June 5, 2012 (San Diego's East County) -- Throughout the month of June, approximately 5,216 senior students from 9 comprehensive high schools, 2 charter high schools and 3 alternative high schools in the Grossmont Union High School District will be donning caps and gowns for commencement exercises.
The following listings include the dates of the ceremonies, and information about the individual schools:
June 5, 2012 (San Diego) -- From the book, American Trivia: What We All Should Know About U.S. History, Culture & Geography (Gibbs Smith Publisher, 2012), San Diegans Richard Lederer and Caroline McCullagh present several interesting facts about how our national symbols came to be.
June 4, 2012 (San Diego’s East County) – CAL FIRE has sent a warning advising homeowners to use caution when clearing dead brush and grass. While creating defensible space is a critical step to prepare for wildfire season, as fire danger rises, unsafe use of power equipment can actually start a fire.
June 5, 2012 (San Diego) – For many, the array of issues and candidates on today's ballot can be confusing. This is the first election to implement California’s new top-two primary system. Instead of seeing all candidates in your own party, your ballot will include candidates from all parties running for each race, except president.
Still have an absentee ballot? You can drop it off at any polling place.
By Miriam Raftery
June 5, 2012 (San Diego’s East County) -- In the final days and hours before the election, East County candidates have been pounding the pavement and blitzing cyberspace in the push to get their messages out.So have backers and opponents of ballot propositions.
At Viejas, the tribal council donated space for phone bank volunteers to make calls in support of Prop H, an Alpine school bond measure.
79th Assembly candidate Mary England, a Republican, spent this morning waving at morning commuters with an entourage of sign-toting supporters.
June 4, 2012 (San Diego's East County) -- As springtime calls people and snakes alike to the outdoors, encounters with snakes become inevitable. California has a variety of snakes, most of which are benign. The exception is California’s only native venomous snake - the rattlesnake.
June 4, 2012 (Washington D.C.) – Presidential candidate Mitt Romney voted to slash veterans benefits while Governor of Massachusetts and has proposed changes at the federal level that could be harmful to veterans. That’s the message sent to media this week by the Truman Project, a national security leadership organization based in Washington D.C.
June 4, 2012 (Sacramento) -- Assemblyman Brian Jones, R-Santee, today announced that Assembly Republican Leader Connie Conway, R-Tulare, appointed him as Assistant Republican Leader on the Assembly Republican Leadership Team.
"I am eager to continue working with Republican Leader Conway to get Californians back to work. The most important issues facing our state are jobs and the economy - we have to remove the regulatory and tax burdens from California's middle class and release our creative energy and entrepreneurial spirit. California can be the Golden State again."
June 4, 2012 (San Diego’s East County)—The National Weather Service has issued a wind advisory for mountain and desert areas in San Diego and Riverside Counties beginning this afternoon and extended to late Tuseday night. A low pressure trough is moving inland, bringing southwest to westerly 20-30 mph winds with gusts up to 50 mph locally.
June 4, 2012 (San Diego) The U.S. Health & Human Services Department has awarded $9,398,738 for healthcare in the communities of San Diego, Campo and Brawley.
June 3, 2012 (Berkeley) - As the mother of a U.C. Berkeley graduate, I couldn't be prouder of my son's alma mater than after viewing this video. In it, student Austin Whitney, who was paralyzed in a car accident, is enabled to walk across the stage and accept his diploma with help from an exo-skeleton created thanks to technology developed at the University of California, Berkeley. Just imagine what this could mean someday for our wounded veterans and other injured people!
Taking a page from the independent expenditure playbook that torpedoed John Kerry’s presidential campaign, a San Diego-based PAC, Much Better Choices, is taking aim at corporate-backed candidates in a series of online video ads. Lacking the funding of corporate-backed campaigns, Much Better Choices has launched its scathing assault ads via social networking sites—swiftly going viral with efforts to “Swiftboat” local corporatist candidates.
The site offers online activists “instant –access technological arsenals” to send out videos such as one with pigs feeding at a trough, targeting “lobbyist turned Congressman Brian Bilbray."
By Bryan Zmijewski, President, El Cajon Police Officers Association
“Most alarming is the ECPD patrol staffing levels. At times, there may only be four police officers working the street…The El Cajon Council wants more power, yet they choose to handcuff the police chief...The ECPOA fears that this will continue, especially if the current city council is allowed to have the additional power that they crave.”—Bryan Zmijewski
The people behind Proposition D say changing El Cajon from a general law city to a charter city will save tax payer money by giving more control over decision making to the city council. Charter city status may be appropriate for other municipalities. We don't believe it would be appropriate in El Cajon at this time with our current city council in power.
We don't believe the city council, in its current form, has the experience, insight or forward thinking ability to handle any more power than it already has. More power for this city council? One council member just resigned as a result of a pending FBI investigation, reminding us about what happened not too long ago in the City of Bell.
June 3, 2012 (San Diego) --San Diego Police Department Homicide Unit detectives are investigating the stabbing death of a male in a parking lot on Friars Road near Mission Gorge Road, in the Grantville neighborhood.
Dear EarthTalk: How do I learn about what pesticides may be on the food I eat?
-- Beatrice Olson, Cleveland, OH
June 3, 2012 -- Along with the rise in the popularity of organic food has come an increased awareness about the dangers lurking on so-called “conventionally produced” (that is, with chemical pesticides and fertilizers) foods.
“…The Florida Stand-Your-Ground law should be applied such that any injuries sustained by Zimmerman were the result of Martin’s standing his ground, not the reverse. However, Americans in general should question the very premise of such laws”.—Joel A. Harrison
By Joel A. Harrison, PhD, MPH
June 3, 2012 (San Diego) -- By now most people know the basic facts of the Trayvon Martin case. On February 26, George Zimmerman, member of a neighborhood watch, spotted Martin entering a gated community where Martin and his father were visiting the father’s fiancée. Martin was returning from purchasing Skittles at a local convenience store and was talking with his girlfriend on his cell phone.
“With California’s new `top two’ primary system, only two candidates will advance to a November run-off.I’m running against two Republicans, so it’s important for Democrats to vote on Tuesday.” – Pat Hurley, candidate, 71st Assembly District
June 2, 2012 (San Diego’s East County) – Pat Hurley has worked in factories and on railroads. He’s turned around troubled businesses in mobile electronics, finance and sales.He’s led efforts as a nonprofit executive to create job-training programs, help low-income communities, and forge a sustainable future for our region. Now he wants to bring his experience—along with Midwest, middle class values—to the state capitol.
Hurley is the only Democrat running for the new 71st Assemblydistrict (formerly the 77th), which includes nearly all of East County.The seat is currently held by Republican Brian Jones. Another Republican, engineer John McLaughlin from Temecula, is also in the race.
June 2, 2012 (El Cajon) -- The commencements held at Cuyamaca and Grossmont colleges this week, in which more than 2,300 students received degrees or certificates, were a joyous and welcome change to the budgetary gloom that has settled over the state’s community colleges.
June 2, 2012 (Sacramento) Wednesday the Senate approved Senate Bill 961, authored by Senator Ed Hernandez, O.D. (D – West Covina), to make many of the protections established under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) part of California law. SB 961 requires every health plan, by January 1, 2014, to include guaranteed availability and renewability of health insurance coverage and protects Californians from being denied or losing health coverage because of a preexisting health condition. SB 961 also requires insurers and health plans to base premiums solely on age, geography, and family size.
BLM places "outrageous conditions on public comment" by releasing personal contact information online
June 2, 2012 (San Francisco) -- Protect Mustangs, a Bay Area-based preservation group, asks the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to revise its conditions for receiving written comment. The BLM now requires personal identifying information that BLM says it cannot safeguard, the group cautions.
What started as an issue jeopardizing public process for people who want helicopters roundups to stop has mushroomed into a free speech issue for all Americans.
June 2, 2012 (San Francisco) -- Efforts by a local group to keep Palomar Mountain State Park open were given a shot in the arm with a $20,000 grant from the California State Parks Foundation (CSPF), the San Francisco based charitable organization dedicated to protecting, enhancing and advocating for California's magnificent state parks.
June 2, 2012 (San Diego) - The Somali Family Service (SFS) is gearing up for their second Annual OceanLeaf Awards Celebration and is now accepting nominations.
San Diego is home to the nation’s second largest Somali refugee population of more than 35,000 individuals. For over a decade, the SFS of San Diego has been working hard to serve this emerging East African community, seeing it progress educationally, economically and socially.
June 2, 2012 (Lemon Grove) --The Lemon Grove Historical Society is kicking off Dr. Amorita Treganza Centennial Week with a Flamenco Potluck Birthday Party on June 3 from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at her ancestral home, 3251 Kempf Street in Lemon Grove.There will be a performance by the Juan Carlos and Juanita Flamenco Dance/Guitar/Singer Troupe from 4:15 p.m. – 5:15 p.m.
A column written for the East County Magazine “Your guide to financial planning & socially responsible investing”
By: Judith L. Seid, CFP ®
President, Blue Summit Wealth Management
For a Successful Business Exit
May 30, 2012 (San Diego’s East County)--Most business owners are too busy working IN their business that they forget to work ON their business. It is crucial to protect the asset that you likely have spent the majority of your life building and have a disproportionate share of your wealth tied up in. And yet, studies show that somewhere between 70 – 90% of business owners have not thoughtfully planned for their inevitable business exit and even those that do plan, oftentimes wait until the 11th hour.
June 1, 2012 (San Diego's East County)--It has been proven that ground-based wind turbines can result in issues such as environmental damage, noise and visual blight. But Altaeros Energies has brought an intriguing alternative to the table.
Altaeros has announced a breakthrough in high altitude wind power. In April, the company reports that it tested a successful prototype of a flying wind turbine, able to lift a standard Skystream turbine 1000 feet into the air--and produce far more power with the blades aloft.
June 1, 2012 (San Diego) -- The County Planning Commission will hold a public hearing June 8 at 9 a.m. on a major use permit requested for the Energia Sierra Juarez high-voltage transmission line, which would transmit power across the U.S.-Mexico border to the proposed East County (ECO) substation. The project would include three steel lattice towers approximately 150 feet in height. For full details, read more.
June 1, 2012 (Valley Center) – The Sheriff’s Valley Center Substation is receiving a new License Plate Reader (ALPR) car through a grant from the Barona Band of Mission Indians, Sycuan Band of Kumeyaay Nation and the Indian Gaming Local Community Benefit Committee which funded the $78, 673 car.
By Brian Lafferty
June 4, 2012 (San Diego’s East County) – CAL FIRE has sent a warning advising homeowners to use caution when clearing dead brush and grass. While creating defensible space is a critical step to prepare for wildfire season, as fire danger rises, unsafe use of power equipment can actually start a fire. 
June 5, 2012 (San Diego’s East County) -- In the final days and hours before the election, East County candidates have been pounding the pavement and blitzing cyberspace in the push to get their messages out.
By Miriam Raftery
June 2, 2012 (San Carlos)—Regina Johnson, 55, has been arrested for the suspected killing of her husband and 14-year-old daughter. 
June 2, 2012 (Lemon Grove) --
June 1, 2012 (Valley Center) – The Sheriff’s Valley Center Substation is receiving a new License Plate Reader (ALPR) car through a grant from the Barona Band of Mission Indians, Sycuan Band of Kumeyaay Nation and the Indian Gaming Local Community Benefit Committee which funded the $78, 673 car.
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