EAST COUNTY ROUNDUP: TOP LOCAL AND STATE NEWS

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August 17, 2012 --  (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
  • Hundreds of dead fish found in Lakeside’s Lindo Lake Park (10 News)
  • County’s top job filled with no public notice (KPBS)
  • Have your schools done a Poway? (Voice of San Diego)
  • Violence continues at San Diego juvenile hall (CityBeat)
  • Lemon Grove to put 2 medical marijuana ordinances on November ballot(UT San Diego)
  • Protective order issued against Border Patrol agents (10 News)
  • City Council receives mostly low grades on environmental issues (Voice of San Diego)
  • E. County tribal officer arrested for assault (UT San Diego)
  • La Mesa bank teller thwarts robbery (UT San Diego)
  • New trolley routes coming next month ((UT San Diego)
STATE
  • Assembly passes corporate tax hike (Sacramento Bee)
  • 3 park officials disciplined in vacation buyout scandal (Sacramento Bee)
  • Despite falling gas prices, California’s gas prices soar in wake of refinery fire (Sacramento Bee)
  • Chevron facility deemed hazardous (UT San Diego)
  • Exclusive: Bond insurer sues California over development agencies (Reuters)
Read more for excerpts and links to full stories.
 
LOCAL
 
Hundreds of dead fish found in Lakeside’s Lindo Lake Park (10 News)
 
August 13, 2012 --What is going on right now at a local lake is not only shocking for how it looks, but how it smells. Hundreds of dead fish have been found, but just a few feet away, other fish are thriving.
 
The hundreds of dead fish are on the far eastern side of Lindo Lake, which has steadily suffered a lower water level.
http://www.10news.com/news/31350918/detail.html
 
County’s top job filled with no public notice (KPBS)
 
August 10, 2012 -- When San Diego County Chief Administrative Officer Walt Ekard announced his resignation, he also announced his successor. Advocates of open government have concerns about how the transition of the top job at the county was handled.
The Chief Administrative Officer of San Diego County manages a $5 billion budget. Walt Ekard unexpectedly announced before a county land use meeting on Wednesday that he will resign in December - and he named his chosen successor.
 
Have your schools done a Poway? (Voice of San Diego)
 
August 9, 2012 -- Wondering if your school district has borrowed money using the get-money-now-pay-a-ton-later approach being used by Poway and others? Check our five-part guide to figuring out what taxpayers in your neck of the woods are on the hook for.
 
We got a number of inquiries from taxpayers, parents and journalists wanting to know if this goes on in their area after our story highlighting how the Poway district will pay nearly $1 billion to borrow $105 million. Let us know what you find.
 
Violence continues at San Diego juvenile hall (CityBeat)
 
August 08, 2012 -- Each quarter, the San Diego County Probation Department compiles statistics on so-called “serious incidents” at the five juvenile-detention facilities under its command. The numbers, which are provided to the county’s Juvenile Justice Commission, illustrate the levels of violence at the facility, including data on assaults, pepper-spray use and staff misconduct.
 
CityBeat obtained the latest batch of figures through a California Public Records Act request. Among the highlights:
http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/article-10831-violent-trends-continue-at-san-diego-juvenile-halls.html
 
Lemon Grove to put 2 medical marijuana ordinances on November ballot(UT San Diego)
 
August 7, 2012 -- In November, Lemon Grove voters will be able to vote for or against having medical marijuana collectives in their city, joining Imperial Beach, Del Mar and Solana Beach, cities which all recently approved ballot measures on the dispensaries.
After more than 3 1/2 hours of discussion on the matter at its 4-hour meeting, the Lemon Grove City Council voted Tuesday night to give voters two options for deciding whether medical marijuana collectives can come to the city of 25,000 residents.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/aug/07/lemon-grove-put-2-medical-marijuana-ordinances-nov/ 
Protective order issued against Border Patrol agents (10 News)
 
August 9, 2012 -- A judge Thursday ordered two Border Patrol agents to stay away from a Navy doctor who complained when she saw the couple groping each other during a performance of Cirque du Soleil in Del Mar.

Gerald Joseph Torello, 35, and Kallie Lamb Helwig, 25 -- who were off duty at the time -- face misdemeanor charges of battery, annoying or molesting a child, and two counts of performing lewd acts in public. Torello is also charged with making a criminal threat.
http://www.10news.com/news/31344355/detail.html
 
City Council receives mostly low grades on environmental issues (Voice of San Diego)
 
August 2, 2012 -- Every year for the last eleven years, the mayor and City Council members have been graded on their environmental stewardship. What started in 2001 as the Water Quality Report Card grew into the Environmental Quality Report Card in 2009, and became a spotlight for major environmental votes in areas such as water quality, habitat, green energy, land use and climate change.
 
Sadly, last year’s grades were the lowest in the three-year history of the EQRC and seem to reflect that in the midst of a slow economy, the environment isn’t a priority. But 2011 didn’t always offer council members much help. For example, environmental champion Donna Frye wasn’t around to lead by example or pry information out of the mayor’s staff. It’s no secret the Mayor’s Office has at times been loath to share information with the legislative branch of the City Council, sometimes punishing council members for voting the wrong way by withholding information from that council office.
 
E. County tribal officer arrested for assault (UT San Diego)
 
August 13, 2012 -- An elected official with the Sycuan band of Indians was arrested last week in connection with an assault at an East County market, the Sheriff's Department reported.
Arrest logs show that LaShunna M. Davidson, the tribe's treasurer, was taken into custody last Wednesday and booked into Las Colinas jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and burglary.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/aug/13/e-county-tribal-official-arrested-for-assault/ 
La Mesa bank teller thwarts robbery (UT San Diego)
 
August 9, 2012 --  A teller refused to give money to a woman who tried to rob a credit union Thursday afternoon, La Mesa police said.
The woman entered Cabrillo Credit Union, on El Cajon Boulevard near Baltimore Drive, about 4:30 p.m. She pulled an unknown object that was covered with a cloth from a large black leather handbag, pointed it at the teller and demanded money, police said.
The teller declined to give her money and the woman fled through an alley behind the credit union.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/aug/09/la-mesa-bank-teller-thwarts-female-robber/ 
New trolley routes coming next month ((UT San Diego)
 
August 13, 2012 -- Downtown San Diego will soon be seeing green.
The Metropolitan Transit System next month begins a new operating system for its trolley network and perhaps the most significant change will come to its Green Line, which currently runs from Santee Town Center to the Old Town Transit Center.
Beginning Sept. 2, the Green Line will run from Santee, through downtown San Diego and terminate at the 12th and Imperial station — near the convention center and Petco Park.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/aug/13/new-trolley-routes-coming/ 
STATE
 
Assembly passes corporate tax hike (Sacramento Bee)
 
August 14, 2012 -- Hotly contested legislation to raise a billion dollars annually for college scholarships by altering the tax formula for out-of-state corporations narrowly passed the Assembly on Monday.
Needing a supermajority to pass, Assembly Bill 1500 received the bare-minimum number of votes in the 80-member chamber. The final tally was 54-24.
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/14/4722958/assembly-passes-corporate-tax.html
3 park officials disciplined in vacation buyout scandal (Sacramento Bee)
 
August 13, 2012 -- Three executives at the California Department of Parks and Recreation have been disciplined because they "manipulated the system" or gave "recklessly flawed advice" in carrying out an unauthorized vacation buyout program for department employees last year.
 
The details emerged in formal disciplinary actions the parks department has taken against the employees. The Bee obtained copies of the notices from the State Personnel Board, which is responsible for adjudicating them.
 
The secret buyout program, which occurred mostly in May and June of 2011, resulted in payouts of more than $271,000, and came as the parks department moved to close 70 parks to absorb state budget cuts. The program, in which employees were allowed to sell unused vacation time back to the state, was limited to 56 employees at parks headquarters in Sacramento. To avoid a paper trail, the buyout requests were submitted in some cases only on Post-It notes, not official forms, according to an internal department audit.
 
Despite falling gas prices, California’s gas prices soar in wake of refinery fire (Sacramento Bee)
 
August 14, 2012 -- Gas prices in California are soaring a week after a fire damaged the Chevron refinery in Richmond, a critical piece of the state's supply chain.
Prices at the pump jumped 25.8 cents in the Sacramento area over the past week, to $4 a gallon, according to market tracker GasBuddy.com. In San Francisco, motorists are paying $4.17 a gallon, according to a separate survey by AAA.
Chevron facility deemed hazardous (UT San Diego)
 
August 13, 2012 -- Structural engineers on Monday deemed the site of a Chevron refinery fire in the San Francisco Bay area hazardous for human entry after looking at the failed pipe that leaked and sent a towering plume of black smoke into the sky.

Federal and state investigators are discussing plans for how to make the Richmond site safe so the faulty pipe can be removed for testing, said Hillary Cohen, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Chemical Safety Board.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/aug/13/chevron-facility-in-calif-deemed-hazardous/

 

Exclusive: Bond insurer sues California over development agencies (Reuters)
 
August 14, 2012 -- Bond insurer Syncora Guarantee has filed a lawsuit to prevent California from eliminating the state's 400 local redevelopment agencies, claiming that the plan unfairly deprives bondholders of money they are owed.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/14/us-usa-debt-syncora-idUSBRE87D14B20120814?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews
 

 

 


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