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Laying the Groundwork of Groundwork Books

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By Groundwork Books Collective

At the open house at Groundwork Books during alumni weekend our classic sign got a new layer of paint. A photo was posted online and we learned that the logo was designed by Charyn Segal and Lincoln Cushing.

It was Lincoln Cushing humself* that shared that bit of knowledge. Lincoln, a political poster designer and archivist, was involved in the original Groundwork Books project starting back in 1973.

Wanting to learn more about the groundwork of Groundwork Books (see what I did there mhmm) I reached out to Lincoln and he was happy to share some details.   [Read more…]

Midge Costanza: Brilliant, Flawed Feminist in the White House

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San Diego author Dr. Doreen Mattingly’s biography of Midge Constanza

By Nassim Moallem

Midge Costanza wanted her life story to inspire women to become engaged with the political process—but struggled with how to do so when her own political career was full of frustrating barriers and disappointments. San Diego State University Women’s Studies professor Doreen Mattingly outlines this dilemma in her introduction before presenting us with ten chapters that do just what Midge wanted.

A Feminist in the White House is a biography that shows us a woman who tried her best to make change she believed in. She was a woman who succeeded by winning a seat on City Council, hosting the first group of openly gay and lesbian leaders at the White House, having diverse and progressive women commission International Women’s Year, becoming the first female assistant to the president.   [Read more…]

League of Women Voters Tour San Diego Border Crossings

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By Beryl Flom

The League of Women Voters of San Diego recently took a tour with Customs and Border Patrol. The August 2 tour was arranged by the League’s Immigration and Deportation Committee as an opportunity to educate members about various border and immigration issues.

Those issues include the wait time crossing the border, regulations by the U.S. which can slow down a smooth transition between the two countries and the court backlog for people without documentation seeking asylum. Another issue that concerns us is the deportation of non-citizen veterans who have served our country and then commit some minor legal infraction and are deported without consideration of their readjustment back to civilian life.   [Read more…]

San Diegans Tell KFC: Drop Chicken Raised on Routine Antibiotics

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By Jacqueline Salinas

On Tuesday, August 8th CALPIRG staff and volunteers will deliver petition signatures from thousands of San Diegans to a local KFC urging the fried chicken giant to stop serving meat raised with the routine use of antibiotics. Speakers will talk about the dangers of antibiotic resistance and how KFC can help stop it.

Antibiotic resistance is quickly becoming public enemy number one among health experts worldwide, especially true now with the recent emergence of a new “superbug” resistant to a last resort antibiotic, colistin. The majority of the antibiotics sold in the U.S. are for use on livestock and poultry, not in doctors’ offices, and often for animals that aren’t sick. Major restaurants like KFC can help stop that misuse of our life-saving medicines, as McDonald’s and Subway, and Chick-fil-A have all done.   [Read more…]

Improving Land Use in National City

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By Adriana Covarrubias

National City is a rich, family-oriented community that is home to predominantly Chicano and Latino families, some recent immigrants and some who have been living in the neighborhood for generations. We have a strong sense of connection and a collective responsibility to improve the quality of life in our neighborhood.

Unfortunately, outdated land-use policies have made National City a dumping ground for decades of industrial toxic pollution. Walking around National City, you will find auto body and car repair shops every other block, despite school zones and residential streets. Approximately 32,000 pounds of toxic air contaminants are released each year. Not surprisingly, asthma rates remain disproportionately high and there is a clear lack of green space and affordable housing.   [Read more…]

San Onofre Whistleblower

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By Michael Steinberg / Black Rain Press

Nuclear Shutdown News chronicles the decline of the nuclear power industry in the US and beyond, and highlights the efforts of those who are working to create a nuclear free future. Here is our July 2016 report.

San Onofre whistleblower: Utility put profits above safety, ruined its own nuke plant.

A radiation leak at San Onofre nuclear plant in southern California caused its two reactors to shut down in 2012, and resulted in its permanent closure the following year.

On July 19 the Times of San Diego reported on a press release by Public Watchdog, a nonprofit policy group, detailing allegations of a former employee at San Onofre. Southern California Edison is the controlling owner, with San Diego Gas & Electric being a minority owner of the wrecked nuclear plant.
  [Read more…]

It Behooves Progressives to Support Clinton, Avoid Neo-Fascist Takeover

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Progressives must rescue the Democrats from their strategic errors, such as choosing Tim Kaine as their vice-presidential nominee. Our movements will have more space to grow and better chances to enact reforms if we avert a Trumpian police state.

By Joe Wainio

Hillary Clinton’s choice of Virginia Senator Tim Kaine as her running mate is a slap in the face to progressives and a strategic error. It confirms Senator Bernie Sanders’ criticisms that Hillary represents Wall Street, and is reminiscent of past tone-deaf vice-presidential choices of the mainstream Democratic establishment such as Michael Dukakis’ selection of Lloyd Bentsen or Al Gore’s pick of Joe Lieberman.

While Clinton’s decision is certain to make her path to victory in November more difficult, it behooves progressives to work for her election anyway.   [Read more…]

San Diegans Voice Concerns to State Officials About Air Quality, Environmental Justice, and Climate Change

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By David Harris / San Diego 350

What do you get when you bring together 120 environmental activists and residents from environmental justice communities in a room with a dozen state regulators? If you’re lucky, dozens of ideas for incentivizing renewable energy, improving public transit, and protecting neighborhoods from toxic industrial fumes.

This is exactly what happened on July 14th when the California Air Resources Board (CARB) sponsored a workshop on climate change at the beautiful new Cesar Chavez campus in Barrio Logan. Local residents, whose voices are rarely heard by policy makers in Sacramento, came out in force to speak out about air pollution from local industry, the need for better transit options, and the impacts of climate change on communities already impacted by poor air quality.
  [Read more…]

Raising the Bar for Healthy Communities in National City

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Carolina Martinez / Environmental Health Coalition

Located in San Diego County’s second oldest city, Old Town National City remains a primarily low-income Latino neighborhood with evolving surroundings. Over the past 50 years, the community has changed from a mainly residential neighborhood to a mixture of auto-related businesses located around schools and homes. Auto-body shops in residential neighborhoods burden the health of the community by emitting toxic pollution into the air we breathe.

In 2005, our community decided to combat conflicting land use and bring health back to the community with a vision for a vibrant and toxic-free neighborhood. Our plans included affordable housing within walking distance of a transit center, construction that wouldn’t damage Paradise Creek and a healthy community park to replace polluted grounds.   [Read more…]

World of Wakanda: A New Marvel Comic Series

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By South OB Girl / OB Rag

While thousands of people were attending Comic-Con last week, Marvel Comics announced the release of a new comic book series on Friday July 22. The superheroes will be women. And the series is being written by women. George Gene Gustines, writing in The New York Times July 23rd issue, did an interesting review of the series, entitled, “Marvel Shines a Spotlight on Women.”

Wakanda is a fictional African country, and the world of the Marvel series, Black Panther. World of Wakanda will be a companion series. And will premiere in November.

The current Black Panther series is written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, author and a national correspondent for The Atlantic. The new comic will be written by two women, who are writing comics for the first time: the feminist writer Roxane Gay and the poet Yona Harvey.   [Read more…]

Son of Ocean Beach Homeless Man Qualifies for the Olympics

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By Vera Sanchez and Sunny Rey

It is a kid’s dream to stand on an Olympic podium and have their nation’s flag wave high as he smiles at his family. Cody Miller, of Billings, Montana, qualified on June 27th for the Men’s 100m Breaststroke coming from behind to secure his spot on the Olympic swim team. This year’s games will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil beginning August 5th, 2016.

The road for Cody did not come easy.   [Read more…]

Debate Over Future of Fiesta Island Continues: ‘Improvements Needed to Expand Access’

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Editor: This is a continuation of the debate over the future of Fiesta Island. It began with op-eds in the San Diego Union-Tribune, and we helped it along with our earlier post. Here below, Judith Swink rebuts the rebuttals.

By Judith Swink

Improvements on Fiesta Island will happen eventually because they must.

The 1994 Mission Bay Park Master Plan carried forward that intention from the previous master plans. The proposed Fiesta Island improvements will make the island more useful and inviting to a much larger number of people than just those who want to use it as it is today. It is a key tenet of both the Mission Bay Park Master Plan and the California Coastal Act that coastal recreation areas be developed to enable use and access for everyone.

A Local Coastal Program amendment in 2002, in conjunction with approval of the Sea World Master Plan by the Coastal Commission requires the City to develop Fiesta Island as proposed in the 1994 Mission Bay Park Master Plan and LCP.   [Read more…]

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