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Will District Elections Loosen the Grip of Carlsbad’s Old Guard?

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Two years ago Carlsbad’s city Council voted unanimously to let a billionaire Los Angeles developer bring a traffic-laden supermall nightmare to the unsullied shores of the city’s Agua Hedionda Lagoon.

The Council could have allowed 30 days for citizen feedback before approving the project, or schedule a special election to determine its fate. But all five council members chose to ignore the pleas of outspoken opponents at the Aug. 25, 2015, council meeting. Mayor Matt Hall claimed naysayers were led by outside interests.

He was wrong. Citizen action launched an initiative drive leading to the defeat of Measure A, a special election that stopped the developer in his tracks, wrangled an apology from the mayor, and replaced a hapless council member with the election of Cori Schumacher, a leader in the “No on A” campaign.

Fast-forward to this year’s May 9 meeting, where city leaders, on a 3-to-2 vote, bowed to the threat of a lawsuit charging the city with violating the California Voting Rights Act with its at-large elections.   [Read more…]

FAA: ‘Trust Us, You’ll Learn to Love Tiny Airline Seats’ and Other Nightmares

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July gave us another court case rebuking FAA secrecy and arbitrary decisions. In Flyers Rights Education Fund, Inc. v. FAA, the D.C. United States Courts of Appeals told the FAA to again review whether skinnier, narrower, claustrophobic aircraft seats created passenger safety hazards.

Flyers Rights argued that shoehorning passengers into cramped seats risked passenger health before and after crashes. Restricted blood flow caused by cramped seats, they said, might lead to deep leg thrombosis — a condition caused when blood settles in the circulatory system, as often occurs in the lower limbs during long flights and especially among the elderly.  After a crash, restricted seats might slow escape from the aircraft as sardined and confused crash victims fight to escape darkened and possibly smoky aircraft aisles.

The court agreed that the FAA had presented enough information to reject the thrombosis claim but concluded that the FAA had failed to present evidence that smaller seats did not compromise passenger safety.   [Read more…]

Vapor Beds and Other Non-Facts

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Let me start with an apology. At the San Diego Select Committee for Homelessness meeting on July 24th, I made some comments in response to a report by the new CEO of the Regional Taskforce on the Homeless, Gordon Walker, which came out sounding critical and petty.

When I watched myself on the video, I wasn’t pleased with my scolding tone. I had been trying to meet with Mr. Walker for over a month and finally got a voice mail from him politely explaining that it would be some time before he had time to meet with me and he hoped that I would understand. While I hadn’t planned on publicly reprimanding Mr. Walker, it certainly came out that way and I’m sorry.

I could blame my response on my Sicilian heritage or my New Jersey upbringing, but it was really my frustration with what I heard in Walker’s well-intentioned report that rattled my cage. Maybe, if we had the opportunity to talk prior to his report to this committee, he might have been better informed about the situation here in San Diego from a different perspective than what he’s being given by the people he had time for in his first month on the job.

Right now, it appears he’s hearing from the same old good ole boys perpetuating the same old song and dance to serve their same old self-interests.   [Read more…]

Maxine Waters Reclaims Her Time & Inspires a Gospel Tribute | Video Worth Watching

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What do you do if you’re a House Congressional Representative trying to get a straight answer from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to a simple question in a House Financial Services Committee hearing and the Secretary tries to run the clock out on your limited time to ask questions by rambling on about your achievements and how much he appreciates your service? Well, if you’re Maxine Waters (D-CA 43rd district) you reclaim your time.

And by boldly reclaiming your time, you inspire this a cappella gospel mix tribute: (“ … Don’t read my resume ‘cuz I was there …”)   [Read more…]

A Brief History of SANDAG’s Climate Change Culpability

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An agency incapable of change: the story of power, money, and deception in America’s Finest City

By Duncan McFetridge

California has aggressively pursued policies to address climate change. Beginning with Assembly Bill 32, enacted in 2006, the state set in motion a set of regulations designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The most notable action is the cap-and-trade policy. Because automobiles create about 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, the legislature enacted Senate Bill 375 in 2008. This measure attacks greenhouse gas emissions by requiring regional planning agencies — such as the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) — to prepare long range regional transportation plans to reduce them.

The fundamental goal is to reduce motor vehicle miles traveled (VMT), making it essentially a transit first strategy.   [Read more…]

Trump’s Voter “Integrity” Commission | Video Worth Watching

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Get to know some of the Election Integrity Commission folks. They certainly want to know a lot about you …   [Read more…]

UT Editorial Peddles School Privatization Agenda

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By Thomas Ultican / Tultican

The San Diego Union-Tribune editorial board deserves the bunkum efficiency award for packing so much baloney into a scant five paragraphs. The first sentence of the editorial headlined “Still more bad faith from state ED board” says:

“The State Board of Education’s defining characteristic is its ardent defense of an education establishment more worried about the interests of teachers than students.”

It’s true that the education establishment in California does listen to input from teachers and their unions, however, today the establishment is dominated by billionaires like Reed Hasting and Carrie Walton Penner. There are many other establishment powerhouses like the California Charter School Association (CCSA), representatives of the education testing industry and education technology profiteers.   [Read more…]

Veterans Call on U.S. to Sign Nuclear Ban Treaty

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By Brian Trautman, Gerry Condon and Samantha Ferguson

On July 7, 2017, the United Nations (UN), in a historic decision, approved a legally binding instrument to ban nuclear weapons, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Months of negotiations involving more than 130 countries began in March of this year, culminating in a final draft endorsed by 122 countries.

The treaty marks a significant milestone to help free the world of nuclear weapons.

Humanity has been at the brink of a nuclear exchange on multiple occasions since the end of World War II, including times when the decision to launch was seconds from happening. An urgent question, then, is why these close calls, as well as the brutal and unnecessary annihilation of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that preceded them, failed to convince all governments that nuclear weapons represent an existential threat to humanity, thus nuclear disarmament must be a top priority?   [Read more…]

Environmental Advocates Oppose Gov. Brown’s Deal to Extend Cap and Trade

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Concessions to Fossil Fuel Lobbyists Endanger Low-Income Communities

By David Harris / SanDiego350 

Governor Jerry Brown wants to renew California’s Cap and Trade program for another ten years, which on the face of it sounds like a great idea for the climate. Cap and Trade is designed to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through a market mechanism that places a reasonable price on carbon.

The new bill introduced just this week to extend the program (AB 398) is being expedited through both the Assembly and Senate. A vote is scheduled for this Monday, July 17th, which is an unusually fast process.

One major hurdle is that the new Cap and Trade program will require a ⅔ majority vote in both the Assembly and Senate, in order to avoid any legal challenge. It appears that the bill negotiated by Governor Brown has enough carrots for both Democrats and Republicans to support it.
  [Read more…]

Trump and His Baja Resort Fiasco: ‘Just a Giant Hole in the Ground’

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Ever since Donald Trump announced he was running for president, reports began circulating in the press about all the various failures of his businesses.

These include the bankruptcy of his Atlantic City, New Jersey, casinos, the defunct Trump University here in San Diego where students successfully sued him, and, particularly, the troubles of his Trump Towers.

For instance, in the saga of the Trump Tower in Tampa, Florida, Trump sold the use of his name to developers of the $300 million condo project for $2 million. According to Rolling Stone, the developers collected down payments from investors but after the project went south in 2008, the snookered buyers sued Trump for misleading them. Trump did settle the suit, but plaintiffs lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.   [Read more…]

Sending Homeless People to Imperial Beach is No Solution

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By Remigia Bermúdez

The June 30 Morning Report: San Diego’s Risky Homeless Diversion Project by Voice of San Diego’s Seth Hall calls the latest movida by San Diego’s elected officials right on the money — a “diversion.” It is truly a diversion of San Diego City Hall to keep passing the buck and pushing the homeless away from downtown.

The Voice’s article states:

“The city of San Diego wants to divert more homeless people away from the criminal justice system and into supportive programs that aid in recovery. To do that, city leaders came up with a program that helps people hooked on drugs and accused of a crime to enter into treatment and shelter,” identifying a “huge” grant recently received for it.

The city proposal to better serve the homeless with rehab services identified in said recent grant sounds benevolent — for a second. What smells fishy is relocating them to Imperial Beach.

This is a case of good intentions gone sour.   [Read more…]

The Perversity of Success and the Case to Be Made for Failure

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We are taught that Success is always the preferred outcome.
I dare propose otherwise ….
Contrarily,
It is my considered belief
that a reduction in world suffering
could be directly attributed to a failure of intent.   [Read more…]

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