May 8,2013 (San Diego) – Mayor Bob Filner met with former Governor Mitt Romney on Monday evening to discuss the City of San Diego’s Olympic bid for the 2024 Summer Games.

Mayor Filner announced last month that the cities of San Diego and Tijuana will submit a bi-national bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics. The Mayor invited Romney to his office to ask if the former Presidential candidate, who formerly headed up Salt Lake City’s Olympic organizing committee, would lend his advice to the effort. Romney said yes.

May 8, 2013 (El Cajon) – Erik. E. Gilbert, 48, from El Cajon died at Sharp Memorial Hospital on May 2 shortly after he was admitted due to head and torso injuries sustained in an accident. 

Gilbert was riding his bicycle in Santee when he was struck by a pickup truck at the intersection of Vomac Road and Mast Boulevard at 5:21 a.m.

Public urged to Report Suspicious Activity

May 8, 2013 (Sacramento) –While encouraging wildfire preparedness this week, CAL FIRE is also reminding residents of the dangers posed by arson. CAL FIRE is pleased to join the United States Fire Administration (USFA) in announcing the theme for the 2013 Arson Awareness Week: Reducing Residential Arson. The goal for this year’s Arson Awareness Week, which takes place May 5-11, 2013, is to provide all residents with strategies to combat arson in their neighborhoods.

According to the USFA’s National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) during 2008-2010, an estimated 16,800 intentionally set fires in residential buildings occur annually in the United States. These fires result in an estimated 280 deaths, 775 injuries, and $593 million in property loss each year. The average dollar loss for an intentionally set fire in a residential building is $21,320. The fatality rate for intentionally set residential fires was more than twice that of other residential building fires.

May 8, 2013 (Spring Valley) – David and Mary Cuzick will be holding a Mother’s Day show and pottery sale at their studio at 9204 Campo Road, Spring Valley on May 11 and 12 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.  Featured artists are David Cuzick, Mary Cuzick, Evan Lopez, Frederick de la Cruz and Rachael Blackmore.  American Art pottery, dinnerware, planters and much more will be featured. 

Please call 619-461-3019 for more information or visit www.cuzickpottery.com.

May 8, 2013 (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

• Dry conditions highlight the value of water as summer nears  (San Diego County Water Authority)
• Bags, tape, broomstick used to fix  leak at San Onofre  (10 News)
• Pauma Casino workers aim to unionize (Kumeyaay.com)
• New inquiry at San Onofre focuses on nuclear commission (U-T San Diego)
• Annual crime statistics for the region released
• Utility-rate increase: Sempra seeks more(U-T San Diego)
• $42M of Modernizing Upgrades Coming to La Mesa, Spring Valley High Schools (La Mesa Patch)
• Alessio Calls PBID Process ‘Absurd’; Council Mandates Specific Data (La Mesa Patch)
• Steele Canyon students big winners at jewelry competition (U-T San Diego)

STATE

• Calif agency says PG&E should pay $2.25B for blast (Sacramento Bee)
• Senate Public Safety Committee Approves Bill Regulating Drones in California (Scoop San Diego)
• California water supply to be drawn from storage to meet demand  (KPBS)
• California high court affirms local right to ban medical pot shops (Reuters)
• On California Prisons, It's The Governor Vs. The Courts
• JPMorgan Chase accused of rigging energy markets (CS Monitor)

For excerpts and links to full stories, scroll down.

May 8, 2013 (La Mesa) – La Mesa Police Sergeant Bret Richards was injured early this morning when a stolen vehicle abandoned following a pursuit rolled backward, dragging the officer over 50 feet down Maryland Avenue.  Police still seek the suspect, who was not apprehended.

Play runs May 9-10 and 16-17

May 7, 2013 (El Cajon) – A woman of a certain age contemplates suicide when the phone rings in her San Diego apartment. The caller, believing she is contacting an analyst she read about in a health magazine, launches into her own tale of woe.

So begins “An Ordinary Day,” a one-act play by Dario Fo and Franca Rame, and directed by Martin Katz, a Grossmont College theater arts instructor. The lead character, Julia, finds herself trying to help the woman on the phone, in between encounters with her neighbors, the police and two flower-delivery men. As the tragic-comedy unfolds, it illuminates the themes of zealous commercialism, relationship stress, the notion of betrayal and the exhilaration of contributing to someone else’s life.

By Miriam Raftery

May 7, 2014 (San Diego)--“How do you beat the national average with below average wind speeds?” Attorney Bill Pate posed that intriguing question at a forum hosted in San Diego recently by Activist San Diego.

Good question. Pattern Energy told the California Public Utilities Commission that it would reach 34% capacity at Ocotillo Express Wind Facility, a  site rated just a class 2, the second lowest federal rating for wind speeds.  The first three months of data for the Ocotillo project show only about a 19% capacity reached.   In the entire U.S., there is only a 22 to 23% net capacity on average.  

So how did the project get approved?

By Rebecca Williamson

May 6, 2013 (Santee) --  The Santee Fire Department responded to a call at approximately 11:00 a.m. and scaled the roof of the Santee Staples store on Mission Gorge Road.  Staff and customers were evacuated while firefighters checked the store for fires or potential hazardous situations.

By Miriam Raftery

“The threat of acquiring the respiratory illness extends to residents living near expansive construction sites. That risk is rising given the scope of the renewable energy boom centered in the state.” – Los Angeles Times

May 6, 2013 (San Diego’s East County) – Valley Fever has sickened 28 workers at two large-scale solar facilities under construction in San Luis Obispo County, the Los Angeles Times reported on April 30.  The disease is contracted by breathing in fungal spores released when desert soils are disturbed.

The finding is the latest in a series of disturbing reports on epidemic Valley Fever conditions in California and across the Southwest.  With numerous large-scale solar projects and wind projects proposed for East County that would scrape bare thousands of acres of high desert terrain, public health concerns over the prospect of exposing residents to Valley Fever are growing.  Since wind-blown spores can carry 75 miles or more, residents across San Diego County could be at risk of the potentially deadly disease.

May 7 (Tuesday, 5:30 pm) — Barnes & Noble Oceanside, 2615 Vista Way, Oceanside, presents Gretchen Wendel who will talk about her book, Becka and the Big Bubble series.

May 7 (Tuesday, 6:00 pm) — Barnes & Noble Oceanside, 2615 Vista Way, Oceanside, presents Kevin Gerard, who will talk about his book, Diego's Dragons.

May 7 (Tuesday, 7:30 pm) — Warwick's will host Dean of Arts and Humanities at UCSD Seth Lerer, who will discuss and sign his memoir Prospero's Son. This event is free and open to the public. In order to be signed the author's most current book must be purchased from Warwick's.

Celebrate our launch party! Thousands of dollars in prizes!

Early bird rates extended to Friday! RSVP to reserve space

You're invited! Celebrate launch of our East County Magazine prime-time radio show on KNSJ!  Join us Sunday, May 19 from 12-3 p.m. at the beautiful Maness Vineyards estate, 3044 Colina Verde Lane in Jamul.  Winetasting, great food, music, amazing prizes and more!  

DIRECTIONS:  (click read more below to open and view directions)

May 3, 2013 (San Diego)—On Monday, May 6 at 1 p.m., East County residents opposed to the proposed County Wind ordinance and Boulevard Plan amendment will hold a press conference outside the County Administration Center at 1600 Pacific Highway (by the fountain on the west side.) 

“On May 8^th, the Board of Supervisors will make a life-altering choice for rural East County residents and valued resources,” a press release sent by the Protect Our Communities Foundation and Backcountry Against Dumps. Supervisors must choose to either “sell out to the taxpayer-subsidized wind industry and developers and turn the ruggedly beautiful Boulevard/Jacumba area into an unnecessary industrial energy sacrifice zone and fire trap," the rural residents say,  or"protect and defend the ratepayers and real people and resources in the predominantly low-income fire-prone area from expensive, unreliable, and dangerous industrial wind turbine projects and related web of electrical infrastructure.”

Speakers will include rural residents and a fire official speaking out on dangers posed by industrial wind projects in our region.

By Miriam Raftery

May 4, 2013 (Sacramento) – The State Senate Public Safety on Thursday voted 5-2  to defeat SB 779, a measure authored by Senator Joel Anderson (R-Alpine) and sponsored by the California District Attorneys Association.  The bill sought to speed up executions in California through several means, including bringing back the gas chamber. The bill sparked strong outcry from human rights activists who denounced the method as inhumane.

California voters narrowly defeated a bill in November that would have outlawed the death penalty.  The punishment remains on the books, but due to two judicial rulings finding prior methods inhumane, the state has been left unable to carry out executions  since 2006, despite death penalty verdicts.

Photo by Paul Kruze

A small plane made an emergency landing on the median of Highway 52 at the junction of State Route 125 in Santee shortly after 6 p.m. today.

ECM photojournalist Paul Kruze was driving on the freeway when he witnessed the startling event.

“I was on my way to a concert when all of a sudden I saw this thing landing right in front of me. It was surreal.  I had the same exact feeling as watching the plane fly into the World Trade Center—like watching a movie,” he said, then praised the pilot’s skill. “It was very controlled and the pilot obviously knew what he was doing.”