By County News Center, County of San Diego Communications Office

May 16, 2023 (San Diego) - Cases of Hepatitis A in San Diego County continue to grow, with 28 reported so far this year and 18 of them among people experiencing homelessness (PEH). The County typically reports about two cases of the virus each month with only one case reported in the PEH population last year.

East County News Service

May 16, 2023 (San Diego) – Rail service remains suspended between San Diego and Orange County,  more than two weeks after debris from slope movement in San Clemente near Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens was spotted near the track by crews. Train service has been shut down in the area since May 28.

By Jacob Pamus

Miriam Raftery contributed to this report

Photo:  Writers Guild strikers picket a Disney show in New York on May 10;  by FabebK, CC-by-SA 4.0

May 16, 2023 (San Diego) – The Writers Guild of America strike which began May 2 is the largest disruption in production of TV shows and motion pictures since the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns in 2020. 

Productions impacted include Netflix’s Stranger Things, Marvel Studios’ Blade and late night TV comedy shows. However some studios are continuing without writers, such as Amazon Prime’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which is wrapping up production overseas.

The key issue in the strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is revenues from streaming services, with writers contending that they are not being paid appropriately.

East County News Service

May 15, 2023 (Sacramento) – Senate Bill 31, a measure by  Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones (R-San Diego) which aimed to “compassionately clear homeless camps” according to Jones, has failed to win passage in the Senate Public Safety Committee.

East County News Service

May 15, 2023 (San Diego) – On August 15, a special election will be held to fill the District 4 seat vacated by Nathan Fletcher, whose resignation takes effect today.  If no candidate takes a majority of votes  in the Aug. 15 primary, then a special general election will be held Nov. 7.

Fletcher announced his resignation March 29 following a lawsuit filed by a Metropolitan Transit System employee alleging sexual assault and harassment.  He resigned from  MTS on April 4 but  has been on medical leave from his supervisorial position since announcing his intent to resign and has said he was undergoing treatment for PTSD and alcohol abuse. Fellow board members called on his to resign earlier, but he did not do so.

By Mike Allen

May 13, 2023 (Santee) – Soon after East County Magazine posted news that the 65-year old Santee Drive In Theater was in escrow, this website began hearing from people that the story was “wrong” and to stop publishing “fake news.”

The seller of the property, which doubles as the Santee Swap Meet on weekends, Susan Forte Boyd, sent an emailed statement to ECM that drive-in was not sold.  However, ECM has reconfirmed that the property is in escrow.

"It is a statement of fact that the Santee Drive-In Theatre has not been sold," ForteBoyd said in an email. She also said the reporter (me) and his sources got the facts wrong, and never contacted the sellers.

That is not true.

By Mike Allen

April 29, 2023 (Santee) - Santee’s City Council unanimously approved a four-story, 97-room hotel at the Trolley Square Shopping Center to be operated by either the Hilton or Marriott chains at its April 26 meeting.

East County News Service

April 23, 2023 (Ramona)-- The Sheriff's Bomb/Arson Unit is investigating a deadly fire in the unincorporated area of Ramona.

It happened on Saturday, April 22 just after 1 p.m. in the 17000 block of Voorhes Lane. The San Diego County Sheriff's Department received calls about a travel trailer on fire. 

Deputies and firefighters from Cal Fire/San Diego County Fire arrived to find the trailer fully engulfed and soon after unfortunately found a deceased woman inside the trailer.

East County News Service

April 22, 2023 (El Cajon) – After ECM reported on EBT scams involving skimming devices,  El Cajon Police Department revealed that it’s recovered 12 skimmers from retailers in the city and released a video with tips for consumers to avoid ID theft wherever you slide a credit card or EBT card.

ECPD included this message: 

By Miriam Raftery

April 22, 2023 (Boulevard) – For more than two decades,  Donna Tisdale has been a champion for residents in San Diego’s backcountry, leading battles against massive energy projects and a dump. She started a nonprofit, Backcountry Against Dumps and chaired the Boulevard Planning Group every year since joining it in 1991. She’s filed countless lawsuits against a seemingly endless array of Goliath-scale projects and organized community opposition after San Diego’s East County was declared an energy corridor by the federal government.

East County News Service

Photo courtesy of ECM news partner NBC 7

April 18, 2023 (Julian) - An El Cajon handyman who waded into a pond left by rainwater in Julian to retrieve his dog contracted a rare flesh-eating bacteria.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo:  Kupa, one of the last dozen descendants of San Diego's heritage herd, has died of a rattlesnake bite. His owner is asking the County to protect  the remaining herd descedants under the County's MultipleSpecies Conservation Plan.

April 17, 2023 (San Diego’s East County) – Kupa, one of only a dozen descendants of San Diego’s heritage herd of wild horses, has died. Kathleen Hayden made the announcement “with a breaking heart” on Facebook yesterday, stating that “during the night, our four-year-old Coyote Canyon stallion, Kupa, was bitten in his eye by a rattlesnake and died.”

Hayden is cofounder of Coyote Canyon Caballos d’Anza, a nonprofit in Santa Ysabel.  For years, she and her foundation have been fighting to gain protection for the heritage herd. The federal government has long refused to recognize horses as native species worthy of protection, believing they were brought here by European explorers.

But on March 23, 2023, Science published a report by 84 researchers who concluded that horses evolved first in North America and later crossed a land bridge over the Bering Strait to Eurasia. There are ancient fossils found in the Anza Borrego desert and Carlsbad  predating the early Spanish and English explorers to bolster that claim, as well as references to Native American horses in writings of Sir Francis Drake in 1580.

Those findings have reignited the urgent call to save wild horses and try to repopulate San Diego’s heritage herd on public lands, before it is too late.

By Marisa Kendall, CalMatters

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

Photo:  notice of cleanup and property removal. Photo via @HomelessnessSD Twitter

April 16, 2023 (San Diego) - Technically, the encampment of about a dozen tents at W Street and Alhambra Boulevard in Sacramento is illegal. 

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Protesters support DACA in San Francisco, 2017; cc by Ahimse Gefence

April 14, 2023 (Washington D.C.) – The Biden administration has announced plans to allow young undocumented immigrants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) be eligible for healthcare programs coverage under Medicare and the Affordable Care Act exchanges. But a group of conservative-led states has filed a legal action seeking to block the expanded coverage.

“Healthcare should be a right,” President Biden posted on Twitter. “I’ve worked hard to get more Americans health insurance than ever before,” adding that the action would give ”Dreamers the same opportunities.”