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>> JOANNE: Coming up next on KPBS Evening Edition, just how small is a small radioactive
leak? More on the San Onofre power shutdown.
>> PEGGY: And San Diego is running out of parking spaces.
>> JOANNE: And the new owners of the "UT" San Diego make a major announcement today.
Give you a hint! >> PEGGY: Lights, camera, action!
KPBS Evening Edition starts now. >> JOANNE: Hello thanks for joining us, I'm
Joanne Faryon. >> PEGGY: And I'm Peggy Pico in for Dwane
brown. >> JOANNE: The "UT" announced it will expand
it's news service, it's called "UT TV" at a rotary club today, and it will eventually
expand to an all news cable channel. KPBS confirmed this with Doug Manchester.
>> PEGGY: The Pala Indian tribe has expelled 154 of its members.
Adrian Florido tells us what that means. What's the impact of this decision?
>> It represents about 15% of the tribe's population and among other things it means
those people will no longer be receiving payments of $150,000 a year, money from the profits
of the casino that the tribe operates east of association side.
>> PEGGY: And the obvious question is why were they kicked out?
>> They're not saying. A smokesman for the tribe said this they were
exercising their right to determine who its members are.
Back in JuneÊthey did expel another 8 people saying that those people did not have the
sufficient sort of blood line to be members of the tribe.
To be a member of the tribe you have to have 1 16th Pala Indian blood and they have a formula
to calculate that. >> PEGGY: How common is this?
>> It's getting more common especially in California in the last ten years since tribes
started operating casinos and, again rating profits which have to be split up among the
members. They're not saying that's what's happening
here but it is a trend that's happening across the state and across the country.
>> PEGGY: And I understand the tribe's spokesman said they can appeal the decision.
Thank you. >> JOANNE: An Solana beach woman was arrested
today for embezzling. Jennifer Davie worked as a bookkeeper for
nearly seven years. >> PEGGY: Mayor sanders said he will wait
on a plan to finance a $520 million convention center expansion, Katie Orr joins me from
the news center with details. Katie, you spoke to Todd Gloria today, what
did he say? >> He agreed with the mayor, Peggy, he said
it was always the plan to have the Court validate this funding mechanism and that's because
it's a fairly new way to go about funding things and the question is since this involves
raising the hotel tax do San Diego city voters need to vote to approve it versus the hotel
and motel voting. >> PEGGY: And if the funding mechanism is
deemed illegal how will this expansion get funded?
>> That's up in the air, it'sed 520 million, so it's likely that they would have to go
to city voters and ask them to approve that tax, but as we know, San Diego city voters
are always hesitant to approve new taxes so it's certainly something supporters are hoping
they won't have to do. >> PEGGY: Thank you very much, Katie Orr our
Metro reporter. >> JOANNE: California lawmakers are taking
steps to avoid cash flow problems this spring by letting the state borrow from existing
government funds. This is meant to ensure that the state has
enough money until the majority of tax revenueses start arriving in April.
Controller says he doesn't expect to have to issue IOUs.
>> PEGGY: San Diego's chapter of the American red cross has now a high tech disaster command
center, and I got a tour today, here is a look inside.
Images of San Diego's worst disaster display continuously at the American red cross center
in Kearney Mesa. Volunteers share critical information with
other disaster centers throughout the state and county in realtime.
That helps victims and responders alike. >>> By putting in the technology in this room
we are able now to go ahead and cut down our response time from 8 hours to 1 hour.
>> PEGGY: Giant monsters display the nearest shelters, evacuation routes, fires and daily
crises situations pop up as they happen. >>> We keep track of things, be it a prescribed
burn, so we know what's happening. >> PEGGY: Here the dots represent regional
mini earthquakes that happened today, while this map works as a visual conference call
linking this center with other emergency responders. >>> We can see what's going on and get different
views of it. >> PEGGY: The American red cross calls its
chapter disaster center CDOC. It was funded by nonrestricted donations.
Tonight we look at the leak at the San Onofre's nuclear plant at the round table.
>> JOANNE: Officials are trying to figure out what went wrong Tuesday when a steam generator
began leaking gallons of radioactive water, joining me now is Murray Jennex, with expertise
in nuclear containment testing and he works for San Onofre for several years.
>>> I'm also with the college of business, butÊ
>> JOANNE: Several credentials! Let's start with a brief explanation on what
it means when there is a leak like this. >>> In this case when they say there is a
leak to protect the public we have barriers against a release of radiation and products
that might have radiation in them. We have a coolant and it can carry the heat
away, we pass that through a steam generator and we use clean water on the other side to
power the turbine, that's where this leak is, the primary coolant water coming off the
react tore and the water going into the turbine. >> JOANNE: I want to read from the NRC report
and it says at 3:05 unit 3 entered abnormal coolant leak, leak exceeding 5 gallons per
day, and they realized it was 82 gallons per day, and later it goes into a stage of a leakage
exceeding 30 gallons per when our. Is that a lot?
>> It sounds like a lot but it actual isn't. They use over 16,000 gallons of water a day
just to run the plant so we're talk bug a very small amount of water and the volumes
that we're looking at are huge so it's not something that's easily detected.
The way it was detected is primarily by a radiation monitor, otherwise they probably
wouldn't have noticed for quite a while. >> JOANNE: The consequence of a leak like
this, aren't we worried about what escapes into our atmosphere?
>> We are, and in this case, the leak is inside the containment building so there is your
first barrier and they noticed that the gas that came out was in the auxiliary building,
also keep in mind this is primary coolant, it's not spent fuel, it's gas.
This gas doesn't stay radioactive for very long, it has a short lifetime within an hour
it's gone so that's why they can't tell us how much leaked because it's difficult to
measure something that disappears that fast. >> JOANNE: This is a new steam generator,
this was installed recently, does it surprise you that something so new is leaking?
>> Absolutely as an engineer I would have liked to have seen it go a few years before
a tube leak occurred. They occur on a regular basis, we can't predict
when they will occur but we have had several over the last severe years so it's an incident,
not an accident. The fact that it happened so early makes people
wonder perhaps if there is a manufacturing problem or not.
I think that's why they're being careful about what they say is the cause, they want to analyze
it and see if it's because there is a weird flow condition, that could cause excessive
vibration on areas of the tubes, and I suspect that's what the case is here.
>> JOANNE: What is your biggest concern when you look at an incident like this?
As somebody who has worked there, you're an expert, what would be the biggest question
that you would have? >> My biggest question is why did it occur
within a year of this new generator being online and to me that says that perhaps we
they'd to make sure that we're taking care of the generator in the right way, we have
the right chemistry, we're not exceeding temperature limits or flow limits, making sure that everything
is being done according to procedure and making sure we know how it's behaving inside.
They're going to do inspections, some inspections that measure the thickness of the wall and
cease if there is problem, it will see if there is an area of concern.
>> JOANNE: We know they aren't generating power because of this and we know unit 2 it
says is in shutdown in a refueling outage, are they generating any power and if they
are not, are they losing money? >> They are not generating power at San Onofre
and yes, southern Cal Edison is losing money unless they're able to make up the power from
their own sources, otherwise they have to buy it off the market and we get power from
the northwest, hydro plants up there and, again rate tors of power, Arizona and so forth.
Right now, this time of year power is relatively cheap compared to in the summer when it's
hot. >> JOANNE: If you had to put a dollar amount
on what they're losing what would you guess? >> $600,000 to a million a day
>> JOANNE: Dr.ÊMurray Jennex thank you for being here.
>>> You're welcome. >> PEGGY: Finding a place to park is a frustration
for San Diego drivers, now the San Diego city council will take on the challenge of of finding
a place for our cars. And how do you talk to children about serious
illness, we'll have insights for hard conversations. >> PEGGY: The San Diego city council will
consider a proposal to reduce the number of parking spaces required for each new unit
of affordable housing. It's a move to cut costs and prevent parking
lots from taking over the city, morning edition's reporter Tom Fudge checks out this story.
>>> It's something most of us do ever single day.
We jump in a car, drive someplace and then we need to find a parking space.
>>> You got to get here an hourly early. >>> I went around the campus trying to find
a spot took a half an hour. >>> I park illegally until I can find a parking
space. >>> It's hard to find a civic concern more
universal than finding a place to park your car.
Dallen Hoffman says to find a parking space is difficult.
>>> The grocery store, the shopping mall, and so on.
In 2010 there were 3.1 million people living in San Diego county who owned an estimated
2.1 million cars, now imagine a million more people living in San Diego county by 2030
as is predicted, that's 685,000 more cars, hoffman says that will require 37 square miles
of additional parking space. >>> We can either pave over all of San Diego
bay, all of Mission Bay, all of the city of La Mesa and then build a 2 story parking deck
over all of Balboa Park or >> Or we couldÊ let's not go there, in fact,
we don't have to go anywhere to imagine what parking demands do to a city.
There is no better example of how it affects the landscape than the parking lot Qualcomm,
there are 19,000 parking spaces here and they're rarely used.
>>> There are problems with parking policy and we start with the example of this downtown
parking garage which enjoys a public subsidy. >>> It actually costs less to park here for
a month than it costs to buy a monthly transit pass.
>>> They are point is is transit use is is discouraged.
Transit is not practical for all destinations, but lowe says people should at least pay the
real cost of parking. >>> This isn't about forcing people into transit,
this is about creating choices for people and making transit an attractive choice by
reflecting the true cost of park and go driving is where we need to go.
>>> Another approach is to do something with all that spare pavement we have in San Diego.
San Diego has a lot of very wide residential streets, hoffman says that's wide enough to
create head in park and go increase the number of spaces by 35%.
>>> So by going on to head in parking these extremely wide streets that are typical in
a lot of San Diego we're able to pick up dozens or hundreds of parking spaces all for the
price of some paint. >>> Most lots are empty at least 50% of the
time making better use of that space can for one thing make our cities more attractive
and vital. Here in north park this lot is converted to
a farmers market once a week. Gary Smith is a member of the downtown parking
management group. He says we should use those periodically empty
lots to park more cars that belong to people who keep different schedules.
Here he speaks of downtown residential buildings. >>> I could build another three or four high
rise buildings around this commercial building and satisfy the parking requirements for those
in the basement of that commercial building because they only use those for the daylight
hours. >>> About 50 years ago a writer named Lewis
mumford wrote "the right to have access to every building in the city by private motor
car in an age when everyone possesses such a vehicle is the right to destroy the city"
mumFord might think San Diego has gone down that path, where people navigate an ocean
of asphalt but Smith says we don't have to keep paving the city we can make better use
of what we've got. >>> We did a study in 2006, which was only
a few years ago there were ten parking spaces in the city of San Diego for every car that
was registered in the city of San Diego. Okay?
It's not a shortage of parking it's a matter of having the parking where people want to
go and having the parking work correctly. >> PEGGY: That was Tom Fudge reporting.
The move to reduce the number of parking spaces required for new affordable housing units
in San Diego will go before the city planning commission in April.
Then it will head to the city council. It's a hard topic for families to tackle,
but Joanne's next guest at the round table says it's something families should be talking
about. >> JOANNE: Parents alwaysment to protect their
kids, not just from real danger but also from sadness and insecurities.
The reaction of many people if they get seriously ill is to keep their illness from their kids.
It's often not the best idea. A book that has helped thousands maneuver
through the illness and the death of a parent has been revised and updated, it's the result
of a collaboration between a child life specialist and a reporter, joining me is that reporter,
Ron Vaughn who teaches journalism at the University of San Diego.
Thank you for being here. Tell me how you got involved in this?
>> I was working for NBC news today as a science specialist and I got a flyer from the Cleveland
clinic saying they had a program to help children of gravely ill or fatally ill parents and
it struck me, I had seen a dozen good programs for the parents of sick children, I had never
seen anything for helping the children of sick parents.
I went out and met Kathleen McQue who deviced the program and I was stunned by what she
was accomplishing with these children. I would sit down with a 10 year old girl,
12 year old boy whose mother or father had died and these kids were okay.
They could sit and talk about it, they could talk about their lives, talk about their friends,
they were okay. And it was because of what Kathleen did, her
techniques, and what they could handle. What she learned is with a little help from
grown ups, the kids can handle it. >> JOANNE: Let's talk about the techniques,
this is what you outline in the book. What's first thing that most of us would do
wrong? >> Protect the children from the truth.
If youÊ at this point when there is a crisis in your family, something bad is happening
and if you try to pretend to your children that it's not happening, you can create a
distrust that will last a lifetime. You must never tell the child anything but
the truth. Now, you don't always tell the entire truth
right now, and we go into that in this book, for instance, in genetic diseases, it's a
disease that might not occur for 15 years, you don't want to tell the child everything
but you never tell the child "nothing is wrong" you never tell them "mom's on a vacation"
you never tell them "dad is on a secret mission." If the mom or dad is in the hospital, dying,
the child must prepare and must trust you, the adult who is telling the story.
>> JOANNE: Ron, when we were talking just a few moments ago about a movie nominated
for an Oscar and you were saying that the events in this movie parallel a lot of the
advice you give in this book. >>> I was amazed, as I sat and watched that
movie, the movie starts with a terrible boating accident and the young mother of two young
girls, 12 and 17 is in a coma. The father, played by George Clooney is the
way you and I might be. This disaster has happened, he has no idea
how to cope with it but as he goes through the movie he does almost everything right
with his girls and I sat there thinking yes, yes, because he keeps them in the loop, they
know what he knows, when the doctors are still holding out hope for the mother he says mom
may come out of it, but when the doctors say, no, this is terminal, he says, "mom will not
come out of this coma." When the younger girl gets beyond anything
he can handle he brings in professional help. He gets therapists in.
But the most powerful thing in the movie and it's choking me up, when they finally take
the mother off of life support, he lets both girls say goodbye.
And thatÊ a child who is prevented from saying goodbye, that can scar them emotionally for
life. So I am sitting there, ready to give Clooney
the Oscar just for the way he is handling these two girls.
>> JOANNE: Ron, where can we find your book? >> Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com and I'll be
doing a book signing next month. >> JOANNE: Ron Bonn thank you for being here.
>>> Thank you. This book can help families in this situation,
but they've got to know it exists. Thank you.
>> JOANNE: Thank you. >> PEGGY: Coming up next in the public square,
Joanne wants to know what you think about the big announcement today from "UT San Diego."
This is KPBS Evening Edition. >> JOANNE: Welcome back to the public square
on KPBS Evening Edition. As we told you earlier, the "UT San Diego"
is branching into broadcast news. We want to know, did you want to see more
local news coverage? And where do you get your news these days?
Online or do you favor traditional sources? You can join this conversation in untraditional
ways, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook and you can cut through the middleman, send
me an email. Now let's go back to the news desk where Peggy
has a recap. >> PEGGY: Mayor sanders says he will wait
for the courts to decide whether a new hotel tax is legal before moving forward on a plan
to finances the convention center expansion. The Pala band of indians has expelled 154
people from its tribe. The members stand to loose $150,000 in annual
payments from the tribe's casinos. And state lawmakers are taking steps to avoid
a cash flow problem this spring by letting the state barrow from existing government
funds. Today's action is meant to her ensure that
the state has enough money until tax revenues start arriving in April.
You can watch and comment on any of the stories you saw tonight go to our web site, www.kpbs.org/news/evening
edition. Thank you for joining us, have a great evening
and we leave with you a look at the forecast. "Captions provided by eCaptions"