By Miriam Raftery

February 23, 2017 (San Diego) – Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-San Diego) invites constituents to attend a town hall meeting Saturday, March 11 from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Montezuma Hall at San Diego State University (in the Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union) at 6075 Aztec Circle Drive, San Diego.

East County News Service

January 31, 2017 (San Diego) -- “Federal courts have rightly stayed President Trump's unconstitutional executive order banning Muslims and refugees. Immigration officials need to follow and respect the rule of the federal judges and allow those being held to have access to attorneys. The right of habeas corpus is a bedrock of our democracy,” says Congresswoman Susan Davis, who yesterday called on President Trump to left his executive order banning travel to the U.S. from  predominantly Muslim nations.

By Chris Jennewein

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

January 7, 2017 (San Diego’s East County) -- Rep. Susan Davis on Friday called for a “truly bipartisan and independent” probe into Russian hacking during the Presidential election.

Davis, a Democrat who serves on the influential House Armed Services Committee, described the reports of Russian hacking as “chilling.”

East County News Service

June 8,2016 (San Diego’s East County) – Incumbents beat challenges soundly in East County’s three Congressional Districts,  but San Diego Congressman Darrell Issa  could face an upset in November. With 100% of San Diego County’s precincts tallied, here are the results.

Issa, a Republican, has 48.8% of the vote with all but provisional ballots counted.  Democrat Doug Applegate has 47.86%, trailing Issa by less than 1% in San Diego County, while Ryan Wingo has 3.29%.  The district also includes part of Orange County, where Issa fared better, leading Applegate 57.5% to38.6% but with far fewer voters.  Adding both counties together, Issa has 51.2% ,Applegate 45.4%  and Wingo 3.4%. Wingo is a nonpartisan candidate running on a platform of legalizing marijuana and opposing war. Wingo voters would  be most likely to vote Democratic in a two-person run-off,  meaning Issa could be in for a battle in November to hold onto his seat.

Our January 2016 radio shows are now online!  You can listen online now (sound files may take a minute to load). For links to listen to the shows plus a full list of topics and interviews in January, click here or scroll down.

Our newsmaker interviews included Congresswoman Susan Davis, Windwalker and the MCW (Grammy nominees), the founders of Camp Onward, and Steve Lauria from California Health Network.  Hot topics included  new laws in 2016, the presidential primary, a lawsuit over Covert Canyon, a felony charge against a local Superintendent, a police shooting in El Cajon, wild winter weather, and much more.  

The East County Magazine Show airs Mondays and Fridays from 5 to 6 p.m. on KNSJ, 89.1 FM.  The shows rerun on Tuesdays at 9 a.m. and Saturdays at 8 a.m. Pacific Standard Time.

East County News Service

February 25, 2016 (San Diego) — Following President Barack Obama’s announcement calling on Congress to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, San Diego Congresswoman Susan Davis, a Democrat and senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, issued this statement:

Listen now:  https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/sites/eastcountymagazine.org/files/au...

(Note: Sound file may take a few moments to load)

January 31, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) --Congresswoman Susan Davis was our special guest on the East County Magazine radio show on KNSJ on January 21^st.

She shared highlights of the past Congressional session, her legislative efforts, and what we can expect in the coming year. Topics covered include education reforms, college affordability, healthcare, hate targeting religious minorities, support for military women, families and veterans. She also spoke out on the need to prevent future infrastructure disasters such as the L.A. natural gas leak and Flint water poisoning, both the results of regulatory failures.

By Miriam Raftery

Photos: Contaminated water in Flint, Michagan (Flint Water Disaster on Facebook)

January 20, 2016 (Washington D.C.)—On the heels of the poisoned drinking water crisis in Flint, Michigan caused by the state cutting corners to save costs and then covering up the consequences, President Barack Obama vetoed a measure passed by the Republican-controlled Congress that would have killed an Environmental Protection Agency clean water rule that allows the federal government to protect the nation’s waterways and keep them clean. 

San Diego’s Republican Congressmen Duncan Hunter and Darrell Issa voted for weakening clean water protections and shifting responsibility for many waterways back to the states, while Democrats Susan Davis, Scott Peters and Juan Vargas voted against.

In Michigan, Republican Governor Rick Snyder’s administration ordered that the polluted Flint River  be used for drinking water to save money and ignored federal law requiring an anti-corrosion additive that would have cost just $100 a day.  That decision caused lead pipes to corrode, leeching lead into the public’s drinking water. For two years, families have been drinking contaminated water. Now children are suffering irreversible lead poisoning including brain damage. Also, 10 people have died of Legionnaire’s disease believed tied to tainted river water.

November 9, 2015 (El Cajon)--As student loan debt is reaching record proportions, Congresswoman Susan Davis (D–San Diego) will host a forum on college affordability on Tuesday, November 10 at 6:30 p.m.  (Registration is at 6 p.m.) The forum will include representatives from the Department of Education and financial aid officers from local colleges, as well as a Legal Aid Society lawyer will discuss student consumer rights.

Experts will be on hand to answer questions about the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), other types of student aid for high school and college students, the applications process, as well as responsible loan ownership. Learn about recent changes announced to the FAFSA.

Photo: Clark Bunting, NPCA President and CEO, Rep. Susan Davis, and Craig Obey, NPCA Senior VP, Government Affairs

July 17, 2015 (San Diego)—When it comes to protecting national parks, the partisan divide between our local Congressional representatives is as wide as the Grand Canyon.

Three of San Diego’s Congressional members were honored with the Friends of the National Parks Award from the nonpartisan National Parks Conservation Association for their contributions to protection and enhancing America’s national parks. Congressional members Susan Davis, Scott Peters and Juan Vargas all voted to support national parks 100% of the time on bills tracked by the NPCA. California’s two Senators, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, also scored 100%.  All five of these legislators are Democrats.

By contrast, San Diego’s two Republican Congressmen, Duncan D. Hunter and Darrell Issa, each scored 0%, voting against every measure to protect national parks that the NPCA tracked in the last Congressional session. That included five measures that passed the House of Representatives, three of which were opposed by the NPCA.

By Chris Jennewein

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

November 15, 2014 (San Diego)--The San Diego Congressional delegation followed party lines in the vote Friday to approve construction of the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline.

Listen now! (audio files may take a few moments to load)

Congresswoman Susan Davis:  https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/sites/eastcountymagazine.org/files/au...

Challenger Larry Wilske: https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/sites/eastcountymagazine.org/files/au...

October 23, 2014 (San Diego’s East County) – We sat down for in-depth interviews with Congresswoman Susan Davis, a Democrat, and her opponent, Republican Larry Wilske, a Navy Seal.   Hear their views on jobs, the economy, energy, women’s issues, education, healthcare, Social Security, military actions in the Middle East and the refugee crisis, immigration, border security, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the needs of veterans and military families, the prospects of another government shut-down, and more.

Wilske called for boots on the ground in Syria, reform of NAFTA to encourage manufacturing in the U.S., creation of a cross-border rail line, increased use of oil refineries, nuclear and algae fuels, arming teachers to reduce school violence, stopping employers from hiring illegal immigrants, and allowing veterans to receive private healthcare when VA hospitals are backlogged.  

Davis discussed ideas to increase commerce at the border, boost funding for National Institute of Health research on Ebola, strengthen public education and keep college affordable, boost the economy through immigration reform, protect healthcare , Social Security and women’s rights, address climate change and seek a long-range strategy for addressing the ISIL terrorist threats in Syria and Iraq.

Hear a podcast of today’s full show including D.A. Bonnie Dumanis interview here: http://kiwi6.com/file/b2ohmz2jt7

Listen live from 5-6 p.m. today online at http://knsj.org/knsjpopup.html or on the air at KNSJ 89.1 FM

June 2, 2014 (San Diego)—Our special guest on the East County Magazine radio show today is District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, talking about crime issues in our region and her candidacy to win reelection in tomorrow’s primary election. Dumanis squares off against attorney Bob Brewer, who did not respond to our interview requests, and Terri Wyatt ( who was previously  interviewed here: http://kiwi6.com/file/f1epluf93r)

 Today’s show also includes coverage and analysis of the 50^th and 53^rd  Congressional races, where incumbents Duncan Hunter and Susan Davis face off against multiple challengers.  Also learn more about the Insurance Commissioner race, which pits an incumbent championing consumer issues against insurance companies against an insurance broker and a third candidate who wants to eliminate insurance companies altogether and see a single payer healthcare system enacted.

Elected officials suppressed key report, failed to halt project or recover taxpayer dollars

“It was heartbreaking to see this project desecrate such a historically and culturally significant landscape, and it’s even worse when you find out that it was built on false claims by the developer, and with the assistance of the BLM. "-- Anthony Pico, Chairman, Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians

An East County Magazine special investigation

By Miriam Raftery

April 30, 2014 (Ocotillo) – An international wind energy expert has concluded that Pattern Energy appears to have defrauded the federal government in order to obtain lucrative tax subsidies for a wind energy development in southern California that has failed to live up to the developer’s claims.

“I believe we have a clear case for the False Claims Act,” Nicolas Boccard told East County Magazine, after reviewing full first-year wind production data for the Ocotillo Wind Energy Facility on U..S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) public land.  The project produced only about half of the energy that Pattern claimed it would produce—far below levels deemed viable for a wind project, a second expert confirms. 

These dismal results are no surprise to Boccard, who predicted in a report written before construction of the project was  completed that Ocotillo lacks sufficient wind speeds to sustain a viable wind energy project.

So were Pattern's lofty wind speed claims nothing more than spin?

March 18, 2014 (San Diego)-- Reps. Susan Davis and Scott Peters, along with members of San Diego’s medical research community have joined together to call on Congress to increase federal funding to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which funds critical medical research.