R.I.P.

Helix High alumnus Jack Felson — a onetime San Diego politico with close ties to then–county supervisor Roger Hedgecock — has died at 71 at a cancer clinic in Bavaria, Germany. Beginning in the early 1980s, Felson, an ex–Hedgecock aide, along with lobbyist and lawyer Mike McDade, another former Hedgecock staffer and campaign intimate, were at the center of a long-running controversy over campaign contributions and the role they played in promoting Honey Springs, a 2000-acre project east of Jamul that sought to build 860 “environmentally sensitive” houses and a small sewage plant. Bill Press, a former top aide to then-Governor Jerry Brown, also worked to grease the skids for the development. In 1982, Hedgecock and the board approved a scaled-down version of the plan, which later died after years of litigation and the financial setbacks of its promoter, Damon Siskin.