EAST COUNTY ROUNDUP: LOCAL AND STATEWIDE NEWS

May 23, 2024 (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 round-up stories include:

LOCAL

• An entire California town (Campo) is for sale — again. This time for $6.6M (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• County supervisors ok funding for migrant transit center  (KPBS)
• Cheers! San Diego wineries continue to flourish despite nationwide decline in wine sales (10 News)
• With state transit funding frozen, MTS could face 'fiscal cliff' in summer 2025 (KPBS)
• Glue trap found in USPS collection box in Rancho San Diego (10 News)
•  They’re getting sick because of the cross-border sewage crisis. This committee aims to prove it. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• ‘Por Favor’ | Iconic La Mesa Village restaurant is for sale (CBS 8)
• Public school, religious instruction: Many San Diego County charter school students are also enrolling in religious programs  (San Diego Union-Tribune)

STATE

• California's median home price hits record high at $900,000, realtors association says (10 News)
• California lawmakers move to delay new health care worker minimum wage as budget deficit looms (Sacramento Bee)
• California lawmakers kill psychedelics legalization — and hundreds more bills. What was cut? (Sacramento Bee)
• California considering bill limiting self-checkout at grocery, drug stores (Cal Coast News)Bill that would tax Big Tech to help California media advances in Senate — barely (Sacramento Bee)
• California's $12 billion Medicaid experiment stretches the definition of health care (NPR)
• The single largest cut in Gavin Newsom’s new budget hits California health care providers (Cal Matters)

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

LOCAL

An entire California town (Campo) is for sale — again. This time for $6.6M (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Nearly all of Campo has been for sale since 2019 — without a buyer in sight. Now, a new real estate team has taken over the task of selling almost the entire unincorporated community, which is a little more than an hour from San Diego. The sale would include 28 buildings, a mix of former Army barracks turned into apartments and single-family homes, as well as commercial properties.

County supervisors ok funding for migrant transit center  (KPBS)

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 Tuesday to accept nearly $19.6 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to pay for a migrant transition day center to help immigrants entering the United States travel to their final destinations.

Cheers! San Diego wineries continue to flourish despite nationwide decline in wine sales (10 News)

According to Silicon Valley Bank’s new report on the State of the U.S. Wine Industry, wine sales nationwide dropped in 2023, and tasting room visitation dropped for a second year….However, according to the 2024 report from the San Diego County Vintners Association, San Diego County’s 166 wineries generated $54.5 million in gross sales in 2023, an 11% increase from the year prior.

With state transit funding frozen, MTS could face 'fiscal cliff' in summer 2025 (KPBS)

The Metropolitan Transit System is grappling with a curve ball in its budgeting process after hundreds of millions of dollars in state funding were frozen because of California's budget deficit.

Glue trap found in USPS collection box in Rancho San Diego (10 News)

A local man trying to mail out some bills made a sticky discovery inside a USPS collection box in Rancho San Diego. Outside the Rancho San Diego Towne Center, a thief is shopping inside a blue collection box... That issue has been plaguing the US Postal Service for years. ABC 10News has been documenting complaints dating back nearly a decade, of planted glue traps, allowing thieves to fish out mail, specifically checks. Those checks are then chemically washed, and made out to the thieves to the tune of hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars.

 They’re getting sick because of the cross-border sewage crisis. This committee aims to prove it. (San Diego Union-Tribune)

‘Our thinking is that a lot of the exposure and a lot of the illness is coming from what people are breathing’

‘Por Favor’ | Iconic La Mesa Village restaurant is for sale (CBS 8)

A staple in La Mesa Village that has been around for five decades could change in the future as it searches for new ownership.

Public school, religious instruction: Many San Diego County charter school students are also enrolling in religious programs  (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Homeschooling advocates disagree over whether the arrangements, which have grown in popularity since the pandemic began, comply with state law.

STATE

California's median home price hits record high at $900,000, realtors association says (10 News)

It was the first time the median price for a dwelling in the state had reached such an astronomical level.

California lawmakers move to delay new health care worker minimum wage as budget deficit looms (Sacramento Bee)

California lawmakers may delay for a month a planned wage hike for health care workers as negotiations continue over how to implement the new minimum wage law at a time when lawmakers are struggling to deal with a big budget deficit.

California lawmakers kill psychedelics legalization — and hundreds more bills. What was cut? (Sacramento Bee)

A California bill to regulate therapeutic psychedelic use and another that would require employers to allow employees to disconnect from work in their off hours were the latest victims of a process used to kill bills without public comment.

California considering bill limiting self-checkout at grocery, drug stores (Cal Coast News)

A California bill reportedly aimed at preventing shoplifting could significantly restrict the use of self-checkout kiosks at large grocery and drug stores and lead to higher prices. Senate Bill 1446 would require many large grocery and drug retail stores to place extra staff at their self-checkout stations, which experts say could result in more stores moving away from self-checkout systems.

Bill that would tax Big Tech to help California media advances in Senate — barely (Sacramento Bee)

A California bill to tax Big Tech companies to fund a tax credit for the news industry narrowly survived a Thursday Senate Appropriations Committee vote and will now proceed to the Senate floor for a full vote. The committee voted 4-2 to discharge Senate Bill 1327.....

California's $12 billion Medicaid experiment stretches the definition of health care (NPR)

…an ambitious $12 billion experiment to transform Medi-Cal into both a health insurer and a social services provider, one that relies not only on doctors and nurses, but also community health workers and nonprofit groups that offer dozens of services, including delivering healthy meals and helping homeless people pay for housing.

The single largest cut in Gavin Newsom’s new budget hits California health care providers (Cal Matters)

Gov. Gavin Newsom contends his budget maintains core health care services for Californians. Doctors and other providers are alarmed by his proposed cut to Medi-Cal, a state insurance program used by millions.