(EDITOR’S NOTE: WHILE THE US GOVERNMENT HAS RE-OPENED FOR THREE WEEKS, THE ESCONDIDO MAYOR AND COUNCIL PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY SHUTDOWN GOES TO DAY 20 WITHOUT ANSWERS. It is Wednesday, Feb. 6. The Escondido mayor, and four council members, have yet to answer, or even acknowledge, they received, the series of questions listed below. These questions were emailed and Facebook messaged to each of them Thursday, Jan. 17,…
It was the best of times, for Rosie’s Cafe; it was the worst of times for Vinz Wine Bar/Continental Deli. Grand Avenue Escondido’s restaurant scene this week saw Rosie’s get a reality TV show makeover while Vinz Wine Bar and its associated Continental Deli went bye, Felicia. “Some exciting news from our neighbor, Rosie’s Cafe (formerly Champion’s,)” said Andy Granger, also known as Andy the Barber,…
It took 23 San Marcos City Council candidates over 2 1/2 hours Tuesday night at City Hall to present credentials and answer a handful of questions. It took Mayor Rebecca Jones, Vice-Mayor Sharon Jenkins and council members Randy Walton and Maria Nunez the governmental equivalent of a New York second, or about five minutes, seemingly to rubber-stamp Escondido Assistant City Manager Jay Petrek as their…
San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones and the San Marcos city council may be taking a curious approach to Tuesday’s city council member election. While most elections feature a few candidates and lots of voters, Jones and council have twisted that fact into an inverted pretzel. Do the math. At 6 pm. Tuesday, more than eight times the usual number of candidates for council possibly will…
Wall, stinking ridiculous wall. Thanks to Donald Trump’s government shutdown and faux emergency order centered around his infantile obsession with “The Wall,” we’ve been media- and Republican-bombarded with wall talk. As the case with any hot journalism story, it’s the pleasure of The Grapevine to join the fray. This is possible due to the great reporting from inewsource, the non-profit public investigations news site based…
Conflicting special election cost estimates and private lobbying of council members are just two of the lingering questions pertaining to the San Marcos City Council’s decision to appoint a new member for a 2-year term rather than allow voters to decide. After a final Thursday count, City Clerk Phil Scollick had received 24 – count ’em, 24 — applications in various stages of completion. Applicants…
Otherwise known as Rep. Duncan Hunter grifting out the string in 2019… Duncan Hunter’s 2019: No committee assignments, just the opportunity to run his mouth and vote against bills helping voters in California’s 50th Congressional District. And oh, by the way, a date with a U.S. District Court judge on Sept. 10. Hunter held on to his 50th district seat by just four percentage points…
San Marcos has an open city council seat. However, leaders won’t schedule an election. Instead, council members want to fill the seat themselves and appoint the new council member. Wait, what? On Tuesday, Dec. 11, council members voted unanimously to fill the seat left open by Rebecca Jones when she was elected mayor last month, by voting among themselves for a new member. Does that sound…
If San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones’ attempt to circumvent local voters by appointing a new City Council member next month instead of scheduling a special election sounds familiar, it is. It has happened before and Jones was the beneficiary of the new seat, her first political office, as a result. That happened in 2007 when then-mayor and newly elected San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond…
Mensch (Yiddish: מענטש mentsh, cognate with the German word Mensch meaning a “human being”) means “a person of integrity and honor”.[1] Highly savvy in the ways of journalism, and a brilliant analyst of the ways of the world, Bruce Kauffman was the very epitome of a mensch. He always was ready to lend an ear to a friend’s tale of joy or woe and help…