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Thank You From the San Diego Free Press

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And other important info

Dear friends,

The day has come to dim the lights at the San Diego Free Press. We could not have had such a successful six and a half year run without you. Each one of you invested something essential in this endeavor, whether it was through your thought-provoking submissions, committed readership, or crucial financial support. We are so grateful for the opportunities we have had as editors to get to know so many of you personally.

We have some important good news to convey. We were able to renew our server contract, which keeps the site live, through June 2021! That means that even though we will no longer be publishing new content, our archives, comprised of more than 9,000 posts, will be accessible on the site through that date. To those of you who recently donated, you helped to make that extension possible – thank you so very much.

There are a few other details that we would like to leave you with.   [Read more…]

San Diego Free Press to Suspend Publication After Dec. 14

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We — the people who’ve overseen this platform called the San Diego Free Press — have decided it’s time to move on. December 14, 2018 will be our last day of posting.

We’re going out on a high note. We’ve just had our best two months ever in terms of readership. We have funds in the bank, and — most importantly — all of us on the Editorial Board remain friends. So, sorry to disappoint, but there’s no drama to report.

It’s just time. The political and media landscape is changing. For now, let’s just say we’re suspending operations.   [Read more…]

November 2018 Cheat Sheet & Progressive Voter Kit San Diego Free Press

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What do you mean you haven’t voted yet? Damn, you’d better get moving.

Here’s our 2018: Printable cheat sheet, links to assorted voter guides, and your questions answered about where, when and how to vote.

  [Read more…]

Earl McNeil Should Be Alive Today

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On Friday, District Attorney, Summer Stephan, announced that no charges would be filed against the National City Police Department officers in the death of Earl McNeil. Geneviéve Jones-Wright, criminal justice reform advocate, Deputy Public Defender, and community leader, made the following statement regarding the decision: 

On May 26, 2018, Earl McNeil went to the National City Police Department asking for help. Instead of receiving help, he was comatose, showing signs of trauma, only to die days later. Today the San Diego County District Attorney, Summer Stephan, has cleared law enforcement officers from any wrongdoing in Mr. McNeil’s death. This decision comes on the heels of months of community protests and calls for the District Attorney to recuse her office from the investigation.    [Read more…]

National Walk Out / Solidarity: Support Dr. Blasey Ford – Monday Sept 24 10am (Pacific Time)

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Dr. Christine Blasey Ford has bravely come forward and shared her story about her sexual assault at the hands of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Even though Dr. Blasey Ford has repeatedly stated her desire to testify and bravely share her story, Senate Republicans are doing everything they can to shame, bully, and force her to testify under their unacceptable, inappropriate conditions. 

At 1 p.m. EST Monday, join us for a national walk-out to show our support for Dr. Blasey Ford. All you need to do is wear black and walk out – of your home, your office, your classroom, wherever you are – and post a picture to your social media with the hashtag #BelieveSurvivors.    [Read more…]

Unite for Justice Rally & March to Protest Trump’s Supreme Court Nomination

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On Sunday, August 26th, local activists, leaders, and champions for women’s reproductive freedom will gather for a Unite for Justice Rally and March at Waterfront Park in San Diego, beginning at 10am.

Donald Trump has long promised to only nominate a justice who will end Roe v. Wade and criminalize abortion. Trump has found his man in Brett Kavanaugh.

We can’t and won’t go back to the days when abortion was illegal in this country. We know what’s at stake in this fight: our most precious and fundamental rights. Brett Kavanaugh will not only work to end Roe and criminalize abortion, he will rule to gut health care, voting rights, LGBTQ rights, environmental protections, workers’ rights, and immigrant rights. And his record of arguing for extreme executive privilege, such as suggesting that the Supreme Court was wrong to compel the Watergate tapes from President Richard Nixon, creates the real threat that confirming Kavanaugh will help Trump put himself above the law.   [Read more…]

Editorial Statement: Who Is the Enemy of the People?

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Today – August 16 – in over three hundred editorials published in newspapers and on media platforms large and small across the country, the American press is standing up and renouncing president Trump’s declarations of the media as “the enemy of the people.”

The San Diego Free Press and the OB Rag join these denunciations, in the call to confront Trump first put out by The Boston Globe, which began its call with:

A central pillar of President Trump’s politics is a sustained assault on the free press. Journalists are not classified as fellow Americans, but rather “the enemy of the people.” This relentless assault on the free press has dangerous consequences. We asked editorial boards from around the country – liberal and conservative, large and small – to join us today to address this fundamental threat in their own words.   [Read more…]

Happy Birthday to Us

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The San Diego Free Press was started in June 2012, in association with the OB Rag, to bring San Diego news and commentary from a distinctively progressive and grassroots perspective to the greater San Diego and outlying areas. Our mission is to provide a forum for those views, just as we’ve done at the OB Rag, but on a larger scale.

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The Wikipedia entry for the original San Diego Free Press:

The San Diego Free Press was an underground newspaper founded by philosophy students of Herbert Marcuse at the University of California, San Diego in November 1968, and published under that title biweekly until December 1969, when it became the weekly Street Journal starting with its 29th issue. The paper’s contents were a mix of radical politics, alternative lifestyles, and the counterculture, reflecting in part Marcuse’s Frankfurt School Marxist/Freudian ideas of cultural transformation.

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The modern-day San Diego Free Press is governed by an editorial board consisting of Brent Beltrán, Anna Daniels, Frank Gormlie, Patty Jones, Rich Kačmar, Annie Lane and Doug Porter. We do this because we believe.   [Read more…]

San Diego Veterans for Peace Hometown Arlington West Memorial 2018

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By Staff

On Monday, May 28th, 2018 (Memorial Day), the San Diego Veterans For Peace will be setting up its respected “Hometown Arlington West Memorial” on the front lawn of the USS Midway Museum, 910 N. Harbor Drive, near the corner of Broadway, in downtown San Diego.

Chapter veterans from all five services will be honoring our 300+ fallen brothers and sisters from Southern California who have died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with special memorial markers. The public is asked to stop by, read their names, honor the ultimate sacrifice made by these local fallen veterans, and to reflect on the overall costs of these two ongoing wars.   [Read more…]

OB’s ‘Vote’ Human Chain Captured in Drone Images

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In true San Diego style, more than 170 people, many dressed in blue, gathered on Saturday, April 21 at Dog Beach in Ocean Beach for a Get Out the Vote Action Day. Led by Ocean Beach resident Mike James, activists from San Diego County Indivisible and other community groups registered voters and made a human “VOTE!” banner on the beach.

Voters traveled from the hotly contested congressional districts of CA49 in North County and CA50 in East County to express their hopes for a “Blue Wave” midterm election. The June 5 primary is only 6 weeks away and mail-in ballots will arrive in San Diego voters’ mailboxes beginning on May 7.

The Ocean Beach action was coordinated with a similar event at Ocean Beach, San Francisco on the same day.    [Read more…]

Landmark Lawsuit Against SANDAG Ends With a Victory for Clean Air

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The San Diego County Superior Court has formally ordered the San Diego Association of Governments to decertify its defective Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for 2011 the Regional Transportation Plan. SANDAG has also agreed to cover attorney’s fees in the amount of $1.7 million for the petitioners in this public interest case.

It has taken six long years to reach this point, with the lawsuit going to the California Supreme Court. The two precedent-setting court opinions arising from this case will guide SANDAG and other agencies in addressing greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, and public health impacts of regional transportation planning.

“The end of this battle is just the beginning of a brighter future for all San Diego County residents,” said Jana Clark, Cleveland National Forest Foundation Board member. “With this case resolved, SANDAG must now do what it should have done in the first place: plan for a more sustainable future for our region so that we can avoid the worst effects of climate change.”   [Read more…]

Free Lyft Rides for March for Our Lives Attendees in San Diego, 49 Other Cities

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On March 24, those around the country will join March for Our Lives demonstrations to demand that their lives and safety become a priority. This movement has been led by student organizers from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which less than a month and a half ago was the site of one of the nation’s deadliest school massacres.

Earlier this month, Lyft Co-Founders John Zimmer and Logan Green shared their support for the civic engagement these students have inspired by offering free Lyft rides to marches around the country.   [Read more…]

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