East County News Service

Photo via San Diego County News Service

May 29, 2023 (San Diego) – To address the housing crisis in San Diego County’s unincorporated areas, Supervisors last week approved 22 actions aimed at helping renters and homebuyers.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo by Miriam Raftery: Rooftop solar on People's Market in Ocean Beach

May 29, 2023 (San Diego) – For years, residents in San Diego’s rural and desert areas have argued that it would make more sense to put solar on roofs and parking lots in urban areas where power is used, instead of building massive wind and solar projects in the backcountry that negatively impact communities and require miles of new power lines. On May 25, County Supervisors voted unanimously to approve a proposal by Supervisor Jim Desmond that will include studying capacity for renewable energy projects on infill lots, roofs and parking lots.

The study will be part of the proposed Regional Decarbonization Framework (RDF), which sets a goal of reducing carbon emissions to net-zero levels by 2045. The Chief Administrator has six months to complete the study and report back to the Board of  Supervisors, though the board cannot vote until the vacancy in District four has been filled by a special election.

As ECM reported in early March, the Protect Our Communities Foundation filed a lawsuit in late February against the County over its RDF, contending that the County hired a  biased utility industry consultant to direct the County’s RDF and that its conclusions are skewed toward utilities’ interests over consumers’ interests based on flawed data and that it would actually cost less for infill energy projects than for large-scale energy facilities in remote areas, if costs of transmission is factored in.

By Ken Stone,Times of San Diego, a member of the San Diego Online News Association

Photo:  La Mesa Councilwoman Laura Lothian, seeing no chance of council OK, made no motion for her policy proposal. Image via Facebook

May 25, 2023 (La Mesa) - La Mesa Councilwoman Laura Lothian ran a proposal up the flagpole but saw it shot down in a hail of public scorn and derision.

Three candidates are running to replace Nathan Fletcher so far

By Miriam Raftery

Photo, left to right: Monica Montgomery Steppe, Amy Reichert,and Janessa Goldbeck

May 24, 2023 (San Diego) – Supervisors have authorized an Aug. 15 special primary election to fill the vacancy in District 4 left by Nathan Fletcher’s resignation Candidates must file paperwork to run at the Registrar of Voters’ office between May 30 and June 6, though if they wish to submit signatures instead of a filing fee, they must pick up those forms by this Friday.  If no candidate wins a majority of votes in the primary, then a general election will be held on Nov. 7.

District 4 includes the East County communities of La Mesa, Lemon Grove,  Crest, Dehesa, Casa de Oro, Spring Valley, Mt. Helix, and Rancho San Diego as well as San Diego neighborhoods including Clairemont, Hillcrest, Balboa Park, North Park, Bankers Hill,  Old Town, Mission Hills, Normal Heights, University Heights, Oak Park, Valencia Park, Encanto, Bay Terraces, Paradise Hills, Birdland, SerraMesa, Civita, and parts of Grantville, City Heights, Rolando, Azalea Park, Chollas Creek, Rolando Park, Kensington, Talmadge, Mid-City, Montezuma Mesa, SDSU and Mission Valley.

American Carnage:Shattering the Myths That Fuel Gun Violence, by Thomas Gabor and Fred Guttenberg (Mango Publishing Group, Coral Gables, Fl., 2023, 228 pages).

Book Review by Dennis Moore

View interview with co-author Thomas Gabor on the "Bookshelf" section with host Anat Tour by clicking here.

May 26, 2023 (San Diego) – Criminologist Tom Gabor and activist Fred Guttenberg, who lost his 14-year old daughter Jaime in the 2018 Parkland school shooting, team up to dismantle some of the leading myths on guns and gun violence in their groundbreaking book and treatise; American Carnage: Shattering the Myths That Fuel Gun Violence. Many of these myths have been promoted by the gun lobby to facilitate gun sales and normalize the presence of guns in American society.

Co-author Tom Gabor reiterates much about what is said in this book in a video above by Anat Tour, the host of the "Bookshelf" section of the East County Magazine. The interview by this excellent talent, Tour, can be viewed and listened to by clicking on the link above.

This extraordinary book resonates with me in a profound and personal way, for I am a survivor of gun violence myself, along with two of my sons, and in my more than 400 book reviews written, American Carnage has impacted my psyche more than any other. This book touches my heart and soul!

East County News Service

May 15, 2023 (Sacramento) – Senate Bill 31, a measure by  Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones (R-San Diego) which aimed to “compassionately clear homeless camps” according to Jones, has failed to win passage in the Senate Public Safety Committee.

East County News Service

May 10, 2023 (Sacramento) - The California Tribal Business Alliance (CTBA) joined other tribal leaders at the California State Assembly to support the first annual Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) Awareness Week from May 1 to May 5.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo:  Kupa, one of the last dozen descendants of San Diego's heritage herd, has died of a rattlesnake bite. His owner is asking the County to protect  the remaining herd descedants under the County's MultipleSpecies Conservation Plan.

April 17, 2023 (San Diego’s East County) – Kupa, one of only a dozen descendants of San Diego’s heritage herd of wild horses, has died. Kathleen Hayden made the announcement “with a breaking heart” on Facebook yesterday, stating that “during the night, our four-year-old Coyote Canyon stallion, Kupa, was bitten in his eye by a rattlesnake and died.”

Hayden is cofounder of Coyote Canyon Caballos d’Anza, a nonprofit in Santa Ysabel.  For years, she and her foundation have been fighting to gain protection for the heritage herd. The federal government has long refused to recognize horses as native species worthy of protection, believing they were brought here by European explorers.

But on March 23, 2023, Science published a report by 84 researchers who concluded that horses evolved first in North America and later crossed a land bridge over the Bering Strait to Eurasia. There are ancient fossils found in the Anza Borrego desert and Carlsbad  predating the early Spanish and English explorers to bolster that claim, as well as references to Native American horses in writings of Sir Francis Drake in 1580.

Those findings have reignited the urgent call to save wild horses and try to repopulate San Diego’s heritage herd on public lands, before it is too late.

By Daniela Torres

Video by ECM interns Daniela Torres and Jacob Pamus

April 14, 2023 (El Cajon)-- The first of four town halls in order to address homelessness in El Cajon was held on April 4, amidst concerns from the city’s residents.

Outrage and controversy have been sparked after the arrests of two sex offenders at a Motel 6 last month for allegedly sexually assaulting an underage girl. The offenders were placed there under the People Assisting the Homeless (PATH) motel voucher program funded by the County of San Diego.

By Miriam Raftery

April 11, 2023 (San Diego) – During a special meeting convened today,  San Diego County Supervisors passed a vote of no confidence and approved a letter calling on disgraced Supervisor Nathan Fletcher to resign immediately. The vote was 4-0, with Fletcher absent while undergoing treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and alcohol abuse.

On March 29, Fletcher announced his resignation effective May 15, after an MTS employee went public with allegations that Fletcher sexually assaulted and harassed her when he was MTS chair. Fletcher, who is married with children, has denied those allegations but said he had a “consensual” relationship. The woman, Grecia Figueroa, has denied this and filed a lawsuit against Fletcher and MTS. Fletcher has resigned as MTS chair and dropped his campaign for the State Senate.

Nora Vargas, Chair of the County Board of Supervisors, said before the vote, “"My priority is ensuring that we are able to serve the people of San Diego” noting that Fletcher has been absent for the past two weeks and hasn't answered the troubling allegations against him. "We encourage him to resign immediately so he (can) focus solely on his treatment, and the people of San Diego can move forward with the representation they deserve."

Calls grow for Fletcher to step down immediately from Board of Supervisors; second woman claims harassment by Fletcher

By Miriam Raftery

April 9, 2023 (San Diego) – The Metropolitan Transit Board (MTS) on Thursday announced that it will hire outside counsel to conduct an independent investigation into allegations of sexual assault and harassment made by MTS public information officer Grecia Figueroa  against Nathan Fletcher, ([photo, left), who was chair of MTS at the time.

Grecia was fired on February 6, the date Fletcher announced his intent to run for the State Senate. Fletcher withdrew from that race on March 26 and announced he was entering rehab for PTSD and alcohol abuse. After the MTS allegations surfaced soon after, he  resigned from the MTS board and announced he will resign as Supervisor effective May 15.  Fletcher, who is married with children, has denied sexually assaulting or harassing Figueroa but claimed a “consensual” relationship.

Acting MTS Board Chair Stephen Whitburn issued a statement after a closed-door session of the MTS board,  Whitburn indicated that findings in the independent investigation will be made public. The transit board has also cut off legal support to Fletcher, who must pay for his own defense. ”Mr. Fletcher failed to act in good faith and in a manner reasonably believed to be in the best interest of MTS,” Whitburn stated.

By Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski, ProPublica

This story was originally published by ProPublica.

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April 6, 2023 (Washington, D.C.) - In late June 2019, right after the U.S. Supreme Court released its final opinion of the term, Justice Clarence Thomas boarded a large private jet headed to Indonesia. He and his wife were going on vacation: nine days of island-hopping in a volcanic archipelago on a superyacht staffed by a coterie of attendants and a private chef.

Unsealed indictment alleges pay-offs to three people with negative claims about Trump were fraudulently covered up in order to protect his presidential campaign

By Miriam Raftery

View District Attorney Alvin Braggs' press conference after arraignment

View Trump's speech at  Mar-a-Lago after arraignment

April 5, 2023 (New York) – Former President Donald Trump was arrested yesterday in Manhattan and pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of a conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election. 

If convicted, Trump could be sentenced to up to four years for each count, though the court could determine whether terms would be served concurrently or consecutively.  Trump’s lawyers have until August to file motions, with the next court hearing scheduled for December 4.  Barring further delays, a trial could be held early next year, just as the 2024 primaries get underway.

Trump, also a candidate running in the 2024 presidential race, was booked and fingerprinted, but not handcuffed nor was a mugshot taken. After the arraignment, he was released pending trial and returned to his home in Florida, where he gave a blistering speech railing against the prosecutor and judge despite a judicial warning to refrain from rhetoric that could incite violence.

By Jessyka Heredia 

April 2, 2023 (La Mesa) -- Clear Channel Outdoor Vice President of Public Affairs Layne Lawson gave the La Mesa City Council a presentation on a proposed digital billboard plan during the March 28 Council meeting. The company is proposing that the City enter a development agreement with Clear Channel for two digital billboards that would display advertisements generating an annual development fee payment of $125,000 per new advertising structure for the City, plus a 3% annual increase, starting in the second year. 

By Miriam Raftery

March 30, 2023 (San Diego) – Last night, San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher announced that he will resign his District 4 seat at the end of his medical leave for treatment of PTSD and alcohol abuse.

The announcement comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed March 28 against Fletcher and the Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) by an MTS worker who claims Fletcher harassed and sexually assaulted her on MTS property, and that she was fired by MTS as a result.

Fletcher has called the relationship “consensual’ and a “mistake” but denies harassing or assaulting the plaintiff, Grecia Figueroa, a former TV journalist and MTS spokesperson. Fletcher’s attorney, Danielle Hultenius Moore, alleges that Figueroa tried to extort Fletcher before filing a suit and that Fletcher’s team will be “pursuing our own legal response.