By Miriam Raftery

Photo by Gene Carpenter

September 28,2023 (La Mesa) – Last night, the La  Mesa City Council voted 4-1 to ask staff to prepare a revised RFP (request for proposals) for digital billboards, with Councilman Jack Shu opposed.

The action reverse a July 25 vote, when Council rejected a similar proposal by a 3-2 vote. The major difference? The new plan would provide that any revenues the city receives off digital billboards for the first five years would be spent equally on police, fire protection, and the arts, said Councilman Colin Parent, who introduced the revised measure.

Several people showed up before the meeting with protest signs, such as “Keep digital billboards out of  La Mesa,” though some others spoke in support.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Trustee Gary Woods has drawn heat for his comment sugesting that a mental health services provider axed by the district after a public comment over counseling of LGBTQ+  students did not reflect "East County values."

September 27, 2023  (El Cajon)—Two trustees, a candidate, parents and students are speaking out to sharply criticize the Grossmont Union High School District’s board majority for voting against renewing a contract with San Diego Youth Services, the district’s long-time mental health services provider.

SDYS provided two programs for the district:  on-site clinicians seeing students referred by teachers over mental health concerns, and a suicide prevention program.

The action came after a July 20 board meeting at which Cajon Valley School Board Member Anthony Carnevale told GUHSD trustees that he had asked the chief executive director of SDYS whether students could receive talks or referrals on gender-change surgery and transition. Carnevale stated, “He did not answer my question and asked if I did not want LGBTQ+ students receiving care.”  Carnevale said his district had ended its contract with the organization, NBC San Diego reports.

By Miriam Raftery

September 17,2023 (Washington D.C.) – House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, under pressure from right-wing extremists in the House who have threatened to remove him as Speaker, has directed that an impeachment inquiry be opened into  President Joe Biden.

McCarthy claims  that unsubstantiated allegations of “abuse of power, obstruction and corruption” warrant further investigation to learn whether Biden ever benefitted financially from business dealings of his son, Hunter Biden. 

The GOP has spent months investigating those claims. Yet major media outlets confirm not as shred of evidence to substantiate those claims has been found. 

National Public Radio (NPR) states that thus far, “There has been no evidence that the president has benefitted  financially from any of his son Hunter’s business dealings.”

Nor has there been any indication of obstruction by Biden,  as some  Republicans claim. In fact, 100% of documents subpoenaed or requested by the Republican-led committee have been turned over by the White House.  Republican Congressman James Comer appeared on the Fox Business Network last month and confirmed that he has  received 100% of records that he as chairman requested as chair of the oversight committee. 

By Miriam Raftery

September 13, 2023 (La Mesa) – At last night’s La Mesa City Council meeting, Councilman Jack Shu proposed replacing the city’s restrictive beekeeping ordinance with a more expanded ordinance patterned after the county of San Diego to enable backyard beekeeping.

By Samantha Dietel, Kansas Reflector, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Photo: A parade float supported women’s suffrage, the right to vote, in 1913. (National Archives)

September 8, 2023 (Washington, D.C.) -- As Congress considers a bill to place a women’s suffrage monument on the National Mall, a nonprofit is working to raise the estimated $50 million needed to build it.

By: Tracy Defore, County of San Diego Communications Office

Photo: Doaa Polus, seen pointing to her map, votes for 3 new parks just north of I-8 in the vicinity of First Street

September 3, 2023 (San Diego) -- The County is looking for input on projects covering a wide range of priorities that may affect you, your neighborhood or the region at large.

By Jessyka Heredia

Watch full video here: https://youtu.be/9eVR6E2iT-Q?si=ruAipWxlOeyjnYcX

August 31, 2023 (Lemon Grove) – Yesterday the Lemon Grove Pickleball and Social Club attended the annual joint meeting between the city council and school board. The group of pickleballers came in energetic and excited to promote a healthy lifestyle and neighborhood unity through America’s fastest growing sport.

this year Labor Day falls on Monday, Sept. 4

By Shauni Lyles, County News Center

photo courtesy Alex Sachs (c) 2009 facebook and model release (c) 2023

August 31, 2023 (San Diego) -- All public San Diego County offices, family resource centers, libraries and animal shelters will be closed Monday, Sept. 4 for Labor Day. 

Law enforcement, emergency animal control response, and other essential services will continue through the holiday. 

County parks, campgrounds and neighborhood day-use parks remain open 365 days a year. However, the following locations will be closed: 

By Miriam Raftery

Photo, left: Judge Tanya Chutckan, who will preside over the federal case in Washington D.C.

August 28, 2023 (Washington D.C.) – The first criminal trial against former President Donald Trump has been scheduled to begin on March 4, 2024, in the midst of the primary season, opening one day before Super Tuesday.

Trump—now the leading candidate for the GOP's 2024 presidential nomination—has pleaded not guilty to the four federal charges of election interference. He is the only named defendant in the case, which lists four unindicted coconspirators.

BY: ROSS WILLIAMS, STANLEY DUNLAP AND JILL NOLIN

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Booking photos from the Fulton County conspiracy case charging Donald Trump and allies with trying to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. Top row, from left Jeffrey Clark, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, Michael Roman, Ray Smith, David Shafer, Sen. Shawn Still. Center row, from left, Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump, John Eastoman, Kenneth Chesebro. Bottom row from left, Robert Cheeley, Harrison Floyd, Stephen Lee, Scott Hall, Misty Hampton, Cathleen Latham, Trevian Kutti. (Georgia Recorder illustration from Fulton County Sheriff’s Office photos)

August 26, 2023 (Fulton Co., Georgia) -- At the end of a historic week at the Fulton County jailhouse, the criminal case against former President Donald Trump and his 18 allies also accused of subverting Georgia’s 2020 presidential election is just beginning.

By Miriam Raftery

August 23, 2023  (Washington D.C.) – On Tuesday, the Biden launched an application for a new student loan repayment plan called the SAVE Plan, or  Saving on a Valuable Education Plan. Borrowers can sign up and learn details at https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/save-plan .

This is a revised plan after an earlier effort to forgive student loans was blocked by the Supreme Court, though Republicans have also filed a challenge to the new plan.

The new SAVE plan calculates repayment based on the borrower’s income family size. According to the White House fact sheet, it will cut many borrowers’ monthly payments to zero,  save others around  $1,000 a year,  and prevent balances from growing because of unpaid interest. 

Specifically, the SAVE plan will:

By Sameea Kamal, CalMatters

CalMatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters

Photo:  the California Air Resources Board meets at the California Environmental Protection Agency building in Sacramento on June 23, 2022. Photo by Rahul Lal, CalMatters

August 23, 2023 (Sacramento) - For a July meeting, the Little Hoover Commission — an independent state oversight agency — posted notice that the public could attend in Sacramento, but also in Traverse City, Mich., or Southampton, N.Y.

Scheme involved fake electors, seizing voting machines, and pressuring officials in Georgia and other states to break the law

By Miriam Raftery

August 15, 2023 (Fulton County, GA) – In a sweeping 98-page indictment, Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis filed indictments against former president Donald Trump and 18 others with violating the state’s Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO)  Act. The indictments, recommended by a Grand Jury, accuse the defendants of willfully joining a “conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.”

41 counts in the conspiracy case include forgery, filing false documents, making false statement and writings, impersonating a public officer, pressuring public officials to violate their oaths of office to commit illegal acts in multiple states, and illegally accessing ballots on voting machines in Coffee County, Georgia, among other things.

Trump faces 13 new criminal charges in Georgia, the fourth jurisdiction where he is under criminal indictment. The former president and current presidential candidate is charged with conspiracy to  impersonate a public officer (related to the slate of fake electors that cast votes and submitted them to official channels), conspiracy to commit forgery, conspiracy to commit false statements and writings (including in official proceedings), and conspiracy to commit filing false documents. He is also charged with pressuring public officials to violate the law for the purpose of stealing the 2020 presidential election.

The indictment alleges that after  Trump falsely declared victory following the Nov. 2020 election, Trump among other things personally committed the ofllowing illegal acts:

• Called Arizona Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers and pressured  Bowers to unlawfully appoint electors to vote for Trump, even though Biden won the state. Bowers declined and told Trump, “I voted for you… I campaigned for you.  I just won’t do anything illegal for you.”
• Joined a call to Pennsylvania legislators, made false statements and asked them to appoint electors for Trump, though Biden won Pennsylvania;
• Met with Mark Meadows and John McEntee to devise a scheme for Vice President Mike Pence  to count only half the electoral votes from some states and return others to state legislators, an illegal act which Pence refused to do;
• Solicited Georgia’s Republican Speaker of the House David Ralston (since deceased) to commit a felony by arranging for Georgia to appoint presidential electors for Trump, even though Biden won Georgia;
• Called the Republican Party chair Ronna McDaniel and asked her to help get certain people to meet as fake electors and cast electoral votes for Trump in states won by Biden;
• Asked  U.S. Attorney General Jefrrey Rosen and Acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue to make a false statement.  Trump urged them, “Just say that the election was corrupt,and leave the rest to me and the Republican Congressmen.”
• Made false and harassing statements against officials who refused his demands to violate the law, such as “What a fool Governor@BrianKempGA of Georgia is…Demand this clown call a Special Session and open up signature verificfation NOW.”
• Submitted false documents in a lawsuit, Trump v.Kemp, which falsely claimed that thousands of votes were cast by felons, unregistered voters, underage people and dead people, without any evidence.
• Solicited Georgia’s Secretary of State,Republican Brad Raffensperger, to commit a felony by unlawfully altering  certified election results.
• Making false statements to  Raffensperger and other Georgia officials claiming pollworker  Ruby Freeman stuffed ballot boxes, that ballots were dumped,and numerous other claims found to be false.
• Was present at a January 4, 2021 meeting with Vice President Pence,  Eastman and others. After Trump pressured Pence to reject electoral voes or delay the joint session of Congress on January 6, Eastman “admitted both options violated the Electoral Count Act,” the indictment states.
• Made false statements asserting election fraud (despite losing 62 court challenges, some decided by Trump-appointed judges) in his speech at the Ellipse and urged the crowd to march to the U.S. Capitol on January 6, where violence ensued that resulted in several deaths and 140 injured  Capitol police officers.
  

By Chris Jennewein, Times of San Diego, a member of the San Diego Online News Association

Photo: Congresswoman Sara Jacobs, East County Magazine Zoom Interview (2021)

August 19, 2023 (San Diego) -- Rep. Sara Jacobs on Wednesday called the conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling against access to the abortion drug mifepristone a “gross attack on our bodies and freedom.”

By Branda Gorgies

Photos by Eric Brehm and Ivan Bandura on Unsplash and Creative Commons via Bing

August 16, 2023 (California) – The “Justice for Renters” Act is officially on the November 2024 ballot. If approved by voters, it would repeal a law that bans rent control statewide on most housing, allowing local governments to enact ordinances to limit rent hikes.