By Janis Russell

August 22, 2015 (Campo)- Mountain Health hosted its second back to school night for this year in Campo earlier this month. (Others were held in Escondido and Sherman Heights.). The goal of these back to school nights is to provide backpacks and school supplies to K-12 students served by its Mountain Empire family medicine location.

Will travel to London to deliver the official Match Ball on the field for the USA v South Africa match

August 19, 2015 (La Mesa) -- Haley Harris, a 15-year-old sports enthusiast from San Diego, will be given the unforgettable experience of delivering the official Match Ball onto the field at Rugby World Cup 2015 in London, courtesy of DHL. Selected as the winner of the U.S. DHL Youth Leadership Scrum Contest, Haley will become a part of Rugby history by representing the U.S. on the world stage of Rugby World Cup 2015.  

August 17, 2015 (El Cajon ) -- Chris Prokop, president of the Cajon Valley Education Association, the teacher’s union for Cajon Valley Union School District, will be the featured speaker at the East County Democratic Club’s meeting on August 20^th at MJ’s Restaurant, 526 North Second Street in El Cajon.  Social hour and dinner starts at 6 p.m. with program at 7 p.m.

East County News Service

August 10, 2015 (San Diego)—Local student filmmakers may soon take home top honors in the motion picture industry.

August 11, 2015 (La Mesa) -- Get Back-To-School healthy with a free food demonstration! This free workshop begins at 6:00 pm on Thursday, September 10, in the La Mesa Community Center, 4975 Memorial Drive. This is the fifth in our series of healthy community interactive workshops and features presenter Kristie Holt, MPH, CHES, CLE who will demonstrate some healthy lunch and back-to-school snacking ideas. School aged kids are welcome to attend with a parent or guardian and will have an opportunity to decorate a lunch bag to show off their healthy choices to classmates.  Kristie will lead you in hands-on preparation of some delicious and nutritious examples that you and your kids can make and sample on the spot.

District to include study of community choice energy

July 17, 2015 (San Diego)--San Diego Unified School District voted unanimously at its July 14 meeting to approve a resolution supporting development of a district-wide Climate Action Plan (CAP), in alignment with the City of San Diego’s CAP.

East County News Service

July 15, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) - Perhaps not surprising in a city known for hosting ComiCon, San Diego State University’s Comic Arts Collection is one of the fastest growing academic comic collections on the west coast, SDSU’s news center reports.

East County News Service

July 8, 2015 (Santee) -- Santee Lakeside Rotary Club Foundation and the Santee Lakes Foundation will host the Fourth Annual Concert At The Lakes at Santee Lakes (Lake Five) on Saturday July 18 at 5 p.m. All proceeds will support scholarships at local high schools and youth programs at Santee Lakes.

Area rep also sought to help place foreign exchange students

By Miriam Raftery

Hear our radio  interview  on KNSJ with Karen Toledo  from the ISE (Click audio link, top left)

June 10, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) – Families are wanted to host international exchange students in East County and across our region, says Karen Toledo, assistant manager for the International Student Exchange (ISE) locally.  An area rep is also sought to help place the many students eager for local homes for the next semester—and those who place 7 students or more will be rewarded with a trip to Ireland.

Toledo, a Lemon Grove resident knows first-hand the joys of the program, having hosted over 100 foreign exchange students at her own home.  She’s also traveled the world – visiting students she formerly hosted to experience their cultures, too. 

“It’s an amazing experience…I’m a single mom and I was hosting two at a time…I’ve traveled to many of their homes and stayed with them,” says Toledo, who cites Spain and Brazil as recent places she has visited. “They treat you so well when you come, because they are so thankful that you treated their kids so well and they had an amazing year.”

By Miriam Raftery

June 11, 2015 (Alpine) – Alpine residents seeking to force the Grossmont Union High School District to turn over $70 million in bond funds and land acquired for construction of an Alpine High School will finally have their day in court.  Judge Joel Pressman ruled against Grossmont on Friday, refusing to dismiss the case and requiring that the money be set aside pending outcome of the trial.

The proceeding will be an administrative trial before Judge Pressman set for December 4^th with the Alpine Union School District and the Alpine Taxpayers for Bond Accountability squaring off against the GUHSD. A 3-judge appellate court panel previously denied Grossmont’s request for a stay to stop the proceedings, a move affirmed Friday by Pressman. The County Grand Jury also found that the district did not live up to its obligation to Alpine taxpayers and recommended that the district build the high school or turn over the money to the Alpine Union High School District to build the school.  The district's board majority defied the Grand Jury and did neither.

The plaintiffs contend that Grossmont misallocated millions of dollars from Propositions U and H,  spending much of the $700 million measures approved by voters for projects not listed in the bond while refusing to build the Alpine High School that was a priority project in the bond measures.

By Miriam Raftery

June 1, 2015 (El Cajon)—Last week, we reported that parents in El Cajon have filed a lawsuit Ametek Aerospace & Defense, alleging that the company’s underground toxic waste dumping  is causing illness among children at Magnolia Elementary School next door. 

Now the Cajon Valley School District Board has voted unanimously to close down the school for the current school year.  All students and staff will be relocated to Bostonia Elementary School.

By Miriam Raftery

May 27, 2015 (El Cajon) – Parents have filed a class action lawsuit against Ametek Aerospace & Defense in El Cajon, alleging that the company dumped toxic waste into the ground for 20 years, from 1963 to the 1980s.  The site is located next door to Magnolia Elementary School, where children have been suffering mysterious health problems.

East County News Service

May 29, 2015 (San Diego)--The Society of Professional Journalists San Diego Pro Chapter has issued a statement criticizing local and federal law enforcement for going “too far” when an FBI agent and a San Diego Police Department detective on the San Diego Joint Terrorism Task Force visited a San Diego City College student journalist’s home. The investigators inquired about a news crew filming outside the FBI San Diego office for a story about sex trafficking.

By Miriam Raftery

May 26, 2015 (San Diego)—A new documentary called ‘The Hunting Ground’ is shining a light on the increasing rate of campus rapes nationwide—and the failure of campuses to take action, particularly when the accused perpetrator is a college sports star.