EAST COUNTY ROUNDUP: LOCAL AND STATEWIDE NEWS

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East County News Service

March 9, 2017 (San Diego's East County) -- East County Roundup highlights top stories of interest to East County and San Diego’s inland regions, published in other media. This week’s top “Roundup” headlines include:

LOCAL

STATE

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

LOCAL

Federal officials announce investigation into Tijuana River sewage spill (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Federal officials in the United States and Mexico announced on Thursday a joint investigation into a sewage spill in the Tijuana River that has polluted South County beaches as far north as Coronado — and which now looks to have been intentional as some elected leaders in San Diego suspected.

Grandmother, ‘backbone’ of veteran’s family, sent back to Mexico (San Diego Union-Tribune)

A grandmother known as the “backbone” of a Mira Mesa military veteran’s family was sent back to Mexico on Friday, more than two weeks after she was picked up by immigration agents outside her house in unmarked SUVs on Valentine’s Day. Clarissa Arredondo, 43, is the mother of Adriana Aparicio, whose husband is a Navy veteran working as a contractor in Afghanistan. The couple has two daughters, 2 and 3, and Arredondo helped take care of them.

SANDAG Sat for a Year on News That Transnet’s Price Tag Rose by $8 Billion (Voice of San Diego)

SANDAG not only overstated how much money it would collect through the TransNet sales tax hike voters passed in 2004, the agency also severely understated the cost of local transportation projects it would fund.

Could Major League Soccer kick the city where it counts? (San Diego Reader)

Everybody chatters about the so-called plan for a soccer/football stadium and surrounding development in Mission Valley….is Major League Soccer — the league in which a San Diego team would supposedly play — reputable and financially solid? The answer: San Diego, watch out.

Judge approves $1 million settlement in 2010 border death (10 News)

A federal judge approved a $1 million settlement from the U.S. government Thursday, to the family of an undocumented immigrant who died in 2010 while in Border Patrol custody.

Gang member arrested by Border Patrol agents near Potrero (NBC 7)

A 32-year-old documented gang member was arrested by Border Patrol agents after he illegally crossed the border near Potrero. He was one of three men arrested by agents around 8 a.m. on Sunday. 

What will happen to Sun Valley Golf Course? (San Diego Union-Tribune)

…At a cost of just $6 to play, Sun Valley is the place where many La Mesa kids first learn the sport. La Mesa historian Jim Newland said Sun Valley was built to help fill the gap when the 18-hole La Mesa Country Club closed in 1951. Since 2011, the short course has been having a hard time financially…

Growing Traffic Increases Fire Department Response Times in San Diego (KPBS)

...during normal traffic periods, only 74 percent of the city's public streets are within 5 minutes’ travel time of an active fire station. Five-minute coverage at morning and afternoon commute hours is reduced to 51 percent of the roadways.  Only 6 percent of city streets are quickly reachable during commute hours for first-alarm responses in which multiple units have to travel across larger sections of the city, according to the report.

USD reports swastikas, other anti-Jewish incidents (San Diego Union-Tribune)

A number of swastikas have been found at the University of San Diego over the past month, and a Jewish professor at the school recently revealed that someone left human feces in front of his office a few days after the Nov. 8 election.

Police Respond to Another Bomb Threat Against Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center (KPBS)

Another in a series of bogus bomb threats against Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center in University City prompted police to search the facility Wednesday.

Where millennials want to live might surprise you (San Diego Union-Tribune)

A pair of studies released this week suggests that the majority of millennials want to live in the suburbs, have already started buying outside urban areas, and base their homebuying decisions mainly on affordability….  Such preferences could have an impact in San Diego, which has the one of the biggest concentration of millennials in the nation yet has moved away from building single-family homes to apartments and condos…

In San Diego, Anti-Growth Sentiment Comes from the Right (Voice of San Diego)

Polling shows 2016 voters opposed residential development – especially Republican voters…The poll found that roughly twice as many conservatives in the district explicitly identified as anti-growth than liberals.

‘My Job Is Not to Help Them': Business Districts Increasingly Target Homelessness (Voice of San Diego)

As street homelessness rises from North Park to Pacific Beach, business districts across the city are increasingly stepping up to combat it, leading to a patchwork of strategies that can complicate efforts to address the problem…But some of those groups have taken steps that do more displace homeless folks than help them get off the street.

Trump supporters rally at the Embarcadero (Reporting San Diego)

Supporters of President Donald Trump, who describe themselves as the silent majority, met in downtown San Diego. There were two events…between both groups, we estimate the crowd anywhere from 350 to 400.

STATE

Study: Offshore Fault System Could Produce 7.3 Earthquake (KPBS)

The offshore Newport-Inglewood and Rose Canyon faults are part of the same fault system and could produce earthquakes of a magnitude 7.3 or greater, according to a study released by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Wednesday.

Attorney General Xavier Becerra Sides with Edison and Coastal Commission to Store Nuclear Waste at San Onofre (KPBS)

Becerra said in court papers that the commission's permit to allow the deadly waste to be stored at the shuttered nuclear plant is consistent with California Coastal Act.

California’s roads are some of the poorest in the nation and rapidly getting worse (San Jose Mercury News)

Last week the governor’s office said damage to roads in the first two months of 2017 will cost $595 million to repair. That is a small portion of the more than $137 billion the state needs to repair its crumbling transportation infrastructure.

Riverbanks collapse after Oroville dam spillway shutoff (San Francisco Chronicle)

When state water officials scaled back their mass dumping of water from the damaged Oroville Dam this week, they knew the riverbed below would dry up enough to allow the removal of vast piles of debris from the fractured main spillway. But they apparently did not anticipate a side effect of their decision to stop feeding the gushing Feather River — a rapid drop in river level that, according to downstream landowners, caused miles of embankment to come crashing down.

California again outpaces U.S. in job growth as unemployment drops to 5.1% (L.A. Times)

The California economy started 2017 on a strong note, with employers adding a net 9,700 jobs in January and the unemployment rate dropping to 5.1%, according to data released by the Employment Development Department.

Smog in Western U.S. Starts Out as Pollution in Asia, Researchers Say (NPR)

By tripling their emission of pollutants, Asian countries have contributed as much as 65 percent of a rise in ozone levels in the western U.S., scientists say.

Scant Demand for California Pollution Permits (KPBS)

California saw another three months of weak demand for pollution permits…. The California Air Resources Board reported Wednesday that fewer than one in five permits were distributed at an auction last month. The vast majority were given away to utilities, which get them for free.... California will take in only about $8 million from an auction that could have generated $592 million if all permits were sold. The program is a prime funding source for projects including high-speed rail and transit construction.


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