In this upside-down year, Issa finds himself suddenly in danger of defeat, a prognosis worsened by his decision to embrace Donald J. Trump. VISTA, CA. — For more than 15 years, Representative Darrell Issa has not so much as put out a yard sign. A Republican comfortably ensconced in his Southern California seat, he has blown by one challenger after another since being elected in 2000. The days…
As the battle over the ballot measure to authorize construction of the Lilac Hills Ranch housing development enters its final weeks, the money behind the sides is emerging as a central issue in the debate. On the radio… The proposed Lilac Hills Ranch community is one of the most fiercely contested development projects in San Diego County. It’s made strange bedfellows of environmentalists and developers,…
California lawmakers have agreed to spend $5 million to open a first-in-the-nation gun violence research center, a move intended to circumvent a ban on federal firearm studies. The research center, which would be based at a campus in the University of California system, would take over a job the federal government dropped 20 years ago. In 1996, Congress — persuaded by then-U.S Rep. Jay Dickey,…
Darrell Issa, you’ve been served. And by POTUS no less. Issa just found what eight years of trolling President Obama and soon-to-be-president Hillary Clinton got him — a hot seat; a very, very hot seat. As chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Issa wasted a lot of congressional time and taxpayer money on tea party and trump trolling fictions like investigations into the…
Kristin Gaspar, the Encinitas mayor who is running for a seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, raised nearly three times as much money from individual donors as her opponent, incumbent District 3 Supervisor Dave Roberts, during the latest three-month filing period, financial disclosure forms show. Gaspar collected a total of $145,290 between July 1 and Sept. 24, compared to just $54,904 for…
RANCHO SANTA FE, CA. — No hacked and stolen emails needed, the truth is out there: President Obama is coming to town. Who says you can’t return to Crosby Estate again? The president last came to Rancho Santa Fe in October, 2015 where he played golf at The Crosby Estate and La Jolla’s Torrey Pines and, attended “a private event.” Besides the probable round of…
ESCONDIDO, CA. — Stop if you’ve heard this one before: Escondido city manager suddenly, and without warning, resigns. Clay Phillips, the last city manager, pulled that act almost exactly one year ago. He left office on Dec. 18, 2015. His successor, his former assistant, and city manager this year, Graham Mitchell pulled the same plug on Friday afternoon. “After serious reflection and for personal reasons,…
ESCONDIDO, CA. — In local birth news, it was a 4-pound baby girl for Kokomo and Winston, their second… Gorilla. A baby gorilla has been born at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, zoo officials said. The zoo announced Thursday that Kokomo, a critically endangered western lowland gorilla, gave birth to a daughter about two days ago. While the Kokomo kid weighs about 4 pounds,…
It was a classic and pretty much forgotten today radio-then-TV show, “Life of Riley,” starring William Bendix as wing riveter Chester A. Riley, who tag-lined in outrage “What a revoltin’ development this is,” when life, as it always seemed to on that venerable show, went wrong. It happened every week back then and it’s happening again around North County. Nobody in North County wants the…
Editor’s Note: Darrell Issa is an avid Trump surrogate. Scott Peters supports Hillary Clinton. San Diego-area Congressmen Darrell Issa and Scott Peters don’t have much in common beyond being the incumbents in San Diego County’s only seriously contested Congressional races. For one thing, there’s party affiliation. Peters is a Democrat while Issa is a Republican. For another, there’s tenure. Peters is fairly new to Congress, having…