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East County Roundup Includes the Most Important Stories About East County, or relevant to our readers, published by other media. Top stories from the past month include:
- MAKE THE VICTIM PAY (SDG&E wants ratepayers to pick up tab for soaring insurance costs from its negligence in wildfire prevention)
- THREE CITIES PROPOSE ONE FIRE DEPARTMENT (La Mesa, El Cajon, Lemon Grove)
- SOLAR PLAN IGNITES SOME ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
- STIMULUS FUNDS USED TO PAVE BUSY ROADS IN SANTEE
- PTSD: NEW WAR ON AN OLD FOE
- OFF-ROAD MOTORCYCLIST FINDS BODY IN EAST COUNTY RAVINE
- COUNTY CHANGE COMMUNITY GRANT PROGRAM RULES
- RTD PROGRAM WILL COMBAT OAK BORER IN THE BACK COUNTRY
- I-TEAM INVESTIGATES HATE GROUP GROWTH IN SAN DIEGO
- JOBS AND HOURS AT STAKE AS AUSD BOARED TAKES ON BUDGET WOES
Get full details...
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MAKE THE VICTIM PAY
(SDG&E wants ratepayers to pick up the tab for soaring insurance costs from its negligence in wildfire prevention)
By Don Bauder
San Diego Reader (October 7, 2009))-- Comic Woody Allen once postulated that murderers should be given the death penalty before they commit the crime, thus sparing the life of the victim. That’s typical of Woody’s wild imagination, but it’s no wilder than what’s happening on today’s regulatory scene: corporate wrongdoers want their victims to pick up the tab for companies’ misbehavior, and pro-business government regulators nod approvingly.
You don’t believe that? Get this: San Diego Gas and Electric is asking the Public Utilities Commission to charge ratepayers $28.9 million a year because the company wants protection from soaring insurance costs resulting from the company’s negligence in wildfire prevention.
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2009/oct/07/city-light-1/
THREE CITIES PROPOSE ONE FIRE DEPARTMENT
Saving money, improving services are goals of merger
September 26, 2009 (San Diego Union-Tribune)--Three East County cities are moving forward on plans to consolidate their fire departments, a step officials say could save more than $560,000 a year.
Lemon Grove City Council members discussed the proposal last week, and El Cajon City Council members heard the plans in a workshop session this week. La Mesa City Council members are expected to take up the topic Tuesday.
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/sep/26/three-cities-propose-...
PTSD: NEW WAR ON AN OLD FOE
Oct. 1, 2009 (Newsweek) – By Jamie Reno
Big changes underway at the VA could mean better treatment for thousands of vets. A bureaucracy in transition.
They are the invisible wounds of war, the battered minds and bruised spirits we have come to recognize as posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. By one estimate, more than 300,000 of the nearly 2 million U.S. servicemen and -women deployed since 9/11 suffer from the often-debilitating condition, with symptoms that include flashbacks and nightmares, emotional numbness, relationship problems, trouble sleeping, sudden anger, and drug and alcohol abuse. The number of cases is expected to climb as the war in Afghanistan continues, and could ultimately exceed 500,000, according to a new study by researchers at Stanford University. Mental-health experts say PTSD is the primary reason suicides in the military are at an all-time high; 256 soldiers took their own lives in 2008, the highest number since that data was first tracked, in 1980.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/216534
SOLAR PLANS IGNITE SOME ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
September 28, 2009 (National Public Radio) -- An Obama administration plan to build huge new solar energy plants in the Southwest is causing heartburn in the environmental community.
The Interior Department has proposed allowing two dozen solar energy study areas on public land in California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado. These would be industrial facilities that would require huge amounts of land and water to operate. They wouldn't allow room for other uses on the land such as recreation.
While conservation groups generally support the president's campaign for more renewable forms of energy, some local groups are concerned about putting industrial-scale solar projects on public land.
In the Southwest, the U.S. government is the largest landowner by far — in Nevada, it owns 85 percent of the state. The Southwest also is one of the best regions in the world for producing energy from the sun. So, it might seem like a no-brainer to build more solar in the unpopulated desert. But Terry Weiner of the Desert Protective Council in San Diego opposes it.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112860913
OFF ROAD MOTORCYCLIST FINDS BODY N EAST COUNTY RAVINE
September 25, 2009 (San Diego Union-Tribune)--An off-road motorcyclist came across a decomposed body in a ravine in East County on Thursday night, and investigators from the county Medical Examiner's office plan to recover it Friday.
The body was found down a steep embankment off McCain Valley Road near Boulevard shortly before 7 a.m., a sheriff's spokeswoman said.
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/sep/25/bn25body-off-road-mot...
STIMULUS FUNDS USED TO REPAVE BUSY ROAD
September 26, 2009 (San Diego Union-Tribune)SANTEE — The city of Santee is about to start the second of two repaving projects along some of the city's busiest streets. The work was prompted by a $900,000 federal economic stimulus award to the city, officials said.
Tomorrow, the city will begin cleaning up and repaving a portion of Mission Gorge Road from Fanita Drive to just west of Olive Lane. This will be the first time the roughly three-quarter-mile stretch of busy street has been repaved in about a decade, city officials said.
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/sep/26/stimulus-funds-used-r...
COUNTY CH ANGES COMMUNITY GRANT PROGRAM RULES
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors has approved changes to its annual $10 million Community Projects Program — changes designed to make it more transparent and accessible.
September 23, 2009 (Pomerado News)--For 11 years, grants — some for tens of thousands of dollars each — have been awarded for local events and projects, including the Spirit of the Fourth celebration, Thanksgiving Luncheon and youth soccer tournaments in Rancho Bernardo; library, Retired Senior Volunteer Patrol and Boys & Girls Club in 4S Ranch; and high school, Kumeyaay-Ipai Interpretive Center and historical museum enhancement projects in Poway.
The changes, approved Sept. 15, were based on recommendations made by the San Diego County Taxpayers Association and reforms proposed by a San Diego County Grand Jury report in 2005.
http://www.mylocalnews.com/nws/index.php?/main/content/county_changes_co...
RCD PROGRAM WILL COMBAT OAK BORER IN THE BACK COUNTRY
September 17, 2009 (The Alpine Sun) DESCANSO — More than a dozen East County residents gathered Wednesday night, Sept. 9, at the Descanso Town Hall to learn more about the Resource Conservation District’s (RCD) upcoming D3 (Dead, Dying, Diseased) Oak Tree Mortality and Fuels Reduction Program, intended to combat the spread of oak trees’ major predators, the Golden Spotted Oak Borer (GSOB).
http://www.thealpinesun.com/September%2017/as%20inside%202.html
JOBS AND HOURS AT STAKE AS AUSD BOARED TAKES ON BUDGET WOES
September 3, 2009 (The Alpine Sun) ALPINE — The Alpine Union School District board of trustees voted to table an agenda item, which could have resulted in job losses and cuts in work hours for district employees, to a future meeting. The decision was made after the board entered a rare second closed session near the end of the meeting held Aug. 25.
http://www.thealpinesun.com/archive%202009/September%203/as%20inside.html
I-TEAM INVESTIGATES HATE GROUP GROWTH IN SAN DIEGO
August 14, 2009 (Channel 10 News) -- Michael Lee's minivan was tagged with offensive hate speech as it was parked right outside his home.
Lee is black and lives in a predominantly white east San Diego County neighborhood.
"It wasn't random, I'm certain of that," he told the 10News I-Team.
The culprit of the hate crime was suspected to be 16-year-old white boy -- the ideal candidate young recruit for hate groups, experts said.
The I-Team learned that hate groups are using music and Web sites as a way to attract 11 to 15 year olds.
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