El Cajon, CA
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Articles by Ana Nita

Lakeside community turns out to support fundraiser for construction of new, state-of-the-art library

Braving the heavy rain on Saturday night, Mar. 10, the community of Lakeside came together in large number at the Lakeside Rodeo Grounds to support the inaugural St. Patrick’s fundraising dinner organized by the Lakeside Friends of the Library with help from the newly formed East County Optimist club, Lakeside Chamber of Commerce and the Lakeside Miss Teen Pageant team.  

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Lakeside Equestrian Park galloping toward completion

 "This is St. Patrick’s Day and we thought it would be a good time to get people out and spend their money for a good cause,” laughs legendary Lakeside rancher Donald Bright, also known as  “Donnie” by his friends, well respected for his several decades worth of community work that earned him the “Citizen of the Year” award nine years ago. 

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Food ban protestors cleared of charges, continue feeding homeless

“It is my belief that dismissing the charges is appropriate in the furtherance of justice; there is no longer a need to attempt to obtain compliance with Ordinance No. 5066 in light of this automatic repeal,” reads the letter sent by Morgan L. Foley, City Attorney with the City of El Cajon on February 26 and addressed to Robert S. Dreher, the lead attorney hired by a dozen of the protesters arrested on June 14 for violating the city’s ban to share food with the homeless. 

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East County-based DJ Troy Cook changes lives through his music

Troy Cook’s life has followed a singular narrative: music and entertainment.

Born in Solana Beach and raised in Granite Hills in El Cajon, Cook is a native East County boy. After investing more than fifteen years in radio and thirteen years performing on-stage, Cook created TNT Entertainment, a family business that offers DJ services, photo booths and event lighting throughout San Diego.

It all started when he was six years old and his parents gave him his first keyboard. He took piano lessons for a few years and loved to play classical music.

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Drumming for inmate Francesca inside Las Colinas Detention and Rehabilitation Center

It was a crisp morning at the beginning of February when a group of soulful women pulled up in the parking lot of the Las Colinas, the newly modernized detention center for women in Santee. Few dozens of big boxes were uploaded in giant laundry carts and industrial dollies and carried inside the facility.

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East County comes together to celebrate the 2017 Best of East County Reader’s Poll winners

The second edition of the Best of East County Reader’s Poll winners’ party, The East County Californian, and hosted at the Elk Lodge in El Cajon last week was more grand than the inaugural edition held last year. During the award ceremony, it recognized community and business leaders and also remarkable individuals who excelled in their field in 2017, all of them selected via public vote by 34,000 of its readers. 

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Sons of Charity bank statements leave more questions than answers
  Correction: Previously, it was written that Bobbi Walker hung up the phone and "refused to disclose any more information." Walker has provided information to proper authorities, including financial reports.
 
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A night of counting homeless in East County

About a dozen gathered at 5 a.m. at the Rise City Church in Lakeside, answering to a call for volunteers to participate in a national count known locally as WeAllCount. The event was organized by the Regional Homeless Task Force, which counted more than 9,000 homeless people last year. Based on the news later in the day, we were about 1,700 volunteers countywide scouring in the night for signs of human life inhabiting the world in inhuman conditions. 

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Tribes of the Turtle Island rise

What started at Standing Rock when many Native American tribes gathered together to protect the land and the water from Dakota pipeline it was only the groundwork for a dream of unity in diversity that transcends borders, cultural divides, races, and all other differences among the people of this land.

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Doubled in size, Sycamore Canyon Preserve will have more trails open for public use

A full house on Jan. 24 at the Lakeside Community Center where different user groups came to offer feedback on the recently expanded Goodan Ranch/Sycamore Canyon County Preserve situated north of Lakeside on Highway 67 South, across from the entrance to the El Capitan County Preserve. The County of San Diego acquired 1,128 acres land in 2015, an area known as the Mission Trail Regional Park’s West Sycamore, adding more than seven miles of trails to the existing preserve. 

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