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>> DWANE BROWN: Tonight on KPBS Evening Edition, dire warnings about sequestration and aerial
safety. Firefighting budget is at risk here in San
Diego. >> ALISON ST. JOHN: Returning veterans find
a new investigation for wait time for benefits is even worse than reported and since troops
left Iraq in DecemberÊof 2011 we haven't heard much about what's going on in that country
and we will explore what's behind the violence in Iraq today.
>> DWANE BROWN: And from 22 to more than 400 the come back of the California condor has
been a success so far but the fight to preserve the bird isn't over yet.
KPBS Evening Edition starts now. >> DWANE BROWN: Hi, good evening, thanks for
joining with us, I'm Dwane Brown, a disaster waiting to happen the words of a county supervisor
dine Jacobs, talk about the close usual of the Ramona airport tower, home to a fire base
answering over 400 calls a year, the federal aviation administration but the airport on
its list of closures, the county supervisors say they will be missing a layer of safety
and operating the tower costs about half a million dollars a year and they say there
are better ways to save money. >>> Federal government has budget problems
there is no denying that, they need to make budget cuts and stop spending more than they
are taking in but this is taking a hatchet to the budget while they should be cutting
more carefully and putting as their top budget priority public safety.
>> DWANE BROWN: Brown field is also on the FAA's list, it's not final yet, the agency
will take public comment through tomorrow before making a decision, any closures are
set to happen AprilÊ7th. Federal budget cuts mean no tuition assistance,
all armed forces have stopped accepting applications except the Navy, they provide 4500 for personnel
who go to school when they are off Dut, the the GI bill is not affected by the cuts.
Production of unmanned aircraft continues, the Navy is ordering a half a dozen unmanned
helicopters from Northrop Gruman, the fire scout, the one you see here has better range
and endurance and can carry more and they're scheduled to be deployed next year.
House Republicans unveileded their balanced budget plan today including 4.6 trillion in
cuts over the next decade with no tax increases. The plan would repeal the affordable care
act and replace Medicare with a voucher system for people under 55.
>>> The Democrats should join us, it's an invitation to balance the budget which will
help our economy and give us a healthy economy and a pro growth economy and makes sure our
kids inherit a debt free nation. This is a goal for all of us.
>> DWANE BROWN: The White House rejected the GOP plan saying it doesn't add up, Senate
Democrats are set to unveil their plan tomorrow. Roman Catholic cardinals resume their conclave
tomorrow, black smoke poured out of the chapel, there was no front runner who the voting began,
there are two groups, those who favor the status quo and those who want to shake up
the church, the cardinals return to the chapel tomorrow.
A not guilty plea today from a San Diego native, the judge entered the plea on his behalf,
his lawyers say they were not ready to do so, prosecutors have not decided to seek the
death penalty they will announce a decision on AprilÊfirst.
Voters are going to the polls in parts of San Diego today to elect a new state senator,
Juan Vargus was elected to the Senate and it left a see the occupy, a run off will be
held in May. A lawsuit was filed in San Diego superior
court by public advocates saying they're being excluded from a public utilities commission
meeting. A vote on building a new gas turbine project
in the south bay will soon be up for discussion. >>> The public utilities commission is essentially
acting like a bouncer at a night club where it's pick and go choosing who gets to go into
its club. It is disinviting and preventing people whose
message apparently they do not want to hear from coming in the doors.
>>> They originally let me in, IRS VP'd, they let me in I was able to choose which of the
three groups I was wanting to go into and then they let me know, sorry, this is closed,
you are not a stake holder that we're here to hear from so you're not coming in.
>> DWANE BROWN: The PUC says the meetings are always followed by publicly noticed meetings
open to everyone, the the board meets MarchÊ20th and 21st in La Jolla.
Internal documents from the veterans administration shows a startling rise in benefits with more
than a million nationwide. Alison St John is in for Peggy Pico talking
about how veterans are waiting longer and longer for benefits.
>> ALISON ST. JOHN: Aaron is on the line with us from the bay area to discuss this matter.
Your research says President Obama's promise to sort out the bureaucracy at the V.A. has
not up and down out, how have the waits increased? >> Nationally veterans have waited more than
a year and gone up 200% from more than 2500 percent today and the total number waiting is pushing a million.
>> ALISON ST. JOHN: We have a chart here showing how many days veterans are waiting and in
many places they're waiting more than 500 days and here in San Diego it's grown from
just over three months to more like nine months, that's less than urban areas, why is that?
>> It's nothing to congratulate yourself for to say that veterans have to wait nine months
for their benefits, it's about the national average that San Diego has, I think there
is some coordination with the military bases that are in the San Diego area to help people
get their benefits a little faster, just when they get out of the service but San Diego
is just experiencing the same thing as everywhere else which is that the dysfunction has doubled
under the current president in terms of how long veterans have to wait.
>> ALISON ST. JOHN: The the war began under George bush is it fair to blame President
Obama for the backlog? >> It's interesting, I was reporting on this
under press bush and he was president during seven years of war in Afghanistan and five
years in Iraq and there were 350,000 veterans who claimed disability under bush and now
there is another 450 veterans claiming under Obama.
It's only fallen apart completely under Obama, so the one thing that you could put on bush
is that he did not adequately prepare for everyone coming home but at this point President
Obama has been president for over four years he has had plenty of time to get ahead of
this and he hasn't. >> ALISON ST. JOHN: We know that the V.A.
has spent money on a new computer system, that doesn't seem to have done the trick,
Aaron Glantz thank you for joining us. Retired lieutenant colonel Jack Harkins is
joining us, I want to start with a statement from the V.A. they declined to come on the
program but they sent us a lengthy statement about why the time has sky rocketed and here
is what they said, veterans are return withing complex injuries and in addition the decision
was made to roadways for the first time medical conditions relate to agent original, PTSD
and Gulf car illness, the VA has completed 4.1 million claims over the past four years
but more work remains. Indeed.
According to Aaron's report there are seven,000 veterans waiting for their benefits to be
processed, how does this affect the population here?
>> Every veteran who has a need for monetary compensation for a disability that is associated
with their service this is an adverse affect. Some, more than others, because the degrees
of their disabilities are variant, some more severe than others, of course, but most of
our Afghanistan and Iraq veterans have applied for multiple conditions to be recognized from
disability at an unprecedent rate so the number of claims as a percentage of the veterans
who have served is the highest ever and the complexity is higher than ever.
>> ALISON ST. JOHN: Do you think the wait time is contributing to the hopelessness in
San Diego? >> We don't know of any situation where someone
who has applied for benefits has suffered hopelessness, we have other associations who
have reached out and contacted veterans who have made their applications for benefits
to see who may be needing services and the department of veterans affairs does a great
job and they monitor the veteran's status while the claim is in process to see if they
need to be put in touch with service organizations that can bridge any gap that may be needed.
>> ALISON ST. JOHN: Quickly, the goal is to have full completion of claims within 135
days by 2015, do you think he can achieve that goal?
>> We hope so because it's greatly needed. The recent roll out which is in full use here
in San Diego is going to enable that and they are determined to do whatever it takes, if
it takes more over time or hours we see the VA responding to this.
>> ALISON ST. JOHN: Thank you, Jack Harkins for being with us.
>> DWANE BROWN: A controversy for medal for drone operators, the Air Force has stopped
medals for drone operators, veterans groups obtained because the new medal was ranked
higher than the purple heart and the bronze star and the defense secretary has now ordered
a review. "Captions provided by eCaptions"
>> DWANE BROWN: There is a new cancer fighting team in San Diego, three power house cancer
research institutes are joining forces to battle the disease, KPBS reporter Kenny Goldberg
was at a meet and greet in La Jolla. >>> The research institute?
La Jolla from Sanford hosted the retreat. Sanford's president, Christina Borey says
the new team has to have a major impact in the battle against cancer.
>>> I think we can get things done faster for the patients.
We have a continuum of expertise here in San Diego that we have not tapped into before.
>>> Scott litman says they have a lot of work to do.
>>> We need to attack cancer from the genetics, the blood vessel supply, we need to come at
it from a different angle. >>> Cancer researcher Ryan graph is looking
forward to peddle for the cause because he's an avid bicyclist.
>>> I'm anxious to ride because of the wonderful things we can do here in San Diego.
>>> Kenny Goldberg KPBS news. >> DWANE BROWN: Kashi is moving out to Michigan,
owned by Kellogg which is based in battle creek Michigan, 14 employees have been laid
off. The Better Business Bureau serving Los Angeles, Orange county and Riverside gave an A minus to H arcmas
after a blogger submitted a fake application and paid hundreds of dollars the organization
says it will established a new standards based chapter in LA.
This month marks the the 10th anniversary of Iraq, Alison St John speaks with a couple
of people who gave their perspective. >> ALISON ST. JOHN: The last troops left Iraq
in DecemberÊof 2011 much of the public was relieved to see American forces pulled out
but we since have heard little about what is going on in the country that we invaded
back in 2003. Ibrahim Al Marashi is a professor of Middle
East history at Cal State SanÊMarcos, his research has focused on Iraq before during
and after the war and Wael Al DeLaimy is a medic and public health professor at UC San
Diego. He left Iraq in the 90s and has family still
living there. Wael Al DeLaimy you left Iraq but you have
a lot of relatives there, would you say the conditions there are better than before the
U.S. invaded? >> I would say it is not in many aspects from
a security perspective, from corruption and from all aspects of every day life there is
much more violence, less security, and people sometimes wish that they were under the previous
dictatorship than this situation >> ALISON ST. JOHN: What would you say is
at the root of the violence right now? >> I think it's the people leading.
They are functioning from a perspective of political gain rather than looking for the
long term outcome for this country and where its heading.
>> ALISON ST. JOHN: Professor Ibrahim Al Marashi, you were involved in some way in the originalÊ
the war beginning because some of your student research was quoted in documents by the British
and the American government as a justification for going to war.
What do you think that says about the intelligence and how good it was as to what was going on
in Iraq at the time and even now as to what the intelligence is like for what is going
on in other country in the Middle East? >> As a Ph.D. student I was writing about
Saddam Hussein in the 90s, so while the argument wasn't for going to war in 2003, my information
was taken out of context and massaged into a British government document to justify the
car which should have sent emergency signal once that plagiarism was discovered that it
should have brought up red flags and scrutinized by the international and American media but
that red flag was never examined it was focused on the up coming war.
>> Does that make you question the intelligence about the middle east now?
>> It makes me question the notion, we assume that the government has better information
than we the public do and this demonstrates that a Ph.D. can produce information that
the government needs. During this crisis with Iran, North Korea
and Syria, I think the information I have to offer is intelligence is not perfect.
>> ALISON ST. JOHN: So it turns out that the guardian newspaper put out information last
week implicating U.S. advisors in what they call their U.S. funded special command of
torture centers in Iraq, what could the implications of that be?
>> This has been known, it's not new knowledge for Iraqs, because they are under that unfortunate
situation, they are being detained unlawfully, tens of thousands for years, then there are
death squads and then there are people who are just being targeted because of their sect.
This is going to spiral out of control and the U.S. has to take a moral stand not to
support such a government that kind of perpendicular traits this and try and address this allegation
in a very strict and quick manner. >> ALISON ST. JOHN: Quickly, how long do you
think it will be before we see the affects of this war?
>> I think we're seeing it and this is going to continue unless there is a dramatic shift
in the way that this government is running the country.
>> ALISON ST. JOHN: Thank you very much indeed. That is Ibrahim Al Marashi, thank you so much
and Wael Al DeLaimy. >> DWANE BROWN: San Diego gas and electric
is donating nearly 80 acres of land to the U.S. for rest service, the land is on the
eastern slope of ElÊCajon mountain, it's home to the state coastal gnat catcher, SDG&E
is hoping to off set the power link. San Diego Safari park welcomed the condor
chick two weeks ago, KPBS reporter Erik Olson says the chicks are fighting back extinction.
>>> Dawn sterner and a lot of other keepers are spending time in the remote corner in
the Safari park, nearly every pen of the condors can be viewed from here and all are watched
closely. >>> We are making sure pairs work well together,
we will sometimes put artificial eggs in with a pair to find out that they are working well
together before we risk real eggs. >>> Biologists consider the eggs a precious
commodity and 30 years have led to remarkable achievements but the species is not sustaining.
>>> Even though there are a little over 400 California condors in the world that's not
enough. >>> That's more than there were in the 1980s,
the species fell to 22 birds before accident listed on the endangered list.
Ann sterner says they provide puppets, to help them get used to the idea of having eggs
and being parents. >>> The puppeteers hide behind screens and
that's important because the birds could end up in the wild.
>>> To see an egg that I watched develop and it's a chick that grows into a bird that waste
over 20 pounds with a 9 foot wing span and you see it flying out into the wild is absolutely
amazing. >>> Michael Mace is the cure rate tore of
birds at the San Diego park and he says half of the condors alive today are flying free
in their historical ranges. There are release programs in central California,
Arizona and Mexico. >>> I think the fact that we have gone from
22 birds now to more than 400 with more than half of those in the wild those producing
their own offspring we have made great strides. >>> But the birds flight has not been easy,
condors faced a threat from mosquitos, and the ancient birds have had to deal with on
going threats created by people. >>> They are scavengers, so they sometimes
feed on carcesses, and that can create an issue.
>>> And trash is another threat that they say has to be dealt with if the condors are
to survive. >>> The playing field in a program like this
is constantly changing. We have to react to the new circumstances
or try to anticipate what those challenges might be.
>>> He says biologists have done fairly well in managing the recovery effort but diligence
is required. >>> The chicks we raise today, if they make
it through their life span will be with us more than 60 years so it's critical that we
reduce or eliminate these obstacles that are in the way of recovering species like condors.
>>> And the recovery effort is important not just for condors, he says the birds are considered
an umbrella species and making the range safe for condors makes it safe for lots of others,
too. Erik Anderson, KPBS news.
>> DWANE BROWN: More warm weather ahead, coastal temperatures in the 70s, upper '80s by the
end of the week. Desert partly cloudy skies clear to sunshine
by Friday. Recapping tonight's stories, Ramona airport
tower is on a list of possible closures due to budget cuts, Cal fire has an air attack
base there, and losing the tower would mean losing a layer of safety.
The FAA's closure list hasn't been finalized yet.
Congressional Republicans rolled out their balanced budget today, it influences no tax
increases over the next decade and the plan would repeal the affordable care act and give
a voucher to people under 55. Roman Catholic cardinals return to the conclave
tomorrow, there was nonconsensus for a Pope vote, a majority of 77 is needed to elect
a Pope. You can find tonight's stories and download
the KPBS app on our web site. Www.kpbs.org/news/evening edition.
Thanks for joining us, you have a great night. "Captions provided by eCaptions"