The independent redistricting commission finalized its map of new city council districts this week. The new map unites some neighborhoods into a single council district but also splits up other communities. Critics claim the new map dilutes the voting power of minorities. Meanwhile, what’s next in the USS Bonhomme Richard arson hearing. And, James Bond: The Musical returns to the Coronado Playhouse tonight.

San Diego News Matters

New City Council district lines

California public schools will soon offer free transitional kindergarten for all 4 year olds. It will be a big help to working parents but it may have unintended consequences for childcare providers. Meanwhile, a former Pier 1 Imports building in the Midway community has become the city’s latest homeless shelter. The city owned facility has 44 beds and will have 24-hour staffing through a contract with the San Diego Housing Commission. Plus, since the start of the pandemic, the number of people moving to California from other states has dropped by nearly 40%, according to a new study released by the California Policy Lab.

Universal pre-K on its way

In 2019, San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan introduced a new training program aimed at reducing police shootings. While some officers have yet to be trained, there is hope it has sparked the beginning of a culture change in police departments. Meanwhile, the sheriff’s department said former inmate Mark Armendo did not contract COVID-19 in the county jail. A new medical examiner’s death report suggests otherwise. Plus, teaching veterans to fly fish as a means of healing.

De-escalation training for police

With 75 percent of residents vaccinated, San Diego has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country. But county public health officials here still anticipate a surge in coronavirus cases over the holidays. Meanwhile, Navy prosecutors weigh their evidence against a sailor charged with arson in the fire that burned the USS Bonhomme Richard. Plus, for businesses along the U.S. Mexico Border, it's a familiar story–financial hardship as a result of the pandemic and border closures.

Vaccinations and holiday surges

The California Public Utilities Commission is close to unveiling changes that could make installing rooftop solar more expensive for consumers. Meanwhile, a local environmental group says people are harassing the sea lions in La Jolla. And, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria talks about his first year in office and what’s ahead in year two.

Solar industry braces for change

A combination of federal, municipal and private tracking systems has turned the border city of Chula Vista into one of the most surveilled cities in the country, according to privacy advocates. Now a new high tech operations center for the local police department will work to integrate all the data coming in from police activities. Meanwhile, a group of mostly low-income tenants and their advocates staged a protest Thursday in Mission Valley to call attention to what they say are predatory practices by the New York-based real estate behemoth Blackstone, which this year paid more than $1 billion for nearly 6,000 San Diego area rental units. Plus, the state's utility regulators are considering adjusting the rules that govern the California solar energy marketplace and major changes could be coming.

Surveillance in Chula Vista

San Diego’s regional planning agency has drafted a regional transportation plan for the future that seeks to shift San Diego County away from cars by building massive improvements to public transit infrastructure. But critics say the plan is unrealistic and too expensive. Meanwhile, advocates say Chula Vista is now one of the most surveilled cities in the country. Plus, the U.S. surgeon general warns about a looming mental health crisis among children.

Costly transportation plan

Thousands of catalytic converters have been reported stolen in San Diego County in the past year. Meanwhile, Barrio Logan, the heart of San Diego’s Chicano and Latino community, could soon adopt and implement a new community plan. It would be the first update to the community’s growth and development plan in 43 years. Plus, the National Guard are being asked to do many, many different things from responding to protests to driving school buses, and critics say it’s putting a strain on the guard.

A rise in catalytic converter thefts

Fentanyl overdoses in 2020 in San Diego county were more than four times higher than in 2018, and numbers for 2021 so far show the trend continuing. Meanwhile, California has distributed rent relief to less than a third of the 400,000 people who have applied to its assistance program. Plus, this state has arguably some of the strictest gun control in the country, and yet California often fails to take guns away from domestic abusers.

Fentanyl deaths on the rise

A recent inewsource investigation into the VA has sparked interest from lawmakers in Washington DC. Last week, senators grilled the head of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs about charges the VA is restricting veterans’ access to health care. Meanwhile, one of the most-trafficked thoroughfares in Del Mar might get a boost from the federal infrastructure bill. Plus, a major construction project is happening at the California State Capitol and many critics are not happy with the plans.

VA promises better care for veterans

Tijuana City officials and advocates for asylum seekers say the restart of the controversial Trump-era program will make an already inhumane situation at the border worse. Meanwhile, Voice of San Diego reporters looked back on the first year of the pandemic and discovered that people with lower levels of education in San Diego were much more likely to die from the virus. Plus, when state lawmakers tried to bolster enforcement for regulations meant to protect outdoor workers from wildfire smoke, the Newsom administration blocked those efforts.

Remain in Mexico returns

The first case of the omicron covid-19 variant in the US has been reported in San Francisco. Meanwhile, the state of California reports that half of its community college students are facing food insecurity. Plus, rules to protect outdoor workers in this state from wildfire smoke are rarely enforced.

Omicron in California

Investigators of police use-of-force cases often go easy on their own colleagues during interviews after a shooting incident, experts say. Those interviews differ significantly from ones conducted with suspects or victims of those shootings, according to records obtained by KPBS. Meanwhile, Filipino community members are considering legal action against National City, arguing that district elections for city council members – rather than city-wide elections – would give more voice to local constituents. Plus, California could likely become a destination for a large influx out-of-state patients seeking abortions if the 1973 landmark Roe vs Wade decision is overturned.

The “fox watching the henhouse”

An examination of local police records shows that from 2012 through 2019, officers from San Diego County police agencies shot at people in moving cars 20 times. That’s despite the fact that police training experts say it is one of the most hazardous things a cop can do. Meanwhile, the injunction against vaccine mandates for the San Diego Unified School District will be short lived, according to legal experts. Plus, during the pandemic many universities stopped requiring standardized test scores for admissions and then racial and ethnic diversity increased on campus.

Shooting at moving targets

A KPBS analysis of police records shows more than two-thirds of use-of-force incidents over a 15-year period occurred in ZIP codes south of Interstate 8. And nearly a quarter were concentrated in just a handful of neighborhoods in the southeast part of the city. Meanwhile, as the Biden administration plans a re-start of the controversial Remain in Mexico program that sends asylum seekers back across the border, immigrant advocates are split over whether or not to help. Plus, KPBS speaks with Cynthia Paes now that she’s been officially confirmed as the new San Diego registrar of voters.

Police use-of-force incidents concentrated south of interstate 8

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