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ReWild Mission Bay Unveils Options for Wetland Restoration

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8 Restoration Options for Mission Bay Evaluated by More than 100 Community Members

Based on News Release from ReWild via OBRag

On September 27th, ReWild Mission Bay – a project of San Diego Audubon and its partners – unveiled eight possible options to enhance and restore up to 170 acres of wetlands in the North East corner of Mission Bay.

Based on community suggestions from two public workshops earlier this year, the draft plans were presented to more than 135 community members to collect input. To view the potential alternatives, click through to the full article.   [Read more…]

ACLU Seeks Answers in Arrests at Vigil after Alfred Olango Killing

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San Diego ACLU troubled by “community reports of aggressive police response” and “potentially unlawful arrests” at peaceful vigil

Ferchil Ramos / San Diego ACLU

In response to a video post by a community member at what appears to be a peaceful vigil at the site of the killing of Alfred Olango, the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties sent a letter requesting information from the El Cajon Police Department (ECPD) concerning the arrests of individuals at the vigil on the evening of Saturday, October 1.

While no video necessarily tells the complete story, the available information raises serious questions that the arrests were unlawful. One of the factors in declaring an unlawful assembly is whether there is a clear and present danger of imminent violence.   [Read more…]

Nuclear Shutdown News – September 2016

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By Michael Steinberg / Black Rain Press

Nuclear Shutdown News chronicles the decline and fall of the nuclear power industry in the US and abroad, and highlights the efforts of those who are working to create a nuclear-free world.

On September 19 the San Diego Union-Tribune ran this story: “Protests filed over the details of proposed Diablo Canyon Shutdown.”

Its shutdown date is set for 2025. The Union-Tribune story appeared just after the deadline for filing protests to PG&E’s shutdown proposal had passed.   [Read more…]

Crohn’s Disease and the Purple Party: Why They’re the S**t

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The San Diego Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

Imagine you’re a teenager. You’re in one of the stages of puberty. You’re trying to grow into yourself in so many ways. You’re going to school, making friends, finding extracurricular activities and hobbies you enjoy.

Yet, your path becomes frequently and annoyingly disrupted by severe abdominal pain and vomiting to the point where you become afraid to eat. You eventually develop a fever that lands you in the emergency room. Hours later, you’re admitted to the hospital for emergency surgery. You have ulcers along your digestive tract along with a blockage due to inflammation. Youre admitted to the hospital for an emergency surgery.

When you wake up, you’re told you have had an ileostomy – your colon and rectum have been removed and you have a stoma with an ostomy pouch attached. You’re taught how to live with this pouch, how you have to empty the pouch several times a day and change it every two to five days.

Great, you think.   [Read more…]

Will San Diego Reduce Pedestrian Injuries, Deaths by Cars?

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Vision Zero Symposium to reduce pedestrian fatalities Thursday September 29

By Kathleen Ferrier / Circulate San Diego

The City Auditor released a report outlining 18 recommendations the City can take to improve pedestrian safety and help save lives.

The report comes on the heels of four pedestrian injuries and deaths in the last five weeks due to hit and runs and exposes a deadly trend. Between 2001 and 2015, 270 people were killed by cars while walking and more than 8,000 were injured. Numbers were especially high in 2013-2015 with almost 2,000 involved in crashes and 66 left dead.   [Read more…]

From Despising Wells Fargo to Creating Democracy at Work

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By Frank Henry-Reyes and James Anderson

Watching Senator Elizabeth Warren grill the chief executive of Wells Fargo, John Stumpf, as he testified before the Senate Banking Committee last week was a little satisfying, sure, but it hardly suffices in terms of addressing what is really at issue.

As has been well documented, Wells Fargo agreed to a $185 million settlement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in early September when it came to light that the bank’s employees had for several years created fake bank accounts to pad sales numbers, which resulted in customers nationwide paying overdraft and late fees on credit cards and accounts they did not even know they had.   [Read more…]

From Coal to Climate: the Evolution of an Activist

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By Mark Hughes / SanDiego350

So, here is a question: what’s about as likely as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Bill O’Reilly jointly admitting they’ve been wrong and dedicating their lives and fortunes to fighting sexism, racism, white supremacy, homophobia, and misogyny?

Answer: that a guy like me would end up volunteering for a grassroots, climate action group.

I grew up in Kansas, famous for Dorothy, sunflowers, and reliably voting against your best interest. I remember my father vehemently wishing he could vote against Ted Kennedy. My mother railing against the Equal Rights Amendment, saying she liked having men open doors for her. Umm, I guess chivalry was banned in the bill’s text somewhere? Both of them mourning angrily after Carter was elected that the country was ruined. Ruined!   [Read more…]

Honorably Discharged then Dishonorably Deported

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Campaign Announced In Response to Crisis of Deported Veterans

By Joe Armenta

The injustice faced by hundreds, if not thousands, of U.S. military veterans who are being and have been deported was the focus of a campaign announced yesterday by a broad coalition of leaders including representatives of the veterans community, elected officials, business, labor and immigrant reform communities.

The coalition pledged to drive change for currently deported veterans and those who are facing deportation. Marine Corps veteran and former California Assemblymember Nathan Fletcher has agreed to serve as Chair of the group and stated the following, “If you were willing to give your life for your country, your country should be willing to give you citizenship.”   [Read more…]

Art Auction To Raise Funds For 400-Acre Purchase of Local Wildlife Habitat

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Open space campaign aims to protect wildlife corridor

By Adrienne Fuller / Hell Hole Canyon

The Friends of Hellhole Canyon have announced the launch of their capital campaign, raising funds to purchase roughly 400 acres of wildlife habitat next to the Hellhole Canyon Open Space Preserve.

Their goal? Make sure wildlife has the room to roam and reproduce.

The whole preserve, a nearly 2,000-acre park located on the east side of Valley Center, is a pristine chaparral ecosystem home to many endangered and threatened species. The park is owned and managed by San Diego County Parks and Recreation, and welcomes hikers and equestrians to enjoy its trails.   [Read more…]

The Politics of Trees

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By Patricia Staley

I’m getting sick of stump speeches and I have a deep-rooted distrust of politicians, in general.

How many leaflets can you bear to pull out of your mailbox?

Every branch of government is at stake and it makes you feel like a sap if you don’t vote.

The grass roots movements have lost momentum. It seems like everything is supported by hedge funds and other big financial off shoots.

  [Read more…]

SANDAG Twists Environmental Laws to Eliminate Regents Road Bridge

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By Louis Rodolico

While development continues unabated in UTC we are arguing over removing yet another planned road: the Regents Road Bridge. The Planning Group is maintaining its myopic view and does not allow the two thirds of the community, who favor the bridge, on their board.

While we argue amongst ourselves other outside interests see an opening.

The photo shows how SANDAG installed the cross tracks at Rose Canyon, just south of the Regents Road Bridge abutment. The UCPG chair and others openly complained about this Dark Project. The unnecessary jogs to the north triggered environmental remediation north of the tracks. This remediation is on either side of the Regents Road Bridge Site and will likely serve as a bridge construction hurdle. The unbanked track jogs can trigger a safety objection to the bridge from Amtrak since derailments are more likely at jogs & switch tracks.   [Read more…]

Imperial Beach Mayor Pro Tem Ed Spriggs on Proposition 59

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An Open Letter to Imperial Beach City Council Candidates

By Ed Spriggs

There is one proposition on the State ballot this year that hasn’t yet drawn much attention, and probably won’t. It doesn’t cost anything. It doesn’t require anyone to do or change anything. It doesn’t prohibit anything. It doesn’t even benefit one citizen or group of individuals over another. It just supports the core principle of a democratic system of government – one that is of the people, by the people and for the people.

The principles imbedded in Proposition 59 are especially important for smaller cities like Imperial Beach. Why, because Proposition 59 supports the notion that big money Super PACs (i.e., independent-expenditure-only political action committees) should no longer be allowed to pour large amounts into elections, dwarfing any candidate’s direct spending, with the clear goal of influencing the outcome “independently” of the candidate being supported.   [Read more…]

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