EAST COUNTY ROUNDUP: LOCAL AND STATEWIDE NEWS

October 31, 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

• Some local inmates to work in fire camps (U-T San Diego)
• Five San Diego School Sites Where Toxic Waste Was Found (Voice of San Diego)
• Sharp fined for removing wrong kidney (U-T San Diego)
• San Diego Should Have Enough Water For 2014 (KPBS)
• Water war lawsuit goes to trial (Mission Times Courier)
• HealthCare.gov Contractor’s Other Client: The City of San Diego (Voice of SD)
• Tribute - A Hole in the Heart of La Mesa (La Mesa Courier)
• FEMA To Evaluate San Onofre Safety Procedures At Public Hearing (KPBS)
• San Diego mayoral debate abruptly canceled...due to pension truth? (Reader)

STATE

• Cattle rustling up in Calif. as beef prices rise (Sacramento Bee)
• Calif., PACs reach $1M campaign-finance settlement (UT San Diego)
• 'Pepper spray' cop gets bigger payout than sprayed students. Wrong message? (CS Monitor)

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

LOCAL

Some local inmates to work in fire camps (U-T San Diego)

Some low-risk inmates housed in San Diego County jails will be allowed to serve their time at state fire prison camps, under an agreement reached this week between the county and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Five San Diego School Sites Where Toxic Waste Was Found (Voice of San Diego)

The sites include Magnolia Elementary in El Cajon and the proposed Alpine High School site.

Sharp fined for removing wrong kidney (U-T San Diego)

 The state fined two San Diego County hospitals Thursday for medical errors, including the removal of a 53-year-old man’s healthy kidney, leaving him on dialysis for the rest of his life.  The California Department of Public Health fined Sharp $100,000 for the error and also levied a $50,000 penalty against Alvarado Hospital after an elderly patient fell out of bed, hit her head on the floor and died.  

San Diego Should Have Enough Water For 2014 (KPBS)

San Diego County Water Authority credits healthy reservoir storage levels, strong regional water conservation efforts and growing water transfers from the Colorado River.

Water war lawsuit goes to trial (Mission Times Courier)

 Dec. 17 is the scheduled date for the beginning of a court trial before Judge Curtis Karnow.  There will be no jury involved.

HealthCare.gov Contractor’s Other Client: The City of San Diego(Voice of SD)

The administration has taken a lot of heat for the problems with the site. One of the government contractors responsible for the botched site is also responsible for much of the information technology the city of San Diego uses to deliver services locally.... The city awarded CGI Technologies & Solutions Inc. a $91.5 million contract just over a year ago. The contract calls for the company, a subsidiary of Montreal-based CGI Federal, to patch and repair existing computer programs across 18 municipal departments and develop new applications as needed.

Tribute - A Hole in the Heart of La Mesa (La Mesa Courier)

A tribute to Alan Urich, of Alan's music, who passed away in September.

FEMA To Evaluate San Onofre Safety Procedures At Public Hearing (KPBS)

Edison is proposing to move spent nuclear fuel into dry cask storage onsite, but the fuel rods will remain in cooling ponds for a minimum of five years.

San Diego mayoral debate abruptly canceled...due to pension truth? (The Reader, Don Bauder) 

Yesterday, Aguirre showed that pension spending, which is growing every year, is higher than spending on fire protection. In fact, as the accompanying charts show, pension spending tops spending on fire protection, and almost tops spending on fire protection and roads combined.

STATE

Cattle rustling up in Calif. as beef prices rise (Sacramento Bee)

A crime that was at the center of many Western movies is thriving in modern-day California as reports of cattle rustling are on the rise, state livestock officials said.

Calif., PACs reach $1M campaign-finance settlement (UT San Diego)

California's political watchdog agency on Thursday announced the largest fine in its history for campaign-reporting violations and ordered two political action committees involved in the 2012 elections to pay the state's general fund $15 million.

'Pepper spray' cop gets bigger payout than sprayed students. Wrong message? (CS Monitor)

 John Pike, a former campus police officer at UC Davis, won $38,000 in workers' comp stemming from a 2011 Occupy protest in which he infamously used pepper spray on peaceful students. Where's the justice in that, some are asking.