Behind The Curtain

101 Ash Street

Three insiders go public for the first time to reveal what really happened inside of the 101 Ash St building, the true condition of the vacant tower, and how City officials and contractors knew the building was unsafe when the City moved over 1,000 employees in before having to evacuate only weeks later due to asbestos exposure (Originally aired 17March22) Art Castanares [https://www.linkedin.com/in/artcastanares] became the Publisher of LaPrensa [http://laprensasd.com/] San Diego in 2015 and brings over 30 years of experience in government and politics in his quest to find out what government officials and others are hiding from the public. Castañares was the 2021 recipient of the prestigious Ruben Salazar Journalism Award for Excellence in Print Media.

SDG&E Employee Fired Over Alleged White Supremacist Picture is a Latino

Art invites Emmanuel Cafferty [https://laprensa-sandiego.org/caffertyvsdge/], to discuss his firing from SDG&E.  He was fired last year after a picture posted on social media showed him making a common hand gesture that has become associated with white supremacists, but there is no evidence he had any racist intentions or even knew what the hand sign meant. Is cancel culture out of control?

SD City Council Allows Hotel Tax Increase to Stand without Enough Election Votes

The San Diego City Council has allowed a ballot measure to stand -pending a court decision- that would raise hotel room taxes even though not enough voters supported the tax during the March 2020 election. Alliance San Diego's [https://www.alliancesd.org/] Executive Director, Andrea Guerrero [https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-guerrero-3603242b] joins the podcast to talk with Art and guest co-host, Barbara Bry. (Originally aired 12April21)

San Diego Must Decide Who Will Deliver Energy within City

Tyson Siegele [https://protectourcommunities.org/team/] of Protect Our Communities [https://protectourcommunities.org/] goes Behind The Curtain with Art and guest co-host, Barbara Bry. Consultant, Mark Ellis [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-edward-ellis], joins the discussion as the San Diego City Council will soon decide what company will deliver energy to homes and businesses within the City. SDG&E's franchise agreement expired on January 17th after 50 years and the decision was extended because no other company submitted a bid before the end of the year. (Originally aired 5April21)

Secret Police Funding Committee - No Longer Operating in Secret

Art and guest co-host, Barbara Bry [https://g.co/kgs/PSQW9m], speak with retired San Diego Sheriff Commander, David Myers [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Myers_(police_officer)] about newly revealed Secret Police Funding Committee.  This local committee of fire and police chiefs held its first public meeting last week after 16 years of acting behind closed doors to allocate millions of dollars per year in federal funds to prepare for and respond to terrorist attacks – but their change came only after La Prensa San Diego filed a lawsuit in December to challenge their secret meetings as being in violation of state open meeting laws. The Urban Area Working Group, known as UAWG,  is comprised of police and fire chiefs from throughout the County. UAWG is the “Approval Authority” that allocates an average of about $15 million per year in federal funds to nearly every public safety agency in the region and has allocated more than $200 million since the program’s inception. (Originally aired 29March21)