July 1, 2013 (El Cajon) – Rancho San Diego resident Ann Durham, Director of the Health Workforce Initiative based at Grossmont College, has been named Deputy Sector Navigator (DSN) for Health for the San Diego/Imperial Region.

The appointment, announced this week by the California Community College Chancellor’s Office Division of Workforce & Economic Development, means that Durham will have expanded responsibilities and budget under the "Doing What Matters" program.

June 25, 2013 (El Cajon) – Grossmont College will offer a “family-friendly” schedule of theater productions in the 2013-2014 season, starting Oct. 3-12 with Pygmalion, the George Bernard Shaw play that was converted into the musical My Fair Lady, and ending May 8-17 with “a new spin” on Alice in Wonderland, according to Beth Duggan, chair of the Theatre Arts Department.

In between those two offerings, students will also act in, design costumes and build sets for such productions as To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday by Michael Brady (Nov. 14-23); Follow Me by artist Dominic Pangborn (Dec. 6-7, followed by a tour of local elementary schools); Inside the Actors Process by Grossmont faculty member Jerry Hager (Feb. 7 and 8, followed by a tour of local high schools); and You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown (March 13-22).

Celebrating our cultural & agricultural roots

JUNE 19 4:30-7:30 PM AT HERITAGE OF THE AMERICAS MUSEUM, EL CAJON

    Enjoy:

• International foods from Dolci Cafe Italiano, J's Greek Cuisine, Tiramisu Trattoria, Rubio's  & more
• Wine tasting with Campo Creek Vineyards, Maness Vineyards, and other wineries
• Meet authors of books on local history and culture from Sunbelt Publications
• Native American dancing with Eric RunningPath; Native American flute music by Jim Hannibal
• Live music by Krista Timm and Vicky Archibold from San Diego Performance Academy
• Learn from farmers, wine makers, a beekeeper, a chicken expert, A.R.C.H.E.S. and  San Diego Farm Bureau
• Get tips on solar power from Sullivan Solar
• Take a free museum tour
• Play the East County Trivia Quiz game and be on the radio!
• Win great prizes including  a resort vacation getaway, golf, restaurant gift certificates, garden basket, hand-made soaps, martial arts lessons, music lessons, pet owners' basket, Wild West Fest tickets, wine lovers' gifts, and more.

Don't miss this fun and festive event! Click "read more" and scroll down for details.

New Bus Line Runs Between SDSU and Downtown

June 9, 2013 (San Diego) – SANDAG will hold evening open house meetings on Monday and Thursday this week to inform the community about the upcoming construction of the Mid-City Rapid Bus Project. Mid-City Rapid will be a high-frequency, limited-stop bus service between San Diego State University and Downtown San Diego via Park and El Cajon Boulevards.

June 4, 2013 (El Cajon) -- A man who called police to report that his wife was not breathing on Sunday night is under arrest for murder.  Police found Gankil Wijdan, 39, suffering from multiple stab wounds.

Medics tried to revive her but she was pronounced dead at the scene.  During question of Wijdan's husband, Salem Zora, 47, police found "inconsistencies" in his story, Lt. Mike Moulton with El Cajon Police stated.

May 30, 2013 (El Cajon)—Wing walking, mock air battles and pyrotechnics are among the attractions at this year’s Wings Over Gillespie Air Show. The event will take place June 1 and 2 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Gillespie Field, 1960 Joe Crosson Drive in El Cajon.

Tickets start at $8 for the event, which also features a free Kid’s Zone, amusement rides and a beer garden. This year's Wings Over Gillespie features a collection of San Diego aircraft and World War II aircraft. 

May 30, 2013 (El Cajon ) – Round up the art lovers and music lovers in your family for the third annual Western Music Jubilee on Saturday, June 1 starting at 7 p.m. at the Cuyamaca Performing Arts Center.   The show stars Sourdough Slim, Dave Bourne, Mary Kaye, and the Red Hot Rhythm Rustlers.

It’s all to benefit educational programs at the Olaf Wieghorst  Museum in downtown El Cajon.Wieghorst was one of America’s premier western artists.  A cowboy and cavalryman who once pursued Pancho Villa,  his paintings hung in the White House and were owned by three presidents: Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. 

May 16, 2013 (El Cajon) – Children, seniors and families had fun exploring better ways to live at the free Farragut Circle Health & Safety Fair on May 11 in El Cajon.

The community outreach effort of the Neighbor-to-Neighbor Program of the First Presbyterian Church of El Cajon drew a steady stream of people to the 500 block of Farragut Circle. Mother Goose and local princesses helped welcome the early crowds. 

“Everybody’s smiling,” said Jackie Jackson, library assistant at the Dr. William C. Herrick Community Health Care Library of the Grossmont Healthcare District in La Mesa. “This has to be the friendliest fair ever.”

Review by the East County Eater

 Dolci Café Italiano,   2650 Jamacha Road,  Rancho San Diego (El Cajon) www.DolciCafeItaliano.com

 May 13, 2013 (Rancho San Diego)--Another culinary prize has turned up in East County.  Dolci Café Italiano is located next to Ralph’s in the Rancho San Diego Town and Country Shopping Center.  At once, the place felt entirely familiar and also seemed rooted in family and history.  It has the ambience of the Gaslamp District in Downtown San Diego—and for good reason.  George Georges, the owner - also owns three restaurants in The Gaslamp.  Chianti, La Fiesta and the Urban Bar & Grill.

George has been a restaurateur for 18 years.  He describes Dolci Café Italiano as “Italian-Mediterranean food served bistro café-style...Everything is cooked-to-order, everything is custom, everything is fresh, everything is gourmet…Even the lasagna.”

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 Janis Mork

April 28, 2013 (El Cajon)- This past Tuesday, Michael Griffiths from the El Cajon Public Works Department gave a PowerPoint presentation to El Cajon City Council about the pavement maintenance program underway since 2006 and set for completion in 2014. City Manager Doug Williford stated that this program affects businesses and residents.

Before Griffiths began, he acknowledged junior engineer Katie Odiorne, who put the PowerPoint slides together. First, he presented a scale of old to new street pavings from 1-100.

By Miriam Raftery; photo by Paul Kruze

April 28, 2013 (El Cajon ) – A brown Ford car has crashed into a power pole on Jamacha Road at Kendrick in the Granite Hills area.   Power lines are down.  An outage is affecting 1217 homes in the Granite Hills, Bostonia, Singing Hills and East El Cajon areas, according to the SDG&E website.

“The driver was not injured,” said Paul Kruze, an ECM photojournalist at the scene.  “Heartland Fire is on scene due to the risk of fire.”

April 25, 2013 (Crest) – The County library in Crest will hold El Dia de los Niños/El Dia de los Libros (Children’s Day/Book Day) on Tuesday, April 30 at 4:30 p.m.  The celebration includes bilingual story times in Spanish, French and Arabic. In addition, you can enjoy music and refreshments, plus learn how to make paper flowers.

The library is located at 105 Juanita Lane in the Crest community of El Cajon.  For more information on county library events, visit www.sdcl.org.

By Miriam Raftery, Editor, East County Magazine

April 23, 2013 (El Cajon) – This afternoon, the spotlight will shine on the El Cajon City Council as it considers whether to enter into discussions with the Grossmont Union High School District on a potential partnership to reopen the East County Performing Arts Center (ECPAC).  The plan potentially could also including building a state-of-the-art, multi-use facility adjacent to ECPAC, filling a community need for meeting space as well as an additional entertainment venue to create a broader cultural hub for the community.

It’s time for city leaders to take center stage and provide leadership to reopen ECPAC, the jewel of East County’s cultural community.  Shuttered in disrepair for several years, the darkened theater has negatively impacted businesses downtown as well as arts lovers across our region. 

A partnership with the school district could be a win-win situation, though there are challenges that must be explored and overcome.

Annual event has become one of the largest community events in East County

April 11, 2013 (Rancho San Diego)--With farmer’s markets, community gardens and urban farming growing ever popular among the health- and conservation-minded in East County, it’s no wonder the Spring Garden Festival at Cuyamaca College has become such a major draw.

This year’s festival on Saturday, April 27, marks the 20th anniversary of the event, which began in 1993 as the Urban Forest Field Day, an outreach activity for arboriculture students to demonstrate what they’ve learned. The free festival has grown to become a showcase event for the college’s entire ornamental horticulture program, as well as the Heritage of the Americas Museum and the co-sponsoring Water Conservation Garden, both located on the Rancho San Diego campus. With the addition of local artisans, vendors, kid-friendly activities, and a variety of plant and garden societies, the festival now attracts about 7,000 visitors annually.