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10 San Diego Progressives Who Brought Down Mickey Kasparian

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By Marcus Bush

With local attorney Dan Gilleon leading the ongoing litigation representing the three alleged victims of Kasparian (Sandy Naranjo, Isabel Vasquez, Anabel Arauz aka “Las Tres Hermanas”), a Department of Fair Employment & Housing Act complaint filed in March (filed by Nohelia Ramos Campos), and local media outlets covering the events that led to this point, we want to take a look at the courageous activists responsible for Kasparian’s downfall.

Who are these individuals that were willing to risk their own careers, fight for what they believe in, and face the inevitable political backlash from Kasparian and his supporters?   [Read more…]

Public Right of Way Enhancement Program: Hindering OB Businesses?

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Clothes Racks Not Allowed Outside Newport Avenue Storefronts

By South OB Girl / OB Rag

For many years there have been racks of clothing for sale outside the shops on Newport Avenue. I have memories of outdoor racks at Lola Luna, Miss Match, The Closet, Wahines, Dream Girls, Temptress, $2 Thrill, OB Surf & Skate, Wings, the souvenir shops, and the shell shop.

I recently learned that these racks of clothes outside stores are not allowed in the Public Right of Way (PROW). Shops can purchase a permit for $45 from the OB MainStreet Association to be able to use a designated area of sidewalk (for a distance of no more than 4′-0″ from the property line) in front of their stores as part of the PROW Enhancement Program. The PROW cannot be used for clothes racks but can be used for other things.   [Read more…]

The YUGE Job Losses Trump Is Ignoring: Retail Workers

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By Sher Watts Spooner / Daily Kos

This is not a good time to have a job in the retail industry.

If you’ve been to a shopping mall recently, you may have noticed that many storefronts are empty. Stores that are still open aren’t crowded, and there are plenty of spaces in the parking lot.

About one in every 10 American workers works in the retail industry, and one out of every three retail employees works part-time. A retail job is the first job experience for about one-third of Americans, so cutbacks block entry into the job market. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 15.9 million people worked in the U.S. retail industry in January 2017, but that number has been shrinking. Since October 2016, 89,000 retail workers have lost their jobs. The most recent BLS jobs report in early April showed that 30,000 retail workers lost jobs in March—about equal to the number of retail jobs lost in February. The March decrease alone was enough to lower the job growth numbers to just 98,000. The two-month job loss was the worst retail job loss since the Great Recession in 2009.   [Read more…]

President Trump Boo’ed By North America’s Building Trades Unions

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“About time we had a builder in the White House, right?” Trump told union members.

By Alexandra Rosenmann / AlterNet

The resistance movement met Donald Trump head-on at North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) National Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C., Thursday, as protesters serenaded the president with a cacophany of boos. Demonstrators bearing placards were escorted out shortly thereafter.   [Read more…]

San Diego Council Committee to Hear Proposals for Short-Term Rentals – Fri., Mar. 24th

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A San Diego City Council committee is posed to hear three different options for short-term vacation rentals being proposed by the Planning Department this coming Friday, March 25th.

The Smart Growth and Land Use Committee of the Council will meet in the morning at the Jacob Center and attempt – once again – to juggle the contentious issue of how to deal with these particular types of rentals, an issue that the Council and city staff have bounced around now for 2 years.

The issue of short-term rentals have roiled the beach areas and Ocean Beach in particular.   [Read more…]

Teamsters Going After Opioid Profiteers

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By Sarah Anderson / OtherWords.org

Travis Bornstein never told his friends about his son Tyler’s drug problem. He was too embarrassed.

Then, on September 28, 2014, Tyler’s body was found in a vacant lot in Akron, Ohio. The 23-year-old had become addicted to opioid pain killers after several sports-related injuries and surgeries. Unable to afford long-term treatment, he ultimately turned to a cheaper drug — the heroin that killed him.

“Now I have no choice but to speak out,” the elder Bornstein, president of Teamsters Local 24 in Akron, told a crowd of thousands at the union’s convention in 2016. As he shared the unvarnished tale of how a middle-class, star athlete wound up in that vacant lot, Bornstein lit a fire under the 1.4-million-member organization.   [Read more…]

Should We Pay the Rich to Build Infrastructure, Then Pay Them to Use It?

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By Dave Johnson / People’s Action Blog

It’s starting to look like President Trump’s promised $1-trillion plan to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure will be as bad for us as his health care plan turned out to be.

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has issued their 2017 Infrastructure Report Card. We didn’t do so well. Our “grade” is a miserable D+. Why? Go outside and look around at our out-of-date and crumbling roads, bridges, dams, airports, water systems, and electrical grid.   [Read more…]

County Employees Seek Community Input in Labor Talks

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This week (Wednesday, March 15), unions and community groups will appear before the County Board of Supervisors to urge them to begin negotiations on a new labor agreement.

What would normally be a matter of negotiating pay and benefits for 10,000 San Diego County employees has become another front in the battle for social justice, thanks to a strategy called ‘bargaining for the common good’ adopted by Service Employees International Union (SEIU) local 221.

The SEIU has invited representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Policy Initiatives, the Community Advocacy Network and other groups to join them at the bargaining table and participate in negotiations.   [Read more…]

Local Democrats Have a Woman Problem

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I am afraid. And I am not the only one.

By Anonymous Is a Woman

A handful of Democratic women saw each other at the ADEM elections for the first time since the holidays. For some, it’s the first time they had come out for an event since the election. For others, this was their third event that weekend.

After a few minutes of small talk and “Holy-crap-the-world-is-ending” Trump commentary, the conversation becomes a bit more hushed when one of the women asked, “So what do you think about this Mickey Kasparian situation?”

Voices automatically lower.   [Read more…]

New Lifeguard Procedures Delay Rescues, Waste Taxpayer Money

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By Ed Harris / OB Rag

On December 15th, 2016 San Diego Lifeguard River Rescue team members were holding a deployment briefing prior to an imminent storm.

Fifteen minutes before they were to deploy, they were given a new standard operating procedure. The new SOP was part of an executive order mandated by the new Fire Chief.

There were several changes that have a negative operational effect on the Lifeguards as well as a negative budgetary effect for all of us.   [Read more…]

Cities and States Prefer Public Banks To Wall Street

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Profits Can Stay In State, Provide Local Funding

Alarmed by the corruption and greed of Wall Street, many US cities and states are studying the feasibility of establishing public banks. Public banks are owned by cities, states or other jurisdictions and serve to keep funds local instead of being deposited on Wall Street. The funds are then used to support local economic activities like small business loans and student loans.

Washington state has already cut its ties with Wells Fargo because they funded DAPL. Now they want to get rid of Wall Street as a place to park their money making use of the local economy and profiting the people of Washington instead of the bankers of Wall Street. Bills were introduced on January 18 in both the House and Senate of the Washington State Legislature that add Washington to the growing number of states now actively moving to create public banking facilities.   [Read more…]

Nuclear Shutdown News – February 2017

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Nuclear Shutdown News chronicles the decline and fall of the nuclear power industry in the US and abroad, and highlights the efforts of those who are working for a nuclear free world. Here is out February 2017 report:

By Michael Steinberg / Black Rain Press

1. Fire and explosion at French nuclear plant.

Various media outlets reported that on February 9, a fire and explosion happened at the Flamanville nuclear plant, forcing the shutdown of one of its two reactors there. The nuke is located in Normandy on that country’s northwest coast, facing the English Channel.   [Read more…]

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