April 1, 2012 (San Diego) -- In the Spanish-speaking world, La Pascua de Resurreción (Easter) is a very colorful time of year coming at the end of the Holy Week that begins with el Viernes Santo (Good Friday). In almost every place in Latin America and Spain, there are religious observances, and celebrations.
Neighbors of proposed local wind farms dismayed at CA Senators Boxer and Feinstein votes for subsidies of industrial wind projects that pose dangers to their communities
April 1, 2012 (San Diego’s East County) – The U.S. Senate has voted to kill S. 2204, which failed to receive the 60 votes needed. The measure would have funded wind industry tax credits by eliminating tax credits for oil companies.
Many wind energy proposals in the pipeline may have the plug pulled by energy companies that say those projects would not be viable without federal money.At a hearing last week on the Ocotillo Express wind project, a representative from Pattern Energy warned that “delays can kill a project” since subsidies expire at year’s end.
April 1, 2012 -- Concerns are growing across the nation over the number of birds, particularly eagles, that are losing their lives. Now, as the number of wind energy projects grows, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service is preparing to issue “take” permits that will make it legal for wind energy companies to kill eagles with no consequences.
The move comes as San Diego County Supervisors are poised to consider a wind energy project for East County as well as a proposed wind ordinance that would make it easier for industrial-scale wind projects to be built here.
March 17, 2012 (Boulevard) -- Veterans and their families are invited to come geocaching on Saturday, April 7th and to enjoy inexpensive camping ($10-$15) at Sacred Rocks Reserve during April. The privately owned campground has set aside the month of April to say thanks for the sacrifices of veterans and their families.
Owner and Staff are extending appreciation for military service by offering their best - the gift of peace and quiet and simply being with family. Sacred Rocks wishes to stand apart from regular Memorial Day deals with a whopping 78% off.
March 21, 2012 (Campo) -- Head on out to Campo for an old-time train ride with the Easter Bunny at the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum in Campo. In addition to the train ride, visitors will bring home an Easter egg, and participate in an Easter craft project.
March 31, 2012 (La Mesa) -- Students from Helix Charter High School’s Special Education Department are going for the gold, and students and staff alike hope to raise awareness in the process.
March 31, 2012 (Sacramento) -- On March 12, the State learned that two contracted service providers, International Business Machines (IBM) and Iron Mountain Inc., could not locate several specialized computer storage devices containing information from the California Department of Child Support Services (DCSS) involving more than 800,000 individuals.
The devices were in transit from IBM’s facility in Colorado to California. Upon arrival, several storage devices were missing.
San Diego Planning Commission to weigh changing zoning to allow project at April 26 meeting; Opponents plan march today in Santee
March 31, 2012 (Santee) – Santee Mayor Randy Voepel didn’t mince words. “This is a declaration of war,” he said at Wednesday night’s City Council meeting, where Councilmembers voted unanimously to oppose the gas-fired Quail Brush power plant.
The 100 megawatt (MW) “peaker” power plant is proposed on 10 acres adjacent to Mission Trails Regional Park, close to West Hills High School and homes.
March 31, 2012 (Rancho San Diego) -- A pilot program for recent Iraqi immigrants that teaches English in the context of office work is being offered at Cuyamaca College through a partnership between the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District and San Diego County.
March 31, 2012 (Alpine) -- The Alpine Fire Protection District is pleased to announce the purchase of new carbon monoxide detectors and a new roof ventilation prop.
The funds to purchase these new advanced items were made possible through grant awards received from two local grant sources, San Diego County Indian Gaming Local Community Benefit Fund and the San Diego Regional Fire and Emergency grant.
March 31, 2012 (Buckman Springs) -- Cynthia Rowley found irony in this sign posted by SDG&E at a Powerlink tower site in Buckman springs.
"It's right behind my house where we would hike," she said of the posted environmentally sensitive area, where the greatest damage to the environment has been caused by SDG&E itself. "Now there are 10 towers on the east side. It's caused me so much sorrow," Rowley wrote.
FBI warns public of falling victim to the bank examiner scam
March 30, 2012 (San Diego) -- Thursday, March 29, the FBI announced the arrest of two San Diego men on charges of impersonating FBI Agents as part of a scheme to defraud a San Diego woman over over $200,000. Nenad Videnovic 22, was arrested by FBI Agents on March 27 in Ocean Beach. Brian John Murphy, 33 was arrested later that same day in the Mission Bay area.
March 30, 2012-7 p.m. (San Diego's East County) -- Two serious traffic accidents are clogging traffic on local freeways. A motorcyclist is down, blocking lanes on southbound Highway 125 at Navajo. On Interstate 8 eastbound near El Cajon Blvd., a major accident involving four vehicles and a big rig has just occurred, according to the CHP website and Incident Page Network.
March 30, 2012 (Alpine) -- . Lions, Tigers and Bears will be holding their annual Easter Egg Hunt Saturday, April 7, from 9 a.m. until 11a.m at 24402 Martin Way, Alpine.Children will be able to participate in an Easter Egg Hunt and enjoy the sights and sounds of the big cats.
Donations of $25 for adults, $10 for kids ages 2-12 and kids under 2 are free with an accompanying adult.Bring your own basket to carry home your goodies.RSVP by April 1 by calling 619-659-8078.
March 30, 2012 (San Diego) -- Kids and families will have their choice of enjoying traditional egg hunts, meeting the Spring Bunny, gobbling up a pancake breakfast and just generally having some egg-ucational fun over the next two weekends at County parks in Ramona, Spring Valley, Cardiff, Del Mar and Encinitas.
“A good egg hunt is a fun spring-time tradition for many families and it’s hard to imagine a better place than an egg-hunt in one of our great parks,” said Brian Albright, director of the San Diego County Department of Parks and Recreation. “They’re the perfect place for the whole family.”
March 30, 2012 (San Diego) -- The San Diego Chapter of the Sierra Club has filed a lawsuit to rescind the City of San Diego’s uninformed decision to pursue managed competition of the Miramar Landfill. The lawsuit alleges that the City violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which would require a public review of environmental consequences before the City could take substantial steps to frame and define a project to privatize San Diego’s public landfill.
Part IV in our series on the Ocotillo Express Wind project, which would feed electricity into SDG&E's Sunrise Powerlink bound for San Diego.
By Miriam Raftery
“Jobs are temporary but the destruction of our desert is forever. All of this culture and history will be lost…all in the name of greed.” – Linda Ewing, Ocotillo
“This is an economically important project for our community.”—Katie Figari, Chief Executive Officer, Brawley Chamber of Commerce
March 29, 2012 (Ocotillo) – A conditional use permit, height variances and mitigation were approved by an 8-1 vote yesterday at the Imperial Valley Planning Commission meeting.
Planners, wooed by the applicant’s estimate that $150 million in tax revenues will flow into county coffers over the project’s 30-year-life, along with aprojected 350 construction jobs and at most 20 permanent jobs, opted to ignore the very grave concerns voiced by tribal leaders, environmentalists, health workers and many residents. Those concerns include dangerous and destructive potential of the project, as well as federal fast-tracking that has trampled long-held rights of residents and tribes.
March 30, 2012 (San Diego)—A quake measuring 3.3 on the Richter scale and centered 4 miles southwest of the Palomar Observatory rattle the region at 12:06 a.m. The quake, centered on the Elsinore fault line, was felt as far away as El Cajon.
March 29, 2012 (Lemon Grove) – Police seek information on the occupants of a dark sedan that pulled up next to a Ford Five Hundred near Massachusetts early this morning. The driver of the Ford and a passenger heard several shots and two bullet holes were found in the driver’s side of the vehicle. No one was injured.
March 29, 2012 (San Diego)—Michael Kobulnicky, a Lemon Grove resident and former spokesman for the San Diego Tea Party, is a free man after the District Attorney dropped all charges. Kobulnicky had been accused of kidnapping a woman, then sexually assaulting her at Fiesta Island.
Why it's time to end subsidies for the wind industry
By Jim Wiegand
March 28, 2012 (San Diego’s East County) -- In the first part of this wind industry cover-up story, it was pointed out how California Condors were trapped from the wild in the mid 1980s as an emergency response to save the quickly disappearing population from thousands of turbines that had been placed in the Tehachapi Pass region.
What is not known is that during this same period of time in the 1980s, tens of thousands of other birds also perished at California wind farms. If one chooses not to believe any of this, then knowing how the industry responded in 1989 should convince anybody about the ongoing 28 year mortality cover-up by the wind industry.
March 29, 2012 (San Diego) -- He was renamed Chance hoping that he would have a second opportunity at life. He survived his gun-shot wounds and now Chance, a retriever mix, got to go home to a new bed, new toys, and new family.
Not All Ballots for the June 5 Primary List Presidential Candidates
How are you registered? If you are a registered nonpartisan voter, you will not see any presidential candidates listed on your ballot for the June 5 Presidential Primary Election. County Registrar of Voters Deborah Seiler is encouraging voters to check their registered party preference and understand how it affects what they’ll see on their ballot.
March 29, 2012 (San Diego) -- As April 15 approaches and San Diegans prepare to pay their income taxes, Lori Saldaña, the Democratic frontrunner of the 52nd Congressional District, repeated her challenge to the other candidates to release their tax returns.
Since issuing her original challenge on February 22nd, Saldaña is the only one of ten candidates who has made her taxes public. The leading Republican contender, Brian Bilbray, has agreed to release his returns, but has not done so.
April 21, 2012 (El Cajon) -- Join the Water Conservation Garden, the Heritage of the Americas Museum and the Ornamental Horticulture Department at Cuyamaca College on Saturday, April 28 from 9a.m. to 4p.m. as they present the 19 th Annual Spring Garden Festival.
March 29, 2012 -- (San Diego’s East County) – ECM World Watch helps you be an informed citizen about important issues globally and nationally. As part of our commitment to reflecting all voices and views, we include links to a wide variety of news sources representing a broad spectrum of political, religious, and social views. Top world and U.S. headlines include:
U.S.
Supreme Court weighs all or nothing on healthcare law (Reuters)
Jobs bill clears Congress despite warnings (Los Angeles Times)
Trayvon Martin: confronting the problem of enduring racism (Forbes)
A job at what cost? When employers log in to dig in (NPR)
Gingrich scales back his presidential bid (USA Today)
Cooking school spreads immigrant skills and ethnic recipes (NPR)
WORLD
Very high radiation, little water in remaining Japanese reactor (UT San Diego)
Japan left with one nuclear reactor after shutdown (BBC)
Syrian authorizes are targeting children, says UN rights chief (BBC)
Scroll down for excerpts and links to full stories.
March 30, 2012 (San Diego’s East County) – I know a few business owners and sales people out there who seem to be addicted to the "expert" marketing or sales guru. They have made almost a religion out of following several different coaches or consultants through personal interaction and/or seminar attendance and/or reading of their books. Every piece of advice these experts dole out is absorbed like a sponge. While I applaud the enthusiasm behind this adulation, I have to wonder if these businesspeople are getting any positive benefit out of this approach. It seems to me that this is another case of too many cooks spoil the broth syndrome.
March 17, 2012 (Boulevard) -- Veterans and their families are invited to come geocaching on Saturday, April 7th and to enjoy inexpensive camping ($10-$15) at Sacred Rocks Reserve during April. 
San Diego Planning Commission to weigh changing zoning to allow project at April 26 meeting; Opponents plan march today in Santee
March 31, 2012 (Rancho San Diego) -- A pilot program for recent Iraqi immigrants that teaches English in the context of office work is being offered at Cuyamaca College through a partnership between the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District and San Diego County.
FBI warns public of falling victim to the bank examiner scam
March 30, 2012 (Alpine) -- . Lions, Tigers and Bears will be holding their annual Easter Egg Hunt Saturday, April 7, from 9 a.m. until 11a.m at 24402 Martin Way, Alpine.
March 30, 2012 (San Diego) -- Kids and families will have their choice of enjoying traditional egg hunts, meeting the Spring Bunny, gobbling up a pancake breakfast and just generally having some egg-ucational fun over the next two weekends at County parks in Ramona, Spring Valley, 
By Miriam Raftery
go)—A quake measuring 3.3 on the Richter scale and centered 4 miles southwest of the Palomar Observatory rattle the region at 12:06 a.m. The quake, centered on the Elsinore fault line, was felt as far away as El Cajon.
By Miriam Raftery
March 29, 2012 (San Diego)—Michael Kobulnicky, a Lemon Grove resident and former spokesman for the San Diego Tea Party, is a free man after the District Attorney dropped all charges. Kobulnicky had been accused of kidnapping a woman, then sexually assaulting her at Fiesta Island.
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