Morning Report: County Official Moonlights at Law Firm
EM - News Moderator 
Dr. Emily Do is the county’s full-time chief pharmacy officer, collecting a more than $230,000 annual salary. She’s held that job since 2019.
Do’s also got a side gig working at a New York-based law firm that says it advises some of the country’s leading pharmaceutical companies, our Lisa Halverstadt reveals.
Halverstadt tried to dig into whether that’s a conflict of interest. So what did the county say?
Nothing to see here: Representatives for the county and the law firm that employs Do as a West Coast partner both say there’s not an issue.
The county also denied Halverstadt’s Public Records Act request seeking forms that Do may have filed disclosing this outside work, stating that releasing such records for activities “not deemed to constitute a conflict” would invade county staffers’ privacy.
San Diego Has Impressively Increased New Home Construction
In the last two years, San Diego nearly doubled the number of new homes it permitted in earlier years.
This new supply isn’t enough to fill the region’s insatiable demand, but it is an impressive increase that was not mirrored in many other parts of the state.
2024 – 8782 new homes
2023 – 9695 new homes
2022 – 5347 new homes
2021 – 5032 new homes
This data comes from Voice of San Diego’s Public Matters Partnership with KPBS. (You can read more from our housing series In Whose Backyard here.)
San Diego’s increase is doubly impressive because it bucked the trend. Throughout the rest of San Diego County, housing production was essentially flat in 2023 and 2024, Voice’s analysis found. Statewide, housing production went down slightly in those two years.
“By permitting more homes, we’re easing the pressures on the housing market, and helping it make [the] cost of living a bit more manageable for San Diegans,” said Mayor Todd Gloria, CBS 8 reported.
The Learning Curve: SD Unified Pauses Move to 4X4 Schedule
San Diego Unified officials pressed pause on their plan to potentially move all high schools over to a 4×4 schedule.
What is a 4×4 schedule, you ask? It’s when high schoolers take four classes in the first half of the school year and four different classes in the last half of the school year. That’s opposed to the more traditional schedule of six classes over the course of the school year.
District officials say moving to the 4×4 schedule will help them achieve certain goals: particularly offering a more diverse array of courses to students.
Some parents, however, have revolted against the plan. Don’t try to fix what isn’t broken, they say.
On Tuesday, board members voted to temporarily halt any plans to move all high schools to the new schedule.
Read the full Learning Curve here.
On The Ground for the Riverbed Homeless Census Count
Since 2013, the San Diego River Park Foundation has conducted an annual count of people living in the San Diego River area. The latest census counted 323 people.
While their overall total is down compared to fall of last year, they have also seen an uptick in people living in vehicles. The latest count documented 83 people living in their cars along the riverbed.
Our reporters joined volunteers on the ground for the census, and to understand how enforcement crackdowns are driving people into isolated spaces and areas that are harder for outreach workers to reach.
Politifest: How Will We Solve the Cross-Border Sewage Crisis?
Raw sewage and trash has been spilling into the United States via the Tijuana River from Mexico for decades.
Join Environment Reporter MacKenzie Elmer this Saturday as we put local thinkers and idea makers to the test on solving some of San Diego’s greatest problems at Politifest 2025.
At 10 a.m., she’ll have former IBWC Commissioner Maria Elena-Giner join a panel alongside important voices from Baja California’s engineering and academic spaces to present solutions to the Tijuana River sewage crisis.
In Other News
- A new study has reached staggering conclusions about how much money San Diego could save by switching to a city-run public utility company. The report suggests bills could drop by 20 percent in the first year and that the move would save roughly $137 billion over three decades. (Union-Tribune)
- The County Board of Supervisors is requesting state money for a study into the severe pollution in the Tijuana River. The study is aimed at pushing the Environmental Protection Agency to name the area a Superfund site. (CBS 8)
- The Padres forced a game three Wednesday in the Wild Card Series against the Chicago Cubs. Winner will take all in the series final Thursday, which starts about 9 am West Coast time. (MLB)
- The government shutdown could affect hundreds of thousands of workers across San Diego County — especially because San Diego is such a large hub for the Navy and Marine Corps. Food banks are preparing for a rise in needs among active-duty service members. (Axios San Diego)
The Morning Report was written by Lisa Halverstadt, Will Huntsberry and Jim Hinch. It was edited by Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña.
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