San Diego News Fix

In preparation for the election, The San Diego Union-Tribune's editorial board is publishing a series of endorsements on many local races. On this special election episode of San Diego News Fix, you'll hear from two members of the board: Matt Hall and Laura Castadñeda about how the process works and how the opinion team highlights community voices.Key links:Election dashboard: sandiegouniontribune.com/electiondashboard2020 Endorsements: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2020endorsementsCandidate interviews: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/san-diego-election-2020-candidate-interviewsCommentary on propositions and measures: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/2020-election-commentary-on-propositions-and-measures

San Diego City Council President and Congressional candidate Georgette Gómez reported no salary on her federal tax filing in 2017 despite earning more than $90,000 from her job on the council. Gómez, who is facing fellow Democrat Sara Jacobs in the November runoff for the 53rd District congressional seat, through a spokeswoman blamed the errors on her tax preparer and pledged to amend at least one of her returns. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/watchdog/story/2020-10-08/city-council-president-georgette-gomez-failed-to-report-more-than-100-000-in-income-on-taxes-records-show

A report from three key state groups analyzing what caused a pair of blackouts in mid-August largely conformed to reasons previously cited by California’s grid operator — that a combination of factors, including a sweltering heatwave, pushed the state’s power system to its edge, leading to the first statewide outages in nearly 20 years.Read more: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/story/2020-10-07/report-a-combination-of-factors-led-to-californias-rolling-blackouts-in-august

Assemblyman Todd Gloria and Councilwoman Barbara Bry are in a virtual dead heat among likely voters in the runoff for San Diego mayor, according to a San Diego Union-Tribune/10News SurveyUSA poll released Tuesday.Gloria leads Bry 39 percent to 38 percent, which is within the poll’s 5.3 percent margin of error. That leaves nearly a quarter of likely voters still undecided, with mail voting already underway and Election Day on Nov. 3.More on the poll: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/story/2020-10-06/new-poll-shows-bry-gloria-in-near-dead-heat-as-race-for-san-diego-mayor-enters-final-stretchDavid's Mayoral race preview: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/story/2020-10-04/battle-for-san-diego-mayor-focused-on-housing-vacation-rentals-future-of-sports-arena-areaPhoto Essay, The Lost Campaign: https://go.sandiegouniontribune.com/the-lost-campaign/p/1

Starting with Tuesday’s test, an additional score is now being published. This new number, dubbed a “health equity metric,” calculates a test positivity rate for the most disadvantaged quartile of census tracts in each county. The positivity rate for this subset of a county’s overall population must also meet the positivity rate requirements for a less-restrictive tier before a county will be allowed to move up.The state’s health equity score for San Diego County in Tuesday’s report is 6.2 percent, a full 2.7 percentage points greater than the region’s overall positivity rate of 3.5 percent. To qualify for the orange tier, counties must have their positivity rates below 5 percent for two consecutive weeks.

The city of San Diego has terminated its contract with the service provider running its Housing Navigation Center downtown.City officials said they will take it over next month and rename it and they will base its homeless services on programs they said have been successful in the temporary shelter in the San Diego Convention Center.Read more: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/homelessness/story/2020-10-01/city-to-take-over-navigation-center-ousted-service-provider-says-system-was-unworkable

If you're a registered voter in San Diego County, you'll be seeing a ballot in your mailbox this week. On the first special election episode of San Diego News Fix, Daniel Wheaton speaks with politics reporter Charles Clark about how this election will be different — and what to expect.

President Donald Trump said late Thursday night that he and his wife, Melania, have tested positive for COVID-19 and that they have gone into quarantine. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/science/story/2020-10-01/trump-tests-positive

More than five weeks after the first schools in San Diego County were allowed to reopen, most of San Diego County’s school districts have either reopened or have opening dates set for October.Many are reopening first by bringing back the youngest students or by offering hybrid learning, where students attend for part of the week or day and continue with distance learning part time.Grossmont Union High is phasing in reopening by first having students attend in-person one day a week. Santee and Poway are having students attend for half a school day. Still others are like Alpine Union, which has students attend in-person a couple of days a week.When looking at timelines for districts reopening, it’s clear that district size matters. Most of the districts that have reopened are small.

A San Diego police officer has been suspended without pay amid allegations that he posted a photo on social media that appeared to make light of a makeshift memorial for a man the officer and a partner fatally shot in late June, police Chief David Nisleit announced Tuesday.The chief also said Officer Jonathon Lucas, who has been on the force for about four years, was stripped of his police powers — forced to give up his gun and badge — while the Police Department investigates the matter.

This summer, it seemed the planets might be aligning to repeal California’s 24-year-old ban on affirmative action.Widespread street protests over the Memorial Day killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis had fueled a national reckoning with racism, discrimination and other social-justice problems. Poll after poll of public opinion showed rising acknowledgement of racial inequality and the need to address it.The novel coronavirus was having a disproportionate impact on people of color.And California was in a sustained demographic and political shift — more diverse, less conservative — away from what it was in 1996, when voters approved Proposition 209, a constitutional amendment outlawing racial or gender preferences in public employment, education and contracts.

Hoping to make a splash in downtown’s real estate market, a celebrated biotech office developer has purchased more than 8 acres of waterfront land to create a life science city along San Diego’s Bay.Friday, the newly formed IQHQ real estate investment group, started by storied life science builder Alan Gold, completed its acquisition of around two-thirds — or five city blocks — of the development site known as Manchester Pacific Gateway. The transaction paves the way for what IQHQ is calling the San Diego Research and Development District, or RaDD, as a massive lab-filled campus where ground-floor retail and unrivaled bay views work to recruit the biggest names in the pharmaceutical industry.

Logic dictates construction during a global pandemic would halt. But, the economic effects of COVID-19 are anything but logical. The transformation of downtown San Diego’s skyline has continued at a furious pace throughout the crisis, so much so that a visit to some parts can feel like you accidentally walked into a massive construction zone. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/real-estate/story/2020-09-25/downtown-san-diego-construction-continues-at-furious-pace-will-it-last

Several hundred people marched through downtown San Diego Wednesday night to protest a Kentucky grand jury’s decision not to indict any Louisville police officers for the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor.Led by a “wall of moms” in matching yellow T-shirts, demonstrators marched down Broadway chanting Taylor’s name along with other social-justice slogans.

The San Diego Padres have won the opportunity to turn four city blocks, currently used as a Petco Park parking lot, into an urban square where technology workers commingle with artisans and baseball fans.Wednesday, city officials announced that the Padres and its development partners, Tishman Speyer and Ascendant Capital Partners, were picked over challenger Brookfield Properties to redevelop the 5.25-acre plot of land known as Tailgate Park.The selection brings to an end a competitive bidding process that started in December and paves the way for the city to offload the long-held asset as is required by the state.Read more: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/growth-development/story/2020-09-23/in-bid-for-tailgate-park-padres-beat-brookfield-with-1-4b-office-focused-proposal

The COVID-19 pandemic has largely been a story of numbers.Daily reports tell us the number of new cases, the number of hospitalizations, the number of outbreaks and the number of deaths.The numbers are a dispassionate, point-in-time measure necessary to track the footprint of the deadly coronavirus as it continues its advance into homes, businesses, churches, even hospitals.But they can’t quantify the sense of loss that has pervaded life since the pandemic began six months ago — the loss of intimacy, tradition, confidence, and economic well-being.

San Diego State University is reeling from a calamitous outbreak of COVID-19. Is the same thing about to happen at UC San Diego?The answer will begin to emerge this weekend as 7,500 undergraduates start to move into meticulously cleaned dorms on the sprawling La Jolla campus for the start of the fall quarter.Read more: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/education/can-usd-ucsd-succeed-where-sdsu-failed-to-fight-covid-19

Generation Z is transforming America's culture and identity. And its members are just getting started. "Hello Gen Z" is a podcast from The San Diego Union-Tribune with the goal of hearing directly from them. https://go.sandiegouniontribune.com/hellogenz/p/1

The COVID-19 pandemic will cost San Diego about $300 million in tax revenue by next summer, including $48 million in hotel tax losses. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/story/2020-09-16/san-diego-estimates-300m-tax-revenue-loss-during-covid-19-pandemic

A former sheriff’s captain charged with selling “off roster” guns available only to law enforcement admitted to long-standing corruption in a plea agreement Tuesday. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/courts/story/2020-09-15/former-sheriffs-captain-pleads-guilty-to-illegal-off-roster-gun-sales