EAST COUNTY ROUNDUP: LOCAL AND STATEWIDE NEWS

June 6, 2017 (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

• Report:  housing construction collapses in San Diego County (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Lawsuit over Alfred Olango protest arrests to move forward (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• 94-year-old marathon runner sets record in San Diego (KNSD)
• Wells Parks master plan in the works for El Cajon (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• San Diego faces major risk of earthquakes, study says )(Los Angeles Times)
• Food banks worry of hunger strike (Our City San Diego)

STATE

• Rural Californians fear concerns unheard by big-city politicians (San Francisco Chronicle)
• L.A. County homelessness jumps a ‘staggering’ 23% as need far outpaces housing, new count shows  (Los Angeles Times)
• If California goes single-payer, what happens to insurance workers? (KPPC)
• Do California’s clean energy jobs equal ten times the nation’s coal-mining jobs? (Politifact)

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

LOCAL

Report:  housing construction collapses in San Diego County (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Homebuilding was down across Southern California in the first three months of 2017, but nowhere more than San Diego County, said a Real Estate Research Council report released Monday. Residential building permits were down by 10 percent in the seven-county region compared to the same time last year and 37 percent in San Diego County.

Lawsuit over Alfred Olango protest arrests to move forward (San Diego Union-Tribune)

A lawsuit over the right to protest at the site where an El Cajon police officer fatally shot Alfred Olango will move forward but in a limited capacity, a San Diego federal judge ruled Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino threw out several portions of the lawsuit in her ruling but found the 11 plaintiffs had some credible claims to pursue, including whether El Cajon police violated their rights by declaring their gathering an unlawful assembly and arresting them.

94-year-old marathon runner sets record in San Diego (KNSD)

Ninety-four-year-old Harriette Thompson smiled and laughed as she crossed the finish line at the Rock 'N' Roll Marathon in San Diego Sunday, becoming the oldest woman to run a half-marathon. "I guess it's unusual, but I don't know why people make such a big deal," Thompson said. "I feel just like I did when I was 16. But I just can’t move as fast."

Wells Parks master plan in the works for El Cajon (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Committed to making Wells Park a safer place for kids and families, El Cajon has created a three-phase master plan that includes civilian police employees as rangers…Phase three, beyond two years, may include a “Splash Park” for children and a privately operated, 3-acre adult soccer complex…

San Diego faces major risk of earthquakes, study says )(Los Angeles Times)

New research released this week found that a fault under the heart of San Diego can produce stronger and more frequent earthquakes than previously thought. It’s the second study in recent months pointing to heightened quake risks in the San Diego area.

Food banks worry of hunger strike (Our City San Diego)

… 12.3 percent of the population doesn’t know where their next meal is coming from. That’s a lot of people: 397,390, to be exact. The common perception is that most of these people are among the homeless population, but that’s far from the truth, experts say. More than a third of those who are food insecure are children, and most others are senior citizens, middle-class families fallen on hard times and even active duty military families struggling to keep up with the high cost of living in the region. The homeless account for a mere 5 percent of the population that food banks serve.

STATE

Rural Californians fear concerns unheard by big-city politicians (San Francisco Chronicle)

California’s long-struggling rural communities are looking for less talk and more action from a state Legislature dominated by big-city Democrats with few connections to the very different problems of those living outside the state’s coastal megalopolises …At the state Democratic convention in Sacramento this month, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom was on stage, saying all the right things to the party’s rural caucus. “We have a challenge here in California, where we’re both the richest and poorest state in the nation,” he told a standing-room-only crowd. “We can’t be a coastal economy and an inland economy.”

L.A. County homelessness jumps a ‘staggering’ 23% as need far outpaces housing, new count shows  (Los Angeles Times)

… The Homeless Services Authority linked the worsening problem to the economic stress on renters in the Los Angeles area. More than 2 million households in L.A. and Orange counties have housing costs that exceed 30% of income, according to data from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies included in the report.

If California goes single-payer, what happens to insurance workers? (KPPC)

 The bill to create a state-run health care system in California would do away with most health insurance, so many of those employed in that industry would need new jobs. But no one seems to know how many people might be affected

Do California’s clean energy jobs equal ten times the nation’s coal-mining jobs? (Politifact)

Democrats in California vowed to take on greater leadership on climate change this week after President Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord. Chris Nichols