The YouTuber behind a viral video alleging fraud tied to Minneapolis child care centers that’s fueled a firestorm recently landed in San Diego.
His arrival came after private investigator and local Republican insider Amy Reichert pulled state licensing records for San Diego child care centers and started reporting her findings on X.
Last week, 23-year-old Nick Shirley teamed up with Reichert on the ground in San Diego and he’s promising to drop a new video soon. Our Will Huntsberry and Jakob McWhinney sought to parse through what Shirley did – and didn’t – uncover in Minnesota and what Reichert’s found in San Diego.
Proving fraud would mean proving that child care centers billed for services they didn’t deliver – and interestingly, Reichert acknowledged she doesn’t know what the centers she’s probed in San Diego have been billing. She also emphasized she’s not targeting Somali operations though one Somali-American day care provider in City Heights said Shirley recently showed up at her door.
A San Diego-Epstein Connection
A prominent new age guru and onetime UC San Diego professor is also a prominent figure in the latest U.S. Justice Department dump of documents tied to notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Our Jakob McWhinney scoured the latest deluge of records and found numerous exchanges between Epstein and internationally known new age guru Deepak Chopra. Chopra, whose wellness center is based in Carlsbad and once served as a UC San Diego professor, exchanged dozens of emails and text messages with Epstein about topics including consciousness, dogs and “cute girls.”
In one exchange, Epstein offered to send “two girls” to one of Chopra’s events. Chopra accepted.
McWhinney notes that Chopra and Epstein appear to have met in July 2016, long after the billionaire pleaded guilty to soliciting sex with a minor and became a registered sex offender.
Judge Orders Children’s Hospital to Provide Trans Care for a Few More Days
A Superior Court judge yesterday ordered Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego to not halt gender-transition care today as it had planned. Instead, the hospital must continue providing care through Feb. 10, when Judge Matthew Braner will decide what happens next.
The hospital is stuck between the federal government, which successfully pressured administrators to move to eliminate trans care, and the state, which just filed a lawsuit claiming that Rady’s move violates an agreement.
Voice contributor Randy Dotinga explored what’s at stake in this battle, including the prospect of an “organizational death sentence” for the hospital if it’s punished by the Trump Administration.
Dotinga, who was in the courtroom yesterday, reports that Judge Braner seems torn about what to do. The hospital, the judge said, is stuck “between a rock and a hard place.”
If he rules with the state and forces the gender-transition program to continue, the judge said, the federal government could revoke the hospital’s license to operate, endangering the care of hundreds of thousands of children. He told the lawyers for the hospital and the state to meet prior to next week’s hearing and discuss how to “ensure the safety of the folks whose care is going to be affected in the very near future.”
About H Barracks’ Hours
Earlier this week, we explained why the city’s safe parking site near the airport is only open from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. in response to a reader’s question.
There are two reasons for the fixed hours: the city’s permit and the goal of the program.
A spokesperson with the California Coastal Commission wanted us to clarify that the hours of operation at H Barracks were proposed by the city of San Diego. The state agency did not modify the hours of operation, it only approved what the city proposed.
We updated the story and you can read it here.
Orgs Call Out City Council for Failing to Pass Vacation Home Tax
A coalition of San Diego organizations called out some members of the San Diego City Council’s Rules Committee for their decision “to prioritize the profits of the short-term rental industry over the survival of its residents.”
The Basic Needs Coalition, which includes the San Diego Housing Federation, sent out a press release Thursday in a “formal expression of deep concern” for the committee’s failure to pass a tax on vacation home rentals.
They also called out the use of paid protestors after our Mariana Martínez Barba broke the story of people being bussed in from Los Angeles last week to oppose the vote.
In Other News
- Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin was on the ground in San Diego Thursday to assess the current state of the Tijuana sewage crisis and meet with local officials. (inewsource)
- The Lemon Grove City Council voted earlier this week to impose new tenant protections. (KPBS)
- Paid parking at beaches appears to be out and internal audits seem to be in as Mayor Todd Gloria and the City Council consider how to address a projected $119 million budget deficit for next year. (Union-Tribune)
- The city is offering up $16.5 million to help developers deliver more affordable homes. (Times of San Diego)
- The city pulled in an average of $14,270 in daily parking revenue each day from new meters near Balboa Park from early January through Feb. 2. (CBS 8)
- Carlsbad’s police chief said during a presentation to the City Council that she isn’t sure how often federal authorities are making immigration arrests in the North County city. (inewsource)
The Morning Report was written by Lisa Halverstadt, Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña, Randy Dotinga and Mariana Martínez Barba. It was edited by Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña.