Congressman Bob Filner and Assembly candidate Ray Lutz of East County speak out against Blackwater at Otay Mesa Rally

Story and photos by Gayle Early

Sign from a military families organization opposed to Blackwater.

October 1, 2008 (Otay Mesa) – In September 2007,  17 people were shot to death in the Nisour Square traffic circle in Baghdad, Iraq, by Blackwater Worldwide security guards contracted by the U.S. State Department. Two dozen more civilians were seriously injured, including a lawyer shot in the back four times as he tried to run away. Marking the anniversary, about 150 protestors demonstrated outside Blackwater West’s new Otay Mesa Naval Training Facility on Sunday, September 14, raising concerns about the private military contractor’s presence in San Diego and along an international border already rife with tension.

 September
25, 2008 (SAN DIEGO) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued
a consumer alert today warning that numerous products have been found to be
contaminated with melamine – the same deadly toxin that killed thousands
of cats and dogs in contaminated pet food last year. 

By Miriam Raftery

September
23, 2008 (RAMONA) - Keith Alan Davis, a Ramona man who drove his pickup
truck toward a group of anti-war protesters n June, has been sentenced to probation,
ordered to take anger-management classes and must perform 20 days of community
service.

“This is America. You can’t just go running people over, but let’s
not just hogtie people and throw them in prison, either,” said Dave Patterson,
organizer of the Ramona “Enough” anti-war protests held each Sunday
at noon in downtown Ramona and other County locations.  “If you
put him in jail, he can’t support his family,” added Patterson,
who believes the verdict is fair. “Maybe the guy driving can be rehabilitated.”

At new Tiger Trails haven in Alpine, rescued tigers run, swim for first time

By Miriam Raftery

September 17, 2008 (ALPINE) – Q: What happens when you take four captive-bred tigers and turn them loose in a facility large enough for them to run freely for the first time?

A: A cat-aclysmic event complete with romping, frolicking and caterwauling, much to the delight of media members and donors invited to watch the grand opening of Tiger Trails in Alpine.  View our short video clip.

By Miriam Raftery

Mayor Madrid (R) with Shane Shaw of E-Village Beneath solar panel display at “Sustain La Mesa” festival

Crowds flocked to view cooking demonstrations on solar ovens,
visit with solar energy experts, get tips on water-saving landscaping and more
at Sustain La Mesa, the City’s first annual Environmental Awareness Festival
on September 13th in Harry Griffith Park.

“It took me almost a year to get this event,” Mayor Art Madrid
told East County Magazine, then shared  his vision for a greener
La Mesa in the future. 

By E.A. Barrera

Photos by Daisy Sharrock

October
1, 2008 (SAN DIEGO) - Water is the single biggest issue facing the
future of San Diego County. Even the process for updating San Diego County’s
land use general plan - the so-called General Plan 2020 process - depends on
the availability and amount of water the area will sustain.

By Miriam Raftery

September 1, 2008 (Holtville)--“These people came here looking for opportunity. Not one of them expected to die,” said Enrique Morones, erecting a hand-made wooden cross at a gravesite marked only by a brick engraved with the name Jane Doe.

A few years ago, there were twenty bricks in this pauper’s graveyard at Holtville in Imperial County, final resting ground for immigrants who died crossing the U.S.-Mexican border in San Diego and Imperial Counties.  Now there are 656. 

Community Leaders Call for New Hospital in East County:
Long Waits in Grossmont ER, Patient Deaths Heighten Urgent Need

By Sara McInerney, Staff Writer

September 18, 2008 (La Mesa)--Government investigations into at least three preventable patient deaths at Sharp Grossmont Hospital have raised serious questions about the facility’s capacity to service the needs of East County’s growing population.

Closure of the El Cajon Valley Emergency (full service) Hospital and a Kaiser facility, both in El Cajon, have exacerbated pressures on Grossmont, East County’s only remaining hospital.  In addition, Grossmont ceased being a designated trauma center in the 1980s, leaving East County with no trauma center.  Designated trauma patients are now transported via helicopter or ambulance to Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego.

State workers in East County struggle to cope with prospect of huge pay cuts, lay-offs; Judge orders Sept. 12 hearing on Governor’s wage-slashing orders

By Miriam Raftery
Photos by Aida Canonizado

Mildred
Scarber, a state employee who works at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV)
in El Cajon, was shocked to learn that Governor Schwarzenegger has ordered
all state employees’ pay rates slashed to the federal minimum wage: just
$6.55 an hour.

“This drops my pay by two-thirds,” said Scarber, a salaried employee
who has worked at the DMV for eleven years. “Previously our pay roughly
came to $18 an hour.”  In addition, the Governor has eliminated
all overtime – so Scarber also loses the $100 to $300 a month she typically
earned helping staff the ever-busy DMV office. 

Still No County Fire Department Five Years After Cedar Blaze



By E.A. Barrera

"Given the existing high-risk conditions that are projected to continue into the future, destructive firestorms will certainly occur again. Yet, even armed with this knowledge and after the Cedar Fire wake-up call, the San Diego region is woefully unprepared."

-- San Diego County Grand Jury, May 29, 2008

October will mark the first anniversary of the Witch Creek Fires and fifth anniversary of the deadlier Cedar Fire.  Four years have passed since voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition "C" which called for a Countywide Fire Department.  Yet  the County of San Diego is still at the nascent stage of organizing collective fire departments of the region into one unified command structure.