EAST COUNTY ROUNDUP: LOCAL AND STATEWIDE NEWS

August 23, 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

• 8 hate groups are in San Diego’s backyard, civil rights groups say (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Chicago bosses clean out top editors at LA Times (San Diego Reader)
• Interpreters who help troops find safety and new life in East County (East County Californian)
• Border report:  The border agent boom hasn’t materialized (Voice of San Diego)
• Fundraiser launched for El Cajon Police dog diagnosed with cancer (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• SD County unemployment higher than in the U.S. (S.D. Reader)
• New Ronald McDonald House Offers Relief for More Families with a Sick Child (KPBS)
• Four years later, ex-mayor hasn't made court-ordered restitution to charity (San Diego Union-Tribune)

STATE

• Californians, here’s why your housing costs are so high (Sacramento Bee)
• California bill to protect immigrant witnesses  heads to Jerry Brown (Los Angeles Times)
• Judges in L.A. asked to unseal records in CPUC criminal probe (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• A controversial California effort to fight climate change just got some good news (Washington Post)

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

LOCAL

8 hate groups are in San Diego’s backyard, civil rights groups say (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Across San Diego County are a large handful of groups that either deny the Holocaust happened, claim that anyone who isn’t a Christian man is unqualified to serve in public office or seek to make the United States an Islamic theocracy.

Chicago bosses clean out top editors at LA Times (San Diego Reader)

Sudden move likely to affect Union-Tribune.

Interpreters who help troops find safety and new life in East County (East County Californian)

The war in Afghanistan and Iraq is hellish, seemingly never-ending. Yet U.S. troops see some hope in fighting the Taliban and insurgents through help from the people who live there and sign on as interpreters. They do so, risking their own lives to help the soldiers and sailors who are doing their best to bring stability into a country wracked with fighting. 

Border report:  The border agent boom hasn’t materialized (Voice of San Diego)

The massive expansion of the Border Patrol – including at least 5,000 new agents – promised by President Donald Trump hasn’t materialized yet…. the number of border agents in the field has dropped by more than 200 and on track to deported 10,000 fewer people in 2017 than in 2016, the L.A. Times reports. That doesn’t mean there has not been a crackdown, however. Arrests of undocumented people have surged since January. Because the system is so overloaded, many detainees remain in immigration prisons without hearings.

Fundraiser launched for El Cajon Police dog diagnosed with cancer (San Diego Union-Tribune)

..according to a GoFundMe page set up by the El Cajon Canine Officer Association...“The ECCOA needs your support to raise money to support Duke and offset his medical costs,” says the post dated August 17. “Further, with Duke's impending medical retirement, the El Cajon K-9 team will be short a valuable member of their team and will be raising funds to add a new working dog to the team.”

SD County unemployment higher than in the U.S. (S.D. Reader)

San Diego County's unemployment rate in July was higher than the United States rate for the first time since November of 2015, according to Emerson Figueroa of the California Employment Development Department.

New Ronald McDonald House Offers Relief for More Families with a Sick Child (KPBS)

Due to increased demand, a second Ronald McDonald House has opened near Rady Children's Hospital.

Four years later, ex-mayor hasn't made court-ordered restitution to charity (San Diego Union-Tribune)

In 2013, former San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor agreed to pay $2.1 million in restitution after she admitted to embezzling that amount from her late husband’s charity to feed a video poker habit. / She was supposed to pay the money “when financially able to do so” under a deal with federal authorities...

STATE

Californians, here’s why your housing costs are so high (Sacramento Bee)

Half the state’s households struggle to afford the roof over their heads. Homeownership—once a staple of the California dream—is at its lowest rate since World War II. Nearly 70 percent of poor Californians see the majority of their paychecks go immediately to escalating rents.

California bill to protect immigrant witnesses heads to Jerry Brown (Los Angeles Times)

California law enforcement officers will be prohibited from detaining crime victims or witnesses on immigration violations under a state bill headed to Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature.

Judges in L.A. asked to unseal records in CPUC criminal probe (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Judges in Los Angeles Superior Court are being asked to unseal records related to three search warrants approved in 2015 as part of the long-running criminal investigation into possible corruption within the California Public Utilities Commission.

A controversial California effort to fight climate change just got some good news (Washington Post)

…The study, conducted by a trio of Stanford University researchers, concerns a California “carbon offset” program, which allows companies to pay to preserve carbon-storing forests instead of reducing their own emissions. According to the researchers’ findings, that program is protecting imperiled forests and preventing the carbon they store from being released into the atmosphere.