Sheriff's Ramona Substation officers evacuated the Kmart store at 1855 Main St. in Ramona this afternoon after store officials received a call that there was a bomb in the store. A sheriff's deputy said the threat is being taken seriously and the sheriff's Bomb and Arson Unit has been called. Ramona Fire Department has stationed engines at both ends of the parking lot to block entry, and officials and Kmart employees are searching the store, reports Sentinel Photographer Timothy Jay Hall.

A 35-year-old Ramona woman was killed Sunday afternoon when a pickup driven by a 17-year-old Ramona boy crossed the center lines and hit the truck she was driving.
The head-on collision occurred about 2:30 p.m. on state Highway 67 about one-half mile north of Mina De Oro Road in Poway, reported Sgt. Lloyd Muenzer with the sheriff’s Poway Station.
Melissa Jean “Missy” Day was driving a white 1994 Ford Ranger pickup truck southbound on Highway 67 when her vehicle was hit. She was killed on impact. Despite efforts to resuscitate her, death was pronounced at the scene, the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office reported.

Employees at Ramona Post Office provided a special kind of delivery for Christmas this year to a Ramona family.
 
The Hay family — mom Debbie, dad Mark and daughter Taylor — came out of the house on Christmas Eve morning to the sound of a police siren.  As a parade of mail trucks came up the drive with a police escort, 10-year-old Taylor waited in wonder.

Last month marked the term’s end for two Ramona Unified School District Board members. Bob Hailey, who served for 12 years, and Dr. Christopher Smith, who served for four, both completed their service to the community via the school board.
Hailey, a semi-retired engineer, originally joined the board to have more control at the local level. At the time, he had students in the school system.

U.S. News and World Report’s recently released second annual survey of America’s Best High Schools shows Ramona Unified School District’s Mountain Valley Academy (MVA) did it again. For the second year, MVA earned bronze medal honors for the education students receive in the alternative school.

The owner of a Ramona house where marijuana was cultivated was sentenced last week to 63 months in federal prison. A caretaker at the house was sentenced to two years in prison.
Thomas Vernon Swift, 48, was allowed to remain free on a $600,000 property bond until he surrenders by Jan. 30 to a federal prison to start his sentence. It is not uncommon for a defendant to be allowed to celebrate Christmas before starting a prison term.
Swift has forfeited the Ramona house at 16201 Swartz Canyon Road and another house to the federal government. He and seven others pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to manufacture marijuana plants at various locations including Ramona, Fallbrook, Vista, and Valley Center.

The first semester has very busy and productive for the Ramona High School Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC).
Students in the school’s NJROTC completed their Area Manager Inspection on Dec. 3. The unit is inspected by the Navy during the annual event and the results are forwarded to NJROTC Headquarters at Pensacola, Fl.