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.

East County News Service

Photo via 50501: thousands rallied against Trump in Washington D.C. outside Capitol

February 19, 2025 (San Diego) –  Protesters held “Not My President” rallies at state capitols in all 50 states and other locations to oppose unprecedented attacks on our democratic system’s checks and balances by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

By G. A. McNeeley 

February 15, 2025 (El Cajon) - The El Cajon City Council, city  staff, Heartland Fire Department and labor representatives came together on Wednesday to discuss possible short-term options, to staff a newly purchased fire engine, after a grant failed to fund. 

Last year, the City Council explored options to augment fire and medical response coverage throughout the city. The Council directed staff to acquire an additional fire engine and seek a grant to fund the staff to operate that engine. Although the engine was acquired, the City was not successful in obtaining the grant. Their intent was to operate the engine (E-208) out of Station 8 as a full service vehicle, staffed with nine new employees. The grant would have paid for the majority of those employees. 

By Ken Stone, Times of San Diego, a member of the San Diego Online News Association

Photo:  Tara McGrath. Courtesy Southern District of California

February 13, 2025 (San Diego) - After 16 months as the chief federal law enforcement official in San Diego, Tara McGrath has been given her walking papers by the White House.

“Eliminating USAID means no more food for millions of Sudanese refugees who’ve fled a civil war, no more medical care for displaced Palestinians, no more HIV treatment on the African continent, and more." -- Congresswoman Sara Jacobs

By Miriam Raftery

Photo via X: Congresswoman Sara Jacobs speaks at a rally to save US Aid.

February 11, 2025 (San Diego) – Congresswoman Sara Jacobs (D-San Diego) today introduced legislation declaring it illegal for the Trump administration to dismantle the USAID agency without an act of Congress, and to prohibit any funding of such efforts. Jacobs calls the action a "coup" and warns other agencies could be illegally dismantled next.

Elon Musk and his Dept. of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have shut down the USAID agency’s headquarters and website, put thousands of staffers on leave, and issued a stop work order on most foreign aid.

As a result of those actions, Jacobs says in a press release, “HIV/AIDS clinics have closed across Africa, hospitals in war-torn Syria have locked their doors, millions of Sudanese refugees will be at risk of catching diseases like cholera, malaria, and measles that are spreading, and so much more.”

East County News Service

February 9, 2025 (Oakland, CA) – Last week, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting the Trump administration from carrying out a spending freeze. “Each day that the pause continues to ripple across the country is an additional day that Americans are being denied access to programs that heal them, house them, and feed them,” Judge Loren AliKhan wrote in the ruling.

Now California Attorney General is accusing the Trump administration of defying the judge’s order and continuing to block funds to states under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA and the Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA, also known as the bipartisan infrastructure act). Bonta on Feb. 7 filed a motion on behalf of 23 state attorneys general. The motion asks the court to enforce the earlier ruling and and to order Defendants to immediately restore funds until the preliminary injunction motion can be heard and decided.

The coalition seeks to preliminarily enjoin the Trump Administration’s funding freeze, emphasizing the widespread and irreparable harm to states, which rely on billions of dollars of critical federal assistance for public services that ensure access to education, clean air and water, and health care and that support essential infrastructure projects.  More than $100 billion in Medicaid funding, tens of billions in infrastructure and climate funding, among the funding at risk in just California, according to a press release issued by Bonta.

Updated February 7, 2025 with statement from the Council on Islamic Relations in San Diego.

By Miriam Raftery

February 6, 2025 (Washington D.C.) – Many world leaders as well as Congressional leaders in both parties are pushing back on President Donald Trump’s call for the U.S. to “takeover” Gaza, relocate Palestinians to neighboring nations and turn Gaza into “the Riviera of the Middle East.” 

Trump initially spoke of a permanent resettlement, with the U.S. taking ownership. But Secretary of State Marco Rubio later walked that back, indicating relocation of Palestinians would only be temporary during debris removal and new construction. “In the interim, obviously people are going to have to live somewhere while you’re rebuilding it,” he stated, AP reports.

Trump insisted,”Everyone loves my Gaza idea,” the Jerusalem Post reported.

But with the exception of some Israeli leaders, reactions around the world have overwhelmingly rejected the concept. Here are their statements:

By Miriam Raftery 

Photo: Elon Musk and Donald Trump in Nov. 2024, via Speaker Mike Johnson

February 4, 2025 (Washington, D.C.) – Donald Trump authorized Elon Musk’s unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to take total control of the U.S. Treasury Department’s payment system, locking out federal employees.  DOGE’s young tech workers gained access to the private data of nearly every American including taxpayers, Social Security and Medicare recipients, government employees, student and SBA loan recipients and federal contractors in direct violation of laws intended to protect sensitive data.  The information accessed by Musk’s team includes Social Security numbers, bank accounts, addresses and other data that if in the wrong hands, could lead to identity theft and looting of accounts.