Update Sept. 27, 2019 -- Estela de Los Rios,  a community leader who plans to run for El Cajon City Council, sent these comments objecting to the demise of the commissions.  "I believe it our right as citizens of El Cajon to have these board commissions and have them open until we seek people to serve on them. There has to be a better way to recruit. This is a prime example of the city council's actions that need to change for the best interest of our city. It makes no sense to have a Magnolia Performing Center but no Arts Commission?"

By Miriam Raftery

 

September 23, 2019 (El Cajon) – The agenda for tomorrow’s El Cajon City Council meeting includes second reading and adoption of a code amendment to eliminate three city entities  The Veterans’ Commission, the Commission on Arts and Culture, and the Human Relations Commission, which advises the council on diversity issues.

East County News Service

September 23, 2019 (La Mesa) – The Boys & Girls Clubs of East County (BGCEC) will host a one-year anniversary celebration for the Brady Family Clubhouse in La Mesa that houses the Eleni and Wolfgang Gagon Academy, a learning center and homework room, and the Bill Walton Gymnasium.

The celebration, to include speeches and refreshments, will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 3 at the Brady Family Clubhouse, 7600 Junior High Dr., La Mesa.

East County News Service

September 23, 2019 (Rancho San Diego) -- Are you ready to have fun and learn about creatures whooo go BOOOO in the night?  The Water Conservation Garden at Cuyamaca College invites you to don your Halloween costume for “Ms. Smarty-Plants Goes Batty” on October 12 from 5:30 to 8 p.m.

Learning From The Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil, by Susan Neiman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2019, 415 pages).

Book Review by Dennis Moore

Update Nov. 14, 2019: Hear our interview with Susan Neiman during her recent visit to San Diego. Click here to listen.

September 22, 2019 (San Diego) - As an increasingly polarized America fights over the legacy of racism, Susan Neiman, author of the contemporary philosophical classic Evil in Modern Thought, asks what we can learn from the Germans about confronting the evils of the past.

Susan Neiman is the director of the Einstein Forum. Her previous books, include Why Grow Up? Subversive Thoughts for an Infantile Age; Moral Clarity: A Guide for Grown-Up Idealists; Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy; The Unity of Reason: Rereading Kant; and Slow Fire: Jewish Notes from Berlin. She studied philosophy at Harvard and the Free University of Berlin, and was a professor of philosophy at Yale and Tel Aviv Universities. She is the mother of three grown children and lives in Berlin. This background, perhaps, says a lot about the impetus behind her writing this thought provoking book; Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil.

By Jose A. Alvarez, County of San Diego Communications Office

Photo:  The Beacon apartments, in East Village, will open Sept. 20.

September 22, 2019 (San Diego) - High rental prices and low vacancy rates have made it extremely difficult for many San Diegans to find affordable places to live.

As part of its ongoing effort to help ease the affordable housing crisis impacting families, seniors and those experiencing homelessness, the County and its many government and social service partners are building more than 3,000 new housing units to help people find a stable place to live.

East County News Service

September 21, 2019 (La Mesa) - The La Mesa Chamber of Commerce announced its lineup of alcohol that will be served on Friday, October 4th at the "First Friday Night Market" Chamber beer garden at Grossmont Center.  The styles of Mike Hess Brewing Company's beers being offered are:  Grapefruit Solis, an IPA with grapefruit, Hop Cloud, the first of their Hazy IPAs, offering unlimited pineapple, mango and citrus, and Steel Beach, a crisp, light-bodied and refreshing lager beer that defines craft lager beer.