First, a candidate with ties to a ten billion dollar data center project is also running for a board seat on Imperial County’s water and power agency. Then, we’ll tell you how and why trust in elections has decreased. Also, a look at e-bike injuries as the full San Diego City Council will soon make a decision on proposed e-bike regulations.
Good Morning, I’m Lawrence K. Jackson….it’s MONDAY, MARCH 16TH>>>>More on that next. But first. the headlines….###AT BALBOA PARK IF YOU ARE A CITY OF SAN DIEGO RESIDENT THERE ARE FREE OPTIONS, BUT YOU HAVE TO REGISTER ONLINE FIRST.
Good Morning, I’m Lawrence K. Jackson….it’s MONDAY, MARCH 16TH>>>>More on that next. But first... the headlines….###AT BALBOA PARK IF YOU ARE A CITY OF SAN DIEGO RESIDENT THERE ARE FREE OPTIONS, BUT YOU HAVE TO REGISTER ONLINE FIRST. FOR THE LEVEL ONE PREMIUM LOTS, RESIDENTS MUST PAY 8 DOLLARS FOR THE DAY OR FIVE DOLLARS FOR FOUR HOURSLOWRIDERS ARE KNOWN FOR THEIR LOW AND SLOW CRUISING STYLE,AN EVENT WAS HELD ON FRIDAY IN LOGAN HEIGHTS TO CELEBRATE THE RELEASE OF A SET OF LOWRIDER FOREVER STAMPS THE USPS SAYS THE STAMPS SHOW LOWRIDERS ROOTED IN MEXICAN-AMERICAN AND CHICANO COMMUNITIES THROUGHOUT THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST THE STAMPS FEATURE FIVE CLASSIC MODELS INCLUDING A BLUE CHEVY IMPALA NAMED 'EIGHT FIGURES' AND A GREEN OLDSMOBILE CUTLASS SUPREME NAMED ‘POCKET CHANGE’SPRING OFFICIALLY STARTS ON FRIDAY… BUT SAN DIEGO’S WEATHER IS FEELING MORE LIKE SUMMER NOW…ALEX TARDY IS A METEOROLOGIST WITH WEATHER ECHO. HE SAYS NORMALLY, SAN DIEGO’S HIGH TEMPERATURES IN MARCH ARE IN THE UPPER 60S AND LOWER 70S.“This particular heat wave, not only is it going to be hot, but it is going to be producing temperatures that are 20 to 25 degrees, maybe even 30 degrees above those averages.” TARDY SAYS HE EXPECTS THE HEATWAVE TO LAST THROUGH THE END OF THE WEEK ACROSS MUCH OF THE WESTERN U-S. HE SAYS THE SAFEST PLACE TO BE FOR PEOPLE WHO PLAN TO BE ACTIVE DURING THE HEATWAVE IS THE BEACH, WHERE IT’S COOLER.>A CANDIDATE WITH TIES TO A SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA DATA CENTER DEVELOPER IS RUNNING FOR A SEAT ON THE BOARD OF THE IMPERIAL VALLEY’S WATER AND POWER AGENCY. REPORTER KORI SUZUKI SAYS THE COMPANY IS SEEKING TO BUILD A MASSIVE, TEN BILLION DOLLAR DATA CENTER COMPLEX IN THE REGION.The candidate is Carlos Duran. He has identified himself as a Community Information Representative for the developer, Imperial Valley Computer Manufacturing. Duran is running for the board of directors for the Imperial Irrigation District, or IID. That’s the valley’s powerful water and energy utility. The developer needs IID to supply energy for its data center project. So far, IID hasn’t agreed to do that.What makes this a little bit unusual is that usually this is like an established business that's already operating in the jurisdiction. Brian Adams is a political science professor at San Diego State University. He says it’s common for companies to insert themselves into local elections, but that’s usually to protect a business that’s already operating.Here you have a business that hasn't yet isn't yet operating in that jurisdiction, right? Right? Because the data center hasn't been built yet, right? It's just being proposed. So, that's a bit unusual. The developer has said in court filings that it stands to make billions renting out the data center to a major AI company. The developer has accused IID in court filings of trying to sabotage their project and prioritizing a competitor. IID has denied some of the allegations against the agency.A RECENT SURVEY CONDUCTED BY THE CENTER FOR TRANSPARENT AND TRUSTED ELECTIONS AT UCSD FOUND THAT ONLY 60-PERCENT OF ELIGIBLE VOTERS WERE CONFIDENT THAT VOTES IN THE MIDTERM ELECTIONS WILL BE COUNTED ACCURATELY. PROFESSOR LAUREN PRATHER IS THE CO-DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER. SHE SAT DOWN WITH REPORTER JAKE GOTTA TO TALK ABOUT THE RESULTS OF THE SURVEY. Professor, tell me what this survey found specifically and then why it was so alarming. Prof. Prather: So one of the things we were interested in testing with this survey was to examine trends in public opinion towards elections, specifically trust in elections. Since the first year of Trump's term, um, we've been surveying Americans since 2022, asking them about their confidence in US elections. And specifically for this survey, we wanted to understand how trust had changed since just after the 2024 presidential election. And one thing that we found was that it declined by about seventeen percentage points. So there was fairly strong confidence after the 2024 presidential election, especially among Republicans, who saw their trust in elections climb considerably from just before the election to just after. And since then, we've seen a decline across all parties; Democrats, Republicans and independents all trust that the 2026 midterms are going to be counted accurately less than they did the 2024 election.So one is the rhetoric that elites in society use to talk about elections. And so some of the questions that the Trump administration has continued to ask about the quality and integrity of US elections is probably shaping people's trust, especially people's–people that trust him and his administration. It's causing them to question whether American elections can be trusted. We've also seen– one thing we can see in our survey is that Americans are pretty skeptical of gerrymandering. Both Republicans and Democrats think that this is an untrustworthy aspect of US elections, and the fact that that has been so salient in the last six months, I think, is also causing some concern among Americans and maybe affecting this decline in trust. So one of the other things that your– the paper about your study spoke on was the expectation of ICE or federal agents at the polls. Can you tell us what survey respondents told the center about that? Prof. Prather: Sure. There are actually three key findings that we think are especially interesting related to ICE or other federal agents, expectations about ICE or other federal agents at the election. So, one is that a fair number of people, I think more than thirty percent across Democrats, Republicans and independents expect, or think it's likely that ICE could be at the polls in the– around the midterms. And I want to note that our survey took place before we saw the significant immigration enforcement actions in Minnesota. So what we're reporting with this survey might actually change, or these expectations might actually have increased since the salience of these immigration enforcement efforts in mid January. So the first interesting finding was that people expect or think it's likely that ICE is going to be at the polls. The second thing is how this affects their trust. And so while we see that Democrats, Republicans and independents, thirty percent or more think it's likely that ICE is going to be at the polls, where they diverge is whether this will increase or decrease their trust. What we actually see is that Democrats believe that ICE at the polls should be a cause of concern, and would lead them to have less trust. We see that for Republicans, they actually think that this would give them more confidence in elections. And so we do see some partisan differences there in the way that that expectation maps on to trust. And then the third thing I want to say is we do see that although the expectations about ICE at the polls is relatively steady across communities of color in our survey, where they diverge is in whether that's a cause of concern for them. So we also asked people whether they– if ICE were at the polls, whether they expected themselves or their family to be interrogated and whether they expected to face intimidation. And there we see communities of color much more concerned about the presence of ICE than white respondents in our survey. TAG: THAT WAS PART ONE OF PROFESSOR LAUREN PRATHER SPEAKING WITH REPORTER JAKE GOTTA ABOUT DECLINING TRUST IN US ELECTIONS. WE’LL BRING YOU PART 2 TOMORROW.HEALTH REPORTER HEIDI DE MARCO SAYS PROPOSED REGULATIONS COME AS INJURIES ON THESE FAST BIKES CONTINUE TO RISE.As electric bikes have become more common across San Diego County… so have serious crashes involving riders younger than 18. That’s according to a recent study from Rady Children's Hospital. Researchers found in 20-17… less than 2 percent of patients injured in serious crashes were riding an electric bike. By 2023, that number jumped to nearly 40 percent.If you look at actually all the numbers of the patients who presented with a varying severity of e-bike accidents. That number exceeds 1,000 patients this last year through 2025. This week, the City Council’s Public Safety Committee approved Councilmember Raul Campillo’s proposal to ban children under 12 from riding e-bikes. The full San Diego City Council is expected to vote on the proposed ebike regulations in the coming months.THE CORONADO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT IS CONSIDERING TIGHTENING CELL PHONE RESTRICTIONS. PHONEBAN1 1:20 SOQ Coronado Unified’s district-wide phone policy was last updated in May 2025. It allows students to use phones during noninstructional time and in emergencies. Coronado Middle School principal Brooke Falar spoke to the school board on Thursday. She says her school has tried a few different ways to enforce the current policy. One required students to keep phones off and in their backpacks.They’ve also tried putting cell phones in pouches during classtime. That helped, but students still had access to their phones at break and lunch.Board members said they’re interested in setting different rules for elementary, middle and high school. At the middle school, the district could use lockable pouches for the entire school day. At a parent forum last month , Superintendent Karl Mueller said it could help quote “level the playing field” among students.We know that there are families who have purchased devices for their child but have very tight restrictions on those devices, and then families who allow their child unlimited access to those devices. District administrators plan to bring a full policy proposal to the board next month. Mueller says the goal is to have something in place at the start of next school year. Katie Anastas, KPBS News.IN JUNE, NASCAR IS COMING TO NAVAL AIR STATION NORTH ISLAND FOR A WEEKEND OF RACES. IT WILL BE THE FIRST SUCH EVENT HELD ON A MILITARY BASE.NASCAR 1 :55 soqEach driver will represent a unit for the race weekend. Ty Dillon drives the number 10 Chevrolet. He was at the base to help sailors with the driver selection draft. He says drivers have a special relationship with fans“I think what's so special about NASCAR is the passion behind it. Our fans are second to none. They love their drivers. They love what the drivers represent, and they follow it with a fierce passion. So, hopefully bringing our NASCAR fans on base, they're going to also show so much love to to everyone here and what they do for us.” The track is almost three and a half miles long. Organizers say, That makes it the longest in NASCAR’s history. And it’s not all left turns. It’s a street course that takes drivers from the base’s asphalt surface streets to the concrete flightline. Race weekend starts Friday, June 19th with a Craftsman Truck Series race open exclusively to military families.>>That’s it for the podcast today. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. I’m Lawrence K. Jackson. Thanks for listening and subscribing; by doing so you are supporting public media and I really want to thank you for that. Have a great day!
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