Funds raised will help stop abductions, child soldiers in Africa

By Jeremy Los

December 4, 2010 (Santee)--Santana High School students channeled their inner super models on Friday night for a charity fashion show at the New Heights Community Church in Santee. Using clothes from their own wardrobes, students from Santana high’s Invisible Children club took to the catwalk to raise money for the Invisible Children Foundation.

December 2, 2010 (Santee) – Santee resident Bryson Lukacik, 22, walked out of a vacation cabin at Big Bear shortly after midnight early on Saturday morning, November 27th. He told family members that he had fallen from a chairlift while snowboarding on Friday. The temperature was below freezing and a foot of snow was on the ground when he stepped out into the night.

He hasn’t been seen since. Lukacik, a graduate of El Capitan High School, is bipolar and does not have his medication with him.

East County News Service
High fees violate state law, and discourage rooftop solar, Sierra Club says
 

November 22, 2010 (San Diego’s East County) -Construction crews from the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) have day and night work scheduled for State Route 67 (SR-67) on Tuesday. Between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. crews will close the southbound on-ramp at Magnolia Avenue. The northbound Bradley Avenue on-ramp and Prospect Avenue off-ramp will close along with the southbound Magnolia on-ramp.Then at 9 p.m. all lanes of State Route 67 between Prospect and Woodside Avenues will close.

November 5, 2010 (Santee) – The Sheriff’s Santee Station and Santee Fire Department invite you to the 12th annual Santee Pancake Breakfast this Saturday at Fire Station #4, 8950 Cottonwood (corner of Mission Gorge and Cottonwood) this Friday and Saturday, November 5th and 6th.

Money raised from the breakfast will be split. The Sheriff’s Santee Station will use its half to help families in need through the nonprofit “Spirit of Giving” organization. The Fire Department will buy automated external defibrillators for Santee schools, community centers and churches.

National mens’ and boys’ hair care chain teams up with VFW Operation Uplink™ to make calls home possible for U .S. service members overseas
East County News Service
(October 13, 2010) – Beginning Sunday, October 17, Sport Clips in The Marketplace at Santee and in La Jolla will join the franchise’s over 700 stores across the country to kick off their annual “Help A Hero” fundraising campaign. The effort supports the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ (VFW) Operation Uplink™. Now in its fourth year, Operation Uplink offers free call days for deployed and hospitalized American service members. Sport Clips hopes to raise $300,000.

October 15, 2010 (Santee) – The Santee Chamber of Commerce sent in a request for help for the family of Ryan O’Dell, an eight-year-old student at Rio Seco School in Santee who was diagnosed in August with a malignant brain tumor. He has already had two brain surgeries and his family also has a disabled five-year-old child who requires full-time care.

By Miriam Raftery

September 22, 2010 (Santee)—Outside Walgreens pharmacy in Santee today, local carpenters held a banner reading “Shame on Walgreens.”

“This is a nationwide campaign,” Ian Law, a representative of Carpenters Union Local 1506, told East County Magazine. “Walgreens has decided to use non-union contractors and sub-contractors to do remodeling and construction of Walgreens stores around the nation,” he said.  Non-union contractors may avoid paying healthcare and pension benefits to workers, also paying lower wages that threaten the quality of life for workers and their families, Law added.

September 18, 2010 (Santee) – A San Diego Sheriff’s deputy shot and wounded Pedro Galarza, 26, a documented gang member on parole. Deputies responded to a call shortly after 8 p.m. last night from his mother, who said her son was armed with a knife and was attempting to abduct a child.

"It was the biggest play of my life. We had a whole line of blockers and I went the whole way untouched." -- Zach Breidt, after scoring a 95-yard touchdown.

By Christopher Mohr

September 8, 2010 (Santee) - For years, the battle for the Mayor's Cup has been a tradition between Santana and West Hills, rival high schools both based in Santee.

August 21, 2010 (Santee) - Free dental exams for children will be offered today from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Pathway Community Church in Santee, thanks to a program through Rady Children’s Hospital. The free exams aim to help parents meet state requirements for youngsters entering kindergarten or first grade to have a dental checkup before starting school.

East County News Service
 

Photos by Pat Ward
 

August 17, 2010 (Santee) – A brush fire raced up a slope behind several homes on Strathmore Drive Saturday afternoon, just east of Santee Lakes. Cause of the fire is "suspicious," Santee Fire Division Chief Brett Eldridge told East County Magazine.

August 3, 2010 (San Diego’s East County) America's Night Out Against Crime is in its 26th year. The national event provides opportunities for Neighborhood Watch participants, communities, and law enforcement agencies to celebrate effective crime prevention practices and partnerships. San Diego Sheriff's Department supports Neighborhood Watch, Crime-Free Multi-Housing, Start Smart, and other programs targeting crime and safety, and has crime prevention specialists at all patrol stations dedicated to community education and support.

Sheriff's Department National Night Out events in East County will take place at Lakeside, Santee, and San Diego near La Mesa/Lemon Grove Details:

July 5, 2010 (Santee) – Januario Natividad Ancheta, 37, leaped to his death off the northbound State Route 125 connector to State Route 52 in Santee last night, the San Diego Medical Examiner’s office reports. He had been pulled over by California Highway Patrol officers and was driving a black Subaru WXR sedan that had been reported stolen.