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Archives for September 2012

City Agencies Thrive Under Managed Competition

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Carl DeMaio’s quest to privatize San Diego’s city services take an unexpected turn.

For decades now we have heard Republicans tell us that under every circumstance government is incapable and incompetent. There’s this completely irrational hatred of all things linked to the government–except the military, of course–which somehow doesn’t qualify as a government agency by Republican definition. Government, and by extension, government agencies—all government agencies—are unable to efficiently and effectively perform the tasks they’ve been chartered for, and thus cannot be trusted with taxpayer money.

  [Read more…]

The Starting Line – The Moral Bankruptcy of Bridgepoint Education/Ashford University

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One of San Diego larger private employers, Ashford University/Bridgepoint Education, announced layoffs for 450 employees yesterday, a move that’s bound to send ripples throughout the region. Employees were told to come in early, shown a video and offered a two-week severance package. Then it was out the door.

The aftermath of past corporate disintegrations brought on by unsustainable business models (or a legal/quasi-legal ponzi scheme, as I like to call it) has been a sort of local amnesia in the news media, followed by admonitions from the UT’s editorial page that “too much regulation” is bad for business. At the bottom of this well of malevolent corporate behavior is the ultimate reality that we citizens will get stuck with the bill for damages while most of its perpetrators will walk away unscathed.   [Read more…]

For the Sake of Civility The U-T Needs to Change

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Hope on my mind

Hope comes easy for me. It can rise from the words in a kindergarten girl’s poem where everybody lives happily forever and ever, or it could come out of the energy of thousands of San Diegans standing in the middle of Broadway singing “Give Peace a Chance.”

I didn’t realize, though, how hopeful a human being I am until I found myself one day holding out hope that the San Diego Union-Tribune, a rag that, on good days, over the years, has made me gag, could change and become a factor in helping San Diego become all it can be.

I didn’t see this hopeful moment coming. I was leaving the Union-Tribune Building one day when it dawned on me that I had a smile on my face. And that had never been the case when I look back on all the times I’ve walked away from the place.   [Read more…]

Prop 37: Labeling of Genetically Modified Foods. Will We Be Better Off If We Don’t Eat Them?

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Proposition 37 requires labeling foods you buy in the supermarket as GMO foods if they contain genetically modified ingredients. It also prevents labeling GMO foods as “natural.” Some foods can be exempted from the GMO label such as otherwise organic foods that have been unintentionally cross-pollinated from GMO crops. And Prop 37 does not require labeling at restaurants and in particular fast food restaurants – just the places that you can probably expect to be served GMO foods.

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The Starting Line – San Diego City Council to Celebrate National Voter Registration Day by Authorizing Secret Vote on Hotel Tax

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Things that make you go hmmmm…Tuesday’s docket for the San Diego City Council features item number S500:

“A resolution authorizing the payment of outside counsel fees and associated costs incurred by the Mayor, City Councilmember, and present and former City employees in testifying before the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB).”

If that sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because the same resolution was considered and rejected by the City Council on June 26th, by a vote of 4-1.

The fact that this question is even being put up for consideration screams “under the table deal”. And does this deal have anything to do with the secret vote that the City Council be taking shortly that could authorize our local hotels to soak the public for another couple of  billion in taxes?   [Read more…]

DeMaio & Manchester: San Diego’s Tourist Plantation Lords?

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As Doug Porter noted here last week, the Center on Policy Initiatives (CPI) released a new report on poverty, earnings, and income in San Diego County that revealed the sad fact that  “more than a third of San Diego County’s population” lives “in economic hardship.”  Nearly one out of five children in our city live in poverty with 16% of women, 21% of Latinos and 23% of African Americans joining them—and we are losing ground “as the quality of jobs created by major industries in the region failed to keep pace with the cost of living.”

Median income is falling and the household income for all races and ethnicities decreased here in San Diego.  About 17% of us don’t have health insurance, three out of five renters are paying more than they can afford, the middle class is getting leaner, and poverty and income inequality have been on the rise over the last five years.   [Read more…]

City Government? we don’t need no stinkin’ government

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By Norma Damashek / NumbersRunner

This is the 3rd installment in the stinkin’ series. It’s called City government? we don’t need no stinkin’ government.

Before we gird our collective loins to confront a scam called “Tourism Marketing District” I will pose this question: Why do we need city government?

Here’s a straightforward answer: to provide us with safe and pleasant surroundings so we can pursue our daily lives with a minimum of hassle – activities that include making a living, developing our talents, safeguarding the next generation, trying to be happy….   [Read more…]

4 Ways Christianity Sneaks Into Our Secular Government — And Why it Matters

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Alternet / By Greta Christina (Originally published Sept. 14, 2012)

What often gets called “ceremonial deism” is all over our government.

“In God We Trust” on the money. “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. Creches and crosses on public land. Religious mottos on public buildings. Prayers starting public government meetings. Prayers in the public schools. If you didn’t know better, you’d think the religious right was right, and the United States really was a Christian nation.

Of course it’s not. The United States is a secular nation. The principle that citizens have the right to reach their own conclusions about religion, and that government should stay out of that choice, is deeply enshrined in the foundation of our government, in the First Amendment and elsewhere.   [Read more…]

Google News In Review: Sept. 14 through Sept. 21

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By Bob Dorn

A snapshot of the news featured by Google, the world’s leading aggregator, and what it left out.

When it’s at its very best, the news industry offers our eyes and ears reason to hope that we can find a voice that speaks like our own.

When I hear a presidential candidate say that half the country is comprised of “moochers” who are “dependent” on government to provide them the basic necessities of life, I should be able to hear or read an alternative position — something like this, for example: Professional politicians now are saying money is the mark of godliness, and the more of it they have the nearer to God (or the presidency, depending on which you think is more important) they become.

Last week, Mitt Romney and some of his supporters gave us the one view; no publication featured in Google News gave us the other.   [Read more…]

Sherman Heights March Highlights Poor Working Conditions at WalMart Warehouses

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By Nadin Abbott

The rally started at the Golden Hill park and made its way to the Sherman Heights Farmer’s Market — the future site of a new Walmart.

As the marchers came down the street, chants could be heard: “Walmart escucha, estamos en la lucha.” (Walmart listen, we are in the fight). “One, 2, 3, 4, we don’t want your Walmart store. Five, 6, 7, 8, Walmart discriminates. “¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!” (The people united, will never be defeated.)

Nearly 1,000 people attended the demonstration, according to Lorena Gonzales, Secretary-Treasurer/CEO of the San Diego and Imperial Labor Councils. They came together from local unions and a long list of community groups to demand that Walmart treat its workers fairly.   [Read more…]

Ruocco Park – San Diego’s Newest Park, Right on the Waterfront

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An official ceremony at 10 a.m on Thursday, Sept. 20, featured San Diego officials cutting the ribbon to welcome the public to Ruocco Park. Located at the intersection of West Harbor Drive and Pacific Highway, the park covers 3.3 acres and offers views of the San Diego Bay, Coronado Island, and downtown San Diego.

Ruocco Park was funded jointly by the Port of San Diego, the San Diego Foundation, and the downtown Hyatt. The Port contributed $3.3 million and the Hyatt contributed $.5 million. The San Diego Foundation contributed $3.5 million, $1 million of which is reserved for funding future maintenance. The funds from the San Diego Foundation allowed for the installation of public art and upgrades to the park that would not have been possible with the Port and Hyatt funding alone. Ruocco Park is the 18th public park located on Port land and brings the total amount of land dedicated to parks to 153 acres.

(Photo gallery inside)   [Read more…]

Romney Releases 2011 Tax Returns, Says They ‘Disqualify’ Him From the Presidency

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Alternet / By Joshua Holland (Originally published Sept. 21, 2012)

The Romneys paid more taxes than they had to in order to inflate the effective tax rate they paid this year.

Desperate to shift the national discussion away from his dismissal of half the country as indolent, unwashed and irredeemable, Mitt Romney released his 2011 tax returns today. According to his own words, the return “disqualifies” him from the presidency.

Why? Because the Romneys inflated their 2011 tax bill by not deducting all of the money they’d forked over to “charity” (much of which was tithes to the Church of Latter Day Saints, which doesn’t provide a lot of charitable services). According to a blog-post written by the manager of his “blind trust” – close confidant and attorney Brad Malt (who’s not as independent as the Romneys would have you believe) – the Romney’s gave over $4 million to charity last year but only deducted $2.25 million.   [Read more…]

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