The San Diego Union-Tribune

Wonderfront festival's 2024 lineup will feature Beck, Weezer, the Roots, Kaytranada, T-Pain, and more

SAN DIEGO — The 2024 edition of San Diego's Wonderfront Music & Arts Festival will feature a mix of veteran music stars — including Beck, Weezer and the Roots — along with such rising young acts as singer-actor Dominic Fike, Samm Henshaw, Abby Anderson and the hip-hop duo Paris Texas. This will mark the first San Diego-area festival performance by the Roots — the longtime house band on TV's "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" — since 2015. To be held May 10-12 alongside San Diego Bay, the festival is again receiving underwriting and in-kind services from the Port of San Diego and the San ...

San Diego State University report calls Tijuana River contamination 'a public health crisis'

SAN DIEGO — A new report from researchers at San Diego State University, citing "untreated sewage, industrial waste, and urban run-off due to inadequate infrastructure and urbanization," calls the Tijuana River "a public health crisis" that imperils the good health of a wide range of people who live, recreate and work near the polluted waterway, particularly when wet weather causes floods to spread.

Recent snowstorms may bolster California hydroelectric output this summer

All the rain that has led to swollen rivers and flooding in parts of San Diego and large portions of Southern California has coincided with multiple snowstorms that blew across the Sierra Nevada in the northern half of the state.

That may translate to a second consecutive year of robust output from the state's hydroelectric power plants, which would help bolster the electric grid this summer.

But officials at the California Independent System Operator, which manages the power system for about 80 percent of the state, aren't celebrating yet.

Corridos singer Chuy Montana reportedly kidnapped and fatally shot in Tijuana

TIJUANA, Mexico — Rising Mexican corridos singer Jesús Cárdenas, better known as Chuy Montana, was shot to death Wednesday on a stretch of the Rosarito to Tijuana highway, according to multiple reports. The body was found handcuffed with gunshot wounds at the roadside, Tijuana’s Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection Fernando Sánchez said Thursday to local media. Police believe he was kidnapped before the murder. Sánchez said police later confirmed that the victim was a singer. The news site Punto Norte and others reported that the victim was Cárdenas. A spokesperson with the Baja Califo...

Effort underway to recover remains of 5 Marines killed in California helicopter crash

SAN DIEGO — Five Marines aboard the helicopter that went down in East County mountains amid a vicious winter storm this week died in the crash, military officials confirmed Thursday.

The crew and their CH-53E Super Stallion was last heard from around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday while flying from Creech Air Force Base just outside Las Vegas to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, officials said.

At the time, snow, rain and strong winds were pelting the aircraft's last known location near Pine Valley.

Former Border Patrol agent admits taking bribes to help drugs, people cross border

A former San Diego-area U.S. Border Patrol agent pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to bribery and drug charges, admitting that he was paid at least $110,000 to use his position to help smuggle drugs and undocumented immigrants across the border from Mexico. Hector Hernandez, 55, pleaded guilty to one count each of attempted distribution of methamphetamine and receiving a bribe by a public official, according to his plea agreement. As part of his deal, prosecutors dropped a second bribery charge. Hernandez agreed as part of the plea deal to forfeit $110,000 in drug trafficking and briber...

Censured San Diego judge denies 'racist and insensitive comments' alleged by public defender chiefs

SAN DIEGO — A recently censured San Diego Superior Court judge who was accused earlier this month of making "racist and insensitive comments" both in his courtroom and in a private meeting with two chief public defenders has denied those allegations, writing in a court filing that some of his comments were taken out of context and others were simply not true.

The denials were part of a filing in which Judge Howard Shore declined to recuse himself from hearing a motion in a homicide case.

San Diego federal judge upholds California law limiting rifle purchases by young adults under 21

A San Diego federal judge has upheld a California law that limits people under the age of 21 from buying semi-automatic rifles and other long guns, ruling that similar laws dating back centuries have also limited gun ownership by young adults for safety reasons. "The restrictions embodied in (the challenged law) were enacted because individuals under the age of 21 lack cognitive maturity and are disproportionately prone to violence," U.S. District Judge M. James Lorenz wrote in his ruling, filed Friday. "For the same reasons, the rights of this age group were curtailed during the Founding era,...

New court filings suggest more reduced charges, further crumbling of 'Fat Leonard' prosecutions

Four defense attorneys submitted letters Friday to a San Diego federal judge suggesting the government has agreed to deals on lesser charges — and in one case will grant a complete dismissal of charges — with five military officers who previously pleaded guilty to more serious offenses in connection with the U.S. Navy's "Fat Leonard" bribery and corruption scandal. The deals, if accurate as described in the letters, would seem to represent further crumbling of the massive, high-profile prosecution, which has been marred in recent years by prosecutorial misconduct and the escape of Leonard Glen...

Coast Guard drug offload highlights cocaine's path from South America to San Diego

SAN DIEGO — The U.S. Department of Justice has unsealed eight indictments in San Diego and elsewhere detailing a massive narcotics trafficking operation by the new bosses of the Beltrán Leyva organization, once one of Mexico's most powerful drug cartels. The announcement Wednesday came the same day the U.S. Coast Guard unloaded more than 18,000 pounds of seized cocaine at the 10th Avenue Marine Terminal in the Barrio Logan neighborhood of San Diego. Officials said the two events were unrelated, as the cocaine offloaded by the Coast Guard was seized over the past two months, while the alleged c...

Long waits for rooms leave patients in ER hallways. Could new law worsen the problem?

Bill Dixon, 80, lay on a bed between two white fabric dividers in the hallway of the emergency department at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas Friday, one of 14 patients waiting for an emergency bed to open up.

He had been there for two hours, having come in from his Solana Beach home with chest pain and dizziness, comfortable with the attention he was getting from medical staff, but taken aback by his surroundings.

"This is really not acceptable from a patient perspective," the Solana Beach resident said. "There's really no privacy."

Migrant arrivals at border continued to rise over past year while drug seizures fell again

SAN DIEGO — Border agents and customs officers along the California border encountered 72% more migrants in the recently ended fiscal year as compared to two years before, according to recently released federal statistics. The head of Border Patrol in the San Diego area said that marked “a level of activity not seen in over two decades,” with the data backing up the sharp increase in immigrant arrivals that led San Diego County officials in September to declare a humanitarian crisis at the border and request more federal help. During that same three-year period in the region of San Diego and I...

After COVID disruption, sick season seems to be setting into its normal pattern

So far, respiratory virus activity in San Diego County has been much more bearable than it was this time last year. Local labs and medical providers reported 942 coronavirus, 425 flu and 297 respiratory syncytial virus cases to the public health department last week. Last year, the numbers were eye-poppingly higher: 3,441 coronavirus, 2,386 flu, 401 RSV, during the same week. It's the same pattern for flu-like symptoms reported by patients visiting local emergency departments. Last week, 4 percent had fevers, coughs and or sore throats compared to 10 percent one year ago. This is what normal l...

UC San Diego disputes video that claims school evacuated a building to protect Jewish students

A video on social media that claims that UC San Diego evacuated a building where Jewish students met to discuss antisemitic threats is untrue, the campus said in statements made over the weekend. "Police report no such action took place," said thefirst statement, issued on Saturday. UC San Diego later added a message noting that it was referring to video involving an Associated Students meeting on Nov. 1. The footage briefly shows people inside the meeting and pro-Palestinian protesters outside. During the meeting, Jewish students and members of Students for Justice in Palestine said they were...

California hospital hit by cybersecurity attack

Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside, California, is diverting ambulance traffic to other hospitals Thursday as it copes with a cybersecurity attack that has forced it to declare "an internal disaster" as workers scramble to contain the damage and protect patient records. The facility's management confirmed the situation in a brief statement, indicating that the hospital's emergency department remains "prepared to manage emergency cases" that may arrive in private vehicles and is "working with our other health system partners to ensure the provision of health care for our community." Tri-City ...