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Mounting the Assault on Big Gay and Other Drivel From SDSU’s Minimum Wage Scrooge

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A congressional hearing on the economic consequences of a $15 hourly minimum wage was cancelled this week due to revelations about bigotry penned under the guise of satire by one of its primary witnesses, San Diego State University economist Joseph Sabia.

The House Education and Workforce Committee was ready to feature testimony asserting poverty wages are in the national interest.

Sabia, an economist who penned a paper titled Minimum Wages: A Poor Way to Reduce Poverty, was to be their star witness until his past came back to haunt him.   [Read more…]

Memo to Democratic ‘Giga-Majority’ in Sacramento: Don’t Forget Who Sent You There

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November’s Blue Wave gives California’s Democratic legislature the opportunity to do more than simply resist the Trumpian agenda.

If they move wisely, the Golden State will serve as an example of what’s possible in an era when good governance serving the needs of all the people takes precedence over schemes designed to line the pockets of the few at the expense of the many.

Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon has a “gigamajority,” with 60 of the 80 seats in that chamber affiliated with his party. Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins shares a party affiliation with 29 of the 40 members in her chamber.   [Read more…]

How the Wealthy Destroy Public Schools, One Gift at a Time

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By Jeff Bryant / Campaign for America’s Future

News about wealthy folks giving millions to education draw both praise and criticism. But two new reports by public education advocacy groups reveal the real impact rich people have on schools and how they’ve chosen to leverage their money to influence the system.

The first report, “Confronting the Education Debt” from the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools, examines the nation’s “education debt” – the historic funding shortfall for school systems that educate black and brown children. The authors find that through a combination of multiple factors – including funding rollbacks, tax cuts, and diversions of public money to private entities – the schools educating the nation’s poorest children have been shorted billions in funding.

One funding source alone, the federal dollars owed to states for educating low-income children and children with disabilities, shorted schools $580 billion, between 2005 and 2017, in what the government is lawfully required to fund schools through the provisions of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESSA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).   [Read more…]

Census Data: More Work, Less Pay for San Diegans

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From the Center on Policy Initiatives

More San Diegans were working in 2017, but their earnings lost ground.

The median household income in the City of San Diego jumped to $76,662, up 5% from 2016, largely because more people per household worked. But inflation-adjusted individual earnings dropped for the third year in a row, according to analysis by the Center on Policy Initiatives (CPI) of U.S. Census Bureau data released this morning.

“The good news is households have higher incomes, but only because more family members are working,” said CPI Research Director Peter Brownell, PhD. “Wages are still lower than before the recession in real dollars. When you factor in inflation, people are still losing ground.”   [Read more…]

Judd Legum Explains the Stats That Voters Should Know About Trump’s Economy | Video Worth Watching

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Judd Legum presents three facts about the economy that will help to put into context any claims by this administration about how great the economy is doing.   [Read more…]

How City Heights Is Trying To Protect Its Multicultural Roots | Video Worth Watching

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KPBS’ Tarryn Mento reports that the City Heights Economic Development Collaborative is seeking California Cultural District designation for the Little Saigon area of City Heights. If successful it will join the Barrio Logan and Balboa Park districts to represent San Diego among the current fourteen designated districts. The hope is that this designation can be used in the fight against gentrification.   [Read more…]

Is Bank of America ‘Just Following Orders’ by Asking Citizenship Status Questions?

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It’s not just ICE and local bigots harassing immigrants and people who they think might be immigrants anymore.

Activists are claiming U.S. financial institutions, encouraged by the Department of Treasury, are including citizenship status as part of the Customer Identification Program provision of the USA Patriot Act, even though it is not legally required.

What this means in practical terms is that existing customers, like Josh Collins and wife Jessica Salazar Collins who thought envelopes from Bank of America were junk mail, are having their accounts suspended until such time as questions about citizenship are answered.
  [Read more…]

May Day in Puerto Rico: Police Attack Anti-Austerity Protesters with Pepper Spray & Tear Gas | Video Worth Watching

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Disaster capitalism hits Puerto Rico. PROMESA, the board appointed by Congress to oversee Puerto Rico’s economy, is calling for, among other things, the privatization of the school system and a 10% cut to pensions. On May Day citizens turned out to protest. From the streets of San Juan we have a report filed by Democracy Now! correspondent Juan Carlos Dávila.   [Read more…]

An Open Letter to the Bellwether State | Dear Ohio, Part 4

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Dear Ohio,

This is my fourth letter to you, my sister state, for we are all sons and daughters of this democracy, however embattled it now may be. And it must be remembered that in modern times, no presidential candidate has reached the White House without Ohio’s blessing. So I come to you once again, with a heavy heart, to see if those among you who care so deeply for our country, can still embrace the notion that all of us belong.

There was 10-year-old boy I met one day in my work as a lawyer for low-income families. His mother brought him to me because he was deeply depressed. Two thoughts bumped about in my mind when I made his acquaintance. The first was that I had never met a boy of 10 who was deeply depressed. The second was that it seemed odd a mother should seek help for a depressed child from a lawyer.

The boy was a beautiful, brown-skinned, big-eyed, dark-haired youngster whose eyes followed closely the adult conversation. He sat uncomfortably in the chair across from my desk, while his mother described the problem.  He was facing charges in juvenile court for loitering and non-attendance at school. He didn’t want to get up in the morning, didn’t want to walk to the bus, couldn’t get through the school day, wasn’t interested in anything.   [Read more…]

Health Care is Still the Number One Economic Issue

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By David Akadjian / Daily Kos

Since the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting, there’s been a lot of talk about reasonable gun violence prevention laws. If you look at surveys, most people support them. But one of the issues we face with implementing background checks or any gun violence prevention laws is that, for conservatives, guns are an economic concern.

Different conservatives will phrase this differently but what it comes down to for them is that property must be protected at all costs, and they feel this is key to the economy. Guns are an emotional issue to conservatives, especially rural conservatives, in a way that they aren’t viewed as important to the economy by liberals.

If past experience is any indicator, the economy is the most important issue to Americans. This is what people vote on.  Because of this, the Republican strategy for the 2018 midterm elections is going to be this:

  1. Take credit for the economy
  2. Paint Democrats as caring only about identity issues or hating Trump because of identity issues

  [Read more…]

Rent Control in California: Seven Myths and Seven Solutions for Protecting Tenants

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Rent control can help solve California’s housing affordability and homelessness crisis by decreasing displacement and protecting the rights and dignity of working families, the elderly, and long-term tenants. To demystify rent control in California, here are seven rent control myths followed by seven anti-poverty tenant protection ordinances cities can implement.

By Parisa Ijadi-Maghsoodi / UrbDeZine

Articles and studies from newspapers to academic journals warn the public against the havoc and devastation caused by rent control ordinances. However, it is not tenants and community-based organizations that are funding these articles and studies, it is real estate investors, developers, and corporate apartment owner associations. For decades, tenants and community-based organizations across California have worked tirelessly to enact rent control ordinances to decrease displacement and protect the rights and dignity of working families, the elderly, and long-term tenants. Tenant advocates continue to direct their limited resources to local initiatives and ballot measures, not to fund studies, articles, and lawsuits.   [Read more…]

How to Make Housing More Affordable in San Diego

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By Murtaza Baxamusa / SanDiegoUrbDeZine

There isn’t enough affordable housing being built in the city of San Diego. Lenders and banks aren’t lending as much, apartment owners aren’t caring, and builders aren’t building as much since it’s not as remunerative to build for income-constrained households.

This worsens the disconnect between the economics of the housing stock and the demographics of the families it’s meant to serve, as shown by a recent Harvard University study on apartments. In San Diego, less than 10 percent of the rental housing stock is affordable*. With new federal tax policies, things could get worse.

A home isn’t just a luxury that anyone can live without. It’s a social necessity. Yet cities and states don’t build housing, they plan for it and permit it, and then are dependent on private developers to build it at the rents or prices that yield them the highest returns. This is where inclusionary housing comes into play: By allowing the private sector to competitively perform at its optimal level within a uniform regulatory framework that achieves societal goals.   [Read more…]

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