EAST COUNTY ROUNDUP: LOCAL AND STATEWIDE NEWS

January 23, 2023  (San Diego) -- East County Roundup highlights top stories of interest to East County and San Diego's inland regions, published in other media.  This week's round-up stories include:

LOCAL

• 10 cities demand SANDAG scrap weighted vote to get representation (KPBS)
• S.D. County residents have unequal access to public meetings. How easy should it be to tune in? (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Watch: Huge Section of Cliff Crashes onto Black's Beach in La Jolla (NBC San Diego)
• Tijuana Is Again Buying Emergency Water from California After Aqueduct Outage (Voice of San Diego)
• Rest In Peace: San Diego's Saddest & Most Surprising Closures Of 2022 (SanDiegoville)
• San Diegans struggle with egg-stremely high egg prices (KPBS)
• Photographer arrested after sting by San Diego-based vigilante group (10 News)
• East County’s only hospital is powered by an off-the-grid machine that’s cutting costs and emissions, report says (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• El Cajon judge gets second chance to donate a kidney (East County Californian)

STATE

• President Biden Declares Emergency in California Due to Winter Storms (Times of San Diego)
• Senate musical chairs: California prepares for political battle over Feinstein vacancy (Guardian)
•   (Los Angeles Times)
• Authorities working to determine source of oil slick off Santa Barbara coast (Los Angeles Times)
• Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2024 budget predicts no recession, but tough times for job seekers (Sacramento Bee)
• California faces budget deficit of $22.5B, governor says (KPBS)
• California sees increase in cannabis-related ER visits by older adults (KPBS)
• Residential batteries linked over internet could soon help California’s electrical grid (KPBS)
• Storm hits Santa Barbara and Montecito hard, bringing mass rescues, damage and jitters (Los Angeles Times)

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

LOCAL

10 cities demand SANDAG scrap weighted vote to get representation (KPBS)

A group of leaders representing some of the county's cities Thursday demanded the San Diego Association of Governments reconsider the weighted system the body uses to vote at its meeting next Friday.  The group makes up 10 of the 19-member SANDAG board, representing a majority of the votes but a minority of the weighted votes.

S.D. County residents have unequal access to public meetings. How easy should it be to tune in? (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Some elected officials can be watched remotely, others can’t. Getting it all more accessible won’t be cheap.

Watch: Huge Section of Cliff Crashes onto Black's Beach in La Jolla (NBC San Diego)

The collapse at Black's Beach was reported after 2 p.m. on Friday.

Tijuana Is Again Buying Emergency Water from California After Aqueduct Outage (Voice of San Diego)

The lifeline carrying all of Tijuana’s water from the Colorado River failed last month, so the city once again had to purchase water from California for millions of dollars.

Rest In Peace: San Diego's Saddest & Most Surprising Closures Of 2022 (SanDiegoville)

After a tough couple years, many San Diego bars & restaurants shuttered in 2022. Here we run down the saddest and most surprising closures of the year. 

San Diegans struggle with egg-stremely high egg prices (KPBS)

For some types of eggs, the price has more than doubled.

Photographer arrested after sting by San Diego-based vigilante group (10 News)

A photographer with a social media following in the thousands was arrested last week after a sting by a vigilante group known as CC Unit. "CC" stands for "creep catching". "What we do is catch online predators who prey on kids," said the group's founder, who goes by the alias "Ghost".

East County’s only hospital is powered by an off-the-grid machine that’s cutting costs and emissions, report says (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Sharp Grossmont’s power plant offers one option for facilities looking to reduce their environmental impact

El Cajon judge gets second chance to donate a kidney (East County Californian)

Handling criminal cases at the El Cajon Courthouse, Dan Lamborn is a judge of the Superior Court of San Diego County. The East County resident has held his position since 2013, and prior to his first term he worked with the San Diego District Attorney’s Office as chief deputy district attorney. But the honorable judge is on medical hiatus at the moment. On Friday, Jan. 6, Lamborn donated his kidney during a live transplant at Cedar-Sanai hospital in Los Angeles.

STATE

President Biden Declares Emergency in California Due to Winter Storms (Times of San Diego)

President Biden approved an emergency declaration for California after more than a week of storms killed at least 12 people and knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses.

Senate musical chairs: California prepares for political battle over Feinstein vacancy (Guardian)

An ‘avalanche’ of candidates, including Katie Porter, Barbara Lee and Adam Schiff, announce candidacy for California seat.

Authorities identify 72-year-old man as suspected gunman in Lunar New Year mass shooting  (Los Angeles Times)

Authorities have identified the man responsible for a deadly shooting inside a Monterey Park dance studio as 72-year-old Hemet resident Huu Can Tran.  Tran died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.... The weapon...was a magazine-fed semiautomatic assault pistol, with an extended magazine attached, according to authorities. This particular firearm with an extended magazine is illegal to possess in California.

Authorities working to determine source of oil slick off Santa Barbara coast (Los Angeles Times)

The 1½- to 2-mile sheen was spotted Friday about five nautical miles from Summerland Beach, an area with a petroleum-rich sea floor that is home to numerous abandoned gas and oil wells.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2024 budget predicts no recession, but tough times for job seekers (Sacramento Bee)

Jobs may be harder to find and your income probably won’t keep up with inflation. But there appears to be no recession looming. That was the view of Gov. Gavin Newsom in his fiscal 2024 budget, released Tuesday.

California faces budget deficit of $22.5B, governor says (KPBS)

California faces a projected budget deficit of $22.5 billion for the coming fiscal year, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday, just days into his second term. It’s a sharp turnaround from last year’s $98 billion surplus. / The deficit, while unsurprising, could signal the end of a decade’s worth of economic growth in the nation’s most populous state.

California sees increase in cannabis-related ER visits by older adults (KPBS)

To most pot smokers the adverse effects of marijuana just mean a bad trip. Maybe you get a little scared or paranoid. / But, for some older folks, the effects are more serious and they end up in the hospital. A UC San Diego study of California hospital data found a 1,804% increase in cannabis-related emergency room visits among people older than 65 from 2005 to 2019.

Residential batteries linked over internet could soon help California’s electrical grid (KPBS)

Sonnen [Battery] has developed software that allows the company to manage thousands of residential batteries, which, if used collectively, become a virtual power plant... The software can connect batteries scattered across the state because Sonnen deals directly with California’s Independent System Operator (CAISO), the agency that runs the electric grid. No utility is needed.... Sonnen negotiates the value of the reservoir of electricity and shares proceeds with the residential owners.... 

Storm hits Santa Barbara and Montecito hard, bringing mass rescues, damage and jitters (Los Angeles Times)

Evacuation orders remained in place Tuesday night farther north, along a stretch of the Salinas River and the Carmel Valley in Monterey County, officials said. Areas along the Big Sur River were downgraded to an evacuation warning.