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Archives for May 2013

Testing…testing…does this thing work?

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What’s better than sending Tommy Test Taker to class with school-sanctioned Ziploc bag of Lucky Charms?

By Aaryn Belfer /thematically fickle

No, I’m not talking about my neglected website. I’m talking about the grueling season that is right now bearing down on many of California’s kids. It’s testing season, folks, the time of year when No. 2 pencils and prison-like lockdowns on school campuses reign.

It’s the season that helps make Pearson one of the wealthiest companies in the world (read that thing with tissues in hand because you will weep); the season that causes Michelle Rhee, Ben Austin, Rahm Emmanuel, and other like-minded education “reformers” to gleefully piddle in their pants at the idea of closing more “failing” schools. Score one for privatization.   [Read more…]

Helping Homeless People Die Indoors

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By Christine Schanes

There is one certainty in life – we are all going to die. How and where we die are the only issues.

Will we die quickly or have a lingering death? We don’t know. However, most of us housed people are pretty sure we will die indoors in some health facility or in our own home. In fact, some of us buy insurance so that we are assured of the particular standard of care and facility we prefer in our last days.

However, what about unsheltered homeless people? They live outside and very likely will die outside.

How do I know this? Because over the past several years I have been involved in the end of life care for three homeless friends. I’ve written about Bobby Ojala who passed in late August 2012 and Susan Hunt who died twelve days later in early September. But, Karen Lee Creeden was the first homeless person I helped die indoors.   [Read more…]

No “Sticker Shock” for Covered California Health Care Consumers

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By Anthony Wright/California Progress Report

Covered California held a press conference last week announcing plans and rates that will be available to consumers starting January 1. This is one of the most significant steps yet toward being ready to serve consumers by the federally mandated 2014 deadline for health exchange availability under the 2010 Affordable Care Act. You can watch the press conference on the Covered California website, where you can also download a booklet with a description of all the plans that will be offered and sample rates.

Covered California – the state marketplace for individuals, families and small businesses buying health coverage, and a core component of California’s implementation of the Affordable Care Act – announced the health plan options and premiums that will be offered next year, starting in January 1, 2014. Covered California is one of the only exchanges in the country that took advantage of the opportunity to employ “active purchasing” – using its purchasing power to negotiate with insurance companies for plans on behalf of California consumers.   [Read more…]

Legislation Via Ballot Initiative Still Paralyzes State Government

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California State Senate buries SB 241, oil and gas severance tax initiative. CMED ballot measure still alive.

By Andy Cohen

My colleague Doug Porter yesterday wrote in his “The Starting Line” headline that “The first step toward a balanced budget is getting Republicans out of office.” We’ve seen here in California over the last several years that, with today’s Republican Party completely devoid of ideas or any willingness to actually govern, he certainly has a point. It has proven to be a necessary first step toward undoing the legislative gridlock deliberately created by “The Party of No.” That is at least until the Republicans decide to remove the pointy hats from their heads and come out from the corner to join the rest of the class.

But to simply say that the Democratic supermajorities in the Assembly and the State Senate is to be credited with California’s newfound budgetary resurgence is to give state Democrats far too much credit. In fact, it hasn’t been the goings on in state capitol at all that that should be commended for the state’s economic recovery. At least not as far as the Legislature goes.   [Read more…]

The Six Month Mark: Three Ways Mayor Filner is Making a Difference in San Diego

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By Doug Porter

Three stories about San Diego Mayor Bob Filner lead off this morning’s review of the news. I’m not surprised that the first six months of Bob Filner’s tenure as the top elected official in America’s Finest City have been tumultuous.

After all, San Diegans elected a progressive Democrat after years of rule by mostly moderate Republicans. The local GOP leadership opted to back a more radical flavor of conservative in Carl DeMaio and, as a result, lost.

That’s been a bitter pill for them to swallow, and you could hardly characterize them as gracious losers. And, in a way, you can hardly blame them. Losing the election has cost their supporters the kind of insider access needed to assure that their financial interests take priority over public concerns.   [Read more…]

The Cost of Staying Beautiful

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By Judi Curry

People that know me know that the only make-up I wear is mascara and eyeshadow. I probably wouldn’t wear that if my eyelashes weren’t blond – or is it gray now – and I like to highlight my blue eyes.  But recently I have started dating – bad word – “going out with” – younger men and after changing the lights in my bathroom have discovered wrinkles I never knew I had. (Of course, having cataract surgery has helped (?) my vision.)

About the time I discovered a “road map” on my face, I attended a women’s conference where I was given free samples of “remove the wrinkles” cream; had my eyebrows “plucked” using thread (?); had a facial that made my dry skin feel vibrant, etc.  Even though I am a creature of habit, I never used any of the samples daily because I, quite simply,  forgot.  I’m one of those people that apply lipstick by rote. If I were to look in a mirror while applying it I would find it all over my face.

I shouldn’t tell you, but, of course you know I will, that I failed “How to teach Art to Elementary School Students” twice. Yes. TWICE!   [Read more…]

America’s Right: Anti-Establishment Conservatism from Goldwater to the Tea Party

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By Jim Miller

UCSD Professor of Communications Robert Horwitz will be reading from his new book America’s Right: Anti-Establishment Conservatism from Goldwater to the Tea Party on Wednesday, May 29th at 7:00 PM at the Grove bookstore at 3010 Juniper Street . Recently, Professor Horwitz was kind enough to do the following interview with me on his current project.

Why do a book on American Conservatism?

Conservatism has arguably been the most important political doctrine in the United States over the last three decades. It has dominated the intellectual debate and largely set the policy agenda, even during years of Democratic electoral control. But this is a particular kind of conservatism, one focused not just on customary topics of conservative concern as government spending and low taxes, but one anxious and angry about the purported homosexual agenda, the hoax of climate change, the rule by experts and elites…   [Read more…]

San Diego’s Left Found a Haven in Golden Hill During the 1970s

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By Jim Miller

In the first part of my interview with Peter Zschiesche, he discussed Golden Hill past and present and described what he calls “the Golden Hill vibe.”   Much of that feeling came out the politics and culture of the late sixties and early seventies.  In this second and final installment of our interview, Peter talks about that time period and outlines some of the key places and players that made Golden Hill a vital, progressive community.   [Read more…]

San Diego Monsanto Protest Draws Big Crowd to Balboa Park

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By Doug Porter

I wasn’t too surprised by the lack of coverage of San Diego’s demonstration against Monsanto this past Saturday. If you read Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, you’ll realize that successful protest movements rarely get proper credit or acclaim for their influence.

Our local daily fishwrap, aka UT-San Diego, couldn’t be bothered to send an actual reporter to Balboa Park on Saturday. They relied instead on an Associated Press account in Sunday’s paper that mentioned Los Angeles and perhaps there were some other protests…yada, yada, yada… The Los Angeles Times coverage at least mentioned that there was a protest in San Diego.

Come inside for more San Diego coverage and photos from around the world   [Read more…]

The First Step Toward a Balanced Budget is Getting Republicans Out of Office

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By Doug Porter

Welcome to the Memorial Day Edition of the Starting Line.  Our lead story in today’s review of the news comes from Sunday’s New York Times, focusing on California’s budget problems.

Over the past decade or so this kind of reporting would have focused on state budget deficits and spending cuts and the internecine warfare going on in our State, which would inevitably include forecasts of bankruptcy, economic chaos and predictions that these problems were destined to spread to other states.

This time the story was different.    [Read more…]

Welcome to Golden Park Heights: “A Journey of 1000 Miles Begins with a Single Step”

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By Kelly Mayhew and Jim Miller

For those who know progressive politics in San Diego, Carlos and Linda LeGerrette are local legends. Starting with their roles in founding MEChA at Mesa College in the sixties and flowing through their deep involvement with Cesar Chavez and the farmworkers movement to their local community activism and fine work with the Cesar Chavez Service Clubs in our schools, the Legrettes’ great hearts and regard for their neighbors is boundless.

No one has done more for their community than Carlos and Linda LeGerrette, and they are greatly loved and respected by all those who they have touched over the years. It was our absolute pleasure to interview them on their lives, work, and deep roots in a place they jokingly call “Golden Park Heights.”   [Read more…]

Eating 25th Street in Golden Hill Part II: Lunch

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By Emma Goldman

After making your way back from Tobey’s 19th Hole Café, which I mentioned in last week’s column, it’s time to turn your feet—and your stomach—to lunch. The 25th Street corridor from Gateway Park to the bridge over 94 in Golden Hill has probably more places for lunch than for any other meal since it serves the offices of many lawyers, architects, small businesses, nonprofits, and the like as well as neighborhood denizens and students and staff at City College just down C Street. Thus, a plethora of tastes await you as you meander down the street.

If you’re in the mood for sandwiches, salads, baked goods, and an array of drinks such as coffees, teas, smoothies, homemade lemon and limeades, beer, and wine, then stop in at Krakatoa on the west side of 25th between B and C. Just a block from the park, and nestled in an old, olive green Craftsman cottage under a giant magnolia tree, Krakatoa beckons you to come relax awhile either outside on their wraparound wooden patio or inside their funky dining space.

As you walk up the front steps, pooches greet you from under their owners’ tables and students hunker over their laptops, tapping out term papers at the seating areas ringing the deck. The lines at lunch can be long, but it’s worth the wait.   [Read more…]

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