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On Teaching Well: Using Classroom Instructional Strategies to Increase Your Teaching Effectiveness, by Dr. Dee L. Fabry (Ready or Not Press, Cheyenne, Wyoming, 2012).

Book Review by Dennis Moore

January 5, 2014 (San Diego)--Dee L. Fabry, Ph.D, along with 18 eighteen high school teachers in a graduate level course on effective teaching practice, shares their journey of improving the cognitive skills of students in Fabry’s groundbreaking book; On Teaching Well: Using Classroom Instructional Strategies to Increase Your Teaching Effectiveness.

The author, Associate Professor at National University, School of Education, Teacher Education Department in La Jolla, serves as the Master of Arts in Teaching Program Lead, teaching classroom teachers returning for their post graduate degrees. This makes her eminently qualified to lead these high school teachers in a graduate level course in effective teaching practice, which has resulted in this innovative book. Her research and scholarship is focused around improving teaching and student learning outcomes.

January 5, 2014 (El Cajon ) -- El Cajon Police requested the public’s assistance in identifying a suspect who was involved in two armed robberies that occurred on Monday December 30, 2013, Thursday January 2, 2014 and an attempted robbery on Wednesday January 1, 2014.

"Based on information received from tipsters and witnesses the suspect was located at an address in El Cajon," said Lt. Frank La Haye.  "The suspect was contacted as he was leaving an address on S. Magnolia.  After a brief foot chase he was apprehended without further incident in the 600 block of Van Houten Avenue."

January 4, 2014 - The La Mesa Chamber of Commerce announces that its first breakfast meeting of the year, with guest speaker Supervisor Dianne Jacob will be held on Tuesday, January 21 from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. at Marie Callenderʼs restaurant, 6950 Alvarado Road, San Diego, CA 92120.

The public is welcome to attend, along with Chamber members, to hear from Supervisor Jacob, whose 2^nd Supervisorial district includes 620,000 residents – the largest of San Diego County’s five supervisorial districts.

January 2, 2014 (McCain Valley) -- While hiking in McCain Valley north of Sacatone Road on New Year's Day, Laurie Baker and her husband encountered these two Peninsular Bighorn rams.

"What a pleasant surprise!" Baker exclaimed of her New Year's discovery -- an important sighting, since the draft environmental impact statement for Iberdrola Renewables' planned Tule Wind project in McCain Valley concludes that wind turbines aren "located outside of critical habitat areas and will not have any detrimental impacts on sheep."

Finding proof of the endangered animals doesn't assure their protection, however.  When Pattern Energy's Ocotillo Express Wind Facility was approved, the project's environmental report similarly concluded that the site was not bighorn habitat.  When photos of a herd of bighorn on the project site were sent to then Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, he issued take permits allowing up to 10 bighorn ewes and lambs to be killed, allowing the project to proceed at the expense of this critically endangered species which is at risk of extinction, according to the Bighorn Institute.

By Miriam Raftery

January 1, 2013 (Sacramento)--A flurry of new laws are slated to take effect in California in the New Year.  Here are a few of the new laws that could affect you, your family, or your business:

January 2, 2014 (La Mesa)--The Grossmont Healthcare District (GHD), the public agency that serves as landlord of Grossmont Hospital, has announced it is continuing negotiations with Sharp HealthCare to add another 30 years to its existing lease agreement for the operation of the La Mesa hospital.

The GHD board recently voted to finalize discussions with Sharp officials to extend the current 30-year lease, which was signed in 1991 and is scheduled to expire on May 30, 2021. The parties are discussing extending the lease to May 29, 2051.

By Jake Christie

December 29, 2013 (San Diego)--As a courtesy to the thousands of San Diego State University students who use Malcolm A. Love Library, the library administration recently held an open house of sorts to describe their plans for modernizing the Nixon-era structure-- plans that may take 20 years to finish and cost somewhere in the ballpark of $100 million. 

The presentation was held in the Leon Williams Room (fourth floor, Love Library) to an audience of 19 students and made by Stephanie Kingsnorth, an architect with Pfeiffer Partners Architects of Los Angeles.

January 2, 2014 (San Diego) – You’re invited to a star party with Mission Trails Regional Park guide and resident astronomer George Varga on Saturday, January 11 from 5 to 8 p.m.

The Moon is past First Quarter and waxing. Jupiter will be rising in the Eastern sky. Up for viewing are The Pleiades (Seven Sisters), the Double Cluster in Perseus, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) high overhead as well as the great Orion Nebula rising in the East.

By Ed Barrena

January 1, 2014 (San Diego) -- The bolts are in!   The Chargers will have an opportunity to compete for the Super Bowl this year as the cards remarkably fell in their favor last weekend.  The playoff picture was stacked with six teams vying for four seats in the American Football League (AFC).

 With losses in the morning by Baltimore Ravens and Miami Dolphins, the Chargers only needed to win against the Kansas City Chiefs to secure the sixth seat. The Chiefs had already secured the AMC fifth seat and benched some starters, however it was a close game.

January 1, 2013 (Pine Valley ) – Steven Brian Keith, 58, died in a holding cell on Christmas morning shortly after midnight  after being detained for possession of three pounds of marijuana at a Border Patrol checkpoint near Pine Valley.  A pipe with methamphetamine traces was also found in the trunk.

According to the County Medical Examiner, Keith was found unresponsive in his holdng cell. Paraemedics were summoned and CPR was initiated, but he failed to respond.

January 1, 2014  (San Diego’s East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news each week that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• Brain cancer vaccine trial begins  (BBC)
• Youth-drug can 'reverse' ageing (BBC)
• Cells from the eye are 'printed' for the first time (Jewish World Review)
• Why restaurants are scrimping on shrimp (Marketplace.org)

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

• Home electricity use in US falling to 2001 levels

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

January 1, 2014 (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/REGIONAL

• SDG&E, wind farm tangle in court (UT San Diego)
• Dry Year Takes Toll On San Diego River (KPBS)
• Scenic Baja California toll road that connects Tijuana, Ensenada collapses (KPBS)
• Mexican judge says Sempra LNG land belongs to rancher (SD Reader, Don Bauder)
• Lemon Grove council opts against pay raise (UT San Diego)
• Whale Traffic Jam Delights Visitors And Baffles Scientists (NPR)
• San Diego Lawmaker Wants State Community Colleges To Award 4-Year Degrees (KPBS)

STATE

• California has largest Native American population (Sacramento Bee)
• Federal Judge Says California Attorney General Kamala Harris Wrong on Gun Control Laws (SacBee)
• Could Big Batteries Be Big Business In California? (NPR)

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

By Miriam Raftery

December 31, 2013 (Alpine) – Residents of Alpine are pulling together to help a young couple whose home on Arnold Way was destroyed by a fire on Christmas Eve.

Shara Halverson and her boyfriend, Sean Barrett were away visiting friends when their home caught fire.  They have no renters insurance and lost almost everything in the flames, though they are grateful for small miracles.

NOTE: CORRECTED DATE

View map of all energy projects in our region to see cumulative impacts and disparate impact on rural areas

Judge to Decide Whether to Have Hearings on Nearly Half Billion Dollar SDG&E Power Line Project That Opponents Say Threatens Back Country Communities

January 31, 2014 (Alpine)--The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) will hold a prehearing conference at 1:30 p.m. February 5 in the Oak Room of the Alpine Community Center, 1830 Alpine Blvd. in Alpine regarding proposed SDG&E’s Master Special Use Permit project that wouldl impact communities throughout the San Diego backcountry from Pauma Valley to Potrero (north to south) and from Ramona to Boulevard (west to east). The project is so large that SDG&E estimates construction will take about five years. 

Administrative Law Judge Jean Vieth will determine if there will be full evidentiary hearings for this project or if this prehearing conference will be the only time the issues are heard. "In its application, SDG&E asked the CPUC for permission to construct this $418.5 million project without any hearings at all—their usual method of operation,"Backcountry Against Dumps, a nonprofit community organization, states in a press release.

Donna Tisdale, President of Backcountry against Dumps and Chair of the Boulevard Planning Group, voiced these concerns. “SDG&E’s project is being sold solely as fire-hardening but it appears to be an undisclosed stealth increase in carrying capacity that may directly or indirectly support numerous commercial solar projects that are already proposed along or near the route in Boulevard, Pine Valley, Descanso, Potrero, Julian, Ramona, and perhaps elsewhere that we are not yet aware of. Solar generation projects represent potential new fire ignition sources that cannot be de-energized during red flag wind events or other emergencies.”