And new this morning here,
police investigating after a
pedestrian was hit and killed
by a car in the San Carlos area.
This happened just after 1:00 AM and
the 8700 block of Mission Gorge Rd.
You can see the damage
to the windshield there.
Police say the 31 year old driver
was going westbound and hit the
pedestrian who was walking on the
road in an extremely dark area.
The pedestrian died at the scene.
Police say alcohol was not a factor.
Thanks for being here at 6:00
AM on this Friday.
I'm Eric Connor
and this morning we are
working for you to clear up
confusion that you may have.
And your energy bills and
your water bills. That's
right. We have team coverage on
this CBS 8 Dana Ray Mcnichol is
looking into issues with water bills,
but we begin with Chris grow live
at SDG and E headquarters with
the federal money available to
help pay for the energy bills.
But only if you qualify here, right, Chris?
Yeah. And we are gonna get to you
those qualifications because it
hits a number of different factors.
It could be how much you
owe on your utility bill,
how past due you are and then of
course income qualifications.
But this money is actually sourced
federally as we pointed out to about
$7 million specifically earmarked for
ratepayers in the state of California.
Now it's going to expire in June.
So you're going to want to apply for this.
If this is something that potentially
might hit you, this might actually,
sorry, actually solve some of
the problems of the bills.
That have hit you here in January.
Now if you're a family of four
that make under or at $62,000,
that's the type of income
qualifications that we're looking at.
Again,
it's very low income qualifications and
again that money will expire in June,
so you should apply if you do qualify.
Now this is coming at a time where
Governor Gavin Newsom wants the federal
and government to investigate why
the cost of natural gas was so high.
The San Diego City Council still
has several questions,
including why January's bills
were so high and why.
Message Annie didn't do more to
protect ratepayers from the high
natural gas prices and SDG and E says
that the bills are going to be going
down because of the market at play.
But our reporter Kelly has it all did.
Ask a spokesperson with SDG and E How can
they ensure that this won't happen again?
I think
that's a fair question.
And the spike was directly
attributed to the market.
San Diego Gas and Electric
does not control the market.
The market is a law of supply and demand.
And according to SDG and E,
about 25% of ratepayers are behind
on their bills as of December.
So again, that's not even taking into account
January where we saw those high bills.
So there might be several people who may
need to apply for this federal assistance.
But As for the question of why we
were seeing those high January bills,
a local player here in politics, Carl Demayo,
may potentially have an answer for that.
He and his organization are
claiming that they've uncovered.
Actually hidden taxes.
That may be the reason why we
saw such high prices and what it
added up to on a number of bills.
They're going to be revealing
a little bit more about their
claims coming up at 9:30 today.
So that's in about 3 1/2 hours now.
And we'll be sure to cover
that for you as well too.
Eric.
Annetta.
Alright, Chris, from the electric
bills now to the water bills,
have you checked yours?
Like you may want to do
that. Yeah. This morning we're
learning one man just got 10 months
worth in just the past two days.
Quite a shock to get that.
In the mail CBS 8 Sanary Mcnichol
working for you on this story,
including how the city of
San Diego's responding.
Ohh, right? Well,
we spoke to Ben Jarobi who lives in Birdland.
He says he's on the hook for
more than $1200 worth of bills.
You may be wondering, OK,
how did he not know his water
bills hadn't been paid since April?
He says his wife usually takes care of it,
but having not received anything in the mail,
she just didn't notice until a
neighbor mentioned he too hadn't
received a water bill in a while.
Why is the average 249 every single bill?
You follow me. Something don't
seem right with that.
Reporter Shannon Handy got
some of those answers.
Four of those by monthly
bills arrived in the mail.
In one envelope, there were no late
fees attached and no explanation.
Jarobi wonders if his water
meter is actually being red,
telling us it's covered with dirt.
So he called the city but wasn't
able to reach anyone in person.
CBS 8 tried and a spokesperson did tell
us a letter was mailed out February
1st explaining the situation to him.
The letter said, quote,
the water meter was not in
line with historic usage,
so the system helped the bill the same.
Occurred in subsequent periods.
When the staff researched the account,
it was clear that the water
meter was misread.
The team then corrected the Miss
Misreads and released all of the Bills.
The meter is also on the meter replacement
list as it is challenging to read.
So when we asked if other parts
of the city were impacted,
the same spokesperson said situation
similar to this can happen from time to time,
but it's just not that common now.
This isn't the first time the City Water
Department has been under scrutiny.
2018 Audit revealed 2000 customers received
inaccurate bills due to human error,
some of which involved employees
guessing water usage without
actually reading the meter.
So this is just a good reminder
for you this morning to keep
track of those utility bills.
Eric annetta.
And I forget here, CBS,
we are working for you.
If there's an issue you
would like us to look into.
We love getting results for you.
Working for you at cbs8.com.
And now take a look at this new video
this morning showing dozens of people
running out of this boat in Mission Beach.
Authorities say 15 people
jumped off the vessel.
This was on Wednesday,
Customs and Border protection
saying 5 adult male Mexican
nationals were apprehended in this.
Another boat washed ashore in Carlsbad,
all on the same day.
Authorities found seventeen
life jackets on that one,
but they did not.
Find any people new reports this morning
that a Chinese surveillance balloon once
flew over national Naval Station Coronado.
So here in town.
The Pentagon neither confirmed
nor denied those reports,
but according to Bloomberg News,
the flyover believed to have happened
during the Trump administration.
Meantime,
the house just voted to condemn what it
called China's brazen violation of United
States sovereignty after the US shot down
a suspected spy balloon last weekend.
This morning,
China responded.
Calling the House Resolution,
quote,
political manipulation.
New this morning,
the Catholic Diocese of San Diego is
considering filing for bankruptcy to
help compensate victims of sexual abuse.
This comes after California suspended
the statute of limitations for
victims of childhood sexual assault
to be able to file lawsuits.
The diocese will be sharing more
information later this morning,
and they will also provide a letter
to parishioners during masses
this weekend and this morning.
There is a new locker room policy in
place at the YMCA in Santee in response
to controversy surrounding a transgender
woman using the women's locker room.
The YMCA says public nudity will no longer
be allowed in the locker room common area.
The facility says it will also add more
personal changing spaces for privacy.
The changes come after a 17 year old girl
claimed she was terrified when she saw a
transgender woman step out of the shower.
This morning we are hearing from
parents concerned about claims
of racism at Poway Unified.
Last night's Board meeting was
standing room only and several people
spoke about the way children of
color are treated at Poway schools.
My son has been called the N word.
He has been bullied.
He has been degraded.
He doesn't even want to come back
to the school next semester.
When will we stop
dehumanizing black children?
You've done nothing and Phelps.
This has been on your watch for years.
No action was taken because the
issue was not on the agenda.
Another Cliff collapse has lifeguards
and city officials on alert this morning.
Take a look at what happened here
at the very popular Blacks beach,
a great surfing spot, right?
Well look, yesterday afternoon some
of these boulders came crumbling down.
This all comes two weeks after a
Cliff collapse near the same area.
Nobody was hurt.
Thankfully, City of San Diego
geologists have been notified.
And thankfully that area a lot of surfers,
which means they're in the water usually.
But not quite hanging out
right by those cliffs.
Hopefully we've learned that
it's not the safest thing to do.
Stay far away from these toll
crumbling cliffs right there.
Let's check in with Evan and see.
It's gonna be another beach day today,
right?
Yeah, a lot of people are gonna be
along the coast. So again, you know,
to stay safely away from those cliffsides.
Temperatures are warming their way up
to the 70s yet again this afternoon.
Offshore winds are very breezy and that's
where we're getting the warmth from.
So live look outside shows it's still
dark outside another about 20 minutes.
To 30 minutes before we start to see much of
that light shine through 72 along the coast,
75 for your inland valleys.
Mountains are where gusts are the breeziest.
That's where we're climbing into
the 40 to 50 mile per hour range.
E County is really where we see
the majority of those winds.
As we head toward the afternoon,
we'll steadily warm up from where we are
now in the 40s all the way up to the 70s.
And it will be the final day that we
have this wind advisory in effect and the
final day that we'll see that warmth on hand.
So this wind advisory expires at 6:00 PM.
With those speeds,
15 to 25 mph gusts up to 50 mph
only in effect for your inland
valleys and your mountaintops.
But you see how those winds are breezy
right now when Julian Silhill and
Alpine as we head through your morning,
take a look at the changes
that we have on the way.
No chance of rain today,
but as we go towards Saturday and Sunday,
we start to see that number change.
A 43% chance of wet weather
going into Sunday.
We dry out for Monday and then that
chance repeats itself for Tuesday.
Basically what we're seeing on hand.
That this Ridge of high pressure that
has kept us warm and dry over the
last several days is breaking down,
and it's being replaced with two
different disturbances that come our way.
First disturbance comes early Sunday,
2nd disturbance comes on Tuesday.
Along with that chance of rain,
we're going to have a lot more cloud
cover and much cooler temperatures.
Take a look at what we replace the 70s with.
We are going to peak at 59 degrees tomorrow.
On Saturday, rain starts to move in.
On Sunday,
we're expecting between one 100th
of an inch and 110th of an inch.
Overall,
these accumulations are rather light.
It doesn't mean that you need to
cancel your plans outdoors on Sunday,
but it does mean to factor in
the cooler temperatures,
the cold breeze out there and
that chance of wet weather.
Let's take a look at traffic as
we step out the door right now.
So far, things are light on the roads.
We'll take you to Coronado where
there is a bit of yellow popping up,
meaning speeds are down to the medium
range 40 or so mph into Coronado.
You're also slowing down quite a
bit as you get off the bridge,
so you can see that this is one of the
areas that were impacted this morning.
Very typical for this morning at this time,
however, it looks like volume
is really going to start to pick
up over the next hour or so.
We'll keep you up to date on any
changes we see on these traffic maps.
Neta, Eric, back over to you.