Judge Allows Rady to Limit Gender-Transition Care

A Superior Court judge has agreed to temporarily limit some of the gender-transition services offered to new patients at Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego.

Moving forward, new patients will only get puberty blockers if they’re on the cusp of puberty, writes contributor Randy Dotinga. Rady will no longer provide hormone therapy or puberty blockers to new patients who are at other stages of puberty. 

Services for existing patients will remain intact.

Under pressure from the Trump administration, Rady hoped to entirely eliminate gender-transition care. But the move was unsuccessful after California sued to keep the care at the hospitals going. 

The ruling may be in effect for just a couple months, until the judge holds a hearing next year.

It’s unclear how many kids the new temporary limits will affect, but one advocate said the ruling will have a significant impact.

Read the full story here.

Council Committee to Consider Cancelling Flock Contract

On Wednesday, a City Council committee will consider cancelling the city’s contract with surveillance company Flock.  

The Budget and Government Efficiency Committee can’t end the contract by itself. It would have to send a proposal to the full City Council — which at this point seems likely to happen. 

The vote comes less than a week after Councilmember Stephen Whitburn’s turn against the company created a new anti-Flock majority.

Councilmember Henry Foster, who put the item on tomorrow’s committee agenda, cites several concerns which could he believes could function as “just cause” to cancel the contract. They include the San Diego Police Department mistakenly allowing outside agencies to conduct more than 13,000 searches on its data and the deepening mistrust communities feel with such surveillance systems.

Five of the Council’s nine members are now on record as wanting to end the Flock contract. That’s enough to kill it. But it’s not enough to overcome a veto (which requires a super majority) should Mayor Todd Gloria choose to use it. 

Hungry for Some Underground Jazz?

Renegade saxophonist Nathanial Young has made a name for himself by showing up in nooks and crannies around the country and playing impromptu jazz shows. 

His stages have ranged from skate parks to sewer tunnels to beach caves and malls. The unorthodox venues add a haunting, ethereal quality to his playing. 

He’s been in San Diego the past two days. He played Monday night in a parking structure at SDSU and on Tuesday night he planned to play at Snapdragon’s trolley station.

In posts, Young said he’d be in San Diego for three days, so keep an eye out for a potential show tonight. 

Evans Hotels Responds

In yesterday’s Morning Report, we provided some history on San Diegan Billy Evans, who’s getting lots of attention following the debut of a documentary about his partner and convicted Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes.

We noted his family’s hotel business and shared a paraphrased statement published in the New York Times clarifying that Billy Evans “is not involved in the business in any way, as an employee or shareholder.” 

Evans Hotels reached out to us on Tuesday to provide the full statement from CEO Robert H. Gleason. Here’s part of it: “Billy Evans does not work for Evans Hotels, holds no ownership in the company, and is not in any way involved in the business. We treat family matters as private and won’t comment on them. As this matter does not concern the business, Evans Hotels has no further comment.”

We wanted to know: Does Billy Evans remain an heir to the hotel business?

The response from Evans Hotels spokesperson Ilsa Butler: “We don’t comment on personal family matters, including inheritance questions.”

In Other News

• San Diego plans to seek bids from private companies to run its Emergency Medical Services system — despite what Times of San Diego calls a potential conflict of interest from one of the largest ambulance providers. That provider, American Medical Response, now employs the city’s former fire chief.  
• San Diego just became the first city in California to require scam warning signs at cryptocurrency ATMs. (Fox 5 San Diego)
• A San Diego City College student who was detained by ICE in September has been released and talked about his experience in detention. Officials at the school said they’ve installed new signage to notify federal officials they can’t carry out immigration operations on the campus. (KPBS)
• And more on immigration enforcement: Some City Heights residents are living in fear as the neighborhood neighborhood grapples with ICE raids. (inewsource)

The Morning Report was written by Mariana Martínez Barba, Jakob McWhinney and Lisa Halverstadt. It was edited by Will Huntsberry.

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