The San Diego County Water Authority gave the nod yesterday to a thirty year water purchase deal that will clear the way for a privately constructed desalination plant to operate in the north county.
Frankly, I don’t see this as a controversial decision. I’ve read the arguments pro and con. I think the desal plant is a good idea. Let me explain why. [Read more…]
Reddit’s AMA (Ask Me Anything) feature, where people of influence open themselves up to questions posed by Redditors, can get pretty wild. Conversational threads, where remarks build upon other comments and spark new lines of inquiry, can spin off into areas far removed from their starting place.
Yesterday Congressman Darrel Issa climbed to the virtual dais on Reddit to explain (as much as you can in the AMA format) and get feedback on his proposed legislation that would bar ‘new regulations or burdens on the internet for two years’. This broad shouldered bit of legalese really is all about keeping Federal regulators from doing anything (good or bad) for the duration of the 113th Congress.
[Read more…]
As (largely untrue) reports fly through the blogosphere and interwebs about reports of movement between the Congressional political blocs on various aspects of the impending ‘fiscal cliff’ crisis, the man at the center of it all, Grover Norquist is certainly having his moments in the spotlight.
Steve Inskeep of NPR gave Norquist air time this morning to prattle on about how it really isn’t true that Republicans are lining up to jump ship and break their pledges not to raise taxes. He likened talk of accepting tax increases in exchange for spending cuts by Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina to believing in a pink unicorn. [Read more…]
Tax fighter and former libertarian Richard Rider took the virtual podium at conserve blog SDRostra this weekend to ruminate about and refute the notion that the Republican Party is headed for extinction.
He starts out by comparing the GOP’s defeat with Barry Goldwater with its most recent losses, noting that, despite predictions of doom and gloom, the party did rise again. In the 1964 election LBJ received 61.1% of the national popular vote
And I agree with Rider that one electoral loss, no matter how lopsided, does not equate with the death of a political party. [Read more…]
Chances are you’ve never heard of the “drone caucus” in the US House of Representatives, officially known as the House Unmanned Systems Caucus. Yet they are considered among the most powerful groups on the Hill. And participating in the caucus is a sure way for Congressmen to enrich their campaign coffers. [Read more…]
A national effort to track drone deployment by domestic law enforcement agencies has run into a brick wall with the San Diego County Sheriffs, who have refused to provide information about efforts to purchase Scout UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicle).
The Electronic Freedom Foundation and MuckRock.com have sent over 200 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to local governments and police departments, seeking to find out information on domestic drone utilization, according to a story in OpposingViews.com.
Although the San Diego Sheriffs office initially denied possessing any documents relevant to the collection effort, an email from manufacturer, Datron World Communications, to Seattle police quoted technical information from a bid that was sent to local officials.
Inside: Angry Republicans, Running Democrats, Border Patrol Cover Up Unraveling
Notice: I’ll be taking the weekend off. See you Monday, news junkies. [Read more…]
The one thousand Black Friday protests at Wal-Mart locations around the country have had an unintended benefit; the onset of a national conversation about the insanity of putting shopping before family.
As I flipped around the news channels on TV last night it became obvious that the efforts of OUR Walmart and likeminded groups have struck a chord in the American psyche.
Inside:
UT-D Watchdog Nips at the Heels of the Port Commission, Retiring County Supe Has a Few Choice Words for the Republican Party, Twinkies on Fire
It seemed like a nightmare in the making for residents of North Park on Saturday night. A man in a camouflage suit wandered about near the intersection of Louisiana and University Aves. firing a rifle.
I was headed down University Avenue on my way to get a pizza not long after it happened. The street was completely blocked off; there were enough flashing lights going off so that it was immediately clear this was no traffic stop or disturbing the peace call.
I live in North Park. For all of its ups and downs as a hipster neighborhood (at least that’s what Forbes calls it) it’s a pretty safe place to live. Whatever was going on here was obviously more than the delayed conclusion of a bar fight.
It didn’t take long, via Twitter, to find out the reason for the commotion: a man carrying a rifle had been shot by police. [Read more…]
The Associated Builders and Contractors of San Diego, a local chapter of a national right wing anti union group, has responded to prompts from the SD-UT editorial page by demanding that the city of San Diego release details of a recently reached agreement between a private contractor and organized labor.
KPBS reports that the ABC group is claiming that the deal gives unions control of the expansion of San Diego’s Convention Center project. They are demanding details of the agreement, hoping to prove that the city government played a role in brokering the agreement, which could then be construed as being in violation of a ballot measure passed earlier this year banning Project Labor Agreements on government projects. [Read more…]
After more than a year of organizing and agitating, including protests at local bank branches, activists have succeeded in winning City Council approval of an ordinance requiring registration of foreclosed homes in San Diego.
A coalition including the Center on Policy Initiatives, ACCE, the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, the Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice, AFSCME and many others fighting bank foreclosure blight in San Diego neighborhoods was on hand last night as the City Council voted 5-3, splitting along party lines with Republicans opposed, to enact the Property Value Protection ordinance.
An online appeal aimed at getting Macy’s Department stores to fire Donald Trump as an advertising spokesman is expected to pass the half million signature mark today. Citing the celebrity millionaire’s ‘unpleasant, nasty and despicable behavior’, the signon.org petition statement says:
Macy’s: Donald Trump does not reflect the “magic of Macy’s.” We urge you to sever ties with him. Macy’s says it has a strong obligation to be “socially responsible” and that “actions speak louder than words.” Indeed. It’s time to act.
[Read more…]
Gov. Jerry Brown took to the airwaves Sunday, telling CNN’s Candy Crowley that voter passage of tax increases on the wealthy included in California’s Proposition 30 were indicative of a coming nationwide shift in voter attitudes, just as passage of Proposition 13 signaled a tax revolt thirty five years ago. “I was here in 1978, when Howard Jarvis beat the entire establishment, Republican and Democrat, because the property taxes had just gotten out of control. Now the cutting, the cutting and the deficits are out of control.”, said Brown. [Read more…]
