Photo: CAL FIRE San Diego County Fire Authority
July 10, 2012- At long last….The Property Value Protection Ordinance (PVPO) will come before San Diego’s Land Use and Housing Committee tomorrow (July 11th) at City Hall, 202 C Street (12th floor) starting at 2pm. The act is aimed at reducing the negative impacts of foreclosures on surrounding neighborhoods by requiring banks to register with the city when they take action to foreclose a home and fining them $1000 a day to recover costs to the city and taxpayers when they fail to maintain their foreclosed properties.
Supporters of the measure, including the Center on Policy Initiatives (CPI) and the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), are cooking up a “social media storm” today between 5:30 and 6:30pm on Twitter (hashtag: #StopBankBlight) and Facebook (RSVPhere). The idea is to send positive messages to Land Use and Housing committee members Lori Zapf, Sherri Lightner, Todd Gloria and David Alvarez. For more information on the costs to neighborhoods and taxpayers caused by blighted foreclosures, visit: StopBankBlight.org.
Bank Scandal Spreading Across the Atlantic… The New York Times reports today that the investigation into charges that big banks manipulated interest rates in a manner hat hurt consumers and increased their profitability has gone global. The so-called Libor (London interbank offered rate) scandal began gathering steam after the British bank Barclays agreed to pay $450 million to resolve its case. ‘Libor’ impacts the pricing of $350 trillion in financial products, including credit cards, two million US mortgages and student loans. From the NY Times story:
Authorities around the world are now considering action against more than 10 big banks, including UBS, JPMorgan and Citigroup. The banks also face a raft of civil litigation from municipalities, investors and other financial firms that claim they lost money from the misreporting of rates. These lawsuits could end up costing the industry tens of billions of dollars, according to analysts.
On Monday, the oversight panel of the House Financial Services Committee sent a letter to the New York Fed seeking transcripts from at least a dozen phone calls in 2007 and 2008 between central bank officials and executives at Barclays.
Somebody said it’s supposed to be warm in San Diego today… The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced yesterday that the past 12 months were the warmest in U.S. history. And the first 6 months of this year were the warmest Jan-June on record.
The battle over Proposition B goes on… At 9 am this morning Judge Vargas will hold a hearing on a request from the State Public Employee Review Board (PERB) to impose a restraining order regarding the implementation of the pension “reform’ initiative passed by voters last month. Kelly Davis, over at SD City Beat’s Last Blog on Earth has an excellent report on the machinations behind the scenes on this measure. Money quote:
Prop. B seeks to freeze city workers’ base pay—also known as “pensionable” pay—through June 30, 2018, and put new employees into a 401(k)-style retirement plan. (Those two provisions don’t apply to police officers.) State law says that any legislative changes to public-employees’ compensation are subject to labor negotiations. While unions and lawmakers don’t have to reach an agreement, they at least have to meet at the bargaining table. The only way to get around that is to gather enough signatures to put a measure on the ballot. The city’s labor unions are arguing that Mayor Jerry Sanders intentionally circumvented state law by crafting Prop. B and then recruiting political allies to fund a costly signature-gathering campaign.
A really big dud… That so-called Internet “doomsday” virus that was supposed black out tens of thousands of computers worldwide appeared to
pose no major problems yesterday. In a related development, Microsoft’s next-generation operating system (Windows 8) will be available to consumers this October.
If it’s Tuesday it must be time for more wingnuttia. Yes folks. the craziness just keeps on keepin’ on, and I’m makin’ sure that you keep up with the latest stuff rather than waiting for those recycled emails from your crazy uncle…
Taking the air of of the school voucher movement…Louisiana Republicans were wild about Gov. Bobby Jindal’s overhaul of the state’s education system that features a voucher program that allows state funds to be used to send students to religiously-affiliated schools. GOP State Rep. Valarie Hodges was one supporter who voted for Jindal’s bill, but withdrew her support once she realized that it “unfortunately” applies to more than one flavor of religion:
Unfortunately it will not be limited to the Founders’ religion. We need to insure that it does not open the door to fund radical Islam schools. There are a thousand Muslim schools that have sprung up recently. I do not support using public funds for teaching Islam anywhere here in Louisiana.
Now she’s gonna have to side with all those ACLU-types who are suing to block implementation of the law.
Conserv journalists targeted for murder by Obama administration… It must be true; after all, Mitt Romney’s favorite news aggregatorsaid so. The Drudge Report posted a story from 911/Truther site InfoWars that includes right-wing conspiracy theorists Alex Jones with Joseph Farah chatting up their paranoia about being attacked by the Obama administration. Why, Farah even reported seeing a drone flying over as he walked his dog. “Look – this is the first term – if he’s re-elected it’s going to be war – they will be at war – we will be hunted down like dogs, keep that in mind, that’s what the stakes are,” said Farah. At least he’s not claiming that the black helicopters are chasing him. Yet.
Anderson Cooper’s gayness makes her vomit… Talk radio’s Janet Mefferd (heard locally on KCBQ) cautioned listeners last week that a story about CNN host Anderson Cooper coming out of the closet and stating that he was “proud” to be gay might literally make them vomit. She went on to tell her listeners that the newsman’s statement was the “the neo-pagan story of the day” and linked it to Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky 
pedophilia case.
Remember the definition of insanity that says if you keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results you must be…? Good. The House GOP will vote for the 31st 33rd time tomorrow (Weds) to repeal the Affordable Care Act. (UPDATE: Today’s Washington Post says it’s #33.)
On This Day: In 1928 George Eastman first demonstrated color motion pictures. In 1962 the Telstar Communications satellite was launched. The satellite relayed TV and telephone signals between Europe and the U.S. In 1965 Wilson Pickett’s “In The Midnight Hour” was released.
Eat Fresh! Today’s Farmers’ Markets: Coronado (1st St. & B Ave., Ferry Landing) 2:30 – 6 pm, Escondido (Grand Ave. btw Juniper & Kalmia St.) 2:30 – 6:00 pm , Mira Mesa (Mira Mesa High School 10510 Reagan Rd.) 3–7 pm, Morena District (1240 West Morena Blvd.) 3 – 7 pm, Otay Ranch – Chula Vista (2015 Birch Rd. and Eastlake Blvd.) 4 –8 pm, Pacific Beach (Bayard & Garnet) 2 – 6:30pm.
I read the Daily Fishwrap(s) so you don’t have to… Catch “the Starting Line” Monday thru Friday right here at San Diego Free Press (dot) org. Send your hate mail and ideas to DougPorter@SanDiegoFreePress.
Doug Porter
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