Following peaceful protests over the weekend that sometimes turned violent, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department instated a curfew on Monday, June 1, 2020 and protests have still continued. According to Martha Montoya, who sits on the State Board of Food and Agriculture, the protests have been disrupting access to markets for small farmers, who are already struggling to adapt during the pandemic. “It’s a tough situation,” said Montoya…
IN SUMMARY Despite investing more than any other state, California’s response rate is off more than 10% from the final 2010 count. Even with extensions, there’s a possibility for a record low turnout that would sink the state’s $187 million investment. Heather Heckler was counting on buying census ads in four weekly newspapers that have long served Plumas County, located in the northern Sierra Nevada….
Hundreds more Imperial County residents will soon be able to get checked for COVID-19 after state officials designated the area a “testing desert.” County officials said Monday the state is expected to open a local testing site by May 4. The site will be able to test 130 residents a day, said Dr. Stephen Munday, the county’s health officer. Only about 1,600 of Imperial County’s…
As doctors and consumers are forced to put most nonemergency procedures on hold, many health insurers foresee strong profits. So why is the industry looking to Congress for help? Insurers say that while that falloff in claims for non-COVID care is offsetting for now many insurers’ costs associated with the pandemic, the future is far more fraught. Costs could remain modest or quickly outstrip savings….
San Diego County and California prisons and jails were being emptied of prisoners this week, part of a dramatic release of inmates aimed at slowing the spread of the virus, which can race through institutional populations with deadly impact. The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department released around 400 inmates without bail Wednesday and Thursday in compliance with a state order to reduce prison populations to prevent…
Loss of business due to mass closures of restaurants, schools and corporate cafeterias in response to COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders has small farms looking to collaborate as they try to adapt to the crisis by finding new markets and changing sales strategies, according to Ching Lee, an assistant editor of Ag Alert, published by the California Farm Bureau. During a webinar last week aimed at helping…
Sick of the coronavirus, this may take one’s mind off it: Anza had a 4.9 earthquake that shook San Diego County and rain is on the way this week. Good times. Looking backwards a bit, as the county recorded its 17th coronavirus death on Friday, April 3 — an 18th person died Saturday — the earth shook in a different way. A magnitude 4.9 earthquake…
California’s hospitals thought they were ready for the next big disaster. They’ve retrofitted their buildings to withstand a major earthquake and whisked patients out of danger during deadly wildfires. They’ve kept patients alive with backup generators amid sweeping power shutoffs and trained their staff to thwart would-be shooters. But nothing has prepared them for a crisis of the magnitude facing hospitals today. “We’re in a…
Now that the state of California has defined certified farmers markets as an essential service for food supplies, a number of markets that had been shut a week earlier by local governments and property owners are back up and running. Market operators continue efforts to reopen other markets. “The state Office of Emergency Services has made it clear: People involved in agriculture, food production, distribution…
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 news. For more about the concept, visit our story here. For more local three-dot news, keep on trucking below… Lake Hodges Wildlife gets down to business First came the mating of…