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San Diego Unified teachers, staff urge district to reconsider layoffs
San Diego Unified employees and their supporters called on district board members to rescind layoff notices and find alternative budget solutions Tuesday. Over 100 teachers, staff members and students rallied outside of the district’s board meeting in response to its decision to lay off hundreds of employees as it faces massive budget shortfalls in the coming years.
The devastating flood of 2024, told by those who were there
It began, as these things often do, in the quiet early morning hours of the day. The rain was light at first, but steady. A gauge near the National City Fire Department at East D Avenue between 15th and 16th Street measured less than a half-inch between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m.
South Bay school districts want action on Tijuana River crisis
School districts in southern San Diego County are calling on government officials to urgently address sewage pollution in the Tijuana River. More than 100 billion gallons of toxic waste, including untreated sewage, from Mexico have flowed through the Tijuana River Valley to San Diego’s coast over the last five years, a new report by San Diego State University researchers found. The pollution has cut off access for predominantly Latino beach communities — the main stretch of Imperial Beach, for example, has been closed for more than two years.
As community farm dispute spirals into lawsuits, refugee farmer takes a bittersweet win
A monthslong land dispute between refugee farmers who cultivated plots at New Roots Community Farm in City Heights and the community nonprofit managing the land has escalated to several lawsuits. For Fatima Abdelrahman, a refugee farmer who has been barred from entering the farm since January, the escalation comes with...
A San Diego city board hasn’t met for nearly a year. It took a Documenter to find out why.
This story was produced in part by Paloma Villavicencio, a San Diego Documenter. Read more about the program here. For nearly a year the City of San Diego’s Citizens Advisory Board on Police/Community Relations has not held a meeting, unable to muster enough members to form a necessary quorum.
San Diego lawsuit may protect low-income renters from excessive rent hikes statewide
One by one, dominoes are falling in favor of low-income tenants throughout California communities who rely on federal Section 8 housing vouchers to pay rent. The latest fell in San Diego, when the city’s Housing Commission said it would — for the first time — start denying landlords’ rent increase requests when they exceed the cap set by state law. That change, a spokesperson said, is a response to the federal agency overseeing the Section 8 program recently saying housing authorities have a duty to ensure rent hikes are lawful.
Gloria poised to easily advance re-election bid to November
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria had a strong lead over several challengers as he sought re-election to a second term in early voting results Tuesday night. Gloria had 52% of the votes, more than double the second-place challenger San Diego Police Officer Larry Turner. Geneviéve Jones-Wright, a lawyer, criminal justice reform advocate and non-profit founder, was in third place with 13% of votes counted.
LIVE BLOG: San Diego voters head to the polls
The California statewide primary is here! Our reporters at inewsource are out and about, visiting vote centers, checking in with local officials and, most importantly, talking to San Diego voters about why they’re motivated to head to the polls today. Check back to hear their voices and see how the day unfolds at the polls.
$2.8M and counting: Residents, businesses blame San Diego County in flood damage claims
On the morning of Jan. 22, Kristine Alessio was on the treadmill in her La Mesa home, unable to go outside for exercise because of the powerful rainstorm pounding the county that day, when she got a text message from one of the managers at Quarry Self Storage in Spring Valley.
First flooding, now a rent increase: Uninsured mobile home residents still reeling from San Diego storm
Paulina Arrellano found herself home alone and quickly surrounded by water as high as 5 feet before firefighters came to her rescue during San Diego County’s “1,000-year storm” last month. Within hours, Arrellano’s National City neighborhood was drenched by over 4 inches of rain. Stormwater systems across...
California voters could reject billions in public dollars — and one SoCal county’s hopes
The realization of Lithium Valley would put Imperial County on the map as a leader in green energy production — once the companies extracting the highly valuable metal from deep under the Salton Sea are up and running. But the dream of local communities reaping any benefits from lithium...
Alvarez bill seeks big changes in Port of San Diego governance
Assemblymember David Alvarez has proposed legislation that would bring sweeping changes to governance of the powerful Port of San Diego, including instituting term limits and residency requirements for the city’s commissioners. The legislation, filed Feb. 15, comes after a tumultuous year for the Port District staff and its seven-member...
How an old San Diego ‘mistake’ is blowing up a community farm for refugees
For months, a bitter land dispute over a community garden in City Heights has pitted refugee farmers who’ve grown crops there for years against the community nonprofit managing the garden. Last week, some farmers of the New Roots Community Farm and their allies got some answers to their questions...
‘We want to make sure we get it right’: Why $10M e-bike program still hasn’t launched statewide
When 50-year-old Heather Cordova rides her government-provided electric bike to work, she feels like a kid again. Around 6:30 a.m., she’ll pop in some earphones to listen to a podcast, snap on a helmet and travel about 40 minutes from her downtown San Diego apartment to Chula Vista. “Not...
Fact check: Do all San Diego housing agencies see state tenant protection laws as irrelevant?
During a public meeting last November, a top elected official asked the San Diego Housing Commission to explain the findings of an inewsource investigation. The Housing Commission, which is responsible for managing roughly $300 million in federal Section 8 housing vouchers to help low-income tenants pay rent, is required to ensure rent increases are reasonable before using taxpayer money to pay for them. But officials were approving rent hikes without checking if they exceed the cap in state law, the investigation revealed.
First Documenters assignment uncovers Brown Act violation
Community-powered journalism is the key to a thriving democracy and empowering community members to hold local government accountable. That’s why we at inewsource started a program called the San Diego Documenters. This was inspired by our siblings in Chicago who started this groundbreaking program back in 2016. We provide free public training for community members to report on public meetings, and we pay them and offer transportation so they can attend.Through our partnership with San Diego State University’s School of Journalism and Media Studies, we will cover more than 40 public meetings over the next 2 months.
Oceanside becomes third housing agency to start rejecting unlawful rent hikes
Low-income tenants in Oceanside will, for the first time ever, start receiving the same protection from excessive rent increases as other California renters. The Oceanside Housing Authority, which is responsible for managing roughly $21 million in Section 8 housing vouchers, told inewsource it plans to start rejecting requests by landlords to raise rent on tenants beyond the state’s 10% maximum cap.
Grim tally from state offers most detailed extent of storm damage in San Diego yet
The first official accounting of damage in San Diego County from the torrential Jan. 22 storms estimated that more than 800 homes were impacted by flooding, and local schools across the region sustained an estimated $4 million in damage. That data and more are contained in a letter sent Wednesday...
4 things to watch in 2024 on the San Diego region’s energy, environment beat
Recent storms hitting Southern California underscore the kinds of impacts residents of San Diego and Imperial counties and our neighbors in Mexico should brace themselves for in 2024. They hit against the enduring backdrop of aging infrastructure, including a sewage crisis along the border, and the persistently high costs of...
San Diego County has a new public defender, but the selection process troubled some
It was just before Christmas when San Diego County announced its months-long search for a new head of the Office of the Public Defender had ended with the selection of Paul Rodriguez, a veteran attorney who had for years been running the office’s El Cajon branch. Rodriguez, who succeeded...
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