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The Starting Line — It’s taps for the ‘Losers’ at North County Times after UT-SD’s Manchester takes over paper

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The Big Story on the local news scene was The Local News Scene yesterday as word oozed out during the morning that UT-San Diego publisher Doug Manchester had purchased the North County Times newspaper. Rumors about the sale reached a crescendo on Monday, as the San Diego Business Journal ran with an article about the sale and stood behind their story, even as UT-SD CEO John Lynch issued a statement saying that no deal had been reached.

The purchase price for the NCTimes was reported to be just short of $12 million. That outlay bought print-media dominance for UT-San Diego in the northern tier of San Diego County, much of which is made of up of affluent sub-divisions with desirable demographics for advertisers. Employees at the paper were invited to re-apply for their jobs starting Monday, even though actual transfer of ownership will not occur until October 1st.

The “Dougchester” assured everybody at a company gathering yesterday afternoon that the new ownership would be keeping the “winners”, even as he bragged about Mission Valley’s newest foray into video, waving a smart-phone showing UT-TV around in front of 150 grim faced employees. Actual operation details coming out of the merger have yet to be decided including whether or not the newspaper will continue to be published as a separate entity.

One thing that the UT-SD publisher was unequivocal about was that the editorial polices of the NCTimes would be reflecting his philosophy, which of late has consisted of increasingly desperate attacks on anything not Republican.
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The Wreckage that Mayor Jerry Sanders Leaves Behind

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“Sanders said another savings in the works will come from using managed competition to lower the cost of city employees performing jobs that private companies can do for less. One such job is residential trash services. San Diego city employees are paid to collect trash. Most other California cities contract with a private company and residents pay for their own trash services.

“We don’t have to have government employees mow the laws in our parks. We don’t have to have government employees pick up trash,” Sanders said. Mayor Jerry Sanders reviews his legacy at La Jolla luncheon La Jolla Light 9/11/12   [Read more…]

The Myth of the Filibuster-Proof Democratic Senate

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Republicans have magically, mystically turned 72 days into two full years.

We’ve heard it over and over and over again. Mitch McConnell has gleefully used it as a cudgel. Congressional Republicans typically can’t wait to get their mugs on camera to tell America just how inept Congressional Democrats are in order to aid their case that they should be put back in power. After all, Democrats couldn’t get anything done even with a 60 vote, filibuster-proof majority in the United States Senate during the first two years of the Obama administration.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – NY Times 9/11 Revelation: Bush had even more warnings about Al Qaeda

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According to a report published in New York Times today, President George W, Bush received numerous intelligence reports well in advance of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US, but failed to react to them based on advice from neo-conservative Pentagon advisers.

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The Starting Line – Desperate Days at the UT-San Diego: Will the Tag ‘Mayberry by the Sea’ Stick?

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The malaise of the local media scene took a turn for the worse over the weekend as Publisher “Papa Doug” Manchester and his sidekick John Lynch took a hard right hand turn and drove the local daily newspaper off the cliff of delusional insanity. Today we’ll bring you up to date with the latest developments in what is quickly becoming a national embarrassment for San Diego, share some local reactions to his latest jaw-dropping moves and contemplate the underlying causes of the Mission Valley media mogul’s machinations.

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Slouching Toward San Diego to Be Born: Carl DeMaio, Spawn of the Wrecking Crew

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It’s the week after Labor Day and the Carl DeMaio attack machine is in full force, with SuperPac-funded ads in the works designed to keep pounding away at Bob Filner while DeMaio furiously tries to repackage himself as someone palatable to moderate Democrats and Independents.  This will involve things like lying to San Diegans about his environmental record, spending big money to woo Latino voters, and hoping that some local Democrats are terminally stupid enough to buy his “independent” populist reformer act.   While I have written extensively about DeMaio’s right wing think tank pedigree, it never hurts to revive the historical record, particularly when we can count on the local news to fail on all counts in this regard.

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One Year Later at Occupy San Diego – Checking Up on Our Own Occupy Wallstreet Movement

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By Kali Kat / Originally posted at the OB Rag

With the one year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street just around the corner on September 17, and many other cities’ occupy anniversaries falling in the weeks just after, like Occupy San Diego’s one year anniversary on October 7, the question being begged is:

“What is the current state of the Occupy movement?” If you go down to the Civic Center or your local City Hall, are people still living there?

The Occupy movement, including Occupy San Diego (OSD), is still alive and well, but no, there are not people still living there – well not people flying the Occupy flag anyways.

Although some argue losing the encampments was good for the movement and has freed up time for other things, otherwise Occupy would still be busy discussing solutions to problems like feeding each other, trash collection and dump, or how to deal with the homeless and mentally ill population, it was not by choice that the Occupy encampments were broken up.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Publisher Manchester disables left turn signals on all UT-San Diego vehicles

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Okay, I made that up. But it is true that our Daily Fishwrap is rolling out bold new features designed to make sure that readers better understand their vision for a brand new yesterday. “New online:”, says the color type at the top of today’s front page, “Seeing Red: A Conservative View of Politics”. And sure enough, if you go there, you’ll find an even more conservative amalgamation of “news” and opinion drawn from the right side of the political equation.

Wow, it sure is “high tech” looking. Unlike Fox news, which claims its punditry is separate from its “news”, UT-San Diego makes no bones about it, this latest feature IS part of the news department. It says so right in URL they use. If you want to have some fun, send a ‘friendly’ tweet with the hashtag #utseeingred and they’ll run it on a little scrolling feature at the bottom of the page.

But wait! There’s more! “Coming Sunday:…Bolder Opinion pages…”. And you can get a preview on today’s editorial page. Just in case you didn’t comprehend their arguments for the alternative universe espoused by Manchester’s Mission Valley minions THEY’VE MADE THE TYPE BIGGER. DON”T YOU PEOPLE GET IT YET?   [Read more…]

Field of View: What Happens In Vegas

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Welp, I messed up. I forgot my fancy camera on a recent trip to Vegas over Labor Day weekend. It’s probably a blessing — nobody’s going to invite “the chick with the enormous camera” back to Sin City. Too risky. Plus, the clubs get so crowded there was barely room for me most of the time.

At nearly 30, this was my first trip to Vegas. Shocking, I know, as most Americans consider a trip there a rite of passage. The city is a series of contradictions: Glitz and glam contrasted by your average, everyday people. It was shiny, smokey and “trinkety,” if you will. Only these trinkets are utterly enormous — with the expansive casinos, Eiffel Tower, giant globe and intermittent Bellagio Fountain water shows, just to name a few.

There’s still so much more to be seen, which is perfect because it leaves an option for a “next time.”

All photos by Annie Lane.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line — Bubba-licious: Clinton Schools Republicans with Arithmetic, History

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“Now, people ask me all the time how we got four surplus budgets in a row. What new ideas did we bring to Washington? I always give a one-word answer: arithmetic.”

 Former President Bill Clinton took the stage at the Democratic National Convention last night and systematically dismembered the Republican Party’s memes, schemes and misrepresentations that make up the body of their work in building a case against the Obama administration and for electing the men at the top of their ticket. In a fifty minute speech that strayed significantly from the version released in advance to the press, the former chief executive effectively used all the rhetorical skills in his arsenal to argue for another four years of Democratic control of the White House.

I have plenty of reservations about Bill Clinton’s tenure as President; his role in de-regulation of the financial industry and his shortsightedness about the repercussions of NAFTA immediately come to mind. But when it comes to his ability to mount a political offensive, nobody in recent memory can top the combination of ah-shucks populism and wonk-like command of facts that was on display last night.   [Read more…]

San Diego For Free – Biking the San Diego Bay

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A weekly column dedicated to sharing the best sights and activities in San Diego at the best price – free! We have a great city and you don’t need to break the bank to experience it.

Website: www.sandag.org/bayshorebikeway

Neighborhood & Address: San Diego, National City, Chula Vista, Imperial Beach, Coronado; Detailed map here.

Best For: Outdoor enthusiasts, bicyclists, nature lovers, bird watchers

Hours: Free all day, every day. $4.25 for ferry if you prefer not to bicycle round-trip

The San Diego Bay is one of many iconic natural features of the regional geography. The bay is about 12 miles long, from San Diego in the north to Imperial Beach in the south. On the east side of the bay lies National City and Chula Vista and Coronado is about a mile across the bay to the west.

A wonderful feature of the San Diego Bay is the Bayshore Bikeway, a 24-mile bicycle-friendly loop that goes from Broadway Pier on the downtown San Diego Embarcadero around the entirety of the bay to the south-east, before returning north along Silver Strand Boulevard and ending at the Coronado Ferry Landing.   [Read more…]

Sex In San Diego: How Risky Is Oral Sex?

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Salon / By Tracy Clark-Flory

Oral sex with a condom or dental dam: It’s one of those things things that sexual health educators preach but which people rarely practice. A reminder of that came earlier this week with the release of a CDC report noting that “adolescents perceive fewer health-related risks for oral sex compared with vaginal intercourse” and, as a result, young people may “be placing themselves at risk of STIs or HIV before they are ever at risk of pregnancy.”

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