LIBRARIES IN ALPINE AND LEMON GROVE LIBRARIES HOST VERMONT AUTHOR ON EVOLUTION OF ORGANIC FOOD MOVEMENT DEC. 5
East County News Service November 21, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) — On Monday, December 5th the San Diego County Library will host Vermont author Grace Gershuny in a discussion and book signing of her latest book. Ms. Gershuny will speak at the Alpine Branch, 1752 Alpine Blvd., Alpine, CA from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. and at the Lemon Grove Branch, 3001 School Lane, Lemon Grove, CA from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. Organic Revolutionary: A Memoir of the Movement for Real Food, Planetary Healing, and Human Liberation reflects on the forty-year evolution that established the meaning of “Organic” for foods and fiber. Beginning with the back-to-the-land movement of the late 60s and 70s, working with the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) to shape the organic certification process, and later with USDA’s National Organic Program to develop the organic regulations, Grace Gershuny interweaves the story of building a national movement with the evolution of her life. Her thoughts and experiences have helped shape today’s burgeoning interest in organic foods, sustainable agriculture, and related concerns in Vermont and beyond. Barton, VT Chronicle News Editor Tena Starr calls Organic Revolutionary “a personal story, but also an intellectual exploration of the connections between agriculture and politics, between climate change and how we eat and grow food, between planetary, political, and personal health.” Acres, USA contributor Mark Keating says that this book is “unique among the growing library of works on organic agriculture in that it provides an insider’s account of how the USDA organic standards came into being.” Organic farmer Louie Pulver, of Surfing Veggie Farm in Walden, VT says he “really enjoyed the book!!” Ms. Gershuny currently teaches sustainable agriculture in the Green Mountain College on-line MS in Sustainable Food Systems program. For more information, please contact: Organic Revolutionary: Grace Gershuny at 802-633-4152 or organicrevolutionary@gmail.com
ALLAN GOETZ NAMED GHD REPRESENTATIVE TO GROSSMONT HOSPITAL CORPORATION BOARD
East County News Service Nov. 21, 2016 (East County) – Spring Valley resident Allan Goetz has been approved to serve on the Grossmont Hospital Corporation (GHC) board of directors as a representative of the Grossmont Healthcare District (GHD). GHC is the legal entity for the hospital lease agreement between Sharp HealthCare and GHD, the East County public agency that serves as landlord of the hospital’s property and buildings on behalf of taxpayers. Goetz, 70, a retired aerospace engineer, was approved by Sharp to serve on the GHC as a designee of GHD board member Gloria Chadwick. Goetz succeeds Dehesa resident Shirley Murphy, a cultural psychologist, life coach consultant and advocate for Native American issues, who began serving on the GHC board in 2008, following her serving for one year on the GHD board to fill a vacancy. “It is my privilege to have this opportunity to serve on the hospital board of directors and honored as a designee of the Grossmont Healthcare District board,” said Goetz. “I look forward to working with each of the hospital board members and an excellent team of administrators in our collective effort to maintain excellent patient care at the hospital and fulfill the hospital’s mission to offer quality care and services that set community standards and exceed patients’ expectations.” Goetz’s 40-year aerospace career included working as a chief systems engineer and principal engineer on the design of aircraft and missile defense systems, as well as radar communication systems. He worked with Hughes Aircraft Co., ITT Gilfillan and Northrop Grumman Defense Systems. He retired from Northrop Grumman in April 2015. He has lived in Spring Valley for the past 12 years. Goetz’s military service includes two years in the U.S. Coast Guard. He earned a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from the University of Washington and a doctorate in physics from The George Washington University in Washington D.C. He holds 16 patents and is a life member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world’s largest technical professional organization. He also is a member of the non-profit Citizens Oversight, a local watchdog and advocacy group. As a member of GHC, Goetz also will serve on its Facilities Committee, according to Dave Grundstrom, 2016 GHC chair. GHC, a non-profit corporation, has operational responsibility of the 540-bed Grossmont Hospital on behalf of Sharp HealthCare. The 15-member GHC board consists of Sharp HealthCare leaders, physicians, community leaders and GHD board members or their designees. Among its many responsibilities, the GHC board oversees, evaluates and recommends proactive quality measures and performance initiatives for all quality improvement activities throughout the hospital. GHD, the public agency that represents more than 500,000 people residing in the district’s 750 square miles in East County, monitors the health care services provided under contract at Sharp Grossmont Hospital to assure that patients’ needs are met and that their reasonable expectations are exceeded. In 1991, GHD opted to lease the hospital’s operation to Sharp HealthCare under a 30-year lease that runs through May 2021. The lease agreement between GHD and Sharp HealthCare was extended by voters in 2014 for an additional 30 years. For more information about GHD, visit www.grossmonthealthcare.org.
WIND TURBINE COLLAPSES IN OCOTILLO
By Miriam Raftery Photos by Jim Pelley November 21, 2016 (Ocotillo) – A 500-foot-tall wind turbine at the Ocotillo Wind Energy Facility collapsed this morning, spewing debris and three blades each weighing many tons across the desert floor. ECM photographer Jim Pelley, an Ocotillo resident, says 30 minutes after the collapse, the other 111 turbines were still spinning and no one from Pattern Energy had arrived. Around an hour or more after the collapse, Pattern arrived and deenergized the entire project. Pelley told East County Magazine that the ground was not saturated from rainfall and the foundation is intact, raising serious questions as to what caused the massive turbine to collapse and whether others could have a design or engineering flaw that could lead to similar failures. Winds were only 15 miles an hour or less during the three hours before the collapse. The tower bent into the wind, not away from it, and did not collapse at a joint in the three-piece tower, but in between. Edie Harmon was outside her home five miles south of the wind farm around10:30 a.m. when she heard the turbine collapse. It sounded like “a massive explosion. I thought a military jet had crashed to the ground,“ she said in a phone interview with ECM. When she drove home tonight, after the project was deenergized, she told ECM, “I didn’t see lighting on any of them. I sure hope we don’t have a low-flying Border Patrol plane.” Harmon also voiced concerns over leakage of toxins into the ground and the aquifer below that provides the town’s drinking water, after such a major explosion. Witnesses said the collapsed caused a loud boom and raised a cloud of dust. One witness told Pelley that blades were turning as the turbine collapsed and may have struck the tower. Pelley, an aerospace engineer who has extensively documented this project since its inception, found that Pattern put larger blades than the towers were originall built to hold, in order to maximize production, replacing model 23-101 with 23-108. He speculated that bending back and forth under heavier blades, which are on all the turbines, may have caused the tower’s central section to collapse. While this turbine is in a remote location, others are located close to major roadways including Interstate 8, as well as homes, a school, and public trails on federal Bureau of Land Management property. The website Ocotillo Wind Destruction has also posted this and other images, drawing posts from residents angry over the threat to public safety and lack of responsiveness thus far by pattern. Parke Ewing, who has a turbine near his home, wrote, “Are they going to wait for someone to be killed before these unreliable monsters are decommissioned?” a reference to the fact that the project has failed to meet wind production capacity projections every year since it was built. A 2014 award-winning ECM investigation, “Was it fraud?” exposed evidence suggesting the developer may have defrauded the federal government to secure wind production tax subsidies by falsifying a map to make the project appear to be 3,000 feet higher in altitude, at a sight with more wind than the actual location. ECM has contacted Pattern Energy and left a message asking for information at the company’s La Jolla headquarters. We also called the BLM’s Imperial County office, where staff was unaware of the collapse an hour after it occured. We contacted SDG&E, which responded that Sempra has been informed of the situation.
PEARL HARBOR SURVIVOR TO SPEAK SATURDAY IN SPRING VALLEY
By Miriam Raftery November 21, 2016 (Casa de Oro) — Pearl Harbor Day is coming up on December 7th, a day to recall the worst attack on U.S. soil when the Japanese air force bombed an American air base in Hawaii during World War II. There are very few survivors of Pearl Harbor left to tell their tales. But on Saturday, November 26th at 10 a.m., Pearl Harbor survivor Stuart Hedley, a Navy veteran, will give a presentation at the Casa de Oro Library in Spring Valley (9805 Campo Rd., #180). Hedley was aboard a U.S. ship that was bombed and will share harrowing tales of survival and heroism. The Spring Valley Lions Club, co-sponsor of the event along with Friends of the Casa de Oro Library, will also be collecting donations of used eyeglasses and hearing aids to help people in need.
STORM DRENCHES REGION; SUNNY SKIES FORECAST FOR THANKSGIVING
East County News Service November 21, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) — Sunday night’s storm brought heavy rains to much of drought-stricken San Diego County. Descanso and Cuyamaca received more than an inch of rain and over an inch and a half fell on Palomar Mountain. Ramona and Julian received just under an inch, while Santee, Campo and Boulevard all got about a half inch of rain, though less than a quarter of an inch was received at San Diego’s Lindbergh Field. With the storm past, sunny skies and highs of 65 are forecast for Thanksgiving weekend, making this an ideal time to visit our backcountry mountain areas to view some fall foliage, stop off at a local winery, pick up some apple pie in historic Julian, or enjoy fishing and hiking at one of our region’s many scenic lakes and trails.
TRUMP NAMES ALABAMA SENATOR SESSIONS AS ATTORNEY GENERAL, SPARKING CIVIL RIGHTS DEBATE
By Miriam Raftery November 20, 2016 (Washington D.C.) – Civil rights activists are voicing concerns over President-Elect Donald Trump’s appointment of Alabama Senator Jefferson “Jeff” Beauregard Sessions III to serve as Attorney General, the nation’s top law enforcement officer. A staunch conservative politically, Sessions was once rejected for a federal judicial seat by the Senate under President Ronald Reagan’s administration due to reported racist statements and opposition to the Voting Rights Act. But he has drawn support from some fellow Republican lawmakers, who praised him as fair-minded and in fact, he once prosecuted a prominent Ku Klux Klan member for murder, helping break the backbone of the KKK in in Alabama. Biased media sources on both sides of the aisle have spun this appointment to polar opposite extremes: one side paints Sessions as an enemy of civil rights, while the other portrays him as a champion who has stood up to powerful hate groups. Here are the facts. Born in Selma, Alabama to a store owner/farmer and named for a Confederate officer, Sessions got his law degree at the University of Alabama. He worked as an attorney in private practice and became a captain in the Army Reserve. In 1975, he served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama. In 1981, President Reagan nominated him to become U.S. Attorney for the Southern District. He was confirmed by the Senate and held the post 12 years. During that time, he investigated the murder of Michael Donald, a black teen hung by Ku Klux Klan members. Both men were arrested and convicted; Sessions obtained a death penalty sentence for one of the killers in a case that reportedly broke the backbone of the KKK in Alabama. But when Reagan nominated Sessions in 1986 to become a judge on the U.S. District Court, his nomination was blocked with two Republican Senators joining Democrats on the Judiciary Committee. His nomination was opposed by the NAACP and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. Four Justice Dept. lawyers testified that Sessions made racially offensive remarks. J. Gerald Sebert told the Judiciary Committee members that Sessions called the National Advancement for Colored People (NAACP) and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) “un-American” and “Communist inspired” because they “forced civil rights down the throats of people.” Thomas Figures, a black Assistant U.S. Attorney, claimed Sessions called him “boy” and told him to “be careful what you say to white folks.” Sessions denied making these statements. Both Figures and Barry Kowalski said they heard Sessions make a joke that the KKK was “okay until I found out they smoked pot.” Sessions apologized for that remark. But Kowalski believed it was a joke, adding, “He couldn’t have been more supportive of making sure we got convicted the murderers of the last black man who was lynched by the Klan.” Kowalski also said Sessions was more welcoming of Civil Rights Division work than many other southern federal lawyers in that era. However, Figures contradicted that depiction, saying he once heard Sessions throw a civil rights case file on the table and say “I wish I could decline on all of them.” He reported opposed the Voting Rights Act, which as U.S. Attorney General he would be sworn to uphold. In his testimony to the Judiciary, Sessions defended his civil rights record and noted that the signed 10 pleadings attacking segregation or its remnants. Perhaps most troubling to committee members, Sessions was accused of falsely prosecuting black political activists in Alabama for voting fraud, including a member of Rev. Martin Luther King’s staff. The activists had collected and mailed 500 absentee ballots for elderly black voters. The trio known as the Marion Three were accused of altering absentee ballots, mail fraud, and conspiracy to vote more than once, but were acquitted by five whites and seven black jurors. Senator Ted Kennedy stated, “Mr. Sessions’ role in the voting fraud case in Alabama alone should bar him from sitting on the bench.” The Tuscaloosa News, however, reported that Perry County, Alabama, where the case originated, had faced allegations of voting fraud for decades and in 2012, Uniontown had a population of 1,775 in the2010 census but by 2012 had 2,587 registered voters. Sessions has contended that he was right to try the case, but simply failed to provide enough proof to win. Reagan ultimately withdrew the judicial nomination. However, Sessions went on to be elected Attorney General of Alabama in 1994 and won election to the U.S. Senate in 1996. In the Senate, he often received an “F” from the NAACP and other civil rights groups for opposing civil rights bills. In 2013, he praised the Supreme Court for essentially gutting the Voting Rights Act and allowing states with histories of discrimination to change their voting laws, no longer needed federal oversight. That decision led to a flurry of new laws passed by states that had the effect of suppressing minority votes, such as Alabama, which passed voter photo ID requirements and then promptly shut down 31 DMV offices in counties that were predominantly black. Sessions is among the most conservative members of Congress. He supported a constitutional ban on gay marriage and opposed repeal of the military’s don’t ask, don’t tell policy, even voting against a bill to make violence based on sexual orientation a hate crime. He opposed Senator John McCain’s bill prohibiting the U.S. military from torturing prisoners even though torture is illegal under international law. He voted against the Affordable Care Act and voted for the Iraq War. He has called for deportation of undocumented immigrants and opposes a pathway to citizenship. He led the fights in the Senate against immigration reform measures in 2006 and 2007. He is pro-life and voted against funding stem cell research. Sessions has voiced opposition to legalized marijuana and called cannabis “dangerous.” His views have led advocates of medical or recreational marijuana in dozens of states that have legalized one or the other usage to raise concerns over
JIMMIE JOHNSON WINS SEVENTH SPRINT CUP CHAMPIONSHIP
For more sports coverage, visit ECM’s Sports section Source: NASCAR.com Cover photo: Creative Commons under Nascarking (Wikipedia). Newsflasher photo: Creative Commons under Flickr upload bot November 20, 2016 (Miami) – Jimmie Johnson today won his seventh Sprint Cup championship and his first in three years at the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Miami. The 41-year-old and El Cajon native is now tied with Dale Earnardt and Richard Petty as a seven-time premiere series champion. Johnson is also now the youngest seven-time winner; Petty was 42 when he won in 1979 and Earnhardt was 43 in 1994. “This is beyond exciting,” team owner Rick Hendrick said. “I’m so proud of him.” This has been a tough season for Johnson. He experienced the longest winless streak of his career (25 starts). “Records are a mark and they set something for everyone to shoot at,” Petty said. “Jimmie and his team have done that tonight. They set a goal to get where they are and circumstances and fate made it a reality. They did what they needed to do and now they are at seven championships. Congratulations to him and his team. “Jimmie is a great champion and this is really good for our sport.”
AZTECS WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: SLOPPY PLAY LEADS TO 60-53 LOSS AGAINST LMU
Update as of 5:10 PM: added box score and play by play For more sports coverage, visit ECM’s Sports section Story and photos by Liz Alper November 20, 2016 (San Diego) – After a big loss to crosstown rival USD, the lady Aztecs returned to the friendly confines of Viejas Arena to take on the Loyola Marymount Lions in a Sunday matinee. LMU came out attacking; the Aztecs didn’t tally until they got their first set of free throws. The Lions led 20-14 after the first quarter. In the second quarter, it was much more of the same. Despite big three pointers by senior guard Kymberly Ellison and junior guard McKynzie Fort, the Aztecs had no groove until the end of the half. They went to the locker room trailing by four, 32-28. But in the second half, SDSU did a complete 180. They took their first lead of the game early. They were aggressive, attacked the rim and rebounded. It was an entirely different team. But it didn’t take long for the Aztecs to return to their first half selves. They lost the lead and turned the ball over constantly. More sloppy play led to another sloppy quarter and the Aztecs trailed 47-42 after three. In the fourth quarter, the Lions increased their lead big time and the Aztecs couldn’t keep up. They amassed their biggest lead of the game, 10 points, with six minutes left in the game. The Aztecs trailed 54-44. The Aztecs whittled away at that gap and kept it relatively close for the rest of the game, but still ended up losing 60-53. The Lions pick up their first win of the season and both teams are now 1-3. The Aztecs get a break before traveling to South Orange, New Jersey for the Seton Hall Tournament next week, where they’ll play two games. Their first is against Stacie Terry’s alma mater, the University of Texas at Arlington next Saturday. Tipoff is at noon Pacific time. Box score Play by play