January 24, 2011 (Scripps Ranch) – Gusty winds toppled a 100-foot-high eucalyptus tree in Hoyt Park, crashing it down upon a home owned by Art and Terri Moreau on Canyon Lake Drive in Scripps Ranch. Although the massive tree crushed the home’s roof and damaged a kitchen and bedroom, fortunately no one was injured.

January 24, 2011 (Borrego Springs) –Bambi Lynn Woodson, 53, was killed Saturday, January 22 at 8:45 a.m. in a rollover accident on Highway 78 in Borrego Springs, the San Diego Medical Examiner reports.

January 23, 2011 (Fallbrook) – East County Magazine writer Will Schwent seeks the public’s help to locate his brother, John Allen Schwent. “He was last known to be living in the Fallbrook area,” Will Schwent said. “He has alcohol and mental problems, but his family is anxious to know if he is even alive.

The family has not heard from the missing man for over two years. He was last seen during a visit with his sister in San Marcos.  Family members initially believed he’d gone into hiding while paying off a court debt, but have become oncerned after so much time has gone by with no contact.

January 20, 2011 (La Mesa) – Police confiscated an arsenal of weapons from the home of David Schreiner, whose phone call to police about a shooting at Helix High School promoted authorities to secure the campus January 14th. Search warrant records obtained by ECM news partner 10 News indicate that authorities seized 40 rifles, pistols, shotguns and muskets as well as six knives, a dagger, a tomahawk, a hatchet, a machete, a leather sap, and a camouflage ballistic vest.

January 19, 2011 (San Diego's East County) -- Motorists traveling on Mission Gorge Road to southbound State Route 125 in Santee will lose one lane for the next four weeks, Cal-Trans has announced.  Southbound traffic will be directed along a shoulder to the future 52/125 southbound onramp starting Thursday morning at 5 a.m.

January 17, 2010 (Poway) – Ramona resident Cynthia Clay, founder of Clay’s Canine Sidekicks and Leashes for Leaving, died Christmas night, December 25th, one day before her 58th birthday.

“Cyndy, while seriously disabled herself, created and managed over the years two service dog training groups,” said Hope Goodwin, a client who owns a service dog obtained through Clay. “I believe that Cyndy's training group is the only one in the U.S. that teaches the disabled how to train their own Service Dogs,” she said of the two-year program.

Case to be moved to San Diego

January 16, 2011 (San Diego) – Larry Burns, a federal judge in the U.S. District Court’s Southern District in San Diego, has been assigned to preside over the case of Jarod Lee Loughner, the accused gunman in last week’s Arizona massacre. Loughner is accused of shooting 19 people in Tucson, Arizona, killing six. The dead include Arizona’s chief federal judge John Roll and a nine-year old girl. The injured include Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot through the brain.

Update 9 p.m.: The victim was a 67-year old Caucasian man from Valley Center, the San Diego Medical Examiner's office reports.  His name has not been released pending next of kin.

January 16, 2011 (Anza-Borrego) – A fatality accident involving a trailer and a motorcycle has shut down Highway 78 just east of Scissors Crossing in the Anza Borrego Desert State Park, California Highway Patrol reports. The accident was reported at 11:41 a.m. and the road closure occurred at 12:04 p.m.

January 16, 2011 (San Diego) – A man, 26, tried to pass traffic by driving onto the sidewalk in his 1998 Mitsubishi Montero this morning at 8:25 a.m. at 4400 Home Avenue. His vehicle struck a 2003 Ford F-150 that was turning right onto Fairmont ahead of him, causing the F-150 to roll over and strike a 2000 GMC Yukon.

By Miriam Raftery

January 15, 2011 (San Diego’s East County) – Three local organizations and an East County land use issues expert have filed a lawsuit against five federal agencies. The suit alleges that the agencies approved SDG&E’s planned Sunrise Powerlink transition line in violation of environmental regulations—in some cases, making decisions based on the original route through the Anza Borrego Desert, instead of the revised southern route through numerous East County communities.

The suit makes other contentions, notably that key decision makers ignored fire danger and failed to consider the collective impact on public lands in East County, where several wind farms are planned as well as Powerlink in some wilderness areas.  In addition, plaintiffs claim that some decisions were made before completion of studies on endangered species and that once completed, those studies found the project could threaten endangered Peninsular bighorn sheep, golden eagles, and other species.

New ECCDC report highlights accomplishments, but results are apparent in a stroll down Main Street

By Miriam Raftery
 

January 14, 2011 (San Diego’s East County) – Frederick “Rick” Sturckow, who grew up in Lakeside and La Mesa, may be the commander on the next space shuttle flight. NASA has named Sturckow to fill in at least temporarily in training for commander Mark Kelly, whose wife, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, is recovering from an attempted assassination in Tucson.

January 13, 2011 (San Diego’s East County) --The new, permanent northbound State Route 67 (SR-67) off-ramp to Prospect Avenue is scheduled to open Friday at 5 a.m., according to the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans).

January 13, 2011 (El Cajon) --A bomb threat triggered an evacuation of the Wal-Mart store at 13487 Caminoi Canada in El Cajon last night.  Sheriff's deputies from Lakeside, Santee and Alpine responded after an unidentified male called an interior store phone shortly after 6 p.m. and whispered to a worker that he had planted a bomb.

January 11, 2010 (Warner Springs) – Richard Hawkins, 87, has died of injuries after the World War II Trainer plane (tail number N57027) that he was flying crashed crashed late yesterday at Warner Springs Airport. His son remains hospitalized in critical condition at Palomar Medical Center, 10 News reports.

“Tonight at 5:24 p.m., three engines companies under the direction of Battalion Chief John Butz responded,” Cal-Fire battalion chief Nick Schuler said yesterday. “When firefighters arrived, the aircraft was in multiple pieces.”