EAST COUNTY ROUNDUP: LOCAL AND STATEWIDE NEWS

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August 24, 2016 (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

STATE

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

LOCAL

East County judge gets blackballed by DA (San Diego Union-Tribune)

A veteran El Cajon Superior Court judge is being boycotted on most cases by the District Attorney’s Office, effectively closing down the courtroom of one of the bench’s most experienced judges except for minor misdemeanor cases. Judge Herbert Exarhos, 73, is the target of the boycott. The ban for all felony cases and serious misdemeanors has been in effect for several weeks.

California racing board pressured to investigate horse deaths at Del Mar (Times of San Diego)

…Former California Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña requested the investigation with the support of businesswoman Martha Sullivan and other animal advocates in San Diego. In this horse racing season, the death toll has risen to nearly 20 horses this season  at training and competitions at Del Mar…

4 San Diego correctional officers reportedly injured in inmate attack at Donovan Prison (Patch)

The attack at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego left a female guard with a concussion, a prison official said.

Mother of baby found dead at border likely trafficking victim (NBC 7)

Advocates say traffickers use children to manipulate and threaten victims.

Ramona crash—DUI arrest (Borrego Sun)

Roy Dunkin, 51, has been accused of driving drunk and killing 24 year old San Diego resident in a head on crash just outside of Ramona, Aug. 20. Dunkin is accused of hitting Lucas Riley's Mini Cooper, setting the car on fire; by the time crews arrived on scene, flames had fully engulfed the car and trapped the victim…Following the crash, authorities were seen pulling out beer cans from Dunkin's Chevrolet.

Bernie’s revolution steams into El Cajon, alongside `Trump train’ recruit (Times of San Diego)

Ramona Irwin says she returned from the Democratic National Convention “more inspired and fired up” than upon her arrival — as a Bernie Sanders delegate from the 50th Congressional District.

STATE

Disgusted with sky-high drug prices, Calif. voters take on big pharmacy (Truthout)

… a historic initiative on the November ballot in California, championed by health care and consumer advocates and fiercely opposed by multinational drug corporations, may finally rein in Big Pharma. The initiative, recently certified by the California Secretary of State as Proposition 61, calls for state agencies to be blocked from paying more for a prescription drug than the price paid by the US Department of Veterans Affairs...the VA is free to negotiate the price it pays for drugs and as a result, pays as much as 42 percent less than Medicare the law could save Californians hundreds of millions of dollars a year in lower government costs and lower individual co-payments

Bluecut Fire update:  crews increase containment to 40%, no federal aid for victims (Los Angeles Times)

…The Bluecut Fire already ranks as one of San Bernardino's most costly disasters…San Bernardino County declared a local emergency on Tuesday, the fire's first day. Gov. Jerry Brown then declared a state emergency and requested a federal declaration, which would have cleared the way for federal help for victims. But the fire did not meet the threshold for a federal disaster, and the request was denied. Wert said the state countered by combining the Bluecut Fire with two other recent fires in a request for federal consideration. But the federal government also denied that request

96 homes, 213 other buildings destroyed as California’s fire season takes another grim turn (Los Angeles Times)

The tally of California’s harsh fire season ascended to even grimmer terrain Friday as officials announced that the Blue Cut fire in the Cajon Pass has destroyed nearly 100 homes and more than 200 other structures. The toll in San Bernardino County caps a week of extensive losses across California, including 300 structures destroyed in Lake County..In both cases, officials said, the fires ravaged through rural communities on the edges of vast open spaces so quickly that there was little firefighters could do to stop them.


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Comments

Bluecut Fire -- "Gov. Jerry Brown then declared a state

emergency and requested a federal declaration, which would have cleared the way for federal help for victims. But the fire did not meet the threshold for a federal disaster, and the request was denied." . . . .Of course it was denied, these are only needy citizens. t was only a hundred homes, with hundreds of sad stories of people who need assistance and can't get it. . . .In other news, the Pentagon has recently paid Lockheed Martin "about a billion dollars" toward an airplane contract they say they need more money on. They said they needed it, and so they got it. Our money. On request. This, while Lockheed recently declared record quarterly earnings of a billion dollars. . . .It ain't right.