May 8, 2013 (La Mesa) – La Mesa Police Sergeant Bret Richards was injured early this morning when a stolen vehicle abandoned following a pursuit rolled backward, dragging the officer over 50 feet down Maryland Avenue.  Police still seek the suspect, who was not apprehended.

Play runs May 9-10 and 16-17

May 7, 2013 (El Cajon) – A woman of a certain age contemplates suicide when the phone rings in her San Diego apartment. The caller, believing she is contacting an analyst she read about in a health magazine, launches into her own tale of woe.

So begins “An Ordinary Day,” a one-act play by Dario Fo and Franca Rame, and directed by Martin Katz, a Grossmont College theater arts instructor. The lead character, Julia, finds herself trying to help the woman on the phone, in between encounters with her neighbors, the police and two flower-delivery men. As the tragic-comedy unfolds, it illuminates the themes of zealous commercialism, relationship stress, the notion of betrayal and the exhilaration of contributing to someone else’s life.

By Miriam Raftery

May 7, 2014 (San Diego)--“How do you beat the national average with below average wind speeds?” Attorney Bill Pate posed that intriguing question at a forum hosted in San Diego recently by Activist San Diego.

Good question. Pattern Energy told the California Public Utilities Commission that it would reach 34% capacity at Ocotillo Express Wind Facility, a  site rated just a class 2, the second lowest federal rating for wind speeds.  The first three months of data for the Ocotillo project show only about a 19% capacity reached.   In the entire U.S., there is only a 22 to 23% net capacity on average.  

So how did the project get approved?

By Rebecca Williamson

May 6, 2013 (Santee) --  The Santee Fire Department responded to a call at approximately 11:00 a.m. and scaled the roof of the Santee Staples store on Mission Gorge Road.  Staff and customers were evacuated while firefighters checked the store for fires or potential hazardous situations.

By Miriam Raftery

“The threat of acquiring the respiratory illness extends to residents living near expansive construction sites. That risk is rising given the scope of the renewable energy boom centered in the state.” – Los Angeles Times

May 6, 2013 (San Diego’s East County) – Valley Fever has sickened 28 workers at two large-scale solar facilities under construction in San Luis Obispo County, the Los Angeles Times reported on April 30.  The disease is contracted by breathing in fungal spores released when desert soils are disturbed.

The finding is the latest in a series of disturbing reports on epidemic Valley Fever conditions in California and across the Southwest.  With numerous large-scale solar projects and wind projects proposed for East County that would scrape bare thousands of acres of high desert terrain, public health concerns over the prospect of exposing residents to Valley Fever are growing.  Since wind-blown spores can carry 75 miles or more, residents across San Diego County could be at risk of the potentially deadly disease.

May 7 (Tuesday, 5:30 pm) — Barnes & Noble Oceanside, 2615 Vista Way, Oceanside, presents Gretchen Wendel who will talk about her book, Becka and the Big Bubble series.

May 7 (Tuesday, 6:00 pm) — Barnes & Noble Oceanside, 2615 Vista Way, Oceanside, presents Kevin Gerard, who will talk about his book, Diego's Dragons.

May 7 (Tuesday, 7:30 pm) — Warwick's will host Dean of Arts and Humanities at UCSD Seth Lerer, who will discuss and sign his memoir Prospero's Son. This event is free and open to the public. In order to be signed the author's most current book must be purchased from Warwick's.

Celebrate our launch party! Thousands of dollars in prizes!

Early bird rates extended to Friday! RSVP to reserve space

You're invited! Celebrate launch of our East County Magazine prime-time radio show on KNSJ!  Join us Sunday, May 19 from 12-3 p.m. at the beautiful Maness Vineyards estate, 3044 Colina Verde Lane in Jamul.  Winetasting, great food, music, amazing prizes and more!  

DIRECTIONS:  (click read more below to open and view directions)

May 3, 2013 (San Diego)—On Monday, May 6 at 1 p.m., East County residents opposed to the proposed County Wind ordinance and Boulevard Plan amendment will hold a press conference outside the County Administration Center at 1600 Pacific Highway (by the fountain on the west side.) 

“On May 8^th, the Board of Supervisors will make a life-altering choice for rural East County residents and valued resources,” a press release sent by the Protect Our Communities Foundation and Backcountry Against Dumps. Supervisors must choose to either “sell out to the taxpayer-subsidized wind industry and developers and turn the ruggedly beautiful Boulevard/Jacumba area into an unnecessary industrial energy sacrifice zone and fire trap," the rural residents say,  or"protect and defend the ratepayers and real people and resources in the predominantly low-income fire-prone area from expensive, unreliable, and dangerous industrial wind turbine projects and related web of electrical infrastructure.”

Speakers will include rural residents and a fire official speaking out on dangers posed by industrial wind projects in our region.

By Miriam Raftery

May 4, 2013 (Sacramento) – The State Senate Public Safety on Thursday voted 5-2  to defeat SB 779, a measure authored by Senator Joel Anderson (R-Alpine) and sponsored by the California District Attorneys Association.  The bill sought to speed up executions in California through several means, including bringing back the gas chamber. The bill sparked strong outcry from human rights activists who denounced the method as inhumane.

California voters narrowly defeated a bill in November that would have outlawed the death penalty.  The punishment remains on the books, but due to two judicial rulings finding prior methods inhumane, the state has been left unable to carry out executions  since 2006, despite death penalty verdicts.

Photo by Paul Kruze

A small plane made an emergency landing on the median of Highway 52 at the junction of State Route 125 in Santee shortly after 6 p.m. today.

ECM photojournalist Paul Kruze was driving on the freeway when he witnessed the startling event.

“I was on my way to a concert when all of a sudden I saw this thing landing right in front of me. It was surreal.  I had the same exact feeling as watching the plane fly into the World Trade Center—like watching a movie,” he said, then praised the pilot’s skill. “It was very controlled and the pilot obviously knew what he was doing.”

May 4, 2013 (Spring Valley) – San Diego Police seek public help to identify a young man in a hunting cap who cashed in winning lottery tickets at convenience and liquor stores in Spring Valley.  Police indicate the tickets were from stolen lottery ticket dispensers taken from a San Diego gas station on two occasions. The thefts occurred at the Arco station at 4333 Home Ave on April 5 and on April 18,.

The suspect allegedly ripped the lottery ticket dispensers from the counter while the clerk was in a back room, then fled. He was seen getting into the passenger side of a dark-colored sedan, possibly a late model Honda Civic, detectives said.

Stock market rallies in response to news

By Jonathan Goetz

The jobless recovery is adding jobs, slowly and steadily. April job numbers released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics show the US unemployment rate at 7.5%, the lowest rate in four years. The main job growth was in retail and food services however, and not the same high-paying industries that saw major job losses in the Great Recession.

On Friday, the Dow responded to the positive hiring news by reaching 15,000 for the first time before closing at 14,972, up .9% from the opening bell. The S&P ended 1% higher, also breaking the record by reaching the 1,600 mark. Growth in US markets was spread over most industries, including the beleaguered steel industry, with three stocks closing higher for every one stock closing lower.

Wind company fails to call fire department, lets blaze burn overnight

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Tehachapi fire, 2012

April 27, 2013 (San Diego’s East County)—Why is there no federal requirement for wind farm operators to report fires? 

That troubling fact came to light following a turbine malfunction that caused a fire, destroying a $4 million wind turbine at the Kibby Mountain facility in Maine.  Opponents accuse Trans-Canada of a cover up, the Bangor Daily News reports. (Trans-Canada, builder of the project, is also the company seeking to construct the controversial Keystone Pipeline.)

A sensor in the turbine detected the fire. But an employee did not arrive on scene until the next morning, after the fire had burned itself out.  The fire department was never notified, nor was any state agency.  Had the blaze not occurred in winter with snow on the ground, the fire could have spread to the adjacent forest, a Maine forestry official has stated.

 ECM has asked Cal-Fire in an e-mail whether wind facility operators are required to report fires to fire officials.  No response has been received.

By Jennifer Douglas, jen@saveklsd.com

May 3, 2013 (San Diego)--The need for media reform and putting a halt to further media consolidation now seems urgent. Since late April, we have learned that billionaire conservative activists are moving ahead in a bid to buy the Los Angeles Times; Obama's nominated a former corporate lobbyist to head the Federal Communications Commission (FCC); a senator reminds us that six mega-corporations own most of our mass media, and a leading champion of media reform, Common Cause leader Bob Edgar (photo, left) has died suddenly.

By Miriam Raftery, Editor, East County Magazine

May 3, 2013 (San Diego’s East County) Updated May 7, 2013 – On Wednesday, May 8, San Diego County Supervisors will vote on legislation that could have devastating impacts across East County and the entire San Diego region. 

At stake is a proposed wind ordinance that could open wide vast tracts of East County for industrial wind development, putting residents across our County at risk of a catastrophic wildfire or deadly Valley Fever spores that can blow 70 miles or more.   There are many more reasons to oppose this ordinance, as well as the proposed gutting of Boulevard’s community plan, but these are two of the most compelling.  These and other disturbing facts are detailed below.

If you share these concerns, it's important to contact all five Supervisors.  It's especially important for San Diego residents to tell their Supervisors that you care about what happens to East County, since some Supervisors have shown an arrogant disregard for public health and safety outside of their own districts. Of course, a wildfire that originates in East County and burns into San Diego, or deadly Valley Fever spores that blow into urban areas, should clearly be of concern to all County residents and their representatives. You can contact Supervisors here and scroll down to learn more.  It's also important to show up and speak out at Wednesday morning's meeting at 9 a.m. at 1600 Pacific Coast Highway, Room 402.