Margaret Hunter, a co-defendant in a federal fraud case with her husband Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Vapeville), changed her plea to guilty Thursday at a change of plea hearing in front of U.S. District Court Judge Thomas J. Whelan, at the San Diego courthouse. The couple misused about $250,000 in campaign donations for personal expenses, according to Hunter. In one incident, Rep. Hunter planned on buying a pair of…
Which war criminal will Donald Trump pardon next? Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Vapeville) thinks it should be this pig, Eddie Gallagher. Trump issued a full pardon earlier this week to Michael Behenna. A military court convicted the former Army lieutenant in 2009 for killing an Iraqi prisoner. Behenna claimed he shot Ali Mansur Mohamed, who was naked at the time, in self-defense. Who’s up next for…
Immigrants from Mexico and Central America seeking asylum in the United States frequently end up at border shelters in Tijuana, Mexico. They stay in them for weeks as they wait for the U.S. government to approve or deny their applications. Most of the refugees get sick during their journeys due to insufficient food, a lack of clean water and poor sanitation at camps and shelters…
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Vapeville) pretended to cross the Mexico border, and in the process got called out by his Democratic challenger, Ammar Campa-Najjar. Najjar said that if Hunter actually were crossing the border, it would violate his parole while awaiting federal trial for allegedly spending at least $250,000 of campaign funds on personal expenses. “The congressman and his wife, who at times also served as…
Many if not most Americans have never crossed the U.S. border with Mexico by land or spent any time in that region. This unfamiliarity can make it easy for politicians to distort what’s going on there and hard for immigration advocates and social movements to muster support for their primary goal: making U.S. policies toward undocumented people and asylum-seekers more humane. What can advocates for…
With oil companies blaming refinery issues, gasoline prices have risen in the last month to the highest prices in nearly four years, according to various sources. The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in San Diego County rose this week to its highest amount since Aug. 5, 2015, increasing 3.6 cents to $3.868. The average price has risen 22 consecutive days and…
Like the rest of the nation, influenza activity in the San Diego region remains elevated and widespread, according to San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency officials. Reports of lab-confirmed influenza dropped last week to 564 cases from the season high of 692 cases the week before. A new flu death was reported last week, bringing this season’s total to 55. At the same…
Score one for true independent craft beer today as the #TrueStonevsKeystone lawsuit continues. On Tuesday, March 26, a San Diego Federal Court judge issued its order regarding Stone’s preliminary injunction motion against one of the world’s largest beer conglomerates, MillerCoors. It confirmed “Stone’s mark to be commercially strong and recognizable,” deserving of “strong protection.” Miller Coors is infringing on the brewery’s trademark rights, according to…
There was a method to the madness of presenting San Francisco legend Herb Caen’s three-dot lounge history along with its various re-interpretations. That was to set up Escondido Grapevine’s own three-dot lounge approach to local and state news. For more about the concept, visit our story here. For more local three-dot news, keep on trucking below… Time to get smART at the Seventh Annual Escondido Youth…
New findings from the New York Federal Reserve reveal that millennials have now racked up over US$1 trillion of debt. This troubling amount of debt, an increase of over 22 percent in just five years, is more than any other generation in history. This situation may leave you wondering how millennials ended up in such a sorry state. As important as the debt is how…