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San Diego Police Impound Tiny Shelter, Arrest Homeless Man

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A wooden box is not a home…but…

Part three of the quartet of storms pounding San Diego this week is in full force as I sit here at my computer. The alert goes off on my phone signaling a flash flood warning. The shade cloth over my neighbor’s garden has disengaged itself from two of the poles securing it to earth and is preparing for takeoff.

Peering out the rain-whipped, sliding-glass doors that safely separate me from the deluge outside on my patio, I can’t help but wonder how the people living out on the streets are faring in this godawful storm. Even those fortunate enough to have a tent can’t be feeling protected right now.

Earlier today, local homeless advocate Lisa Kogan had given me an update on the 4’ x 7’ wood structure that she had built for Red, a homeless man she befriended.   [Read more…]

Bottomless Pit of Right-Wing Lies Continues as City Pension Reform Scheme Loses Appeal

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Over the last few days we’ve heard, via the Union-Tribune and the Wall Street Journal’s free marketeers, a tale of woe arising from the ruling of a state agency holding that the city of San Diego violated state law by not negotiating with employee unions over a 2012 ballot measure that eliminated guaranteed pension benefits for most city employees.

Now we’re being told that greedy unions have circumvented the will of the voters. Talk-show host Carl DeMaio says the agency making this determination is a “kangaroo court.”

Then-Mayor Jerry Sanders worked hand-in-glove with local right-wing politicos to create and sell a “reform” program promising to save taxpayers untold millions of dollars. They lied, they cheated, and when they were called on it, said “so what?”   [Read more…]

Pinyon-Juniper Forests: BLM’s False Claims to Virtue

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By Will Falk

Once I recovered from the shock I experienced witnessing the carnage produced by a Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) so-called “pinyon-juniper treatment project” just south of Spruce Mountain in Nevada, all I wanted was the destruction to stop. In order to stop the destruction, we have to ask the question: “Why are they doing this?”   [Read more…]

Activists Call for Police Accountability in San Diego

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This week local activist groups are throwing their cards on the table, demanding accountability for the actions of those tasked with protecting the public. Recent events, both locally and nationally, have demonstrated the threat of and/or use of force is essentially exempt from meaningful review. The checks and balances supposedly built into the system are failing on a regular basis.

A list naming hundreds of persons killed by various agencies of law enforcement in San Diego going back to 1980 shows just how mundane lethal force has become in the city and county. A press conference by United Against Police Terror staged in front of police headquarters hopes to put a human face on those statistics.

Frustrated by their attempts to work within the system to enhance citizen oversight of the San Diego Police Department, activists with Women Occupy –backed by 19 civic organizations– are submitting a ballot proposal to the city clerk to make the Citizens Review Board on Police Practices (CRB) truly independent and transparent.   [Read more…]

Accolades for SDFP, Recognition of Activist Writers

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The power of citizen journalism in San Diego

By Staff

It has been a busy and deeply gratifying final quarter at the San Diego Free Press. The eight member editorial board and over sixty contributors– all volunteers– continued to make sense of what has been happening in the world through a distinctively progressive and grass roots lens.

During this past quarter it has become clear to us that our unique form of journalism resonates with an ever growing readership.   [Read more…]

Why the 2016 Race for City Attorney Matters

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There is no more important local electoral contest than the race for City Attorney. This relatively obscure office has been the part of government where dreams come to die, the priorities of the modern-day landed gentry are enforced, and the political will of the city’s business interests is turned into policy.

Incumbent City Attorney Jan Goldsmith, elected in 2008, deserves credit for molding his agency into a politically powerful entity. While his record is far from spotless, the more general thrust of developing a well-coordinated keeper of the flame for business interests has proven to be a valuable asset for the local moneyed classes.

Today we’ll take a sneak peak at the four candidates vying to replace Goldsmith, along with my general assessment of where they stand in relation to preserving the status quo.   [Read more…]

“No More Protest Marches Through Balboa Park – Please!”

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The Old OB Hippie Speaks Out

By Source / OB Rag

Been around long enough to know the “in’s and out’s” of organizing protests and marches here in good, ol’ conservative San Diego. I have been to many, many of them – all over the place. – And yes, I know our city’s demographics and politics have evolved over the years.

Just recently, I was at the Climate Action rally held in Balboa Park with its rally next to the water fountain. Before that – and at the same spot – I attended a support rally for Bernie Sanders. And one year ago exactly, I attended a “die-in” at the fountain when on December 13th, 2014, 200 people participated in a “die-in” – right at the fountain, as San Diego joined protests held nation-wide against police violence.   [Read more…]

A Sneak Preview of 2016 Elections in San Diego

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Over the last few days of 2015 I’ll engage in speculation about what to expect for the coming year.

Today we’ll take a quick look at what San Diegans will be asked to vote on, a logical move since we’re headed into a presidential election year and a gaggle of ballot measures vying for voter approval in California. Later on in the year I’ll do in-depth profiles of candidates and ballot measures.

Tomorrow we’ll look at the legal system (including the race for City attorney) and regulatory actions likely to be a big deal in the coming year.   [Read more…]

Uber Capitalist, Martin Shkreli, the Most Hated Man in America, Arrested

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The Poster Boy for Corporate Greed

Martin Shkreli, CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, who bought the drug, Daraprim and then raised the price from $13.50 to $750. a pill was arrested on December 17 by the FBI on fraud charges having nothing to do with his price gouging with Daraprim. Shkreli seemed to back off on his 5000% increase for a life-saving drug after he received a lot of negative publicity but later said that he wished that he had raised the price of the drug even more. A silent chorus went up all over America, “He’s getting what he so richly deserves!” It does seem like Karma, doesn’t it?

Earlier this month Shkreli talked about his second thoughts at a health care conference sponsored by Forbes. “I probably would have raised the price higher. That’s probably what I would have done. I think health care prices are inelastic. I could have raised the price higher and made more profits for my shareholders which is my primary duty. And again no one wants to say it, no one’s proud of it, but this is a capitalist society, capitalist system and capitalist rules and my investors expect me to maximize profits, not minimize them or go half or go 70% but to go to 100% of the profit curve …”

So the ultimate solution for this capitalist is maximizing value for his shareholders (and for himself, by the way) and if a few people who can’t afford this life-saving drug have to die along the way that’s just the cost of dong business, collateral damage, because what’s most important is profit maximization. The Ultimate Solution becomes synonymous with Hitler’s Final Solution.   [Read more…]

San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis Spins the News in Quest to Justify Police Shooting Death

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County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis’ absolution of a San Diego Police officer in the shooting death of 42-year-old Fridoon Rawshan Nehad turns out to have been nothing more than poorly orchestrated spin.

Facing an impending court-ordered release of damning evidence, the DA released a made-for-the-media video and pleaded with the press to use her version of events.

A subsequent release of information by an attorney representing Nehad’s family casts strong doubt on that ‘version’ of the story.   [Read more…]

Censored 2015: The Most Underreported Story of the Year

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As I wrote back in mid-October, Project Censored recently released their list of the most underreported stories of 2015. The number one story on their list features the news that 2016 will be the year when half of the world’s wealth will be controlled by the top 1%. More specifically, they document how:

According to the Oxfam report, the proportion of global wealth owned by the 1 percent has increased from 44 percent in 2009 to 48 percent in 2014 and is projected to reach 50 percent in 2016. In October 2014, a prior Oxfam report, “Even It Up: Time to End Extreme Poverty,” revealed that the number of billionaires worldwide had more than doubled since the 2009 financial crisis, showing that, although those at the top have recovered quickly, the vast majority of the world’s population are far from reaping the benefits of any recent economic recovery.

Even more staggering, the world’s richest eighty-five people now hold the same amount of wealth as half the world’s poorest population. “Failure to tackle inequality will leave hundreds of millions trapped in poverty unnecessarily,” the report’s authors warned.   [Read more…]

Dinesh D’Souza’s Horrible Halfway House Experience in a Rundown Part of San Diego

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By Hunter / Daily Kos

Recently convicted criminal and diehard conservative conspiracy theorist Dinesh D’Souza has apparently written a book on his experience of being convicted for funneling $20,000 in illegal campaign contributions to a friend who was running for office. I say “apparently” because despite D’Souza’s personal belief that the liberal powers-that-be are so intimidated by his various maudlin theories that we monitor him at every turn, I have not personally heard anyone so much as mention D’Fellow for many months.

But the National Review, which a few moderate wags continue to insist was once a respectable publication with authors who would at least pretend at making sense from one sentence to the next, says he has written a book and I don’t suppose they would have reason to lie about such things.   [Read more…]

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