East County News Service

November 29, 2016 (San Diego) — The Consumer Review Freedom Act, a measure to protect freedom of speech in online consumer reviews, has been approved by both the House and Senate and now heads to President Barack Obama’s desk for signature.

By Miriam Raftery

November 27, 2016 (San Diego) - Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaign has announced it will join in the effort to recount ballots in key swing states.  That effort was launched by Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who has raised millions of dollars to fund recounts in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan and possibly additional states. 

By Miriam Raftery

Some hackable voting machines used in 2016 presidential election were banned in California after investigative reports by Miriam Raftery,  now ECM’s editor

November 24, 2016 (San Diego) – After election security experts urged presidential candidates to seek recounts in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan due to anomalies that could indicate hacking by Russia or someone else, Green Party candidate Jill Stein launched a fundraising page for recounts in those three states.  She has raised over $4 million – enough to fully fund a recount in Wisconsin—and is well on the way toward attaining the estimated $6-7 million for recounts in all three states including filing fees, attorney costs and funding recount observers.

The concerns are valid. Here’s why. First,  Russian operatives already have hacked an election—in the Ukraine. The wrong winner was prevented from taking office only because Ukrainian officials discovered the vote-stealing software,  says J. Alex Halderman, professor  of computer science at the University of Michigan whose election technology class regularly tests –and succeeds in hacking into—voting machines used in the U.S.

By Miriam Raftery

November 20, 2016 (Washington D.C.) – Civil rights activists are voicing concerns over President-Elect Donald Trump’s appointment of Alabama Senator Jefferson “Jeff” Beauregard Sessions III to serve as Attorney General, the nation’s top law enforcement officer.  A staunch conservative politically, Sessions was once rejected for a federal judicial seat by the Senate under President Ronald Reagan’s administration due to reported racist statements and opposition to the Voting Rights Act.  

California Senator Dianne Feinstein today released this statement on reports that President-elect Donald Trump will hire Steve Bannon as senior advisor:

East County News Service

November 16, 2016 (Washington D.C.) — “I became mayor of San Francisco when my predecessor was assassinated—I know how fear can tear apart a community. Today we’re again seeing the spread of fear, this time caused by a series of racist and xenophobic attacks.

“In the last week, Muslim university students were attacked for their faith, Latino students humiliated by peers who say they’ll be deported, Confederate flags and racist slurs used to intimidate African-Americans, and swastikas and Nazi propaganda spray painted on buildings. That’s not the America I know.

By Miriam Raftery

November 16, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) -- More than a week after the election, several East County races remain too close to call, as counting of mail-in and provision ballots continues.

In the hotly contested Lemon Grove Mayoral race, Democrats George Gastil and Racquel Vasquez are battling it out at 43% and 42.25% respectively, separated by just 47 votes.  In a distant third place is Republican Teresa Rosiak, who received less than 15% of the vote.

East County News Service

November 16, 2016 (Washington D.C.) — For the fifth time in U.S. history, the president who won the popular vote has lost the presidency.  Hillary Clinton received nearly a million more actual votes than Donald Trump, yet Trump is poised to be named president by the Electoral College after receiving more electoral college delegates.

By Miriam Raftery

November 14, 2016 (Washington D.C.) — In contrast to his election night promise to bind America’s wounds and pull people together, President-Election Donald Trump has announced the appointment of a white supremacist and anti-establishment media site publisher as his chief White House strategist and put an officer in an anti-immigrant hate group in charge of his immigration transition team.

Update December 1, 2016:  Lyon has pulled back ahead of Russo by 25 votes as the count contiunes.  The election will be certified  December 8th.

Update November 16, 2016:  Lou Russo has pulled ahead of Travis Lyon.

 

By Miriam Raftery

November 12, 2016 (Alpine) — With 100% of precincts counted but provisional and some mail-in ballots remaining to be counted, Joseph Perricone has won reelection to the Alpine Union School District board. But a second seat is still too close to call, with Travis Lyon leading Louis Russo by just 19 votes.

By Greg Palast

Reprinted with permission of Greg Palast, award-winning investigative reporter published in Rolling Stone, the Guardian and BBC News. His New York Times bestseller, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, is now a major motion picture documentary.

Editor’s note: I interviewed Palast before the election, when he warned that Trump operatives were conspiring to steal it by purging 7.2 million minority voters off voting roles in key swing states. Now Palast has evidence that Trump’s winning margin in these states was far less than the number of voters wrongly removed by software called “Crosscheck.” It purported to remove duplicate voters with common minority names, even when middle names were different, denying millions of Latinos, blacks and Asians their right to vote. The mastermind behind Crosscheck is Kris Kobach, now head of Trump’s immigration policies transition team. If you believe this election should be investigated, send this story to your elected officials or party leaders.  You can also Support The Palast Investigative Fund. E

Fund and keep our work alive.

November 12, 2016 -- Before a single vote was cast, the election was fixed by GOP and Trump operatives.

Starting in 2013 – just as the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act – a coterie of Trump operatives, under the direction of Kris Kobach, Kansas Secretary of State, created a system to purge 1.1 million Americans of color from the voter rolls of GOP–controlled states.

"Let's repeal ObamaCare, abolish Common Core, and get constitutional judges on the Supreme Court,"-- California Republican Party

"For the more than 20million Americans who gained health insurance coverage thanks to the Affordable Care Act, repeal and replace means death and despair.”-- California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones

By Miriam Raftery

November 11, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) – Leaders in the California Republican and Democratic parties are speaking out following the election of President-Elect Donald Trump. Reactions range from praise to condemnation.

November 10, 2016 (San Diego's East County) -- Some dressed in white, paying silient homage to the woman's suffrage movement, as they cast their votes for the first woman president.  But Election Day soon became a nightmare for supporters of Hillary Clinton,  despite weeks of walking precincts and phone-banking voters across the country for their candidate, when news broke of Donald Trump's victory.

Photo, left, by Devorah Fox:  Clinton supporter Debbie Boyd speaks with a local newscaster. (Click "read more" to view more photos.)

Coal companies, private prison stocks rise sharply

By Jonathan Goetz

November 9, 2016 (New York) -- America just became much more interesting to watch with the election of reality TV mogul Donald Trump as the 45^th president. Trump has exceeded 270 delegates in the electoral college despite trailing Hillary Clinton by just over 200,000 votes nationally in the popular vote.

UPDATE:  CLICK READ MORE TO READ STATEMENT FROM CHARGERS CHAIRMAN DEAN SPANOS

By Liz Alper

Photo courtesy chargers.com

November 9, 2016 (San Diego) - Proposition C, the measure that would allow the Chargers to build a new downtown stadium and convention center near Petco Park in the East Village and raise the hotel tax to 16.5 percent from its current 10.5 percent, failed to garner the two thirds it needed to pass last night, with a vote total of 56.96 percent (168,677) no and 43.04 percent (127,433) yes. 

Bond measure narrowly losing

By Jonathan Goetz

November 9, 2016 (El Cajon) -Conservative Republicans have won election in the five-person race for Cajon Valley Union School Board. Both are  endorsed by the Republican Party though the race is nonpartisan.

Clark-Mejia serves as the lead marriage and family therapist intern at New Day Women’s Center and Counseling Services, a 501(c)3 nonprofit that serves women and their families.