PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID ENCINITAS, CA 92025 PERMIT NO. 94
THE COAST NEWS
.com MAKING WAVES IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD
VOL. 28, N0. 35
Aug. 29, 2014
SAN MARCOS -NEWS
.com THE VISTA NEWS
.com Once the desalination plant is complete, the regional water supply will be less dependent on imported water. Photo by Ellen Wright
RANCHO SFNEWS
Desal plant more . than 60% finished
com
Firsts and lasts
By Ellen Wright
Cpl. Eric Candelario of the 1st Regiment, 1st Marines meets his 3-month-old son Liam for the first time since being deployed to Afghanistan six months ago. Candelario and more than 40 other Marines and Sailors returned home to Camp Pendleton on Monday. With the troop drawdown underway, signalling the end of the 13 year war, it was the last deployment made to Afghanistan. Full story on page A9. Photo by
Tony Cagala
Students call for campus safety By Aaron Burgin
SAN MARCOS — As police and Cal State San Marcos officials continue to investigate an alleged rape at an off-campus fraternity party, dozens of people rallied in a show of solidarity with the alleged victim and called on university officials to create safer campus. University officials issued a crime alert last week that a student reported being sexual assaulted at a Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity party in Oceanside the weekend of May 4. School officials said the circumstances involving the alleged incident suggested that date-rape drugs were involved. The Oceanside Police Department is leading the criminal investigation as the incident occurred in its jurisdiction. Police officials said the suspect, a fraternity member, is cooperating in the investigation. He has not been charged, pending the results of DNA testing. School officials said that the school has received other reports of sexual assault involving the fraternity and its members as well as other alleged criminal activities including pervasive hazing, illegal victim/witness intimidation, harassment and tampering, vandalism, providing drugs and alcohol to minors, and illegal drug use. The fraternity, also known as “The Kollege Experience,” had been stripped of its recognition as a student organization in 2005, but the fraternity was recognized by its national organization until this week, when it was stripped of its national status as well. On Tuesday, members of a group called Feminists Anonymous staged a rally on campus to bring awareness to
CARLSBAD— With California’s severe drought in full swing, the water supply is more stressed than ever. The city announced mandatory water restrictions for residents but by this time next year, the desalination plant will offer residents a drought-proof water supply. Officials from Poseidon Resources, the company building the plant, gave the City Council an update on Tuesday about the project. Almost 75 percent of pipeline has been laid along Cannon Road and Faraday Avenue and the project is 64 percent finished, according to Jessica Jones, communiTURN TO DESAL PLANT ON A16
Former employee removes patient records from Tri-City By Aaron Burgin
Alhijaz Benmusleh, left, joins a rally at Cal State San Marcos on Tuesday calling on university officials to create a safer campus following an alleged off campus sexual assault in May. Photo
by Tony Cagala
sexual assaults on campus and to urge the university to take necessary steps to foster an environment where rape victims have access to reporting services and aren’t vilified for stepping forward. Carrying signs with messages such as “No Means No,” and chanting slogans such as “Wherever we go and however we dress, no means no and yes means yes,” the rally participants urged students and faculty to join in making the university a rape-free environment. “Growing up in the 21st century,
there are so many things that perpetuate the rape culture…and places blame on survivors of abuse,” said Karen Guzman, a prominent local activist and a self-described “survivor of violence.” “We want to create a sense of community where victims are willing to speak out without fear of retribution,” she added. Some in attendance at the rally said they want to see the university do a better job of reporting incidents such as these in a timely fashion and TURN TO SAFETY ON A16
OCEANSIDE — The Tri-City Healthcare district is investigating how a former employee was able to remove private records of about 6,500 patients from the hospital earlier this month and why he turned them over to the state Department of Public Health. In a statement, the district said the former employee removed emergency department logs — paper records that include personal information of patients who visited the hospital’s emergency department and were admitted to the hospital or transferred to another facility — without authorization. The logs include full names, dates of service, birthdates and medical record numbers and covered a time period from Dec. 1, 2013 to May 13, 2014, but don’t include social security numbers or financial information. The former employee turned the records over to the San Diego office of the state’s public health department, which still has the records, but is in the process of turning them
over to Tri-City, hospital spokesman David Bennett said. It is unclear why the former employee took such action. “We don’t know why he turned them over to the state,” Bennett said. “Normally if the state health department wanted those records, they would have contacted the appropriate people here, and obviously we would have given them whatever they wanted.” Hospital officials described the employee as a mid-level official in the hospital’s facilities department who was let go earlier in the summer. He would not have access to those records, they said, but another worker left them on a cart that the employee used. Bennett said the hospital immediately reported the breach to appropriate regulatory agencies such as the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The Oceanside police were also contacted. Bennett said there is no indication that any of the confidential information in the logs has been used or further disclosed.