March 2025

By Miriam Raftery

Photo, left: photos of some items stolen Feb. 23 from Hatfield Creek Winery’s owner

March 6, 2025 (Ramona) – The Sheriff’s department seeks public help to find robbers who stole nearly $15,000 worth of jewelry and collectible coins from the owner’s home at Hatfield Creek Vineyard and Winery on State Route 78 in Ramona.

Crimestoppers is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the thieves, who may have targeted two other Ramona wineries on the same day, February 23. 

By Miriam Raftery

March 5, 2025 (San Diego’s East County) – A major storm system will bring strong winds and rain across our region, with heavy snow forecast starting tonight in East County mountains.  Mount Laguna could receive up to a foot of snow, with up to eight inches on Palomar Mountain and three inches in Julian by Friday morning. Heavy snow will make it difficult to travel above 4,000 feet in elevation.

In urban areas, flooding is possible.  El Cajon, La Mesa, and other areas are expected to receive up to an inch and a half of rain, the National Weather Service predicts.

Along the coast, a small craft advisory is in effect through Friday morning due to expected high surf and high seas.

March 5, 2025 (San Diego’s East County) -- East County Roundup highlights top stories of interest to East County and San Diego's inland regions, published in other media.  This week's round-up stories include:

LOCAL

• More Industrial Chemicals Found in Sweetwater Reservoir (Voice of San Diego
• Keeping Lakeside egg ranch flu-free takes constant vigilance. Would a vaccine help?  (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• ‘Daylighting' law to be enforced in San Diego starting Saturday (NBC San Diego)
• La Mesa’s ‘Parking T’ program aims to end street parking headaches (CBS)
• Trump cuts to NOAA already felt in San Diego (KPBS)
• Could NOAA layoffs affect San Diego? (Fox 5)
• Report finds illnesses among Navy SEALs training in polluted water in San Diego (NBC San Diego)
• Santee School District one of few performing above pre-pandemic levels in math and reading (KPBS)
•  Air Pollution Control District to begin distributing air purifiers to South Bay residents (KPBS)
• San Diego's congressional Democrats send letter opposing science funding cuts (KPBS)
• Family shares history of mental illness in El Cajon man arrested for mother's death (10 News)
• Sobering times for some San Diego breweries as closures rise (NBC 7)

STATE

•  Bill aims to prohibit 'surveillance pricing' based on customers’ online behavior (KPBS)
• ‘It was just a regular morning’: Californians picked up in recent ICE raids include kids, volunteers (KPBS)
• LA mayor dismisses fire chief over response to most destructive wildfire in city history last month (AP)
• Big homeowner rate hike from State Farm shot down by California regulator
• Trump funding freeze includes payments to keep the Colorado River flowing (NPR)
• Power lines sparked new fires in LA after the Eaton Fire began, radio traffic shows (NPR)
• California homeowners will have to fund half of high-risk insurer's $1 billion ‘bailout’ (Cal Matters)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click  “read more” and scroll down.

San Diego State had four players in double figures and held New Mexico, which is scoring 83 points a game, to 65 in a 73-65 win.

Source:  goaztecs.com

Photo courtesy goaztecs.com

March 5, 2025 (San Diego) - The San Diego State men’s basketball team had four players in double figures, including a career-high matching 10 points from forward Miles Heide, and defeated New Mexico, the team at the top of the Mountain West standings, 73-65 at Steve Fisher Court at Viejas Arena on Tuesday night.

By Chris Jennewein, Times of San Diego, a member of the San Diego Online News Association

Photo:  President Donald Trump addresses Congress.  Screenshot from C-SPAN

March 5, 2025 (Washington, D.C.) - President Donald Trump told Congress Tuesday that “the American dream is surging bigger and better than ever before” and promised that new tariffs on Mexico — despite worrying San Diego businesses — will help achieve that goal.

Local Assemblyman working to minimize surveillance pricing, while new FTC chairman blocks public comments

By G. A. McNeeley 

March 5, 2025 (San Diego) -- Most people might not know that companies with an online presence are using personal information about customer’s buying habits to charge them a higher price for products, if they think you’re likely to pay it. This is a practice known as “surveillance pricing.” 

This practice has spread in recent years, according to consumer and privacy watchdogs, and it’s become increasingly difficult to escape, no matter how often we clear our cookies or tighten our privacy settings. 

But with the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman blocking consumer comments and not taking action at a national level, state legislators are stepping up to the plate. 

By Miriam Raftery

March 3, 2025 (Washington D.C.) – Threats issued by President Donald Trump targeting colleges, universities and student protesters are illegal and unconstitutional, according to legal and civil liberties experts.

Today, Trump posted on his social media account, “All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came.  American students will be permanently expelled or depending on on the crime, arrested.NO MASKS!”

The post comes on the heels of two executive orders issued by Trump which seek to pressure higher education officials to target immigrant students and staff for exercising First Amendment freedom of spech rights, including pro-Palestinian protesterrs or students critical of the U.S. government, culture, institutions or founding principals. Today's Truth Social post goes further, demanding that even students who are U.S. citizens be expelled and imprisoned for participating in campus protests if deemed "illegal.".

March 4, 2025 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• Trump administration firings hit key office handling bird flu response (Politico)
• As measles cases rise in the U.S., some adults may need a vaccine booster   (NPR)
•  FDA links deadly listeria outbreak to frozen nutritional shakes(KPBS)
• Emulsifiers Make Food More Appealing. Do They Also Make You Sick? (Wall St.Journal)
• To solve for doctor shortages, states ease licensing for foreign-trained physicians  (NPR)
• Exercise may help patients with colon cancer live as long as those who never had it, study suggests (CNN)
• RFK Jr. Just Kneecapped the CDC on His First Day (New Republic)
• It's like 'dead birds flying': How bird flu is spreading in the wild (NPR)

SCIENCE AND TECH

• Exclusive: FDA staff reviewing Musk’s Neuralink were included in DOGE employee firings, sources say (Reuters)
• Cryptocurrency exchange says it was victim of $1.5 billion hack (AP)
• Predatory app downloaded 100,000 times from Google Play Store steals data, uses it for blackmail (Malwarebytes)
• Plane that flipped over in Canada highlights some of the dangers of holding kids on your lap  (AP)
• Musk has inside track to take over contract to fix air traffic communications system (AP)
• Elon Musk's DOGE Website Being 'Hacked' Sparks Mockery (Newsweek)

For excerpts and links to full stories,click  “read more” and scroll down.

East County News Service
March 4, 2025 (Jacumba Hot Springs) -- A man is facing assault with a deadly weapon and other serious charges after a search of his property in Jacumba uncovered firearms, explosives and booby traps, says Lieutenant Jeff Ford with the San Diego County Sheriff’s department.

East County News Service

March 3, 2025 (Washington D.C.) – Calling a measles outbreak now in nine states a “call to action,” U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has posted a message on the agency’s website titled “MMR vaccine is crucial to avoiding potentially deadly disease.” 

Kennedy, a noted skeptic of some vaccines, is now urging all Americans to get vaccinated for measles. The CDC recommends that adults born after 1957 who received the vaccine before 1968 should get a booster shot.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,  164 measles cases have been reported in nine different states, including Alaska, California, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, and Texas.  In Texas, which has 146 cases since January, a child has died of measles and 20 patients have been hospitalized.