This week we have a special episode for you. This coming year is going to be a difficult one for leaders of San Diego Unified School District. They are facing a massive budget deficit, ongoing stagnation in enrollment. They’re grappling with the aftermath of scandals involving sexual misconduct allegations that got the attention of the federal gove…

December 13, 2024 The election just ended. The election just started. We often accuse politicians of being short sighted but one thing they definitely plan far in advance is their next political move. We may have heard the first shots in the 2028 mayoral race. The city has a new president of the City Council and the region has a new Republican lead…

We’ve got the full crew in today to host a conversation with Mayor Todd Gloria, fresh off re-election, the mayor has no honeymoon. A huge budget deficit is coming up and his plan to deal with it – a tax increase – failed. For more on the issues: Can San Diego Finally Pass a Sales Tax Increase? Politics Report: The Civic Center Dream 101 Ash St. New…

This week is thanksgiving so what better time for us to bring back beef week? It’s more like Beef 10 Days. It may seem incongruent but we should all be thankful we can beef in local politics without violence or whatever. And we have a special guest this week, Council President Sean Elo-Rivera is here. We’ll talk about the election and some tough de…

The Registrar of Voters made us wait six days for an update on the vote count from November 5 – 16 days ago. The main local race we’re still watching is the Oceanside mayoral race. Just 31 votes separated the incumbent and her challenger. Senior investigative reporter Will Huntsberry will join us later on the show to explain why the city of San Die…

We are still processing the election, as I am sure all of you are. But at least some questions have been answered. We’ll go through those updates. And, where does the city of San Diego go from here? The mayor and Council President got re-elected but a sales tax failed and a deficit looms. A lot of people are worried about big cities and we get it. …

Well, that was an election. We will go back through the races we drafted last week. As always, there are a couple nail-biters as we begin the tradition of waiting for updates every afternoon. But we can say that San Diego incumbents did well. Mayor Todd Gloria and the City Councilmembers hoping for another term did fine. So did Terra Lawson Remer, …

Coming up on the show this week… It’s time. This is our last show before the apocalypse. We’ve got a special roundtable to go through our ranking of the best elections to watch Tuesday. Local elections that is. The Voice of San Diego elections draft and the elections contest are back. We’ll do it. For more on the issues: San Diego 2024 Election: Wh…

It’s the last lap of this election season and we have updates on several major races in San Diego. Is Mayor Todd Gloria overstating his creation of homeless shelter beds? Yes. Did Terra Lawson Remer use campaign funds for her kid’s preschool? Yes. She has a good defense but it’s interesting. And in South Bay, the chair of the County board of Superv…

Coming up on the show this week… We’ve got more mailers here to dissect. We’ll cut through what campaigns want voters to know and what we don’t even understand like: Why are California realtors bullying a candidate for her poker playing skills? There’s a newspaper endorsement that’s not really a newspaper endorsement … It is silly season in San Die…

Coming up on the show this week… The race between Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer and former mayor Kevin Faulconer is easily the hottest race this year. Millions are being spent on behalf of the candidate. The mailers are getting wild. We’ll get into it. Speaking of mailers, we’ve got some good ones. Plus, the latest in the city attorneys race and ca…

We got through Politifest. We’re going to discuss some of the many things people said and didn’t say. It was a big day for us. Also, why does Brian Maienschein, who is running for city attorney, have a campaign finance account for an attorney general race in 2030. We posted an explainer we can give you the cliff’s notes on. See omnystudio.com/liste…

A million dollars has already gone into the big county supervisors race from outside groups – most of it in support of mayor Kevin Faulconer, and if you’re in the district, you can tell from your mailbox. Usually mail waits until ballots are out. That’ll be our introduction into Politifest Week. We’ve been trying to run the show like normal while p…

Why the San Diego Republican party has had it with Carl DeMaio. Nobody has been more influential than him in the party but resources are now going to flow to DeMaio’s opponent in a closely watched Assembly race. We’ll get into the beef. Also, we’ve got more details on the allegations of sexual harassment against former San Diego Unified Superintend…

The city of San Diego stands to lose hundreds of shelter beds. Mayor Todd Gloria is proposing one solution: move some people from the Golden Hall shelter to the city’s safe camping sites. Feels like the city and county are going backwards on shelter. We’ll dig into it. University researchers raised an alarm about a toxic gas in the Tijuana River Va…

San Diego Unified School District, the second largest district in the state, fired its superintendent. It appears trustees have already settled on his successor. We’ll talk about what she apparently doesn’t want to talk about. It’s been 10 years since California banned plastic bags at grocery and liquor stores. Now a San Diego lawmaker is trying to…

A few months ago Jakob here broke news that San Diego Unified School District had commissioned an investigation into its superintendent for alleged misconduct. Now, they’ve apparently finished that investigation. We’ll tell you what we know. For months, Nathan Fletcher’s advocates have said he was wrongly accused of assault and that soon enough, th…

Mayor Todd Gloria didn't speak at this year's Democratic National Convention, but it's no secret that he's tight with Vice President Kamala Harris. The crew talks about their friendship and whether Gloria could be headed to Washington if Harris wins in November. Jakob also takes a look back at Harris' record as attorney general of California, and s…

The Padres made franchise history with their latest winning streak and Scott can't wait to tell the crew about it. Also on the show this week: San Diego Unified gets slapped with significant Title IX violations, Cajon Valley School District tests a new state law and local foster care charity New Alternatives is the subject of a Voice investigation …

One of the mayor's employees, a city police officer, is running to try to oust him. Larry Turner, a retired Marine, wants to make big changes to the police department. He wants to reduce pensions for future city employees, including police, and perhaps use bankruptcy to get there. He opposes a new sales tax for the city, which is on the November ba…

Scott and the team catch up on what he missed, including a big development in the local stormwater tax which won't make it onto the November ballot. They also discuss the latest development in the city's organic waste recycling program and share some honest admissions about their own green bin behavior. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy infor…

The city of San Diego is building a massive wastewater-to-drinking water recycling plant. It's going to cost billions and will require tearing up roads in the process. But after years of dumping sewage into the ocean, it may be time for a change. Plus, Lisa Halverstadt is back on the show this week with updates on county detox beds, the Hope @ Vine…

Voice of San Diego's environment reporter MacKenzie Elmer joins the show to talk about a spate of recent bird deaths in the city. Advocates say fireworks are to blame. She also has the latest on the flood prevention measure that just got pulled from the November ballot. Senior investigative reporter Will Huntsberry is back again this week, this tim…

Voice of San Diego's Will Huntsberry joins the show this week to discuss his new profile on Rep. Sara Jacobs. She's defied expectations with her voting record and is poised to become very powerful in Washington. Reporter Lisa Halverstadt also comes on to give an update about the Hope @ Vine mega shelter, which is facing a crucial City Council vote …

The calls for President Biden to leave the presidential race have reached a fever pitch, and this week Rep. Scott Peters weighed in. If Biden does drop out, Bella has a prescient prediction for when he might do it. Plus, Scott points out all that we still don't know about the proposed mega shelter and Jakob makes a pitch for revamping the city of S…