By Miriam Raftery

June 25, 2015 (El Cajon) – Nationwide, over 400,000 rape kits have never been tested, including many right here in our region.  Yet testing every rape kit can produce undeniably dramatic results.

June 25, 2015 (San Diego)--The San Diego Latino Film Festival has issued a call for entries for its 2016 event. The deadlines are September 11 for early entry, October 9 normal entry, and November 13, late entry. Entry fees range from $15-$25 for early entries up to $40-60 for late entries.

The 23^rd annual festival will be held March 10-20, 2016. The festival seeks entries for short films and feature films. Last year’s festival was attended by an audience of 21,500 actively-engaged film lovers, filmmakers, actors, programmers, distributors, industry representatives, and journalists.

By Miriam Raftery

June 25, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) – Only about 100 fluent speakers of the Kuyemaay dialect remain -- and most of thoe are in Mexico, Margaret Field, a professor of American Indian Studies at San Diego State University told the San Diego Union-Tribune. She added, “All indigenous languages around the world are endangered, in that they could disappear within a generation or two.”

But here in San Diego’s East County, local Native American tribal members are making efforts to keep their language alive.

June 25, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• Drug companies donated millions to California lawmakers before vaccine debate (Sacramento Bee)
• In Los Angeles, a national model for how to police the mentally ill (CS Monitor)
• Black market drug injections: dangerous and deadly (CNN)
• New anti-malaria compound discovered (BBC)
• Agent Orange: US makes more veterans eligible for disability benefits (CS Monitor)
• Better off dad: How fatherhood actually 'rewires' a man's brain to make him a better parent (Jewish World Review)

SCIENCE

• Toxic algae bloom off West Coast might be largest ever: scientists (Reuters)
• UK GM wheat does not repel pests (BBC)
• Membranes grow like living cells (U-T)

TECH

• Record year for renewable power (AP)
• The FCC Might Have Just Killed Polling as We Know It—and That's OK (Reason)
• Gmail finally lets you 'Undo Send' emails you wish you didn't send (Mashable)

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

By Miriam Raftery

June 24, 2015 (Washington D.C.) -- Guests at hotels or motels can now rest a little easier. The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down a Los Angeles law that allowed police to demand access to guest information at lodging establishments. It’s now up to each hotel or motel owner to decide whether to challenge such requests from law enforcement.

By Miriam Raftery

June 24, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) – Thunderstorms capable of heavy downpours, gusty winds and lightning strikes may hit our mountain and desert regions starting this weekend. The storms are forecast from Saturday through Tuesday, mainly in the afternoons and evenings.

June 24, 2015 (Lakeside)--The County of San Diego, Department of Environmental Health (DEH) has issued a Boil Water Order and Public Notification for Louis Stelzer County Park located at 11470 Wildcat Canyon Road, Lakeside, effective immediately.  The water system serves a ranger station, volunteer pad, park drinking fountains and public restrooms.

The drinking water system has tested present for total coliform bacteria. 

By Miriam Raftery

June 24, 2015 (Spring Valley ) – San Miguel Fire Protection Agency has sent a letter notifying the Spring Valley Planning Group that the County intends to close its case on contamination from underground leaking storage tanks at 905 Gillespie Drive in Spring Valley.  The proposal would leave petroleum hydrocarbon elements in the soil to degrade by natural processes under the state’s “Low-Threat Closure Policy.”

Public comments will be accepted from June 27 through  August 31^st.

The fire district removed underground fuel storage tanks at its fire station on the site, Kevin Healy with the County's Enviornmental Health department advised East County Magazine. Under the state's policy, the contaminants can be left in place to degrade naturally if they are found to not pose a human health risk or adversely impact beneficial uses of surface water or groundwater.

East County News Service

June 23, 2015 (Sacramento)—A proposed initiative that called for killing gay people won’t be appearing on California ballots.  Superior Court Judge  Raymond Cadei in Sacramento County has ruled that the measure would be “inappropriate, waste public resources, generate unnecessary divisions among the public, and tend to mislead the electorate.”

By Miriam Raftery

June 22, 2015 (El Cajon ) – A woman who left her dog in a hot car for five hours at the El Cajon courthouse on June 19^th  has been arrested and charged with animal cruelty.

by Susan A Mahalick. Photos and article by the author

June 23, 2015 (Baja, Mexico) - I met Sitara when she first got here from Costa Rica with not much more than the clothes on her back and a dog named Lily. We became fast friends, fast. She got enrolled in the wine school which has tough requirements, one of which is knowing Spanish well enough to understand the classes and become proficient in business afterwards. I was her very first investor and it is indeed the best investment I have ever made. In a few short years she is now sending her wines to Mexico City which is the ultimate market here and poised to export to the United States. It takes at least a year to become legal, getting a tax stamp for your bottles, becoming a legal resident and the like. Since her grandmother was Mexican this allows her to become a dual citizen with the US. Originally from Alaska, she is an adventurer like so many of us expats in Mexico. She prefers to create blends so I just got a case of her Dolcetto at the rock bottom price of five dollars a bottle. I am going to use some of these along with her new house wine, Ruffian, for a wine tasting BBQ tomorrow on my patio with two friends.

East County News Service

June 22, 2015 (San Diego's East County)--Summit Unitarian Universalist Fellowship will be holding a Standing on the Side of Love event to support the national "Black Lives Matter" movement in Lemon Grove, California on June 22nd from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m.. 

The movement is a rallying cry against police actions and a criminal justice system which results in extremely disproportionate acts of violence, incrimination and incarceration of Blacks in America. This event will also advocate that local law enforcement agencies such as the San Diego Sheriffs' Department stop conducting actions like Operation Lemon Drop which appear to target low income populations of color.

The rally will start at the northwest corner of Lemon Grove Avenue and Broadway.  At 5:30, local speakers will make short presentations regarding this movement in our region.

By Miriam Raftery

June 22, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) – The massacre of nine people at an African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina by an avowed white supremacist has drawn national attention to the issue of hate crimes.  So East County Magazine took a look at hate crimes statistics in San Diego County to compare our region to the nation overall. 

In 2013, San Diego had 73 hate crimes, or about 1/100 of the total hate crimes in the U.S. – consistent with our county’s percentage of the total U.S. population. But well over half -- 57% -- of local hate crimes reported were racially motivated, which is higher than the average nationwide.

By Paul Kruze

Video with permission of Mike Anderson.

June 19, 2015 (Rancho San Diego)--A full contingent of CAL-FIRE and San Diego County firefighters were called to fight a smoky 15-acre fire near State Highway 94 and Jamacha Blvd. that broke out Friday afternoon. The highway was closed to traffic in both directions until the fire reached 85 percent containment at 6:30 p.m.

A Sheriff’s Bomb/Arson Unit is investigating. Although an SDG&E substation was lightly damaged in the fire, power to about 20,000 homes was not affected. A man and a woman observed leaving an area known as a homeless encampment in the burn area have been detained for questioning, though no charges have be filed at this time.