May 28, 2023 (Salt Lake City) - San Diego State’s season came to an end with a 7-2 loss at No. 15 overall seed Utah in the NCAA Salt Lake City Regional final Sunday afternoon at Dumke Family Softball Stadium. The Aztecs (39-17) captured the Mountain West Tournament and NCAA Los Angeles Regional before falling a victory short in the NCAA Super Regional of making it to the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.
May 28, 2023 (San Diego’s East County) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Equestrian Foundation (USEF) will hold a webinar on May 31 at 1 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on Vesicular Stomatis Virus (VSV), a contagious livestock disease that has spread to at least six different communities in San Diego County. Registration is required for the webinar, which will be held on Zoom. Register here.
Dr. Angela Pelzel McCluskey, USDA equine epidemiologist, will provide an overview of Vesicular Stomatitis and the current situation report also providing perspective based on her firsthand experience managing numerous VS outbreaks in her previous roles. Dr. Katie Flynn,USEF Equine Health and Biosecurity veterinarian, will cover prevention measures for horses and their premises, as well as the biosecurity requirements being implemented at those USEF events with horses competing from VS Affected States.
As of Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that 23 properties are quarantined due to VSV, including 18 sites in San Diego County—seven more than in the last report five days earlier. All but one case in the outbreak have occurred in equine species such as horses, but there is one suspected case in a “backyard beef steer” at a local property with three cattle. The remaining cases are in Riverside County.
The USDA has not responded to our media inquiry for specific locations impacted in our region, but the Ramona Sentinel reports that the first six confirmed cases since the outbreak began May 17 were in Ramona, Lakeside, Campo, Jamul, Del Sur, and Descanso, according to local veterinarians. San Diego and Riverside counties are the only places in the nation with current cases.
May 28, 2023 (La Mesa) – Former La Mesa City Councilman Guy McWhirter died May 26, 2023 after a long battle with cancer. A strong voice for La Mesa’s business community, who helped develop the village merchants’ association, McWhirter was also a long-time insurance agent and a Bishop in the Church of Latter Day Saints for La Mesa's second ward in the 1990s.
A memorial service will be held on Friday, June 2 at 3 p.m. at the LDS church at 5555 Aztec Drive in La Mesa.
McWhirter was elected to the La Mesa City Council in November 2014 and served through 2018, after previously serving on the city’s planning commission. In a 2018 interview with East County Magazine, he said serving on the Council had been “one of the most rewarding experience I’ve ever had,” adding that he enjoyed “working with people who want to make a difference.”
On the Council, he supported programs to boost business in the downtown village, from a farmer’s market to Oktoberfest. He supported efforts to help the homeless and approve the city’s landmark climate action plan.
In a 2014 ECM interview, McWhirter provided his definition of leadership. “Be an example by being the hardest worker and have the ability of encouraging others by giving them a vision of what we are trying to accomplish. Always listen and be willing to accept new ideas.”
CalMattersis a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters
Photo: drought-stricken Lake Mead on the Colorado River in August 2022. Photo by Christopher Clark / U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
May 28, 2023 (San Diego) - After nearly a year of intense negotiations, California, Nevada and Arizona reached a historic agreement last Monday to use less water from the overdrafted Colorado River over the next three years.
May 27, 2023 (La Mesa) - During May’s Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month, the La Mesa Police Department reminds drivers to always look twice for motorcycles. Safe riding and driving practices, and a shared responsibility from all road users, will help everyone get to their destination safely.
May 27, 2023 (La Mesa) - May is National Bicycle Safety Month and the La Mesa Police Department is encouraging more people to get active and safely take bike rides. “Bicycling is a great means of transportation and recreation,” Chief Ray Sweeney said. “Let’s look out for one another and make sure everyone arrives safely at their destination. Share the road and share the responsibility.”
May 27, 2023 (San Diego’s East County) – The County of San Diego is kicking off its annual movies in the park, which this year features 150 movies at dozens of parks across the County. Bring the family—along with blankets and lawn chairs—to cozy up for a night under the stars.
The season opens this Memorial Day weekend at Waterfront Park downtown and runs through October. East County and inland locations include Anza Borrego,Campo, El Cajon, Encanto, Escondido, Julian , Lakeside, La Mesa, Lemon Grove, Pine Valley, Potrero, Poway, Ramona, Rancho Penasquitos, Rolando, San Carlos, and Spring Valley.
Theme weekends have also been scheduled, including Juneteenth (June 16 and 17), Comic-Con (July 21-22), Ladies Night (Aug. 12), International Dog Day (Aug. 25 and 26), Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15 – Oct. 15) and Halloween (late October).
May 27, 2023 (San Diego) – Rail service resumes today from San Diego to Orange County, after emergency workers stabilized a hillside north of the San Clemente pier that scattered debris onto the rail right-of-way below last month.
Both Metrolink and Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner are resuming service today,according to the Orange County Transportation Authority.
The rail line is being reopened at the start of the Memorial Day Weekend, the unofficial start to summer and a popular time for travel by all modes, including rail.
May 27, 2023 (El Cajon) – The Biden-Harris administration has announced over $4.8 million in grants to Southern California to cleanup polluted brown field sites and provide technical assistance. That includes a $500,000 grant to the East County Economic Development Council Foundation to address contamination cleanup in the city of El Cajon.
According to the EPA site, the target area for this grant is the 1.4-square-mile El Cajon Opportunity Zone Corridor. Priority sites include a 1.1-acre former commercial and lumber operation; a 3.06-acre former ice house, lumber operation, and garage; and several sites formerly used for auto repair centers, a dry cleaner, a gas station, and a current restaurant and motel.
Congresswoman Sara Jacobs (D-San Diego) says, “Safely cleaning up and reinvesting in properties with potentially hazardous materials strengthens our local tax base, promotes job growth, and protects public health and the environment. That’s why I’m so glad East County Economic Development Council Foundation will receive a much-needed $500,000 from the EPA to invest in properties and frontline communities that have been ignored and neglected for far too long.”
Warnings issued for beaches from North County to South Bay, impacting beach safety for humans and dogs
East County News Service
File photo by Tony Webster,Friendship Park sewage warning sign in Imperial Beach cc 2.0
Update May 29, 2023: The closure is lifted for the Coronado Lifeguard Tower and North Beach Shorelines. Recent water quality samples meet State health standards. Warnings at other beaches remain in effect.
May 27, 2023 (San Diego) – Sewage spills in Tijuana have contaminated many local beaches. Some South Bay beaches have been closed for months or more, including Imperial Beach and Tijuana Slough shoreline. Earlier this month, the Coronado shoreline was shutdown by county health officials, after earlier closing the Silver Strand.
This Memorial Day weekend, the county has also issued advisories warning consumers of pollution at the following beaches:
May 26, 2023 (Lakeside) – Trevi Hills Winery in Lakeside will host “Runway Chardonnay” on Saturday, May 27 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. featuring wine, fashion and music. The event is presented by Local Umbrella Media and benefits Music Therapy for Veterans studio.
Floyd Armstrong will be entertaining with his smooth, baritone voice singing favorites while guests sip wine and feast their eyes on Dawn Sebaugh's new spring collection from WALA, a beautiful compilation one of a kind dresses inspired from her original art.
Bulldogs hit a pair of two-run homers to sink Aztecs
Source: goaztecs.com
Photo courtesy goaztecs.com
May 26, 2023 (Fresno) - Second-seeded San Diego State was eliminated from the 2023 Mountain West Championship on Friday after suffering a 4-2 defeat to No. 4 seed Fresno State at Pete Beiden Field at Bob Bennett Stadium.
Update 3:15 p.m. -- The seven-hour SWAT standoff has ended. According to the Sheriff's Dept., the suspect, Brandon Andrade, walked out of the house and surrendered after deputies used chemical agents. Mental Health Clinicians with the Psychiatric Emergency Response Team (PERT) will evaluate Andrade before he is booked into San Diego Central Jail. He is expected to face three counts of attempted murder charges. The evacuation notification and road closures will be lifted in an hour.
East County News Service
May 25, 2023 (Lemon Grove) – The San Diego County Sheriff's Department is working to peacefully resolve a SWAT standoff in Lemon Grove. A suspect has barricaded himself inside his home and is refusing to come out after firing multiple shots and injuring a neighbor.
Skyline Drive between Longdale Drive and Palm Street is closed as deputies continue to negotiate with the suspect, who may have other weapons. Deputies evacuated eight homes in the neighborhood. Lemon Grove Early Childhood Education Center was also placed on lockdown as a precaution.
May 25, 2023 (San Diego) - The San Diego County Fire Protection District is giving out more than 400 pool alarms to help prevent drownings as part of Health and Safe Swimming Week (May 22 through 28). The alarms can offer notification when a child or pet falls into a pool. The alarms will be available to households in the San Diego County or Deer Springs Fire Protection Districts.
Photo: La Mesa Councilwoman Laura Lothian, seeing no chance of council OK, made no motion for her policy proposal. Image via Facebook
May 25, 2023 (La Mesa) - La Mesa Councilwoman Laura Lothian ran a proposal up the flagpole but saw it shot down in a hail of public scorn and derision.
May 25, 2023 (San Diego) -- The small town of Elderton is in crisis. French fries and other forms of potatoes are disappearing from kitchens. The thief seems invisible in San Diego author Erik Christopher Martin’s latest children’s book, The Case of the French Fry Phantom.
Action seeks to expand representation for a half million residents in County's unincorporated areas
East County News Service
Map courtesy of the County of San Diego
May 25, 2023 (San Diego)-- On May 23, San Diego County’s Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted a resolution to support adding representation from the unincorporated area to the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) Board of Directors. This board action was introduced by Chairwoman Nora Vargas and Supervisor Joel Anderson, both of whom represent the County on the SANDAG Board.
The County’s unincorporated communities are home to more than half-a-million people, making them the region’s second largest population group behind only the City of San Diego. Geographically, the vast majority of the county lies within unincorporated areas.
Three candidates are running to replace Nathan Fletcher so far
By Miriam Raftery
Photo, left to right: Monica Montgomery Steppe, Amy Reichert,and Janessa Goldbeck
May 24, 2023 (San Diego) – Supervisors have authorized an Aug. 15 special primary election to fill the vacancy in District 4 left by Nathan Fletcher’s resignationCandidates must file paperwork to run at the Registrar of Voters’ office between May 30 and June 6, though if they wish to submit signatures instead of a filing fee, they must pick up those forms by this Friday. If no candidate wins a majority of votes in the primary, then a general election will be held on Nov. 7.
District 4 includes the East County communities of La Mesa, Lemon Grove, Crest, Dehesa, Casa de Oro, Spring Valley, Mt. Helix, and Rancho San Diego as well as San Diego neighborhoods including Clairemont, Hillcrest, Balboa Park, North Park, Bankers Hill, Old Town, Mission Hills, Normal Heights, University Heights, Oak Park, Valencia Park, Encanto, Bay Terraces, Paradise Hills, Birdland, SerraMesa, Civita, and parts of Grantville, City Heights, Rolando, Azalea Park, Chollas Creek, Rolando Park, Kensington, Talmadge, Mid-City, Montezuma Mesa, SDSU and Mission Valley.
By Gig Conaughton, County of San Diego Communications Office
May 24, 2023 (San Diego) - County Supervisors approved setting aside $32 million in state and County funds Tuesday to help quickly create housing for people experiencing homelessness, or who are at risk of homelessness and $4.6 million a year in services to support them.
May 23, 2023 (San Diego) -- Law enforcement leaders today announced that an unprecedented two-month fentanyl-enforcement surge along the southwest border has resulted in the seizure of about 4,721 pounds of fentanyl, 1,700 pounds of fentanyl precursors and more than 200 arrests of alleged smugglers, traffickers and dealers within the Southern and Central Districts of California.
American Carnage:Shattering the Myths That Fuel Gun Violence, by Thomas Gabor and Fred Guttenberg (Mango Publishing Group, Coral Gables, Fl., 2023, 228 pages).
Book Review by Dennis Moore
View interview with co-author Thomas Gabor on the "Bookshelf" section with host Anat Tour by clicking here.
May 26, 2023 (San Diego) – Criminologist Tom Gabor and activist Fred Guttenberg, who lost his 14-year old daughter Jaime in the 2018 Parkland school shooting, team up to dismantle some of the leading myths on guns and gun violence in their groundbreaking book and treatise; American Carnage: Shattering the Myths That Fuel Gun Violence. Many of these myths have been promoted by the gun lobby to facilitate gun sales and normalize the presence of guns in American society.
Co-author Tom Gabor reiterates much about what is said in this book in a video above by Anat Tour, the host of the "Bookshelf" section of the East County Magazine. The interview by this excellent talent, Tour, can be viewed and listened to by clicking on the link above.
This extraordinary book resonates with me in a profound and personal way, for I am a survivor of gun violence myself, along with two of my sons, and in my more than 400 book reviews written, American Carnage has impacted my psyche more than any other. This book touches my heart and soul!
577 Million Robocalls made to CA phones on National Do Not Call Registry, including Medicare and Social Security scams
May 23, 2023 (Sacramento)-- California Attorney General Rob Bonta today, as part of a bipartisan coalition of 49 attorneys general, announced a lawsuit against Avid Telecom for allegedly making billions of unlawful robocalls in California and across the nation.. Those robocalls included Social Security Administration scams, Medicare scams, and employment scams; two robocall examples can be found here and here.
Today’s complaint is the result of efforts by the nationwide Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force, which Attorney General Bonta helped launch last year and is charged with taking legal action against telecommunications companies that perpetuate robocall traffic.
Male body found at same campground remains unidentified, may be related
East County News Service
May 23, 2023 (Warner Springs) — A body found near campsites on the Los Coyotes Indian Reservation in Warner Springs on Feb. 16, 1986 has been identified through genetic genealogy as Claudette Jean Zebolsky Powers.
May 23, 2023 (San Diego) -- A work stoppage is currently in effect at the South Bay Bus Division, East County Bus Division, and Copley Park Division due to a strike called after negotiations between Transdev/First Transit and employees broke down.
MTS cautions, “Please plan for limited or no service to the following routes, effective immediately, and until further notice.”
Photo: Enzo, our campaign poster dog, is available for adoption at the County's Carlsbad animal shelter
May 23, 2023 (San Diego) - Sometimes someone rescues an animal and later realizes the animal rescued them right back.
In a salute to military members, veterans and their families, the County Department of Animal Services is offering them free animal adoptions May 26 through May 28. The department is taking part in the Animals for Armed Forces special adoption event over the Memorial Day weekend.
Disease can affect all hooved livestock and can also spread to humans
By Miriam Raftery
May 22, 2023 (San Diego) – Fifteen properties in San Diego County are under quarantine by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, after six cases of Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (VSV) have been confirmed in San Diego County and testing is underway on another nine suspected local cases, according to the USDA website on the disease. There are also two confirmed cases and two suspected cases in Riverside County, where four properties are quarantined. These are the only areas in the U.S. with current cases of VSV.
The first local case in this outbreak occurred May 17 in Ramona, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. While all of the local cases so far are in horses, the disease can also afflict donkeys, cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, llamas, alpacas or other hooved livestock.
The quarantines will last at least 14 days after the last known case. However blisters on mouths and hooves can take up to two months to resolve.The quarantines mean no transporting animals to or from the impacted properties will be allowed until a veterinarian has cleared animals for travel. Some states and livestock events such as horse shows may prohibit animals from the impacted areas from participating even if there is no known exposure, so check with show organizers before traveling to any livestock even
Aztecs finish season with a 39-17 record
By Miriam Raftery
By Alastair Bland, CalMatters
Source: City of La Mesa
Source: City of La Mesa 
By Miriam Raftery
East County News Service
East County News Service
East County News Service
Bulldogs hit a pair of two-run homers to sink Aztecs
East County News Service
Update 3:15 p.m.
B
By Erik Christopher Martin
Authorities seek public help to locate a vehicle that
By 
East County News Service
Three candidates are running to replace Nathan Fletcher so 
By 
Photo: U.S. Attorney Andy Grossman, San Diego
May 23, 2023 (Sacramento)-- California Attorney General Rob Bonta today, as part of a bipartisan coalition of 49 attorneys general, announced a lawsuit against Avid Telecom for allegedly making billions of unlawful robocalls in California and across the nation.. Those robocalls included Social Security Administration scams, Medicare scams, and employment scams; two robocall examples can be found 
Male body found at same campground remains unidentified, may be related
By 
East County News Service
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