Top Stories for San Diego County for Wednesday, August 28 at 6AM

We're following breaking news of a construction worker rescue. Austin was a good kind of guy you want and your team because he was athletic. He was a competitor. We're learning more about a San Diego police officer who lost his life in a fiery crash and his partner who's still fighting for his life. They're contributing to the community and we shouldn't demonize them. Now, we're encouraging them to immigrate illegally. The bill that would help undocumented immigrants buy a home. You're not just representing yourself. You're representing your country too. We talked to a Sandy again who's competing in her third Paralympics. It's 6 a.m. on Wednesday, August 28th. And you're up with CB SAS. We are following breaking news out of Scripps Ranch where a construction worker sadly is dead after he became trapped in an open trench. It is 6 a.m. I'm Eric Connors and I'm not iranpour. This happened near the intersection of Hoyt Park Drive and Scripps Ranch Boulevard. And that's where CBS eight's Chris grow is gathering information live from the scene this morning, Chris, what can you tell us? OK. I can tell you it's still very much an active CN this now shifts into a recovery operation and I want to bring in fire rescue. Deputy Chief Dan Eddy here to just talk a little bit about what exactly first responders are looking at right now. But also let's just back up and let's talk about that call. You said it came in around 4 a.m. two workers at first trapped down there in the trench, right? Yeah, we had two workers down there. One was able to self extricate and get out on their own. Um Unfortunately, we did have one that passed away that's down here at the bottom right now that we're working on a plan, recovery plan to get the body out of there. What are some of the difficulties, dirt steel pipe that is down there at the bottom? Too heavy weight to it. That's around the big. So as we put our rescuers in there, as soon as they move in that dirt is just going to keep sliding down on top of them. We have a Evac truck coming that's gonna help get the dirt out of the bottom there. Once we have that, we have a crane and rigging system set up to get that pipe out of there. Also, at the same time, what you'll see behind you here is all of our rescuers setting that up waiting for the EVAC truck. Once that's here, we'll start initiating getting the body recovered out of there. And for context here, this is a pretty deep trench. Right. Yes, it's about 20 ft deep down there. We do have multiple pipes too and a lot of the pipes that are crossing us right now we're finding out are actually pipes that are working right now, filling the city full of water. So we have to be careful of those two that we don't do anything with them and have some sort of other release of water down there as we're down there. And I know that the number one focus is of course, sadly about the tragedy here in which we lost that construction worker. But at the same time, obviously, a lot of folks are going to be driving. This is a pretty busy area. There should be no impact of traffic, correct? Should be no impact. You got scripts high school across the way from us here. Luckily the road is open on that side, you might have one lane blocked off for some of our rescue vehicles that are here, but this is not a major throw away for people to go through. Thank you so much for helping us out. Thank you so much. And of course, for the latest updates, you can always go to CBS eight.com and continue to stay with us here all morning, but for now we're going to send things back to you and Eric. Yeah, it's a delicate process. Of course, they're concerned about their safety of the other crews as well. Chris Thank you for that. And now this morning, we're learning more about the two San Diego police officers involved in that deadly crash in Claremont Mesa, one of them was killed, the other in critical condition. CBS H Regina Yaritza live outside San Diego police headquarters. Now with everything we know here this morning, Regina, what's the latest guys? We now know the names of the two officers. I can tell you that a matar is the officer who lost his life. Monday night and his partner Zachary Martinez who remains in the hospital in the IC U fighting for his life. Yesterday, the chief had another difficult news conference to share a little bit about the two officers. I can tell you just from hearing the chief, it was emotional to describe who often ma was, he was athletic, he was someone who had a passion for training and he was someone that you wanted on your team. I was a hero. He was working last night on all of our behalf to make sure that we are safe and he has laid down his life in service to this city. That is a debt we will never ever be able to repay. The chief also mentioned how often always had an infectious smile, a character that brought out the kindness in everybody. He was on the force for only five years on Monday night, Austin's police car was hit by the speeding car of a suspect fleeing from police. The incident led to a fiery crash on the 5200 block of Claremont Austin, as well as the suspect lost their lives. Austin's partner who is 27 year old Zachary Martinez is suffering with critical injuries. He's currently at sharp memorials intensive care unit where he remains a fighting for his life. Zachary is a Texas native who was part of the navy trained as an EMT, his military service brought him to San Diego where he has served on the police for the past year and a half. Very optimistic. He's going to be ok, but he has a very long road to go. And the San Diego Police Officers Association has set up a donation page for the two officers. They are asking the community for your support during this difficult time. Let's latest here outside of the San Diego police headquarters in downtown also. Thanks back to you, Regina. Thanks for the update. This uh is gonna be an ongoing story. Be sure to stay with us for the latest on it. We'll have an update posted at CBS a.com as well. You can also follow us on social media or download the free CBS eight app this morning. Sharp health care workers are protesting what they call safety concerns and unfair wages. Today, they're picketing outside of Sharp's metropolitan campus. Sharp health care says there are no threats to patient safety due to staffing issues. They will bring people in. Well today former t state Councilwoman Andrea Cardenas is expected to be sentenced. She and her brother Jesus Cardenas admitted to fraudulently obtaining pandemic relief funds and unemployment benefits. The money was meant to support payroll for 34 employees. Cardenas's sentencing comes nearly five months after her brother was sentenced to two years probation and 100 80 days in custody. And now this morning, the new terminal one parking plaza, the airport is open. So you'll notice this if you're headed that way. This is just in time for the busy Labor Day weekend for travel. It'll add more than 2800 new parking spaces. This first stage of the new parking is across from the current terminal. One second stage is close to the future terminal one that's under construction right now, airport officials will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony. Later on this morning, county supervisors just voted in favor of a policy to limit the use of cell phones in schools. Supervisor Tara Lawson Remer introduced this 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. Lawson Remer says she's also working with local nonprofits to provide students with pouches or lockers to store their phones. During class 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 28th, grabbing a book and going down to the beach. Not a bad idea every single day this week. Nice recipe here for this Wednesday. Fantastic rest of the week ahead, we're gonna warm up a bit by the time we get to Labor Day Weekend and Labor Day itself. But in the meantime, cooler than normal temperatures that brings us down to the eighties across many of our inland valleys. Couple low nineties work with Ramona Campo. We're talking to you. However, everywhere else along the coast and inland be looking at seventies and eighties for this afternoon. One of the contributing factors, this marine layer close to the coastline allowing for some fog out there, but it's pretty limited. Just overcast skies is what we're seeing mid seventies along the coastline, mid eighties inland, they'll have a bit more cloud cover along the coast and inland than what we see across the mountains and deserts, mountains going for the upper eighties this afternoon in 108. Not much of a cool down for our local deserts when we look at your forecast highs today, Sant in Al Cajon, a high of 86 degrees still warm out there, but at least no longer in the nineties, you get off to the coastline, Pacific Beach. 7177 for San Diego, 80 for Mira Mesa. Up in North County, we're looking pretty good as well. 71 for Encinitas, 73 for Del Mar 83 for RB and PWE as well. And then for those mountains and deserts again, still pretty warm for this afternoon, the cool down will be felt a bit more going into the next couple of days because Thursday and Friday will add some additional cooling for most uh spots in the county, especially toward East County. So between now and Friday, you see how we'll keep dropping in terms of those afternoon, high temperatures and then a climb comes for Saturday and Sunday. That climb will continue until even Monday and Tuesday making for a warm Labor Day itself right now out the door 67 in Chula Vista, 65 and, and T and 67 in Carlsbad, almost everyone along the coast in inland is working with that marine layer. But by the time we get to about nine and 10 a.m. we'll start to see it, push back and we'll all be left with sunshine coming up. We'll talk more about what next week looks like. And about the rest of this week where we do start to incorporate some more of that monsoonal moisture, meaning a risk of some showers over the mountains almost exclusively that's coming up in a few. Let's check in on traffic this morning. So far, drive time is out the door looking pretty good. I want to take you to one stalled vehicle that just popped up on our traffic maps. This, in the Miramar area. We've got the right hand shoulder blocked with the stalled vehicle on the 15 north bound. This is right at Miramar Way. We are not seeing any major backups right now. Volume is still very light here at the six o'clock hour. So we'll keep monitoring this, make sure that it has been completely pushed that right hand shoulder. Although CHP, that's what they have logged right now is that there are no lanes blocked with the stalled vehicle. So we'll let you know, uh, once this is completely cleared border, wait times are at 100 and 25 minutes at San era port of entry over two hours. It will take you, it'll be significantly quicker, almost a full hour quicker to get across the o time. A port of entry right now at 70 minutes in total.