San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

You are here: Home / Archives for Source

Is awareness of HIV enough?

by

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt / Excuse Me, I’m Writing

July is National HIV Awareness Month. Increasing awareness is one of those concepts that has a nice noncontroversial quality, and there are all manner of things happening to that end. There’s the International AIDS Conference coming up July 22-27 in Washington, D.C., the paraders and booths that will populate PRIDE San Diego (July 20-22), even the sociable North County Connection ad in San Diego Gay & Lesbian News, which links to lots of HIV information.

But is awareness enough?

If you’re approaching 45 years or more, you might remember the discovery of AIDS in 1981 and its cause, HIV, shortly thereafter. Remember the controversies? Remember the panic? Remember the prejudice? Remember the deaths?

A lot of us lost loved ones — gay and straight — in the early days of HIV/AIDS awareness.

Then testing and treatment progressed, we learned more about the virus and its transmission — most commonly through anal or vaginal sex or sharing needles with an infected person — and a whole lot of us were more careful. We got tested regularly, we practiced safe sex, we insisted our partners get tested before we bedded them down.

Now a lot of us have loved ones — gay and straight — who are living long lives with HIV treatment, having families even.

So, is awareness enough?   [Read more…]

Nuclear Dread on Both Sides of the Pacific – Japan and San Onofre

by

By Michael Steinberg

For those of an apocalyptic bent, the beginning of the final half of 2012 was near perfect.

True, the walls didn’t all come tumbling down, though those retaining the spent nuclear fuel pool atop Fukushima Unit 4 were bulging. But the signs seemed to be everywhere, from the eastern shores of Japan to the west coast of California.

The most widely reported such event was the July 1 restart of a Japanese commercial nuclear power reactor at the Ohi nuclear plant. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda pushed for this restart, despite a massive protest in front of his office in Tokyo only days before. Digital Journal reported that 200,000 protested there on June 29   [Read more…]

Deporting the Hand That Feeds Us: How Anti-Immigrant Laws Are Causing a Farm Labor Shortage

by

If Americans won’t do the work, and the U.S. successfully keeps undocumented immigrants out of the country, then who will do it?

AlterNet / By Jill Richardson 
While researching her 2012 book The American Way of Eating, journalist Tracie McMillan decided to try her hand at picking grapes, sorting peaches and cutting garlic. The experience resulted in heatstroke, tendonitis and long-term damage to her right arm. In only one job – sorting peaches – was she paid minimum wage. That was also the only job where her employer was aware she was an undercover journalist. She left two jobs rather quickly, but stuck with the garlic job for six weeks until she literally could not use her right arm for anything and she became worried she might permanently damage it.

The harsh conditions and poor pay for farmwork are nothing new in American history. Before Mexicans worked on America’s large farms, the U.S. used a different group of immigrants: slaves from Africa and their descendants.
  [Read more…]

Now Playing at the Old Globe: The Trials of Darwin

by

by Mel Freilicher

In the furor of attempting to clean out my disastrously cluttered home office before school starts again, I came across a recent issue of the National Education Association’s magazine dedicated entirely to teaching Darwin. Before tossing it, I read some astonishing and depressing statistics about the high percentage of Americans who disbelieve in evolution (including, if I recall correctly, about 25% of those with a college education, and more than 50% of those without one). Mostly that issue detailed how teachers might use the mass of scientific evidence from a wide array of disciplines to make the case for Darwin.

That this case still needs to be made is in itself bizarre, of course, since “The Origin of the Species” was published in 1859.  It can’t be accounted for simply by the many home-schooled children of fundamentalists, or by graduates of Christian academies such as the chain that unsuccessfully brought litigation against the UC system a few years back for not accepting their creationism course as a legitimate science entry requirement.  Even before the right wing’s aggressive and sustained push to control local school boards, many public schools in conservative regions had been teaching evolution– as a thoroughly discredited theory; I vividly remember one student (she’s now a science writer!) from a small, predominantly Mormon town in northern California who was totally shocked when she came to UCSD, and learned that such debunking was hardly a universally accepted truth.   [Read more…]

Romney’s 2002 testimony contradicts financial disclosure documents and Bain claims by campaign staff

by

by Jed Lewison / Daily Kos

On his financial disclosure documents, Mitt Romney claims he retired from Bain Capital after he started work on the Salt Lake Winter Olympics. “Since February 11, 1999,” the document states, “Mr. Romney has not had any active role with any Bain Capital entity and has not been involved in the operations of any Bain Capital entity in any way.”

As we’ve learned over the past couple of weeks, Romney actually remained the sole owner and top corporate officer for Bain Capital until 2002, when he signed a retroactive severance agreement—one that continues to pay him $20 million annually, to this very day. His campaign’sexplanation?

This is nothing more than a quirk in the law. When Governor Romney took over the Olympics, he was not involved in the operations of any Bain Capital entity in any way. He was too busy working to make the Olympic Games among the most successful ever held.

Well, if you call owning the firm and remaining its top corporate officer “a quirk in the law,” then I guess it’s a quirk, all right. But it’s the kind of quirk that completely undermines the campaign’s and the candidate’s claim to have been completely severed from Bain as of Feb. 11, 1999.

And now there’s more.
  [Read more…]

San Diego Experiences: THE VISIT

by

By Karen Kenyon

He stood there, not more than 3 feet from where my friend and I were sitting in the French bakery.

She said later, she thought he was going to sing.   We laughed at that afterwards.   But at the time it was anything but funny.

Tall, a large build, African American, his clothing was casual and clean.   And then you saw the cotton ball taped to the side of his hand, indicating blood withdrawn, or something given intravenously.    A hospital bracelet on his left wrist.

“Ladies and Gentlemen,” he announced.   All then turned to look at him.   He commanded our attention, and his invitation was offered with some kind of bravado and respect.

His eyes appeared to be squinted shut — almost like a little boy who’d memorized a speech, and now it was time to deliver.

“I have just come from the hospital’s psychiatric ward….”   [Read more…]

Eyewitness Report: The Nightmare of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

by

By Dave Patterson
We visited with Chieko Shiina, mother and organic farmer – whose life was tied to the earth, when she came to San Diego on July 7, 2011 to help us understand what happened to the people of Japan when the earthquake and tsunami destroyed the Fukushimi Diachi nuclear plant, and what she and others have done there. What we learned is that the nightmare has only begun for the people of Japan, and how the efforts of Chieko Shiina and others are empowering the people to help themselves, as the Japanese government appears powerless, to help.

Chieko’s organic farm was 25 miles away from Fukushima when the disaster struck, and she had to stop growing food because of the nuclear contamination. Later when the radiation reached levels that equaled a continuous mammogram (0.7mSieverts), she moved to Fukushima city. Unfortunately the standard down-wind models of airborne radiation contamination do not apply, as there are now many places in Japan at great distances from Fukushima that are very contaminated. Hot spots in Fukushima City itself measure 10~30mS or higher, the equivalent of living in a full body CT scan 24 hours a day. Japan right now is not a healthy place to be, particularly for children and women.   [Read more…]

Billionaire Philanthropist Gets His Way!

by

By John P. Falchi
It was good to have spent Monday downtown on one of the hottest issues of our time, the preservation of the historic integrity ofBalboaPark. For some time now the behind the scenes machinations of our local power elite have been working their way toward this day of decision on the part of our S.D. City Council Members. Many members of fine organizations like dan Soderberg’s Neighborhood Coalition to saveBalboaPark, Bruce Coon’s organization,SOHO, and Jeanne Brown’s League of Women Voters, have been fighting the good fight, and were there with members of their groups, yesterday. I was also impressed by the turnout of young people, many from the Occupy Together Movement, locally, who came to lend their support to those who chose to speak against the Jacobs-Sanders Campaign to fundamentally changeBalboaPark.   [Read more…]

Carrie Christie’s “Dear Kamala” Postcard Campaign Brings Attention to Sex Trafficking Victim Sara Kruzan

by

Story by Ron Logan / East County Magazine

July 7, 2012 (San Diego) – This Independence Day promised the usual smell of barbecued burgers and dogs, the taste of chilled drinks, the glisten of suntan lotion, the sound of children playing, and the smoke, the lights and the crackle of pyrotechnics. Across the nation, families celebrated their independence, partied with friends, and enjoyed the freedoms that we far too often take for granted.

But this Independence Day meant much more for Sara Kruzan – a woman who has never known independence, has never enjoyed freedom, and has fallen through the cracks of our society.

While we celebrated our freedom, Kruzan remained imprisoned, having served the last 18 years of her life in a cell in Chowchilla, California.

East County activist Carrie Christie saw this Fourth of July as an opportunity to bring attention to Kruzan’s case. Due to Christie’s efforts, this July 4th marked a day of action for Kruzan’s supporters in the form of a postcard writing campaign to California’s Attorney General Kamala Harris and Chief Assistant Attorney General Dane Gillette.   [Read more…]

The writers group

by

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt /  Excuse Me, I’m Writing

We sat in my living room on a Saturday morning, our laptops and manuscripts strewn across the well-worn upholstery with its patina of cat hair — three writers, women, mothers, wives. I’m not sure what the order should be there. It probably depends on our moods, being girls and all. (I hate that stuff. I should probably stop bringing it up. It just encourages the misogynists.)

Physically, we were in similar stages of age-induced decay. We struggled against aching joints, weight gain in awkward places, frequent urination, and the pain and itching of invasive idiocy — the nation’s intoxicant of choice. We took advantage of the small but friendly audience we provided one another to rail in harmony at recent examples.

First was the sympathetic mourner who had asked if the lost loved one had been “saved.” Would the answer determine the depth of the mourner’s sympathy, we wondered, the volume of her prayers, the amount of tuna casserole she’d drop off? “What is wrong with people?” we asked, and it was not rhetorical, but we did not have an answer.
  [Read more…]

Local Coalition Staged March Against TPP Negotiations on Saturday

by

Story & Photos by Nadin Abbott

July 7, 2012 (San Diego)– The mood at the Civic Center was defiant. The marchers were getting ready to take to the streets once again. They were protesting the Trans Pacific Trade Negotiations (TPP) happening at the Bayfront Hilton Hotel.

Among them was Kathy Mack-Burton, a resident of La Mesa, who told me, that she was “interested in stopping this secret negotiation that is not in the interest of the American people.” This treaty will come to a surrender of our sovereignty. Given the Finance Chapter that was leaked to Public Citizen has found arbitration will indeed move away from regular court systems, this fear is not unfounded.

She was not alone. According to Kim-Holmgrin of the Green Party, “the TPP pushes advantages away from the common person and expands corporate power. It even weakens our sovereignty.” He added that the Greens are also “really concerned about environmental and global warming,” and that the tribunals will be a violation of International Environmental treaties. He added that labor is at risk as well, with the weakening of labor standards.   [Read more…]

Ted Nugent’s Latest Idiotic Comment: ‘Perhaps We’d Be Better Off if the South Won the Civil War’

by

AlterNet | By Angela Lee

Romney endorser/American rock singer Ted Nugent already has a long history of outlandish political statements, but now appears to have taken his BS to a whole new level.  In a Washington Times op-ed blasting Obamacare, Nugent suggested today that America would have been a better country had the South won the Civil War:

 Because our legislative, judicial and executive branches of government hold the 10th Amendment in contempt, I’m beginning to wonder if it would have been best had the South won the Civil War. Our Founding Fathers’ concept of limited government is dead.

  [Read more…]

©2010-2017 SanDiegoFreePress.org

Code is Poetry