By Miriam Raftery

July 24, 2022 (San Diego’s East County) – The National Weather Service is forecasting cooler temperatures and possible thunderstorms today through most of next week in San Diego County’s mountains and deserts.

Gusty winds, lightning, heavy rain and small hail may also occur with afternoon thunderstorms.  The odds are slight for today, but increase later in the week.

Source:  Congresswoman Sara Jacobs

July 23, 2022 (Washington, D.C.) - Congresswoman Sara Jacobs, a member of the House Armed Services Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee, successfully advanced five amendments this month during floor consideration of the FY 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 7900).

East County News Service

July 23, 2022 (El Cajon) – The driver of a black 2012 Toyota Prius has died after the vehicle struck a parked SUV.  The man, 38, was transported by paramedics to Scripps Mercy Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

East County News Service

July 23, 2022 (Borrego Springs) -- Michael Martinez, a 69-year-old man classified by the state as a sexually violent predator, will be released and placed in a home on Running M Road in Borrego Springs

By Mike Allen

July 22, 2022 (Santee) -- Ronn Hall, a member of the Santee City Council for eight years, says he wants to keep the job and is running this November for another term.

Book by Theresa Halversen

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh

July 21, 2022 (San Diego) -- This delightful fantasy by San Diego author Theresa Halversen is a fast, fun read from the first page to the last. The story in Warehouse Dreams occurs in a world where the quality of each person’s genes reflects their parents’ wealth.

East County News Service

July 21, 2022 (Lakeside) – You’re invited to meet artist Jackie Hanson at an opening reception of her art show at Trevi Hills Winery in Lakeside. The opening will be held Saturday, August 6 at 2 p.m. through 7 p.m. The show will run from Aug. 5-31.

Hanson, an East County artist, likes to enhance the natural landscape with scenes and characters from her imagination. 

“I like to paint not only what is, but what could be, and hope perhaps to inspire the future,” she says.

By Christianne McCormick and Miriam Raftery

View full hearing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrUa0hfG6Lo&t=189s

July 21, 2022 (Washington D.C.) – Last Tuesday’s hearing by the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2020 attack on the U.S. Capitol revealed new evidence, which exposed then-President Donald Trump’s use of social media to influence his followers, including violent extremists in designated hate groups.

Testimony revealed that instead of conceding the election after extensive briefings by top legal advisors informing him that he lost, Trump instead took actions that incited violence and inspired coordination among extremist groups including the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, whose leaders have been charged with seditious conspiracy. Evidence also showed coordination between key Trump advisors and extremist leaders in the days leading up to the January 6^th insurrection. A former Oath Keepers member testified to how he was swayed by Trump's deceptions and a documentary filimmaker confirmed the group's violent intentions.

Trump's White House Counsel Pat Cippolone, former Attorney General Bill Barr and others have testified that Trump was fully informed that no fraud sufficient to overturn election results had been found, after 60 judges found no evidence to overturn any election results. But the President continued to spread the false claim that the election was stolen, pressured Vice President Mike Pence to illegally stop certification of electoral votes, and sought to corrupt the Department of Justice to make false claims.

Republican Senator Liz Cheney said of Trump, “He had access to more information than almost any other American that the election was not stolen,” adding, “No rational or sane man could ignore that or reach an opposite conclusion.” Yet Trump ignored advice of top legal advisors and his own campaign chairman, relying instead on unsubstantiated and debunked legal theories promoted by his personal attorney, Rudy Giiuliani,

The committee presented evidence laying out a disturbing timeline of events:

By Miriam Raftery

July 21, 2022 (Washington D.C.) – After the Supreme Court ruled that states can ban or restrict abortion access, overturning Roe v. Wade, the Biden administration has taken several actions to protect abortion access in certain circumstances. Specifically:

• The administration cited a law on the books since 1986, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), which requires abortions be allowed in all states if a woman’s life or health is at stake; hospitals that refuse can lose Medicare and Medicaid funding.
• The Health and Human Services (HHS) Department warns that pharmacists must dispense medications used for miscarriages and early-term abortions, or face potential criminal penalties. Attorney General Merrick Garland similarly issued a statement that states cannot ban mifepristone, a drug approved by the FDA for early pregnancy termination among other uses.
• HHS launched a website to help people nationwide find reproductive care and understand their rights at https://reproductiverights.gov/
• President Joe Biden signed an executive order to protect patient privacy and access to emergency contraception and medication abortions.
• HHS has advised pharmacies not to discriminate based on types of contraception sold, if any birth control items are sold in their retail stores.
  

By Miriam Raftery

Photos via Sara Jacobs’ Facebook

July 19, 2022 (Washington D.C.) – Seventeen members of Congress including San Diego Congresswoman Sara Jacobs were arrested today during a peaceful protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court over its controversial ruling that overturned Roe vs. Wade and allows states to ban or restrict abortions.

By Miriam Raftery

July 19, 2022 (Pine Hills) – Authorities are search for Terry Robert Hughes, 76, who was last seen yesterday afternoon. He failed to come home after a walk near Pine Hills. Search and rescue crews are combing roadways in the area and ask public help to bring him home safely.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: CC via Bing

Hear the full interview

July 19, 2022 (San Diego’s East County) -- Bonnie Burns Price and Bella Barna, two East County residents and long-time women’s advocates, speak out on their efforts to help women get abortions before and after Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion access across America.

In an interview aired on the East County Magazine Show on KNSJ radio, they also shared their concerns over how the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe vs. Wade will impact vulnerable women.

In addition, Barna shared her personal experiences with an abortion and a failed miscarriage which put her life in jeopardy.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo by Denise Thomas Photography, courtesy of ECM news partner 10 News

July 19, 2022 (Alpine) – Bonnie Baum Roth, 35, was taking her young daughters to a dance competition in Long Beach on Friday when she lost control of her SUV, which plummeted down an embankment on I-8 near Alpine. She was ejected from the vehicle and died at the scene, according to the California Highway Patrol.

July 18, 2022 (San Diego’s East County) - East County Magazine's World Watch helps you be an informed citizen on important issues globally and nationally. As part of our commitment to reflect all voices and views, we include links to a variety of news sources representing a broad spectrum of political, religious, and social views. Top world and U.S. headlines include:

U.S.

• Biden could declare climate emergency as soon as this week, sources say (Washington Post)
• Inflation hits four-decade high of 9.1% (MSN)
• Two Trump White House officials expected to testify at prime-time Jan. 6 hearing Thursday (NBC)
• American Factories Are Making Stuff Again as CEOs Take Production Out of China (Bloomberg)
• Endangered Species Act restored by federal judge after Trump-era weakening (CNN)
• Leaked Audio: Before Election Day, Bannon Said Trump Planned to Falsely Claim Victory (Mother Jones)
• July 4 parade slaughter again shows nowhere is safe from America's mass killing contagion (CNN)
• A pilot shortage is adding to the travel chaos this summer  (NPR)
• Ernst & Young fined $100 million after employees cheated in exams (NPR)
• A crop of candidates are insisting they won their elections, despite not being close (NPR)

WORLD

• Record number of people worldwide are moving toward starvation, U.N. warns (NPR)
• Tokyo court orders ex-Tepco execs to pay $95 ln damages over Fukushima disaster (CNN)
• Shinzo Abe, Japan's former prime minister, assassinated at a campaign stop (Reuters)
• NATO signs off on Sweden and Finland’s membership bids (PBS)
• 'Them's the breaks': Boris Johnson quits as UK prime minister (Reuters)
• NATO’s Deputy Secretary General: NATO support for Ukraine is for the long-term (NATO)
• How Russia's war in Ukraine is changing the world (NPR)
• How Russia's war in Ukraine harms nature, from wildfires to dolphins to birds (NPR)
• Sri Lanka president to step down, parliamentary speaker says, amid storm of protests (Reuters)
• 20 men are convicted in the 2015 Paris terror attacks (NPR)
• Russia is using a secret network to steal Ukraine grain (Wall Street Journal)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

Source:  Mt. Helix Park Foundation

July 18, 2022 (La Mesa) - The Mt. Helix Food and Wine Festival on August 20th provides spectacular views at sunset with tastes of top restaurants and beverage companies, artwork by local artists and dancing under the stars to music by Surfs Up, a Beach Boys cover band and the Surf Birdz.