The Morning Report
Get the news and information you need to take on the day.
San Diego Unified’s budget problems have been in the news. Every time school budgets are in our pages, someone asks about the California Lottery system. Apparently promises about money from the lottery flowing to the schools really made an impression.
We decided to finally answer the question of how much money is coming from the lottery to schools.
It has been sending cash to the state’s public schools and community colleges for more than 30 years, but as our Ashly McGlone explains, public records show that the money is a tiny drop in the big bucket that is a school district’s annual budget.
California voters approved a ballot proposition in 1984 that directed a percentage of state lottery revenues to public schools. The amount of money school districts get is based on the size of their student population. Attendance at San Diego Unified is declining, which means lottery money is also projected to dip.
Gas Price Hike Continues to Fuel Protests in Mexico
A gasoline price hike went into effect in Mexico on Jan. 1, and there’s been protests and problems across the country since.
A large protest in Tijuana prompted U.S. authorities to block vehicle traffic into Mexico from San Ysidro for almost four hours Saturday night.
The U-T’s Sandra Dibble covered the border closure and another violent protest happening outside a Rosarito Beach gasoline distribution center.
Voice of San Diego’s Border Report writer Brooke Binkowski recorded a live video on Twitter of what the closed Port of Entry looked like, and VOSD contributor David Maung captured some stunning images of the protest in Rosarito, including this shot of a police officer using a plastic crate as a shield and this officer holding a rock behind his back.
Keep up with border-related news by getting yourself signed up for our biweekly Border Report.
• Women who enter the country illegally or have pending immigration status are much more likely to stay in abusive relationships. (U-T)
• San Diego saw increases in both Border Patrol apprehensions and Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportations between 2015 and 2016. (U-T)
Weekend News Roundup
• Chargers chairman Dean Spanos has until Jan. 15 to take the NFL up on the offer to move his team to Los Angeles. The U-T’s Dan McSwain offers up three options he imagines for keeping the Chargers in San Diego.
• The U-T’s Joshua Stewart looks back on the rise and fall of former County Supervisor Dave Roberts and talks to people who have thoughts on what he should’ve done differently.
• The Reader published a list of five San Diego County lawyers who have been disciplined by the state bar.
• On Saturday, the body of a U.S. military veteran who died in the Korean War over six decades ago was finally returned home to San Diego. (NBC 7 San Diego)
SeaWorld Still Getting Shamed on Social Media
SeaWorld San Diego held its last-ever orca entertainment show on Sunday. The move hasn’t done much to quell the ongoing social media and real-world shaming of SeaWorld, since critics like PETA and other animal activists are continuing to call for the release of all orcas in captivity. SeaWorld’s new Orca Encounter exhibit will open this summer, and while it promises to be more educational, the killer whales will still be coaxed to leap out of the water to impress guests, a detail that has become the subject of a new surge of online criticism.