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There's a leadership vacuum in San Diego, something that was made painfully clear this week when absolutely nothing was decided after a 10-hour City Council meeting Tuesday that was supposed to provide clarity – finally – on vacation rentals. Hundreds of people showed up to voice their support or concerns about vacation rental regulations in San Diego. Almost everyone expected something to happen at the meeting. But in the most San Diego move ever, the City Council punted the issue yet again, leading Councilman Chris Cate to release a scorching statement afterward that read in part, "We cannot govern." On this week's podcast, hosts Sara Libby and Andrew Keatts discuss Tuesday's epic vacation rental regulation failure. "Was that the most San Diego thing to ever San Diego?" Libby asked.    "It was incredibly San Diego," Keatts said. The hosts also talk about the implications the Lilac Fire should have on elected leaders' decisions about whether to allow developers to build right at the so-called wildland-urban interface, where fire danger is highest. Ellen Montanari joins Libby and Keatts in the second half of this week's show to talk about how the election of President Donald Trump turned her into an activist. Montanari has focused her attention on unseating Republican Rep. Darrell Issa from the 49th Congressional District. She has been organizing weekly rallies outside the congressman's Vista office since last year. "The momentum is still going," she said. "I never would have expected this many months into the year that people would still be out in front of his office. But they are." Hero of the Week We're giving the nod this week to the new women who have come forward to talk about their experiences of unwanted touching by a now-retired teacher at La Jolla High School. Goat of the Week Customs and Border Protection gets the goat this week. The Union-Tribune is out with a story about a whacky $297 million hiring contract with a private company. The terms of the agreement are such that the federal agency will pay about $40,000 per new agent hired.

When Josue "Josh" Anival Salcido entered his first professional wrestling ring in 2009, it was as a last-minute fill-in for a few performers who didn't show up. His twin brother Jaime Salcido was by his side, and they tag-teamed in a Lucha Libre...

Sue Hopkins lives in a part of Clairemont that's filled with vacation rentals. She said raucous weekend weddings, late-night conversations and the sound of roller suitcases on the sidewalks outside her home are persistent nuisances. But before the City Council votes Tuesday on how to regulate the short-term vacation rental industry in San Diego, she said city leaders need more data. "Why has the City Council just not spent any time or energy?" she asked. "I mean, at best it's overwork or laziness, if I'm going to be charitable. And at worst, it's willful ignorance of the facts." On this week's podcast, Hopkins joined host Scott Lewis for a roundtable discussion about vacation rentals. Also in the studio were John Anderson and Belinda Smith, founders of the Short Term Rental Alliance, which advocates for homeowners' rights, and Tom Coat, founder of a new group advocating for clear regulations on home-sharing called Neighborhoods for Residents. Voice of San Diego this week published a new analysis by Host Compliance, a San Francisco-based company that’s provided rental data to dozens of other cities, and finally pinned down the elusive number of vacation rentals in the city. According to the data, there are nearly 9,000 whole-home rentals in the city. That number represents a tiny percentage of the city’s overall housing inventory, but Hopkins said city leaders need to look closely at the data and consider other numbers, too – like the region's low vacancy rate, or the small number of rental properties available. She said other cities with similar housing crunches have instituted outright bans or severe regulations on short-term vacation rentals. Smith said she agrees that the City Council should work harder to collect more information, but that strict regulations that infringe on personal property rights are not the answer. "Home ownership is the American dream," she said. "And me being able to do what I want with my home is a big part of my happiness – my prosperity, my life – and I get concerned when people start trying to draw that line and deciding for me what's OK what isn't." Also on the podcast, Myrtle Cole was re-elected City Council president this week, and Lewis, Sara Libby and Andrew Keatts dig into the politics behind the decision. The City Council president sets the meeting agendas and appoints Council members to sit on various committees. It could be an extremely powerful post, but Cole has yet to wield her power in a noticeable way. And San Diego's hepatitis A crisis continues to make its way into national headlines. Lewis, Libby and Keatts talk about how writers outside the city can't help focusing on the perception of San Diego as "America's Finest City," or a shiny tourist destination filled with fish tacos and no grit. We got grit, folks. Hero of the Week When we recorded this week's podcast, Shohei Ohtani, baseball's most sought-after free agent, had so far not said no to playing for the Padres. For that, he was our hero. Sadly, though, he did not end up picking the Padres. Goat of the Week The city of San Diego's sidewalk policy gets the goat this week. The policy makes property owners responsible for sidewalk repairs, but puts the liability for folks injured by tripping on damaged sidewalks on the city. The problem with the policy came into full focus this week when the city awarded $85,000 to a former San Diego mayor's wife in a lawsuit over a sidewalk fall that ruptured her breast implants.

Back in the late 1970s, musical theater was growing rapidly from coast to coast. Semi-professional actors looking for a chance to perform on stage had several opportunities. But kids? Not so much. On a new episode of , Voice of San...

East Village is exploding with growth. Dozens of projects are planned or under construction in the neighborhood just east of downtown, some of which are part of an area dubbed the IDEA District – envisioned as a home for innovation, design, education and the arts. Conceived by David Malmuth and Pete Garcia six years ago, the IDEA District has long been just an idea. But this week, the developers celebrated the grand opening of IDEA1, their new development on the corner of F and 13th streets. It's the first new mixed-use apartment project built in the IDEA District since the concept was dreamed up. On this week's podcast, hosts Andrew Keatts, Scott Lewis and Sara Libby talk to Garcia and Malmuth about their vision for the IDEA District, its growth so far and some of the challenges that stand in its way. One big hurdle is the fact that the IDEA District isn't an official city initiative. None of the principles in the plan are codified anywhere in city code, and there aren't any subsidies or other city perks offered to developers who do build projects that fit the IDEA District concept. Malmuth and Garcia said it will be harder to successfully continue building out the IDEA District without the government tools that come with city-sanctioned programs, but it's not impossible. "It is what it is," Garcia said. "You either whine and complain about the fact there there's no subsidies and you don't do anything, or you go out and do it with a lot of tenacity and hardheadedness." Also on the podcast, Libby, Lewis and Keatts discuss San Diego State University's new plans for the stadium land in Mission Valley, they explain confusion over unsigned newspaper editorials and more. Hero of the Week Our hero this week is state Assemblywoman Marie Waldron. At a hearing this week, Waldron raised good questions about the California Legislature's handling of sexual harassment cases. Goat of the Week San Diego Unified gets goatted yet again this week. The district has 100 special education aide vacancies, which has led some parents to keep their kids from school out of fear of what may happen to their child without the needed supervision aides provide.

Our country is experiencing a moment of reckoning. The sheer number of sexual harassment and abuse allegations now coming to light would be astonishing if it wasn't for that fact that, at least for many women, the bad behavior has long been an open secret. Locally, the rising wave of victims feeling emboldened to tell their stories helped Voice of San Diego reporter Ashly McGlone uncover a sexual harassment story she's been trying to nail down for years. Four women who attended La Jolla High School between 2002 and 2013 shared their stories with McGlone. They said they were groped or touched inappropriately by Martin Teachworth, a longtime physics teacher at the school who retired earlier this year. On this week's podcast, McGlone sits down with VOSD's Scott Lewis to talk about how the story came together, how the school's handling of the sexual harassment accusations failed the women who came forward and the impact the story has had so far. "There's a lot of reflection going on," McGlone said. "It is getting shared within the La Jolla community, especially [among] the graduates there, and there's not a ton of surprise. People have described it as sort of an open secret." Loxie Gant, one of four women who says Teachworth harassed her, also joined the podcast to talk about her experience, and why she wanted to get the story out now. Gant recently became a mom herself, and said it pushed her to reach out to McGlone. "We're faced with the idea of buying a house in that neighborhood and sending our child to that school," Gant said. "It hit me really hard that there's a lot of parents that aren't aware, and they're trusting the school district and the La Jolla High school system in order to protect their kids, and there's something wrong. There's just something missing here." Also on the podcast, Lewis, Sara Libby and Andrew Keatts discuss the wave of sexual harassment stories in the news, including a new accusation against former Mayor Bob Filner. The trio also breaks down a scathing ruling against activist Mark Arabo. A San Diego Superior Court judge ruled this week that Arabo accrued improper compensation when he ran a trade group of independent corner stores called the Neighborhood Market Association. The judge questioned the credibility of Arabo and many of the witnesses called to testify on his behalf, and ordered Arabo to repay the association $248,000. Hero of the Week The heroes this week are the former La Jolla High School students who talked to Voice of San Diego about the sexual harassment they experienced. Goat of the Week The Public Utilities Commission gets the goat this week. KPBS reported that court documents show that the commission "used public money to try to block search warrants in an ongoing investigation into possible collusion with Southern California Edison over the premature closure of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station."

The winds could be shifting when it comes to the district attorney's hardline stance on pot. The DA’s office has long come down hard on the cannabis industry. One case filed against medical-marijuana entrepreneur James Slatic got national attention for being so tough. Slatic and his business partners were charged with a slate of felonies, including money laundering and obstruction of justice, and the DA also charged Slatic's lawyer, Jessica McElfresh, with crimes, which sent shock waves through the legal community. This week, though, the DA's office ended its two-year battle with Slatic, who ended up pleading guilty to just two misdemeanors. A statement from DA spokeswoman Tanya Sierra to the Union-Tribune suggests the district attorney's attitude toward pot has changed. “This settlement takes into account the changing focus of the new district attorney administration, which allows companies to apply for a state license to legally sell marijuana,” Sierra said. Also on the podcast, hosts Sara Libby, Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts round up the latest news in politics, including City Councilman David Alvarez's decision to run for the race for San Diego Community College District Board of Trustees and the rift between local labor unions and the county’s Democratic Party. Plus, Bardis Vakili, a senior staff attorney for the local American Civil Liberties Union chapter, stops by to discuss some of the biggest cases and civil rights issues impacting San Diego, including a police watchdog group's recent dismissal of 22 death cases, SDPD's handling of juvenile DNA and how immigrants are treated inside local detention centers. Hero of the Week This week's hero goes to San Diego County for its focus on curtailing elder abuse. The Minneapolis Star Tribune wrote an in-depth story that hails San Diego's approach as a model for how the rest of the country should go after those who target the elderly. Goat of the Week San Diego County Supervisor Bill Horn gets goatted this week. After our Lisa Halverstadt fact checked whether the county has more than $100 million in mental health funds sitting in the bank (it does), Horn went on a long tirade against reporters — decrying their typewriters and insisting they'll go away soon enough. Horn himself will be gone soon enough, as his term limit is up.

Jennifer Luce has made a name as an architect who takes an artful approach to designing buildings. Her firm, Luce et Studio, designed the  in La Jolla, in Little Italy and dozens of other award-winning projects in San Diego and beyond. On a new...

San Diego has thrown its hat in the ring to become Amazon's second home. Last month, more than 200 cities in the country submitted proposals to host Amazon's second headquarters, where the company plans to create 50,000 jobs and invest $5 billion. San Diego offered multiple options – including Mission Valley, downtown and Chula Vista — and highlighted the region's diverse community and proximity to the U.S-Mexico border. The city of Chula Vista even threw in a $400 million incentive package to sweeten the deal. On this week's podcast, hosts Andrew Keatts, Scott Lewis and Sara Libby demystify the Amazon bidding war by talking to Mark Cafferty, CEO of the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation, the nonprofit that took the lead on putting together the proposal. Cafferty discussed what goes into a proposal like this, San Diego's strengths that got touted in the pitch (we've got an educated workforce and California is nice and sunny) and the region's admitted weaknesses, like our mediocre transit system and a high cost of living. Cafferty also said winning the bidding war and having Amazon open in San Diego would be good, but that it could come with some major strings attached. “Whoever gets this is going to have to be putting in decades worth of urban planning around it," he said. "How would you accommodate 50,000 people, and how would you build a much better, if not a world-class transit system?" Also on the podcast, Libby, Lewis and Keatts talk about how some local families are spending $500 a year or more on San Diego Unified school bus fees. And if they don't pay, the district refers them to a collection agency. Hero of the Week Our hero this week is Pat Finn. After years working at KPBS and organizing the public radio station's Roundtable news segment, Finn is leaving her full-time gig, but will still do some freelance work. Goat of the Week El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells gets the goat this week after claiming that nearly all homelessness is linked to drug or alcohol abuse. We fact checked his statement and found it false.

Back in 2001, the internet was a weird and wonderful place. It was devoid of the much of the online entertainment and noise of today. It was a place where a couple of Santee kids could do silly but entertaining things like bring the video game Tetris...