Articles by dweisman

3rd Annual Dine-Out Escondido! starts now

Local eateries have signed up by the baker’s dozen baker’s dozen for Escondido’s 3rd Annual Dine-Out Escondido! restaurant week Jan. 24 to Jan 30. It’s all happening in conjunction with  Visit California’s annual “California Restaurant Month.” Twenty-eight restaurants have signed on as they turn Escondido into culinary town. New restaurants joining includeThe Wooden Spoon, Burger Bench, Hacienda de Vega, Cute Cakes, Sunny Side Kitchen, A…


It’s always baseball season around here

The heck with football and basketball. The hardy boys of winter took to Valley Center Little League’s La Vine Field on Sunday, gloves and big league hopes in hand. “We’re just having fun, some pitching, some hitting, pretty much hanging out” said Dylan McFadden, a Valley Center High School sophomore, and second baseman, between hacks at the batting cage in the far northern reaches of…


Tale of two approaches to medical marijuana

Medical marijuana continued to be a hot button topic around Escondido and North County this month. Escondido City Council members, again, banned medical marijuana dispensaries within city limits while a proposed dispensary in unincorporated Escondido appeared headed for approval by San Diego County regulators. Escondido wasn’t along in banning dispensaries this month. Poway’s city council took the same actions as officials there said they needed…


Goodwill Industries Thrift Shop digs out from El Nino damage

Even as Escondido’s venerable Goodwill Industries Thrift Shop was being cleaned up after El Nino huffed and puffed and blew it’s roof down, donations kept coming. And Goodwill officials already were looking toward a grand re-opening celebration, the entire community invited. “We’re still accepting donations here,” said Beth Forsberg, Goodwill Industries of San Diego County vice president, retail and operations, standing in the shadows of…


Escondido Union School District under fire

Forget about basketball courts, the Escondido Union School District (EUSD) is playing its games this month at Vista Superior Court. Judge Richard Whitney in Department 21 may make his ruling at any time, but clearly nobody truly will be called a winner. In any event, without a settlement, the court dispute could last past Valentine’s Day, fittingly enough. With Whitney more like a school yard…


Who says you can’t have too much news?

The Grapevine is out of the bag, or at least this month’s print issue. Even as you read this, San Dieguito Printer is cranking out the fourth edition of The Grapevine 16-page print newspaper. It will hit the streets at Grand Avenue and selected locations around Escondido, San Marcos and Valley Center on Friday. We welcome several new advertising partners including California Center for the Arts,…


Escondido police raid massage parlors

Remember when Escondido Police last closed down a local massage parlor allegedly involved in prostitution? Seemed like just last month. Or cracked down on human trafficking, this time last September? Guess what? Theeeeey’re back. Police, that is, raiding even more Escondido massage parlors allegedly engaged in illegal activity, this time of the municipal code violation or other civil miscreant kind. “Although the majority of massage…


pH Miracle naturopath Robert Young on trial

The trial of Valley Center’s Robert Oldham Young, best known for his pH Miracle Living Center, and popular series of books advocating an alkaline diet, resumed this month, more than 60 days after opening statements began in November. Young faces nine charges in Vista Superior Court filed in late 2014 related to activities at his Valley Center ranch including two counts of grand theft and…


Three Escondido projects awarded $7.5 million in state water grants

Escondido farmers, habitat and conservation lovers and San Diego Zoo Safari Park visitors got some good news this week as the San Diego County Water Authority announced that $7.5 million in state water grants were awarded locally. “The city of Escondido received a $2 million grant for recycled water,” San Diego County Farm Bureau executive director Eric Larson said at the group’s E Valley Parkway…


Wheelchair-using man killed by truck in Palomar Medical Center parking area

Death is never far from a hospital, but in the case of James Donaldson, 63, of Oceanside, death came at a Palomar Medical Center parking area. Donaldson died as a friend pushed him in his wheelchair across the emergency room’s parking area’s front entrance street at 2185 Citracado Parkway, just before 6 p.m. Saturday, according to Escondido police. An 89-year-old man, later identified as John…