By Buck Shott

June 7, 2010 – With Election Day tomorrow, last-minute endorsements and attacks are rolling out. Here’s a wrap-up on the latest political wrangling on the campaign trail:

By Miriam Raftery

June 5, 2010 (San Diego’s East County) – After 43 years in public service, Grossmont Union High School Superintendent Robert “Bob” Collins is leaving the public sector to accept a position with a private company. Yesterday, community leaders in business, education and government held a surprise send-off event at Monte Vista Village in Lemon Grove to honor Collins.
 

The City and County both declared Friday, June 4th as “Robert Collins Day.” Charlene Zettel presented a proclamation from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Supervisor Dianne Jacob praised Collins as “best in class” and joked, “Our strategy is to weight you down with so many awards and proclamations that you will decide not to leave.”

HUNDREDS OF JOBS FOR LOCAL WORKERS: 

LMI teams up with Urban League, Heartland Coalition,  Progressive Environmental Services and Job Corps to address nation's worst environmental disaster

Update June 14:  LMI's team of 50 trained local workers have been delayed departing for the Gulf because BP has failed to provide payment for their transportation.  Hanson has called for President Obama to set up an escrow fund with BP money to be used to expedite cleanup of the spill. 

By Miriam Raftery
 

June 5, 2010 (San Diego) – “This is an unprecedented oil    spill,” Lakeside resident Mark Hanson, chief executive officer of Leadership Management International in San Diego, told a crowd of eager job applicants assembled at Urban League in San Diego yesterday. “Oil is now landing on one of the most pristine coasts in Florida and satellite images show a reddish glob of goop in the ocean that’s the size of several states.” 

Hanson, who also heads up Heartland Coalition, publisher of East County Magazine, led the successful effort for LMI to obtain a contract from Progressive Environmental Services (PES) of Virginia to provide hazardous materials training locally and ultimately send hundred of San Diego-area workers to Gulf coast states to assist in cleaning up oil from beaches, coastal wetlands, waterways and wildlife.

“Do what’s in your heart, and you will succeed.” – Valedictorian Bushra Rezoqi, an Iraqi immigrant and mother of three young children

June 4, 2010 (El Cajon) – Under a bright summer evening sky, students looking forward to a bright future were urged to have hope and to persevere no matter the odds at the 32nd annual Cuyamaca College commencement ceremony on Wednesday, June 2nd.

Class of 2010 Valedictorian Bushra Rezoqi shared her own story of hope, optimism and persistence in her address. A Chaldean immigrant who fled her native Iraq in 2001, Rezoqi first lived in Colombia and Ecuador, learning Spanish as her third language before she came to San Diego.  At the podium, Rezoqi said, “How is it possible I stand here today, speaking to you in my fourth language?”

June 3, 2010 (Sacramento) By a unanimous 65-0 vote, the state Assembly today passed Chelsea’s Law, AB 1844.  Named for murdered Poway High School student Chelsea King, the measure toughens penalties on child predators and creates a one-strike law for the most serious offenders.

Local Republicans vote “no” on measures to help local college students

June 3, 2010 (Sacramento) -- The California State Assembly has approved two bills by Assemblymember Marty Block (D-Lemon Grove) that would change an admissions policy change at San Diego State University (SDSU) which denied admission to 1,740 local students who met all CSU requirements. AB 2402 calls for increased transparency when California State University (CSU) campuses change admissions policies that affect local students. AB 2401 would formally reinstate local admissions priority for CSU campuses to students in the region who meet admissions requirements.

San Diego County Democratic legislators Marty Block, Mary Salas, and Lori Saldaña voted for the measures. Assembly Republicans Joel Anderson, Martin Garrick, Kevin Jeffries and Diane Harkey voted against the bills, which will provide opportunities for more local students to attend college and save money while living at home.

By Miriam Raftery

June 2, 2010 (San Diego’s East County) – Ray Lutz, Democratic candidate for the 52nd Congressional District, praised the U.S. Senate's confirmation of Laura Duffy as new U.S. Attorney in San Diegio.  Duffy, appointed by President Barack Obama,  fills the position once held by Carol Lam, "who was surprisingly dismissed after she successfully prosecuted Randy 'Duke' Cunningham, Dusty Foggo and Brent Wilkes," noted Lutz.

Lam, along with numerous other U.S. Attorneys, was fired by the George W. Bush administration despite winning a conviction against then-Congressman Cunningham for bribery and other charges. Suggestions have long been made by critics of the Bush administration that Lam’s abrupt dismissal may have been an effort to squelch her investigation into another powerful Congressman – Duncan Hunter, then chair of the House Armed Services Committee.

Up! Down! Flying Around.

Looping The Loop And Defying The Ground.

They're All, Rightfully, Kings!

Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines.
 

June 2, 2010 (Santee) -- All service has been halted to the Gillespie Field and Santee Town Center trolley stations due to a downed plane in Santee. The plane came down on Cuyamaca Street at Prospect Avenue, where the trolley operates in the median, and took with it an estimated 150 feet of catenary wire which powers the trolley. The stations are expected to be closed through Thursday.

The plane had taken off from Gillespie Field when the pilot experience mechanical problems and turned back. The plane clipped trolley lines, crashing upside down onto a roadway.  Rescue workers had to wait for trolley lines to be deenergized before rescuing the pilot and sole occupant, who complained of numbness in his arm and was transported to a local hospital for treatment.  

June 2, 2010 10:50 a.m. (Santee) -- A small plane has crashed at Weld and Cuyamaca in Santee.  The plane is upside down in the road and the pilot is trapped inside. Power lines are down and roads are being shut down in the vicinity.

Due to a seasonal influx of kittens in the County's three animal shelters, the County Department of Animal Services will waive all adoption fees, beginning today, June 1 through September 4, for cats six months and older. Only two cats per person can be adopted.

June 1, 2010 12:58 p.m. (Lakeside) – Structures were briefly threatened in a one-acre brush fire reported at 12:40 p.m. today in Del Sol and Los Coches Road. Full brush response, air support and mutual aid from multiple agencies  were requested by Santee Fire.