EAST COUNTY ROUNDUP: LOCAL AND STATEWIDE NEWS

April 6, 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

• El Cajon moves along on redistricti plans for election (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• ShotSpotter tells police only 1 in 4 shootings are reported (SD Union-Tribune)
• New and improved (and taxpayer funded) field turfs are still failing (Voice of San Diego)
• Rep. Hunter says he was not involved in criminal action (SD Union-Tribune)
• San Diego County makes Justice Dept. list for limited cooperation with immigration officials (SD Union-Tribune)
• Rescue cushion highlighted by man jumping over I-5 (KNSD)

STATE

• Are your housing costs sky high? A new fight is coming over California rent control (Fresno Bee)
• Could California use existing money for road repairs?  (Capitol Public Radio)
• Too young for juvie?  Calif. bill bars prosecution for kids under 12 (Sacramento Bee)
• Mojave Desert water project gets Trump administration approval  (KPCC)

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

LOCAL

El Cajon moves along on redistricti plans for election (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Preliminary workshops and public hearings have ended, and now El Cajon is taking the next steps toward dividing the city into four parts as it prepares for its first district election in 2018.The city received more than 50 neighborhood drawings and 160 maps that lay out residents’ wishes for four geographical borders.

ShotSpotter tells police only 1 in 4 shootings are reported (San Diego Union-Tribune)

San Diego police installed audio sensors that detect gunfire in four neighborhoods last November, and the first batch of data shows only one in four shootings are reported to police. Of 61 shootings, 26 percent were called in by residents, according to data collected by the system called ShotSpotter.

New and improved (and taxpayer funded) field turfs are still failing (Voice of San Diego)

When FieldTurf USA’s fake grass sports fields quickly fell apart across the region, customers, often local schools, were regularly forced to pay thousands of dollars to “upgrade” to a supposedly sturdier turf material.Turns out, that newer premium turf is falling apart far sooner than expected, too.

Rep. Hunter says he was not involved in criminal action (SD Union-Tribune)

Rep. Duncan Hunter says he did not make any of the tens of thousands of dollars in apparently personal expenditures of his campaign funds that have come into question. "I was not involved in any criminal action," Hunter, R-Alpine, said in an interview this week with Politico.

San Diego County makes Justice Dept. list for limited cooperation with immigration officials (San Diego Union-Tribune)

...Sheriffs around the state have voiced frustration at being called out by Attorney General Jeff Sessions … San Diego, like many other counties, has found other ways to work with ICE and still keep immigrants suspected of committing crimes from being released…

Rescue cushion highlighted by man jumping over I-5 (KNSD)

After a man survived a jump from a bridge on the I-5, this highlighted the importance of inflatable cushions to prevent suicides. NBC 7's Artie Ojeda explains how the fire department obtained the giant airbag that helped saved his life.

STATE

Are your housing costs sky high? A new fight is coming over California rent control (Fresno Bee)

A Santa Monica lawmaker is preparing to battle California’s powerful real estate industry, going after a state law that for two decades has blocked cities from adopting stronger rent control measures.

Could California use existing money for road repairs?  (Capitol Public Radio)

Why not use current money to pay for California’s crumbling roads and bridges? Republican state lawmakers say that approach would be far better than the controversial gas tax hike proposed by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown and top state Democrats…taking that money, however, would lead to deep cuts in social services, said State Transportation Agency Director Brian Kelly.

Too young for juvie?  Calif. bill bars prosecution for kids under 12 (Sacramento Bee)

… In lieu of doing time in a jail cell at juvenile hall, children would be redirected to dependency court, child protective services, mental health counseling and other services at the local level.

Mojave Desert water project gets Trump administration approval  (KPCC)

The Trump administration has taken a step toward opening the floodgates for a private company that wants to pump water from beneath the Mojave Desert and sell it in California….Environmental critics have charged that the groundwater pumping could dry up desert springs that plants and wildlife need to survive, especially in Mojave National Preserve and the new Mojave Trails National Preserve.