EAST COUNTY ROUNDUP: LOCAL AND STATEWIDE NEWS

April 11, 2022 (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

• Local firefighter leads mission to help search and rescue efforts in Ukraine (10 News)
• As spring open house season approaches at famed Hubbell art compound in Santa Ysabel, a torch is passed (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• La Mesa will use federal money to aid new businesses amid high vacancy rates (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Other cities have tried sending less serious 911 calls to nurses, not hospitals. Did it work? (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Rise Up Industries in Santee helps former prisoners (10 News)
• Attorneys argue case over ex-La Mesa police officer's firing (KPBS)
• East County asphalt company must improve safety after emissions reach potentially dangerous levels (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• San Diego police shoot armed man, 60, in garage of San Carlos home (San Diego Union-Tribune)

STATE

• Proposed bill would shorten California workweek to 32 hours. Here’s what you need to know (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• California Is About to Test Its First Solar Canals (Smithsonian)
• Superblooms of fungus’: Climate change is making valley fever worse (Los Angeles Times)
• California Lawmakers Extend Eviction Ban for Some Renters (NBC San Diego)
• California corporate diversity law ruled unconstitutional (10 News)
• California to pay $55 million for massive wildfires (AP)
• California drought: Sierra snowpack falls to one of lowest levels in 70 years (Mercury News)

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

LOCAL

Local firefighter leads mission to help search and rescue efforts in Ukraine (10 News)

Right now a team of first responders is on their way to help with the search and rescue efforts in Ukraine. One of them is a firefighter from San Diego County who helped make the mission possible. "It's to help our fellow firefighters over there. That's what this is all about," said Eric Hille, an engineer with San Miguel Fire Rescue.

As spring open house season approaches at famed Hubbell art compound in Santa Ysabel, a torch is passed (San Diego Union-Tribune)

James and Anne Hubbell’s son, Drew, has taken over as president of his parents’ Ilan-Lael Foundation property, which the couple left last year.

La Mesa will use federal money to aid new businesses amid high vacancy rates (San Diego Union-Tribune)

The city may be the first in the region to spend relief funds on entrepreneurs in need of support.

Other cities have tried sending less serious 911 calls to nurses, not hospitals. Did it work? (San Diego Union-Tribune)

El Cajon has several models to study as it weighs reducing ambulance trips with a first-in-the-region proposal.

Rise Up Industries in Santee helps former prisoners (10 News)

ABC 10 News Leadership award winner, April 2022

Attorneys argue case over ex-La Mesa police officer's firing (KPBS)

Arguments were made Friday afternoon regarding former La Mesa police officer Matthew Dages' petition challenging the appeals board's decision to uphold his firing in connection with his high-profile 2020 arrest of a young Black man near the Grossmont Transit Center.

East County asphalt company must improve safety after emissions reach potentially dangerous levels (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Workers and residents near a Lakeside facility may have been exposed to two chemicals that can hurt the immune system

San Diego police shoot armed man, 60, in garage of San Carlos home (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Shooting occurred on Bonnie View Drive after police responded to report of a person with a firearm

STATE

Proposed bill would shorten California workweek to 32 hours. Here’s what you need to know (San Diego Union-Tribune)

… The bill, AB 2932, would change the definition of a workweek from 40 hours to 32 hours for companies with more than 500 employees. A full workday would remain at eight hours, and employers would be required to provide overtime pay for employees working longer than four full days….AB 2932 is currently with the Labor and Employment Committee for review.

California Is About to Test Its First Solar Canals (Smithsonian)

The innovative project is a win for water, energy, air and climate.

Superblooms of fungus’: Climate change is making valley fever worse (Los Angeles Times)

… a disease that was confined to the arid Southwest for decades appears now to be spreading, with new cases being reported in Washington, Oregon and Utah. At the same time, infection rates are increasing, particularly in California, where rates have risen 800% since 2000. Now, as health officers attempt to track this emerging infectious disease, researchers say climate change is largely responsible for its spread — much the way malaria, Zika virus and Lyme disease are believed to be getting worse because of global warming.

California Lawmakers Extend Eviction Ban for Some Renters (NBC San Diego)

Tens of thousands of Californians facing eviction on Friday for not paying their rent will get to stay in their homes for at least another three months…California will pay off people's unpaid rent if they fell behind on their payments because of the pandemic. People must apply to get the money and state law says they cannot be evicted while their application is pending…Lawmakers voted Thursday to ban evictions for anyone with a pending application until June 30. Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis will sign the bill into law later in the day because Gov. Gavin Newsom has left the state for vacation with his family.

California corporate diversity law ruled unconstitutional (10 News)

A Los Angeles judge has ruled that California’s landmark law mandating that corporate boards have ethnic or LGBT members violates the state Constitution….A related case challenges a rule requiring a woman on a corporate board.

California to pay $55 million for massive wildfires (AP)

Pacific Gas & Electric has agreed to pay more than $55 million to avoid criminal prosecution for two major wildfires started by aging power lines belonging to the nation’s largest utility in Northern California, prosecutors announced Monday. PG&E does not admit wrongdoing in the two settlements reached with prosecutors for last year’s Dixie Fire — one of the biggest wildfires in California’s history — and the 2019 Kincade Fire in Sonoma County. The deals expedite damage payments to the hundreds of people whose homes were destroyed.

California drought: Sierra snowpack falls to one of lowest levels in 70 years (Mercury News)

Stressed by high temperatures and a record run of dry weather over the last three months, the Sierra Nevada snowpack, the source of 30% of the state’s water supply, has hit one of its lowest levels for the end of winter in generations.