vosdpodcastnetwork201707

You might not have any idea what the n does. I didn't.

That is, until we talked to Trish Boyd Williams, a member of the board.

Williams lives in San Diego and has a major role on the board and she explained it to me for the latest episode...

How much are signature-gatherers making in San Diego County? We got some audio of a recording with the full breakdown. Bottom line, it’s a lot. On the Voice of San Diego podcast this week, Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts explain why investing in signature-gathering firm might be a good idea now as a big ruling may make them even more in demand. Plus, Francine Busby, chair of the San Diego County Democratic Party, came into the studio and provided a window into how the big meeting went down this week with the party selecting its preferred candidates for the June election. She was surprisingly forthright as she explained the dynamics and also answered questions about why Democrats are not in control of major city of San Diego positions despite such a big advantage in registered voters. Hero of the Week Joe Austin, principal and dean at Hoover High School, who’s done a lot to create a positive learning atmosphere. Stay tuned for our interview with Austin on the April 7 episode of the Good Schools for All podcast. Goat of the Week Former San Diego Unified School Board Trustee Scott Barnett said that the district’s Proposition Z spending on things like stadiums and iPads rather than crumbling infrastructure is because district leaders want to fix things that are “sexy” and inspire press conferences. Subscribe to the VOSD Podcast on iTunes or get the RSS feed here. Stream it here. This Week in the VOSD Podcast Network Good Schools For All: Schools should be focusing on preparing students for life after school, but too often they simply preparing students for more school. Filmmaker Greg Whiteley stops by to talk about his new film, “Most Likely to Succeed,” and some of the ways educational institutes are missing the mark, plus examples of schools showing real innovation. Subscribe to Good Schools for All on iTunes or get the RSS feed here. San Diego Decides: In this week’s episode of VOSD’s elections podcast, hosts Sara Libby and Ry Rivard talked about three big races: the race for mayor, the race for city attorney and the race for the District 9 City Council seat. Subscribe to San Diego Decides on iTunes or get the RSS feed here.     Full Show Notes Page

Explaining the disconnect between school and life

San Diego Decides is Voice of San Diego’s elections podcast. Hosts Sara Libby and Ry Rivard break down individual races and ballot measures San Diegans will weigh in on this year, as well bigger issues like the mechanics of voting, state-level drama and more. ♦♦♦ In this week's episode, hosts Sara Libby and Ry Rivard talked about three big races this week: the race for mayor, the race for city attorney and the race for the District 9 City Council seat. Sara and Andrew Keatts interviewed mayoral candidate Ed Harris, and share some excerpts of that conversation. Harris addresses why he decided to get in the race, and what separates him from Mayor Kevin Faulconer even though they seemingly have a lot in common. Next up: the race for city attorney saw some verbal sparring between Rafael Castellanos and Gil Cabrera, as Voice of San Diego’s Andrew Keats wrote about recently. Both candidates have been preparing to run for several years, so they both have a lot invested in winning. A third candidate, Mara Elliott, has not received as much attention or money, but she may have a built-in advantage with her title, “chief deputy city attorney.” The race for City Council's District 9 is also starting to heat up, with three main candidates contending for the position: Ricardo Flores, chief of staff for outgoing Councilwoman Marti Emerald, Georgette Gomez, associate director at the Environmental Health Coalition, and Sarah Saez, program director for the United Taxi Workers. KPBS reporter Megan Burks, who's covered City Heights and surrounding communities for years, stopped by to talk about the unusual dynamics at work in D9. Two neighborhoods separated essentially by just a roadway are actually a world apart: Kensington has a 60-70 percent voter turnout and its median income is about $90K a year. By contrast, City Heights’ voter turnout can be as low as 14 percent, its median income is $21K a year. Crazy Ballot Initiatives Sara plans to highlight a few of the strangest measures vying to make the November ballot in each episode. First up: A measure that would require candidates and lawmakers to take regular lie detector tests, and another that would restrict any speech that has to do with Holocaust denial. Our Favorite Things This Week Sara: Acting as VOSD's pop culture ambassador, Sara selected Rihanna's new album, Anti. Ry: Bruce Lightner, who's running to replace his wife, Sherri Lightner, as the City Council rep for District 1, compared their combined power to one of the great American political dynasties. Asked if he'll get a name-recognition boost, he told the Union-Tribune:  “It won’t be the first time. Look at the Kennedy dynasty.” Megan: A city in New York has created a Hamsterdam to address the heroin epidemic: a part of town where you can use safely and freely. Former KPBS reporter Tarryn Mento pointed out that this is basically "The Wire" come to life.   Show Notes Page

Last week on the podcast, hosts Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts referred to Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s leadership as either cowardice or genius. This week, follow up on and talk about the different forms leadership often takes, especially in politics. Lewis backtracks a bit on the labels of cowardice or genius and puts Faulconer firmly in the category of the "peacemaker" type of leader, one who watches situations from the outside and waits for the right opportunity to jump in and pacify all parties. Also on the podcast, Lewis and Keatts bring up Jess Durfee, chair emeritus of the local Democratic Party, who sent out a memo to other members of the Central Committee, alarmed at the “right wing money” being paid to District 3 City Council candidate Anthony Bernal. The memo mentions Mitt Romney’s presence in the city as possible evidence of a growing right-wing force in San Diego. The show ends with an eclectic sampling of San Diego podcasts, including VOSD's new podcasts: San Diego Decides, Good Schools for All and San Diego CultureCast, which will launch soon. Subscribe to the VOSD Podcast on iTunes or get the RSS feed here. Stream it here. This Week in the VOSD Podcast Network There's a lot to unpack when it comes to the topic of education. Good Schools for All, our new education podcast, will approach the topic with the hope of helping listeners navigate current trends, big-picture problems, questions of equity and quality in education and more. VOSD's Scott Lewis and Laura Kohn, executive director of the Education Synergy Alliance, are co-hosting the podcast. Here's Lewis on what to expect: "We hope to have some fun, do some interviews that will make us all think and highlight not only what we need to work on in San Diego, but programs and educators that are excelling." Check out the first episode. If you dig it, be sure to subscribe and leave a review on iTunes. Subscribe to Good Schools for All on iTunes or get the RSS feed here. Stream it here.

Studies have shown that the first five years are the time that will define a child’s ability to constantly learn throughout the rest of their life. When children learn a lot and frequently at an early age, it lays down patterns in their brain...

Having a yearly event the size of Comic-Con is, in some ways, like having the Super Bowl in our city every year. While the economic issues are often discussed, the social impact is immense but less measurable. David Glanzer, marketing and public relations director of Comic-Con, stopped by the studio to discuss the myriad issues surrounding the behemoth pop-culture event and to lift the curtain on some of its inner workings. He brought up the issue of hotels hiking prices higher and higher every year during the event and detailed how Comic-Con is working to help keep prices more reasonable for its demographics –mostly young adults who can't afford the ballooning price tags. Glanzer also shared his thoughts on the Convention Center expansion. Co-hosts Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts also discuss how one San Diego attorney had virtually cornered the school market but now his grip is loosening and some of his former clients are questioning his work. They analyze San Diego Chamber of Commerce CEO Jerry Sanders's decision to officially throw his support behind the idea of a non-contiguous expansion of the convention center and introduce the argument being made by the so-called "East Village People," a group of local architects and developers who say a downtown stadium will destroy the urban neighborhood. Hero of the Week Walter Pomeroy, 82, started buying art in the 1950s, eventually filling three entire apartments with his collection. He recently gave over 25 artworks by San Diego artists to the city of San Diego's civic art collection. Goat of the Week The city of Encinitas for its efforts to undermine a state affordable housing law. Subscribe to the VOSD Podcast on iTunes or get the RSS feed here.  Stream it here. This Week in the VOSD Podcast Network It's official: Voice of San Diego now has a decked-out recording studio in the office and three brand-new podcasts are in the works. San Diego Decides Voice of San Diego's new election podcast debuted Monday. Hosted by VOSD's Sara Libby and Ry Rivard, for the first episode the two zeroed in on endorsements, how they work and why they do (and sometimes don't) matter. Subscribe to San Diego Decides on iTunes or get the RSS feed here. Stream it here.

If raising taxes hasn’t improved school facility conditions in the past, under nearly identical circumstances and proposals, should we believe that it will today? And what can we make of the popularity of Donald Trump in this election cycle? What does it mean for republicans and democrats, and where does that leave us for this election, and future ones? Will a tax hike improve school buildings? That was the question asked in a ballot proposition in 2012. Voters decided that yes, it certainly would, and $1 billion has been spent since then. Regardless of the tremendous amount of resources and tax dollars, though, new data shows that San Diego’s city schools are in worse shape. Now, in 2016, voters might again be asked to shoulder a tax hike in the name of improving schools. Podcast hosts Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts doubt that throwing more tax dollars at the same problem will somehow work better this time around. Also on the show, political consultant Jason Roe gives folks a look at the Republican angle of events playing out in San Diego and on a national scale. Plus, Roe says a minimum wage hike would hurt the lower class more than it would help, he talks about the role negative campaigns play in elections and makes the case for why voting for Donald Trump may just equal voting for Hillary Clinton. Hero of the Week This week, the city of San Diego took steps to release a large variety of data online. This is fantastic news for nerds, entrepreneurs and anyone else who finds this information useful in their pursuits or curiosity. Vote on which data sets should be prioritized at DataSD.org. Goat of the Week The Metropolitan Transit System is not allowing anyone to load money on their Compass Cards and the entire process of using the cards has been described as incredibly frustrating by those who use it. Not only that, it appears that the entire system is not as secure and safe for user information as anyone would hope. Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher.

What role do endorsements play in politics? Is it just a lot of back-slapping among friends and political influencers? Do they really sway voters in any meaningful way? And what is the process that goes on in the background that leads to an organization or individual endorsing a political candidate? These are just some of the questions that we’re exploring on this, the first episode of Voice of San Diego’s new podcast, San Diego Decides. Throughout this podcast, we’ll be digging into all kinds of different aspects of the 2016 San Diego election. This episode is bringing you everything you’ve ever wanted to know about endorsements in a political election. There are certain times when an endorsement is, in fact, an overwhelming factor, particularly when the general voting population is not especially up to date on the issues or the candidates, or when candidates have very similar voting records. Other times, endorsements are little more than announcements that go straight into trash folder of your email inbox. Sara and Ry also reveal whose endorsements they’d seek out if they were running for office in San Diego, and Brian Pepin, the new president of the Lincoln Club of San Diego County, comes on to discuss his group’s process for deciding whom to endorse. This Week’s Favorite Things Sara Libby: The state of Oregon passed a “Motor Voter” law, and has signed up more than 10,000 new voters since the start of the year. Ry Rivard: “Sometimes a Great Notion,” a novel by Ken Kesey.   Bullet Points People will tend to rely more on endorsements when they don’t especially know what’s going on When you really understand what’s going on, endorsements are less important When two people with very similar voting records are running against each other, it’s one of the only ways to differentiate Tony Atkins and Marty Block are a recent example of endorsements playing an important role Lori Saldana, who is running for mayor as an independent, endorsed Bob Filner for mayor a few years ago, but has since revealed that she was aware of his issues with his treatment of women at the time, and had actually warned party leaders about it. She since stated that she didn’t want to bring up the harassment while her father was still alive Endorsements are important to candidates both for the resources that come with them, and in the way that endorsements can sway voters

This week on the Voice of San Diego podcast, we’re digging into the nitty-gritty details of the latest San Diego “convadium” developments. We discuss how it affects San Diegans, how each possible route could play out and more. Erik Bruvold, leader of the National University System Institute for Policy Research, joins the show as an expert in all things convadium-related. Podcasts hosts Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts go down the rabbit hole of all the unintended consequences for San Diego citizens, hoteliers, sports teams and everyone else involved. They also dip into Civic San Diego's comprehensive downtown mobility plan, which is focused on making it easier to live downtown without needing to drive. Hero of the Week San Diego Unified School District's Subdistrict E and those who stepped up to fill the vacancy left by embattled former Board President Marne Foster. Goat of the Week The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System, which plans to outfit every security guard with body cameras but has agreed to let the footage be kept private.