San Diego News Fix

A former sheriff’s deputy who admitted on-the-job misconduct with 16 women was sentenced Tuesday to three years and eight months in jail, plus 16 months under supervision in the community, for behavior a judge described as “abhorrent.” Richard Timothy Fischer, 33, pleaded guilty in September to seven criminal counts — none of them specifically charged as sex crimes, though sexual misconduct was at the core of several allegations. Under that deal, he faced up to five years in custody. That’s technically what he received because of California’s public safety realignment law, which allows some non-violent offenders to serve part of their sentence locally, in county jail rather than state prison, and part of the term on mandatory supervision. Fischer was taken into custody at the end of the hearing in the Vista courthouse. He must serve 22 months in jail before he is eligible for release.

Just a day before the Dec. 11 deadline and more than a year after the original language was agreed to, county Supervisor Jim Desmond next week will ask his colleagues to change the wording of a controversial ballot measure that will be voted on countywide in March 2020 concerning future development in the unincorporated areas. Much like what happened on Nov. 19, when the board voted 3-2 to change the wording of another ballot measure having to do with a development in the North County -- the 2,135-home Newland Sierra project -- Desmond is seeking a change he says will help voters better understand what they are being asked to decide. If approved, the Save Our San Diego Countryside (SOS) measure would require countywide votes every time a General Plan Amendment was being sought to build large housing projects in areas not zoned for such density.

The number of African migrants heading to the U.S. through Mexico has more than doubled this year — from roughly 2,700 in 2018 to 5,800 today, according to data from the federal government. That figure has been steadily rising since 2007 — the year the Mexican government began including migrants from African countries who have contact with immigration officials in their annual migration reports — when the number was 460. And that dramatic increase has been mostly left out of U.S. immigration conversations, activists say.

Welcome to Legacy International Center, a $190 million Bible-themed resort rooted in a vision that 88-year-old pentecostal preacher Morris Cerullo says was handed down by God. Widely known for his overseas crusades and worldwide ministering for the last 70 years, the longtime televangelist has relocated the headquarters of Morris Cerullo World Evangelism to the retreat. The project was built debt-free, financed with a combination of donations from thousands of Cerullo's followers and proceeds from the sale of ministry assets, including the organization's former offices on Aero Ct.

For the second time in four years, Ballast Point — a San Diego craft beer pioneer that became one of the areas’s largest breweries — has been sold. Kings & Convicts Brewing Co., a tiny Illinois firm, on Tuesday announced an agreement to buy Ballast Point from New York-based Constellations Brands, Inc. Terms of the sale were not disclosed, but includes Ballast Point’s four California brewpubs — at the main brewery in Miramar; Little Italy; Anaheim’s Downtown Disney; and Long Beach — plus one in Chicago.

A recent analysis of a year’s worth of stops by San Diego police and county sheriff’s deputies found that black people across the county are searched, arrested and subjected to force at higher rates than white people. The report also states that both the San Diego Police Department and the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department exhibit anti-Latino bias, anti-LGBTQ bias and bias against people with disabilities in their search practices. The report was disputed by law enforcement officials, who say the findings don’t match their own data and unfairly paint the actions of officers as discriminatory. The study, commissioned by the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego & Imperial Counties at the beginning of the year, analyzed information collected under the state Racial and Identity Profiling Act. The 2015 law requires officers and deputies to gather data about the people they interact with in the field, including perceived age, perceived race, the reason for the stop and the result of the stop.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, admitted his guilt Tuesday in a yearslong campaign-finance scandal and now awaits his sentence. The U.S. Marine veteran all but ended his political career during a brief hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Thomas J. Whelan, admitting to a single count of conspiracy to convert campaign funds to personal use. When asked how he now pleaded, he said, “Guilty.” Hunter faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced March 17, but he is likely to receive much less time behind bars. Outside the courthouse, federal prosecutors said they opened their case after reading about Hunter’s campaign spending in a story in The San Diego Union-Tribune, and they specifically named reporter Morgan Cook.

After years of denials and claims he was the target of a political witch hunt, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, is scheduled to appear in federal court Tuesday morning to plead guilty in a sweeping campaign finance investigation. The announcement was posted on the U.S. District Court docket Monday morning, then KUSI aired an interview with Hunter in which he said he will plead guilty to one of the 60 criminal charges against him. He suggested that he is likely to spend time in custody. “The plea I accepted is misuse of my own campaign funds, of which I pled guilty to only one count,” Hunter told the station. “I think it’s important that people know that I did make mistakes. I did not properly monitor or account for my campaign money. I justify my plea with the understanding that I am responsible for my own campaign and my own campaign money.”

Pacific Magazine editor Nina Garin discusses the latest issue which focuses on local specialties that sell great gifts for the holidays.

The holidays were the worst. That’s not because Marissa and Chris Heintschel hated Thanksgiving or Christmas — far from it. Both raised in large Catholic families, they cherish having a full house, echoing with relatives’s chatter and children’s laughter, the air scented with the rich aromas of turkey and pie. Since 2016, though, these celebrations have had a desperate undertone. Each year, Chris would tell Marissa the same thing: “This is our last holiday with them. Let’s make it their best.” Three years ago, the Escondido couple became foster parents to two sisters suffering from physical abuse, malnutrition and a host of medical issues. Annalee, then 2, was coughing and sniffling when the Heintschels took her home. Her 9-month-old sister, Valerie, needed another five days in Rady Children’s Hospital. Burning with a 105-degree fever and only 12 pounds, the infant hadn’t the strength to lift her head. When the Heintschels finally retrieved her from the hospital, the foster mother tried to hug the baby. “She

The holiday season is stressful enough, add on the responsibilities of caregiving, and this time of year can be stressful. Host Daniel Wheaton interviews Juliet Hendrix, editor of Caregiver SD, and Lauren Mapp, a reporter for the site about how to manage the needs of those you're providing care to with the demands of the holidays.

A crisis at the top of military leadership in the handling of a high-profile war crimes case has raised questions in the San Diego military community about the military justice system and what good order and discipline looks like. President Donald Trump’s recent interventions in several military justice cases, including that of San Diego-based Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher’s, have military leaders debating whether the moves undermine the authority of military commanders to instill good order and discipline in the ranks. Some Navy leaders in San Diego said they are flummoxed by Trump’s interventions and their recent fallout, including the firing of Navy Secretary Richard Spencer over the weekend. “He’s hammering away at the foundation of the military — good order and discipline,” said a senior San Diego Navy official not authorized to comment. “The president essentially said he doesn’t trust one of his admirals’ judgment. Guys at my level are literally just throwing up their hands.”

As the crew of the Stella June dug into plates of Asian fusion at the Chubby Noodle on sleepy Paseo del la Marina, captain Evan Salvay ran fingers through hair shaped by a day’s worth of salt water, wind, broiling sun and spiking anxiety. The 27-year-old had ridden both sides of the exhilarating and sometimes cruel waves at the Bisbee’s Black and Blue marlin tournament, the richest sportfishing chase on the planet. A year ago, a fish the part-time Point Loma and Huntington Beach resident landed translated to just over $3 million. Two years ago, a potential $1 million catch was edged by 14 pounds as the paycheck plummeted … to $7,020. In this year’s tournament, the Stella June caught a 466-pound black marlin that held up as the day’s best for hours on end. Two and a half blocks away, the only remaining fish to weigh was nearing the dock. The estimated payout for the day’s biggest catch ebbed around $1.23 million. The glazed ribs? The salt and pepper shrimp? The thought of food nauseated Salvay. “I can’t eat, d

Last month marine scientists set out in the Gulf of California looking for vaquita porpoises, fearing that they could be extinct, but instead spotted a number of them, including mothers with calves

It’s summer in Antarctica, and scientists from all around the world are flying back to research stations on the continent as part of a now years-long race to uncover world’s oldest ice and better predict planetary warming, sea level rise and more. Trapped in the ancient glaciers are tiny air bubbles — time capsules documenting changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and ocean temperatures over hundreds of thousands of years. If a rare sample of undisturbed ice can be located and ice-core samples drilled out, the results could be a scientific timeline of climate change dating back more than a million years.

San Diego-based Naval Special Warfare Command is initiating a so-called “trident review” of four SEALs involved in a closely-watched war crimes case that divided the tight-knit SEAL community and became a cause célèbre for conservative commentators and politicians. Among the SEALs coming under review, according to a defense officials with knowledge of the case, are Lt. Cmdr. Robert Breisch, Lt. Thomas MacNeil, Lt. Jacob Portier and Chief Petty Officer Edward R. Gallagher, who was restored in rank to chief by President Donald Trump on Friday.

In the months before her death, Sabrina Rosario’s estranged husband would show up at her house unannounced. He would sit in the car and watch their children play from a distance. In text messages, he said he would never leave her alone. Less than two weeks ago, he messaged her a picture of a handgun. More than half a dozen cans of beer and a bottle of alcohol were in the background of the image. “This threat really scared me and I can no longer handle his abuse and harassment,” Rosario said in court filings seeking a restraining order against Jose Valdivia, whom she was in the process of divorcing. Rosario had threatened to file a restraining order before. She wrote in court documents that her husband had told her, “A restraining order is not going to do nothing.”

A year behind schedule and millions of dollars over budget, an ambitious plan by regional officials to build a sophisticated network of bicycle lanes and pedestrian crossings has proven more complicated than first anticipated. Obstacles include everything from neighborhood outrage at the loss of parking spaces to the technical challenges of overhauling streets designed primarily for cars. The San Diego Association of Governments — the agency undertaking the now-$279 million project — has found itself in the crosshairs of frustrated groups on all sides of the issue, from business associations to homeowners to supporters of cycling.

The images and stories captivated the world's attention. An exhausted 4-year-old collapsed to the ground, crying, her tiny legs unable to carry her another step. Thousands of Central Americans, each with their own unique personal story, many from Honduras and fleeing gang violence, gathered at the base of a tall, yellow fence, the border with Mexico in Tecún Umán, Guatemala, ready to break it down. The crowd stretched as far down the road as anyone could see. A year later, some of those iconic images and stories cannot be forgotten, even as the caravan that arrived in Tijuana on Nov. 19, 2018 has scattered in different directions of the world: some making tentative and fragile lives in the United States; some back in Honduras; some working and living in Tijuana, still hoping for their chance at the American Dream. The notoriety of the 2018 and 2019 caravans that arrived in the region was fueled partly by the attention of U.S. President Donald Trump, who tweeted regularly about it as it made its way north thro

As a driven yet financially-strapped teenager, Toby Macfarlane knew his family couldn’t afford to send him to the University of Southern California. But he was enamored with the private school and determined to make it there. He did — in that pull-oneself-up-by-the-bootstraps kind of way — through a combination of scholarships, grants, loans and part-time jobs. Decades later, Macfarlane, a successful title insurance executive living in Del Mar, wanted to ensure his children had a significantly easier path to his alma matter — one that ended up taking them through the “side door.” It cost Macfarlane $450,000 in fees and bribes at the time.