East County News Service

May 3, 2016 (Warner Springs) – Extensive vandalism forced closure today of the entire Warner Unified School District complex, which includes elementary through high school classrooms as well as district offices.  The district's website states it hopes to reopen soon and will notify parents when children can return to school.

A maintenance worker arriving at work Wednesday morning discovered the damage, which included graffiti, broken windows, classrooms ransacked, furniture overturned and fire extinguishers discharged.  The worker called  Sheriff’s deputies at 5:15 a.m.

Update May 5, 2016: Ohio Governor John Kasich has announced he is also dropping his bid for the presidency, after winning only his home state of Ohio. This leaves Trump as the only GOP candidate still in the race.

By Miriam Raftery

May 3, 2016 (San Diego) –Texas Senator Ted Cruz announced that he is pulling out of the Republican presidential race.  Cruz made the announcement after losing the Indiana primary, all but assuring that Donald Trump will win the GOP nomination.

Cruz said, “From the beginning I’ve said that I would continue on as long as there was a viable path to victory. Tonight I’m sorry to say it appears that path has been foreclosed. With a heavy heart but with boundless optimism for the long-term future of our nation, we are suspending our campaign.”

By Molly Kirkland

May 3, 2016 (San Diego) -- Not long ago, I spoke with a renter who told me about some trouble he was having with a smoke detector in his San Diego apartment.

By Liz Alper

Photo: celebrating a win.  Courtesy @Padres on Twitter

 

May 2, 2016 (San Diego) - The Padres came home today to start a three game homestand against the Colorado Rockies.  James Shields took the mound for San Diego against Jon Gray for Colorado.

By Daniel J. Smiechowski

May 2, 2016 (San Diego) -- The Treaty of Versailles was signed with almost no German participation on June 28, 1919.  The Great War had ended bringing embarrassment and hard financial times to a once proud nation. German leaders were looking for scapegoats and they were easy to find. Jews, homosexuals, Poles and even the disabled were targeted for extinction during the ensuing 25 years. Sound familiar?

The French have an old saying:“The more things change, the more things stay the same.” The candidacy of presidential contender Donald Trump is not one of assimilation but rather one of annihilation.  It is a furtive movement to maintain America’s white identity. His followers disavow political ideology in favor of a dream of what not America could be but rather what America was several generations ago.

By Miriam Raftery

May 2, 2016 (Boulevard) – Jacumba Solar, Tule Wind, a county presentation on groundwater monitoring, updates on lawsuits over big energy projects and discussion of Live Oak Springs water rate hikes are among the many important items on the Boulevard Planning Group’s agenda for its meeting Thursday, May 5 at 7 p.m. in the Boulevard Fire Training Room (39923 Ribbonwood Road in Boulevard). For the full agenda, click here. For highlights, scroll down.

By Miriam Raftery

May 2, 2016 (San Diego) – The San Diego Association of Governments  (SANDAG) board voted last week to send a ballot measure that would fund transit, freeway and infrastructure improvements to voters in November.  Next up, Supervisors must decide whether to let voters have the final say.  If approved the $18.2 million plan would raise county sales tax a half cent to fund freeway projects, road repairs, public transit, open space management and complying with state water quality mandates.

By Leon Thompson

May 2, 2016 (East County) – My earliest childhood memories are of my grandfather’s dairy farm in Solway, Minnesota, where I learned to love cows.  The sign on the barn read “Our Cows Are Outstanding In Their Field.”  We moved to Poway in 1959 less than two blocks from the DeJong Dairy.  I naturally got up at 5:00 a.m. to help with chores and was rewarded with a giant breakfast with the DeJong family and bottles of fresh milk to take home. 

East County News Service

May 1, 2016 (Santee) -- B. W. "Stoney" Stone, also known as “Mr. East County” of Santee, passed away peacefully in his home on Wednesday, April 20, surrounded by his family and loved ones.

By Suzanne Potter, Public News Service

May 1, 2016 (Sacramento) - If you have a credit card or a job, have ever seen a doctor or needed a nursing home, you've probably signed an arbitration agreement that requires you to give up the right to sue, and go through mediation in the event of a dispute.