PUBLIC MEETINGS TUES. & WED. ON SDG&E PROPOSAL IN CLEVELAND NATIONAL FOREST AND NEARBY PROPERTIES
October 21, 2013 (San Diego’s East County) – Two scoping meetings are planned this week in Julian and Alpine for the public to obtain information and voice views on a proposal by San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) that includes Cleveland National Forest lands. SDG&E wants to combine over 70 existing special use permits for electric facilities in the forest into one Master Special Use Permit. In addition, SDG&E wants to replace some power lines and distribution liens both inside and outside the forest including fire hardening, relocation and undergrounding of certain facilities. Areas impacted include the vicinity of Descanso, Campo, Pauma Valley, Santa Ysabel, and Warner Springs. The meetings will be held: Tuesday, October 22 from 5-7 p.m. at Julian Elementary School, 1704 Cape Horn in Julian 92036 Wednesday, October 23 from 5-7 p.m. at Alpine Community Center, 1830 Alpine Blvd. in Alpine 91901 For more information, click here, here , and here.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT REPORT: SUPERVISORS WEIGH INCREASING OUTREACH TO RURAL VETERANS AFTER ECM INVESTIGATION
Highlights of El Cajon, La Mesa, Santee and San Diego agenda items for this week Update October 24, 2013: Supervisors unanimously approved the feasibility study on bringing veterans’ services to libraries countywide. By Miriam Raftery County Supervisors and local city councils have several significant measures on their agendad impacting East County this week. On Tuesday at 10 a.m., Supervisors will hear a proposal by Supervisor Dianne Jacob to extend the county’s outreach to veterans. This proposal is being introduced in response to an East County Magazine investigation that found a lack of County veterans’ services in rural East County. Supervisor Jacob’s proposal asks the County’s Chief Executive Office to report back in 120 days on the feasibility of using county libraries for veterans services, which would add 34 additional locations for County Veterans Services representatives to meet with veterans. Supervisor Jacob is also introducing a measure to streamline permitting for Farmer’s Markets. In addition, Neighborhood Reinvestment Program funds for upgrades or repairs at several East County projects proposed by Supervisor Jacob are on the agenda. These include the YMCA in Rancho San Diego, Valhalla High School, Julian High School, the Ramona Girls Softball League, and Santee’s Town Center Community Park. On Wednesday, County Supervisors will hold a public hearing on a proposed ordinance aimed at streamlining community design review procedures and making it easier for certain types of developments to be approved. The proposed zoning ordinance would implement a new, streamlined ministerial procedure for certain projects that are currently subject o a community design review and would instead require only a discretionary site plan permit. On Tuesday, El Cajon’s City Council will consider a resolution to enter into an exclusive negotiation agreement with Excel Hotel Group for development of property at the northeast corner of Magnolia Avenue and Rea Street in the Civic Center block. El Cajon will also consider adopting a moratorium on certain kinds of businesses including pawn shops, thrift stores, second hand dealers, and buyers of gold, jewelry and precious metals. Also on Tuesday, La Mesa’s City Council will weigh whether or not to adopt term limits for council members and the Mayor. In Santee on Wednesday, Council members will consider a proposal to create a new public park at the eastern end of Mast Boulevard. The park could include a trail for walking and bicycling that would ultimately connect up to the San Diego River trail system, as well as a children’s play area and a dog run.
DIABETES AWARENESS MONTH: RECIPE FOR ROASTED BRUSSELS SPROUTS
October 21, 2013 (San Diego) – Diabetes affects nearly 26 million Americans, and an additional 79 million are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Eating a diet low in sodium, refined carbohydrates, and added sugars is an important step in the prevention of diabetes. The ADA recommends limiting processed foods and satisfying your sweet tooth with low calorie sweeteners. Just in time for American Diabetes Month and the crisp November weather, here is a reduced-sugar recipe from NECTRESSE® Natural No Calorie Sweetener (made with natural sweeteners and sweet monk fruit extract): Roasted Brussels Sprouts Serves 6 Serving Size: 1/2 Cup Ingredients 1 1/2 pounds Brussels sprouts, ends trimmed 4 packets (2 tsp.) NECTRESSE® Natural No Calorie Sweetener 3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil 1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar 1 tsp. black pepper 1 tsp. kosher salt Directions 1. Preheat oven to 400° F 2. Place all ingredients into a large resealable bag; shake well to coat Brussels sprouts. 3. Pour Brussels sprouts onto a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes, shaking the pan every 10 minutes to ensure even browning This recipe has 10 grams of carbohydrates, 4 grams of dietary fiber and 4 grams of sugars per serving. NECTRESSE Natural No Calorie Sweetener is lower in calories than sugar. In a meal plan for people with diabetes, up to 2 packets (1 teaspoon) of NECTRESSE Sweetener is considered a “free food.”
READER’S EDITORIAL: A WAKEUP CALL
By Dave Patterson, Ramona This is a wakeup call for everyone that assumes that our jobs and pensions are secure, and that we will be taken care of in our elder years. The fact is that our leadership has bankrupted the nation and we are mostly to blame because of our apathy. Starting in 1990 I was waving the red flag regarding the National Debt, then $2,000 per capita. No one was worried because it was such a small percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), and besides Ronald Reagan had said, “Deficits don’t matter.” The crooks and liars gave the green light to the banks and investment firms that proceeded to gamble our wealth and lose it. Now the debt is almost as large as the debt accumulated after WWII, and we have a government that is so big no one wants to deal with it. Our politicians have failed us and now they are saying that Social Security is on the chopping block. Like our other pensions, they have spent it all into oblivion. The chance that our leaders will get with the program and cut our military spending, now twice as large as all the other nations put together, is zero because the military budget gives jobs to people that would otherwise be unemployed. Or to define this more realistically, the government is in the jobs business big time, and making sure that the businesses make a substantial profit as well. The other reason they won’t touch military spending is because the contractors make sure that our leadership is re-elected with what was our tax money, a crime in any other civilized society. But now the contractors and politicians have eroded the tax base and are serving up Medicare and Social Security as payment against the ultimate corruption of our system, with crooks and liars in control. Again, we are culpable because we let them do this, and now we will pay dearly. That is unless we wake up and demand that tax loopholes are closed and military spending is reduced significantly. We need to give up some of our so-called security, and dismantle the TSA and NSA, made so powerful since 9-11. Surrender some of Medicare but none of Social Security, keeping the third rail alive by deposing any politician that dares to touch one dollar of the Social Security trust fund or payout. People need to get angry about this and start calling the talk radio shows, no longer content to let the talking heads dictate what we should think. The crooks and liars will take your last meal to keep themselves in power and rich, and it’s up to us to stop them. The opinions in this editorial reflect the views of its author and do not necessarily reflect the views of East County Magazine. To submit an editorial for consideration, contact editor@eastcountymagazine.org
READER’S EDITORIAL: WE GRIEVE
Editor‘s note: We received this editorial from a Canadian reader in response to our coverage of the Ocotillo Wind Energy Project’s impacts on our local desert and the people of Octoillo. By Catherine Bayne, Bayniche Conservancy We grieve for you and yours, for the desert, the world and for the future. The wind war stories are fundamentally the same from everywhere, the disillusionment pervasive. How could corruption of such magnitude flourish under the UN? We forgot that, “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance” We fight on against an old evil and know it only slept. Your Thomas Jefferson said…”you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.” In Canada we have a line in a post-WWI poem which exhorts people not to “break faith ” with those who have died and it seems to me that the injustice in this wind war is so extreme the same resolve is called for, we will never surrender. The opinions in this editorial reflect the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of East County Magazine. To submit an editorial for consideration, contact editor@eastcountymagazine.org.
MEXICAN JUDGE ORDERS NO COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED CORN
By Nadin Abbott October 20, 2013 (San Diego) The 12th District Judge for Civil Matters in Mexico City has ordered no further commercial distribution of genetically modified (GMO) corn for the moment. The Judicial order temporarily prohibits “the suspension of permits, release and pilot field studies and commercialization of transgenic corn.” The judge cited “risk of imminent harm to the environment” as the basis for his ruling, which bans multinational corporations such as Monsanto from releasing GMO corn into the Mexican countryside as long as lawsuits filed by citizens, farmers, scientists and other groups are working their way through the court system. Health Impact News reports that Mexico has over 100 varieties of corn threatened by GMO crops from the U.S. Since 2001, studies have found Mexico’s native corn has been contaminated by GMO strains such as Monsanto’s Round-up Ready corn, which contains an herbicide spliced into the seed, Food First has reported. The court action results from a lawsuit brought by Adelita San Vicente Tello of Seeds for Life (Semillas para la Vida) and 52 others, among them scientist Antonio Turrent Fernandez, President of Scientific Union for Society (Unión de Científicos Comprometidos con la Sociedad (UCCS). GreenPeace Mexico stated on its web site that “the greatest achievement is that the Court is now part of the debate of the benefits or damage caused by transgenic (GMO) corn.” Use of GMO corn encourages monopoly practices and damages individual farmers, also leading to control over food by transnational corporations, the group contends. Mexico’s Secretariat of Agriculture (Secretaria de Agricultura) has warned that increased food demands will require the introduction of GMOs, however. The debate over GMO corn and other crops is not over in Mexico. The order is a temporary halt in the commercial use of GMOs. But, it adds to the growing debate in the United States as well as Mexico over the impacts of GMO crops, which have already been banned in much of Europe.
RAY LUTZ SETTLES SUIT WITH CITY OF SAN DIEGO OVER VOTING REGISTRATION ARREST
By Miriam Raftery October 18, 2013– Former Congressional candidate Ray Lutz of El Cajon was arrested in November 2011 for attempting to register voters at the Civic Cente Plaza downtown. This week, Lutz announced he has entered into a settlement with the City in which his arrest record will be expunged and the City will agree not to arrest people in the future for peaceful political activity in public spaces of private property. “Our goal was to send a clear message and require that the city admit they were wrong. This is about as close to an admission of guilt you can get from the city. We want to make sure this never happens again,” said Lutz. The area around the Civic Center Office Building is considered private property, even though the area is within the public square which is bordered by City Hall, the Civic Auditorium, the Community Concourse, and the Civic Center Office Building, which was was 93% leased to city offices, including the City Attorney’s offices, at the time of the arrest. The arrest was documented by a YouTube video that went viral shortly after the arrest, at this address: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsHlNR-nVR0 Other videos, including interviews of witnesses at the time of the event and rallies that occurred while Lutz was in jail can be seen at this URL: http://www.copswiki.org/Common/VoterRegistrationArrestOfRayLutz Lutz sued the City of San Diego, the Police Department, various officers, and the Civic Center Office Building management, CBRE, and others, who executed a written statement confirming they were performing a citizens arrest for trespassing. His case against other defendants is still pending.