EAST COUNTY ROUNDUP: LOCAL AND STATEWIDE NEWS

October 27, 2021 (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

• NTSB Investigated At Least 35 Small Aircraft Crashes in San Diego Neighborhoods Since 2010 (NBC San Diego)
• El Cajon Mayor helps woman fend off bloody dog attack near home (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Far right group wants to be a player in San Diego County politics (KPBS)
• Santee couple finds wedding ring in house fire rubble (CBS 8)
• An area of San Diego County bigger than Balboa Park is available for $18.75M (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• UC San Diego Health sued over data breach that may have exposed records of 500,000 patients (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Police arrest husband of Chula Vista mother who disappeared in January; body still missing (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Oh-so-serious UC San Diego has become a social hot spot? You must be joking (San Diego Union-Tribune)

.STATE

• Got your stimulus check yet? California to send out more state money this week (Sacramento Bee)
• Experts predict the legal fallout from the Alec Baldwin prop gun shooting (Los Angeles Times)
• California Christmas trees could be harder to find, more expensive this year. Here’s why (Sacramento Bee)
• Heavy rain unleashes mud, debris flows in Northern California (Los Angeles Times)
• Fire season still a threat to Southern California despite rains (Los Angeles Times0
• Radioactive Waste Fell On Some LA-Area Neighborhoods During 2018 Woolsey Fire, New Study Shows (NBC-LA)
• (10 News)
• New California law expands visitation, testimony protections for children in family court (Sacramento Bee)

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

LOCAL

NTSB Investigated At Least 35 Small Aircraft Crashes in San Diego Neighborhoods Since 2010 (NBC San Diego)

The families on Greencastle Street in Santee are far from the first in San Diego County to watch their homes burst into flames and rubble after a plane crash. NBC 7 Investigates scoured through more than 120 NTSB investigation reports and dug up at least 35 plane or helicopter crashes into San Diego County neighborhoods since 2010. In those crashes, 30 people died and 20 others were seriously injured. The airport connected to the lion’s share of those crashes is Gillespie Field in El Cajon – there have been at least 16 crashes in surrounding neighborhoods.

El Cajon Mayor helps woman fend off bloody dog attack near home (San Diego Union-Tribune)

El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells has one more thing he can put on a pretty full resume: Rescuer. The 59-year-old Registered Nurse with a doctorate in clinical psychology used his experience in emergency rooms to render emergency aid to a woman who was being mauled by an unleashed dog in his Granite Hills neighborhood last month.

Far right group wants to be a player in San Diego County politics (KPBS)

Hours after live streaming from the January 6th insurrection, Defend East County (DEC) founder Justin Haskins told viewers online that it is “our constitutional duty to overthrow a tyrannical government.”… Haskins’ moving on includes broadening the group’s reach into local politics by helping to elect his ideological kin to office.

Santee couple finds wedding ring in house fire rubble (CBS 8)

Days after a newlywed couple lost everything when a plane crash fire destroyed their home, they find an item closest to their hearts.

An area of San Diego County bigger than Balboa Park is available for $18.75M (San Diego Union-Tribune)

…The nearly 1,300-acre Breezeway Ranch in Jamul features several homes, a vineyard, rifle range, tennis court, a pool, five wells and plenty of space for an adventurous buyer. A land sale this large is rare in modern San Diego County history, even with sizable purchases the past few decades near the border and in the backcountry.

UC San Diego Health sued over data breach that may have exposed records of 500,000 patients (San Diego Union-Tribune)

UC San Diego Health faces a lawsuit over a data breach last winter that potentially exposed sensitive information from nearly a half-million patients, employees and others connected with the health care system.

Police arrest husband of Chula Vista mother who disappeared in January; body still missing (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Maya “May” Millete wanted a divorce. Her husband did not. Authorities say Larry Millete sought help from spellcasters — he wanted magic to make his wife want to stay. Then, according to San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan, his wishes grew darker. He asked that she be incapacitated, that she have an accident, broken bones to keep her at home.

Oh-so-serious UC San Diego has become a social hot spot? You must be joking (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Yeah, we’re brainy. But we also wanna rock. So stop saying UCSD’s initials stand for University of California Socially Dead. It’s not true anymore.

STATE

Got your stimulus check yet? California to send out more state money this week (Sacramento Bee)

California residents who haven’t received their Golden State Stimulus can expect to see checks for $600 to $1,100 arriving in the next several weeks…Adults with dependents are eligible to receive an additional $500. To qualify for the payments, Californians must have filed their 2020 tax returns by Oct. 15. Only those who made less than $75,000 in 2020 are eligible, and they must have been a California resident for more than half of 2020.

Experts predict the legal fallout from the Alec Baldwin prop gun shooting (Los Angeles Times)

The shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on a New Mexico film set could have far-reaching legal ramifications, experts said — not only for the companies involved but also for individuals, including star and producer Alec Baldwin. Hutchins was killed and director Joel Souza injured Thursday by a gun that Baldwin discharged during the filming of “Rust.” 

California Christmas trees could be harder to find, more expensive this year. Here’s why (Sacramento Bee)

Don’t wait too long to get a Christmas tree this year. Supplies are tight and prices are up. And you may have a hard time finding the tree you really want. (Shortage is in both artificial and real trees)

Heavy rain unleashes mud, debris flows in Northern California (Los Angeles Times)

Bomb cyclone. Rivers of rain. Emergency response officials have been bracing all week for the worst days of the storm — and it finally arrived late Saturday evening. Light scattered showers in Northern California, already burned out by a summer of fire, morphed into an increasingly heavy downpour overnight.

Fire season still a threat to Southern California despite rains (Los Angeles Times0

This week’s historic storm could mark a de facto ending to the year’s catastrophic wildfire season in some, but not all, areas of the state, experts say.

Radioactive Waste Fell On Some LA-Area Neighborhoods During 2018 Woolsey Fire, New Study Shows (NBC-LA)

The majority of samples found just "background" or normally occurring levels of radioactivity. But 11 samples showed significantly elevated levels of radioactive materials…. High levels of radioactive particles landed in neighborhoods from Thousand Oaks to Simi Valley during the massive 2018 Woolsey fire, which started at the contaminated Santa Susana Field Lab, according to a peer-reviewed study just published by a team of scientists known for studying environmental disasters. What's stunning about the findings is that they run contrary to what California's Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) said to calm public fears in the hours after the Woolsey Fire…

Calif. provides extra protections for warehouse workers through new law (10 News)

The law – which is the first of its kind in the nation - will establish transparency measures for companies to disclose production quota descriptions to their workers and ensures workers can’t be fired for failing to meet an unsafe quota.

New California law expands visitation, testimony protections for children in family court (Sacramento Bee)

While California law has long required judges to consider a parent’s history of abuse and habitual drug use when making decisions on a child’s custody, it has not done so when it regards visitation. That will change next year when a new law, SB 654, goes into effect. The legislation won praise from advocates for survivors of domestic violence.