Morning Report: Voice Reporters Over the Years

As we celebrate our 20th anniversary, we’re taking a look back at all the talent that has passed through Voice of San Diego in the last two decades. 

From interns-turned-reporters to reporters-turned-visual journalists, Voice has been home to many journalists who have shaped San Diego and are still shaping other parts of the world today.

Take Will Carless, who broke one of Voice’s biggest investigations and is now travelling around the country for USA Today documenting the fringes of U.S. society. Or Rob Davis, who wrote the story that helped get Voice written up in the New York Times and changed the organization’s trajectory forever. There was Emily Alpert, Voice’s first education reporter, who published more than 400 stories in just a little more than two years at Voice.

If you were reading Voice from 2009 to 2011, you may remember Adrian Florido. He’s now a national correspondent at NPR. 

There are too many more amazing journalists to rundown in a single Morning Report write up. 

Read the full story here, to learn more about the amazing journalists who have powered Voice of San Diego and what they are up to now.  

The Learning Curve: City and District Disagree on School Safe Parking Details

Earlier this week, elected officials, community members and teachers gathered at the Central Elementary to urge Mayor Todd Gloria to add funding for a proposed safe parking site at the now-vacant campus to his upcoming budget proposal. The project, originally touted by both city and district officials, fell apart last year due to funding issues.

But what’s also clear is that the planning process was rife with miscommunications and misunderstandings. Officials at the city and the district don’t agree on two basic elements of the project: exactly what land at the campus was offered up for the project and whether the district was really offering the city the land free of charge. 

District officials say they offered the city a parking lot, three-quarters of an acre of unused blacktop area and access to a recreation field as well as classrooms and bathrooms that had WiFi, electricity and water. City officials say nuh-uh – and claim the district only offered them a small faculty parking lot. 

A city spokesperson also raised questions about a central tenet of the proposed project – whether the district was actually offering these facilities for free.

Read the Learning Curve here. 

In Other News 

• The Port of San Diego is ready to give its Harbor Police Department headquarters a facelift. (Union-Tribune) 
• San Diego’s transit agencies announced Wednesday that they will begin accepting Apple Pay. (KPBS) Better late than never? Two years ago, our MacKenzie Elmer revealed that the Metropolitan Transit System’s fare system, PRONTO, was costing the agency millions of dollars because riders were struggling to validate tickets.  
• KPBS’ Kori Suzuki spoke to community college leaders who are standing up to the Trump administration’s funding cut threats to schools that don’t get rid of diversity programs. 
• A San Diego State University Campus Police Department officer is facing federal child pornography charges for allegedly having videos of child pornography and pre-pubescent child pornography. (NBC 7) 

The Morning Report was written by Will Huntsberry and Jakob McWhinney. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.