East County News Service

February 2, 2017 (Washington D.C.) -- Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-San Diego), a senior member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, was named as the Ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training, which plays a key role in shaping higher education policy.

Concerns raised over personnel shortages in jobs ranging from food safety inspectors to Social Security offices

By Miriam Raftery

February 1, 2017 (San Diego) — After a public outcry, the Trump administration has issued some clarifications on his order freezing hiring of federal employees and added new exemptions. 

East County News Service

January 31, 2017 (San Diego) – A final judgment has been issued by Superior Court Judge Joel Wohlfeil against San Diego Registrar Michael Vu in the case of Lutz v. Vu.   Lutz had argued that 285,000 ballots–39% of the total--were fraudulently excluded from the manual recount tally following the presidential election.  Judge Wohlfeil agreed that Vu inappropriately omitted 210,000 vote by mail ballots from the audit of the presidential election, but not provisional ballots.

East County News Service

January 31, 2017 (San Diego) -- “Federal courts have rightly stayed President Trump's unconstitutional executive order banning Muslims and refugees. Immigration officials need to follow and respect the rule of the federal judges and allow those being held to have access to attorneys. The right of habeas corpus is a bedrock of our democracy,” says Congresswoman Susan Davis, who yesterday called on President Trump to left his executive order banning travel to the U.S. from  predominantly Muslim nations.

By Miriam Raftery

January 29, 2017 (Washington D.C.) – Consumer advocates are voicing concern over Ajit Pai, President Donald Trump’s newly appointed chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).  Pai has a record of opposing net neutrality and supporting big media mergers. A former corporate attorney for Verizon, Pai could also enable Trump to escalate his war on media outlets such as CNN that he has harshly criticized for broadcasting hard-hitting news reports on his administration.

By Mike Allen

January 29, 2017 (Spring Valley) -- An already combustible situation at the San Miguel Fire Protection District was made more divisive on January 25^th, when three members of the board were served notice that a recall campaign is being mounted to oust them.

Glover insists comment not meant as racist

By Jonathan Goetz

January 26, 2017 (El Cajon) – In the same week that President Donald Trump announced an executive order to block new immigrants from Iraq, El Cajon Veterans Commissioner George Glover stated, “Why doesn’t Ben Kalasho go back home to where he came from?”

By Miriam Raftery

January 26, 2017 (Washington D.C.) – One of President Trump’s most controversial nominees is Betsy DeVos, proposed to head up the Department of Education.  The billionaire GOP donor has led a “school choice” PAC and led efforts to divert public funds to charter schools and vouchers in Detroit with largely failed results, where critics say more segregation and generally poor test scores resulted.  If confirmed, she would be an Education Secretary largely committed to dismantling public education despite no track record of success in helping students, particularly students of color.

By Miriam Raftery

January 24, 2017 (Washington D.C.) – Federal funding for abortions has long been banned, including under the Obama administration. But now President Donald Trump has gone farther, signing an executive order to ban all funding for nonprofits that provide abortions overseas, even money that provide vital women’s health services such as birth control, mammograms, pre-natal and maternity care.

Trump’s action could result in 6.5 million unintended pregnancies, 21,700 mothers dying, 2.1 million unsafe abortions, and countless deaths of newborn babies from preventable conditions, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development. 

By Miriam Raftery, East County Magazine

Photo credit:  Joe McHugh, California Highway Patrol

January 24, 2017 (San Diego) -- Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today delivered his State of the State address, departing with the traditional practice of listing every issue and priority to instead address the "broader context of our country and its challenges."



The Governor vowed to "defend everybody - every man, woman and child - who has come here...and has contributed to the well-being of our state" and committed to protecting the state's gains on immigration, health care and climate change, guided by the principles that make California "the Great Exception" - truth, civility and perseverance.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo:  bird coated in petroleum from an oil spill; there have been hundreds of pipeline leaks and spills across the U.S in recent years

January 24, 2017 (Washington D.C.) – Environmentalists and Native American activists are voicing dismay and pledging to fight back against executive orders signed by President Donald Trump to advance construction of the controversial Dakota Access and Keystone XL oil pipelines.

East County News Service

January 22, 2017 (Washington D.C.) -- Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is bringing a federal lawsuit to stop President Trump from violating the Constitution by receiving payments from foreign governments that CREW contends are illegal.

By Miriam Raftery

January 22, 2017 (San Diego) – Representatives for the California Association of Realtors, National Association of Realtors, and National Association of Homebuilders have all voiced opposition to an executive order issued by President Trump that could add as much as $1,500 to costs for some first-time homebuyers.

By Miriam Raftery, East County Magazine

“In stark terms, hundreds of millions of people will die - and countless species become extinct - because of eight more years of US inaction.” – Jeffrey Severinghaus, PhD

January 22, 2017 (San Diego) – One of the world’s top climate scientists is speaking out to denounce President Donald Trump’s energy plan and warn of its dire consequences for humanity.   Jeffrey Severinghaus, PhD  from Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego actually measures the ice cores in Antaractica and Greenland.

“This is sad, and tragic,” Jeffrey Severinghaus, PhD, told East County Magazine after we sent him a copy of the energy plan posted at Whitehouse.gov by the Trump administration and informed him that climate change has been removed from the issues page at the White House website, along with all data on climate science previously posted there. 

Severinghaus warns bluntly, “We as a species cannot afford four more years—or eight, of delay on climate action. The stakes are simply too high.”

By Miriam Raftery

Photo, right:  Cathy and Kayla Lechien at La Mesa trolley stop

Photo, left:  Women's marchers at the embarcadero in San Diego 

January 21, 2017 (San  Diego) – At the Spring Street trolley station in La Mesa, hundreds of East County residents converged to ride downtown and join this morning’s  Women’s March.

Major media outlets estimate some 40,000 marchers in San Diego joined millions more across the U.S. in what CBS reports was the largest protest in U.S. history.  Some participants estimate there were over 100,000 marching in San Diego; another 10,000 marched in North County. Other cities around the globe also drew huge crowds.

 Women and men,  young and old, straight and gay, white, black and Latino –and all shared one common goal:  forging a resistance coalition opposed to policies of President Donald Trump that would weaken rights and freedoms for  women, minorities, and many other American.