EAST COUNTY ROUNDUP: LOCAL AND STATEWIDE NEWS

May 11, 2020 (San Diego) -- East County Roundup highlights top stories of interest to East County and San Diego's inland regions, published in other media.  This week's round-up stories include:  

LOCAL

• Tribes face cultural, economic hardships amid coronavirus stay-home orders (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• El Cajon rescinds climate action plan (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• La Mesa Facility Is One of State's Deadliest for Coronavirus (Voice of San Diego)
• Souplantation Has Shared Its Best Recipes for You to Make at Home Since They Are Closed Permanently
• School districts may switch to blended learning, an area dominated by charter schools (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Goodwill prepares to accept donations again (Fox 5 San Diego)
•  Doctors Say They’re Not Getting Vital Coronavirus Info About Senior Facilities (Voice of San Diego)
• Sentencing delayed for Hunter’s wife in campaign fund misuse case (Patch)

STATE

• State’s coronavirus cases keeps rising over weekend, mostly in Southern California (L.A. Daily News)
• As California coronavirus deaths reach stubborn plateau, experts fearful about future (Los Angeles Times)
• Court upholds California ban on church services in pandemic (AP)
• Coronavirus plunges California into worse budget deficit in state history (Los Angeles Times)
• California gig workers, self-employed can file for unemployment under state program (10 News)
• California Democrat reacts to Tesla lawsuit, pullout plan over coronavirus rules: ‘F--- Elon Musk’ (Fox)

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

LOCAL

Tribes face cultural, economic hardships amid coronavirus stay-home orders (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Shuttering of casinos has left some tribes with no income; communities struggles to maintain traditions.

El Cajon rescinds climate action plan (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Citing financial concerns, the El Cajon City Council has rescinded the Climate Action Plan it unanimously approved last summer. But it hopes to replace the document with a less expensive version. “Major reductions in revenues caused by the COVID-19 emergency have caused (El Cajon) to start planning for major reductions in expenditures, including workforce expenditures,” City Attorney Morgan Foley wrote in a report on the matter.

La Mesa Facility Is One of State's Deadliest for Coronavirus (Voice of San Diego)

Elmcroft of La Mesa is an assisted-living facility with 56 beds. That makes the next numbers pretty shocking: 34 of its residents have been infected with the novel coronavirus, and of those, 12 have died, according to new numbers released by the state. It’s the second-highest resident death toll for such a facility in California.

Souplantation Has Shared Its Best Recipes for You to Make at Home Since They Are Closed Permanently

The San Diego-based buffet chain has decided to permanently close its doors amid the coronavirus pandemic.

School districts may switch to blended learning, an area dominated by charter schools (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Schools may have to do more online learning, teacher-supported home-schooling and blended learning like some charter schools.

Goodwill prepares to accept donations again (Fox 5 San Diego)

… As we inch closer to Stage Two of reopening in the state of California, Goodwill is setting a date for restarting its operations: Wednesday, May 13. In total, seven locations will be open throughout the county seven days a week from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The locations include: Point Loma, Lakeside, Bonita, Carmel Valley, Mira Mesa, La Costa and Oceanside. Donations will be strictly drive-thru for now, and the Point Loma location will be the only one accepting furniture donations.

 Doctors Say They’re Not Getting Vital Coronavirus Info About Senior Facilities (Voice of San Diego)

San Diego doctors who are in and out of senior facilities say information that’s vital for doing their jobs has been tough to come by in recent weeks. … Skilled-nursing facilities aren’t explicitly required to disclose possible and confirmed COVID-19 cases to health care workers…

Sentencing delayed for Hunter’s wife in campaign fund misuse case (Patch)

Sentencing has been delayed another month for the wife of former Rep. Duncan Hunter, who pleaded guilty along with her husband to federal conspiracy charges for misusing campaign funds to support years of personal expenditures.

STATE

State’s coronavirus cases keeps rising over weekend, mostly in Southern California (L.A. Daily News)

The 1,128 new cases were just over half the amount reported Saturday, meaning the statewide case count rose by about 5% over the weekend to 67,848, according to data compiled by this news organization. Still, as with the now more than 67,000 confirmed cases in the state, most of that growth was centered in Southern California.

As California coronavirus deaths reach stubborn plateau, experts fearful about future (Los Angeles Times)

Although some hope the worst of California’s coronavirus crisis has passed, there are signs the pandemic in the Golden State has merely stabilized, and the worst may be yet to come.  

Court upholds California ban on church services in pandemic (AP)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom had the right to ban church assemblies in the interest of public health during the coronavirus outbreak, a federal judge ruled Tuesday… Mendez said state and local stay-at-home orders were a valid exercise of emergency police powers and didn’t violate the church’s constitutional rights. Mendez noted that the Supreme Court over 100 years ago upheld the government’s right to exercise police powers to promote public safety during a public health crisis.

Coronavirus plunges California into worse budget deficit in state history (Los Angeles Times)

California’s government faces a $54.3-billion budget deficit through next summer according to an analysis released Thursday by advisors to Gov. Gavin Newsom, marking the largest projected fiscal hole in state history and raising the possibility of deep spending cuts or substantial new tax revenues to make up the difference. The estimate accounts for both a rapid erosion of tax revenues and a growing need for health and human services programs

California gig workers, self-employed can file for unemployment under state program (10 News)

California’s gig workers, independent contractors and self-employed workers out of jobs because of the COVID-19 pandemic can now apply for state unemployment benefits.  The state’s Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, part of the federal CARES Act, is aimed at helping workers who are not eligible for basic unemployment. California began accepting applications for assistance on Tuesday. Through the program’s Phase 1, gig workers/contractors/self-employed are eligible to receive $167 per week if they have been unemployed from Feb. 22, 2020-March 28, 2020.

California Democrat reacts to Tesla lawsuit, pullout plan over coronavirus rules: ‘F--- Elon Musk’ (Fox)

A California Democrat seemed less than upset Saturday night at the news that entrepreneur Elon Musk planned to pull much of his company Tesla – along with an unspecified number of jobs -- out of the state over coronavirus shutdown rules that have stalled the automaker's operations. Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez of San Diego appeared to be saying something along the lines of “Good riddance” – except she didn’t exactly use those words.