Well, 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, The view beneath La Jolla Cove, see how technology is making the marine protected area more accessible.

Helping student parents succeed.

San Diego community colleges invest in resources for families.

and a life of generosity, The Logan Heights community remembers the original owner of Lew's Market.

We start with one of the most read stories this week at kpbs.org.

The recent ICE arrest near San Diego City College.

Recent months have brought some of the highest arrest numbers in San Diego and Imperial counties under the current Trump administration.

In this latest case, the local Haitian community is affected.

Jacob Aere spoke with some of them during a protest this week at San Diego's Federal Building, Just days after ICE agents arrested a Haitian student near San Diego City College campus, The Haitian community is making their voice heard through peaceful protest.

They were accompanied by dozens of people who supported their cause gathered outside of the San Diego immigration court.

We're sending a strong signal.

to ICE, to DHS... hands off of our community.

Wister Gaetan is co-founder of Haitian Bridge Alliance, a community organization which helps new arrivals to San Diego.

He says ever since a June Supreme Court ruling allowed the Trump administration to end Temporary protected status, or TPS, for Haitians and Syrian immigrants, fear has washed over their community.

It's terrifying.

It is heartbreaking.

TPS allows people to live and work in the United States when conditions in their home country prevent them from returning.

Mothers are afraid to drop their kid off at school, Children cannot go to school.

Parents cannot leave the house to get basic necessities for the American children.

Willia Caillo is a mother of three, including a three week old son.

Her husband was arrested by ICE in City Heights when the baby was just a week old.

Immigration attorney Wismick Saint-Jean, says what's happening now by immigration enforcement is unconstitutional.

He says the Haitian community is being hunted down When somebody have asylum pending, When somebody came here to seek asylum, they cannot be deported until there's a final decision being made on the asylum cases by a judge.

So to that extent, Haitians who have TPS, who have been detained, those detentions are illegal.

A DHS spokesperson says that the Haitian student arrested near City College will have all his claims heard by an immigration judge, and he will receive due process.

Jacob Aere, KPBS news.

As much as we hear about the Tijuana River pollution crisis, Imperial County has a similar issue that's been going on for years there.

The new River is considered one of the most polluted in America.

KPBS environment reporter Tammy Murga tells us how the EPA is renewing efforts to find a solution.

At Calexico City Hall, the council chambers fill up slowly on a recent Tuesday.

Officials with the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency and the International Boundary and Water Commission are going to announce their commitment to stopping pollution in the new River.

Elected officials, government staff and Border Patrol agents take up most of the seats.

Astrid Calderas is one of the few Calexico residents here.

She says neighbors weren't aware of the meeting.

They are kind of tired of the system.

She says residents have been pushing the state and federal governments for solutions for decades.

She believes her neighbors have developed health conditions related to the pollution.

As an environmental health researcher.

Calderas has documented hydrogen sulfide levels near the river, exceeding state standards.

She says the toxic gas destroys metal, such as residents outdoor air conditioners.

When you see them corrode, I'm like, wait a minute, I live here, my community is impacted, my family is impacted.

At the roundtable, Calderas tells federal officials why her community deserves urgent attention.

The new River flows from Baja California and travels through Imperial County into the Salton Sea.

News reports mention pollution in the river as far back as the 1940s.

According to the state, the crisis is believed to be closely aligned with population growth.

Today, more than 1 million people live in Mexicali, and most of the contamination comes from the industrial sector in Mexicali in Mexico.

Congressman Raul Ruiz represents Calexico.

He's also a physician.

He says the people in his district deserve to live in a healthy environment.

When you hear the stories of people having gastric, esophageal, and other types of cancers and the suspicion that these industrial waste have carcinogens in there, then enough is enough.

He says he's been monitoring the EPA's response to the sewage laced Tijuana River at the San Diego Mexico border.

Last year, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin visited the Tijuana River Valley and vowed to stop that crisis with urgency.

I pressed the administrator to make that same commitment in terms of urgency and priority for the people who live in Imperial Valley, who suffer for many decades from this contamination.

That it's not just about the bigger cities and affluent communities.

Ruiz says he got the EPA's attention.

Our commitment to you is that we're here to do the same.

Mike Martucci is an EPA regional administrator.

He says the agency is working with Mexico on expanding treatment capacity at a plant in Mexicali.

It would prevent more flows from entering the river.

We want to see these projects come to completion as expeditiously as possible.

One of the ways that we do that is to bring pressure to Mexico, to move those projects along at a pace that's acceptable to us.

Efforts are also underway to upgrade and expand a treatment plant in Calexico.

The city of Calexico is applying for state bonds to fund that work.

And there could be new agreements with Mexico.

What else is in that water?

What else is in the water?

Wayne Belzer is with the IBWC.

His agency is conducting a water quality study that could determine what in the water needs to be regulated in those agreements.

The US and Mexico, all the stakeholders and all the agencies that are involved through our meetings to sit there and review that data and look at the look at the results and say, okay, well, what is the the sources of concern?

What is our next steps?

He says the study is not ready to publish.

In all her years of advocating for her community.

Caldera says this is the first time she's heard federal officials acknowledge they've fallen short.

I'm very hopeful that there's something going to be happening.

Especially because Doctor Ruiz was on the table.

Ruiz says cleaning the new river will also help the Salton Sea and make the valley a healthier place to live.

It must be the Imperial Valley's moment.

Tammy Murga, KPBS news.

Now, this next story has racked up tens of thousands of views on KPBS YouTube page.

It features La Jolla's vibrant underwater ecosystems that are protected by the state.

KPBS science and technology reporter Carly Kay shows us what's being done to make it more accessible.

*seal barking* La Jolla Cove is known for its barking sea lions.

If you've only seen it from the shore, you may think that's all there is to see.

But below the surface is a vibrant world of fish, seaweed and sharks that are hiding in plain sight.

I was just kind of blown away.

The kelp forests out here, the rocky reefs, the seagrass beds.

I just couldn't believe I had lived here in San Diego my entire life, and I just had no idea we had such beautiful marine life here.

Zach Cabading is a recent graduate from Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

He regularly dives in Matlahuayl State Marine Reserve.

It's one of the state's 124 marine protected areas.

But he says many people don't know it exists.

And if they do, they might not be able to get access to it.

Some people just are not physically able to go out swimming or diving.

Some people just lack economic access to be able to do the lessons or buy the gear that can help them get out into the water.

Now, anyone can dip a toe into the underwater park without ever touching the water.

Cabading created this virtual tour of ten different unique habitats in the reserve, with just a click of a mouse.

Users plunge beneath the surface and are submerged in an immersive ocean oasis.

I wanted to do a project that could kind of introduce people to these marine ecosystems without making them get wet, or have to pay a bunch of money to do a scuba course or something like that.

The tour takes visitors to popular dive spots like La Hoya, Cove, Sandler's Bank, and the Marine Room.

Guests can scroll along the bottom, similar to Google Street View.

Then the screen comes to life with creatures and informative text bubbles.

It's as close as you can get to actually being there.

Where you go, but if you do, you will get the opportunity to get in the ocean.

Cabading encourages you to dive in.

Cabading used a 360 degree camera to create the tool.

He and his team collected 21 hours of footage here.

They captured things like flowing seagrasses, orange Garibaldi's lazy sharks, and playful sea lions.

The area is a no take reserve.

That means people can't fish or collect anything within the protected region.

Cabading says it's one of the reasons why animals and marine protected areas thrive.

I would say that protecting those targeted species is basically like building a superhighway across the food web, and it just makes it easier for energy to be transferred all the way from the bottom, all the way to the top, and back down again.

Cabading hopes that when people see these creatures with their own eyes, they'll want to help join conservation efforts.

He says learning about conservation tools like marine protected areas is especially important right now, because our ocean is under significant stress right now.

We're dealing with rising ocean temperatures.

A very, very severe marine heatwave is due to hit our waters later this year and October or November, which could devastate our marine life and our marine ecosystems here.

Those threats may inspire people to start swapping scrolling with swimming, Cabading is searching for funding to potentially expand the tool to other marine protected areas in the state.

Carly Kay, KPBS news.

And make sure to sign up for our newsletters for a list of our most popular stories.

Here are some from this week.

San Diego City College students rally to protest an ice arrest near campus.

A court overturns approval for an Imperial County data center and orders an environmental review.

And student homelessness is on the rise in California, including here in San Diego.

Here is that story from KPBS penner fellow, Emmy Burrus.

Kimberly Kritzer fell into homelessness at 12 years old in San Diego County when her father lost his job.

We would sneak into the campground park at night, and then we would come out of the campground and we would find wherever really we could sleep.

So we would sleep in Walmart parking lots of times.

And it just it felt so destabilizing as a child, you know, being 12 years old, coming from a life before of going to school and having friends and then just completely losing all of that.

Kritzer and her 14 year old sister had to balance school with the realities of being homeless.

Kritzer didn't enter a stable living situation until she began at San Diego City College.

Her parents put her in an online program before Kritzer said she loved learning, But that changed when her family fell into homelessness.

When I was in early elementary school and I loved school like I just I was a kid who sat at the front.

I raised my hand, I asked all the questions.

I was so engaged.

And then when my family ended up experiencing homelessness, I lost all of that passion, all of that drive.

A recent study from UCLA shows that San Diego County has the fourth highest count of homeless students across all California counties.

And San Diego Unified has the second highest out of every district in the state.

That's in line with the growing statewide trend of student homelessness.

The UCLA study used publicly available data from the California Department of Education 2018 to 2025.

Kristy Drake is the homeless foster liaison for San Diego Unified.

She says there's usually about 8% of students experiencing homelessness in the district.

That's about 8000 kids.

I mean, of course, one student that's experiencing homelessness is too many, but, 8000 is a large number and 8% is a large percentage of kids to be housing unstable, even if it's not the largest.

Drake says chronic absenteeism and homelessness go hand in hand.

She also says children experiencing homelessness that don't graduate high school over 300% more likely to become homeless adults.

Making sure that kids are getting to school consistently is our number one issue.

There's also they if you're living, for example, outdoors or in a car or in substandard housing, you know, you're sick more often, so you're missing more school.

So chronic absenteeism and homelessness go hand in hand.

Kritzer finished her online high school program, started at San Diego City College, and now has a bachelor's and master's from San Diego State.

The second my housing needs were met and I was enrolled in school.

Everything went right back to it where I just could fully focus on my school, my grades.

Emmy Burrus, KPBS News.

and Public Matters is a partnership with KPBS, inewsource, and Voi You can see more of our stories at kpbs.org/public matters.

Getting a college degree can take a lot of time and energy for any student, and then add kids to the mix, and it can feel impossible.

KPBS education reporter Katie Anastis says San Diego City College is working to strengthen its support for student parents.

I came and look at the school.

We just walked around and I was like, I want to be here.

Elizabeth Lugo is studying social work and child development at San Diego City College.

She has two kids aged 13 and nine.

Her busy day starts well before she gets to campus and continues after she's done with class.

There's meal prep school drop off and pick up kids homework and then her own.

It is pretty challenging.

And sometimes you when you come to school and see like other students, like not trying to compare, but when they don't have children, it's like you can see... it's a difference because you come with all the stress to school and their days are so different from us.

This year, San Diego City College is joining a nationwide cohort of colleges working to strengthen their support for student parents.

It's called family U. Over the next two years, college administrators will analyze their existing policies and create new ones to support students with kids.

And we just know that we need to do better as a college to better proactively support them.

Ivan Sanchez is the dean of student affairs at City College.

He says 20% of their students are parents.

The library has a family study room, but they want to do more.

Sanchez says the college plans to use bond funding to build a new welcome center.

That center will include a dedicated space for parents.

It will also house offices that manage support services for low income students and single parents.

Instead of having to go from here to another building or two buildings over, either with a stroller or with little kids.

Lugo says that would help.

She says access to those programs can give student parents the confidence to enroll.

Sometimes they are afraid to start because they don't know that there's programs that will support them or that they will have resources, so they get discouraged.

City, Mesa and Miramar colleges have child development centers on campus.

Priority for their child care services goes to student families.

But Sanchez says there's a wait list.

That's going to be one of the partners that we'll be looking at to see if we can do this kind of like drop in, drop out or, you know, kind of situation, or if we need to build something within the space.

One of the goals for Family View is to improve how colleges collect data on student parents.

Sanchez says that data can help school leaders prove the need for financial support.

How do we not just bring these resources to our students, but how do we validate their existence through data so that we can push and advocate for ongoing funding?

Mesa College participated in FamilyU in 2023.

Johanna Aleman is the college's basic needs coordinator.

Her department provides food, clothing, and school supplies to students.

She already knew many of the students they served were parents, so we couldn't just do surface level stuff.

We had to start digging in deeper for things.

Things like campus policies and how they're enforced.

Campus policy says children can't be left unattended.

They're not allowed in classrooms, but otherwise they're allowed in places like dining halls.

Even with that, like we had employees who are telling parents, you can't have your kid here.

But the guideline is as long as the child, the minor child is with a guardian or adult, they're allowed on campus.

Aleman says they needed campus culture to change.

They started reminding staff about the policy at the start of the school year.

They're working to add changing tables to campus bathrooms and high chairs to dining halls.

They also created the Family Resource Center.

It has kids toys, books, diapers, and infant clothing, and there's room for parents to study.

Della McCullough has brought her daughter here throughout the last two years.

I would pick her up right out of school, and we would come here and we would just sit here and I would need to do homework.

And she was able to occupy herself while I was occupying myself.

McCullough is a single mom.

She says she felt disconnected from her younger classmates when she first got to Mesa.

Events for student parents helped her find her community.

And I love to share this fact all the time that it's actually one out of five students that are parents.

So it's like, oh, you could be a parent.

And I just don't know.

Generation Hope is the organization that puts on family U. They say student parents have higher GPAs on average than their non parenting classmates, but they're ten times less likely to graduate on time.

I'm not going to lie.

Parents probably think about it often.

I think we're constantly thinking about if if this is going to be the day that we're just going to have to sacrifice what's important to us for the benefit of the family.

Oh, yeah.

But I think, and I remind myself, that both can be done, especially when college professors, staff and policymakers are ready to help.

Katie Anastas, KPBS news.

Before there were big grocery stores in the 70s, many neighborhoods depended on the small markets for everyday goods.

And one of those stores was Lew's Market.

In Logan Heights, the original owner, Jimmy Lew, recently passed away.

Alexander Nguyen talked to residents who fondly remember his generosity.

Very kind and very giving.

He was just a real kind person.

Good, kind hearted people.

When people talk about Jimmy Lew, one thing keeps coming up.

His kindness.

He would give things to the kids, like Like he'd give my son like a slice of baloney.

He was little.

Gave us whatever we needed.

Put us on the book.

My parents come in later and pay them off.

James Lew is his son.

He describes his dad as a well-intentioned people pleaser who often extended credit.

People saw it as like a community bank, they called it.

And so, yeah, you know, just the idea that you recall have mental flashes of his little notebooks where he would have running tabs with, you know, people and the note annotations, what was paid off, what was written off.

James's grandparents opened Lew's Market in the 1970s at the corner of 33rd Street and Imperial Avenue.

At the time, they were the only Chinese family in the neighborhood.

It was mostly, Mexican in that, black neighborhood.

René Bejarano and his wife Delia used to live behind Lew's market.

We moved there, like, in 1974.

He remembers the family keeping to themselves.

They lived upstairs in the apartment above the market.

Jimmy Lew died August 15th.

The news came as a shock.

I couldn't believe it.

Yeah, I couldn't leave it.

He passed away because I had heard about, Philip.

But, Jimmy, I used to see him every day, and just.

It just seemed like he would live a long, long time.

I just don't think, you know, I think he was probably 76, 77.

And he just looked a lot healthier.

And the one thing René Bejarano remembers most about Jimmy is that his generosity extended to animals, too.

He would get a big bone with some meat on it and give it to my dog, and my dog would go down the, because we lived right behind Lew's Market in the alley, and he would just go down the alley with a big bone in his mouth, walking slowly, and all the dogs would go crazy.

James Lew says his father was generous.

My own cousins, you know, they tell me about, you know, kind of like the private embarrassment that they would have when my aunts would send them to the store with, like, a handwritten note asking for assistance in the things that they need.

And, you know, like, to him It was no, no big deal.

One of those cousins is José Briceño He still lives in the neighborhood.

Him and Felipe They both have their little books in their little pocket.

You know, we'll walk in there, be like, all we need is.

We need that.

And he was like, okay, you got money?

No we don't.

Well, I'm gonna put it on your desk.

Ready?

Last name says that generosity helped a lot of families.

It did help us out sometimes.

Maybe we didn't have it at the time.

I don't know, I was too young to even know what you mean.

What was money like that?

You know, I mean, but we know.

I just know that we walked in there.

They helped us out.

They gave us whatever we needed.

The Lew's sold the market in 2017.

But it still bears their name.

And the younger generation of the family still lives upstairs.

James says the outpouring of support reminds him how much he needs to live up to his father's name.

There's a certain existential pressure that comes with, you know, coming from that.

And then also, you know, having been given, like his name, being born a junior.

So it wasn't very much, you know, this expectation that, oh, one day you were going to be exactly where your father is.

The market still stands.

And while Jimmy Lew is gone, the memories live on through the people in the neighborhood who will never forget his charitable heart.

Alexander Nguyen, KPBS news.

Next summer, the city of la mesa will host its first ever pride event, thanks to funding approved by the City council this week, KPBS East County reporter Elaine Alfaro says San Diego's historic LGBTQ plus diversionary theater will play a big role.

I'm going to say something I thought I would never say up here, but we call it Las Mesa or La Gaeza We're very happy to have you here.

That's council member Lauren Cazares at Tuesday's meeting, where the council voted unanimously to allocate $15,000 for the event.

Cazares, who is part of the LGBTQ plus community, spoke about the meaning of this milestone in an interview with KPBS today.

For all of the young la masons who, maybe know that they're members of the community or don't know that they're members of the community yet, I think it means a lot to show them that not only will there be an event and will they and this community be publicly celebrated, but it's something that the entirety of the la mesa City Council, supports and is behind.

And, I wish I could have seen that when I was a kid.

But I'm so glad that this next generation gets to see it because there are many adults, that still don't know that they are, safe and welcomed here in East County.

Diversionary theater will put on the event, which is tentatively scheduled for next June, at the Alyson Avenue municipal parking lot near downtown.

It will have food vendors and entertainment, including a live music stage.

Troy Tinker is a la mesa resident and answered questions about the event during the council meeting.

But we do hope it will grow, and many of you may not know that there's, this community has other than, Hillcrest has the highest level of LGBTQ plus people living in it.

And, we own a home here, and we love it.

And we're glad.

We're glad that our community supports us.

Funding for the event will come from the city's parking fund.

Another $20,000 was allocated for a wellness fair that will happen in la mesa's downtown next year.

Elaine Alfaro, KPBS news.

And another way to keep up with KPBS is the San Diego News Now podcast.

New episodes are available weekday mornings on all podcast platforms and at KPBS.org We hope that you enjoyed this look at KPBS news this week.

I'm Maya Trabulsi, thank you so much for joining us.