Voice of San Diego Podcast

We’re drowning in education news this week. 

The Trump administration’s grant freeze has put millions of school funds in jeopardy. The decision has some school leaders scrambling. 

Our Jakob McWhinney got nerdy and figured out just how much money San Diego County stands to lose. Also, a San Diego Unified Board Trustee is calling it quits after one term. We’ll explain why. 

And, meet our new City Hal...

The county is back in the hands of Democrats. 

Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre is set to fill the vacant seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. The county has so much going on – there are big questions around the sewage crisis, homelessness, housing, budget, immigration. 

The list goes on and on – and South County reporter Jim Hinch joins us today to dish on what Aguirre’s v...

The city has a new budget. There was a veto. A veto override and then an Instagram slam. We have a special guest, Councilmember Vivian Moreno is here. She’ll give us the insider take. 

And the push to raise the minimum wage for hospitality workers is going forward. 

And, the mayor has a new job!

SHOW NOTES

INTRO 00:00:00

SEGMENT 1 00:00:39 - Support VOSD

SEGMENT 2 00:06:39 - Vivian Moreno

The mayor does not want a chief operating officer gosh darn it! The most dysfunctional budget cycle in the city of San Diego continues with a big list of vetos from Mayor Todd Gloria. 

And the biggest political battle in San Diego is finally nearing its end. Our reporter Jim Hinch went to a debate between Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre and Chula Vista Mayor John McCann and he’ll tell us how the race is looking. ...

Federal immigration agents are trying to hit their quotas of people to arrest and deport and it’s causing some distressing scenes across California. On the eve of big protests, where are we headed? We’ll grapple with it. 

For the first time in more than 100 years, owners of single family homes in the city of San Diego will have to pay for trash pickup. It almost didn’t happen. We’ll go through the tense...

An immigration raid in the early dinner hours at a popular restaurant in South Park has led to a week of backlash among local leaders. We’ll talk about what we know. 

We’re in the final days of this epic budget process at the city of San Diego. Will the beloved fire pits survive???

And finally, the giant water agencies based in San Diego and Los Angeles have resolved their 15-year legal dispute. We&rs...

It’s memorandum time in the city of San Diego’s budget saga. Councilmembers may be headed for a historic standoff with the mayor. We’ll do a little history lesson to show how interesting it could get. 

Only 58 percent of San Diego Unified high schoolers are on track to graduate. Rather than get them on track, they’ve decided to create a new track

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information...

There had been some controversy about whether the Mayor and San Diego City Council would have to dip into reserves to handle their budget deficit – now it appears they have no choice. We’ll explain how bad the city’s finances are getting. 

South County is now home to a massive hotel and convention center many years in the making. The mayor of Chula Vista like all south bay officials was proud. But he q...

The city of San Diego is officially at legal war with La Jolla separatists. Why a ballot measure push a couple years ago is related. 

The mayor’s revised budget is still pretty ugly and still gets rid of beach bonfire rings.

And finally the budget also has set up an nasty little standoff between the city and county over a homeless shelter in the Midway area. They have stopped letting people into the tent and the operator...

This week we sat down for an in depth interview with San Diego County Water Authority General Manager Dan Denham. He filled us in with some deep water knowledge during this week’s show.

SHOW NOTES: 
(Links to VOSD articles mentioned during the show and links for further reading)

VOSD:

San Diego Council Bashes County Water Authority Over Costs
Councilmembers say they want to see steep cuts in spending by the ...

We have another guest this week. Hot off her state of the county speech, County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer is joining us. 

Our South Bay reporter did a deep dive into what happened after Chula Vista Mayor John McCann helped secure the release of a woman convicted of fraud several years ago. She’s being sentenced today on another charge. 

And we had a story this week out of Encinitas where a homeless service provi...

We have a guest co-host today, Congressman Mike Levin is here with some reports from D.C. where things are normal and not very interesting at all. He was supposed to bring a hot take. 

Jakob did a story about how some classrooms in local colleges are filled with fake people. We’ll break down how that works and how much it’s costing. 

And we have more trash talk. The new fee for San Diego homeowners is probably...

The South Bay County Supervisor runoff is set. Two mayors will race for the future of the county. 

An effort to set aside an area for homeless residents near the airport has hit another snag as the developer of Liberty Station takes the city to court. 

And the U.S Secretary of Education was in town. Jakob went to see her. 

All that and another Dear VOSD.

SHOW NOTES: 

(Links to VOSD articles m...

On Sunday, March 31st, 1985, a group of young Black men drove back to southeastern San Diego after visiting Balboa Park. It was just after 6:00 PM and the sun was retreating into the horizon. As a truck driven by 23-year-old Sagon Penn pulled into a driveway on a quiet street in Encanto, they were followed by two police cars.

What happened next would leave one officer dead, another officer and a civilian ride along severely injured...

Coming up on the show, we are in the final stretch of the District 1 County Supervisor race. 

The mailers are getting SPICY, and one especially pissed off a lot of people. 

Last month, Mayor Todd Gloria announced he was eliminating the position of chief operating officer and taking over the gig himself. Now, former COO Eric Dargan is suing Gloria and the city for discrimination and for breaking promises in his contract. W...

The Padres are playing their opening game as we record. We’ll explain a new minimum wage increase they are fighting.

We’ve got a few updates on what the city is doing to get you to pay for parking. Why San Diego is on the hook for monthly rent payment on an empty homeless shelter. And the historic San Diego Taxpayers Association has no leadership. 

Also, the hospitals are fighting. Palomar Health is borrowing money...

We’ve got a Dear VOSD response finally on the city’s history of charging for parking. 

Grossmont Union School District has had some very tense meetings. We’ll talk about a hot mic moment that went viral. 

And as part of our 20th anniversary talk, we have reflections from several of the journalists and former writers at Voice of San Diego who made a difference here.

SHOW NOTES: 

(Links to VOSD articl...

There was a surprisingly tense conversation about water rates at the city. The reality that they’re going to soar is starting to set in and we’ll discuss. 

Finally, we’ve got a guest, I have been on his show many times but he’s never been on ours. Darren Smith, the best unemployed radio guy in town is here to explain us some sports and more. 

We’ll go through some headlines with him and get i...