online community journalism

Ag Day brings students to the land of spuds, nuts and bees

They came. They saw. They trekked like soldiers going off to war, according to recently retired San Diego County entomologist David Kellum. And they learned. Welcome to Ag Day 2015 hosted at the Martin Gang Agricultural Learning Center on Cole Grade Road. Some 1,700 local kids from the entire Valley Center-Pauma Unified School District elementary school community, and fellow travelers, swarmed like bees across the…


Comic-Con ‘ZombieWalk’ no laughing matter as car strikes passerby (Updated 11/4/15)

(UPDATED 11/4/15, FOLLOWED BY AS-IT-HAPPENED INCIDENT REPORT) A deaf motorist who drove through a group of spectators watching the “Zombie Walk” parade in San Diego, seriously injuring one woman, was convicted Wednesday of felony reckless driving.  Matthew Pocci  faces three years in prison when he is sentenced Dec.11.  Jurors deliberated a little more than a day before finding the defendant guilty.  Pocci testified that he…


Doves of Love soar above San Diego

Larry Zetterquist and Kathy Duffany are Doves of Love San Diego. So are their white racing and homing pigeons. The Valley Center couple were prominently featured during Western Days events along with their progeny, in this case a flock of white racing pigeons that pass for doves. They transport the birds in small, airy cages draped with red-white-and-blue bunting suitable for release and return to…


People behaving badly

I covered the Delta. That’s the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta for our purposes although I occasionally covered the Mississippi Delta for newspapers in Louisiana and Arkansas, which is a whole ‘nother story. This was the California Delta where I covered Elk Grove south and west through Hood, Locke, Walnut Grove, Isleton along with places like Lodi, Galt and heaven’s know where for the Sacramento Bee. They…