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Reporting Factory Farm Abuses to be Considered ‘Act of Terrorism’ If New Laws Pass

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By Katherine Paul and Ronnie Cummins / Alternet

How do you keep consumers in the dark about the horrors of factory farms? By making it an “act of terrorism” for anyone to investigate animal cruelty, food safety or environmental violations on the corporate-controlled farms that produce the bulk of our meat, eggs and dairy products.

And who better to write the Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act, designed to protect Big Ag and Big Energy, than the lawyers on the Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force at the corporate-funded and infamous American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

New Hampshire, Wyoming and Nebraska are the latest states to introduce Ag-Gag laws aimed at preventing employees, journalists or activists from exposing illegal or unethical practices on factory farms. Lawmakers in 10 other states introduced similar bills in 2011-2012. The laws passed in three of those states: Missouri, Iowa and Utah. But consumer and animal-welfare activists prevented the laws from passing in Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York and Tennessee.   [Read more…]

Dark Horse Coffee Roasters – Now Open in Normal Heights

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A new entrant to the burgeoning coffee roasting scene in San Diego has opened as of Saturday, January 19th: Dark Horse Coffee Roasters in Normal Heights. Located at 3260 Adams Avenue, next to the Normal Heights Post Office, Dark Horse joins the ever-expanding array of businesses that have located on Adams Avenue in recent years. Soon to join Dark Horse will be the double-team of Polite Provisions and Soda & Swine just down the street at 30th Street and Adams Avenue.

Owned and operated by Daniel Charlson, Dark Horse features house-roasted coffee (no espresso) served in a variety of ways: french press, pour over, and cold brewed. The pour-over selections when I visited were Brazil, El Salvador, and Papua New Guinea. I opted for the Papua New Guinea pour over and purchased a mug since the shop is currently in ‘soft opening’ mode and hasn’t yet received their porcelain products for ‘to stay’ use. The coffee was good, on the dark side but not bitter.   [Read more…]

The NFL: Where Dr. King’s Dream Goes to Die

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By Dave Zirin / The Nation / January 21, 2013

As the United States celebrates the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., with the swearing-in of this country’s first African-American president, there will no doubt be commentary on the great gap between ceremony and reality. It’s the gap between the public spectacle of President Barack Obama’s inaugural oath—sworn on one of Dr. King’s Bibles no less—and a country still ravaged by what King called “the giant triplets of racism, militarism and economic injustice.”

In addition to the inaugural festivities, this weekend was also marked by a spectacle that will rival or exceed the inauguration in passion and interest: the National Football League playoffs. NFL football, by a country mile, is the most popular sport in the United States. It also stands as a living monument of the distance we still must travel to slay King’s “giant triplets.” I write this, in full disclosure, as someone who follows the sport religiously, but struggles to not be blind to the politics the NFL pumps through its play.   [Read more…]

Shout-out at the PB Corral – Residents Fight for Conditional Booze Permits

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By sub-committee

The corral for easy police DUI checkpoints, and multi-other crime/infractions, from public urination and vandalism, to armed robberies and violence, (sponsored the city penal industry) due to the alcohol party ambiance that been the sustained reputation of Pacific Beach for the past 20+ years , has become the focus for a grassroots citizen protest in the form of, yes, a good old PUBLIC PETITION to request/demand the city and the state to establish local control of alcohol licensing, in the form of the “C.U.P.” (Conditional Use Permit).

“After years of protest to the officials in both state and local agencies, including our own judicial forum, and getting no responsible answers from them to a problem that was getting worse and worse, we have decided to organize THE PEOPLE,” said Scott Chipman, one of the chief organizers of this grassroots endeavor.   [Read more…]

Congressional Hypocrites Add $77 Billion of Pork to Deficit Reduction Bill

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The most important thing to Republicans is deficit reduction. It’s the chief thing they talk about. It’s their main concern, it’s their singular issue. Right?

Right…. Then why did they vote to add $77 billion in pork to the so-called ‘fiscal cliff’ bill? But don’t get me wrong – Democrats not only voted for it but were instrumental in adding it to the bill as well. But why were the American people kept in the dark and not told that this bill like a lot of others was all about the pork?

It’s not that this bill was not discussed at great length by the punditry. Bloviators were bloviating non-stop for months. Pontificators were pontificating full time. Purveyors of bovine excrement were shoveling constantly. But no one saw it coming. Not David Gregory of Meet the Press, not Bob Schieffer of Face the Nation, not Ed Schultz or Rachel Maddow of msnbc. It’s not like pork is a recent phenomena. But it takes sheer gall to add $77 billion in tax break loopholes for the rich to a deficit reduction bill!   [Read more…]

Monsanto’s Earnings Nearly Double as They Create a Farming Monopoly

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By Charlotte Silver / Al Jazeera / Alternet

Last week Monsanto  announced staggering profits from 2012 to celebratory shareholders while American farmers filed into Washington, DC to challenge the Biotech giant’s right to sue farmers whose fields have become contaminated with Monsanto’s seeds. On January 10 oral arguments began before the U.S. Court of Appeals to decide whether to reverse the cases’ dismissal last February.

Monsanto’s earnings nearly doubled analysts’ projections and its total revenue reached $2.94bn at the end of 2012. The increased price of Roundup herbicide, continued market domination in the United States and, perhaps most significant, expanded markets in Latin America are all contributing factors to Monsanto’s booming business.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Life in the Slow Lane: San Diegans Spend More Time on the Road than Angelenos

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The Equinox Center, a local think tank focusing on quality of life issues, is expected to release its 2013 Quality of Life Dashboard report for the region on Thursday, January, 17th. A sneak peak at this year’s findings, first reported by Michael Chen of 10News, gives a glimpse into the realities of San Diego from behind the wheel.

The Sustainable San Diego Blog reports on their findings:

 **On average we travel more miles every day than the average Californian.

(San Diego numbers remain higher than Los Angeles County’s, at an average of 12.8 miles per day compared to 10.7 in LA.  More residents of LA take public transit (6.2%) to commute to work compared to San Diego (3.0%)).

**After 4 years of decline, the average San Diegan now spends nearly 40 hours per year sitting in traffic – that’s a full work week.

BREAKING NEWS: Official Drinking Game for State of the City address by Mayor available here. Remember, it’s a school night. (h/t @RachelLaing)   [Read more…]

What Would We Do Without Wishful Thinking?

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In last week’s column I noted how the tax increases on the 1% included in the “fiscal cliff” deal amounted to little more than the political equivalent of a love tap for the rich because upper income tax rates remain much closer to their historic lows than to their mid-twentieth century highs.  This is disheartening because, as the political narrative shifts toward some form of austerity in the name of deficit reduction, our country’s historically high level of economic inequality remains deeply entrenched and there simply will not be enough revenue to engage in a robust progressive program centered around “nation building at home” as President Obama likes to say.

In sum, the unemployment crisis and other key social and economic needs will take a back seat to deficit reduction and the battles will not be about whether an austerity agenda is the right course for America but rather what form of austerity program we should pursue.  While there is an impressive list of eloquent critics (from Paul Krugman and Robert Reich to Joseph Stiglitz and Bernie Sanders) bemoaning this wrong-headed approach, we seem destined to ignore them and head down a road that spares the comfortable while further burdening the afflicted.   In elite opinion circles, it’s a bipartisan consensus.   Sure the wing nuts on the right are crazy but the even the Democrats are largely wedded to the gospel of Simpson-Bowles.

But isn’t this bitter medicine that will make us all better in the long run?  No, it’s bad policy that amounts to a not too-thinly-veiled class war.    [Read more…]

Riding the Rails in the West – the State of Amtrak – Part 2

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One Zephyr too soon –

By JEC / Special to San Diego Free Press

News item, December 26th, China debuts the longest bullet train in the world. From Beijing to Guangzhou a distance of 1,428 miles, the ‘new’ train will serve 35 cities and cover the distance in under 10 hours, averaging speeds of 186 mph. The old train, the shame of Wuhan took almost 24 hours to cover the 1,428 miles. Hold the phone – the bad old train served the same 35 cities covering the 1,428 miles in less than 24 hours at an average speed of 60 mph. If we only had it so good.

Amtrak’s Premier West Coast train, the Coast Starlight is very similar; 1,377 miles from LA to Seattle with 30 stops in between. But it takes the Starlight over 34 hours, making an average speed of only 40.1 mph. If the Coast Starlight could match the old average speed of China’s Beijing to Guangzhou train of 60 mph, the trip would take less than 23 hours.   [Read more…]

Qualcomm Lobbies Government To Get Out of Paying Taxes

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Qualcomm Corporation headquartered in San Diego has been lobbying Congress for a “tax holiday” that would allow it to “repatriate” millions of dollars held offshore in tax free jurisdictions like the Cayman Islands and Bermuda.

According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who oversees the New York State Common Retirement Fund, has sued Qualcomm over disclosure of use of stockholder funds for political purposes.

  [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Qualcomm Under Fire, Al Jazeera’s Growing, and Birthers Run Amok

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The UT-SD reports today (on its front page, even!) about a lawsuit naming Qualcomm filed in New York state seeking to force more corporate disclosure about spending on political activities.

While the 2010 ‘Citizens United’ case ruling by Supreme Court said that the First Amendment prohibited the government from limiting political spending by corporations, this lawsuit take a distinctly different approach to corporate political activity. It seeks disclosure on the basis of shareholder’s need to know about management activities in publicly held companies…
Al Jazeera’s acquisition of Current TV is potentially good news for American news consumers. I am an absolute advocate of including the foreign press in my mix of daily news, and find it refreshing that not everybody feels the need to hew to the ‘meme du jour’ touted by the largely conservative domestic press…
The WorldNetDaily has long served as an editorial refuge for Teahadists, Birthers and others of the wingnut persuasion. A measure of their desperation following Democratic victories in the fall elections comes from regular contributor Craige McMillan, who’s published an ‘open letter’ calling on Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to refuse to administer the oath of office to President Obama later this month…

All this & more in our extra meaty Friday edition of The Starting Line….

  [Read more…]

Is Organic Food Really Organic?

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Food labeled and sold as organic often isn’t

In an article entitled “Canada’s Organic Nightmare” put out by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, authors Mischa Popoff and Patrick Moore contend that many foods labeled as USDA organic may not actually be up to that standard because there is a lack of field testing in Canada, and, furthermore, free trade agreements allow the importation of such foods into the US. There are also “organic equivalency” agreements with other countries that allow imported organic food to be considered as equivalent to that grown in Canada. Popoff and Moore contend that organic crops and livestock are not tested in Canada before they are certified thus making certification essentially meaningless. Inspections consist of checking out the records at organic farms to see if the paperwork is in order, but the actual products are not tested making it more likely that the records could be falsified.   [Read more…]

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