By Miriam Raftery

March 5, 2024 (San Diego) – All five San Diego Congressional members have strong leads in the primary election, unsurprisingly given the power of incumbency and name recognition.

The key question is who will run off against them in November--and the early results have strong indicators of those outcomes.

By Miriam Raftery

Updated March 6th with latest results.

March 6, 2024 (San Diego's East County)-- Conservative firebrand Carl DeMaio, the leader of Reform California, now has 43.8% of as of today for the 75^th Assembly race.  Kevin Juza, a business consultant who is the Democratic Party’s endorsed candidate, is in second place with 19.02% of the vote, followed by Republican Andrew Hayes, a Lakeside school board member and long-time aid to legislators Brian Jones and Joel Anderson with16.28%.

Juza got a boost from deceptive campaign tactics by DeMaio, whose campaign funded full-color mailers and a website urging voters to support Juza, whom DeMaio would prefer to run off against in the November general election.

By Michael Howard

Screenshot from City Council video: La Mesa City Attorney Gleen Sabine advises Council on free speech rights

March 3, 2024 (La Mesa, CA) - The La Mesa City Council in its February 27 meeting voted 4-1 to ban remote public comments moving forward, with Councilman Jack Shu casting the dissenting vote.

The agenda item cites a memo by City Clerk Megan Wiegelman that suggested “in the aftermath of COVID, remote public comment is no longer necessary.” But the move to disallow call-in and Zoom public comments during City Council meetings seems to be in response to theFebruary 13 Council meeting, in which several remote participants listed Jewish government officials and unleashed a barrage of anti-Semetic speech. 

By Donald H. Harrison, San Diego Jewish World, a member of the San Diego Online News Association

Update 7 p.m.: The Medical Examiner has confirmed the death of Benjamin Ariel Harouni, 28, of gunshot wounds.

By Miriam Raftery

March 1, 2024 (El Cajon) – Multiple Jewish media outlets report that the man killed at the Smile Plus Dentistry & Orthodonics clinic in  El Cajon late yesterday  was Dr. Benjamin Harouni, an Orthodox Jew at the clinic run by Harouni and his father. Authorities have not yet confirmed the victim’s identity, however the Jewish publication Yeshiva World News first published his name along with a photo confirming that Misakim members from  Los Angeles spent the scene at the scene watching over the body to assure that Jewish law was respected.  Jewish News Syndicate has also named Harouni as the fatality victim.

The shooting suspect, Mohammed Abdulkareem,29, was arrested after an intensive manhunt. He has been charged with murder and two counts of attempted murder, for two other workers who were injured.  El Cajon Police have indicated the suspect was a disgruntled former patient, but an investigation into his motives continues, with speculations raised online over whether these may have been anti-Semitic hate crimes.

Fabienne Perlov,  Regional Director of the The Anti-Defamation League in San Diego, has issued a statement indicating that its  Center on Extremism "has not identified any extremist or hate-related motivation behind the shootings at this point." 

The carnage might have been worse, if not for a swift response by El Cajon Police. After receiving reports of gunshots in the clinic at 4:14 p.m., officers arrived two minutes later and found the three gunshot victims, an ECPD press release indicates.  According to Yeshiva, Harouni “was found inside the office as the shooting was still ongoing and was taken outside by officers, where they attempted to perform lifesaving measures,” however he died at the scene.

East County News Service

February 20, 2024 (San Diego) --On Tuesday, San Diego County Supervisors voted unanimously in support of a proposal that Shane Harris, President of the People’s Association of Justice Advocates, brought forth. Harris issued it to county supervisors on January 25^th just three days after the San Diego floods that decimated several neighborhoods throughout southeastern San Diego, Southcrest and Barrio Logan as well.

The proposal requested that County Assessor and Supervisors establish a countywide ordinance that would defer the April 10^th property tax delinquent deadline for flood victims, which would further support unincorporated areas like Spring Valley. Property taxes are usually due by April 10^th before a delinquent notice is issued.

By Miriam Raftery

February 28, 2024 (Alpine) -- A community workshop on trail improvements at Loveland Reservoir will be held on Thursday, March 14 at the Alpine Women’s Club (2156 Alpine Blvd) in Alpine from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

State Senator Brian Jones convened the workshop along with the Sweetwater Water Authority to hear from residents concerned about trail erosion and limited public access due to erosion caused by severe winter storms in January of last year.  

By Miriam Raftery

Photo, top left to lower right:  Dr. LaShea Sharp-Collins, Mayor Racquel Vasquez, and Councilman Colin Parent.

February 25, 2024 (San Diego’s East County) – ECM reporter Jessyka Heredia has done in-depth interviews with all three candidates running in the 79^th Assembly District.

All three are Democrats, and each has substantial public service experience.  LaShae Sharp-Collins, PhD, the party’s endorsed choice, is  the County Office of Education’s community engagement specialist, an adjunct professor at SDSU, and former district director for Assemblymember Shirley Weber, PhD.  Racquel Vasquez is Mayor of Lemon Grove and previously served on the city council and planning commission.  Colin Parent is a La Mesa Assemblyman and former director of external affairs for the California Department of Housing and Community Development, as well as past director of policy at the San Diego Housing Commission.

Each has many accomplishments and goals, which they highlight in our exclusive interviews. Vasquez and Parent tout their successful tract records of bringing new housing to their cities, while Sharp-Collins emphasized her expertise in education issues.. All spoke of their approaches to the state’s top issues including housing, homelessness, healthcare and education, as well as commenting on how the state might help the 79^th Assembly district prevent future flooding.

Each candidate has faced controversy at times. Parent, who serves as general counsel for Circulate San Diego, has helped raise funds from developers for that nonprofit organization and has drawn criticism for supporting developer/donor interests on the City Council. Vaquez has drawn complaints from some residents over the city’s flood response and  storm drain issues . Sharp-Collins raised controversy, according to the Daily Aztec for a slave persona assignment.

Below are links to our exclusive interviews with each candidate for the March 5 primary election, listed in alphabetical order:

Colin Parent

LaShea Sharp-Collins

Racquel Vasquez

By Miriam Raftery

February 24, 2024 (El Cajon) – The family of Akeel Robinson, a 17-month-old toddler critically injured by flying concrete in a crash caused by a wrong-way driver Jan. 28 in El Cajon have launched a GoFundMe drive to help pay medical expenses. The boy remains hospitalized with serious head and neck injuries.Donate here:  https://www.gofundme.com/f/medical-expenses-for-baby-akeel?utm_campaign=...

Akeel’s father, Anthony Robinson, was stopped at a traffic light in El Cajon with his three children in the family’s SUV, including Akeel, who was asleep in a car seat. Then a woman driving  a pickup truck the wrong-way on I-8 crashed into a concrete guardrail and plunged off the overpass.  It struck a wall below and burst into flames next to Robinson’s SUV. The wrong-way driver, Katy Frausto Aguilar, died at the scene.

Robinson was able to help his two older children out of the vehicle, but Akeel was slumped over, his head bleeding. He was rushed to Rady Children’s Hospital, where he underwent surgery for a fractured skull. To reduce brain swelling, he was put into a medically induced coma with part of his skull temporarily removed.

Ashleigh Jarrell, a cousin of Akeel’s mother, Kayte Blocker, has organized the GoFundMe page as the family’s medical bills mount.

Source: County News Service

February 23, 2024 (San Diego) -- The new County program to provide lodging to families who had their homes damaged in the Jan. 22 flood is now providing safe and secure lodging for more than 400 families from across the County. The application process for the County’s Emergency Temporary Lodging Program ends at 6 p.m., Friday, Feb. 23. Flood victims who previously applied and have not yet been placed in a room may still be offered temporary accommodations.

The Emergency Temporary Lodging Program is a 30-day program initiated on Feb. 10. The program provides support to households who were sheltered by community-based organizations immediately after the storm.The County contacted more than 1,400 households who indicated they had damage to their homes and needed assistance.  Most were identified for the program because they spoke to workers at one of two Local Assistance Centers or filled out a damage assessment survey.

Separately, this week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) issued a Major Disaster Declaration for San Diego County. Anyone impacted by the Jan.22 flooding is encouraged to register for FEMA assistance by visiting disasterassistance.gov or by calling the FEMA helpline at 1-800-621-3362. A deadline has not yet been announced for the federal program.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Flooding in Encanto, via mayoral candidate Genevieve Jones-Wright

February 22, 2024 (San Diego) – Former City Attorney Mike Aguirre and civil rights leader Shane Harris with People’s Association of Justice Advocates (PAJA) held a press conference Feb. 12 to announce a lawsuit against the city of San Diego on behalf of homeowners who suffered “preventable” damages from the January 22 flooding.

Harris cited a 2018 audit of the city’s storm water system as well as an unsuccessful 2022 effort to pass a ballot measure to fund infrastructure as evidence that city officials knew of flood risks from its storm drains, but failed to resolve them. The report specifically mentioned Chollas Creek  issues that caused flooding across southeastern San Diego. 

“This was an act of man, not an act of God,” Harris said, adding that city officials could have prevented January’s flood damages had it prioritized needed upgrades after the audit more than four years earlier.

Over 1,000 residents in Southeast San Diego have been displaced and hundreds of homes damaged or destroyed, according to PAJA, including Southcrest, Mountain View, Shelltown and Encanto neighborhoods.

By Miriam Raftery

February 21, 2024 (Santee) – The Santee Firefighters Association (SFA) is sponsoring the “Protect Santee” ballot initiative aimed at improving fire protection. The city’s fire department resources have not kept pace with growth in the community, a problem so severe that firefighters and emergency medical first responders are not able to meet national safety response time standards, multiple reports confirm.

“With just 17 on-call firefighters and two outdated fire stations, the fire department’s response times are often DOUBLE the crucial 4-minute National Fire Safety Response Standard, as AP Triton reported in its 2023 Santee Community Risk Assessment,” a press release from  the SFA states.

The International Association of Firefighters (IAFF) was hired by the SFA to provide a report on the fire department’s capabilities. It found that most fire engines are staffed by  three firefighters, not the minimum of four required by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). Moreover, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires that two firefighters cannot enter a burning building or other dangerous situation unless at least two more fighters are outside. So Santee’s three-person crews must wait until another crew arrives before they can enter a burning home, for example.

The study also found most area roads are not currently served  within the safe time frames outlined in the report.  “As such, it results in an increased risk of death or injury to firefighters and the citizens of Santee, as well as increased risk for considerable property loss of housing units and businesses throughout the City,” the report concludes.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: cc via Bing

February 21, 2024 (San Diego)—San Diego will be well represented on the House of Representatives’ new Task Force on Artificial Intelligence (AI). The bipartisan task force’s 24 members include two from San Diego—Democrat Sara Jacobs and Republican Darrell Issa.

The goals of the task force are to explore how Congress can drive innovation and maintain American leadership in AI, assure fair usage of the technology across numerous industries, and safeguard against current and emerging threats.