First, as tributes to Cesar Chavez are being removed, some local students are grappling with the impact to the labor movement.And the county is now one step closer to a referendum on major governance reforms. We’ll also explain how and why people across the region are living longer and what a deeper look into the numbers reveals.
Good Morning, I’m Lawrence K. Jackson….it’s MONDAY, MARCH 23RD>>>>More on that, next. But first. the headlines….### A LEGAL FIGHT IS UNDERWAY TO BLOCK A TRUMP ADMINISTRATION MOVE THAT MIGHT AFFECT SEVERAL SAN DIEGO TELEVISION STATIONS THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION APPROVED A MERGER LAST WEEK BETWEEN T-V GIANTS NEXSTAR MEDIA GROUP AND RIVAL TEGNA.
Good Morning, I’m Lawrence K. Jackson….it’s MONDAY, MARCH 23RD>>>>More on that, next. But first... the headlines….### A LEGAL FIGHT IS UNDERWAY TO BLOCK A TRUMP ADMINISTRATION MOVE THAT MIGHT AFFECT SEVERAL SAN DIEGO TELEVISION STATIONS THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION APPROVED A MERGER LAST WEEK BETWEEN T-V GIANTS NEXSTAR MEDIA GROUP AND RIVAL TEGNA... LAWSUITS WERE IMMEDIATELY LAUNCHED TO BLOCK THE DEAL, CITING CONCERNS OVER MONOPOLIZING TV MARKETS ACROSS THE COUNTYNEXSTARTEGNA 1A 13:55 - 14:15 “It may be constricting free speech in one particular medium …. But people aren’t getting their information from broadcast by and large anyway”NEXSTAR'S PLANS TO BUY TEGNA DATE BACK TO LAST AUGUST WHEN THE COMPANY SAID IT WOULD BUY THE T-V GIANT FOR SIX POINT TWO BILLION DOLLARS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTS THE DEAL REQUIRED THE APPROVAL OF THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION BECAUSE THE GOVERNMENT HAD TO WAIVE RULES ON HOW MANY LOCAL STATIONS ONE COMPANY CAN OWN IF IT SURVIVES LEGAL CHALLENGE – THE DEAL WOULD CREATE ONE COMPANY THAT OWNS 265 TELEVISION STATIONS ACROSS 44 STATES AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA HERE IN SAN DIEGO IT WOULD MEAN SINGLE OWNERSHIP OF NEWS STATIONS KUSI, FOX 5 AND THEN CBS 8 WHICH WAS PREVIOUSLY MERGED WITH THE LOCAL C-W STATIONA NEW ROUND OF ROADWAY IMPROVEMENTS ARE NOW SCHEDULED AS PART OF OCEANSIDE'S PAVEMENT MANAGEMENT PROGRAM NEARLY FIVE HUNDRED MILES OF CITY STREETS AND 16 MILES OF ALLEYS EQUATES TO ROUGHLY 90 MILLION SQUARE FEET OF PAVEMENTCOAST HIGHWAY, COLLEGE BOULEVARD, DOUGLAS DRIVE AND EL CAMINO RE-AL ARE ALL ON SCHEDULE FOR NEXT MONTH THE CITY SAYS THAT PLANNED IMPROVEMENTS INCLUDE A VARIETY OF TREATMENTS AIMED AT IMPROVING RIDE QUALITY LIKE ASPHALT OVERLAY, SLURRY SEAL APPLICATIONS AND OTHER PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCETHE BIRCH AQUARIUM OPENED A NEW EXHIBIT OVER THE WEEKEND CENTERED AROUND THE ENDANGERED MOUNTAIN YELLOW-LEGGED FROG"THE MEADOWS, FOREST AND LAKE THAT MAKE UP THIS ENDANGERED SPECIES' HABITAT ARE ON FULL DISPLAYLAST YEAR, BIRCH JOINED EFFORTS ALONGSIDE THE SAN DIEGO ZOO WILDLIFE ALLIANCE AND UC-L-A TO RAISE MORE THAN TWO HUNDRED OF THE ENDANGERED FROGS WHICH ARE NATIVE TO MOUNTAIN RANGES IN SOUTHERN AND CENTRAL CALIFORNIA>CESAR CHAVEZ’S NAME IS QUICKLY BEING REMOVED FROM LOCAL COLLEGES AFTER ALLEGATIONS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE SURFACED LAST WEEK. NORTH COUNTY REPORTER ALEXANDER NGUYEN FOUND SOME STUDENTS ARE FEELING CONFLICTED BECAUSE OF THE LABOR LEADER’S LEGACY OF FIGHTING FOR FARM WORKERS’ RIGHTS.A statue of Cesar Chavez used to stand on the steps leading to the central plaza at Cal State San Marcos… greeting students as they head to class.Graduate student Jonathan Hamann says everyone he’s talked to agreed that the statue should be removed … but that the action of one man shouldn’t tarnish the farm workers’ movement.“I think the school's decision to, like, divorce the ideas from the man, it's like a good move to basically say that the movement that he started is bigger than him now.”Genesis Dominguez feels conflicted about that. “I feel very complicated about it, just because as a PUENTE student, we hear a lot about Cesar Chavez and so many of them, great Mexican historical figures, in Hispanic history, historical figures. So it being removed is a bit heartbreaking.”SAN DIEGO COUNTY IS GETTING CLOSER TO A REFERENDUM ON MAJOR COUNTY GOVERNANCE REFORMS. FOR THIS WEEK’S WHY IT MATTERS SEGMENT, VOICE OF SAN DIEGO’S SCOTT LEWIS SAYS NEW POLLING DATA IS THE LATEST STEP IN GETTING THESE CHANGES ON THE BALLOT. We previously broke the news that County Board of Supervisors Chair Terra Lawson-Remer – along with labor and progressive groups – were talking about extending term limits and maybe creating a new elected position: San Diego County mayor.Now we have finally obtained a poll that Lawson-Remer, commissioned to see what voters thought.But there was also good news for her idea for reform. Respondents to the poll were overwhelmingly supportive of making a change. 79 percent of respondents said they were supportive of the ballot measure. At least with how it was described as an effort to increase government transparency with no extra cost.: People were very supportive of restricting county supervisors to three terms in office. But currently, they are only allowed two terms. The question made it sound like they were putting new term limits on rather than extending them. They’ll be having hearings shortly to put something on the ballot for November. I’m Scott Lewis for Voice of San Diego and that’s why it matters.HEALTH REPORTER HEIDI DE MARCO SAYS A CLOSER LOOK REVEALS A SHIFT IN THE LEADING CAUSES OF DEATH.In Coronado, life expectancy is the longest in the county. Over 87 years. But just a few miles away in Lemon Grove, where overdoses are double the county average.. it’s the lowest. Just under 79 years.At the same time, overdose deaths across the county are going down.Kayla Houston is with Father Joe’s Villages Street Health team.I've definitely noticed a decrease and the amount of people that community members are reporting having seen overdosed.Cancer is still the leading cause of death. And heart disease remains second.## All right, SDNN listeners, today is another installment of the San Diego News Now original, The Pod Behind the Package. I'm so, so excited because by now, I hope you know how this works. Pod Behind the Package is simply a deeper dive into a strong piece of journalism coming out of our KPBS newsroom. Today, I'm especially excited to sit down with our first featured video journalist, Carlos Castillo. I invite you to check out his piece on our site under the headline, Connect San Diego, the OB store and secret gallery built on community and creativity. Carlos, hey, man, thank you for being here.First video journalist. We've referenced a bunch, and we will have more. Obviously, the segment is meant to cover not just reporters, but video journalists, editors, every piece of our newsroom, make people feel welcome, and I believe everybody plays a part here. Talk to me, Carlos, about what even initially led you to journalism, and then maybe by that proxy, to be a video journalist. Wow. It starts back when I was a little kid. My older sister, Diana, she always wanted to be a reporter, anchor, so she would just set up cardboard boxes, and she would put me as a camera guy. I was destined to do this since I was a little kid. That's cool. That's cool. And yeah, she ended up becoming a reporter, and now she's a news director up in Iowa, and I ended up becoming a camera guy. So you and Sis matriculated right into the business. Did you ever work together? Was she ever your coworker? She was my coworker in Texas, yeah, when I first started in Texas at Univision Laredo. So yeah, we worked there for about two years, and then she got a job, and she left me all alone in Texas. Wow. So Sis is in front of the camera, Carlos behind the camera, but that might change just a little bit. Currently, you're doing a digital fellowship, which has brought so many really cool creative pieces from multiple people in our newsroom. Talk to me about this digital fellowship. What's the name of it, and what kind of opportunities has it provided for you, Carlos? Yeah, so right now, I'm in this project. It's called the Digital Video Fellowship, and yeah, I was put on this. They asked me if I was interested, and I was very interested in doing it. So pretty much what I've been doing these past about a month and a half, I've just been kind of putting on the reporter hat on, which I usually don't. Usually, I'm out with a reporter, but this time, I've been going out looking for stories to do, talking with the community, setting up interviews, coming up with questions, something that I'm not fully used to doing. So I've been learning a lot, and it's been a really exciting process. And have you reached out to your sister at all and been like, can you proofread my questions or gotten any on-camera expertise from her? Definitely beforehand, before this project started, I kind of went to her, and I said, hey, they're putting me on this project. And she just said, hey, that's really great. That means they believe in you. And so just work your hardest and do your best work, because she felt that this was going to be something huge for me. Absolutely. I believe it too. Once again, we are here with Carlos Castillo, a video journalist here with us at KPBS. Under his story that I invite you to visit on our website under the headline Connect San Diego, the Ocean Beach Store and Secret Gallery built on community and creativity. Carlos, talk to me about the decision to have your subject, the store owner, Robert, narrate the piece. Yeah, pretty much even before I started shooting the piece, I knew I wanted it to be a non-narrated piece. I had spoken, I've known Robert for many years, actually, when he first started this. So I knew that he had a strong voice, and I knew that I can tell the story with just his voice. And I think I did a good job doing that. Absolutely. Talk to me about walking through the store, both of them with the owner, Robert. Talk to me about how central he is maybe to that community. It seems like people come there, obviously to shop and spend money, but it seems like it's almost a safe space. Is that correct to assume? Yeah, definitely. You get all types of people walking through just because even from the outside, it just kind of like pulls you in. You see all these like colors and all these nostalgic things, like there's like a Hamburglar just like on the window, and you're like, oh, like that's an old school like McDonald's character. And then you walk in and there's like VHS tapes everywhere, and you're just like, oh, you just feel like this 90s nostalgia. And then everywhere you look, there's art, there's clothing, fashion, it's just everything. I mean, I saw people of all ages. There was kids in there, there was older adults, and everyone's just looking around with a smile on their face, just because literally everywhere you look, there's something to look at. And even me, I had a hard time leaving because every time I thought I was finished, I would see something else and I was like, I got to record this, I got to record that. And yeah, the space really welcomes all types of people like, and anyone's welcome. It really, he prides himself on giving like up and coming artists like a chance, you know, like this is your chance. If you want to come and show your art here, if you want to come and sell your clothes here, like you can do that. It's like, like he says it in the piece, like it's a stepping stone for artists to get to their next position. Absolutely. Carlos, you used one word that I'll use as a transition. Connect is full of color, expression, and the main word that I would use to describe it is whimsy. I know it's like a trending word, but whimsy. When you're in a place like that, do you feel like Connect is part of the Keep Ocean Beach weird movement? Do you feel like it fits in, like it almost fits that town like a Oh man, it just, just like you said it, it fits it like a glove. Like you, you go out and you'll experience Ocean Beach and you, and you feel like this, like really cool, like hippie vibe, weird, like you'll go sometimes they'll have like drum circles and just like, you know, it has a vibe. So, so yeah, I would say Connect and Ocean Beach, they just work hand in hand, they represent each other perfectly.But for me, if I could add one more, Robert, to me, and this story that you brought us, Carlos, really speaks to faith. And just the idea, same as you, I mean, even the video journalist producing it, practicing with his sister, who then becomes a professional reporter. That's all faith. And even Robert, who I mean, $2,000, San Diego might be one of the last cities I end up in. Yeah. So that was faith to, to have a project then become your actual business. And I think especially, you know, with our economic issues and cost of living rising, it's cool to see stories still like this, where someone went out on a leap of faith, and they made something of it. And you can see during your piece, how happy and content he is. Like he says in the piece, you know, I'm more or less living my dream, I'm more or less getting to do what I would want to do. I would say faith. That's one of the main takeaways I got from this was just kind of, it's okay, sometimes to still go out on faith, within reason, because look what could happen, you know? I agree. Yeah. And, and I've seen him over the years. And the man is always, always putting in work. And and one thing he told me that I thought was cool. He's like, my whole life has been about putting people on, you know, I see like all these great artists, but they don't know how to, how to like, you know, like present themselves or market themselves. I see that as something that I can bring in and let the community know about these people. So yeah, that was one thing. He said, my parents were hustlers that I was growing up. And I have that same type of mentality. Like I'm just, I was just born to put people on. Absolutely. Once again, this was video journalist Carlos Castillo here with us on his piece that I invite you to visit on our website, connect San Diego, the OB store and secret gallery built on community and creativity. Thank you so much for your time, Carlos.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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