The Morning Report
San Diego news and info
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This year has marked a major shift in San Diego County government. In the past few months, the county’s Board of Supervisors opened a shuttered courthouse to asylum-seekers, dipped into its reserve fund for affordable housing projects and took steps towards creating or joining a government-run energy program.
VOSD’s Lisa Halverstadt digs into the county’s reboot and the faces on the board who have been driving it in a new story.
A 2010 ballot measure instituting term limits on the board and changing party registration trends countywide were the first sign things would change. And change they have, writes Halverstadt. In 2018, Democrat Nathan Fletcher and former San Marcos Mayor Jim Desmond replaced two long-sitting supervisors. By 2020, board Chairwoman Dianne Jacob and Supervisor Greg Cox will also be termed out.
Jacob told Halverstadt that the new blood on the board presented an opportunity to tackle challenges that have escalated in recent years.
“Moving forward into the future, my intent was to set the table so to speak, and create a new environment, and also send a message to our administration that we need to look for ways to do better,” Jacob said. “Just doing business as usual is not good enough. It’s time to re-evaluate and take a look at how we do business.”
Teachers Don’t Reflect the Students They Teach
In his latest education newsletter, VOSD’s Will Huntsberry breaks down the disparities in teacher demographics in San Diego. While only 43 percent of city of San Diego residents identify as Caucasian, 64 percent of teachers at San Diego Unified are Caucasian. The starkest difference is between the city’s Asian population – 13 percent – and Asian teachers, who only make up 3 percent of teachers.
- A National School District employee is suing the district for failing to respond to substantiated claims of sexual harassment. (Union-Tribune)
Poway Aftermath Continues With Grieving and Questions
- Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein of Chabad of Poway, Army veteran Oscar Stewart and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer Jonathan Morales spoke at a prayer service Wednesday at the White House, reports NBC 7.
- The Union-Tribune visited the accused shooter’s church, which is grappling with his “horrible, wicked act.”
- Authorities recently thwarted an attack in Los Angeles, though they failed to see the Poway shooting coming, reports KPBS.
- The Associated Press has more details about the federal grant money the Chabad of Poway synagogue received to boost security before the attack.
In Other News
- A new report finds that San Diego has one of the nation’s largest populations facing food insecurity. (Union-Tribune)
- A Navy petty officer who killed four people after driving over the side of a transition ramp to the San Diego- Coronado Bridge and landing in Chicano Park was sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison. (City News Service)
- San Diego gaming company Psyonics, which makes the incredibly popular automobile soccer video game Rocket League, has been bought by the company Epic Games, which makes probably the most popular game on the market right now, Fortnite. Terms of the deal weren’t released.
- Imperial Beach passed the most restrictive plastic ban in the county. (Union-Tribune)
- In a new San Diego Explained, Halverstadt and NBC 7’s Catherine Garcia explain how the closing of the single room occupancies at the Plaza Hotel downtown, which have long been a saving grace for many San Diegans on the brink of homelessness, paints a broader picture of the region’s housing woes.
The Morning Report was written by Maya Srikrishnan, and edited by Sara Libby.