East County News Service

January 20, 2016 (Santee) -- The Santee Sheriff's Station will conduct a DUI/Driver License checkpoint on Friday, January 22 from 8:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. in Santee.

Photo credit:  Yale's wife, Elizabeth Schwartz

By Mimi Pollack

January 20, 2016 (San Diego) - Yale Strom may be a multi-talented man, a respected teacher at SDSU, and a well known musician both locally and internationally, but he is also refreshingly down to earth and modest, answering my questions at his rustic, comfortable home in Mission Hills with his loving dog, Olive, snuggled on his lap.

East County News Service

January 20, 2016 (Alpine) — At the El Cajon Courthouse this week, Navy Corpsman Brett Brown entered a not guilty plea to charges of murder and child abuse. He is accused of killing his gilfriend’s 19-year-old son.

January 20, 2016 (San Diego's East County)-- East County Magazine's World Watch helps you be an informed citizen about important issues globally and nationally. As part of our commitment to reflect all voices and views, we include links to a wide variety of news sources representing a broad spectrum of political, religious, and social views. Top world and U.S. headlines include:

U.S.

Presidential campaign

• Poll: Neck and neck 2016 races in Iowa, New Hampshire (NBC)
• Sanders’ Medicare for all plan takes aim at for-profit healthcare system (Common Dreams)
• Who won Dem Debate?  Online polls point one way (CBS)
• Rand Paul: Unite the ‘two Americas’(The Hill)
• Sarah Palin endorses Donald Trump (New York Times)
• Republican lawmakers worried about running on Trump’s coattails (Reuters)
• British lawmakers debate banning Trump after Muslim comments (Reuters)
• A guide to what Ted Cruz wants to abolish, bar or change (Washington Post)

Other national news

• Anger and scrutiny grow over poisoned water in Michigan city (New York Times)
• Airport workers demand higher wages (WUSA)
• FAA fails to ensure pilots' manual flying skills: report (Reuters)
• Family-owned forest land may soon change hands (APM Marketplace)
• Thou Shalt Not Toss Food: Enlisting Religious Groups To Fight Waste (NPR)

WORLD

• Islamic State kidnaps 400 civilians in Syrian city of Deir al-Zor: monitor (Reuters)
• South China Sea? For Beijing, Taiwan is the No. 1 security issue (Reuters)
• Polish president calls for beefed-up NATO presence (AP)
• Pakistan arrests imam after boy cuts hand off in blasphemy error (Reuters)
• North African men suspected of stoning transgender women in German city (JPost)
• Aid Groups Witness Starving Syrians (NPR)
• Islamic State militants attack Jakarta, seven killed (Reuters)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

By Miriam Raftery

January 19, 2016 (San Diego) — San Diego State University will welcome back Aztecs with new programs, people and places around campus when school begins on January 20. Here’s a look at some things to look forward to:

By Mike Allen

January 18, 2016 (Santee)--Santee’s City Council has voted to amend an earlier ban on medical marijuana dispensaries, adding the explicit prohibition of cultivating and delivering weed within the city.

The city already prohibited the sale of weed dating to 2009, and has never allowed the activity, but a recent slate of regulations adopted by the state and signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown in October has prompted many cities to pass additional laws ensuring that the cities maintain local control.

The vote on Jan. 13 was 5-0, although one council member said the city should take another look at the issue especially in light of the money the city is spending to enforce the ban.

By Brigitte Garcia

January 18, 2016 (San Diego's East County) - El Niño has brought flooding since it has arrived in California this winter, but now those heavy rains may finally be doing something to help us. The snowpack is higher than it has been in years, and reservoir levels in San Diego County are looking better than they have in the last four years of drought.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo courtesy of Backcountry Land Trust

January 18, 2016 (Alpine) – Clearing local watersheds of the arrundo donax, a hardy bamboo-like, non-native plant that is a major fire fuels hazard, and other invasive species is tough work.  To clear a four-mile stretch of Alpine Creek required contacting owners of about 700 private and public parcels, mapping the terrain and securing liability insurance and contracts.  So far, the initial work has been done on about 50 parcels, funded mainly by private donations.  But a lot more work is needed, including maintain those parcels already cleared.

Leak at So Cal Gas facility exposes nationwide problem of aging gas infrastructure at hundreds of sites

By Miriam Raftery

January 17, 2016 (Los Angeles)—The news sounds like the plot of a disaster thriller movie, but it’s real.  The worst environmental disaster since the BP oil spill, a methane gas leak that began Oct. 23 at a storage well in Aliso Canyon in northern Los Angeles has pumped over 85,000 metric tons of methane into the air.  According to the Environmental Defense Fund, each day of the leak spews as much climate pollutant into the air as 4.5 million to 9 million cars. 

The leak at the site operated by Southern California Gas (a Sempra Energy company that also supplies San Diego’s gas) is endangering health and safety of residents as well as contaminating the environment and pumping a powerful climate pollutant into the atmosphere.   But it may soon get a lot worse. 

A Los Angeles Times investigation reveals that efforts to plug the leak has been halted—after a backwash from those efforts caused a crater 80 feet long, 30 feet wide and 25 feet deep, leaving the wellhead itself exposed and now at risk of a catastrophic blowout. Access to control valves are cut off, documents revealed.  Should a massive explosion and fire occur with a 10-mile-long plume of methane over suburban neighobrhoods, the scenario would be horrifying.

By Miriam Raftery

January 17, 2016 (San Diego's East County) - Join naturalists, called Canyoneers, from the San Diego Natural History Museum, for a free guided walk in Oak Canyon in Mission Trails Regional Park on Sunday, January 24 starting at 9 a.m.

By Miriam Raftery

January 17, 2016 (San Diego) -- Pacificaires and Cedar Center Chorus present this year’s winter concert at the College Avenue Baptist Church (4747 College Ave., San Diego) on January 30th at 2 p.m..  You're invited to join in singing in the New Year.