San Diego News Fix

The defense continues to lay out its case in the war crimes trial of a San Diego-based Navy SEAL. Edward R Gallagher stands accused of killing a wounded ISIS fighter in Iraq by stabbing him in the neck, as well as shooting at civilians multiple times. He has denied all charges and pleaded not guilty. Yesterday, the Navy Announced that Corey Scott -- the man who says he killed the ISIS fighter by asphyxiation after the stabbing -- may be charged with perjury. And today, more witnesses offer different stories as to what happened in the Mosul sniper towers.

San Diego County grocery workers, along with thousands of others across Southern California and parts of Central California, have voted overwhelmingly in favor of authorizing their union leadership to call a strike should contract talks with major supermarket chains stall in the coming weeks. The United Food and Commercial Workers announced Wednesday morning the outcome of a strike authorization vote conducted at multiple locations on Monday and Tuesday. Some 46,000 unionized workers, from north of Santa Maria all the way to the U.S.- Mexico border, are covered by the vote. Employees with Ralph’s and Albertsons Companies, which owns Vons and Pavilions, are still working under a three-year contract that expired March 3.

The war crimes trial of San Diego-based Navy SEAL Edward R Gallager is ongoing, with the prosecution wrapping up its case this morning. He stands accused of killing a wounded ISIS fighter in Iraq, as well as shooting at civilians multiple times. He has denied all charges and pleaded not guilty. Yesterday, we heard from forensics exports that provided more context about the stabbing of the fighter, and today the defense begins its case.

Rep. Duncan Hunter began living with a woman other than his wife early in his first term in the U.S. House of Representatives, one of a series of personal intimate relationships prosecutors say he began with three lobbyists and two congressional staffers during his elected service. One of the women Hunter allegedly took up with was on his own staff; another worked in the office of a member of the House of Representatives leadership, new court records state. In a sweeping series of court filings this week, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego accuses the six-term Republican from East County of engaging in a litany of extramarital affairs and paying for some of them with campaign funds while serving in Congress. Prosecutors outlined the behavior in a filing aimed at convincing the judge that the spending was not for campaign purposes, one of the presumed arguments that may be put forward by Hunter’s criminal defense attorney. Full story: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/watchdog/story/2019-06-25/hun

Hear the latest in the ongoing war crimes trial of Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher. Andrew Dyer tells us about forensics experts who provided additonal testimony on the events before and after the stabbing of the Iraqi fighter, and the first phase of a cross-examination of a NCIS investigator.

From the day of the catastrophe, Sept. 25, 1978, there’s been speculation over the precise cause of the deadly collision between a PSA jet and a Cessna over North Park. To Leo Leonard, though, there’s no question where the blame lies. “Air traffic control,” he said. “Air traffic control cleared PSA to land, knowing there was an aircraft it had on the radar in the landing pattern.” A co-founder of Pacific Southwest Airlines, Leonard is 99 years old. The Del Cerro resident says he’ll devote the rest of his days to clearing the reputation of the men and women of PSA Flight 182.

Two Navy SEAL snipers testified Friday that their chief, Edward R. Gallagher, shot at civilians on at least two occasions during their 2017 deployment to Iraq. Gallagher, a chief special warfare operator, is charged with killing a wounded ISIS prisoner by stabbing him in the neck while providing medical treatment. He’s also charged with shooting civilians and, on other occasions, shooting indiscriminately at Iraqi non-combatants.

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer is disputing President Donald Trump’s comments that Faulconer thanked Trump for his efforts on the border wall during a Tuesday meeting between the two men at the White House. Trump said on Fox News Wednesday night that Faulconer expressed gratitude for local upgrades to the wall and declared that they had been highly effective. “The mayor was just up in my office - great guy,” Trump told Sean Hannity. “He came up to thank me for having done the wall because it’s made such a difference. He said it’s like day and night. He said people were flowing across and now nobody can come in.” Faulconer’s spokesman Craig Gustafson said the president’s recollection of the meeting is flat wrong.

Hear the latest on the ongoing war crimes trial of Edward Gallagher.

Defending San Diego County against rising seas would cost about $1 billion, according to a new study that estimated that the cost of coastal armoring would be at least $22 billion for California, and more than $400 billion for the United States as a whole. And that’s just a “minimum down payment for short-term defense against rising seas in California,” says the study released today by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Climate Integrity and the environmental engineering firm Resilient Analytics. Titled “High Tide Tax; The Price to Protect Coastal Communities from Rising Seas,” the study illustrates the expense of coastal protection by calculating the cost of seawall construction in areas threatened by inundation. For San Diego County, that could total $984 million. The city of San Diego, the report estimates, faces a $357 million price tag for those defenses, the highest for any city in California. Imperial Beach would need $212 million to armor its coastline, leaving the city of 27,000 people with the ei

A key witness in the Navy SEAL court-martial trial said he, not Chief Edward Gallagher, killed a wounded Isis fighter in Iraq in 2017, testimony which appears to up-end the prosecution’s main claim in a nationally-watched murder and attempted murder case. Corey Scott, a first class petty officer, testified that he was there and saw Gallagher stab the wounded ISIS fighter in the neck but, he said, he killed the fighter afterward. Scott said he used his thumb to cover the breathing tube that had been inserted to help the fighter breathe and he watched the man die. He said he did it to spare the fighter from being tortured later by members of the Iraqi Emergency Response Division, who also were fighting ISIS.

San Diego’s immigrant communities are bracing for another round of ramped-up enforcement after President Donald Trump promised action as soon as next week. Trump wrote in a tweet Monday night that Immigration and Customs Enforcement would “begin the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into the United States.” “They will be removed as fast as they come in,” Trump said, praising Mexico for taking actions to enforce its southern border. Immigration officials have been developing a plan aimed at sweeping up and deporting thousands of migrant family members in U.S. cities who were ordered to leave the country after their cases were evaluated by immigration judges. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/immigration/story/2019-06-18/san-diego-immigrant-communities-preparing-for-increased-enforcement-after-trump-tweet

A long-delayed effort to let motorists cross the railroad tracks separating Park Boulevard from Harbor Drive just south of downtown San Diego’s Petco Park stadium will be fully funded thanks to the state of California, which is directing $21 million to the project. Friday, State Sen. Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) announced the major financial commitment to the Park Boulevard at-grade vehicle crossing project alongside other one-time budgetary allocations for the region, including nearly $9 million for Balboa Park projects and $6.1 million to help stabilize Del Mar bluffs. The bonus checks are included in the state’s $214.8 billion budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1, which was passed by the California Legislature last week and includes a $21.5 billion surplus. The state’s $21 million infrastructure investment represents a tangible path forward for the $23 million railroad crossing project that has become exponentially more expensive over time.

In California, there’s a way parents can use money from the government to buy multi-day Disneyland Park Hopper passes, San Diego Zoo family memberships, tickets to Medieval Times and dolphin encounters at SeaWorld. Parents can enroll their children in a “home school charter.” There are a handful of charter schools that give students’ families as much as $2,800 to $3,200 — tax dollars sent to the charter schools — every year to spend on anything they want from a list of thousands of home school vendors approved by the charters, according to the schools’ websites. Some home school vendors offer tutoring, curriculum, books and other traditionally educational services. Other vendors sell tickets to theme parks that are billed as field trips, or extracurricular activities that are billed as P.E., including parkour classes, acting classes, ice skating lessons, horseback riding lessons and more. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/story/2019-06-15/home-school-charters-let-families-use-state-dollars-t

San Diego State University failed to award $20 million in available scholarships over the past decade due to a variety of problems, preventing money from flowing to thousands of students who were trying to cope with rising education costs. Campus officials said SDSU has been hobbled by an outdated scholarship management system that can make it difficult for students to find and apply for the awards. The university also says it needs to convince more donors to make their scholarships open to a larger number of students. Since 2008, SDSU allotted slightly more than $63 million for scholarships and made roughly 24,000 awards, helping about 18,700 students. But university documents show that only $42.9 million — or 68 percent — of the money was spent. Full story: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/story/2019-06-10/sdsu-on

Years of cavalier spending of her husband’s political contributions culminated in a guilty plea Thursday for Margaret Hunter, the wife of Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter who was co-indicted last year in a sweeping campaign-finance investigation. During a change-of-plea hearing in the federal courthouse in San Diego, Margaret Hunter formally admitted that she illegally used thousands of dollars in campaign donations for her personal expenses. Specifically, Margaret Hunter pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy. She faces up to five years in federal custody and a $250,000 fine when she is sentenced Sept. 1. She also could receive up to three years of supervised probation following her release from prison.

There may be new life for the nearly 100-year-old California Theatre on C Street. Preservationists have struck a deal with a developer that intends to construct a multi-million dollar 41-story condominium tower on the site of the historic theater. The compromise will preserve more of the building’s exterior and lobby, as well as use original ornamentation. A dispute between preservation group Save Our Heritage Organisation, or SOHO, and the developer halted the demolition in March 2018. The new plan still calls for tearing down the heavily dilapidated building, but more of its exterior will be saved and a stronger effort will be made to faithfully reconstruct the building. The California Theatre, made up of a 2,200-seat theater and nine-story office building, closed in 1990.

A Vista judge declared a mistrial on eight counts in the case of ex-NFL player Kellen Winslow II, who was accused of committing several sex crimes against women in North County last year, including rape. Although the Superior Court jury was split, it leaned in favor of convicting Winslow on all remaining charges. The District Attorney’s Office likely will announce Friday whether they plan to retry Winslow on any or all of the deadlocked charges.

The war crimes charges against a San Diego-based Navy SEAL will stand, a Navy judge ruled Friday. However, the SEAL and his defense team will benefit from other decisions the judge made. Chief Special Warfare Operator Edward R. Gallagher is facing charges that he killed a wounded teenage ISIS fighter brought to the SEAL's Mosul, Iraq compound for medical treatment in 2017. Gallagher also is accused of shooting at civilians, posing for photos with a corpse, and holding his reenlistment ceremony next to the body, according to court documents and prosecutor statements. Gallagher has denied all the charges and pleaded not guilty. On Thursday the judge, Navy Capt. Aaron Rugh, moved Gallagher's trial date from June 10 to June 17 at defense lawyers’ request. Rugh's ruling Friday contained details about how the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and former lead prosecutor, Cmdr. Chris Czaplak, sent emails containing a hidden tracking link to defense attorneys and a Navy Times reporter in May. The link allowed them

From 2014 through 2018, violent crime has doubled — or more — in about 17 percent of all census block groups in the city. That’s an increase from the previous five-year period examined in the first “Crime Counts” story published in March, which showed 13 percent of census block groups had violent crime go up by 100 percent or more from 2013 to 2017. The updated analysis includes data from 2018, and shows the average number of violent crimes among city census blocks was 27. The San Diego Union-Tribune examined neighborhoods with violent crimes at or above that average and calculated a percent change from 2014 through 2018 to focus on areas with a sharp increase or a large raw number of crimes. Story: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/public-safety/story/2019-06-05/more-city-neighborhoods-see-increase-in-violent-crimes-new-data-analysis-shows