By G. A. McNeeley 

Photo courtesy of Brian McNeeley

March 19, 2025 (Washington D.C.) — The Agriculture Department predicts egg prices could rise by more than 40%, on top of already steep price rises in 2024. While egg producers blame bird flu outbreaks, the Justice Department this month announced an investigation into whether egg producers might be sharing information and engaging in price gouging, ABC News reports. 

President Donald Trump’s campaign platform including a pledge to bring down inflation including egg prices, but so far, prices continue to skyrocket.  Now, the administration is offering its first details on its plan to fight avian flu and ease costs. 

With an emphasis on farms tightening their measures to prevent avian flu’s spread, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will invest another $1 billion on top of the $2 billion it has already invested, since the outbreak first began in 2022, AP reports. 

The main reason egg prices have climbed (hitting an all-time average high of $4.95 per dozen) is that more than 166 million birds have been slaughtered to limit the virus’ spread when cases are found. Most were egg-laying chickens. Just since the start of the year, more than 30 million egg layers have been killed. 

However, new research by Food and Water Watch suggests that major egg corporations might also be using the avian flu as an excuse to raise the price of eggs, the Guardian reports. 

The Price of Eggs Is Rising 

The USDA is predicting that the cost of eggs will go up by 41.1% this year. 

Prices have more than doubled since before the outbreak began, costing customers at least $1.4 billion last year, according to agricultural economists at the University of Arkansas. Some customers are even paying more than a dollar per egg (over $12 a dozen) in some places. 

Rollins acknowledged that it will take some time before customers see an effect at the checkout counter. It takes infected farms months to dispose of deceased birds, sanitize their farms and raise new birds. 

“It’s going to take a while to get through, I think in the next month or two, but hopefully by summer,” Rollins told AP News. 

What Is The Administration’s Plan? 

The plan calls for $500 million investment to help farmers bolster biosecurity measures, $400 million in additional aid for farmers whose flocks have been impacted by avian flu, and $100 million to research and potentially develop vaccines and therapeutics for U.S. chicken flocks, and explore rolling back what the administration sees as restrictive animal welfare rules in some states, such as California’s cage-free requirement, a humane animal treatment measure that was approved overwhelmingly by voters. However, increasing crowding by keeping poultry in cramped cages could actually increase spread of the disease. 

The USDA has already paid farmers roughly $1.2 billion for the birds they had to slaughter,  AP reports. The additional aid will continue going to those payments, and help farmers bring in new flocks more quickly. 

The administration is in talks to import about 70-100 million eggs from abroad in the coming months, Rollins said. But there were 7.57 billion table eggs produced in the U.S. last month, so those imports don’t appear likely to make a significant difference in the market. 

Trump administration officials have suggested that vaccines might help reduce the number of birds that have to be slaughtered when there is an outbreak. However, no vaccines have been fully approved for widespread use in poultry, and the industry has said the current prototypes aren’t practical because they require individual shots for each bird. Plus, vaccinated birds could jeopardize exports, since some countries have restrictions. 

Fired Workers Are Being Rehired 

Rollins said she believes the USDA has enough staff to respond to avian flu, even after all the cuts to the federal workforce at the direction of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

“Will we have the resources needed to address the plan I just laid out? We are convinced that we will… as we realign and evaluate where USDA has been spending money, where our employees are spending their time,” Rollins told AP News. 

Democratic U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar said the new plan is an important step, but the USDA needs to confirm it rehired everyone involved in the avian flu response who was mistakenly fired. 

“At a time when producers are already grappling with the bird flu, the public is facing high prices, and all Americans are on edge about what broader spread of this virus could mean, the last thing the administration should have done was to eliminate these positions,” Klobuchar told AP News. “USDA must rehire these crucial personnel immediately.” 

The Agriculture Department is scrambling to rehire several workers who were involved in the government’s response to the ongoing avian flu outbreak that has devastated egg and poultry farms over the past three years. 

A USDA spokesperson said the department “continues to prioritize the response to highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI)” and several key jobs like veterinarians, animal health technicians and other emergency response personnel involved in the effort were protected from the cuts. Some employees of the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) were also eliminated. 

“Although several APHIS positions supporting HPAI were notified of their terminations over the weekend, we are working to swiftly rectify the situation and rescind those letters,” the department spokesperson told AP News. 

Politico and NBC News reported that the jobs that were eliminated were part of an office that helps oversee the national network of labs the USDA relies on to confirm cases of avian flu and other animal diseases. It wasn’t immediately clear how many workers the department might be trying to rehire, or if any of them worked at the main USDA lab in Ames, Iowa. 

Avian Flu Is Affecting Egg Production 

Egg and poultry farmers have already been working to protect their birds by making workers change and shower before entering barns, using separate sets of tools, and sanitizing any vehicles that enter farms. The challenge is that wild birds easily spread the virus. 

The department has already done biosecurity reviews on about 150 farms and only one had an outbreak afterward, the USDA said, so officials believe more can be done to protect birds and they are going to make those reviews available to more farms. Any farm that has an outbreak has to undergo a biosecurity audit, and the government will help pay up to 75% of the needed biosecurity improvements. 

The vast majority of avian flu outbreaks have been on factory farms where hundreds of thousands (or sometimes millions) of egg-laying hens are caged in close proximity, creating ideal conditions for the rapid spread of infectious diseases. 

If one hen is infected, federal regulations call for the entire flock at the affected site to be killed – due to the risks posed by the deadly and highly contagious virus to other poultry, animals and humans, further disrupting supply and increasing costs. 

So far, 70 human cases have been confirmed in the US. One person has died and another three have required hospital treatment. Almost 1,000 cattle herds have been infected, and more than 54 million birds have been affected in the past three months. The virus has also been detected in almost every US territory. 

Almost 631 million eggs were produced in January 2025 (nearly 10% fewer than January 2022, as flock sizes continue to drop). The USDA tracks pullets (the chicks hatched to replace egg-laying hens) which have been below the five-year average most months since the outbreak began in February 2022. 

Corporations Are Also To Blame 

While avian flu has been a principal driver of rising egg prices, the highly concentrated egg market may also be contributing, according to an analysis by Food and Water Watch (FWW). 

“Bird flu does not fully explain the sticker shock consumers experience in the egg aisle… corporate consolidation is a key culprit behind egg price spikes,” Amanda Starbuck told The Guardian. 

“Powerful corporations that control every step of the supply chain (from breeding hens to hatching eggs to processing and distributing eggs) are making windfall profits off this crisis, raising their prices above and beyond what is necessary to cover any rising costs,” Starbuck added. 

The analysis found that in some regions, prices were going up even before the new strain of the deadly H5N1 virus had affected poultry flocks and reduced egg production. Even as egg production recovered in 2023, prices did not come down. 

The country’s largest egg producer, Cal-Maine, boasted a sevenfold increase in gross profits in 2023, after increasing prices above rising costs despite its flocks not being affected by avian flu during that period. 

Cal-Maine, which produces one in every five eggs eaten in the US, issued shareholder dividends totaling $250 million in 2023 – 40 times more than the previous year. The company sold 7% more eggs in 2024 (compared with 2021) and tripled its profits over the same period, according to company filings. 

“The working class is struggling to afford groceries while companies like Cal-Maine are raking in huge profits and rewarding their shareholders,” Democratic congressman Ro Khanna told The Guardian. “The Trump administration has the power to lower grocery bills, but instead they are imposing blanket tariffs on allies, firing federal workers who are trying to prevent the bird flu, and putting billionaires over ordinary Americans.” 

The top five egg companies own almost half (46%) of all egg-laying commercial hens. Headquartered in Mississippi, Cal-Maine is the only publicly traded US egg producer, and has 75% more hens than the next largest company. 

In its financial documents, Cal-Maine suggests egg prices are outside the company’s control: “We do not sell eggs directly to consumers or set the prices at which eggs are sold to consumers.” But many of its customers rely on Cal-Maine for the majority of their egg needs, according to company filings, so the price it sells its eggs factors into grocery store prices. 

Lakeside egg rancher speaks with ECM 

East County Magazine  spoke with Frank Hilliker, co-owner of Hilliker’s Ranch Fresh Eggs in Lakeside. 

Hilliker said that while his business doesn’t have the avian flu, “it’s driven prices of eggs so high that a bunch of people don’t want to buy.” 

Regarding the many chickens killed nationwide due to exposure to avian flu, Hilliker said, “When you take that kind of supply off the market,” it will heavily affect the production of eggs, as well as their prices. 

Hilliker said bird flu has actually increased demand, forcing rationing of sales per customer. “We’ve always sold eggs at the farm, and we’re not selling any more eggs out of the farm now than before, but we have more customers.” He added that they also “put limits on what people can buy,” which make it so they’re, “able to spread it out a little bit more that way.” 

The farm has capacity for 30,000 chickens, according to Hiilliker. As for steps being taken to prevent bird flu from infecting his flocks,  Hillkier explained the farms’ health and safety protocols. “We’re locked down in our chicken areas. Everything that goes through the gates where the chickens are, is disinfected,” which includes people and equipment, he said. 

Sources: 

https://apnews.com/article/record-egg-prices-usda-bird-flu-virus-92e9f5fbc4e0a792be484a4aee5b9c16 

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/doj-investigating-major-egg-producers-amid-soaring-prices/story?id=119589959 

https://apnews.com/article/usda-firings-doge-bird-flu-trump-fdd6495cbe44c96d471ae8c6cf4dd0a8 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/04/egg-prices-bird-flu-corporate-profits?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-1

By Mike Allen

Photo by Scott Lagace:  Santee firefighters saved the life of an unconscious woman during a July 2024 fire that engulfed her mobile home, also administering oxygen to save a cat.

March 14, 2025 (Santee) -- Santee knows it has to be better when it comes to providing fire protection to its residents, and after a sales tax-funded plan for new fire stations failed in November, its City Council made improving that essential service as its top priority.

In fairness, the Council was already focused on getting a couple of new stations to double the current number—two—to serve a population of more than 60,000.

It was building a temporary station off Olive Way where it formerly used to keep its maintenance operations, and was planning a new station in the north part of the city. Yet the Council was hoping the half-cent hike to local sales taxes would finance the improvements. Not so fast, said voters who rejected the plan.

At its March 12 meeting, the Council set building new fire stations—along with finding new ways to pay for them--as its No. 1 goal from a list of ten.

City Manager Marlene Best rattled off what the city was already doing including adding new trucks, more emergency medical personnel, completing the temporary station, designing a permanent station at the operations yard, and conducting a study for a third station in the north part of the city.

“We’re also looking at the potential for a new funding measure,” Best said. That could mean another sales tax hike or raising taxes on property owners.

The remainder of the list mirrored what the priorities were two years ago, with Best giving updates on whether goals were accomplished or what the status was. The entire five-member board made no comment about the list.

The number two priority two years ago, considering annexing West Hills Parkway and surrounding parcels, is still up in the air. Best said the Council wants to work with one property owner to ensure his project conforms to Santee’s higher standards. The fact is that this property, indeed all of West Hills Parkway, remains in the city of San Diego so whatever Santee wants could be ignored as was the case when San Diego approved the Castlerock/ now Weston development.

At No. 3, continued focus on road paving, which is always an item that generates lots of complaints, especially on West Hills Parkway.

Fourth, expand economic opportunities through a recently adopted Arts & Entertainment District. The city has a vision of turning the Town Center and its surrounding area into a village that would feature art galleries, dance studios, theaters, restaurants and bars. It also will be deciding on who will run a total of four cannabis shops in the industrial-zoned areas of the city by early July.

Fifth, a new building permit system, has been implemented so that should make it easier to get all those new galleries and theaters built faster. It also redid the city website and has a new app to make interactions with the city easier.

Sixth, continue focus on risk reductions, meaning fires, from homeless folks camping in the city, particularly in the San Diego riverbed. Best said since the city hired an outreach person two years ago, the number of encampments cleaned was 120, and 16 in the last month. She also noted that a recent count of the homeless population in Santee fell to 46 from 112 one year ago.

The seventh priority, looking for ways to improve the trails linked to Mission Trails Park, particularly at Big Rock Park, was put on the backburner, Best said, due to the fact that most of the land remains in San Diego County, not the city.

But the Council once again wants to make safety on its trails a priority and ranked it at eight. Best said among the efforts to make the trails safer is the possible adoption a video camera system, now in the testing phase, that would be monitored by the Sheriffs Department.

At No. 9 is the continued reduction in the city’s liabilities involving the pensions it must pay to retired workers, which it has been doing by making higher annual contributions to that budget expense over the last four years.

The tenth priority and one that was achieved in January was completing a development impact fee study and adopting a new set of fees charged to new development that took effect March 10.

Among the add-ons, but not officially tabbed as a priority, the Council wants to adopt a funding plan for a community center behind the Cameron YMCA. Best said a workshop on this is scheduled for April 9. The cost for the center was estimated at $50 million a few years ago.

At one point, the center was a darling project for most officials but in light of the pressures from building new fire stations, that may have to be put on the backburner too.

By Karen Pearlman  

Photo via San Diego County Sheriff:  Homeless encampment fire in Santee,  February 2025

March 14, 2025 (San Diego’s East County) -- With an estimated one out of every five fires in San Diego County started in encampments where homeless individuals congregate, San Diego County Supervisor Joel Anderson has said enough is enough.  

“Nobody has a right to burn my constituents’ homes down, whether they intend to or not,” Anderson said, two days after the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to update the county’s Unsafe Camping Ordinance. It would apply to property that the county owns or leases and specified areas such as parks, open space and certain public works facilities. 

At their meeting on Tuesday, March 11, the supervisors voted 4-0 to empower appropriate authorities “to ensure public safety and do more than just cite repeat offenders,” Anderson said.  A final draft ordinance is expected to be presented by county staff to the board in about two months, when a final vote will take place. 

At that time, Supervisors will have options for changing the current ordinance.  

One option includes adding provisions related to fire risk; adding protections in specific areas (including open spaces and public works infrastructure); and a notification period of 24 hours for those living in unsheltered encampments, to give them time to move personal property. 

 Another option is to leave the ordinance as it is, which includes enforcement to prohibit and abate illegal encampments, remove improperly stored property on public property and protect vacant property (such as the San Diego River corridor) from fire and pollution.  

Currently there are several existing state and local codes that address fire prohibitions and liabilities due to careless, negligent or intentional acts. These existing codes grant enforcement authority to local law enforcement and/or fire agencies to investigate and hold individuals accountable for unlawful acts as defined in code sections.  

As for the role law enforcement and other agencies would play in enforcing the ordinance, Anderson said "We expect the draft ordinance, which will be coming back to the Board in about two months, will contain more detailed information on this piece." 

Anderson has been a leader in leading changes in the back country.  

He said that passing an Unsafe Camping Ordinance in the county’s unincorporated communities “is a crucial step to protect all residents,” and referenced January’s Center Fire in Rancho Bernardo that burned seven acres. 

San Diego's Metro Arson Strike Team reported that the Center Fire, which forced people in homes and those in a daycare center to evacuate, was started in a homeless encampment 

Anderson said that more than 1,100 fires in the last 12 months were connected to homeless encampments.  

In a staff report related to the ordinance, it was noted that the County has, and would continue to have, a “services-first” approach, with a goal of connecting people with shelter, food and -- where appropriate -- substance use disorder and mental health treatment. 

The County’s outreach team -- The Health and Human Services Agency, Parks and Recreation, Public Works and Sheriff’s Office Homeless Assistance Resource Team -- coordinates provision of services and resources including emergency housing to people experiencing homelessness in the unincorporated communities.  

The 2024 Point in Time Count identified nearly 200 people experiencing homelessness in the unincorporated county area. (This number captures unsheltered individuals only and does not include 250 households already placed in the County’s emergency housing program.)  

The county’s changes to the ordinance are also connected to the June 2024 Supreme Court decision in the case of City of Grants Pass v. Johnson. T which allows local governments to enforce camping bans through citations or arrest regardless of the number of shelter beds open.  

The decision overturned Martin v. Boise, a Ninth Circuit case from 2018 that held that individuals could not be cited for sleeping on public property unless they were first offered alternative shelter.   

In Grants Pass, the Supreme Court upheld enforcement of local ordinances regulating camping on public property even if no shelter beds were available. Under this new guidance, the county’s existing camping ordinances could be enforced. 

While all Supervisors voted for drafting an update to the county’s Unsafe Camping Ordinance, Supervisor Monica Montgomery-Steppe wants to be sure shelter space is available for anyone displaced. The County currently operates no homeless shelters, other than two safe parking areas for unhoused people living in vehicles, though plans are in the works to build sleeping cabins in Lemon Grove.

"We have a moral obligation before we put handcuffs on somebody to say, `We have a place for you to go," Montgomery-Steppe said, ECM news partner 10 News reports.

Asked if there is information on any separation of homeless encampment fires vs. fires started in migrant camps, Anderson said County Fire and CalFire have indicated that “these separate data points are not currently tracked in the unincorporated areas.” 

An ECM article last year reported that at least six local fires between May 1 and June 1 were attributed to migrants or smugglers near the border, according to Cal Fire. Those fires ranged in size from less than an acre to 50 acres.

East County News Service

Last week’s storms brought 6-10 inches of snow to our mountains with up to 1.5 inches in urban portions of our county.  Now, multiple new storms are moving into the area, with rain now falling across the region and multiple atmospheric rivers soon to drench  our region, with the heaviest rains Thursday, the National Weather Service predicts.   A flood watch has been issued now through Thursday afternoon for San Diego’s inland and coastal areas, including cities such as La Mesa, Santee, Poway, and Escondido as well as San Diego.  Excessive runoff may result in flooding of rivers,  streams, and other low-lying and flood-prone locations.

Wednesday night through Thursday afternoon could bring rainfall rates of .5 to 0.75 inches per hour, with up to an inch per hour possible in lower mountain areas, along with thunderstorms.  Two to three inches of snow are forecast at higher elevations locally. A winter storm warning will remain in effect from Wednesday afternoon through Friday morning.

Travel could be very difficult to impossible. The   hazardous conditions could impact the Tuesday morning and evening   commutes. Very strong winds could cause extensive tree damage.   Roads, and especially bridges and overpasses, will likely become   slick and hazardous. Visibilities may drop below 1/4 mile due to   falling and blowing snow.

Yet another storm is possible Sunday and Monday, with continued colder than normal temperatures.

Sign up to receive free East County Wildfire and Emergency Alerts via email on the top right of our homepage. You can also follow EastCountyAlert at X.

Source: Cal Fire

March 2, 2025 (San Diego) – Cal Fire law enforcement investigators have arrested Ruben Vasquez on multiple felony arson charges following an extensive investigation into two wildland fires that ignited on January 21. The fires, known as the Pala Fire and the Lilac Fire, started 25 minutes apart near Interstate 15 and State Route 76 in the Pala Mesa and Bonsall areas.

Together, they burned nearly 100 acres and prompted evacuations affecting hundreds of residents. Witness reports and investigative efforts led to the identification of Vasquez as a suspect.

On February 28, Cal Fire Law Enforcement Investigators arrested Vasquez for two counts of felony arson, and he was transported to the Vista Detention Facility. The investigation report will be referred to the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office. 

Cal Fire indicates that arson investigations are complex and require thorough evidence collection, scene examination, and witness interviews, which can be time-consuming. Accurate findings are essential for accountability and preventive measures.

Cal Fire extends gratitude to its partners at the San Diego County Sheriff's Office, North County Fire Protection District, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office for their valuable support and assistance during the investigation.