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THE COAST NEWS
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MAKING WAVES IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD
June 13, 2014
SAN MARCOS -NEWS
Escondido VA .com clinic under investigation By Rachel Stine
THE VISTA NEWS
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ESCONDIDO — A U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs audit on timely access to medical care cited the VA clinic in Escondido for further investigation. The VA Department initiated the nationwide audit in light of the discovery that a VA clinic in Arizona was reporting false wait times and actual access to health care appointments for veterans was markedly delayed. The controversy led to the resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki on May 30. appointment VA Department staff reviewed RANCHO scheduling practices and records as well as interSFNEWS viewed clinic staff of hundreds of VA clinics earlier this year. The VA clinic on Pennsylvania Avenue in Escondido was flagged for a deeper investigation into its wait times, according to the audit results released on Monday. A clinic in Imperial Valley was the only other location in southern California that was identified for additional investigation. Veterans must wait an average of 43.77 days
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Dino, a Military Working Dog, was retired from active duty on June 7 at a ceremony on Camp Pendleton. His handler, Staff Sgt. Christopher Diaz, was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2011. Dino was allowed to be adopted by the Diaz family. Photos by Tony Cagala
Retired from active duty After his handler was killed in action in Afghanistan, Dino, a Military Working Dog was allowed to be adopted by fallen Marine’s family
By Tony Cagala
CAMP PENDLETON — Sgt. Jonathan Overland didn’t serve with Staff Sgt. Christopher Diaz under any deployment. He’d only known him for a week when they worked together at March Air Force Base. But there’s a strong tie that binds the two Marines together — a 65-pound Belgian Malinois military working dog named Dino. In 2011 Diaz and Dino were deployed to Afghanistan. On Sept. 28, 2011, Diaz, 27, was killed by an IED while supporting reconnaissance units in Helmand Province. Overland, a dog handler stationed at Camp Pendleton, has been caring for Dino since October of last year. That was until last Saturday when Dino was retired from active duty and allowed to be adopted by the Diaz family. “After that one week of meeting him, just knowing him, there’s a lot of Staff Sgt. Diaz in Dino,” Overland said. An experienced dog handler, Diaz was one of only a few to be selected to participate in a pilot pro-
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Parking lot proposal returns to commission By Aaron Burgin
Sgt. Jonathan Overland, left, talks with Sandra Diaz and Salvador Diaz about how Dino likes to be pet and the food he likes to eat.
gram training military working dogs with the Israeli Army. Dino, now 7, was born and trained in Israel and responds to commands in seven languages, including Hebrew and English. As a specialized search dog Dino has the ability to spot out explosives and drugs.
For Dino’s age, it’s pretty unique that he’s being discharged, Overland said. Since Diaz passed away, Dino was never redeployed and has been stationed at 29 Palms and Camp Pendleton. TURN TO DINO ON A19
ENCINITAS —A proposal to expand an Encinitas shopping center’s parking lot was placed on hold Wednesday to see if the city could devise a compromise that would satisfy the concerns of neighbors opposed to the expansion. The Encinitas City Council voted unanimously to table an appeal of the plans for the shopping center on North El Camino Real, which the planning commission approved in March. A homeowner in the New Villanitas community filed the appeal. His chief complaint was that the shopping center’s owners chopped down 65 trees — many of them eucalyptus — that served as a buffer between homes and the center. Council voted unanimously to return the item to the planning commission
after city staff suggested a compromise that would require the applicant, North El Camino LLC, to develop a landscape plan that would restore the verdant buffer. Council members appeared open to the suggested change, but said it needed to be vetted by a landscape architect and arborist before it could be approved. “I don’t want a paper condition that feels good but doesn’t work,” Shaffer said. The proposal would add 18 parking spaces to the current 176-space lot. North El Camino LLC representatives said the shopping center has a dearth of parking that results in frustrated customers leaving the center and its tenants. Company representatives said their concerns were backed by a parking study commissioned by the TURN TO PARKING LOT ON A19