News

Pala Today News – 8/17/26

Written by John Fox on August 17, 2026

The following items are part of the award-winning “Pala Today” newscast heard this day at noon on PALA REZ RADIO™ 91.3 FM in Pala.

LOCAL AND REGIONAL NEWS

The 77-acre Taffle Fire in Sage, six miles southeast of Hemet was 80% contained as of yesterday. It was first reported at 12:40p Friday. Air tankers and water-dropping helicopters began arriving just after 1p. Evacuation warnings for areas near the fire were cancelled by 5p Saturday. https://patch.com/california/temecula/taffle-fire-80-contained-77-acres-scorched

A woman knocked unconscious was pulled from her vehicle by good Samaritans moments before it burst into flames in Oceanside Saturday. The multi-vehicle crash was reported about 5:30p on westbound Vista Way over the 5 freeway. All westbound lanes were closed until after 6p as vehicles were cleared from the roadway. The conditions of those involved were not immediately available. https://www.10news.com/news/local-news/north-county-news/unconscious-woman-rescued-from-vehicle-prior-to-fire

Construction is underway on the $6m project to restore the Loma Alta Slough – a wetlands area at the mouth of Loma Alta Creek in South Oceanside. Work by Blue Pacific Engineering & Construction is expected to last through April. The 5.8-acre habitat restoration project has been in planning since 2018. Crews will remove invasive vegetation and plant native species across several different habitats in the slough. There will also be a 1k-foot nature trail connecting South Coast Highway to Buccaneer Beach. The restored wetland is expected to improve coastal water quality and help with local flooding by allowing the slough to absorb runoff during heavy rains. https://www.californiaconstructionnews.com/2026/08/16/oceanside-begins-6-million-restoration-of-loma-alta-slough/?amp=1

One week ago today, SDG&E shared the possible alternative routes for its proposed Golden Pacific Powerlink plan. City officials in Temecula say there was really only one presented, and that’s enough. It avoids Temecula by going along the south side of Cleveland National Forest and Palomar Mountain, crossing Highway 76 near Rincon, threading its way between a half dozen North County reservations before again crossing 76 about a mile east of I-15 before heading north through Rainbow and west to DeLuz. The group, Save Temecula says cost appears to be the driving factor with SDG&E at the expense of people, public safety, communities and the environment. The Golden Pacific Powerlink is a 150-mile path of 200-foot-tall towers draped with 500K transmission lines. It would be SDG&E’s largest capital project ever. https://patch.com/california/temecula/save-temecula-city-prepares-sdg-e-open-house-meeting-golden-pacific-powerlink

High temperatures in Pala will be consistently in the mid-90s with mid-60s overnight lows for at least the next week. The full forecast is coming up. (below)

SPORTS

In Major League Baseball – The Padres took two out of three from the Guardians in Cleveland including a 5-0 shutout yesterday. Casey Mize got his first win for San Diego. The Padres offense produced four homers – one each by Rengifo, Sheets, Bowen and Cronenworth. The Dodgers troubles continue, losing two out of three to the visiting Brewers. Atlanta avoided a sweep by the visiting Diamondback, winning 5-3 yesterday. That leaves the Dodgers in the lead in the NL West by 7 games over San Diego and 8 over Arizona. Today, the Padres open a series against the Mets in New York, the Dodgers are at Colorado, and the Diamondbacks are at Boston. The Angels lost two out of three to the visiting Royals. They get today off.

The sale of the San Diego Padres was officially approved today by Major League Baseball. The approval was unanimous for the sale by the Seidler family to the Feliciano/Jones group for an MLB-record $3.9b. Day to day operations will continue to be led by CEO Erik Greupner and team President/General Manager A.J. Preller. https://www.10news.com/sports/padres/sale-of-san-diego-padres-officially-approved-by-major-league-baseball

In the minors – The Lake Elsinore Storm lost 11-7 at Inland Empire yesterday. They split the six-game series at three games apiece. The storm open a series hosting San Jose tomorrow.

In the NFL – Preseason Week 1 is complete. The winners were Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Indiana, Arizona, Tennessee, Denver, Tampa Bay, Washington, Buffalo, Chicago, Minnesota, Jacksonville, Baltimore, Dallas, the Rams and the Chargers. Week 2 begins Thursday with Las Vegas at Houston and the Chargers hosting San Francisco.

In Major League Soccer – LAFC hosts San Diego FC and the Galaxy is at Houston Dynamo on Saturday.

In the NBA – Free agent Trendon Watford has agreed to a one-year, $2.9m deal with New Orleans. https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/49638189/trendon-watford-pelicans-agree-1-year-29m-deal

In the WNBA – Yesterday’s winners were Chicago, Indiana, and Portland.

In golf – At the St. Jude Championship in Memphis, Scottie Scheffler ran away with it, shooting 17 under par, 263 – eight strokes better than the nearest competitor. That included a tournament-best 62 in round 2 on Friday. https://www.espn.com/golf/leaderboard

In racing – Joey Logano won the NASCAR Cup race at Richmond on Saturday. Marcus Ericsson won yesterday’s Grand Prix of Ontario.

Local high school sports –

Bonsall – no scheduled games today

Great Oak – no scheduled games today

Fallbrook – no scheduled games today

Valley Center – no scheduled games today

BUSINE$$

As of midday trading on Wall Street, stocks were down. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell a third of a percent. The S&P 500 was down 3 tenths of a percent. And the Nasdaq was off by 2 tenths. Comex gold was up $42.50 to $4,479.80 an ounce. The U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures gained 86 cents to $82.26 a barrel.

The Supreme Court has again rejected President Trump’s attempt to overturn a verdict finding him liable for defamation and sexual abuse of writer E. Jean Carroll. Her attorney says this leaves Trump no remaining options. Carroll was paid more than $5.6m last month, representing a damages award plus post-judgement interest. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/17/trump-supreme-court-e-jean-carroll.html

On the heels of a loss in New Mexico court two weeks ago, Meta is now facing a much bigger test case co-led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta over alleged harm to children and teens. Opening arguments are tomorrow. That New Mexico case will cost Meta nearly $1b if upheld on appeal. Legal experts are saying the potential loss in this new case could be astronomical by comparison and could seriously jeopardize Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s ability to fund the company’s bet on artificial intelligence, which could cost as much as $145b this year. Although the specifics are different, both cases center on the alleged harmful design of apps like Facebook and Instagram. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/17/meta-attorneys-general-california-federal-trial-astronomical-consequences.html

Synchrony Financial is partnering with OpenAI to allow consumers to buy products directly inside ChatGPT using store-branded cards including Amazon, Walmart and Lowe’s. This is one of the first major moves by a U.S. bank to bring financing, payments and rewards directly into an AI chatbot. In other words, not being routed to the brand’s website to complete the purchase. Synchrony is also in talks with other AI platforms including Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini to embed cards within those chatbots. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/17/synchrony-openai-chatgpt-shopping.html

Housing investors say this is the worst housing market in at least three years. Mortgage rates are now at their highest level in over a year as insurance and other home costs continue to skyrocket. Investor sentiment at the end of June fell for the second straight quarter to an all-time low as measured by the quarterly RCN Capital/CJ Patrick Company Investor Sentiment Index. The survey of 300 investors in the fix-and-flip and rental business shows 45% of them think the market has gotten worse compared with 26% who say market conditions are better than a year ago. More than half say the high cost of financing is one of the biggest problems in today’s housing market. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/14/housing-investors-say-this-is-their-worst-market-in-at-least-3-years.html

LIFESTYLE / GREEN LIVING

Over the weekend at the movies, a half-dozen premiers of relatively minor movies dominated the Top Ten with two veterans remaining in the top two positions. “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” sold another $48.3m worth of tickets in its third week of release, followed by “The Odyssey” with $23.2m in its 5^th week in theaters. “The End of Oak Street” debuted with $21m – good for third place, followed by “PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie” with $20.5m, “Katseye: Wild Hearts” with $3.9m on just 750 screens, “Six: The Musical Live!” with $3m, and “The Brink of War” in 7^th place with $2.7m. The total for the weekend’s top ten was one third lower than last week, which was only half as big as the record-setting premiere weekend of Spiderman two weeks ago. https://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/?ref_=bo_nb_we_secondarytab

Actress Hayden Panettiere has died at the age of 36. Appearing in her first commercial at the age of 11 months. She joined the cast of daytime TV’s “One Life to Live” at four. She’d been groomed to be an actor by her actress mother Lesley Vogel. Years of TV were followed by movies including “Remember the Titans” with Denzel Washington and “Raising Helen” with Kate Hudson. Then came additional TV series with “Heroes” and “Nashville” along with a drug addiction and a breakup with her mother when she suggested Vogel should just be her mother and not also her manager. Vogel reacted by saying “You owe me,” and walked out. Married at 19 to Ukrainian boxing champion, Wladimir Klitschko, they had a daughter five years later after which she was hit hard by postpartum depression. Panettiere began drinking and by the time their daughter was three, Klitschko asked Panettiere to sign over custody. She suffered domestic abuse from a boyfriend who was jailed after pleading no contest in 2021. All of this was documented in her autobiography, published in May. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c629krywgw2o

The Vista City Council, on a 4-1 vote, last week adopted an ordinance prohibiting the sale or distribution of single-use plastic water bottles under one liter on city property or at city events, including those where an outside group rents a city venue. City funds also cannot be used to purchase plastic water bottles of less than a liter. The Vista Farmer’s Market adopted such a ban two years ago. The City Council also directed staff to draft an ordinance prohibiting Vista retailers from selling products made of polystyrene, also known as Styrofoam. That includes plates, bowls, egg cartons, shipping and packing materials, coolers and ice chests. Foam food service containers at local restaurants have been banned since 2023. https://thecoastnews.com/vista-limits-single-use-plastic-water-bottles-pursues-polystyrene-ban/

On this day in music history – August 17,

1955, Elvis Presley released what would become his first #1 hit on the country charts, the two-sided single “I Forgot to Remember to Forget / Mystery Train”.
In 1959, jazz trumpeter Miles Davis released “Kind of Blue”, his masterpiece, regarded by many critics as not just the greatest jazz record ever, but one of the greatest and most influential albums in any genre ever recorded.
In 1960, The Beatles began their first engagement in Hamburg, Germany playing the first of 48 nights at the Indra Club. At the urging of the club’s owner, the band was encouraged to scream, jump around on stage and really put on a show.
In 1965, The Byrds had to cancel a concert in England when only 250 of the available 4k seats were pre-sold.
In 1968, The Doors third album, “Waiting for the Sun” began the first of four weeks at #1 and spawned the hit single, “Hello, I Love You”.
Meanwhile, the Rascals were at #1 on the singles chart for the first of five weeks with “People Got to Be Free”.
In 1969, it was the final scheduled day of Woodstock. Groups for the final day included Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, The Who, Ten Years After, Sha Na Na, Joe Cocker, The Band, Country Joe & The Fish, Johnny Winter, and Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Not all of them made it to the stage on the 17^th, with the closing act, Jimi Hendrix not taking the stage until after sunrise on the 18^th after most of the audience had gone home.
In 1973, former Temptations singer Paul Williams was found dead in his car of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He owed $80k in taxes and his small business had failed.
In 1974, Eric Clapton’s album “461 Ocean Boulevard” began the first of four weeks at #1.
In 1991, Nirvana shot the video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit” at studios in Culver City. It won two awards at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards.
In 1999, former Bay City Rollers drummer Derek Longmuir appeared in court in his native Scotland on child pornography and drugs charges. He was sentenced to 300 hours of community service.
In 2008, Jackson Browne sued Republican presidential candidate John McCain for using his song “Running on Empty” in a campaign advertisement without permission.

Born on this day …

In 1944, John Seiter from Spanky & Our Gang
In 1947, Gary Talley from The Box Tops
In 1949, Sib Hashian, drummer for Boston
In 1953, Kevin Rowland, lead singer for Dexy’s Midnight Runners, who had a #1 hit in 1983 with “Come on Eileen”.
In 1958, Belinda Carlisle from The Go-Go’s and later a solo act with the 1987 #1 hit “Heaven Is a Place on Earth”.
In 1962, Gilby Clarke, guitarist with Guns N’ Roses
In 1965, Steve Gorman, drummer for The Black Crowes.
In 1969, Donnie Wahlberg from New Kids on the Block

https://www.thisdayinmusic.com/search/?keyword=&date=17&month=8

Other celebrity anniversaries today …

Actor Robert De Niro is 83
Frontiersman and adventurer Davy Crockett was born this day in 1786
Actress Mae West was born this day in 1893.

http://www.davesfunstuff.com/a-dd/2080-date0817.htm

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Pala seniors’ lunch menu for Monday (8/17) – taco salad, pinto beans, Spanish rice and dessert

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WEATHER

Pala Weather – sunny with a high of 93 this afternoon … 94 with winds gusting up to 20 miles an hour tomorrow … 95 Wednesday through Saturday … 94 Sunday … overnight lows, 63 tonight … about 65 tomorrow night through the weekend

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