EAST COUNTY ROUNDUP: LOCAL AND STATEWIDE NEWS

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October 7, 2015 (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 links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

LOCAL

Commission Expands Nuclear Waste Storage At San Onofre (KPBS)

The California Coastal Commission voted unanimously to grant Southern California Edison a 20-year permit for an expanded nuclear waste storage facility at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in northern San Diego County….SCE estimated that it will need up to 80 more steel canisters encased in concrete, a technology known as dry storage.

San Diego Floats a Surprising Question: Do We Really Need to Keep Saving Water? (Voice of SD)

It might be the regulatory version of “Are we there yet?” Even as local water officials are telling customers to use less water during California’s worst drought in more than 1,000 years, they are also asking state regulators when they can stop telling people to save so much water.

54K San Diego County Residents Live In 100-Year Flood Zones (KPBS)

Nearly 54,600 San Diego County residents live in areas that could be subject to flooding during El Niño-fueled rainstorms over the next several months, according to a report released Tuesday by the National University System Institute for Policy Research.http://feedpress.me/13288/1839917.gif

Scholarships to help East County students on the way (San Diego Union-Tribune)

A partnership between two education groups will allow qualifying graduates from Grossmont Union High School District one free year of classes at either Grossmont College or Cuyamaca College.

Lawsuit claims Chaldean leader took improper payments (San Diego Union-Tribune)

The former president of the Neighborhood Market Association, who has made a national name as an advocate for Chaldeans seeking asylum in the U.S., is being sued by association members who allege he received $248,000 in improper payments… Neighborhood Market Association says legal action by six of its members is baseless.

Slum conditions in San Diego (Reporting San Diego)

There is a crisis in San Diego with increasingly expensive rental units that are out of the reach of low wageworkers. This forces these workers to accept living in substandard units with low to non-existence maintenance. This is an issue that affects all of us, not just the people who are forced to live in these substandard conditions.

Scaled-back Oktoberfest still rolls out fun (CBS 8)

Last year, La Mesa's Oktoberfest suffered a financial hangover, but that did not stop this year's party from kicking off Friday, and the fun lasted into the night.

Should police body cam footage be public? (San Diego Union-Tribune)

SDPD chief, ACLU, lawyers agree videos should be revealed only in court; forum audience differs.

SANDAG Asks State to Loosen the Purse Strings for Transit-Focused Housing (Voice of San Diego)

Two things don’t come easy to San Diego: figuring out how to build low-income housing, and figuring out how to develop near transit stations.A new state program could address both issues, but local low-income housing advocates say the region isn’t as competitive as other major metro areas in the state because of its smaller public transit system.

Report: More San Diego County Female Inmates Using Meth (KPBS)

More than half the women booked into jails in San Diego County in 2014 had methamphetamine in their system, a 7 percent increase over the prior year. http://feedpress.me/13288/1836083.gifThe 53 percent figure for female inmates who tested positive for meth was a 15-year high. For men, 40 percent had meth in their system, according to SANDAG.

STATE

Climate change in California passes a tipping point (Huffington Post)  

With Californians crossing their fingers in hopes of a super El Niño to help end the state's historic drought, California's water agency just delivered some startling news: for the first time in 120 years of record keeping, the winter average minimum temperature in the Sierra Nevada was above freezing. And across the state, the last 12 months were the warmest on record. This explains why the Sierra Nevada snow pack that provides nearly 30% of the state's water stood at its lowest level in at least 500 years this last winter despite precipitation levels that, while low, still came in above recent record lows.

California weighs banning concealed handguns on campus (Sacramento Bee)

Already praised by many gun control advocates for having the strictest firearms laws in the country, California is once again considering a move to tighten its restrictions with a ban on the concealed carry of handguns at colleges and schools.

Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones to run for attorney general (Los Angeles Times)

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, a Democrat from Sacramento, plans to run for state attorney general in 2018 in a potentially crowded field.

California Pension Reformers Split Initiative into Two (Reason)

A ballot initiative introduced to try to restrain runaway public employee pension costs in California has been split apart and reintroduced as two new initiatives.

State closes probe of CPUC president (San Diego Union-Tribune)

State elections regulators have cleared the California Public Utilities Commission president of any wrongdoing related to a February gala dinner honoring his predecessor.

Dan Walters: California jobs and poverty reports are grim (Sacramento Bee)

Three major economic reports released last month paint a dark picture of California.

 

 


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