NRA’s Wayne LaPierre proves that yes, he is crazy; SDG&E efforts to pass 2007 wildfire costs to customers thwarted (for now); UCSD Med Students pledge funds for free clinics; #18/15 Aztecs roll to finals of Diamond Head Classic

As if last Friday’s press conference—in which he fielded no questions—wasn’t bad/damaging enough, National Gun Fetish Association (otherwise known as the NRA) chief Wayne LaPierre took to the airwaves again on Sunday morning to plead his and his organization’s case…..or to further prove how absolutely batshit crazy he is.  It’s hard to tell exactly which.

“If it’s crazy to call for putting police in and securing our schools to protect our children, then call me crazy,” LaPierre told David Gregory on “Meet The Press” yesterday.  “I think the American people think it’s crazy not to do it.  It’s the one thing that would keep people safe, and the NRA is going to try to do it.”

OK, Wayne.  It’s official.  You’re crazy.

Who knew that the answer to curb gun violence—in schools or elsewhere—was more gun violence?  Let’s see here……having two armed security officers on campus didn’t stop Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold from shooting up Columbine High School.  There was a man nearby in Tucson, AZ, who was armed with his own firearm when Jared Loughner went all gangsta, killing six and injuring 14 others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.  The individual who stopped him—while he was paused the carnage to reload with another 30 round clip—was unarmed.  And he almost got himself shot because the man who “came to the rescue” with his gun almost shot the wrong guy.

The problem, in Mr. LaPierre’s opinion, is the “media machine in this country that wants to blame guns every time something happens,” and the “anti-second amendment industry.”  The gaming industry is at fault.  Hollywood is at fault.  But the guns themselves?  That’s just nonsense!  How can having access to unlimited amounts of cop-killer ammunition and automatic and semi-automatic weapons possibly be a part of the problem?

The other problem, Mr. LaPierre says, is that our mental health system has broken down, and that we don’t have a complete list of who is mentally ill and dangerous.  They need to be locked away, or adequately treated, or something.  Preventing the mentally ill from getting their hands on a gun in the first place won’t solve anything, according to LaPierre.

The gun fetishists won’t be happy until they’ve turned our streets into shooting galleries; until every neighborhood looks like gang infested inner-city neighborhoods.  Just ask Davina  La’Shay, an Oakland teenager and NPR youth radio contributor what it’s like to live in the NRA’s utopia:

I was sad when I heard about the 26 innocent people who were killed at the school last Friday but I wasn’t shocked. Shootings happen everyday, especially where I’m from.

I feel that my life is in danger. I hear gunshots all the time. I’ve seen people get shot and I’ve lost a lot of friends and family to gun violence on the streets of Oakland. Many have been innocent victims but too many people I know are also part of the problem, simply because they own guns. And being around guns doesn’t make me feel any safer.

Wayne LaPierre “is so extreme and so tone deaf that he actually helps the cause of us passing sensible gun legislation in Congress,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) later in the show.  “He is so doctrinaire and so adamant that I believe gun owners turn against him as well.”

“He believes that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.  What about trying to stop the bad guy from getting a gun in the first place?  That’s common sense.  Most Americans agree with it,” Schumer said.

I’ll have more on this later this week, because there’s so much more to talk about.  There are so many fallacies, and so much GOP obstruction to us learning the truth about what the proliferation of more firearms really does to our neighborhoods and our national health standards.  There’s some important stuff to discuss, so stay tuned.

Source: UCAN.org

SDG&E request to pass responsibility for 2007 San Diego wildfires to ratepayers denied…….for now.

Remember those wildfires that swept through the City of San Diego in 2007?  No, no, not the ones that swept through Scripps Ranch, destroying hundreds of homes.  That was 2003.  I’m talking about 2007, the one that started in the backcountry and roared through Rancho Bernardo (and Ramona and parts of Poway, etc.).  It was determined that a faulty powerline owned by SDG&E was to blame for the start of that fire.  It was also determined that SDG&E would have to pay for the damages caused by that fire.  It’s only fair:  Their ill-maintained equipment, their responsibility.  Besides, that’s what insurance is for, no?

So after paying out more than $1 billion in claims, and facing an additional $463 million, SDG&E has decided that they shouldn’t be responsible for paying damages.  That burden should fall on its customers, its ratepayers.  After all, it’s not the company’s fault, it’s the people who unreasonably insist on having electricity delivered to their homes and their places of business to help run a civilized society.  If they didn’t want the electricity, then SDG&E wouldn’t have had to build those powerlines in the first place, and the fires never would have happened.  So it’s the ratepayers and not the company who should have to pay.  Sounds reasonable, no?  (Actually, no, it doesn’t.)

Last week the California Public Utilities Commission was ready to approve proposed rate hikes for SDG&E customers.  According to a report by KPBS, CPUC Commissioner Tim Simon had originally opposed the idea of passing on costs to customers.  But after a series of private meetings between SDG&E and state regulators, Simon changed his mind and decided that SDG&E customers should have to pay for those damages after all.

Then, almost as suddenly as he decided ratepayers should be responsible, he reversed his course again and withdrew his opinion that would have given SDG&E the relief they sought.  SDG&E was asking that ratepayers be put on the hook for 95% of the company’s losses from payouts, leaving Sempra investors (SDG&E’s parent company) only responsible for 5%.  The company estimated that the average ratepayer would be on the hook for $190, or an added $3 to $4 per month on their electric bills.

The CPUC essentially decided to put off any final decision, allowing SDG&E to return with further reasoning that they should be allowed to force their customers—who essentially have no other options when it comes to choosing their electricity provider—to bear the burden of their mistakes.

If Simon’s original change of heart had held, “your rates go up to pay for the fires caused by SDG&E equipment,” said Donald Kelly, the Executive Director of UCAN.  UCAN has been fighting to ensure that Sempra shareholders are held responsible, and not SDG&E customers.

Keep up the good fight, fellas!

Murdered cabbie’s daughter advocates for cameras in taxi cabs

Savitar Sahou, whose father was shot and killed when his taxi was robbed in La Jolla, is seeking to have video cameras placed in all San Diego area taxi cabs.

There is pending state legislation that would require cameras place in cabs, but drivers in Los Angeles and San Francisco are hesitant, worried that the equipment will be used to evaluate their performance and not just as an added security tool.  San Diego cabbies are in favor of the law, and City Councilwoman Marti Emerald, who sits on the MTS Taxi Advisory Board is working with MTS to have legislation enacted locally ahead of the state action.

Cab companies are willing to install the equipment, they’re just waiting for more clear rules before they do so.

UCSD med students pledge time, future earnings, to free clinics

Finally, some good news:  You may have missed this story in the UT-San Diego¸but a group of UCSD med students have pledged a portion of their future earnings to support San Diego area free clinics that provide care for the city’s poorest residents.  Second year medical school student Dylan Mann is asking his classmates to pledge $500 to $1000 per year for their first five years out of med school toward the cause.

So far, he has received pledges worth $152,750 for the cause.

The UCSD student run free clinics have been in operation since 1997.  Students see patients with a variety of ailments while supervised by full medical doctors.

Obligatory sports story

Ok, so the Chargers beat the NY Jets yesterday, 27-17—a performance where the defense sacked Jets QB Greg McElroy 11 times.  Yes, you read that right:  ELEVEN SACKS for the Chargers’ defense.  But the team still has been eliminated from the playoffs, and currently sits 6-9 amid speculation that their head coach and general manager will be fired at season’s end.  It’s a freaking mess out there in Murphy Canyon.

The San Diego State University Aztecs football team lost last week’s Poinsettia Bowl in its home stadium to the hated—and I mean HATED—BYU cougars, turning in quite possibly the worst offensive performance of the year.  BYU pulled ahead late thanks to a comedy of errors—some forced, some not—by the Aztecs’ offense.

Still, it was a good season for the Aztecs, as they finished with a 9-4 record and their first ever (and possibly last) Mountain West Conference championship (tied with Boise St. and Fresno St.).

But did you know that San Diego is home to the 18^th/15^th ranked men’s basketball team in the country?  And they’re likely to climb a bit higher when the updated rankings are released later this morning?  (Update:  The rankings are out, and the Aztecs rank #17 in the AP poll and #16 in the Coaches Poll.)  The SDSU Aztecs basketball team is currently in Honolulu, Hawaii, competing in the Diamond Head Classic tournament.  On Saturday they dispatched the University of San Francisco (WCC—same conference as USD and Gonzaga) 80-58, earning their 30^th straight win over a school from California, a streak that includes victories over USC and UCLA this year, and Cal and Long Beach St. the previous two years.  Aztec guard Chase Tapley scored a career high 33 points, going 13-19 from the floor, including 6-10 from three point range.

On Sunday, the Aztecs took on the Sycamores of Indiana St., whose slow, ball control tempo gave the Aztecs all they could handle.  The Sycamores defeated an Ole Miss team that had previously only suffered one loss on the season on Saturday.  The Aztecs won 62-55 thanks to stifling defense and some timely scoring runs.

Next up for the Aztecs, the #4 Arizona Wildcats await in the tournament championship game.  The Aztecs’ only loss on the season came in the season opener to #3 Syracuse on the windy deck of the aircraft carrier Midway.  Arizona will enter the game undefeated.

This will be by far the Aztecs’ toughest test of the season, and will tell us a lot about just exactly how good this team is.  The Aztecs own a two game win streak over the Wildcats, including a win in Tucson a year ago.  But this Arizona team is SCARY good.  Tune in Christmas day at 6:30 PST on ESPN.

(Hey Ernie:  Where ya watchin’ the game tomorrow night?)

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Andy Cohen

Andy spent 15 years working in the highest levels of the San Diego professional sports world, including both the Padres and the Chargers. He began his foray into writing while a volunteer for Francine Busby's 2010 Congressional campaign, eventually becoming a contributor to the now defunct SDNN. He has reported on local and national politics for both the OB Rag and the San Diego Free Press. When not reporting news and events, he offers political and policy commentary from a liberal perspective, occasionally turning back to his sports roots.

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