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Latest local headlines, served fresh every morning by San Diego’s leading news source.
Get the story behind the story every weekday. Host Daniel Wheaton interviews Union-Tribune reporters about what matters in San Diego.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria gave his first State of the City address Wednesday night, breaking the cliche by admitting the state of the city is fragile.
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Union-Tribune documentary: "Missing in Mexico" | Wendy Fry, Alejandro Tamayo
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More than 79,000 people have disappeared in that country, the vast majority since 2006 when former president Felipe Calderón launched Mexico’s war on drugs. Tijuana, a sprawling metropolis of 2.1 million people, became a front line as cartels fought to secure lucrative trafficking routes into the United States. More recently, neighborhoods on the c…
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A San Diego perspective on impeachment and the GOP's future | Michael Smolens
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Political columnist Micheal Smolens discusses many of the issues facing congressional Republicans in the coming weeks, as well as how our congressional delegation has responded to the past several weeks *** Editor's note: This podcast will be taking several weeks off and will return on Feb. 8
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Multiple life terms for San Diego man who killed four during 2016 spree | Teri Figueroa
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A mentally ill San Diego man who admitted to a deadly spree of attacks primarily on homeless men — killing three of them by hammering their bodies with railroad spikes — was sentenced Tuesday to multiple terms of life in prison without parole. Jon David Guerrero, 43, received four life sentences without parole, plus an additional 143 years to life …
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So, some gorillas got COVID (and a vaccine update) | Jonathan Wosen
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Gorillas at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park tested positive for the novel coronavirus Monday, marking the first known case of the virus infecting any of the great apes — a group that includes gorillas, bonobos, chimps and orangutans. Lisa Peterson, executive director of the Safari Park, said that more than one gorilla has tested positive but would no…
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What the insurrection means for politics and democracy | Michael Smolens
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The U-T's political columnist explains how the events in Washington have affected our country. Read his latest column: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/columnists/story/2021-01-08/column-reps-jacobs-and-issa-profiles-in-courage-and-cowardice
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Front-page editorial condemns insurrection, President Trump | Matthew T. Hall
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Jan. 6, 2021, will be remembered as the day American democracy died. Now the revival is up to all of us. The peaceful transfer of U.S. presidential power dating back to George Washington and John Adams more than two centuries ago ended with Donald Trump’s incitement of an insurrection Wednesday when hundreds of his supporters broke into the U.S. Ca…
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Questions remain in alleged murder of Butterfly Farms owner | Pam Kragen
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Monday would have been Tom Merriman’s first day back at work at Butterfly Farms. Instead, the nearly 8-year-old education and research nonprofit in Encinitas is preparing to move forward without its co-founder and president. Read the story: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/communities/north-county/encinitas/story/2021-01-05/butterfly-farms-in-e…
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BLM activists fear they missed the moment in 2020. Will 2021 be different? | Alex Riggins
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Ten days after George Floyd died under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer, more than 2,000 protesters marched through the streets of downtown San Diego, North Park, Hillcrest and Balboa Park in a huge demonstration organized by a nameless collective of young, Black San Diegans. Earlier that same week, law enforcement leaders across the county…
As state leaders wrestle with plans for who gets vaccinated and in what order, they have received hundreds of comments asking for priority in line Read the story: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/health/story/2021-01-03/from-across-the-state-individual-and-groups-ask-for-priority-in-vaccine-rollout…
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Looking back at the military's 2020 | Andrew Dyer
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San Diego based service members faced a number of challenges in 2020. Military reporter Andrew Dyer walks us through this eventful year. Read the story: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/military/story/2020-12-30/2020-a-year-of-travails-and-tragedy-for-san-diego-military-community
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What the Padres trading spree means for 2021 | Kevin Acee
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A series of key trades shows that Padres' GM AJ Preller plans on making the team a serious contender next year.
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Returned IV: How can the U.S. asylum system be reimagined? | Kate Morrissey
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The U.S. has always resisted protecting refugees at its border. The incoming Biden administration will have to decide whether to break with that past. Read the story: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/immigration/story/2020-12-27/how-could-asylum-system-be-reimagined The rest of the series: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/returned Prev…
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Here's why cruise ships are docked at the port right now | Lori Weisberg
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Barred from sailing for the last nine months because of the pandemic, several cruise ships are making their way to San Diego this month, but don’t expect to see thousands of passengers boarding or disembarking from the ocean liners. Read the story: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/story/2020-12-23/cruise-ships-return-to-san-diego-after…
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Trump pardons Duncan Hunter, Blackwater contractors convicted in 2007 massacre | Morgan Cook, Andrew Dyer
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President Donald Trump on Tuesday granted a full pardon to former Republican congressman Duncan Hunter, who had pleaded guilty to illegally spending campaign money for his personal use. Hunter was sentenced in March to 11 months in prison, but he has been allowed to postpone serving his term in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. He was supposed to beg…
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Leaked COVID-19 outbreak data reveals more about the pandemic | Lyndsay Winkley
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Although health officials regularly release information about the number of COVID-19 outbreaks that are being investigated across the county, the specific locations have usually been kept a secret. Until now. On Monday, the public media station KPBS published an investigation that revealed the addresses of 1,006 outbreaks that occurred between Marc…
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For the first time in 800 years, the "Grand Conjunction" appears in the night sky | Gary Robbins
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The richly luminous planets Saturn and Jupiter will be so close in the sky on Monday night they’ll appear to meld together with a starkness that has not been widely seen on Earth since the 13th century. The paths the planets follow around the sun will bring them into rough alignment shortly after the sun sets in the southwest, creating what astrono…
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From recruit to Marine during the pandemic: Inside the Alpha Co. | Andrew Dyer, Nel Cepeda
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Over the past eight months, the Marine Corps, like each military branch, has been forced to adapt to minimize the spread of COVID-19. At its San Diego boot camp, that means quarantines, coronavirus screenings, social distancing and masks. The San Diego Union-Tribune followed recruits of Alpha Company — from the time they got off the bus at boot cam…
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Questions remain on what judge's ruling on strip clubs, restaurants means | Dana Littlefield, Lori Weisberg
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A San Diego Superior Court judge on Wednesday ruled two strip clubs can remain open and operating during the most recent COVID-19 shutdown orders from the state, in a ruling that appeared to extend to the county’s beleaguered restaurant industry and allow those businesses to reopen to some extent. The ruling by Superior Court Judge Joel Wohlfeil ca…
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ICU availability, staffing stretching to manage COVID-19 hospitalization surge | Paul Sisson
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Severe impacts on local emergency departments have forced paramedics to wait for hours before they can deliver their patients, prompting unprecedented changes to San Diego County ambulance bypass procedures Tuesday. The change came as intensive care capacity across the state continued to dwindle, prompting local hospitals to reach out to Sacramento…
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Inside the Union-Tribune's Phenomenal Women project | Merrie Monteagudo, Morgan Cook
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The San Diego Union-Tribune and the Women’s Museum of California are celebrating a century of female achievement in San Diego to mark the 100th year of women’s suffrage in America. Explore the full series here: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/phenomenal-women-series
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First shipment of Pfizer vaccines arrive, inoculations set to begin | Jonathan Wosen
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In total, San Diego County will initially receive 28,275 doses of vaccine. Each dose will be given to hospital health care workers at highest risk of exposure to the coronavirus — including doctors, nurses, custodians and security staff who are regularly in contact with COVID-19 patients. Because Pfizer’s vaccine requires two doses, those who get t…
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Overhaul at City Hall w/ reporter David Garrick
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Todd Gloria takes over as San Diego's first mayor of color while City Council chooses a new president.
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Tough choices loom as ICU beds fill up countywide | Paul Sisson
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A second-straight day with San Diego County’s intensive care beds at 80 percent occupancy prompted questions Wednesday about when crisis measures will be necessary. While officials with the county health department made it clear during their regular weekly COVID-19 briefing that we’re not there yet, they also declined to set a firm break point beyo…
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How a controversial land swap -- of protected lands -- almost occurred in East County | Joshua Emerson Smith
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A controversial and unprecedented land deal that would have allowed a housing development on 219 acres of ecologically prized land in San Diego County was defeated Tuesday. The California Wildlife Conservation Board voted five to one, with its chairman Chuck Bonham abstaining, to deny a proposed land exchange between the state and developer group G…
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How teachers continue to solider on during the pandemic | Kristen Taketa
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Distance learning is a constant fight to find all their students and just have them come to class. They’re trying anything from jokes to poetry to being more forgiving in grading. Read more: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/story/2020-12-06/for-many-teachers-distance-learning-is-a-constant-fight-to-get-students-to-participate…
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COVID-19 exposure app set to launch this week | Lyndsay Winkley
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The smartphone-based COVID-19 exposure notification system that was piloted by UC San Diego and other state universities will be made available to all Californians this week. State officials hope the blue-tooth based technology will help slow the transmission of the novel coronavirus by quickly notifying people when they’ve been exposed to someone …
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SDG&E power shutoffs may soon return as wildfire conditions persist | Rob Nikolewski
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Tens of thousand of SDG&E customers lost power late Wednesday evening and Thursday morning as Santa Ana winds combined with dry weather conditions led to high wildfire risk. By Friday, the number of customers without power had dropped, but the utility has warned that outages may return soon.
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Fire danger expected to continue this weekend | Alex Riggins
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Santa Ana wind conditions may spark fires countywide in the next few days.
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How the Convention Center homeless shelter became an unlikely success story | Gary Warth
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About half of the 900 homeless people sheltered at the San Diego Convention Center are scheduled to move out of the venue and into permanent homes next week with the remainder expected to leave the following week, a city official said Tuesday. San Diego Housing Commission President and CEO Rick Gentry said the city finalized the purchase of two ext…
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San Diego County surpasses 1,000 COVID deaths | Gary Warth
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On Tuesday, San Diego County reached a grim milestone, reporting on the first day of a new month that COVID-19 deaths have now passed 1,000. It is impossible, at the moment, to say exactly who was the 1,000th person to succumb to the disease because it often takes days, or even weeks, for COVID-related deaths to make it into the county health depar…
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Another COVID-19 side-effect: a rise in D and F grades | Kristen Taketa
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Schools nationwide and across San Diego County are seeing a surge in poor grades fueled by the pandemic. The trend is in line with school officials’ and national experts’ predictions that school closures, along with obstacles to online education, will cause massive learning loss this year. Read the story: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/e…
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Will COVID-19 hamper holiday shopping? | Jennifer Van Grove
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Already a holiday season like no other, experts are looking into their crystal balls of shopping predictions and coming up with more questions than answers. Still, the consensus seems to be that, despite the pandemic’s unwelcome and unavoidable presence, there’s more reason for end-of-year retail cheer than fear Read the story: https://www.sandiego…
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Here's why housing prices are still high despite the pandemic | Phillip Molnar
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San Diego home prices went up the third fastest in the nation in September and appreciated at a pace not seen in more than six years. Prices in the San Diego metropolitan area were up 9.5 percent annually, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices reported Tuesday. The acceleration is still not near housing boom levels when, in July 2004, prices were …
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Black, Latino San Diegans wary of COVID-19 vaccines | Andrea Lopez-Villafaña, Jonathan Wosen
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Conversations revealed many people of color are concerned that science has been polluted by politics and isn’t being explained to them clearly. Others worry their communities are being used for clinical trials without an assurance they’d have access to an approved vaccine. Read more: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/biotech/story/2020-…
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State curfew and enforcement | Paul Sisson
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The state curfew requires any county in the most restrictive, “purple” tier of the state’s reopening system — which includes San Diego — to limit “all gatherings with members of other households and all activities conducted outside the residence, lodging, or temporary accommodation with members of other households.” https://www.sandiegouniontribune…
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Sheriff Bill Gore criticized for working with ICE | Charles Clark
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The annual Truth Act community forum took place this week. The discussion is meant to inform the community of their legal rights when it comes to how local law enforcement agencies work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement on immigration issues. At the forum, dozens of people criticized Sheriff Bill Gore for allowing ICE access to county jails …
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Judge orders emergency halt on immigration arrests at San Diego federal court | Kristina Davis
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A judge has issued an emergency restraining order that prohibits the Trump administration from making civil immigration arrests at the San Diego federal courthouse, saying the widespread practice “invades the decorum and dignity of the court” and violates common-law principles dating back to the 15th century. “The court is not an ‘arrest pad’ nor w…
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Will BLM increase transparency in the hiring of police chiefs? | David Hernandez
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Last year, three cities in San Diego County hired police chiefs. All three cities — Escondido, National City and El Cajon — promoted top brass from within their police departments with little public input and transparency. That was the norm. It was what Oceanside City Manager Deanna Lorson noticed a few months ago when the time came to find a succe…
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Jahi Turner was 2 when he vanished in San Diego in 2002. His mother still searches for answers | Dana Littlefield
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For more than a decade, Tameka Jones held onto the idea — a fantasy, really — that her son would come home one day. She believed it in April 2002 after she got a call from her then-husband, the man she’d trusted to care for 2-year-old Jahi Turner while she was deployed on a Navy ship off San Diego. “Baby, I can’t find Jahi. The police are here,” sh…
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Sunday listen: A virtual community forum on reparations
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California Assembly member Dr. Shirley Weber was the featured speaker at a community forum on reparations being held virtually on Nov. 12. Dr. Weber is the chair of the Legislative Black Caucus and author of AB3121, which will create a task force to recommend appropriate slavery reparations and determine who would be eligible to receive compensatio…
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Surveillance in San Diego | Teri Figueroa
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The San Diego City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve an ordinance that would govern all surveillance technologies in the city — action rooted in pushback after the city had quietly installed cameras on 3,000 smart streetlights. The councilmembers also backed a second ordinance creating an advisory board to oversee uses of surveillance te…
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Local businesses worry the Purple Tier rules may force them to shut down | Lori Weisberg
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Pandemic-weary businesses, hit with the third shutdown of indoor operations in eight months because of rising COVID-19 rates, fear they may not survive this time around as they watch their customers — and financial reserves — evaporate. From restaurants, bars, gyms and movie theaters, which will soon be limited to outdoors-only service, to shops an…
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Purple tier COVID-19 rules go into effect 12:01 a.m Saturday | Paul Sisson
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The day many have dreaded for months has now come to pass. San Diego County fell to the most-restrictive level of the state’s COVID-19 reopening system Tuesday, meaning that restaurants, houses of worship, movie theaters and other organizations must cease or significantly reduce their indoor operations by 12:01 a.m. Saturday. In the state’s latest …
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What to make of the Pfizer vaccine news | Jonathan Wosen
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Pfizer Inc. said Monday that its COVID-19 vaccine may be a remarkable 90% effective, based on early and incomplete test results that nevertheless brought a big burst of optimism to a world desperate for the means to finally bring the catastrophic outbreak under control. The announcement came less than a week after an election seen as a referendum o…
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What happens to schools if we fall to the Purple Tier| Kristen Taketa
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Thanks to persistently high COVID-19 case rates, San Diego County is days away from potentially landing in the purple tier, the most-restrictive level of the state’s COVID-19 monitoring system, which would mean that schools that have not started teaching at least some students in person would lose their chance to reopen. Falling into the purple tie…
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If COVID cases don't decrease, SD will be in the Purple Tier next week | Paul Sisson
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An out-of-bounds score in the state’s weekly reopening report creates the possibility that San Diego County could fall to the most-restrictive tier in the COVID-19 ranking system next week. Released by the California Health and Human Services Agency on Wednesday, the weekly scorecard lists San Diego County with 7.4 coronavirus cases per 100,000 res…
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With votes still being tallied, the "blue-ing" of SD County seems to be complete | Micheal Smolens
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Political columnist Michael Smolens discusses the local results.
Politics reporter Charles Clark discusses the early returns, plus a longer update from Daniel Wheaton
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"Defend East County" Facebook group gets deactivated | Andrew Dyer
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Facebook removed, then republished, then again removed the 22,000-member Defend East County group from its social media site Saturday. The group’s founder and administrator Justin Haskins announced in a post to a separate Facebook group Saturday morning that the group was gone. However, by 7 p.m. the group was back. By 8:00 p.m., the group again di…
