Imperial Valley Stories
On August 12, a motorcyclist popped a wheelie on the I-5 freeway heading northbound, then wiped out and fell to the pavement feet away from a fast-moving car — as …
In the infinite flatness of southern California’s Imperial Valley, an irrigated desert of cropland and skin-frying heat, lies Calipatria State Prison, a mostly maximum-security Level IV warren of cellblocks, surrounded …
SDSU bars student fee vote A hefty hike of a “student success” fee by San Diego State University at its Imperial Valley campus has drawn scrutiny from California State University …
On January 7 Dr. George Fareed of Brawley and Dr. Brian Tyson of El Centro published Overcoming the Covid Darkness, their story of treating 7,000 Covid patients in the Imperial …
Imperial Valley Stories
Richard Snow may live in Spring Valley, but he has owned property near the Salton Sea since the early 90s. What initially drew him to the area was flight. He was part of a small …
This is the third in the Lost Ship of the Desert series written by Robert Marcos. His first article, “Stay Away From Pinto Canyon”, focused on a unique petroglyph he found in a remote canyon …
Over 300 San Diegans gathered in the boulder-strewn, high desert mountains near Jacumba, to celebrate Desert Rising; a three-day consciousness-raising festival held over the October 12 weekend. Though it is best described as a version …
The Lazy Lizard Saloon in Ocotillo seemed friendly on Wednesday afternoon, the day after the election. I had just returned from three days of backpacking in Vallecito Valley, not knowing if Clinton or Trump had …
The Imperial Valley Paradox Cesar Enriquez is the director of Casa de Amistad, a community center in Brawley that works with farm workers. “I really was a believer in what our hero, Emiliano Zapata, said: …
Pacific Imperial Railroad, the leaseholder of the publicly owned 70-mile stretch of railroad from Campo to Plaster City known as the Desert Line, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. As reported by the Reader on …
Ties between railroad investors and executives with the troubled binational railroad are now splitting apart. On August 26 Pacific Imperial Railroad's one-time largest shareholder, Dwight Jory, filed a civil action against the company in hopes …
October 2015 nearly marked the end of the road — rather, railroad, for Pacific Imperial Railroad, the company that leases the 100-year-old Desert Line from the Metropolitan Transit System. According to documents released by Metropolitan …
The former president and chief operating officer (now “director of compliance”) for Pacific Imperial Railroad, the company that leases the rights to the binational railroad from Metropolitan Transit System, is in trouble with the Securities …
From its beginnings in the central Rocky Mountains and over millions of years, the Colorado River has flowed into the Gulf of California. Tributaries build volume as the river cuts southwest through the Colorado Plateau, …
Two North County Episcopal churches, both over 60 years old, were told last week that due to declining attendance and compounding red ink, the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego has decided to fold them. The …
The wild ride continues for owner and operator of Metropolitan Transit System's Desert Line, Pacific Imperial Railroad. On October 19, the California Labor Commission ordered the fledgling binational railroad company to pay $90,152 in unpaid …
An investor in the binational railroad last month filed a lawsuit against Pacific Imperial Railroad and two former executives for taking $300,000 and leaving him high and dry. The lawsuit, filed on August 26, 2015, …
Imperial Irrigation District yesterday (July 16) sued the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) on antitrust grounds. The suit was filed in federal court in San Diego. The suit says that CAISO "is a monopolist. It …
Weekend Coachella tickets carried a face value of $375. Some resold on Craigslist for twice that amount. Then you have this weekend’s Lupepalooza Chuckfest on the grounds of a Calexico Swap Meet. It’s named after …
San Diegans haven't awakened to a major water-supply peril: the possibility that a 2003 deal arranged to bring water from the Imperial Valley could be in deep trouble. A May 4 New Yorker article says …
According to internal emails and photos, several abandoned bilevel rail cars have been derailed east of Jacumba at a place named Dubbers Spur. The derailed cars, stripped of brakes, shocks, and other items, could possibly …
During a February board meeting, Metropolitan Transit System chief executive officer Paul Jablonski delivered the January news: Pacific Imperial Railroad, the lessee of the troubled binational railroad, had new management and this gave new hope …
Metropolitan Transit System officials say trouble may be behind the controversial railroad line linking Mexico and the U.S. During a transit agency board meeting on January 28, Metropolitan Transit System CEO Paul Jablonski announced that …
The owner of an RV storage facility located within the popular Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area east of farmland in the Imperial Valley has admitted in a San Diego courthouse to dumping "potentially millions of …
The plan for reconstructing the now-defunct binational railroad has been submitted and approved, revealed San Diego County transit authority officials during their September 18 board meeting. What officials didn't say, at least not until their …
The federal government has officially weighed in on the controversial binational railroad, also known as the Desert Line. On October 30, congressman Duncan Hunter sent a letter to U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy requesting that her …
Beating up on big government spending is a full-time occupation at U-T San Diego, owned by mega-millionaire Republican real estate developer Douglas Manchester. Obamacare, minimum-wage hikes, and the Barrio Logan community plan are a few …
Border Patrol agents based in El Centro saved an unconscious woman from drowning Sunday afternoon (May 4) after she was pulled from a car that had driven into an irrigation canal near farmland in the …
Armed attackers are taking aim at migrants crossing the border illegally near Ocotillo, according to a February 26 report from the U.S. Border Patrol. Ocotillo is located just east of San Diego County at the …
San Diego's deal to take water from the Imperial Valley to meet the demands of growth and development here will begin taking a dramatic and expensive toll on the environment of the Salton Sea in …
U.S. Border Patrol agents earlier this week seized nearly a ton of marijuana from two vehicles that were apparently heading south toward the Mexican border. Around 12:30 Sunday morning October 13, camera operators scanning the …
My friend Richard Bailey, grandson of Julian's founder Drury Bailey, brought my attention to a construction project west of Calexico which sounded amazing. With my photographer Pam Wilmers, we struck out on Wednesday, April 3, …
Desert Daze Music and Art Festival returns as a one-day camping jamboree near Desert Hot Springs, on the same weekend as Coachella Music and Arts Festival.
Many readers have probably driven out to SR-2 just north of Ocotillo and taken Dos Cabezas Road to its western terminus in order to hike Goat Canyon and see the wood railroad trestles and tunnels …
As the San Diego County grand jury opens an investigation this week into allegations of corruption in the Sweetwater Union High School District, new intrigues play out in Calexico with Sweetwater’s former attorney firm, GCR, …
U.S. District Court judge William Hayes dismissed a request for a restraining order against the Ocotillo Express Wind Energy Project late last week. He found that the plaintiffs, CARES (Community Advocates for Renewable Energy Stewardship) …
On September 6, this photo was taken by Pam Wilmers in a private aircraft 5000 feet above a chain of sites carved into BLM land at the west end of Ocotillo Valley as part of …
On August 28, Parke Ewing, an Ocotillo resident, took photos of heavy equipment being operated by Pattern Energy employees who are building the Ocotillo Wind Express Energy Project. The machinery is plowing over and crushing …
On Thursday morning, August 23, Parke Ewing, a resident of Ocotillo, took this photo of the erection of the first of 112 towers for the Ocotillo Wind Energy Facility Project. Heavy equipment, such as a …
On August 16 at 8 a.m., the first of 111 towers for the Ocotillo Wind Energy Project arrived via trucks passing through the small community of Ocotillo. Traffic was halted as the trucks had to …
I flew over Ocotillo on July 17 to check out reports that recent construction roads and footings for the planned 100-plus wind-turbine towers had adversely affected the natural drainage for the village. Last Thursday, July …
Photo taken over Ocotillo at 9 a.m. on June 29. Construction has begun on over 100 turbine towers, each over 400 feet tall, on Bureau of Land Management land between the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park …
Political and drought conditions could turn the Imperial Valley into another Owens Valley.
Eighteen concerned citizens gathered on Saturday, February 25, in the desert three miles east of Ocotillo; they expressed their concerns about a proposed windmill farm on Bureau of Land Management range surrounding their town. The …
I flew over the Hudson Ranch geothermal project (just southeast of the shore of the Salton Sea) on April 23. Richard Bailey, grandson of the founder of Julian, took this photo at 800 feet above …
Driving west on I-8, down from the dry, rugged mountains, diving into what should be a desert landscape 100 miles east of San Diego, the Imperial Valley appears as an agricultural oasis. Miles of irrigated …
Though not on the front page of the news anymore, aftershocks subsequent to the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that occurred on April 4 in the Imperial Valley continue. A 4.9 quake shook as recently as May …
Slab City lies at the southeast corner of the Salton Sea, where the Anza-Borrego Desert becomes the Colorado Desert. The “slabs” are what’s left from WWII training facility Camp Dunlop. And there’s an Olympic-sized swimming …
"For us, business is good,” says Barry Lander, clerk of the bankruptcy court. “It’s a sad thing.” Indeed it is. The courts, judges, clerks, and the legal profession have been blown good business in San …
The Sunrise Powerlink gleamed for the first time in Sempra Energy’s eye on November 1, 2002. At the company’s San Diego headquarters, an energy-management expert from Shell Trading gave a PowerPoint presentation highlighting the potential …
“The wet 20th century, the wettest of the past millennium, the century when Americans built an incredible civilization in the desert, is over,” says a superb article in February’s National Geographic. The piece, entitled “Drying …
A simple shack fashioned of rock, cement, and corrugated metal might be unremarkable anywhere else, but in the midst of thousands of acres of wild desert, it becomes a significant point of interest. The semi-rugged …