EAST COUNTY ROUNDUP: LOCAL AND STATEWIDE NEWS

June 27, 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

• Medical marijuana dispensary in Lemon Grove, first in city, gets ok (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Travel ban ruling by Supreme Court gets passionate response in San Diego (San Diego Free Press)
• Lemon Grove to consider various ways to raise money (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Ratepayer group says SDG&E and SoCalGas made false statements about natural gas pipeline (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Appeals court orders utility regulators to produce emails in San Onofre investigation (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• UC San Diego discovers world's first known manta ray nursery (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• 'Biggest schools of yellowtail I've ever seen' invade Coronado Islands (San Diego Union-Tribune)

STATE

• Lawsuit challenging by-district council elections back in court (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• California utility expects to pay $2.5 billion for wildfires (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Bill Could Give Californians Unprecedented Control Over Data  (Wired)
• Big Business Is Taking Over California's Marijuana Industry (Motley Fool)
• Nearly 400 people used California assisted death law in 2017 (ABC News)
• See the 100 highest pensions in the CalPERS and CalSTRS systems (Sacramento Bee)

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

LOCAL

Medical marijuana dispensary in Lemon Grove, first in city, gets ok (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Sean McDermott and his son, Corey, will be opening the first medical marijuana shop in La Mesa in just a few weeks. Now, the East County natives also will be opening the first medical cannabis collective in Lemon Grove. The Lemon Grove City Council voted 4-0 on June 19 to issue a conditional-use permit to the McDermotts to open a store at 6470 Federal Blvd.

Travel ban ruling by Supreme Court gets passionate response in San Diego (San Diego Free Press)

…In Washington DC, San Diego, and cities around the country opponents of the administration’s travel ban took to the streets to express their disapproval of the ruling in Trump v. Hawaii. …The mood at the demonstration in downtown San Diego was one of profound sadness and determination.

Lemon Grove to consider various ways to raise money (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Lemon Grove is considering three tax hikes to help it get past some tough financial times. During a discussion last month about future budget planning, Finance Manager Molly Brennan and Al Burrell, the city’s finance consultant, told the City Council that next year Lemon Grove’s general fund is expected to lose $322,000.

Ratepayer group says SDG&E and SoCalGas made false statements about natural gas pipeline (San Diego Union-Tribune)

The consumer advocacy group within the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) accused San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Gas of “making misrepresentations and false statements” about the safety records of a 16-inch-wide natural gas pipeline built in 1949 that the two utilities operate. Furthermore, the Office of Ratepayer Advocates (ORA) says the inaccuracies have “significant safety implications” ….

Appeals court orders utility regulators to produce emails in San Onofre investigation (San Diego Union-Tribune)

State appellate judges have ordered the California Public Utilities Commission to produce at least some of the disputed emails exchanged between regulators and the Governor’s Office in the run-up to a 2014 deal that charged ratepayers $3.3 billion for the nuclear plant closure

UC San Diego discovers world's first known manta ray nursery (San Diego Union-Tribune)

UC San Diego has discovered the world’s first known nursery for manta rays, an idyllic spot in the Gulf of Mexico where the “gentle giants” approach divers along colorful reefs that seem drawn from the imagination of Walt Disney.

'Biggest schools of yellowtail I've ever seen' invade Coronado Islands (San Diego Union-Tribune)

The popular local sport fish has set up residence around the [Coronado] islands, creating a different kind of feeding frenzy as commercial and private boats jockey for daily position.

STATE

Lawsuit challenging by-district council elections back in court (San Diego Union-Tribune)

A lawsuit challenging the City of Poway’s recent conversion to by-district council elections — and, more importantly, the constitutionality of the state’s Voting Rights Act — is alive again following a recent appellate court ruling….  In a 3-page, unpublished ruling, the Ninth Circuit ruled that Higginson adequately alleged that “he resides in a racially gerrymandered district” and that the city’s adoption of a map dividing the voting district into four separate areas may have violated the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by reducing the number of candidates whom he can vote for.

California utility expects to pay $2.5 billion for wildfires (San Francisco Chronicle)

A Northern California utility said Thursday it expects to pay at least $2.5 billion in connection with deadly wildfires that whipped through wine country last October — some of them ignited by its fallen power lines. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. also warned that its liability could be considerably higher after state fire officials determine the cause of 21 major fires that devastated the region last year.

Bill Could Give Californians Unprecedented Control Over Data  (Wired)

...The bill would allow California residents to find out what information businesses and data brokers collect about them, where that information comes from, and how it's shared. It would give people the power to ask for their data to be deleted and to order businesses to stop selling their personal information. It places limits on selling data on users younger than 16 years of age, and prohibits businesses from denying service to users for exercising their rights under the bill.

Big Business Is Taking Over California's Marijuana Industry (Motley Fool)

In [Canada] eight growers could wind up controlling somewhere in the neighborhood of 70%, or more, of aggregate annual production by 2020 or 2021... / licensing data in California showed that 20% of cultivation licenses (that's 697 total licenses) in the state belonged to just 12 licensees. Put in a different context, just 0.7% of the aggregate cultivation businesses within the state controls a fifth of the production. 

Nearly 400 people used California assisted death law in 2017 (ABC News)

 California health officials reported Friday that 374 terminally ill people took drugs to end their lives in 2017, the first full year after a law made the option legal. The California Department of Public Health said 577 people received aid-in-dying drugs last year, but not everyone used them.... / Of the 374 who died, about 90 percent were more than 60 years old, about 95 percent were insured and about 83 percent were receiving hospice or similar care. The median age was 74.

See the 100 highest pensions in the CalPERS and CalSTRS systems (Sacramento Bee)

How much does it take to make it into the 100 top-earning CalPERS or CalSTRS retirees? A pension of more than $219,000. (One El Cajon retiree has the fifth highest pension in the state)