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Hierarchy of Elected Venerables

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You and I – as ordinary voters living in greater San Diego – have a mindnumbing number of opportunities to elect scads of people to serve as our public mouthpieces.

We routinely go to the polls or mail in our ballots to select the “public servants” we believe will represent our personal and community interests and improve our well-being.  Keeping up with who’s running for what is a daunting job.

In fact, if we built a totem pole made up of all our elected officials, it would surely reach the clouds, maybe even touch the sky.   [Read more…]

Make It Fair: Close a Prop 13 Corporate Loophole and Dull Trump’s Budget Ax for Californians

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November 1, 2017, will be an important day for San Diegans concerned about what the future of California looks like.  

Republicans in Washington DC are scheduled to release the paperwork outlining the #TrumpTaxScam on November 1st. Congressman Paul Ryan told a press conference on Tuesday the House is on track to get a “tax overhaul bill” to the Senate before Thanksgiving.

On November 1st there will be a town hall at San Diego City College about closing a major tax loophole in California that could lessen the impact of the #TrumpTaxScam. The ‘Make It Fair’ forum will discuss a proposal to revise Proposition 13, which currently allows corporations to claim the same property tax protections as the homeowners the measure was intended to protect.   [Read more…]

Has Former Brain Surgeon Ben Carson Flatlined HUD? | Video Worth Watching

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During a full House Financial Services Committee hearing with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), when questioned by Representative Al Green (D-TX), former brain surgeon Secretary Ben Carson refused to answer simple questions about the amounts of cuts to specific budgetary programs. Carson attempted to launch his own narrative at one point with “I’d like to talk about …” and Rep. Green had to remind the Secretary that the reason for his presence was to answer questions posed by the committee. Unfortunately, very little in the way of answers was provided.   [Read more…]

Gold Star Parents of Army Specialist Etienne Murphy, Who Died in Syria in May, Talk About What Matters to Them Now | Video Worth Watching

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Gold Star parents, Sheila and Calvin Murphy, interviewed by MSNBC’s Ari Melber, talk about their son who was killed in Syria. 22-year-old Army Specialist Etienne Murphy died in May after an armored vehicle he was in rolled over. For Sheila, the issue is “not really about whether or not [the president] may have called or did something more than the previous one. It’s about what are you doing now to help those who are left behind, who have to struggle day to day …”   [Read more…]

How San Diego’s Transit Went from First to Worst

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By Murtaza Baxamusa / UrbDeZine

The current leadership at San Diego’s regional transportation agency hates tax, except that they love to spend it.

This double-standard has become increasingly apparent in the recent months, as they are back-filling the shortfall in the local sales tax revenues and increase in project costs with $5 billion from a statewide gas tax that many on the agency’s board vehemently oppose.

With the failure of the local sales tax measure last year, and the gridlock in Washington D.C., the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG – in charge of planning and building transit in the county) is now far more dependent on the passage of transportation taxes by the California legislature.

Yet, SANDAG is institutionally resistant to achieving state transportation goals particularly with regard to climate change.   [Read more…]

A San Diego Vets for Peace Homeless Encounter

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Three of us, two members of San Diego Veterans for Peace and a guest, are jammed into a Prius — along with 20 new sleeping bags. We are driving slowly south, down 16th Street in search of people lying on the sidewalks.

Chapter members have been here many times over the past five or six years, and have distributed more than 3,200 bags to unfortunates on the street.

“There’s someone.”

We park some distance from the homeless person. Caution and intuition are at work now, tempered by experience. One of us stays with the car, while the other two make contact.   [Read more…]

Trump Fiddles While California Burns | Video Worth Watching

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Governor Jerry Brown has declared not one, but two states of emergency in California. One is for the wildfires that are still raging in Northern California and one is for the lack of vaccines in the deadly Hepatitis A outbreak that began in San Diego.

The wildfires have taken the lives of 40 people and destroyed 5,700 homes and buildings. They have forced the evacuation of 100,000 others. Hundreds of people are still missing and 217,000 acres have been burned.

One part of our federal government –the Post Office–continues to function in areas destroyed by the wildfires.   [Read more…]

Why Does the FAA Charge to Find Records That It Already Must Find?

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Dodging Public Record Requests

Four months ago, San Marcos and Carlsbad residents asked the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to produce records related to the expansion of McClellan-Palomar (Palomar) Airport in Carlsbad. The FAA replied: Sure, just pay $545 to $745 so the FAA can retrieve them.

Did the FAA follow the law, its own regulations, or common sense?
  [Read more…]

Public Libraries Like Escondido’s Being Privatized by Swiss Cheese Rats (Editorial Cartoon)

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By Laurie Menard

Editor’s Note: The ‘Save The Escondido Public Library’ group is urging people to attend a City Council meeting on Wednesday, October 18 (201 West Broadway, Escondido) at 4:30pm. The proposed contract between the city and private contractor Library Systems & Services will be voted on.  Only 3 of the 11 degreed are going to keep their current positions. The Pioneer Room, currently staffed by local volunteers isn’t even mentioned in the document.   [Read more…]

#TrumpTaxScam: Plenty of Money for the Wealthy, Pain for Everybody Else

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From eliminating the estate tax to lowering the corporate and top-tier rates, billionaire president just rolled out “plan only the superrich and giant corporations could love”

By Andrea Germanos / Common Dreams

While President Donald Trump on Wednesday asserted from a podium in Indianapolis that his tax plan was “more fair for everyday Americans,” a chorus of voices quickly derided the new, detail-short proposal as “wealth-fare,” a “cruel joke,” a “plan that only the superrich and giant corporations could love,” and like “Christmas morning for tax cheats.”

The president’s plan includes slashing the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent; capping the individual rate—now 39.6 percent—at 35 percent; cutting the so-called “pass-through” rate by a third, and eliminating entirely the estate tax.   [Read more…]

Scheme Using Homeless Crisis to Expand Convention Center Rebuked by Alliance San Diego

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Alliance San Diego has been asked to respond to the Voice of San Diego story revealing Mayor Faulconer’s involvement in another effort to use the homelessness crisis as a lever to put an expansion of the convention center on a special-election ballot, which would contravene Measure L. We are responding to multiple inquiries all at once to make Alliance San Diego’s position clear.
1. The homelessness crisis is a crisis of Mayor Faulconer’s own making.
2. Measure L allows for special elections, not special interests.
3. We call on Mayor Faulconer to take immediate action to address homelessness.
See story inside for details…
  [Read more…]

Puerto Rico Doesn’t Need to Send a Memo, It Needs Direct Action | Video Worth Watching

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San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz was apparently asked by a FEMA official at some point to send a memo to ask for assistance. She tells CBS reporter David Begnaud that she doesn’t see things that way. And ICYMI, check out yesterday’s Starting Line for more information on Puerto Rico’s developing humanitarian crisis.   [Read more…]

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