<h6>Photo credit: ARIANA DREHSLER/AFP via Getty Images</h6>
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<p>A local committee of fire and police chiefs held its first public meeting today after 16 years of acting behind closed doors to allocate millions of dollars per year in federal funds to prepare for and respond to terrorist attacks – but their change came only after La Prensa San Diego filed a lawsuit in December to challenge their secret meetings as being in violation of state open meeting laws.</p>
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<p>California Governor Gavin Newsom chose Assemblyman Rob Bonta to fill the vacancy left when State Attorney General Xavier Becerra became the new Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Biden Administration.</p>
<p>Bonta, 48, who was born a US Citizen in the Philippines to a US Citizen father, moved to California when he was only a few months old and grew up in the Bay Area. He graduated from Yale University, studied at Oxford, and earned his law degree from Yale Law School.</p>
Dismissing and ignoring our questions is not an assault on La Prensa’s significance: it is an affront to our readers and our community.
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<p><span class="byline"><span class="author vcard"><strong>Chris Jennewein</strong><br>
Times of San Diego</span></span></p>
<p>The House of Representatives on Thursday passed bills providing a pathway to citizenship for the “Dreamers,” undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children, as well as for a large number of immigrant farmworkers.</p>
<h6>Photo<i> Credit: Matt Hoffman – KPBS</i></h6>
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<p>San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott is misleading the public by refusing to release potentially damning parts of a forensic report that reviewed the 101 Ash Street building deal, even after the report was promised to be an independent and comprehensive analysis of what has now become one of the City’s worst financial debacles in its history.</p>
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<p>Applications are now being accepted for a new City program to help provide funding support to low-income residents that need help with past-due rent, utility, and Internet connectivity payments due to hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<p>The Housing Stability Assistance Program, administered by the San Diego Housing Commission, will provide up to $83 million in funding support beginning in April.</p>
<p>Photo by: Mike Damron – KPBS San Diego</p>
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<p>A local governmental committee that has distributed over $200 million in tactical and surveillance equipment to police and fire agencies without public meetings and disclosures has now amended its charter to require itself to comply with state open meeting laws after a lawsuit filed by La Prensa San Diego exposed their secret meetings in December 2020.</p>
San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott failed to report political contributions she received from lobbyists during the same period she and members of her staff met with them on important City issues pending her approval.
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<p>A new count of the number of undocumented minors in federal custody is at a record high with more than 3,200 children being held in facilities while they await being reunited with family or being placed in suitable shelters.</p>
<p>Just one week ago the number of minors in federal custody was 1,700 children.</p>
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<em>Editor-at-Large</em></p>
<p>San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott this week sent out an email soliciting contributions to a legal defense fund – claiming her campaign opponent filed “frivolous lawsuits” against her – but her email mentions two lawsuits that do not fall under the Municipal Code that allows public officials to raise money for legal expenses, and her paperwork filed to create the committee seems to violate the law.</p>