EAST COUNTY ROUNDUP: LOCAL AND STATEWIDE NEWS

June 22, 2023  (San Diego) -- East County Roundup highlights top stories of interest to East County and San Diego's inland regions, published in other media.  This week's round-up stories include:

LOCAL

• Cal Fire seeks $675K in lawsuit against family over 2020 Skyline Fire (10  News)
• The US Plant Treating Tijuana’s Sewage Is Busted (Voice of San Diego)
• Qualcomm to lay off hundreds of workers at its San Diego headquarters  (KPBS)
• San Diego Sheriff agrees to reforms to improve jail conditions for disabled people in custody (San Diego Union-Tribune).
• One dead, one injured in shooting at Liberty Station Juneteenth event (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Feds Grant $26 Million to Find Storage Sites for Nuclear Waste from San Onofre, Other Plants (Times of San Diego)  
• As Salton Sea Shrinks, Potential for Earthquakes Reduced, New Study Finds  (Times of San Diego)

STATE 

• Report paints new picture of homelessness in California (ABC News)
• Hackers steal social security numbers, birth dates and more on 769,000 CalPERS retirees (Cal Matters)
• California is getting a new Assembly Speaker. Is he an unlikely leader or a calculating one? (Sacramento Bee)
• She lost her home. She doesn’t want to lose her city council seat (Cal Matters)
• Ex-firefighter suspected of igniting devastating fire near Yosemite, could face life term (Los Angeles Times)

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

LOCAL

Cal Fire seeks $675K in lawsuit against family over 2020 Skyline Fire (10  News)

Cal Fire has filed a lawsuit against a family over a 2020 East County wildfire. The Skyline Fire erupted on June 11, 2020, in the Jamul area and eventually burned around 80 acres. No structures were destroyed, and no injuries were reported in the blaze. In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in San Diego, Cal Fire said they concluded the fire was started by a child of a family on a camping trip.

The US Plant Treating Tijuana’s Sewage Is Busted (Voice of San Diego)

A San Diego treatment plant at the U.S.-Mexico border is having a hard time cleaning Tijuana sewage before it contaminates the Pacific Ocean.  That’s because parts of the plant are basically broken, which is not great news for beach communities…. The plant could only remove about 34 percent of the gunk in the water… the U.S. can’t control the flow of sewage into the treatment plant from Mexico because a valve is stuck open. The plant has racked up 218 related Water Quality Control Board violations since 2021. 

Qualcomm to lay off hundreds of workers at its San Diego headquarters  (KPBS)

The company will shed 415 workers by mid-July

San Diego Sheriff agrees to reforms to improve jail conditions for disabled people in custody (San Diego Union-Tribune) The agreement comes days before a planned court hearing on a request by people now or once incarcerated in the county’s jails seeking to force changes.

One dead, one injured in shooting at Liberty Station Juneteenth event (San Diego Union-Tribune)

A dispute at a Juneteenth event in Liberty Station led to a shooting that left one person dead and another injured Saturday evening, San Diego police said.

Feds Grant $26 Million to Find Storage Sites for Nuclear Waste from San Onofre, Other Plants (Times of San Diego)

The U.S. Department of Energy announced $26 million in funding Friday to aid in the search for locations to temporarily store nuclear waste. The materials will be moved from sites such as the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.

As Salton Sea Shrinks, Potential for Earthquakes Reduced, New Study Finds  (Times of San Diego)

The shrinking and drying out of the Salton Sea has reduced stress on the San Andreas Fault, possibly reducing the frequency and severity of earthquakes in Southern California, according to research from San Diego State University and Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

STATE 

Report paints new picture of homelessness in California (ABC News)

The report highlights the impact of low incomes and high housing costs. The largest representative study on homelessness since the mid-90s found the state’s income inequality and high housing costs left people vulnerable to homelessness – particularly older residents and residents of color. California is home to 30% of the nation’s homeless population and half of the nation’s unsheltered population – despite making up only 12% of the U.S. population – according to the study released Tuesday by the University of California, San Francisco.

Hackers steal social security numbers, birth dates and more on 769,000 CalPERS retirees (Cal Matters)

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System reported Wednesday that hackers stole the names, social security numbers, birth dates and other confidential information of roughly 769,000 retirees and beneficiaries, taking advantage of a vulnerability in a contracted vendor’s cybersecurity system.

California is getting a new Assembly Speaker. Is he an unlikely leader or a calculating one? (Sacramento Bee)

Robert Rivas tells anyone who will listen that his rise from farmworker housing on the rural Central Coast to Assembly Speaker is wholly unexpected, the California Dream become reality.

She lost her home. She doesn’t want to lose her city council seat (Cal Matters)

 An Ojai City Councilmember moved out of her district after losing her home and is in danger of losing her seat. She and her supporters say it’s a dramatic demonstration of California’s affordable housing crisis.

Ex-firefighter suspected of igniting devastating fire near Yosemite, could face life term (Los Angeles Times)

 Edward F. Wackerman, 71, was arrested Friday on suspicion of igniting the massive fire that also burned 66 outbuildings, forced a massive evacuation and consumed 19,244 acres of vegetation.