The Morning Report
Get the news and information you need to take on the day.
Lead is bad, especially for kids who can suffer learning disabilities and other health problems when exposed to even just low levels of the toxic metal.
In the last few months, three San Diego schools have reported issues with lead in the water. It’s an alarming situation, but Voice of San Diego’s Ry Rivard is out with a useful guide to what we know and don’t know about it.
Rivard explains that the problems so far seem to be with old pipes and water fixtures at the schools, which means San Diego’s overall drinking water supply is safe. He also reports that the school system is working to have every school in the district tested before the start of summer.
But Rivard also describes how regular tests of the water we drink are extremely limited, detailing a system that leaves out entire neighborhoods, including the low-income neighborhoods where the schools with lead in the water are located.
East Village Is Exploding With Growth
To get home from work every day, I take the State Route 94 exit from Interstate 5. The elevated ramp loops across the edge of East Village, opening up a great view of the neighborhood’s current building boom.
I’ve counted at least seven cranes popping up from construction sites scattered across East Village. I wanted to know more about what it was like to live or work in the middle of all that construction, so I teamed up with photographer Mike Sumoto and put together a photo essay and talked to people who live and work there about what it’s like to live in a former warehouse district that’s quickly transforming into a dense downtown neighborhood.
Police Arrests Plummet in California
Police officers across California are making fewer arrests, and it’s unclear exactly why.
The Los Angeles Times takes a look at the significant drop in arrests and talks to folks who point to a persistent crime rate and say the trend is cause for concern.
While the San Diego Police Department has also seen a drop in arrests, the story focuses on the Los Angeles Police Department and explores possible correlations. Some folks point to modern policing strategies that don’t focus as much on arrests, others say it could be the increase in tension between officers and the public due to highly publicized officer shootings of unarmed men and some think the downward trend in arrests is caused by Prop. 47, which downgraded some drug and property felonies to misdemeanors.
San Diego Makes ICE’s S-List
Under President Donald Trump’s orders, the Justice Department now releases a weekly report listing law enforcement jurisdictions that limit cooperation with immigration officers in jails.
The U-T reports that San Diego made its debut on the list, which has only been published twice so far.
That San Diego is on the list shouldn’t come as a surprise, the U-T explains, since it’s joined by most major California counties, which are subject to a state law that mostly keeps law enforcement from cooperating with requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to keep non-citizens inmates for up to 48 hours beyond the time they’d be released to give ICE officers time to take them into custody.
• Think San Diego can officially be called a sanctuary city now that it made the Justice Department’s list? VOSD’s Scott Lewis recently explained why neither San Diego nor California should comfortably use that term. ICE told Lewis then that it has a great working relationship with San Diego law enforcement.
Weekend News Roundup
• U-T’s Watchdog team looked at the type of public meetings that don’t have to follow public access and reporting laws because less than a majority of a board’s members are meeting. They found that the closed-door meetings are quite lucrative, and “have helped some of San Diego County’s local politicians parlay the humble meeting stipend — usually somewhere between $100 and $200 — into a five-figure annual payday.”
• If the SoccerCity development proposal for Qualcomm Stadium gets approved, the Major League Soccer Team that ends up playing in the new stadium will not be called Footy McFooty Face, a name that surfaced in a public voting campaign. (Washington Post)
• VOSD’s Lisa Halverstadt joined homeless advocates on NBC7’s Politically Speaking segment to discuss the region’s homelessness crisis.
• The LA Times’ longtime columnist Steve Lopez profiled an almost 80-year-old homeless woman in Carlsbad and the senior center she relies on.
• Imperial Beach mayor Serge Dedina told KUSI News that another sewage spill in Tijuana last week polluted local waters and went unreported by Mexican officials.
• The Potato Chip Rock, a fave photo opp for local hikers, is not actually broken, despite a pretty slick April Fool’s joke by Poway Mayor Steve Vaus. (U-T)
• San Diego’s recent spate of suicides made it into the Associated Press.
• San Diego’s CW6 news signed off for good Friday night. (U-T)