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The New Arms Race? 3-D Printed Guns and the Power of the NRA

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Will the Dawn of the WikiWeapon Threaten the NRA’s Sugar Daddy, Gun Manufacturers?

By Anna Daniels

The gun debate is about to going to get even more interesting. A video was just released of a 3-D printed gun, the Liberator, successfully firing a .380 caliber bullet. The gun, almost completely constructed of plastic, exploded into pieces however when a higher charge rifle cartridge was used.

The Liberator isn’t quite ready yet for prime time–staving off tyranny here at home, standing ground against kids with Skittles and bringing more blood and mayhem to our streets and homes. It’s efficacy is as yet unclear for suicidal purposes.

But the Liberator is big. This video captures the Liberator’s promise of something so big that it deserves a big heroic musical score, images of bombers in flight and a tumescent sun rise. “Fucking-A!”   [Read more…]

The Greater Golden Hill Community Development Corporation: Striving to Emphasize Community over Corporation

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By Jim Miller

When we at the San Diego Free Press decided to turn our focus to the community of Golden Hill, one of the first people I thought it would be good to talk to was my friend, neighbor, union brother, and colleague Judd Curran.  Judd and his wife Victoria both teach at Grossmont College, live in Golden Hill, and sit on the board of the Greater Golden Hill Community Development Corporation Board  and are quite active in the community.  I know Judd and his wife as smart, progressive, compassionate people who want the best for their community.  Thus Judd is uniquely suited to speak to the issues of community identity, gentrification, and the past, present, and future of Golden Hill.    [Read more…]

BLOG UGLY: SD Rostra’s Nostrums

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By Bob Dorn

In modern times nothing has been more effective in bringing down the Republicans than the Republicans.

Hubris it might be called. From Richard Nixon’s embarrassing proposal for a White House ceremonial guard dressed in musical comedy uniforms to Ronald Reagan’s naked affection for ranchero machismo to George Dubya’s endorsement of even faker ranchero machismo (he didn’t like horses and went awol from his national guard post); professed Republicans have tended to talk tough. And done poof.

They’re fantasists, of a particular variety.

Locally, there’s no better example of this commitment to the wet dreams of destiny than the website, San Diego Rostra.   [Read more…]

San Ysidro: From Bi-National Lifestyle to Bi-National Border Region Center?

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By Beryl Forman

Growing up in the 1970’s in Tijuana, Linda Caballero Sotelo explained that “our mind set was that we had the best of both worlds.” Almost everyone moved freely through the border to accomplish their daily activities. For groceries, people from Tijuana preferred to shop locally for their meat, produce, cheese, and tortillas, but would cross regularly for bread, canned items, ice cream, novelty goods, and to do large loads of laundry. She recalls a childhood activity of going to Bonita on Tuesday nights for $1 movies. This bi-national lifestyle is inherent to many who grew up close to the border.

While it is evident that this way of life is no longer as flexible, Linda believes that San Ysidro, adjacent to the Mexican border, has never greatly benefited from this cross border lifestyle. Linda consults and works for Casa Familiar, a neighborhood based community development, social service agency in San Ysidro. From the perspective of someone who grew up in Tijuana, Linda describes San Ysidro as a pass through area, a place to exchange money, run last minute errands, fill up the car with gasoline, but not a place to spend leisure or otherwise valuable time.   [Read more…]

What My Mother Said: “Derby Day! Time to Sow Seeds!”

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By Anna Daniels

My mother loved the horses. She grudgingly attended sulky races at The Meadows race track in western Pennsylvania, but it was flat racing that captivated her heart. She and my father would argue for days about the line up for the Kentucky Derby and lay bets with the local bookie; only the stupid or insane would dare to carry on a conversation anywhere close to the television set during the broadcast of this event.

Mom was also a devoted albeit quirky gardener–confident in her abilities to grow abundant vegetables and flowers and contemptuous of those who over-think the process. “Grow where you are planted” was delivered as an edict, not cajolery. Her gardening philosophy mirrored in many ways her philosophy on child rearing.

My younger sister and I were sitting in Mom’s kitchen a few decades ago discussing gardening. We had both thrown ourselves completely into turning our yards into beds for flowers, bushes and trees. We were comparing notes on the use of root toner when transplanting and whether to use fungicides on dahlia tubers. Seed catalogs passed between us for close review.

Mom stood at the table listening. “You two sure have more money than brains,” she pronounced. This was one of her favorite all-purpose phrases. “Do you know what I do? On Derby Day I go down into the basement and bring up the seeds I saved from last year and I throw them out into the beds. That’s it. What’s wrong with my gardens?”   [Read more…]

Dirty Wars and Drones: Real National Security?

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Author Jeremy Scahill Examines the Ugly Reality

By Jay Powell

Thursday night, Jeremy Scahill, author of “Blackwater” gave a preview of his new book “Dirty Wars” to a full house at Hoover High School auditorium in City Heights a community that is home to many refugees from countries torn by war. With a large scale model of an armed Predator drone provided by Veterans for Peace as a backdrop, a good portion of his talk focused on the use of drones, cruise missiles and cluster bombs to assassinate suspected terrorists in countries thousands of miles away.

The next morning, to no one’s surprise—no coverage by the UT-SD of the event. But there was a feature article about US Navy drones and copters program. Near the end reporter Jeanette Steele noted that “even though the military has seen the effectiveness of land-based Predator drones in making surgical strikes … some Americans have started to oppose the idea of ‘killer’ drones on moral grounds.”   [Read more…]

Where Are All the Strawberry Fields Going?

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By Judi Curry

During my trip to Carlsbad last weekend with members of my support group, we stopped in at a delightful shoe shop, “Coolest Shoes in California” and had an interesting discussion with Christine Davis, the owner of the store.  Somehow we started talking about the Carlsbad Strawberry Fields and making jam, and she commented to me “better hurry.  They won’t be here long.”

At first, I thought she was telling me that the season was just about over, but in discussing it further, it turns out that a Los Angeles developer has agreed to purchase 48 acres of the fields that are along Interstate 5. They purchased the fields from SDG&E and, at the present time, do not have any plans for the fields, except to destroy them.   [Read more…]

Is Bigger Better in the Friendly Skies?

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By JEC

Is bigger better? The new AT&T commercial with the man in a suit sitting on the floor with the kids seems to think so. Cruise ships, now they have gotten huge like Royal Caribbean’s new 5,000 passenger ships. With crew that’s 7,500 souls on board.

But we don’t do cruise ships very often, but a lot of us do fly and we can appreciate the aircraft industry for trying to keep up. Like Boeing’s 290 passenger 787 Dreamliner and its much larger cousin the Airbus’s 600 + passenger two story plane the 380 are doing their best to add seats and more passengers.

I’m on a Southwest flight with just 144 seats. All filled. Among the passengers are three small children. So far during this three and a half hour flight to Nashville at least two of the three have been crying, screaming at times. Then about two hours into the flight I thought I had climbed into a TB ward; passengers started coughing. A couple behind, a few in front, in time it seemed to grow to a chorus and I begin to wonder if the airlines resolved the air quality bio-filter issue.   [Read more…]

Richard Montoya’s Federal Jazz Project Hits a Strong Note for San Diego

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By Victor Payan

San Diego-born playwright Richard Montoya has been on a prolific hot streak for the past several years. His expert mix of weight and whimsy have made him a favorite of local audiences, and his latest play, Federal Jazz Project, is yet another winner.  A collaboration with local jazz master Gilbert Castellanos, Federal Jazz Project delivers a verbal and musical tour de force that digs into the dark underbelly of World War II-era San Diego and provides a fascinating history tour of America’s Finest City.

Fans of local lore and lovers of great jazz should rush out to see Federal Jazz Project before it concludes its World Premiere run at the San Diego Repertory Theatre this Sunday at 2pm.

Federal Jazz Project shines on many levels and features some brilliant writing by Montoya.  Stellar live music by a Castellanos-led jazz quintet and strong performances by a capable cast round out the story of Kidd (Joe Hernandez-Kolski), an idealistic impresario, whose hopes of launching the careers of two singing and dancing sisters named San Diego and Tijuana, played Lorraine Castellanos and Claudia Gomez, are thwarted by the guardians of San Diego’s military-industrial complex.   [Read more…]

Video of Mission Beach Cigarette Citation Goes Viral and Lights Up National Debate Over Cellphone Videos

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See Video Below

By Frank Gormlie / OB Rag

A video by a guy on the Mission Beach boardwalk who was being given a citation for smoking a cigarette has gone viral. The incident involved Adam Pringle who refused to shut off his cellphone while videoing the San Diego police officer – and now Pringle’s video of part of the incident has sparked a conversation that has gone national over the rights of people using the video on their cellphone (or other cameras).

Pringle – from Escondido – was smoking a cig on the boardwalk at Mission when he was approached by San Diego Police on bicycles. As the officer began writing up a citation, an infraction, Adam Pringle began using his cell phone to video the officer.

The officer then asks Pringle to shut off his cellphone. Pringle refuses – saying it was his right. The officer asks him at least one more time – and Pringle continues to video the officer.

Pringle then told the press that his cellphone was then slapped out of his hand and then tackled to the ground by the same officer who was writing the ticket. He was then arrested for disorderly conduct.   [Read more…]

Women in Ground Combat Service: Victory for Women’s Rights?

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By Kathy Gilberd / Draft NOtices /April-June 2013,

In January, outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta announced the lifting of the Combat Exclusion Policy (CEP), which formally excluded women from ground combat service in the military. Panetta’s action, which reflected the unanimous recommendation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will give women potential access to over 230,000 positions previously closed to them.

In his announcement Panetta also said, “We are moving forward with a plan to eliminate all unnecessary gender-based barriers to service.” The lifting of the exclusion policy follows a 2012 decision to open more than 14,000 additional positions to women, allowing them to serve in select positions in ground combat units at the brigade.

The change is not immediate, however. While the services must submit plans for integration by this May, the overall plan is set to phase in through 2016, and it may not be universal.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Whoa! Stop that Walmart! UFCW President Calls for ‘Extreme Measures’ in Wake of State Audit

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By Doug Porter

So much news, so little time… Here is today’s roundup.

A fifty eight page report from State Auditor Elaine Howle examining the City of San Diego’s practices regarding permitting for construction projects has raised serious ethical and legal questions about a Walmart location under construction in Sherman Heights.

Community groups opposed to the destruction of the Historic Farmer’s Market building in Sherman Heights were joined by organized labor in protests and lawsuits aimed at halting Walmart. But their complaints fell of deaf ears as city officials claimed all appropriate reviews had been conducted and touted the mega-retailers plans to create jobs in business-friendly San Diego.

Now it’s come out that the City didn’t even issue permits until after construction was underway, even after the lawsuits were filed.   [Read more…]

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