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Rancho Santa Fe School District Threatens to Expel Children of Teachers as Negotiations Drag On

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By A Concerned Teacher

What began a decade ago as an effective collaboration between a school board and its teachers has become a divisive tool enabling the Rancho Santa Fe superintendent to use the threat of expelling the children of teachers in their district if they will not agree to settle their contract.

By using a sunset clause in current contract language, Rancho Santa Fe administration simply stalls negotiations to run out the clock and stipulates that if there is no settlement, Board policy 4111 will be void and teachers will be forced to remove their children from the Rancho Santa Fe School District.   [Read more…]

Keeping The Dream Alive: Biliteracy Scholarship Fundraiser in Memory of Beatrice Gonzales

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By Rosalia Salinas

Beatrice Gonzales’ dream of quality education for bilingual students inspired several generations of teachers. First as a second grade teacher in South Bay, then as district bilingual coordinator and later as Director of the Bilingual Teacher Training Program at the San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE) Bea’s work benefited, supported, and inspired thousands of educators in the area and throughout the state.

She was motivated by a profound dissatisfaction with the status quo. As a teacher she knew that if the quality of teaching was good, then students were better served if they had access to two languages.   [Read more…]

Justice Stalled: Backlog of 2,873 San Diego Rape Kits

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By Suzanne E. Morse/ Heartfelt Voices United

There is a hidden number in San Diego, one that barely anyone ever speaks about. That Number: 2,873. What is that number?

As of June, 2015, that is the amount of rape kits that lie unprocessed in storage facilities in San Diego, backlogged. That means there are 2,873 rape victims that have never received justice. And that upsets me. Does it upset you?   [Read more…]

Tiny Shelter Demo at San Diego Earth Fair 2016

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Amikas / Homeless to Housed San Diego

Amikas will be providing an opportunity at Earth Fair to find out more about the tiny shelters being suggested as an alternative to the makeshift tent and tarp encampments springing up throughout San Diego. We will be demonstrating how easy it is to construct an I-Wood tiny shelter during Earth Fair on April 17, at exhibit #788 in the Pan American Plaza North in Balboa Park. It will take approximately 1 – 2 hours to construct the 8 x 12 unit, beginning around 9:30 AM.   [Read more…]

Bonds are Like Manure: The Flood Gates are Opening

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By William Richter / Focus On Chula Vista

Bonds are basically huge loans which are advertised as needed to repair crucial infrastructure or build new construction but are, unfortunately, often misspent. Some misspending comes from gold-plated projects, and/or contractors who are able to change the costs easily after they get the contract. Regrettably, there is no accountability for the misspending after the money has already been spent and the elected officials have already moved on.   [Read more…]

La Migra: A Chicano Historical Perspective

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By Herman Baca

If the so-called U.S. immigration issue is a historical labor issue as Chicano/Mexicanos activists, historians, scholars & academicians claim, what then has been the historical role of the U.S. Border Patrol (BP)? To answer that question one has to study the U.S.’s historical addiction to free and cheap labor. That started when white supremacists created the Afro-American slave labor system in Jamestown, West Virginia in 1619.   [Read more…]

Protest Ted Cruz Monday at 4PM in Mission Valley

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By Matthew Rice / Veterans Democratic Club of San Diego

The strongest right we as Americans have is our freedom of speech. On Monday 11 April 2016 at 4pm, we plan to use that speech to PROTEST TED CRUZ in San Diego! He is speaking from 6-8pm at:

Town and Country Resort
500 Hotel Circle North
San Diego, CA 92108   [Read more…]

A New Era of Feminism: Women Continue to Inspire Women

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By Leah Schroeder

March was a month for deep reflection for a lot of us women on the question, “how far have we come?” A plethora of articles and books are available that discuss this question, and dissect the variety ways in which women are still subjugated in all societies. There are so many controversial, frustrating, and generally negative circumstances I could write or rant about.

It’s easy to become angry at how “The System” (patriarchy, misogyny, menstrual cycles, racism, you catch my drift) has been set up against marginalized groups for millennia. Sometimes, this anger is consuming. For example, when reading about how an African American woman was (allegedly) gang-raped by men on the lacrosse team at a prestigious, majority white university (cite). Among other things, gender-based violence occurs all over the world, a lot more often than many people think.

The historical and deeply systematic subjugation and de-humanization of women that still prevails in many ways today can really get you down. However, there’s also a growing sensation of power that comes with education and the knowledge gained from women in the past and present.   [Read more…]

Fukushima + 5: the Disaster Continues – Nuclear Shutdown News for March 2016

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On March 9, two days before the fifth anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the Wall Street Journal ran this story, “Japanese Court Orders Shutdown of Nuclear Reactors.”

The paper reported that the court “issued an injunction to shut down two of the four reactors recently restarted” by Kansai Electric Co. because the utility failed to prove to the court’s satisfaction that it could operate those nukes safely.

Driving the process, the Journal reported, were organized and outspoken community members “worried about a repeat of the March 2011 Fukushima disaster.”   [Read more…]

New Veteran-Led Campaign Challenges Islamophobia

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By Brian Trautman

Violence against American Muslims is growing faster than at any time since 9/11, with assaults on Muslim individuals and their places of worship having tripled since the Paris and San Bernardino terror attacks. A NY Times article published last December cites several examples, which include shootings and vandalism.

According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), last year set a record for the highest number of incidents targeting U.S. Mosques. As a result of this violence, Muslims across the country, including women and children, have conveyed to the public that they genuinely fear for their safety and security.   [Read more…]

Transportation Justice Victories: What We Have Accomplished With People Power

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By the Environmental Health Coalition

Through the process of advocating for a Regional Transportation Plan that prioritizes affordable and accessible public transit, biking and walking, our communities grew stronger and more united.

Doing much of this advocacy work in partnership with City Heights CDC and MAAC Project, we organized community support in unprecedented ways. We brought the concept of transportation justice to our neighbors, to community meetings, to City Council and SANDAG. We led bike rallies to celebrate a future where pedestrians have safe places to ride bikes and walk. We taught each other the importance of having transportation alternatives to improve our quality of life and encouraged each other to get involved in the planning process and build healthy neighborhoods.

We accomplished the following by raising our voices and spreading hope for the past two years.   [Read more…]

What San Diego Should Learn From the Country’s Best and Worst Public Transit Systems

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From Portland’s TriMet to Atlanta’s MARTA

By Hutton Marshall / SanDiego350.org

Not all public transportation systems are created equal. Across the country, there’s a huge gulf between bumper-to-bumper black holes like Los Angeles versus cities like the subway-happy New York City, which boasts 660 miles of rail transit.

Many of the cities we now see as pinnacles of functional transit became that way out of utility. New Yorkers, for example, have come to see their expansive subway system as a way to escape fierce blizzards and even fiercer rush hours.

Today, however, many cities have come to see public transit as an important tool in growing in a sustainable, environmentally conscious manner.
  [Read more…]

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