January 3, 2011 (San Diego) – Demon Seed, available from the Warner Archive Collection and adapted from a novel by Dean Koontz, may borrow from Rosemary’s Baby and 2001: A Space Odyssey, but I still felt like I hadn’t seen anything like it before.
January 3, 2011 (San Diego’s East County) -- San Diego Police Department Robbery Unit detectives have recovered the watches believed to have been stolen in a series of violent “smash and grab” robberies that occurred throughout the state.
January 3, 2012, (San Diego) -- The San Diego Better Business Bureau (BBB), San Diego’s largest county-wide business membership organization, has issued a list of red flags to help consumers make 2012 a scam-free year.
“There is no stronger remedy for fraud that an educated consumer who refuses to be conned,” said Sheryl Bilbrey, San Diego BBB president/CEO. “Rough economic times mean that consumer scams and rip-offs are at an all-time high as unscrupulous individuals and companies will roll-out every trick in the book.
January 2, 2012 (San Diego)-The tallest dam raise in the United States is under construction in Lakeside at the San Vicente Reservoir. Now the San Diego County Water Authority has set up a web cam where you can view the progress live. High-resolution photos are updated every 30 minutes, providing a current snapshot. The time-lapse sequences combine photos, illustrating the construction process with two vantage points of construction.
January 3, 2012 (San Diego)--Watching TV yesterday, I learned that both the Mayan and Chinese Calendar predict the world will end sometime this year. I hope to not check out until I have exhausted my “To Do” list.
January 3, 2011 (Pine Valley) – Cal-Fire will be conducting a prescribed burn today through January 7 in the Rancho Corte Madera area southwest of Pine Valley.
Approximately 200 acres of brush will be burned as part of a vegetation management plan aimed at protecting surrounding communities.
The burns will be conducted from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Smoke will be visible in many areas of the county.
January 3, 2011 (Rancho San Diego) --- Thomas Francis Kelley, an inmate who escaped from Donovan State Prison Sunday night, has been apprehended a short time ago at a trolley station in Lemon Grove, 10 News reports.
A manhunt ensued after a possible spotting of Kelley earlier this morning at Wind River Road and Elva Street in Rancho San Diego.
January 3, 2012 (San Diego) – I pop in the Bridesmaids DVD. I’m ready to laugh. I wait. Fifteen minutes pass. Then thirty. No laughter. Then a whole hour passes by, but not a single chuckle was uttered. Towards the end of the movie it was so quiet in the house that I distinctly thought I heard the sound of crickets chirping outside.
January 2, 2012 (Alpine)--The Alpine Fire Protection District has approved pension changes with the Alpine Fire Fighters Association. After months of negotiations, at a Board meeting on December 20, 2011 both sides agreed to a contract extension that makes changes to the pensions of current and future Firefighters employed with the District. All employees of the Alpine Fire District are members of the CalPERS retirement system.
A former mortgage industry insider from La Mesa shares why he joined the Occupy movement
Story and photos by Ron Logan
"When you get presidential candidates saying that the first thing we should do is take a bath, and then go get a job, they really don't understand the movement." – Mike Garcia
January 2, 2012 (San Diego) – Even though the Occupy Movement has lasted for more than three months now, most people do not comprehend the importance of the movement or understand what the protests are even about.
On December 19, I sat down with Mike Garcia at Downtown Johnny Brown's at the Civic Center Plaza. Garcia is a La Mesa resident and Committee Member of Occupy San Diego (OSD). I asked him some straight-forward questions. His answers were eye-opening and offered insight into what OSD is all about, its struggles and its evolutions-- and how he first became involved in early October.
January 2, 2011 (San Diego’s East County)--Pageant organizers are currently seeking outgoing women ages 13-26 to participate in the 2012 Miss La Mesa and Miss Santee Pageants, programs that have been a tradition in La Mesa and Santee since the late 1960’s.
January 2, 2012 (El Cajon)—An elderly couple and their dog have lost their trailer home in a fire which was reported last night at 9:20 p.m. Heartland Fire & Rescue in El Cajon responded to the blaze at the Paradise Trailer Home Park in the 1300 block of East Main Street in El Cajon.
January 1, 2012 (Lemon Grove)—“Joe Young, for more than three decades the go-to guy at the Helix Water District for all things H2O, will star on the next "History Alive" lecture,” announced Helen M. Ofield, president of the Lemon Grove Historical Society. The lecture will be held Jan. 5 at 7 p.m. in the H. Lee House Cultural Center, 3205 Olive, Lemon Grove.
January 1, 2012 (San Diego County) -- The National Weather Service has provided the following reflections on local weather highlights for the past year--which included some wet and wild times.
January 1, 2012 (Lemon Grove)—A worker cleaning a packing machine at the EDCO disposal plant in Lemon Grove yesterday afternoon was crushed and injured severely when the machine accidentally up. According to ECM news partner 10 News, the 57-year-old man may have been in the machine for 10 to 15 minutes before anyone realized he was inside.
January 1, 2012 (La Mesa) -- The resource center offers free or low-cost educational programs and health screenings each month. The Senior Resource Center also provides information and assistance for health information and community resources. For more information, call 619-740-4214. For other programs, call 1-800-827-4277 or visit our web site at www.sharp.com.
January 1, 2012 (San Diego)--Perhaps because she is tired of tripping on books I leave in boxes throughout the house, my wife bought me a Kindle for Christmas. Curiously, the Kindle came in a brown box with NO instructions. But I managed to activate it anyway and spent one whole day figuring out the basic elements. That's how long it took just to get it running. For example, the directions say the Kindle needs four hours of charging before use. If you can activate it right away, good luck! You will run out of battery before you get up and running.
January 1, 2012 (La Mesa) -- The La Mesa Chamber of Commerce invites you to recycle your e-waste at Grossmont Center in La Mesa on Saturday and Sunday, January 14 and 15.
The event will be held next to Fuddruckers and B2B Fit from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. All electronic waste including TVs, monitors, computers, printers, etc. are all recycled free of charge (except there is a $5 fee for microwaves). People will also unload your car if you need assistance.
January 1, 2012 (Otay)—Josephina Lopez has been found safe in Mexico following an intensive search and rescue effort to find the missing woman.Lopez, who suffers from medical problems, disappeared from the Otay area while visiting family over the holidays.She had last been seen December 23, when she told family she was walking to a pharmacy.
January 1, 2012 (San Diego’s East County) – Rose Hooper and her two teenage children lost their Jamul home in a fire December 29, two years after Rose’s husband died of cancer. Now Nick Baldwin, an El Cajon business owner, has started a drive to collect donated items to help this family in need.
December 30, 2011 (San Diego's's East County) – It’s been a year of epic changes around the world and across America. Winds of change have also swept across East County in 2011--with more changes in store in the coming year.
January 31, 2011 (San Diego’s East County) – New Year’s celebrations around the world have begun, starting in Sydney, Australia. Those party-loving Aussies welcomed in 2012 with an elaborate fireworks display launched from barges on the water, off the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and rooftops of buildings.The extravaganza included 11,000 shells, 25,000 shooting comets and 100,000 individual pyrotechnic effects all synchronized to music.Click to enjoy the show—and happy New Year!
For more fireworks shows around the world, scroll down to find links.
December 31, 2011 (Washington D.C). The U.S. Department of Justice has recovered more than $5.6 billion in fraud proceeds in 2011 – the largest amount for any single year in the history of the department.
This historic achievement represents an increase of more than 167 percent since 2008, and includes nearly $3.4 billion in civil fraud, as well as $2.2 billion in criminal fraud.
County Animal Services Offers New Year’s Eve Safety Tips for Family Pets
December 31, 2011 (San Diego County) --The risk of harm to pets from loud New Year’s celebrations with fireworks can be reduced by a few simple measures, Dawn Danielson, Director of the San Diego County Department of Animal Services, said today.
December 31, 2011 (San Diego) -- New Year’s resolution: organize that paper monster, make that “To Do List”, control the clutter, sort – purge, sort - purge! Our new year always begins with positive possibilities for organization. Making those checklists for getting organized for taxes, bills, home repair, even cleaning out the closets helps us keep on course. For the New Year, we encourage you to consider a “Crime Prevention "To Do List” and a Paper Shredder.
Once-Lost Pit Bull Recovering From Amputation, Seeking Forever Home
December 31, 2011 (Dulzura) --A once-lost dog who had to have a leg amputated is on the mend and looking to change her luck in 2012 with a loving forever home. “Fergie,” a 1-year-old pit bull, went missing from her Dulzura home in September. She had been missing about two months when she arrived as a stray at the County Animal Shelter in Bonita.
Photos and video by Jon Nevin, firefighter/paramedic, Heartland Fire & Rescue (video edited by Paul Kruze, ECM)
December 29, 2011 (El Cajon) – Patrons of a restaurant helped three women passengers, including an elderly woman in a wheelchair, escape from a burning van in downtown El Cajon today.
December 30, 2011 (San Diego)--Since 1933, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has been helping refugees rebuild their lives after fleeing tumultuous wars or other catastrophes in their homelands. The IRC is currently active in 22 U.S. cities as well as overseas. In 2001, the IRC created its Microenterprise Program with the goal of helping refugees create their own businesses.
In the last 10 years, the IRC has helped 175 San Diego-based refugees become small-business owners. To showcase some of the great refugee-owned eateries of East County, the IRC hosted a Micro-finance bus tour, offering patrons a chance to sample some delicious cuisine from Iraq and East Africa.
By Brian Lafferty
By Miriam Raftery
January 1, 2012 (San Diego’s East County) – Rose Hooper and her two teenage children lost their Jamul home in a fire December 29, two years after Rose’s husband died of cancer. Now Nick Baldwin, an El Cajon business owner, has started a drive to collect donated items to help this family in need. 
By Paula Dickenson, San Diego Sheriff’s office
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