Around San Diego | The biggest stories from the past week (Aug 29)

Coming up on around San Diego. We have the latest on the fiery crash that killed one San Diego police officer and left another with major injuries and a former Chula Vista Council women sentenced for her role in a scheme to get thousands of dollars from the government. Those details ahead plus the San Diego City Council voted to pass an ordinance that will limit students cell phone usage in the classroom. Hello and welcome. Thank you so much for joining us as we take you around San Diego. I'm CBS Eight's Jenny Day. I'll get you caught up on a week's worth of news and look ahead in less than 30 minutes. We do begin with the death of a San Diego police officer right now. Our community is honoring his life and another officer who was severely injured during a police chase on Monday night, officers were pursuing a 16 year old driver who is speeding down Claremont May Boulevard after police called off the chase because of the high rate of speed. The driver crashed into that police car that had responded to the initial calls, the officer driving the police car, you see him there 30 year old Austin Maar and he was killed. Matar was on the force for 5.5 years and grew up in Chula Vista. Those who knew him say he had an infectious smile and passion to serve and was following in the footsteps of his father. Father was a retired, is a retired deputy sheriff. And so, um, he dedicated his life to public service and we will not forget that. Yeah, the other officer, 27 year old Zachary Martinez is severely injured but in stable condition, the 16 year old driver who has been identified as Edgar Odeo was pronounced dead at the scene. The police officers association is raising funds to help the families of Officer Machito and Officer Martinez navigate this tragedy. Well, a federal judge in Texas is temporarily pausing the Biden administration's new protections that would allow immigrant spouses of us citizens a path to citizenship. The order comes after 16 states led by Republican attorneys general filed a lawsuit last week over the program claiming it would encourage illegal immigration. The program launched in June and the application process has now been open for a week. The policy offers the spouses of us citizens without legal status, a path to citizenship by applying for a green card and staying in the US while undergoing that process. The judge's order put the program on pause for at least two weeks while the challenge continues. Well, the man accused of setting his ex girlfriend on fire while she was working at a 7-Eleven in Chula Vista appeared in court for the first time. Jose Villanueva pleaded not guilty to the multiple felony charges he's now facing including attempted murder, torture and arson. During the hearing, the judge said a lot of planning went into the attack of his ex girlfriend, Amanda Buchanan Villanueva remains in custody with no bail and San Diego lifeguards are reminding people to stay out of the ocean at night. After a man recently drowned, authorities say 24 year old Kevin Dignan was visiting San Diego when he and a friend decided to go into the ocean there at Mission Beach, diving into the water at night. Dignan never resurfaced and was later found lying on the beach. His friends called 911 but sadly, he did not survive. The medical examiner's office has ruled his death an accident. And former Chula Councilwoman Andrea Cardenas was sentenced to two years probation after admitting she lied to the government to obtain thousands of dollars of pandemic relief funds and unemployment benefits. Cardenas pleaded guilty to two counts of grand theft. This is a similar sentence to what her brother got who also participated in this scheme for the first time in the courtroom. We heard from the former Councilwoman and she apologized. I have received a lot of email um threats on social media. Um I've been screamed out on the street in front of my house um and pull that were come to my house. Um, and I've been subjected to vital language that I have never experienced. I don't consider myself a victim and I know that this is not pretty standard in politics. Yeah. Meanwhile, the state's fair political practices commission is investigating a political action committee tied to the Cardenas siblings. You can see more from the sentencing on our website CBS eight.com. Well, CAL fire is adding a new air tanker to its fleet to be better prepared to fight wildfires. It's the C 130 Hercules and Cal Fire plans to deploy seven of them across the state. The aircraft has the greatest speed and range of CAL fire's airborne fleet. The first one was just put into service in Sacramento. The remaining six will be deployed over the next several months including one to the Ramona Air Attack Base early next year. Exciting to have one here in San Diego. Uh We've strategically placed them um so that we can make it to any remote part of the state. Uh That may have a fire within 20 minutes. We're so grateful. So yeah, CAL fire leaders say as wildfire frequency and severity increase, this aircraft will play a crucial role in helping achieve their initial attack goal specifically keeping 95% of fires at 10 acres or less. Well, a home in Carmel Valley caught fire and the family is blaming their car. A Tesla parked in the garage our abby black has details on the investigation. The outpouring of support for the family who tells us how many fires have been linked to electric cars. The floating family says that their smoke alarms woke them up around four in the morning. Their daughter was sleeping in that bedroom above the garage where you can see the windows now boarded up below their garage was fully engulfed in flames where their Tesla was parked. I hit the garage door. Shooed the dog out the front door to follow the kids and my wife for Floden opens the fire door to the garage to show us the damage from the blaze that erupted on August 18th, I opened the door as fire and smoke. The red investigator tape is the shell of his Tesla where fire detectives also found smoldering near the garage door motor. He looked at the wiring, looked at the car and so far pending further investigation, he thinks it's the car that started the fire. This is still an active investigation. The fire department tells me that the cause is still undetermined. But Foden says that his Tesla app shows that the E was inactive two hours before the fire and there were no alerts. So it had charged earlier like midnight to maybe 2 a.m. and then it wasn't charging when this happened. An SDFD Department spokesperson tells me that they don't investigate if lithium ion batteries causes fires. But in 2023 they started tracking fires involving those batteries. It's kind of scary. Like, I know I've been asked, like, would you get an EV again? And I was like, maybe, but I wouldn't park it in my house. SDFD says of the 6006 fires they responded to last year, 156 involved lithium ion batteries. That means that they make up about 2.5% of the fires in San Diego. That's a small number, but a devastating impact. She lost a bunch of softball trophies and soccer trophies and medals. So she's, she's pretty bummed out about that. Floden says that his three kids lost all of sports equipment and nearly everything in their home that they were renting is contaminated from the smoke. Now they're living in a hotel while the floats have insurance, they've launched a gofundme to help replace essentials and temporary housing. Very heartwarming all the outreach and the support while the floating sort through a lot of questions, the comfort by the community can go a long way and helping the floats overcome the trauma of losing a house that they made at home to be able to kind of pull the kids out real quick and just get them out. Um, the dog and uh you know that that means everything in Carmel Valley Abbey Black C eight. Yeah, obviously glad they're all. Ok. Meantime, county supervisors just voted in favor of a policy to limit the use of cell phones in schools. Supervisor Tara Lawson Remer introduced it to help keep students focused on their studies and protect their mental health. Under the policy, county mental health experts will work with each school district to develop a plan to curb cell phone usage depends on what parents want. It depends on what the teachers want, the administrators want and there's lots of different approaches that can be taken to tackle this issue. Right. Lawson Remer says that she's also working with local nonprofits to provide students with pouches or lockers to store their phones during class. And supervisors also decided to protect banned books at all. 33 county public libraries last year, more than 4200 books nationwide were targeted for removal from libraries. According to the American Library Association, this new county policy would make sure those challenged books are accessible here in San Diego. The county also plans to recognize and support banned book week at all public libraries that runs September 22nd through the 26th and recycling empty beverage containers may be more convenient soon as more recycling sites become available statewide. San Diego County is receiving about $4 million in beverage container redemption innovation grants by CAL recycle to help start 20 recycling sites in either mobile recycling or reverse vending machines at select smart and final stores. It's an added level of convenience that you can kind of do your shopping for the week and also bring your empties so you can get those nickels and dimes back. We need to focus on making less of it above everything else. You know, right now, less than 10% of plastics are recycled and those numbers aren't going to go up with a few reverse vending machines. So to learn more about the new recycling sites, visit CBS eight.com. Well, more affordable housing is coming to San Ysidro. A local organization is getting the green light to build more than 100 rent to own units. CBS Eight's Jasmine Ramirez spoke with the nonprofit and shows us how future renters can become homeowners. Casa de Miliar was awarded $33 million for the affordable housing project. They plan to build more than 100 units on two different sites here in San Edro, Casa familliar is looking to build units that residents one day will get the chance to own. They will be in a position to be able to, to buy that home and we will be supporting them in doing so. Lisa Questa is the organization's CEO she says after 15 years, units can be sold to residents for the remaining debt. Residents will not own the land as the project is part of a community land trust, that is why um you're able to keep those, those homes affordable over time. The units are estimated to sell between 341 and $501,000 at the 15 year. Mark. Lee says it will give families the opportunity to buy a home and generate wealth that otherwise wouldn't be able to do. So. Units will be open to low and moderate income families making somewhere between $120,000 for a household of four. Well, they need housing, right. But tonight I talked to Alex who lives near the project sites. He worries how the construction of new homes might impact people already living there. They're making a lot of apartments with no parking uh space for the the people here and uh we, as you can see around us, there's no room for the people that live here as well. MTs plans to build new bus shelters in the area and expand weekend trolley services. Casa Pilar hopes to break ground next summer. Jazz Nora's CBS eight. Jasmine. Thanks. Well, coming up, the San Diego Fire Rescue Department has a new chief. We sit down with him and learn more about his journey to the top. Welcome back, San Diego Pride just named its new executive director, Leanne Marchese CBS eight was there for her first day in her new role, Marchese and, and Sanitas native previously served on the Pride Board in the mid two thousands. She's the founding executive Director of Life Science Care San Diego and also has had leadership roles with the Y MC A of San Diego County and elder help. She is replacing the interim co executive directors, Jen Labrea and Sarafina Sario, both will remain with San Diego. Pride returning to their previous roles. And the San Diego Fire Rescue Department also has someone new in charge chief Robert Logan took over Monday as the department's 19th fire chief. We spoke with Chief Logan and he says, one of the first things he wants to do is reintroduce the department to the community. He'll be launching a series of events where people can get to know their firefighters in their neighborhood. Part of the inspiration for that is based on his own experience working at station 12 near his childhood home. The people that I grew up with, um all their families are elderly now and it would make uh it was impactful for them when I would walk in as part of the crew that was there to help them. Um It made them feel really comfortable, made me feel really happy. I bet. So. Yeah, Chief Logan tells us one of the challenges the department faces ahead is the budget. He wants more money to be able to create new positions. You can see our full interview on our website CBS eight.com. Well, we're also learning that more San Diegans are getting guard dogs also known as personal protection dogs. Now specialty dog training in Oceanside tells us it gives people a security system they can take with them. The group trains dogs of all levels, focusing on house manners, socialization, advanced obedience. And protection. A lot of our clients have had previous break ins and kind of want a dog to prevent that from happening again. Um, or live in areas that, you know, have a real threat of breaking in. Um, and so it gives them sort of that peace of mind. Yes. So she added that breeding and early training are what make a good protection dog. Still ahead. Some species of birds are getting a name change. We'll tell you why in an Earth Eight report, well, some well known bird names are about to change. The Anna's hummingbird, Cooper's Hawk and Stellar Jay are among dozens set to be renamed this year. CBS A's Evan Irani explains why in this Earth Eight report, a name change is coming to dozens of species of well known birds this year all in a push by the American Ornithological Society to remove human names and swap them with more useful description based replacements. Yes, I think it's a great idea. We met with Bob Gordon, a retired physician and master Falconer in support of the new names. We progress when you realize that names were made by European males and excluded many of the women who uh had uh scientific discoveries. Uh Also a lot of the uh non-whites. Um Yeah, I think it's better to get more people involved and feel more inclusive with regards to ornithology out at Mission Trails, Regional Park, Bob's hunting partner, Hawkeye joined us. He is part of the Harris's hawk species. But soon to be renamed this bird down in Central and South America is actually called the bay winged hawk. If those are familiar with uh bay colored horses, they're chestnut with black markings. And this bird has been called that for uh a century down in the Central America, South America. So it's only logical that that is the name up here. It's led many to wonder why these birds got the human names in the first place as they're much less useful than adjectives to describe them. We know a red tail hawk. So a red tail has a red tail, Harris hawk. But if you know what a bay winged hawk is or a bay horse that identifies this bird, so it makes more sense to have identifiers based on their physical character. I think. So some people are locked in tradition. I prefer to think that life is an experience and changes as we go along, the change will come to about 70 species to start. Some have already taken place among them. The removal of a confederate leader, another, removing an offensive term for native Americans. Yes, I know. But from birdwatchers to master falconers, most of the people that we talked with say they're open to the change. Science learns there's nothing wrong with admitting you're wrong. That's why I love science. When something better comes along, you move on. Bob told us he could care less about the names. And there's more about how these birds invite us to be part of nature. And in his case witness it close up. He's seen and accomplished a lot in his career in medicine. But says this is something different. I feel as privileged as I did then to have this bird. Trust me doing what we're doing. It's, it's exciting and unless you do it, you don't have that experience. Evan, Irani CBS eight. I love our earth eights. Isn't that interesting? Beautiful too, Evan, thanks. Well, that will do it for us. Thank you for your time. Thank you for staying informed. As always, Padres are winning, the weather is beautiful. You can always follow more news on CBS eight.com for CBS eight. I'm Jenny Day. Take good care of yourself.