County and City of San Diego California

AI-powered scammers steal millions in financial aid as institutions deploy new technologies to fight back Bottom Line Up Front California's community colleges are under siege by sophisticated fraud rings using artificial intelligence to create fake students who steal financial aid. The crisis has escalated to $13 million stolen in the past year alone — a 74% increase — with fraudulent applications now comprising 34% of all submissions. Real students are being crowded out of classes they need to graduate, while faculty spend countless hours playing detective. The state is fighting back with AI detection systems that have identified nearly 80,000 fake applications, but the technological arms race continues as criminal networks adapt faster than institutions can respond. California's community college system is grappling with an unprecedented wave of financial aid fraud, with "ghost students" — fraudulent enrollees created using artificial intelligence a...

San Diego State gets $4.5M to train the next generation of construction tech workers as the industry embraces automation like never before The construction industry—long dominated by hard hats, hammers, and human muscle—is getting a radical makeover. Robots are rolling onto job sites with unprecedented precision and speed, transforming how we build everything from skyscrapers to single-family homes. And now, a major new training program is preparing workers to harness these game-changing technologies. San Diego State University recently received a $4.5 million National Science Foundation grant to launch the "Smart Construction, Infrastructure, and Buildings Through Education, Research, and Cutting-edge Technology" program (cleverly abbreviated as SCIBER-CT, pronounced "cyber-city"). The initiative tackles one of construction's biggest challenges: productivity has barely budged in decades. The Productivity Problem Construction's efficiency ...

Federal lawsuit exposes expensive, substandard tent camps as residents demand proven international shelter solutions BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front) San Diego's $6 million annual Safe Sleeping Program serves 1,000 people in substandard tent conditions that fail multiple UN humanitarian standards, while proven alternatives like IKEA's Better Shelter could serve 5-6 times more people (25,000-30,000) within the same budget while providing lockable doors, weather protection, and solar power. The program's $4,030 annual cost per person exceeds international refugee shelter solutions by 800-1,300%, yet residents face rat infestations, extreme weather exposure, and 13 deaths since 2023. Analysis suggests the city chose an expensive, inadequate approach when superior, cost-effective humanitarian shelter designs were readily available. Eight residents of San Diego's Safe Sleeping Program sites filed a federal lawsuit Monday alleging they face "inaccessible and ...

3-2 vote triggers employee bonuses while actual spending remains blocked by supermajority requirement Bottom Line Up Front San Diego County Democrats used federal budget cuts as justification to break with decades of fiscal conservatism, but their 3-2 vote Tuesday primarily delivers $42.8 million in employee bonuses rather than protecting vulnerable residents. While the policy change unlocks access to $380 million in reserves, actually spending those funds requires a four-fifths supermajority that Democrats lack, making the immediate beneficiaries county workers—not the federal cut victims cited as justification. The vote reflects the county's transformation from Republican fiscal discipline that helped recover from near-bankruptcy to Democratic spending priorities in a region now heavily dependent on federal and state funding for nearly half its $8.6 billion budget. The Political Transformation The San Diego County Board of Supervisors' 3-2 vote Tuesday to unlo...