It's been a rough week for Rep. Duncan Hunter. Hunter and his wife are free on bond after they were arraigned on charges related to accusations they . The went into excruciating detail on Hunter's finances, including spending thousands of dollars on . In response, the congressmen accused the Justice Department of being politically motivated against him and President Donald Trump, who is also currently under investigation. Meanwhile, national news outlets have on Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar, who is running against Hunter for California's 50th District congressional seat. But even though the recent developments certainly don't help Hunter's race, it is still hard say how things will turn out. In this week's podcast, Sara Libby and Andrew Keatts discuss Hunter's chaotic week and explain how the indictment impacts his re-election campaign. "It does seem like there has been a relative lack of context around just how conservative this district is," said Keatts. "And that even following this indictment, this is not close to a toss-up seat." Hero of the Week Our hero this week goes out to Padres Twitter, a group fans of the San Diego's baseball team, who demanded that the team stop welcoming to Padres events. The team agreed as a result of the fans' efforts. Goat of the Week State Sen. Joel Anderson, who represents the Alpine area, gets goatted this week. Anderson is facing a Senate committee investigation after . The state senator didn't deny the incident, but in an apology statement called the whole thing a "misunderstanding." Call Voice of San Diego at 619-354-1085 and leave a message with your comment or question. We may end up using your voicemail in a future show.

San Diego is shifting. Historically, the region had been a Republican stronghold. But over the last decade, the county's demographics and politics have changed, . Sometimes, the shift has been powered by organic population growth, but other times the change has been engineered through changes in the way local leaders get elected. In this week's podcast, Andrew Keatts, Sara Libby and Scott Lewis explain recent election reform efforts at both the city and county levels. In 2016, the Democrats pushed and city voters approved  that changed city elections. Citywide races used to end after a primary if a candidate got more than 50 percent of the vote. Now all candidates have to go to a runoff in November. More people vote in general elections than primaries, and many of those people are Dems. Now it's the county's turn. But the process in getting a reform measure on the ballot has been far more dramatic. Lewis, Libby and Keatts walk through the series of complex legislative and legal fights that have led to an election reform measure on the November ballot that would boost Democrats’ chances of winning county races. Also on the podcast: the First Amendment is good, but the  by hundreds of editorial boards at newspapers across the country to denounce President Donald Trump's attacks on the media was not that good. Hero of the Week Eduardo Luna is the hero. The San Diego city auditor tendered his resignation this week, saying he would be , according to the U-T. The independent auditor position was created in the wake of a financial crisis and, over the years, Luna has uncovered several problems with city programs and services, including exposing weaknesses in the development system that could have allowed employees to commit fraud without being detected, finding that architects who shouldn’t have qualified for a program that fast-tracks development projects but  and more. Goat of the Week CBS 8 and reporter David Gotfredson get the goat. Gotfredson ran a one-sided story featuring an who talked to CBS 8 about what happened with Earl McNeil, a man who died after an encounter with National City Police. When the story originally ran, it didn't include Gotfredson's byline and was instead filed under an "Unknown Reporter," a moniker the stationwas toying with rolling out as a recurring feature. Not holding reporters accountable for their work is not a good idea, which CBS 8 has since acknowledged. Call Voice of San Diego at 619-354-1085 and leave a message with your comment or question. We may end up using your voicemail in a future show.

The decade-long push to expand the Convention Center is dead. This week, Mayor Kevin Faulconer's top priority – a tax increase that would have funded an expanded Convention Center, homeless services and road repairs – morphed into the biggest failure of his tenure so far. On the podcast, Andrew Keatts, Sara Libby and Scott Lewis discuss the .

Scott Sherman is on fire. In a special podcast, the councilman talks about his frustration with a few of the recent decisions his colleagues have made. The new vacation rental regulations – Sherman said they are an infringement on property rights and possibly face a strong legal challenge. The lease extension between San Diego State University and the city for the Mission Valley stadium – Sherman said the City Council should have pushed for a better deal for taxpayers. Listen to more of what Sherman had to say here.

All former Mayor Jerry Sanders had to do was meet with labor unions before leading the effort to reform city employee pensions at the ballot box. He didn't. And now, six years later, the California Supreme Court . He had an obligation as the city’s top manager to first "meet and confer" with unions about the reforms before leading efforts to put a citizens’ initiative on the 2012 ballot. He wasn't required to do anything the unions suggested, but as the city's chief labor negotiator, he was supposed to at least hear what they had to say. On this week's podcast, Andrew Keatts, Sara Libby and Scott Lewis talk about the new pension ruling and the complex mess it leaves in its wake. Also on the podcast: the San Diego Airport Authority made a surprise move this week and  with Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez by joining a lawsuit filed by two rental car companies challenging the legality of a fee charged by the Port of San Diego to fund a new parking garage in Chula Vista, President Donald Trump's former press secretary Sean Spicer's weird  and more.   And don't miss this: In this week, Lewis interviewed Mayor Kevin Faulconer about the vacation rental crackdown, homelessness and other big issues. (That interview happened before the big pension ruling, so Faulconer escaped any questioning on it.) Hero of the Week California State Parks is the hero. Lewis has been doing a lot of complaining on the podcast and elsewhere about . The online system launched last summer and was introduced as a way to make booking campsites at California State Parks much easier. Lewis had some issues with the new system, so he . The state organization has responded to the criticism by making some changes to the reservation process. Goat of the Week This one goes to National City Councilman Jerry Cano. The Union-Tribune editorial board is after Cano indicated to investigators that he fabricated sexual harassment allegations against his colleague, Councilwoman Mona Rios. Cano's accusation of inappropriate touching by Rios came soon after the councilwoman called for an independent investigation into code enforcement issues at Cano’s home. Call Voice of San Diego at 619-354-1085 and leave a message with your comment or question. We may end up using your voicemail in a future show.

Mayor Kevin Faulconer joined Voice of San Diego's Scott Lewis in a special episode of the VOSD Podcast to talk about how the new vacation rental regulations will play out, and other big issues.

Union-Tribune reporter Morgan Cook joins hosts Andrew Keatts and Sara Libby to talk about a disturbing case of sexual abuse inside the county's foster care system. Also on the podcast: about a hotel pool being open to the public, and of omitting from court docs whether a defendant being charged with entering the country illegally has actually asked for asylum.

Chaos in San Diego courts caused by the Trump administration's immigration policies. A dramatic shift in who can rent out homes to vacationers. A potential 2020 ballot measure to raise sales taxes for transit. Plus: lead in school water and doing away with stamps on mail-in ballots. This week, we tackled all those topics and more, and we did it in front of a packed house at the Whistle Stop Bar in South Park. Hosts Andrew Keatts, Scott Lewis and Sara Libby were joined by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez and Mark Cafferty, CEO of the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation, in a special live edition of the podcast. Gonzalez, whose bill requiring mail ballots to come with pre-paid postage was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown the day of the podcast taping, made a bit of news by in 2022. She also had some fiery commentary on Mayor Kevin Faulconer's tenure, and why she to the Democratic Party in hopes of boosting her husband Nathan Fletcher's bid for county supervisor. Cafferty talked about the role transportation, education and the border play in San Diego's economy. He said crucial to ensuring the region's economic growth is building a better public transit system, getting more people to care about the quality of public education and embracing San Diego's proximity to Mexico as an asset. A few audience members even make a cameo in Not San Diego, a news quiz in which the podcast panel asked people to identify the statements that are not true about San Diego and California politics right now. True: There is a state ballot measure cleared for signature-gathering that would make California its own country. (This is different from the Three Californias measure that got tossed this week.) Fake: San Diego is considering a subway system. (It is, however, contemplating an old-timey streetcar near the beaches.) Call Voice of San Diego at 619-354-1085 and leave a message with your comment or question. We may end up using your voicemail in a future show.

Beginning last summer, hundreds of water customers started seeing unexpected spikes in their water bills. Many of them contacted the city and media outlets to complain. How the city's water department has responded to those customers' concerns, and what might be behind those unusually big bills is the subject of . On this week's podcast, Voice of San Diego's Ry Rivard joins hosts Andrew Keatts, Sara Libby and Scott Lewis to talk about what he learned through an analysis of water department billing records and a look at the new smart water meters the city is using. While the cause of many of the water bill spikes still remains murky, what's become clear is that the city water department has  and resisted public records requests and transparency, especially when it comes to the smart meter program. The San Diego water department's handling of the issues stands in stark contrast to how Padre Dam Municipal Water District, which serves some East County communities, has dealt with problems with its smart meters. "In remarkable contrast to the opacity of the city [of San Diego's] water department, when we called them and said, 'Hey, looks like you've been having problems with these smart meters,' the general manager there said, 'Yeah, we can talk to you about it,'" Rivard said. Audits of the water department are currently underway. Also on the podcast: Monica Montgomery's , the symbiotic  and Lewis' fleeting . Hero of the Week Barry Jameson is our hero this week. Jameson, an inmate at Richard J. Donovan State Prison when he first filed a civil suit 16 years ago, will finally get his day in court. As reported by the Union-Tribune's Greg Moran, the state Supreme Court by saying poor litigants can't be forced to pay for their own court reporters. Goat of the Week The San Dieguito High School District is the goat. The school district is , and, amid the financial struggles, officials there are also dealing with transparency issues.

SANDAG meetings have been . San Marcos Mayor Jim Desmond, who sits on the transportation agency's board, talks to VOSD's Andrew Keatts about the issues fueling the flames. Historically, the regional transportation agency's board meetings have been mostly drama-free. But then , and along with other reforms, SANDAG board members can now call for a vote weighted by population, which gives the representatives from the two biggest cities in the county the power to overrule decisions. Desmond doesn't like that change. "Smaller cities lost their voice," he said. "Due to the new weighted vote, the city of Chula Vista and the city of San Diego have the full reign of the decision-making at this point in time. And it's frustrating." Desmond, who's also running for the District 5 county supervisor seat, also talks about successful affordable housing efforts in San Marcos and explains why he's opposed to  through eminent domain. Also on the podcast: Sara Libby discusses the bills by local lawmakers that she's keeping an eye on as they move through the Legislature; Keatts and Libby weigh in on Mayor Kevin Faulconer's ; and they talk through the races that are piquing their interest in the November election. Hero of the Week Wendi Winters is our hero. Winters was one of  in a recent shooting. The longtime journalist , possibly saving others. Goat of the Week The San Diego Unified School District is the goat, again. During last year's budget crisis, district leaders said would save the district money. Now the school district is , but district officials say they won't ever be able to produce the numbers that actually show whether the retirement incentives delivered on that promise. Call Voice of San Diego at 619-354-1085 and leave a message with your comment or question. We may end up using your voicemail in a future show.