By Suzanne Potter, California News Service

Photo: Alaskan brown bear; Sapphoris/Pixabay

New rule would permit the use of steel leg-hold traps with teeth, spikes and serrated jaws.

November 2, 2020 (Sacramento) --  Time is running out for people to weigh in on a Trump administration plan to allow baiting and trapping of bears in Alaska's Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. The public comment period ends one week from today, on a new rule which would also permit hunters to kill cubs in their dens.

Photo and story by Rebecca Jefferis Williamson 

Nov. 1, 2020 (San Diego's East County) Halloween night, October 31, 2020, provided a spooky and unique "Once in a Blue Moon" phenomenon - a blue moon.

According to the Old Farmer's Almanac October contained both a harvest moon and a hunter's blue moon. The "why" behind this unique occurrance  has to do with having two full moons in one calendar month or autumnal equinox. 

Interpreting cloud formations, and not to be mistaken with recognized cloud formations, but imagination, means declaring these clouds as either a dragon's head or a fuzzy Baby Yoda. Your choice. 

Source:  goaztecs.com

Photo courtesy goaztecs.com

November 1, 2020 (Logan, Utah) -  Greg Bell had 22 carries for a career-high 157 yards and a touchdown and added 29-yard TD reception to help San Diego State beat Utah State 38-7.

 By Gig Conaughton, County of San Diego Communications Office

Video: Andy Tolley, County of San Diego Communications Office

October 31, 2020 (Lakeside) - The County has broken ground on $11.2 million of work to rejuvenate and improve Lakeside’s popular Lindo Lake County Park.

Improvements at the 55-acre park will include building a new fishing pier and birdwatching stations, planting hundreds of native trees and improving water quality in the lake’s east basin by removing more than 200,000 tons of sediment — enough to cover nearly five football fields 12 feet high — that has built up over decades.

County Supervisor Dianne Jacob and County Parks officials kicked off the start of construction last week with a socially distanced groundbreaking. Jacob, who is retiring in January after serving 27 years, has long championed efforts to rejuvenate the park.

By Robin N. Kendall

October 30, 2020 (San Diego’s East County) -- East County residents in Area 6 of Mountain Empire Unified School District will either reelect  incumbent school board president Tina Heimerdinger, or choose challenger Story R. Vogel, a retired historian who also coaches a the Mountain Empire High School football team.

According to the district website at https://www.meusd.org, Mountain Empire serves families living in Pine Valley, Campo, Descanso, Boulevard, Portero, Lake Morena and Jacumba. Chris Anderson, the incumbent in Area 7 (Campo), is running for reelection unopposed.

Story Vogel responded to East County Magazine (ECM) questions and submitted his biography and ballot statement. Incumbent Tina Heimerdinger was also invited to participate via several emails, but did not respond.

Heimerdinger, who is president of the board, has served on it for more than a decade including the turbulent tenure of Superintendent Steve Van Zant, who pled guilty to felony conflict of interest and was ordered to repay the district $50,000. Van Zant set up charter schools in other districts overseen by Mountain Empire from which his consulting company profited, as ECM reported, also raising questions over lack of oversight by the board on Heimerdinger’s watch.

Here are Vogel's responses:

By Chris Jennewein, Times of San Diego, a member of the San Diego Online News Association

Photo:  Voters drop off a mail-in ballot at the San Diego Registrar of Voters office in Kearny Mesa. Photo by Chris Stone

October 30, 2020 (San Diego) - In an early-voting surge seen across the country, nearly half of San Diego County’s 1.95 million voters have cast their ballots in the Nov. 3 election, the Registrar of Voters reported Thursday.

East County News Service

October 30, 2020 (Sacramento) -- Starting Saturday, October 31, Californians will be eligible for an additional seven weeks of benefits under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program. The increase to 46 weeks is available for those who are reaching the end of their initial 39 weeks of benefits that they started as early as February 2. The process for re-computing the PUA claims is expected to take two weeks.  

By Aaron Amerling

October 29, 2020 (La Mesa) -- Over the past four years, it has become apparent that the citizens of La Mesa can not trust Colin Parent to do what is in the community's best interest, and only what’s in his personal or donor’s best interests.

By Miriam Raftery

View our video interview with Letitia Dickerson: click here

October 29, 2020 (El Cajon) -- Letitia Dickerson, one of six candidates running for El Cajon City Council in District two, calls the area the “forgotten district” while other parts of the city have seen growth. She pledges to make district two “unforgettable” if elected.

She missed our candidate forum because the city had an error her email address. (View forum with the other five candidates).  Fortunately, she’s reached out to ECM and conducted an interview via Zoom to talk about her goals if elected.   

According to her website, Letitia has lived in El Cajon for over 22 years and says at least 18 of those have been in district two. She was born in Jersey and calls herself “a Jersey girl with a California heart.” She’s gone from homeless to owning small businesses including a smoothie shop and gym, and now works in telecommunications.  She’s raised her children in the district and now has grandchildren here as well.  She’s an ordained evangelical and a Republican who is the coordinator of SoCal Day of Hope, a program that provides outreach and resources to people in need. She’s also volunteered with community nonprofits including Rescue Mission, Salvation Army,  San Diego Food Bank, San Diego Mentors, Promises for Kids and more.

Below are highlights from her interview.

Source: City of La Mesa

Photo: Themis, Blind Justice, Cast Bronze by Design Toscano

Click here to apply

October 28, 2020 (La Mesa) – Applications are now being accepted for the newly created Community Police Oversight Board (“CPOB”). The deadline for submission of applications is 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, December 1, 2020, in the City Clerk’s office at La Mesa City Hall, 8130 Allison Avenue. Applications may be obtained at City Hall or from the City of La Mesa website.

The CPOB will provide recommendations to the Chief of Police, Mayor, City Council, and City Manager on the La Mesa Police Department procedures and policies and on matters of public safety within the City. The CPOB will consist of an 11 member panel (must be residents of the City of La Mesa) as follows:

East County News Service

October 28, 2020 (San Diego)- - The reading public, starved for material in which technology is integral to the story, can now turn to Orofino Press LLC to fulfill their desires.  Orofino Press LLC's fiction focuses on mystery and young adult genres.  Non-fiction focuses on history and travel.  All transport the reader to the new and novel.

Technology to Orofino Press LLC extends far beyond computer science.  Examples include robotic gold refining, forensic accounting criminal detection, overhead cranes, energy maneuverability theory, and dissolvable substrate micro-electronics.  These, and other, technologies exist but may be unknown to the general public.  

Orofino Press LLC is a full service publisher.  To date it has published works by it founder, Don Lake of San Diego, but the company aspires to work with “excellent story tellers” who are “well-grounded in a technology,” according to Orofino’s press release.

The San Diego based Orofino Press LLC team aides and supports its authors throughout the rest of the successful publishing process.  All Orofino Press LLC's books are available in print and electronic form.