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…]
Koch Brothers Unveil Hush-Hush Project Themis at Carlsbad Confab
While a small group of protesters rallied in downtown San Diego to protest the Koch confab in Carlsbad, Charles and David Koch, who tied as the fourth richest Americans on the 2012 Forbes list, were holding their secret reception and biannual fundraiser in Carlsbad. The Koch event, billed as “Path to Freedom 2012” completely took over the Park Hyatt Aviara Resort where rooms start at $1,250 a night. Security was tight, but not so tight that a reporter from Buzzfeed wasn’t prevented from sneaking in by trekking across the golf course. The only major breach of security at a Koch confab was in 2011, when advance notice of a Koch confab at the enclave of Rancho Mirage in the California desert led to raucous demonstrations outside the event. [Read more…]
Is this the site of the secret Koch Brothers’ conference – the Park Hyatt Aviara resort?
Nurses Stage National Robin Hood Day Demonstration in San Diego
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…]
An Interview with Foreclosure Fighter Michael T. Pines
By Carolyn Zellander
Following is an interview Michael T. Pines, a Carlsbad attorney who made national headlines for advising clients to “occupy” foreclosed homes. Back in 2011 he was charged with 18 counts of misconduct stemming from his representation of the former owners of three foreclosed homes — in Carlsbad, Newport Beach and Simi Valley. He was released from jail three months ago and will probably be booted out of the legal profession according to a decision by a State Bar Court judge public Thursday. Although he has been scorned by the legal profession, he is a hero to many activists fighting to save homeowners from the perils of the foreclosure crisis.
As a member of the San Diego Foreclosure Strategists Group (SDFSG), I first met Michael at a planning meeting on March 1st, 2012. The primary objectives of SDFSG include educating stressed homeowners and finding solutions and/or alternatives to foreclosure. Michael was an invited guest of a planning session for an action directed toward District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis. Several homeowners with documented incidences of fraud, which when presented to the District Attorney‘s office, had fallen on deaf ears. We did carry out that action at a public function. The action was effective, but Michael paid a price, two days later, he was in jail again. Violation of bail, I believe was the reason given.
[Read more…]
A Hard Look at San Diego: The Impact of the Foreclosure Crisis
by J. G. Robinson
I have spent the last year and a half of my life researching the impact of foreclosures on members of our community. I have interviewed homeowners, realtors, bankers, loan counselors, political activists, politicians, and community leaders about this issue. In each column I will a particular facet of the crisis, but then, and most importantly, look at the experiences of people who have suffered through the crisis. We are witnessing what the Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman has called a “lesser depression”, and the stories of people hammered by this event deserve to be heard. [Read more…]
The Starting Line – Getting Past the UT-SD Paywall; Bridgepoint in the Crosshairs
June 22, 2012 – It didn’t take long yesterday for news to spreadthat San Diego’s daily dead tree news operation had decided to monetize its internet operations by charging customers for access once they’d passed a monthly limit of fifteen page views. And, by the end of the day, savvy local computer users were spreading the word on methods to bypass the company’s paywall.
Bridgepoint in the crosshairs… San Diego has a long history of really big companies dominating the local landscape that crash and burn, leaving economic devastation inn their wake. During the 1960s, for instance, U.S. National Bank and the Westgate Corporation dominated the local landscape, only to collapse as the financial machinations of its owner C. Arnholt Smith were exposed. Today’s really big player is Bridgepoint Education. Its name and influence are at the top of the local economic scene. And while DailyFinance.com considers Bridgepoint stock to be “perfect”, i.e., the stock that provides everything you could possibly want, there are cracks opening around the edges of the giant that portend poorly for the future.
[Read more…]
Announcing the San Diego Free Press “Find the Koch Brothers Confab” Contest
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…]
The New Morena District Certified Farmers’ Market
The new Morena District Certified Farmers’ Market opened Tuesday, June 19, 2012, from 3 – 7pm with 75 booths exhibiting the wares of 45 vendors to the delight of a crowd estimated by Brian Beevers, Market Manager, to be approximately 3,000 people! Among those attending were Lori Zapf, Republican, Member of San Diego City Council representing the Sixth District.
Vendors included local merchants of coffee, fruits, vegetables, baskets, nuts, berries, prepared foods, including BBQ, fresh drinks, flowers, clothing, fish, roasted corn, cupcakes, pasta, jams, object d’art, honey, plants, olives and bread. Two musicians played guitar and a percussion instrument. [Read more…]
The Starting Line – San Diego Teacher’s Union Dissidents Mount ‘Just Say No’ Campaign on Concessions
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…]
The Starting Line — Demonstrations, Caravans and Twitterstorms, Oh My!
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…]
Young Wall Street Traitor Joins Occupy Wall Street
Wall Street “Quant” Alexis Goldstein Joins the Opposition
Wall Street recruits young, just out of college computer science majors and mathematicians to become “quants” whose skills are used among other things to predict when pension funds are going to make huge trades so that Wall Street can jump in ahead of them and do deals effectively raising the price the pension fund must pay or lowering the profit they might make.
One such young twenty something quant was Alexis Goldstein. Goldstein devised trading software for Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch. She has divulged some of Wall Street’s most closely held cultural secrets such as the phrase “rip the client’s face off” which means selling some derivative “solution” to a naive client such as a convent of nuns in Europe at a huge profit to the trader and to Wall Street while convincing the client that it’s the best deal they ever made. Sometimes they refer to these clients as “muppets.”
[Read more…]
