There are 177 Rancho Bernardo households that will be told early next month that they are losing their free, city-provided trash service.

By year’s end, they will have to hire a private hauler for weekly trash service. Residents and their HOAs should receive notification letters from the city as early as next week, according to Environmental Services officials.

They said 452 households of their 304,000 customers citywide are being eliminated from routes because they are on private streets and they or their homeowners associations did not have hold harmless agreements with the city as of Nov. 4, 1986.

Among the seven identified developments thus far are two in Rancho Bernardo — 124 units in Tierra del Sol in Bernardo Heights and 53 units in Westwood Townhouses I and II, which the city refers to as the “Lazarou” development in the July 13 report to the City Council’s Natural Resources and Culture Committee.

SAN DIEGO (CNS) - A proposal for a temporary half-cent sales tax increase failed Monday to secure the required six votes by the San Diego City Council to put it on the November ballot.

Council members Donna Frye, Carl DeMaio and Kevin Faulconer were opposed.
Frye said she would not support putting a half-cent sales tax increase
before San Diego voters unless it were attached to a comprehensive plan to
address the city's fiscal crisis.

The City Council voted 5-3 to direct the City Attorney's Office to draft ballot language for consideration Tuesday. While that motion technically passed, it was clear that the six votes needed to put the sales tax increase on the Nov. 2 ballot were not there, and the entire effort was abandoned.

SAN DIEGO (CNS)— The most severe types of lawbreaking — including murder, rape, robbery and assault — decreased in San Diego over the first half of this year, continuing recent positive crime trends in the city, authorities announced Monday.

Overall, serious crime dropped by 3.8 percent between January and July as compared with the comparable period in 2009, and the number of violent offenses went down by 4.6 percent, according to the San Diego Police Department.

The homicide tally fell by 33 percent during the six-month span; robberies dipped by about 11 percent; and auto thefts decreased by nearly 16 percent, SDPD officials reported.

SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Thirty-one of 43 suspects named in a federal drug trafficking conspiracy, including a 20-year-old Poway man, are behind bars, most of them in San Diego County.

Federal agents arrested 27 people around San Diego County, and four were
arrested in Mexico on conspiracy and racketeering charges that include murder, kidnapping, drug smuggling and money laundering. Among the arrested is Mikael Daniel Blaser, 20, of Poway, who the FBI said uses the street name “Troubles.”

Published reports said prosecutors believe Blaser ran the cartel's drug and weapons stash house, distributed drugs and was the enforcer who attempted murders and robberies. Authorities said the price of a hit was about $3,000.

According to prosecutors, the man at the center of one attempted killing was Blaser. He had been assigned to kill a cartel member who had disrespected leadership.

The defendants are associated with the Fernando Sanchez Organization, an
offshoot of the notorious but now largely dismantled Arellano-Felix cartel.
At least five suspects believed to be in the United States were being sought, U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy said.

The Poway Unified School District Foundation is rolling out a new fund to save the regular education bus program from being eliminated this fall.

Money from the fund, being called Transport All Kids Everyday (TAKE), will be used to help supplement bus pass fees for families unable to make the payment of $575 for the school year.
In May, the school board approved bumping up fees by $136 from the rate of $439 to help cover the cost of running the transportation system.

That plan, set by the board, hinges on getting 2,800, or about 85 percent of riders’ families, to pay the new bus pass rate, said Chuck Lord, president of the drivers’ union, Service Employees International Union.

As of Tuesday afternoon, fees for 1,320 passes had been paid, with roughly 50 percent of families opting for a deferred payment plan that requires them to pay $315 by Monday Aug. 2 and $260 by Nov. 1, said Dawn Everly, coordinator of the bus pass fees.

(CNS) — A Sept. 13 trial date was confirmed Friday for a former Ramona filling station owner and Poway resident accused of having his Mount Woodson home burned down by an employee who died in the fire.

James Kurtenbach, 49, allegedly persuaded 24-year-old Joseph Nesheiwat to start the blaze, which sparked an explosion at the nearly 3,500-square-foot home on Oct. 31, 2008.

Firefighters found Nesheiwat dead outside the home, with burns over 85 percent of his body and blast injuries.

Witnesses said the force of the blast was so strong that debris was found in a nearby street. The house was gutted by flames, leaving only outside walls standing.

A groundbreaking ceremony for the long-awaited Poway Veterans Park will be held at 10 a.m. Monday on land northeast of Midland Road and Adrian Street.

The event will be hosted by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion and the Navy Fleet Reserve, and the Elks Club.

Plans call for construction will begin in early August and be completed in time for a dedication at 11 a.m. on Veterans Day, Nov. 11.

Poway city officials say that although construction bids for the park came in higher than expected, sufficient funds are available to build the long-awaited park.

The City Council on Tuesday night awarded a construction contract to Palm Engineering Construction Inc. of San Diego. The firm was the lowest of nine bidders, offering to build the park for $384,000. Other bids ranged from $424,095 to $569,869.