EAST COUNTY ROUNDUP: LOCAL AND STATEWIDE NEWS

October 21, 2015 (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

• City fines ambulance firm $230,000 (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Morning report: A trolley to nowhere (Voice of San Diego)
• San Diego County Officials: 17 Residents Have Contracted West Nile In 2015 (KPBS)
• San Diego Scientists Turn Ocean Pink To Study Pollution (KPBS)
• SeaWorld To Challenge Coastal Commission's Ban On Orca Breeding (KPBS)

STATE

• Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom to lead California gun control ballot initiative (Sacramento Bee)
• California in danger of giving away its energy future (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• New California Law Allows For Fish Markets (KPBS)
• San Diego Environmental Groups Rake in Millions from Imperial Valley Solar Developers (Voice of San Diego)
• State ready to award San Onofre advocacy funds (San Diego Union-Tribune)

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

LOCAL

City fines ambulance firm $230,000 (San Diego Union-Tribune)

The City of San Diego has fined private ambulance provider Rural/Metro Corp. $230,000, citing a failure to meet emergency response-time requirements over the past three months. The penalties might have been higher if the fire department had not stopped tracking responses for the first six months of this year because of computer glitches.

Morning report: A trolley to nowhere (Voice of San Diego)

It’s no secret that San Diego’s trolley system is bad – the anecdotal complaints are part of our city’s urban lore. But a study released last week revealed a deeper truth: that decades of land-use decisions by city leaders had made it that way. Now, Voice of San Diego’s Maya Srikrishnan has zeroed in on the worst of the worst – the Gillespie Field station in El Cajon, which was called out for being the single most underdeveloped transit area in the state by the study’s authors.

San Diego County Officials: 17 Residents Have Contracted West Nile In 2015 (KPBS)

The number of people who contracted West Nile virus in the region this year climbed to 17, two of whom died after becoming infected, San Diego County health officials said Thursday.

San Diego Scientists Turn Ocean Pink To Study Pollution (KPBS)

The study is part of a binational effort to examine how pollution travels across the U.S.-Mexico border.

SeaWorld To Challenge Coastal Commission's Ban On Orca Breeding (KPBS)

SeaWorld Entertainment Thursday announced that it will challenge the California Coastal Commission, which last week issued a ruling that would end the breeding of captive killer whales at its San Diego theme park.

STATE

Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom to lead California gun control ballot initiative (Sacramento Bee)

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday will introduce a measure for next year’s ballot that aims to stanch the proliferation of gun violence, including a provision to require ammunition buyers to undergo background checks.

California in danger of giving away its energy future (San Diego Union-Tribune)

A significant transfer of authority over the future of California’s energy and environmental policy was slipped into SB 350.

New California Law Allows For Fish Markets (KPBS)

California Assembly Speaker was in San Diego Friday celebrating a recently signed law that allows communities to have fish markets.

San Diego Environmental Groups Rake in Millions from Imperial Valley Solar Developers (Voice of San Diego)

About three years ago, two environmental nonprofits say they went to war on behalf of Imperial Valley farmers and the environment as developers pushed a crush of massive solar projects. San Diego County-based Backcountry Against Dumps and the Protect Our Communities Foundation filed a half-dozen lawsuits alleging the approval of a slew of solar projects violated Imperial County’s general plan and CEQA, the state’s primary environmental law.

State ready to award San Onofre advocacy funds (San Diego Union-Tribune)

San Francisco group TURN is in line for $290,000 after negotiating settlement.