September 25, 2015 (La Mesa)—A Fair Trade gift faire in La Mesa on October 11 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. will offer hand-crafted baskets, jewelry clothing accessories, chocolate, coffee, tea and more.  Fair Trade certification means artisans and farmers in the poorest areas of the world receive fair, livable wages for their product or ingredients, offer the public “socially responsible” shopping.

By Mike Allen

September 25, 2015 (La Mesa)--Responding to a request to install lights at a known drug dealing hangout, the La Mesa City Council directed its staff Sept. 22 to devise some solution at the site.

Larry LaHaye, the owner of several apartment buildings in La Mesa at Schoolridge Lane, told the council that the street’s 56 families residing in the apartments have a safe neighborhood but a small park at the end of the cul de sac remains a problem.

By Tasha Matthews

Photo, left: Staff and mentors at Fostering Opportunities Scholarships

Part I in a series on foster youth programs

September 22, 2015 (San Diego)-- Half of all foster kids in the U.S. end up homeless as adults.  Just 10% go to college, and of those, only 3% graduate. Although foster youths comprise less than 0.3% of the state’s population, 40% of the people in homeless shelters are former foster youths, as is a high percentage of the country's prison population. Over half (51% ) of foster youths are unemployed.  Yet despite these staggering statistics, many foster  youths are bright, talented individuals who have proven that they can thrive—with help from some local groups working to help them have a brighter future.

By Miriam Raftery

September 22, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) –  The Valley and Butte fires rank among the most destructive fires in California history, with nearly a thousand homes destroyed and tens of thousands of people evacuated.  More than 70,000 acres in California have burned in total this year.

East County News Service

September 19, 2015 (Santee)—Santana High School’s cheerleaders have an event for golfers to “cheer” about:  a charity golf tournament Friday, October 9 at the Carlton Oaks Golf Course in Santee.

By Fire Chief Sam DiGiovanna

September 23, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) -- Were stepping right into Fall this week so make sure you don’t slip or slide into it! Recent rain and more in the forecast will make roads slippery. Go about it safely reminds Fire Chief Sam DiGiovanna.

Driver, Don Godfrey of Lakeside, seriously injured

East County News Service

September 24, 2015 (El Cajon) – A red Ford F-250 pickup truck was struck by a trolley at 12:40 p.m. today in El Cajon and has sustained life-threatening injuries, Lt. Randy Soulard with the El Cajon Police Department reports.

Police officers and  Heartland Fire Department paramedics responded to the collision at Marshall Avenye and Billy Mitchell.  The pickup was traveling east on Billy Mitchell and the trolley was traveling north, paralleling Marshall. Preliminary evidence and witness statements at the scene indicate the driver of the pick-up truck may have traversed the railroad crossing arms and entered the path of the trolley. 10 News reports the truck was dragged about 50 feet.

September 23, 2015 (San Diego's East County) -- East County Roundup highlights top stories of interest to East County and San Diego’s inland regions, published in other media. This week’s top “Roundup” headlines include:

LOCAL/REGIONAL

• Documents detail how nuclear material was handled at San Onofre (KNSD-7)
• Incomes rise, but poverty remains a problem (U-T San Diego)
• Sculptor's eviction means end of jumping mustangs (U-T San Diego)
• Lieutenant sues over reassignment (U-T San Diego)
• Regents reject intolerance statement  (U-T San Diego)
•  Ranch to the rescue for pot-bellied pigs (Ramona Sentinel)
• Local health insurance coverage rises to 88% under Obamacare (Times of San Diego)
• Local Water Agencies Are Making Moves to Take Control of Costs, Supply (Voice of San Diego)
• County pays $1M Sierra Club legal fees (U-T San Diego)
• Anderson Could Run for Three Different Seats in Six Years (Voice of San Diego)
• Sempra wins one showdown with Mexican rancher (U-T San Diego)
• Pension boss gets unemployment on top of $250,000 severance (U-T San Diego)
• Weber: Schools Need New Thinking — Not New Buildings (Voice of San Diego)
• La Mesan Claudia Sandoval Named Masterchef  (La Mesa Today)
• Poway Unified Might Re-Hire Controversial Bond Consultants  (Voice of SD)

STATE

• State panel outlaws ‘dark money’ in political campaigns (Los Angeles Times)
• Where have all the cops gone? (Desert Sun)
• Crowdfunding for wildfire victims: A new solution to an old problem? (CS Monitor)
• Deal would let Southern California buy surplus water from Nevada (Reuters)
•  As wildfires spread, the contractors are called in (APM Marketplace)

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

September 23, 2015 (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.

• Pope Francis arrives in U.S. for historic visit (CNN)
• Wisconsin health hazard ruling could shock wind industry (Greenwire)
• 87 deceased NFL players test positive for brain disease (KPBS)U.S. in agreement to provide Indian tribes $940 million for unmet service payments (Reuters)
• GM To Pay $900 Million To Settle Criminal Case Over Faulty Ignition Switches (NPR)
• 64,000 people fled Puerto Rico last year amid economic crisis (CS Monitor)
• Donald Trump sends cease and desist letter to Club for Growth (Politcio)
• Fiorina's Feminism Strategy (Reason)
• Carly Fiorina stood up to Trump, but she isn’t standing up for women’s issues (Huffington Post)
• General Motors To Settle Criminal Case Over Deadly Defective Ignition Switches NPR
• Survey Finds Poverty, Income Numbers Remain Unchanged  (NPR)

WORLD

• U.S. indifference to Afghan child sex abuse led boy to kill 3 marines, lawsuit claims (Washington Times)
• More than 2,000 enslaved fishermen rescued in 6 months ( AP)
• Russian helicopters spotted at Syria airfield: U.S. officials (Reuters)
• Britain offers warship to tackle people smugglers in Mediterranean  (Reuters)
• At least 10 killed, over 1 million evacuate as strong earthquake rocks Chile (+video)  (CS Monitor)
• UN nuclear conference votes down anti-Israel resolution (AP)
• The Nobel Peace Prize: A prestigious award or a political tool? (CS Monitor)
• Number of children displaced by Boko Haram hits 1.4 million: UNICEF (Reuters)
•  Venezuelan soldiers entered Colombia, fired weapons: Colombian army (Reuters)
• Israeli aircraft strike Gaza after rocket fire  (Reuters)

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

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

East County News Service

September 23, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) --This week’s Destination East County features an alpaca farm tour in Descanso, a hike along the Sky Island Trail in Julian, music from an Afro-Cuban ensemble to a dual concert band performance, and Julian’s Apple Days festival.

Plus we’ll have a preview of coming attractions including Oktoberfests in El Cajon and La Mesa, Fall Fest at Grossmont Center, and a Fair Trade Faire.

So click "read more" and scroll down for all of these events and much, much more!

By Miriam Raftery

September 22, 2015 (San Francisco)—The U.S. 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals has granted a victory to Stephanie Lenz, a mom who posted a 29-second video of her toddler dancing to Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” music.

Prince’s publisher, Universal Music, demanded that she take down the video, claiming copyright infringement.  She sued, and on Monday, the appellate court ruled her case can go to trial.  The judges also ruled that copyright holders must consider fair use before asking services such as YouTube to remove videos.

East County News Service

September 22, 2015 (La Mesa)—Cosmos Coffee, a popular gathering spot in La Mesa’s downtown village, has closed its doors—for now. But the owner is hopeful that employees may want to takeover ownership and reopen.

The shop posted on its Facebook page on August 31, “It has been a pleasure to serve and be part of the community of LA Mesa for the last six years. Cosmos is closed temporarily. We will be updating the website and Facebook as soon as we know what is happening. We want to thank all of our loyal customers and we hope we will be back to make you all feel special and caffeinated as soon as possible. The Cosmos Crew.”

By Miriam Raftery

September 21, 2015 (Sacramento)—Governor Jerry Brown has signed Assembly Bill 53 into law. It requires drivers to secure children in rear-facing car seats until at least age 2, unless the child weighs over 40 pounds or is more than 40 inches tall.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) supported the bill,  citing a study that found children younger than 2 are 75 percent less likely to be killed or injured in a car crash if they're in a rear-facing car seat.

By Miriam Raftery

September 21, 2015 (San Diego)—On Sunday, as many as 90,000 SDG&E customers in San Diego County were without power for up to two hours.  As we reported, SDG&E tweeted that the outage was due to the California Independent Systems Organization ( CAISO) ordering SDG&E to “drop 150 MW of load in our service territory at around 1:15 p.m.” 

Today, CAISIO spokesman Steven Greenlee told East County Magazine that the problem originated locally.  “About 11:53 a.m. a generator in the San Diego area tripped offline,” he said.  With hot temperatures already raising demand for power, he said, “that generator overloaded the lines in the area.  That threatened to spread to other communities.” As a result, the ISO, which is above CAISIO and coordinates the entire western U.S. grid, serving as reliability coordinator, stepped in to protect the nation's power grid stability.