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Archives for August 2012

San Diego Cancer Survivor to Swim English Channel

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By Danny Cappiello 

Swimming twenty one miles in cold, rough water seems like an impossible feat. But I guess everything is relative. When you have battled cancer and won, very little probably seems impossible. That is the very perspective Allison DeFrancesco has and that is why she has decided to swim the English Channel this September.

Going into her senior year of college, Allison, a native of North County San Diego, was struggling with health problems. She did not know what was going on and threw herself into her collegiate swim training at NYU. But her health did not turn around and she eventually had to have it checked out. She graduated college early and came back to San Diego to get medical attention. Before she could figure out what was happening with her body, she learned some difficult news. Her college coach, Lauren Kyle Beam, had been diagnosed with colon cancer. Lauren was pregnant and lost the baby to the disease. Shortly thereafter, the next wave of bad news hit Alli. She too had cancer, a classic case of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

Although diagnosis and treatment started for Lauren only a month or so before Allison’s, the coach and mentor stayed true to her role. She coached Alli through the process, encouraging her to stay positive, remain true to herself and to question the treatment options. All of this, especially the last piece if advice, proved crucial to Alli’s struggle. As it turned out, she had been under-diagnosed and therefore her treatment was not working. She sought out second opinions and her care was eventually transferred to the UCLA Lymphoma Program.   [Read more…]

We Built It? 2012 Republican National Convention Site: Publicly Financed, Publicly Owned

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Next weeks Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida will be held at The Tampa Bay Time Forum, an indoor arena that is publicly owned and whose construction was paid for primarily with tax dollars. Seven bond issues issued in 1996 for construction, according to the St. Petersburg Times, are being paid off with a combination of revenues from sales taxes, tourist development taxes, and ticket surcharges. The facility is legally owned by Hillsborough County, which leases it the Tampa Bay Sports Authority. County ownership keeps the property off the local property tax rolls.

So it’s ironic, to say the least, that the GOP has adopted “We Built It” as their theme for the 2012 convention. As Media Matters has pointed out, this premise is build upon the Fox news’ distortion of one part of President Obama’s remarks tying the success of businesses to “this unbelievable American System” that includes government spending on infrastructure and education.

The Federal Election Commission, financed by 33 million tax payers who direct $3 of their taxes towards election costs, has given the Republican Party more than $18 million in grants to be used towards the costs of the “We Built It” convention. (The Dems received a matching amount towards their convo.)  Tampa Bay & Charlotte, NC have each received $50 million in grant money from the federal government to beef up law enforcement capabilities.

The majority of the grant money in Tampa will be used for paying the costs of public employees brought in from other jurisdictions to aid in security August 27-30.  Downtown has been wired up with an additional 60 cameras, which, along with airborne surveillance equipment, will feed data into tax payer funded databases running facial recognition software (developed for the Pentagon) that boasts facial recognition rates of 99.7 percent for well-lit, frontal photos. And local tax payers have coughed up an additional $2.7 million for “beautification” projects around the city.   [Read more…]

Mayoral Candidates Debate the issues at Ocean Beach Town Council

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DeMaio and Filner lay out their divergent views on the role of government in San Diego.

The Ocean Beach Town Council welcomed San Diego’s two mayoral candidates to its monthly meeting at the Masonic Center last night in the latest in a series of debates ahead of November’s general election. Not surprisingly a packed house gathered to hear what the two aspirants to the city’s highest elected office had to say about their plans for the city should they be elected.

The format for the discussion was very lax with seemingly few rules. As requested by the two candidates, members of the audience were asked to submit questions for the candidates, which were then selected by members of the Town Council board. After making a brief opening statement, each candidate was then given ample time to answer the questions presented.

“Our city government has failed us,” Councilman Carl DeMaio opened. “They ran up a mountain of debt, they cut our services, they raised the cost of living through higher water bills. They let our city infrastructure, our streets, our sidewalks, our facilities, fall apart.”   [Read more…]

Still ‘Having the time of my Life’

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Looking at a picture of myself with a “friend” I realize that I’m having the time of my life, one of many “times of my lives.”

My childhood, was one of those times, minus, of course, Jim Crow clowning around a time or two, doing the boogaloo on my hopes and dreams but my family and friends and neighbors flooded me with powerful doses of love that countered such schemes.

And wowing Arizona basketball fans over half a century ago sure bolstered my ego and self esteem. That was quite a time.

Creating positive learning environments for thousands of children in San Diego who kept me young of mind has to rank among my finer times.   [Read more…]

Payday lenders busted by San Francisco City Attorney for excessive interest charges: You may be eligible for a settlement

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by Jim Bliesner

City Attorney Dennis Herrera was joined at a news conference today by City Treasurer José Cisneros, San Francisco Labor Council Executive Director Tim Paulson,and S.F. Interfaith Council Executive Director Michael Pappas to highlight the upcoming final 60-day mark of the City’s statewide push to locate consumers who may be eligible for restitution from Money Mart and Loan Mart in amounts ranging from between $20 to $1,800. Victims of the payday lenders ‘predatory lending schemes were also on hand to speak to the news media about their own experiences.

The restitution outreach program is among the terms of an agreement Herrera’s office negotiated to settle his office’s 2007 consumer protection lawsuit against payday lenders Money Mart and Loan Mart and an affiliated out-of-state bank for unfair and fraudulent business practices. The alleged wrongdoing stemmed from the lenders’ marketing of short-term installment loans and oversized payday loans, usually targeted to low-income borrowers, at exorbitant and illegal interest rates. While the settlement requires the lenders to engage an independent administrator to make “reasonable efforts” to contact all eligible claimants, Herrera’s office is authorized to undertake additional outreach efforts in advance of the Oct. 1, 2012 deadline to reach all potential claimants who may have moved, or who may have dismissed or misunderstood letters from the restitution administrator.   [Read more…]

Sex In San Diego: A Journey Into Dave Barry’s Colon (A Must Read)

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Dave Barry / The Miami Herald

OK. You turned 50. You know you’re supposed to get a colonoscopy. But you haven’t. Here are your reasons:

1. You’ve been busy.

2. You don’t have a history of cancer in your family.

3. You haven’t noticed any problems.

4. You don’t want a doctor to stick a tube 17,000 feet up your butt.

Let’s examine these reasons one at a time. No, wait, let’s not. Because you and I both know that the only real reason is No. 4. This is natural. The idea of having another human, even a medical human, becoming deeply involved in what is technically known as your ”behindular zone” gives you the creeping willies.
  [Read more…]

San Onofre Layoffs: Latest Sign of Nuke Plant’s Demise

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By Michael Steinberg / Blackrain Press

Monday’s notice that San Onofre’s owners are laying off 730 workers—one third of the workforce—is yet another indication of a nuclear power plant in severe distress.

Both formerly operating reactors have been shut down since January due to revelations that key components called steam generators had rapidly and largely turned into junk. In following months promises of restart from the company have repeatedly been pushed back.

On July 31 Huff Post LA reported that this crisis had cost the plant “at least $165 million” at that point. This figure consisted of “$48 million for inspection and maintenance costs” and $117 million “to buy replacement power.”   [Read more…]

The Starting Line — The DeMaio Campaign: Today San Diego, Tomorrow California?

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Moving on up… Could it be the Carl DeMaio is using the race for the Mayor’s office in San Diego as a stepping stone for bigger things? If last night’s Orange County fundraiser was any indication, the answer is yes. Let’s start with DeMaio’s own website’s description of the Newport Beach event, billed by some as a chance to show their support for the “next Scott Walker”, as in Scott Walker, the Wisconsin Governor who’s become a hero to conservatives around the country:

 DeMaio has been leading the “reform movement” in San Diego for years and is the author of the groundbreaking Comprehensive Pension Reform ballot measure. After cleaning up San Diego’s fiscal crisis, DeMaio is turning his focus on job creation and state-wide reform.

 Want to get reform in California? Then support Carl DeMaio as the “reformer with results” who is achieving fiscal reform and economic opportunity not only in San Diego, but articulating a vision for reform in California!!

 The emailed flyer for the event billed him as “State leader to cut pensions”. His hosts included Republican National Committee member Shawn Steele, Orange County GOP Chairman Scott Baugh, Flash Report publisher Jon Fleischman, Inland Energy honcho Buck James, and Lincoln Club Vice Chair Wayne Lindholm. It was a heavyweight group of supporters; Baugh actually brought Scott Walker to OC last year. Given that none of his hosts have any vested interests in San Diego, and are all considered big time players at the State level, it seems pretty clear that Carl DeMaio is being groomed for bigger and better things.

We have to wonder how the “swing” voters in San Diego would react if he was campaigning locally as the next Scott Walker, whose popularity with Koch/SuperPAC set might be off-putting to those who are of the less-than-true blue conservative pursuation.   [Read more…]

Movie Review : ‘Killer Joe’ and the SOL Underclass

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By Frances O’Neill Zimmerman

While I’m worrying about the disconnect between Paul Ryan’s beautiful blue eyes and baby face and his flinty role as Mitt Romney’s Slasher in Chief for every single American social, medical and educational program, I turned last night for solace to the Landmark Hillcrest Cinema and sexy, handsome, cool Matthew McConaughey in “Killer Joe.” I recommend it if you need a break from Mittens and his new hatchet man.

This is an incredibly violent, funny, and very dark film. It’s rated NC-17 for everything — did I mention violence? — but “Killer Joe” is really a perfect movie for our times. It provides as shocking a view of the SOL underclass in this country as I can remember, more powerful than the great dystopian “Blade Runner” from back in the ’80’s. That was sci-fi: this is 2012.   [Read more…]

Media Hacks: Why Our National Press Corps Is Failing the Public Abysmally

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You want a serious debate about the issues? Good luck!

It’s hard to imagine a greater irony than our political press, obsessed as it is with process stories, dubiously sourced rumors and trivial fluff, lamenting the fact that we can’t have a “serious national debate.”

Consider what may be the funniest lede in this cycle so far: “The elevated presidential campaign of ideas, fleetingly achieved after months of mudslinging, died Tuesday,” wrote Reid Epstein. “It was three days old.” Epstein went on to catalog all of the mean things the two campaigns were saying about each other, as if this is an election year or something.
  [Read more…]

Where Oh Where Have My Neighbors Gone? Redevelopment, Gentrification and Displacement in City Heights

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Perhaps what we call “diverse” communities are those that haven’t reached equilibrium, but are in the process of changing… Is there a stable equilibrium of genuine integration in this country?
Chris Hayes Up With Chris HayesJune 17, 2012

Before the housing bubble finally burst in 2008, taking the economy with it, the conversion of often aging rental housing stock to condominiums had been proceeding full bore. City Heights, ripe territory for sub-prime mortgages, attracted its share of condominium investments. To first time home buyers of limited income, these City Heights condo conversions offered a last chance for “affordable” home ownership, with units advertised in the mid to high $200,000 range.

One such condo conversion occurred across the street from me. The original 16 unit apartments, consisting of two long buildings of eight units each, were set back from the street with curb cut parking in the front and minimal landscaping in the Huffman architectural style. The owner spent little if anything on the external upkeep of the building. Like many parts of City Heights, the apartments looked like not much thought was given to them beyond their utility in providing the most basic level of habitability.   [Read more…]

How to lie, cheat, and steal your way to elected office

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Republicans embark on an unprecedented campaign of dishonesty and deceit.

So this is what it’s come down to. Republicans can’t win on the merits of their policy ideas, so they have to resort to deliberate and systematic deception in order to win. And people are buying into it like the fools they are. In fact, that’s what Republicans are counting on: That the voters are uninformed dolts that don’t pay attention to detail and swallow the hook of convenient sound bites that fit their ideology, accepting them without question.

Start with the fact that Republican claims of grave concern over the economy. The truth is that they revel in the slow economic recovery because they think it’s good for them politically. As long as the economy is still languishing, they can simply blame it on President Obama and spin it into political gold for them. The truth is that they have no interest in seeing the economy improve until they can reclaim control of both houses of Congress and the White House, if even then.   [Read more…]

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