Thank you for joining us for this.

Look at some of the best stories from Kpbs news this week I'm Maya Trabulsi, coming up.

Balboa Park has a huge backlog of overdue maintenance.

New parking fees will cover some of it.

We'll tell you about the plans to spend that money.

Do Americans still share the same civic values?

It's a question we're examining in a new Public Matters series, and that includes the concept of empathy for those who are struggling.

And Kpbs isn't the only local outlet dealing with cuts to public broadcasting.

Here from San Diego's jazz station CSD is about the challenge it's facing.

We start with more Ice arrests this week at immigration court in downtown San Diego, nearly a dozen clergy and laypeople showed up to lend their support for refugees and asylum seekers.

Alexander Nguyen says it's part of a new ministry by the Catholic Diocese of San Diego.

They're clergy and parishioners who are volunteering their time to accompany refugees and asylum seekers for their day at immigration court.

It's a new interfaith program headed by the Catholic Diocese of San Diego.

God, who hears the cry of the poor is there with them.

They're there to provide comfort, hope, and faith.

Literally, it stands for faithful accompaniment in trust and hope.

Know that they're not alone.

Father Hung Nguyen from Our Lady of Guadalupe thinks their presence has helped.

If I give them a sense of hope.

If I give them a sense of inner peace to find a way to move forward.

That's a big win.

The program is a follow up to the efforts started six weeks ago on World Refugee Day, where Bishop Michael Pham and other religious leaders accompany refugees on their immigration hearings.

He says he felt compelled to act after seeing the Ice raids in El Cajon and North Park.

Pham says this is personal for him because those rates reminded him of the regime he fled in Vietnam as a young boy who were very oppressed, who did the same rates as what, we saw here.

That's why it takes another level of how serious this is for me.

Ice agents have been sticking out in the hallway of immigration courts to detain asylum and refugee seekers after the cases were heard.

The hope is that with the presence of clergy, those courthouse arrests will stop.

Father Nguyen says That hasn't been the case, at least on the first day of the ministry.

Yesterday, in the afternoon, there were two arrests.

You know, ice agents were there.

And so there were two arrests.

Last Friday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Ice agents must have probable cause to arrest people they believe are in the country illegally.

Court observers say it's too early to tell.

The Ninth Circuit's ruling is having an effect.

The ministry says they're going to be here offering support throughout the month of August.

In downtown San Diego, Alexander Nguyen Kpbs news.

New research is measuring the economic impact of Ice arrests in California.

Gustavo Solis says it shows nearly half a million Californians did not show up to work the week after the Trump administration ramped up immigration raids.

Would you believe me if I told you that immigration arrests are hurting California's workforce about as much as the beginning of the Great Recession in 2008?

That's exactly what is going on, according to a new report out of UC Merced.

I'm Gustavo Solis, and this is the border brief.

Now, this is the first report that examines the economic impact of the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign.

It relies on monthly surveys from the US Census Bureau to tell us how many people showed up to work in a specific week.

And anyone can download the data from this website.

But it's massive.

So much so that it almost crashed my computer.

So instead of doing this myself, I talked to Edward Flores.

He runs the UC Merced's Community and Labor Center, and he told me that the survey could not have come at a better time in June.

It just so happens that the current population survey was being collected the week after the escalation and immigration enforcement actions in California.

The results show a 3.1% drop in the number of people reporting to work in California during that week.

So in California, this translates into roughly 465,000 fewer Californians reporting having worked during the week of escalated immigration enforcement.

That's comparable to the first month of the Great Recession of 2008, when California saw a 3% drop, according to the report.

One of the most interesting things about this report is that it contradicts talking points about immigrants taking jobs away from Americans.

The data show that when Ice arrests immigrants, the entire workforce, citizens and non-citizens lose work.

Edward told me that this plays out in all sorts of ways.

If just one piece of the supply chain is reliant on immigrant labor, like farm workers, for instance.

Removing that piece creates a domino effect on the entire system.

If crops are not being harvested, they're not being transported, they're not being stored.

They're not being sold.

Immigrants being too afraid to shop.

What happens to the stores that rely on immigrant customers?

A manager could tell their employees not to come in to work, because there's not enough work, or Americans who need someone to watch their kid while they work.

The daycare industry is very reliant on immigrant labor.

If they cannot care for children or elderly person so that others can work, then those people have to return from the labor market and to their homes to do those caregiving activities.

Edward told me this is just the first report of an ongoing project.

He plans to look at these surveys over the next few months to get a clearer picture of what's going on.

Thank you for watching.

I'm Gustavo Solis, and this is the border brief.

And Gustavo's border brief has become a regular segment in recent weeks.

You can find past segments on the Kpbs YouTube page.

That is where we post all of our stories, along with podcasts and other Kpbs programing.

It is also where we live.

Stream Kpbs Evening Edition weeknights at five.

Starting next month, prices will increase around Petco Park during special events, and plans to charge for parking in Balboa Park are moving forward.

Kpbs Metro reporter Andrew Bowen says there's a long list of maintenance needs waiting for that funding.

For years, San Diego has offered a free tram service that circulates throughout Balboa Park.

The city is planning to expand the trams operating hours this year, using revenue from paid parking as soon as October.

The city plans to install parking meters on Sixth Avenue and Park Boulevard.

Soon, the city council will also vote on charging for the parking lots, and there's no shortage of ideas on how to spend the revenue.

So there's the day to day maintenance needs of the park, right?

And then and then that doesn't even take into consideration the 500, at least $500 million that we expect in deferred maintenance that the park needs.

Katy McDonald is president and CEO of Forever Balboa Park, the nonprofit that raises money from philanthropists to support the park.

The group opposes paid parking, but recognizes the city has to find money somewhere.

The park needs new bathrooms, tree maintenance.

There's even a former landfill on the park's East Mesa that the city hopes to clean up someday.

Issues about roofs on all of these beautiful buildings.

It's about making sure that the stucco is maintaining itself and not falling down.

So there are there are millions and millions and millions of dollars of work that Balboa Park needs.

Kpbs analyzed Fix it requests submitted through San Diego's Get It Done app.

Balboa Park has roughly 500 open requests just related to transportation issues like broken sidewalks and curbs.

Very frequently, even during December nights, street lights are a big concern when it gets fairly dark in the park, so there's plenty of infrastructure where this revenue could be utilized to improve the park amenities.

The city council is expected to vote on phase two of the paid parking plan at sometime in the fall.

Andrew Bowen, Kpbs news.

For our next story.

Do not adjust your television set.

As part of our Public Matters initiative, we have this San Diego 101 episode shot in retro style voice of San Diego.

Reporter Bella Ross explains why housing is so hard to build.

And Kpbs and our Public matters partners recently did a deep dive into where housing is being built and where it's not.

Check out the series@kpbs.org slash who's backyard Local high school students are wrapping up summer internships at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, Kpbs education reporter Katie Anastas tells us about one student who spent her summer researching how plants and fungi talk to each other.

Kelly Semtner graduated from high tech High Mesa in June.

She first visited the Salk Institute with her high school biology class.

I've always found plants that really interesting species to work on, so I wanted to try molecular plant biology.

She spent eight weeks this summer doing just that in Lena mueller's lab.

Mueller studies the relationship between fungi and plants.

The roots can take up nutrients from the soil, right?

But they have, like a limited reach.

Fungi inside the roots can expand that reach, helping the plant access more nutrients.

Semtner's work has focused on which plant genes sense the presence of fungi.

The microscopy was really interesting, to be able to see where, like, different genes are active actually in the roots, and you can see where the fungi has actually colonized in the roots.

Centuries of breeding have made it harder for crop plants to interact with fungi.

Mueller hopes this research could help reverse that and reduce dependance on chemical fertilizers.

The hope will be to be more sustainable with our agricultural practices by exploiting these natural relationships more.

Sumtner eight week internship has given her enough time to see an experiment through from start to finish.

From sowing the seeds to harvesting the plants, to staining the roots in order to see the fungus under a microscope.

This internship has taught me a lot about what a real research job looks like, and what a really strong community, can teach you and help you grow.

She's one of 13 local high school students who did research at the Salk Institute this summer.

Mueller says they bring curiosity and excitement to their work.

We all have, like, great interest in, you know, training the next generation of scientists because, these are the people who are going to be making the discoveries, that that are going to solve the the problems of the future.

Sumtner's path to becoming a scientist takes her to UC Santa Barbara this fall, where she plans to study biology.

Katie Anastas, Kpbs news Make sure you sign up for our newsletter to get a list of our most popular stories, and here are some from this week.

Immigration agents arrest a parent outside of a Chula Vista elementary school.

Groundbreaking will lead to hundreds of affordable housing units coming to Mission Valley and Oceanside ranks as a top place for retirees as the city develops a plan to help seniors thrive.

Lived experiences is a nonprofit that two brothers started in a church basement and then took on the road, bringing food and services to North County communities.

Now they have a new home.

And Kpbs North County reporter Tani a Thorn says the brothers have big dreams for the future.

Dreams come true.

Yeah.

So this is a long time coming.

And so we started at the bottom of a church with the same idea that we could have a space, a safe space to provide love, peace, opportunity.

Oscarin Ortega used to organize mobile food distributions and hold a free laundry trailer to different communities.

Before it would have to be one day in Carlsbad, one day in Oceanside.

We would spread ourselves out then.

Now those resources are being offered at lived experiences physical location in Oceanside.

People can come by, do some laundry, play some lottery, some Zumba classes.

It's great, you know?

Ortega says he and his brother want to create a community space, especially for the youth.

There's a lot of things that we didn't.

We we grew up without, you know, a lot of times we didn't have food.

We never had washers and dryers, mentors.

These things mean a lot to us.

They had hoped to add more computers for kids and resources for the community, but their funding has hit a bump in the road.

Ortega says they were expecting a $150,000 grant from the Latino Coalition, but it got rescinded in the last federal budget.

We call ourselves the richest brokest nonprofit, you know, out there.

The money that we do get is just going right back into the community for now.

They are relying on community support from people like Henry Ocampo, a lowrider bike enthusiast.

So we're trying to figure out ways to just build bikes, have kids come in, get them off the streets, get them, do something positive, and, you know, show that our community can do something beautiful, something that shines, something that's, you know, eye catching.

The bikes are also available for the public to rent as a way to generate income for the center.

And there are services like a diaper bank.

And I would say it's very helpful because you never know what people are going through.

And to know that they have a place like this, it's it's it's awesome.

You don't see this everywhere.

And, like, I feel like back, back in the days when I was a child, there wasn't any stuff like this.

The center is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m.

to 8 p.m.

on North Redondo Drive in Oceanside.

The brothers goal is to offer more classes and resources to their North County communities.

The way we see ourselves is there's Boys and Girls Club, there's YMCA and then there's lived experiences.

So we want to definitely not be competitive, but we want to be a natural kind of resource center for others.

And that's not a support system for for the community.

Tania Thorne, Kpbs news.

Billionaire Elon Musk calls empathy suicidal to Western civilization.

But a local neuroscientist says feeling empathy and acting on it are not just pivotal to our health, but to humanity's salvation.

Kpbs reporter Amita Sharma brings us this story.

The first in a six part series about civic values, empathy means feeling and emotions it's as needed to humans as hearing, vision, taste.

So says William Mobley, founding director of the Stanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion.

He explains the parts of the brain that activate when we are sad, distressed, happy also switch on when we see others in those states.

Compassion is acting on empathy.

For example, over a quarter at San Diegans volunteer at hospitals, nursing homes, food pantries and animal shelters, a recent poll shows most Americans believe empathy and compassion are declining.

Mobley says, we're overwhelmed.

We're at a point where there's just too much suffering, but we turn away from it and we just say, well, homelessness is bad war is bad.

This is a hostile place to live.

But, you know, I'm just one person.

I need to try to live my life.

But Mobley challenges us not to look away because the images of others pain will remain in the brain and burn.

You know what happens when you do that?

You begin to blunt your feelings, even in your own environment.

You begin to think that one way to deal with discomfort is to ignore it.

And when you ignore discomfort, you begin to become less of the person that you could be, and you lose the opportunity to see the other person and become aware of them and care for them and be compassionate.

And that hurts you just like it hurts the other person.

He applies that principle to all of humanity struggling with polarization now more than ever, Mobley says it's important for people to talk to others who don't look or think like them.

Doing that, though, first requires a commitment to empathy.

Amita Sharma, Kpbs news.

Amita Sharma reporting.

And that was part one in a series about civic values.

Public matters is a partnership with Kpbs, Inews source and voice of San Diego.

You can see more of our stories at Kpbs .org/public Matters.

Think of public radio in San Diego and our radio station, Kpbs FM, probably comes to mind, but there is another public radio station in San Diego that's also facing the challenge of federal budget cuts.

John Carroll spent some time at KSDS jazz 88.3 recently to listen and to learn.

Broadcasting from the campus of City College.

This is member supported KSDS San Diego.

Larry Murry with you.

It is midday.

Jazz in the afternoon.

San Diego Jazz FM 88.3.

Tucked into the L building adjacent to Curran Plaza, is a radio station that's been around since 1951.

Back then, it was a student radio station.

It morphed into a public radio station by the time 1973 rolled around.

And in 1985, it became San Diego's only jazz and blues station.

We've been successful at keeping that for over 50 years, which is really pretty remarkable.

Ken Poston is the general manager of jazz 88.3.

So he understands, like few others, what Kpbs management is dealing with the loss of federal funds.

For us, as you may know, the hit is $4.3 million or 12% of our budget.

Poston is dealing with a much smaller hit in dollars 200,000, but a much bigger one as a percentage of the station's budget.

It's 20% of our operating budget.

All right, San Diego's Jazz 88.3.

With a hit like that.

Poston and his team wasted no time in taking action to plug that hole blown into the budget.

We did a three day emergency fundraiser last week and got about half of it back already.

So, as I suspected, I kind of felt that our listeners were loyal enough and would understand the circumstances enough that they would really step up.

And they did.

Why such loyalty?

Well, just like Kpbs, when jazz 88.3 listeners tune in, they know what to expect.

There are a lot of things that make this place unique.

One of them is that there are no playlists.

All of the on air hosts select their own music.

Here's Blossom Dearie.

This is from a release called Verve Jazz Masters, number 51.

And bang goes the drum.

Someone tells me what to play, when to play it, or anything of that nature.

So yeah, it's really great, you know, because, at this particular station, each one of us has a. A preference.

Some, like quartets, some like big band, some, like, see the dance music of the 40s, and it all gets mixed in and we all sound different.

Before the cutback in federal funding, the future of those sounds was pretty well assured.

But with the cuts comes a difficult question.

What if KSDS is unable to replace the lost funding?

It's a question that's never far from Ken Poston s mind.

As long as we replace it.

There will be no changes whatsoever and that growth will be able to continue at the proper, at the proper rate.

If we were to fall short somehow, then we would have to really sit down and look at things and figure out what has to be done.

But for now, Poston says he's confident the station's listeners will come through.

He says that's because they understand there's so much at stake for one of the only jazz and blues stations left in the country.

We feel very fortunate that we're able to do that, but we also feel a great deal of responsibility because we realize we're one of the last.

All jazz radio stations.

We have no intentions of it being anything else.

A public media organization dedicated to a special mission of preserving a uniquely American art form an organization that is part of the reason San Diego is so special.

John Carroll, Kpbs news.

Oh, that's a great story.

And it is easy to support both of your public media stations.

You can just go to jazz 88.org to support KSDS.

And of course kpbs.org to support us.

We hope that you enjoyed this look at Kpbs news this week.

I'm Maya Trabulsi.

Thanks for joining us.