East County News Service

August 30, 2019 (San Diego) – Actor/entertainer Nick Cannon, a San Diego native and former host of America’s Got Talent as well as MTV’s Wild N Out, will hold a social justice empowerment luncheon with national civil rights activist Rev. Shane Harris at the People’s Alliance for Justice national headquarters opening in San Diego at 7997 Paradise Valley Road on September 14 at 1 p.m.

By Miriam Raftery

August 30, 2019 (San Diego’s East County) – Darrell Issa, who retired in January from the 49^th Congressional district, has set up an exploratory committee and put up a campaign website to run for embattled Congressman Duncan Hunter’s neighboring 50^th Congressional district seat.

“I have received such a tremendous outpouring of encouragement from supporters inside the district, and around the state and across the Nation,” Issa states on the website.

Issa  once delivered a response to President Obama’s State of the Union speech in 2011.  Among other things, Issa stated, “You know, it doesn't take a genius in the private sector to know that you can save literally hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending if you can make it more responsive. That's the main job.”

The Republican Congressman was best known on Capitol Hill for leading numerous investigations into the Obama administration, former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and Attorney General Eric Holder as chair the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. But his record has drawn controversy and even allegations of corruption.

By Ken Stone

Reprinted with permission from Times of San Diego, a member of the San Diego Online News Association

Photo:  Chabad of Poway Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein speaks at gravesite of slain Lori Gilbert Kaye. In a White House visit, he praised President Trump as a “mensch par excellence.” Photo by Chris Stone

August 26, 2019 (San Diego) - A week before the November 2018 election, 17 San Diego-area rabbis signed a letter denouncing Rep. Duncan Hunter‘s “fear mongering” attacks on the Palestinian ancestry of Christian opponent Ammar Campa-Najjar.

By Suzanne Potter, California News Service

Photo : Creative Commons via S.A.

August 23, 2019 (Sacramento) -- A new court ruling says states cannot penalize a delegate to the Electoral College for voting against the popular vote from that state. 

By Mike Allen

August 18, 2019 (Santee) — Santee’s City Council voted this week to give itself a 2.5 percent raise this year, and a similar one next fiscal year starting July 1, 2020.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo:  Bald eagles have been saved from the brink of extinction by the Endangered Species Act; polar bears are among species now considered vulnerable. 

August 17, 2019  (Washington D.C.) – Just two weeks ago, the United Nations and International Union for Conservation of Nature published two reports warning that climate change is pushing a million species closer to extinction.  Yet last week, the Trump administration announced plans to take effect in September that dramatically weaken protections for endangered and threatened species.  

By Rebecca Jefferis Williamson and Miriam Raftery

August 16, 2019 (La Mesa) -- La Mesa City Council members voted unanimously 5-0 on August 13^th for a landmark agreement to form a joint powers agreement (JPA) with the cities of San Diego and Chula Vista to create a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) and give La Mesa residents an alternative to SDG&E for purchasing power.

La Mesa Vice Mayor William “Bill” Baber was on the subcommittee leading the efforts on this matter. “With this vote, La Mesa took another step forward on the path to 100% clean energy!” Baber told ECM via e-mail.

East County News Service

August 15, 2019 (Lakeside) – “It’s important that your voice is heard,” reads a flyer from State Senator Brian Jones, who will host an East County Town Hall on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2019 at the Lakeside Community Center (9841 Vine St., Lakeside).  There will be a local Nonprofit Expo first from 5-6 p.m., followed by a Town Hall from 6-7:30 p.m.

Update: The board adopted both sets of civility standards 3-0, with members Jill Barto and Jo Alegria absent.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Creative Commons by NC-ND

August 13, 2019 (El Cajon) – At tonight’s Cajon Valley Union School District board meeting, the agenda includes proposed governance standards of civility for board members that would allow the district to ask a Grand Jury to remove a board member from office under Government Code section 3060 for engaging in repeated abusive conduct toward other board members, administrators, employees, students or members of the public.

Section 3060 allows a grand jury to take action to remove an elected official for “willful or corrupt misconduct in office” though the statute is vague on what constitutes such actions.

The agenda also includes proposed civility standards for employees and administrators; repeated acts of abusive conduct may result in discipline or ultimately, termination of employment.

Both items were placed on the agenda by Board Chair Tamara Otero, who has publicly clashed with board member Jill Barto on multiple occasions after Barto raised questions on board expenditures including the awarding of a construction contract to a company owned by Otero’s son.

The proposals seek to waive the customary second reading, in order to push through approval on a single vote, while board member Barto is absent due to a family emergency.

AGs provide policy guidelines to streaming industry to combat increasing use of tobacco products by young people

Source:  Attorney General Becerra

August 8, 2019 (Sacramento) - California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson today led a bipartisan coalition of 43 attorneys general in urging the streaming industry to limit tobacco use in their video content. Due to the growing use of tobacco products amongst teens, the attorneys general urge the streaming industry to take proactive steps to protect the lives of young viewers. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of middle and high school students using e-cigarettes rose from 2.1 million in 2017 to 3.6 million in 2018.

By Miriam Raftery

Listen to the full interview, originally aired on KNSJ radio: click the audio link.

Learn more about Ammar Campa-Najjar's town hall at the Alpine Community Center on August 18 from 1-4 p.m. by clicking here.

August 9, 2019 (San Diego’s East County) – “We need an economy and a government that works for working people,” says Ammar Campa-Najjar, who is running for the 50^th Congressional district seat currently held by indicted Congressman Duncan Hunter. So we sat down with Campa-Najjar on our radio show to discuss those plans in detail.

Headlines tout a strong GDP as well as low unemployment. But  those numbers don’t tell the full story,  Campa-Najjar points out. “That’s great if you own stock.  But it’s not great if unemployment is low because one person is working three jobs, barely making a living and living paycheck to paycheck, having to choose whether to buy a gallon of gas or a gallon of milk.”  He says that in talking with people across the district, he’s hearing from people who are having to cut prescription pills in half or who can’t pay for insulin, choosing which bills to skip paying to cover basic survival needs. “These are real issues in the district, especially in rural areas."

Unlike most candidates who have run for this seat through the years, Campa-Najjar says he is uniquely positioned to bring good jobs to East County and elsewhere in the district because “I worked at the Department of Labor to create good-paying jobs, not just in San Diego County, but throughout the country.”

At the Department of Labor, he worked on creating apprenticeship jobs to train workers in high-paying fields, as well as setting up summer youth jobs and opportunities for veterans.  He later worked for the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce as communications and marketing director, which included promoting opportunities for small businesses to secure contracts with the federal government and corporations. He’s also worked as an educator teaching at UCSD, USD and SDSU.

He’s also a small business owner and Jamul resident who was born in La Mesa and raised by a working class Catholic mother. His first job was as a janitor at his church, where he became a youth leader before graduating from San Diego State and later working in the White House and at the U.S. Department of Labor.

So what kinds of jobs would he bring to the district, including rural areas, small towns and Native American reservations?

By Miriam Raftery

July 9, 2019 (El Cajon) – The East County Leadership Council will host its second annual regional issues forum on July 27 from 1-3 p.m. at the El Cajon Library (201 E. Douglas Ave. in El Cajon).