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Questions About Police Intervention at Lincoln High Remain Unanswered

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The San Diego County District attorney’s office announced on Monday that video of an incident at Lincoln High School will not be released, according to a report on 10News. A SDUSD police officer was injured, two students were arrested and five people were hospitalized on Friday.

At issue are conflicting reports over what happened. Students say police overreacted to roughhousing. A cell phone video shows a police officer tasering a student lying face down and another officer pepper-spraying onlookers at the historically black high school. Police are asserting that an officer was jumped from behind and say more arrests are expected in the near future.   [Read more…]

#StandWithLincoln Incident Puts an Exclamation Point on Black History Month in San Diego

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An incident at San Diego’s historically black Lincoln High School on Friday involved students being tased and pepper sprayed by police from two agencies.

Students say police involvement was an overreaction to horseplay. The parent of a student who was jailed claims the arrest is revenge by the authorities. The ACLU says they are deeply concerned about what happened and are investigating.

The police say one officer suffered a concussion and has been placed on administrative leave. A cell-phone video shows the seemingly unharmed officer tasing a student laying face down on the ground.   [Read more…]

Trump University Lawsuit: Pretrial Conference Set for San Diego

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An upcoming class action lawsuit involving allegations of financial fraud by former students of Trump University has San Diego in the news today. The Donald is among witnesses listed by attorneys for both sides leading up to a May 6th final pretrial conference.

Most of the stories mentioning this lawsuit seem to based on reporting by Michael Isikoff at Yahoo News. Senator Marco Rubio–who has his own problems with questionable for-profit colleges–brought up the subject of the lawsuits against Trump University at Thursday night’s GOP Presidential debate on CNN.

While I’m doubtful about suggestions of The Donald taking time off from his campaign to swing through America’s Finest City to testify, it’s telling that the GOP has finally gotten around to challenging his most basic claim to greatness, namely his business acumen.   [Read more…]

Spinning SeaWorld: “Hey Look, We’re No Longer Spying on Activists!”

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Forgive me if I don’t seem all that excited about SeaWorld CEO Joe Manby’s admission about SeaWorld employees posing as animal rights activists in order to spy on opponents. And their promise not to do it anymore.

We already knew about Paul T. McCombe, using the alias Thomas Jones, the guy who was fond of inflammatory rhetoric and tried to incite PETA activists to violence. His activities and the high probability that more of his ilk were lurking in the shadows was reported in the Union-Tribune in the summer of 2015.

The company’s statement was given at the end of a conference call to discuss an earnings report. The press has largely taken the bait reporting on this disclosure over the real news, namely that SeaWorld had just posted an adjusted loss of $9.6 million, or 11 cents per share.   [Read more…]

Chargers Say They’ll Fund Their Own Stadium Downtown (Sort of)

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Oh, to have been a fly on the wall at city hall as the local football franchise went public with a ‘no thanks’ to the officially blessed plan of building a stadium in Mission Valley.

In making this move the Chargers have rejected $350 million in city and county support –and the strings that came with it– saying they would get their own financing.

How’d they do that? Well, it’s complicated.   [Read more…]

Winter 2016 AFL-CIO Executive Meeting Topics: Economic Inequality, Democracy in America

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The executive council of the AFL-CIO, a federation of 56 unions representing 12.5 million members, has been meeting in San Diego this week. The agenda for the gathering suggests a growing enthusiasm for broad political actions, going beyond the specific needs of organized labor.

The Big Story, according to mainstream media outlets, has been the decision not to make a presidential endorsement. The reasoning behind that decision, and just about everything else happening at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel is no secret though it would be easy to think it was from the lack of local coverage.   [Read more…]

San Diego Enters Phase One of the Stadium Shakedown

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After Chargers owner Dean Spanos got his ass handed to him by the National Football League in rejecting (30-2) a joint Chargers/Raiders stadium atop a dump in Carson, San Diego started to look like a viable alternative for the future of the franchise.

True to form in a city where “a hotel tax isn’t a tax because we say so,” City Attorney Jan Goldsmith held forth via a weekend article in the Union-Tribune on the terms and conditions for the upcoming “citizens initiative” for funding a new football stadium at the old location.   [Read more…]

The FBI’s iPhone Emergency: Crying Wolf to Beat the Fourth Amendment

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The Federal Bureau of Investigation persuaded a judge to order Apple to create a workaround for iPhone security restrictions preventing them from trying unlimited PIN codes to crack into the phone used by one of San Bernadino terrorists.

Apple has said ‘no way’ and likely intends to appeal the order. The FBI and Department of Justice, with the Obama administration’s “full” support, say they are “not asking Apple to redesign its product or to create a new backdoor to their products,” but rather are seeking entry “to this one device.”

What the government’s not saying is that the process of gaining entry to this device once possessed by a TERRORIST (are you afraid yet?) provides a precedent amounting to unlocking all secure phones. They’re banking on judges and the public not grasping the scope of what is going on here. And it turns out they’ve been looking for a way to make this happen for quite some time.   [Read more…]

San Diegans Join ‘Walk Ins’ Aiming to ‘Reclaim Our Schools’

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Educators and parents at EB Scripps, Oak Park Elementary and Claremont High Schools in San Diego staged ‘walk-ins’ just prior to the start of the school day on Wednesday. The local actions were part of a nationwide day of action, with events at 800 schools in over 30 cities urging communities reclaim their schools from misguided reform efforts.

The idea behind the ‘walk in,’ which gained prominence with parents and teachers in Chicago, is to bring teachers, parents, and students together for a gathering outside of their school. They then walk in their schools together, a gesture aimed at building unity in the desire for educational justice and equity in access to school resources and opportunities.

Organizers with the Oak Park group said they were participating to show support for public education, and to call on the District to reduce time spent on testing and instead use the time for more instruction.   [Read more…]

Looking Down the Road at San Diego

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It’s like a tale of two cities. The staff with the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) have put together competing proposals for spending priorities in advance of a ballot measure for countywide half-cent sales tax increase, raising $18 billion over the next 40 years.

Two constituencies are targeted with these proposals: city politicians and environmentally conscious citizens. Both plans include construction of a new trolley line running from South Bay to Carmel Valley, a skyway system of gondolas connecting the first tier of mesas (Balboa Ave to PB, Sorrento Valley to UCSD) to the coast, along with various clean air and water projects.

One proposal offers up 40% of revenues for cash-strapped localities to be spent on infrastructure, 30% on transit projects and operations and 10% on highways. spending priorities. The other proposal offers up 50% of revenues for transit, 17% for highways and zero for infrastructure.   [Read more…]

Justice Scalia’s Passing Portends a Bitter Partisan Showdown

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Apparently, the GOP thinks that Black Presidents only get 3/5ths of a term

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia moved on to his final judgment day over the weekend. The nation’s conservatives skipped past mourning mode for a man who’d immeasurably helped their causes and went directly to saber rattling.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, en route to his annual visit to the US Virgin Islands, wasted no time in letting it be known that President Obama shouldn’t waste his time trying to pick a replacement.

“The American people‎ should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice,” McConnell said in a statement. “Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President.”   [Read more…]

Valentines Day Fluff for the Masses

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I skipped the PBS Democratic Presidential debate Thursday night. I heard that neither candidate promised to kill, deport or incarcerate any group of people. What are the Democrats thinking?

Instead, we went to see Aaron Neville perform at the Balboa Theater. It was a Valentines date and well worth it. The singer from New Orleans is 75 years old and didn’t miss a note during a two-hour performance.

Today I’ll share some tips on Valentines Day, post the weekly calendar and call it done. (See you Tuesday)   [Read more…]

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