>> joanne: coming up next onkpbs evening edition charges of bribery and more withconstruction of schools in the south bay.>> peggy: and a camp pendelton marine sergeant goes on trialfor killing iraqi civilians. >> joanne: and we continue tolook at the winners and losers of redevelopment.one of the biggest losers, affordable housing.>> peggy: kpbs evening edition starts now.>> joanne: hello, thank you for joining us i'm joanne faryon.>> peggy: i'm peggy pico.
dwane brown has the night off.>> joanne: current and former sweetwater school officials andconstruction executives have been charged for arranging a payto play scheme. the charges come after a yearlong investigation. kyla calvert has more from thenews room. kyla, who is being charged andwhat are they accused of? >> the district formersuperintendent, former board members and two sitting boardmembers are charged with accepting gifts they didn'treports on and taking votes on
matters they had a personalfinancial interest. the construction executive ischarged with giving and offering bribes.all told the case involves 27 felony charges and severalmisdemeanors. we may not think of schools andpolitical intrigue at the same time but bonnie dumanis says thescope of the charges are incredible. >> this maybe the largest corruption case our office hasprosecuted. five defendants have beencharged with multiple felonies
including bribery, perjury andinfluencing an elected official. >> joanne: kyla, how havesweetwater officials responded? >> they have suspended thedistricts contract with sgi, the company overseeing the districts644 million-dollar school construction bond projects.he has also suspended the district's contract with a l.a.based legal firm. he himself will not sign a 3year contract that the board of education offered him to be thedistrict's permanent superintendent and will continueon as a consultant with the
district.the two sitting board members that were charged won't be askedto step down. >> currently all members of theboard are allowed to conduct business.unless they're convicted of a crime, would be allowed to do .so it's our intent that everyone is presumed innocent untilproven otherwise. dumanis said the investigationis on going and could result in additional defendants andcharges. >> joanne: kyla calvert.>> peggy: investigators say four
shooting deaths were that of amurder suicide. two victims were miramar pilots.lieutenant john j. reeves killed himself, his roommate and his24-year-old sister who was a volleyball coach.another man was also killed. he's identified as a man from chula vista. investigators haven't released amotive for the shooting. they say the four were outcelebrating on knew year's eve. >> peggy: the former leader of amexican drug cartel pleaded guilty in a court room in sandiego.
kati marton was in the courtroom. katie, what happened.benjamin arellano felix pleaded guilty to one charge ofracketeering and one charge of conspiracy to launder money. hecan be sentenced up to 25 years in prison and must forfeit$100 million. he admitted to be the the leaderof the arellano cartel and ordering the kidnapping andmurders of witnesses and informants.>> peggy: why did boat sides agree to a plea deal?>> for arellano flex it was a
good deal.he could of been sentenced up to 140 years.this could allow him to go home to messages from the assembly coand be with his family after his prison term is up.prosecutors didn't comment but it secures a conviction andavoids the will the and cost of a trial.>> peggy: thank you, kati marton, for that update.>> peggy: the final chapter on one of the deadliest raids on aracky civilians began today in a san diego court room.we report with more on the long
awaited trial of a san diegomarine. >> joanne: the u.s. officiallypulled out of iraq just days ago. here today a military trial in san diego serves as a reminder.on trial a marine who lead a squad who killed some women andchildren in 2005. he's charged with voluntarymanlawsuiter. he spoke in 2008 publicly.here is an exert. everyone thinks of me as amonster, baby killer, cold blooded that sort of think.that's not accurate.
tphaoegt certificate story thatmost of them know about this incident.they need to know the truth. >> joanne: joining me isjeremiah sullivan, san diego defense attorney specializing inmilitary issues. jeremiah represented anothermarine in the killings. jeremiah, thank you for beinghere. >> good afternoon.>> joanne: can you begin by telling us in 2005 the sequenceof the events. >> a explosion device wasdetonated and killed a marine.
the marine responded as they doto these events. they cleared the area, theycleared adjacent houses where they believe the small arms firewas coming from. >> joanne: we know five men werein a vehicle nearby and they were shot and killed.>> wulrich admits to killing the then and then they went into ahome of women and children. >> that's correct.>> joanne: how many marines have been charged.>> a total of eight marines. this is the final trial in thisseries of cases.
none of the cases have resulted in any convictions. this will be the final trial.>> joanne: now the staff sergeant lead the squad.it was under his orders the homees were cleared.when we say cleared we know the men, women and children werekilled. do you think a court will seehis role differently than perhaps the other people whowere charged? >> i think there are a number ofwitnesses testifying before a military jury, members who havehopely deployed to a combat
theater and engaged in combat.there will be a different perspective from someone who hasbeen there and shot at and witnessed the carnage of a war.>> joanne: as him being the squad leader do you think thismight be the buck stops here and this is the person under orderthat this happened. >> that's one factor.they can hold him more accountable because he's moresenior, but that's just one part of the equation.>> joanne: you mentioned a jury with soldiers involved incombat.
when this case became publicthat was one thing we heard about.wulrich is a young man. this is his first experience incombat. he's having to make decisionsquickly. this is when we learned moreabout ieds. is that a central part of thiscase? >> absolutely.how he reacted in a battle zone where they're taking fire and he has witnessed and he's well aware of other people beingkilled.
if you hesitate you die.he made decisions he could under the circumstances.the government will criticize and say he made the wrongdecision. will he say under thecircumstances i did the best i could.>> joanne: a lot has been made about rules of engagement.what do we mean by rules of engagement?>> the restrictions on force, lethal force when you can engagethe enemy, the force you can use, where and how you can pullthe trigger actually.
>> joanne: were the othersoldiers involved in this found not guilty or not convicted wasit under rules of engagement and was that there defense?>> some of them. some of them the governmentdismissed the charges out right after article 32.some failed to adequately investigate the case.this case is about the actual shooting.>> joanne: the article 32, what is that?>> you can credit it sort of a grand jury or preliminaryexamination.
the government will call inwitnesses to testify to see what transpired to see if they haveenough evidence to go forward to an actual court marshal.>> joanne: why is this taking so long.this happened in '05? >> it has languished for anumber of years but there have been writs litigated by the government, the defense, i believe.some regarding the 60 minutes footage.they wanted the entire footage available.they spent a a lot of time
reading the case.>> joanne: this has been pub lib, but is it an isolated case.in terms of the research for representing your client, doesthis happen more often than we hear about?>> i can't say. this is a extraordinary case.a large case, 24 civilians involved.with the media imbedded with the marines it's heavily reported.this is clearly a significant case.i don't think anything this large has come out of the iraqwar.
>> joanne: thank you, jeremiahsullivan, for being here. thank you.>> peggy: a young san diego mother undergoes a radical andrisky liver surgery. the mother of 3 is the first inthe state to have her own liver replanted back into her body .her story in just a moment. >> plus surf is up, way up onthe san diego coastline. that could be bad news for onebusiness in ocean beach. this is kpbs evening edition.>> joanne: as the new year begins we're looking ahead tosome of the stories we're
following in 2012.the kpbs fronteras desk the news continues to be on the is thewest and mexico. i'm joined by jose jimenez.thank you for being here. thank you, joanne. >> joanne: this year in mexico and the u.s. we will seepresidential elections. what's the political climatelight in mexico? >> in 2011 they hadgubernatorial elections in the country.those in previous power had big wins.so far the polls for the
presidential election for julyof 2012 showing change. people are saying they're tiredof the drug war and the deaths and want a new direction.>> joanne: how could a change there affect us in san diego, orwould it? >> it would.basically across the boarder in tijuana we have a closerelationship with the state baja, california.the main thing is the drug war. how politics deal with thatcould make a change in baja california.also there is trade.
mexico is a big trading partnerwith the u.s., a change in the presidency could affect trade.thirdly, the environment. there are big projects in theboard in tijuana. one is desaltization and greenideas. they could be green lighted orbasically stopped. >> joanne: now let's move acrossthe board in the u.s. to the presidential election and thelatino vote. what role that will play acrosscalifornia. california solidly democrat.what about the rest of the
southwest states?>> yes, they're focusing on some of the swing states in the west. nevada, arizona and new mexico. basically what we're looking at,the issues we're looking at is about half eligible latinovoters participated in the last election.there is talk about the latino voter being the sleeping giantthat will have a impact one day on the elections.we will look into that more and see why only half of latinosvote and if there is a change. another story is latino mamas.they have a higher rate of being
involved.they're like the soccer moms in the u.s.we are looking at what is driving them to vote and whatimpact it will have on the election.and immigration is a issue but jobs and the economy are a bigissue for latino voters. they have been affected by therecession. they believe to stay with thedemocrats in the 2012 election and not defect to therepublicans. >> joanne: we're short on timebut i want to ask you about
education.a big story last year and this year.what's the big issue for education and latinos.>> we will start a segment called the latino gap.looking at why latino students perform worst than otherstudents in the public system and solutions proposed.>> joanne: jose jimenez, thank you for being here.>> thank you, joanne. >> peggy: we want to preface thenext story with a warning. some of the images are graphic and maybe disturbing.
it's about a san diego mother of3 who underwent a radical life saving surgery.his liver was removed, reconstructd and reimplanted inher body. >> clarisa shows off a photo ofher daughter after surviving a rare and risky surgery.the operation removed a large cancerous liver tumor.one she didn't know until the last six weeks.>> i had a lot of pain in my side.i associated it with my cesarian car.they did tests and found a mass
in my abdomen.they sent me to san diego and found a large mass.>> the only way to deal with this was to remove her livercompletely. preserving it and taking theliver to the back table and then very carefully taking the tumorout of the liver and reconstructing the vesselsinvolved and preserving the liver for her.we take the liver back and auto transplant it in her.>> peggy: this is a similar surgery.removing a liver before putting
it back to the body.this operation took eight hours. double the time of a transplantsurgery with 20 percent chance of death.just 7 days after surgery. >> i'm recovering very well.i was just doing very well. very excited to go home and seemy daughter and my sonses. >> peggy: she left the hospitalright after we spoke with her this morning. she was greeted by her three young children at their home incamp pendelton where her husband is stations.when we return joanne is at the
round table.>> joanne: in our continuing look at the follow out from theelimination of redevelopment funds we look at a fordablehousing in san diego. we are joined by guests, thankyou for being here. suzanne, let's begin with you.tell us how much redevelopment money flowed over to affordablehousing? >> well affordable housing --redevelopment funds are the second largest source of fundsin the state of california second to the federalgovernment.
it's really the single largestsin will source of affordable housing.in the federal government we have many buckets of revenue.it's almost a hundred thousand state wide it's a significantsource for creating affordable housing.>> joanne: 20 percent in the city of san diego, in terms ofredevelopment tax increment got put forth redevelopment.>> yes. 20 percent of revenues producedand generated through the -- within the probably equity areafor affordable housing.
in addition to that there is amandate that all project areas include 15% of all homesconstructed in that probably equity area as affordablehousing. >> joanne: what happens now, abig chunk of money has been cut out. what happens. >> we hope we can work quicklywith our legislatures to identify alternative fundingsources for affordable housing whether that is throughreforming, redevelopment, we're looking at that.trying to meet similar goals or
identifying a unique source foraffordable housing. we hope to find solutions very,very quickly. >> joanne: now, katherine, youare follow the case closely. awe tended the oral arguments.did you see this coming, this decision.we did. we understood that the state hasthe right to terminate agencies just as it created them.our concern however as affordable housing advocates isto assure as the agencies dissolved it was done law fully.we believe there were unmet
obligations, replacementhousing, inclusion housing, a certain amount of housingdeveloped has to be affordable. land was purchased with what wasnot developed. so, there were unmet obligationsand they should receive the money to fulfill them.>> joanne: they're still on the hook for these things.>> yes. >> joanne: they're on the hookfor something else. we have had a lot of e-mail comein since last week when the decision was made.people are saying maybe i don't
like redevelopment agencies.some are saying it's a good thing in the end.one of the things is how do redevelopment groups use or misuse money. block grants i found can helpwith affordable housing. we found they were taking themoney, an audit showed they took $142 million, didn't haverepayment plan, settlement was made.they're on the hook to pay back $78 million without interest tohudd. how do you defend redevelopmentagencies knowing they were
involved in scandalous stuff.i don't know if you defend for those types of agreegious acts.what we should of been doing is talking about the good thingswith redevelopment. the creation of affordablehousing is one of the good things.40 percent of our region is low income.the need is very, very great. in the next decade we need64,000 units of affordable housing to meet the need of thegrowing population. i don't think we have been goodat telling those stories and
affordable housing is thecollateral damage of the abuses. prior to and just after thegovernor's proposal to eliminate redevelopment there was a lot ofdiscussion about reform. both on the affordable housingside as well as the side that, you know, invests in communitiesand infrastructure more broad ly those are the types of funds yougenerally would see a lot of the abuses.there was a general discussion about reform.there were things that could of been done to tighten up andprevent the abuses.
i think those are the discussion that's will be on going. >> joanne: we have about 30seconds left. do you think that the state willpropose some new form of redevelopment to help low incomehousing? >> i don't know if they will beable to do that. i think they're so financiallystrapped that won't be a possibility.i hope they will amend ab26, the dissolution bill, to make surethe long-term unmet obligations for affordable housing will bemet.
if not there will likely belegal issues. >> joanne: thank you for beinghere. thank you.>> peggy: in a moment we will give you a chance to put a sandiego city official on the spot. this is kpbs evening edition.>> joanne: welcome back to the public square on kpbs eveningedition. tomorrow city of san diegocouncil president tony young will be here.i plan to ask him about the demise of redevelopment andwhether he supports a new
charger stadium.if so, who should pay for it. what would you like me to ask?send me your questions as we put tony young on the spot tomorrow.you can write to me. and if you would like tofollow-up dates on the show follow us on twitter and we likeit when you friend us on facebook.now to peggy. >> peggy: current and formersweetwater school district officials are charged with taking bribes from a construction for contracts.and forming drug kingpin
benjamin arellano felix haspleaded guilty to charges of racketeering and moneylaundering. the deal would put him in prisonfor up to 25 years. before you leave tonight we'reheading to the coast where high surf has been rolling in.we get a view from the ocean beach pier.>> there is a high surf advisory today.it will diminish a little bit but we will have another onekicking in between thursday and friday.if waves are come ago cross the
pier or a railing is looking towreak or there looks to be a danger we will close it down.>> the railings are often knocked off with the high surf.you sit down, this is moving quite a bit.once the railings are knocked off the pier can be closed for acouple of weeks. they physically close the gates.we will let him know and helphim out as much as we can. >> we haven't receivednotification. thank you, lord, we're stillopen.
yes.>> you can watch and comment on any of the stories you sawtonight on our website kpbs.org/eveningedition.thank you for joining us. have a great evening.we leave with you a look at the forecast.closed-captioning provided by ecaptions.com
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