San Diego, CA
Celebration of life for San Diego philanthropist
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.
The U.S. military identified a Minnesota Marine stationed in Southern California who went missing off San Diego last week, and confirmed his death.
Lance Cpl. Armando Ortiz Canseco was declared deceased Saturday. It is believed he was lost at sea after a training exercise.
“On behalf of the Marines and sailors of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, I extend our deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of Lance Cpl. Ortiz Canseco,” Col. Richard Alvarez, the commanding officer of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, said in a statement.
Ortiz Canseco was reported missing from the amphibious transport dock ship USS Anchorage early Thursday morning. His disappearance resulted in an extensive search and rescue operation, with efforts beginning around 1:20 a.m. Thursday.
The search spanned roughly 2,400 square miles and involved officials from the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and Air Force who used three surface ships and 12 aircraft, according to the military.
The Marine went missing during a training operation involving the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit and the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group.
After nearly two full days of searching, the Navy transitioned to recovery operations.
“He earned the title of United States Marine and served his country with honor and commitment,” Alvarez said. “We mourn alongside his family, and we remain committed to bringing him home.”
This incident marks the second time in recent weeks that the U.S. military has searched for missing service members.
The remains of two Army soldiers who went missing while off duty from military exercises in Morocco were recovered in May, according to the Army.
Officials did not initially identify Ortiz Canseco on Thursday or disclose the circumstances surrounding his disappearance, saying his family needed to be notified first.
His death continues to be under investigation.
Ortiz Canseco enlisted in the Marine Corps in April 2023 and reported for training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego.
His individual awards include the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal and Sea Service Deployment Ribbon.
Times staff writer Alene Tchekmedyian contributed to this report.
Blink, and you might miss it.
Adobe Falls isn’t Niagara Falls — or anything close — but after winter rains, a seasonal waterfall briefly appears in a narrow Del Cerro canyon, hidden beneath streets, homes, and San Diego State University property.
The waterfall forms along Alvarado Creek, which drains parts of eastern San Diego, including the SDSU area and surrounding neighborhoods. In wet months, runoff moves through a steep canyon and drops over a short rock ledge known locally as Adobe Falls. In dry periods, the flow often fades to a trickle or disappears entirely, leaving exposed sandstone and a shaded canyon bed.
What makes the site stand out is its setting. Above the canyon are Del Cerro residential streets and university property tied to San Diego State. Below it, Alvarado Creek continues west as part of the Mission Valley watershed, eventually feeding into the San Diego River system. Like many urban drainages in San Diego, its flow is shaped by stormwater runoff, paved surfaces, and altered drainage patterns tied to development.
Access is restricted. The canyon sits on a mix of SDSU and city-managed land and has long been closed to the public due to safety concerns, including steep terrain, erosion, and unstable footing after rain. Although widely referenced in maps and online posts, it is not an official trail or recreation site.
The canyon itself pre-dates modern development in Del Cerro. It is part of a broader network of inland waterways and canyon corridors used for thousands of years by the Kumeyaay, whose presence shaped movement and settlement patterns across the region.
In the mid-20th century, as Del Cerro developed, homes and roads were built along canyon rims rather than through them, leaving Alvarado Creek intact as a drainage system. Adobe Falls remained within that corridor even as surrounding hillsides filled with residential and institutional development.
Today, Adobe Falls remains a small but persistent reminder that San Diego’s natural drainage systems still function within a heavily built environment — appearing briefly after storms, then receding back into the canyon until the next rain.
Read more history stories here, and do you have a story to tell? Send an email to DebbieSklar@cox.net.
Sources:
City of San Diego – Stormwater & Watershed Division (Alvarado Creek / Mission Valley watershed)
San Diego State University – planning and environmental impact documentation for adjacent canyon areas
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) – San Diego County watershed and hydrology mapping (Alvarado Creek / San Diego River system context)
San Diego History Center – Kumeyaay regional land use and inland canyon corridor history
City of San Diego Planning Department – land use records and access restrictions for Adobe Falls area
California State Historic Landmark files – Adobe Falls (Landmark No. 80)
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