Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/podcasts-countywide-issues/)
Nick Berardino – president of Valor, the Veterans Alliance of Orange County and President of Heroes Hall Foundation – talks about the challenges facing what he calls America’s most disrespected minority, veterans, as well as the quest for a veterans cemetery in OC.
José Ocaño from the Best Friends Animal Society talks about the future of animal sheltering in the United States in a “no-kill” era for shelter animals as well as the change in culture over at the County of Orange animal shelter with new OC Animal Care Director Mike Kaviani.
United Way Chief Operating Officer Carla Vargas updates progress on homelessness programs in Orange County, discussing a new pilot program, funded by a $250,000 grant from the County of Orange, that hopes to connect homeless people who are ready for permanent supportive housing with willing apartment owners as a way of quickly moving the dial to address an estimated need of 2,700 permanent supportive housing units across the county.
Incoming DA Todd Spitzer outlines his plans as he prepares to become Orange County’s top law enforcement official in January.
Orange County animal rights activist Rose Tingle created a $35 million regional animal shelter with a string of Op-eds in the Voice of OC that were followed by a stinging series of grand jury investigations, which ultimately convinced Orange County supervisors to break ground on a new facility.
Orange County backcountry activist and land use attorney Gloria Sefton talks about the constant development pressures on Orange County’s land use specific plans, especially those in the canyon areas, and her numerous successful lawsuits to defend the public planning process for canyon residents.
Steve Danley, a former Performance Auditor for the County of Orange talks about the lost art of checking under the hood inside the halls of county government, what makes a good auditor as well as the future of his former office, now on life-support.
Voice of OC works with a reporting boot camp for middle schoolers in Santa Ana, producing a podcast where kids sounds off on life in Santa Ana as well as the immigration debate that is playing out in their living rooms and neighborhoods.
A brewing controversy over removing horses and community equestrian stables from the state fairgrounds in Costa Mesa has awoken a decades-old argument over just who the fairgrounds serves; the community or the fair industry?