March 17, 2015 (San Diego's East County) - Our office mascots have been mischievious.  Our editor discovered her phone unplugged and her answering machine messages erased! Rex, our cat with a personality like Garfield, is the principal suspect, thought the dog did have a slightly guilty expression...must be the spirit of the leprechauns!

If you left a message and did not get a call back, please call us again at 619-698-7617 or for longer messages, please e-mail editor@eastcountymagazine.org.  (Thankfully these little rascals have not yet figured out how to delete e-mails...we hope.)

By Leon Thompson

March 17^th, 2015 (Washington D.C.)--Senators Cory Booker, Kristen Gillibrand, and Rand Paul introduced SB.683, the Compassionate Access, Research Expansion and Respect States Act.

By Miriam Raftery

March 15, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) - A new bill aims to let California residents hang clothes out to dry, legalizing use of clotheslines.

March 15, 2015 (La Mesa) - A war memorial in La Mesa has been vandalized for the second time in two years.  The memorial is located next to the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall.

East County News Service

March 15, 2015 (San Diego’s East County)--A woman’s place is on the money. That’s the slogan of a new group called Womenon20s.org, which has launched a national campaign to put a woman’s face on the $20 bill.

State considers mandatory rationing

By Miriam Raftery

March 14, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) – California could run out of water in a year as reservoirs run dry and groundwater resources are being overpumped.  That’s the dire warning of Jay Famiglietti, senior water scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech.

By Miriam Raftery

March 12, 2015 (Washington D.C.) – California Senator Dianne Feinstein wants to know why the FDA has not taken action to halt the sale of Purina Beneful dog food. The products remain on the market despite numerous complaints and now a lawsuit claiming that thousands of dogs were sickened or died after eating the dry kibble food.

March 11, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) – An unseasonable heat wave is forecast for Friday through Monday, sending daytime temperatures to record levels west of the mountains with very low humidity, according to Alexander Tardy at the National Weather Service. Temperatures are expected to reach the mid-90s in San Diego County’s inland areas and well into the 80s for several hours each of these days, though the peak of the hot weather should occur Saturday and Sunday.

View video: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/03/08/president-obama-marks-50th-anniversary-marches-selma-montgomery

East County News Service

This weekend marked the 50^th anniversary of “bloody Sunday,” when marchers in Selma, Alabama were attacked and beaten back by police as they marched for voting rights.  The incident sparked national outrage and ultimately helped win passage of the Voting Rights Act.  Yet voting rights are once again under assault across the U.S., as bigotry and attempts to suppress African-American votes continue long after that fateful day in Selma.

We still have a long way to go as a nation, as President Barack Obama made clear in an speech delivered to a crowd on the bridge in Selma, Alabama on Sunday. The President celebrated the victories achieved since Selma, also urging that marchers symbolically continue.  calling for  voting rights for all Americans.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Missing pup has been reunited with his owner; photo courtesy 10 News

March 7, 2015 (El Cajon )—A puppy stolen from the backyard of an El Cajon home is back home, thanks to a story aired by ECM news partner 10 News.

By East County Magazine

View a detailed list of pedestrian accidents resulting in serious injuries or deaths in El Cajon

March 5, 2015 (El Cajon)--El Cajon has had 17 fatality pedestrian accidents from 2011 to 2014, including six on Main and East Main Street. The city also had 61 serious injury accidents involving pedestrians during the same period.  During the first few weeks of 2015, fatal pedestrian accidents have claimed more lives, including a 7-year-old boy and an elderly woman in El Cajon.

March 5, 2015 (San Diego's East County) - The San Diego chapter of the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association (NAVHDA) is sponsoring a Rattlesnake Avoidance Training clinic for dogs March 28th at the Jamul Veterinary Hospital in Jamul.

Fiery crash in 2009 claimed life of CHP officer and family in Santee

By Miriam Raftery

March 4, 2015 (El Cajon) - Days before a trial was set to begin in the wrongful death case of CHP officer Mark Saylor and his family, a settlement has been reached with a former El Cajon Lexus dealership in El Cajon.

East County News Service

March 4, 2015 (El Cajon) – A 10 News report cites multiple unnamed sources who claim that an El Cajon sergeant sent sexually explicit text message images of himself to several women working in the department. Sources claimed the sergeant was demoted but not prosecuted.

East County News Service

Photo: Laguna Mountain Lodge

March 3, 2015 (San Diego’s East County)--A storm that swept into our region over the weekend dropped over 8 inches of snow on Mt. Laguna and more than a foot on Palomar Mountain.