EAST COUNTY ROUNDUP: LOCAL AND STATEWIDE NEWS

March 10,  2016 (San Diego's East County) -- East County Roundup highlights top stories of interest to East County and San Diego’s inland regions, published in other media. This week’s top “Roundup” headlines include:

LOCAL

• Luxury development approved for Julian (U-T)
• Heavily redacted memo shields notes in fatal San Diego police shooting (KPBS)
• Charity accused of improper billing (U-T)
• MTS Board Members Ask For Faster Data Security Upgrades (KPBS)
• Contractors lose appeal on 'free speech’ gifts (U-T)
• San Diego Politicians Asked To Stop Voting On Their Own Salaries (KPBS)
• Is ballot crowding at work in San Diego city council races? (KPBS)
• Southern California aerospace industry continues to lose jobs (U-T)

STATE

• Brown’s judge friend removed from CPUC case (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Motivating the state’s refugee voters (KPBS)
• My $54,000 helicopter ride (Los Angeles Times)
• California advances bills to raise smoking age, regulate vaping (Sacramento Bee)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

LOCAL

Luxury development approved for Julian (U-T)

Plans to build 24 luxury homes in the mountains about one mile southwest of the historic town of Julian will move forward after the county’s Planning Commission unanimously approved a tentative map earlier this month and no appeals were filed.

Heavily redacted memo shields notes in fatal San Diego police shooting (KPBS)

The meeting notes are time-stamped 7:24 p.m., hours after a federal judge ruled that the family of a man fatally shot by a San Diego police officer in April could release surveillance video of the shooting. They were sent by San Diego police Capt. David Nisleit to himself. And that’s all the city says the public has the right to know.

Charity accused of improper billing (U-T)

San Diego County is investigating a whistleblower complaint against a social services provider that has dozens of government contracts and is accused of billing taxpayers millions of dollars for “reimbursement” of expenses that had not been incurred.

MTS Board Members Ask For Faster Data Security Upgrades (KPBS)

In a letter to the Metropolitan Transit System's CEO, two San Diego City Council members asked him to speed up the transit agency's data security upgrades, following a KPBS report on the system's flaws.

Contractors lose appeal on 'free speech’ gifts (U-T)

Builders in South County districts said meals, play tickets, were exercise of First Amendment rights.

San Diego Politicians Asked To Stop Voting On Their Own Salaries (KPBS)

A city commission is asking San Diego elected officials to both approve a package of ethics reforms and sign a pledge to follow the changes even if they never become law.

Is ballot crowding at work in San Diego city council races? (KPBS)

As candidates for San Diego city offices face a Thursday deadline for filing papers to get on the June ballot, one race is distinguished by its last-minute growth in the number of candidates…Some have speculated the last-minute growth in candidates was intentional. Elections are decided in June if a candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote.

Southern California aerospace industry continues to lose jobs (U-T)

Only San Diego is significantly bucking the trend

STATE

Brown’s judge friend removed from CPUC case (San Diego Union-Tribune)

The appellate judge who went to law school with Gov. Jerry Brown in the 1960s and issued an order last month intervening in a case that might force release of San Onofre-related emails to and from the Governor’s Office is no longer hearing the case.

Motivating the state’s refugee voters (KPBS)

People up and down the state are trying to crack the code on California's dismal voter turnout, which reached a record low for general elections in 2014. Just 42.2 percent of registered voters cast ballots… But a San Diego nonprofit, the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans, sees untapped potential in one voting bloc: refugees. The group noticed that refugees who do vote, tend to never miss an election. They’re super voters. How big is the opportunity? California has resettled about 300,000 refugees since the 1980s.

My $54,000 helicopter ride (Los Angeles Times)

One of the benefits of the Affordable Care Act that President Obama often touts is the limit it places on medical bills: no more than $6,350 annually per insured individual or $12,700 per family. The insurance industry's idea of an "out-of-pocket maximum," however, doesn't deliver on the promise implicit in its name, as I learned when my insurer told me I might owe half of a $54,000 ambulance bill.

California advances bills to raise smoking age, regulate vaping (Sacramento Bee)

Legal smoking age would go to 21. military personnel could buy at age 18. E-cigarettes would be treated as tobacco products.