2017

Want to escape? Take a stab at Clue Ave.

Part game, part theater, part team-building exercise, escape rooms are taking off around the world, and that includes Escondido and San Marcos. Growth has been explosive. The number of permanent rooms world-wide has gone from zero at the outset of 2010 to at least 2,800 worldwide today, according to MarketWatch calculations based on rooms registered to escape-room directories. The concept was birthed in Japan, spread…


Through Pulitzer photog Don Bartletti’s lens

California State University Bakersfield’s Walter Stiern Library Presents Program is exploring issues in immigration with a series of events through December. The series includes a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer, a documentary screening, and a poetry reading. The prize-winning photographer, Don Bartlett of the Los Angeles Times, spent a lot of time visiting migrant camps around North County San Diego, including Oceanside, Carlsbad, Fallbrook, Valley Center and Escondido….


Breeder’s Cup brings racing’s best to town

For the first time ever, the world-famous Breeder’s Cup graces the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club where, of course, the surf, as always, meets the hallowed turf. Located in the Southern California sweet spot that is the beach town of Del Mar, the historic racetrack known as Del Mar sits astride the Pacific Ocean where the dancing summer sea breezes and the sparkling sun make it…


Trump targets Issa, the last Cal Republicans

It’s hard to know exactly what shape Republican “tax reform” will take. Many details are missing from the “framework” that the administration presented last month. (Describing actions, or promises of action, by the Donald Trump administration often necessitates the use of quotation marks.) But it must have seemed a good idea to someone to complement Trump’s culture war against liberals with a fiscal war. The…


Whacking Welk: Et tu theatre, time shares

The year of no Welk Resort Theatre For nearly four decades, Welk Resort Theatre has showcased all manner of live stage shows at a 309-seat showcase. That tradition comes to an end with the final performance of “A Christmas Carol” on Dec. 31. Following the Dickens of a show, the string of live dinner shows at the north Escondido resort dating to 1981 comes to an…


Local farms hurt by lack of workers

Across San Diego County and California, farmers and ranchers face chronic problems in finding and hiring qualified and willing people to work in agriculture, according to a survey conducted by the California Farm Bureau Federation. The informal survey of Farm Bureau members showed that more than half of responding farmers had experienced employee shortages during the past year. The figure was higher among farmers who…


How much more of an ‘F.U.’ can Californians send the Republican Party?

What is to be done in 2018 and beyond, to get the country back on track? Just how liberal is California? It’s the home state of Amanda Chantal Bacon’s Moon Juice and a shit-ton of cannabis — but it’s also the headquarters of Scientology, the launchpad and burial place of Ronald Reagan, and where the landmark 1978 anti-tax measure Prop 13 still polls remarkably well. So how…


Temecula Valley wine $78M annual industry

New 2016 Temecula Valley Wine Country Impact Report profiles vineyards and wineries as a pillar of the Temecula Valley tourism economy. The Temecula Valley American Viticultural Area (AVA) has an annual economic impact of $78 million to the regional economy, and supports 4,800 jobs, according to Visit Temecula Valley (VTV) The group this week released results of its 2016 Temecula Valley Southern California Wine Country economic impact…


How Palomar Medical Center would deal with a Las Vegas-type mass casualty event

The tragic mass casualty shooting event occurring in Las Vegas this week tested the limits of the area’s trauma and emergency response systems. It may have raised questions in your mind about humanity and, oh by the way, how San Diego County and Palomar Medical Center Escondido, North County’s only trauma center, would respond in a similar circumstance. Palomar Health Trauma Medical Director John Steele,…


Central Valley farm worker deportation tango

(Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared this week in Fair Warning, a non-profit independent investigative report on safety, health and corporate conduct news. Fair Warning partners with the Local Independent Online Publishers (LION) group to which The Escondido Grapevine belongs. This article related to California immigration and agriculture is part of a story-sharing arrangement between LION and Fair Warning.) As an attorney representing California Central…