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 Mid…

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 omnystudi…

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 Counci…

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 ha…

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…

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 VO…

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 wou…

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 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. …

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 d…

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 g…

What exactly happened at City Council this week? We have one of them here, Councilmember Henry Foster joins us to talk about housing, ADUs, land use, the city’s deficit and more. SHOW NOTES INTRO 00:00:00 Intro SEGMENT 1 00:02:09 San Diego Football Club opening day drama AXIOS SDFC confronts fans' homophobic chant that's plagued soccer for years NB…

SHOW NOTES INTRO 00:00:00 Intro Parent’s Guide on Instagram! SEGMENT 1 00:00:57 Parent’s Guide on Instagram! The wait is OVER This year’s A Parent’s Guide to San Diego Schools is here and ready to help answer all your local education questions! The Guide explains school choice opportunities and enrollment deadlines, what’s available for after-schoo…

If you listened last week, you were set up for the big news this week. The mayor is flexing his muscles. We’ll explain the difference between eliminating a position and firing someone and what happened to the now former top bureaucrat at the city. And the parents guide is coming out. Jakob and Andrea here have been working hard on it. We’ll talk. S…

It’s the 20th anniversary of the launch of Voice of San Diego, the greatest nonprofit news organization go live in 2005. We launched before YouTube. We’ll reminisce a bit with a sort of special guest. The city of San Diego’s budget deficit has provoked some tense conversations. A City Council budget committee hearing last week had some great clips.…

Coming up on the show today, a special interview with San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez. She is ready to talk about deaths in county jails, local law enforcement’s relationship with federal immigration agents and more. SHOW NOTES 2017 California Senate Bill 54, commonly referred to as "SB 54" and also known as the "California Values Act" is a…

Is it the end of San Diego’s decidedly pro-housing majority? There was an earthquake at City Hall this week about ADUs At the same time, Poway City Council has reached a telenovela level of drama, we’ll break it down. SHOW NOTES 00:00:00 Opening 00:04:15 Controversial Encanto ADU Policy From KPBS San Diego City Council repeals controversial footnot…

Our annual Parents Guide to San Diego Schools is almost done. We have added a new metric this year and it reveals how well schools recovered, or didn’t, from COVID. Jakob here took it and turned it into a story. It’s a bit of a downer. Another local government is promising to protect people from Trump’s immigration action. We’ll review the supposed…

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria gave his state of the city speech. If last year was the everything is awesome speech, this year was the everything is definitely not awesome speech. This was the tough conversations speech. The we can do hard things speech. The dynamic PowerPoint that went with included such rousing lists like refocus, reimagine, revisit…

We are going to go through some updates to stories but we’ve got a special co-host today, San Diego City Councilmember Raul Campillo. We’ve got some questions for him and he said he’s come up with a contribution to our hot takes segment at the end. SHOW NOTES Segment 1 00:02:15 Updates 00:06:28 Fletcher Nathan Fletcher’s Accuser Drops Sexual Assaul…

This is our first show of 2025 and it is already starting with some huge news: We finally will discuss the incredible news that County Supervisor Nora Vargas will not be taking the oath of office for her re-election. The balance of power in the county is once again up for grabs, right as the county braces for thousands more people being forced into…

This is the last episode of 2024 and we have a super mega roundtable for you. I am in studio with the core four – Lopez, Jakob, Bella – and we have one open seat so we’re going to bring in one reporter at a time. We’ll ask them each what’s going to happen. What’s one thing they want to know "What’s going to happen?" I think that’s the core compelli…

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…