EAST COUNTY ROUNDUP: LOCAL AND STATEWIDE NEWS

August 23, 2023 (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 round-up stories include:

LOCAL

• Alpine school district becomes 1st in county to provide affordable housing for teachers (10 News)
• What is in San Diego's Housing Action 2.0 Package? (NBC7)
• Much of San Diego will soon be surveilled by a network of police cameras. Here’s what you should know (San DIego Union-Tribune)
• Supreme Court to hear Poway school board case over blocking criticism on social media (Reuters)
• Our Border Sewage Crisis Has a Solution. SANDAG Holds it. (Voice of San Diego)
• FAA Probing Near Collision of Southwest Airliner and Executive Jet in San Diego (Times of San Diego)
• Family of 14-year-old found at Camp Pendleton demand answers (Times of San Diego)
• County Human Relations Commissioner Resigns After His Antisemitic Rant (Times of San Diego)
• Zoe Bernard of La Mesa acts with the stars in ‘Asteroid City’ (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• 29:Eleven Maternity Home in El Cajon helps unsheltered pregnant women(CBS 8)
• Protesters gather outside New Children's Museum over drag queen story time  (10 News)
• County Water Authority sues over Rainbow, Fallbrook agencies' departures  (KPBS)
• Orphaned pets from Maui fire on their way to Helen Woodward Animal Center (KUSI)

STATE

• Los Angeles crime lab finds 4% of seized fentanyl samples contain flesh-eating sedative (Los Angeles Times)
• California voters made public records a right, will they give it more teeth?  (San Jose Mercury News)
• Record numbers of people have died in California jails. Now lawmakers could crack down (Cal  Matters)
• Alaska Airlines flight makes hard landing during California storms  (NPR)
• Sea level changes could drastically affect Calif. beaches by the end of the century  (NPR)
• .Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 90, falls at home and goes to hospital, but scans are clear, her office says (AP)

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

LOCAL

Alpine school district becomes 1st in county to provide affordable housing for teachers (10 News)

Alpine Union is first local district to offer faculty housing

What is in San Diego's Housing Action 2.0 Package? (NBC7)

San Diego's Planning Commission unanimously passed the housing 2.0 package, without the inclusion of the controversial adoption of a state law (SB 10) that would have allowed multi-family units on single family plots.

Much of San Diego will soon be surveilled by a network of police cameras. Here’s what you should know (San DIego Union-Tribune)

The department still needs to iron out a contract, but the cameras and license plate reader tech could be operational in a matter of months around the city.

Supreme Court to hear Poway school board case over blocking criticism on social media (Reuters)

The U.S. Supreme Court, exploring free speech rights in the social media era, agreed to consider whether the Constitution’s First Amendment bars government officials from blocking their critics on platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Our Border Sewage Crisis Has a Solution. SANDAG Holds it. (Voice of San Diego)

Almost 20 miles of our shared beaches have been declared off-limits by the San Diego County Department of Health and COEPRISBC, the Baja California Health Authority, due to poisoned waters. These toxic beaches, without immediate intervention, may last another decade while the promises of underfunded construction projects continue.

FAA Probing Near Collision of Southwest Airliner and Executive Jet in San Diego (Times of San Diego)

The Federal Aviation Administration said Saturday it is investigating a near collision between a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 and a Cessna Citation business jet in San Diego, the latest in a series of troubling U.S. aviation incidents.

Family of 14-year-old found at Camp Pendleton demand answers (Times of San Diego)

…The girl went missing from her Spring Valley home on June 10, and Perez said she spent June 27 and 28 at the base before she was discovered.  She said her niece does not know the Marine who brought her onto the base. Investigators initially told the family that the girl had been in communication with the Marine, but Perez suspects her niece was sold to the Marine for sex…

County Human Relations Commissioner Resigns After His Antisemitic Rant (Times of San Diego)

San Diego County Supervisor Joel Anderson announced Wednesday that Human Relations Commissioner Khaliq Raufi had resigned over his antisemitic comments during an official meeting last week.

Zoe Bernard of La Mesa acts with the stars in ‘Asteroid City’ (San Diego Union-Tribune)

A highlight of being in the cast of a Wes Anderson film was solving riddles with actor Tom Hanks. That’s how Zoe Bernard, 12, often spent her breaks from shooting the movie “Asteroid City” in the countryside in Spain.

29:Eleven Maternity Home in El Cajon helps unsheltered pregnant women(CBS 8)

29:Eleven helps pregnant women in El Cajon who would otherwise be homeless. For some women, the home is a saving grace.

Protesters gather outside New Children's Museum over drag queen story time  (10 News)

Dozens of people gathered on the downtown sidewalks outside the museum, some of them in favor of and others opposed to drag queens reading books to children…. / In the days leading up to the protest, the New Children's Museum made the decision to close on Saturday to everyone, except for the families who already RSVP'd to the event.

County Water Authority sues over Rainbow, Fallbrook agencies' departures  (KPBS)

The San Diego County Water Authority filed a lawsuit Monday over the proposed departure of two North County water agencies, which the water authority alleges will raise water rates for other county residents. / The lawsuit challenges a decision from the San Diego Local Agency Formation Commission to allow the Rainbow Municipal Water District and Fallbrook Public Utility District to leave the water authority and join a water agency in Riverside County.

Orphaned pets from Maui fire on their way to Helen Woodward Animal Center (KUSI)

Starting Tuesday evening, the Helen Woodward Animal Center will begin taking in 20 orphaned pets rescued from the deadly Maui fire. In addition to helping the pets find homes on the mainland, the move will also free up shelter space in the hard-pressed Hawaiian animal shelters, a statement from the organization said.

STATE

Los Angeles crime lab finds 4% of seized fentanyl samples contain flesh-eating sedative (Los Angeles Times)

Five months after public health officials warned Angelenos that a dangerous, flesh-eating sedative may have infiltrated the illicit drug supply, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department confirmed that it has arrived on the city’s streets.Results from a three-month pilot program showed that just over 4% of seized fentanyl samples tested by the department’s crime lab came back positive for xylazine, an animal tranquilizer that experts say is frequently mixed with illicit opioids to prolong the high. Also known as “tranq,” the drug …has been linked to deaths across the country and can cause human tissue to rot, leaving users with grisly wounds that sometimes lead to amputations. Because xylazine is not an opioid, it can render naloxone, a life-saving medication commonly used to reverse heroin and fentanyl overdoses, ineffective.

California voters made public records a right, will they give it more teeth?  (San Jose Mercury News)

Nearly 20 years after California voters made access to government records a constitutional right, requests are being met with interminable delays, exorbitant fees and a host of exemption claims, consumer and open-government advocates say. Those advocates are behind a new effort to sharpen open records laws with a proposed 2024 voter initiative designed to end abuses that keep the public’s business from public view.

Record numbers of people have died in California jails. Now lawmakers could crack down (Cal  Matters)

… San Diego County jails, which house an average of 3,800 people per day, are among the state’s deadliest… Now a bill written by a powerful legislator from San Diego could upend California’s county jail systems by putting a “detention monitor” in jails to serve as a kind of statewide inspector general. Senate leader Toni Atkins said the bill would force sheriffs to disclose more information to the public about in-custody deaths.

Alaska Airlines flight makes hard landing during California storms  (NPR)

An Alaska Airlines flight made a hard landing amid Tropical Storm Hilary late Sunday, sending sparks flying into the night sky at John Wayne Airport in Southern California. Flight 1288 was traveling from Seattle to Santa Ana in Orange County, when it appears to have hit the ground, dragging its left wing down the short tarmac….

Sea level changes could drastically affect Calif. beaches by the end of the century  (NPR)

A new report finds that California could lose most of its beaches by the year 2100, due to rising sea levels. NPR's A Martinez goes to the beach to find out what can be done.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 90, falls at home and goes to hospital, but scans are clear, her office says (AP)

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the oldest member of Congress, fell in her home and went to a hospital for a short time, her office said on Wednesday…All of her scans were clear, and she returned home later Tuesday, said her spokesman Adam Russell…