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March 2, 2012 -- (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
- Mayor: City’s structural deficit over (10 News)
- San Diego has most expensive gas in nation (UT San Diego)
- Low rainfall may mean more local conservation (10 News)
- Get to know new District 9 candidates: Speak City Heights (Voice of San Diego)
- Teen struck by trolley was becoming ‘man of integrity’ mentor says ; has shown improvement from brain injury (La Mesa Patch)
- Case shows flaws at special police force (UT San Diego)
- Boy accused of killing friend receiving ‘extraordinary care’ (10 News)
- Heroin use jumps 229 percent amongst county’s young adults (Santee Patch)
- Refugee moms and their American daughters bond through cooking (KPBS)
STATE
- Consumer advocates, unions back healthcare ballot measures (Sacramento Bee)
- California Republican party endorses auto rates initiative (Sacramento Bee)
- Fewer than 1 in 3 California registered Republican (Sacramento Bee)
- Democrats want to extend guaranteed retirement savings to private sector (Sacramento Bee)
- Investigation alleges abuse cover-up at California centers for the disabled (KPBS)
Scroll down for excerpts and links to full stories.
LOCAL
Mayor: City’s structural deficit over (10 News)
February 23, 2012 -- San Diego's structural budget deficit has ended and residents will receive the immediate benefit of longer hours at libraries and recreation centers, Mayor Jerry Sanders announced Thursday.
"Today, I'm pleased to announce the city's decades-long structural budget deficit is history," Sanders said at a news conference.
http://www.10news.com/news/30529228/detail.html
http://www.10news.com/news/30529228/detail.html
San Diego has most expensive gas in nation (UT San Diego)
February 27, 2012 -- San Diego gasoline prices have reached levels never before seen in a February, according to the Utility Consumers' Action Network, and nationally the numbers aren't looking much better.
According to UCAN's Fuel Tracker at www.fueltracker.com, San Diego's average price for regular hit $4.32 per gallon Monday morning, while premium is averaging $4.52 per gallon and diesel has hit the $4.45 mark.
Low rainfall may mean more local conservation (10 News)
February 23, 2012 -- San Diego County is looking into to the possibility of having to conserve more water due to unseasonably dry conditions in the past year.According to the San Diego County Water Authority, rainfall has been several inches below normal this past year for the county and the rest of California. In addition, the Sierra snowpack is only 34 percent of what is typically expected, even though there was a record amount of snow last year.
Get to know new District 9 candidates: Speak City Heights (Voice of San Diego)
Get to know the candidates for the new District 9 City Council seat through Speak City Height's new weekly series on the issues.
First up: What would businessman/activist Mateo Camarillo and current District 7 Councilwoman Marti Emerald do to loop in the district's big Latino population in the decision-making process? How would they address the most important issues to Latinos?
Camarillo talked about taking advantage of opportunities that could better your life while Emerald focused on her work with the Latino Youth Council to address alcohol use by young people.
Teen struck by trolley was becoming ‘man of integrity’ mentor says ; has shown improvement from brain injury (La Mesa Patch)
February 23, 2012 -- The 17-year-old boy who suffered critical injuries in Tuesday’s trolley accident in The Village was attending an East County continuation high school and making strides to “becoming a man of integrity,” his mentor says.
http://lamesa.patch.com/articles/boy-suffers-survivable-injuries-after-being-hit-by-train-at-spring-street-station
Anthony Hutchings, who works with to
Boys to Men mentoring group, said in a phone interview Thursday that the teen who stumbled onto trolley tracks at the La Mesa Boulevard station “wasn’t a boy out running around in gangs. It was just a tragic accident.”http://lamesa.patch.com/articles/boy-suffers-survivable-injuries-after-being-hit-by-train-at-spring-street-station
Case shows flaws at special police force (UT San Diego)
February 24, 2012 -- Six days before he died, Van Ingraham was found on the floor of his room. His neck was broken and his spinal cord was crushed and disfigured. The injury was so severe, medical experts said it looked like he’d been put in a headlock or hanged.
Assuming Ingraham knew how he’d been injured, his severe autism prevented him from revealing it. He’d never uttered a word in his life.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/feb/24/case-shows-flaws-special-police-force/
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/feb/24/case-shows-flaws-special-police-force/
Boy accused of killing friend receiving ‘extraordinary care’ (10 News)
February 23, 2012 -- A 10-year-old East County boy accused of fatally stabbing a 12-year-old friend is receiving "extraordinary care" at Juvenile Hall as his defense team tries to figure out if he's mentally competent to stand trial, an attorney said Thursday.
A readiness conference, at which the boy's competency was to be addressed, was put off until April 16.
http://www.10news.com/news/30523538/detail.html
http://www.10news.com/news/30523538/detail.html
Heroin use jumps 229 percent amongst county’s young adults (Santee Patch)
26, 2012 -- The number of heroin users admitted to county-funded treatment centers has increased 57 percent overall in the last five years, and has jumped 229 percent among 18- to 25-year-olds, the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency reported this week.
Of the 12,000 or so annual admissions at the centers, about 9.5 percent in 2007 involved heroin abuse, according to the HHSA. By 2011, the portion was nearly 17 percent.
http://santee.patch.com/articles/heroin-use-jumps-229-percent-amongst-county-s-young-adults
http://santee.patch.com/articles/heroin-use-jumps-229-percent-amongst-county-s-young-adults
Refugee moms and their American daughters bond through cooking (KPBS)
October 20 2011 -- Young girls wearing pink and purple headscarves—some with matching sunglasses—ran circles around their mothers in a City Heights industrial kitchen. The moms, who shuffled oversized bowls of hot rice and chicken, didn’t miss a step. Soon, the smell of spicy Somali rice and coffee spiked with ginger and coriander would bring the boys in. Things would settle down.
Indeed, plates filled to the brim with basmati rice, Ethiopian chicken and greens weighted the young East African girls to their chairs. It was the unfamiliar taste of goat cheese that finally hushed them.
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2011/oct/20/refugee-moms-and-their-american-daughters-bond-thr/
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2011/oct/20/refugee-moms-and-their-american-daughters-bond-thr/
STATE
Consumer advocates, unions back healthcare ballot measures (Sacramento Bee)
February 26, 2012 -- Consumer advocates and labor unions are looking to tap into Californians' anxiety overhealth care costs with ballot measures targeting insurance companies and hospitals.
Signature gatherers are out now trying to qualify three initiatives for the November ballot. Two of them are being pushed by a union that represents health care workers. But the third, which would move last year's legislative battle over regulating health insurance rates onto the ballot, figures to generate the most interest. It would give the state insurance commissioner the power to block health insurance rate increases it deems excessive.
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/26/4289146/consumer-advocates-unions-back.html
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/26/4289146/consumer-advocates-unions-back.html
California Republican party endorses auto rates initiative (Sacramento Bee)
February 26, 2012 -- The California Republican Party today voted to endorse a November ballot measure that would allow auto insurers to consider a motorist's coverage history in setting rates for new customers.
Supporters of the measure, which was filed by the executive director of the Alliance of Insurance Agents & Brokers, say it will allow companies to offer "loyalty discounts" currently only available to existing customers, to motorists who want to switch plans. Critics say it will allow companies to raise rates on Californians who experience a lapse in coverage.
http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2012/02/california-republican-party-endorses-auto-rate-initiative.html
http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2012/02/california-republican-party-endorses-auto-rate-initiative.html
Fewer than 1 in 3 California registered Republican (Sacramento Bee)
February 1, 2012 -- Since just before the last California presidential primary, the proportion of voters registered as Republicans has fallen from 33.5 percent to 30.4 percent, according to new figures from the California Secretary of State.
Democrats halted a steady, years-long decline with a one percentage-point bump in registration since the last primary, largely due to leftover gains from Obama's last campaign, the new figures show. About 43.6 percent of the state's voters are registered Democrat.
The number of decline-to-state voters continues to grow, but more slowly than it did a decade ago. More than one in five of the state's voters aren't registered with a party.
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/01/4231019/report-fewer-than-one-in-three.html
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/01/4231019/report-fewer-than-one-in-three.html
Democrats want to extend guaranteed retirement savings to private sector (Sacramento Bee)
February 23, 2012 -- New legislation unveiled this morning aims to build a sort of CalPERS-for-all retirement savings system that the measure's author says could cover an estimated 7 million working Californians in the private sector.
Senate Bill 1234 by Los Angeles Democratic Sen. Kevin de Leónwould require businesses with five or more employees to enroll them in a new "Personal Pension" defined benefit program or offer an alternative employer-sponsored plan.
http://blogs.sacbee.com/the_state_worker/2012/02/democrats-want-to-extend-guaranteed-retirement-savings-to-private-sector.html
http://blogs.sacbee.com/the_state_worker/2012/02/democrats-want-to-extend-guaranteed-retirement-savings-to-private-sector.html
Investigation alleges abuse cover-up at California centers for the disabled (KPBS)
February 27, 2012 -- Reports of patient abuse at California's institutions for the severely disabled have increased dramatically in recent years. But a new investigative report says practically no one is being held accountable for crimes against these vulnerable patients. And that may be due to an unusual, in-house police force monitoring the facilities, called the Office of Protective Services.
Six days before he died, Van Ingraham was found on the floor of his room. His neck was broken and his spinal cord was crushed and disfigured. The injury was so severe, medical experts said it looked like he could have been put in a headlock or hanged.
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2012/feb/27/investigation-alledges-abuse-cover-calif-centers-d/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kpbs%2Flocal+%28KPBS+News%3A+Local+Headlines%29
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