By Rebecca Jefferis Williamson

Update Nov. 21, 2022 -- Ryan and Fox have retained their leads.  Ryan has 75.56%, far outposcing her opponent. Fox has 48.58% in his three-person race, well above Thill at 36.71% and Dolin at 14.7%.  This will be the final update from the Registrar of Voters before certification of the votes on Dec. 8.

Nov. 9, 2022 (Santee) The  Santee School District’s board of education had three seats up for election on its board of trustees. Campaign issues included school safety, catching up on pandemic learning loss and more.

The latest vote tally has incumbent Barbara L. Ryan vastly outpacing Ron Burner for seat 1. Ryan has 76.15% of the vote, versus Burner’s 23.85%. Ryan, a member of the Santee Board of Education, supports comprehensive language arts programs that include phonics, a zero-tolerance policy ensuring safety, curriculum standards that exceed state standards, and more. In her ballot statement, she says her leadership has brought significant additional funding to the district. Additionally, she has served on district committees, as a PTA president and school site councilmember as well as numerous other organizations.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo, top left to lower right:  Andrew Hayes won reelection; newcomers Ron Kasper, Jim Bennett and Autumn Ellenson beat out a trio of other incumbents

November 9, 2022 (Lakeside) – Lakeside Union School District’s governing board will look dramatically different as a result of yesterday’s election.  Three full-term seats and one short-term seat were on the ballot. But only one of the incumbents up for reelection, Andrew Hayes, has won reelection.  Three others – Bonnie LaChappa, Holly Ferrante, and Don Whiseman, are trailing by substantial margins.

All of the leading candidates are endorsed by the Republican Party, though the race is officially nonpartisan. In addition to Hayes, challengers Jim Bennett and Ron Kasper appear poised to win full-term seats, while Autumn Ellenson is winning the short-term seat by a resounding margin of more than two-thirds.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells and La Mesa Mayor Mark Araposthis are winning their reelection bids

November 8, 2022 (San Diego’s East County) – Early results after polls closed tonight indicate incumbents heading for reelection in La Mesa, El Cajon and Lemon Grove.

The power of incumbency proved stronger than partisan politics. Though city races are nonpartisan, political parties endorsed candidates and expended resources walking precincts to campaign for their parties' choices. But incumbents in both parties hold solid leads, though Democrats appear likely to pick up a seat in both the La Mesa and Lemon Grove Council races, following the retirement of Republican incumbents.

El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells, a Republican, has a solid 71.25% of the votes tallied so far; his opponent, realtor Arnie Levine, a Democrat, has 28.75%. The Mayor ran on a track record of boosting revenues through bringing in new hotels and reopening the performing arts center, while Levine criticized Mayor Wells’ defiance of public health business shutdown mandates duringthe pandemic. El Cajon Councilman Gary Kendrick ran unopposed, drawing 100% of the votes.  But El Cajon’s Measure P which the Mayor supports, to increase the city sales tax to a penny per dollar, is losing 58% to 42%.

East County News Service 

East County News Service

November 6, 2022 (San Diego’s East County) – The second Pacific storm of the season will bring cold weather and heavy rainfall with potential for atmospheric river conditions this week, the National Weather Service predicts.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Tiny homes at Meridian Baptist Church in El Cajon

November 5, 2022 (San Diego) – The County Board of Supervisors has unanimously approved a proposal by Supervisors Joel Anderson and Nora Vargas to purchase sleeping cabins or other emergency shelter structures. The structures will be made available to community partners like churches and non-profits who want to step up and provide shelter options in their community.

East County News Service

November 2, 2022 (San Diego) -- The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on October 25 to approve a plan proposed by Supervisors Nathan Fletcher and Joel Anderson to use an expected $100 million in settlement money from lawsuits with drug makers to address the opioid crisis in the region.

By Miriam Raftery

October 31, 2022 (San Diego) – East County Magazine journalists received four awards in San Diego Press Club’s 49^th annual Excellence in Journalism Awards on October 25^th. All awards were in the online and daily newspapers category.

By Miriam Raftery

October 31, 2022 (Santee) – A 66-year-old man was found dead early yesterday morning on a dirt trail near a transient camp in Santee.  According to the Sheriff’s Homicide Unit, the deceased  man is a “known transient” who “appears to have some trauma to his upper torso, but it is unknown if the trauma played a factor in his death.”

By Mike Allen

October 28, 2022 (Santee) - Tim McDermott has seen the good times and the bad times overseeing budgets for the city of Santee over the past 21 years, and now he’s presumably enjoying the best of times in retirement.

By Jake Christie

October 28, 2022 (Spring Valley) -- At its September 13 special meeting, the Valle de Oro Community Planning Group took action on the Pre-final Campo Road Corridor Revitalization Specific Plan to dramatically reconfigure the area, as well as proposed changes to a forthcoming pickleball club. Planners also heard a presentation on Senate Bill 9, a nine-month-old law that allows homeowners to do duplex lot splits more easily.  The meeting itself was held in the multipurpose room of the Hillsdale Middle School on Brabham Street due to Labor Day.

By Miriam Raftery

October 28, 2022 (San Francisco) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 82-year-old husband, Paul, was brutally assaulted by a hammer-wielding attacker at the couple’s San Francisco home early Friday morning.

Police have confirmed that the intruder shouted “Where is Nancy?” not realizing that the Speaker was not in town.

Paul Pelosi managed to dial 911 and kept the line open, allowing a 911 operator to hear the exchange and dispatch police.

Officers arrived in time to witness the elderly Pelosi struggling with the assailant, who bashed Paul Pelosi in the head before police officers wrestled him to the ground.

East County News Service

October 25, 2022 (Jamul) – The pilot who died when his experimental plane crashed on Lyons Peak in Jamul on October 4 has been identified as Craig Houston Cornford, 57, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner.

East County News Service

Photo: CC via Bing

October 24, 2022 (San Diego) -- The San Diego County Department of Environmental Health and Quality (DEHQ) has issued the following beach management actions for Monday, October 24, 2022 including closures of some beaches and an advisory for another due to raw sewage from Tijuana that may cause illness.

By Rebecca Jefferis Williamson

Photos courtesy of Julia Young  (pictured left)

 Oct. 20, 2022 (San Diego’s East County)  – East County resident Julia Young, a project manager for a logistics organization, has a hobby.  She’s a horror actor -- with experience, via attending and acting, going back to Knott's Scary Farm, the Dos Picos Park in Ramona, to this year’s Scareventures called Fright Nights at Alesmith  in Mira Mesa. Young grew up in Santee and still lives in the East County. 

In an interview with East County Magazine, she provided behind-the-scenes details on how she scared up such an unusual sideline.  

 Q. How did it come about for you to become a horror actor?

A. My first haunted maze was in the early ‘80s at Knott's Scary Farm. Each year I went, I fell more in love with it. I was fascinated by the scenery, the actors, the fun being scared.