By Miriam Raftery

Photo, left:  Author and historian James D. Newland with his book, Grossmont Hospital: A Legacy of Community Service

August 19, 2018 (La Mesa)—Author and historian James D. Newland’s latest book, Grossmont Hospital: A Legacy of Community Service, provides a fascinating look into the colorful history of East County as well as the hospital itself and the evolution of healthcare in our region.

Newland was honored Thursday at the Grossmont Healthcare District headquarters with a reception attended by the district’s board of directors and community VIPs. Following appetizers and brews served up by Burning Beard brewery, the district’s CEO Barry Jantz and board president Michael Emerson gave welcoming remarks. 

Newland signed copies of his book, noting that the biggest challenge in its creation was handling the controversy over the hospital merging with Sharp Healthcare, a move that kept East County’s major hospital financially viable at a time when rising costs drove some other healthcare facilities under.

By Rebecca Jefferis Williamson

August 18, 2018 (Santee) -- On August 19^th, inside the Santee Library, the Santee Mobile-Home Owner’s Action Committee, Inc. (SMOAC) will hold their 4^th Annual Backpack & School Supplies Movement.  Backpacks filled with school supplies will be handed out, free to students, at 10 a.m. until supplies are exhausted.

East County News Service

August 18, 2018 (El Cajon) -- The critically-acclaimed and award-winning Kidz Danz Kompany, San Diego’s premier children’s dance company, presents “The Red Cloak," a re-telling of the fairytale Little Red Riding Hood at Greenfield Middle School Theater (1495 Greenfield Drive, El Cajon, CA, 92021) on September 7-8, 2018 @ 7 p.m. 

Fundraiser tonight

By Jo Moreland

August 18, 2018 (Alpine) -- Alpine has moved from emergency relief to recovery since the July 6 West Fire destroyed and damaged dozens of homes and other buildings.

That’s the assessment of authorities still working to help about 55 families displaced after flames blazed through the eastern edges of the foothills community of about 16,000 people.

The Artist Portrait Project: A Photographic Memoir of Portrait Sessions with San Diego Artists, 2006 – 2016, by Jennifer G. Spencer (She Writes Press, Berkeley, CA, 2018, 117 pages).

Book Review by Dennis Moore

“All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt.”

• Susan Sontag

August 17, 2018 (San Diego) - There is an old adage that says “A Picture is worth a Thousand Words!” Jennifer G. Spencer, a painter/photographer who creates images using alternative photographic processes and digital imagery, exemplifies that old adage in her groundbreaking memoir; The Artist Portrait Project: A Photographic Memoir of Portrait Sessions with San Diego Artists, 2006 – 2016.

Despite positive changes, budget clouds loom as city draws on reserves for operating expenses

By Paul Kruze, Contributing Editor

August 16, 2018 (Lemon Grove) -- Members of the Lemon Grove City Council and other city officials are grappling with concerns about a major budget deficit poised to sour the city’s future. The problem has led to media speculation that Lemon Grove might give up cityhood and become part of the County’s unincorporated area.

Yet, to a packed-to-the-rafters community room, recently-elected Mayor Raquel Vasquez painted a positive picture about the city’s many accomplishments in the past year and its challenges in the coming year. During her first State of the City address last week, the Mayor did raise the city’s financial dilemma, but not seeds for solutions over the long term.

By Miriam Raftery

August 17, 2018 (San Diego) – Language expert, author, columnist and radio personality Richard Lederer will be a special guest at our East County Fest 10-year anniversary party of the decade on Saturday night, August 25. (Tickets are going fast! Get tickets and learn more.)

In addition to speaking and signing copies of his latest books, Lederer has generously donated two special auction prizes – an entertaining and educational appearance by Lederer for your group, and a poker lesson by Lederer, whose skills enabled his two children to become world and national poker champions.

Lederer is the author of 50 books about language, history, and humor, including his best-selling Anguished English series and his current books, Amazing Words, Lederer on Language, and The Joy of Names. He is a founding co-host of “A Way With Words” on KPBS.

Dr. Lederer’s syndicated column, “Lederer on Language,” appears in newspapers and magazines throughout the United States, including the San Diego Union-Tribune. He has been named International Punster of the Year and Toastmasters International’s Golden Gavel winner.

By Miriam Raftery

August 16, 2018 (Lakeside) – The body of 12-year-old Lia Rose Barakett was recovered yesterday from the San Vicente Reservoir in Lakeside, where she fell overboard from a boat during an outing with family and friends. Barakett, a Canadian resident, was visiting the area when the tragedy occurred.

East County News Service

August 16, 2018 (Ramona) – The Ramona Country Fair is inviting all homemade cooks of jams, jellies, jerky, salsas, breads, muffins, desserts, pickles and relishes to enter samples of their favorite recipes in the fair’s “Home Sweet Home Contest” on Saturday, Aug. 25 at the Ramona Outdoor Community Center, 421 Aqua Lane, Ramona. Cost to enter the contest is free. You do not need to live in Ramona to enter. Entries must be labeled with the category and flavor. Entries will be accepted at 9 a.m. Judging will begin at 10 a.m. and ribbons for first, second and third place will be announced later that morning. For more information, call the Ramona Chamber of Commerce at (760) 789-1311, visit www.ramonachamber.com/home-sweet-home-contest.

By Rebecca Jefferis Williamson

August 16, 2018 (San Diego’s East County) -- “Listen for sprinklers, they sound like sprinklers,” says Tom Minga, a rattlesnake specialist.

Minga, a Flinn Springs resident, who owns Snake Solutions Removal & Relocation, recommends listening for rattlers when you are out in nature or even in your house.   

East County News Service

August 15, 2018 (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 news sources representing a broad spectrum of political, religious, and social views. Top world and U.S. headlines include:

U.S.

• After disaster alert failures, U.S. moves toward national system (Reuters)
• FBI warns banks about ATM hacking scheme (CNN)
• Do children have a right to literacy? Attorneys testing that question (Washington Post)
• U.S. Farm-Export Prices Drop Most Since 2011 (Bloomberg)
• U.S. House candidates vulnerable to hacks: researchers (Reuters)
• Chinese Song Found on US Voting System, 11-Year Old Hacks Mock FL SoS Website, More News from DEF CON Vote Hack Village (Bradblog)
• Democrats and Young People Prefer Socialism to Capitalism, Poll Finds  (Reason)

WORLD

• Burying ‘One Child’ Limits, China Pushes Women to Have More Babies (New York Times)
• IAF levels Hamas security HQ after Beersheba hit (JPost)
• North Korea has not stopped nuclear, missile program: confidential U.N. report (Reuters)
• Man suspected of terrorism attack on UK parliament after driving into pedestrians (Reuters)
• U.N. says it has credible reports that China holds million Uighurs in secret camps  (Reuters)
• Surprise Taliban Attack Leads To Days Of Fighting, Hundreds Of Deaths (NPR)
• Police fire tear gas as Romanians rally against government  (Reuters)
• From laboratory in far west, China's surveillance state spreads quietly (Reuters)

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

Celebrating the future of East County’s water with a FREE, fun event

Source:  Padre Dam Municipal Water District

August 15, 2018 (Santee) - Celebrate water at the East County Water Festival on Saturday, September 8 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the East County Advanced Water Purification Demonstration Project Visitor Center in Santee.

By Jamie Freitas

Councilman Kalasho is running in District 1 in El Cajon, a city with a high population of immigrants and refugees, and which celebrates its diversity and patriotism with an annual “America on Main Street celebration (photo). Last year, that event included a citizenship ceremony for people from 54 different countries.

August 14, 2018 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• Critics outraged over EPA’s proposed rule change on asbestos (CBS News)
• Asbestos in a Crayon, Benzene in a Marker: a School Supply Study’s Toxic Results (New York Times)
• Scientists Have Found an Important Reason You Might Want to Reconsider Taking Probiotics (Business Insider)
• Monsanto ordered to pay $289m as jury rules weed killer caused man's cancer (Yahoo! News)

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

• AP Exclusive: Google watches your movements, like it or not (Sacramento Bee)
• The Arid West Moves East, with Big Implications for Agriculture (NPR)
• Invasion of big, voracious lizards threatens U.S. South (Reuters)
• Facial recognition technology: The need for public regulation and corporate responsibility (Microsoft blog by Brad Smith, President, Microsoft)
• Designing the Death of a Plastic (New York Times)

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