EAST COUNTY ROUNDUP: LOCAL AND STATEWIDE NEWS

June 5, 2019 (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

• Two agencies want to secede from the San Diego County Water Authority (Voice of San Diego)
• Dehesa district puts superintendent on leave as she faces criminal charge (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• La Mesa drafts ordinance regulating scooters, bike companies (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• LAPD officer was the ‘immigrant’s dream’ before his life changed at Border Patrol checkpoint  (Los Angeles Times)
• World’s Smallest Surviving Baby Goes Home After 5 Months in San Diego Hospital (KTLA)
• Red tide returns: Photos show bioluminescent glow along San Diego shores (10 News)
• Live Nation partnering with Sycuan for entertainment (San Diego Union-Tribune)

STATE

• California approves wide power outages to prevent wildfires (Associated Press)
• Massive Sierra snowpack is 33 times bigger than last year's (SF Gate)
• State won’t oppose SDG&E petition to top court on wildfire costs (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• California May Be An Early Primary State Now, But It's Still Not Getting The Full Iowa Treatment (Capital Public Radio)
• Michael Picker to step down as head of CPUC (San Francisco Chronicle)
• At state convention, Calif. Democrats reject anti-Israel language in resolutions (JWeekly)
• Massive 'bloom' of ladybugs moving in SoCal looks like a storm (Daily Mail)
• Top California high-speed rail executive under investigation in ethics probe (Fox)

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

LOCAL

Two agencies want to secede from the San Diego County Water Authority (Voice of San Diego)

Leaders of two water agencies that serve about 50,000 people in and around Fallbrook are fed up with rising costs at the San Diego County Water Authority. They plan to buy water from Riverside County instead.

Dehesa district puts superintendent on leave as she faces criminal charge (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Superintendent Nancy Hauer was recently indicted for allegedly over-billing charter school oversight fees. She pleaded not guilty.  The Dehesa School Board voted 4-0 Friday to place Superintendent Nancy Hauer on paid leave, two days after prosecutors announced she was charged with misappropriation of public funds.

La Mesa drafts ordinance regulating scooters, bike companies (San Diego Union-Tribune)

…a staff report shared with the City Council said that “serious injuries to users and third-party victims through use of these mobility devices is reportedly on the increase” and as a result, the La Mesa City Council said it wanted to protect the city from liability issues as well as ensure the safety for users of the vehicles.

LAPD officer was the ‘immigrant’s dream’ before his life changed at Border Patrol checkpoint  (Los Angeles Times)

Mambasse Patara, a Marine and LAPD officer, said he had no idea his handyman was an undocumented immigrant when he drove through a Border Patrol checkpoint. He figured it was a simple misunderstanding, but prosecutors spent a year trying to send him to federal prison. .. On the day he was arrested, Patara said, he and his wife, Minerva Hernandez, had traveled from Fontana to El Centro to meet Ramirez-Gonzalez and his wife, Mary Aragon.  The two groups connected, but the women decided to head back to Fontana in Aragon’s car after Patara and his wife got into an argument. The men continued on to the Golden Acorn casino, which prosecutors described in court documents as a popular hub for human smuggling.

World’s Smallest Surviving Baby Goes Home After 5 Months in San Diego Hospital (KTLA)

…The baby girl, named Saybie, weighed just 8.6 ounces, or 245 grams -- roughly the size of an apple -- at the time of her birth at Sharp Mary Birch Hospital in San Diego.

Red tide returns: Photos show bioluminescent glow along San Diego shores (10 News)

Photos captured along the shores of San Diego show the return of a bioluminescent glow cause by a phenomenon known as the red tide.

Live Nation partnering with Sycuan for entertainment (San Diego Union-Tribune)

World’s biggest name in entertainment to help secure acts at reservation’s events center

STATE

California approves wide power outages to prevent wildfires (Associated Press)

California regulators on Thursday approved allowing utilities to cut off electricity to possibly hundreds of thousands of customers to avoid catastrophic wildfires like the one sparked by power lines last year that killed 85 people and largely destroyed the city of Paradise.

Massive Sierra snowpack is 33 times bigger than last year's (SF Gate)

Sierra snowpack is 202 percent of average for this time of year

State won’t oppose SDG&E petition to top court on wildfire costs (San Diego Union-Tribune)

California electricity regulators recently waived their right to oppose a petition San Diego Gas & Electric filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in its effort to get customers to pay for hundreds of millions of dollars in wildfire costs. Most of the consumer groups that have been fighting the utility’s plan had waived their right to oppose its Supreme Court petition. All except the owner of a small San Diego diner, who was the only party to respond to SDG&E’s Supreme Court request to hear the case by the filing deadline Friday.

California May Be An Early Primary State Now, But It's Still Not Getting The Full Iowa Treatment (Capital Public Radio)

It doesn’t happen often, but California was the center of the presidential race this weekend. Fourteen candidates addressed the state Democratic Party convention, and many of them also held other public events and raised money in the state. But they didn’t spend much time talking about California.

Michael Picker to step down as head of CPUC (San Francisco Chronicle)

Michael Picker, California’s top utility regulator, said Thursday he plans to step down later this year, opening up a crucial leadership role in the state’s efforts to quell wildfires and combat climate change.

At state convention, Calif. Democrats reject anti-Israel language in resolutions (JWeekly)

The Resolutions Committee of the California Democratic Party has substantially rewritten six resolutions, deleting or softening language harshly critical of Israel. On Friday, at the party’s state convention in San Francisco, the committee passed five of the resolutions as rewritten, prompting the original authors to withdraw their names and co-sponsors. One other resolution was withdrawn….Supporters of Israel considered it a total victory.

Massive 'bloom' of ladybugs moving in SoCal looks like a storm (Daily Mail)

NWS San Diego shared a radar map of the strange phenomenon that occurs every year in places like Wrightwood, California.



Top California high-speed rail executive under investigation in ethics probe (Fox)

A top consultant for California's controversial high-speed rail project is under investigation after he modified a multi-million contract that involved a company in which he may have held more than $100,000 in stock.