Update April 4, 2025:  The text of the bill is now available here.

By Miriam Raftery

March 12, 2025 (El Cajon) – Four members of El Cajon’s City Council yesterday voted to send letters of support for H.R. 1680 to its author, Colorado Republican Gabe Evans, and ask local Congressman Darrell Issa to co-sponsor the bill--even though the text of the bill has not yet been released.

The only description on the Congressional website states that the measure will “amend the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to expand the prohibition on State noncompliance with enforcement of the immigration laws, and for other purposes.”  But according to Congress.gov, no text of the bill has yet been submitted to the Legislative Analyst. So we don’t know how the bill would affect immigrant enforcement locally, nor what “other purposes” might be included.

Two members of the public spoke, both opposed to the action. 

Rebecca Branstetter called the bill “a pig in a poke” since there’s no text on the Congressional website yet. “If we can’t read and understand the text of the bill, we can’t know what Council is asking for in its letter to Darrell Issa.” She asked that the measure be tabled until text is available for residents and Councilmembers to review.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Doris Bittar, a Lebanese-Palestinian woman with a Jewish husband, wants a resolution that protects everyone equally without infringing on free speech rights.

March 12, 2025 (El Cajon) – El Cajon’s City Council once again waded into contentious waters at yesterday’s meeting, weighing a resolution to condemn antisemitism, with the Council majority refusing to remove a definition of antisemitism that has drawn controversy.

East County News Service

March 10, 2025 (San Diego) – The Greater San Diego Association of Realtors (SDAR), San Diego County’s largest trade association for San Diego-area real estate professionals, recently honored California Senator Pro Tem Emeritus Toni Atkins with the “Golden State Private Property Champion Award” for her dedication and significant contributions to protect California’s private property rights for homeowners and renters.

Local Assemblyman working to minimize surveillance pricing, while new FTC chairman blocks public comments

By G. A. McNeeley 

March 5, 2025 (San Diego) -- Most people might not know that companies with an online presence are using personal information about customer’s buying habits to charge them a higher price for products, if they think you’re likely to pay it. This is a practice known as “surveillance pricing.” 

This practice has spread in recent years, according to consumer and privacy watchdogs, and it’s become increasingly difficult to escape, no matter how often we clear our cookies or tighten our privacy settings. 

But with the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman blocking consumer comments and not taking action at a national level, state legislators are stepping up to the plate. 

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

Photo:  Zelensky in 2022

March 2, 2025 (Washington, D.C.) - Rep. Mike Levin said President Trump effectively sided with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin in the acrimonious meeting Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

By Mike Allen

Photo:  Santee Fire Department responding in 2023

March 1, 2025 (Santee) -- The chaos and disruption happening daily at the federal government isn’t permeating to the local level in Santee, where the City Council took several significant actions this week, including funding the remaining balance on a $2 million temporary fire station, adopting a new specific plan for its Town Center area, and hearing that its finances are in sterling shape.

By Miriam Raftery

February 27, 2025 (El Cajon) -- At 4:30 today, the Grossmont Union-High School District is holding a special meeting to considering firing 49 employees including all high school librarians.  Others targeted include English teachers, psychologists and more.

Opponents of cutting librarians have set up a website at  https://sites.google.com/view/save-guhsd-librarians/home. It includes a petition which has gathered over 1,100 signatures as of late this afternoon.

“The Grossmont Union High School District Board majority is pulling the same shady tricks as last year. They are planning layoffs claiming no money when they are holding a 13% reserve fund. This is well over state requirements,” says Jay Steiger, former GUHSD candidate who previously served on the district’s bond oversight committee.

 View the full list of 49 positions on the chopping block.  The 4:30 p.m. meeting of the GUHSD board will be held today at El Cajon Valley High School’s multipurpose room, 1035 East Madison Avenue in El Cajon.

East County News Service

February 27, 2025 (Washington D.C.) -- U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) joined 14 other Democratic Senators in urging senior Trump Administration officials to reverse the hiring and onboarding freeze of federal seasonal firefighters that they say threatens the safety of communities in California and across the nation. The Trump Administration’s January 20 hiring freeze of federal civilian employees inexplicably did not exempt federal seasonal firefighters, despite exempting other critical public safety personnel. 

By Miriam Raftery

Photo via Alt National Park Service:  upside down flag hung by employees at Yosemite National Park signals dire distress

February 25, 2025 (Washington D.C.) – In what’s been dubbed a Valentine’s Day massacre, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has fired 1,000 National Park Service employees from the nation’s 63 national parks, plus another 2,000 U.S. Forest Service workers. Additional cuts target Bureau of Land Management’s 245 million acres and other federal lands.  The action is creating havoc, including in California, which has more national parks than any other state.

The Center for American Progress has set up a link for concerned citizens to contact their members of Congress and urge opposition to the SAVE Act.

By Alexander J Schorr

Photo:  Suffragists outside White House in 1917 urged that women be granted right to vote, which was approved with passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in 1920

February 22, 2025 (Washington D.C.) – The19th Amendment guarantees women in the U.S. the right to vote.  But H.R. 22, the ironically named “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE), Act is actually poised to take away that right for millions of married women, as well as anyone else whose current name does not match the name on their birth certificate. Potentially, hundreds of millions of voters could become disenfranchised if the Save Act becomes law.

Currently, House majority Republicans are fast-tracking the Save Act, which was originally introduced in 2024 and has been brought back in the 119^th Congress by Representative Chip Roy, on a pretext of making sure undocumented immigrants don't vote.  But if enacted, it  would force every single American citizen to prove their citizenship status in person when registering to vote.This “show-your-papers” bill would require proof of citizenship once more even for those who have already registered, or wish to update their voting information, such as when moving or changing parties.

For the majority of Americans, this means having to present a passport or birth certificate at their local election office. But if you don’t have a passport, or the name on your passport or other ID does not match the name on your birth certificate, you would not be allowed to vote.The Save Act would disenfranchise 146 million Americans who do not have a passport and nearly 70 million women who are married do not have a birth certificate that matches their new legal name, according to PolitiFact.

New agency head lays off staffers overseeing epidemics, cancels flu vaccine campaign and takes aim at chemicals in food. 

By G. A. McNeeley 

Photo by Ron Logan

February 22, 2025 (Washington D.C.) - The Senate last week confirmed anti-vaccine activist Robert F.. Kennedy Jr. to head the U.S. Health and Human Services Department on a party-line vote, with Mitch McConnell the only Republican voting against the controversial appointee opposed by every Democratic Senator. 

Now at the helm of the nation’s largest public health agency, Kennedy is implementing major changes to remedy what he views as sources of chronic diseases.But healthcare professionals are raising concerns over some of Kennedy’s early actions, including ending a flu vaccine campaign and laying off employees in charge of investigating potential public health threats to ward off future epidemics. 

By Miriam Raftery

February 20, 2025 (Greenbell, Md.) -- A legal complaint filed by 26 unnamed former and current employees in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland alleges that Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has violated the Constitution’s Appointments Clause.  That clause mandates that presidential appointments require the advice and consent of the Senate, which President Donald Trump did not seek when he appointed Musk and delegate vast powers.