August 27, 2012 (San Diego)—Democrat Scott Peters’ Congressional campaign has issued a press release blasting his opponent, Republican Brian Bilbray, for a record on women’s rights and choice that “closely mirrors Mr. Akin’s,” Peters’ communications director MaryAnn Pintar said.
August 27, 2012 (San Diego) -- San Diego County residents’ support for funding seawater desalination or other investments to enhance the reliability of the region’s water supplies has increased compared to last year, a new public opinion poll commissioned by the San Diego County Water Authority has found.
The poll, which surveyed 816 adult San Diego County residents in July, found:
August 27, 2012 (El Cajon) -- Grossmont Union High School District and Grossmont High School celebrated the topping out of the new humanities building on Tuesday, Aug. 21. The ceremony marked the completion of the steel framing as the construction team set the final beam into place. The humanities building is scheduled for completion in spring of 2013.
August 27, 2012 (Jamul) – Both lanes of Highway 94 are blocked by fire just east of Melody in the Jamul area, CHP incidents page reports at 10:25 p.m.A call reported hearing a traffic collision and indicated the crash may be on Campo Road near Melanie. Watch for details soon.
August 28, 2012 (Santee) -- There is a Hazmat incident in Santee at 9457 Carlton Oaks Drive. A wide area is secured. E5 and chief are there with the Sheriff's Department. SDFD and County Hazmat are required responding to unit A.
Update:4:30 p.m.
By Nadin Abbott
Photos by Tom Abbott
August 28, 2012 (Santee)-- The Sheriff's Department responded to a call of a chemical odor at 9457 Carlton Oaks Dr. in Santee. At their discretion they escalated the call to a full Hazardous Materials response.
August 26, 2012 (San Diego’s East County) – More than 200 earthquakes centered near Brawley in Imperial County have rocked our region in the past 24, many felt by residents across San Diego.The strongest measured 5.5 and 5.3 on the Richter scale; the most recent, a 5.1, rattled the area at 10 p.m.
August 26, 2012 (Julian) – Jeremy’s on the Hill California Style Bistro presents Live Music with Harry Joe Reynolds on August 31 beginning at 6:30 p.m. Reynolds, a local favorite since 1979, has been making music in Julian for 3 decades. He will bring a touch of jazz to Jeremy’s on the Hill with easy listening songs on the jazzier side of blues with classic ballads and blue standards.
E - The Environmental Magazine
Written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss
August 30, 2012 (San Diego's East County) -- Dear EarthTalk: How energy efficient (and comfortable) is underfloor heating, sometimes known as radiant heating? -- Marcy Dell, Boston, MA
Underfloor radiant heating involves under laying the floor with a hot element or tubing that transfers heat into the room via infrared radiation and convection, obviating the need for forced or blowing air.
August 29, 2012 (San Diego) – A harrowing sequence of events transpire during the first thirty minutes of In Darkness, atrocities that I could describe but I won’t. That’s because as shocking as they are, there is only one shot, seen later, that remains entrenched in my mind.
August 25, 2012 (El Cajon)-- Heartland Fire & Rescue crews responded to reports of a structure fire in El Cajon at 11:13 a.m.. Firefighters found the home engulfed with flames and heavy smoke coming from the windows of the house, located at 612 Alderson Street.
August 25, 2012 (San Diego) -- The Mission Trails Regional Park Visitor and Interpretive Center will be closed Monday, August 27 through Friday, August 31 for resurfacing of the cement flooring.
The Park will remain open as usual and the Visitor Center parking lot, terrace, amphitheater, and restrooms will all be accessible. The free Guided Nature Walks conducted by Trail Guides every Wednesday, August 29 from 9:30 - 11:00 a.m. will continue while the Visitor Center is closed. Meet the Trail Guide at the entrance to the Visitor Center.
August 25, 2012 (San Diego's East County) -- Dear EarthTalk: Has anyone calculated the energy wasted at night by unnecessary lighting in and around buildings? What can we do to reduce our light footprint? -- Bill Rehkamp, via e-mail
August 25, 2012 (San Diego's East County) -- Watching activists defend "green wind energy" as if it was the only solution turns my stomach. It is like talking to a wall. Facts, and there are facts, make little difference. Green energy is nice and green energy is good, go blindly hug a wind turbine, seems to be the message.
So let me ask these same activists: should Pattern Energy, a division of the Carlyle group, target the Rosecrans National Cemetery for development? How dare I suggest this? Well, it's windy there, in fact, probably more so than Ocotillo.
Make social security online services ‘par for the course’
August 25, 2012 (El Cajon) -- For many retirees (and near retirees), there is nothing that they look forward to as much as a day on the golf course. The game recently has been made more pleasurable by the use of computers and GPS technology. A hand-held electronic unit acts just like a personal caddie, providing quick and accurate yardage information — and much more. It saves time … as well as mental and physical effort.
August 25, 2012 (San Diego) -- The San Diego Latino Film Festival is proud to present its 13th annual Cinema en tu IdiomaFall Film Series showcasing the best of Latin American, Mexican, and Spanish Cinema!
August 25, 2012 (La Mesa) -- One of the best things about downtown La Mesa is the shopping where you will find stores that are beyond the ordinary, and exceptional. One of the shops that many La Mesans agree is exceptional is Mostly Mission, a shop that carries quality merchandise and accessories for the craftsman style environment. The store first opened in 2007, and has recently moved from a 850 square feet location to a place up the street almost three times the size.
State levies additional cost without providing additional services.
August 24, 2012 (Alpine)– The Alpine Fire Protection District (AFPD) Board of Directors at its August 21st board meeting adopted a resolution opposing the newly implemented State Responsibility Area (SRA) fees, which will impose additional financial burden on its constituents without providing additional fire services.
August 24, 2012 (Sacramento)—A bill by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) would have made California the first state in the nation to require that public agencies provide records in searchable online formats such as Word or Excel.
Governor , who wants to “crush” opponents of big energy projects, called CEQA reform “Lord’s work”
“Governor Brown is dangerous to the financial and environmental health of California, and I am extremely disappointed in his short-sightedness.”--Laura Cyphert, Cedar Fire Survivor and cofounder of the East County Community Action Coalition
By Miriam Raftery
August 23, 2012 (Sacramento)—In a stealth effort that shocked enviornmentalists, business groups succeeded in gutting a bill in the State Assembly and inserted language to essentially repeal the California Enviornmental Quality Act (CEQA) .The measure passed the Assembly yesterday and advanced to the State Senate. But today, State Senate President Darrell Steinberg and the bill’s author, Michael Rubio, held a press conference to announce that the measure will not be taken up before the end of the legislative session next week.
Sierra Club California director Kathryn Phillips voiced relief, calling SB 317 “one of the worst attacks on environmental protections that we’ve seen in the 40-year life of the law.”
August 23, 2012 (San Diego’s East County) – A rattlesnake victim at a campground in Mission Trails Regional Park has been transported to a hospital for treatment today, ECM confirmed with a park ranger. Officials have not released an update on the patient’s condition.
For information on how to avoid a rattlesnake attack, please see:
County Democrats gut fire protection resolution, while Republican supervisors also fail to protect County residents from wind turbine fires
By Miriam Raftery
August 24, 2012 (San Diego's East County)--The San Diego Democratic Central Committee this week passed a measure calling on County Supervisors to increase firefighting resources-- but removed a key provision that would have urged lawmakers to ban wind turbines in fire-prone East County.
Wind turbines have been responsible for starting hundreds of fires around the world, including wildfires, but firefighters cannot fight a fire burning in a 500-foot-tall wind turbine whirling off burning debris. With Supervisors poised to approve a wind ordinance opening the door to numerous turbines in the backcountry, the vote was a major disappointment to residents concerned about the clear threat to public safety posed by wind turbines in our fire-prone region.
August 20, 2012 (San Diego’s East County) – Asian Citrus Psyllids, tiny insects that can carry a disease capable of wiping out California’s citrus industry, have been found in several East County communities as well as North County and other southern California locations.
A quarantine is in effect across most of our region.
August 23, 2012 (Washington D.C.)--The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is announcing a recall of cantaloupe by Chamberlain Farms in Indiana because of possible contamination with Salmonella Typhimurium associated with a multi-state outbreak of salmonellosis. The FDA is warning consumers not to eat and to discard cantaloupe from this farm, which shipped products to many states.
August 23, 2012 (Dulzura) – The community of Dulzura is invited to attend the grand re-opening and open house at the SDRFPD Dulzura-Barrett Station #35, 1135 Community Building Rd., Dulzura on August 25 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. After being remodeled, the SDRFPD station will now be manned by SDR/SDCFA volunteer fire fighters along with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Rural Division Law Enforcement Deputies.
The event will be attended by Supervisor Diane Jacob, Rural Fire Chief Dave Nissen, Assistant Sheriff Patricia Duke, Sheriff Lieutenant Rose Kurupas, Sheriff Sergeant Joe Leos, as well as members of the San Diego Rural Fire Board. Refreshments will be served.
By Rick Rogers, Host of Front & Center: Military Talk Radio
August 23, 2012 (San Diego)--Charities rattling their cups for veterans and troop programs in Southern California have grown to epic numbers in recent years.
I bet San Diego County charities have grown tenfold since 2008.
Story by Miriam Raftery; photos by Jim Pelley and Parke Ewing
"I feel like we are living in a third world country." -- Jim Pelley, Ocotillo resident and ECM photographer
August 23, 2012 (Ocotillo) – Workers have begun constructing the first of 112 industrial wind turbines near the small town of Ocotillo on federal Bureau of Land Management property adjacent to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.
But as towering turbines eclipse mountains and desert skies, dust released from scraping desert soils bare and excavating massive turbine foundations have residents complaining that their community has been turned into a “dust bowl” while government officials turn a blind eye to conditions that pose hazards to their health.
August 23, 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.
Hurricane threat for GOP convention in Tampa? (CBS)
August 23, 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
City races start to heat up in East County (UT San Diego)
11-year-old accused of fatally stabbing friend found mentally incompetent to stand trial (Santee.Patch.com)
Retired Border Patrol union president indicted (10 News)
Group hoping to save ECPAC continues fight (UT San Diego)
Where parolees live in San Diego: map (Voice of San Diego)
San Diego Gas & Electric wind projects draw national notice (KCET)
As heat dries land and lake, asthma fears rise in Imperial County(KPBS)
Summer of hate concert came to El Cajon (San Diego Citybeat)
High costs of bonds shocks Poway Unified School District (UT San Diego)
STATE
Democratic lawmakers move to oppose rewriting CA environmental laws (Sacramento Bee)
SoCal groves report new cases of lethal citrus bug (Sacramento Bee)
Man dies after contracting rare rodent disease at Yosemite (CBS)
By Miriam Raftery
August 27, 2012 (San Diego) -- San Diego County residents’ support for funding seawater desalination or other investments to enhance the reliability of the region’s water supplies has increased compared to last year, a new public opinion poll commissioned by the San Diego County Water Authority has found.
August 27, 2012 (El Cajon) -- Grossmont Union High School District and Grossmont High School celebrated the topping out of the new humanities building on Tuesday, Aug. 21. The ceremony marked the completion of the steel framing as the construction team set the final beam into place. The humanities building is scheduled for completion in spring of 2013.
August 26, 2012 (Julian) – Jeremy’s on the Hill California Style Bistro presents Live Music with Harry Joe Reynolds on August 31 beginning at 6:30 p.m. Reynolds, a local favorite since 1979, has been making music in Julian for 3 decades. He will bring a touch of jazz to Jeremy’s on the Hill with easy listening songs on the jazzier side of blues with classic ballads and blue standards.
By Brian Lafferty
escue crews responded to reports of a structure fire in El Cajon at 11:13 a.m.. Firefighters found the home engulfed with flames and heavy smoke coming from the windows of the house, located at 612 Alderson Street. 
State levies additional cost without providing additional services.
By Brian Lafferty
By Miriam Raftery
August 23, 2012 (San Diego’s East County) – A rattlesnake victim at a campground in Mission Trails Regional Park has been transported to a hospital for treatment today, ECM confirmed with a park ranger. Officials have not released an update on the patient’s condition.
By Miriam Raftery
August 20, 2012 (San Diego’s East County) – Asian Citrus Psyllids, tiny insects that can carry a disease capable of wiping out California’s citrus industry, have been found in several East County communities as well as North County and other southern California locations.
August 23, 2012 (Dulzura) – The community of Dulzura is invited to attend the grand re-opening and open house at the SDRFPD Dulzura-Barrett Station #35, 1135 Community Building Rd., Dulzura on August 25 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. After being remodeled, the SDRFPD station will now be manned by SDR/SDCFA volunteer fire fighters along with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Rural Division Law Enforcement Deputies.
By Rick Rogers, Host of Front & Center: Military Talk Radio
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:
Diego’s inland regions, published in other media. This week’s top “Roundup” headlines include:
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