Morning Report: Teach for America’s Successes
On top of the other talent shortages we hear about — family practice doctors, nurses — add teachers to the list. Not as many young people want to be teachers, raising the prospect of trouble as veteran educators retire and districts start to actually hire again.
In San Diego, the district is getting help from the Teach for America organization. VOSD reporter Mario Koran digs into its record and reports on three ways it’s helping: It’s recruited a diverse, local teaching corps, it has found people to teach in high-need areas, and it’s instituted support systems for young teachers.
City Subsidies: It’s Money for Something
The city is getting mighty cozy with some companies that it wants to come here or stick around. How does it make subsidy deals work? VOSD reporter Lisa Halverstadt takes a look and finds that the city essentially says “You’ve gotta give us something before you get something.”
“In a handful of cases, companies that have signed deals with the city in the past haven’t reaped all the money they were promised because they didn’t live up to what they pledged,” Halverstadt writes.
DeMaio Concedes
Carl DeMaio conceded on Sunday to Rep. Scott Peters in the most exciting congressional race we’ve seen around here in quite some time. “I remain committed,” he told the Associated Press, “to challenging the Republican Party to become more inclusive and more positive in its efforts to build a governing majority.”
• Nobody’s been looking good as more and more revelations came out Friday about the aftermath of the still-mysterious vandalism and burglary at DeMaio’s campaign office. KPBS follows up with Rep. Scott Peters, who himself seemed confused at best and complicit at worst in the business regarding campaign materials — perhaps including a now-notorious “playbook” — that made its way to the Peters campaign.
Peters tells KPBS that he “messed up the timeline” when confronted about the playbook during a debate with DeMaio.
• There was quite a bit of chatter. DeMaio seemed to blame journalists for his loss and the allegations against him. His partner, Johnathan Hale, agreed. Analyst Vince Vasquez wasn’t having it. He called that take “sour grapes” as Peters’ victory was decisive and voters likely had a lot of other things on their minds.
• The U-T’s John Wilkens tried to figure out what’s next for DeMaio, who probably really loved seeing Donna Frye’s thoughts in the piece. Peters tells the U-T that his moderate stances and willingness to criticize Barack Obama on occasion made him appealing to Republicans and helped him win.
But Peters certainly didn’t pull very far from the president, at least not enough for many voters to notice. And he even brought Vice President Biden in to rally the troops over the last weekend of the campaign.
• Click here for our site’s most-read stories, led by DeMaio/Peters race news.
Sea Lions Die of Gunshots
Local sea lions are turning up with gunshot wounds — eight of them in the past year, including 6 in the past 2 months, the U-T reports. All had to be put to death due to their injuries.
It’s not clear if fishermen or beachgoers or both are at fault.
Quick News Hits
• The two candidates for mayor in Imperial Beach both have 1,928 votes. There’s only one more day of counting likely. So what happens if they end up in a tie. SD Rostra looked up the code.
“The county retirement board has made an informal decision to end its five-year experiment with a Texas portfolio strategist and return oversight of the $10 billion pension fund to an in-house expert.” (U-T)
• “The arrest… of a suspect in the 2010 slaying of the McStay family has sparked criticism from a relative who said the initial investigation was poorly handled,” the LA Times reports. “I knew they screwed things up,” the father of Joseph McStay told a TV station. “All the rest was just sugarcoating to make it look like they really were interested in solving, doing something. They did virtually nothing.”
The U-T takes a deep look at the bizarre case, noting that the suspect who’s now under arrest has been a “polarizing” figure with defenders among some family members but detractors among the “armchair detectives” in the public at large.
• In a commentary tied to the recentsuicide of a local Marine, the managing editor of Foreign Policy magazine writes in the Washington Post about “five myths about military suicides. Among the revelations: Suicides aren’t rising because of overstretched troops.
• Oops, Darrell Issa.
• A Boston Globe movie writer ponders the links between real-life panic and panic in movies like “Outbreak” and “Contagion” and ties it all to Ebola: “it will take only one new case popping up in, say, San Diego or Peoria for the fear machine to whip back into gear, prompted simply by our inability to predict outcomes.” Hey! What’d we do to deserve this kind of mention? Stop that!
• We can all look forward to seeing an Ocean Beach Community Plan float at the upcoming OB Holiday Parade, OB Rag reports.
Yes, a float in favor of a community blueprint. Sounds festive! Does bureaucratic red tape get a float too? Hey, OB! That’s not a nice thing to say about what I should do with my red tape.
Randy Dotinga is a freelance contributor to Voice of San Diego and president of the American Society of Journalists and Authors. Please contact him directly at randydotinga@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/rdotinga.
Voice of San Diego is a nonprofit that depends on you, our readers. Please donate to keep the service strong. Click here to find out more about our supporters and how we operate independently.