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 40 years.

Call one 800 Bill House or visit Bill hall.com.

And buy the Conrad Prevost Foundation.

Darlene Marcos shyly and by the following.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Good evening, and thank you for joining us.

I'm my.

See.

World Aids day was first recognized on December 1st, 1988.

Official U.S.

recognition of the day began in 1993 with presidential proclamations every year until this year.

The Trump administration has decided not to commemorate the day, but it is being recognized here in San Diego and Kpbs reporter John Carroll is live in Hillcrest, where lawmakers, public health officials and members of the community are gathering for an evening of remembrance.

John.

Okay, so we did.

That's right.

Maya, things are starting to come together here in the plaza at Village Hillcrest.

As you can see, there's the big tree now.

The lights are on right now, but they're just testing them.

They're going to turn them off and then have an official lighting ceremony a little later.

There will also be a candlelight vigil and some music as well.

Of course, commemorations like this don't, in and of themselves, save lives.

But funding programs to support people living with Aids and to provide preventive measures do some of that.

Funding has already been cut, and some of what's left is under threat of being cut by the Trump administration, something Eva mathews knows a lot about.

She's the CEO of Momma's Kitchen, and I talked to her earlier today about the consequences of cutting that funding, especially for the more than 14,000 people living with HIV Aids in San Diego County.

We also have seen policy changes that relate to, you know, the affordability of health care coverage, access to Medi-Cal or Medicaid and housing and other social supports.

And when you put all of that together for people living with HIV who are facing financial instability, this time is really challenging their ability to meet even basic daily needs.

And that is a catastrophe in and of itself.

Now, as I was saying, the tree lighting ceremony will be at six and there will be some holiday music provided by members of the San Diego Gay Men's Chorus.

A little bit of holiday joy amidst a situation that, decades later, is still making people sick and taking lives both here and around the world.

Maya.

John, thank you so much for that.

Now, for the viewers who are watching this and want to help, what can they do?

It's something I did ask Matthews that very question and she said, just showing up and showing out.

For anyone you know, living with HIV Aids is important as well as bringing awareness to the issue.

That in itself is of great help as well.

And of course, with all these funding cuts, any help that you can provide, either in the way of donations to Momma's Kitchen and other service organizations like them or volunteers are always greatly appreciated.

Live in Hillcrest.

John Carroll, Kpbs news.

It's a bit of a chilly night across the interior.

We're going to get down to 33 at Ramona, down below freezing in some of the coldest of the cold spots.

Mount Laguna, 32 degrees Campo 32 and will be in the 40s.

Oceanside 41.

Pretty nippy out there.

We're going to notice some patchy fog return, especially to coastal areas late tonight.

There is an air quality alert up into Orange County.

We'll talk about that.

And also the chance for a few sprinkles mid midweek coming up.

An initiative to give low income residents new energy efficient appliances is expanding in San Diego County.

Kpbs partner, fellow Emmy Burress reports the program's supports the county's latest climate action plan.

Tens of thousands of county residents participated in shaping the Climate Action Plan in recent years.

Outreach efforts largely focused on the unincorporated areas of San Diego like Juliann, Hamel, and Borrego Springs.

The plan set an ambitious goal of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045.

The appliance swap program is one way the county hopes to achieve that goal.

County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre spoke in favor of the program at a recent board meeting.

Energy efficiency upgrades can reduce household utilities by 20 to 30%.

Programs like this allow us to reduce housing costs while advancing our climate action plan through a policy that benefits both people and the planet.

In many cases, switching appliances means going from gas to electric.

Eligible appliances include stove tops, dryers, smart thermostats, and water heaters.

The program is free to residents and utilizes local installers.

Supervisors voted to spend an additional $500,000 to expand the program to all unincorporated parts of the county.

Residents must be low income and live in a home that was built before 2020.

To be eligible.

Ariel Hamburger is with the county sustainability planning division.

She says the program is focused on helping disadvantaged families join the fight against climate change.

They submit an application to see if they're eligible, and then they'll be supported in looking at what retrofits or upgrades make the most sense for their particular household.

The application portal for some areas of the county is now open.

The county says residents in all eligible areas will be able to apply next year.

Amie Burroughs, Kpbs news.

The summer is the time of year that we typically see flu cases spike, and we're already seeing that trend across the county.

A week before Thanksgiving, more than 160 people had caught the flu and nine had to be hospitalized.

And according to county data, only 1 in 5 San Diego residents has received their flu shot.

This here.

A doctor at Rady Children's Hospital told our media partner Cgtn there's a new, more severe strain of the flu spreading and it's called sub clade K, the vaccine, especially for flu and for Covid.

It might not prevent a person from getting the flu, meaning getting, you know, cold like symptoms, a little bit of fever, runny nose.

But what it does do is it helps to prevent the severe complications that lands that person in the hospital.

The county has six public health centers and multiple community clinics offering flu and Covid shots.

To find the closest location you can, visit the county's website or you can call 211.

A Kpbs investigation earlier this year revealed a skyrocketing euthanasia rate at San Diego County run animal shelters.

Kpbs reporter Elaine Alfaro says the Department of Animal Services is now being audited.

Among other things, the audit appears to be focusing on the department's policies regarding euthanasia and record keeping at its shelters.

This is according to an email Kpbs obtained through a Public Records Act request.

A Kpbs investigation in July found that the dog euthanasia rate at county run shelters had more than doubled in recent years.

Our reporting also revealed poor recordkeeping and communication breakdowns when it comes to dog euthanasia.

I think I think there should be an audit, because, looking into those things, they were not followed correctly.

Vina.

Sameera Ramirez is a former employee at the county's Carlsbad shelter.

She says she saw those issues firsthand.

For example, I would ask, like, one of my supervisors or a temporary supervisor kind of thing.

I was like, so what is the specific behavioral protocol when we're examining animals for euthanasia?

And she's like, well, there is none.

I was like, but in the in the protocol, it's like she's like, yeah, it's outdated.

A department spokesperson confirmed that the audit is ongoing, but would not answer specific questions.

The department sent a statement that included the following quote.

The audit was requested by the Department of Animal Services, current director to assess the efficiency of operations and compliance with applicable policies and regulations.

And quote, the spokesperson did not say when the audit is expected to be finished.

Elaine Alfaro, Kpbs news.

If you have a tip for Kpbs as investigations team, you can send an email to investigations@kpbs.org, or you can message them on our secure signal line at the number on your screen.

(619) 594-8177.

I'm Jeff Bennett.

Tonight on the NewsHour, the white House pushes back on reports of a possible war crime violation in a strike against alleged drug traffickers.

That's at seven after Evening Edition on Kpbs.

U.S.

shoppers are expected to spend more than $14 billion online today.

And that is according to Adobe Analytics and while Black Friday and Cyber Monday are seeing higher spending than last year.

Who is spending and how much they're buying paints a clearer picture of how tariffs and inflation are impacting shoppers differently.

Michael Yoshida explains consumer experts say that shoppers have been buying fewer items this holiday season, but with average prices higher, it's led to these bigger sales numbers, and some say that's all part of the so-called K-shaped economy.

US consumers spent $11.8 billion online this Black Friday, with an estimated 14.2 billion more expected to be spent Cyber Monday, according to Adobe Analytics.

This five day period from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday is significant for retailers.

Money going into online shopping carts could reach new heights this year, but consumer experts warn people might actually be buying less.

And the high dollar numbers are largely due to the impact of tariffs and higher prices from inflation.

What's happening is that the number of items purchased is actually down, but prices are higher, average selling prices are higher.

So we are seeing the increase in spending due to that inflation.

National consumer expert Claudia Lemonis says who is spending their money is another key thing to pay attention to.

The ones that have higher income are spending it well.

But those who are less affluent are budgeting.

Some argue it's part of the so-called k-shaped economy.

They're talking about that funny looking capital letter.

You know, there's the bit that stands up and there's a bit that goes up and a bit that goes down.

With higher earners getting a boost from stock market investments in home valuation, while lower earners are increasingly living paycheck to paycheck, those who are already financially very well off their economy is going pretty well for them.

Those who are less well-off, working and middle class Americans, they're the lower part of that.

K and maybe their economy is pointing south.

And economist Justin Wolfers added that while he's not sure if we are in a k-shaped economy, he does believe the Trump administration's budget policies as well as tariffs have been k-shaped impacting various income levels differently.

He says that's why some may feel like they're on that downward sloped part of the K, leading to lower consumer confidence and potentially less spending by some in Washington.

I'm Michael Yoshida, Chula Vista dream for a public university may finally be coming into focus after decades of planning and setbacks.

South Bay officials are laying the groundwork for something that would be the first of its kind in California, a hybrid campus that houses degree programs from multiple universities across San Diego County.

South Bay reporter Cory Suzuki has more.

If you go to the eastern edge of Chula Vista, you can see this wide expanse of empty land that stretches from the neighborhood towards the lower Otis Reservoir.

It's quiet.

Flocks of crows float on the breeze.

If you train for it, you can hear the rumble of a distant freeway.

For three decades, South Bay officials and state lawmakers have been searching for a ways to bring a university here to this swath of land.

We have a college desert where opportunities are not being provided to families and students.

David Alvarez is a state assembly member for the South Bay.

He says higher education opportunities haven't been equally distributed here.

Most major cities in California are already home to public four year universities, with more than 270,000 people.

Chula Vista is a major city.

It's a majority Latino town, home to many first generation college students and one that's at the heart of the San Diego Tijuana Binational region.

But students here want to earn a bachelor's degree.

They have to leave town, but it's an investment that's going to really pay a lot of dividends, because we're going to be able to have access to education for our families.

And then secondarily, we'll create economic activity in the region.

At first, the goal was to become part of the UK's system.

At one point, Chula Vista was on the short list to become the location for a brand new CSU campus.

But in 2020, the CSU system said they couldn't justify the cost of a new school.

Our key finding is that the projected 2035 enrollment demand alone does not justify the development of a new campus at any of the five evaluated locations.

That has led officials to focus on a different idea a multi university campus that houses academic programs from other universities and community colleges across the San Diego Tijuana metro.

You've all been to UC San Diego, or you've been to San Diego State University or any other number of universities throughout the country or the world.

And they're very typical, right?

It's the one campus.

Everybody's the same.

But there are other states where they are.

They are doing this where you have multiple institutions on the same campus.

The idea is based on similar campuses across the country.

Chula Vista officials are looking at one example in particular, the Auraria Campus in Denver, Colorado, as we were originally envisioned.

It was supposed to be a pipeline from one school to the next for students.

Skip Speer is Auraria is chief administrative officer.

He says the campus houses the local city college and two separate universities Metropolitan State University of Denver and University of Colorado Denver.

Speer says the idea behind it was to make it easier for students to move between the college and university systems.

He says having all three institutions in the same place also allows them to lower costs by combining resources.

A lot of community colleges in Colorado consist of 1 or 2 buildings.

Here you're getting access to 150 acres.

All of the buildings on campus, a much larger bookstore than you usually have access to, as well as different food options.

There is a key difference between the euro area campus and the one envisioned here in Chula Vista.

Instead of being a primary home, Chula Vista campus would function more like a satellite for the other universities.

To be clear, a physical university campus in San Diego County, second largest city, is still years away at the earliest.

But there is a sense that this new vision is more realistic than previous plans.

All members voted who decided to vote.

All members voted who desire to vote closer.

All tallied the votes I 67 noes zero measure passes.

One reason for this optimism is that the state legislature passed a bill earlier this year, creating a task force to explore funding for the physical campus.

Also, the academic infrastructure is already being built.

CSU, UCSD and CSU San Marcos have each announced plans to begin offering degrees in Chula Vista, and they'll be in industries that are prominent in the South Bay, like nursing, public health, business and cybersecurity.

Alvarez says that's the plan for the university to focus more narrowly on degrees that would serve major industries in the South Bay, like health care and binational trade.

We need to offer an education that actually gets people a job, not just gets them, maybe a certificate or a degree, but gets them into, into the workforce.

For many South Bay students, the idea of having a local university is still pretty hazy.

On a recent afternoon at Southwestern College, many students told Kpbs they had never heard about the project.

But the ones you have are excited.

Jasmine Arroyo is a first year biology student at southwestern.

She loves the idea of having a university campus closer to home.

We have our own nursing program and like, you can get a lot of, like, there's a lot to offer here compared to, like, other community colleges.

And like a lot of them are like much smaller than this campus.

So I think it's really good.

They want to expand more.

Rajjo says she's proud of what Chula Vista has to offer already.

But she says it's exciting to think of something new.

Courses.

Yuki.

Kpbs news.

A beloved Tijuana bookstore owner has died.

Miguel Marquez San Juan founded Libros Cafe E jazz in 2009.

Last year, Kpbs video journalist Matthew Bowler spent some time with the man known to his friends as Don Miguel.

Here's that report from the Kpbs archives.

Miguel Marquez San Juan walks down Avenida Garcia Ninos Arrows just two blocks off of Avenida Revolucion senior Marquez moved to Tijuana in 1984.

Down this little alley, sandwiched between an office supply store and an optometrist office.

Marquez opened his dream business back.

Back.

May damaged.

And a bookstore called Libras Cafe, a jazz.

Until Pedro Paramo.

My mother, Melody, who.

Went to the Marina marquez, reads from the iconic Mexican novel Pedro Paramo.

The film adaptation is set to premiere November 6th on Netflix.

Marquez runs the shop with his daughters.

They just celebrated the store's anniversary as the library.

Yet in a Colorado competition stacked floor to ceiling with books, The Tiny Shop aims to bring literature and music to one inches at accessible prices.

From second hand Mano Chow CDs to bedtime stories for rebellious girls.

They've even got a poetry vending machine.

Marquez saw a need in Tijuana in 2009.

Now I must have a la Luna Grande.

This last classic as aqui.

Pero libro economico nuevo.

You.

Tijuana does have options for borrowing books.

For example, the central cultural Tijuana or school has a library.

You can't take books home, but everyone is welcome to read what's on the shelves.

Part of the mission of the Centro Cultural Tijuana is share this space for writers from the region.

That's Daniel Togliatti from the school.

He says the center's working to bring the joy of reading to Tijuana.

They feel an inspiration and they feel the possibility to new, different worlds.

In this communication is the between the writer and the reader.

Togliatti says Sacco and Libros Cafe Jazz are in similar paths.

Both support Tijuana's creative community in their own ways.

In this, you know, global situation, we do.

We work in it now for wheels and they own a bicycle, but they are in the same place and we are sometimes in the same velocity.

Sometimes we share the the road like say could leave it.

Cafe jazz hosts performances for example, or production model mingle a proximo sabado manana Vamos a Preston grupo de the.

Yes okay so presente aqui.

But the personas.

If you can't make the jazz performances, you might find Senor Marquez in his usual spot, reading Los Amaro Sauce by Hymie Sabine.

This a poem he holds dear Los Muertos Italian in la more Sicilians you must vino el must rosso el machine.

Supportively engaging in his cherished pastimes.

Siempre yendo siempre I sell una party if beaten.

Must be another prospera.

Reading, listening to music and sipping coffee.

Loss of moral support and parental love is unconscionable, and Vida is when you rando you rando a little more savvy.

Matthew Boehler, Kpbs news.

Miguel Marquez, San Juan was 67 years old.

His bookstore remains open, now run by his daughters.

But we do have some widespread chilly air tonight across the interior, but also some fog returning to areas near the coast at night and into the morning.

Hours.

There are air quality concerns, especially Tuesday.

Officially, the air quality alert is in effect into Orange County.

Some, even some, firewood burning restrictions are in effect for some up to hour north of the Orange County.

It's going to become very breezy, though again in midweek.

And that's going to lead to an improvement in air quality.

As a lot of that wind is going to push any air quality issues offshore tonight, though.

47 mainly clear skies, patchy fog for some later on and Tuesday a nice day.

Patchy morning fog, then sunshine.

We're going to be dealing with dry weather.

Snow restricted to the Colorado Rockies.

Parts of Utah.

There are those areas under air quality alerts.

Low lying areas into the valleys of the interior and coastal spots of Orange County and up into Los Angeles County as well.

But daytime weather looks pretty nice for us.

After that chilly start, we're going to get up to about 67.

In San Diego, 72, El Cajon similar number is up at Borrego Springs, 68 degrees there at Mount Laguna only 47.

Still kind of a cool air mass in place as a storm system, really diverts to our north and eventually northeast with some widespread snow into the Rockies.

And we might on Wednesday even see a spotty shower.

You can see the green.

We're indicating a slim chance now with future radar, you're going to see we should keep our expectations in check.

Tuesday were dry.

But any, there's the front that brings a little bit more again, moisture to the area here, a little bit of convergence in the low levels of the atmosphere.

And you're going to notice some extra clouds.

There's a weak zone of low pressure lurking offshore, maybe a few sprinkles.

Future radar just is enough to produce a couple of little blips of green.

And then behind that and offshore drying wind will win out on the north side of that low pressure system.

So a little bit of a minor Santa Ana wind event looking at the coastal forecast here.

Intermittent clouds Wednesday, a little bit warmer into Thursday and Friday, then a slight cooldown for Saturday taking you into the inland areas here 70 Tuesday.

Mostly sunny and pleasant still.

Maybe a sprinkle on Wednesday, but most of us stay dry and will be pleasant.

A little warmer for Thursday and Friday.

Into the mountains we go a mix of clouds and some sunshine.

Nippy Thursday there 38 for your high.

But we do bounce back a bit into the weekend in the mountains and in the deserts here you can see, most of us stay dry.

We're going to be dealing with bright skies, a good deal of sunshine.

Temperatures peaking around 70 on Friday.

I'm AccuWeather meteorologist Jeff Cornish for Kpbs news.

A Cinderella season for San Diego's newest sports team came to an end after San Diego FC fell to Vancouver, 3 to 1, in the Western final on Sunday.

Chucky Lozano scored the team's lone goal in the second half.

San Diego FC is just the second expansion team in Major League Soccer history to advance this year in the playoffs.

The MLS Cup final is set for Saturday between the Vancouver Whitecaps and Inter Miami.

CFC may not have gotten their fairytale ending, but this season was a sign of the good things to come.

Something is developing here that's, that's, beyond sport.

It's passion, it's compassion, it's love, it's carrots, competitiveness.

And it's, it's a reflection of the whole city.

There you have it.

Passion and compassion.

It will be a short break for San Diego FC.

Pre-season training will begin on January 9th, with their 2026 season opener set for February 21st.

San Diego County is one of the top avocado growers in California.

Still, production has been steadily shrinking.

Kpbs environment reporter Tami Rocha shows us how a North County farm is piloting a way to help struggling growers.

Rows and rows of avocado trees adorn the hills of Hill, the Earth's organic farm and bundle.

It's where Chuck Samuelson is testing out a model where anyone can adopt the tree and get the avocados.

It grows.

It's a yearly subscription where you'll subscribe to a certain yield of avocados for your tree.

Samuelsson is a former chef and restaurateur.

He's thought a lot about how avocado imports affect growers, who bear higher production costs, and the quality of food consumers end up getting.

So he founded Heal the Earth to address some of those challenges we have in the food system.

Avocado tree acreage in San Diego County has dropped by nearly half since 2009.

That's largely because of rising water costs and imports flooding the market.

The cost of water laborers is expensive and scarce right now.

The control of the the system by multinational corporations makes everything difficult for farmers.

Samuelsson says the tree adoption model can get farmers more money than they would if they sold to a distributor, and connect consumers directly to the source.

We think the Adopt a Tree program, both for our farm and for future farms that join our program, can be a game changer if we can cut out all the middlemen.

The nonprofit is working on building a regional network of growers.

The goal is to bring more family owned farms into the adoption program.

Tami Murga, Kpbs news.

Find tonight's stories on our website, kpbs.org.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Mike.

Have a great evening.

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

Call one 800 Bill House or visit Bill howe.com.

And by the Conrad Prevost Foundation.

Darlene Marcos shyly.

And by the following.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.