March 2020

Coronavirus first responders on the front lines

When first responders answered roughly 10 calls from a long-term care center in Kirkland, Washington, over the course of a week, they did not expect to become patients themselves. Entering the Life Care Center of Kirkland last month exposed them to the novel coronavirus that sickens people with an illness known as COVID-19. Because the emergency calls came before authorities realized the virus was circulating…


You’ve got your sandbags, now what?

After a mostly dry February, the National Weather Service says San Diego County could possibly get heavy rains next week, so this could be a good time for residents in unincorporated areas  to pick up some free sandbags to help protect their properties. The County of San Diego and CAL FIRE are providing free sand and bags to residents in unincorporated areas at numerous fire…


International Women’s Day, anyone?

Today, March 8 is International Women’s Day. Honored throughout the world, free and otherwise — it used to be a staple for communist celebration in th Soviet union and Bloc — it generally gets short thrift in the United States. Said to commemorate an 1857 strike by women workers in New York, the effort to set aside a day to celebrate women’s achievements and assess…


Ammar rocks 50th, March 3 election results

Ammar Campa-Najjar led the way in 50th Congressional District and top county results Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar advanced to the run-off in the race to fill the vacancy left by disgraced former Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter in California’s 50th District. Campa-Najjar will likely face former Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who’s attempting a congressional comeback, and beat out former San Diego City Councilman Carl DeMaio in the all-party primary held on…


Escondido student blazes trail at Harvard

Escondido student Juan Reynoso is about to step into largely unchartered territory. When he graduates this spring, he’ll be only the second person to have completed a new joint Master in Public Health (MPH)/Master in Urban Planning (MUP) degree program. Launched in 2016 by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), the program allows students to pursue a…


Escondido Arch’s mystery $1 million donor?

A giant $1 million arch targeted to loom large over Grand Avenue just east of Centre City Parkway got a giant donation from a mystery donor. What gives? The heck with downtown homelessness, health care and community wellness projects.  The Escondido Community Foundation (ECF) under the auspices of the San Diego Foundation has been trying for several years for some reason to spend $1 million…


NYT columnist says this is ‘golden age’ of journalism at UC-Riverside lecture series

It may seem counter-intuitive considering the rapid decline of newspapers, but New York Times columnist Dave Leonhard told UC-Riverside students that “In terms of high-quality, ambitious journalism, we are living in a golden age right now.” Leonhard made that comment, and others, on Feb. 27 as he gave the 51st Hays Press-Enterprise Lecture on Feb. 27 at the UC Riverside Extension Center, 1200 University Ave, Riverside,…


Coastal wetlands protect property, study says

In coastal communities prone to hurricanes and tropical storms, people typically turn to engineered solutions for protection: levees, sea walls and the like. But a natural buffer in the form of wetlands may be the more cost-effective solution, according to new research from the University of California San Diego. In the most comprehensive study of its sort to date, UC San Diego economists show that…