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The Starting Line – Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Negotiators to Face a Week of Protests

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June 26, 2012 – A diverse coalition of groups has announced plans for ongoing protests aimed at trade negotiators meeting in San Diego next week for the 13th round of talks aimed at the creation of a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade zone that would include the United States, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, with a “docking agreement” that other countries can join over time. Canada, Japan and Mexico are currently pressing to do so.. Describing the proposals being discussed at the confab as “NAFTA on steroids”, the Citizens Trade Campaign is seeking to draw attention to the fact that approximately 600 corporate lobbyists have access to the TPP negotiating texts, while the public has been barred from reviewing what trade negotiators have been proposing.

A leaked TPP document demonstrates that the group is considering a dispute resolution process that would grant transnational corporations special authority to challenge countries’ laws, regulations and court decisions in international tribunals that circumvent domestic judicial systems. Of further concern is the impact of the agreement on jobs, wages, agriculture, migration, the environment, consumer safety, financial regulations, Internet protocols, government procurement and more. Negotiations on the proposed pact will be held at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel from July 2 – 10.   [Read more…]

Breaking News: Secret Power Plant Deal in University City Dead – For Now

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According to a KPBS post today, June 25th, Capital Power is withdrawing its request to the City of San Diego to build a power plant in University City on Pueblo lands. They will not be appearing before the Rules Committee tomorrow, Tuesday June 26th as expected. Councilwoman Sherri Lightner told KPBS that she believed there were not enough votes to get the request on the November ballot. Capital Power hasn’t given up on the project. They will begin a public relations campaign in the future.   [Read more…]

A Hard Look at San Diego: The Story of One Latino Family and What Foreclosure has Meant

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By J. G. Robinson
As I said in my last column, Latinos in our community have been among the groups most affected by the foreclosure crisis. In the next two columns I tell the story of one Latino family and what foreclosure has meant to it. I found this story moving, and it is one of the strongest indictments I know of the politicians and business people who have done so little to help people facing foreclosure. In this first installment I will look at what led up to the foreclosure for this family, and in the following column I will examine what happened after the foreclosure took place. This is the story of someone I will call Jose.
Jose was not originally from San Diego, but rather from a small west Texas town. He was brought to San Diego, like so many others, by the military.   [Read more…]

Nurses Stage National Robin Hood Day Demonstration in San Diego

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National Robin Hood Day demonstrations…. Rallies in San Diego and 14 other cities across the country were held on Tuesday, June 19th to kick off a national campaign to institute a Wall Street tax that would produce billions for the public good.

This Financial Transaction Tax, called the “Robin Hood Tax,” is a levy of less than half of a percent on trades in derivatives, stocks, bonds and foreign currencies. According to the campaign, economists estimate that $350 billion could be raised each year for health care, jobs, education, infrastructure and various other needs, which may help rejuvenate the economy. The campaign states that it is pushing for “a tax for the people.”   [Read more…]

Stop the Secret Power Plant Deal in University City!

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What happens when you combine strong mayor Jerry Sanders with a Canadian firm’s desire to build an 800 MW gas-fired power plant in San Diego? You get a secret plan that is being fast tracked through the City Council with the intent of a November ballot measure to enable passage. You also get “business as usual” at City Hall. Hear more about the proposal and what you can do on Monday, June 25, 6pm at the University Community Planning Group meeting, Forum Hall, UTC Mall (above Wells Fargo Bank).

Matt Potter at the San Diego Reader describes how a power giant from Edmonton, Canada received approval to fund a San Diego campaign finance committee through it’s wholly owned American subsidiary, Capital Power US Holdings. A new plant would require the approval of city voters through a ballot measure. Capital Power US Holdings will provide the grease to support the passage of the measure and the question is whether there is enough grease to get it on the November 2012 ballot and whether the citizens will get wise to what’s going on.   [Read more…]

El Cajon Performing Arts Center – Plan to reopen theater to be released at June 21 Press Conference

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The El Cajon Performing Arts Center Foundation will submit a plan today, Thursday, June 21, to the City Of El Cajon to save the East County Performing Arts Center (ECPAC). The Foundation says the shuttered theater should be reopened, not demolished. They will hold a press conference at 3:00 pm today at El Cajon City Hall.

The Foundation will submit it’s 60 page proposal as an alternative to the the City’s March decision to turn the site over to private developers for the construction of a hotel. Ray Lutz, Founding Chair of the ECPAC Foundation, maintains that the Foundation should have the same chance to negotiate with the City on why is best to simply repair and reopen the theater. “Fair is fair.”   [Read more…]

Announcing the San Diego Free Press “Find the Koch Brothers Confab” Contest

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First Person Who Finds Koch Brothers’ Site Wins T-Shirt !

Earlier this week we let the cat out the bag that the infamous Koch Brothers, the guys that are pumping $395 million for right wing causes into this year’s elections, are having a little get together in San Diego.

These meetings bring together ultra wealthy individuals to convince them to pool their monies on behalf of right wing and conservative causes. Koch Industries, the brothers’ privately owned oil, chemical and household products company, has sponsored the summits twice a year since 2003.

Past meetings have included big names conservative speakers like political stars like Eric Cantor, Chris Christie, Bob McDonnell, Rick Perry, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck along with Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Thomas.

We’d like to make sure that they get a nice warm “San Diego” reception for their little shindig, but there’s only one problem.

Its location is a secret.
  [Read more…]

Sacred Lands -Public asked to join Native American vigil on June 23 at Ocotillo wind site

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The snake was moved but kept coming back, just like our people. We will continue to keep coming back.” – Preston Arrowweed, Quechan elder. He believes unusual animal visitations at site are signs from Indian spirits, asking his people to help

By Miriam Raftery / East County Magazine

Ocotillo – Neither blistering heat nor blowing dust dissuaded Native Americans from at least four different tribes from taking part in a five-day occupation in Ocotillo last week.

They came to be with the spirits of their ancestors. They also aim to show that desert devastation occurring with construction of the Ocotillo Express wind facility is wrong and must be stopped.
  [Read more…]

The Starting Line – San Diego Teacher’s Union Dissidents Mount ‘Just Say No’ Campaign on Concessions

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June 20, 2012 – Today’s Big Story is the deal announced yesterday between the San Diego Education Association (SDEA) and the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD). Negotiations over the past three weeks produced a proposed settlement that would purportedly save (SDUSD) $68 million, return 1372 pink slipped teachers to classrooms in September, defer a series of pay raises promised by the district two years ago, and extend five unpaid furlough days for an additional two years. Two weeks of additional furlough days would be added next year if two new state tax measures fail in November’s general election. The anticipated settlement comes just days before the Board of Education is scheduled to adopt a final budget for the 2012-13 school year. It must be supported by more than 50 percent of union members, plus school board approval. The SDEA will begin a campaign this week to educate teachers about the agreement via phone calls, electronic posts and meetings. One gets the sense from press accounts that this is all but a done deal…

But wait a minute!… The Breakfast Club Action Group, a dissident teachers group spawned by concerns that the SDEA leadership was being less than forthright with the rank and file union members, is crying foul. Saying that the SDEA leadership approved the pact in a session closed to membership, the group posted an essay on its website calling the proposal a “horrible deal” that amounts to a 17.42 % pay cut and disputing the claim that the number of rescinded pink slips is real.   [Read more…]

Incorporating the Mind

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By Lucas O’Connor
By now, most of us agree that the concept of treating corporations as people has, in practice, been a disaster. The flood of corporate money into elections since Citizens United has been just as bad as advertised, deference to the supremacy of corporate health as national health continues to rise, and still the very concept remains just as laughable now as it’s always been. But it isn’t just the straightforward threats to a functioning electoral system or a stable economy that should be worrisome. This march towards corporations-as-people ultimately challenges how we see ourselves and what we value in our lives.

The argument that corporations are people inevitably spills over into what the role of people are in our society. Corporatizing that concept will, over time, reduce individual people more and more into nothing more than instruments of profit. That means that quality of life goes out the window, it means value that doesn’t show up on a balance sheet is dismissed, and over time we give up on building anything into our lives or communities that don’t make money.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line — Demonstrations, Caravans and Twitterstorms, Oh My!

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June 19. 2012—Grass roots activism around the world leads the news wrap up today. In San Diego, cities around the world and in cyberspace citizens are and have been expressing their frustrations and hopes for a better world.

National Robin Hood Day demonstrations…. Rallies in San Diego and 14 other cities across the country at noon today kick off a national campaign to institute a Wall Street tax that would produce billions for the public good. This Financial Transaction Tax, called the “Robin Hood Tax,” is a levy of less than half of a percent on trades in derivatives, stocks, bonds and foreign currencies. According to the campaign, economists estimate that $350 billion could be raised each year for health care, jobs, education, infrastructure and various other needs, which may help rejuvenate the economy. The campaign states that it is pushing for “a tax for the people.”   [Read more…]

Pacific Beach Planning Board Tackles “Garage Morphing”, Lifeguard Stations, and Less Beach

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By Sub-Committee / Special to San Diego Free Press

The second, and last, item on the agenda of the very recent Pacific Beach Planning Board sub-committee for the re-development of the North Pacific Beach lifeguard station at Law St. was to do with a complaint from some local resident at some other local resident for erecting a temporary car shelter, of the canopy type, I imagine, and morphing it into a more permanent garage in their driveway or front yard, without a permit, of course.

This must also be the sub-committee for code compliance. The committee members seemed of a mind to propose a change in the city “garage morphing” building codes, rather than trying to enforce existing city ordinances, (“morphing” anything into something else is the best way to get around all these ridiculous governmental laws they keep making!) and as a second thought, suggested calling “the TURKO Files” to complain, as Mr. Turko seems to be the only one willing to question bureaucratic policies, and actually get something done about it… thank you Mr. Turko!   [Read more…]

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