East County News Service

July 2, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) - The San Diego Astronomy Association hosts events throughout the year.  You can visit their calendar or scroll down for events that the SDAA will be participating in or sponsoring in the next month–including several at East County locations. Inclement weather may postpone or cancel outdoor events, so check with the SDAA or the event coordinator to be sure the event is still scheduled.

• Stars in the Park
• Stars at Mission Trails
• Stars at Sycamore Canyon
• Stars at West Sycamore
• Program Meetings
• Tierra del Sol (TDS)
• Julian Star Fest

Some fault Council for lack of transparency on selection process

East County News Service

July 2, 2016 (La Mesa) -- The La Mesa City Council has appointed Yvonne Garrett as the new City Manager, replacing Dave Witt, who is retiring on August 5 after 31 years with the Planning Department.  Garrett has served as Assistant City Manager Director of City Services for a decade. 

Update:  San Miguel Fire Protection District board member Theresa McKenna has responded to Robert Perry's editorial to detail how much notice and discussion has been held on this issue. Read her remarks here.

By Robert Perry, community resident

Photo:  Protest at station closed due to budget gaps back when San Miguel was a stand-alone station, before contracting with Cal Fire. Opinions ran hot on both sides of the partnership deal at that time.

July 2, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) --With zero public input and zero community discussion (thus far) the San Miguel Fire Protection District has an action item on the agenda for the board meeting of July 6, 2016 to "discuss and may approve returning to a stand alone District".  View agenda.

The district has contracted with CAL FIRE the past four years after facing a structural deficit of their own making.  There is one more year of the contract.

July 1, 2016 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting-edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• 9 plants that bug bugs—including mosquitoes (USA Today)
• List of possible Zika birth defects grows longer  (Scientific American)
• Bright, Bluish-White LED Streetlamps Disrupt Sleep Cycles, AMA Says (NPR)
• Groundbreaking Skin Cancer Treatment Given Approval In Record Time [in the UK) (iflScience)
• Bad News For Kids Who Don't Like Flu Shots (NPR)
• Abortion demand 'soars' amid Zika fear (BBC)
• For Centuries, A Small Town Has Embraced Strangers With Mental Illness (NPR)

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

• BMW's recycled electric car batteries to power homes (CS Monitor)
• Battle erupts over security of chip-enabled credit card readers (CS Monitor)
• Fake fingerprints: The latest tactic for protecting privacy (CS Monitor)
• India launches 20 satellites at one go; most to serve U.S. customers (Reuters)
• Did our planet once have more than two magnetic poles?  (CS Monitor)
• Facebook's political influence under a microscope (Reuters)
• ACLU files lawsuit over U.S. anti-hacking law (Reuters)

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

By Miriam Raftery

June 30, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) – Emotions ran high at a community meeting on Border Fire issues convened by Supervisor Dianne Jacob this morning at the Barrett Junction Café in Dulzura.

 Rural residents praised efforts of firefighters, but voiced frustrations and pointed criticisms over problems that arose including lack of adequate care for animals in the evacuated areas and at shelters. communications failures, and inadequate help to locate a missing couple found dead yesterday by volunteer searchers in Potrero.

Jacob  converted a  previously planned coffee with the community event into a forum for the public to air concerns and for officials to respond.  Representatives from Cal Fire and the Sheriff’s Department turned out, but Animal Services did not.  “Not being here is not a good thing,” Jacob said of Animal Services, adding that she has heard many complaints from rural residents about both Animal Services and the Sheriff’s Department.

East County News Service

June 25, 2016 (La Mesa)—Hope for Iraqi Christians, a La Mesa based organization that assists Iraqi Christian refugees fleeing genocide in the Middle East, has received a pledge from the  Anahid Oram Memorial Refugee Fund to match $10,000 in monthly donations, sponsoring 100 families per month, but only if they can secure sponsors for at least 100 families by July 4. If that goal is met, the matching funds will mean that 200 families will be helped.

You can sponsor a family for as little as  $1 a day. Each donor will receive information on the family adopted.  Smaller donations will be pooled to help reach the total. Or consider adopting multiple families.

June 29, 2016 (Barrett Junction)--Supervisor Dianne Jacob has pulled together an emergency meeting in response to all the concerns raised by Border Fire survivors. The meeting will be held at 8:30 a.m. at the BarrettCafe, 1020 Barrett Lake Road in Dulzura.

A note from her office states: "She will be there with Fire Officials, Sheriff's Department, Office of Emergency Services, Animal Services, BLM, Border Patrol to listen to residents' concerns andanswer questions. This meeting was scheduled already. Sup Jacob has quickly reformed it to include the very people who need to hear from residents there on the ground.  She is well aware of the concerns you've shared with her office."

Listen to Destination East County, also aired on KNSJ, by clicking the audio link.

We thank the County of San Diego for a Community Enhancement Grant supporting Destination East County.

East County News Service

June 28,2016 (San Diego's East County) --This week’s Destination East County includes Fourth of July activities galore, including picnics, parades, a train ride and of course, fireworks!

Plus we’ll have previews of coming attractions including Descanso Days, Pine Valley Days, and a production of the Lion King. 

So stay tuned for all of these events and much, much more!

East County News Service

June 29, 2016 (Santee) -- It’s time to break out the cowbells and get your spots on because Chick-fil-A is issuing a cattle call. The nine Chick-fil-A restaurants in San Diego County, including the Chick-fil-A restaurant at 9418 Mission Gorge Road, Santee, are preparing to give away free food on Tuesday, July 12, as part of the chain’s nationwide promotion called “Cow Appreciation Day.” On that day, Chick-fil-A restaurants nationwide will offer a free entrée to any customer who visits a restaurant dressed as a cow.

By Miriam Raftery

June 29, 2016 (Potrero) -- The  Border Fire destroyed five homes, ravaging lives and memories.  In Potrero, one of the families whose home burned had already suffered a devastating loss. 

Their son, Army Sgt. Brud Cronkrite,  was killed in Karbala, Iraq, when a rocket-propelled grenade was fired into a nearby building while he was on a security patrol during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004. He was born and raised in Potrero, before joining the Army and deploying first to Kuwait, then Iraq. He was 22 years old when he lost his life in service to his country.

Update:  The Medical Examiner's office has identified the bodies found as Jim and Kyrie Keefe, who died of heat-related injuries.

By Miriam Raftery

June 29, 2016 (Potrero) – Two bodies have been found in a rocky crevasse in Potrero by volunteer community members who organized a search this morning, multiple sources have informed East County Magazine. 

The bodies were found at a site burned by the Border Fire, 10 days after the blaze began, Reporting San Diego’s Nadin Abbott, first media at the scene, and Deerhorn Valley Antler Editor Kim Hamilton both confirmed.

The bodies have not yet been identified,  but were found during a search for Jim Keefe, known as “Barefoot Jim” and  his wife or girlfriend who neighbors knew as “Kyrie.”   As ECM reported last night, neighbors launched the search themselves, voicing frustration that their repeated efforts to get help from a Sheriff’s official for days failed to lead to a serious search of the property and vicinity.

“Spent 15 minutes and picked up smell,” Hamilton told ECM in an e-mail. “Located bodies on hillside tucked into a pocket in the boulders. Exactly what has ben communicated to sheriffs from the beginning.”

By Liz Alper

Photo:  the Padres and SDG&E recognize teachers as part of Homeruns for Homerooms before the game.  Courtesy @Padres on Twitter

June 28, 2016 (San Diego) – Remember those black birds from last week?  They’re back!  And so is Padres baseball!  The Orioles flew into San Diego for another two-game series against the Padres.  Ubaldo Jimenez started on the mound for Baltimore against Erik Johnson for the Padres.

By Jan Hedlun

Potrero Resident and Wildfire Survivor

June 28, 2016 (Potrero) --I have heard that local and government agencies involved in the Border Fire are already patting themselves on the back, saying they handled everything perfectly without having sat down with community members for input.  I notice they are holding meetings to tell each other what a good job they’ve done; meetings that most of us recovering from the wildfire did not hear about and could not get to.

I just saw on a Facebook post that today the San Diego County Board of Supervisors are going to “chat about how to provide assistance to victims of the fire at their meeting today." * Chat? Didn’t they have a multitude of meetings after the Cedar (2003), Harris and Witch Fires (2007) that dealt will these topics?  Didn’t they come out with resolutions back then?

I’ve not heard from anyone that Supervisor Jacobs or other authorities have been out here to ask people face-to-face what happened and what could be improved upon. Don’t you think they would want to know all the facts from the people that were involved before holding all these self-congratulatory meetings?

June 28, 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.

• Wall Street losses deepen after Brexit vote (Australian)
• FBI didn’t inform some Americans they were on ISIS kill list (Circa)
• My four months as a private prison guard (Mother Jones)
• GOP’s Zika bill limits contraceptive access (Huffington Post)
• Thousands of ancient petroglyphs, dramatic solar calendar reported in N. Arizona (Western Digs)
• Clinton and Warren demonstrate power of their new alliance (NBC)
• Defecting Democrats, Trump and bitterness: Why Jill Stein just might turn November upside down (Salon)
• Think you’ve got it locked, Hillary? Meet Jill Stein (Real News Network)
• How well can Gary Johnson and Bill Weld actually do in the presidential election? (Newsweek)
• Why the Clinton Foundation and foreign money are an issue (McClatchy News Service)
• Thrilling conservative audience, Trump vows to lift ban on politicking, appoint antiabortion judges (Washington Post)

WORLD

• UK votes to leave EU, Cameron quits (BBC)
• Scotland seeks to remain in EU, ready for new independence vote (Reuters)
• Iraqi general:  ‘The battle for Fallujah is over.’(CNN)
• A yellow fever epidemic in Angola could turn into a global crisis (Washington Post)

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

East County News Service

Video credit:  Fremantle Media North America

June 27, 2016 (La Mesa) – Ellen "Gigi" Draper from La Mesa won a car on the Price is Right earlier this month. She and her husband, Robert “Bob” Draper went to Los Angeles the night before in order to be first in line in hopes of being picked by host Drew Carey.

“I had on an orange shirt and it says, `HI Drew, I need help. Married 58 years to Pop Pop, Mother of four boys and 1 girl, grandmother of 18 and great-grandmother of 15. I need a vacation – Gigi.”