East County News Service

Devoreo Bell, Juwan Armstrong and Miriam Raftery contributed to this series.

Part 1:  Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton (most prominent political pedigrees) and Donald Trump (the show horse)

August 3, 2015 (Washington D.C.) -- The 2016 presidential candidates are off and running. It’s a crowded race, with over two dozen contenders vying for the ultimate winner’s circle.  Over the next couple of weeks, East County Magazine will run a “Race for the White House” series profiling the candidates.

Our series opens with frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush, two seasoned entries with long political pedigrees, and “show horse” Donald Trump who’s been grabbing media headlines and moving up in the polls. Later we’ll highlight mavericks such as Rand Paul and  Bernie Sanders,  each drawing populist followings for talking about issues like civil liberties and the wealth gap largely ignored by party power-brokers.  Finally, we’ll have coverage of the pack of other prominent contenders, plus some dark horses hoping to pull off an upset win.  For each candidate, we’ll give you  biographical highlights, stances on key issues, controversies, and fascinating facts as these contenders bolt out of the starting gate and run for the roses—the White House rose garden, that is.  Plus, we’ll check with pollsters and odds makers to see how they’re handicapping this important race—so keep an eye out for each installment in our “Race for the Whitehouse” 2016 coverage.

Click "read more" and scroll down to learn more about Bush, Clinton and Trump.

By Leon Thompson

Photos by Nadin Abbott,  Reporting San Diego

August 3, 2015 (San Diego) – Insurgent presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ campaign is setting records for huge crowds even in places thought to be conservative strongholds.    Sanders, a Vermont Senator, drew more than 100,000 people at rallies nationwide including 29 rallies in San Diego County that drew thousands of local people, with 500 at the largest San Diego rally at the North Park Observatory Theater.

His unapologetically liberal message repeated at every stop is “This great nation deserves to be run by the people, not a handful of billionaires.”  Sander wants to increase Social Security and raise the minimum wage. 

Detentions shine spotlight on U.S. policies that critics say is harshest system in the world for asylum seekers

By Miriam Raftery

Hear our KNSJ radio coverage of the rally, aired on August 3, 2015:  /sites/eastcountymagazine.org/files/2016/April/OtayIraqis-FinalShow.mp3?641

Hear our August 7, 2015 radio broadcast on KNSJ  with Mark Arabo, a national spokesman for Iraqi-American Chaldeans, and Amir Moshe, a former translator for the U.S. Army in Iraq who has two cousins detained inside the Otay facility.  Listen Now: /sites/eastcountymagazine.org/files/2016/April/8-4-15%20MOSHE%20-%20MARK%20-%20CHALDEAN%20INTERVIEW.mp3?722

August 2, 2015 (El Cajon) – Over three dozen Iraqi Chaldean Christians from El Cajon held a prayer vigil and protest outside the prison walls at the Homeland Security detention facility at Otay Mesa on Thursday, calling for the release of their family members and friends who fled ISIS only to be imprisoned when they arrived in America seeking asylum.  Over two dozen have been held in indefinite detention for over four months, some up to seven months, with no hearing date set for release. 

The detainees include a woman who pleaded for release to see her mother, who died Thursday at Sharp Grossmont Hospital.

Father Noel from St. Peter’s Cathedral in El Cajon told East County Magazine that all of the detained Christians have family in El Cajon who vouch for their identities and are willing to take them in. 

The situation is far different than for Iraqi Chaldeans who came here a decade ago seeking asylum.  “Ten years ago, they were held just a couple of days and they were not in a jail,” he told East County Magazine.  “Today, they are fleeing ISIS," escaping genocide in their homeland, only to arrive and be imprisoned in the U.S.

East County News Service

August 1, 2015 (San Diego) – Governor Brown has called in the National Guard to help battle blazes burning across the state. One firefighter was killed in Northern California, where a red flag is in alert.  Currently firefighters are battling 23 wildfires stateswide. CAL FIRE Captain Kendal Bortisser in San Diego has provided the following update issued Friday night, July 31^st:

July 31, 2015 (El Cajon)--Robert Gehr snapped this photo of the “blue moon” this week, which actually refers to the rare second full moon in a month – not the color.  He adds, “Images were shot with my Canon Elph @ 40 x zoom.”

East County News Service

July 31, 2015 (San Diego) – East County Magazine picked up three more awards from the Society for Professional Journalists San Diego pro chapter last night during the annual awards banquet at the Bali Hai restaurant.   Two of the awards honor coverage on our East County Magazine Show on KNSJ Radio while the third is for an investigative report at our online news site (www.EastCountyMagazine.org), bringing our total awards to 83 since our founding in 2008.

Last night’s honors, all second place awards presented to Miriam Raftery (photo, left), include our radio interview series with local Chaldeans’ efforts to halt genocide in Iraq, a radio interview with a Kurdish woman about her family’s ordeal fleeing ISIS, and an online investigative report on a San Diego company’s failure to disclose negative impacts of a proposed energy project.

You can read and hear our award-winning entries here:

By Suzanne Potter, Public News Service

Photo credit: MConnors/morguefile.

July 30, 2015 (Sacramento) -- Climate change is turning ocean water more acidic and creating low-oxygen "dead zones" – issues that have serious implications for the entire oceanic ecosystem.

July 31, 2015 (San Diego) –CAL FIRE Captain and Public Information Officer Kendal Bortisser has provided the following statewide fire status on behalf of the CAL FIRE San Diego Unit and County Fire Chief Tony Mecham:

Source: CalTrans

July 31, 2015 (San Diego)-Long-term lane closures will be needed to repair the Clairemont Mesa Boulevard overcrossing above southbound State Route 163 (SR-163), according to Caltrans.

The announcement was made after structural engineers assessed the damage following a hit on the bridge this morning by a backhoe carried by a semitrailer traveling southbound on SR-163.  The California Highway Patrol is investigating the incident, which closed the right lane on southbound SR-163 and the left lane on westbound Clairemont Mesa Boulevard during the morning commute.

July 30, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) -- Join the San Diego County Sheriff's Department for free Night Out Against Crime events on Tuesday, August 4.  Sheriff's Stations and Substations all over the county will be hosting block parties to take a stand against crime, including numerous locations in East County.

By Fire Chief Sam DiGiovanna

July 29, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) --We feel the impact every day. Warm temperatures and lack of rain continue to increased drought conditions. With greater evaporation, particularly during the summer and fall, this will and is exacerbating drought conditions resulting in an extremely high increase of wildfires. Fires are spreading at a phenomenal rate of spread. A deadly and disastrous rate that impacts us all!

East County News Service

July 30, 2015 (Otay)--U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Otay Mesa port of entry Tuesday caught a man wanted by the San Diego Police Department for a 2007 homicide at Donut’s Plus in San Diego’s Kensington neighborhood.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo, left: McCain Valley, site of planned 14,000 acre wind project

Photo, right: Blades being hoisted onto wind turbine in Ocotillo

Updated July 31, 2015 10 p.m. to include comments from SDG&E and from Howard Cook, former Jacumba Sponsor Group Chair.

July 30, 2015 (McCain Valley)—Southern California Edison has signed a 15-year power purchase agreement with Iberdrola Renewables to buy electricity from the Tule Wind project planned in McCain Valley near Boulevard.

“We are still actively opposing Tule Wind and hope it never gets built,” Donna Tisdale told East County Magazine. Tisdale and the citizens’ group Backcountry Against Dumps have two legal challenges pending. Tisdale also chairs the Boulevard Community Planning Group, which voted against the project but was overruled by the San Diego County Supervisors, with Supervisor Dianne Jacob voting no and four other Supervisors voting for the project.

The agreement covers the first phase of the 14,000-acre project, which includes 67 turbines on federal Bureau of Land Management property at the gateway to the McCain Valley federal recreation area, as well as on privately-owned Rough Acres Ranch.

Originally Published on the ECOreport

By Roy L Hales

July 30, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) - With Hillary Clinton leading the pack of Presidential hopefuls, America could increase its solar capacity by 700% by 2020. The latest CNN poll shows 44% of the voters respondents favourable to her. This is quite a lead over the two next most favoured candidates, Republicans Jeb Bush and Donald Trump (who both had 34%). Her Democratic challenger, Bernie Sanders, may be “moving up” but has a long way to go with only 24%. Clinton wants to see half a billion US solar panels on rooftops by the end of her first term.