Today’s newsletter is presented by AddressSD.
Good morning, San Diego ☀️
Here’s what we have for you today:
- More vote centers have opened for the final early voting weekend.
- A former sheriff’s deputy was sentenced to 12 years for a fatal shooting of an unarmed man.
- Another reminder: Some roads might be closed near you for the marathon this morning.
Jennifer Vigil
News editor
Top story
Fixes for the Tijuana sewage crisis are focused downstream, in San Diego. The real problem is upstream, in Tijuana
Lots of people have made lots of promises to South Bay residents who long have been burdened, or worse, sickened, by toxins in the air around the Tijuana River.
There’s small-scale fixes and large-scale fixes, but what’s truly needed is a gargantuan fix. And the cold, hard truth is that fix is not possible on our side of the border.
Contributor Jim Gogek explains what many experts have long understood – and many elected officials and bureaucrats avoid saying when they hype up projects to address the continuous flow of sewage in the river and across the border.
For instance, a neglected and rundown treatment plant is being expanded to handle 50 million gallons of wastewater a day on the U.S. side, but as Gogek writes, a recent report “makes clear that the South Bay plant is one piece of a much larger modern system that’s needed.
What’s even more antiquated than that old plant? Most of Tijuana’s sewer network, which needs “urgent rehabilitation.” Parts of the city have no sewage system at all in a metropolitan area that is bursting at the seams – with more growth on the way. It’s clear that a big fix is needed, but as one observer asked, “Where is the actual appropriation of funds going to come from, and on what timeline?”
The South Bay has been waiting for those answers for a very long time.
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Stories you should know about
👀 Is SDSU watching? See where the university put its AI-enabled cameras: There are 1,300 AI-enabled cameras around SDSU’s campus. 28% of the cameras are located within student dorms.
🚑 Sheriff, mental health experts sound alarm over loss of funding for mobile crisis teams in state budget: “Making mobile crisis optional would move us backwards,” said Jessica Wilson, CEO of the National Alliance on Mental Illness California.
🚨 California ICE detention centers getting worse, inspections find: ‘Cruel, inhumane and unacceptable’: A report by California Attorney General Rob Bonta found that overcrowding in the state’s seven ICE facilities that were operating last year led to inadequate medical care, food and hygiene as well as excessive use of force from guards.
✊ San Diego nonprofits urged to ‘meet the moment amid rapid societal change: Over 300 leaders of nonprofit organizations and philanthropic funders gathered in Balboa Park on Thursday and Friday.
💵 Opinion: The county wants your money and your trust, but hasn’t earned either. My mother deserves a moment to breathe. Instead, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors is asking her to open her wallet again.
What else we’re reading
🚙 A judge ordered the city to pay $16.5 million to people who paid late penalties on parking tickets between Feb. 22, 2022, and March 31, 2025. It’s not clear yet whether the city will accept the ruling or appeal. (Union-Tribune)
🧮 UCSD faculty are calling on the UC system to reinstate the SAT/ACT requirement from applicants for those going into STEM majors. This comes after the university has seen a sharp uptick in students needing a remedial math course. (KPBS)
Times of San Diego thanks our corporate sponsors. Find out more about sponsorships and advertising opportunities here.
In case you missed it…
Weekdays get busy—we know. And with so much from Times of San Diego, good stories can slip by. Here are a few worth your time:
🎥 ‘One Battle After Another’ filmed in San Diego and won multiple Oscars. The mayor’s budget cuts the staffer who helped bring it here. Read it here.
🏡 La Jolla residents sue to overturn Bird Rock townhome project. Read it here.
🐘 San Diego’s gerrymandered CA-48 could decide control of the House. Will Democrats blow it? Read it here.
💵 Fixing the ‘hot spot’ for Tijuana River pollution would cost $25 million. Yet red tape has slowed funding for the project. Read it here.