(San Diego) – For the week ending August 21, 2026, top local and statewide stories include new rent hike limits in CA, Colorado River water shortages, state pushes for more homebuilding, a raised trolley line proposed in La Mesa, Ramona advocates take legal action against SDG&E, Supervisors ban ICE training at Sheriff facilities, local Haitians face deportation, 31 local deaths linked to Krato, county deletes emails in contractor suit, county’s revenue problems, CA bars bringing back grizzly bears, and more.
LOCAL
STATE
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LOCAL
Is it worth the cost to make improvements to La Mesa’s downtown trolley? (San Diego Union-Tribune)
Transportation agency’s preferred elevated trolley option for La Mesa’s downtown village station comes with a $569M price tag… La Mesa does not have the money to make the improvements itself, but would have to apply for state or federal grants. Still, the city would likely have to spend some of its own money along with grants.
ICE banned from using San Diego County firearm training facilities (NBC 7)
The county has existing agreements with ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection allowing the agencies to use both training facilities.
Termination of protected status puts thousands of Haitians in San Diego at risk of deportation (Times of San Diego)
Temporary Protected Status for Haitians was officially terminated on July 27, putting thousands of Haitians in San Diego at risk of deportation. Temporary Protected Status is a federal program that allows foreign nationals to stay and work in the U.S. when conditions in their home country make it unsafe to return because of armed conflict or natural disaster…Now, the over 330,000 Haitians who lost their protected status are expected to leave their homes in the U.S. and return to the same dangerous conditions they fled, or face deportation.
Stingray lashings up as marine heat wave off Southern California draws more to shore (KPBS)
Beachgoers are encountering more stingrays and suffering their lashings as a marine heat wave off Southern California draws them closer to shore.
31 deaths linked to kratom in San Diego County since 2023 (ABC)
Dr. Richard Clark, medical director of the California Poison Control System in San Diego told Team 10 the poison control center has received well over 1,000 calls about suspected kratom product overdoses in the past decade. He said the most troubling calls are about someone who’s mixed kratom with alcohol or an opiate like fentanyl…. Federal health officials also warn deaths from products marketed as kratom are likely underreported nationwide due to inconsistent toxicology testing and a lack of awareness about 7-OH among doctors.
El Cajon tiny home village celebrates helping 64 women and children, plans expansion (KGTV)
Just over three years after opening its doors, a tiny home community in El Cajon is celebrating a major milestone: helping dozens of women and children experiencing homelessness find safety and a path toward permanent housing. When Meridian-Amikas Village opened on the campus of Meridian Southern Baptist Church in December 2022, its mission was simple— provide emergency shelter while connecting women and their children with the resources they need to rebuild their lives. Today, that mission is showing measurable results.
Some of San Diego Unified’s Disabled Students Spend Whole School Years with Substitutes (Voice of SD)
At 21 San Diego Unified schools, students with disabilities spent more than half of 2025 with substitute teachers. Most of the time, those subs didn’t have full teaching credentials. For parents, the experience was distressing.
‘Something’s got to be done’: Challenging SDG&E on behalf of ratepayers (KPBS)
SDG&E wants to raise monthly bills by 8.6% starting in 2028. A handful of groups are formally fighting the request during state regulatory proceedings.
One of the nation’s largest battery storage facilities opens in Poway (KPBS)
There’s enough storage capacity to keep 385,000 homes running for up to four hours.
County Automatically Deleted Emails Tied to Contractor Scandal (Voice of SD)
…. A county lawyer told Voice it had no record of the emails because they apparently weren’t tagged to be saved in the county’s email system and fell outside its two-year retention policy.
Cajon Valley Union expands meal programs to keep students fed and ready to learn (ABC)
The district participates in the federal Community Eligibility Provision, which allows eligible schools to provide free meals to all students, regardless of household income.
Death penalty sought for mother charged with Spring Valley girl’s murder (CNS)
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against the adoptive mother of an 11-year-old Spring Valley girl who was allegedly starved and beaten over the course of several years, leading to her death…. / McCormack and her parents, Adella Tom, 74, and Stanley Tom, 79, are all facing charges that include murder, torture, and child abuse in connection with Arabella’s death, as well as alleged abuse toward her two younger sisters.
Polling Shows County’s Challenges to Raise Revenue (Voice of SD)
The county paid consultants to poll-test three tax hike options. Each one comes with hurdles.
A California university is cutting ties with the Border Patrol after student outcry (CalMatters)
UC San Diego police used the grant to patrol sections of the coastline near campus, which quickly set off an uproar among students who felt it placed undocumented and international students at risk. By Feb. 26, after students emailed complaints and threatened to hold a public rally, student Aryan Dixit said the campus police chief, Lamine Secka, agreed to leave the grant program in a one-on-one meeting.
STATE
New rent limits take effect in California (Times of San Diego)
Landlords across the state of California face new limits in how much they can increase the rent of their tenants. Under Assembly Bill 1482, the California Tenant Protection Act of 2019, landlords are prohibited from increasing their rental rate more than 5% plus the rate of inflation, or 10%, whichever is lower, over a 12-month period. The new statewide cap came into effect on Aug. 1 and will last until July 31, 2027.
Newsom makes last-minute push to help California utilities facing wildfire bills (KPBS)
In the final few weeks of his last legislative session as California governor, Gavin Newsom is asking lawmakers to help reduce how much profit-making utility companies must pay out after wildfires. His administration has for weeks floated to lawmakers a wide-ranging but still-vague package of bills to address the spiraling costs of wildfires that has made a slew of different interests unhappy.
California lawmakers kill grizzly bear reintroduction bill (Cal Maters)
Lawmakers on Thursday killed a controversial plan that could have allowed grizzly bears to one day return to California…The measure would have tasked the California Department of Fish and Wildlife with creating a “roadmap that evaluates whether, and under what conditions, reintroduction of the grizzly bear is feasible and advisable.”
Almost nowhere in California is building enough, according to the state. Here’s why (KPBS)
The state ordered every city and county to plan for 2.5 million new homes by 2030. With the exception of just five jurisdictions, no one is on track to hit their numbers.
Californians voted to spend $1 billion on K-12 arts. Why are schools returning the money? (Cal Matters)
Three years after voters passed an ambitious arts education funding measure, California’s K-12 schools were supposed to be awash in dance, music, theater and fine arts. But some schools are returning their arts money to the state, saying the rules on how to spend it are too vague and they can’t find enough arts teachers.
Arizona, California and Nevada would share cuts under federal proposal to manage the Colorado River (KPBS)
The Lower Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada could together be forced to reduce their use by up to 3 million acre-feet (130 billion cubic feet) annually through 2036 — about the amount that Arizona and Nevada receive and enough to serve more than 25 million people a year. The actual reductions would be determined every two years based on conditions throughout the basin.
Lake Mead hits historic low water level as Colorado River struggles (AP)
Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States, has plummeted to its lowest water level since it was filled some 90 years ago, another sign of the crisis plaguing the Colorado River system.
Is this proposition a $4 billion giveaway to a billionaire-backed LA research center? (KPBS)
It will appear on the November ballot as Proposition 38, which would provide $8.4 billion for cutting edge immunology research and cures for heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s, as well as other diseases that may be vanquished with immunotherapies…. But a CalMatters analysis shows that the ballot language criteria were tailored in a way that very likely excludes all but one institute in the entire state: the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy, whose prominent donor and co-founder is the chief backer of the proposition.
Would you trust your boss with data about your brain? California moves to regulate neurotech (KPBS
Brain sensors are advancing, and California companies, lawmakers and unions are jockeying to shape how the resulting data can be used.