EAST COUNTY ROUNDUP: LOCAL AND STATEWIDE NEWS

June 27, 2013 (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/REGIONAL

• What San Diego’s state legislators are up to (U-T San Diego)
• Pneumonia outbreak threatens bighorn sheep in California, Nevada (Reuters)
• Borrego Sun commits cardinal sin of journalism (Daily Borregan)
• San Diego extends ambulance deal, rates go up (U-T San Diego)
• Little Saigon a catalyst for change (U-T San Diego)
• With San Onofre shut down, San Diego utility pushing for unpopular gas plant (Rewire)
• VC Fire Dept. cuts some ties with Cal Fire (U-T San Diego)
• La Mesa’s other farmer’s market (La Mesa Today)
• New San Diego-Tijuana Border Crossing Would Charge Toll To Manage Traffic (KPBS)
• Wind blew stork out of Safari Park and Sightings pour in, but stork still missing (U-T San Diego)
• Marine veteran amputee becomes top underwear model (KPBS)

STATE

• Jerry Brown vetoes own proposal on online education (Sacramento Bee)
• Assembly sends Jerry Brown enterprise zone revamp (Sacramento Bee)
• Small farmers turn to creative projects to survive (Sacramento Bee)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click "read more' and scroll down.

LOCAL/REGIONAL

What San Diego’s state legislators are up to (U-T San Diego)

Every now and then, we check in with our state legislators to see what they’ve been up to: What bills are they introducing? Who are they schmoozing? While it’s still early in the two-year 2013-2014 legislative session—the real excitement comes at the end—we’ve got a handful of new state lawmakers who got right to work introducing bills ranging from common-sense to highly ideological. There’s not nearly enough space to mention every bill, so we picked a few that stood out.

Pneumonia outbreak threatens bighorn sheep in California, Nevada (Reuters)

(Reuters) - A pneumonia outbreak is threatening hundreds of bighorn sheep in California's Mojave National Preserve, and wildlife officials said Monday they see no promising options for saving the state's biggest herd or protecting a nearby population in Nevada.

Borrego Sun commits cardinal sin of journalism (Daily Borregan)

The Borrego Sun has committed the cardinal sin of journalism, plagiarizing  articles and portions of articles from five news outlets. The Sun also used an article from a paid wire service, City News Service,  to which it does not subscribe…A Borregan investigation revealed  that the Sun plagiarized some of the most prominent newspapers in California, taking quotes from staff-written articles in the Los Angeles Times and U-T San Diego, and lifting an entire story from the Sacramento Bee.

San Diego extends ambulance deal, rates go up (U-T San Diego)

The average cost of an ambulance ride in San Diego will increase to $1,820 as of July 1 under a new no-bid contract approved unanimously Monday by the City Council. That’s a 39 percent increase above the average cost of $1,305 in mid-2011.

Little Saigon a catalyst for change (U-T San Diego)

San Diego's new Little Saigon district aims to unite the Vietnamese community.

With San Onofre shut down, San Diego utility pushing for unpopular gas plant (Rewire)

Though the general consensus seems to be that Southern California will get through the summer just fine without the permanently closed San Onofre nuclear power plant, officials at San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) are pushing to make up what they say may be a shortfall by allowing the construction of an unpopular gas-fired plant near the Mexican border.

VC Fire Dept. cuts some ties with Cal Fire (U-T San Diego)

The Valley Center Fire Protection District contracts with Indians for fire protection

La Mesa’s other farmer’s market (La Mesa Today)

Every Wednesday now, a stream of La Mesa area residents stop down on La Mesa Boulevard, walk into Cosmos Café and do their vegetable shopping in less than a minute. These customers simply pick up a small crate that is left with their name on it and return home with a week's worth of organic fruits and vegetables grown by California farmers. They pay about $22 for a small crate, about $36 for a large and, generally, don't control the specific contents that arrive each week.

New San Diego-Tijuana Border Crossing Would Charge Toll To Manage Traffic (KPBS)

A new border crossing planned for the San Diego-Tijuana area would charge a toll to keep border wait times down, pay for its own construction and, hopefully, operation... The new border crossing would be located several miles to the east of the Otay Mesa Port of Entry…

Wind blew stork out of Safari Park and Sightings pour in, but stork still missing (U-T San Diego)

Exotic bird was in training for a show when she was carried off. She's still missing.... The bird, is native to South Asia and is a near-threatened species... Despite receiving more than 100 tips by midday Thursday about the possible whereabouts of a missing stork, San Diego Zoo officials said they’ve yet to locate the runaway exotic bird.

Marine veteran amputee becomes top underwear model (KPBS)

Marine veteran Alex Minsky went through boot camp at MCRD San Diego and received further training at Camp Pendleton before being deployed to Afghanistan in 2009. Just two weeks into his deployment, his truck rolled over an improvised explosive device, and he was gravely injured.

STATE

Jerry Brown vetoes own proposal on online education (Sacramento Bee)

Gov. Jerry Brown, who pressed California colleges and universities earlier this year to expand their online offerings, backed off Thursday, vetoing his own budget proposal to earmark $20 million in funding for online education.

Assembly sends Jerry Brown enterprise zone revamp (Sacramento Bee)

Gov. Jerry Brown's push to restructure an enterprise zone program of hiring tax credits that has been criticized as wasteful and ineffective passed Thursday with a 54-17 approval in the Assembly.

Small farmers turn to creative projects to survive (Sacramento Bee)

Farmer David Mas Masumoto knows his small peach orchard can't compete with the giant agribusinesses that dominate the nation's produce aisles.