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Election Day Bombshell: DA Dumanis Penned Endorsement for Indicted Moneyman’s Son

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By Doug Porter

The race for County District Attorney got a little more interesting yesterday as a hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Michael Anello revealed the existence of a letter, purportedly written by Bonnie Dumanis on official stationary on behalf of the family of foreign national Jose Susumo Azano Matsura.

While the judge ultimately denied a motion by defense attorney Knut Johnson to make the document public, testimony about a letter of recommendation on behalf Azano’s son written to the president of the University of San Diego suggests a more substantive the previously described relationship between the incumbent DA and the man accused of illegally donating funds supporting her failed mayoral campaign.

The incumbent DA has denied any knowledge of $200,000 in contributions –illegal because they came from a foreign national–made to organizations supporting her bid for mayor.  Half the money went to an independent expenditure campaign and the balance went to a rather shady DC social media campaign organization.   [Read more…]

5 Ways Massive Inequality Is Paralyzing American Society

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Progressive thinkers can’t afford to disagree among ourselves as paralysis sets in.

By Paul Buchheit / AlterNet

The severing of our society into a plutocracy and a peasantry is so far along that statistics almost cease to have meaning. But the facts have to be told, to help explain the sickening sense that we’re becoming a nation without a middle class, paralyzed by the inequality deniers and excuse makers who refuse to admit there’s something wrong with their free-market capitalist system. The extremes are becoming almost intolerable.   [Read more…]

“Yes” on B & C is the Way to Support the Barrio Logan Community

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By Ernie McCray

Here we go. Same old same old politics in San Diego. The “Big Boys” have to get their way. They want us to vote “No” in opposition to a plan that was created to make a community healthy and safe. And mayor, Kevin Faulconer, who has billed himself as an “independent” leader, has, as such, been going around talking about how when Propositions B & C are voted down, “it will be our opportunity to pass a plan that works to protect our families, to protect our economy.”

Hey, dude, we already have a plan to keep toxics, pollutants, carcinogens and flammable chemicals, a safe distance away from Barrio Logan schools, playgrounds, and homes. So what does your plan look like? Oh, you don’t have one? And a new plan can’t happen for at least a year?

The Barrio Logan community worked diligently for years to bring about reasonable land use and zoning changes and it happened. It’s on the books right now. There’s a five-block buffer zone that bans new residential and industrial suppliers, while allowing such existing uses to remain in place and expand by no more than 20 percent.   [Read more…]

Carlos and Linda LeGerrette Named Mesa College 2014 Distinguished Alumni

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By Lina Heil / San Diego Mesa College News

For more than 50 years, San Diego Mesa College graduates (Class of 1969) Carlos and Linda LeGerrette have been committed to service, equality, education, and social justice. On Saturday, May 17, at the college’s 50th commencement exercises, the couple was named the recipients of the college’s 2014 Distinguished Alumni Award.

“Mesa College is where we cut our teeth. It was our beginning. Without the great teaching and guidance from our professors I doubt very seriously that we would have the foundation necessary in making the wonderful and challenging decisions that have brought us to where we are today. Mixed that together with our work with our mentors, Cesar Chavez and Sol Price, we are truly a couple totally blessed,” said Linda LeGerrette.

As students at San Diego Mesa College in the mid-1960s, the young couple was inspired primarily by Professor Gracia Molina de Pick, and started a student club that would later become MEChA. Inspired by Molina de Pick, they attended a meeting of the local support group of the Delano grape strike, and their life’s path was sealed.   [Read more…]

The ‘Big Deal’ about Prevailing Wage in Escondido

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By Don Greene / Escondido Democratic Club

At the final public hearing on the proposed city charter, Mayor Abed was cavalier enough to admit that he was “championing the charter proposal” and that while it was about home rule, mostly it was about preventing the city from having to pay prevailing wages. What’s the big deal with prevailing wages, anyway?

In a report issued by the Center for Policy Initiatives (CPI), the outlook for working families in San Diego county is bleak. For a family of 4 with a preschool aged child and infant, both parents need to make an hourly salary of $20.06 for the family to be self-sufficient. That’s not a combined minimum hourly wage; each parent must make the $20.06 to live a basic life in San Diego without relying on public or private assistance.

County-wide, there are 13,395 workers in the agricultural industry, with 65.2% of these workers living below the standard of self-sufficiency. This is the population hardest hit by salary inequality. 40.9% of those in construction are below the self-sufficiency standard and 37.7% of those in retail sales positions also fall short. In terms of ethnic groups, Latinos (who make up 49% of the population of Escondido) are effected the most with 58.9% of those workers living below the self-sufficiency threshold.

These numbers are particularly telling for Escondido.   [Read more…]

Junco’s Jabs: Beware of Big Business Wolves

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Another Look at Thomas Piketty’s “Law of Inequality”

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By Frank Thomas

This is a follow-up to the article Capitalism: A Comparison of Marx and Piketty by John Lawrence.

Utilizing massive historical documentation, Thomas Piketty argues that as returns to invested capital outstrip the rate of economic growth, income from wealth grows faster than the economy – concentrating more and more money and power in the hands of a few. As these returns are reinvested, inherited wealth will grow faster – concentrating even more money in fewer hands.

When incomes from capital become more concentrated than incomes from labor – e.g., today, the wealthiest 10% earn almost the same amount of income as the rest of the country – personal income distribution will also become more unequal. So far, this is not an earth-shaking economic revelation.   [Read more…]

Fast Food Strike Rolls Through San Diego Burger King Restaurants

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Campaign For Higher Pay, Better Rights Spreads Worldwide

Calling for $15 and the right to form a union without retaliation, fast-food workers in San Diego held a rolling strike Thursday as part of a wave of demonstrations in more than 150 cities across the US and protests in 33 additional countries on six continents. In all, strikes and protests reached more than 230 cities worldwide.

“Our movement is the continuation of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream,” said Anthony Eames, a father of five, who works at a Burger King on Market St. making $8 an hour. “I am striking for $15 and a union to create stability for my family.”

Workers went on strike at San Diego’s major fast-food restaurants, including 3 Burger Kings visited during today’s series of actions. Clergy, staffers from the offices of Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez and Councilwoman Marti Emerald, and community supporters joined fast-food workers on the strike lines.

  [Read more…]

San Diego Fast-Food Employees Strike for Higher Pay and Better Rights On May 15

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San Diego joins 150-city strike as worker campaign spreads across the globe to three dozen countries and six continents

By Staff

The fast food industry is an issue that isn’t going away.  Front line fast food workers in San Diego are living in poverty while working in a $200 billion industry.  San Diego workers are calling for $15 an hour wages and the right to form a union without retaliation.  Employees from McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger-King will be joined by the Interfaith Center for Worker Justice board members and community supporters on Thursday May 15 at two strike locations:

WHERE: Burger King, 3676 Market St.
WHEN: Thursday, May 15, action begins at 6:00 am

WHERE: Burger King, 6401 Balboa Ave.
WHEN: Thursday, May 15, action begins at 12:15 pm

Stand beside the striking workers on May 15!

  [Read more…]

Bait and Switch – Details of San Diego’s Fake Minimum Wage Initiative

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By Doug Porter

City council president Todd Gloria’s proposal to increase the minimum wage in San Diego will be presented in its final form on June 11th.

The Economic Development and Intergovernmental Relations Committee voted 3-1 on April 30 to have Gloria work with city attorney Jan Goldsmith’s office to craft a plan to place the proposed ordinance on the ballot. At the suggestion of councilman David Alvarez, consideration is also being given  to an option that would allow the council to enact a minimum-wage law without having to place it on the ballot.

Neither city council option requires the gathering of signatures from the public. But there are in fact people standing in front of grocery stores being paid to collect signatures for an initiative they’re telling voters will increase the minimum wage.   [Read more…]

Bike Sharing Plan Snubs Economically Challenged Neighborhoods

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By Doug Porter

It’s National Bike Month and, like cities all over the United States, San Diego has its fair share of events celebrating the increasing importance of two-wheeled transportation in recent years.

Residents of the city who happen to reside in the city’s eastern neighborhoods have a little less reason to celebrate. San Diego’s much vaunted and oft-delayed bike share program, via the privately run DecoBike, has announced their plan for over 175 pick-up and drop off locations, and it would seem that residents of City Heights, Golden Hill  and eastward along El Cajon Boulevard are not part of the picture.   [Read more…]

Remember the Folks Who Brought You the 8-Hour Day?

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By Jim Miller

Last week, May Day came and went and, while there was a small march downtown, most people barely noticed. Indeed most Americans don’t know much about May Day and if they do, they associate it with the state sponsored holiday in the former Soviet Union.

The truth of the matter is, however, that May Day has deep American roots. It started in 1866 as part of the movement pushing for the 8-hour day.

In the course of this effort, the nationwide American labor movement was born. Workers joined together in the service of the principle that, in the emerging industrial age, they should have a say in their economic lives and a voice in our politics—neither of which would come without a struggle.   [Read more…]

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