The Overhead Light Brigade (OLB) of San Diego was out last night on I-15 with their new lighted letters. Photo courtesy http://overpasslightbrigade.org/ [Read more…]
The Starting Line – Thanksgiving Dinner at Walmart? Why not make it Black November?
The one thousand Black Friday protests at Wal-Mart locations around the country have had an unintended benefit; the onset of a national conversation about the insanity of putting shopping before family.
As I flipped around the news channels on TV last night it became obvious that the efforts of OUR Walmart and likeminded groups have struck a chord in the American psyche.
Inside:
UT-D Watchdog Nips at the Heels of the Port Commission, Retiring County Supe Has a Few Choice Words for the Republican Party, Twinkies on Fire
Combine and Conquer: SDSU’s Department that Produces Multi-Cultural and Bilingual Special Educators Is on the Chopping Block
By Remigia (Remy) Bermúdez/Special to the SDFP
Last semester at San Diego State University there was a big brouhaha within the College of Education (CoE) about consolidating the Special Education Department (SPED) and the Department of Policy Studies in Language and Cross-Cultural Education (PLC). A united front resulted in both departments remaining autonomous from each other and in full force on their own within the CoE.
Six months later, however, the future of the PLC department is again at risk and appears to be on the chopping block. This reversal is indicative of SDSU’s lack of commitment to the largest populations it serves and a total disconnect from the community and societal needs in this binational border region. [Read more…]
Time for a Rolling Jubilee: Debt Relief By and For the People
The statistics on personal debt in the country are pretty sobering- 77.5% of American households are in debt; tuition debt has now exceeded credit card debt; and 1 in every 4 Americans is being pursued by a debt collector. 40% of indebted households used credit cards to pay for basic expenses.
These statistics reflect wage stagnation over a period of decades, the prohibitive costs of a college education, the lack of jobs and access to quality affordable health insurance. The right prefers the simpler argument that they reflect a lack of moral grounding in hard work and individual responsibility. That argument was rejected in the recent election. It remains to be seen whether national policies reject austerity as our fiscal course of action. [Read more…]
Labor Council Head Lorena Gonzalez: ‘San Diego Progressives Have a Lot to Be Thankful For’
Passage of Prop 30, Defeat of Prop 32 and Bilbray, Filner and Roberts Victories All Are Cause to Celebrate
By Lorena Gonzalez
San Diego’s progressive community has a lot to be thankful for this November. We passed Proposition 30, defeated Proposition 32, took down Brian Bilbray and elected Bob Filner our next mayor! And for good measure, we elected Dave Roberts as the first Democrat and first fresh blood of any kind on the county Board of Supervisors in two decades.
In the process, we swept through dozens of school board and city council races across the region and elected leaders like Dr. Shirley Weber to continue the good work in Sacramento – now with a supermajority that has the ability to break the stranglehold of Grover Norquist’s no-tax pledge.
[Read more…]
The Starting Line – Anti Union Group Cries Foul Over Convention Center Expansion
The Associated Builders and Contractors of San Diego, a local chapter of a national right wing anti union group, has responded to prompts from the SD-UT editorial page by demanding that the city of San Diego release details of a recently reached agreement between a private contractor and organized labor.
KPBS reports that the ABC group is claiming that the deal gives unions control of the expansion of San Diego’s Convention Center project. They are demanding details of the agreement, hoping to prove that the city government played a role in brokering the agreement, which could then be construed as being in violation of a ballot measure passed earlier this year banning Project Labor Agreements on government projects. [Read more…]
The Elections are Over. Will City Heights Get “Stuff” with their Pizza?
Last Tuesday I walked the four blocks from my house to Euclid Elementary School in City Heights to vote. The election notices were in five different languages and the citizens lined up in the hallway were conversing in those languages. Young people had small children in tow and pushed baby carriages. Elderly people moved slowly using canes and walkers. The poll workers were all young and ethnically and racially diverse; the voting process went smoothly and quickly. Despite all of my anxieties regarding the electoral outcomes, I felt that “rush of democracy” Megan Burks described so well in her Speak City Heights article about election day in City Heights. [Read more…]
A Few Election 2012 Winners and Losers
This just in: we’re not the Wisconsin of the West. There were some big winners and losers in last week’s election and the principal players themselves have gotten the bulk of the attention. Here are a few of the most noteworthy victors and flops besides the candidates themselves. Let’s start with the triumphs:
A Change is Gonna Come
Ahh, hope fills the air that I breathe, as I move, light and easy, like a river dancer on a cloud that’s floating in a gentle wind, as Bob Filner becomes my mayor and Barack Obama my president, again.
It’s a nice high I’m in, hallucinogenic, with music, Sam Cooke singing, “It’s been a long, a long time coming, but I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will.”
Oh, it feels so good having a couple of guys in high places who view what people have worked towards for years as earned “benefits” not “entitlements,” and see unions as who they are, “We the People!” Not “bandits.”
[Read more…]
Presidents Matter, but Movements Matter More
The presidential campaign for those of us on the left was a real nail biter while the Romney team, optimistically cocooned in their alternative reality, had a victory speech and fireworks at the ready. Then the race was called when Ohio went to Obama.
We won. Whew. Team Romney/Ryan was handed its ass. Barack Obama has four more years, and yes this election was clearly a mandate. It matters that Obama will be sworn into office this coming January, but what matters even more are the progressive movements that put him there– and what effect they will continue to have on the remainder of his administration.
[Read more…]
Pacific Beach Sub-Committee Report: October 2012
By Sub-Committee/Special to the San Diego Free Press
The Destiny of Density
Shoulders were shrugged as the Pacific Beach sub-committee for commercial and residential projects approved a new 4 bedroom+den/4 bath single family town house, with 2 “carport” parking spaces, on Oliver Avenue by the bay. No closed “garage” as to allow the maximum square footage for the habitation. Minimum required “yard.” Discussion as to how many cars will actually be “living there” ensued, but as the plans were in compliance with the existing building codes, shoulders were shrugged, and plans were approved. All expectations are for an increase in density in this zone. [Read more…]
Do I Want to Talk to President Obama?
On October 26, I received an invitation to talk to President Obama online with many of his other supporters. At first I thought it was a joke, because my donations to his campaign were small – really small – but when I questioned the email I was told that he wanted to “talk” to his “grassroots” supporters and tell them how happy he is with the work we are doing. So I responded affirmatively to the request. [Read more…]
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