S U N D AY JA N UA R Y 2 8 , 2 018
sandiegouniontribune.com
$ .77
2
PLUS TAX
S U N DAY
CASINO MOGUL WYNN RESIGNS RNC POST Exit amid misconduct allegations adds to pressures facing GOP BY SEAN SULLIVAN & ROBERT COSTA
IN DEPTH
$3B
500K
68,475
Estimated cost of SDSU West, a proposed satellite campus in Mission Valley
Number of square feet of off-campus property leased by SDSU because of campus crowding
Number of undergraduate admission applications received for fall 2018 academic year
Change is coming to San Diego State
WASHINGTON
Casino mogul Steve Wynn stepped down as finance chairman of the Republican National Committee on Saturday, becoming the latest powerful figure to surrender an influential post amid allegations of sexual Steve misconduct. Wynn In a statement, Wynn thanked President Donald Trump, a close ally, for the opportunity to serve. “Effective today I’m resigning as finance chairman of the RNC,” Wynn said. “The unbelievable success we have achieved must continue. The work we are doing to make America a better place is too important to be impaired by this distraction. “ In her own statement, RNC Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel said: “Today I accepted Steve Wynn’s resignation as Republican National Committee Finance Chair.” She did not elaborate on the circumstances of his departure or mention the alleSEE WYNN • A17
HOWARD LIPIN U-T
SPORTS
Students leave Hepner Hall and flow onto the Campanile Walkway on the campus of San Diego State University.
Naming of new president this week a key moment for the university and its quest to grow and improve BY GARY ROBBINS
NOREN TAKES 1-SHOT LEAD Alex Noren of Sweden shot a 3-under-par 69 to lead by one stroke at the Farmers Insurance Open, which concludes today. Fan-favorite Tiger Woods was in the middle of the pack, eight strokes back. D1
S
hort on land but long on ambition, San Diego State University will try to make the leap from good to great, led by a new president who will have to solve tough political and money problems to pull it off. Trustees of the California State University system will name the next president on Wednesday, providing fresh leadership for a 121year-old school that’s so crowded it has to lease 500,000 square feet of property near campus. The CSU is choosing a successor to Elliot Hirshman, who led a capital campaign that raised a
1929 The site of San Diego State College
U-T FILE PHOTO
record $816 million, which will pay for everything from scholarships for top students to endowed chairs for elite faculty and new academic programs. The money has created a tangible sense of momentum at SDSU. But the new president will have to deal with an array of problems, from improving the school’s academic reputation to finding a way to meet enrollment demands. The most immediate challenges involve: Academic excellence: SDSU is highly respected in areas such as nursing, clinical psychology and real estate. But the latest US News SEE SDSU • A16
MOMS TURN GRIEF INTO ACTIVISM, SUING CYBER PATROL AIMS TO BE POP WARNER FOOTBALL IN SONS’ DEATHS TRAFFICKING ROAD BLOCK Both young men were confirmed to have CTE
Group educates men answering sex ads on damage to victims
BY TOD LEONARD When the Rancho Bernardo Raptors went undefeated in the 2001 season and reached the Pop Warner Super Bowl in Orlando, Jo Cornell was behind the camera, recording interviews with the boys as they shared memories for a lifetime. She loved that her son, Tyler, enjoyed success and found camaraderie in youth football, and later as an all-league lineman at Rancho Bernardo High. Today, in the living room of her Rancho Bernardo home, Cornell hits the play button for those SEE FOOTBALL • A15
BY KRISTINA DAVIS
HAYNE PALMOUR IV U-T
Jo Cornell holds a picture of her and her son, Tyler, when he was 18. Tyler fatally shot himself when he was 25.
“You calling about the ad?” a man’s deep voice inquired of the caller who had just rung. The other man at the other end hesitated, maybe because he expected to hear a woman’s voice answer the call, then responded: “Yeah.” The ad he was calling about had been posted on Backpage.com on a recent Friday night. It didn’t say much — and it didn’t need to. Just a phone number and a photo of a half-naked woman. But rather than set up a sexual
ARTS + CULTURE
GOLDEN GRAMMY OPPORTUNITY Heralding diversity, for the first time in Grammy history, not one of tonight’s nominees for Album of the Year is a white male. E1
rendezvous with the half-naked woman, the caller got an earful from the man on the other end. Most of the women who advertised for sex were victims of human trafficking, the caller was told, and many were underage. “What now?” the caller responded, taken aback. Then he added: “Is Mark there?” “Dude, I know you’re not calling for Mark,” the call-taker said. “I think I have the wrong number.” “I think you need to stay off Backpage.” The exchange was one of 84 that night, part of an effort by a group of male volunteers to educate sex buyers about the realities of human trafficking. They call it the Bunch of Guys SEE PATROL • A6
U-T INDEX
E6
In Local:
In U-T Offers:
Movies
A22
Editorials
Crossword
Weather
A18
Obituaries
Dear Abby
Books
E7
Television
Dividends
C3
Lottery
A2
A3
SUNDAY • JANUARY 28, 2018
CONCERT UNITES WHERE BORDER DIVIDES Musicians from U.S., Mexico play together across the barrier BY SANDRA DIBBLE BORDER FIELD STATE PARK
At times, their sounds were sweet as birdsong. At others, insistent and pounding. The occasion was an outdoor performance on Saturday by U.S. and Mexican percussionists — divided by the international border, but united by sound. The binational event brought close to 70 players to both sides of the border wall at Friendship Park to play “Inuksuit,” a piece for percussion instruments by the American composer John Luther Adams. The composition, which premiered in the Canadian Rockies, is meant to be played outdoors. The setting this time was the northern edge of Border Field State Park, amid concrete picnic tables, views of the Pacific Ocean and vigilant U.S. Border Patrol vehicles. And rising on the other side of the double-fence, Tijuana’s bullring-by-the sea and lighthouse. The free hourlong concert was part of the San Diego Symphony’s third annual festival called “It’s About Time: A Festival of Rhythm. Sound. And Place.” The festival’s curator is Steven Schick, a percussionist and professor at University of California San Diego. “This piece demonstrates that music is alive on the outside of the hall as it is on the inside,” said Schick. “It is designed to mold itself around the qualities of a place, and not the other way around.” He steered clear of making any connection between the concert’s setting and the attention brought to the U.S.-Mexico border by President Donald Trump’s call for a continuous wall.
HOWARD LIPIN U-T
Chris Clarino takes part in a binational concert at which musicians set up in Friendship Park and directly across the border on Saturday. “We’re making a concert, it’s not a protest,” said Schick. “The place we live in is fascinatingly positioned on the international border. We thought, what if we took this piece, what qualities of that place would we hear?” Wind blew. Waves crashed. Seagulls soared like kites. To perform the piece, musicians brought a wide range of instruments: bass drums, bongo and conga drums, cymbals, triangles, crotales, maracas, conch shells, even an air-raid siren.
The sounds started softly, with musicians blowing through funnels. It built up with whistling, and rattling sounds, rising to a heart-pounding crescendo of drumbeats, cymbals and sirens. It ended with delicate notes of piccolo and glockenspiel, emulating bird sounds — and finally with a moment of silence. The performers included members of the San Diego Symphony, as well as students from UC San Diego, San Diego State University, Chapman College and the
California Institute of the Arts. “Going into it, I wasn’t sure how things would work out,” said Skye Landers, a 19year-old music education student from SDSU. “It was a lot of fun, everything blended the way we hoped it would.” South of the border, musicians came from Tijuana, Ensenada, Guanajuato and Mexico City, said Jorge Peña, percussionist with the Baja California Orchestra and one of the organizers on the Mexican side. “This is incredible, marvelous, historic,” said Peña,
speaking through the finemesh fence. “We can’t physically cross, but the music is penetrating both sides, and that’s what’s important.” Applause rose on both sides as the piece ended, and Schick spoke up to thank the Tijuana musicians. “I will never forget this as long as I live,” he said. With the access road on the U.S. side washed out, musicians and some 200 members of the public faced a half-hour walk to reach the venue at the northern end of Border Field State Park.
Among the audience members were friends JoAnna George, a middle-school Spanish teacher in Vista, and Rachell Tabor, who teaches theater to elementary school students in Chula Vista. Both were pleased. “You bring the two countries together for something so beautiful,” said George. “It blew me away,” added Tabor, “what an amazing, unifying thing.” sandra.dibble@sduniontribune.com @sandradibble
DISABLED ATHLETES MAKE FULL-COURT PRESS AT SDSU BY PAM KRAGEN COLLEGE AREA
Akheel Whitehead is proud to have earned 12th place in the long jump at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. But to train for the games, the 22-year-old San Diego State University alumnus had to look off campus for coaching and support. Now, he’s hoping to change the game for other disabled athletes who follow in his footsteps at SDSU. Whitehead leads the student organization Aztec Adaptive Sports, which aims to institute a university program for disabled athletes within five years. On Friday and Saturday, the group hosted the inaugural Aztec Adaptive Sports Showcase, where champion adaptive athletes from around the country offered speeches and demonstrations of sports including sitting volleyball, wheelchair tennis and wheelchair basketball. “This isn’t something I was able to take advantage of,” said Whitehead, a
Chula Vista native who was born with a mild form of cerebral palsy. “But I want to help create the opportunity for others. I think it will change people’s lives.” The showcase’s lead sponsor was ABC Medical, a South Carolina medical supply company that serves a large disabled clientele. CEO Keith Jones said the need for university adaptive sports programs vastly outstrips the supply. There are about 30,000 high school adaptive sports athletes in the U.S., but only 11 universities with dedicated programs in states such as Alabama, Arizona, Texas, Illinois and Oklahoma. Although California has more than 10 percent of these high school athletes, no university in the state has a program. Jones said many Paralympics hopefuls who graduate from local high schools end up leaving the state for these programs at other universities. “San Diego is a natural place to start in California, with so many local athletes, the Challenged Athletes Foundation and the number of veterans here,” Jones said. The showcase was the first step in making the public, students and potential donors aware of collegiate adaptive sports. The next step, Jones said, is finding long-term spon-
THOM VOLLENWEIDER
Keith Jones (center) talks with Akheel Whitehead in San Diego State’s Peterson Gym on Saturday at an adaptive sports event hosted by a student group led by Whitehead. Jones was a sponsor. sors who can meet the university halfway in funding a department. A program could start out with just one sport and as little as $200,000 to $400,000 in funding for team travel, coaching and a program director. Among the hundreds of spectators gathered Saturday in Peterson Gym was Larry Verity, interim dean of SDSU’s College of Health & Human Services. He’s a big fan of the idea. “Usually when we talk about diversity, we’re not talking about the able versus the disabled,” Verity
said. “It would bring a very different lens to what we do in terms of outreach to all.” SDSU physical therapy professor Antoinette Domingo said a dedicated program could serve more than the athletes. Students in the nutrition, kinesiology, psychology, engineering and other schools could be involved in cross-campus collaborations. Saturday’s showcase opened with seated volleyball, where mem-
bers of the Challenged Athletes Foundation’s team played members of SDSU’s able-bodied women’s volleyball team. The game is played on a small court with a low net, and the players scoot around on their bottoms. The fast-moving CAF team bested the SDSU women in two sets. The event concluded with a demo by ABC Medical’s All-Star Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team, featuring alumni from the University of Alabama, which recently dedicated a $10 million adaptive sports complex. The morning’s opening speaker was nine-time Paralympian Candice Cable, who is a vice chair for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics and Paralympics. At age 21 in 1975, she was paralyzed from the waist down. She said wheelchair racing “made me feel whole again.” “When we’re included in athletics,” she said, “we can be part of everything.” pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com
Check Out These
Winter Specials Get Your Furnace Fixed Fast! Free Service Call with repair
Get a New Furnace
5.00
$
Only
Furnace Tune-up & DUCT INSPECTION
Energy Savings alone will pay for this service or your money back GUARANTEED!
per week
CALic. #513115
* $5 A Week for Furnace: This price includes, York 40,000 TGLS040A08MP furnace, connection to existing furnace air distribution box (plenum) & ductwork, gas line, b-vent, and electrical circuit; city permits not included however required for install. Cash price is $1420. On purchases with your Synchrony credit card. A $29 account activation fee will apply. Estimated payoff period 132 months. Monthly interest charged on purchases from the purchase date at 9.99% APR; fixed monthly payments are required equal to 1.25% of initial purchase amount until paid in full. The fixed monthly payment may be higher than the minimum payment required. Regular account terms apply to all purchases. Offers not valid with other discounts or special offers and expire 2/24/18. Lic. #513115. Additional restrictions may apply. See dealer for details.
w w w.asihastings.com
You Can Trust The White Glove Guys! • 858-252-7773
A8
SUNDAY • JANUARY 28, 2018
THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE
SYMPHONY REVIEW
BRILLIANT ‘STORIES IN TIME’ CONCERT STOPS THE CLOCK BY MARCUS OVERTON
consider drums, marimbas, vibraphones, gongs, cymbals, bells and chimes as aids that improve our minds and strengthen our character to face the ordeals of life, but this festival, titled “It’s About Time,” proved that percussion instruments and players can widen our perspectives about time. This concert, “Stories in Time,” invited us to stop thinking about the stresses of not having enough time and to focus on learning how to listen, providing an experience many in attendance likely will not forget. One piece, Ravel’s “Mother Goose” suite, originally was written for two young pianists (one of them was Misia Godebska, later to become Misia Sert, without whom Stravinsky might never have written “The Rite of Spring”). Schick met the work’s challenge by finding five ways to satisfy Ravel’s
The San Diego Symphony launched the last weekend of its three-week January festival on Friday evening in Copley Symphony Hall at the Jacobs Music Center with a concert that paid its audience a high compliment. With nary a note of Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart or Haydn to be heard, the symphony offered something more meaningful than familiar masterpieces, and that was to engage in dialogue with an ensemble playing extraordinary music with brilliant assurance, led by Steven Schick, UC San Diego professor and internationally acclaimed percussionist. He is a conductor deeply committed to the idea that music helps the listener think better and become more completely human. People don’t usually
HOWARD LIPIN U-T
Percussionists led by Steven Schick will repeat the “Stories in Time” concert today at 2 p.m. in Copley Symphony Hall at the Jacobs Music Center. finely graded tempo indications — from “moderate” to “very moderate” to “slow and serious” — and the orchestra’s shimmering veil of sound and limpid transparency of texture exemplified what the
words “French music” mean. Then came music that moved everything to a higher level: Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu’s “From Me Flows What You Call Time.”
Don’t Let The Cold Weather Season Cause
A Rodent Epidemic!
Service Includes: • Free Professional Inspection • Professionally Setting Traps • One Follow-up Visit
LET ALL PEST PROS TRAP THE RODENTS
Protect Your Home From Pests
150 OFF
$
99
$
Rodent Proofing Spot treatments excluded *Cannot be combined with any other offer and must be presented at time of inspection. New Customers Only. Offer expires 1/31/2018
for only
ATTIC CLEANUP
Symphony percussionists Gregory Cohen, Ryan DiLisi, Erin Douglas Dowrey and Andrew Watkins, joined by guest artist Aiyun Huang, created a universe of sound that encompassed the auditorium. Describing in words how this music sounded is difficult, but here’s what happened: A group of alert, focused human beings — five soloists, a conductor and an orchestra — created a stream of sonic images that bypassed intellectual, analytic process and went straight inside one’s head. Time hovered, moved forward and backward, stopped and flowed, and the audience changed as it listened. It was fantastic. American composer Missy Mazzoli’s “Rouge River Transfiguration,” exalts the ceaseless rhythms of Detroit’s auto plants, but Schick’s clean-
lined, meticulous conducting could not, in the end, clear away enough of the busy texture to let the interior rhythm get out. Then came Bartok’s “Suite from the Miraculous Mandarin,” ferocious music that takes an unblinkered look at human savagery, both a simultaneous dance of death and an affirmation of time’s march through, over and beyond us. The orchestra roared and thrashed like a beast in its interpretation, throwing itself against a wall. Every section of the orchestra — winds, brass, strings, percussion — played brilliantly, with complete understanding of the piece and how it should be interpreted. There are many events left in the festival, including a repeat of this “Stories in Time” concert at 2 p.m. today. Find time to attend. Overton is a freelance writer.
SEAN HANNITY’S TWITTER ‘COMPROMISED’ FOR HOURS ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK
Conspiracy theories flew around Saturday morning aftertheTwitteraccountofconservative TV host Sean Hannity was “briefly compromised,”accordingtoaTwitter spokesperson, and unavailable for a few hours. After the Fox News star’s verified account posted a message that simply and cryptically said “Form Submission 1649,” visitors to Hannity’s page said they were getting a “Sorry, that page doesn’t exist” error message. By the time Hannity’s account was back up later in the morning, speculation was rampant about the mysterious disappearance. Fox News referred questions to Twitter. “While we normally do not discuss individual accounts, for privacy and security reasons, we have permission
from the account owner to confirm that account was briefly compromised,” a Twitter spokesperson said in an email. They did not realize any further information. Some blamed shadowy “deep state” government figures looking to take down Hannity, who is a big supporter of President Donald Trump. “The Deep State is in panic!” tweeted Alex Jones, a far-right radio show host. “Hannity disappears from Twitter after eerie tweet.” WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange also took to Twitter to observe how Hannity had his account “mysteriously disappear.” Other users were rooting for the theory that a rogue Twitter employee was behind the deactivation. That was Twitter’s explanation for an 11-minute outage that took down Trump’s twitter account in November.
CSLB 1005076
150
$
RESALE SHOP
OFF
6525 Helen Woodward Way, Suite B Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067 • (858) 756-4117 x383
New Insulation Service
www.orphanedobjects.org
*Cannot be combined with any other offer and must be presented at time of inspection. New Customers Only. Offer expires 1/31/2018
Own Beautiful & Energy Efficient
Windows & Doors!
BEFORE
A properly insulated attic will minimize the cost of heating and cooling.
AFTER
· Fully Licensed & State Certified Specialists · Insulation Abatement or Replacement services
TERMITE DAMAGE TERMITE DROPPINGS
PEST CONTROL
250 OFF
79
$
$
Experience a True Family Business. Owned and operated by NINE BROTHERS and SISTERS always striving for your complete satisfaction!
$
PLUS SAVE
1000 $ 720 $ 300
with 10 or more windows installed with 8 or more windows installed with 4 or more windows installed Offer good through 1/31/2018 Not valid with other offers or prior purchases
18 Months/ No Interest
FINANCING *On approved credit. Ask for details
SENIOR DISCOUNT & FREE ESTIMATES
Energy Efficient • Noise Resistant • No Stucco Damage
Roaches
Every other month
Pest Control
A Termite Treatment
Spot treatments excluded *Cannot be combined with any other offer and must be presented at time of inspection. New Customers Only. Offer expires 1/31/2018
TERMITE TREATMENTS • NO MOVING OUT OPTIONS • EXCELLENT WARRANTY PROGRAMS • FUMIGATION AND NON FUMIGATION OPTIONS • NONINVASIVE TERMITE TREATMENTS
Initial service only Can not be combined with any other offer and must be presented at time 018. of inspection. Expires 1/31/2018.
Customized pest control service plan for all of your pest control needs.
Ants
• ANT EXPERTS • ROACH CLEAN OUTS • RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL
Our Name Says It All:
• Quality Craftsmanship Guaranteed • No Subcontractors • Lifetime Warranties • No High Pressure Sales • InstallationMasters™ Certified Installers • AAMA & Lead Certified
FREE IN-HOME ESTIMATES Serving Greater San Diego
619.280.8398 OR 800.672.3777 www.brotherswindows.com
WE ARE PROS AT ALL PESTS! CALL TODAY & SCHEDULE YOUR FREE HOME INSPECTION
1-800-342-3798
www.AllPestPros.com All Pest Pros PR #6001
Serving Customers since 1994 • LIC #699009
A+ RATING
“Ranked among the Top NATIONWIDE” By Qualified Remodelers
Check our reviews on Yelp.com
Over 50,000 Satisfied Customers! *Offer valid for a limited time. Not valid with other promos or prior purchases.
SECTION B
D
MONDAY • JANUARY 29, 2018
D
B2 Local reports B4 Obituaries B5 Editorial & Opinion
DOCKLESS BIKE RENT LEGAL CITY OPTION? Elliott says contract with rival doesn’t block second service BY DAVID GARRICK
PENSION SAFEGUARD KEY BEFORE DUMANIS’ BID Former DA sought benefit protection if elected supervisor BY JEFF MCDONALD Former District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis hired a legal team to lobby county pension officials to keep paying her monthly retirement benefits even if she wins a seat on the county Board of
Supervisors. Dumanis does not — and never did — intend to accept a county supervisor salary if she wins, her political consultant said. He said her main motivation in hiring attorneys was to ensure she would not be required to accept a salary on top of her $268,800 annual pension. Records obtained by The San Diego Union-Tribune, documenting back-andforth with retirement offi-
U-T
WA T C H D O G
cials going back a year, show no reference to Dumanis refusing to accept a supervisorial salary. In a Sept. 5 memo, attorneys with the Best Best & Krieger law firm said their analysis showed that a 2013 state pension-reform law aimed at halting retirement benefits for pensioners returning to work did not ap-
ply to Dumanis’ situation. The law applied to appointed officials, not elected officials, they argued. They added that strict application of the pension-reform law “would necessarily deter many of the most accomplished retirees from running for elective office. Such an outcome could not have been intended by the Legislature.” Lawyers for the San Diego County Employees Re-
tirement Association rejected the legal argument and said Dumanis’ pension checks would be discontinued if she were to win a fouryear term on the Board of Supervisors. They appeared to be unaware of Dumanis’ intention not to collect a supervisorial salary, because they framed the issue in terms of “doubledipping” — or collecting a salary and a pension at the SEE WATCHDOG • B6
SAN DIEGO
A new legal opinion opens the door for the city of San Diego to join a transportation trend sweeping the region that allows people to use smartphones to rent bikes for short trips and then leave them anywhere that’s convenient. San Diego has an exclusive deal through 2023 with bike-sharing provider DecoBike, whose business model requires customers to return bikes to docking stations. City Attorney Mara Elliott says San Diego could nevertheless allow dockless bikesharing companies like LimeBike and Spin to operate within the city. While city officials decide whether to make such a move, Discover Card is partnering with the city to bolster DecoBike’s docked sharing network with more bikes, new stations and technology upgrades to boost convenience. The city’s docked network has struggled to meet its ridership goals since it was launched in early 2015, and backlash from community leaders prompted the elimination of 15 stations near the city’s beaches in September. Environmentalists and bicycling advocates call dockless bikes a superior option to bikes that consumers must rent and return to docking stations, because dockless bikes are cheaper to rent and allow people to go exactly where they want to go. They predict dockless bikes, whose rear wheels lock in place when consumers are done using them, will do a better job of helping San Diego meet the goals of increased bike and transit use required in the city’s ambitious climate action plan. “The convenience factor is definitely going to be a tipping point,” Nicole Capretz, executive director of the nonprofit Climate Action Campaign, said by telephone on Friday. “You’re going to start seeing bikes everywhere throughout the city.” Capretz said more bikes on the street will also help build momentum behind efforts to add more cycling lanes and other infrastructure needed to make biking safer and more efficient. “This will get us back on track to being a bike-friendly city,” she said. National City and Imperial Beach began allowing dockless bike sharing last fall, and other cities are exSEE BIKES • B3
RIVALS VIE FOR NEW VENUE’S BOOKINGS Fairgrounds’ choice of Belly Up protested by KAABOO’s team BY PHIL DIEHL DEL MAR
NELVIN C. CEPEDA U-T
Rahmat Mokhtar and Masooma Jafari, at their apartment in El Cajon, are expecting their first child in February. The couple face a lot of uncertainty but remain optimistic about their future.
SPECIAL VISA HOLDERS STILL FIND STRUGGLE IN NEW LIVES Many helped U.S. military in Iraq, Afghanistan; fewer refugees settling in county BY KATE MORRISSEY While the number of refugees coming to San Diego County plummeted after the “travel ban” in January last year, immigrants who helped the U.S. military have continued to arrive in steady numbers. Special immigrant visa holders, or SIVs as they’re colloquially called, have made up an increasingly larger portion of new arrivals to the county. SIVs go through many of the same processes and struggles that refugees experience, like finding employment and housing. Special immigrant visas allow
WINDS, HOT WEATHER TO LAST THROUGH TODAY BY GARY ROBBINS Strong Santa Ana winds whipped across San Diego County on Sunday, prompting a utility company to shut off power to about 2,500 customers as a precaution and making play more challenging at the Farmers Insurance Open in Torrey Pines. The winds also pushed temperatures 15 degrees higher than average in many parts of the county, including at the coast, where summer-like weather prevailed from Oceanside to Imperial Beach. Oceanside was particularly toasty, with the high temperature hitting 90. The National Weather Service says the Santa Anas will return early today, gusting 40 mph to 50 mph in places like Alpine and Ramona, and 20 mph or higher along the coast. A red-flag fire weather warning will be
83
Forecast high for San Diego today in place for much of the county until tonight. Today’s high is expected to reach 83 degrees at San Diego International Airport, which would set a record for the date. Vista, Chula Vista, El Cajon and Ramona all set or tied daily records on Sunday. The winds arrived in force early Sunday, gusting to 89 mph at Sill Hill, a remote peak in East County, while hitting 63 mph in Alpine, along eastern Interstate 8. Winds gusted up to 29 mph on the bluffs of Torrey Pines early Sunday on the last full day of the golf tournament. With high winds in the forecast, San Diego Gas & SEE WINDS • B4
people who worked as interpreters or in other supporting roles for the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan to come here. Many face threats after working with the U.S. Masoud Zarify, 32, came to Rancho Peñasquitos from Afghanistan with his wife and two young children in December 2016 after working as a contractor with the Department of Defense for about six years. His biggest challenge was finding a job that was commensurate with his experience as a network engineer in Afghanistan. No One Left Behind, a national organization that helps SIVs get settled, coached him through the job search process. Most employers don’t trust foreign credentials, he said, which made getting hired more difficult. He applied for 215 jobs, and about 20 asked for interviews, he said.
He turned down opportunities to work in food service, and after about six months, he landed a job doing IT support. “I didn’t want to lose my career,” Zarify said. He also drives for ride-sharing services to offset the high cost of living in San Diego County, and because his wife is still learning English, he makes time to go to school and medical appointments for his children. It’s hard, he said, but it’s worth it. “I’m happy because of my children’s future,” Zarify said. “There is not a future in Afghanistan.” His wife just had their third child a few months ago. Zarify said Alliance for African Assistance, the resettlement agency assigned to help his family get settled, didn’t do much to support him when SEE SIVS • B6
Two big names in local entertainment are battling over the right to book the acts at a new, year-round concert venue planned for the Del Mar Fairgrounds. KAABOOWorks Services LLC has filed a formal protest against a decision by fairgrounds officials to award the booking contract to Belly Up Entertainment, best known for its live entertainment nightclub in Solana Beach. The agency that gets the contract will be responsible for scheduling up to 60 performances a year at the concert venue being added as part of a renovation of the fairgrounds’ Surfside Race Place off-track betting facility. KAABOO brings some of the biggest names in music to its ritzy three-day fall music festival at Del Mar, an event that includes extras such as gourmet food and drinks, massages, a swimming pool and surfing lessons. Last year, the third annual event had a peak crowd of 45,000 people. The Belly Up has been one of San Diego County’s premier live music venues since it opened in 1974. The club has a maximum capacity of 600 people, but also gets some of the best known acts in the country. The Rolling Stones performed at a private party there in 2015. Officials at the 22nd District Agricultural Association, which runs the fairgrounds, state in their Jan. 10 response letter to the protest that the Belly Up edged out KAABOO by a score of 87.24 to 82.93 in a “fair, consistent, objective, unbiased and impartial” evaluation of the companies’ bids for the contract. Not so, says KAABOO. “There was an error in the bid process sufficiently mateSEE BOOKINGS • B4
SEA LION POPULATIONS ARE STABILIZING Fewer strandings of pups on beaches seen in recent years BY DEBORAH SULLIVAN BRENNAN The surge in sea lion pups washing ashore and becoming stranded on Southern California beaches has tapered off, marine researchers said. AndwhileCaliforniasealion populations took a hit from stranding episodes in recent years, the marine mammals are still about three times more numerous than they were in the 1970s. Those findings were reported in the Journal of Wildlife Management this month by scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla and their colleagues in Alaska. Although thousands of sick and starving sea lion
BILL WECHTER
Sea lions congregate on rocks adjacent to La Jolla Cove recently. Researchers say the sea lion population has recovered in the last couple of years. pups were stranded on Southern California beaches between 2013 and 2015, there are early signs that the animals may be rebounding from what wildlife officials classifiedas“unusualmortal-
ity events” several years ago. “We do know from the index count at San Miguel Islandthatpupproductionwas up, and pup condition was better, so it looked like it had improved since 2013,” said
Sharon Melin, a wildlife biologist with NOAA fisheries and a co-author of the paper. Sea lion numbers were just shy of 89,000 in 1975, three years after the Marine MamSEE SEA LIONS • B4
THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE
B3
MONDAY • JANUARY 29, 2018
MUSIC REVIEW
ADAMS’ ‘INUKSUIT’ A SONIC MEDITATION ALONG THE BORDER BY CHRISTIAN HERTZOG John Luther Adams’ “Inuksuit” received a striking performance Saturday at both Border Field State Park and by the Tijuana side of the border fence. In one of the most unusual offerings of the San Diego Symphony’s monthlong “It’s About Time” Festival, Steven Schick oversaw a group of roughly 70 percussionists, divided equally between the U.S. and Mexico. “Inuksuit” is a paradoxical bundle of opposites. It’s intimate: You can get right next to a drum or see a player’s music over their shoulder. It’s gargantuan: In a work where performers spread out 360 degrees from an everexpanding center, you can only hear the musicians close to you. It’s communal: Hundreds of people trekked on foot over 1½ miles to congregate at the picnic area of Border Field State Park. It’s personal. Your “Inuksuit” is unique from my “Inuksuit.” Unless they remain next to another person throughout the 70-plus minutes of the work, everyone will hear something different. Inspired by the Arctic tundra, “Inuksuit” became a meditation on a Southern Californian/Baja Californian coast and the fenced pillars that separate the U.S. and
BIKES FROM B1 pected to follow suit, but San Diego officials expressed concerns in December that the DecoBike deal would block them. San Diego is the only city in the region facing this kind of potential conflict because it’s the only city with a docked bike-sharing program Elliott’s new opinion says San Diego couldn’t support or market another bikesharing program without violating the DecoBike deal, an exclusive partnership requiring the city to support DecoBike’s ridership goals. But Elliott said San Diego could allow an independent bike-sharing company to start operating if the city’s involvement doesn’t go beyond issuing approvals in its regulatory capacity. “The city would not be acting inconsistently with the agreement even if the effect were that a competitor could operate in the city,” the opinion says. “The DecoBike agreement does not insulate DecoBike from competition.” Elliott said that if another bike-sharing company required a lease or some other agreement with the city that goes beyond regulatory approval, the deal could violate the DecoBike agreement. “We can provide a more detailed analysis depending on the specific facts of the proposal in question,” she said. Elliott also said the city
HOWARD LIPIN U-T
Fifty-eight percussionists and two piccolo players on both sides of the border performed John Luther Adams’ “Inuksuit — A Border-Crossing Presentation.” Mexico. Site-specific art is all the rage now, but “Inuksuit” is the opposite of that: It can be played anywhere, its success influenced by the unique geography of an environment chosen for the performance. “Inuksuit” is a magical merger between the sounds of its place, extraneous noises generated by humans at or near the performance, and the sounds notated or suggested by Adams, chosen by the percussionists. Few compositions permit listener interaction to the degree that “Inuksuit” does. Your decision on where to
hear the work crucially shapes your experience of it. Many people staked out a spot and heard the entire work from that same place. Others moved freely through the site, consciously or accidentally shaping the sounds heard through their choices. During moments of maximum intensity, I positioned myself to be surrounded by as many drums, cymbals or sirens as possible, to create the densest sonic environment that I could. At one point, I walked past the outermost boundary of percussion to put all of the sounds in front of me.
How was “Inuksuit” shaped by Border Field State Park? The work began in the International Friendship Garden, which was inside a second fence from the border fence. Musicians could access this area, but the audience had to remain on the other side of a road adjacent to the second fence. We could see Schick through the bars, lifting up a megaphone, but what we heard was the crash of the Pacific surf and the exhausts of Border Patrol ATVs. Schick and his musicians ventured out from that area, where we were able to hear
and DecoBike could proactively renegotiate their deal to allow for other providers under specific sets of circumstances. The upgrades to the DecoBike network, which will be immediately rebranded “Discover Bike,” will include 200 new bikes and 20 new stations in the city’s urban core, where bikes are more likely to be used for commuting. There will also be a new smartphone app, a fob for customers with monthly or yearly passes and software upgrades to improve tracking of bikes and docks. “Discover’s support of the San Diego bike-share program will enable improvements to the system and allow for its continued expansion,” Mayor Kevin Faulconer said in a news release. “Increasing commuter bicycling opportunities is an important goal of our climate action plan.” The climate action plan requires the number of people bicycling to work in the city’s densely populated neighborhoods to increase from about 2 percent now to 6 percent by 2020 and then to 18 percent by 2035. Faulconer also said adding locations in the urban core will boost the city’s downtown mobility plan, which will enhance bicycle safety and increase ridership. Discover Card holders will get 20 percent off the cost of all rentals or memberships when paying with their card. “We’re looking forward to Discover Bike becoming
part of the fabric of San Diego as our sponsorship helps create more transportation opportunities for local residents and enhances the rider experience through investments in new technology,” said Vijay Konduru, the company’s vice president of media and sponsorships. Konduru declined to say how much Discover was spending on the upgrades to the docked network or the length of its deal with the city, other than calling it a “multiyear” pact. Ricardo Pierdant, chief executive of DecoBike, praised the deal. “Thanks to Discover’s sponsorship, we’re another step closer to our goal of making bike share a widespread transportation option for the people of San Diego,” he said. Dockless bike sharing be-
gan in Asia about two years ago when technology was created allowing bikes to essentially lock themselves, eliminating the need for bikes to be stored in dock stations. The two leading companies in the U.S., LimeBike and Spin, launched their services this year and have rapidly expanded in just a few months. They charge $1 for half an hour of use, compared with the $5 per half hour charged by DecoBike. Councilman David Alvarez of Logan Heights has praised dockless bike sharing as a better way to meet the needs of his South Bay constituents, noting that those communities have no DecoBike stations.
their breaths amplified through cardboard funnels and the wind-like rustling of maracas and sand blocks. On the Mexico side of the fence, an equal contingent of musicians played similar material, but except for moments of extreme loudness — the blowing of conch shells or the cranking of sirens — sounds rarely made it out past the road. In other performances of “Inuksuit,” you are free to explore the entire performance site, but here, half of the music sounding was tantalizingly inaccessible. “Inuksuit” ends with glockenspiels (and an optional piccolo) intermittently playing bird songs. As the crashing waves on the beach
once again dominated the site, the occasional metallic shimmer came through the fences to the U.S. side. There were enough musicians on the American side to create a rich sonic stew to satisfy the audience there. However, it was frustrating to be unable to explore the sounds from the Mexico side, let alone those inside the two fences. What I couldn’t experience — because of the border — became an important aspect of this provocative work: an unheard music which I could only guess sounded something like the sound garden I heard in Border Field State Park. Hertzog is a freelance writer.
Feel Your Best Ever...
NOW!
david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrick
Actual Patient Came in after breakfast
Left for lunch after treatment
Joe is enjoying his favorite foods again. Smile-with more confidence than ever before! CALL NOW For Your FREE No Obligation Consultation
760-621-0245 m rate foa o B r o s voltWE ALSO SPECIALIZE IN 160,000 n u g o r t MULTI-UNIT STRUCTURES, Elec Locally Owned
Sedation available - Monthly payment as low as $195 per month
USING ALTERNATIVE METHODS
100OFF
$
*
INITIAL SERVICE F01
Operated Since 1921
Service vehicles in your neighborhood daily.
Rebuilding smiles for 25 years
*Free Limited Inspections. This ad must be presented at time of inspection.
OR ANGE OIL
Visit Hydrexsd.com 1-800-735-7378
BU Y DIRECT AND SAV E
87
$ Only
110 Civic Center Dr., Ste 102, Vista , CA 92084 Colemanandcolemandentistry.com
Furnace Tune-up & DUCT INSPECTION
Energy Savings alone will pay for this service or your money back GUARANTEED!
Update your kitchen with a new granite countertop! We fabricate and install granite, quartz & tile. We are the installer – no middle-man – direct from our factory!
FREE SINK With any countertop purchase
Call 619-535-9555 and we will send a friendly White Glove Guy out to your home right away! CA Lic. #513115
With this coupon. Not valid with any other offer. Expires 2/28/18
CALL FOR A FREE ESTIMATE
Evenings and weekends at no extra charge!
619-535-3559 A+
LIC. 992542 BONDED
CLSB 992542
You Can Trust The White Glove Guys!
Cultural Comment
Making the Wall Disappear: A Stunning Live Performance at the U.S.-Mexico Border By Alex Ross
2:30 P.M.
The San Diego Symphony’s performance of John Luther Adams’s percussion work “Inuksuit” at the U.S.Mexico border on Saturday transcended the geography of political separation. Photograph by Guillermo Arias / AFP / Getty
n Saturday, the percussionist and conductor Steven Schick looked through the wire-mesh fence that separates San Diego, California, from Tijuana, Mexico, and said, “Con la música nunca se puede dividirnos”: “With music, we cannot be divided.” He was addressing a group of Mexican percussion players, who were about to participate in a singular cross-border performance of John Luther Adams’s hour-long percussion work “Inuksuit.” I was standing on the Mexican side, where the wall is adorned with
O
brightly colored graffiti and studded with messages, some sentimental and some political. On the reverse, a gray, institutional look prevails. We were on the far western edge of the U.S.-Mexico border. The land slopes down to the Paci c Ocean, and the wall descends with it, disappearing into the waves. Not surprisingly, the project of presenting an avant-garde concert in this politically fraught territory proved to be a logistical challenge. It almost didn’t happen: the San Diego Symphony, which presented the event, had been on the point of cancelling it when, at 4 . . last Wednesday, nal approval came through from the U.S. Border Patrol. Weather had further complicated the undertaking: the torrential Southern California rains that caused deadly mudslides to the north had washed out roads on the American side, making access difficult. Schick, a longtime member of the faculty at the University of California, San Diego, had conceived of a border performance nearly a decade ago, when he was preparing for the world première of “Inuksuit,” in Banff, Canada. You can actually see the concept video itting through his head in a video video that Evan Hurd made for The New Yorker in 2009. (See 6:30.) Schick said to me that, in San Diego, “we often don’t even think consciously about the border here, because it’s so much a part of our lives. Not to sound too much like Sarah Palin, but I can actually see Mexico from the end of my street. When I started working on ‘Inuksuit,’ this idea immediately occurred to me. John’s piece is about sound moving around in whatever geography it takes place in. What would it say about this rocky land by the ocean, which has a human line running through the middle of it?” Around two years ago, Schick began talking to Martha Gilmer, the C.E.O. of the San Diego Symphony, about curating a percussion-centered festival, which they eventually called It’s About Time . It involved not only a series of concerts by the orchestra but also allied events by more than a dozen other organizations, including the San Diego Opera. “It turned out that we needed the institutional strength of the orchestra to make this happen,” Schick said. “Given the advent of Trump and the tensions surrounding the wall, the Border Patrol rejected a lot of proposals. A German orchestra wanted to do a protest concert, and were turned down. But we convinced them that this wasn’t a purely political gesture. I’d thought of this long before Trump became an issue. The
work was a wedding present for me and my wife, Brenda. It’s very personal for me, and I wanted it to be heard rst as music, not as a statement.” That said, politics was on everyone’s mind, and provoked media interest. Al Jazeera sent a lm crew to document any signs of resistance. Schick has not been timid on the subject of Trump: on Inauguration Day, he made a statement in conjunction with a concert he was conducting in San Francisco. He declined, however, to describe the “Inuksuit” event as a protest. He told me, “One could be forgiven for having all kinds of political thoughts. But I’m mindful of the fact that Border Patrol went out of their way to make this happen. After the rain, they opened their own roads to us so our musicians could get their instruments to the fence.” On Saturday morning, I drove south with Gilmer to the crossing point at San Ysidro. A corrugated-metal wall, erected during the Clinton Administration, runs along the border for fteen miles. As it snakes up and down hills, it looks like a junk-metal imitation of the Great Wall of China. “I’ve seen a few walls in my time,” Gilmer said. For decades, she worked at the Chicago Symphony, and travelled to the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea and to the former border between East and West Berlin. The Berlin Wall makes for an interesting comparison. There, you saw colorful graffiti on the western side and featureless concrete on the eastern. Hundreds of cars were waiting in long lines to cross the border into the United States. Tacos, sodas, knickknacks, and, curiously, puppies are for sale as people wait. We parked and proceeded on foot, to avoid the delay coming back: it can take hours to pass through on the weekend. The border area is chaotic, with hulking new facilities under on display construction. Prototypes for Trump’s border wall are on on display display just north of the fence on the American side. In Tijuana, a festive atmosphere reigned. It was a bright, warm day, and several hundred people were milling around next to the wall. This area and the adjacent American zone together form a place called Friendship Park. At the center stands Boundary Monument No. 258, a historical marker that went up after the end of the MexicanAmerican War. First Lady Pat Nixon dedicated the park, in 1971, saying, “I hope there won’t be a fence here too long.” At that time, a low three-wire fence separated the two countries. In recent decades, the wall has steadily grown in bulk, and a second fence was added on the American side, creating a no-man’s-land strip, which is open only on
weekends. The mesh was made thicker, to prevent the passing of drugs and other contraband. Gilmer greeted her husband and son by touching pinky ngers. Schick gave a quick pep talk to the ensemble: thirty- ve players to the north, twenty-nine to the south. The performance began almost inaudibly, with musicians breathing into paper and plastic tubes. Then Schick let out a foghorn tone on a conch shell. This was a signal for a gradual crescendo, building to a gaudy roar of drums, gongs, cymbals, and sirens. I walked from one end of the park to the other, holding my camera. The resulting video will win no awards for cinematography, but gives an idea of the happy clamor. The woman wearing a visor and a sparkly jacket is Gabriela Jiménez, the timpanist of the Mexico City Philharmonic. Rubén Hernández, Jorge Peña, and Iván Manzanilla, leading Mexican percussionists, can be seen alongside a number of their students, including Elián Sánchez, of Tijuana, who is thirteen. By placing the camera against the mesh, I caught a glimpse of the American contingent, which included four San Diego Symphony players: Greg Cohen, Andrew Watkins, Erin Douglas Dowrey, and Ryan DeLisi. Only performers were allowed in the adjacent strip; for security reasons, Border Patrol kept the audience behind the second fence. Some two hundred and fty Americans showed up, having hiked nearly a mile to reach the site. gloriously cacophonous outing I’ve seen “Inuksuit” several times, including a gloriously gloriously cacophonous cacophonous outing outing at the Park Avenue Armory, in 2011. This one was overwhelming in its impact, for obvious reasons. As I listened, I couldn’t help registering the messages inscribed on the wall: “What God has joined together let man not separate”; “Stop family separation”; “How many hearts must bleed?”; “La poesía es gente con sueños” (“Poetry is people with dreams”); “Love trumps hate.” Yet, as at other performances of Adams’s remarkable creation, the sheer volume of the climax had the effect of wiping my brain clean of concrete thoughts. I closed my eyes and found myself unaware of the wall’s existence: the wire mesh did nothing to stop the ow of sound. In the nal minutes, “Inuksuit” grows quiet again. Thundering drums give way to shimmering triangles and cymbals. Samuel Peinado, one of the younger Mexican performers, executed elegant bird motifs on the glockenspiel. There was a faint rumble in the distance: I couldn’t quite tell whether it was an American bass drum, a piece of machinery from somewhere, or the ocean. The crowd grew quiet, too. A sense of
peacefulness descended—striking in a place charged by so much tension. For a few long moments, the wall seemed to disappear. Wild applause ensued, going back and forth in waves. The Mexican percussionists greeted their American counterparts through the fence. Schick shouted, “I will never forget this day as long as I live. Thank you for coming from Guanajuato! Ensenada! Ciudad de México! And, of course, Tijuana!” Afterward, I spoke to Manzanilla, a former student of Schick’s, who had brought six of his students from the University of Guanajuato, where he teaches. “Half of them had never been on an airplane,” he told me. “Our university supported the trip and arranged everything.” Peinado said, “For me, this piece was so interesting because it was less structured, giving me a creative space. It was a kind of rhythm not for dance, for something more in your mind, this bigger process you are a little part of.” Manzanilla commented on how much he enjoyed playing in a public space, with tourists walking about. “It was advertised in Tijuana, so many people came to hear this speci cally, but others found it by accident. We could see them trying to gure out what was going on. It felt very special to play in this space because of that.” At a San Diego Symphony concert the following day, the orchestra’s tireless percussionists played Toru Takemitsu’s concerto “From Me Flows What You Call Time,” with Schick conducting. Beforehand, Gilmer talked about the “Inuksuit” performance, and quoted a message she had received from one of the Border Patrol agents: “Events here at the border are always about our differences as two nations, and this one was all about our similarities—doing things together. As it is over, I miss it. I did not want it to end.”