By Jan Hedlun, Potrero resident

Note:  Hedlun sent this on Sept. 14 to San Diego Sheriff’s Deputy Chad Boudreau, with copies to Supervisor Dianne Jacob and ECM.  She’s granted permission to run this as an open letter/reader’s editorial.

Re:  Regional Fire Safe Council Meeting/Potrero

September 16, 2016 (Potrero) -- My name is Jan Hedlun and I am a Potrero resident and an elected member of the Potrero Community Planning Group. I was speaking to Bob Buerer who attended the recent Regional Fire Safe Council meeting on Thursday, September 8^th who told me something deeply disturbing.

Regarding your article "new La Mesa Village Association has big ideas for revitalizing city's historic heart"

By Peter Carzis, Owner, Peter’s Gentlemen’s Apparel

Editor's note: Aaron Dean, chair of the new LMVA, spoke with ECM and provided his responses to concerns raised by Carzis and others.  You can read his remarks here.

October 14,2016 (La Mesa)--I attended the first meeting of this new group. They said they want this group to be a "fresh start" in the village, but yet they boast four Founding Members who are officers and directors of the "old" group that owes the taxpayers and the City of La Mesa $47,900.50.  (Per the city clerk, this amount was turned over to collection and none of the debt has been repaid as of today.)

By Mark Duchamp, Save the Eagles International

Photo courtesy Ontario Wind Resistance

September 12, 2016 (San Diego's East County) - News of bird and bat deaths at wind farms have reduced to a trickle. Does that mean that a solution has been found? Yes, it has, but it's not what you think. Wind turbines are every year more numerous and the massacre they cause is ever increasing. What has changed is that the cover up is now effective at 100%, or just about.

The following news sheds light on the latest technique for making mortality data unavailable to the public (and the media):

By Tony Manolatos​



August 11, 2016 (San Diego) — Memo to taxpayers:  If voters approve the Chargers billion-dollar-plus stadium tax in November San Diego taxpayers would pay for the new facility in a variety of ways.

Do not believe Dean Spanos, Mark Fabiani and their surrogates. The cost would NOT be born solely by hotel guests. San Diego taxpayers would pay. The total amount is unknown, which is why Dean Spanos’ plan to raise our taxes by more than $1 billion is so risky.

In this open memo to taxpayers, the “No Downtown Stadium – Jobs and Streets First” coalition outlines several examples of costs San Diego taxpayers would incur. The following are in addition to the costs found in the Chargers $1.8 billion measure:

By George Barnett

Photo:  Cabin with former lakefront view now overlooks a barren wasteland.

July 13, 2016 (Lake Morena) -- East County Magazine did a recent piece on Lake Morena and whether water levels were maintained too low to be a viable source of water for fire-fighting.  In the article, Billie Jo Jannen is quoted as saying if there’s a safety issue it needs to be examined.  Billie Jo is quite right.

By Charlene Ayers, Ranters Roost

 July 9,2016 (San Diego's East County) --Charlene Ayers, founder of the Ranters Roost discussion forum, offers pithy analysis and barbed views on the San Miguel Fire Protection District board meeting July 6th, at which the board voted 4-3 to end its partnership with Cal Fire and return to being a free-standing district.  Below are parts 1 and 2 of her posts, reprinted with permission. Part I includes other agenda items Part II focuses on the decision to break off from Cal Fire.

PART I

To be or not to be…

The meeting was to start at 5:30 p.m.  I got there at 5 p.m. because Cal Fire likes to fill the seats with their employees.  There were only 10 seats left.   There was not the usual sea of dark blue taking up the room, just lots of folks, families, in plain attire.

Update:  San Miguel Fire Protection District board member Theresa McKenna has responded to Robert Perry's editorial to detail how much notice and discussion has been held on this issue. Read her remarks here.

By Robert Perry, community resident

Photo:  Protest at station closed due to budget gaps back when San Miguel was a stand-alone station, before contracting with Cal Fire. Opinions ran hot on both sides of the partnership deal at that time.

July 2, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) --With zero public input and zero community discussion (thus far) the San Miguel Fire Protection District has an action item on the agenda for the board meeting of July 6, 2016 to "discuss and may approve returning to a stand alone District".  View agenda.

The district has contracted with CAL FIRE the past four years after facing a structural deficit of their own making.  There is one more year of the contract.

By Daniel J. Smiechowski

June 23, 2016 (San Diego) -- There are approximately 78 million Catholics in America. Fifty percent of them voted for President Obama in 2012. Donald J. Trump has a problem, if history is a window to this election.

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. --2^nd Amendment to the United States Constitution

By Dennis Moore (a survivor of gun violence)

June 15, 2016 (San Diego)--The framers of the Constitution did not have in mind that the right to bear arms would result in the countless deaths of ordinary citizens by other ordinary citizens throughout our great country by “Glocks” and other semi-automatic weapons at malls and schools. Nor could they have envisioned the shooting deaths of  nine members of a church in South Carolina at a worship service by a deranged young man, as well as the mass killings by gunfire at a theater in Colorado.

By Jim Wiegand

“…FWS (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service) announced a plan on 5/6/2016 that would allow wind energy companies to legally kill or injure up to 4200 bald eagles  annually without penalty.  If they can get away with this, the industry would also pocket untold billions while doing it.” —Jim Wiegand 

To comment on this proposed rule change visit : https://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=FWS-R9-MB-2011-0094-1052  and hit comment



June 9, 2016 (San Diego) -- Since 2008, I have been sharing my knowledge of wind industry impacts with the public. Even though I had been studying raptors and wildlife for decades before, that was the year I first became aware of the industry's bogus research and the terrible fate coming to our eagles. Since then, I have written many articles pointing out how the wind industry has been using fake research to hide the slaughter to eagles and other species. I have also made my opinions very clear about the ongoing collusion that has existed for decades between the wind industry and Interior Department.

By Richard Lawless

June 2, 2016 (San Diego) -- Senior citizens and savers throughout the fifty states and Puerto Rico have taken tens of billions in municipal bond losses.  It has become clear that the Rating Agencies have been knowingly and intentionally issuing good credit ratings for technically bankrupt municipal entities in exchange for healthy fees. 

By Daniel J. Smiechowski

May 2, 2016 (San Diego) -- The Treaty of Versailles was signed with almost no German participation on June 28, 1919.  The Great War had ended bringing embarrassment and hard financial times to a once proud nation. German leaders were looking for scapegoats and they were easy to find. Jews, homosexuals, Poles and even the disabled were targeted for extinction during the ensuing 25 years. Sound familiar?

The French have an old saying:“The more things change, the more things stay the same.” The candidacy of presidential contender Donald Trump is not one of assimilation but rather one of annihilation.  It is a furtive movement to maintain America’s white identity. His followers disavow political ideology in favor of a dream of what not America could be but rather what America was several generations ago.

By Jim Rue

April 24, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) -- There are many ignorant riders who think they’re driving and in control of their off-road vehicles. But each season, somebody rides without protective gear and gets injured or killed.

By Sue Strom, ASAP Steering Committee

April 24, 2016 (El Cajon) - A number of residents recently attended a community coffee for State Senator Joel Anderson.  It was hosted by El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells on Thursday, April 14th, 2016.