Major funding for Kpbs Evening Edition has been made possible in part by Bill Howe family of companies providing San Diego with plumbing, heating, air restoration and flight services for over 45 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.

For the first time in three years, Americans wages are no longer outpacing inflation.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Maya Trabulsi.

Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released new data for April.

It showed inflation rose to an annual rate of 3.8%, the highest since May 2023.

As Michael Yoshida reports, the report comes as new polling shows more Americans are feeling pessimistic about the economy.

U.S.

inflation rising according to new consumer price Index data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in April, prices rose 0.6% from March, driving the annual rate to 3.8%.

We have taken such a major step back in the fight against inflation.

For the month, gas was up 5.4%, airfare 2.8%, groceries 0.7, housing costs 0.6 and fresh fruit and vegetables 2.3%.

The highest monthly increase for that category since 2010.

There's nowhere to hide here from inflation.

Price increases are happening.

They're happening quickly.

Impacts from the Iran war, including price shocks to fuel and transportation being felt across the economy and adding to longstanding affordability concerns for Americans.

A new CNN poll finding 76% of Americans call cost of living issues their biggest economic problem, with many feeling down on the economy and their ability to pay bills.

Food prices are out of control.

Everything's gone up from the beef to the eggs gas.

I definitely don't fill up the whole tank anymore.

As Americans deal with higher prices for the first time in three years, their wages aren't keeping up with the cost of living.

People who are earning the highest, they're more likely to probably still be outpacing inflation.

But the people who are making the least, they have not been for months, and this is only going to be worse for them.

Michael Yoshida, Kpbs news.

Diesel prices are even higher than regular gas across California.

Coming up, how that's impacting trucking businesses in the state.

San Diego County leaders will soon vote whether to close San Pasqual Academy.

Kpbs education reporter Katie Anastas has more from the newsroom.

San Pasqual Academy is a residential campus for foster youth.

It's provided housing, a high school, mental health services and more.

Since 2001.

Changes in the foster care system have meant fewer students are going there.

State and federal legislation has prioritized placing kids with family members instead of in group settings.

That's meant less state and federal funding for San Pasqual Academy.

In fact, the school nearly closed in 2021 when the state said it would no longer direct federal funding to San Pasqual.

The county kept it open, but now its $18 million annual budget is mostly paid for with local funding.

The county has spent the last few months gathering public input on how best to use the campus.

Next week, the Board of Supervisors will vote whether to start a "planned phased wind down of the Academy".

Chief Administrative Officer Ebony Shelton wrote to the board that current seniors and juniors would be allowed to graduate high school from San Pasqual.

Younger students would gradually transition to other schools and homes.

The goal would be to place those students with family members or other trusted adults.

Shelton says discussions about other uses for the campus would continue as the residential program winds down.

The board would get a status update within the year.

Katie Anastas, Kpbs news.

Well, we have some quieter weather building in that recent spell of heat, especially in the interior, is kind of going away for a bit.

Overnight tonight we'll get down to 59.

In El Cajon, 53 Ramona, 61, in San Diego.

And again, a pleasant night for most of us, into Wednesday.

You can see.

Yeah.

We are not highlighting any strong screaming weather headlines here in Southern California.

Comfortable, drier, quieter weather, temperatures returning to near normal.

We'll take you into the weekend.

Coming up.

The 4th of July is still nearly two months away, but one North County city is getting ready to fight illegal fireworks with hefty fines.

Kpbs North County reporter Alexander Nguyen says the new ordinance has more teeth and makes it easier for police to enforce the law.

This is the scene that the city of Oceanside is trying to stop.

Illegal fireworks lighting up in people's backyards and causing a nuisance upsets the dogs.

Michael Zsutty says the fireworks not only disrupt the neighborhood because you can't tell the difference between a gunshot and a firework, it is also a fire danger.

I live near the San Luis Rey River.

It's a it's a fire danger area and I've seen when I've ridden on the bike trail where the, like, Roman candles have been fired off, and then they've discarded the yellow or the remnants of it there.

The city has had a ban for years, but the city council had just passed a schedule of fines that start at $1,000 for the first violation, $2500 for the second and $5000 for the third.

The fines are capped at $10,000 for a calendar year.

Oceanside Police Captain Nick Nunez says the new rules have more teeth.

With this new one, we have introduced the use of drone, really trying to maximize our current tools that we have on hand, and then also we also introduce an aspect of a social host where we can then find the property owner or the homeowner for the violation as well.

Beyond the nuisance and the fire danger.

Nunez says there's also a public safety aspect to the ordinance as well.

Children getting their hands on these and not knowing how to use them properly and injuring themselves.

In February, a 15 year old boy lost his hand in a firecracker accident Zsutty hopes the hefty fine will be enough to deter people from lighting up to be a deterrent to me.

The council still has to take one more vote if it passes the second reading.

The new ordinance goes into effect June 19th.

Alexander Nguyen, Kpbs news.

California peach growers are tearing out thousands of acres of orchards after losing Del Monte contracts as new funding offers limited help during a painful transition.

Maricela de La Cruz reports from Sutter County.

I would have at least 3 to 4 more years out of these trees.

That was the plan Ranjit Davit had for this orchard.

Now he's one of about 70 growers across California scrambling to remove 60 acres of peach trees after growers lost their contracts with Del Monte following the closure of its Modesto cannery earlier this year.

We have about 70 growers who have been left behind as part of the Sto.

Monte bankruptcy and as a result of the bankruptcy, we are watched our industry shrink by 25% virtually overnight.

Never thought the name Del Monte would go away, ever.

We thought that was kind of guaranteed.

And we know they've had their issues, but we never thought they'd go away.

So it was a shock to us.

The impact stretching far beyond the orchards.

We had to lay off and probably using half the seasonal workers that we would normally use, about 70% of the growers impacted by Del Monte closure are in the Yuba Sutter area.

And while many farmers are still trying to figure out what's next.

A new 9 million USDA funding package is offering some relief.

It doesn't buy new trees.

It simply allows the grower to prepare the ground to plant new trees.

The California County Peach Association is adding another $1.5 million in total.

The funding will help remove about 3000 acres of peach trees across the state.

And while the relief brings some support, farmers say it's still a painful transition.

It's extremely difficult.

We put a lot of money and our heart into these orchards, and now that they're coming out, no home to go.

It hurts and then we got to transition into another commodity.

Takes a lot of time and a lot of money.

And 3 to 4 years of no income.

Next week.

Rows of green peach trees here will turn into empty dirt.

This here is about 20 acres.

A visible reminder of how quickly this industry changed.

I'm Amna Nawaz tonight on the NewsHour, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faces scrutiny over the cost of the war with Iran.

That's coming up at seven after evening Edition on Kpbs.

Drugs, once considered off limits or even dangerous, may soon become legitimate and mental health treatment.

The FDA is now fast tracking the review of some psychedelic based medicines, following a recent executive order from President Donald Trump.

Ivan Rodriguez has more on what this means for patients and the questions that still remain.

The Food and Drug Administration issued national priority vouchers to three companies studying psychedelic based medicines.

Psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms for treatment resistant depression and major depressive disorder.

And methadone, a drug similar to MDMA for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Psychedelics really are a paradigm changer, and potentially I think we don't yet know how much, but there really seems to be a unique way that they have of working that 1 or 2 doses can cause rapid relief of symptoms within a couple of days, and that for many people, that relief seems to last for weeks or months.

But the path forward isn't without concern.

Doctor Hellerstein wonders what will happen once these drugs moved from tightly controlled studies into real world use.

The studies that are done for FDA approval, they really handpicked very selected groups of people who are very they have the pure disorder.

They don't have other conditions, psychiatric or medical conditions, and they're treated in a very high intensity, high pressure kind of setting in which there's the least chance of bad things happening.

Then once the drug is released to the general public, you have what's called, effectiveness.

We were studying efficacy before, and now you're studying the effectiveness in large populations.

These are people, many of them who would never have been approved to get into a study.

They have other conditions in addition to their depression or PTSD.

I'm Ivan Rodriguez reporting.

Tonight, city leaders in la mesa will decide whether to move forward with an e-bike ban for young riders.

The ban would apply to any riders younger than 12 years old.

A second reading and final vote on the ordinance is on the agenda for tonight's meeting.

A final vote was expected last month but was delayed after hearing public comment.

Two council members are now reconsidering their support, which adds uncertainty to the five member council.

We have families who moved here so that they could travel to the village and have breakfast, go to the farmer's market and they're with their nine and ten year olds on these little e-bikes.

And if this law is enacted, they they're breaking the law now.

And and the joy of riding their bikes together is taken out of the window.

The e-bike ordinance would have a mix of penalties for violations, including a warning, a citation, or, in some cases, confiscation.

Still, no relief from the pain at the pump across California today, the average price for a gallon of regular gas in San Diego County is $6.18.

Transportation companies which depend on diesel fuel are also feeling the pinch big time.

Cornell Bernard reports from the Bay area.

Kyle Cameron on the road again in Sonoma County, behind the wheel of his big rig, which is getting pretty pricey to drive.

We just drove, five, five, maybe six miles.

That cost me $7 plus, $7.50 maybe.

David Cameron blames the rising cost of diesel.

He owns Cameron and Company Trucking, which hauls dirt, sand and gravel across the Bay area for road and construction projects.

Yep.

Here we are in Healdsburg paving.

A lot of fun to fill that fuel tank right there on this Kenworth.

It would cost.

That's 100 gallons.

So it cost me about $710.

Being a small transportation company, I can't absorb that cost.

So we're rolling it over to the construction companies that we work for.

Most of his trucks need to fill up every day.

This has got to be painful for your business, right?

It hasn't been positive.

Right now, the average price for diesel in Santa Rosa is $7.66 per gallon in San Francisco, $7.75.

And in San Jose it's $7.56.

We asked Cal State East Bay economics Professor Farhad Sabetan why diesel prices have been higher than gas.

Diesel inventories were already low before this conflict began.

Years of high freight demand and limited refinery capacity had kept stockpiling diesel pretty thin.

I'm a seventh generation grape grower.

Aside from Cameron's trucking business, he owns Cassini Vineyards, a family farmed operation in Windsor.

But the wine industry is having its own challenges.

My costs are going up, but I can't roll that into, a higher bottle of wine because they're hardly buying the wine as it is.

Despite the struggles, Cameron says he's here for the long haul.

My family's been trucking since the 60s.

One way or another, we're not going anywhere.

But it's definitely hurting us.

If you have a mortgage, lenders require that you carry homeowners insurance.

But how do you find a policy that's right for you at an affordable price?

Well, Kpbs reporter John Carroll has been looking into that question as part of our series, The Price of San Diego.

Welcome, John.

Thanks, Maya.

So let's start with how best to find a policy that has the amount of coverage that you need.

I know you talked to two experts.

What did they tell you about that?

That's right.

I spoke with Janet Ruiz and Carmen Balber.

Ruiz is with the Insurance Information Institute, which is a nonprofit trade association supported by various insurance companies.

Balber is with consumer Watchdog.

They're a nonprofit that works to protect taxpayer and consumer rights against corporate and political interests.

And that includes the insurance industry.

Ruiz had a couple of things to say about finding the right amount of insurance.

I always recommend check with some local builders, like what is the average price per square foot when they're building homes or when they're doing remodeling?

Then you want to make sure you have the right coverages.

So in the areas like this where there's a lot of wildfire risk area, you want to be sure that you have, coverage for extended replacement costs and building code upgrades if you're buying an older home.

And when I say older, 80s homes are in that mix.

Some good information there.

Well cost is always a concern.

Seems just about everything is more expensive here in California.

What did you learn about costs here versus elsewhere in the country?

That's an interesting thing about insurance in California, including here in San Diego County.

It's something that's hard to pin down because the cost for you versus me can vary widely.

Here's what Carmen Balber had to say about that.

If I were to tell you insurance rates went up in California, an average of 25% over the last several years, you would be hearing from irate viewers saying, my rate went up 400%.

What are you talking about?

That number doesn't come close to reality.

And so I hesitate to, pin one of those numbers on what's going on in the market just because it's hard to connect that to what an average consumer is feeling.

But I can say with certainty that rates have gone up in the double digits across the state for most California homeowners and many in San Diego County will have felt an even bigger hit because much of the county faces increased fire risk.

There are some averages to look at here, though.

Ruiz said in 2020, the average annual cost of a homeowner's insurance premium in California was $1,241, versus $1,311 as an average for the rest of the country, she says.

In 2024, the average cost in California had risen to $1,750, compared to the national average of $1,800.

So I'm sure a lot of people watching are wondering, how do I find the best deal on a policy?

Of course.

And there are a number of things you can do.

First, if you live in an area where there is high risk of wildfire insurance companies, if they agree to cover, you must offer discounts for mitigation efforts.

Here's what Balber had to say about that.

So I would urge every person who's being told wildfire risk is the reason for increased costs or losing their coverage, to find out how much they could reduce those costs, or if it might qualify them, if they took steps to make their home more fire safe.

Insurance companies aren't recognizing those efforts to scale, and they're not doing enough of it.

But there are pockets of opportunity out there.

If you do wildfire mitigation to save some money.

And of course, it does reduce the risk your home burns down.

And here's what Ruiz had to say on that topic.

If you have higher deductibles, you're going to have lower premiums.

So that's one of the number one ways you can save money on your insurance premium.

Two find out what the discounts are.

So if you have an alarm system, a sprinkler system, if you're near a fire department, if you are, your home has wildfire resistant, siding and a good roof, and you have your roof, your vents covered, all those things can come into play to give you discounts.

Two more things on that.

If you're going to go with higher deductibles, Ruiz recommends having a rainy day fund to pay those deductibles.

She also says some carriers offer military discounts.

So, John, what is ahead for homeowners insurance here in San Diego County?

Is there anything in the works that could lead to price stabilization or even lower costs?

Kind of.

Both Ruiz and Balber said the situation with homeowners insurance could improve this year, but they said that both for very different reasons.

Ruiz said since January, more companies have been riding more policies in California because, she said, the state has allowed them to charge what she called correct premiums.

She said we are likely to see a slow transition toward improved market stability by mid 2026.

New state regulations allow insurers to use forward looking catastrophe modeling to set rates, which may encourage providers to return to the market in exchange for raising premiums.

Balber pointed to legislation Consumer Watchdog is sponsoring this year with a group of wildfire survivors called the Every Fire Survivors Network.

She said the bill would require insurance companies to cover you if you meet state fire safety guidelines.

Lots of stuff Maya.

Lots of stuff we really appreciate it, John.

Thank you.

And the story is part of our Price of San Diego series.

We have more cost of living stories about everything from rising gas prices to saving money on live sports events and concerts.

It's all at kpbs.org/price of San Diego and Orange County beaches dealing with erosion.

Construction crews started unloading sand on Capistrano Beach yesterday.

They're expected to place more than 13,000yd3 of sand along the shoreline.

The sand comes from a quarry in sand San Juan Capistrano.

Researchers at UC Irvine say rising sea levels and development projects are causing the erosion, and it's getting worse every year.

The more sand we add to the beaches, the more sand will stick.

If we do nothing, we are sure to see erosion all the way up to the rail corridor and maybe even onto the street.

Orange County officials say the cost to replenish the sand is about $440,000.

Over the next few days, we're going to be dealing with some more pleasant weather.

The heat from the interior is on the way out of here.

Sometimes we call it May Gray or June Gloom.

Those low clouds along the coastline that are especially prevalent in the late night and early morning hours.

And then we see them kind of ease and dissipate by midday.

That's what we're up against over the next few days.

So a little more cloud cover in the morning near the coast.

The dry season is taking over, so partly cloudy skies, clouds returning to the coastal areas late at night.

Low clouds 61.

And here we are on Wednesday and in our forecast department.

Not quite impressed by one aspect of the weather or enough to really highlight any screaming message in Southern California.

We've got showers way to the north.

We've got warmth in Colorado.

Mainly dry off to the east, where we had been dealing with some recent rain, but for us near normal for mid May, here we are.

That means a lot of sunshine at Mount Laguna and Borrego Springs.

Some coastal clouds in the morning that a bright afternoon.

71, in San Diego.

We're looking pretty good.

Lots of dry, bright, beautiful weather for Thursday.

After we get rid of those morning low clouds along the coastline.

The greatest amount of warmth is migrating east of the divide, and we're looking pretty good.

And really a strong finish to the week here for Friday.

Dry weather, bright skies, some coastal clouds in the morning.

Lots of sunshine through the afternoon and warm in the deserts, but not terribly hot.

So here we are with the coastal forecast.

Well, it's about as consistent as you can get with the temperatures.

So generally highs between 73 and then hovering at 72 Thursday through the weekend.

This is nice weather.

This is partly why it's such a popular place to live.

Inland areas a little warmer 76 and 75.

Not a whole lot of variety out there.

A little more sunshine as we step away from the coast in the mountains.

Low 60s, a little warmer into Saturday and Sunday.

We jump into the mid to borderline upper 60s.

And for the deserts here, we're going to find a little more heat mid 90s, upper 90s on our warmest day being Friday, hovering in the mid 90s for the weekend.

Lots of sunshine here.

Those coastal clouds will not make it that far inland.

I'm AccuWeather meteorologist Geoff Cornish for Kpbs news.

The beloved Barrio Logan restaurant Las Cuatro Milpas officially reopened at its new location.

Kpbs video journalist Matthew Bowler says while the food is great, it's the people that make this place special.

The rice, beans, tamale and a taco from Las Cuatro Milpas warm the soul.

For almost six months, the iconic Barrio Logan taco shop has been closed until now.

The line stretched down the block and around the corner and just kept getting longer and longer and longer.

I grew up on 25th and L Street.

That's Berry Thompson.

He's been eating at Las Cuatro Milpas for a long time.

I remember when the bridge wasn't here.

Las Cuatro Milpas was here then.

Too long before the Coronado Bridge.

Before Chicano Park, before the five freeway.

Since 1933, this family run business has cooked up Mexican classics in Barrio Logan.

The food's good and food's delicious, I missed it.

That's Natividad Estudillo or Junior, the great grandson of founders Petra and Natividad Estudillo.

Today he's running the kitchen.

It's a little home for people who can come and enjoy and forget all the troubles out there.

It's grandmothers cooking, grandmothers food.

Handmade tortillas, handmade tamales, rolled tacos and a massive pot of beans.

Fill the kitchen with delicious smells.

All the while the line grows longer.

But retired cook Berry Thompson says that's the real secret.

You take your time with it, let it simmer.

You put your soul into it, but you take your time with food.

You don't rush it and you don't try to overheat it, overcook it, simmer like the man said.

You don't get great food without great taste, and you don't get lines this long without the love of a grateful community.

Matthew Boehler, Kpbs news.

Here's a look what we're working on for tomorrow in the Kpbs newsroom.

NPR Morning Edition is covering high gas prices in California.

The financial burden that's unique to our state, where costs are among the highest in the country.

And Kpbs Midday Edition will be talking about mental Health Awareness Month.

You can listen tomorrow at noon on Kpbs FM or stream the show online.

You can find tonight's stories on our website, Kpbs.org Thanks for joining us.

I'm Maya Trabulsi.

Good night.

Major funding for Kpbs Evening Edition has been made possible in part by Bill Howe, family of companies providing San Diego with plumbing, heating, air restoration and flood services for over 45 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.