EAST COUNTY ROUNDUP: LOCAL AND STATEWIDE NEWS

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June 20, 2018 (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 full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

LOCAL

Immigrant prison cash flows to SD politicos (San Diego Reader)

San Diego politicos and business types have been unsympathetic to president Donald Trump, but one major border enterprise that has been a big campaign provider to legislators of both parties here could be in line for a boost from the administration’s immigration crackdown.

Backers of County development initiative may not meet deadline (San Diego Union-Tribune)

… Supporters of the Safeguard Our San Diego Countryside measure say they still expect the initiative to qualify for the November ballot, but admit it is going to be close. Others, including the county’s Registrar of Voters, are doubtful. The measure would require countywide votes for projects that seek most general plan amendments when the density of the project exceeds what is allowed by the county’s planning guidelines.

Judge rejects lawsuit aimed at keeping SDSU West proposal off November ballot (San Diego Union-Tribune)

The SDSU West plan to redevelop the city’s Mission Valley stadium site got one step closer to the November ballot on Friday, when a judge rejected a lawsuit claiming supporters illegally used the university’s name to garner support.

Ninth Circuit Remands California City’s Voting Plan (Courthouse News)

California and city of Poway must defend the state’s Voting Rights Act, a Ninth Circuit panel ruled Thursday, reversing dismissal of a constitutional complaint from a former mayor of San Diego County’s “City in the Country.”…  Former Poway Mayor Don Higginson sued Poway and the state last year over the city’s decision to create a by-district voting system, ditching its at-large system for electing City Council members...

What's happening with Horton Plaza? Now we know (San Diego Union-Tribune)

The real estate investment firm, currently in escrow on the Westfield-owned property, will….reshape the dated, oversized mall into the kind of unique office space desirable to the nation’s most renowned tech firms…. Ground floor retail is still part of the envisioned equation, though storefronts will primarily feature singular, San Diego-inspired eateries along with boutique health and fitness venues. And a day-to-night ambience, complete with an upgraded Lyceum Theater…

Sidewalk lawsuits could cost San Diego taxpayers millions of dollars (10 News)

Lawsuits against the city of San Diego are starting to pile up

Under ‘Iron Lady of Water,’ San Diego Secured Its Own Supply – at a Price  (Voice of San Diego)

Maureen Stapleton, the longtime leader of the San Diego County Water Authority, helped the region secure its own supplies of water. But amid a water war she helped launch and the bitter, personal disputes it’s set off, it’s now an open question whether Stapleton will be able to end her career on a good note.

SANDAG Is Playing Developer and Might Have to Take Private Property to Do It  (Voice of San Diego)

The regional planning agency’s proposal to take downtown land through eminent domain has encountered internal and external resistance. Officials will present all their options next week, so the board can decide whether going after the privately-owned property is still a good idea.

STATE

California’s net neutrality bill was hijacked, legislator says (Wired)

Last month the California Senate passed what would be the country's toughest net neutrality protections, which go even further than the repealed Obama-era Federal Communications Commission rules. But Wednesday, a California Assembly committee amended the bill, removing many protections in the original.

Visionaries and scoundrels made the Los Angeles Times, which returns to local ownership after 18 years (Los Angeles Times)

The Los Angeles Times rose to prominence under the leadership of a bellicose, union-busting Civil War colonel who kept an arsenal of shotguns in the newsroom in case of labor strife and drove through the city with a custom horn that looked like a cannon mounted to his hood.

California's Jerry Brown Is leaving behind fully funded piggy bank (Bloomberg)

 Here’s one plus for bond investors worried about the end of California Governor Jerry Brown’s reign: he’s leaving his successor a rainy-day fund at the constitutional maximum for the first time.

California appeals court reinstates law allowing terminally ill patients to end their lives (Los Angeles Times)

A California appeals court on Friday reinstated a law allowing terminally ill patients to end their lives.

Splitting California into 3 would be different. That’s the only sure thing. (SF Chronicle)

California is moving closer to a landmark November vote that could chop the state in three, splitting San Francisco from Los Angeles, dividing the Central Valley in half, and creating a mountain of questions about how the nation’s biggest state would divvy its resources...Not all the new states, however, would be created equal. Northern California, home to Silicon Valley and the rest of the Bay Area, would be the nation’s second-richest state, with a per capita personal income of about $63,000, according to 2015 data. That compares with about $53,000 in California and around $45,000 in Southern California.

California deals with dementia among aging inmates (Reuters)

 [There are] 18,400 inmates over the age of 55 in California prisons, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. It is a swelling population that has led authorities to take the first steps toward creating a dementia unit.... 

California high school grads increasingly leave state for college. Here’s where they go. (Sacramento Bee)

About 40,000 California high school graduates left the state for a four-year college in 2016, nearly double the 22,000 who left in 2006, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Education. By comparison, only about 17,000 first-time freshmen left other states to come to a four-year college in California during 2016. / The California State University system turns away about 30,000 students per year for lack of space. 

Grid-expansion bill narrowly passes state Senate committee (San Diego Union-Tribune)

The state Senate committee that oversees energy and utilities agreed to move forward on a bill Tuesday that would expand the California power grid to as many as 14 states, but the legislation was not wholly embraced.  Four of 11 committee members — including Chairman Ben Hueso, D-San Diego — did not record a vote on Assembly Bill 813, which passed at the end of a nearly three-hour hearing with the minimum number of votes possible.


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