March 31, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) - Farm workers in the Valley of San Quintin in Baja California, Mexico staged a strike last week, including many Native Americans protesting low pay and deplorable working conditions.
April 2, 2015 (San Diego’s East County)--Singer-songwriter Dannie Marie from San Diego’s East County is embarking on a Spring Break radio tour April 2-13 to promote the release of the first single and title track from her forthcoming CD, and bring her brand of “bro country with a dose of estrogen” to the airwaves. Recorded in Nashville with a full band, “Anything I Wanna Be” will be distributed by PlayMPE to 1,200 radio stations. To coincide with the April release to iTunes and May release to radio, Dannie Marie will visit a dozen stations spanning nearly 1,000 miles from Bullhead City, AZ to Crescent City, CA for interviews and acoustic performances.
April 1, 2015 (La Mesa)—All the Perks Espresso Café has announced a 15-day fundraiser to benefit young, disadvantaged families of U.S. soldiers. From April 1 through April 15, the coffee shop at 8046 La Mesa Blvd. (in the La Mesa Springs Shopping Center) will donate 10% of sales to Support the Enlisted Project (STEP). The shop will also be a collection point where customers can drop off donated diapers, wipes, clothing, toys, household items, infant car seats, strollers, cribs, high chairs, items for new families, retail and grocery gift cards.
April 1, 2015 (City Heights) - Two mattresses were ignited in City Heights early Tuesday morning just before 1 a.m. A half hour later, a commercial garbage bin erupted into flames.
April 1, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) – Unfortunately, this isn’t an April Fool’s joke. The Sierra snowpack is “the worst in a century,” according to Jeff Anderson, snow surveyor for the U.S. Conservation Source.
Covering San Diego’s craft beer industry in East County
By Ed Barrena
April 1, 2015 (San Diego’s east County) - The Brewers Association is a non-profit trade group, based in Boulder, Colorado, which represents small and independent craft brewers. On March 31st they released their annual list of the Top 50 craft brewing companies for 2014. Four San Diego brewers made the list, including one in the top ten. The list was compiled from data on beer sales volume.
March 31, 2015 (Spring Valley) - Neverland the place where we don't have to grow up. Many adults wish they could go back to this imaginary time of their life. For a couple of hours you can visit this fanciful place with Indians, pirates, fairies and lost boys looking for the mother they never knew.
April 1, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) - A emergency medical technician with Rural/Metro of San Diego is charged with sexual assault of a minor in East County, 10 News reports.
Photo: Syrian monastery in Tikrit, public domain image from Wikipedia
April 1, 2015 (San Diego’s East County)—Iraqi forces backed by U.S. air strikes have been pummeling the city of Tikrit in Iraq, seeking to wrest control away from Islamic State terrorists, or ISIS. Now the Iraqi Defense Minister Khalid al-Obeidi has declared a “magnificent victory” in the offensive.
March 31, 2015 (La Mesa) -- Have you ever seen a Maypole dance? Now’s your chance. Bring your family to the NUA Sparrow Charter School Spring Festival on Sunday May 3, 10-11:30 a.m. for the maypole event followed by the festival 11:30 to 3 p.m.
There will be live music by Hullabaloo, Kathryn the Grape, Teagan Taylor and Olmeca Roots.
March 30, 2015 (Lakeside)—The Lakeside Community Planning Group announces a vacancy to fill; Laura Cyphert cited travel commitments in her resignation letter.
April 1, 2015—East County Magazine has the exclusive scoop on astounding major stories breaking today:
Jamul Indians scrap casino plans, will build Chargers stadium instead
Park Station revamps plans for high rise in La Mesa
La Mesa unveils new downtown landscaping plan
County sells naming rights to fire trucks
Is truth stranger than fiction? You decide.Be sure to click this link to view these stories in our extra-special April 1st edition. (Trust us, you won't want to miss this news!) Then click "read more" to open each story and get the full scoop.
April 1, 2015 (Jamul) – The Jamul Indian tribe today made a surprise announcement, revealing that it has abandoned plans to build a Hollywood-themed Casino and instead reached an agreement with the National Football League (NFL) and Chargers to build a new sports stadium on its six-acre Jamul Indian Village site.
The team will play its nine home games at the state-of-the-art stadium equipped with deluxe sky boxes and adjacent high-rollers lounge, plus seating for 79,000 fans.
Since the stadium will be on tribal land, there won’t be a problem betting on games. In fact slot machines and gaming tables will be installed throughout the stadium including in the parking lot, where each parking space will be equipped with its own slot machine for ‘tailgate party gambling.’ Inside, each stadium seat will be equipped with “place your bet” buttons.
April 1, 2015 (La Mesa) –After planners twice rejected proposals for an 18-story and 10-story high rise mixed use development at Spring Street and Baltimore Drive in La Mesa, the developers of Park Station have submitted alternative plans aimed at doing more with less. The new plan will include a vertical cannabis farm, cubicle style hotel, community garden, lounge and rotating restaurant powered by renewable energy.
April 1, 2015 (La Mesa)—After months of torn-up streets for revitalization of La Mesa’s downtown village, the city has unveiled its new landscaping plan.
“Today we are pleased to announce an Edible Forest for La Mesa,” said Mayor Mark Arapostathis, plucking a ripe apple off a newly planted tree beside city hall. “All residents are welcome to help plant, harvest, and savor the fruits of these labors.”
One side of La Mesa Boulevard will be planted in grapevines and the other side will feature hops vines, thus sustaining the city’s burgeoning winemaking and craft brewery businesses. There will also be a community vineyard and hops haven outside the La Mesa community center.
April 1, 2015 (San Diego)—Seeking to prevent fire stations from closing again this season due to budget cuts, the County of San Diego announced today that it has sold corporate naming rights to fire trucks.
Hooters Restaurant was the first to sign up for this opportunity, also agreeing to provide Hooters waitresses to serve firefighters at their base camp during wildfires.
Officers to offer full service---pumping gas and washing windows
Photo credit: Nita Jatar Kulkarni
March 31, 2015 (El Cajon)--The El Cajon Police Department, along with other law enforcement agencies, is helping to launch a two month “Icon” promotion across Southern Californian on behalf of the Special Olympics.
March 31, 2015(San Diego) – SDG&E has received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to use unmanned drones to conduct aerial inspections of its gas and electrical facilities in rural East County.
March 31, 2015 (Rancho San Diego)--In conjunction with the Spring Garden Festival at Cuyamaca College, the Heritage of the Americas Museum holds a very special drawing each year, the "Five-Choices Dream Drawing." The drawing will take place at the museum on Saturday, April 25, at 2:00 p.m. The prizes represent the four wings of the Museum: Natural History, Archaeology, Anthropology, and Art, ranging from pre-Columbian artifacts to a carved amethyst and quartz swan.
April 9, 2015 (Julian) - Julian, San Diego’s historic gold community, hosts A Taste of Julian on April 11th from 1 to 5 p.m. This rural dining adventure features a self-guided culinary tour of restaurants, wineries and breweries.
They Got This Great Idea of Putting Panels in the Desert and it Just Doesn't Work. Too Idealistic, Too Fast, Say's ECOreport founder Roy Hales.
By Robert Lundahl
Photo Credit: Sunrise Powerlink, "Who are My People?" Robert Lundahl
Roy L Hales is the founder of the environmental journalism web platform, The ECOreport.com. He has interviewed hundreds of environmental leaders in Government, Business, and Non-Profit spheres.He likes to get a picture also of what journalists are saying, and so he researches the field itself. Here, Roy shares his thoughts about industrial renewable energy facilities and their impacts in the Mojave Desert and beyond.
East County Magazine invites you to join us for a night of wine tasting, wonderful food, spirited merrymaking, plus a sneak preview of our special La Mesa community news section!
Join the festivities on Tuesday, March 31st from 5:30 to 7:30 at the San Pasqual Winery & Gallery Tasting Room, 8364 La Mesa Blvd. in La Mesa. Limited space - reserve now to enjoy:
Delicious foods from Tiramisu Trattoria, Bo Beau's and Grove Pastry Shop
State’s own defense lawyers could do the job for $30 to $65 an hour
By Miriam Raftery
March 30, 2015 (San Diego)—As we reported last week, the California Public Utilities Commission’s Chairman, Michael Picker, unilaterally authorized the PUC to pay a criminal defense firm to mount a defense for the PUC’s former chairman, Michael Peevey and others who are the targets of both state and federal investigations. Picker initially authored $49,000 and then bumped it up to $5.2 million – a 100-fold increase.
March 30, 2015 (Washington D.C.) - Two federal officials assigned to probe a black market in digital currency are accused of becoming black marketers themselves—allegedly stealing bitcoins from Silk Road, the company they were investigating.
March 30, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) - Time Magazine reports that a new study has found antibiotic-resistant bacteria from cattle yards in Texas have become airborne—meaning they could spread to people.
March 29, 2015 (Sacramento)—The Courage Campaign has mounted a campaign asking the state to stop Nestlé from bottling scarce California water during the drought and selling it out of state for profit. The activist group has an online petition asking the state to intervene. Nestle’s operations are impacting public, private and tribal water supplies.
March 30, 2015 (Jamul)—Jamul’s Fire Station now has paramedics on every fire engine. Starting in mid-March, Jamul has had three paramedics to provide advanced life support services that emergency medical technicians can’t provide—such as administering IV medications and defibrillation of heart attack patients.
March 30, 2015 - (San Diego) - Dan Jacobson, Program Director for Environment California states,“San Diego is one of the country’s brightest stars when it comes to solar power.”
The results of a study done by the Environment California Research & Policy Center found San Diego ranks second in the nation overall in solar photovoltaic installations and fourth in the amount of megawatts of solar power generated per capita.
March 29, 2015 (San Diego)--San Diego County only requires that ambulances response within 30 minutes in rural areas, unlike urban areas where the limit is 10 minutes. The American Heart Association reports that brain death and permanent death start to occur in 4–6 minutes after someone experiences cardiac arrest. The County's response time requirements are far too long for a heart attack patient to survive without brain damage. In addition, these times mean it sometimes takes more than the "golden hour" to reach a hospital following a trauma, stroke or other medical emergency, the time frame that medical experts recommend for saving lives.
Take our Poll: Should San Diego County require faster ambulance response than the 30 minutes currently required in rural areas?
March 31, 2015 (La Mesa) -- Have you ever seen a Maypole dance? Now’s your chance. Bring your family to the NUA Sparrow Charter School Spring Festival on Sunday May 3, 10-11:30 a.m. for the maypole event followed by the festival 11:30 to 3 p.m.
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