East County News Service

January 3, 2023 (El Cajon) - The board of directors of Excellence and Justice in Education Academies (EJEA) is pleased to announce the appointment of Janet Vásquez as Executive Director of EJEA.  

East County News Service

December 30, 2022 (El Cajon) – Two teen boys, ages 15 and 17, have been arrested for the attempted murder of a 16-year-old girl at an El Cajon motel on Dec. 12. The victim, left alone for hours after being shot, is alive but in critical condition.

East County News Service

December 27, 2022 (El Cajon) – Two people were injured when a motorcycle rear-ended a Volkswagen on Christmas Eve in El Cajon.

The motorcyclist, a 62-year-old El Cajon man, was riding a 2017 Harley Davidson motorcycle eastbound on Broadley Avenue over State Route 67 when he struck a 2014 Volkswagen Tiguan that was stopped at a red light, directly in front of the motorcycle, according to Officer Matthew Baranowski with the California Highway Patrol.

By Miriam Raftery

December 26, 2022 (Lemon Grove) – Leslie Nunez Rosas, 25, died Friday morning in a multi-vehicle collision on State Route 94 near the College Avenue exit in Lemon Grove.

By Miriam Raftery

December 24, 2022 (El Cajon) – A small plane experienced an emergency over Gillespie Field in El Cajon last night, when its landing gear failed to lock into place.  Heartland Fire Department responded in preparation for a potential emergency landing while the plane, which had an hour and a half of fuel, circled repeatedly over the area for nearly an hour looping left to right, struggling to manually lower the landing gear. 

East County News Service

December 18, 2022 (El Cajon) – Chabad of East County will present a Chanukah Celebration  at the Grossmont High School football field (Jack Moshin Stadium) starting at 4:30 pm. today. Highlights of the event will include a grand Menorah lighting with community leaders and guests, as well as a drone gelt drop and magic show.

The event will also feature music, hot latkes, jelly donuts, Chanukah crafts and prizes.

East County News Service

December 10, 2022 (Julian/El Cajon) - San Diego Blood Bank will host two blood drives during Christmas week.  Julian Branch Library will host a blood drive on Wednesday, December 21 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.  Kaiser Permanente Travelodge will also host a blood drive on Thursday, December 22 from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at 250 S. Travelodge Drive, El Cajon 92020.

East County News Service

Photo: Former Captain Marco Garmo, courtesy of ECM news partner 10 News

December 2, 2022 (Rancho San Diego) – Waiel “Will” Anton, an associate of disgraced former Sheriff’s Captain M. Marco Garmo, has been sentenced to one year in prison for corruption after pleading guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice.

By Miriam Raftery

November 30, 2022 (La Mesa)  -- A $1,000 reward is offered for information leading to an arrest in the case of Cassidy Hopwood, an El Cajon teen who went missing in February. Her body was found March 13 behind a business in the 7900 block of El Cajon Blvd. in La Mesa, but she was not identified until November. 

By Miriam Raftery

Photo by Robert Gehr: A homeless person sleeps in a tent on Main Street in downtown El Cajon.

November 24, 2022 (El Cajon) –  El Cajon’s grant application to purchase property to build a homeless shelter has been rejected by the County. According to El Cajon City Manager Graham Mitchell, County staff informed him that  the grant was rejected because “the City did not own the property that was being proposed for the shelter – in other words, the City did not own the property that the grant was intended to purchase.”

Mitchell, in an email sent to El Cajon’s Mayor and City Council, said he told County staff in a pre-grant question and answer session that the city intended to apply for a grant to buy land for a shelter.  “The response was that the city should still apply and explain how the site will be obtained,” he wrote.  “During their follow-p questions of the City’s grant application, they asked for an update and we indicated that an appraisal was on its way and that the formal offer was about to be made.”

The application was made through the County’s Capital Emergency Housing Solutions Grant Program, for which Supervisor Joel Anderson had urged East County cities including El Cajon to apply.

Source:  City of El Cajon

November 21, 2022 (El Cajon) - The City of El Cajon has been recognized as a Top Workplace in San Diego for 2022. The award comes solely from employee feedback gathered through a third-party survey. The survey measures organizational culture, empowerment of staff to meet customer needs, an environment of innovation, and employee engagement.

By Robert Gehr

November 15, 2022 (El Cajon) -- The driver of a white compact vehicle lost control early this morning around 6 a.m. while making a left turn from West Park Avenue onto southbound Magnolia Avenue. It crashed into a sign after jumping over the curb. Consequently the tall Knox House Museum sign was knocked down from its foundation and appeared to be broken into two pieces. 

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Anthony Carnevale, Jolyana Jirjees and Jo Medina-Alegria will serve in CVUSD areas 1, 2 and 3.

November 11, 2022 (El Cajon) – In a surprising upset, Cajon Valley Union School District’s board chair Tamara Otero is losing her reelection bid to challenger Anthony Carnevale, a businessman.  Carnevale has 61.37% of the votes, while Otero has 33.63%, according to the San Diego Registrar of Voters.

Otero and Carnevale, both conservatives, ran in trustee area 1.

In area 2, an open seat due to Trustee Jill Barto not seeking reelection, Jolyana Jirjees was the only candidate running and has been appointed by the board to fill the vacancy.

Trustee Jo Medina-Alegria ran unopposed for her reelection in area 3.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells and La Mesa Mayor Mark Araposthis are winning their reelection bids

November 8, 2022 (San Diego’s East County) – Early results after polls closed tonight indicate incumbents heading for reelection in La Mesa, El Cajon and Lemon Grove.

The power of incumbency proved stronger than partisan politics. Though city races are nonpartisan, political parties endorsed candidates and expended resources walking precincts to campaign for their parties' choices. But incumbents in both parties hold solid leads, though Democrats appear likely to pick up a seat in both the La Mesa and Lemon Grove Council races, following the retirement of Republican incumbents.

El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells, a Republican, has a solid 71.25% of the votes tallied so far; his opponent, realtor Arnie Levine, a Democrat, has 28.75%. The Mayor ran on a track record of boosting revenues through bringing in new hotels and reopening the performing arts center, while Levine criticized Mayor Wells’ defiance of public health business shutdown mandates duringthe pandemic. El Cajon Councilman Gary Kendrick ran unopposed, drawing 100% of the votes.  But El Cajon’s Measure P which the Mayor supports, to increase the city sales tax to a penny per dollar, is losing 58% to 42%.

East County News Service

November 4, 2022 (El Cajon) – Robert Gehr snapped these photos and videos of firefighters in action, extinguishing a car fire in the 100 block of Wells Avenue in El Cajon around 7 a.m. today.