By Miriam Raftery

October 24, 2021 (San Diego’s East County) – This week’s Destination East County features many of East County’s most popular fall festivities including some haunting Halloween happenings, a murder mystery play, plus art and winetasting events to celebrate harvest season in our region’s wine country.

Scroll down for all of these events and many more!

Source: Caltrans

Photo: Creative Commons-SA via Bing

October 23, 2021 (Dulzura) --  Pavement rehabilitation work on a nine-mile segment of State Route 94,  from just west of Arnold Road to State Route 188 in East County, will move to weekdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. beginning Monday, according to Caltrans.

The work will require lane closures on 1.5-mile sections of roadway within the project area through November. Highway personnel will direct traffic onto the open lane, one direction at a time, as crews work on the closed lane.

Traffic delays are expected depending on the traffic queues and motorists are advised to allow additional travel time to reach their destinations.

Signs will be posted ahead of the closures to alert drivers.

By Miriam Raftery

October 23, 2021 (San Diego’s East County) – The drought has dried up watering holes and vegetation that the Anza Borrego Desert’s iconic bighorn sheep rely upon.  Scott Gibson with the Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep told ECM, “Endangered bighorn sheep mortality due to dehydration has been documented recently."

Fortunately, the U.S. Marines came to the rescue – with help from several nonprofit organizations and state agencies. In September, a Marine Corps helicopter crew made the first-ever helicopter water delivery to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

Click here view a video by David Owen Hawxhurst, www.hawxhurtst.com and scroll down for details.

Our radio shows from April through August 2021 are now online.  For links to listen plus an index with full list of topics and interviews in each show, click here,  or click the "read more" link and scroll down for audio links below the index. (Audio files may take a few moments to load.)  

Highlights included a special report with interviews from Sharp Grossmont Healthcare physicians on COVID-19, interviews with several local authors and with El Cajon Councilman Gary Kendrick, and coverage of top issues from local politics to wildfires as well as features such as the top festivals and events across our region.

The East County Magazine Show airs Mondays and Fridays from 5 to 6 p.m. on KNSJ, 89.1 FM.  Our shows rerun on Tuesdays at 9 a.m. and Saturdays at 8 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. (Note: Due to COVID-19 quarantines, some show dates aired reruns. Original shows are listed below.) Shows also include station IDs and public service announcements.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Creative commons image via Bing

October 22, 2021 (Lemon Grove) – Lemon Grove’s City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to join Tree City USA, a national program that has provided 3.6 million trees to  communities since its inception in 1976. Lemon Grove joins East County’s other cities (La Mesa, El Cajon and Santee) and  3,600 other communities in all 50 states.

Planting a thriving urban forest creates theses benefits for communities, according to Tree City USA, a project of the Arbor Day Foundation:  

By Miriam Raftery

Photo, left by Jake Rose: Chase Bank in flames

October 21, 2021 (La Mesa) – Ricky Bernard Cooper, 34, has pleaded guilty to setting an arson fire that burned down Chase Bank in downtown La Mesa during a riot on May 30, 2020.  Cooper also pleaded guilty to a burglary count for looting at the La Mesa Springs Shopping Center. His sentencing is slated for next month.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: immigration court, Creative Commons image by NC-ND

October 21, 2021 (San Diego) – The U.S. Justice Department, under the Biden administration, has ended case quotas for immigration judges imposed during the Trump administration, CNN reports. 

The Trump-era performance metrics had required judges to complete 700 cases a year to receive a satisfactory rating, among other benchmarks. But that policy led to complaints from judges who argued that the quotas valued haste over due process.  

By Chris Jennewein, Times of San Diego, a member of the San Diego Online News Association

Photo:  Hospital staffers and union organizers waved signs and banners in protest over staffing shortages at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Roseville. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMatters

October 21, 2021 (San Diego) - The union representing pharmacy and laboratory workers at Kaiser Permanente locations throughout Southern California said Wednesday members voted overwhelmingly to reject the company’s offer and authorize a strike if a new deal can’t be reached.

UPDATE:  Due to rain, the Ornamental Horticulture ribbon-cutting has been rescheduled for  Friday, Dec. 3 from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Source: Cuyamaca College

Photo:  The Cuyamaca College Ornamental Horticulture Complex & Building M Renovation includes a new nursery sales office for the campus’ retail nursery that will be open to the public.

October 21, 2021 (Rancho San Diego) -- A ribbon-cutting ceremony to be held Monday, Oct. 25 for Cuyamaca College’s expanded Ornamental Horticulture complex marks a new chapter for one of the campus’ flagship programs.

Source: San Diego Humane Society

October 21, 2021 (San Diego) – The San Diego Humane Society is hosting an adoption campaign sponsored by San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria Oct. 22-24. During the event titled #Gloria100, adoption fees for the first 100 adult pets will be waived. After 100 adoptions are reached, all adult animals will be $25.

“We are so grateful to Mayor Gloria for sponsoring this adoption campaign,” said Dr. Gary Weitzman, president and CEO, San Diego Humane Society. “There is no place like home for a pet and we are lucky to have a mayor in the City of San Diego who recognizes the importance of highlighting adoptions. Each time we find a pet a new home, we create space for another animal who needs our help.”

476 of 605 officer deaths in 2020 and 2021 in the U.S. were due to COVID-19

By Miriam Raftery

October 17, 2021 (San Diego) – Law enforcement officers risk their lives daily to protect the public. Yet many have voiced fear over COVID-19 vaccines as their unions push back against mandates.

The irony is that according to the “Officer Down Memorial Page,” the greatest risk by far to the lives of police and other law enforcement officers isn’t an armed criminal. In 2020 and 2021, COVID-19 killed by far more law enforcement officers nationally and statewide than anything else. In California last year, COVID took the lives of more officers than all other causes of death combined.

This is the fifth time SDSU has teamed up with the American Red Cross for a blood drive

Source:  goaztecs.com

Photo courtesy goaztecs.com

October 20, 2021 (San Diego) - For the fifth consecutive year, San Diego State University and the American Red Cross are teaming up to help hospital patients through the Aztecs for Life blood drive. The San Diego community is invited to join Aztecs and CBS 8 at the largest annual collegiate blood drive in the state of California, Tuesday, Nov. 16, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Viejas Arena. The blood donations collected will help treat cancer patients, trauma victims, surgery patients and others requiring lifesaving blood transfusions.

By Staley Pitts

October 20, 2021 (La Mesa) -- Biden has a choice to make: Does he want to establish his legacy as a president who fought for voting rights, or not?

By Miriam Raftery

October 20, 2021 (San Diego) – East County Magazine interviewed Dr. Mark Sawyer, infectious disease specialist at Rady Children’s Hospital and an advisor to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on COVID-19 vaccines for children and booster shots.  He also serves on an advisory commission for the Governor and advised County Supervisors on COVID-19 issues. 

We asked him to address concerns raised by parents and others over vaccine mandates, to assess the safety of COVID vaccines compared to risks of COVID-19 for children and teens, and discuss the likely timetable for approvals of vaccines for young children and boosters for adults.

Dr. Sawyer revealed that hundreds of children have been treated at Rady Children’s Hospital for COVID-19, including 75 treated in the intensive care unit and another 75 diagnosed with multi-system inflammatory disease, a rare but serious complication of COVID-19 in children.  “To say that COVID is not serious in children is underestimating the virus,” he said.