By Miriam Raftery

Photos: Lori Kaye, the sole fatality, and injured survivors Rabbi Ysroel Goldstein, Almog Perez, and Noya Dahan

Updated April 29 with information on Iraq War veteran Oscar Stewart, who chased the gunman out of the synagogue

April 28, 2019 (Poway) – When a gunman opened fire on unarmed worshippers and a rabbi inside the Chabad Congregation synagogue on Saturday, his victims displayed remarkable courage—saving many lives.  About 100 people were in the synagogue, but only four were struck, according to Sheriff Bill Gore.

 Lori Gilbert-Kaye, 60, a founding member of the synagogue, jumped between the gunman and Rabbi Ysroel Goldstein, sacrificing her own life to save the spiritual leader, CNN reports. She had come to say a Kaddish prayer for the dead for her late mother, but now the prayer will be recited in her memory.

Rabbi Goldstein raised his hands and bullets tore through his fingers.  ““I saw a group of children in the banquet hall, including my granddaughter,” he told NBC TV after surgery, “not even knowing that my fingers were blown off, I got the kids and everyone out of the sanctuary safely.”  Outside the sanctuary, despite his bloody wounds, the Rabbi continued to deliver his Passover message and told his congregation, “We are united.”

By Miriam Raftery

April 27, 2019 (San Diego) – San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) offers programs that can provide discounts to low income individuals on certain assistance programs, as well as to people with medical equipment under a doctor’s care.  There are also no-cost energy efficient upgrades available to qualifying individuals.

By Miriam Raftery

Updated with names of victims

April 27, 2019 (Lakeside) – Felix Joseph Hernandez, 50, is under arrest for killing his brother. George Hernandez, as well as shooting and injuring Elwin Ray Downs, 65. He is charged with murder and assault.

Sheriff’s deputies responded to a call reporting the shooting yesterday at 4:31 p.m. in a mobile home park at 13460 Highway 8 Business in Lakeside.  Deputies found a 65-year-old man in the parking lot with a gunshot wound to his torso. The victim reported another man had been shot inside a residence.

East County News Service

Photo:  (from left to right) Tracy Morgan Hollingworth, Joe Mackey, Robert Calloway, Kay LeMenager, Carol Lewis, Anna Marie Piconi Snyder.

April 26, 2019 (El Cajon) – The Pacific Southwest Association of Realtors (PSAR), a real estate trade group for San Diego-area realtors, recently presented a $5,000 check to the San Diego East County Chamber of Commerce Foundation to help pay for a website featuring resources to assist homeless people in the East County.

Homeland Security Secretary resigned after White House thwarted her efforts to prevent Russian hacking

By Miriam Raftery

April 26, 2019 (Washington D.C.) – Lost amid the hoopla over the Mueller report  is this indisputable finding by the special counsel: “The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion.” Yet to date, nothing has been done by the Trump administration to prevent Russian interference in the upcoming primaries and 2020 presidential race.

Muelller stopped short of finding any direct collusion involving President Donald Trump with Russia, though he did not exonerate the president on obstruction of justice. While the President has claimed victory and Congress continues to probe obstruction issues, perhaps the most critical and under-reported fact is this:  the Trump administration is actively interfering with efforts by even its own cabinet officials and Congress to prevent Russia from hacking or otherwise interfering in the next presidential election in 2020.

By Donald H. Harrison

Originally published by San Diego Jewish World, a member of the San Diego Online News Association

Photo:  At left, actress Shelley Winters with daughter Vittoria Glassman, and Lolly Boroff (dark hair) with her mother Blanche Boroff.

April 25, 2019 (Spring Valley) - In the American History Theater’s current production of The Diary of Anne Frank, some American theater history is being reprised.  Back in 1959, Shelley Winters won an Oscar as best supporting actress for her performance as Mrs. Van Daan in the movie version of that play, which dramatized the experiences of the Frank and Van Daan families as they hid in a secret annex from the Nazis, who then were sending Jewish families from Amsterdam to concentration camps.

Review by Kathy Carpenter

April 25, (La Mesa) - Everyone has a dream. Most of us do not get the opportunity to realize the dream. For George Bailey, director of Nine, at least one of his dreams came true. Many years ago he would go to the downtown library and check out albums from different musicals. One day he checked out the album for Nine and went home to listen on his parents’ stereo. He loved the score and identified with the story. A fleeting thought crossed his mind. If he was a director he would direct Nine. The thought was forgotten until Lamplighters brought his dream to life.

By Ken Stone

Reprinted with permission from Times of San Diego, a member of the San Diego Online News Association

Photo:  Judge Randa Trapp will hear arguments Thursday and Friday in cases involving the Julian-Cuyamaca Fire Protection District. Photo by Ken Stone

April 25, 2019 (Julian) - Lawyers for San Diego County will ask a judge Thursday to evict volunteer firefighters and others who have locked themselves in the Julian fire station, saying they’re worried about equipment and property worth $3 million being stolen or damaged.

April 24, 2019 (San Diego’s East County) -- East County Magazine's World Watch helps you be an informed citizen on important issues globally and nationally. As part of our commitment to reflect all voices and views, we include links to a variety of news sources representing a broad spectrum of political, religious, and social views. Top world and U.S. headlines include:

U.S.

• Barr releases Mueller's report - and feels the heat (Reuters)
• Trump failed at obstruction because his aides refused to carry out orders, Mueller finds (NBC)
• The impossible challenge of tracking visa overstays  (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Ex-Obama lawyer charged with lying about foreign lobbying after leaving White House (USA Today)
• Airline employee pleads guilty to working as agent for Chinese government (Washington Post)

WORLD

• Notre-Dame blaze: 24 hours that rocked Paris and shocked the world (France 24)
• Evacuation plan saved most of Notre-Dame's treasures: insurance adjuster  (Reuters)
• As Sri Lanka mourns, ISIS claims Easter bombings (AP)
• Peru's ex-president Garcia kills himself to avoid arrest in Odebrecht probe (Reuters)
• Conservative victory in Canada's Alberta may spell trouble for Trudeau  (Reuters)
• Cyclone Idai's death toll rises to 847, hundreds of thousands displaced (Reuters)

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

East County News Service

April 24, 2019 (El Cajon) -- El Cajon’s City Council will be choosing a new Councilmember to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Ben Kalasho.

The Council will make its decision at its regularly scheduled May 14th meeting.

By Mike Van Bibber

April 14, 2019 (Julian) -- A message to our family, friends, and neighbors in the Julian-Cuyamaca community, throughout California, and across the United States:

The men and women of the Julian-Cuyamaca Fire Protection District are facing an illegal government takeover of our volunteer fire department — San Diego County’s last volunteer department — and that’s putting the public at risk. 

Throughout our history, JCFPD has been responding to emergency calls in our community: heart attacks, car crashes, wildfires, you name it. More than 60 members strong, we proudly serve everyone in the community — whether local or visitor, young or old, rich or poor, regardless of culture or creed. We are woven into the community’s fabric and remain in the station ready to serve in the event of an emergency. 

Legal documents and bureaucrats call this place a “special district.” We call it “home.”

Normally we’d be waiting here in the station until someone calls in need of help. Our history has always been responding to calls for help. But today is different. 

Today we are asking you for help. Today we are the ones who desperately need your help.

By Renée Owens

Photo: Endangered least Bell’s vireo checking its nest

April 23, 2019 (San Diego’s East County) -- This year’s spectacular rainfall has finally ended our eight-year drought and the bounty of spring is one for the records: wildflowers are blooming far and wide, butterflies are migrating by the thousands, birds are nesting early, and the sound of SDG&E chopping at trees fills the air. What? The latter should not be a rite of spring and there’s a very good reason why.