By Julie Cart, CalMatters

CalMatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters

Photo:  Cal Fire dispatcher Ali Wiseman and Captain Hiram Vazquez embrace during a healing session at a trauma retreat in Desert Hot Springs. Photo by Ariana Drehsler for CalMatters

June 4, 2023 (Sacramento) - A state Senate bill that would expand workers’ compensation coverage for California first responders experiencing post traumatic stress — aimed at addressing what Cal Fire officials call a mental health crisis — has cleared its first legislative hurdle and been sent to the Assembly.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: East County Magazine Radio Show host Miriam Raftery,  Dilkhwaz Ahmed, CEO of License to Freedom, and Bob Gan, Co-Chair of Welcome Home in San Diego

June 3, 2023 (San Diego) – San Diego is a national hub for refugees fleeing war and persecution from nations around the world. Welcome Home in San Diego and License to Freedom in El Cajon are two organizations helping people who have been legally designated as refugees. 

Recently, ECM Editor Miriam Raftery interviewed Bob Gan,Co-Chair of Welcome Home locally and Dilkhwaz Ahmed, Chief Executive Officer of License to Freedom. 

You can hear our full interview, originally aired on KNSJ 89.1 FM radio, by clicking the audio link, or scroll down for highlights to learn how you can help these nonprofit organzations welcoming new Americans.

Update: Due to construction on the "barrier- the WALL"  organizers had to make adjustments and have the water merge at Imperial Beach by the pier on June 14. The driving access to the park will be gated. The water that was collected will still be taken/ran to the corner of Mexico and California. This was changed because this event is for everyone and easier for brothers and sisters with disabilities, according to a post on Bobby Wallace's Facebook page. 

By Miriam  Raftery

Photo, left:  Barona tribal members with Passamaquoddy tribal members in Maine

Photo,right: via "Run with the Sun" page of indigenousnetwork.org; Bobby Wallace (right) with run participants

June 1, 2023 (San Diego’s East County) --  Local Native Americans are about to complete the longest  indigenous prayer run in U.S. history. “Run with the Sun” is the brainchild of Lakeside resident Bobby Wallace, a member of the Barona Band of Mission Indians,  in hopes of protecting waters across America.

“It’s been awesome making changes in people’s minds about water everywhere,” Wallace told ECM in an interview today.  “We started running, traveling with the water over every footstep of this continent, over every major waterway, with a prayer for all water.”

The effort is supported by the Barona, Sycuan and Viejas tribes in San Diego’s East County, as well as participants from other tribes across the U.S.

By Gig Conaughton, County of San Diego Communications Office

June 1,2023 (San Diego) -- With summer just around the corner, the County of San Diego opened its annual Cool Zones program Thursday to give people free, safe, air-conditioned sanctuaries to escape extreme heat.

The County created the Cool Zone Program two decades ago to give older adults, people with disabilities and those with health concerns that could be complicated by the effects of extreme heat.

The program will run from June 1 through Oct. 31; sites include the County’s 33 branch libraries, community centers and other locations across the county.

A complete list of Cool Zone sites, their hours and locations is located online. The site includes a map feature where people can type in their address to find locations near them. People can also call 2-1-1 to find a location, or, if they cannot get to a Cool Zone, ask for help with free transportation.

Story and photos via San Diego Humane Society

June 1, 2023 (San Diego) -- June is Adopt a Shelter Cat Month, and this year it is more important than ever for San Diego Humane Society to get the word out about adopting a feline friend. With a total of 1,310 cats in care, the organization is at 175% capacity for cats.

One of the many reasons the organization is so full includes a recent case where 58 cats were rescued and brought to the shelter from a home in City Heights. The cats were found living in deplorable conditions inside a house in the 2,300 block of Modesto St. They were rescued by San Diego Humane Society’s Humane Law Enforcement on May 5, 2023 after a neighbor reached out for help.

May 31, 2023 (San Diego) – A memorial service has been scheduled for renowned author and radio host Charles Harrington Elster, who died March 1, 2023 of cancer at his home in Kensington. The memorial will be held on Saturday, July 15 at 2 p.m. at the Kensington Community Church, 4773 Marlborough Drive, San Diego.

Best known as the original co-host of  “A Way With Words” on KPBS from 1998 to 2004, Elster was a passionate logophile, or lover of words. The show’s founding cohost, Richard Lederer, remembers Elster as “a real communicator with a great voice.”

Elster also authored a dozen books on pronunciation, vocabulary and style, starting with There is No Zoo in Zoology and Is There a Cow in Moscow?” He penned high school vocabulary-building novels Tooth and Nail: A Novel Approach to the SAT and Test of Time: A Novel Approach to the SAT and ACT.  His last book, How to Tell Fate from Destiny and Other Skillful Word Distinctions, came out in 2018.

East County News Service

Photo via San Diego County News Service

May 29, 2023 (San Diego) – To address the housing crisis in San Diego County’s unincorporated areas, Supervisors last week approved 22 actions aimed at helping renters and homebuyers.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo by Miriam Raftery: Rooftop solar on People's Market in Ocean Beach

May 29, 2023 (San Diego) – For years, residents in San Diego’s rural and desert areas have argued that it would make more sense to put solar on roofs and parking lots in urban areas where power is used, instead of building massive wind and solar projects in the backcountry that negatively impact communities and require miles of new power lines. On May 25, County Supervisors voted unanimously to approve a proposal by Supervisor Jim Desmond that will include studying capacity for renewable energy projects on infill lots, roofs and parking lots.

The study will be part of the proposed Regional Decarbonization Framework (RDF), which sets a goal of reducing carbon emissions to net-zero levels by 2045. The Chief Administrator has six months to complete the study and report back to the Board of  Supervisors, though the board cannot vote until the vacancy in District four has been filled by a special election.

As ECM reported in early March, the Protect Our Communities Foundation filed a lawsuit in late February against the County over its RDF, contending that the County hired a  biased utility industry consultant to direct the County’s RDF and that its conclusions are skewed toward utilities’ interests over consumers’ interests based on flawed data and that it would actually cost less for infill energy projects than for large-scale energy facilities in remote areas, if costs of transmission is factored in.

May 29,2023 -- Our radio shows from January through April 2023 are now online. 

Highlights included interview with Supervisor Joel Anderson over ICE dropping migrants off at the trolley in winter, human trafficking victim and advocate for survivors Kathi Torres on how to protect young people locally, Bob Gam on how his parents survived the holocaust, Dilkhwaz Ahmed, License to Freedom, and Bob Gam, Co-chair, Welcome Home, on helping refugees and asylum seekers; Bill Powers on the County’s Regional Decarbonization Framework, Clovis Honore, Grid Alternatives and Green New Deal Alliance on the future of solar energy in Calif., Amie Zamudio and Joanne Standlee: Housing 4 the Homeless on hospitals dumping homeless and seniors on streets, plus highlights from a heated hearing in Alpine on closure of Loveland Reservoir after extreme draining and other top local issues.

The East County Magazine Show airs Mondays and Fridays from 5 to 6 p.m. on KNSJ, 89.1 FM.  Our shows rerun on Tuesdays at 9 a.m. and Saturdays at 8 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. Note: Some shows were reruns; original run dates are listed below. Shows also include station IDs and public service announcements.

For links to listen plus an index with topics and interviews in each show, click here or click the "read more" link and scroll down. Audio links are below the index. (Audio files may take a few moments to load.) 

By Miriam Raftery

May 28, 2023 (San Diego’s East County) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Equestrian Foundation (USEF) will hold a webinar on May 31 at 1 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on Vesicular Stomatis Virus (VSV), a contagious livestock disease that has spread to at least six different communities in San Diego County. Registration is required for the webinar, which will be held on Zoom. Register here.

Dr. Angela Pelzel McCluskey, USDA equine epidemiologist, will provide an overview of Vesicular Stomatitis and the current situation report also providing perspective based on her firsthand experience managing numerous VS outbreaks in her previous roles. Dr. Katie Flynn,USEF Equine Health and Biosecurity veterinarian, will cover prevention measures for horses and their premises, as well as the biosecurity requirements being implemented at those USEF events with horses competing from VS Affected States.

As of Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that 23 properties are quarantined due to VSV, including 18 sites in San Diego County—seven more than in the last report five days earlier.  All but one case in the outbreak have occurred in equine species such as horses, but there is one suspected case  in a “backyard beef steer” at a local property with three cattle. The remaining cases are in Riverside County. 

The USDA has not responded to our media inquiry for specific locations impacted in our region, but the Ramona  Sentinel reports that the first six confirmed cases since the outbreak began May 17 were in Ramona, Lakeside, Campo, Jamul, Del Sur, and Descanso, according to local veterinarians. San Diego and Riverside counties are the only places in the nation with current cases.

By Alastair Bland, CalMatters

CalMatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters 

Photo: drought-stricken Lake Mead on the Colorado River in August 2022. Photo by Christopher Clark / U.S. Bureau of Reclamation

May 28, 2023 (San Diego) - After nearly a year of intense negotiations, California, Nevada and Arizona reached a historic agreement last Monday to use less water from the overdrafted Colorado River over the next three years.

Source: City of La Mesa 

May 27, 2023 (La Mesa) - May is National Bicycle Safety Month and the La Mesa Police Department is encouraging more people to get active and safely take bike rides. “Bicycling is a great means of transportation and recreation,” Chief Ray Sweeney said. “Let’s look out for one another and make sure everyone arrives safely at their destination. Share the road and share the responsibility.”

East County News Service

May 27, 2023 (San Diego) – Rail service resumes today from San Diego to Orange County, after emergency workers stabilized a hillside north of the San Clemente pier that scattered debris onto the rail right-of-way below last month.

Both Metrolink and Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner are resuming service today,according to the Orange County Transportation Authority.

Find the latest updated train schedules at  metrolinktrains.com/service-update and  pacificsurfliner.com/alerts. 

The rail line is being reopened at the start of the Memorial Day Weekend, the unofficial start to summer and a popular time for travel by all modes, including rail.

Warnings issued for beaches from North County to South Bay, impacting beach safety for humans and dogs

East County News Service

File photo by Tony Webster,Friendship Park sewage warning sign in Imperial Beach cc 2.0

Update May 29, 2023: The closure is lifted for the Coronado Lifeguard Tower and North Beach Shorelines. Recent water quality samples meet State health standards.  Warnings at other beaches remain in effect.

May 27, 2023 (San Diego) – Sewage spills in Tijuana have contaminated many local beaches. Some South Bay beaches have been closed for months or more, including Imperial Beach and Tijuana Slough shoreline. Earlier this month, the Coronado shoreline was shutdown by county health officials, after earlier closing the Silver Strand.

This Memorial Day weekend, the county has also issued advisories warning consumers of pollution at the following beaches:

• San Diego River Outlet – Dog Beach, Ocean Beach
• North Cove, Vacation Isle
• Oceanside Pier at Surfrider Way
• Comfort Station at Leisure Lagoon
• Fanuel Park
• Fiesta Island Northwest Shoreline
• San Elijo Lagoon
• Childrens Pool