By Miriam Raftery

Cal Fire photo: Cal Fire workers rescue motorist who plunged into rushing waters when bridge collapsed

July 20, 2015 (Riverside) – A bridge collapse Sunday that shut down Interstate 10 between Palm Springs and the Arizona border occurred during heavy rains.  The cause of the failure, however, may well be outright neglect. 

Built in 1967, the bridge was listed as “functionally obsolete” in the 2014 National Bridge Inventory—one of hundreds of bridges across California in need of replacement or major repair.

State Senator Jeff Stone (R-Riverside) has issued a press release stating that the incident “further illustrates the rapidly deteriorating state of California’s roads and highways and the urgent need to rebuild our state’s crumbling infrastructure.”

County News Service

Photo: County crews work to clean up mud flow on Rutherford Road in Ramona, where over 3 inches of rain fell on Sunday.

July 20, 2015 (San Diego) -- The remnants of Hurricane Dolores created record rainfall in San Diego County, taking residents by surprise over the weekend. If your property or small business sustained damage from the weekend’s heavy rains and flooding, the County would like your help to estimate rain damages in our region.

The County Office of Emergency Services is asking storm-affected residents to complete a short damage survey form that will assist the County in collecting damage information and associated costs from the weekend’s heavy rains and flooding.

The information gathered from the surveys will be used to estimate total damages countywide and will determine if enough damages occurred to qualify the region for federal disaster assistance, such as low interest disaster loans from the Small Business Administration for those who are uninsured or underinsured.

By Miriam Raftery

Photos and video courtesy of Cal Fire

July 19, 2015 (Palm Springs)—Heavy rains washed out a bridge east of Palm Springs at Adair (four miles west of Desert Center) late today and caused it to collapse. The dramatic failure forced closure of I-10 in both directions and injured a motorist who plunged into the abyss.  CHP reports that 30 feet of the I-10 freeway washed away—the major route from Riverside and Los Angeles counties into Arizona.

Motorists have been stuck in traffic for hours and motels quickly filled up, local TV stations report.  There is no quick alternative; drivers have been diverted several hours out of their way to I-8 in the southern part of the state, or to another major highway farther north.

East County Alert

July 19, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) – The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood warning due to imminent threat of flooding in certain mountain areas, where residents are urged to move to high ground.

There is also a flash flood watch in effect for all San Diego County valleys, deserts and mountain areas, including places where debris flows are possible.  Below are full texts of both alerts:

By Miriam Raftery

Photo by Robert Gehr (c) 2015

July 19, 2015 (San Diego) – Saturday’s deluge, remnants of a hurricane off the Baja coast, set a new record rainfall for the month of July in San Diego and many other local cities, Alex Tardy, Meteorologist Manager at the National Weather Service, San Diego reports.  At Lindbergh Field airport, 1.03 inches of rain has fallen so far this month, topping the old record of 0.92 inches set back in July 1902.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park got 1.16 inches and Ramona’s airport got a full inch. Campo received .99, while Alpine and El Cajon measured .95 inches on Saturday, putting all of these communities above normal for the whole month of July.

The downpour forced cancellation of some events, such as Concert at the Lakes in Santee.

East County New Service

July 17, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) – Want to know data on water well locations, levels, pumping rates and more?  Until now, this info was not available to the public. But now thanks to passage of Senate Bill 83, the reports are available by request through a Well Completion Report Request Form at the California Department of Water Resources at this site: http://www.water.ca.gov/groundwater/wells/well_completion_reports.cfm.

By Miriam Raftery

July 16, 2015 (El Cajon) – El Cajon currently holds at-large elections where everyone in the city votes for all five Council races.  But on Tuesday, the City Council voted 5-0 to have staff move forward with implementing a shift to individual districts each electing its own representative.  The concept of districts aspires to provide greater representation for minorities to elect representatives reflective of their neighborhoods' concerns.

Source: MWD

July 16, 2015 (San Diego)--A San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled in a tentative decision on July 15 that he would require the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to pay the San Diego County Water Authority $188.3 million plus interest for illegal water rates MWD charged from 2011 to 2014.

Darling named in felony search warrants, initiated phone calls with SCE executives, now defends new CPUC President Picker from oversight committee requests

By Miriam Raftery

July 16, 2015 (San Diego) – Citizens' Oversight filed legal documents on July 14^th with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), making the case for reassignment of Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Melanie Darling from the sanctions phase of proceedings on the San Onofre Nuclear plant.  The July 14 motion would remove Darling from hearing the investigation into sanctions for violations of ex parte rules during the San Onofre proceeding--an action which could have substantial impacts for ratepayers statewide..

By Miriam Raftery

July 13, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) – The County has announced the recipients of $833,000 in community enhancement grants awarded in District 2, represented by Supervisor Dianne Jacob, who recommended the awards.

By Miriam Raftery

file photo: Calif. Dept. Fish & Game

July 13, 2015 (San Diego) – A mountain lion apparently protecting her cubs startled a pair of hikers Thursday night at Mission Trails Regional Park.

Mike Smith told ECM news partner 10 News that he was wearing a head lamp on the trail when he spotted a reflection and then heard a sound like “kittens, kind of like a meowing, but loud.”

He and his friend walked toward their car, when they saw eyes  staring at them. Next, a full-grown mountain lion walked out of the bushes and across the road less than 30 feet from the hikers, before heading up to high ground.

CDC warns against snuggling chickens or ducks, bringing poultry inside home

Photo credit: USDA FlickR.com, Creative Commons image by Alice Popkorn

July 10, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) – Across the nation, people have flocked to owning backyard chickens and other poultry.  But now the Centers for Disease Control  has issued a warning not to cozy up to your backyard birds.  That’s because four separate Salmonella outbreaks linked to backyard flocks have sickened 181 people in 40 states, including several cases  in California.

In  one outbreak, CDC conducted interviews and found that 86% of the ill people had conducted with chiceks, chickens, ducks or ducklings before falling ill. Moreover, the CDC reports, “Many ill people in these outbreaks reported bringing the live poultry into their homes, and others reported kissing or cuddling with the live poultry. These behaviors increase a person’s risk of a Salmonella infection.”

Who knew that chicken snuggling was so popular?

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: 2011 City of San Diego

July 10, 2015 (San Diego) – In an interview with KPBS, retiring San Diego Councilmember Marti Emerald said she plans one final major action.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo by Miriam Raftery: Trestle over Carrizo Gorge

July 8, 2015 (Campo) – Plans to revive the long-closed Desert Line freight railway from Campo to Imperial County appeared to be in danger of derailing after the Pacific Imperial Railroad fell behind in payments to the Metropolitan Transit System. But now the company has made its latest  half-million dollar payment to the Metropolitan Transit, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.The 99-year-lease requires two such payments annually.

East County News Service

July 6, 2015 (El Cajon)—East County will soon have its first four-star hotel.  In its last meeting in June, the El Cajon Council approved final plans for a Marriott Courtyard hotel to be built at Magnolia and Rea Avenues.