four runs in the second inning and later seemed he was one batter away from being removed on two occasions. But he earned the decision by getting through five innings.
Pérez, who was 2-5 with a 5.20 ERA in 16 starts for the Pirates, is now 2-0 with a 3.41 ERA with the Padres.
The Padres have won all six of his starts, though the past three have been nothing like the first three.
First three: 18⅓ innings, 11 H, 4 R, 3 BB, 21 K, 4 HR
Past three: 13⅓ innings, 18 H, 8 R, 7 BB, 7 K, 3 HR
The mechanical changes Pérez touted early have wavered some, and it is possible opponents are picking up on the pitch mix he also held up as a reason for his improved results.
He explained last night, too, that the mound at Tropicana Field had an uncomfortable landing spot for him.
But there must be some credit for him getting through three scoreless innings on 48 pitches while allowing four base runners after it took him 53 pitches and he allowed six baserunners (and the four runs) in the first two innings.
“I was able to compete,” Pérez said. “When you don’t have your best stuff, you gotta go out there and compete. I gave five innings to my team. I was able to stop them, and we scored a lot of runs and won the game.”
Tidbits
- The four runs the Padres scored in the second inning was the 45th time they have scored at least that many runs in an inning this season, most in the majors and second most in any season in team history. They are five shy of tying the team record set in 2001.
- The Padres have gone first to third on a single 105 times this season, most in the majors.
- Last night was the fourth time the Padres scored 13 runs this season and the first since June 8. It was two shy of their season-high 15 runs against the Dodgers on March 21 in Seoul, South Korea.
- Profar reached base five times in six plate appearances last night. He followed his first-inning single with four walks to up his NL-leading on-base percentage to .384.
- Machado took over the team lead with 83 RBIs, three more than Profar. It is the first time Machado has led the team in RBIs since he was tied with Cronenworth with seven on March 31.
- Luis Campusano singled and walked twice. It was his third game this season with two walks and his first since May 25. Campusano entered last night’s game with a 35.7 percent chase rate but chased just two of 11 pitches (18 percent) outside the zone last night and has chased just five of the past 25 pitches (20 percent) he has seen outside the zone.
- David Peralta was 2-for-3 with a home run last night. He is batting .355 with a 1.000 OPS in his past 20 games (67 plate appearances).
- Merrill was 2-for-5 last night and has reached base in all but one of his past 15 games, a span in which he has batted .333 (19-for-57) with three doubles, two triples and three home runs. I wrote yesterday (here) about why the Padres have not moved him up past sixth in the batting order.
- One of those reasons is Shildt’s belief in Bogaerts, who has been slumping lately. Bogaerts was 1-for-3 with a homer and a walk last night and is batting .243 with a .301 OBP over his past 21 games. The homer was his first in 49 at-bats and his second in 108 at-bats.
- Machado, who played for the Orioles from 2012 to 2018, has pretty outstanding numbers at all of the American League East ballparks — except Tropicana Field. His big game last night improved his batting average in 54 games there to .196, and his home run was his second in 209 at-bats inside the funky dome.
- Yu Darvish, who has not pitched since May 29 while on the injured list and restricted list, threw 66 pitches in a “controlled” game against Reds minor leaguers last night at the Peoria Sports Complex. He faced 18 batters in four innings. According to the Padres, Darvish reported “feeling well after the outing.” The next step could be a rehab start, though an immediate return to the rotation has not been ruled out.
- Sean Reynolds threw 1⅔ scoreless innings last night (with help from Jeremiah Estrada stranding two inherited runners). Reynolds has not allowed a run in his past six outings (8⅓ innings). The rookie has allowed just one run in 11 innings (nine games) this season.
All right, that’s it for me. Earlier game (1:10 p.m. PT) today.
Talk to you tomorrow. Maybe. I probably need to take one of these next two nights off from the newsletter so I can catch up on some other work.
Regardless, we will have our usual coverage on our Padres page, and I will send out a Padres Daily at least two of the next three days.
P.S. If you are reading this online, please know there is an easier way to get the Padres Daily. And it is free! Sign up here to have it emailed to your inbox the morning after (almost) every game.
San Diego, CA
Manny Machado ties Adrian Gonzalez on Padres all-time HR list as Friars beat Rays
![Manny Machado ties Adrian Gonzalez on Padres all-time HR list as Friars beat Rays Manny Machado ties Adrian Gonzalez on Padres all-time HR list as Friars beat Rays](https://media.nbcsandiego.com/2024/08/GettyImages-2169509600.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&resize=1200%2C675)
Manny Machado started the season dealing with an elbow injury. Then he added a hip ailment and just didn’t look like himself.
Manny Machado is now healthy and looking like the future Hall of Famer we’ve come to know and love.
Machado had another monster night in Tampa, including a historic homer, in a 13-5 San Diego rout of the Rays to start a 3-game series on the Gulf Coast. In the 2nd inning, Manny detonated a 3-run homer to right-centerfield, his 161st dinger in a Padres uniform. The blast ties him with Eastlake High School alum Adrian Gonzalez for 2nd place on the franchise’s all-time HR list, just two behind Nate Colbert.
He added a pair of singles and had plenty of help from his fellow sluggers. David Peralta continued his renaissance with a 2-run homer in the 4th inning, a no-doubter that nearly reached the scoreboard beyond the right field seats at Tropicana Field. In the 7th inning, Xander Bogaerts hit a line shot that snuck over the left field wall for his 7th homer of the year.
Jackson Merrill and Jake Cronenworth chipped in with two hits each and Jurickson Profar showed off his supreme plate discipline, drawing four walks. It was one of the most complete offensive performances of the season for an offense that’s been among the game’s best over the last five months.
The Padres can win the series on Saturday afternoon with Randy Vasquez on the mound against Rays righty Shane Baz.
San Diego, CA
San Diego Unified reviewing investigation into school superintendent
![San Diego Unified reviewing investigation into school superintendent San Diego Unified reviewing investigation into school superintendent](https://media.nbcsandiego.com/2024/08/San-Diego-Unified-reviewing-investigation-into-school-superintendent.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&resize=1200%2C675)
The San Diego Unified School District board plans on meeting Friday afternoon to review the results of an investigation of the district’s superintendent.
The school leader is facing misconduct allegations from former female district employees, according to NBC 7’s media partners at the Voice of San Diego, which first reported back in May that the district hired an outside firm to look into allegations against Superintendent Lamont Jackson.
Since then, the district and the board have declined to comment or provide any more details, but the VOSD cites four sources with knowledge of the matter who say the results are in and that the district is currently reviewing them and plans on a closed-door session regarding the matter at 2 p.m. on Friday.
“The San Diego Unified School District Board of Education will meet in closed session at 2 p.m. today, Aug. 30, to discuss the findings of a third-party investigation into Superintendent Dr. Lamont Jackson,” the district said in an email sent out on Friday morning. “Board President Shana Hazan plans to make a statement in the auditorium following the closed session meeting.”
Jackson was hired two and a half years ago, after President Joe Biden tapped Jackson’s predecessor, Cindy Marten, as the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education.
As of Thursday, the teacher’s union had no comment regarding the investigation.
In May, NBC 7 reported that the district hired a Los Angeles law firm to handle the internal investigation, but the school district would not say at that time what the investigation entailed. The Voice of San Diego later reported the internal investigation was focused on Superintendent Lamont Jackson.
NBC 7 contacted SDUSD in May, and a spokesperson said in an email that the “district is precluded from commenting on personnel matters.” The station also reported at that time that it reached out to all school board members and the district’s teachers’ union, but none commented on the investigation.
The contract from the law firm, Sanchez & Amador, LLP, states the district retained the firm April 10, 2024, for representation “in sensitive internal investigations” for a rate of up to $540 per hour. At a public school board meeting on April 30, 2024, the school board approved the contract for an anticipated cost of $100,000.
The contract says attorney Lupe Valencia will have primary responsibility for the investigation. According to the law firm’s website, Valencia “directed and/or oversaw hundreds of internal investigations arising from a variety of employment-related claims, including harassment, discrimination, whistleblower retaliation, code of conduct violations, and alleged fraudulent business practices…”
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