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Here Comes California’s Concrete Coast: Coastal Commission Director Sacked

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Escondido City Councilwoman Olga Diaz, voting as the alternate for County Supervisor Greg Cox, cast the deciding vote as the California Coastal Commission sacked executive director Dr. Charles Lester late yesterday.

The 7-5 decision ended a meeting in Morro Bay that ran late into the evening. The commissioners heard impassioned pleas from dozens of witnesses saying the director’s removal amounted to a green light for unchecked development on 1,100 miles of scenic mountains, cliffs and beaches along the Pacific Ocean.

Over 20,000 letters were received by the commission, with a vast majority supportive of Dr. Lester. Billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer delivered a petition with nearly 10,000 signatures asking the commission to “put coastal protection before the demands of special interests.” The outpouring of support apparently didn’t outweigh a letter from the Los Angeles County Business Federation, an alliance of 155 business groups, blaming the commission’s staff for a lack of accountability and regulatory overreach.   [Read more…]

New Hampshire Voters Give the Establishment a Middle Finger Salute

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The first actual voting in the 2016 presidential primaries took place last night and the frustrations of the people manifested themselves by way of solid victories for Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (+22%) and The Donald (+19%).

Today I’ll celebrate my one thousandth post at San Diego Free Press by sharing some observations on the implications of these victories.

The New York Times analysis of voting patterns showed Sanders winning with majorities from men, women, first-time voters, past voters, non-gun owners, middle-income people, and low-income people. Hilary Clinton won voters 65+ and households earning more than $200,000 annually. The Democratic candidates split voters in the 45-64 age demographic.

Trump carried every major GOP demographic group: men, women, young voters, old voters, high school-educated voters, college-educated voters, voters who make less than $50,000 per year and voters who make more than $100,000 per year.   [Read more…]

June Vote Set for San Diego Minimum Wage Increase

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Voters in the city of San Diego will get a chance to weigh in on an ordinance providing stepped increases in the minimum wage and up to five earned sick days annually in the June 2016 primary election.

A historic wrong will be righted with public approval of the measure, implementation of which was delayed by a deceptive petition campaign financed by out of town interests whose business model depends on government assistance to their employees.

The original ordinance was approved in the summer of 2014, following months of City Council president Todd Gloria attempting and essentially failing to get business community input. Mayor Kevin Faulconer vetoed the measure. The City Council overrode the veto, 6-3, voting along party lines.   [Read more…]

Faulconer Flunky Dukes It Out With Saldaña in UT Interview

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Today’s Union-Tribune interview with mayoral candidate Lori Saldaña read like a debate between the former Assemblywoman with Mayor Faulconer’s campaign manager Jason Roe. This was coverage reminiscent of the Copley era.

Rather than give Saldaña a clear shot at explaining her views and critiques (and she has plenty) of the present regime, the Union-Tribune tapped the mayoral pit bull to refute her point by point.

This reminds me very much of the old days around the paper, wherein any viewpoints counter to “everybody knows” were quickly smothered with officially blessed counterpoints.   [Read more…]

Dump Dumanis: A Quest for Justice in San Diego

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I don’t expect a massive crowd at the Hall of Justice in downtown San Diego on Friday afternoon, but symbolism will be large, non-the-less.

Activists motivated by the apparent injustice involved in the officer-involved shooting death of Fridoon Nehad, an unarmed Afghan refugee whose life was shattered following imprisonment by the Taliban, will stage an event calling for a sustained campaign to “Dump” County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis.

This rally and press conference should be seen as the local manifestation of nationwide dissatisfaction with the criminal justice system. Organizers are calling for the DA to be indicted, saying Dumanis has “abused her power, withheld evidence, misled the media, persecuted innocents under the guise of a “gang injunction” and failed her public responsibilities related to the unjustified killing of Fridoon Nehad.”

[Don’t forget! Friday’s Starting Line includes the Weekly Progressive Calendar]   [Read more…]

San Diego Water: Pissed Away, Pricey and Less-than-Perfect

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For many months now the Big Story about water in California has been about the drought–as in we don’t have enough. On Tuesday, the State Water Resources Control Board voted to extend water restrictions thru October 2016.

Here in San Diego, according to Voice of San Diego, we’ve got so much water that the County Water Authority has dumped a half billion gallons of recently desalinated and other treated drinking water into the Lower Otay Reservoir near Chula Vista.

In case you haven’t looked at you water bill yet, you’re being charged more for doing such a good job of conserving water last year.   [Read more…]

Trans Pacific Partnership Signing Brings on International Protests

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Representatives of the United States and eleven other Pacific Rim nations are gathered in Auckland, New Zealand this week for discussions and a largely symbolic signing ceremony of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. Activists around the world have been staging protests to drive home the point that reshaping international trade cannot be limited to protecting the interests of transnational corporations and their investors.

Events in San Diego, Los Angeles and other cities will echo the Capitol Hill appearance of AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka and Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro, joining with MoveOn.org to deliver 1 million petitions calling on Congress to reject the agreement. Protests at the signing ceremony in New Zealand are expect to be muted, given the efforts by local police to visit “known activists” in recent weeks.

The deal still has to be ratified by at least six of its member nations, a process that can take up to two years and must include Japan and the United States. In the US, ratification has been (unofficially) put off until after the November elections meaning it will be voted on by a lame-duck congress. Under the terms of the TPA Fast-track legislation, a yes or no vote with no amendments allowed must take place within 90 days of its introduction in the congress.   [Read more…]

Iowa Caucuses: Trump Trumped, Hillary Feels the Bern

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The first scene from the first act of the drama that is the 2016 presidential election has ended. Today we’ll look at jubilant winners and sore losers, the spin and the spun, of the Iowa caucuses.

Hilary Clinton and Bernie Sanders ended up with the closest contest in state Democratic caucus history. Clinton was awarded 700.59 state delegate equivalents, versus 696.92 for Sanders, with 171,109 Democratic voters participating. Both campaigns celebrated the results.

Ted Cruz led the Republican pack, beating out The Donald. Coming in at a close third, Marco Rubio is on his way to becoming the candidate of choice for conservatives who’d like a little less cray-cray in the mix. According to ABC News, turnout for Republican caucuses was estimated to be more than 180,000, beating the previous record of 121,354 caucus goers set in 2012. Democratic turnout, by the way, was down by 29% from 2008.   [Read more…]

Hoteliers Not-A-Tax Scheme Headed to Trial

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San Diego’s big hotel barons have suffered a significant defeat as their two percent self-assessment/fee/not-a-tax surcharge is headed for its day of reckoning in the courts. Superior Court Judge Joel R.Wohlfeil handed down a ruling late Friday afternoon allowing attorney Cory Briggs and his clients to proceed with a lawsuit challenging the basis on which hotels are allowed to collect this fee.

This self-assessment/fee/not-a-tax was an attempt to make an end-run around the requirement of two-thirds voter approval on taxes dedicated for a specific use. The city and the Tourism Marketing District tried and failed to derail a lawsuit challenging its legality by arguing only hoteliers had standing to challenge it in court.

Monies collected under this scheme have been set aside for a single purpose, namely financing advertising and promotional materials for the local tourism industry. The city’s politicians bowed down to the wishes of the corporate tourism industry, agreeing on–as Briggs puts it: “a ‘management plan’ that allows the ‘self-assessment’ to be added to a guest’s bill as long as it is ‘separately stated from the amount of rent charged and any applicable taxes’—as if separating it on the bill means that the guest is not paying it.”   [Read more…]

Local Politics Gets Interesting: Block Drops Out, Castellanos Gets Scorned, and Saldaña Makes It Official

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As January draws to a close, political campaigns in San Diego are beginning to take shape.

San Diego’s Marty Block took to the state senate floor on Thursday to announce his decision not to run for re-election, clearing the way for Assemblywoman Toni Atkins to take his seat.

City Attorney candidate Rafael Castellano’s run of local club support came to an end last night when the influential Democrats for Equality failed to endorse any candidate, following a forum where a past lawsuit for sexual harassment emerged as an issue.

And, as expected, former Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña made her challenge to incumbent Mayor Kevin Faulconer official yesterday at a press conference in Old Town.

[Don’t forget! Friday’s Starting Line includes the Weekly Progressive Calendar]   [Read more…]

Mayor Piñata Swings from the Ceiling. Again.

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Not long ago former mayor Bob Filner dialed up Voice of San Diego, purportedly to opine on the local homeless veterans situation. The subsequent interview covered a wide variety of topics but was mostly short on substance and long on defensiveness.

Filner still doesn’t get that regardless of whether it was as was mayor or street sweeper, his behavior was wrong. While acknowledging he’d given his political enemies “the ammunition,” the former mayor remains in denial about his actions. (And, yes, it is simultaneously true our city was denied the benefit of a progressive agenda.)

This week we learned one possible reason why Filner had emerged from the shadows of his newly adopted Los Angeles. His former chief of staff Lee Burdick is making the rounds, pushing a soon to be released book: “Bob Filner’s Monster, The Unraveling of an American Mayor and What We Can Learn from It.”   [Read more…]

Trump Nixes Fox Debate, Looks to General Election

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As much as I hate to do it, I’m gonna give The Donald the notice he so desperately craves today. The GOP’s leading candidate said “no” to the voice of republicanism’s Thursday night showcase of presidential candidates. A popular point of view following his decision to pull out of the Fox debate has been this could be the end of Donald Trump’s candidacy.

I beg to disagree.

This decision not to play nice with Fox News represents, in my opinion, a shift in strategy for Trump. He’s decided getting the Republican nomination is a done deal and is turning his focus to the general election.   [Read more…]

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