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- A major chapter in the years-long scandal over the 101 Ash Street Building in downtown San Diego is now closed.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Maya Trabulsi.

Nearly $9.5 million will be returned to the city from a real estate broker.

And newly announced this afternoon, a criminal charge related to this financial scandal.

KPBS Reporter John Carroll is live at City Hall with more for us.

John.

- Maya, the council approved the settlement but it was not unanimous.

The vote's 7-2, with council members Marni von Wilpert and Vivian Moreno voting against.

Now, the nearly $9.5 million settlement was paid to real estate broker Jason Hughes.

Part of it was for the Ash Street property and part was for the Civic Center Plaza Towers.

The Ash Street property deemed unusable due to asbestos contamination.

Hughes claimed to have told numerous city officials that he planned to be paid for his work on leases signed for the two properties, but those city officials denied ever being told anything about those leases by Hughes.

Nine months ago, the city council agreed to spend more than $130 million to buy out the controversial leases.

And now, today's action on the deal reached between Hughes's attorney and the city, which removes Hughes and his company, Hughes Marino, from two city lawsuits.

Public comment tended toward criticism of the agreement and of the council for okaying it.

Here's a sample, and then we'll hear from a couple of councilmembers for and against.

- Change the rules to make sure this doesn't happen again, or we will be back here in future years with future settlements where somebody gets millions of dollars interest-free.

Change the disclosure laws.

Become fiduciaries for the taxpayer's benefits.

- Kevin Faulkner put this deal together.

He's responsible for this deal.

Todd Gloria stood before or sat before council committee and talked about what a wonderful opportunity this was and what a great deal this was for everybody.

Taxpayers, for city hall, for employees.

Those two men are responsible for the position we're in today.

- Simply having to give up what was made in an illegal scheme to defraud the public is not a sufficient penalty in my view.

It sends a message that if the city gets taken for a ride by crooked individuals, then the worst that will happen is that they just have to give back what they stole.

- Now, we did not hear from Councilmember LaCava there, but he was a supporter of agreement and praise city attorney Mara Elliott for coming to that agreement.

As for Hughes, he has also agreed, as you were saying earlier, to plead guilty to a misdemeanor violation of conflict of interest law.

He's scheduled to enter that plea in court tomorrow.

We reached out to his attorney for a comment.

And Maya, I know you were gonna ask me about that, but I'll just go ahead and tell you about it because we literally just got it.

Part of it reads, "While Jason was prepared to put forth a vigorous defense at trial, he has concluded it is in his best interest to settle all cleans against him in order to avoid the heavy and ongoing distraction of protracted litigation."

So there you have it.

The deal has been reached and Council President Elo-Rivera just to note also said he hopes that some of the future litigations surrounding this case can get some more money back from the city.

We'll see.

Live downtown, John Carroll, KPBS News.

- And John, thanks for that report.

It's been almost a week since residents of a mobile home park in Vista were forced to leave their homes after a sinkhole opened up.

KPBS reporter Claire Strong went to see how they're doing.

- It was my sanctuary.

Nobody lives there but me.

I'm really sad not to be able to go in my house with my things.

- [Claire] Denise Dougi had to leave all her worldly possessions behind bar a few essentials when disaster struck at Green Valley Mobile Park home last Thursday morning.

Flooding caused a sink hole behind her home, resulting in 17 residents being evacuated.

Since then, Dougi has been staying with her mother and has no idea when or if she'll be able to return.

- I just decorated my living room.

I've been there almost, well, three years on March 19th.

And I finally felt comfortable enough to start decorating.

And now, I can't go back in.

So it's just a thing.

Let go, let God.

It'll unfold.

It'll be what it'll be.

I'm confident we're all gonna be okay.

It's just frustrating.

- [Claire] Rich Cruz lives directly opposite.

He was forced to spend a few nights in a hotel, but was able to move back into his home over the weekend.

Cruz is worried about the financial impact this could have.

- My finances aren't great and the possibility of me being able to sell my home anytime soon are dim at the moment.

I love this place, but until this is resolved and everybody's squared away, I'm kind of stuck.

- So this side of the street was the worst hit six days ago.

This is where the landslide happened.

As you can see, there's still a cordon in place.

There's water on the floor.

And the residents that live here still can't get access to any of their belongings.

The exact cause is still unknown, but residents say they're frustrated by the lack of progress and don't know who will be footing the bill.

The City of Oceanside says repairs will begin as soon as the weather allows.

And in the meantime, contractors are working to prevent any further flooding.

KPBS also contacted Ruthford Investments who owns Green Valley for comment, but they hadn't responded by the time the story went to air.

Dougi and her neighbors just want to go home.

Claire Strong, KPBS News.

- And once again, shelter capacity is expanded tonight due to inclement weather.

The locations are Father Joe's Villages, Living Church of the Nazarene, and San Diego Rescue Mission.

All are in the downtown area.

Check in times the type of people served and available beds vary by location.

And we have more on the city's shelter situation a little bit later.

Jacob Aere went to Golden Hall which was repurposed as a shelter the past few years.

He will tell us why that service is ending soon and what's next for those who still need help.

Homeless advocates and medical professionals are denouncing what they say is ongoing patient dumping.

The organization Housing 4 the Homeless led the press conference outside of Scripps Mercy Hospital today.

Their members say hospitals across San Diego continue to prematurely discharge homeless and poor patients despite a 2018 law known as SB 1152, which was meant to address this issue.

They say it's contributing to deaths on the streets.

- The practice of hospitals inappropriately releasing homeless or indigent patients to the streets without proper screening or stabilizing treatment, often inadequately clothed, without safe transport or realistic plan for self-care.

Unfortunately, this is still happening today.

- In a statement, Scripps Health says it complies with all provisions of SB 1152 and that it ensures all patients are safe to leave the hospital before being discharged.

Housing 4 the Homeless leaders are requesting state lawmakers take action with hearings and review the law's effectiveness.

Nurses are in high demand in California.

A new analysis shows there are 60,000 nursing vacancies across the state.

KPBS Health Reporter Matt Hoffman says local hospitals are feeling the pinch, and it's not just nurses that are needed.

- [Matt] The American Hospital Association says an older healthcare workforce, a surge retirements, and pandemic burnout is driving a nationwide caregiver shortage.

- Staff up!

- When do we want it?

- Now.

- [Matt] They also say there just aren't enough students graduating to take their place.

- There are staffing shortages in healthcare regardless of what COVID did to us, but COVID exacerbated it.

- [Matt] Doug Levine is UC San Diego Health's Director of Talent Acquisition.

He says they currently have just over 200 open nursing positions.

That's about a 7% vacancy rate.

He says there's also a need for occupational therapists, surgical techs and other support staff, including food service workers and custodians.

- I can tell you that last year, in the calendar year 2022, we increased the size of our nurses and medical staff by 6%.

That's huge, but my patient population group up by more.

- [Matt] When it comes to recruitment, Levine says there's options including sign-on bonuses and covering relocation costs.

The San Diego market comes with its own challenges though.

- The fact that San Diego has some of the highest inflation rates in the country doesn't help the situation as well as the housing market.

- [Matt] Dr. Nicholas Holmes is Rady Children's Hospital's Chief Operating Officer.

He says they also have a need for nurses and respiratory therapists and lab staff.

Holmes says they use incentives like signon bonuses on a case by case basis.

- Well, there's only seven children's hospitals in the State of California, so that same specialized nurse or technologists and if they wanna be in California, it's looking at all of the children's hospitals.

So we're competing at all levels in all regions.

- [Matt] Holmes also says physician specialists are in high demand.

- It's not only just pediatrics I think.

It's across the country in all areas, both adult and pediatrics, where we're gonna see some significant changes related to physician shortages coming up.

- [Matt] The American Hospital Association is working with lawmakers to try and address the shortages.

They say that workforce costs can make up more than half of a hospital's budget.

Matt Hoffman, KPBS News.

- San Diego researchers have achieved something that's never been done before.

They have taken a core sample from the bottom of a lake buried under thousands of feet of ice in the middle of Antarctica.

KPBS Environment Reporter Erik Anderson shows us what they found.

- [Erik] It took researchers two seasons to travel across the cold barren landscape to reach Mercer Lake in Antarctica.

Matthew Siegfried works with the Colorado School of Mines.

- It's a little harder in Antarctica because first of all, there's a big ice sheet above the lake that we're interested in, and then it's far from pretty much everything.

And so all of our logistics went through McMurdo Station, which is about 500 miles from the lake we were interested in sampling.

- [Erik] Tractors pulled enough gear over the ice to build a small village and set up a drill.

Instead of using a steel bit to bore through the ice, researchers melted snow, sterilized it, and heated the water to 200 degrees.

- And we take a fire hose of hot water, literally like a multi inch diameter fire hose made of Kevlar, and we just point it into the ice and we go down.

- [Erik] Scientists needed to be efficient because the hole they pierced in the 3,500 feet thick ice sheet over the lake began to refreeze as soon as they cut it.

- So when we accessed Mercer subglacial lake, the water column was about 15 meters thick.

So that's a pretty deep lake.

- Venturelli was there during the collection.

She says long metal cylinders were dropped through the hole and into the lake.

Researchers sent containers to the bottom, where they captured a sample of the sediment on the lake floor.

What those devices came back with had never been found before.

The samples had layers of sediment.

Much like tree rings, these layers revealed what's happening in this hidden body of water.

- But in this subglacial environment, we had never seen something like this before.

But we have thought since we initially observed these lakes underneath the ice sheet that they should reflect something of the overlying ice.

- [Erik] Previous attempts to recover sediment cores from underwater lakes failed because the region they're their sampling is churned up by the ice above the water.

This lake was different.

- It's a pancake and we think about sediments being deposited.

It'll deposit one kind of sediment, and then another layer goes on top of that that might be a different type of sediment.

And on and on we go.

And that's how we draw paleo climate conclusions every day in ocean cores, for example.

- [Erik] Those layers tell the story of the lake and the surrounding ice, and it tells a story which fills a gap in the scientific record.

Core samples from the ocean floor around Antarctica tell the geological history of the region, but only until about a thousand years ago, satellite imagery has a pretty good record over the past two decades, but these lake cores extracted in this years-long effort could help fill that historical gap.

- It's not only what is there, but it's how long has it been there, and it tells us a lot more about the process.

- Helen Fricker is a glaciologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography who helped put the expedition together.

- So it's kind of a timescales problem.

We've only sampled for a very small window, and we need to be able to extend that backwards in time and also help us predict forwards in time to see how things might change in the future.

- [Erik] Fricker says the sediment cores will allow researchers to record the history of the lake locked up under thousands of feet of ice.

It will also help them understand the ice sheet above the water.

Continent holds more than 60% of the world's fresh water, and it could become a major factor as sea levels rise on a warming planet.

- It's basically subglacial hydrology.

And so we need to get that right in our models so it can help us constrain that process and understand it better so we can put it into a model which predicts the future of the ice sheet.

So that's what the data will eventually be able to inform.

- [Erik] It is common for scientists to build a climate record from sediment samples recovered in lakes in temperate climates.

These sediments are the first of their kind recovered from under the ice.

Findings from the expedition are published in the March 9th edition of the Journal Geology.

Erik Anderson, KPBS News.

- Once again, San Diego was spared some of the worst of the last atmospheric river to hit California.

The storm was strong enough to trigger a tornado warning last night.

In parts of LA County, Laura Aguirre shows us more and has an update on our drought status.

- [Laura] The San Francisco area was hit particularly hard in the latest wave of unrelenting rain and high winds overnight.

This semi-truck toppled in strong gusts, sweeping the Bay Bridge.

The driver climbed out on his own.

- Pretty crazy, saw some boats like tilting across.

- [Laura] In one case, big boats, at least three commercial barges broke loose and smashed into one of the city's historic bridges.

- How they ended up in the channel, I'm not quite sure.

- [Laura] In the Bay Area, authorities day two people were killed in separate cases of trees falling on vehicles.

Here in San Bernardino County, an SUV washed away into a tree.

Fire officials there say the driver managed to climb out before waves swept his car down river.

Across the state, several cities have seen up to 200% jumps in rainfall this winter.

One upshot, the U.S. drought monitor says the state's drought conditions have eased dramatically since December.

From more than 80% of the state considered severe or worse down to just eight.

Mountain snowfall is at near record highs in some areas.

In the Sierra Nevadas, the Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab says it's the second snowiest season since they started tracking in 1946, with another three to four feet dump there since Tuesday.

- The snow pack's expected to stick around, probably into July if not into August at this point.

- [Laura] Meaning, the slopes could be busy all through summer.

I'm Laura Aguirre for KPBS News.

- [Maya] Well, the rain is coming down in San Diego, but we still got rain in some areas.

This video shows some of it coming down this morning in Rancho Bernardo.

Forecasters expect a few days of clear weather lasting through the weekend.

- Well, we still have some rain and a little bit of snow to contend with here as we'll work our way throughout the overnight along with the cool air continuing the next couple of days, but we will be evolving into a quieter weather pattern, heading in toward the weekend.

In the short term, still have some flood, watches up a lot of rain the last 24 hours.

Many spots well over an inch in.

Think about this a month as a whole.

So far, compared to that historical average running about 300% higher.

So way up there.

Also, looking at some advisories out mainly above 5,000 feet down toward Mount Laguna.

Winter weather advisories going on right into Thursday morning.

And the surf, it's also gonna be choppy through Thursday evening.

We're talking about the beaches and these will run all the way up toward, well, Santa Monica, Huntington Beach, but all the way southbound to rank toward Chula Vista.

All right, let's talk about future cast here.

And we're gonna start to see this area of low pressure depart, but still some areas of moisture swinging through throughout the overnight.

So we cannot rule out some wet weather and some wintery weather over the higher terrain.

But as we go throughout Thursday and beyond, the tendency will be for some quieter weather conditions to return.

With that in mind, temperatures for tonight, a pair of 48s in Oceanside and Chula Vista.

Mount Laguna dropping down to 26 with some snow.

44 in Borrego Springs.

Here's the outlook on Thursday and not looking overly active at this point, but still a chilly pocket of air in place.

Notice that jet stream dipping down to the south.

(indistinct) right around 67.

We'll call it 62, San Diego.

Mount Laguna still some snow, and Oceanside tops off at 61.

Let's talk about the extended quieter weather conditions arriving for the weekend, but still cool.

Perhaps a bit of warmup as we venture our way into early next week toward the coast, and the same toward the interior.

70 could be in sight.

Next week, Monday, we're close.

Still some showers though first on Thursday, and then calms the sunshine over the mountains.

Still some of that snow mixing with rain.

Along with that, the cold will linger through the weekend.

Perhaps a little uptick our temperature by Monday, and throughout the high deserts, we'll be climbing up the 70s.

That's still a little cool though.

Along with that though, some sunshine.

For KPBS News, I'm meteorologist Justin Povick.

- Interest rates are up again.

Today, the Federal Reserve added another quarter of a point.

It's the latest in a series of moves aimed at bringing inflation under control.

Interest rates affect the price consumers pay for loans, like credit cards and home mortgages.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell says he anticipates these regular increases will slow down in the coming months.

The City of San Diego is trying to fill more than 2000 jobs.

Today, the city held a job fair for openings in more than 30 departments, including police, finance, and parks and recreation.

The positions range from entry level to upper management.

Hundreds of people lined up to apply, and some even interviewed on site.

- The best reason to work for the city is you get to serve your community.

You get to be paid a great wage doing it, and then after decades of working for the city, when you retire, you're gonna have that security of a strong pension which we have in the city.

- And the city hopes to make this an annual event.

Job seekers who couldn't make it out to today's event can still apply at sandiego.gov/jobs.

San Diego's Golden Hall has provided shelter for hundreds of people since 2019, but that's about to change.

KPBS Reporter Jacob Aere says it's set to close, but most of its residents don't know where they'll go next.

- [Jacob] San Diego's Golden Hall Homeless Shelter will close in the near future, and new locations will have to be found to house hundreds of people experiencing homelessness.

That's putting some of the residents like Kevin Graves on edge.

He's been there for six months.

- It's a travesty.

It is.

You have numerous homeless people here in San Diego, yet still, they justify closing a place that has reached out to a lot of people.

- [Jacob] The city owned shelter has been operating under a temporary permit in the venue for roughly four years and has run by Father Joe's Villages.

- Yeah, it'll be transitioning over the next number of months.

We have over 500 beds here, and the majority of those beds are on the first level for single men.

We have over 300 beds for single men there.

And then we also have on the second level, we have beds for families, and we also have beds for transitional age youth.

- [Jacob] Father Joe's Deacon Jim Vargas says the timing of the closure is challenging, because homelessness is the worst he's ever seen in San Diego.

In a statement to KPBS, City Spokesperson Dave Roland said, "There's no hard move-out date, and the families at Golden Hall will move into a new shelter in Barrio Logan later this spring.

But the city is still looking for shelter options for the adult men and transition aged youth.

Everyone will continue to be sheltered at Golden Hall until other options are found to make sure no one will be sent out onto the streets."

Vargas says one population will be particularly challenging to rehouse.

- When it comes to the single men, it may be multiple locations, because there, we're talking about over 300 individuals.

- [Jacob] The timeline for moving out is still murky, and the lack of details are frustrating to some of the Golden Hall residents.

- The promises are great, but we've heard them.

And it's kind of disheartening when that statement was made, and you could probably feel the silence here.

- [Jacob] Vargas says no one has moved out of Golden Hall just yet, but the closure gives the city an opportunity to expand other types of shelter and housing options.

- There are individuals out there who are on the streets who don't necessarily want to go into congregate settings, but they do want off the streets.

And so it gives us the opportunity to meet them where they are and be able to come up with solutions like state villages.

- [Jacob] The city said continuing to operate Golden Hall as a permanent shelter would require many expensive improvements to the building.

Golden Hall could wind up becoming part of a large redevelopment plan called the Civic Core Revitalization Project, which looks to upgrade six blocks of buildings in downtown San Diego.

Jacob Aere, KPBS News.

- I'm Jeff Bennett.

Tonight on the News Hour, the Federal Reserve tries to find a difficult balance in the wake of recent bank failures.

Coming up at seven after evening edition on KPBS.

- VA House Arena will open its doors Friday for those who want to watch the Aztecs in the Sweet 16.

The men's team is taking on Alabama Friday afternoon in Louisville.

Today, the university announced a watch party for fans here in San Diego.

Admission is free and open to the public, and doors open at 2:30 and the game begins at 3:30.

Keanu Reeves, John Wick, is back in action.

And that makes KPBS film critic and action junkie, Beth Accomando, very happy.

Here is her review of "John Wick: Chapter 4."

- You ready, John?

- Yeah.

- [Beth] "John Wick: Chapter 4" serves up something of a reunion, as it seems to be wrapping up the franchise with a farewell tour that takes us to beautiful locations around the globe for one action set piece after another.

- I'm going to die.

- Maybe not - [Beth] Saying that "John Wick: Chapter 4" ranks fourth in the franchise is like complaining that rubies are worth less than diamonds.

I mean, yeah, but they're both priceless gems.

The first John Wick was a flawless diamond, pure and stunning in its clarity of purpose.

John Wick 4 takes us a long way from the hitman, forced out of retirement to get revenge for the death of his puppy.

Now, it brings us to a more complex and elegant world where John Wick, once again played by Keanu Reeves, wants to, once and for all, regain his freedom from the criminal underworld known as The High Table.

The fact that Wick has survived three films and an onslaught of assassins challenges any sense of realism.

- Yeah, not really.

- [Beth] But who cares when the film delivers so much exhilarating action?

- I'm going to need a gun.

- [Beth] In this fourth out, stuntman turned director Chad Stahelski focuses a lot on gunplay, but finds ways to feature it in a series of set pieces that'll make your jaw often off.

- Last words, Winston?

Chips have fun out there.

- [Beth] And Stahelski does.

He understands the thrilling beauty of fight choreography and stunt work.

Then he makes sure we appreciate it too, by allowing it to play out in long, wide, gorgeous shots.

Plus, he gives us action superstars like Donnie Yen and lets them shine.

Stahelski pays heed not just to the action but also to costume, cinematography, and production design, so everything combines to deliver one of the most elegantly stylish action films.

He and Star Keanu Reeves have forever raised the bar on the Hollywood action genre and set a whole new gold standard.

Beth Accomando, KPBS News.

- And you can find tonight's stories on our website, kpbs.org.

Thanks for joining us.

I'm Maya Trabulsi.

Goodnight.

- [Announcer] Major funding for KPBS Evening Edition has been made possible in part by Bill Howe Family of Companies, providing San Diego with plumbing, heating and air, restoration, flood and remodeling services for over 40 years.

Call 1-800-BILL-HOWE or visit billhowe.com.

And by the Conrad Prebys Foundation, Darlene Marcos Shiley, and by the following: (upbeat music) And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

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