EAST COUNTY ROUNDUP: LOCAL AND STATEWIDE NEWS

October 17, 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

• Border Battles Over Wireless Service (NBC 7)
• La Mesa plans to put housing at old police station site (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Members of Kurdish community protest in front of courthouse (Fox 5)
• Innocent Man Freed From San Diego Prison After 33 Years (NBC 7)
• Borrego Springs Resort Golf Course closed (Borrego Sun)
• Allegations of child abuse at Alpine day care center being investigated (NBC 7)

STATE

• PG&E should compensate customers for power shutoffs, California governor says (10 News)
• Deadly Los Angeles wildfire began near base of electrical tower, company and fire officials say (Reuters)
  
  California to end its use of private, for-profit prisons (NBC 7)
• Californians will be banned from smoking at state parks and beaches under new law  (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• California Governor Attacks PG&E for Blackout Caused by ‘Greed and Neglect’ (Yahoo Finance)
• Pollock Pines Family Says Man Died When Oxygen Tank Lost Power during PG&E Shut-Off   (Fox)
• Wind damaged dozens of pieces of PG&E equipment San Francisco Chronicle)
• Northern California blackouts may mean mobile outages (Washington Post)
• PG&E shut-off: Your food is spoiled, business shut down — can you file a claim with the utility? (San Francisco Chronicle)

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

LOCAL

Border Battles Over Wireless Service (NBC 7)

Thousands of Verizon Wireless customers along the southern border from San Diego to El Paso, Texas, have found themselves in the middle of a war between two international wireless companies. NBC 7's Bob Hansen has more.

La Mesa plans to put housing at old police station site (San Diego Union-Tribune)

A 1.2-acre lot in downtown La Mesa will be the site of a new housing development that is expected to break ground by 2022.

Members of Kurdish community protest in front of courthouse (Fox 5)

Members of the Kurdish community gathered Friday to protest actions the United States took to pull troops out of Syria, making the Kurdish community in the country vulnerable to an attack by Turkey. Members of the Kurdish Coalition Community protested across the street from the El Cajon Courthouse. Roughly 70 people took part in the demonstration, which called on the US not to abandon the Kurds. They are concerned Turkish forces are killing Kurdish people in northern Syria.

Innocent Man Freed From San Diego Prison After 33 Years (NBC 7)

“I mean, put yourself in my shoes: You wake up in the morning and you go, ‘What the hell am I doing here, man?’”

Borrego Springs Resort Golf Course closed (Borrego Sun)

In a surprise announcement on Friday Sept. 20, the golf course at the Borrego Springs Resort will not reopen for the 2019 – 20 season; the closure has also affected golf course operations at the Resort-owned Club Circle East.  All Resort golf club staff and maintenance personnel were abruptly terminated, and the water was shut off, leaving the long-term fate of the course in doubt.

Allegations of child abuse at Alpine day care center being investigated (NBC 7)

The San Diego County Sheriff's Department is investigating an allegation of child abuse at an Alpine daycare Thursday after a video posted on social media sparked outrage. SDSO said the report stemmed from the video posted on social media; the video shows water being poured on a sleeping child.

STATE

PG&E should compensate customers for power shutoffs, California governor says (10 News)

Pacific Gas & Electric should give rebates or credits to each of its nearly 800,000 customers affected by last week's power shutoffs , California Gov. Gavin Newsom said, demanding that the utility "be held accountable."…Some customers were without power for days. Newsom is urging PG&E to give credits or rebates of $100 to each residential customer and $250 to small businesses as "some compensation for their hardships," a release from the governor's office said Monday.

Deadly Los Angeles wildfire began near base of electrical tower, company and fire officials say (Reuters)



A deadly wind-driven wildfire that raged across the northern edge of Los Angeles last week started near the base of high-voltage transmission tower owned by electric utility Southern California Edison, company and fire officials said on Monday.

California to end its use of private, for-profit prisons (NBC 7)

California will ban the use of for-profit, private detention facilities, including those under contract to the federal government to hold immigrants awaiting deportation hearings, under a bill that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Friday…The state's prison system was already phasing them out, despite having to comply with an inmate population cap imposed by federal judges . . .However, one private prison company said it expects most if not all of the law would fail a legal challenge, particularly requiring the federal government to end its contracts.

Californians will be banned from smoking at state parks and beaches under new law  (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Gov. Gavin Newsom did what his two predecessors refused to do: prohibited smoking and vaping in most areas of California state parks and beaches

California Governor Attacks PG&E for Blackout Caused by ‘Greed and Neglect’ (Yahoo Finance)

Faced with mounting public anger over massive blackouts, California Governor Gavin Newsom blasted PG&E Corp. for years of “greed and neglect” as the bankrupt utility restored power to more than half those left in the dark. Newsom’s comments came as many Californians questioned whether PG&E overreacted to a windstorm that didn’t prove as powerful as forecast. The company cut electricity to more than 2 million people -- the largest preemptive blackout in the state’s history -- to prevent its power lines from sparking wildfires.

Pollock Pines Family Says Man Died When Oxygen Tank Lost Power during PG&E Shut-Off   (Fox)

The family of 67-year-old Robert Mardis Sr. believes he would still be alive if PG&E didn't shut off their power this week in Pollock Pines.  "He had health issues," Mardis' daughter, Marie Aldea, told FOX40. "He had really bad COPD, which didn't help, and he had congestive heart failure and other health issues, but the power going off and him not being able to get to his oxygen is, I believe, is what did it."

Wind damaged dozens of pieces of PG&E equipment San Francisco Chronicle)

As Pacific Gas and Electric Co. nears the end of a heavily critiqued mass outage, crews inspecting thousands of miles of powered-down electrical lines had found more than 30 instances of weather-related damage to its system as of Friday evening, the utility reported. Any of the pieces of broken infrastructure could in theory have sparked a deadly conflagration. And the damage underscores the stark choice the utility said it faced: darkness or fire.

Northern California blackouts may mean mobile outages (Washington Post)

The place that helped make the Internet the center of our lives may have to live offline, at least temporarily. Nearly a million Northern Californians are enduring or preparing for unprecedented blackouts — and top U.S. mobile providers are scrambling to maintain service. AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile said the shutdowns could interrupt service and make it difficult or impossible to make calls, send texts or access the Internet. Only Verizon expressed unwavering confidence about its service in the face of the blackouts.

PG&E shut-off: Your food is spoiled, business shut down — can you file a claim with the utility? (San Francisco Chronicle)

It’s been three days, your power is still out due to dangerous fire weather and you’re forced to dump your spoiled spaghetti and meatball leftovers and the rest of your perishables. Your neighbor’s restaurant has been closed and he’s lost $3,000 in business. Can either of you get reimbursed?  The answer is – no.