The state medical board has charged a San Diego doctor with gross and repeated negligence, as well as failure to properly maintain records for writing a medical vaccine exemption under improper circumstances.
Voice of San Diego’s Will Huntsberry previously revealed how the doctor, Tara Zandvliet, had written dozens of vaccine exemptions for reasons that aren’t deemed legitimate by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatricians. Huntsberry found that Zandvliet had written nearly a third of all medical exemptions for San Diego Unified School District.
Zandvliet admits she has likely written 1,000 vaccine exemptions since 2015 in the charging documents, when a state law went into effect banning personal belief exemptions to vaccines, Huntsberry reports.
A new law, partially inspired by VOSD’s investigation, subjects doctors like her to more scrutiny. Starting in 2021, public health officials will have the power to review and overrule any exemption written by a physician who wrote more than five exemptions in a calendar year.
New Children’s Museum Makes it Official: Workers Are Unionizing
The New Children’s Museum workers officially voted to unionize.
At the forefront of the effort is a call for a living wage, reports VOSD contributor Julia Dixon Evans in this week’s Culture Report. The bargaining employees also want to make clear that their benefits should not come at the expense of visitors by raising admission or membership prices, Dixon Evans writes.
“There’s often this feeling that because we have such a fun place to work, that should be enough,” one worker tells Evans. “Or because it’s a nonprofit, you sacrifice your salary, you sacrifice your pocketbook to be able to do this really meaningful work, and there’s something really wrong with that dynamic.”
The museum opted not to voluntarily recognize the collectivizing, which is typical. The union will be formalized within 10 days of the election, and negotiations could begin immediately after that.
Evans also features the Mingei’s Mexican Folk Art Pop Up exhibition and other happenings in her weekly arts and culture round-up.
(Also, happy Culture Reportiversary to Evans, who’s helmed the newsletter for one year now!)
Another Dark Turn for the Starlight Bowl
A long campaign to revive the Starlight Bowl in Balboa Park was brought to a standstill this week after burglars stole tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment and donated autographed guitars. Those items were slated to go up for auction soon, and NBC 7 reports that the nonprofit overseeing the project is pleading for the public’s help.
The nonprofit temporarily removed its security cameras and alarms while city electricians were completing repairs, the Union-Tribune reports. It suffered another setback earlier this year when a eucalyptus tree crashed into the theater.
The 3,500-seat outdoor venue has been sitting vacant and decaying since its former steward walked away from the lease in 2015. For decades, the venue struggled with finances and attendance. Break-ins were a common occurrence, even when it had an operator, because the theater hosted no shows for much of the year.
In Other News
- San Diego voters will decide in March whether the mayor’s office should be stripped of its legal authority to appoint the independent city auditor. “The administration shouldn’t be in charge of choosing who is overseeing the administration,” said City Councilman Scott Sherman. Instead, a committee would make recommendations and the Council would make the ultimate decision. (Union-Tribune)
- Prosecutors and defense attorneys for Margaret Hunter are trying to push back her sentencing to April so that she can cooperate in her husband’s criminal trial. Rep. Duncan Hunter is accused of using campaign money for personal expenses. (Union-Tribune)
- In a new op-ed, the general manager of Lime San Diego argues that the city should cap the number of scooters based on performance, awarding good operators and penalizing ones that don’t have high usage or don’t comply with the rules.
- So this is weird. One America News is suing MSNBC host Rachel Maddow for telling her national audience that the San Diego-based media outlet is “paid Russian propaganda.” (Times of San Diego)
- Court fines and fees have become a new statewide target for criminal justice reforms. (Union-Tribune)
The Morning Report was written by Maya Srikrishnan and Jesse Marx, and edited by Sara Libby.