<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>
Breaking News
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>
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<p>A new report that studied the impacts of long US-Mexico border wait lines finds that the delays cost the local economy and negatively impact the environment on both sides of the border.</p>
City leaders were warned the fire systems were not operable, but City staff then misrepresented the building status to the press, the public, and even the San Diego Ethics Commission.
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<p>The number of confirmed deaths from COVID-19 cases in the United States today passed half a million people, totaling more than the number of people that would die in 2,777 crashes of the now-notorious 737 Max airplanes that were grounded last year after two crashes killed 346 people.</p>
<p>Worldwide, a total of 2,477,839 people have died. Deaths in the US account for more than 20% of worldwide deaths, even though the US only has about 5% of the world’s population.</p>
Downtown high-rise building purchased as a new space for over 1,100 staffers was closed down last year over asbestos exposure, but a greater threat to people in the building could have been uncontrollable fires.
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<p>Congressional Democrats have authored a bill to provide a legal path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants already in the US, fulfilling one of Joe Biden’s biggest campaign promises.</p>
<p>The bill outlines an eight-year path to gaining citizenship, but reduced that timeframe to three years for some farmer workers, immigrants that were brought into the US as minors, and those who were granted temporary protected status for fleeing natural and manmade disasters.</p>