San Diego, CA
The Chicano Kennedys of San Diego County put out a photo book
In San Diego County, the Inzunzas are the region’s Chicano Kennedys.
They’ve been beloved educators and doctors, prep athlete stars and authors, entrepreneurs and just plain ol’ good neighbors. But the true family business is politics, and since the 1970s, Inzunzas have served city councils in National City, San Diego and Chula Vista; school boards in San Ysidro and Imperial Beach, and even water districts.
Dozens of them gathered Jan. 10 in Balboa Park at the Museum of Photographic Arts at the San Diego Museum of Art to celebrate the Inzunza clan’s latest contribution to America’s Finest City: a coffee table book of 200-plus pictures from the early 1970s taken by one of their own.
A crucial era in the Chicano movement
“Movimiento en la Sangre” (“Movement in the Blood”) is an extraordinary collection from the archives of Nick Inzunza, a Vietnam War veteran turned Chicano activist who worked as a school psychologist in National City and went on to become a school trustee. From 1971 to 1974 he took nearly 1,800 photos of a crucial era in the Chicano movement, when young activists realized they needed to run for political office to effect true change and also began to embrace the undocumented immigrants their elders once shunned.
There are shots of what would become Chicano Park, the world-famous collection of murals underneath the Coronado Bridge in Barrio Logan. Casual images show giants of the Chicano movement — Cesar Chavez, Bert Corona, Reies López Tijerina, José Angel Gutiérrez — behind podiums or chatting with admirers. The photos also depict protests and conferences not just in San Diego but also El Paso, San Bernardino and Los Angeles, plus local activists who never made it into the history books — until now.
Even better are snapshots of Chicano life in that time: the puffy haircuts and sharp outfits, after-school boxing programs to keep boys away from gangs and a Christmas toy giveaway by Santa Claus to barrio kids organizing against the Border Patrol. There’s even a baby-faced San Diego mayor Pete Wilson addressing a group of Chicanos at a banquet, back in the days when Wilson was somewhat sympathetic to undocumented immigrants and before he demonized them to win reelection as California governor in 1994.
“Movimiento en la Sangre” is a much-needed addition to Latino, San Diego, Southern California and civil rights histories that too often overlook the book’s subject matter. The self-taught Inzunza knew how to frame what was before him, so the photos are as aesthetically pleasing as they are important. Breaking up his ouvre are excerpts from college papers, musings and letters he sent in that era.
“The Mexican culture which is all around us can no longer be denied,” he wrote to a teacher who protested a Mexican Christmas event held at an elementary school. “We as human beings can no longer ignore a culture that is indigenous to this land and has been here for centuries.”
Redemption for the most famous Inzunza
What’s most amazing about “Movimiento en la Sangre” is that Inzunza’s book was 50 years in the making and comes more than a decade after he died.
Inzunza’s nephew Ralph Inzunza (one of the book’s two official authors, in addition to Nick’s son Nicólas Jorge Inzunza) told a rapturous hometown crowd about the book’s genesis at the launch event, which I helped moderate.
After Nick shot his movimiento photos, he kept rolls of undeveloped film in a box that stayed in the trunk of his yellow Ford Mustang for decades, then moved them into his house. When the family finally processed them a few years ago, the results were so impressive that San Diego State English and Comparative Literature professor William Nericcio suggested the Inzunzas publish the best shots for San Diego State University Press, which Nericcio runs.
Ralph is the most famous San Diego Inzunza, for better and worse. Elected to the San Diego city council in 2001, he soon became deputy mayor and was considered a rising star. But in 2005 a federal jury convicted him in San Diego’s so-called Strippergate scandal. Prosecutors alleged Ralph and two other council members took campaign contributions so they could try to change a law that barred dancers from touching their clients. He was the only one of the three council members who served time because one died and the other had his conviction overturned.
But Ralph’s reputation rebounded. He works as a political consultant and “Movimiento en la Sangre” is his third book, following a young adult novel about life on the U.S.-Mexico border and a fictionalized memoir of his prison years (start taking notes, José Huizar).
In his short speech Ralph shouted out the many activists in the book — young then, veteranos now — who were in the audience. Above all he praised the legacy of his uncle Nick, whose box of camera rolls, left untouched for decades, were also onstage.
“It is history, and it is not,” Ralph said of Nick Inzunza’s magnum opus, “because it’s alive.”
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San Diego, CA
Military bases in San Diego County increase security following Iran attacks
SAN DIEGO (CNS) – Military bases in San Diego County and nationwide have increased security measures due to last weekend’s U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran, prompting traffic delays near base entrances, enhanced ID checks and access restrictions.
The Naval Air Station North Island on Coronado ports three aircraft carriers, including the San Diego-based USS Abraham Lincoln, which led some of the first-wave attacks on Saturday.
Naval Base Coronado warned motorists of possible traffic delays at all base entry points due to the increased security measures.
Targets included Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps command and control facilities, Iranian air defense capabilities, missile and drone launch sites and military airfields.
The U.S. operation, dubbed “Epic Fury,” and Israeli operation, “Raging Lion,” began striking targets at 1:15 a.m. Eastern Time Saturday.
As of Tuesday, at least six U.S. service members had been killed in action.
The strikes also killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei, who had been Iran’s supreme leader since 1989, making him the longest-serving head of state in the Middle East.
Iran’s offensive forces claimed to have struck USS Abraham Lincoln with ballistic missiles, but according to an X post from U.S central Command, “The Lincoln was not hit. The missiles launched didn’t even come close. The Lincoln continues to launch aircraft in support of CENTCOM’s relentless campaign to defend the American people by eliminating threats from the Iranian regime.”
Those with concerns regarding the heightened security can contact San Diego County’s Office of Emergency Services at 858-565-3490 or oes@sdcounty.ca.gov.
Copyright 2026, City News Service, Inc.
San Diego, CA
SD Unified moves forward with layoffs of classified employees
SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Less than 3 weeks after the San Diego Unified School District finalized a new contract with teachers, the school board voted unanimously on Tuesday to move forward with layoff notices for other district employees.
The layoffs affect classified employees — workers who are employed by the district but are not teachers and are not certified. That includes bus drivers, custodians, special education and teacher aides, and cafeteria workers.
The district says it is eliminating 221 positions — 133 that are currently filled and 88 that are vacant — to save $19 million and help address a projected $47 million deficit for the next fiscal year.
Preliminary layoff notices will go out on March 15, with final notices by May 15.
The district estimates about 200 classified employees will receive preliminary notices, but of them, about 70 are expected to lose their jobs based on union-negotiated bumping rules.
Bumping allows employees with more seniority to move into another position in the same classification, thereby “bumping” a less senior employee out of that role.
Lupe Murray, an early childhood special education parafacilitator with the district, said the news came as a shock after the teacher strike was called off.
“When the strike was called off, I’m like, ‘Yes!’ So then when I got the email from the Superintendent, I’m like, ‘Wait, what?’ So, I think everyone was shocked,” Murray said.
The district says it sends out annual layoff notices, as all districts in the state do.
Before Tuesday’s board meeting, classified employees rallied outside, made up of CSEA (California School Employees Association) Chapters OTBS 788, Paraeducators 759, and OSS 724. They were joined by parents, students, and the San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council, AFL-CIO.
Miguel Arellano, a paraeducator independence facilitator with San Diego Unified and a representative of San Diego Paraeducators Cahpter 759.
“What do we want? No layoffs! When do we want it? Now!” the crowd chanted.
Arellano said he felt compelled to act when he learned about the potential layoffs.
“The first thing that went through my mind was that I need to speak up. I need to protect these people,” Arellano said.
Inside the meeting, the board heard emotional, at times tearful testimony from classified employees before voting unanimously to move forward with the layoff schedule.
Superintendent Fabi Bagula said the district has tried to protect classrooms from the cuts.
“We have tried our best to only, I mean, to not touch the school. Or the classroom. But now it’s at the point where it’s getting a little bit harder,” Bagula said. “What I’m still hoping, or what I’m still working toward, because we’re still in negotiations, is that we’re able to actually come to a win-win, where there’s positions and availability and maybe even promotions for folks that are impacted.”
Arellano warned the layoffs could have a direct impact on students.
“We are already spread thin, so, with more of a case load, it’s going to be impossible to be able to service all the students that we need to have,” Arellano said.
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San Diego, CA
Scripps Oceanography granted $15M for deep sea, glacier science
The Fund for Science and Technology, a new private foundation, granted Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego $15 million for ocean science Tuesday.
FFST, funded by the estate of the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, was started in 2025 with a commitment to invest at least $500 million over four years to “propel transformative science and technology for people and the planet.”
“Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego is pushing boundaries for exploration and discovery across the global ocean,” Chancellor Pradeep Khosla said. “This visionary support from the Fund for Science and Technology will enable Scripps researchers to advance our understanding of our planet, which has meaningful implications for communities around the world.”
The grant, the largest of its kind since Scripps joined UCSD in 1960, will go toward research in three areas: monitoring of environmental DNA and other biomolecules in marine ecosystems, adding to the Argo network of ocean observing robots, and enhancing the study of ocean conditions beneath Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier, often referred to as the “Doomsday Glacier.”
Scripps Institution of Oceanography has used Argo floats for more than two decades to track climate impacts in our oceans. NBC 7 meteorologist Greg Bledsoe reports.
“The Fund for Science and Technology was created to support transformational science in the search of answers to some of the planet’s most complex questions,” said Dr. Lynda Stuart, president and CEO at the fund. “Scripps has a long tradition of leadership at the frontiers of ocean and climate science, and this work builds on that legacy — strengthening the tools and insights needed to understand our environment at a truly global and unprecedented scale.”
Scripps Director Emeritus Margaret Leinen will use a portion of the grant in her analysis of eDNA — free-floating fragments of DNA shed by organisms into the environment — in understudied parts of the ocean to collect crucial baseline data on marine organisms, according to a statement from Scripps.
“In many regions, we know very little about the microbial communities that form the base of the ocean food web or that make deep sea ecosystems so unique,” Leinen said. “Without data, we can’t predict how these communities are going to respond to climate change or what the consequences might be. That’s a vulnerability — and this funding will help us begin to address it.”
Using autonomous samplers that can collect ocean water for eDNA analysis, as well as conventional sampling, scientists will use tools to “reveal the biology of the open ocean and polar regions.”
According to Scripps, the international Argo program has more than 4,000 floats that drift with currents and periodically dive to measure temperature, salinity and pressure. Standard floats can record data up to depths of 2,000 meters (6,560 feet), while newer Deep Argo floats can dive to 6,000 meters (19,685 feet).
The grant funding announced Tuesday will allow for Scripps to deploy around 50 Deep Argo floats along with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory.
Sarah Purkey, physical oceanographer at Scripps and Argo lead, said this leap forward in deep ocean monitoring comes at a crucial time because the deep sea has warmed faster than expected over the last two decades.
Thwaites Glacier is Antarctica’s largest collapsing glacier and contains enough ice to raise global sea level by roughly two feet if it were to collapse entirely. According to Scripps, prior expeditions led by scientist Jamin Greenbaum discovered anomalously warm water beneath the glacier’s ice shelf — contributing to melting from below. Greenbaum now seeks to collect water samples and other measurements from beneath Thwaites’ ice tongue to disentangle the drivers of its rapid melting.
This season’s Antarctic fieldwork will “test hypotheses about the drivers of Thwaites’ rapid melt with implications for sea-level rise projections,” the statement from Scripps said.
“The ocean holds answers to some of the most pressing questions about our planet’s future, but only if we can observe it,” said Meenakshi Wadhwa, director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography and vice chancellor for marine sciences at UCSD. “This historic grant will help ocean scientists bring new tools and approaches to parts of the ocean we’ve barely begun to explore.”
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