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How Dry We Are – Worst Drought Conditions in California Since 1895

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By Doug Porter

Thursday’s weather forecast for San Diego includes the slight possibility of rain. Maybe that should be a slight possibility of a slight amount of rain, since the total precipitation is expected to be in the one hundredth of an inch range. The Sierra Nevada Mountains are expected to see as much as six inches of rain, but even that amount will be the proverbial drop in the bucket when compared to the severity of the current drought.

Today’s column will start off with a look around media outlets and water conservation activists in the Golden State addressing the impact of the current dry spell.  A Public Policy Institute poll cited in the UT-San Diego indicates that ten percent of Californians see the drought as the most important issue of the day.

Based on the reactions of State and Federal officials it seems likely to me the public is uninformed about the severity of the situation. Droughts, after all, lack the sex appeal of stories about 19 year old pop stars being arrested or the latest in ObamaScare lies being peddled by the GOP.   [Read more…]

Alvarez Draws Democratic Stars; Faulconer Attracts Reactionaries (Who Tear Down a Few Campaign Signs)

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By Doug Porter

The contrast couldn’t be starker.

A procession of nationally recognized elected Democrats has rolled through San Diego to endorse the candidacy of David Alvarez for Mayor of San Diego.

More than three dozen elected officials from around the state have endorsed his candidacy.  The candidate’s got some star power behind him, connections that could prove valuable in the future.

Exactly zero Republicans outside the Chamber of Commerce/downtown developer set  have stepped up to the plate for his opponent Kevin Faulconer. Only four elected officials from anywhere are listed on his endorsements page. After promising the endorsement of “dozens” of Democrats from around the city for a press conference yesterday, only four were willing to be named on the press release.   [Read more…]

District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis Becomes Focal Point for Campaign Contribution Scandal

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By Doug Porter

San Diego County’s District Attorney is getting a lot of heat as reporters continue to unearth new details about a campaign finance scandal spanning the last couple of years.

Prosecutors have determined that more than $200,000 was illegally funneled into independent campaign committees in support of her failed mayoral candidacy in 2012.  UT-San Diego ran a front page story claiming candidate committees directly under Dumanis’ control received $13,250 connected to three persons connected with the ongoing investigation.

Calls for an additional investigation are mounting.  The District Attorney has returned $1,400 in contributions to her current re-election campaign since the scandal unfolded and is refusing to re-open earlier campaign committees to give back monies from earlier contests.   [Read more…]

LGBT Leaders to Call for San Diego County Clerk’s Resignation

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By Doug Porter

Leaders of the local LGBT community will call for the resignation of County Clerk Earnest Dronenburg on Tuesday, presenting documentation they say proves he overstepped his legal authority, violated his oath of office and imposed his religious views on marriage into his non-partisan office.

Following the US Supreme Court decision that effectively overturned California Proposition 8 (banning same sex marriages) last summer, Dronenburg petitioned the state supreme court to issue a a writ of mandate requesting that the state hold off on issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Dronenburg said he wanted remove “uncertainty,” telling a reporter from UT-San Diego “I still have a reservation about what happens if in the final decision, the court decides that gay marriages aren’t legal,” he said. “Then we’ve set up all these people to having to tell them that their marriages aren’t legal. I just wanted a time-out.”

Except that wasn’t what was really happening.   [Read more…]

Conservative Darling Dinesh D’Souza Indicted for Illegal Contributions in Senate Race

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By Doug Porter

Just two years ago San Diego resident Dinesh D’Souza was sitting at the top of the conservative heap. He was a best selling author, president of Kings College, fledgling documentarian and sought after debater. Now he stands accused by federal prosecutors of making $20,000 in straw contributions in a 2012 Senate race.

According to an indictment made public on Thursday in federal court in Manhattan, D’Souza around reimbursed people (believed to be his ex-wife and mistress) who he had directed to contribute $20,000 to a senate campaign, believed to be that of Wendy Long, a Republican attorney who lost to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) in 2012. The indictment said the campaign was unaware of D’Souza’s activities, which apparently weren’t very helpful, as Long garnered just 28% of the vote..

D’Souza rose from Reaganite beginnings to become a fixture on the ‘90s speaking circuit, and became a personal favorite of UT-San Diego publisher Doug Manchester. The Daily Fishwrap ran scores of full-color ads promoting his shoddily-made documentary entitled 2016: Obama’s America.  

“Papa” Doug even helped finance the film, which set out to lead its audiences to the conclusion that the President of the United States hates this country, wants to destroy it and create a socialist state where everybody is taxed at 100%; one world under Allah.   [Read more…]

Details Emerge in San Diego’s Campaign Finance Scandal

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By Doug Porter

There were new developments in San Diego’s latest round of political malfeasance, bringing drama but not answers to questions about how deep this scandal goes.

Lobbyist Marco Polo Cortes was arrested at his Little Italy residence on Tuesday, following an hour long standoff ending with a FBI Swat team and negotiator being called to the scene. The Coronado Cays residence of Mexican moneyman Susamo Azano, aka Jose Susamo Azano Matsura, was searched by FBI agents on Wednesday. Authorities believe Azano illegally donated a half-million dollars to local political campaigns over the past two years.

Local politicians lined up to return contributions, including Congressman Juan Vargas, iMayor Todd Gloria, former City Councilman Carl DeMaio and others. The returned monies appear to have been legally donated and reported. Every politician involved was just trying to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the names already associated with the scandal.   [Read more…]

The Story Behind Those Illegal Campaign Contributions in San Diego

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By Doug Porter

The big story today concerns the dark side of campaign finance.  Acomplaint unsealed in federal court yesterday indicates that law enforcement agencies are building a case around illegal contributions made by Mexican businessman Susumo Azano to candidates in recent San Diego elections.

Ravi Singh, owner of ElectionMall Inc., and retired SDPD detective Ernesto Encinas have alreday been charged with conspiring to funnel more than $500,000 of illegal contributions to various campaign committees during 2012 and 2013.  The candidates’ names are redacted in the federal complaint, which refers to them as c1, c2,c3,and c4.

Campaign finance records and inside sources talking to reporters at UT-San Diego indicate the monies went to PACs working to support District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis’ mayoral run, former Mayor Bob Filner and former Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher. One candidate, who ran for federal office in 2012, remains unidentified.   [Read more…]

More Ad Wars: Sanders’ Billion Dollar Baloney, Lincoln Club’s Crummy Photoshop

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By Doug Porter

It’s hard to miss the Faulconer campaign’s warm and fuzzy broadcast ads featuring former Mayor Jerry Sanders. We’re told several times about how the Republican Mayoral candidate “saved” San Diegans a billion dollars through pension reform. We’re told this money can be used for needed projects in our neighborhoods.

Those assertions are fine examples of the ‘lots of baloney, served often’ strategy being used on Faulconer’s behalf.  Our ex-mayor is an excellent salesman, ready to sell you discount passes for the (toll-free) Coronado Bridge is you’re gullible enough.

Voice of San Diego revisited that oft-quoted one billion dollar figure yesterday in light of newly released information, deciding it merited no better than a ‘misleading’ rating.

Pension savings of $1 billion will come over decades and any contention that they can be put back into neighborhoods immediately, as Faulconer implied in November, is misleading.

  [Read more…]

Superbowl 420, A Big Hit with Bud Fans Everywhere

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By Doug Porter

A gaggle of overgrown men in body armor chasing an inflated pigskin up and down a grass field in New Jersey named after an insurance company in the dead of winter just took on a whole new level of symbolism.

The Seattle Seahawks came from behind in the fourth quarter against the San Francisco 49ers in Sunday’s NFC championship game, joining the Denver Broncos, who defeated the New England Patriots in the earlier AFC championship game, in heading to the Super Bowl.

Both teams are from states,Washington and Colorado, that legalized marijuana at the ballot box in 2012. Given that it’s a holiday and otherwise slow news day, today’s column will begin by talking about the latest developments in weedworld, er…stonerland…, er, marijuana legalization.   [Read more…]

Raising the Minimum Wage: At the Heart of the Differences Between Faulconer and Alvarez

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By Doug Porter

San Diego iMayor Todd Gloria’s call for increasing the minimum wage during the State of the City address on Wednesday is drawing sharp reaction from the local wannabe plutocracy. What Gloria proposed was putting any such proposal before the voters next November. The very idea scares the crap out of them.

You take it to the bank that these “checkbook” democracy types who see it as their duty to pay signature gatherers to spread misinformation getting their corporate vetoes of city council actions blessed at the ballot box will now act to make sure that a proposal via our elected representatives never makes it before the voters.

The same folks that have spun community planning, environmental stewardship and housing for low income people into a conspiracy to drive JOBS out of the city are busy figuring out a way to drive a stake into the heart of any minimum wage increase, even if it’s to be decided at the ballot box.   [Read more…]

The Dark Side of the Mayoral Race: Dog Whistle Racism vs Evil CEOs

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By Doug Porter

As predicted, things are getting nasty in San Diego’s mayoral contest between City Councilmen David Alvarez and Kevin Faulconer.

The “non-affiliated groups”, fostered via right wing challenges to rules about campaign finance, are doing the heavy lifting. In theory this separates the candidates from the ugliness. In practice nobody can tell the difference. Or cares.

Two of these major mudslinging efforts are under scrutiny in the local media scene this week. Voice of San Diego took on a labor council backed TV ad putting Kevin Faulconer in the crosshairs and UT-San Diego ran a “fact check” on a Lincoln Club backed mailer attacking David Alvarez.  (Yes, the actual entities doing the dirty work have “official names”, but the truth is that these groups are the real contenders in this race.)   [Read more…]

A Panty Bribe? Really? City Attorney Blames Sexual Assault Victim in Civil Action

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By Doug Porter

City Attorney Jan Goldsmith’s office has, once again, taken actions guaranteed to make San Diego a national embarrassment.  A sexual assault victim suing the city because her assailant was a police officer is now being portrayed in court documents as having committed a criminal act.

According to an article in today’s UT-San Diego, our city’s chief legal advocate has chosen to adopt a strategy of blaming the victim as a defense in a civil suit filed in the wake of the 2011 conviction of former SDPD officer Anthony Arevalos on charges of sexual battery, bribery and related charges.

Our tax dollars paid for a legal document filed by Goldsmith’s office alleging that “Jane Doe” offered her underwear as a bribe to escape arrest on a drunk-driving charge on March 8, 2011.

UPDATE, 5PM WEDS: The City Attorney’s office has now decided this accusation wasn’t such a good idea, after all.   [Read more…]

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