Major funding for KPBS Evening Edition has been made possible in part by Bill House family of companies providing San Diego with plumbing, heating, air restoration and flood services for over 45 years.

Call 1-800 Bill Howe or visit billhowe.com And by the Conrad Prebys Foundation.

Darleen Marcos Shiley and by the following And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

In-person voting centers open across San Diego County tomorrow.

Thanks for joining us.

I'm Jacob Aere in for Maya Trabulsi.

KPBS will have extensive coverage of the candidates and issues from now until Election Day on November 3rd.

Our public matters reporter, Kevin Trevellyan, stopped by the county elections office to learn more about the start of in-person voting amid ongoing legal action by the Trump administration.

Workers are already busy sorting ballots in the lead up to Election Day, November 3rd, and they have a lot to go through.

Voter turnout is one third higher on this day compared to the last gubernatorial election in 2022.

That's according to San Diego County Registrar Sean Brom, who encouraged others to vote early, too.

Not only do you avoid long lines on Election Day, voting early also helps us get out the results quicker to you on election night.

The county is opening 41 voting centers Saturday, with daily hours of 8 a.m.

to 5 p.m.

a week later, on October 31st, the county will open up a lot more centers, totaling 221 locations.

Residents will be able to drop off a mail ballot, vote in person, or fill out a same day registration form.

We want voting to be easy, accessible and secure for every voter.

Centers are opening just a few days after federal officials announced charges for four green card holders who allegedly cast fraudulent votes in San Diego County in 2024.

The Trump administration had previously requested California officials set aside ballots for more than 20,000 alleged noncitizens as part of a wide ranging national probe, but a judge halted that order, saying the government's list is, quote, unreliable.

Friday, Brom reasserted his confidence in San Diego County's voting procedures.

We ensure only one vote per voter through envelope tracking and signature verification, and we follow state mandated check in processes at vote centers.

Voters have until 8 p.m.

on November 3rd to cast their ballot in person.

Mail ballots must be postmarked by Election Day.

Kevin Trevellyan, KPBS news.

Many voters will be spending time this weekend looking over their ballots.

One resource to get informed and organized is the KPBS Voter Hub.

We've seen a big jump in traffic as the election draws near.

The voter hub has explainers on city, county and statewide races.

You can also find details for ballot drop boxes and in-person voting centers.

The KPBS Voter hub is also available in Spanish.

It's all featured on our homepage at KPBS.org voting by mail is the preferred method for people in dozens of states, especially California.

Getting all those ballots where they need to go is a challenge for the US Postal Service.

As Maddie Gannon reports, managers say their work will accelerate this weekend after finding itself at the center of a legal battle over mail in ballots.

The United States Postal Service is calling this election cycle.

Business as usual.

We are.

All systems go for next month's midterm general election.

That starts in full force on Saturday, when USPS will begin implementing what it calls extraordinary measures to ensure election mail is transported quickly and securely.

The measures include things like extra deliveries and collections, plus specialized sorting plans at processing facilities.

The postal service has a long and strong record of successfully delivering election mail.

That record is not accidental.

Democratic lawmakers are seeking to instill voter confidence in the process.

California Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove, says she visited a ballot processing facility to see election integrity efforts firsthand.

There are multiple chains of custody protocols in place.

This is a safe.

It is a secure, and it is a transparent process.

Still, voting by mail has remained a political flashpoint.

The Supreme Court last month struck down the Trump administration's effort to exert more federal control over the voting method.

But Attorney General Todd Blanche this week did not rule out the possibility of the Justice Department getting involved in other aspects.

It is not DOJ's intention to, and it's never our intention to improperly interfere with elections or the state confirmation process or certification process.

But, you know, to say that there's no circumstances that we would ever do that.

Of course, I'm not going to say that.

In Washington, I'm Maddie Gannon The Fort Yuma Quechan tribe is demanding a formal, formal apology from Imperial County Supervisor John Hawk.

KPBS reporter Kori Suzuki says a video surfaced this week of Hawk using a racial slur during a public meeting, and a warning this story contains offensive and derogatory language.

Hawk made the comments back in April during a county Transportation Commission meeting.

At the meeting, Hawk talked about an earlier meeting he and other county officials had with members of the Quechan tribe to discuss the tribe's concerns about a major bridge closure on the reservation.

Hawk described the conversation as brutal.

It was like 75 people there and they took turns.

I mean, it was like it was brutal.

I mean, we felt like we were scalped.

The video of Hawk's comments was resurfaced this week by local activist Jake Tison.

Hawk is currently running for reelection.

On Wednesday, Quechan Tribe president Jonathan Koteen condemned the remarks.

In a letter, Koteen said Hawk's comments were egregious and relied on racial stereotypes about native people.

He said the Quechan nation wouldn't tolerate them, especially coming from an elected official.

Koteen demanded Hawk apologize in person and that the county give a clearer timeline for the reopening of the bridge.

Hawk and the county both apologized for his remarks this week.

Hawk says he plans to deliver that in-person apology to the Quechan tribe soon.

The county says they're currently in the process of securing funding to replace the bridge, and hope to reopen it within two years.

Kori Suzuki.

KPBS news.

Librarians in the Grossmont Union High School District announced a big win this week after learning they'd be getting their old jobs back.

KPBS East County reporter Elaine Alfaro says a settlement agreement rescinds the school board's decision last year to cut teacher librarians.

Stephanie Macceca says she received her job offer on Wednesday.

I signed the offer right away.

Macceca is a former librarian, and she's president of the teachers union that filed an unfair practice charge last year with the state's Public Employment Relations Board.

They filed the charge after the district's conservative School board majority cut nine teacher librarian positions.

Under a settlement agreement announced this week.

The district will reinstate the teacher librarians in the 2027/28 school year, and they'll have protections from layoffs for two full school years.

It's a huge victory for our our union.

And then it's also a huge victory for California Teachers Association was really invested in this particular case.

Brian Jensen is a parent of a Grossmont High School freshman.

He says the settlement is fantastic news, but the district still needs to rebuild trust in the community.

Basically, it's just going to take time.

It's going to take time and effort, and the board is the one that has to regain the trust of the community's.

School board president Robert Shield said in a statement that the settlement agreement, quote, serves the best interest of our East County community.

Following a challenging period, end quote, Elaine Alfaro, KPBS news.

I'm Geoff Bennett tonight on the NewsHour.

The Justice Department moves to block election results in Alaska.

If the Republican Senate candidate doesn't win.

That's at seven after Evening Edition on KPBS.

I'm Ariella Scalese.

Coming up tonight, under a mostly clear sky, temperatures drop back down to the upper 50s.

And after contending with some wet and windy weather recently, drier and warmer conditions are on the way before another cooldown next week.

A closer look is coming up.

San Diego gas prices are decreasing a bit, but the average price still exceeds $6 per gallon according to triple-A.

Diesel prices are even higher, and set a new record high.

Earlier this week, Marybel Gonzalez tells us how this affects the national economy.

Record high diesel fuel prices due to rising oil prices and supply shortages caused by wars in Ukraine and Iran, are being felt on and off the road as diesel goes up.

So does the cost of living right, rent is insane.

groceries are getting more expensive.

Gas is insane.

The U.S.

national average for diesel fuel is now at around $6.32, according to triple-A.

The price of diesel moves the global economy from goods that get from point A to point B, from trains and tractors that are now out in fields harvesting crops.

Diesel is really the fuel that powers the US economy.

If this persists for a period of time, eight months, a year, two years, it will creep its way into the underlying inflation rate and it will make it harder for the fed to control that.

In response to the soaring diesel prices, President Donald Trump announced earlier this month an agreement with Russian leader Vladimir Putin for Russia to immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel to global energy markets, with another 500,000 tons promised in November.

It's not really a deal with me.

It's a deal for the rest of the world.

But some experts are skeptical that this will make a difference.

The US is not really a country that would need Russia's diesel.

Having said that, it's not really known if Russia even has supply on hand to, provide to the US market.

Ultimately, until the geopolitical tensions are addressed, I'm afraid we'll probably be stuck with elevated gasoline and diesel prices moving forward.

I'm Marybel Gonzalez reporting.

A San Diego County grand jury spent months analyzing the safety and convenience of biking in the city.

KPBS Metro reporter Andrew Bowen says the resulting report is calling for a new approach to bike infrastructure.

Cyclists in San Diego often have the experience of riding in a bike lane, and then it just ends, and they're left to share a lane with cars.

The grand jury report found these gaps in the city's bike network are a big reason why many people don't ride, because parts of the journey feel unsafe.

Ian Hembree, with the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition, says San Diego installs bike lanes only when other kinds of roadwork are already planned, like stormwater upgrades like, water main upgrades.

All of these things that we need to do, are packaged with bike infrastructure upgrades, but the connectivity of the network is not being prioritized.

When we build bike infrastructure in this way, instead, we're just adding it on at the end.

In response to the grand jury's finding that the gaps in the bike network discourage people from biking.

City officials say they partially disagree.

The bike network is getting better, they say, and people's transportation choices are influenced by more than just infrastructure.

At a committee meeting on Thursday, council member Kent Lee said he thinks the grand jury got it right.

Unsafe streets discourage people from biking.

I don't know about my colleagues, but I would disagree.

That's just factually true.

And then the other portions of the response, I understand contextualizing that.

I still think there's a degree of doing so, but to me, it just came off as we're being very defensive.

The report also calls on the city to do more regular maintenance of bike lanes, like clearing debris and filling potholes.

The city's official response to the report still needs approval from the full city council.

Andrew Bowen, KPBS news.

Marshall Faulk is best known as an NFL Hall of Famer and an Sdsu legend.

Now, he's known as one of the millions of people living with Parkinson's disease.

Faulk announced his diagnosis on the Caring Neurologist podcast this week.

He says the condition was detected early, with the first symptom being a problem with his hand while playing golf.

Faulk is 53 years old and a Super Bowl champion.

Before joining the NFL, he had a record breaking college career at San Diego State.

Faulk is currently the head coach at Southern University in Louisiana.

The World Series starts tonight in Milwaukee and will feature several former Padres.

Former Padres interim manager Pat Murphy is now leading the Brewers, and former Padres pitcher Nick Martinez will start game one for the rays.

A former Padre legend and Hall of Famer will be watching it all.

Dave Winfield recently joined KPBS roundtable for a conversation with host Andrew Bracken.

So when you were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, you had a choice of of which team to go in.

Which hat you wanted to wear?

And you ended up choosing the Padres hat.

You became the first Padre player to be inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Not as a Yankee.

I don't know.

Was that a hard decision for you to make?

Yes, it was a it was a hard decision.

Even though I had.

Look, I played 22 years, six teams, both leagues, both coasts, both countries.

And I started here.

The Padres gave me my chance right out of college.

I did my first everything here.

Base hit, home run, RBI win, All-Star game.

Captain of the team, all kinds of things.

And, the Yankees, people thought by the end of my career.

Because that's when I was a mature ballplayer.

All star.

Every year.

One of the best and top ten.

Probably every year that I played for, you know, 12 All-Star games in a row.

People would think, oh, you want to be associated with the Yankees.

But when I finished my career, the truth of the matter was it was between the team that brought me there and invested in me and believed in me.

Or do I just go to a team that has treated me very badly for a decade, for the most, for 40% of my career?

Do I want to just go along for the ride and say that I'm a Yankee?

Or and I had no relationship.

The owner of the team determine if there was a relationship and we had none.

And so I didn't know, even if I had chosen New York.

Would they even show up to support me?

That's how different the situation was.

But I made the right choice going to San Diego, and I have no apologies or anything like that.

And I think Padre fans would agree with you, and I appreciate that as well.

You know, this book is you're kind of coming to terms with a lot of this this, you know, I would say trauma, but like the toxic environment you talked about in your, complicated relationship with the not just, George Steinbrenner, but other owners and just, you know, kind of the difficult positions you were put in.

But, being an athlete today, I don't know, I think it's a lot more common for athletes to come out and, you know, be accepted, to be talked publicly about their mental health struggles for, like, talk about them in their lives.

A lot of athletes have podcasts now, right?

Like they have a voice.

How do you think, like being a professional athlete has changed in your view?

And do you think it's, you know, better, harder, easier?

Like how do you see it.

Wow.

That's a that's a broad question.

And I will say this things that I did, in the 70s, athlete advocacy I was a member of the Players association, the union, when I started.

You made nothing $15,000 a year.

That's not meal money.

That's for the entire season that you will make.

There was also, there were things related to the All-Star game that I started here when I played for San Diego.

Like all of the festivities during, you know, people see the All-Star week that started here in San Diego because of something that I did, support of the Negro League players.

They never considered that.

That's another thing that I was involved in, in making happen.

There are so many things that are different.

There's technology, in terms of where they teach guys how to play the game, and it's not always correct.

I wouldn't recommend going simply to the computer and using analytics and statistics to try to teach a person to play.

I know you, you're going for the old fashioned way.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

So a lot of things are different, but I would always recommend to young people it's a great game.

It's something that I loved and I would tell parents, let kids play another sport because they may not be any good in baseball and they should play soccer, tennis, football, anything else too?

Well, I've been speaking with Dave Winfield.

His book is called Touching All the Bases A Story of Power, purpose, and Surviving the Bronx.

Dave, thanks so much for being here.

My pleasure.

Andrew.

That's a portion of the full interview that you can watch on the KPBS YouTube page.

Roundtable airs Fridays at noon on KPBS FM.

You can also stream it wherever you get your podcasts.

The final home game of the regular season is this weekend.

First wave FC, but they have plenty of more soccer to play.

These are highlights from the waves recent win in North Carolina, where Melanie Barcenas led the team with two goals.

That performance clinched a home game in the upcoming National Women's Soccer League playoffs.

As for Sunday's regular season home finale, The Wave will host Boston Legacy.

It's a day game starting at 4 p.m.

at Snapdragon Stadium and will feature a military appreciation theme.

All right, let's go through our weather headlines as dry and warmer weather is on the way for the weekend here, as temperatures warm back to near the historical average.

And then we will start to turn cooler again as we head into next week.

So as we go through tonight, temperatures cool back down to the 50s along the coast.

Upper 40s, low 50s, inland valleys, deserts back down to the 50s.

And Mount Laguna, the only place across the mountains that we're going to be dealing with.

Maybe a lingering shower here still through the overnight period as we're drying out, further north and west.

All right.

We take it in to tomorrow's forecast.

And how about some more sunshine on the way and things kind of back to the historical average.

So for the coast that's mid 70s 75 with sunshine.

Can't beat that.

Inland valleys will be into the mid to upper 70s into the desert locations near 80 and the mountains near 50.

So quite nice here.

A snapshot of the weekend if you do have any travel plans here.

As the ridge starts to build back across the west.

Still going to be dealing with that dip in the jet stream mentioned storm air conditions and even a little bit of rain and snow back towards Colorado and cooler weather towards the Intermountain west, and staying dry and pleasant for a lot of the East coast of the United States.

Outside of some showers and rough surf conditions for the east coast of Florida.

All right.

We take it into the five day forecast again here locally for the coast.

Sunny and 75.

Perfect kind of weather for Saturday with temperatures warming back up Sunday and Monday and then seeing a gradual cooling trend as we head into Tuesday and Wednesday of next week in the valleys look pretty nice for the weekend.

Upper 70s become 80s 84 for Sunday and Monday, so a warmer start to next week.

Staying warm to the 80s Tuesday and then clouds increase and temperatures lower by Wednesday at 77 for the mountains.

A sunny but cool weekend.

High of 50.

And then we'll see temperatures back to near 60 as we head into next week.

And for the deserts, we'll stay pretty pleasant with temperatures into the mid 80s.

For KPBS news, I'm Ariella Scalese.

Our digital ofrenda, or Digital Altar, is back this year at kpbs.org.

It's an online space where the community is invited to honor and remember their departed loved ones.

The tributes coincide with the Dia de Dia de Los Muertos, or day of the dead holiday.

We're still accepting submissions to be included in our digital ofrenda.

We already have dozens of entries this year.

You can also view the digital render in Spanish.

To see more, look for the banner at the top of our homepage, KPBS.org The longtime owner of San Diego's Les Girls Theater, says the venue always had ghosts.

So when John Schnitzer was looking for a haunted venue for his Something Spooky show, he had a match.

KPBS arts reporter Beth Accomando joined them to check for Paranormal Activity at the nearly 60 year old landmark.

I'm John Schnitzer.

With something spooky.

It's a paranormal comedy show that I only do in haunted theaters.

And I said, do you have to come to San Diego?

Because I can assure you that Les Girls has many ghosts here.

Kata Pierce-Morgan is the owner of Les Girls Theater.

She insists there have always been ghosts of dancers seeking refuge there.

John Schnitzer drove down from L.A., equipped with a spirit box, pendulum and dowsing rods to find out if the venue is indeed haunted.

I brought dowsing rods.

They can be used to find water, lost objects, and communicate with the dead.

Are there any spirits in this room?

Yes.

Okay.

You can be a skeptic and dismiss them as nonsense.

But Albert Einstein did say the dowsing rod is a simple instrument which shows the uncanny reaction of the human nervous system to certain factors which are unknown to us at this time.

So I just got a feeling in my left arm.

Was that you?

Schnitzer identifies a dancer spirit on the stage and asks how many ghosts reside at Les Girls.

Is it more than seven?

More than nine.

More than 12?

More than 20.

More than 30.

Is it more than 40?

No.

Okay, so you got around 30 ghosts in here.

Did you just touch the back of my neck?

I just got this electrical feeling in the back of my neck.

Pierce Morgan was pleased the dancers were haunting her theater.

I was totally comfortable with what was happening, and it was felt very, accurate and a lot of integrity to a lot of truth to it.

I wasn't, like, shocked.

Is there more paranormal activity, more spirits in the back room?

Yes.

And that's where Schnitzer encountered the spirit of Angela, a dancer thought to have died by suicide.

Okay, good.

If you can go to the clear so we can.

Thank you.

Is this Angela?

So this is.

We're talking to Angela right now.

I'm sorry.

I'm scared because I have a feeling you can feel the.

It's like electrical.

And it's also, like, very sad.

Oh, and that's about real quick.

Once I. Oh oh, oh, I just got chills, like, all over chill.

She just revealed she had not taken her own life.

Lets just double check.

Angela.

Angela, did you just say that you were.

Were you murdered by your husband?

Did your husband try to make it look like a suicide?

So you did not.

You did not commit suicide, okay?

You did not.

You were murdered by your husband.

Pierce-Morgan then directs Schnitzer to the women's bathroom.

Is there a different spirit with us in this room, where vice officers often harass the dancers, and he finds the spirit of a cop?

It's hard to trust you because you're at a place where you're not wanted.

In the corner in front of the ladies bathroom.

Go further.

You want me to go further?

Go in the bathroom.

You want me to go to the bathroom?

That's where the bad guys.

Are you kidding me?

The girls pinned up against.

You're scaring out of me right now.

Are you.

Are you inside the bathroom?

Stop!

It is like a horror movie right now.

This is really scary.

Like you're telling me.

Go for it.

What a creep.

Dude, you got to move on.

This is really creepy.

I think she's out of this room.

I really do.

We spent 2.5 hours at Les girls.

It is very haunted.

Gave me the chills and I could feel it.

I mean, I've been here since 1970, and I'm telling you, I'm not afraid in here at all.

Even with the bad renegade cops, I dealt with them in real life.

Them being dead doesn't bother me at all.

You know, my concern is for the dancers that are here.

They're dead.

But this was the where they felt safe.

Something spooky is coming to Les girls.

And then you can come decide for yourself if the girls is truly haunted.

Beth Accomando, KPBS news.

Something spooky indeed.

You can find tonight's stories on our website, kpbs.org.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Jacob Aere.

Have a wonderful evening and weekend.

Major funding for KPBS Evening Edition has been made possible in part by Bill Howe, family of companies providing San Diego with plumbing, heating, air restoration and flood services for over 45 years.

Call 1-800 bill or visit billhowe.com And by the Conrad Prebys Foundation.

Darlene Marcos Shiley and by the following.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.