Update: The House has passed this measure, which now advances to the Senate.

By Miriam Raftery

April 16, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) - This week, when most of us paid our taxes due on April 15^th, the Republican majority in Congress is trying to push through H.R. 1105, a bill that would repeal the estate tax for millionaires and billionaires.

East County News Service

April 16, 2015 (El Cajon)--The East County Democratic Club (ECDC) will consider issues related to the U.S.-Mexican Border, at its April 23, 2015, meeting.  Pedro Rios, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) project director, will address members and guests at  Coco’s Restaurant, 1324 East Main Street, El Cajon, 92021.  The featured speaker’s commentary will be first on the agenda at the 7 p.m. meeting, followed by a question and answer session.

Rios leads the AFSC’s U.S./Mexico Border Program.  He has been on the AFSC staff for twelve years. He is also chairperson for the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium, a coalition of over 30 organizations in San Diego working to support the rights of immigrants and refugees. A native San Diegan, Rios has worked on immigrant rights and border issues for over 18 years. He became active on immigration issues in the early 1990s, when California was debating the passage of Proposition 187, the anti-immigrant initiative that was later ruled unconstitutional.

East County News Service

April 15, 2015 (Spring Valley) – Three young people trapped in a burning car that flipped over after a crash in front of Monte Vista High School on Monday owe their lives to courageous bystanders.

East County News Service

April 16, 2015 (La Mesa) -- Two Army National Guard soldiers from East County were arrested Wednesday and charged with selling weaponry including assault rifles, ammunition and body armor to undercover agents who posed as Mexican drug cartel members.

April 15,2015 (San Diego)--Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, a San Diego Democrat and African-American, has introduced two bills aimed at stopping  racial profiling and bringing accountability to shootings by police.  The measures are sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU.

April 15, 2015 (Lakeside)--The 50^th annual Lakeside Western Days Parade will roll out on Saturday, April 18^th starting at 9:30 a.m. down Lakeside’s Maine Street.   This year’s theme is “There’s no place like home” and the grand marshal is Gita Morena, granddaughter of L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Record-setting drought means everyone in region must increase conservation

Source: MWD

April 15, 2015 (San Diego)--Facing unprecedented drought conditions, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s board of directors on Tuesday approved a 15 percent water supply cutback to the San Diego County Water Authority and its other customers starting July 1. That decision is one of several important actions in coming weeks that will impact the San Diego region’s water supplies and conservation targets over the next year.

April 15, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

• Earthquake warning on your smartphone? There may be an app for that (CS Monitor)
• The dystopian lake filled by the world’s tech lust (BBC)
• Academics rate women job applicants higher than identical men: study (Reuters)
• One man's dream: a tornado machine (Marketplace.org)
• A year after its exposure, Heartbleed bug remains a serious threat (CS Monitor)

HEALTH

• Dementia ‘halted in mice brains’ (BBC)
• Trading insurance discounts for health data (APM Marketplace)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

April 15, 2015 --  (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

• Drones to livestream fires? SD company hopes so (ABC10) 
• Keeping Their Word: The Padres lifelong rookie (ABC10)
• San Diego County Water Authority Asks State To Change New Regulations (KPBS)
• Water demo plant opening on Friday (UT San Diego)
• Boom or Doom? Huge projects loom (U-T)
• Real Estate Experts Discuss Rise In San Diego Home Prices (KPBS)
• Justice Department Will Monitor Calexico Police For 3 Years (KPBS)
• SDG&E loses request for transmission incentive (Argus) 
• Drought to hit county's farmers hard (U-T) 

STATE

• Calpers raises pension plan funding in California by 6 percent (Reuters)
• Auditors spot disconnect on telecom complaints (U-T)
• California Utility to Make Gas From Solar for Pipeline Storage (Bloomberg)
• Audit: California departments padding budgets (AP) 
• Something sinister in Warsaw? (SD Reader) 
• [NRC: Nuclear plant failure not our fault (U-T) 

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

By Derek Carlyon

April 15, 2015 (San Diego)--For the first time in years, it appears that the Padres have taken over San Diego.  In years past, the successes of the Chargers and Aztecs basketball team have captured the sports heartbeat of the city.  But with the Chargers’ stadium issue and the uncertainty of where they will be in the coming years coupled with the Aztec’s ugly third round loss to Duke in the NCAA tournament, the Padres have the spotlight.

April 15, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) – Womenon20s.org has been campaigning to have a woman’s image replace the image of former general and president Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. The group held a national vote for the public to choose among 15 candidates. Now, the field has been narrowed to four.  Three were chosen by popular vote:  Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Harriet Tubman.

The fourth, Wilma Mankiller, was added by popular demand to include a Native American option to replace Jackson. Jackson ordered the forced relocation of Cherokee Indians off their lands, causing deaths of 4,000 in what became known as the Cherokee Trail of Tears.Mankiller, fittingly, was a Cherokee chief and the first Native American elected to lead a tribe in modern times, noted for her accomplishments to help the Cherokee people.

ECM investigation identifies photo purported to be training camp dates back to 2009

By Miriam Raftery

April 15, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) – For the second time in recent months, an apparently false claim about ISIS terrorists at our border made by Judicial Watch has been making the rounds, primarily on blogs and right-wing media sites.  But fact checkers at ABC news, Media Matters and Snopes.com say the latest rumor is likely false.

Moreover, an East County Magazine online search found the photo claimed as a terrorist camp in 2015 is actually an AFP/Getty Image of Anapra taken by photographer Jorge Uzon. It was published in 2009 in VQR, a literary journal, in an article about a smuggler in Anapra, including an anecdote in which his father mistakenly thinks men seeking to be smuggled into America are Al Qaeda terrorists. View the 2009 story and photo here (2^nd large image, with green structure).

The same photo appears in the latest story by Judicial Watch, a conservative group.Their story published April 14^th, 2015 claims that ISIS terrorists have set up a training camp just over the Texas border near El Paso in Anapra or Juarez, Mexico. The article claims its sources are a Mexican army officer and a Mexican federal police inspector, and that documents purportedly from ISIS were found in Anapra.  It further claimed that ISIS terrorists are being smuggled across the border.

By Miriam Raftery

April 12, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) – As California’s record-setting drought continues, the bad news just keeps piling on. Here are the latest twists making news around the state.

EarthTalk®

From the Editors of E - The Environmental Magazine

Caption: Some all-natural, mineral-based sunscreens may be chalky going on but could be safer than their chemical counterparts. Credit: Indexorama, Flickr CC

Dear EarthTalk: I’ve been hearing a lot about the dangers of sunscreens. What is the latest on efforts to make them safer and more effective?                                 -- Phyllis Lothran, Tallahassee, FL

April 14, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) - Greater awareness about what’s in everyday products and increased interest in healthy living means there has never been a better time to re-evaluate which sunscreens you use. The ingredients in some common chemical-based sunscreens are known to cause allergic reactions for some people and have been linked to reproductive and behavioral problems in animal studies. But luckily for the sun-safe and health conscious among us, there are lots of widely available all-natural, mineral-based sunscreen formulations that won’t cause any health problems on store shelves these days.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo by Don Harrison

April 14, 2015 (San Diego) – San Diego City Councilwoman Marti Emerald has announced plans to retire at the end of her term next year.