Awkward: on Tuesday the San Diego Unified board will vote on hiring an investigator to look into embattled board president Marne Foster’s questionable activities. Then they’ll somehow segue into honoring her with a proclamation.
The board will also be discussing changing some rules – the same ones Foster may have violated.
Mario Koran’s following the strange story as it unravels bit by bit.
Gloria Tran, an active parent with two kids in the district, told Koran that the agenda for Tuesday’s board meeting is shocking.
“I was aghast,” Tran said. “To me it looks like her colleagues are saying, ‘Oh, sorry, Marne. We have to do this investigation to appease the public. But don’t worry. We’re on your side.’”
Developers forgo $4 Million
You don’t have to read too many handwritten cardboard signs held up at busy intersections in San Diego before you find one belonging to a homeless vet. San Diego has the second-highest number of homeless veterans in the state.
VOSD’s Maya Srikrishnan looks into a new state program offering up $5 million to developers in San Diego county who want to help house all those veterans. She found that just $1 million has been put to use for a project in Oceanside. That’s a pittance when compared to the city with the highest homeless-vet population — you guessed it; Los Angeles, which spent $25 million for eight veteran housing projects.
The local lag is bad, said the developer behind the county’s only project geared toward vets. But he and others detailed the reasons they think affordable-housing developers in the county aren’t champing at the bit for the extra funds.
• A 66-year-old chronic alcoholic is the city’s most prolific user of 911 services. The U-T followed the wheelchair-bound homeless man and touched on the bigger issues of providing expensive emergency services to frequent 911 users.
Chargers Push for LA Gets Some Good News
The Vikings are getting a new stadium, so U-T columnist Kevin Acee used the team’s trip to Minnesota to argue, again, the Chargers should get one, too.
The Chargers stadium saga has entered a slow stage as we wait on the NFL. Vinny Bonsignore at the LA Daily News wrote that NFL staff has done its job, getting the best it can from St. Louis, Oakland, San Diego and LA. So now it’s up to the owners and Commissioner Roger Goodell to make a choice.
The Rams, Chargers and Raiders are trying to move to LA and only one or two will make it. Last week, the discussion was about what might happen if only one team is allowed. Now, according to NBC’s Pro Football Talk, there is a group of NFL owners not interested in letting the Rams move to LA.
That’s old news. But there are some intriguing details centered on Panther’s owner, Jerry Richardson, who is on the NFL’s LA committee:
“As one source put it, Richardson and other owners view the Chargers and Raiders as more eligible to move under the league’s relocation policy, especially since it appears that St. Louis has cobbled together a viable plan for building a new stadium and keeping the Rams in the place they’ve been for the last 20 years.”
The piece also predicts that San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer will be meeting with Richardson to convince him to make the Chargers stay.
– Scott Lewis
Quick News Hits
• The only thing worse than getting a parking ticket on street-sweeping days is getting a parking ticket on street-sweeping days when the street sweeper never actually swept your street. Too bad, so sad: the city says you still have to pay.
• I thought only tinfoil-hat-type people believed in “chemtrails.” Apparently not.
• Phevos, a tiger called “the latest victim of Greece’s economic crisis” by the BBC, was flown halfway across the world for a better life at the Lions Tigers & Bears sanctuary in Alpine. The Los Angeles Times reports that he was in pain and euthanized last week.
• 10News San Diego trekked out to a warehouse in Otay Mesa filled with cowboy boots made of endangered crocodiles, a foot stool made out of an actual elephant foot and other odd animal goods seized by customs at the border.
• Keeping on the animal kick, NBC San Diego went out to Ramona where a woman is using her ridiculously cute tiny horses to make people happy.
• As if Coronado hasn’t already given bike riders enough of a reason to steer clear of the isthmus, Examiner tells the story of a Navy sailor who was suspected of stealing his own bike because of its “suspicious” pink color.
Moon Gazing
Incredible photos of the rare supermoon eclipse Sunday night are everywhere and my urge to look at all of them is strong (and yes, I’ll even look at the super bad photos like the one my mom sent, which makes the magnificent moon look like a tiny fleck of dust got caught on her camera lens).
I’m especially stoked to see the creative moon imagery that local drone photographer and videographer Jeff Morris comes up with. Morris is the guy whose goosebumps-inducing “Above San Diego” video not only uses music from one of my favorite bands, First Aid Kit, but also warms up my insides with civic pride every time I watch it.
Seriously, if enough San Diegans watch his video, we’ll definitely knock Des Moines out of the top spot next year when Gallup does a poll looking for residents who are proudest of their community.
Kinsee Morlan is VOSD’s engagement editor. She’s also the author of the Culture Report. You can reach her at kinsee.morlan@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.325.0525.