East County News Service

November 5, 2024 (San Diego) – All five incumbent Congressional members countywide appear cruising to reelection, including East County representatives Darrell Issa and Sara Jacobs.  Below are results for all five San Diego Congressional races with 855, 948 ballots counted out of the county’s 1,983,767 registered voters.

East County Wildfire & Emergency Alert Service

November 5, 2024 (San Diego’s East County) – SDG&E warns that high fire risk weather conditions amid a red flag warning may result in public safety power shutoffs to prevent fires starting Wed. Nov. 6 at 4 a.m. through Friday, Nov. 8 at 5 p.m.  Communities at risk of power shutoffs are listed below and include 24, 740 customers, or input your address here: https://www.sdge.com/psps-dashboard

View video of full interview,  hear audio,  or scroll down for highlights

East County News Service

November 2, 2024 (San Diego’s East County) – Stephen Houlahan is a former Santee City Councilman and registered nurse who led successful effforts to block a dangerous liquified natural gas pipeline through the 48^th Congressional district that he is now running to represent.  That seat is currently occupied by Rep. Darrell Issa. The contrast is dramatic—and Houlahan says he’s running to restore freedoms, protect our democracy, and bring home federal dollars to underground power lines that have sparked wildfires and caused insurance rates to skyrocket.

The contrast couldn’t be more clear.

• Issa voted against certifying the 2020 election results and opposed efforts to investigate the Capitol insurrection.  Houlahan says a peaceful transfer of power is a hallmark of democracy, and has won endorsement from National Security Leaders of America, a bipartisan group of retired military leaders and cabinet officers.
• Issa is coauthor of a bill to outlaw abortion nationwide, with no exceptions even to save a mother’s life.  Houlahan wants to restore women’s reproductive freedoms taken away when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
• Issa voted against the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Houlahan wants to fight to bring home infrastructure dollars to improve storm drainage infrastructure, repair the dangerous El Capitan dam, and improve fire safety.
• Issa has opposed clean energy investment.  Houlahan  backs rebuilding the energy grid, including undergrounding power lines to protect our backcountry.
• Issa voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Houlahan wants to protect it and expand Medicare to cover those 55 and up, also adding a MediKids program to cover 4 million uninsured children.
• Issa, one of the wealthiest members of Congress, has been accused of corruption including most recently failing to timely report hundreds of thousands of dollars in treasury bonds, a potential violation of the Stock Act.  Houlahan says he will stand against corruption and for transparency, calling for tougher penalties on insider trading by members of Congress and a need for honest leadership.

In an exclusive interview with East County Magazine also aired on KNSJ radio,  Houlahan also shared his views on the economy and inflation, immigration and border security NATO, the Israel-Gaza conflict,  Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and more.

CalMatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters.

November 1, 2024 (Sacramento) -- California voters decided on only one proposition on the March primary ballot — narrowly approving Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mental health measure, Proposition 1. In November, voters will determine the fate of 10 propositions — including whether to borrow a combined $20 billion for climate programs and school construction, whether to approve three amendments to the state constitution and what direction to take on crime, health care and taxes. 

The 2024 ballot is still more crowded than in 2022, when there were only seven measures, the fewest in more than a century.

Jump to section, or scroll down to view analysis of all initiatives.

• Prop 2 School bond
• Prop 3 Same-sex marriage
• Prop 4 Climate bond
• Prop 5 Voting threshold
• Prop 6 Involuntary servitude
• Prop 32 Minimum wage
• Prop 33 Local rent control
• Prop 34 Patient spending
• Prop 35 Health care tax
• Prop 36 Criminal penalties
• Watch 1-minute videos
  

By Brooke Binkowski, Times of San Diego, a member of the San Diego Online News Association

Photo: Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Labor Foundation, AFL-CIO, speaks while flanked by Democratic and Republican local leaders.

October 31, 2024 (San Diego) -  Saying he lacks ethics and integrity, local elected officials and community leaders gathered in Scripps Ranch Wednesday to offer an “anti-endorsement” of far-right Republican candidate and AM radio personality Carl DeMaio, a former San Diego City Council member and two-time congressional candidate.

Source: San Diego Sheriff’s Department

October 27, 2024 (Campo) – The San Sheriff's Search and Rescue (SAR) volunteers have found and rescued a woman who was lost in San Diego's backcountry for almost two days.

By Miriam Raftery

October 27, 2024 (San Diego)—Four members of East County Magazine’s journalism team won awards at the San Diego Press Club’s Excellence in Journalism Awards presented on October 22. Their coverage encompassed  public safety issues in La Mesa, the future of the Water Conservation Garden, international migrants in Jacumba, and La Mesa's ban on public comments after anti-Semitic rants.

October 22, 2024 (Ramona) — A Ramona man, 36, died at the scene of a collision on State Route 78 near the Old Julian highway on October 18 shortly before 5 p.m.

The victim was riding a 2020 Harley Davidson motorcycle westbound when he crossed over the double yellow lines and crashed into a Ford F-250 pickup truck driven by a Ramona woman, 52, according to Officer Jasmine Lopez with the California Highway Patrol.

Slashing federal disaster relief, privatizing public education, politicizing federal agencies, gutting intelligence bureaus, stripping away rights of protected groups, and ending climate change actions are among the proposals detailed in Project 2025

By Miriam Raftery

October 7, 2024 (Washington D.C.) -- Project 2025 is an 887-page blueprint for a second Trump administration, according to its authors. Trump has alternately praised it, claimed never to have read it, and said he disagrees with parts of it; he has denied knowing its authors, even though those authors include 140 top officials and advisors from Trump’s first presidential term, some of whom wrote entire chapters.

ECM has reviewed the entire document and provides this analysis of its most controversial provisions, in summary and detail. Some page citations are provided; citations are available on request for every fact cited.

Project 2025’s  stated mission is to restore family as centerpiece of American life, “dismantle the administrative state” (p 3), defend our nation’s sovereignty and borders against global threats, and secure ”God given individual rights to live freely.”  But if fully implemented, it would dismantle many branches of our federal government, politicize every federal agency,  threaten  our democracy and take away many rights and protections for women, minorities, the LGBTQ community, and our environment.

SUMMARY

Some of its most polarizing proposals include:

Shutting down and privatizing agencies: It aims to close down entirely agencies ranging from the Department of Education (p. 285) to  the National Hurricane Center and the National Weather Service (p 664) which could charge for weather reports and warnings, also privatizing FEMA  (p. 135), the Federal Emergency Management Agency that provides aid to victims of wildfires, floods and other disasters, privatizing Small Business Administration disaster loans, and privatizing National Flood Insurance. The Transportation and Security Administration, or TSA which was set up to protect us from terrorists after 911 including airport screenings, would be privatized as well. 

October 17, 2024 (Lemon Grove) -- All four candidates running for Lemon Grove City Council participated in East County Magazine’s candidate forum on Oct.10, which was moderated by editor Miriam Raftery.

The candidates are Councilman George Gastil, a history professor, Seth Smith, Chair of the Lemon Grove Planning Commission, architectural designer and project manager, high school coach Steve Faiai, and Jessyka Heredia, a small business owner, community volunteer, and reporter who previously covered Lemon Grove issues for our news site. 

Candidates fielded questions on issues including infrastructure, housing, homeless, the business community, and increasing access to public meetings through livestreaming and videotaping.  See highlights of their responses belone, or click here for video of the complete forum.  Listen to audio here, as aired on our radio show on KNSJ, edited slightly for length.

By Mike Allen

October 16, 2024 (Santee) -- At least four Santee sports groups including the local Pop Warner club, the Ravens, and youth soccer teams will soon get to experience the newly installed synthetic turf fields at Town Center Community Park.

The two new fields that feature lines for both football and soccer and can accommodate lacrosse were recently installed after an unusually long delay from having to wait to be adequately dry after a wet spring.

Stephanie Price, a member of the Santee Park and Recreation Committee (SPARC), was happy to see the brand new turf at the Oct. 10 dedication ceremony that took some six months to install due to the drying out time.

By Miriam Raftery

October 13, 2024 (San Diego) – Congresswoman Sara Jacobs, a Democrat, and El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells, a Republican, gave sharply divergent responses on a host of issues during a 51^st Congressional District candidate forum. The event, held at Temple Emanuel last week, was moderated by CBS 8 journalist Heather Myers with questions posed by the audience, plus in a twist, one question posed by each candidate to their opponent.

Wells sought to blame Democrats’ “radical left” policies  for problems ranging from inflation to rising homelessness and crime,  repeatedly criticizing immigrants while downplaying concerns over abortion. Jacobs sought to portray Wells as out of touch with women’s concerns over losing their reproductive freedoms if Republicans ban abortion at the national level and she denounced immigrant bashing as “dangerous” to Jews as well as immigrants.

Both voiced strong support for the Israeli people, but differed sharply in their views on how to defuse tensions and violence across the Mideast.  Wells chided Jacobs for focusing more on reproductive freedoms than economic issues, while Jacobs slammed Wells’ refusal to acknowledge that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. She fired back that such “lies” led to the Capitol attack in which insurrections wearing “team Auschwitz” t-shirts burst into the House Chamber moments before Jacobs, a Jew, was evacuated.“

October 10, 2024 (Lemon Grove) – East County Magazine will host two candidate forums tonight on Zoom.  The Lemon Grove mayoral  candidates’ forum will begin at 6 p.m., followed by the Lemon Grove City Council candidates’ forum  at 7 p.m.

You can watch live on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EastCountyMagazine/.  The forum will also be posted later on our homepage at https://www.eastcountymagazine.org.

All candidates have agreed to participate.

Update Oct. 8, 2024 9:15 p.m. -- All evacuation orders and road closures have been lifted.

Update 10 p.m.: The following roads are closed:  Old Highway 80 from Kitchen Creek Road to Crestwood Road, and  tate Route 94 from La Posta Road to Old Highway 80. Families can drop off large animals at the San Diego County Animal Shelter located at 5821 Sweetwater Road in Bonita. For more information, call County Animal Services at 619-236-2341.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo by Casey Shoemaker

October 7, 2024 (Campo) -- Evacuation orders and warnings are in effect in the Campo area due to the #Posta3Fire, which has burned 350 acres. The fire began this afternoon in the 3100 block of La Posta Rd.at Old Highway 80 in Campo. View the evacuation map at Genasys Protect:

https://protect.genasys.com/hazards/1899163d-428a-4120-98f3-f147f8098a86?z=14&latlon=32.724867%2C-116.426334

This fire has a rapid rate of spread.  A temporary evacuation center is at Golden Acorn Casino.

View forum:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7V44cS5UCY

A version of this forum, edited slightly for length,also aired on the East County Radio Show on KNSJ.  Hear audio.

By Miriam Raftery

October 7, 2024 (La Mesa) – All four candidates vying for two open seats on the La Mesa City Council spoke out on their goals and priorities if elected during an Oct. 3 forum on Zoom moderated by ECM editor Miriam Raftery. They addressed issues including housing and homelessness, restoring remote public comments, policing and public safety, district elections and campaign finance reform, and infrastructure to protect against extreme storms such as January’s floods.

Candidates opened with introductions, experience and top goals if elected.