April 30, 2025 (La Mesa) – The La Mesa Police Department and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) are asking for the public’s help in identifying and locating the suspects responsible for the murder of 22-year-old Navy Sailor Corneilius Donte Brown, which happened four years ago.

Governor Gavin Newsom recently pledged an additional $50,000 reward from the State of California for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Brown’s murderer. In addition to $9,000 from  Brown’s family, $5,000 from NCIS, and $1,000 from San Diego Crime Stoppers, this brings the total reward to $65,000.

On April 24, 2021, at approximately 12:26 a.m., the La Mesa Police Department received several 9-1-1 calls of gunshots heard in the area of 4300 Echo Court, in La Mesa. Officers arrived within minutes and located a gunshot victim (later identified as Brown) inside his residence. He was transported to Sharp Memorial Hospital, where he unfortunately succumbed to his injuries.

By Karen Pearlman     

Photo,left: Bob Filner on Election Night 2012, when he won election as San Diego Mayor

(April 28, 2025) San Diego -- Bob Filner, who served as San Diego’s 35^th mayor and as Congressman representing San Diego and border regions in East County, died April 20. He was 82. 

A fierce advocate for civil rights, his decades-long career in public service was marked by notable accomplishments and controversy,culminating in his resignation from the mayor’s office amid a scandal of multiple allegations of sexual harassment. He later pled guilty to charges of false imprisonment and battery.

Yet throughout his life, he remained a passionate, sometimes combative, champion for the underdog and fierce advocate for civil rights.

East County News Service

April 27, 2025 (Alpine) – Carmen Lucas is a respected Kwaaymii Laguna elder, consultant, tribal monitor, educator and lifelong advcoate for Native American heritage preservation. 

She will be sharing her story, teachings and vision for the future of tribal cultural preservation at 1 p.m., Sunday, June 8 at the Alpine Women’s Club (2166 Alpine Blvd. in Alpine) at an event hosted by the Alpine Historical Society.

She has spent nearly 30 years working in cultural resource management as well as serving as caretaker of her ancestral homeland, Lucas Ranch.

East County News Service

April 27, 2025 (San Diego) – Jack in the Box has announced plans to close 150-200 underperforming restaurants this year and next, to improve the company’s cash flow.

The locally-owned fast food chain opened the nation’s first drive-through hamburger outlet in 1951 at 6270 El Cajon Blvd. in San Diego (photo, left). Soon after, Jack in the Box outlets popped up across San Diego and East County locations such as La Mesa and El Cajon, ultimately going national.

Today, Jack in the Box owns approximately 2,200 restaurants across 22 states, as well as operating around 600 Del Taco restaurants in 17 states. The company is also considering divesting from the Del Taco brand.

By Miriam Raftery

April 26, 2025 (Lemon Grove) – On April 15, a notice of intent to recall Lemon Grove Mayor Alysson Snow (photo,left) was served by resident Ken King. 

But the next day, the City Clerk’s office notified King that the notice was rejected because it did not have enough valid signatures, printed names and addresses.

In a letter to King, City Clerk Joel Pablo advised King that he can resubmit the notice once those defects are addressed, as well as adding Elections Code 11023 provisions which describe the Mayor’s right to file an answer.

By Angela Hart for KFF Health News.

Broadcast version by Suzanne Potter for California News Service reporting for the KFF Health News-Public News Service Collaboration

File photo, left, by Miriam Raftery:  A homeless man living in a makeshift tent in Lemon Grove in 2024

April 26, 2025 (Washington D.C.)-- President Donald Trump is vowing a new approach to getting homeless people off the streets by forcibly moving those living outside into large camps while mandating mental health and addiction treatment — an aggressive departure from the nation’s leading homelessness policy, which for decades has prioritized housing as the most effective way to combat the crisis.

“Our once-great cities have become unlivable, unsanitary nightmares,” Trump said in a presidential campaign video. “For those who are severely mentally ill and deeply disturbed, we will bring them to mental institutions, where they belong, with the goal of reintegrating them back into society once they are well enough to manage.”

Now that he’s in office, the assault on “Housing First” has begun.

By Karen Pearlman

April 25, 2025 (San Diego’s East County  – The Anza-Borrego Desert in inland San Diego County is captivating with its beauty and expansiveness, humbling and powerful in its quietness. A landscape of extremes -- sun-scorched earth and hidden blooms, rugged canyons carved by time, and sudden spring wildflowers when the rain gods have been kind -- the desert has a raw quality that strips everything down to the essentials of light, shadow, stone and sky.

Our desert region includes Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, famous for its spring wildflowers and rugged terrain; the city of Borrego Springs, the nation’s first “Dark Sky” community and ideal for stargazing; Agua Caliente State Park, known for its thermal pools; Ocotillo Wells, a wildly popular draw for off-road vehicles; and Jacumba Hot Springs, a town that has reinvented itself and become a destination on its own merits.

By Mike Allen

April 25, 2025 (Santee) -- Santee’s City Council hired Gary Halbert, a former city manager for Chula Vista, as its interim city manager on the same day, April 23, that the prior city manager, Marlene Best, officially ended her nine-year tenure in a mutually agreed separation.

East County News Service

April 24, 2025 (El Cajon)—On May 3, the Spring Garden and Butterfly Festival returns at the Water Conservation Garden at Cuyamaca College.  The event features plant sales nurtured by Cuyamaca College Nursery students as well as butterflies, live music, specialty garden-related vendors, food trucks, and family-friendly activities.

The festival coincides with the college’s Coyote Music Festival, with live bands in the amphitheater at the Garden.  In addition, Heritage of the Americas Museum next door will be hosting an arts and crafts fair.

By Miriam Raftery

April 24, 2025 (Borrego Springs) -- Just over a year ago, on March 16, 2024 amid a superbloom season, Tom Eichacher and Olivia Natt visited the flower fields along Henderson Road in the Anza-Borrego Desert, where they became engaged to be married.

“Someone with a professional photo set-up took our pictures, and I'm trying desperately to find them!” Natt told East County Magazine. At left is the photo of the couple.

She says the photographer is a woman, who said she is Korean. “My partner actually took a photograph of me with the photographer, looking at her monitor,” adds Natt, who provided the image below right.

By Alexander J. Schorr

Photo: Congresswoman Sara Jacobs speaks before a crowd of parents, teachers, community and union members about “stateof the union.”

April 23, 2025 (El Cajon) – In a live town hall meeting last night at Grossmont College’s Performing and Visual Arts Center, Congresswoman Sara Jacobs (D-51) presented her own “State of the Union” address in which she warned that our nation is experiencing a “constitutional crisis.”  She spoke of numerous bills she has introduced seeking to push back against actions of the Trump administration.

 In addition, she fielded written questions from constituents over issues including budget cuts, mass firings, human rights violations, the looming constitutional crisis, and a potential recession on the horizon.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Kaiser attorney Jennifer Lynch

April 23, 2025 (El Cajon) – For 23 years, ever since an old medical facility was torn down, Kaiser Permanente has been promising to build a new hospital at its property on Main Street near Greenfield Ave.in El Cajon.  Frustrated by the lack of action, the City Council yesterday considered changing the zoning to residential—a proposal that surprised Kaiser representatives.

“We received no notice,” Kaiser representative Skyler Denniston told the Council.  “We would like the site developed as a hospital,” he said, adding that Kaiser representatives had just spoken with the City Manager and felt they were making “good progress.”  He asked for a 30-day extension of any proposed rezoning.

Mayor Bill Wells indicated that while he was open to an extension of 30 days or more, he wants to see a development agreement to assure that construction will commence soon. “I have no confidence that a hospital will be built within five years,” he said, adding that the vacant property attracts homeless camps and is an eyesore.  “Our constituents are screaming at us to do something,” he said.