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Can this church be saved? Split on LGBTQ issues, United Methodists consider divorce | Peter Rowe Jan 16, 2020

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Sexual issues lead to many divorces, including the threatened split in the United Methodist Church. Divided on same-sex marriage and the status of LGBTQ believers, the nation's third largest Christian denomination — after Catholicism and the Southern Baptist Convention — may soon break up. "No one celebrates separation. I certainly do not," said the Rev. Jonathan Park, associate pastor of the Korean United Methodist Church of San Diego, a traditionalist congregation. "But I believe it is inevitable." The Rev. Bob Rhodes, whose leadership of the progressive Pacific Beach United Methodist Church has not prevented a close friendship with Park, agreed. For years, he had hoped the church's feuding wings could co-exist. "Then a friend asked if I were counseling a couple where one was abusing the other, would I counsel them to stay together?" Rhodes said. "I think both sides feel they have been abused by the other."

State's housing mandates ruffle South Bay feathers | Gustavo Solis Jan 15, 2020

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Four cities in San Diego County have launched a last-ditch effort to lower the number of new housing units they are expected to build over the next eight years through a controversial state-mandated program. If the current numbers hold up, two of those cities, Coronado and Solana Beach, fear they’ll be forced to rezone neighborhoods to make room for high-density developments. The other two cities, Lemon Grove and Imperial Beach, argue that the current housing allocation numbers perpetuate inequality by requiring cities that already have the highest concentration of low-income housing to build even more. The controversial state program is officially known as the Regional Housing Needs Assessment, or RHNA. It started in the 1960s to require cities to plan to meet the housing needs of residents. Every eight years, state officials come up with the number of housing units needed to keep up with population trends and ask regional authorities to distribute that number among individual cities.

CA-50 Poll: Issa, DeMaio tied, Campa-Najjar losing ground | Charles Clark, Michael Smolens Jan 14, 2020

Show notes

On the same day that former Rep. Duncan D. Hunter officially resigned from his seat representing the 50th Congressional District, a new poll of likely voters shows the race to succeed him has tightened in his absence. In the poll Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar, with 26 percent of the vote, is leading a crowded field that has drawn ten candidates. He is closely followed by GOP opponents Darrell Issa (21 percent), Carl DeMaio (20 percent) and Brian Jones (12 percent). Fifteen percent of the likely voters surveyed were undecided.

$3B plan to replace San Diego airport’s aging Terminal 1 | Jennifer Van Grove, Lori Weisberg Jan 11, 2020

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Airport Authority approves plans to add 11 gates to Terminal 1, plus a new taxiway and access road that will remove 45,000 cars a day from Harbor Drive

Rocky Long retires as Aztecs head coach, replaced by Brady Hoke | Jay Posner, Kirk Kenney Jan 10, 2020

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San Diego State coach, Rocky Long, guided SDSU to nine straight bowl appearances and compiled 81-38 record with the Aztecs. Brady Hoke will be returning as the Aztecs head coach. Hoke was previously in charge of the program in 2009-10.

How San Diego military members are feeling about Iran | Andrew Dyer Jan 09, 2020

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About 15 community activists and religious leaders gathered in front of Balboa Park’s Natural History Museum Wednesday to ask Congress to step in and limit President Donald Trump’s authority to wage war on Iran after a week of violence between the two countries. The speakers say they represent a coalition of groups seeking peace and an end to escalating violence that peaked with the Jan. 2 U.S. assassination of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani. On Tuesday night, Iran struck back , launching at least 15 ballistic missiles at U.S. bases in Iraq in what experts said was an attack designed to avoidcasualties. In comments Wednesday morning from the White House, Trump said the U.S. would respond to those strikes with sanctions, not more military action, saying “Iran appears to be standing down, which is a good thing for all parties concerned and a very good thing for the world.”

Hunter sets resignation date, but questions remain | Charles Clark, Michael Smolens, Morgan Cook Jan 08, 2020

Show notes

Rep. Duncan Hunter, the Republican from Alpine who on Dec. 3 pleaded guilty to a felony involving campaign spending, said he will officially resign this coming Monday. He notified House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Governor Gavin Newsom in a letter Tuesday that he will resign on Jan. 13, nearly six weeks after his guilty plea. “It has been an honor to serve the people of California’s 50th District, and I greatly appreciate the trust they have put in me over these last 11 years,” Hunter wrote. Hunter, who was elected to office in 2008, was indicted in August of 2018 on 60 federal counts based on accusations he and his wife and former campaign manager, Margaret Hunter, stole $250,000 of campaign funds, using it for family vacations, groceries, his extramarital affairs and other non-campaign uses, including airfare for a pet rabbit.

A Possible Purple Line becomes a transit hot potato | Joshua Emerson Smith Jan 07, 2020

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A long-envisioned Purple Line trolley remains in limbo as transit officials work through the details over how and whether to build the rail connection between downtown Chula Vista and the city of San Diego’s Kearny Mesa neighborhood. The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System now appears to be leaning away from paying for the line as part of a roughly $24 billion tax measure slated to go before voters later this year. However, the San Diego Association of Governments has signaled an eagerness to incorporate the route’s alignment into plans for a regional high-speed rail system. For months, control over the future of the region’s rail system has stoked tension between MTS and SANDAG, the region’s primary transportation and planning agency.

Judge: Operators of GirlsDoPorn required to pay models they defrauded | Pauline Repard Jan 04, 2020

Show notes

Nearly two dozen women won $12.7 million in a fraud lawsuit against the owners and operators of a San Diego-based pornographic website, GirlsDoPorn, a Superior Court judge ruled Thursday. Website owners Michael James Pratt, 36, and Matthew Isaac Wolfe, 37, and porn actor Ruben Andre Garcia, 31, were sued by 22 women who claimed they were deceived and coerced into making explicit sex films without knowing the images would be posted on the Internet. San Diego Superior Court Judge Kevin Enright, who presided over a four-month-long bench trial, issued his decision in favor of all 22 plaintiffs and against a total of 13 defendants. Enright found that the individuals and various affiliated businesses had operated as a single business entity and therefore all were liable.

Border Dispatch: Inside San Diego's criminal immigration court | Kristina Davis Jan 03, 2020

Show notes

ourtroom 2A looks unlike any other in the San Diego federal courthouse. In the courtroom designated to handle the flow of migrants being criminally prosecuted under the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy, a towering plexiglass divider has been erected separating the misdemeanor defendants from their attorneys and the rest of the court. The U.S. Marshals Service says the barrier is a security measure “to ensure the safety of staff, prisoners, and members of the public who attend court hearings,” while defense attorneys see the divider as a larger symbol in the clash over immigration policy. “It’s using a nonexistent problem as an excuse to build yet another wall,” said Kathryn Nester, executive director of Federal Defenders of San Diego, which provides public defender services.

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