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Future of Journalism is in Our Hands

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The never ending hunt for truth is a turbulent journey

By Olivia Tai and Ebony Estrada

The future of journalism is in our hands, the younger generation. As young, aspiring journalists, we strive to bring awareness to the industry. With all the talk of fake news and slandering of journalism, people may see journalism in a negative light. We want to change this perception.

Journalism is one of the most essential elements of having a functioning, educated society. However, with the all the chaos and disarray of the modern day, journalism has been met with much skepticism. Cries of “fake news” run rampant, and faith in the integrity of journalism is in decline. The objective of journalism is to inform and educate. It is our goal to bring back the passion for truth in journalism and remember that it is a tool that can truly help the underrepresented, underprivileged, and those without a voice.   [Read more…]

30 Arrested at Border for Nonviolent Action in Support of Migrant Caravans

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Border Patrol agents in riot gear stop faith leaders in Border Field State Park

By American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)

On the afternoon of December 10th, dozens of faith leaders were arrested in an act of nonviolent civil disobedience at the U.S.-Mexico border. More than 400 people of faith and supporters gathered in Border Field State Park in San Diego in support of migrants seeking refuge in the U.S. Faith leaders guided the group in a solemn procession to the border. When they reached the enforcement zone, they were stopped by a line of Border Patrol agents in riot gear. Leaders moved forward to offer a ceremonial blessing. Thirty people were taken into custody.   [Read more…]

The Dorn Effect | Remembering Bob Dorn

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By Donna Rankin

I met Deb first, a million years ago when we worked together. She threw herself into the lives of kids, developed their hurt, loss, hope, talent into stage performances that loosened your humanity. I liked kids, too, but from the safer distance of writing about them. Deb didn’t like goal attainment scales, office hours, meetings. Me neither. We formed an instant sisterhood.

Sisterhoods can be wrecked in a heartbeat by bringing in unbrotherly mates, but a few months in we took that nervous-making step of introducing the husbands. From the first day Tom and I met Bob Dorn, there was never a day we didn’t love him.   [Read more…]

Swimming With The Sharks: Or, Crime Does Pay (Big) in New York’s Gilded Age | Part II

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By Mel Freilicher

Some of Fredericka “Marm” Mandelbaum’s “little chicks,” as she called her pack of master criminals, cultivated after the Civil War, were themselves declasse bluebloods, like Charlie Bullard, boarding school educated and classically trained, with ancestors reaching back to the Mayflower. With long, nimble fingers, ”Piano Charlie” played the instrument like a professional, was an expert safecracker, and one of the city’s most skilled and daring burglars.

The invaluable Bullard entertained her dinner guests, playing anything from Beethoven’s “Sonata in C sharp minor” to the popular “Little Brown Jug” on the white baby grand that adorned Marm’s extravagant dining room. His skills as a butcher also provided the finest cuts of meat for her dinner parties.   [Read more…]

After Their Traumatizing Journey, Asylum-Seeking Families Should Not Be Abandoned to Suffer On Our Streets

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By Edward Sifuentes / ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties

One night in late October, volunteers with the San Diego Rapid Response Network received the first of many reports of asylum-seeking migrant families being released on the streets of San Diego by immigration authorities.

Many of the families, which included women and small children, were disoriented, hungry and penniless. Most knew no one in our region. They were literally strangers in a strange land.

These new arrivals – primarily from Central America and from as far away as Africa – are being abandoned on our streets because the Trump administration discontinued the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) program that helps asylum-seekers to coordinate their travel to loved ones throughout the United States. ICE says it no longer has room to hold migrant families long enough to finalize travel arrangements.

Consequently, ICE is now releasing asylum-seeking families into our communities without food, transportation or shelter – and without coordinating or even communicating with local governments or nonprofit agencies who want to help them.   [Read more…]

Swimming With The Sharks: Or, Crime Does Pay (Big) in New York’s Gilded Age | Part I

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By Mel Freilicher

As the city’s premier fence, Fredericka “Marm” Mandelbaum, a German-Jewish immigrant, accumulated more money and power than any woman in the Gilded Age, inconceivable for any woman engaged in legitimate business. A July 1884 New York Times article called her “the nucleus and center of the whole organization of crime in New York City.”

Her quite infamous career began as purveyor of stolen wares to dry goods merchants, legitimate commercial establishments, and many individuals, some in the underworld: first as a pushcart peddler, then out of a storefront on the lower east side, connected to a warehouse chock full of purloined merchandise of all kinds. It’s believed she herself never stole anything, but worked strictly as a fence.   [Read more…]

Op-Ed on the Status of the Select Committee on Homelessness

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By Chris Ward

When I took office two years ago, San Diego’s urban core neighborhoods were in the midst of a homelessness crisis with no clear strategy to tackle the issue. My top priority has been improving our response to this devastating crisis, but one Councilmember can’t do it alone.

Building on successful approaches in other cities and national best practices, I outlined ideas and policies for a holistic response, and working with my colleagues, we’ve made important progress to increase funding, expand life-saving supportive services, and house our homeless.   [Read more…]

As Critics Obsess Over Her Finances, Ocasio-Cortez Urges Media to Focus on Issue ‘Actually Worth Airtime’: Low-Wage Jobs

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“While we’re discussing personal finances,” says newly-elected progressive, “Trump’s tax dodges represent millions of dollars taken from schoolchildren, teachers, firehouses, senior centers, and more.”

By Andrea Germanos / Common Dreams

Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez continued to shoot back at those who draw attention to—and criticize—the amount in her savings account by calling for coverage instead of far more worthy issues—the nation’s pervasive low-wage jobs and President Donald Trump’s “public theft”—and accusing some sitting congresspeople of lashing out at her because they are blinded by privilege, and thus unable to represent their constituents.   [Read more…]

FRANKLIN: A Night With an Addict

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By Jae Bireley

Franklin cuts down a line of white cocaine with a credit card in his Honda. The time passes slowly, it’s a little after midnight and Franklin can’t sleep, he rambles incoherent white-powdered conspiracies about himself and others.

“An old girlfriend introduced me to coke ….”

We puff on cheap 7/11 cigarettes in his car as he snorts his line of coke before offering me a hit. I pass. I don’t snort or shoot up. He rolls down the window and throws the butt of his cigarette out, and spits onto the concrete. Time feels like it doesn’t exist, were in another era and reality. One, that’s melted away. Death is the first thought that enters my mind as he buries away his coke in a bag.   [Read more…]

Veterans to Set Up ‘Hometown Arlington West’ Memorial on Saturday

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By Gil Field / San Diego Veterans for Peace

On Saturday, November 10th, 2018 (Veterans Day), the San Diego Veterans For Peace will be setting up its respected “Hometown Arlington West Memorial” on the front lawn of the USS Midway Museum, 910 N. Harbor Drive, near the corner of Broadway, in downtown San Diego. Chapter veterans from all five services will be honoring our 300+ fallen brothers and sisters from Southern California who have died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with special memorial markers. The public is asked to stop by, read their names, honor the ultimate sacrifice made by these local fallen veterans, and to reflect on the overall costs of these two ongoing wars.   [Read more…]

An Open Letter to Our Newly Elected Leaders | Readers Write

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By Karin Brennan

First, congratulations on your achievement. All your hard work has paid off. Take a breath and enjoy the moment. Now, for those of you who beat the odds, “flipped” your seats, and maybe even “shocked the world”, I have a special message.   [Read more…]

A Fish Rots From the Head: Four Local Leaders and Their Unconvincing Fight Against Gun Violence

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By Wendy Wheatcroft / San Diegans for Gun Violence Prevention

Last Monday I attended the beautiful community vigil at Congregation Beth Israel along with several of my co-volunteers in San Diegans for Gun Violence Prevention (SD4GVP). The hateful slaughter of 11 Jews at Congregation Tree of Life in Pittsburgh a couple of days earlier was absolutely horrific, and we’re dedicated to eliminating this scourge from American life. There’s nothing more heartbreaking than having to attend vigils for murdered Americans, but it’s part of what we do.

You know what hurts too? Sitting at a vigil for innocent people slain by hate-filled gun violence and seeing four local leaders being given a role of prominence when their roles in combating gun violence are anything but prominent.   [Read more…]

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