San Diego, CA
San Diego region’s gun violence prevention efforts getting $4.2 million boost
The San Diego region just got a $4.2 million boost to expand gun violence prevention efforts through court orders designed to quickly get guns out of the hands of people who pose a threat.
The money from two state grants will go to outreach and education about civil court orders, including gun violence restraining orders, that require people who are alleged to be dangerous to turn over their firearms. The funding will also be used to create a task force to enforce those court orders.
San Diego is the most active user of gun violence restraining orders in the state. At a news conference Tuesday at the San Diego Police Department downtown, Attorney General Rob Bonta said the city has “truly been a model for how to use evidence-based, data-driven solutions that work that prevent firearm violence from happening in the first place.”
“It’s also been an exemplary policy and approach that others can learn from,” Bonta said.
Gun violence restraining orders, or GVROs, are judge-approved civil court orders intended for crisis intervention. They require a person to surrender or sell their firearms and bar the person from having guns or ammunition for the duration of the order, which can last up to five years.
Supporters of such orders hail them as a vital public safety measure to intervene in dangerous behavior. Critics disparage them as overreach and an affront to the Second Amendment.
City Attorney Mara Elliott has championed gun violence restraining orders, and her office said Tuesday it has obtained more of them than any other city in the nation. Law enforcement working with the San Diego City Attorney’s Office have seized more than 3,700 guns using the orders.
Elliott said the grant money “will lead to one of the most significant expansions of gun violence prevention work in California” since the state law creating them was passed, prompted by the 2014 mass shooting near UC Santa Barbara that killed six people.
Of the new funding coming to the region, $2 million from the state’s Judicial Council will go toward a new Firearms Relinquishment Task Force to enforce court orders intended to disarm people alleged to pose a threat. The task force met for the first time last week.
The remaining $2.2 million, from the California Department of Justice, will go toward law enforcement training and public education about gun violence restraining orders and other court orders designed to separate a person from firearms. That money will go to the San Diego City Attorney’s Office.
Tuesday’s announcement of increased funding comes little more than six weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of removing firearms from certain dangerous people such as domestic violence suspects, the City Attorney’s Office noted in a news release. It added that California is “doubling down” on using court orders to disarm people who pose a threat.
The state’s gun violence restraining order law went into effect in 2016. From then to the end of last year, two California counties account for 44 percent of all such orders — Santa Clara and San Diego, according to a report that Bonta’s Office of Gun Violence Protection issued in June.
San Diego County also had “by far the highest number” of gun violence restraining orders made into “permanent” orders, which can last up to five years, during that same eight-year stretch, the report stated — 35 percent of all the long-term orders in California were issued in San Diego.
Gun violence restraining orders are often obtained very quickly after an incident or threat. They start as temporary 21-day orders, followed by a court hearing for a judge to consider extending them.
Many of those do not turn into long-term orders, and it’s not uncommon for the temporary order to be dissolved. Sometimes deals are struck to handle cases through less restrictive means, and people can get their weapons back sooner.
California has nine types of court orders that can remove guns from people, including in cases alleging domestic violence, workplace violence or civil harassment. The report from Bonta’s office states that gun violence restraining orders accounted for 1 percent of the orders issued with firearm provisions in 2023.
Originally Published:
Beauty and wellness are a staple of American culture. Thousands of citizens visit our spas and salons throughout the United States for critical, everyday grooming services they rely on. However, if the U.S. Department of Education has its way, Americans could soon have trouble finding qualified professionals to perform these traditional self-care rituals.
The department is proposing a new rule that would end access to many professional beauty programs — an important and growing trade. The department also is mistakenly labeling professional beauty programs as “low-value programs,” even though these programs offer students almost immediate employment opportunities providing professionals a flexible work-life balance.
Driven by high demand for skincare and hair services, there are currently more than 1.4 million professionals throughout the U.S. who work in the professional beauty industry. The professional beauty and wellness industry’s economic trajectory tells a story of continued and sustained growth. Growing at an annual rate of 7% from 2022 to 2024, according to McKinsey & Co., the United States ranks among the 10 fastest-growing wellness markets worldwide.
But even a robust and resilient industry like ours cannot overcome bad policy decisions that threaten an entire industry. Congress never included an accountability metric for certificate programs like cosmetology or massage therapy programs in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act does contain an accountability metric called “Do No Harm,” which is designed to keep colleges and universities that offer degree programs or graduate-level certificates accountable to the American people.
The accountability metric for degree programs, when applied to certificate programs, will eliminate opportunities for Americans to receive federal student aid, including Pell Grants, to unlock a career in cosmetology or massage therapy. The Department of Education has acknowledged using the Do No Harm provision as an accountability metric will have a severe negative impact on the cosmetology and massage schools nationwide, and determined that 92% of accredited cosmetology and massage therapy schools eventually will lose access to all federal student aid, including Pell Grants, for their students and most likely will be forced to close in the near future.
The one saving grace is that the department has not finalized its proposed rule, and it is not too late for the public to tell the department that this rule does not fit the bill for professional beauty students and schools. Comments must be received on or by May 20. You can submit your comments on the Accountability in Higher Education and Access through Demand-driven Workforce Pell (AHEAD) rule through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at regulations.gov/commenton/ED-2026-OPE-0100-0001. The department will not accept comments submitted by fax or by email or comments submitted after the comment period closes.
Any new rule adopted by the agency needs to account for the overall demographic and work-life balance goals of students and the professional beauty industry. These students and future small business owners deserve the same opportunities as students pursuing careers in other disciplines and fields.
Lynch is the owner and chief executive officer of the Poway-based Bellus Academy and the founding chair of the nonprofit Beauty Changes Lives, which awards nearly $500,000 in scholarships annually.
San Diego, CA
San Diego health officials monitor hantavirus situation as cruise ship passengers return to U.S.
SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — American passengers from a cruise ship hit with a hantavirus outbreak are back in the United States.
San Diego County health officials say they are monitoring the situation and there is no need for panic.
“The risk to Californians is really low and especially here in San Diego. Since the year 2000, we’ve only had 4 cases of hantavirus and the majority of those were in travel related cases so not even acquired here locally,” Ankita Kadakia, deputy public health officer for the County of San Diego, said.
According to the CDC, hantavirus is spread through contact with infected rodents.
“The virus can be in their saliva, feces or droppings,” Kadakia said.
San Diego County does see cases of rodents infected with hantavirus, but the strain seen locally is not the same strain connected to the cruise ship outbreak.
“The vast majority of strains of hantavirus are mouse or animal to human transmission. Not human to human transmission. So the Andes strain, which is found in Argentina, there is evidence that there is human to human transmission,” Dr. Ahmed Salem, a pulmonologist at Sharp Memorial Hospital, said.
Salem treated hantavirus during the 2012 Yosemite National Park outbreak.
“One of the ways you die from hantavirus is you get a collapse of your cardiac system and your pulmonary system and you have to go on something called ECMO. It’s one of the most aggressive forms of life support that you can do. So I do remember that case, and unfortunately, that person passed away,” Salem said.
There is currently no cure or vaccine for hantavirus. Health officials stress that for those who were not on the cruise ship, the risk of contracting the virus remains low.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
Here’s some instant reaction from the Padres’ wild 3-2 victory
-
Seattle, WA3 minutes agoSeattle weather: 80s on the horizon before a long cooldown
-
San Diego, CA9 minutes agoOpinion: Proposed federal rule would hammer beauty industry
-
Milwaukee, WI15 minutes agoWhat the Bucks can learn from this year’s playoffs: Eastern Conference First Round
-
Atlanta, GA21 minutes agoFrom skid pad to train car: How the public safety training center is used
-
Minneapolis, MN27 minutes agoMinneapolis grocery store owner charged in $1 million food assistance fraud
-
Indianapolis, IN33 minutes agoThese vacant school district properties will become affordable housing
-
Pittsburg, PA39 minutes agoMan shot and killed in East Hills
-
Augusta, GA45 minutes agoAugusta factory to produce key component for drugs to fight malaria