San Diego News Fix

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What we know about the Valley fire so far | Teri Figueroa Sep 08, 2020

Show notes

While skies were overcast and temperature cooler in East County Tuesday morning, officials warned that a wildfire that has scorched more than 17,000 acres and destroyed nearly a dozen homes and 25 other structures is not letting up and is expected to flare up again tonight.

“I want to be very clear in my message,” said Cal Fire San Diego Chief Tony Mecham at a news conference at Viejas Casino and Resort. “We have a sleeping giant in the backcountry.”

The National Weather Service has issued a red flag fire weather warning for most of San Diego County through 8 p.m. Wednesday.

Santa Ana winds blowing up to 50 miles an hour were expected to hit around 8 p.m. — pushing the fire from east to the west — and Mecham and other officials warned residents to be prepared.

Will a new heat wave bring rolling blackouts? | Rob Nikolewski Sep 04, 2020

Show notes

With an intense heat wave bearing down across California throughout the Labor Day weekend, the state’s grid operator has issued a Flex Alert calling on electricity consumers to voluntarily conserve energy so that the demand for power does not outstrip supply.

The Flex Alert will be in place statewide from Saturday through Monday from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. each day.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/energy-green/story/2020-09-03/californias-grid-operator-orders-a-flex-alert-ahead-of-labor-day-heat-wave

Audit details inappropriate payments approved by SANDAG head | Jeff McDonald Sep 03, 2020

Show notes

The executive director of the San Diego Association of Governments, the county’s leading transportation and planning agency, approved hundreds of thousands of dollars in severance payments to former employees without telling the board of directors, a new audit has found.

Hasan Ikhrata, who took over as SANDAG’s top executive in December 2018, also allowed an employee to redeem unused sick time for more than $110,000, even though the unidentified worker was not entitled to the money, auditors said.

And another payment — made while the compensation and compliance audit was under way — authorized a $60,000 severance to a senior official after the official voluntarily resigned.

“The material findings disclosed within the report were a result of significant weaknesses in SANDAG’s governance and system of internal controls,” independent performance auditor Mary Khoshmashrab wrote to board chairman and Poway Mayor Steve Vaus last week.

Poll: Bry leads Gloria 37-34 in SD mayor's race Sep 02, 2020

Show notes

Councilwoman Barbara Bry and Assemblyman Todd Gloria have nearly even support among likely voters in their runoff to become San Diego’s next mayor, according to a San Diego Union-Tribune/10News SurveyUSA poll released Tuesday.

Bry, who finished 66,000 votes behind fellow Democrat Gloria in the March primary, leads Gloria 37 percent to 34 percent. But her lead is within the poll’s 5.3 percent margin of error, and 29 percent are undecided.

Indoor businesses begin to re-reopen | Brittany Meiling, Gary Warth Sep 01, 2020

Show notes

Despite cries from some to go faster and others to go slower, Dr. Wilma Wooten largely stuck with the state’s new rules announced Friday allowing a wide range of businesses to resume varying levels of indoor activity.

There were a few new public health orders announced Monday, including one that all businesses now reopening keep logs with names and phone numbers of everyone they serve to make it easier to track people down quickly if a COVID-19 outbreak is detected.

Overall, Wooten’s take on the now-underway move back indoors seemed to be: Now it’s up to you.

Continuing to meet the state’s requirements for fewer and fewer local cases, she said, will come down to whether the community can collectively hew to long-standing facial covering, hand-washing and distancing requirements even as they begin to move more freely.

How effective is convalescent plasma? | Jonathan Wosen Aug 31, 2020

Show notes

Hundreds of San Diegans have received a COVID-19 treatment that arms those battling the disease with the defenses of past survivors — though it’s still not clear how well it works.

What is clear is that more people will likely get the treatment, known as convalescent patient plasma, which the Food and Drug Administration authorized on Aug. 23 as an emergency treatment for COVID-19.

Scientists and doctors in San Diego County and nationwide have good reason to believe that plasma therapy is safe. And with about 6 million COVID-19 cases and 180,000 deaths in the United States, the need for new COVID-19 treatments could not be more painfully clear.

Read the story: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/biotech/story/2020-08-30/hundreds-of-san-diegans-with-covid-19-have-already-been-treated-with-plasma-but-does-it-work

Track the outbreak: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/tracking-coronavirus-cases-san-diego-county

Will K-12 distance learning drive parents out of the workforce? Aug 28, 2020

Show notes

Working families in San Diego are bracing for distance learning at K-12 schools to start next week. With the pandemic still raging, most students in the region will be logging on rather than sitting in classrooms. That means many parents will now have to juggle their jobs with overseeing their children’s studies. Reporter Phillip Molnar recently reached out to local economists to find out whether this could result in many people dropping out of the workforce.

California begins to increase COVID-19 testing capacity | Jonathan Wosen Aug 27, 2020

Show notes

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday that the state has contracted with a diagnostics company to conduct up to 150,000 more COVID-19 tests a day.

Under the contract, the state will build a testing laboratory and provide some testing equipment, such as supplies to collect and transport specimens, according to Health and Human Services Agency Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly.

The company, PerkinElmer, will process and report back test results within 48 hours, but the company will not collect the actual nasal swabs. That will happen at state testing sites.

Dr. Wilma Wooten, San Diego County’s public health officer, welcomed the deal, set to begin in eight to 10 weeks

Why CBP is cracking down on cross-border travel | Wendy Fry Aug 26, 2020

Show notes

Northbound border lanes into San Ysidro were nearly empty Tuesday morning after nightmarish 10-hour traffic jams clogged Tijuana’s streets and freeways Sunday through Monday.

Customs and Border Protection increased its enforcement of COVID-19 restrictions on non-essential travel over the weekend, which snarled traffic citywide.

Essential workers, such as health care and food service employees, are allowed to cross daily into the U.S. for work, whereas people who want to visit family or shop have been asked to refrain from crossing the border.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/border-baja-california/story/2020-08-25/border-crackdown-travel

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/border-baja-california/story/2020-08-24/border-traffic-coronavirus

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/border-baja-california/story/2020-08-16/baja-coronavirus-hospitals

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Margaret Hunter sentenced in campaign finance scheme | Morgan Cook Aug 25, 2020

Show notes

Years after a criminal conspiracy was discovered by the Union-Tribune, former Congressman Duncan Hunter and his wife Margaret, are now felons.

Margaret’s sentence is 3 years probation with 8 months of home arrest, for being part of a scheme that mis-spent a quarter million dollars of campaign finance funds on everything from Italian vacations to oral surgery.

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