By Miriam Raftery

January 2, 2011 (San Diego's East County) – On the eve of Tuesday's Iowa Caucus, polls show the race could be close—with a number of candidates striving to win the Republican Presidential Primary election or prove viability with a strong showing.

All Republican contenders are conservatives who believe in smaller government, lower taxes, less regulation of businesses and corporations, rolling back environmental regulations, and outlawing or restricting abortions.  Each has spoken out against President Obama’s healthcare reforms and all but one has indicated support for either privatizing or eliminating Social Security.  (For detailed, nonpartisan comparisons of candidates’ stances on many issues, visit www.ontheissues.org.)

But there are key differences.  Scroll down for the key qualifications and biographical highlights for each major contender in Iowa, as well as Jon Huntsman, a viable contender in the upcoming New Hampshire primary. Also included are standout statements which differentiate their stances from most competitors and key controversies.

 
January 3, 2011 (San Diego’s East County) -- San Diego Police Department Robbery Unit detectives have recovered the watches believed to have been stolen in a series of violent “smash and grab” robberies that occurred throughout the state.

January 3, 2011 (Pine Valley) – Cal-Fire will be conducting a prescribed burn today through January 7 in the Rancho Corte Madera area southwest of Pine Valley.

Approximately 200 acres of brush will be burned as part of a vegetation management plan aimed at protecting surrounding communities.

The burns will be conducted from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Smoke will be visible in many areas of the county.

By Brian Lafferty

January 3, 2012 (San Diego) – I pop in the Bridesmaids DVD. I’m ready to laugh. I wait. Fifteen minutes pass. Then thirty. No laughter. Then a whole hour passes by, but not a single chuckle was uttered. Towards the end of the movie it was so quiet in the house that I distinctly thought I heard the sound of crickets chirping outside.

 
A former mortgage industry insider from La Mesa shares why he joined the Occupy movement

Story and photos by Ron Logan

 On December 19, I sat down with Mike Garcia at Downtown Johnny Brown's at the Civic Center Plaza. Garcia is a La Mesa resident and Committee Member of Occupy San Diego (OSD). I asked him some straight-forward questions. His answers were eye-opening and offered insight into what OSD is all about, its struggles and its evolutions-- and how he first became involved in early October.

January 1, 2012 (Lemon Grove)—“Joe Young, for more than three decades the go-to guy at the Helix Water District for all things H2O, will star on the next "History Alive" lecture,” announced Helen M. Ofield, president of the Lemon Grove Historical Society.  The lecture will be held Jan. 5 at 7 p.m. in the H. Lee House Cultural Center, 3205 Olive, Lemon Grove.

January 1, 2012 (Lemon Grove)—A worker cleaning a packing machine at the EDCO disposal plant in Lemon Grove yesterday afternoon was crushed and injured severely when the machine accidentally up.  According to ECM news partner 10 News, the 57-year-old man may have been in the machine for 10 to 15 minutes before anyone realized he was inside.

 
January 1, 2012 (La Mesa) -- The La Mesa Chamber of Commerce invites you to recycle your e-waste at Grossmont Center in La Mesa on Saturday and Sunday, January 14 and 15.

January 1, 2012 (San Diego’s East County) – Rose Hooper and her two teenage children lost their Jamul home in a fire December 29, two years after Rose’s husband died of cancer. Now Nick Baldwin, an El Cajon business owner, has started a drive to collect donated items to help this family in need.