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Archives for June 2013

A Plea for Justice at San Diego’s Chalk-U-py Demonstration

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By Doug Porter

In a matter of days the prosecution of San Diegan Jeff Olson on 13 counts of vandalism stemming from chalking protests slogans outside Bank of America has become a worldwide cause celebre.  The 40 year old Olson was outraged by disclosures about B of A’s role in fostering the mortgage crisis leading up to the near-collapse of the economy and the suffering it caused millions of Americans.

His arrest did not come for months after he abandoned the chalking campaign. Pressure from bank security officials led the SDPD gang unit to recommend prosecution, a suggestion that City Attorney Jan Goldsmith’s office, whose role as a defender of San Diego’s entrenched financial interests has come under increasing scrutiny in recent weeks, was only too happy to accommodate.   [Read more…]

Tío Emilio and the Secrets of the Ancestors: Chapter 6 — The Dream

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“The world is as you dream it.”  Numi

By Richard Juarez 

I sat on my bed after dinner, partly listening to my radio, but mostly thinking about the day and about Tío Emilio. After a while, my eyes just felt so heavy, I couldn’t keep them open. Maybe sweeping the walks front and back, and sweeping out the patio and wiping down the patio furniture before dinner tired me out more than I thought. Or maybe it was from eating too much. I sat there with my eyes closed, thinking about the leather binder cover and the scene carved on it. Finally we would get to talk about it in the morning. The thought occurred to me to get up and change into my PJs. But instead, I plopped over on the bed and immediately drifted off into a deep sleep….

I must have been traveling very fast. What a rush, feeling the wind on my face, and hearing it speak to me as it whizzed past my ears. It told me to look up and see the clouds. They looked like huge beautiful puffy balls of cotton floating in the sky. The next thing I knew I was sailing up into one of the lower clouds and could feel the coolness of its moisture. I leaned to the left and curled back down out of the clouds, then sailed right back up into the cool mist. Sometime while sailing through the clouds, I realized that I was a small eagle, flying through the sky.   [Read more…]

Albertsons Worker Sues Chain for Work Conditions Causing Premature Birth and Death of Her Baby

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by Laura Clawson / Daily Kos

Reyna Garcia, a worker at an Albertsons grocery store in California, brought her bosses three doctors’ notes saying she needed her job duties altered because of a high risk pregnancy. They ignored her, and here’s the result that’s led her to file a lawsuit:

According to the complaint, García, a general merchandise manager at the Atascadero store, asked to leave work while in pain one day last November. But her request was turned down, and she continued heavy lifting at the store. She went into labor that night, rushed to the hospital and found out that her baby was losing fluid and sustaining brain damage, she says.

García gave birth two days later to a girl named Jade, but the baby only lived for a few minutes. According to the suit, “Baby Jade’s death over those several minutes was the most painful thing Ms. García had ever experienced.”

  [Read more…]

Sen. Warren’s Bill Gets Cold Shoulder as Student Loan Rates Spike Monday

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Lauren McCauley / Common Dreams

Despite the groundswell of support behind Senator Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) popular student loan proposal, Senate leaders have dismissed the legislation opting instead to let student interest rates double Monday as they pack their bags for a Fourth of July holiday recess.

Because of Congressional inaction, students will be left in the lurch as federal Stafford loans spike to 6.8 percent.

The Warren bill proposes to tie student loan interest rates to the same “discounted rates” given to big banks from the Federal Reserve, lowering student loan rates to 0.75 percent and saving students thousands of dollars.   [Read more…]

Research Shows that Monsanto’s Big Claims for GMO Food Are Probably Wrong

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It’s going to be a tough row to hoe, from here on out for Monsanto.

By Jill Richardson / AlterNet  

Oops. The World Food Prize committee’s got a bit of egg on its face—genetically engineered egg. They just awarded the World Food Prize to three scientists, including one from Syngenta and one from Monsanto, who invented genetic engineering because, they say, the technology increases crop yields and decreases pesticide use. (Perhaps not coincidentally, Monsanto and Syngenta are major sponsors of the World Food Prize, along with a third biotech giant, Dupont Pioneer.)

Monsanto makes the same case on its website, saying, “Since the advent of biotechnology, there have been a number of claims from anti-biotechnology activists that genetically modified (GM) crops don’t increase yields. Some have claimed that GM crops actually have lower yields than non-GM crops… GM crops generally have higher yields due to both breeding and biotechnology.”

But that’s not actually the case.   [Read more…]

Online Purchasing: Similar to “Online Dating?”

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By Judi Curry

In the past few years, I have found that I do a lot of purchasing from online companies. Lured by free shipping and no tax, I figure I have saved a bundle of money during these purchasing frenzies.

In the past year or so, I have stepped away from Amazon.com and started buying items that are specifically designed to be used in San Diego.  And have I been burned – at least initially.   [Read more…]

San Diego Gets Another Black Eye: Goldsmith’s #ChalkGate Prosecution Gets World-Wide Coverage

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“Chalk-U-Py” Protest, Petitions Follow Judge’s Gag Order in Bank of America Graffiti Trial

By Doug Porter

Things are going out of control for City Attorney Jan Goldsmith. His office’s decision to prosecute 40 year old Jeff Olson for using children’s washable chalk to scrawl protests on sidewalks adjacent to Bank of America branch offices has garnered world wide notice. And it’s not the kind of publicity the Downtown Tourism folks appreciate.

A newly organized group calling itself Liberals for Liberty has announced plans to create a chalk mural of the Constitution with focus on the First Amendment in front of the San Diego Hall of Justice.  A Facebook page set up for the event calls for local artists to meet up Saturday (June 29th) at the courthouse, 330 West Broadway, San Diego.

At Change.org, a petition went up Friday morning calling upon City Attorney Jan Goldsmith to drop the prosecution of Jeff Olson for chalk graffiti, citing “an obvious abuse of power and a wasteful use of the resources of the City of San Diego.” The influential Daily Kos blog has also announced a petition, saying “prosecuting people who chalk political messages on vandalism charges is a blatant abuse of power.”   [Read more…]

Republican Descent Into Irrelevancy Provides Political Openings for Progressives

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By Lucas O’Connor / Special to the San Diego Free Press

The week’s news cycle has been a non-stop roller coaster ride, with major stories piling on top of each other for coverage. It got so far out of hand that there was an actual election for the United States Senate l and hardly anyone noticed.

Why? Well partly (unfortunately) because of Paula Deen. But we had a major speech on climate change from President Obama, the Supreme Court gutting the Voting Rights Act and declaring racism over (Thanks guys!), the epic #StandWithWendy filibuster stretching late into the night followed by the stunning #SitDownWendy conservative backlash that should have been obvious, but had jaws bouncing off the floor around the world, and two more Supreme Court decisions striking down the Defense of Marriage Act and bringing the end of Proposition 8 . Most months don’t have that much excitement, must less the first half of the week.   [Read more…]

Fuggedaboud Your “Right” to Anything

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Editor: The following post by Frances Zimmerman looks at recent manifestations of attacks – both local and national – on our rights as citizens by the government.

by Frances O’Neill Zimmerman

This week City Attorney Jan Goldsmith has brought charges against a former Occupy protester named Jeff Olson who wrote criticism in colored chalk on the public sidewalks outside three mid-City branches of Bank of America. The trial was under way since Wednesday and conviction carries the possibility of years in prison under a California anti-vandalism law.

Superior Court Judge Howard Shore has prohibited Olsen’s defense attorney from mentioning the First Amendment, free speech, freedom of expression or political speech in his arguments.   [Read more…]

UCLA Scientists Predict Southern California Will Have 40 Percent Drop in Snowfall Over Next 30 Years

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Winter precipitation will more often be rain, rather than snow
By Steve Scauzillo / sgvtribune.com

UCLA scientists predict global warming will reduce snowfall in Southern California mountains by 40 percent in less than 30 years, a climate shift that has serious policy implications, not the least being the loss of the quintessential “only in L.A.” experience of skiing the mountains by day and riding the surf at sunset.

The drop in snowfall will be noticeable in the southern Sierra, the Tehachapis, San Gabriels and San Bernardino mountains by the middle of the century if nothing is done to curb greenhouse gases, namely carbon dioxide produced by the burning of fossil fuels.   [Read more…]

Joy Over Supreme Court Ruling on Same-Sex Marriage Tempered by Its Gutting of Voting Rights Act

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San Diego Columnist is elated over marriage equality rulings but dismayed by court’s ruling on Voting Rights Act

By Mark Gabrish Conlan / East County Magazine

The sun is shining this Wednesday, June 26 and it’s a beautiful, if rather hot, day in San Diego. I sent my husband Charles off to work this morning after we both got up early to watch MS-NBC broadcast news of the United States Supreme Court’s rulings on two cases involving the rights of same-sex couples to marry each other. It was a personal story to us because Charles and I are legally married.

We got hitched on July 4, 2008, during the four- and one-half month “window” between the effective date of the California Supreme Court’s decision granting marriage equality to same-sex couples under the California state constitution and the passage of Proposition 8 that November.   [Read more…]

Law & Order Perverted: Starring Congressman Darrell Issa and City Attorney Jan Goldsmith

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By Doug Porter

It’s turning out to be a bad week for San Diego’s Congressman Darrell Issa and City Attorney Jan Goldsmith.

Both have seen would-be/shoulda been triumphant scenarios blow up in their faces. Although you wouldn’t know it from reading the local press, both these Republican politicians are being revealed and reviled nationally and internationally for their prosecutorial over-reach.

In Congressman Issa’s case, it turns out now that the whole ‘IRS crisis’ was manufactured, thanks to some manipulative questions asked by the House Oversight Committee Chairman of the IRS Inspector General. Acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel will testify today before Congress the data released only concerned itself with conservative groups because Issa only asked about those groups.

The City Attorney’s office’s decision to pursue prosecution at the behest of the Bank of America for acts of political graffiti committed with washable chalk and their quest for a 13 year prison sentence in that case have made Jan Goldsmith an international laughing stock, despite his claims that he knew nothing about the case.   [Read more…]

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