Voice of San Diego Podcast
This is Voice of San Diego’s weekly spitfire roundup of news. We cover local and regional politics, the environment, education, the border and more. This show features our investigative reporting and interviews with lawmakers and other special guests.
Episodes
It’s dealmaking season at City Hall. The push for a new $25 minimum wage for some workers in the tourism and entertainment industry in San Diego is heading to a City Council vote Sept. 16. Here’s what we know about all the entities trying to get out of having to pay workers that.
Prop 50 mailers are hitting mailboxes and the ads are on TV. We’ve talked about it the last two podcasts but now it’s alread...
San Diego’s Sunset Cliffs are crumbling. The city’s plan to save them is … a one way street?
The County Board of Supes has officially voted to tap into previously off-limits county reserves, but thanks to a labor agreement nearly half of those funds are already spoken for.
Also, why an aging north county dam has one company saying “Damn!”
And finally, Assemblyman Chris Ward is calling into...
Were you hallucinating too or do you also remember the city of San Diego saying pizza boxes could now go in the green bin. Also, a lot of people do not understand how to use the green bins, apparently.
We haven’t had a chance yet to talk about it but we should: A judge dismissed the sexual harassment case against Nathan Fletcher that ended his career. But he’s still got one going against the accuser.
And we ...
This week, the Padres are getting into politics. The team just took first place in the National League west for the first time this late in the season in 15 years. Success on the field could help them in the field of politics.
We’ve got a special guest host today, former Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey is in the studio. He’s now become something of a conservative tiktok pundit weighing in mostly on city of San Diego...
RVs are all over Mission Bay. Why the city now feels OK about cracking down on them.
Mack is Back! Mackenzie Elmer our environment reporter is dropping in to discuss bobcats that have been terrorizing the Wild Animal Park. And why the big news about a big Mexico/USA deal on the border sewage crisis is deja vu.
Finally hospitals used to panic that SB 43 would flood them with patients with drug and menthal health challeng...
You may be shocked to learn that of San Diego County cities Encinitas is closest to meeting its housing goals.
That’s right. The bad boy of North County with a history of failing to follow housing laws is actually building homes. Housing, or lack of, is among the top issues in our region and senior investigative reporter Will Huntsberry has spent months analyzing housing data. He’s here to dish on his findi...
There’s officially a new county supervisor and so there’s a new chair of the board of supervisors and they’re wasting no time making big changes.
El Cajon police have stopped responding to calls when a person says they’re going to hurt themselves. They blame lawyers but it’s complicating the response of civilian teams as well, we’ll explain.
And we talked about school enrollment plunging ac...
The mayor is just flat ignoring the budget the city council passed and will not fire the top managers the Council cut. And you thought budget drama was over.
Local water managers are demanding an apology from one of their colleagues. Apologies after demands for apologies are always the best apologies. We’ll explain why this matters.
And Jakob published an extraordinary analysis and maps this week of how many fewer...
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 the crew brought their notes and their game to Soda Bar where they recorded the podcast before packed house, as Scott, Andrea, Jakob and Bella welcomed Keene Simonds, the Executive Officer of the Local Agency Formation Commission, to the lively LIVE podcast recording session.
Recorded live at Soda Bar, Wednesday May 7, 2025.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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...
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