Award-winning nonprofit media in the public interest, serving San Diego's inland region

Award-winning nonprofit media in the public interest, serving San Diego's inland region

EAST COUNTY ROUNDUP: TOP LOCAL AND STATE NEWS

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January 5, 2012 —  (San Diego’s East County)–East County Roundup highlights top stories of interest to East County and San Diego’s inland regions, published in other media.  This week’s top “Roundup” headlines include:   

  
LOCAL   
 
 
  • San Diego farmers hit record sales in 2011 amid many challenges (KPBS)
  • San Diego leaders eye new law to save redevelopment  (San Diego Union-Tribune)
  • What redevelopment’s death means for San Diego (Voice of San Diego)
  • D.A. says officials took dinners, tickets, more (San Diego Union-Tribune)
  • San Diego VA Hospital to get influx of Iraq War vets (KPBS)
  • Helix Water District chief is staying on through Jan. 31—or perhaps later (La Mesa Patch)
  • Rep. Hunter attends services for aide “Mac” MacWilliams, killed in road accident (Ramona Patch)
  • Village’s Larry Stowe sought on arrest warrant; made infamous on ’60 Minutes’ (La Mesa Patch)
  • Otay Water contracts tied to board chairman (San Diego Union-Tribune)
  • USO Sailor of the year killed in Afghanistan(San Diego Union-Tribune)
 
STATE  
 
  • State Board eyes fire fees again (San Diego Union-Tribune)
  • California Legislature returns to face more budget woes, new election rules (Sacramento Bee)
  • Federal judge blocks California emission rules (Reuters)
  • LA Arson: A turning point for police use of Twitter, social media (Los Angeles Times)
  • Deputy who arrested arson suspect shuns limelight (Los Angeles Times)
 
Scroll down for excerpts and links to full stories. 

 

 

LOCAL  
 
 
San Diego farmers hit record sales in 2011 amid many challenges (KPBS)
December 26, 2011 — Agriculture is a $1.6-billion industry in San Diego County.
County growers had a prosperous year despite challenges, including pests, a shortage of labor and rising water costs, according to Eric Larson, executive director of the San Diego County Farm Bureau.
San Diego leaders eye new law to save redevelopment  (San Diego Union-Tribune)
December 29, 2011 — The tool used to develop downtown San Diego’s crown jewels — the Gaslamp Quarter, Horton Plaza and Petco Park — is no more.
The California Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a decision by the state Legislature to eliminate roughly 400 redevelopment agencies, including those in San Diego, and blocked a plan that would have let them continue operating for a price.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2011/dec/29/san-diego-leaders-react-redevelopment-ruling/

What redevelopment’s death means for San Diego (Voice of San Diego)
 
December 29, 2011 — Redevelopment is dead, as we noted earlier today. That doesn’t mean it won’t rise again. More lawsuits could come. Big-name San Diego politicians, and plenty of others, want the Legislature to create some other system for economic development and affordable housing.

For now though, redevelopment as we know it is done, thanks to a ruling from the state Supreme Court upholding the state’s right to dissolve its own program.
http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/clipboard/article_8e7178ac-329d-11e1-a937-0019bb2963f4.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+voice-of-san-diego-all-articles+%28All+articles+voiceofsandiego.org+–+full+feed%29
 
D.A. says officials took dinners, tickets, more (San Diego Union-Tribune)
 
December 27, 2011 — They went to Lakers games, they stayed at the Biltmore, they enjoyed four-figure meal tabs, they sent their daughters to beauty pageants — all courtesy of contractors working on voter-approved bond projects, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
That’s the case investigators laid out for a judge before getting approval last week to search the homes of a contractor and six current and former officials of the Sweetwater schools and Southwestern College.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2011/dec/27/das-office-says-officials-took-dinners-tickets-mor/

San Diego VA Hospital to get influx of Iraq War vets (KPBS)
 
December 26, 2011 — Home Post Blog: More than 16,000 veterans of the war in Iraq who were part of the recent mass troop withdrawal from that country are expected at U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals in Southern California this Spring. (Read more from Home Post)
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2011/dec/26/san-diego-va-hospital-get-influx-iraq-war-vets/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kpbs%2Flocal+%28KPBS+News%3A+Local+Headlines%29
 
Helix Water District chief is staying on through Jan. 31—or perhaps later (La Mesa Patch)
 
December 28, 2011 — More than 60 people have applied for the job of Helix Water District general manager, hoping to succeed Mark Weston after a decade, the agency says.

But Weston won’t retire Friday as first reported.

“Mark Weston is staying until Jan. 31, and then the board will determine if we rotate through upper management for acting GM, or if Mark will be requested to contract for another month,” district spokeswoman Kate Breece said Wednesday.
http://lamesa.patch.com/articles/helix-water-district-chief-staying-on-until-jan-31-or-perhaps-later

Rep. Hunter attends services for aide “Mac” MacWilliams, killed in road accident (Ramona Patch)
 
December 28, 2011 — Congressman Duncan D. Hunter, former congressman Duncan L. Hunter, and about 300 other people attended services for Nelson "Mac" MacWilliams in Ramona on Wednesday.
MacWilliams, 54, was a field representative for Rep. Hunter at the time of his death in a road accident in Lakeside Dec. 20. He worked on military, veterans and law enforcement issues for the congressman, and had served 22 years in the U.S. Navy, including Operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom.
http://ramona.patch.com/articles/hunter-attends-service-for-aide-who-died-in-accident-mac-macwilliams-was-a-ramona-resident
 
Village’s Larry Stowe sought on arrest warrant; made infamous on ’60 Minutes’ (La Mesa Patch)
 
December 29, 2011 — Larry Stowe—the notorious former La Mesa shop owner depicted on 60 Minutes as a 21st century snake-oil salesman—is accused of shipping blood samples from his Village office in a scheme to defraud patients.
He is being sought on an arrest warrant in Texas, the FBI said Wednesday.
Nearly two years after Stowe’s BioTherapy Medical Oasis was shown on national television, he is being targeted for allegedly marketing and selling stem cells and other biological products for unapproved treatments of cancer, ALS, MS and Parkinson’s Disease.
http://lamesa.patch.com/articles/larry-stowe-sought-on-arrest-warrant-in-texas-inafmous-on-60-minutes

Otay Water contracts tied to board chairman (San Diego Union-Tribune)
 
December 29, 2011 — The general manager of the Otay Water District approved more than $200,000 in no-bid contracts this year to associates of the board’s chairman, Jaime Bonilla.
Three of the contracts involved a desalination plant planned in Baja California that Otay officials hope will be a key source of future water. One covered redistricting of the agency’s political boundaries and another was for public relations.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2011/dec/29/otay-contracts-tied-to-chairman/

USO Sailor of the year killed in Afghanistan(San Diego Union-Tribune)
 
January 3, 2012 — When Navy bomb disposal technician Chad Regelin was named 2011 USO sailor of the year, he couldn’t make it to the October gala in Washington, D.C.  He was in Afghanistan, standing in for a wounded bomb technician.
That job took his life Monday. Regelin, a 24-year-old sailor assigned to a San Diego unit, was killed during combat operations with a Marine Corps special operations company in Helmand province, Afghanistan, the Pentagon announced.
 
STATE  
 
State Board eyes fire fees again (San Diego Union-Tribune)
 
January 3, 2012 — The state has unveiled another new fire fee plan — one more in a series of proposals that have yet to pass muster either legally or in the court of public opinion.
The latest draft released Tuesday maintains a base $150 annual fee on homes in rural areas, including an estimated 73,000 in San Diego County that are within what’s called “state responsibility areas” defended by Cal Fire.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/jan/03/state-board-eyes-fire-fees-once-again/

California Legislature returns to face more budget woes, new election rules (Sacramento Bee)
 
January 3, 2012 — Happy new year, lawmakers? Don’t bet on it. The California Legislature will reconvene Wednesday amid a flood of red ink, a long history of partisan bickering, and a coming statewide election using newly drawn districts and a new way of choosing the top two candidates for legislative seats.
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/03/4158711/california-legislature-returns.html
 
Federal judge blocks California emission rules (Reuters)
 
December 30, 2011 —  A judge blocked one of California’s signature attempts to lower greenhouse gas emissions, a victory for out-of-state ethanol producers and refiners that has California’s air quality board vowing to appeal.

U.S. District Judge Lawrence O’Neill in Fresno on Thursday issued a preliminary injunction against a regulation adopted by the California Air Resources Board in 2010.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/30/us-usa-california-emissions-idUSTRE7BT10120111230?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

LA Arson: A turning point for police use of Twitter, social media (Los Angeles Times)
January 2, 2012 — When an arsonist began preying on Hollywood last week, social media sites like Twitter quickly emerged as a clearinghouse for information.
People tweeted when they first saw smoke, used cellphones to shoot videos and photos of burning cars, and traded both facts and rumors in rapid stream.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/01/la-arson-fires-police-use-twitter-social-media-twitter-social-media.html

Deputy who arrested arson suspect shuns limelight (Los Angeles Times)
January 3, 2012 — A crowd of reporters huddled outside the West Hollywood station of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department on Tuesday evening hoping to answer one question: Who is Shervin Lalezary?
Ever since early Monday morning, when the volunteer deputy was vaulted into the limelight after nabbing the suspect in more than 50 fires, the attorney-by-day has insisted on a low-profile.
Before he approached the cameras Tuesday, the gaggle of waiting reporters wondered aloud about the 30-year-old. Where’s he from, asked one. What kind of attorney is he, asked another. Is he single, mused a third.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/01/deputy-who-arrested-arson-suspect-shuns-limelight.html

 

 

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