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These were the most popular Voice of San Diego stories for the week of Aug 5-Aug 12.
1. What I Learned Helping My Sister Use California’s New Law to End Her Life
Less than two months after the state’s new aid-in-dying measure went into effect, my sister used the law to obtain a lethal dose of drugs. “I’d rather be free than entombed in my body,” she told me. (Kelly Davis)
2. San Diego Republicans Run From Trump
In San Diego, party unity is just another political norm Donald Trump upended in 2016. (Andrew Keatts)
3. Exclusive: Padres Chairman Lays Out Concerns with Chargers’ Plans
When the Chamber of Commerce endorsed the Chargers plan for a new stadium in downtown San Diego, one member of its board of directors abstained. We wanted to find out why and ended up with an exclusive interview with Padres Chairman Ron Fowler. (Scott Lewis)
4. San Diego Explained: The Future of Seaport Village
In this week’s San Diego Explained, NBC 7 San Diego’s Monica Dean and VOSD’s Andrew Keatts explain how developers – not public officials – are framing the discussion about San Diego’s waterfront, and why that has some people concerned. (Kinsee Morlan)
5. Scathing Audit Bolsters Critics’ Fears About Secretive State Gang Database
An explosive state audit confirms many of the fears that San Diego Assemblywoman Shirley Weber and others have long expressed about the state’s gang database: that it cannot ensure individuals’ privacy, that people can be entered in the database without proper substantiation and that people are kept in the database long after their names should have been purged. (Sara Libby)
6. What Common Core Means for English-Learners
Education officials have pitched Common Core State Standards as more rigorous than the old ones. English-learners already struggled under the old standards, so there’s reason to worry the new standards will be out of reach. The new standards mean English-learners will be forced to talk more in class. That poses a new opportunity, and a new challenge. (Mario Koran)
7. Experts: Paid Parking at Balboa Park Could End Parking Woes
Parking experts say Balboa Park’s parking woes might be solved with a comprehensive pricing plan for parking throughout the park rather than new garages. (Lisa Halverstadt)
8. How Water Restrictions Are Changing, Depending on Where You Live
Water agencies across the state are easing water restrictions now that drought conditions have modestly improved. It’s leading to overlapping and contradictory water-use suggestions just among San Diego County’s agencies. (Ry Rivard)
9. Why Balboa Park’s Prime Parking Is Like Filet Mignon
A well-known parking expert argues paid parking would lessen parking headaches at Balboa Park – and he’s using an analogy about filet mignon and hamburgers to make his point. (Lisa Halverstadt)
10. It Is Ridiculously Hard to Qualify – and Stay Qualified – for Free Preschool
One unintended consequence of the minimum wage increase is that more children may be pushed out of free preschool spots. A state bill in the works could offer some relief. (Mario Koran )