A new documentary, Deadly Failure: A Sailor’s Struggle in a Fractured Mental Health System, aired last night on Veteran’s Day on NBC 7’s streaming platform. The documentary is based on reporting by Voice of San Diego from earlier this year.
The story follows Petty Officer 2nd Class Tiara Gray, who died aboard the USS Essex in 2018 off the shores of San Diego.
Gray had been an artistic, and in some ways angsty, teenager. But in the Navy, she began to experience stress and depression in ways that she had never experienced them before.
After being marked not fit for duty on multiple occasions, a therapist who saw her only once then changed her designation, marking her fit to serve.
As Huntsberry reported in the original story: “Clinical psychologists who have reviewed [Gray]’s case believe she should never have been allowed to stay in the Navy — or, at the least, transferred to a low-stress, stateside job.”
Watch the full documentary here.
Winners, Losers and Still TBD
A new batch of votes has revealed some winners and losers. And some races are still too close to call. Here’s what we know.
The San Diego County Registrar of Voters has 140,000 ballots left to count as of Monday night. The city of San Diego’s Measure E gained some ground, but “no” votes are still ahead by 2 points.
79th Assembly District: Democrat LaShae Sharp-Collins has won the race for the 79th Assembly District, leading fellow Democrat Colin Parent by about 10,000 votes so far. Parent conceded on Monday.
Encinitas: In the Encinitas mayoral race, City Councilmember Bruce Ehlers has defeated incumbent Tony Kranz for the mayoral seat. Kranz conceded on Friday night in a statement. As of Monday night, Ehlers was leading Kranz by roughly 1,600 votes.
Oceanside: It’s still too close to call in Oceanside’s competitive mayoral race, as incumbent Mayor Esther Sanchez trails behind Councilmember Ryan Keim by only 239 votes as of Monday night.
Nearly All Rural Areas Rejected School Bonds
Tuesday’s election results showed a clear divide in voter’s priorities on school bonds. Bonds allow school districts to borrow money to fund facility improvements and are paid back by an increase in property taxes for local residents. They’re lifelines for many school districts, particularly ones with small tax bases that don’t yield much money for such improvements.
Of the six bonds put to voters in small, predominantly rural districts in North County and East County all but one looks to have failed. That wasn’t the case countywide, where multiple bond measures in South Bay cities are ahead in the polls as well as ones for Lemon Grove schools and the San Diego Community College District.
Those losses carry an extra sting given California voters approved a statewide school bond. Had the local measures passed, districts would have been able to take advantage of matching funds from the state bond to help finance new projects or renovations.
“We have a large deferred maintenance, and the bond was going to provide us an opportunity to repair things. We won’t be able to repair and replace all those aspects within our district now,” Alpine Union Superintendent Rich Newman told the Union-Tribune.
The Stories Migrants Leave Behind
Voice of San Diego contributor Kate Morrissey recently came across something familiar while visiting the Otay Mountain wilderness: items left behind by migrants.
Morrissey saw abandoned jackets, cell phones, water bottles, and other personal belongings. She’d seen similar items on other visits to the border with Border Patrol agents.
For the latest Border Report, she recaps what she saw on her tour, and reports that 44 migrants died crossing into the San Diego Sector in fiscal year 2024, which ended in September. She writes that activists expect it will become more dangerous for people to cross the border with Trump’s return to the White House.
More on migrant deaths: The exhibit at the Museum of Us “Hostile Terrain 94” documents the number of migrant deaths at the border.
SDPD Investigating Use of Force on Unarmed Man
The San Diego Police Department is investigating a use-of-force incident where police shot an unarmed man with multiple rounds of bean bags and had a police dog attack him during an arrest, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
The incident, which happened on Oct. 24 in Encanto, was caught on camera. Police were responding to a 911 call that a man with a gun had threatened a woman, an SDPD spokesperson told the U-T.
But when police went to the man’s home, he was unarmed, had his arms raised and was talking to police when officers shot him with multiple bean bag rounds and ordered the police dog to attack him, the camera footage shows. The man can be heard screaming in pain and pleading with police to stop.
Police also allegedly questioned the man’s teenage cousins and pointed guns at them, according to the man’s uncle. There were no guns found at the scene.
In Other News
- A civilian oversight board tasked with monitoring the practices of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office is accusing the Sheriff of ignoring data requests and withholding records from a team of experts hired to investigate why so many people die in local jails. (Union-Tribune)
- A San Diego couple that discovered a large homeless encampment on their property in City Heights may now have to pay $1,000 or more to have it cleaned up. (Union-Tribune)
- San Diego is considering a change to its building code that would make way for “single-stair reform,” which would allow buildings of up to six stories to have a single stairwell rather than double stairwells. Supporters say it would make construction more flexible and more affordable. (KPBS)
The Morning Report was written by Tigist Layne, Jakob McWhinney, Will Huntsberry and Andrea Lopez-Villafaña. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.