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Putting the David Alvarez Mayoral Candidacy into a National Context

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By Doug Porter

While many of the issues at hand for San Diego voters in the upcoming mayoral runoff election may be local, there is a bigger picture being watched by political observers nationwide.

None of the top ten cities in the United States have Republican Mayors. Electing Kevin Faulconer in San Diego would be a double win for the GOP especially if the large Latino population is taken into consideration.  It would also serve as a counterbalance to the perceived trend of big city electorates shifting more towards the left end of the political spectrum.

One only needs to look to incoming mayor Bill de Blasio’s solid electoral win in New York to understand just how seriously the right is taking this trend.  An article in the New York Times last Friday catalogues right wing attempts to blame Mr. de Blasio for crimes currently being committed even though he’s three weeks away from being inaugurated.   [Read more…]

Santa’s Dreaming of a Green Christmas

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From now on, naughty children will no longer receive coal in their stockings

By Jill Richardson / OtherWords

Santa’s changing some policies at the North Pole.

You see, he’s concerned about global warming. If the polar ice caps melt, his workshop will sink into the Arctic Ocean. He’d become a climate refugee.

What’s more, our changing climate is endangering our food supply. It’s not just the hotter average global temperatures. Climate change also triggers more extreme weather.

Droughts, floods, and storms are no good for farming. And pests lacking predators and diseases that are hard or impossible to treat are already moving into new areas in some parts of the world as a result of the changing climate.

Why does Santa care? He wants his milk and cookies, of course. The world’s favorite fat man won’t look half as jolly if he loses weight due to global food shortages.   [Read more…]

After a Long Hiatus, Morena Reservoir is Back in Service…For Now

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By George J Janczyn / Groksurf.com 

After a nearly 7-year break in operations—with a brief restart in February this year only to be halted again—water from Morena Reservoir is again flowing toward the City of San Diego.

Morena Reservoir is located in East County about 45 miles from San Diego, near Campo. Water released from Morena flows down Hauser Canyon and into Barrett Reservoir.

Barrett is situated about 10 miles west of Morena, at the confluence of Cottonwood and Pine Valley creeks. Water is then released from Barrett and conveyed via the Dulzura Conduit to the Lower Otay Reservoir where it is treated and delivered to San Diego residents.   [Read more…]

San Diego 350 Answers: What Is Fracking?

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From SanDiego350

Fracking

Modern fracking in California is a huge new source of greenhouse gas emissions as well as a threat to our water and air quality and cause of earthquakes. SanDiego350.org is educating the public and local elected officials about the hazards associated with fracking, and calling for a ban on fracking in California.

FRACTS: Fracking Frequently Asked Questions

What is fracking (Hydraulic Fracturing)? Fracking is a process to release and extract oil or gas by blasting water, toxic chemicals, and sand at extreme pressure miles underground into a shale rock layer.

Where is fracking happening in California? Fracking has already taken place in several California counties, with companies targeting the massive Monterey Shale rock formation that stretches from the Bay Area to Los Angeles. Offshore fracking is happening now and could happen in the waters off San Diego County.   [Read more…]

Fight Over Google Buses Shows Need For Statewide Rail Funding Plan

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By Robert Cruickshank/California High Speed Rail Blog

A battle that has been simmering for years finally exploded into the open today in San Francisco, where protestors blocked one of Google’s private buses that carries workers from their homes in the Mission to Google HQ in Mountain View. Protestors charged that Google was contributing to a two-tier transportation system in the Bay Area, where tech workers get free express bus service whereas everyone else has to make do with transit systems like Muni, BART and Caltrain that are increasingly struggling to meet soaring demand.

It’s a fair point. Every dollar that Google and other companies spend on these private transit systems is a dollar not being spent on operations, maintenance, or expansion of existing transit systems. In Seattle, for example, Microsoft operates a similar system – but the company is also one of the biggest backers of expanding the public rail system, which in 2023 will open a new route to Microsoft’s front door, and the company has been a leader in lobbying the state legislature for more transit funding.   [Read more…]

California Legislature’s Calderon Scandal Spreads to Rhee’s Faux School Reform Group

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By Doug Porter

Allegations of pay-for-play proclivities by elected members of the Calderon family are shedding a negative light on the activities of faux education reformer Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst organization.  Last month Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit revealed an FBI investigation of Sen. Calderon, including allegations he’d accepted $60,000 in bribes from undercover agents posing as independent movie executives.

Members of the Calderon family serving or having served in both branches of the legislature are considered to be a powerful political dynasty. A federal undercover investigation into state Sen. Ron Calderon has rocked Sacramento, “altering the dynamics of the Southern California region he and his political family have dominated for decades,” according to columnist Dan Walters.

Information is now emerging regarding connections between the Calderon family and education reformer Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst group.  Her political action committee has spent $1.6 million in California in recent elections backing political figures that supported her agenda.   [Read more…]

Extreme Weather Watch: November 2013 – Super Typhoon Hits Phillipines, Tornadoes Wipe Out Another Midwest Town

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by John Lawrence

Super Typhoon Haiyan

Super Typhoon Haiyan, the largest typhoon to hit land in human history, impacted the Phillipines on November 7 with winds exceeding 200 miles per hour along with torrential rain. The lives of 25 million people were affected. As many as 10,000 may have lost their lives. It was the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane, and the only difference between it and a hurricane was its name. Hurricanes are called typhoons in certain parts of the world and cyclones in others. Since they are the same weather phenomenon, why confuse people? In this era of globalization let’s globalize the names too and call them all hurricanes.   [Read more…]

Congressman Juan Vargas Joins Capitol Hill Fast for Immigration Reform

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By Doug Porter

An ongoing fast by immigration activists just steps from the Capitol building in Washington DC continues to grow, both in participants and impact.  The news media around the country has begun to notice, with prominent stories posted in the Washington Post and at National Public Radio.

The four original protesters—who had consumed nothing but water since November 12th—yielded to the concerns of medical personnel yesterday, handing their protest over to Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-Mass.), the first of a series of lawmakers to participate in the fast.

Kennedy will be replaced by San Diego’s Rep. Juan Vargas today. House Majority leader Rep. John Boehner and other Republicans have declined invitations to meet with the protesters.

Although lobbyists and business leaders have urged to House of Representatives to take action before the end of the year, the GOP leadership has indicated they’ll have to wait until a budget agreement is enacted in mid-January. And even then, they’re not willing to go on the record to say immigration reform will get consideration.   [Read more…]

Restoring Fairness to the World of California Water

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By Kate Poole/Natural Resources Defense Council

The Los Angeles Daily News penned a noteworthy editorial last week titled “California is drowning in ancient and unfair water rules.” It’s noteworthy because the editorial correctly debunks some of the common myths about California’s water system and, in doing so, points the way to several needed reforms:

  • Myth 1 – urban southern California is the biggest water hog in the state.

Wrong. As the editorial points out, “farming accounts for more than 80 percent of the state’s water usage, while providing less than 5 percent of its gross domestic product.” This is not to say that farming is not important – it certainly is. But because farmers laid claim to a huge amount of California’s water rights in the 19th and early 20th century, the State’s first-in-time, first-in-right system means that they continue to control a vast majority of the state’s water supply, even though agriculture is a far smaller piece of the State’s economic pie than it once was.  Meanwhile, many urban southern California water agencies have impressive plans to be highly efficient in their use and reuse of their piece of the remaining 20 percent.  When will we demand that agriculture be as efficient with this scarce resource?

Elevated Rates of Thyroid Disease in California Newborn Linked to Fukushima Fallout

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By Michael Steinberg / OB Rag

A new study indicates that rates of a thyroid disease in California newborn spiked after they were exposed to fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.

The peer-reviewed study, “Changes in confirmed and borderline cases of congenital hypothyroidism in California as a function of environmental fallout from Fukushima,” appears in the November 2013 issue of the periodical Open Journal of Pediatrics.

In California all babies are tested at birth for congenital hypothyroidism, a rare disease that nevertheless can cause serious growth problems in children if it remains untreated.

Study authors Joseph Mangano and Janette Sherman of The Radiation and Public Health Project (radiation.org), along with Chris Busby, Scientific Secretary for the European Union Committee on Radiation Risk, obtained information from the state of California related to this issue.   [Read more…]

Progress Made at Ft. Rosecrans National Cemetery

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By Judi Curry

On November 10, 2010, I wrote my first article in the OBrag.org  about the trees being cut down at Ft. Rosecrans.  I asked who was cutting down the trees and why.  The editor-dude also wrote an article about the tree cuttings.  On August 12, 2012 I wrote another article about the deplorable conditions of the cemetery, replete with pictures of dead and dying grass; lack of trees, etc.  In the months that followed I wrote an additional seven stories about the cemetery, and until a new Director was appointed every story that I wrote was about the lack of progress  of restoration to the cemetery.

I interviewed the new Director – Doug Ledbetter–with Michael Turko from KUSI, and the plight of the cemetery was not only aired on KUSI but also written about in both the OBRag and the SDFP.  That was on August 30th, 2013, and Doug stated that things were going to improve – drastically and quickly.
  [Read more…]

Save the Turkeys

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Our fast-growing, heavy-breasted birds can’t even mate anymore.

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It’s odd that the most iconic feature of Thanksgiving — the turkey — is likely the most unnatural. It’s got competition, of course, from the jellied cranberry sauce that retains the shape of its can and various food products sold in boxes marked “Just Add Water.”

(Really, is it so hard to mash potatoes yourself, especially given their divine taste and creamy texture after you’ve added in all the cream and butter required?)

But it’s the turkey that takes the cake. Not that most of us would know that, since the last time most of us met a turkey was in a sandwich, not on a farm.   [Read more…]

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