An Encinitas-based company that connects marijuana companies with workers got media attention recently when it posted an advertisement for a “420 product tester.” The stories practically wrote themselves, revolving around the same theme: Get paid to smoke pot. But the legal industry is much bigger than that. Local recruiters are also looking for marketers, purchasing directors and, of course, budtenders, the people who walk the floors of dispensaries answering questions about strains and potency and whatnot. With these and other job skills in mind, Christine Fallon has created a course at the San Diego Community College District’s Cesar Chavez campus. It’s broken into three sessions that cover horticulture, pharmacology and the law, with an emphasis on the permitting process. Fallon hopes to expand on these lessons and turn the course into a certification program, giving marijuana workers a greater base of knowledge for things like pesticides. "It's the industry that needs to demand it," she told the Voice of San Diego Potcast. "It's us, it's the customers. We need to go into the dispensary and say, 'Hey, are you getting your buds tested?'" For the time being, Nathan Lou, a health and wellness consultant who teaches the session on horticulture, said the course provides a lot of information in a short period of time without overwhelming the audience. "After the class, we leave students with a very broad scope of understanding about how the field could work," he said. "But of course with more knowledge comes more awareness that you need to know more details out there.” Not all the jobs pay well. Some budtenders and deliverers are lucky to get $15 an hour. The same goes for some security guards. Marijuana is becoming a retail trade like any other, and whether it can sustain good careers — or devolve into the fast-food model — is still an open question. Morlan and I also talked about one of my recent stories. The California Bureau of Cannabis Control has sent cease-and-desist letters to at least 375 illegal operators of marijuana in the San Diego region in recent weeks, as part of a statewide crackdown. The city of San Diego has only 12 legal dispensaries. Those numbers suggest that the black market is doing just fine, and some local law enforcement is skeptical that bad actors are going to willingly leave the industry. Last week, District Attorney Summer Stephan suggested that pot wasn’t high on her list of priorities, especially if it meant fewer resources for murder or domestic violence or child abuse cases.

The number of prescription drug and other opioid-related deaths in San Diego County are on the rise. Human trafficking has long been a problem in San Diego. Those are two of the big issues that have the attention of the district attorney’s office. In this week’s podcast, District Attorney Summer Stephan sat down for an in-depth interview with hosts Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts to talk about her priorities as the region’s top law enforcement official, and to answer a wide range of questions. Stephen, who’s running to keep her seat, talks about her approach to plea offers and who should benefit from them. She shares her thoughts on an impending endorsement from an influential reform-minded political action committee, discusses her distaste for partisan politics, shares her her ideas about keeping immigration enforcement separate from the work the DA does, explains her shift on marijuana enforcement efforts and more. And in the most detail she’s provided to the public yet, Stephan explained why she recused herself from the investigation of City Councilman Chris Cate for his disclosure of a confidential city attorney’s memo related to the SoccerCity proposal to redevelop the stadium site in Mission Valley. Stephan said while she felt her office could have conducted the investigation fairly, she passed it to the attorney general since there could have been a public perception of conflict for a few reasons. The biggest issue, she said, was that her campaign treasurer April Boling has been an outspoken proponent of the SoccerCity proposal. “I look at it as are people going to have confidence in this decision,” Stephan said. “Are they going to have trust? Are they going to think about it? And that’s one of the things that I considered in addition to talking with the attorney general’s office. And I think we both reached the conclusion that that was the right decision.” Also on the podcast, Lewis and Keatts talk about the difference between bikes and homeless people. If homeless people block public sidewalks with their stuff, they can get ticketed by police officers. But the fleets of shareable bikes being left in the public right-of-way don’t suffer the same fate. A recent report by VOSD’s Lisa Halverstadt brings up a valid question: What is the legally defensible distinction between bikes and homeless people? If officers are giving encroachment citations to homelessness people, shouldn’t the bike owners be ticketed, too? And a quote in Lewis and Keatts’ Politics Report by former Navy SEAL Josh Butner, a Democrat running to represent California’s 50th District, caused quite a stir. In it, Butner said military service should be a prerequisite for running for political office. A U-T reporter picked up on the comment and ran a story. Other journos followed suit. Hero of the Week Michael Turko is retiring. He’s our hero this week. After 20 years at KUSI, where he became known as a reporter who stood up for the little guy and investigated cases in which San Diegans felt they’ve been wronged, Turko announced his retirement this week.  Check out this interview we did with Turko on the podcast. Goat of the Week The local cities that can hardly wait to delete their records are the goat this week. California law requires cities to keep emails for a minimum of two years, but half of the cities in San Diego County delete most of their emails from city servers in much less time. That ain’t right.

Talk about an epic clash of worldviews. When President Donald Trump came to San Diego to kick the tires of the border wall prototypes, he used the opportunity to trash California. "The place is totally out of control," he said. "You have sanctuary cities, where you have criminals living in the sanctuary cities." The thing is: San Diego is really safe. Last year, crime rates were the lowest they've been in 49 years. Trump's comments turned hosts Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts into San Diego boosters this week. In the podcast, they put aside their usual criticisms of the region and its issues and instead talked about how things are pretty good here. Also in the show, Lewis and Keatts discuss the conflicts and nuances between federal immigration policies and California's SB 54, which limited the ways local law enforcement can interact with federal immigration officials. And they talk about the big power shifts happening with local labor unions. Also, how about that solid Politics Report open rate, eh? People are really digging Lewis and Keatts' new Sunday email newsletter. Fighting for District 8's Fair Share Antonio Martinez wants to replace Councilman David Alvarez in representing Barrio Logan, San Ysidro and the rest of District 8. In the second half of the show, Martinez joined Lewis and Keatts to talk about why he's running. He complained that San Ysidro, his neighborhood, is disconnected from the city. He said people in there, and in other parts of the district, deserve more services and better representation. "I really want to make sure we get our fair share," he said. "District 8 has been short-changed by the city of San Diego, historically." Hero of the Week San Marcos Unified School District is the hero this week. Most of the time, we fight government agencies for public records, but this time we're fighting alongside San Marcos Unified School District for public records related to sexual harassment and misconduct complaints. Some school districts and their attorneys want the records to remain private. They argue the identity of employees reprimanded for wrongdoing should remain secret, but San Marcos Unified said the records should be disclosed. Goat of the Week This is a little wonky, but the goat this week is the San Diego Unified school board elections. Two trustees in the upcoming election are running unopposed. The system is set up to discourage people from running for the school board. Reform is needed.

They work in an all-cash business and get taxed multiple times on the same dollar. Most are forced into the parts of town where the adult-entertainment shops go. The products on their shelves remain illegal under federal law. Given the incredible risk and cost, why would anyone operate a marijuana dispensary in San Diego? On our second episode of the Voice of San Diego Potcast, Kinsee Morlan and I consider the difficulty of steering an industry that still has one oar in the prohibitionist era. The podcast is a semi-regular endeavor, and its goal is to make marijuana culture and politics accessible to the average citizen. Before opening storefronts in Kearny Mesa and Mission Valley, Rocky Goyal worked in commercial real estate. He said he discovered the medicinal qualities of marijuana after his mom got sick. Alex Scherer also worked in real estate and began looking for his next endeavor after the market crashed. He came to cannabis with a social justice perspective, founding the Southwest Patients Group in San Ysidro. “Cannabis has impacted communities of color disproportionately,” he said, “and now that it's legalized, I'm hoping to see a lot of relief for those communities. Overall, it's just an exciting thing to be a part of.” They see themselves both as businessmen and advocates — entrepreneurs with a sense of morality. Scherer also founded the United Medical Marijuana Coalition, a trade group that played a key role in writing San Diego’s regulations. Later in the show, we talked to our colleague Maya Srikrishnan about the implications of a growing market for California-grown marijuana in Mexico. Some wealthier residents of Tijuana, she recently wrote, cross the consume marijuana products in San Diego. Others are openly driving supplies through checkpoints and getting away with it, because Mexican border agents busy looking for green baggies and joints; they don’t know how to spot oils and edibles. Not all bud is making its way across the border illegally. A Poway-based company is permitted to sell CBD products — which are non-psychoactive — to Mexicans who have a doctor’s prescription. There’s now a push to legalize medical marijuana in parts of northern Mexico. When and if that happens is anyone’s guess, but the influence of Proposition 64 is undeniable. Send your suggestions, for future guests and questions, my way. Check out the first episode about independent delivery services.

San Diego Dems are gaining steam. Shifting demographics are driving the region further away from its traditional Republican roots. In this week's show, Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts talk about how Democratic leaders and labor unions are wielding their growing influence. Dems have used some of their momentum to push reform of several local government agencies – powerful institutions that have a big impact on regional planning, land use and governance. Keatts broke the news this week that Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher is proposing legislation to put the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority back under the Port of San Diego's umbrella. She says the move would make for a more cohesive approach to regional planning. Meanwhile, the Airport Authority's chairwoman says they're doing just fine. Reforming the Airport Authority is just the latest move by the Democratic leader. Gonzalez Fletcher also joined labor unions in the effort to revamp Civic San Diego, the downtown redevelopment agency that's now in the midst of a major overhaul, and she wrote the bill reforming SANDAG, the regional agency mired in scandal last year. And earlier this year, Democratic Councilwoman Georgette Gomez became the Metropolitan Transit System’s board chair, yet another example of Democrats ascending. Also on the podcast, Lewis and Keatts discuss how neither of the proposals to redevelop the Mission Valley stadium site include solid guarantees to voters, according to a new city attorney memo, and the co-hosts narrow down the list of local politicians who might want to greet President Donald Trump when he visits the border wall prototypes in Otay Mesa next week. Finally, The Kept Faith, a VOSD Podcast Network show, produced a hilarious parody episode, which we sample in the show. Hero of the Week The hero this week is Nathan Page. When a special education student was sexually assaulted by a classmate at Lincoln High, Page, a teacher there, pushed unsuccessfully for a more stringent response to the incident. The school's response tormented him and he's since died of an apparent suicide. Goat of the Week The San Dieguito High School Academy administration is the goat. After San Dieguito math teacher Donn Boyd was reprimanded last May for inappropriate behavior with students, he was allowed to finish out the school year and returned to the classroom for a new year in the fall.

Downtown redevelopment has survived scandals, the death of the state's tax-funded redevelopment program and strong opposition from labor unions and others who don't like how the city's redevelopment agency operates. Now a lawsuit alleging misconduct at Civic San Diego could be the thing that brings the downtown redevelopment agency down, or at least inspires major reform. On the podcast, Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts discuss the ongoing turmoil at Civic San Diego. None of the accusations against Civic San Diego have been proven, and Civic denies all of them. The agency is tasked with regulating private development downtown and in surrounding neighborhoods. Its mandate has been to get development deals done more quickly than city staffers. A lawsuit filed by Murtaza Baxamusa, a former Civic San Diego board member affiliated with the county’s largest construction workers union, has unearthed a collection of concerns from four current and former Civic San Diego employees. The accusations don't compare to the criminal behavior that plagued Civic San Diego's predecessors, but allegations over the agency's contracting process created enough tension at the agency that Civic president Reese Jarrett abruptly announced his retirement this week. Also on this week's show, VOSD invited Mayor Kevin Faulconer to roast us at a donor event last week and he delivered some brutal blows, including some slams at the podcast. And with President Trump on his way to San Diego to visit the border wall prototypes, Lewis and Keatts ask listeners to check out the Voice of San Diego Podcast Facebook group and join a discussion about which local politicians might join him.  Former Public Servant Runs for Public Office Ken Malbrough is a retired deputy fire chief who's running for a San Diego County Board of Supervisors seat. In the second half of the show, Malbrough talks to Lewis and Keatts about why he entered the race. "I'm in a community that needs changes," he said. "I don't think there's enough people at the table to help make those changes and I want to be there." If he wins, he said he'll push for more county participation in reducing the homeless population, building affordable housing and investing in disaster preparedness. Hero of the Week The hero this week is a Michael Rosenblatt, an artist who's leading an effort to fill Lincoln Park and other neighborhoods in southeastern San Diego with murals. Goat of the Week The Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute gets the goat for its experimental fish breeding that has failed to help restock the ocean with white seabass, according to a new report by an independent panel of scientists.

Hosts Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts consider the Democratic response to Rep. Darrell Issa's departure and talk to Fayaz Nawabi about his bid for the San Diego City Council.

Sam Humeid has seen many sides of the marijuana industry. He ran a medical dispensary in Los Angeles at a tumultuous time. He later relocated to North County, where he counseled patients and delivered product directly to their door. But on Jan. 1 — as the state’s regulatory system officially got off the ground — he was forced to stop operations. Cities across the region have either banned marijuana outlets or required that drivers work for licensed retail shops. In the meantime, Humeid has been lobbying local city councils as part of the San Diego Cannabis Delivery Alliance and educating its members about the patchwork of regulations. “Moving forward, it's not so much that we're looking to have pot-slingers running around the city,” he said. “It’s very much still a cannabis-therapy-practitioner kind of business, where independent retailers have their core group of 30, 50 or 100 patients that they know intimately.” He joined us for the launch of "Voice of San Diego Potcast," a new, semi-regular podcast series we're trying out that will work to demystify the world of marijuana culture and regulations and bring regular folks into the discussion. Kinsee Morlan and I also talked to Humeid about the prevalence of illegal shops, pending ordinances in the South Bay, the problem with an all-cash business model and more. At the end of the show, we also heard from our friend and photojournalist Vito Di Stefano, who scoured the internet for two interesting marijuana-related stories. A California winery is converting into a Wonka Factory for weed. And is North Korea really awash in marijuana, as some media outlets claim? It’s all part of an occasional segment in the show we’re calling “Puff Piece.” Send your suggestions, for guests and questions, my way.

Bonnie Dumanis' more than three decades of public service have earned her a hefty annual pension of $268,800. The former district attorney is now running for a County Board of Supervisors seat, and last month The San Diego-Union Tribune uncovered that she had hired a legal team to look into whether she could continue collecting her pension even if she wins a seat on the county Board of Supervisors, where she could earn a sizable salary as well. Dumanis' political consultant told the U-T that despite the inquiry, Dumanis never intended to accept a county supervisor salary. But records obtained by the U-T did not mention that she planned to decline her salary. Lawmakers had largely banned "double dipping" — simultaneously earning a public pension and a government salary — but the practice is back for most elected officials in California, thanks to laws passed quietly in two recent budget bills. On Wednesday, Dumanis held a meeting with reporters where she again said she will not accept a salary if elected. On this week's podcast, hosts Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts discuss Dumanis' strange explanation for why she didn't say she wouldn't collect a salary on top of her pension while her lawyers were fighting for her right to collect a salary on top of her pension. She said it's because her official campaign – which everyone thought was officially announced in September  – doesn't begin until March. "I have not announced formally yet," she told KUSI. "But I have always intended to not take the salary of a supervisor and just keep my pension, which I have earned after 35 years of service." Also on the podcast, Lewis is seething over ReserveCalifornia, California State Parks' new online system for reserving camping and lodging reservations. He says it's the worst. Pushing for a Different Kind of DA's Office Geneviéve Jones-Wright, a Democrat and public defender running for district attorney, joined the podcast this week to discuss her reform-minded campaign. She said the district attorney's office needs to shift from its tough-on-crime mindset and instead spend some resources on building community trust and preventing crime. "The district attorney's office should be looking at other ways to address public safety," she said. "I think that when you're constantly focusing on convictions, you don't have the right focus." Jones-Wright had harsh words for former Dumanis and the County Board of Supervisors. She called the way in which Dumanis stepped down and promoted a preferred replacement, whom the board appointed to the interim position, a corrupt succession plan. "This is a democracy," Jones-Wright said. "This is not a monarchy. We don't have a queen who sits on the throne and says you know what, this is the person that's going to succeed me, this is how this is going to happen." She also talks about her stance on the prosecutorial and prison reforms in initiatives like Prop. 57 and Prop. 47, her take on the death penalty and more. Hero of the Week This week's hero is the San Diego Unified School District, which this week reversed course and will no longer send debt collectors after parents who are late to pay their children’s school bus fees. A recent Voice of San Diego story revealed that in the 2014-2015 school year alone, the district referred 380 parents to a collections agency. Goat of the Week The city's water department gets goated for its initial dodging of responsibility for overblown water bills received by many residents, a problem the city later acknowledged was likely its fault.

Later, Tronc. This week, Los Angeles billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong bought The Los Angeles Times and The San Diego Union-Tribune from Tronc, a Chicago-based media publishing company that owns papers across the country. On a new episode of the Voice of San Diego Podcast, hosts Andrew Keatts and Lisa Halverstadt discuss what the paper's new owner might mean for San Diegans. The U-T has changed hands several times over the last decade. Each new owner has made big shifts at the paper, changes that were often most visible on the editorial pages, or with the investment in its staff and coverage areas. There seems to be a wave of cautious optimism washing over the city as Soon-Shiong takes the reins. So far, the billionaire has talked about the important role that strong, local journalism plays, and he's signaled that he intends to let the papers preserve their missions and independence. Also on the podcast, Halverstadt and Keatts talk about pot, and how the legalization of it is disrupting local government and playing a role in this year's top law enforcement races. Saldaña Push for a Progressive County Vision In the second half of the show, the hosts talk to Lori Saldaña, who's running for the San Diego County Board of Supervisors' Fourth District, about the issues motivating her. Saldaña talks about her change from an Independent to a registered Democrat after her outspoken criticism of the local Democratic Party's handling of the sexual harassment allegations against former Mayor Bob Filner. She also offers her take on the turmoil in the local organized labor movement surrounding sexual harassment allegations against Mickey Kasparian and gives her thoughts on affordable housing, homelessness, public health, the county's cannabis ban and more. She also addressed how she would handle being the lone progressive on the county board if she wins. She said she's confident she can get buy-in from the rest of the Republican supervisors on issues like clean energy and affordable housing. "What I intend to bring forward is not just policies that will be voted down by colleagues," she said. "I can find some common ground. Not a hundred percent of the time, but certainly on some issues that are important." Hero of the Week This week's hero is VOSD contributor and freelance journalist Kelly Davis and the attorneys at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton who represented her pro-bono after she was hit with a demand from the county to give up notes, interviews and recordings linked to a series of investigative stories about the stunning death toll in San Diego-area jails. Goat of the Week The city's water department gets the goat this week. Residents facing exorbitant water bills have recently inundated the city with complaints, and the city's handling of the issue has been lackluster at best.