EAST COUNTY ROUNDUP: LOCAL AND STATEWIDE NEWS

August 2, 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

• San Diego approves equal pay law  (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• No charges to be filed in case criticized as racial profiling (SDUT)
• SANDAG Considers Putting Governance Change Proposition Before Voters (KPBS)
• Investigators Reveal SANDAG Leaders Scurried to Hide and Delete Documents as Scandal Unfolded (Voice of San Diego)
• SANDAG Board Members: We Should Have Been Told About 2004 Ballot Discrepancy (Voice of San Diego)
• SANDAG Staff Knew About 2004 Voter Deception but Didn’t Tell Current Board (VOSD)
• Surprise: storm runoff not main cause of illness from polluted beaches (SDUT)
• SD Unified tackles sex education, Muslim anti-bullying, lead in water (10News)
•  County Water Authority Takes Rates Dispute to State Supreme Court (KPBS)
• Third biologist sues Salk claiming gender discrimination (Times of San Diego)

STATE

• California Valley Fever Cases Highest on Record (KQED)
• DA: Hackers Penetrated Voter Registrations In 2016 Through State’s Election Site (KPBS)
• CA wildfires have burned 3 times more than historical average (KCRA)
• Calif. strict gun control laws may soon be lifted by the federal government (Patch)
• Yosemite So Crowded You Can’t Park; But You'll Still Pay to Enter (Apple News)
• California Is Poorer Than You Think (L.A. Weekly)
• Calif. has too much pot, growers won't be able to export the surplus (LA Times)
• California mountain highway is finally cleared of snow after FOUR MONTHS of snowplowing (Daily Mail)
• How California can and must stop wasting its storm water (SF Chronicle)
• California Bill Would Allow Supervised Drug Consumption Centers (KPBS)

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

LOCAL

San Diego approves equal pay law  (San Diego Union-Tribune)

San Diego on Monday became the largest city in the nation to pass a law requiring city contractors and consultants to pay employees equally regardless of gender or ethnicity. The City Council unanimously approved the new legislation, an “equal pay” ordinance that aims to help close persistent pay gaps for women and minorities performing the same work as white men.

No charges to be filed in case criticized as racial profiling (San Diego Union-Tribune)

A black man who claimed he was arrested by San Diego police last week only because of his race will not face any criminal charges…Richard Wiley, 66, was jailed on suspicion of felony possession of a baton and burglary tools on July 21 in Encanto. …He was walking down the road, rather than a sidewalk, wearing gloves and carrying a short length of a cane and an extra pair of gloves. He said he wears the gloves when handling the recyclables, and carried the rod to ward off any threatening dogs.

SANDAG Considers Putting Governance Change Proposition Before Voters (KPBS)

A proposal to create a local ballot measure to reform the San Diego Association of Governments' governance structure was referred Friday to the regional planning agency's executive committee for further study…. A SANDAG staff report said a measure from SANDAG could actually contain some elements of AB 805, authored by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, D- San Diego, and add proposals offered by the public. If SANDAG goes ahead with developing a proposition, it could go before voters next year.

Investigators Reveal SANDAG Leaders Scurried to Hide and Delete Documents as Scandal Unfolded (Voice of San Diego)

Staff at the San Diego Association of Governments took steps to hide public records and delete official documents last year, after Voice of San Diego uncovered major errors in the revenue forecast for a tax increase that went before voters last year. The revelation comes from an independent investigation into the agency’s forecasting scandal released Monday night.

SANDAG Board Members: We Should Have Been Told About 2004 Ballot Discrepancy (Voice of San Diego)

Current and former San Diego Association of Governments board members said staff should have specifically flagged for the board that the agency had drastically cut down the amount of money it expected to raise from a 2004 tax increase months before the board decided to put it a measure on the ballot that predicted a much higher total.

SANDAG Staff Knew About 2004 Voter Deception but Didn’t Tell the Current Board

An internal document obtained by Voice of San Diego shows that SANDAG staffers offered SANDAG board members and the public explanations for its ongoing scandal that they knew were false or incomplete. / It also shows the agency discussed in November 2016 how it had misled voters on a ballot measure in 2004 – at least nine months before the deception was revealed by Voice of San Diego – but declined to tell the board or the public. 

Surprise: storm runoff not main cause of illness from polluted beaches (San Diego Union-Tribune)

A new study by the city and county of San Diego concludes that the biggest source of bacterial pollution in the county’s waterways is sewage, especially human feces, coming from homeless encampments and leaky sewer pipes.

SD Unified tackles sex education, Muslim anti-bullying, lead in water (10News)

Tuesday night results: 

 County Water Authority Takes Rates Dispute to State Supreme Court (KPBS)

The San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) announced Monday it will take a long-running legal dispute over rates to the state Supreme Court. The decision comes just over a month after an appellate court issued what amounted to a split decision in the Water Authority's case against the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) of Southern California.

Third biologist sues Salk claiming gender discrimination (Times of San Diego)

Beverly Emerson, a Salk employee for nearly 31 years, is the third woman to sue the institute in the past couple of weeks on the issue, along with biologists Vicki Lundblad and Katherine Jones.

STATE

California Valley Fever Cases Highest on Record (KQED)

The number of Valley Fever cases in California rose to a record level in 2016, with 5,372 reported — a jump of 71 percent from the previous year. 

DA: Hackers Penetrated Voter Registrations In 2016 Through State’s Election Site (KPBS)

[In 2016] Hackers accessed voter registration information, indiscriminate of party, through the California Secretary of State’s election website, and changed some voters’ party affiliations. But because the state did not collect the IP addresses of the visits, there’s no way to know where the hacker — or hackers — were based.

CA wildfires have burned 3 times more than historical average (KCRA)

So far in 2017, Cal Fire has responded to 3,469 fires up and down the state. That’s 810 more than at this point last year.

California’s strict gun control laws may soon be lifted by the federal government (Patch)

U.S. Rep. Chris Collins (pictured above) unveiled new federal legislation Monday called the "Second Amendment Guarantee Act," or H.R. 3576. If passed into law, the new bill would prevent all state, county and city governments from enforcing local rifle and shotgun laws stricter than those at the federal level…. Collins' bill would lift the state ban on many types of assault weapons and large-capacity gun magazines. It would also relax California's strict licensing requirements for buyers and sellers of rifles and shotguns. (The bill would not, however, overturn any local rules on handguns.)

Yosemite So Crowded You Can’t Park; but You'll Still Pay to Enter (Apple News)

As cars wait for hours to get to the valley, more vehicles are allowed to enter

California Is Poorer Than You Think (L.A. Weekly)

The "2017 Prosperity Now Scorecard," which looks at U.S. Census Bureau and other economic data, concluded this week that nearly 40 percent of California households are "liquid asset–poor, meaning they have so little savings that they could not live at the poverty level for just three months if they lose a job or suffer another significant income loss," according to a summary.

California has too much pot, and growers won't be able to export the surplus (LA Times)

the state’s cannabis growers produce eight times the pot that is consumed in the state

California mountain highway is finally cleared of snow after FOUR MONTHS of snowplowing (Daily Mail)

Prior to this year's opening, the latest recorded date was July 21, 1995. / A total of 28 feet of snow fell over the winter at the summit of the park highway // Cars were once more able to drive on Highway 89, which runs through Lassen Volcanic National Park, for the first time since last fall.

How California can and must stop wasting its storm water (SF Chronicle)

It’s a lot easier for local agencies to propose and build projects delivering essential services, such as a sewer plant, than for storm water collection. SB231 simply reaffirms the original definition of what a “sewer” is, allowing local governments to finance storm water management projects the same way as drinking water, sewage and trash services.

California Bill Would Allow Supervised Drug Consumption Centers (KPBS)

In response to the nation's opioid epidemic, AB 186 would allow drug consumption centers where drug users can get high under the supervision of health care professionals. The centers would offer clean needles, a safe environment and access to treatment.