By Liz Alper

Photo courtesy @SFGiants on Twitter

July 15, 2016 (San Diego) - Rejoice!  Baseball is back!  The Padres started the second half of the season against the NL West rival San Francisco Giants.  Madison Bumgarner took the mound for the Giants against Andrew Cashner.

Source: San Diego Sheriff's Press Release

July 15, 2016 (Santee) - Detectives from the Sheriff's Child Abuse Unit arrested Santana High School Campus Supervisor/track coach Keith Silvia, 49, for engaging in sexual conduct with a female student.

UPDATES AS OF 9:35 PM PT:  80 dead, 16 critical condition, one police officer dead.  Terrorist investigation HAS been opened. 

Updates:  French police now saying there are at least 70 dead.   

East County News Service

Photo courtesy Eric Gaillard, Reuters

July 14, 2016 (Nice, Fra.) - Today is Bastille Day, the French Fourth of July.  But the celebration was cut short tonight in the city of Nice, a popular tourist destination in France, as a truck accelerated into a crowd of revelers, killing at least 70 and injuring at least 100 people and French authorities say the death toll is rising.  The incident IS being treated as a terrorist attack. 

Update:  Padres receive right-hander Anderson Espinoza from Red Sox

By Liz Alper

Photo:  Denis Poroy, Getty Images North America

July 14, 2016 (San Diego) - The Padres have traded starting pitcher Drew Pomeranz to the Boston Red Sox today, the Union Tribune's Dennis Lin reports.

By Miriam Raftery

July 13,2016 (Spring Valley) – A reader of ours posed two questions regarding the San Miguel Consolidated Fire Protection District board’s decision to drop its contract with Cal Fire and begin the process of returning to being a stand-alone district.

Our reader asked whether the change would affect ISO ratings, which determine property owners’ insurance rates. He also inquired whether the district had considered a partnership with Heartland Fire, as the cities of La Mesa, El Cajon and Lemon Grove have done.

East County News Service

East County News Service

July 13, 2016 (Spring Valley) – The proposed Sweetwater Place  residential project in Spring Valley will be considered  Friday by the County Planning Commission. This project has twice been rejected by the Spring Valley Community Planning Group.

The meeting begins at 9 a.m. at the County’s conference center hearing room at 5520 Overland Ave. in San Diego. Public testimony and participation are encouraged.

The applicant seeks a General Plan Amendment , rezoning and a tentative map and site plan to build 122 condominiums and a two-acre public park on an 18-acre property. The project includes a trail along Jamacha Boulevard that connects to new park and a new bus stop on Jamacha Boulevard.

East County News Service

July 13, 2016 (Ramona) - Watermelon Days at the Oasis Camel Dairy is back and better than ever with more shows, a new children's area (featuring a new sheep-feeding farm), games and more!

East County News Service

July 13, 2016 (Spring Valley) - You're invited to bring a picnic, your family and your furry, four-legged friend to Spring Valley County Park (8735 Jamacha Blvd.) for a free movie this Friday night, July 15, from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Source:  Heartland Fire

July 12, 2016 (El Cajon) - At 2:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, Heartland Fire & Rescue crews were dispatched to reports of a vehicle accident at the intersection of Greenfield Drive and the I-8 underpass in El Cajon.

Update: The Sheriff's office has responded to concerns raised at the Campo-Lake Morena meeting. View the response from Captain Hank Turner here:  http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/rural-fire-sheriff%E2%80%99s-office-re...

By Miriam Raftery

July 10,2016 (Campo) –At a packed meeting of the Campo-Lake Morena Community Planning Group this week, attendees spoke out to voice anger over officials’ treatment of residents during the  Border Fire, particularly issues involving law enforcement officers and County Animal Control. Chair Billie Jo Jannen stated, “We need to channel this outrage”  and circulated a draft letter to be sent to Supervisor Dianne Jacob following any changes after the public’s statements.

The first portion of the meeting focused on issues of not enough water in Lake Morena to fight the fires. (See our article on the Lake Morena issues here.)  The next agenda item focused on other Border Fire issues.

At a table in the back sat several  women who found the bodies of Jim and Kyrie Keefe during a search conducted by volunteers 10 days after the fire at the site where they lived in Dogpatch, just  east of Potrero. They voiced outrage over the fact that despite complaints to officials who did too little, too late, it fell to women volunteers to find the bodies.  The couple died of smoke inhalation in between boulders behind their home, where they apparently tried to take shelter during the wildfire.

By Gig Conaughton, County of San Diego Communications Office

Source:  County News Service

July 12, 2016 (San Diego) -- San Diego County’s Department of Environmental Health is scheduled to drop mosquito-fighting larvicide for the fourth time this year on 48 local waterways Wednesday.

"Father Noel is amazing in the halls of Congress. We were able to get 20,000 more visas for Chaldeans to come here. For his success, he is being punished.  The church is saying that no Iraqi Christians should leave Iraq..Wewlil not allow himto be sent like a cow to slaughter.”--Mark Arabo

By Miriam Raftery

July 12, 2016 (El Cajon)-- Friday is the deadline for Father Noel Gorgis to leave the St. Peter Chaldean Catholic diocese, under an order signed by interim Bishop  ShlemunWarduni and Patriarch Mar Louis Sako. Pope Francis previously intervened to overturn an order for Father Noel to be transferred to Iraq, after local Chaldeans made clear he is needed here, and that his life would be in jeopardy in Iraq.  The new order seeks to punish Father Noel for disobeying the Patriarch despite the Pope's wishes that he remain serving his parish here.

Now Mark Arabo, founder of the Minority Humanitarian Foundation and a prominent spokesman for Chaldean-Americans, is joning with other parishioners here to defend Father Noel.