KPBS Evening Edition - Thursday, May 28, 2026

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]America's 250th anniversary.

[00:00:03]>> Watch live or stream Saturday at 7:30.

[00:00:09]>> Return to Broadway with Great Performances for a spotlight on musicals then and now. All of them different and yet with one thing in common.

[00:00:15]>> Jews.

[00:00:15]>> The Jewish heritage of the composers and lyricists who created that special brand of American optimism.

[00:00:21]>> The quintessential Broadway musical.

[00:00:23]>> And so much more.

[00:00:24]>> The idea of outsiders overcoming obstacles.

[00:00:29]>> Look for Broadway musicals, a Jewish legacy.

[00:00:32]On Great Performances.

[00:00:33]>> Watch live or stream Saturday at 9:00 on [music] KPBS.

[00:00:38]>> Turn to KPBS for all the news you need.

[00:00:41]>> Victims and advocates against human trafficking continue raising awareness around [music] the issue.

[00:00:46]>> San Diego's trusted news source.

[00:00:48]Weeknights starting at 4:00 on KPBS.

[00:00:50][music] You're watching KPBS.

[00:01:02]>> Major funding for KPBS Evening [music] Edition has been made possible in part by Bill Howe Family of Companies, providing San Diego [music] with plumbing, heating, air, restoration, and flood services for over 45 years.

[00:01:15][music] Call 1-800-BillHowe or visit billhowe.com.

[00:01:23]>> And by the Conrad [music] Prebys Foundation. Darlene Marcos Shiley.

[00:01:28]And by [music] the following.

[00:01:37]And by viewers [music] like you. Thank you.

[00:01:48]>> Thank you for joining us. [music] I'm Maya Traboulsi. If the ongoing Tijuana River pollution has affected your business or changed how you live at home, San Diego County wants to know.

[00:01:57]KPBS environment reporter Tammy Murga says a new county survey will measure the economic impacts of the sewage crisis on residents and businesses.

[00:02:07]>> If you drive around in Imperial Beach, there is so many for rent signs everywhere. Like this smell is driving people out.

[00:02:16]>> Diana Santana grew up in Imperial Beach, aware of the Tijuana River sewage crisis. But in recent years, pollution and its noxious odors have worsened.

[00:02:26]It's made so many parts of Santana's life difficult, including her job as a property manager.

[00:02:32]>> Since 2014, I have not had this many vacancies. Right now, we have over 14 vacancies. And this is summer time.

[00:02:40]Summer time is usually the hot season.

[00:02:43]>> The county is looking for testimonials like Santana's. Officials announced today the launch of a new survey to evaluate how contamination and beach closures have affected businesses, tourism, and other public costs over time.

[00:02:58]Santana hopes the survey results will help bolster efforts to permanently end the sewage crisis, rather than provide compensation to impacted businesses.

[00:03:08]>> I don't think money's going to save IB.

[00:03:11]I think what is really going to save IB is actions and solutions to what's going on.

[00:03:18]>> The county was unavailable for an interview. In a statement, it said, "The findings will help guide future funding and long-term solutions." The survey is available at tijuanarivereconimpacts.com.

[00:03:31]It will remain open for about 4 weeks, and findings will be published this fall. Tammy Murga, KPBS News.

[00:03:39]>> Well, taking [snorts and clears throat] a look at tonight, we're dropping down into the low 60s. Starting with some clouds, we'll see some clearing, but also the June gloom is upon us. Even though it's not quite June yet, that marine layer, we're going to see some changes, but not quite yet. I'll break down what to expect for the end of the week and heading into the weekend coming up.

[00:03:58]>> San Diego County is changing the way it pays for homeless case management. The effort is expected to save taxpayer money without cutting back on services.

[00:04:06]KPBS Penner Fellow Emmy Brueckner found out what's changing.

[00:04:10]>> The county's office of Homeless Solutions will now charge the state's low-income health insurance program, Medi-Cal, for its case management work.

[00:04:19]The County Board of Supervisors voted to expand a pilot Medi-Cal initiative last week.

[00:04:24]Vice Chair Monica Montgomery Steppe said this program will fund an estimated 78% of case management for homelessness in 2027.

[00:04:33]>> Under this new system, our county's homeless outreach team can actually bill for the work that we are already doing.

[00:04:40]Um housing navigation, case management, and getting people off the streets and into stable housing.

[00:04:46]>> Diana Becall is the director of the county's office of Homeless Solutions.

[00:04:50]>> We anticipate when we're like by the end of 2027, when we're really up fully up and running, hopefully serving about uh 800 households in any given day.

[00:05:00]>> Becall says Medi-Cal will reimburse certain housing and moving costs.

[00:05:04]Becall's office will still support people who don't qualify for Medi-Cal through county funds. This is the first way the county is utilizing the Medi-Cal initiative to save costs, but they're exploring additional options as well.

[00:05:17]>> And if there's a way that we can bring down these dollars from the state and federal level into our local community to help people's lives, I think it's really important that we move forward and do that.

[00:05:29]>> Emmy Brueckner, KPBS News.

[00:05:32]>> Did California's gun laws play a part in limiting the impact of last week's attack on the Islamic Center of San Diego? KPBS reporter Andrew Dyer says it depends on who you ask.

[00:05:44]>> [clears throat] >> Video from the live stream of the attack circulated online after the shooting.

[00:05:49]Experts tell KPBS one of the firearms visible in that video is a semi-automatic Ruger Mini-14.

[00:05:57]California's assault weapons ban prevents these rifles from having certain features. They can't have a pistol grip or a forward pistol grip.

[00:06:05]They have to have a fixed stock and be at least 30 in long. Magazine capacity is limited to 10 rounds.

[00:06:11]>> From everything that I saw from the video, it looked like it met those criteria and looked like a very stock firearm that you could purchase at many dealers here in California.

[00:06:24]>> Steve Lindley is a policy adviser for the gun control organization the Brady Campaign. He also ran the Bureau of Firearms for the state of California for eight years. He says all together the state bans features that make semi-automatic rifles more deadly, especially limits on magazine capacity.

[00:06:42]>> If you have 10 round magazines you have 10 rounds to shoot before you need to change magazines. If you have a 30 or 40 round magazine, again, you can shoot 30 or 40 rounds before you need to reload.

[00:06:55]>> Three people were killed in the attack including an armed security guard.

[00:06:59]Michael Schwartz is the executive director of the San Diego County Gun Owners PAC. He agrees the rifle in the video is a California compliant Mini-14, but he says the attack represents a failure of gun control laws.

[00:07:11]>> The assault weapons ban that California has implemented clearly failed. It didn't stop these two people.

[00:07:17]>> Lindley says every second of delay counts in such attacks. Delays like stopping to change magazines. That's something a shooter would need to do more often with less capacity.

[00:07:28]>> It is about reducing the number of victims. It's very difficult to stop shootings.

[00:07:35]>> Schwartz says the factors California uses to define assault rifles are cosmetic and didn't impact the effectiveness of the attacker's firearm.

[00:07:43]>> If he had a bigger magazine or he had he had a pistol grip or whatever, it wouldn't have changed the outcome of this at all. Looking at the reality of this, a good guy with a gun stopped a bad guy with a gun from killing a lot of kids.

[00:07:58]Full stop.

[00:07:58]>> The San Diego police and the FBI haven't confirmed what specific types of firearms were used in the attack.

[00:08:06]Andrew Dyer, KPBS News.

[00:08:09]>> During the final round of public comments on Mayor Todd Gloria's proposed budget, the San Diego arts community made one last push to try to save funding. The budget plan would cut nearly $10 million from arts and culture programs. And that represents more than an 80% reduction.

[00:08:28]Over 200 people signed up for public comments last night, raising concerns about how those cuts could lead to layoffs, hurt kids who participate in free programs, and city revenue.

[00:08:42]>> If this office is cut, that means more children without programs, without arts, without libraries, without recreational centers. Few safe places where they can learn.

[00:08:51]>> Other programs that generate revenue and bring in funding to our city and not stop. Like it's part of your guys the city's own strategic plan to make this a cultural destination. What kind of a cultural destination are we going to be with no culture, with no programming, with no arts?

[00:09:05]>> And those cuts are part of a larger effort to close the city's projected $118 million budget deficit, which also includes cutting library hours, city positions, and scaling back infrastructure projects.

[00:09:21]Some concernment concerning news for parents, researchers are warning that the US is experiencing a reading recession. Lee Waldman explains why school-aged children's reading test scores across the country are stagnant or even falling.

[00:09:37]>> 83% of school districts in the US has seen a decline in reading achievement since 2015.

[00:09:45]>> Harvard Professor Dr. Tom Kane and his partners at Stanford and Dartmouth created the education scorecard, a real-time window into how students in local school districts across the country are learning. What they found, only five states plus the District of Columbia had meaningful growth in reading test scores from 2022 to 2025.

[00:10:04]Nationally, students are nearly half a grade level behind pre-pandemic reading scores.

[00:10:10]>> The pandemic was just the mudslide that followed 7 years of gradual erosion in student achievement.

[00:10:17]>> The education scorecard found over 100 districts are defying the trend and seeing improvements in reading. In the 2025 school year, West Baton Rouge Parish Schools earned its highest performance score in its history.

[00:10:29]>> We've gone back to phonics for students to learn to read and comprehend complex text. They've got to be able to decode and and have those foundational reading skills.

[00:10:40]>> That return to phonics, the science of reading, is being done on a larger scale at Atlanta Public Schools.

[00:10:46]Superintendent Dr. Brian Johnson has a goal to increase third-grade English language arts proficiency by 20% by 2030 with a focus on phonics.

[00:10:56]>> We believe that we should set those rigorous goals and then we should put the supports in place. We have amazing teachers and amazing staff that are supporting the work and are making it happen.

[00:11:07]>> I'm Lee Waldman reporting.

[00:11:09]>> Screen time in schools is a growing concern throughout the country. Parents in Los Angeles have successfully pushed their district to limit screen use. KPBS reporter Katie Anas says parents are bringing that movement to San Diego.

[00:11:25]>> It's an April morning in downtown San Diego. Elizabeth Johnson and other parents with children in San Diego Unified have gathered to protest.

[00:11:34]Johnson sticks letters onto a piece of cardstock to spell "teachers over tech".

[00:11:39]Inside is a sold-out conference. School district leaders, college presidents, tech executives, and startup founders talk about the latest in AI and educational technology.

[00:11:49]>> We always are looking at how we can help make teaching better.

[00:11:55]>> Johnson [music] and a growing number of other parents are asking the district to reduce screen use in its classrooms.

[00:12:01]They're part of an advocacy group called Schools Beyond Screens. Johnson started worrying about screens even before she became a parent. In 2010, she was studying to become a psychologist and learned about the drawbacks. There were already studies linking high mobile phone use to depression, stress, and sleep deprivation.

[00:12:19]>> And I thought that if I ever had kids of my own, I would do everything I could to give them a screen-free childhood.

[00:12:26]>> When her daughter went to kindergarten at Ocean Beach Elementary, she started using a Chromebook at school.

[00:12:31]>> It was ubiquitous, and it kind of made me sit up in a different way. I didn't realize just how much they were going to be on it.

[00:12:41]>> In San Diego Unified, students in transitional kindergarten through first grade have Chromebooks in their classrooms. Starting in second grade, students can take them home.

[00:12:51]>> There was a point where giving everyone a laptop was the great equalizer. Hey, not just the rich kids have tech at home. Now this is for people who have been systematically disenfranchised, or people who don't have as much access and as many resources.

[00:13:04]Now it's shifted again.

[00:13:06]What is valued is this information that screens are an inferior way to teach.

[00:13:13]>> In January, a Senate committee heard testimony on kids' screen time. Jean Twenge is a psychology professor at San Diego State University. She told the committee that standardized test scores started declining around 2012.

[00:13:25]>> One reason for that, the use of phones and tablets and laptops for leisure purposes during the school day.

[00:13:33]>> She says one thing districts can do is prevent that from happening.

[00:13:36]>> That school issued devices are used for school, are used for educational purposes, that they block social media, that they block streaming services like Netflix and Disney Plus, and that they block pornography sites.

[00:13:49]>> Neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath also spoke to the committee. He points to research that shows reading comprehension and retention are stronger on paper than on screens.

[00:13:58]>> It's not that the tech isn't being used well enough, we haven't been trained enough, we need better programs. It's we have evolved biologically to learn from other human beings, not from screens.

[00:14:07]And screens circumvent that process.

[00:14:10]>> Rennie Catalano Gusman also leads San Diego Schools Beyond Screens chapter.

[00:14:15]She says the Senate hearing made something clear.

[00:14:17]>> Learning works best when students are in practices that are teacher-led, pencil paper, and specifically not on screens.

[00:14:26]What's awesome about having that data now is that it's validating people's intuitions.

[00:14:31]>> Last month, the Los Angeles Unified School District voted to limit its students screen time, especially in younger grades. The push was led by an LA chapter of Schools Beyond Screens.

[00:14:42]Tanya Ortiz Franklin is an LA Unified board member.

[00:14:45]>> We want to be places of learning, not places of distraction. And so I appreciate the advocates who've been coming to us. You've really been speaking to our hearts.

[00:14:52]>> San Diego's chapter has proposed its own resolution for San Diego Unified.

[00:14:56]>> What we'd like to see for next year is a path for opting out that has reasonable accommodations and supports teachers in making those accommodations.

[00:15:05]>> It would also direct the district to set daily and weekly screen time limits, block YouTube on school-issued devices, and require instructional apps to be ad-free.

[00:15:15]A district spokesperson says Superintendent Fabiola Bagula has been talking with various groups about screen use.

[00:15:22]Board President Richard Barrera says he's working with parents on a board resolution.

[00:15:26]>> We're going to be asking the superintendent to develop a comprehensive plan that weighs the benefits of multiple technologies against the risks.

[00:15:37]>> Barrera says he wants teachers to be involved in shaping any new district policies. He says many decisions about technology use in classrooms are left up to teachers.

[00:15:47]But he says many teachers worry about distractions in class.

[00:15:51]>> I think that the not just our district, but school systems, you know, in general have purchased this technology over many years with a lot of assumptions, you know, built-in and it's time for us to listen to students, parents, and educators about what in this technology actually is helping learning and what is getting in the way.

[00:16:21]>> He says the goal is to bring a resolution to the board on June 23rd.

[00:16:25]Katie Anastas, KPBS News.

[00:16:28]>> And KPBS has extensive coverage on the challenges around raising kids in the age of smartphones and much of it is in our special series called screen time.

[00:16:39]It is available as a podcast at kpbs.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:16:45]>> I'm Jeff Bennett tonight on the NewsHour the US and Iran close in on a tentative deal to extend the ceasefire. That's at 7:00 after evening edition on KPBS.

[00:17:00]>> California's June primary is this upcoming Tuesday and with that in mind Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill to provide additional protections for poll workers and voters. The law, which took effect immediately, prohibits any person, including federal agents, from accessing voter rolls or election technology without a court order.

[00:17:20]Governor Newsom says the law is a response to, quote, legitimate anxiety about interference in the midterms by the Trump administration.

[00:17:29]>> So, it's in that spirit that I'm signing this. Sober about what we're up against, sober about the fact that acolytes for the Trump administration are actively encouraging ICE to go out just as ICE did on election day last November.

[00:17:50]>> Law enforcement officers are restricted from disrupting election workers except in public safety emergencies. President Trump triggered a national redistricting frenzy ahead of the midterms when he urged Republicans in Texas and elsewhere to redraw their districts to help the party retain control of the US House of Representatives. California redrew its own maps in response, including San Diego's 48th District.

[00:18:17]Meanwhile, there's a very crowded race to become the next governor of California. Newsom cannot run for a third term. A few months ago, the race was projected to possibly come down to two Republicans, which would be a rare sight in the typically blue state.

[00:18:32]But a new poll indicates that is now unlikely to be the case. Michael Blood explains from Los Angeles.

[00:18:39]>> [snorts] >> They call it the jungle primary.

[00:18:42]California is just one of a few states that use the so-called top-two primary or variant of it. Unlike a traditional party primary, when you have the Republicans nominating their candidate and Democrats picking their nominee and then facing off in November, in the top-two the candidates appear on a single ballot. They're crowded onto a single ballot regardless of what party.

[00:19:09]And the hitch is only two candidates advance to November, the top two vote-getters. What has occurred is it's brought a new kind of unpredictability to these races. A perfect example would be this year's race for governor in California, where there's more than 50 candidates on the ballot.

[00:19:29]And at this point, no one is running away with it, and it's not clear exactly who might eventually end up in this top two. Two of the prominent candidates have been Xavier Becerra, a Democrat who was health secretary in the Biden administration, and earlier a congressman and state attorney general.

[00:19:47]On the Republican side, Steve Hilton has been getting a lot of attention. He's a former Fox News commentator who is promising to bring down costs in California. The dominant issue in the race has been affordability. California is one of the most expensive states in the country. Our gas prices are highest.

[00:20:08]We have some of the highest taxes, and very often, home prices soar into the seven digits.

[00:20:15]>> Michael Blood with that report. A new survey from the Public Policy Institute of California found Sarah in the top spot with 23% of the vote, followed by Hilton at 20%. Democrat Tom Steyer, who spent more than $200 million of his own money, trails at 15%.

[00:20:33]In San Diego County, there is usually lower voter turnout for governor primary elections. But the county's registrar of voters, Sean Bram, says he's seeing higher turnout this election.

[00:20:44]>> We're seeing a slightly higher return rate than the March 24 presidential primary, and a slightly higher rate than the 2022 gubernatorial primary.

[00:20:55]>> As of today, the registrar of voters has received over 316,000 mail ballots, and more than 1,800 people have voted in person. There are more than 2 million registered voters in San Diego County. You can learn more about the election at kpbs.org/voterhub.

[00:21:20]While the marine layer has been a big story this week and recently, that June gloom even though it's still technically May, well, some changes are coming, but the rest of the week we still have to deal with that deeper marine layer, more of us seeing the low clouds in the fog first thing out the door. So, just a heads-up, but some improvement is on the way for some of us. Now, temperatures also going to be warming up sooner rather than later. We still have some rain to talk about, but next week we dry out once again. So, let's take this piece by piece starting with what to expect tonight. So, a lot of the rain is going to be focused along the coast.

[00:21:59]It's very spotty. I'll show you future radar here in a minute. I don't want you to see the rainfall icon around ocean side and think it's just a total washout though. You know, we'll take any rain that we can get at this point.

[00:22:10]Temperature-wise, we're in the low 50s in Ramona, we're in the low 60s in San Diego. We take you to Borrego Springs, we're in the 50s, some rain around Mount Laguna, we're in the 40s.

[00:22:21]Very big temperature range this time of the year. Tomorrow's highs, we go from 80 in Borrego Springs to 52 in Mount Laguna, 70s for our inland areas and along the coast. A lot of sunshine, but again, the marine layer is a factor especially first thing out the door. All right, so as we get into the later overnight hours, we start to see more of the rounds of scattered showers moving in. So, a lot of this is going to be happening while you're asleep. However, right around 6:45, we still have some of these showers along the coast and even a little further inland. So, just a heads-up, maybe a little slowdown because of the rain on the way out the door tomorrow. We all know how it happens even though it makes no sense, right? The traffic's slow, but it's really not raining that hard. We do clear out though by the time we get to later in the day Friday, just in time for the weekend. All right, so taking a look at your 5-day outlook, we do start to warm up this weekend and we stay in the mid-70s along the coast into early next week. Further inland, we're in the 80s by Sunday and we stick there Monday and Tuesday as well. Our mountain 5-day outlook, well, we're going from the 50s to the 60s to by Tuesday, the 70s.

[00:23:30]Plenty of sunshine to look forward to as well. And then in our desert regions, we'll be at back to the triple digits by the time we get to Tuesday. We go from 80 to 90 Friday to Saturday. That's quite the jump. For KPBS News, I'm AccuWeather's Anna Azalian.

[00:23:45]>> This weekend Triton Gaming Expo celebrates its 10th anniversary.

[00:23:49]Organized by UC San Diego students, the convention is now open to the public.

[00:23:53]KPBS Arts Reporter Beth Accomando has this preview.

[00:23:59]For a decade, UC San Diego students have been running Triton Gaming Expo, serving up a multiverse of fun that includes an artist alley, cosplay, industry and voice actor panels, and a promise of insane tech. Jewel is the vice president external for Triton Gaming.

[00:24:15]>> So, we're going to be basically taking over all the open space in the Price Center. We're going to be having fundraisers downstairs. We're also going to be having the majority of our programming on the second floor.

[00:24:25]>> Magnolia Hean is the executive officer for ArtSpark pre-professional art club.

[00:24:31]>> So, as a pre-professional art club, um being around art in the industry is um >> [music] >> really important. So, we're going to be tabling with some of our members' work.

[00:24:40]We can share what we've done as a club and what our individual members have done in the company of these really huge game industry giants, Riot, Supergiant, Behemoth. It's it's really valuable for our members to get their work and their [music] I don't know, get networking with people like that.

[00:24:54]>> And gaming company professionals welcome the chance to be on campus. [music] >> All of them are very excited. Some of them are also UCSD alum. So, a lot of them and some of them are even trying gaming alum. A lot of them are really excited to kind of see like what kind of like art talent as well as marketing talent as well as all this other stuff that is applicable to this industry. A lot of people in trying gaming do want to go into the game industry whether that's on the e-sports side or in the like kind of like video game side where they are creating games. [music] >> UC San Diego is best known as a STEM school. But, Jewel wants to shine a light on student artists.

[00:25:28]>> As someone who runs a student organization that is so focused around gaming, which I think is in and of itself an art form, I think it's really important to kind of uplift these student artists, especially in a school where I feel like we kind of get sidelined.

[00:25:41]>> But, artists won't be sidelined this weekend. In fact, [music] attendees will be rewarded for visiting artist booths.

[00:25:49]>> A lot of artist organize this thing called stamp rally. This one is specifically like transportation theme centered. We were making a riso printed map specifically for it. We have if you make a purchase from each of these artists, you get that as a special prize.

[00:26:03]>> Triton Gaming Expo takes place this Saturday and Sunday at UC San Diego's Price Center. The event is free for UCSD students and cost $12 for the public to purchase a two-day pass. Beth Accomando, KPBS News.

[00:26:19]>> And here's a look at what we're working on for tomorrow in the KPBS newsroom on NPR's Morning Edition. Gas prices pushed inflation to its highest level in almost three years. That's likely to make the Federal Reserve cautious about cutting interest rates regardless of pressure from President Trump. And KPBS Roundtable is breaking down the election races to watch this coming Tuesday in the city of San Diego. You can find tonight's stories on our website, kpbs.org.

[00:26:47]Thanks for joining us. I'm Maya Trabulsi. Have a great evening.

[00:26:53]>> 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, [music] and flood services for over 45 years. Call 1-800-BILL-HOWE or visit billhowe.com.

[00:27:14]And by the [music] Conrad Prebys Foundation, Darlene Marcos Shiley, and by the following.

[00:27:29]And by viewers like you. Thank you.

[00:28:28]>> Tonight at [music] 8:00, we remember Chunky Sanchez and his music. Then, visit green roofs across the county. And later, a look back at the arrival of Chinese and Japanese immigrants. That's tonight [music] on KPBS.

[00:28:42]>> America, built on promises of freedom, equality, and justice for all. Today, a new generation [music] of creators are breaking