Major funding for Kpbs Evening Edition has been made possible in part by Bill Howe, family of companies providing San Diego with plumbing, heating and air restoration, blood and remodeling services for over 40 years.

Call one 800 Bill Howe or visit Billhowe.com.

And by the Conrad Prebys Foundation.

Darlene Marcos Shiley.

And by the following.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Maya Trabulsi.

It was 1008 this morning when the earth shook under San Diego County.

The USGS says a 5.2 magnitude earthquake hit near Julian.

It was felt across much of southern California and down to just south of Ensenada.

John Carroll talked to a geologist who says there's a silver lining to this quake.

If you have the California Early Warning earthquake app, you saw this on your phone just after ten this morning, an alert saying, get ready for shaking.

For some of us, the shaking had already started once the alert went out.

We felt the shake quite well.

I judged it to be in the magnitude fives that it turns out to be a 5.2.

That's Pat Abbott.

He was a geology professor at San Diego State for many years.

Abbott was in Mission Valley on the third floor of a building.

Though the shaking might have proved scary to some of us.

Not him.

He says for geologists, it's a good learning experience.

That's what I like to call a relatively good kind of an earthquake, because you feel the shake, you have the experience, you have the reminder.

But the only things really they're going to happen are things falling off a shelves.

And it appears that's where most of the damage happened.

But it wasn't just shelves.

CHP reports boulders fell on to State Route 76, La Cresta Road and Valley Center Road.

Caltrans says they sent crews to clear the roadways.

San Diego City Hall closed as a precaution, but Mayor Todd Gloria issued a statement later saying that the city's preliminary assessment was that there was no serious damage to any structures in the city limits.

San Diego Unified says it assessed schools across the district, and they say no buildings were damaged.

The USGS says this is the strongest earthquake to hit San Diego County since 2010, the 15th anniversary of the Easter earthquake is coming up.

That one was a magnitude 7.2 and was felt across San Diego County and much of Southern California, but its epicenter was in Baja California.

Pat Abbott says there's a very small chance that today's quake was a foreshock for a bigger temblor.

But far more likely, he says, is that this was the main quake and will feel aftershocks with steadily declining magnitudes for the next couple of weeks.

John Carroll, Kpbs news.

And there was a series of aftershocks to this morning's quake.

The USGS shows eight of them happening in the hours right after the 5.2 quake, all of them near Julian.

And Kpbs reporter Tania Thorne headed out there to see how people are doing there.

Tania.

A shaky Monday morning.

Maya, for all San Diego County, but especially here in the town of Julian.

We're outside of Mountain Spirit's liquor store, which experienced quite a bit of damage and a close call for the worker behind the register.

We like top shelf bottles, just like broken all over the floor and everything.

And, there's a slider in front of the door over there, but at least some the concerns.

But yeah, it's just like all the high end stuff where all the fun stuff.

But you're usually standing here, right?

So that could have been a close call for you.

Yeah.

If I didn't lock up for that two minutes, I probably would have.

I wouldn't be talking right now.

God forbid.

The owners of the liquor store were more concerned about the safety of the employees than the merchandise lost.

This earthquake was felt across San Diego County, and for some it was a scary experience and for others, an exciting time.

Now in the car, the car started to shake, shaking the whole car.

Was it scary?

Yeah.

What did you think was happening?

I thought the car was going to blow up.

I mean, I just try to help out to the kids, but I'm kind of an adrenaline junkie, so when it comes to the earthquakes, I kind of just hold on.

And, you know, yee-haw.

And on that note, we are happy to report that there was no major damage in the area, SDGE did need to cut off power for some time after the earthquake.

But that has now been fully restored.

Live in Julian.

Tania Thorne, Kpbs news.

About three miles away from the epicenter of the quake, students were putting their earthquake safety training to work.

David Pierce is the principal of Julian Elementary School, and he was visiting a fourth grade classroom when the shaking started just around after ten.

I could not have asked for a better reaction, both from my students and my staff.

Kids immediately under tables waited for the all clear signal.

We evacuated our kids out to the field, made sure everyone was present and accounted for, and inspected the buildings.

No damage to the buildings, inspected for any gas leaks and everything appears to be okay.

We're just so grateful that our kids are safe.

He says none of the school's buildings appear damaged and there are no signs of gas leaks.

In a few minutes, we're going to head downtown, where the earthquake paused.

Construction at a high rise apartment complex.

We continue to look at another night with more low clouds, even some fog potential.

We're going to see this increase over the upcoming nights as temperatures are still staying somewhat comfortable in the mid 50s.

But there's cooler air on the way.

I'll have more details on your full forecast ahead.

The family of a man arrested during an immigration raid in El Cajon last month is fighting to keep him in the country.

His lawyer tells Kpbs reporter Gustavo Solis an immigration judge denied his bond petition.

And that means that he will remain in detention throughout the case.

Jorge Lopez was one of the men arrested during the El Cajon immigration raid last month.

Now he's being held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center and faces deportation.

Tessa Cabrera is the family's immigration lawyer, Jorge's been in the United States since he was 13.

He is married to his U.S.

citizen wife.

They have four U.S.

citizen children.

The Trump administration says that federal authorities prioritize violent criminals and public safety threats for mass deportation.

But Lopez doesn't have a violent criminal record, and he's an active member of the community.

Cabrera says, I don't think that the that he is a risk to public safety.

I think he is very deserving of being released on bond and being allowed to fight his removal proceedings in the United States outside of custody.

She says that because Lopez is employed and has U.S.

citizen children, he'd normally be released on bond.

But that is not happening under Trump.

I think in prior administrations, there would been more of an assessment of whether this person is it needs to be detained or not.

Gustavo Solis, Kpbs news.

Immigration was the focus of a meeting between President Trump and the leader of El Salvador today.

The two discussed the legal fight around a Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador's notorious mega prison.

Karin Caifa has more from the white House.

El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, was already seen as one of the Trump administration's closest foreign partners because his collaboration is so crucial to President Trump's mass deportation strategy.

And a big question for the two leaders as they met at the white House on Monday, surrounded a Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador, whose wife identified him in a photo from an El Salvador mega prison.

I'm really happy to be here, honored and eager to help.

Bukele is very popular back home for the moves he's made to reduce crime in El Salvador, but he's also raised objections among human rights organizations for his approach, including suspending civil liberties to go after gangs.

The country's notorious terrorism confinement center.

CECOT now houses hundreds of migrants who were ousted by the U.S.

who the Trump administration claims without providing evidence are gang members or violent criminals, making El Salvador a key partner in the Trump administration's mass deportation strategy.

We appreciate working with you because you want to stop crime, and so do we and it's very, very effective.

Reporters pressed the two leaders and Trump administration officials for answers about Kilmer.

Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland father who was mistakenly deported to the CECOT prison because of an administrative error, the Supreme Court said last week.

The Trump administration needs to facilitate his return to the U.S.

Attorney General, Pam Bondi said.

If El Salvador decides to release him, the U.S.

would send a plane.

But Bukele said he doesn't plan to.

I'm not going to do it.

It's like, I mean, the question is preposterous.

How could I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?

I don't have the power to return him to the United States.

And the Trump administration has claimed a breakaway.

Garcia is a member of the Ms13 gang.

That is a claim his lawyers deny.

Meanwhile, Trump also said he will deport as many dangerous undocumented immigrants as possible to El Salvador.

At the white House, I'm Karin Caifa.

California is joining a multi-state effort to challenge the recent revocation of student visas.

Rob Bonta joined 19 attorneys general in filing a seven civil action against the Trump administration's ideological deportation policy.

It directs federal agencies to vet foreign nationals seeking to enter the US based on ideological grounds, which Bonta argues is unconstitutional.

According to Bonta, nearly 100 international students across the state have had their visas revoked.

The coalition is calling on the court to grant a preliminary injunction on deportations based on this policy, as litigation continues.

The San Diego Unified School District opened its enrollment system for prime time today.

Prime time is a free before and after school program for elementary and middle school students.

The system was down this morning, but the district says they are working to reset it.

They're asking families to try the link again.

The district is using a lottery system this year.

It is not first come, first served.

The application system close closes on May 2nd, and priority will be given to low income families, foster youth and English language learners.

San Diego is one step closer to charging a fee for trash collection at single family homes.

Kpbs Metro reporter Andrew Bowen says a final vote at the city council isn't for another two months.

Voters authorized San Diego to charge fees for trash pickup in 2022.

The city has since completed a study to determine what that service will cost, and how much it can charge residents to recoup those costs.

The proposed fees would start at 47.59 per month, down from an earlier proposal of $53.

Residents opting for smaller trash bins could get a discount and pay as little as 36.72 monthly.

The city council voted Monday to set an official hearing to adopt the trash fee on June 9th.

Andrew Bowen, Kpbs news.

A congressional commission says the U.S.

needs a molecular moonshot to boost bioengineering, a key sector for San Diego research.

Kpbs SciTech reporter Thomas Fudge says the goal is to stay ahead of China.

The bipartisan Federal Commission said the engineering of biological systems, called biotech, is the next transformative leap for human potential.

This includes discovering new medicines, creating drought tolerant plants and manufacturing products based on organic structures.

But the commission said the government's approach to research lacks coordination and needs better leadership.

California Senator Alex Padilla, a graduate of MIT, was a member of the commission.

He said America's global rival, China, has invested heavily in biotech, and they've come to dominate some fields.

China now controls 80% of global pharmaceuticals, so that's why we say that we need a molecular moonshot to get ahead and stay ahead.

The commission has introduced legislation to achieve their goals.

They support the creation of a national biotechnology office whose director would be appointed by the president.

Al Pisano is dean of the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego.

He's encouraged by the report because he says the government could do a lot better handling biotech research.

If there were a commission that would coordinate that so that they would give you the different coverage of money all the way from the fundamental to the pilot plant and beyond.

Can you imagine how much faster you could bring that kind of technology to market?

It's just it's just awe inspiring.

The congressional push to improve U.S.

funding in biotech comes at a time when the Trump administration is dramatically cutting scientific research funding.

Those cuts could mean the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars to a research university like UCSD.

In the newsroom, Thomas Fudge, Kpbs news.

With the May 7th deadline to get a real ID just around the corner, the DMV is trying to make the process a little easier.

Starting today, some offices will open an hour early for real ID appointments only.

And that includes the following four locations in San Diego County.

That's Claremont, San Marcos, El Cajon, and Poway.

You can head there Monday through Thursday.

You'll need a real ID to board domestic flights.

If you can't get your new ID by May 7th, then you're going to have to bring your passport as soon as possible.

That way, there's less stress for you when you go through airports or other areas that we need at one day.

But traveling make will be easier for you to get the best ideas.

Real ID appointments will be available through June 7th.

You'll need to apply online first.

Once you've booked an appointment, you'll need at least one proof of identity, such as a passport and two proofs of residency, like a utility or phone bill.

The deadline to file your taxes is tomorrow.

If you've already sent in your return, you'll likely get a refund or you're still waiting for it.

Jen Sullivan has tips on how to invest that money and help it grow.

If you've already filed your taxes with the IRS, you may have received a refund.

So far this year, the IRS says it sent out nearly 68 million refunds, the average amount just over $4,000.

So what should you do with that money?

You want that money to do its best work for you.

Jean Chatzky is the CEO and founder of her money.com.

Her first tip is to use that money to pay off any debt, pay off the high interest rate credit card debt that's going to put a return into your pocket equal to the interest rate on the debt.

If you want to put that money away, Chatzky says, don't just deposited into a regular savings account.

Those accounts are paying about 4/10 of 1% interest rate.

So what are better options?

She says look at certificate of deposit accounts, commonly known as CDs.

It's a type of savings account that offers a fixed interest rate for a specific period of time.

There's usually a deposit minimum and beware, she says.

There may be a penalty for withdrawing the money.

The interest rate is seven times that that you'll get in a plain vanilla account.

Next, high yield savings accounts.

These accounts are offered by online banks and credit unions and offer higher interest rates.

There's typically no minimum deposit required.

Lastly, investing in the market the markets can go up and down.

And this is money that we don't need in the short term.

It's money that we can afford to let ride for a little bit longer.

If you choose that option, Chatzky recommends diversifying the types of stocks you invest in and trying not to panic when the market goes down.

For consumer watch, I'm Jenn Sullivan.

We have been turning away from the heat, and we're going to go into a cooler pattern as we go through the late week.

So that means those numbers are falling off for us.

First up though, the deepening marine layer, we'll have some impacts as we could actually get a little bit more coastal drizzle possible from that marine layer.

So do know it'll get pretty intense at times.

Meanwhile, as we work our way into the late week, a cooling pattern continues.

We actually will go ten degrees below historical averages in spots, so it's going to get a little bit on the cool side compared to where we've been, which was very warm for the past weekend.

We're still coming down.

It's been a slow fall, not really much changing in our numbers today, but as we go through tonight, 56 for the low in the city as you work towards Ramona, 46 for your low and 49 in Mount Laguna heading in then into tomorrow we'll find more sunshine breaking out after that marine layer wears off for the mountains in the desert.

Staying fairly bright.

The city itself, though 65 for the high, you can head to El Cajon and we'll hit 6990 in Borrego Springs.

So there's still certainly some above average temperatures going on in several locations.

As we make our way into Wednesday, there is moisture moving through the Golden State.

For us, it's going to be in the Sierras a well away from our region, but you can tell there is going to be at least that chance for some moisture coming into the southwest, which is ultimately good news across the state.

And, good news for the western U.S.

and as a whole, coastal communities.

The clouds come in as we head through the upcoming nights.

So we will have that thicker marine layer.

And that's why we're not quite as bright during the day as temperatures working their way into the 60s.

If you're in the inland communities, making it into the 60s as well.

Watch out, though, because we do have that chance for showers Thursday into Friday.

A lot of that will occur Thursday night into Friday, and that's where we could actually see some measurable rainfall coming.

A lot of that thickening with that marine layer to getting into your forecast for the mountains, maybe some showers Friday morning for us temperatures there in the upper 30s.

As we work our way into the deserts, you'll notice we go from the 90s back into the 70s for the rest of the week.

For Kpbs news, I'm AccuWeather meteorologist.

Melissa Constanzer Loneliness is a growing problem in America, and new research suggests living near a highway might make that problem worse.

Kpbs reporter Andrew Bowen digs into this research in the latest episode of his podcast, Freeway Exit, and he's here in the studio to share more with me.

Welcome, Andrew.

Hi Maya, thanks.

So explain this hypothesis to me.

How can living near a freeway possibly have an impact on your social life?

Yeah, so the easiest explanation is that it's literally hard to cross freeways.

So take your home, draw a big circle around it, and think of that as the area where you're most likely to go out, socialize, meet people, and make friends.

Living next to a highway.

Essentially, it's really hard to cross that highway.

It acts as a barrier that really limits the area where you can go out and socialize.

And so the hypothesis that the researchers wanted to prove using big data is that, you know, this isn't just a theory or an intuition.

It's actually something that we can observe by looking at how people are connecting in terms of connecting.

And we know freeways connect people, but in terms of social connect connections, that seems like a hard thing to measure on a large scale.

So explain to me how these researchers went about this study.

Yeah.

So they actually turned to Twitter.

So back in 2012 and 2013, when you sent a tweet from a mobile device, that tweet included your location roughly.

This was discontinued later, but those two years basically produced a data set where the researchers were able to sort of map out roughly where people live in a city, and they cover the 50 largest cities in America.

Now, they were also able to estimate social connections by, finding mutual followers.

So I follow you.

You follow me back.

That's counted as a social tie.

And they were able to measure then how many of those social ties cross barriers or cross freeways?

Of course you need a control group for a study like this.

So they used this method in data science where they take the real data set and they scramble it up and randomize it.

And that produces a different data set that is kind of like an imaginary world where freeways don't exist.

And people are able to form those connections regardless of whether there's a freeway between them.

So by comparing the real data with this synthetic model that they developed, they were able to measure just how much a freeway is impacting your ability to, make friends and, you know, grow your social network.

That is really interesting.

So tell us how this impacts San Diego.

Well, they found that the 805 freeway in San Diego has, really, really strong barrier effects.

So what that means, essentially, is folks who live near that freeway face a really, really tough challenge trying to meet and make friends with people on the other side of the freeway.

And what they hope is that, policymakers, transportation departments will well start thinking about projects that stitch communities back together.

And that can be beneficial not just for people's social lives.

It can improve happiness.

It can improve your health, and it can even improve, your, your, economic opportunities.

Social connections are not just them, you know, isn't just a synonym of leisure or having fun together, but it directly affects the wallet of people, right?

And so having, parts of your urban infrastructure that actually impact social connections ultimately down the line steals money from you.

And so, Maya, if folks want to hear more about this, they can just look for the Freeway Exit podcast wherever you get podcasts.

Gosh, Andrew, thanks so much for sharing the study with us.

Thank you.

Maya.

I'm William Brangham tonight on the NewsHour.

Why neither the US nor El Salvador say they plan to return a man who was mistakenly deported.

Coming up at seven after Evening Edition on Kpbs.

Just after ten this morning, San Diego County felt its strongest quake in 15 years.

And, we don't have that sound bite, but the worker says that he was That was the strongest quake in 15 years.

It was a magnitude 5.2, by the way, according to the US Geological Survey.

So the earthquake that was felt across much of Southern California and into Mexico, and that includes downtown San Diego, where some construction workers.

We're going to hear from we're working on high rises.

So the worker I was mentioning was 36 floors above the ground, were swaying like this in the elevator, like a foot going side to side.

It was moving way too, too much.

So something I knew, something was up.

So that worker says that he was one of hundreds on the site this morning, and he also says that the crew paused to do a head count before then resuming their work just a little bit later.

There was no damage to the building.

Blue origin sent its New Shepard rocket hurtling out of the Earth's atmosphere today its 11th such mission to date.

A star studded crew featuring Katy Perry and Gayle King were on board.

But that is not the only reason today's space flight was unique.

Laura Aguirre reports.

Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket launched off its pad in Van Horn, Texas, this morning.

Liftoff in a capsule atop the fiery sendoff, the first all female flight crew in space in over 60 years, among them pop star Katy Perry, journalist and Oprah bestie Gayle King, movie producer Kerianne Flynn, Amanda Nguyen, a women's rights advocate and the first Vietnamese woman to fly in space.

Aisha Bo, a former NASA rocket scientist and entrepreneur, and Lauren Sanchez, who organized the flight and is also engaged to Blue Origin's founder, Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos.

The New Shepard's capsule only 12.5ft wide.

Perry shared a look inside on her Instagram ahead of the launch.

Here I am.

Seat number two.

Their suborbital flight, reaching just beyond 62 miles above Earth, lasted only a few minutes, but the experience and memories will last much longer.

You look at it and you're like, we're all in this together.

All these things that, like, divide us, but we're not.

Perry carried a small daisy honoring her daughter's name, but also as a symbol of those confronting their fears.

They grow through cement.

They go through cracks.

They go through walls.

They are resilient.

Gayle King was one of them.

Challenging her own crippling fear of flying.

I'm so proud of me right now.

I just can't believe it.

Of the more than 700 people who've traveled to space, only about 15% have been women.

It's about making space for future women and taking up space and belonging.

I'm Laura Aguirre for Kpbs news.

And here is a look at what we are working on for tomorrow.

In the Kpbs newsroom, an administrative judge explains to NPR's Morning Edition why she spoke out on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commissions directive to pause all LGBTQ plus cases and today's earthquake took many by surprise.

On Kpbs Midday Edition, we discuss ways to prepare in the event of another one.

And as always, you can find tonight's stories on our website, Kpbs.org Thank you for joining us.

I'm MayaTrabulsi, goodnight.

Major funding for Kpbs Evening Edition has been made possible in part by Bill Howe family of companies providing San Diego with plumbing, heating and air restoration, blood and remodeling services for over 40 years.

Call one 800 Bill Howe or visit Bill Howe.com.

And by the Conrad Prebys Foundation, Darlene Marcos Shiley.

and by the following.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

For.