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Wells Fargo CEO Meets a Desperate Homeowner Facing Foreclosure, Flees

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Wells Fargo Bank CEO John Stumpf’s keynote speech to the American Banker Retail Lending Conference on Thursday morning didn’t quite work out like he (or anyone else) expected. Midway through his address, single mom Betty Badro calmly walked up on the stage to confront him over Wells Fargo’s foreclosure polices.

Ms. Badro, who has worked for the State of California for 22 years, attempted to deliver a personal check to the CEO, and tried to explain that she was hoping to forestall a scheduled foreclosure of her home tomorrow, March 15th. Not saying another word, Mr. Stumpf turned his back on Ms. Badro and left the stage.   [Read more…]

Part Two: President Obama & the Gang of Eight’s ‘Comprehensive Immigration Reform’

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A Chicano Historical Analysis: Immigration or Labor?

By Herman Baca, President, Committee on Chicano Rights

Employer Sanctions 

Sanctions against employers historically have always been a farce for the simple reason that, U.S. employers unlike Mexican undocumented workers have massive amounts of money and political power!

Proof of the above is documented with the 1951 President’s Commission on Migratory Labor that first recommended reducing the number of “wetbacks” with employer sanctions, and fines on employers who knowingly hired illegal workers.

However, in 1952 when the Immigration and Nationality Act was enacted making the harboring of illegal aliens a felony, punishable by a $2,000 fine and a prison term of five years; the law also included the Texas proviso, which asserted that employing an illegal alien, was not harboring!

Thus, there were no penalties on US employers.   [Read more…]

Wells Fargo: California Leader in Predatory Lending and Heartless Foreclosures

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by Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment

When it comes to foreclosing on Californians, it looks like Wells Fargo may take the prize. According to a report released today, Wells Fargo is responsible for more homes in the foreclosure pipeline in California than any other single lender.

Wells Fargo is servicing the most loans, but they are providing less principal reduction to struggling borrowers than either Bank of America and Chase – who themselves should be doing more! The recent report from the Monitor of the multi-state Attorneys General settlement with the five big mortgage servicers showed that Wells Fargo trails behind Bank of America and Chase when it comes to the amount of principal reduction given as part of first lien loan modifications.

This is the very same Wells Fargo that just had its most profitable year ever in 2012, with earnings of $19 billion.   [Read more…]

In America We Have the Power to Change (Thoughts of Freedom)

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Freedom. What a concept, huh? One of the sweetest words in the world’s vocabulary.

I learned a long time ago that the pursuit of freedom will make one do almost anything. Sometimes in the spur of a moment. I used to love to hear my maternal grandfather tell about how he woke up one day on a sharecropper’s plot of land in Hawkinsville, Georgia, thinking to himself, “God, I don’t know what all is out there in this world but I just know You created something better than this.”

At about the same time “big boss man” came riding up on his horse rallying what were supposed to be “free men” to the fields, “yelling and spitting tobacco every which-a-away” my grandfather would say and the next thing he knew he had snatched the man off his horse, gave him the ass-kicking of his life and then ran for that very life until he reached the Gulf of Mexico – to what, he didn’t know. He just knew he had to be free.

I thought of him a little while back at a forum at the Malcolm X Library that featured four of a group of people who stand tall in my mind and soul: The Freedom Riders.   [Read more…]

International Women’s Day Events in San Diego

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Last Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives followed the Senate in re-authorizing the Violence Against Women Act with bi-partisan support. The timing was particularly appropriate: Friday, March 8th is International Women’s Day. The overall theme this year is “The Gender Agenda: Gaining Momentum,” while the United Nations theme for the day is “A promise is a promise: Time to end violence against women.” Inside are listings for this year’s commemorations…   [Read more…]

La Jolla’s Anti-Semitic Past Still Reflected in Community Christmas Parade

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What is the difference between a “Holiday Parade” and a “Christmas Parade?” Not much, actually. But the fact that La Jolla continues to call their December parade a “Christmas Parade” bothers some residents of this snobby, exclusive city.

Many years ago – 1965 – to be exact, my husband and I decided to take a trip to La Jolla. We knew we would be moving to the San Diego area shortly, because my father-in-law was quite ill and lived in Chula Vista. We decided to make a vacation of it, and driving down from Berkeley where we were going to school we stopped off at a hotel in La Jolla. I was wearing a beautiful Jewish star given to me on my 18th birthday by my ex-husband. My current husband – Bob – was not Jewish, but the star was so pretty that I wore it frequently.

As was usually the case, I got out of the car and went to the registration desk. The clerk looked at me and said, “I’m sorry. We do not cater to your kind.” What in the hell was he talking about? He didn’t cater to my kind? What kind was I? I said, “I beg your pardon. I don’t understand.” He said, under his breath, “you Jews just don’t want to understand.” And that was my first introduction to Antisemitism – in a nice hotel in the middle of La Jolla.   [Read more…]

Reflections from a Rally at the Hilton Mission Valley

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Much has been made of Bob Filner crashing the City Attorney’s news conference a little while ago but we shouldn’t forget that in that flurry of feistiness he pointed out that there are people among us, fellow citizens, family, friends, you name them, who are paid tacky wages. Like hotel workers.

He made it clear that the tourist industry isn’t going to ply their trade with $30 million dollars of the city’s money unless they pay hotel workers what they deserve.

How refreshing is that, a mayor for the people, a man standing up for the folks who make visitors to “America’s Finest City” comfortable and well fed, with nice pools for a swim on well manicured hotel grounds. These people get out and about town and spend money by the ton and the people who added so much to the fineness of their stay don’t get anywhere near their fair share of this bounty.

The hoteliers, however, get way more than their ownership status should allow and around these parts they have historically treated their workers as though they don’t care about them. The reason being? Because they don’t care about them.   [Read more…]

20 Arrested at Mission Valley Hilton Protest over Job Security

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Twenty people were arrested Friday evening during a protest at the HiltonMissionValley hotel during a protest stemming from the refusal of management to take step to protect employee jobs during the sale of the property. Tarsadia investments is currently negotiating to buy the location.

Those arrested included hotel workers, family members, clergy and community advocates. The hotel has been the focus of organizing efforts by union advocates for months now. Employees were recently forced to re-apply for their jobs by the current owner, HEI Hotels and Resorts, a move aimed at breaking the back of a burgeoning employee organizing effort.

Employees were told by management on January 13th that they face mass layoffs. The hotel filed notice with the state of its intention to lay off workers on under the state’s WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) system run by the Employment Development Department.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Sequestration, Implementation, Discrimination, Frustration… Compared to What?

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Happy sequestration day. 

The sky most likely won’t fall at 11:59pm tonight when President Obama signs the order implementing terms of a deal struck with Congress designed to be so odious that no person in their right mind would allow it to happen.

That should tell us a lot about the current mental state of the nation’s politicians. But it doesn’t.  The horrible deal, as it turns out, isn’t all that horrible, at least in the short run.

Guess who won’t be feeling the effects of sequestration?  From Bloomberg News:

The cuts, known as sequestration, will have no impact on the president, U.S. lawmakers and other top government officials. It is especially ironic that Congress, which has the power to avert the reductions, has nothing to lose in the negotiations, said Dan Gordon, former head of federal procurement in the Obama administration.

INSIDE: LES MCCANN, PROP H8, DISTRICT FOUR WALK-OFF, NORTH PARK GETS A PARKLET   [Read more…]

Live in North Park, City Heights, University Heights, Normal Heights, Rolando or other nearby areas? Like to ride a bike? Like to ride a bike without fearing for your life?

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If some or all of the above apply to you mark your calendars for Wednesday, March 6, from 6 to 8:30 PM.  SANDAG is holding the second open-to-the-public meeting soliciting community input for the North Park – Mid-City Bike Corridors Project.  The meeting will be held at the Sunset Temple in North Park at 3911 Kansas Street, San Diego, CA  92104.  If you’re looking for a spot to park your bike one of the city’s 4 bike corrals is conveniently located two short blocks away at the corner of North Park Way and 30th Street.  Bonus: the corral is right outside The Linkery restaurant which features Belgian-style drafts for $4 on Wednesday nights.

Think this is just another meeting to attend, voice your opinion, and have no real-world result for the investment of your time and efforts?  Well, you might be right.  But SANDAG has ponied up approximately $1 million for the planning and preliminary design stages of this project.   [Read more…]

Welcome to North Park. Let’s See What Kind of Stuff We Can Stir Up….

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Part of our mission here at the San Diego Free Press is the reporting on and encouraging the reporting of news from neighborhoods around San Diego. For the next few weeks we’ll be focusing our energies on North Park.

We’ve been going through the process of building our contacts and coming up with story ideas for our coverage of North Park. It’s very incomplete, a work in progress. So we’d like to start our by inviting your participation. Got a story idea? Want to contribute? Drop us a line: contact@SanDiegoFreePress.org

Given that I happen to reside in North Park, the task of introducing this topic has fallen upon my shoulders. Most of what’s going on here isn’t ‘sexy’ stuff.

Yet this story line is a fine example of the kind of involvement that’s necessary if we as citizens want to reclaim our lives and our futures from the demoralized and disenfranchised landscape that characterizes our society these days.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Downtown Tourism Showdown: Today’s Council Hearing is the Start of the Dump Filner Campaign

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Nothing will be decided at today’s hearing before the San Diego City Council (2pm) about the Tourism Marketing District funding. And that’s somehow appropriate; given that the whole battle over Mayor Bob Filner’s refusal to sign off on authorization of a 39 year deal is really nothing more than a proxy battle for a much bigger conflict.

At the bottom of all this is the inability of the city’s ‘downtown crowd’ to live with last fall’s election of Filner, who’s proven true to his word thus far about not continuing to do business as usual in San Diego.

INSIDE: Today’s Battle at City Hall, Majority of Hoteliers Voted Against 2% Fee, Right Wing Heads Explode as Michelle Obama Appears on Oscars   [Read more…]

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