East County News Service

December 2, 2016 (Sacramento) – The Association of California Healthcare Districts (ACHD), a statewide trade association for California’s several healthcare districts, has announced that Randy Lenac has joined the ACHD Board of Directors. Lenac has served since July 2014 as a member of the Grossmont Healthcare District (GHD) board of directors in San Diego County. GHD represents more than 500,000 people residing in the district’s 750 square miles in San Diego’s East County region. GHD is one of 79 healthcare districts in the state, providing health and wellness services in their respective communities.

By Liz Alper

Photo via Djh57 on Wikipedia

December 2, 2016 (San Diego) - In his first deal since his suspension for submitting false records to the Boston Red Sox during pitcher Drew Pomeranz's trade, Padres general manager A.J. Preller has traded catcher Derek Norris to the Washington Nationals for pitcher Pedro Avila.

By Miriam Raftery

December 1, 2016 (El Cajon) — A notice from the city of El Cajon today announces that a Draft Environmental Impact Report on the city’s proposed Housing Element Rezoning Program is available for public review and written comment starting December 5th through January 19^th.

A community open house is set for January 5^th from 6 p.m.to 7 p.m. at the El Cajon Branch Library (201 East Douglas) meeting room to discuss the project, the California Environmental Quality Act public review process and the content and findings of the draft EIR.

By Miriam Raftery

December 1, 2016 (Spring Valley) -- The San Diego Festival Chorus & Orchestra is celebrating its 25th anniversary season,  with a  Chansons de Noel Concert this Sunday. 

You can hear our exclusive interview with director Tony Mostardo by clicking the audio link, originally aired on KNSJ radio 89.1 FM.  He provides some fascinating insights into the major works in the upcoming concert,  as well what inspired him to start this marvelous community musical group.  He also recalls the group's auspicious beginning on a date now immortalized in history:  September 11, 2001,  and how the terrorist attacks impacted the group on day one.

East County News Service

December 1,  2016 (El Cajon) –El Cajon’s City Council will hold a public hearing on Tuesday,  December 13 at 3 p.m. in Council Chambers (200 Civic Center Way) to consider extending an ordinance banning outdoor marijuana growing for the next year.

Following passage of Proposition 64, the statewide ballot measure legalizing recreational marijuana including growing up to six plants per household,  El Cajon’s City Council on Nov. 15 passed an emergency ordinance banning outdoor growing of marijuana plants until Dec. 30 in all zones within the city.  The hearing on Dec. 31 would be on a proposal to extend that ban until  Nov.14, 2017.

Source: San Diego County Sheriff's Department

December 1, 2016 (San Diego) - 24 hours per day, seven days a week, Sheriff's Dispatchers answer emergency calls from all across San Diego County. They save lives by getting help out to those calling 9-1-1.

By Greg Palast

Reprinted with permission of Greg Palast, award-winning investigative reporter published in Rolling Stone, the Guardian and BBC News. His New York Times bestseller, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, is now a major motion picture documentary.

Editor’s note: I interviewed Palast before the election, when he warned that Trump operatives were conspiring to steal it by purging 7.2 million minority voters off voting roles in key swing states. Now Palast has evidence that Trump’s winning margin in these states was far less than the number of voters wrongly removed by software called “Crosscheck.” It purported to remove duplicate voters with common minority names, even when middle names were different, denying millions of Latinos, blacks and Asians their right to vote. The mastermind behind Crosscheck is Kris Kobach, now head of Trump’s immigration policies transition team. If you believe this election should be investigated, send this story to your elected officials or party leaders.  You can also Support The Palast Investigative Fund. E

Fund and keep our work alive.

November 12, 2016 -- Before a single vote was cast, the election was fixed by GOP and Trump operatives.

Starting in 2013 – just as the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act – a coterie of Trump operatives, under the direction of Kris Kobach, Kansas Secretary of State, created a system to purge 1.1 million Americans of color from the voter rolls of GOP–controlled states.