North County

Bottom feeding DeMaio carpet bags the 50th

Talk show radio host and quixotic conservative crusader Carl DeMaio has announced he’ll seek the 50th District congressional seat currently held by Rep. Duncan Hunter, despite living in the Rancho Bernardo area — outside the district. The law only requires that he be a resident of the state. Here’s a snip from the press release announcing his candidacy: Today longtime taxpayer advocate and Reform California…


RePlanet recycling centers circle the drain

California’s largest operator of recycling redemption centers abruptly shut down Monday and laid off 750 employees. RePlanet pulled the plug on all 284 of its centers, and company president David Lawrence said the decision was driven by increased business costs and falling prices of recycled aluminum and PET plastic. The recycling center, generally operated by one or two employees in kiosks at shopping centers anchored…


San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station remains public scandal despite shutdown

Two recent scandals confirm that public safety is not top priority of either the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) or SoCal Edison as they lurch forward with a faulty engineering design for removing spent nuclear waste from cooling pools and loading into dry storage at the now shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. In August 2018, a conscience-driven whistle blower exposed how, because of a system…


Del Rey Avocado Co. opens new Vista plant

Fallbrook-based Del Rey Avocado Co., expanded its operations this year by opening up a new facility in nearby Vista that added 43,000 square feet of cold storage and ripening room space to its existing footprint in San Diego County. Since 1969, Del Rey Avocado Co. has operated from the same facilities in Fallbrook, California (northern San Diego County). For the last several years, the company knew…


SD County ag output dipped slightly in 2018

Three of San Diego County’s Top 10 Crops reached their highest total values in the past decade in the annual Crop Report released by the County this week, while total agriculture values dipped slightly after two straight years of increase. The total value of all agricultural crops and commodities slipped by one-quarter of 1% in the new report, which covers the 2018 growing season, decreasing…


Wildlife habitat gets break around Wohlford

The Escondido Creek Conservancy (Conservancy) has secured $4.2 million in grant funds from the State of California to protect the 282-acre John Henry property near Lake Wohlford—now known as George Sardina, MD Preserve. The Conservancy took ownership of the property on July 2 and is already making plans to restore areas damaged by past uses. Between the George Sardina, MD Preserve and the 693-acre Mountain…


CSUSM lecturer tracks ‘Lone Woman’ legend

Like millions of parents over the last half-century, Tom Holm read “Island of the Blue Dolphins” to his daughter when she was in elementary school. The classic 1960 children’s novel by Scott O’Dell chronicles the tale of a 12-year-old girl named Karana who’s stranded alone for years on an island off the coast of Southern California.   Holm’s daughter, Jacqueline, enjoyed the book so much that…


San Diego County Fair this way comes

Strap on the fried food feed bag, bundle up the kids and get down to the Del Mar Fairgrounds — It’s San Diego County Fair go time again. “Wizard of Oz” is this year’s theme at San Diego County Fair, harkening to its origins as an agricultural fair in 1880. The location moved from place to place for several years, finally settling on the Del…


Duncan Hunter’s military justice Bizarro World

In this week’s episode of backwards military justice practice, Representative Duncan Hunter Jr., has continued his pattern of interfering with the administration of justice in the court-martial case of accused war criminal US Navy SEAL Chief Petty Officer Eddie Gallagher. If being a federally-indicted vaping Congressman weren’t enough to solidify his place on the list of most clueless and corrupt in Congress, Hunter has set…


North County mixed bag: Buses, rents, beer

Buses to nowhere North County Transit District is eliminating about 90 bus stops from the more than 1,800 stops on 30 routes in its Breeze service area in April. Most of the bus stops to be discontinued have fewer than five daily riders, fail to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and have other stops within walking distance, said Kimberly Hayford, the transit district’s…