By Miriam Raftery

December 12, 2022 (La Mesa) – Patricia Dillard and Laura Lothian have won their races for the La Mesa City Council.  According to the final certified results, Dillard will fill the seat vacated by Bill Baber’s retirement, drawing 8,600 votes, or 23.92%, while Councilmember Lothian won reelection with 8,414 votes or 23.40% -- just 11 votes above civil rights activist Mejgan Afshan, who got 8,403 votes, or 23.37%.

View video:  https://vimeo.com/779358017

East County News Service

December 12, 2022 (Lemon Grove) – The Sheriff’s Department seeks public help to identify a man seen on surveillance video setting fire to the Kiva Learning Center for Women and Children in Lemon Grove shortly after noon on Nov. 19. The facility is located at the McAlister Institute in the 2000 block of Skyline Drive in Lemon Grove.

East County News Service

December 10, 2022 (Julian/El Cajon) - San Diego Blood Bank will host two blood drives during Christmas week.  Julian Branch Library will host a blood drive on Wednesday, December 21 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.  Kaiser Permanente Travelodge will also host a blood drive on Thursday, December 22 from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at 250 S. Travelodge Drive, El Cajon 92020.

East County News Service

December 10, 2022 (Lakeside) - Four people have been arrested in connection with a shooting in Lakeside that left a teenager in critical condition.

East County News Service

December 7, 2022 (El Cajon) - Last night, El Cajon Police officers and paramedics responded to 724 Fletcher Parkway to assist in a call of a pedestrian that had been struck by a vehicle. Police officers arrived and found a man unconscious in the roadway. The man was transported to Scripps Mercy Hospital where he was pronounced deceased. The identity of the 89-year-old man is known.  However, his name is being withheld pending notification of family.

By Miriam Raftery

File photo:  snow at Lake Cuyamaca

December 6, 2022 (San Diego’s East County) – A storm system is bringing rain this week to area valleys and mountains. After last night’s rainfall, a new storm system will move in Tuesday, with light rains and colder weather. A dusting of snow is forecast as low as 4,500 in East County’s mountain communities.

Winds and wet weather may produce difficult driving conditions. Wind gusts could reach up to 55 miles per hour over mountain peaks and ridges, and through wind-prone canyons and passes. Use caution, particularly with high-profile vehicles.  Be prepared for delays and carry chains if driving at higher elevations.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: El Capitan County Preserve

Update: The victim has been identified as 22-year-old Nathaniel Takatsuno, who had reportedly been free climbing without a rope when he fell 200 feet, Times of San Diego reports.

December 5, 2022 (Lakeside) – The body of a rock climber who fell to his death yesterday on El Cajon Mountain, located in the El Capitan County Preserve in Lakeside was recovered today by a Sheriff’s helicopter crew.

By Miriam Raftery

December 5, 2022 (Jamul) – The Jamul Dulzura Community Planning Group (JDCPG) held two public hearings on the Jamul Casino Hotel and Event Center project planned by Jamul Indian Village (JIV). On November 19, the planning group chair Preston Brown sent a letter to JIV Chairwoman Erica Pinto stating that the tribal environmental impact report (TEIR) was “extraordinarily incomplete and premature for a project of this magnitude.” The planning group recommended the No Project Alternative.

The hotel would be 16 stories with floor-to-ceiling glass; the project would also include an indoor-outdoor event center and additional parking, but no new gaming.

ECM reached out to Chairwoman Pinto to request an interview. She initially agreed, but cancelled due to a trip to Washington D.C. to meet with Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on other matters.  ECM sent written questions and requested a new interview date, but no response has yet been received. The Jamul Casino employees approximately 1,000 people and has provided economic security for the Jamul Indian Village of California's tribal members, many of whom lived in poverty in the past. The new project, if built, would significantly expand employment opportunities in the area as well as economic growth for the tribe.

County planner Scott Christman has said the project does not need approval of county Supervisors or the Governor, and the tribe has previously indicated it hoped to begin construction this month. However the the JDCPG contends that since the casino was built based on certain conditions and legal requirements being met, some of which have not been completed, the project thus does need approval/cooperation/participation of both Supervisors and the Governor.

By Susan Taylor

Photos courtesy San Diego Sheriff's Department

December 4, 2022 (La Mesa) -- At 9 a.m. on Saturday, Dec.3, cars pulled into the parking lot across from the La Mesa Civic Center with guns that the drivers wanted to unload.  Organized by the San Diego County Sheriff and the City of La Mesa, assisted by El Cajon police, the event resulted in 160 firearms handed over in exchange for gift cards to Target stores.

East County News Service

December 4, 2022 (Santee) - Take a good look at this sketch. This man is wanted in connection with an attempted robbery in Santee on Friday, November 25 and for striking two women with the dark green pickup truck he was driving.

By Miriam Raftery

December 1, 2022 (La Mesa) – With two seats open on the La Mesa City Council, the latest returns reported tonight by the San Diego Registrar of Voters are so tight that a recount may be in the cards.

By Miriam Raftery

November 30, 2022 (La Mesa)  -- A $1,000 reward is offered for information leading to an arrest in the case of Cassidy Hopwood, an El Cajon teen who went missing in February. Her body was found March 13 behind a business in the 7900 block of El Cajon Blvd. in La Mesa, but she was not identified until November. 

Source:  goaztecs.com

Photo courtesy goaztecs.com

November 29, 2022 (San Diego) - San Diego State football’s Jack Browning has been named the Mountain West Special Teams Player of the Year, the league announced Tuesday. An Aztec has now won the award five times (all over the last eight years), the most in the 24-year history of MW.

East County News Service

November 27, 2022 (Inaja) – Claudia White took this photo of the Inaja Memorial between Santa Ysabel and Julian, where she stopped to remember the 11 men who lost their lives battling the Inaja Fire on November 25, 1956.  She writes, “My husband, Dean White, was across the canyon on the same fire. He was affected by what they saw and heard for the rest of his life. He was especially saddened by the death of his friend Carlton Lingo.”