The Three Sisters Falls trail is a moderate to difficult hike located north-west of Descanso in east San Diego County. Although today is a rare day of heavy rain in San Diego and not advised for strenous hiking in the backcountry keep this hike in mind for sunnier days ahead, especially during the early spring when the falls are likely to be heavier due to more rain and melting snow-pack. [Read more…]
Archives for December 2012
Walking the Picket Line at Grossmont Hospital
By Nadin Abbott
Imagine, if you will, making $9.01/hour, being head of household, and having to pay $118.88 per pay period for your health insurance. Assuming you work forty hours, before payroll deduction, that is $$720.80 every fifteen days. This is the situation right now at Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa, where employees working for Sodexo Corporation, the subcontractor for dietary, housekeeping, clerical and Engineering services are negotiating a new three year contract.
What is the company offering? According to Housekeeping Shop Steward Alex Burstein “Sodexo is being difficult” and are holding at keeping salary increases at 2.25% over a three year period. This is not even a cost of living increase. When pay averages at $9.09/ Hour these workers have a difficult time making rent, let alone paying bills, or buying food. [Read more…]
San Diego County Supervisors: ‘We don’t need no stinkin’ community planning or sponsor groups!’
Local planning group members and residents voice concerns over stifling of powers for communities and heavy influence of developers
By Miriam Raftery / East County Magazine / December 12, 2012
By a 5-0 vote, San Diego’s Board of Supervisors this week unanimously voted to place limits on the powers and influence of community planning group and sponsor group members.
The action follows recommendations made by a developer-stacked Red Tape Reduction Task Force, which had sought to eliminate planning and sponsor groups completely. Supervisors previously voted to retain the groups, but make some changes. But changes approved this week are sparking concern and outrage among many local planning and sponsor group members, as well as the public that they serve. [Read more…]
The Starting Line – We’re Number Three! San Diego’s Homeless Population Soars
A report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development documents San County’s homeless population as the third largest and among the fastest growing in the United States.
While the number of homeless fell by nearly 6% nationally, San Diego’s increased by 6.1% over the past year. The report indicated that there were 10,013 homeless people living in our region. Only New York and Los Angeles had more people living on the streets. And LA showed the largest decrease nationally.
Come inside for more of today’s daily news digest… [Read more…]
Sex In San Diego: It Happened in Hillcrest
In June 2011, I received a telephone call. The source of the call was as unexpected as the call itself. The caller identified himself as a deputy prosecutor from a small northern Colorado town and he asked me to confirm I was indeed who I was. Hesitant, I asked why before I said, “I am.” I had not been to Colorado since I was thirteen on a family vacation, and I am certain anything I did there was past the statute of limitation. I am still, however, very wary of prosecutors from anywhere. What he related to me was nearly unbelievable.
Seems the authorities had arrested a fella for rape. As abhorrent as that is, it did not really shake me, until he told me the name: Stephen Morehouse. I actually said the last name in unison with prosecutor, as the memory came flooding back. He did not need to ask if I recalled my encounter with Morehouse. He did ask, however, whether or not I would be willing to fly back to Colorado to testify against Morehouse. Here’s why. [Read more…]
The Starting Line – Will the NRA Advocate Bringing Along Your Weapons While Christmas Shopping?
The news this morning is dominated by stories about a man in Oregon who wandered into a shopping mall dressed in camouflage and starting firing off rounds, killing two shoppers. Eventually, police told the news media, he was ‘neutralized’, which turns out to be policespeak for ‘he killed himself.’
Enough already, I say. There isn’t much we can do about that young man’s mental illness in retrospect, but there is plenty that can be done about the people enabling unfettered access to firearms. I say its time we scare those cockroaches out from under their rocks and take a close look at the damage they’ve wrought on our society.
Mind you, this little rant is not about gun control. That’s a subject that requires a little more nuanced conversation, one that’s impossible as long as people tolerate the pinheads that make up the leadership of the NRA.
I’m talking about the simply outrageous crap that gets passed off in the name of defending our “Second Amendment Rights”. While the tinfoil set has been stockpiling ammunition and sending mass emails to AOL accounts about the Obama administration’s plans to enforce a mythical United Nations mandate that will take everybody’s guns away, the gun lobby has been busy making sure that there are no reasonable (or discussions about) restrictions on firearms. [Read more…]
Health Law Doesn’t Protect Californians from Rate Increases
by Carmen Balber/California Progress Report
Reporters largely missed the point of a Commonwealth Fund study released last week, that looked at consumer savings under Obamacare’s 80-20 rule, the rule making insurance companies spend at least 80% of your premiums on health care, not overhead.
The authors started with a fact we already knew – that health insurance companies had to pay $1.1 billion in rebates for missing the MLR requirement in 2011 – and that big shiny number distracted the news media. But the authors zeroed in on a much more important fact. Insurance companies successfully reduced administrative costs by $1.184 billion in 2011, but they used those savings to increase profits instead of passing them on to consumers.
Clearly the 80-20 rule isn’t working to contain profits and hold down premiums, especially in states that don’t have tough regulation of insurance premiums. [Read more…]
Closing Time at Fresh & Easy
by Daniel Paredes/Frying Pan News
After spending more than $1.6 billion, Tesco, the world’s third- largest food retailer, has finally thrown in the towel and announced the closure of its Fresh & Easy stores. This move brings closure to the British company’s effort to establish a foothold in California’s highly competitive grocery industry. Many analysts believe this decision has been a long time coming, with Fresh & Easy stores never seeing the kind of market penetration that the U.K.-based giant expected from the chain. Investors cheered the December 5 announcement, but U.S. workers have reason to celebrate too — this marks the end of a five-year struggle with Tesco.
Like most new entrants into the grocery market field, Tesco planned to operate non-union. Indeed, a Tesco employee-relations director described the primary responsibilities of that job in an advertisement as “maintaining non-union status” and “union avoidance activities.” The United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW) sought to organize the company, called a boycott and Tesco resisted. [Read more…]
La Virgen de Guadalupe Among Us
La Virgen de Guadalupe, the Catholic patron saint of Mexico, is without doubt the most deeply loved and revered religious presence there and among Mexicans everywhere. La Morenita-the Beloved Brown Skinned One– is also inextricably intertwined with Mexican national identity. She is a fusion of Mexico’s indigenous peoples with those of the European conquest, testimony to what writer Richard Rodriguez describes as the “absorbent strength of Indian spirituality.”
Her brownness, her constancy and her accessibility to those who suffer are her hallmarks. Yet those alone do not explain her ubiquitous presence and devoted following. It is not difficult to find images of the Virgen de Guadalupe at any time of the year in City Heights. Small stores on University Avenue sell blankets, key chains, candles, clocks, clothing and jewelry with her image. In the past it was not uncommon to see guys walk by on my block with a tattoo of the Virgen on their arms or shoulders. I was told that they were inked in prison. My own front porch has a now badly broken ancient plaster Virgen watching over the house. [Read more…]
Desde la Logan: Love Thy Neighbor. It’s Not About Charity, It’s About Humanity
Giving Drive spans borders, cultures, and generations
On Saturday December 15 Ruben Torres, with some help from his friends, plans on loving his neighbors by organizing a toy, clothing and shoe drive for youth in Tijuana, Tecate, Rosarito and San Diego. Hosted by the fine folks at The Spot in Barrio Logan, the 3rd annual Love Thy Neighbor event will feature music by Karlos Paez, DJ Beto Perez, Rudy Roots and PEET-O Perez as well as an art show by Rebel, El ReSK and Fine Print.
Ruben Torres, a South San Diego native, used to spearhead the independent music label Rescue Records for the rock band P.O.D. and then started his own label, Cosa Nostra Records, where he managed, wrote and produced records for several successful artists. He eventually moved to Los Angeles where he had the opportunity to work with people and groups such as R. Kelly, Snoop Dogg, Run DMC, Robin Thicke, Papa Roach and many others. He eventually moved back to San Diego and launched his own Latin urban clothing line, Jefe Clothing. [Read more…]
Scapegoat Norv
The Chargers are likely headed toward a major housecleaning, but the bulk of the blame for the team’s failures is misplaced.
Last week, the U-T San Diego’s Kevin Acee reported that according to “sources,” both Chargers head coach Norv Turner and GM AJ Smith would be fired at the conclusion of the season; that owner Dean Spanos had made up his mind weeks ago and is waiting until the season’s over to make it official.
Spanos responded to the report by releasing a brief, angry statement saying “There is only one person in this organization who will make those decisions and that’s me, and I haven’t shared my thoughts with anyone. I will make my evaluations at the end of the season. Anything coming out now – from sources or otherwise – is pure speculation.”
And there you have it. Nothing has been decided (yeah, right).
One thing is certain, and anyone who follows football or the Chargers knows it: Something’s gotta change. Spanos decided at the end of the 2011 season—after yet another non-playoff year in which the team bumbled and stumbled its way to the finish line—that he was going to stand pat with his guys. In his gut Turner and Smith could turn things around, and he was going to give them one last chance to do it. [Read more…]
Local Labor Stands Up for the Safety Net, Keeps Pressure on ‘Friendly’ Congresspeople
By Nadin Abbott
The Central Labor Council called for a candle light vigil in front of Senator Diane Feinstein’s (D) office at 750 B Street Monday evening. This action was part of a national call to arms; there were about one hundred of them today nationwide called by the AFL-CIO.
Why is this labor action significant? With the attacks on labor across the nation, including the about to pass Right to Work (for less) legislation in Michigan, and the attacks by Governor Walker in Wisconsin last year, it seems labor is waking up. Labor is fighting back in a way like it has not done for two generations. [Read more…]
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