20,000 expected for July 4 festival and fireworks

Join 20,000 patriotic festival-goers for a day of rockin’ live music, tasty treats, and Fourth of July fun and games for all as Escondido turns out for the 54th annual Independence Day Festival and Fireworks at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido and nearby Grape Day Park. After dark, turn your gaze to the sky for a dazzling fireworks […]

Catholic university raises the level of the downtown

A few weeks ago, Dr. Derry Connolly president of John Paul the Great Catholic University, accepted the award as Business Leader of the Year from the Escondido Chamber of Commerce. The award was the Chamber’s way of recognizing the impact the university has had on Grand Avenue and the downtown in the four years since it located there. The Catholic […]

EHS has new principal, Adriana Lepe-Ramirez

At the June 13 meeting of the Escondido Union High School District’s Board of Education, Mrs. Adriana Lepe-Ramirez was confirmed as the new principal for Escondido High School. Mrs. Lepe-Ramirez has over 20 years of experience as an educator, having served as an administrator for the last nine years with the Perris Union High School District. Most recently, she was […]

Artist Stephen Fishwick: It’s taken him 40 years to be this fast!

Ask an artist to explain how he is able do an amazing painting and he might say, “talent and hard work.”  Stephen Fishwick—who produces paintings that can be auctioned off for several thousand dollars—during 15 minutes of high energy performance art— has a different view. “People ask me all the time how do you paint so fast and I say, […]

Grand opening for Escondido recycling facility Friday

On Friday, June 30, EDCO, in partnership with the City of Escondido, will unveil its new “On the Road to Zero Waste” comingling recycling facility and administrative offices located on Mission Avenue in Escondido. The 70,000-square foot facility is the newest in the country, and can process 100,000 pounds of commingled recycling every hour. Up to 520 billion pounds of […]

Our descendants are watching

As we start getting a little older it’s natural for our thoughts to turn to what sort of legacy we will leave behind. The homes we built, the businesses we created, the possessions we accrued. But we also leave a legacy as a generation — a judgment of our place in history — one that is sure to have a […]

California’s native wildlife


This month, I was excited to join 200 caring people from around the state to advocate for native wildlife at the Capitol for the Humane Society’s annual lobby day.  At the press conference in front of the Capitol, I spoke about my bill, AB 1031, that creates a voluntary donation `check off’ on state tax returns to support Native California […]

Is any of this worth violence?

Is any of this worth violence? By DAVID ROSS Arguing over trivia. And it’s all trivia. When my side wins elections, the people have spoken. When your side wins, the people were duped. I love to argue. I have always enjoyed the cut and thrust of political argument, which is how people who use their brains help to formulate their […]

Letter to the Editor: WHAT IS AMERICANISM?

WHAT IS AMERICANISM? Editor, Times-Advocate: Rick is all in a rage about an imagined “morally confused culture of globalism blah blah blah Americanism.” What the heck is “Americanism?” Then he cites the most communist organization in America, the NFL, to opine about the wonders of the free market. Heads spin. RICH REINHOFER, San Marcos * * *

City catches up on code enforcement backlog

Two weeks ago, the City of Escondido Code Enforcement Division did a big push to catch up on the growing backlog of code cases. The effort resulted in cutting the total backlog from 104 cases to 34. According to the city’s website the oldest pending cases dropped from 56 days to 7 days. One such code enforcement involved a massive […]