February 10, 2013 (Lakeside) -- Wildcat Canyon Road in Lakeside remains closed tonight between Willows Road and Muth Valley Road.  The route has been shut down since a vehicle accident downed power lines around 1:58 a.m.  According to the California Highway Patrol website, Wildcat Canyon, the main access route to Barona Casino, could remain closed all night.

By Miriam Raftery

February 10, 2013 (Poway) – A 12-year-old student at Twin Peaks Middle School has been arrested after sending an e-mail to an administrator Friday night threatening to shoot 23 students and a teacher at the school on Monday, February 11.

According to the  San Diego County Sheriff's department, the e-mail also claimed the student had access to numerous firearms and 3,000 rounds of ammunition. Yesterday, a search of the student’s home found numerous rifles and handguns along with computers, ECM news partner 10 News reports.

No Cats, No Chocolate, by Ken Kuhlken and Alan Russell, Hickey’s Books, La Mesa

Book review by Miriam Raftery

February 10, 2013 (La Mesa)--What happens when a pair of formerly acclaimed but now down-on-their-luck mystery novelists hit rock bottom? 

In No Cats, no Chocolate,  local authors Ken Kuhlken and Alan Russell  pen themselves in as the main characters.  Best noted for their literary-quality mystery works,  they resolve to make some quick cash writing a romance novel after an outline sent as a lark lands an assignment from a publisher.  Delilah Bluefeather and Violet St. Claire ( the authors’ noms de plume), are born. Worse, they must complete the task in days, while on a road trip to jump-start their careers  with a coveted appearance on Oprah’s show.

The book  is a sequel to Road Kill, in which the same quirky duo embarked on a journey to convince readers across America to buy their books.  It’s a clever literary trick for the authors to write themselves in as characters in their own works—and create a series to boot.  As a former participant in a writing critique group led by Kuhlken, I can’t help wondering how many quirky traits described in the book are fact – and which are fiction?

February 10, 2013 (San Diego) - Rain, thunder, chilling wind, and even a hail storm could not stop the Kearny Mesa Lunar New Year Festival from taking place. Yesterday, elected officials and visitors were treated to a tour of the "Asian Village" where they learned about the cultural significance of each village building or structure. The evening concluded after a New Year's Eve concert that featured the top artists from Asia Entertainment Inc, and the Little Saigon Idol.  

Festival organizers said that the Festival will open again today regardless of rain, shine, or ice.  Sunday's entertainment will include an exciting Miss Teen Traditional Dress Beauty Pageant.

By Miriam Raftery

February 9, 2013 (San Diego’s East County) ---Heavy snowfall has transformed our local mountains into winter wonderlands.  Mount Laguna received 10 inches of snowfall in the past 24 hours, followed by Palomar Mountain with 7 to 8 inches.  Cuyamaca also received significant snowfall, as this image sent in by reader Grace Schlesier shows. Frost and freezing temperatures are expected through Monday in inland valleys.

Other areas dusted in white include Julian (3-6 inches), Ranchita (5 inches), Santa  Ysabel (2 inches) and Pine Valley (2 inches) .  Snow even dipped down to Descanso and Campo, which received less than a half inch each.

February 9, 2013 (San Diego's East County)--In the spirit of Valentine's Day, the San Miguel District Fire Stations will be offering free blood pressure screenings, February 14th from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. at any San Miguel District Fire Station. Come get your blood pressure checked. Take the first step towards heart health.  Read more for locations.

February 9, 2013 (Washington D.C. -- Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-CA), joined by her colleagues Reps. Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), and Kathy Castor (D-FL), has introduced legislation to increase diversity among America’s teaching ranks.  The Diverse Teachers Recruitment Act would help establish programs to recruit new male teachers and teachers from minority groups into the profession.

By Roy Hales

http://www.sandiegolovesgreen.com/articles/gregory-landfill-it-is-time-we-listened/

February 9, 2013 (San Diego)--An editorial, written in defense of the proposed Gregory Landfill, recently complained that, “…the Pala decided to claim the entire mountain is a sacred site.” I sometimes wonder how much the people who do, or say, things like that know of their own ancestry? Without resorting to a genealogist, can they tell us where their paternal great, great grandfather lived? How about their maternal great, great, grandmother?

By Roy L Hales  sandiegolovesgreen.com

February 8, 2013 (San Diego's East County)--As problems with the large wind and solar projects in East County continue to surface, I suspect there will be a tendency to say Big = Bad. I’ve been doing that myself the last few weeks. I think we need to isolate the problems and deal with them one at a time.

The wind farm at Ocotillo appears to lack the necessary wind, but am also aware that one of the problems with wind farms in East Germany has been too much wind. The Czech and Polish governments are said to have flipped the switches, to cut off the flow of surplus energy into their countries.  The alleged lack of wind at Ocotillo could be an insurmountable problem, which raises serious questions about how the facility came to be built in the first place. The alleged surplus in East Germany will cease to be a problem once we develop a method of storing the excess energy for months rather than minutes.

February 8, 2013 (San Diego) – Once again Museum Month is happening in San Diego County including five East County Museums.  During the entire month of February individuals can pick up a free Museum Month Pass at any local Macy’s store and receive half-off admission to 42 San Diego County museums.  Guests with passes may bring up to three people with them to any participating museum.

February 8, 2013 (San Diego)--It’s the most romantic day of the year… and San Diego County Assessor/Recorder/County Clerk, Ernest J. Dronenburg, Jr., wants to make sure that all romantic couples wishing to “tie the knot” or renew their wedding vows come down to the historical County Administration Center overlooking beautiful San Diego Bay for their wedding ceremony.

“Valentine’s Day wedding ceremony reservations are filling up quickly,” said Ernie Dronenburg. “We are planning on added staff at our downtown location for Valentine’s Day to accommodate all those wanting to be married on this special day. Call right now so we can plan on helping you.”

By Brian Lafferty

February 8, 2013 (San Diego) – The press screening announcement for Side Effects read "Please note that due to the non-linear nature of this film, we will not let anyone into screenings of Side Effects if they arrive LATE.”  The impression I got was that Soderbergh's last theatrical release - his final project is a Liberace biopic that will air on HBO later this year - would be a mind-bender like Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky or Christopher Nolan's Memento.  I was wrong, but the publicity people were right to deny entry to latecomers.  (Even if they didn't, I can't grasp how any critic could feel comfortable reviewing any movie they're late for.  In many cases and for many reasons too irrelevant and lengthy to list, the first few minutes are a film’s most important.)

Update February 8, 2013:  The court in Imperial Valley has issued a restraining order requiring Graham to stay away from Park Ewing, the photographer he reportedly attacked.

By Miriam Raftery

Jim Pelley and Parke Ewing contributed to this report.

February 7, 2013 (Ocotillo) –Russell Scott Graham, 48, a representative  at Pattern Energy’s Ocotillo Wind Express Facility, has been arrested after allegedly attempting to wrestle a camera away from an East County Magazine photographer and making violent threats, including one documented on  video during the attack. (Warning, coarse language.) According to the Imperial Valley Press and photographers documenting the project's daily progress for many months,  Graham is the construction manager at Pattern's site.

Freelance photographers Parke Ewing and Jim Pelley have spent months extensively documenting construction activities at the Ocotillo wind project.  Many of their videos and photos have been published by East County Magazine, including  photographic evidence that raised serious questions on whether the project is producing wind speeds claimed, as ECM previously reported in a story titled Where is the wind?

February 7, 2013 (Washington D.C.)--Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-San Diego) joined Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD) and more than two dozen of her colleagues in introducing a constitutional amendment to undo the Supreme Court ruling that allowed corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money on campaigns.

“We need to restore accountability in our political process,” said Rep. Davis. “We are supposed to have a government of the people, by the people, for the people. The integrity of our democracy is at stake when corporations can drown out the voices of the people in our elections.”

February 7, 2013 (San Diego) – Marsha Kay Seff, a former seniors writer for the Union Tribune, is teaching a class a class on storytelling at the College Avenue Older Adult Center, 4855 College Ave., on the first and third Wednesday of each month at 12:45 p.m.  The classes began February 6 and the next one will be Feb. 20.