The current United States Supreme Court may not be the best body to start weighing in on homelessness. That was the undercurrent of Attorney General Rob Bonta’s comments at Politifest on Saturday.
California lawmakers, all the way from Gov. Gavin Newsom to San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, have recently begun asking the nation’s highest court to clarify certain key decisions around homelessness. Bonta said he understands the push for clarity, but hopes it doesn’t result in a “massive pendulum swing.”
Two appellate court decisions in recent years have set key parameters around enforcement of crimes related to homelessness. One decision established that cities can’t write a person a ticket for camping outside when no shelter is available. Another decision limited the ability of cities to clear homeless encampments.
Bonta didn’t say it directly, but he clearly feared the conservative-majority on the Supreme Court could roll back the rights of homeless people in any attempt to clarify current laws.
The Learning Curve: The Struggle to Boost Attendance at One Elementary School
Missing school has always been a problem in lower grades. And it has always been a problem at Horton Elementary. Many students there live below the poverty line — a fact that correlates closely with chronic absenteeism. On top of all that, chronic absenteeism has exploded since the pandemic.
Horton employees have been furiously working to keep kids from missing too much school. The stakes are high. Missing a lot of school can cause kids to fall behind and sometimes they go their entire school careers without catching up.
Horton educators have been making a concerted effort to explain these stakes to parents, in the hopes that it will boost attendance. For his Learning Curve, Jakob McWhinney detailed the efforts of one Horton teacher.
Patty Covarrubias has been doing her best to keep parents updated about exactly what their children are learning and will learn as one strategy. She’s also trying to offer as much positive incentive as she can. Her class recently had a popsicle party, because of its stellar attendance. Covarrubias also doesn’t denigrate students when they’re late. Instead, she congratulates them for making it to school. That shift in language makes a big difference in student’s desire to show up, she said.
Trouble at the Escondido Chamber of Commerce
The Escondido Chamber of Commerce last week fired its CEO James Rowten over alleged financial misconduct. The rest of the staff was also laid off because the Chamber couldn’t make payroll, according to the Escondido Times-Advocate.
The former CEO allegedly misused the Chamber’s funds for years contributing to the nonprofit’s current “major financial crisis,” a former staffer told the Times-Advocate.
Rowten was also allegedly meeting with Palomar Health CEO Diane Hansen trying to broker a deal to sell Palomar Health’s Escondido campus on Citracado Parkway, according to the North County Pipeline. This is according to several anonymous sources, the publication said, and has not been verified.
Our Tigist Layne reached out to Palomar Health for comment, but has not yet received a response.
Related: After VOSD reported about Palomar Health’s new terms of use agreement on its website that experts agreed was a potential violation of public access laws, Palomar Health changed the agreement.
The public health care district still has an extensive set of rules users must accept to access the website, but district officials did change the copyright clause, which previously forbade users from copying, reproducing, republishing, posting, retransmitting or distributing information found on the site without permission.
The copyright clause now says the information presented on the site is considered public domain unless otherwise indicated and may be distributed or copied as permitted by law.
In Other News
- Doug Bauder, chief nuclear officer and vice president of decommissioning the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, or SONGS, is retiring at the end of this month and the station is getting a new boss. The Union-Tribune has more here.
- The state awarded two San Diego homeless housing projects $20.75 million. The funds come from California’s Homekey program. (KPBS) Our Lisa Halverstadt has more on the award, and applications other cities are waiting to hear about.
- Times of San Diego reports that thousands attended a vigil in University City to show support for Israel after an unprecedented attack by Hamas militants.
- Here’s where you can get free glasses to enjoy the solar eclipse this weekend. (NBC 7 San Diego)
The Morning Report was written by Will Huntsberry, Tigist Layne and Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.