“The decision to release this damning report when families are beginning to celebrate the holidays and newsrooms are short-staffed is a brazen attempt to bury the truth.”

By Jake Johnson, staff writer, Common Dreams

November 25, 2018 (San Diego) - In a move environmentalists and journalists denounced as a blatant effort to bury facts that conflict with the president's denialism and pro-fossil fuel agenda, the Trump administration used the Friday after Thanksgiving to quietly release Volume II of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4), which warned "Earth's climate is now changing faster than at any point in the history of modern civilization" and concluded that "greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are the only factors that can account" for planet-threatening warming.

SDG&E now says it wants to exit power-purchasing business

By Miriam Raftery

November 25, 2018 (San Diego) – Across California, nearly 20 communities are now purchasing their own power through community choice energy programs that aim to lower utility bills and provide energy from clean, green sources. 

The concept is gaining bipartisan support locally, where Republican Mayor Kevin Faulconer announced his intent in October for the city of San Diego to establish acommunity choice option backed by prominent Democrats on the city council. La Mesa’s city council voted unanimously in April to pursue a community choice energy alternative and Solana Beach already has one. There is also talk of some local jurisdictions banding together to form a regional community choice energy program for ratepayers.

An East County Magazine exclusive report

View video with exclusive interviews:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=984eIPcneAo or click the image above.

By Ana Nita

November 19, 2018 (Lakeside) – “I don’t know what started it,”  says El Monte Valley resident Dianna Alotta, who works and lives at a horse ranch close to where the #ElMonteFire began on Sunday afternoon. After her husband told her that a fire was burning, she recalls, “I looked over and there’s smoke, so I came running back here.” She adds, “Thank God a bunch of other people, neighbors and stuff pulled together, got the horses out of the danger range.”

Update November 27, 2018:  The CDC has narrowed the warning to only Romaine lettuce grown in central and northern Califormia.  Read more.

East County News Service

November 20, 2018 (Washington D.C.) – Consumers in the U.S. should not eat any romaine lettuce; restaurants and retailers should not serve or sell any forms of romaine lettuce including whole heads, chopped, hearts of romaine, or mixed salads containing romaine lettuceincluding spring mix and Caesar salads.

That’s the warning issued today by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration due to a nationwide outbreak of a virulent form of E.coli linked to romaine that has sickened 32 people in 11 states, including 10 cases in California.Nearly a third of those cases (13) required hospitalization.  An additional 18 cases have occurred in Canada.

Update November 28, 2018:  Statewide, Hunter's lead has slipped further. Hunter now leads by 3.6%, with 51.8% to Campa-Najjar with 48.2%.  Hunter has 131,436 votes and Campa-Najjar has 122,255, or a difference  of 8,181 votes. San Diego County has 47,000 ballots left to process, but it's unclear how many are in the 50th Congressoinal District. There may also be a small number of untallied votes left in Riverside County.

By Miriam Raftery

November 19, 2018 (San Diego)—On Election night, indicted Congressman Duncan D. Hunter led challenger Ammar Campa Najjar by nearly 9%.  But as of tonight, Hunter’s lead has slipped to just 4.3% counting both Riverside and San Diego counties, or a difference of 10,046 votes out of 231,800 votes cast.

Importantly, in San Diego, which has  over 10 times more voters in the 50^th Congressional District than Riverside, Hunter’s lead is a scant 4.6%, a margin of just 7,782 votes. Countywide, the San Diego Registrar reports 112,000 ballots not yet tallied, though it’s unclear how many are in the50th Congressional district.

 Hunter has 52.17% of the vote locally, compared to 47.83% for Campa-Najjar, who has been steadily gaining ground as late mail-in and provisional ballots favoring Democrats are counted.

Regardless of the final tally, this is clearly the closest race ever in this once reliably conservative district.  In his prior five campaigns for Congress, Hunter waltzed easily to victory over his Democratic opponents with margins of victory ranging from 17% in 2016 to a whopping 42.8% in 2014. His father, the former Congressman, similary won by hefty margins during his many years in office.

East County News Service

November 19, 2018 (El Cajon) -- The Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District has good news for its nearly 1,700 student veterans.

By Miriam Raftery

November 18, 2018 (Lakeside) – Lakeside activist Barry  A.Treahy and his wife, Jackie, have submitted a letter and petition to County Supervisors opposing a sand mining project in El Monte Valley. Treahy says the petition has been signed by a majority of property owners deemed by the County to be within the “sphere of influence” of the El Monte Nature Preserve LLC project, the ironically named sand mining endeavor.  Barry Treahy has also filed a complaint with the County Grand Jury (see attachments 1, 2, 3, 4)

Treahy contends that adding sand mining in the 1970s as an allowable land use bypassed critical notification to neighbors.  He further contends that the county’s Planning and Development Services program, which is funded entirely by developer fees without tax revenues, “opens the door to salary abuse, overcharging clients, outside influence, extortion and corruption. The obligation of a Government entity is collect taxes to fund necessary activities. The correct method to avoid those pitfalls,” Treahy’s Grand Jury complaint states.

By Miriam Raftery

November 18, 2018 (Lemon Grove) – Lemon Grove’s City Council will consider a tobacco retail licensing ordinance aimed at keeping tobacco products away from children. Following months of planning and community input, the ordinance will have its first reading at Tuesday’s 6 p.m. council meeting at the Lemon Grove Community Center, 3146 School Lane, Lemon Grove.

By Miriam Raftery

November 16, 2018 (San Diego’s East County)—With wildfires raging in northern and southern California, where power lines are suspected of causing deadly blazes,  residents in San Diego’s rural and mountain communities have been grappling with serious challenges posed, conversely, by a utility company shutting off power to some 30,000 residences during high winds this week in an effort to prevent fires.

Backcountry blogs sizzled as residents eventually able to access the internet posted a litany of complaints including life-threatening issues.

Tragedy raises questions on evacuation notifications, causes and potential utility liability; locally concerns rise over power outages and building in areas where a wildfire could cause  traffic gridlock and mass fatalities

By Miriam Raftery

November 16, 2018 (San Diego) – The Camp Fire’s grim toll has risen to 60 confirmed deaths while the list of missing has skyrocketed to 630 as authorities review 911 calls and other reports.  The Paradise Post has published a list of those missing in the state’s deadliest wildfire, which thus far has burned 142,000 acres. The Post has dropped bundles of its newspapers off at evacuation shelters, since delivery is impossible in a town where 90% of the buildings are now gone.

The blaze has destroyed 9,600 homes and 230 commercial buildings in Butte County, leveling the town of Paradise and also causing severe damage in several nearby communities north of Sacramento. The fire is now 45% contained.

But even those who survived without losing homes or businesses may suffer long term adverse health impacts due to air polluted by chemicals that have burned as the fire scorched through urban areas.   Air quality is rated hazardous across the Sacramento Valley and into San Francisco, where trolley car service has been temporarily halted due to the air pollution.

Meanwhile questions remain as to why so many were trapped and unable to escape. Most of those who perished were elderly and some who did get out report that they received no emergency warnings or evacuation notices. Authorities awaiting confirmation from fire officials reportedly got notices out too late for some residents closest to the monster wind-driven fire.

East County News Service

November 15, 2018 (Jacumba Hot Springs) – A celebration of life and spaghetti dinner will be held on November 16th from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Jacumba Spa for friends and family to honor the memory of Richard Henry Alcorn.  

East County News Service

November 14, 2018 (San Diego) – Yesterday, Petco announced it will not sell food and treats containing artificial colors, flavors and preservatives* for dogs and cats by May 2019. The move makes Petco the first and only major retailer of pet food and treats to take a stand against such ingredients, reaffirming the company’s commitment to being the lifelong, trusted partner – for pets and pet parents, alike. 

East County News Service

November 13, 2018 (Campo) – Beginning Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018, the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum Association (PSRM), a historical and educational nonprofit based in Campo, Calif., will launch a year-long, 100-year anniversary celebration of the Nov. 15, 1919 completion of the San Diego & Arizona Railway.

East County News Service

November 12, 2018 (Lakeside) – The Sheriff’s department announced tonight that a 14-year-old student at El Capitan High School has been arrested and booked into Juvenile Hall for making criminal threats on social media toward the school.

Source:  SDG&E

Photo:  Sempra Energy headquarters in downtown San Diego. Courtesy of Sempra Energy

November 12, 2018 (San Diego) - Sempra Energy is launching an annual charitable-contribution program for Veterans Day to benefit support organizations for veterans and their families, with the inaugural grant of $20,000 going to the Gary Sinise Foundation.