EAST COUNTY ROUNDUP: LOCAL AND STATEWIDE NEWS

March 12, 2014 (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

• Lake Morena reservoir is 4 percent full and will stay that way  ( KPBS)
• Around Lakeside: Old theater is getting new life (EC Californian)
• CPUC shows its inbred corruption (Reader-Don Bauder)
• Drought threatens wildlife, ecosystems  ( U-T San Diego)
•  Person found dead under suspicious circumstances near Lake Jennings (Santee Patch)
• New Chamber takes root (La Mesa Today)
• Three injured in campfire blast in desert (Ramona Sentinel)
• Technology may curb cell tower angst (UT San Diego)

STATE

• Groundwater management emerges as new water debate (Sacramento Bee)
• Environmentalists protest Gov. Jerry Brown at state Democratic convention (Sacramento Bee)
• Jackpot! Casinos linked to reduce risk of childhood obesity (Los Angeles Times)
  

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

LOCAL

Lake Morena reservoir is 4 percent full and will stay that way  ( KPBS)

“We intend to essentially run the lake at about this current level as long as we possibly can so we can capture and use the local runoff to the benefit of our ratepayers,” said Brent Eidson, the external affairs deputy director for the city’s public utilities department…”

Around Lakeside: Old theater is getting new life (EC Californian)

For many years, the old Lakeside Theater worried many Lakesiders, ever since the Octad One Production Company closed the doors to its playhouse. It was for sale and left for the homeless to enter and demolish. Now a new breath of life is reviving the historic structure, built in 1911.

CPUC shows its inbred corruption (Reader-Don Bauder)

It guards company profits, fleeces consumers – Denies payment of intervenor fees to Aguirre after he fought back for fire survivors and helped save ratepayers millions of dollars

Drought threatens wildlife, ecosystems  ( U-T San Diego)

 “Welcome storms that just swept across the state will certainly provide some respite, but more are desperately needed. California’s persistent drought threatens to take a heavy toll on the environment as well as the economy…”

Person found dead under suspicious circumstances near Lake Jennings (Santee Patch)

The death in the 9800 block of Circa Valle Verde in Blossom Valley was reported shortly before 5 p.m., according to sheriff's officials

New Chamber takes root (La Mesa Today)

The Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce held a mixer and it was clear from the diversity it attracted that the American story was playing out once again.

Three injured in campfire blast in desert (Ramona Sentinel)

A man and two teenage boys suffered burns today in an explosion during a school field trip to a desert campground, authorities reported.The blast in the 200 block of Palm Canyon Drive in Borrego Springs happened shortly after 9 a.m., apparently when flammable fumes wafted into a campfire, according to Cal Fire.

Technology may curb cell tower angst (UT San Diego)

San Marcos may give incentives to providers who use new, smaller antennas

STATE

Groundwater management emerges as new water debate (Sacramento Bee)

A legislative committee kicked around California’s water dilemma the other day – not only its current drought but its longer-term demand/supply imbalance.

Environmentalists protest Gov. Jerry Brown at state Democratic convention (Sacramento Bee)

…. Activists protesting Brown’s permissiveness of hydraulic fracturing, a controversial form of oil extraction, held signs and chanted feet from the podium where Brown addressed the California Democratic Party’s annual convention. The demonstration provoked Brown to defend his environmental record and to accuse environmentalists, like other Californians, of driving too much.

Jackpot! Casinos linked to reduce risk of childhood obesity (Los Angeles Times)

Apparently casinos are good for losing more than just cash. A study published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. found that adding slot machines to California casinos was linked to a modest reduction in obesity rates for Native American children.