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A new airline that recently started service in San Diego is causing a lot of buzz with their $10 fares. But there’s a catch. KPBS reporter Nicole Lozare has more.

For the cost of about three gallons of gas, Skybus officials say you can fly to one of their 13 destinations. The airline offers ten seats on each flight for $10.

But from San Diego, that will only get you to Columbus, Ohio. That’s the hub of Skybus and the only flight to and from here.

Plus, you can’t even buy that $10 fare any more. It’s sold out until March, which is as far out as their schedule goes.

Spokesman Bob Tenenbaum says their prices are still really low because passengers only pay for the flight. Everything else is extra.

Tenenbaum: So food and drink are available on each flight, but they cost money. It costs $5 a bag to check bags.

You can’t bring your own food and drinks on a Skybus flight. They sell non-alcoholic drinks for about $2 and meals starting at $8.

By the way, when we checked their website; the current price of a one-way flight to Columbus is $175.

Nicole Lozare, KPBS News.

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Four-out-of-eight San Diego City Council district seats are up for re-election this year. In District Three, Toni Atkins is stepping down due to term limits. Two liberal democrats are the front runners in the race to represent some of San Diego’s oldest neighborhoods. KPBS reporter Nicole Lozare has more.

District 3 includes Hillcrest, North Park and Kensington.

Todd Gloria is a native San Diegan whose family has lived for generations in the neighborhoods that he wants to serve.

And Stephen Whitburn came to San Diego eight years ago from Wisconsin. He believes his exposure to other city governments will be an invaluable contribution to the City Council.

Policy-wise, Gloria and Whitburn aren’t that far apart. Both are gay liberal democrats running in a progressive district.

Todd Gloria, the lifelong San Diegan, is the district director for Representative Susan Davis. Gloria also served as a San Diego housing commissioner.

Gloria: I’ve spent over 15 years in public service. I’ve worked on affordable housing issues. I’ve worked in every neighborhood in the district. I think I’ve demonstrated that I know how to get things done.

Gloria’s endorsements include the city’s police and fire unions.

Stephen Whitburn is a former radio news reporter who has covered city government in Albany, New York and Madison, Wisconsin. He is pushing for more open government.

Whitburn: I‘ve seen government work well and I’ve seen government work not so well. And I know we can have good government here and that’s why I’m running for City Council.

Whitburn carries endorsements from the local Sierra Club and City Councilwoman Donna Frye.

District 3 is mostly urban and is economically and ethnically very diverse. It prides itself on being progressive. The district’s last two city council representatives — Christine Kehoe and Toni Atkins — are both gay.

I spoke with some of the district’s residents. Their concerns ranged from crime to parking and infrastructure and development.

Chris Robinson: I’ve seen drug deals in progress. I’ve seen people get beaten. I’d even like to see the presence of cop cars going by.

Annie Miller: I definitely would love to see the roads improve. The roads are definitely rough around our neighborhood.

Bernie Horan: A lot of people here worry about keeping neighborhoods as they are rather than have them overrun with apartment buildings, which in a way, ours have been already.

And the race may come down to the issue of development.
Todd Gloria, the native San Diegan, has received more financial backing from developers. Critics say that if Gloria is elected, developers will have a councilman in their pockets.

Gloria: I think that’s silly. With my experience in the community people know that my priority, that my interest, is serving our neighborhoods and the people who live in them. If you look at my service on the housing commission, I have a record of holding developers accountable when they do bad things.

Stephen Whitburn says he received very little money from developers.

Whitburn: I think for too long we’ve seen development in San Diego at the expense of our neighborhoods instead of the blessing of our neighborhoods. I think we need to bring more of a neighborhood focus on our city and on our City Council.

District 3 has four other candidates: Paul Broadway, John Hartley, James Hartline and Robert E. Lee.

Gloria and Whitburn are likely to be the top two vote-getters who enter a runoff election in November.

Nicole Lozare, KPBS News.

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Six months after the fire, displaced survivors are still struggling to put their lives together. KPBS Reporter Nicole Lozare spent some time with two families in Ramona — one of the most hard hit places during the 2007 wildfires. Both families owned their own homes before the fires, but now it’s doubtful they will ever be able to own again.

Lynda Sparks is a single mother with eight children. Before the fires, her family lived in a house that she owned outright. Her yard was spacious and her home was just the way she liked it.

Today, Sparks and her eight children live in a rented home full of mismatched furniture. There’s a couch from a friend’s church. Tupperware from someone else’s kitchen. They keep inheriting and replacing television sets that barely work.

Lynda Sparks tries every day but she can’t wake up from what feels like a nightmare. Her life seems like a series of Catch-22s.

Sparks: It’s really hard for me to get a loan because I’m on disability, and all those things. SBA didn’t want to help me. I had insurance so FEMA can’t do much. I’m right in the middle of nothing and our lives were great before.

Down at the fire recovery center, Marianne Williams, a single mother with two special needs kids has come to check in with case managers. She now lives in a two-bedroom rental apartment. She used to own a large, manufactured home with a nice yard.

Williams: I’m feeling a little bit of loss of hope. But not really wanting to give into that… I’m tired, I’m worn out.

Talking to the two women, they repeat similar mantras.They keep declaring out loud that it’s got to get better soon.

The truth is, financially, this fire has set them back decades. Both are still fighting with insurance. They don’t have enough to rebuild what they had before.

Lynda Sparks, the mother of eight, says it feels like a full-time job to get back the feeling of home that her family lost.

Sparks: When I was living there I always thought that granite counters and all this would be wonderful, and I’m living in that now. It’s a nice home that I’m renting. You know, they’ve almost got an acre of land. It’s nice, but it doesn’t make a difference it’s not home yet. It’s not ours.

Three family members share each bedroom in Lynda’s rented house. Her son Alex says it just doesn’t feel like home.

Alex: I was just thinking about it today. I smelled something and it smelled like my old house. And it made me start thinking it’s never going to be the same again. People pick up and move on and we’re a strong-willed family but it’s never going to be the same again.

Back at the fire recovery center, Marianne Williams, the single mother of two children, looks tired and on edge.

Williams: Some things that happen bring a lot of joy. It’s just still falling short. I’m still falling short to getting back to something resembles normal. It takes times, it takes a lot of time. I don’t think people realize how much time it takes to recover from something like that.

These two women agree that a final place to call home is still hard to picture. But their children believe in their mothers’ fortitude.
Sydney is Marianne William’s six-year-old daughter.

Lozare: Do you miss having a house?

Sydney: No, just want the old house. It burnt down and I liked it. Mommy’s going to get me a house like that again.

For now, Lynda Sparks and Marianne Williams see little hope of buying a home of their own any time soon.

Nicole Lozare, KPBS News.

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Growing up in an agricultural area like the Imperial Valley can bring some hard lessons for kids. One of them is the sometimes bitter-sweet conflict between attachment to an animal, and commerce. KPBS reporter Nicole Lozare has the story.

Imagine a teenager walking into a bank and asking for a $500 loan. Sure, in other parts of the country that money might buy a new iPod touch. But here in El Centro, where agriculture is king, that’s the going price of a young sheep or pig.

And every spring, the business of farm animals is on the mind of nearly 700 teens around here. At the Imperial Valley Fair’s livestock auction, these future farmers are hoping to turn that $500 into some serious profit.

Carbajal: He’s weighing 1278, and well, if I get about $1.50 a pound then I’ll be able to pay it off.

Rudy Carbajal got a $1,500 loan for his steer. Like Rudy, most of the kids say they’ll pay the loan off first. Then . . .

Carbajal: Get the rest of the money for college, save it.

And like most businesses, you win some and you lose some. This is Leslie Palomino’s third year.

Palomino: The first year I had a feeder calf and I didn’t get enough money to pay the loan, but I tried again and I got a lamb. This is my second year with a lamb. Last year I did better but I didn’t get much money for myself.

Lozare: You were able to pay off that loan?

Palomino:Yeah, that’s the good thing.

Depending on how much their animal brings at the auction, these teens can make hundreds of dollars. If their animals don’t do well, then they’re lucky to get enough to pay off the loan. Organizer Bill Gay says the community tries really hard to make sure every animal is sold.

He admits that local farmers pay way more than market price to help the kids out. Last year’s animal sales came in at $1.3 million.

Jeff Martin’s family has been in the cattle business for three generations. He says the annual auction taught his son responsibility and business sense. But the kids also learn some hard lessons.

Martin: The kids understand it’s a business, and you don’t get attached to things because you don’t make any money getting attached to things. It’s that area.

That’s not always easy to do. Kids like Rudy can spend as much as 300 hours with their animal. And that creates a bond.

Rudy: Every morning we have to give him feed, in the afternoon after school I spend about two to three hours with him, showering him, cleaning his pen, walking him training him for showmanship.

On show day, the young farmers are dressed in white. A green tie or scarf means they are a member of Four-H. Navy blue jackets are worn by Future Farmers of America.

Minutes before showing her pig McLovin, Tabitha Piper removes the wet towel she laid over the animal to keep him cool and relaxed.

Piper: I’m kind of nervous right now, but I don’t know why. This is my eighth year doing this. But I always get butterflies. I’m pretty sure I’ll do good.

Showtime also means goodbye. Soon, animal and caretaker must part.

Piper: I hope he doesn’t go to slaughter.. but I can’t stop it. I’ve gotten really attached. So it will be hard.

Lozare: How are you preparing yourself for it?

Piper: Just spending more time with her, the last days that we have together.

Nicole Lozare, KPBS News.

Meet Ray Namovi. Rolex. Pinstriped suit. BMW 745, the very essence of a successful real estate agent. But if image is everything, in Ray’s case, the image is false.

Lozare: When was the last time that you sold a home?

Namovi: I would say March or so.

Lozare: When was your last paycheck?

Namovi: Probably March.

Just like Ray, many real estate agents across the country are suffering in this mortgage meltdown. The equation is simple: When people aren’t buying, real estate agents don’t get their cut. Many have switched careers. The whole top floor of Ray’s building has cleared out.  And it’s hard for those who are sticking it out.

Lozare: So how have you been existing since March? That’s about six months now.

Namovi: Credit cards are just over the limit. Closed out. I actually borrowed from family. My mom, my sister… to get myself to work and back. To pay for gas and basic stuff. And that’s exhausted… because they work hard. My sister’s in the same industry so she’s got it rough.

With literally no paycheck coming in, Ray still has to spend thousands each month on advertising and signs for his clients, not to mention the gas it takes to drive clients around all day and scout for homes.

Namovi: Yeah, anything I could get I could sell. If someone said I’ll take your car, I say take it. I’ll take your watch, take it. I have toys, my hobbies stuff, I’ve sold almost everything I have. I’m down to a couple and if I could sell those, I would. If I need to sell them, I will.

But the hardest part for Ray came when he lost his home.

Namovi: I couldn’t afford it. Just like many other people. It was worth less that what we purchased it for.

He had to short sell his condominium in March when his monthly mortgage increased by a thousand dollars.

Namovi: I felt bad because I thought I failed. Throughout the process, I’ve seen so many other people in my position, I said it happens. It happens in life.

Ray moved back to his mother’s house. And independence is especially important for Ray. Seven years ago, he was in a skydiving accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. But he was determined to walk again. And he did.

A real estate career helped him pay off his medical bills, gain complete independence and buy his own condominium.

Namovi: My mother, she was so proud of me. She saw me living on my own, wearing suits. I was so proud of myself.

He refuses to give up real estate. For three hours each week he role plays with a coach on how to become a better realtor. He won’t stop investing in himself. In his skills.

He believes he’s in a position now to help others. Even if it’s just to advice them to short sell instead of going through foreclosure.

Lozare: How long can you hang on?

Namovi: As long as it takes. I have faith. I was told I would never walk again. People in my situation with less than one percent to walk… and so when they told me I would never walk and I walk before you, if someone told me well, real estate is not going to be well. Or it’s not going to happen till next year. I can’t look at it. I can’t make that decision which is not here yet. That’s the future I create.

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For the last week, firefighters have been working hard to beat the wildfires. KPBS reporter Nicole Lozare spent some time with them on the front lines.

Ashley Nortgart: This is the most exciting job you’ll ever have. I mean, this is definitely my passion.

Meet Ashley Nortgart. Twenty-four years old and San Diego’s first line of defense against the wildfires of 2007.

Nortgart: Firefighting, there’s so many things about it and the thing is you’re always learning. You never stop.

In the last week, firefighters from across the state scrambled to help San Diego. Captain Vince Pena and his crew came down from Santa Clara to protect homes in the Rice Fire.

Pena: Soon as we got here, we went to work. We worked until about three in the morning then we went and got some sleep. Got up about six or seven, had some breakfast, and came back out, and worked all day on Monday and into Tuesday. We got a day off Tuesday and we’re back out here today.

In their time here, Pena and his crew have slept little, gotten lost, and stared down blazes that couldn’t always be tamed.

Pena: It’s hard. It’s hard. You’re thinking about people who have put their whole lives into these homes. The hardest part is thinking about the children. How do you cope? Well, I think the way we cope is we try to make a difference and pat ourselves on the back in the ones that we save.

At its hardest, the job requires them to make difficult decisions. Emotions must be pushed aside for logic to take over.

Pena: You have to look at the homes and you have to triage them, just like you would a medical patient. If you had more than one medical patient, you have to pick the one that’s most survivable. That’s what we do. We try to pick the home that is more survivable. The one with the most defensible space is the one we’re going to pick and make our stand. What is a defensible space? A defensible space is something where the homeowner has taken it upon themselves to create a green area around their house. Limited the amount of flammable vegetation. Trimmed the trees back from their house. A home that has maybe stucco siding as opposed to wood siding. Tile roof as opposed to wood.

To get it — to make those decisions quickly, stay alive and still beat a fire isn’t an overnight achievement.

Nortgart: We drill and we train all the time for stuff like this. To keep our adrenalin up. So when we actually see something you don’t get the deer in headlights kind of thing. Because we drill so well. But you definitely get the added urgency.

There are some things they can’t control. In wildfire situations, one area becomes priority number one. That fire will get the air tankers and all the big resources. On this particular night, Ashley Nortgart’s crew is defending nine homes on Palomar Mountain. They are number three on the priority list for North County.

For two days now, the fire keeps peeking over the hill. They started a control burn to extinguish what they call fuels — for example, a dry bush that can speed up a fire. They can beat the fire if it’s on their terms.

At the end of a 24-hour-shift, their lips are parched, their feet with blisters and their bodies sore. But there’s also a sense of thankfulness that each crew member is safe.

Nortgart: My biggest fear as a firefighter is getting burned over probably. Yeah. The way to prevent that is things that we all know, you gotta stay aware you gotta work with your crew and you gotta watch everyone’s back. And that’s what we try to do all the time. That’s how we stave off that fear.

This night, Ashley Nortgart and her crew save the home and stay alive.

Nicole Lozare, KPBS News.