North County

Gaspar outraises Roberts in D3 supe bowl

Kristin Gaspar, the Encinitas mayor who is running for a seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, raised nearly three times as much money from individual donors as her opponent, incumbent District 3 Supervisor Dave Roberts, during the latest three-month filing period, financial disclosure forms show. Gaspar collected a total of $145,290 between July 1 and Sept. 24, compared to just $54,904 for…


Issa’s and Peters’ voting records show contrasting degrees of party loyalty

Editor’s Note: Darrell Issa is an avid Trump surrogate. Scott Peters supports Hillary Clinton. San Diego-area Congressmen Darrell Issa and Scott Peters don’t have much in common beyond being the incumbents in San Diego County’s only seriously contested Congressional races. For one thing, there’s party affiliation. Peters is a Democrat while Issa is a Republican. For another, there’s tenure. Peters is fairly new to Congress, having…


Keeping up with the region, dam it

Dam it, Lake Hodges ESCONDIDO, CA. — San Diego County has 54 dams, including the venerable Lake Hodges Dam at Del Dios. State officials judge them all to be safe — an impressive feat considering that the average dam is 62 years old Inewsource filed Public Records Act requests with the California Division of Safety of Dams and 19 dam-owning public agencies, such as water districts, requesting the…


San Diego GOP gets $50K donation from Lilac Hills developer after endorsement

The developer of the controversial Lilac Hills Ranch project contributed $50,000 to the Republican Party of San Diego County shortly after the party voted to endorse the development. LHR Investment Company LLC — a subsidiary of developer Accretive Investments — made the donation on Sept. 21. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/286185205″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /] Tony Krvaric, chairman of the Republican Party of San Diego County, wrote in an…


Court leaves most of Lilac Hills Ranch opposition ballot statement standing

San Diego Superior Court Judge Eddie C. Sturgeon Wednesday told Lilac Hills Ranch supporters to forget about changing opposition ballot statements. Sturgeon denied the request of Lilac Hills Ranch advocates that opponents alter language in their ballot statement, in effect legitimizing the right of opponents to frame their arguments as they chose fit. “The court supported our concerns about Measure B,” James Gordon of the No on B…


What’s in a Lilac Hills Ranch ballot opponent argument?

What’s in a ballot measure opposition statement, Lilac Hills Ranch fans, should be settled by San Diego Superior Court Judge Eddie C. Sturgeon almost immediately following a Tuesday, Sept. 13 hearing. The ever-contentious, and litigious, question of placing 1,700 homes and 90,000 square feet of commercial space on agricultural land that is currently zoned to hold 110 new homes and no commercial space in very…


Krispy Kreme Tuesdays bites off more than it can chew at North County mall

 Krispy Kreme Tuesdays Burbank apparently bit off more than it could chew at Escondido’s Westfield North County regional mall last night. When the police and fumes cleared the vast parking lot and its environs, namely freeway feeder lanes and nearby exit/entrances, an estimated 1,500 to 2,500 Southern California vehicular flash mob enthusiasts were gone, if not forgotten. Not so coincidentally, the car show flash mob…


Two failings of our government

On the far northern fringes of coastal North County, within a mile or two of each other along Interstate 5, are two shameful symbols of the failings of our government. One is the border checkpoint, some 60 miles north of the border. Immigration reform is badly needed, but nothing seems to ever get done. Meanwhile, our border is so porous that the federal government feels…


Tale of two master-planned developments

347-home Rancho Tesoro began to take shape this month between Cal State University San Marcos and San Elijo Hills at San Marcos. Meanwhile, 550-home Safari Highlands around Escondido was put on hold due to continued environmental concerns and the need for another round of reports. Rancho Tesoro on the way in San Marcos What once was pristine hiking turf broke ground this month for the…


NCTD: Don’t tread on Sprinter tracks

The luckiest man in San Marcos spooked North County Transit District officials so much they tightened pedestrian trespassing enforcement this week. Meanwhile, the man who got struck by a Sprinter train traveling at 40 mph at the Palomar College Station is still at large after casually dusting himself off and walking eastbound on the NCTD tracks, presumably towards home.  “There’s an increasing problem we are…