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It’s Off to the Races! City Council Sets February 11th Mayoral Election Date, Barrio Logan Referendum Vote June 3rd -Plus Lots of 2014 Electioneering in Other Contests

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By Doug Porter

“Bring it on!”

That was the reaction of supporters of the Barrio Logan Community plan yesterday after the City Council voted to place a referendum sponsored by maritime industry interests on the June 3rd primary ballot.  Industry backers were hoping that a successful petition drive for the initiative would force the council to rescind the plan rather than face the costs and conflicts inherent in a contentious campaign.

The UT-San Diego wasted no time showing where its sympathies lie, running with a front page story using the industry’s un-provable contention that jobs would be lost in the lede of a supposed news article.  While a City of San Diego study projects more than 4,000 jobs would be created under the plan, opponents can do no better than quoting individuals who “think” jobs might be lost.

Framing the conflict as one of “jobs” versus “neighborhood planning” is exactly the strategy pursued thus far by maritime industry advocates, who’ve managed to twist both ends of that equation (46,000 jobs will be lost! Yuppie condos are coming!) into an narrative so unpalatable that gathering signatures for an initiative was a cakewalk.   [Read more…]

San Diego 350 Answers: What Is Fracking?

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From SanDiego350

Fracking

Modern fracking in California is a huge new source of greenhouse gas emissions as well as a threat to our water and air quality and cause of earthquakes. SanDiego350.org is educating the public and local elected officials about the hazards associated with fracking, and calling for a ban on fracking in California.

FRACTS: Fracking Frequently Asked Questions

What is fracking (Hydraulic Fracturing)? Fracking is a process to release and extract oil or gas by blasting water, toxic chemicals, and sand at extreme pressure miles underground into a shale rock layer.

Where is fracking happening in California? Fracking has already taken place in several California counties, with companies targeting the massive Monterey Shale rock formation that stretches from the Bay Area to Los Angeles. Offshore fracking is happening now and could happen in the waters off San Diego County.   [Read more…]

Volunteers Needed for San Diego’s Homeless Census Count

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By Doug Porter

The Regional Task Force on the Homeless is seeking over one thousand volunteers to assist in counting homeless individuals in San Diego on January 24, 2014.

The Point In Time Count (PITC) is an annual census effort encompassing both sheltered and unsheltered homeless individuals. Data about locations and demographics is collected, enabling agencies in the San Diego region to better understand the scope, impact and potential solutions to homelessness.

The PITC is also crucial in that it supplies information essential to applications for funding to address homeless issues. Based on San Diego’s 2013 census, approximately 8,900 individuals, families and unaccompanied children experience homelessness annually in San Diego County.   [Read more…]

San Diego Is Becoming One of America’s ‘Most Bicycle Friendly’ Cities

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Statistics from newly released American League of Bicycle report shows San Diego bicycle movement has momentum

From San Diego Loves Green

Bicycle-loving San Diego is more than an idea now – it’s a statistic. In a League of American Bicyclists report released this week, San Diego consistently ranks amongst the top American cities for bicycle commuters and ridership.

San Diego County Bicycle Coalition, an organization that advocates for and protects the rights of all people who ride bicycles, has spearheaded the movement to create a strong bicycling culture in San Diego County.

In the report, Where we ride: An Analysis of bicycling in American cities, the League of American Bicyclists looks at bicycle commuting trends and specific analyses throughout national cities.

Statistics reported on San Diego include:   [Read more…]

San Diego Occupy Movement, Vets for Peace Reach Out to Help Homeless as Temperatures Fall

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By Doug Porter

It’s easy to make light of the colder weather Southern California has experienced over the past few days. People from the east county were joking on Twitter this morning about having to use spatulas to clear their windshields of frost. But for the thousands of San Diego’s who live on the streets, the chilly temperatures are pure torture.

While the weather conditions locally can’t compare with those in northern tier cities, it doesn’t take below freezing temperatures to induce hypothermia, a potentially fatal drop in body temperature, usually caused by prolonged exposure to cold temperatures. And San Diego simply lacks enough shelter space for its homeless population when the temperature drops. Four people have died from exposure in the Bay Area in the past weeks and well over 700 die annual from exposure to the elements.

While many organizations are involved in collecting needed items for our local homeless population, two groups have reached out to the San Diego Free Press in recent days asking for our help in getting the word out. The need is real and these folks are looking for your help.   [Read more…]

Monsanto, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Global Food Dominance

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By Ellen Brown / EllenBrown.com

“Control oil and you control nations,” said US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the 1970s.  ”Control food and you control the people.”

Global food control has nearly been achieved, by reducing seed diversity with GMO (genetically modified) seeds that are distributed by only a few transnational corporations. But this agenda has been implemented at grave cost to our health; and if the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) passes, control over not just our food but our health, our environment and our financial system will be in the hands of transnational corporations.   [Read more…]

A Misguided Attempt at Bipartisanship

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Congressman Peters’ yea vote on H.R. 3350 an overreaching attempt to appease conservative critics.

By Andy Cohen

In the midst of the mayoral special election, there have been a number of items of local importance that have gotten, if not lost, then overshadowed. Often, in the course of our sometimes convoluted local political scene, the actions of our members of Congress get largely ignored….which is a shame, particularly in the case of our local right wing extremist/verbal bomb thrower/attention whore Darrell Issa. He, in particular, will do most anything, say most anything just to get his mug on camera.

But typically, our members of Congress will try to do what’s right for their respective districts, and do so in a respectable manner becoming of the office they hold. And despite the inbox full of press releases sent out by our Congressional brigade, the local news media doesn’t often find it sexy enough to keep tabs on what they’re up to. Which is a shame, because they’re often doing some very good work on our behalf.

But then again, sometimes our representatives will do something—vote on a bill, for example—in the name of “bipartisanship” that should be given some extra scrutiny. Such is often the case with Freshman Democratic Rep. Scott Peters.

Unfortunately, this desperation for bipartisanship has led Congressman Peters and 32 of his Democratic colleagues to cast a vote that could potentially be one of the most damaging of his brief tenure, and do serious damage to the healthcare reform law he professes to support.   [Read more…]

The GOP’s Latest Dirty Trick – A Fake California Covered Healthcare Website

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By Doug Porter

After two months of regularly hijacking the 24 hour news cycle with horror stories about the Affordable Healthcare Act, Republicans here in California reached a new low this week. They rolled out a fake Covered California website via mailings to constituents (apparently paid for by taxpayers) from GOP Assembly members.  Taxpayers also paid for creation of the faux website, registered with GoDaddy.com

Rather than inform users about their healthcare options, clicking on highlighted topics like “Don’t Have Insurance” leads to negative news stories, filled with misinformation or out of date data.  The idea, of course, is to discourage people from signing up; part of the GOP strategy to make Obamacare collapse due to lack of interest.

This is  shameless and breathtaking in the scope of its misdirection and misinformation.  If you had any doubts about the fact that these people care for nobody but the rich, visiting this bit of Astroturf on the web should put your concerns to rest.   [Read more…]

Elevated Rates of Thyroid Disease in California Newborn Linked to Fukushima Fallout

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By Michael Steinberg / OB Rag

A new study indicates that rates of a thyroid disease in California newborn spiked after they were exposed to fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.

The peer-reviewed study, “Changes in confirmed and borderline cases of congenital hypothyroidism in California as a function of environmental fallout from Fukushima,” appears in the November 2013 issue of the periodical Open Journal of Pediatrics.

In California all babies are tested at birth for congenital hypothyroidism, a rare disease that nevertheless can cause serious growth problems in children if it remains untreated.

Study authors Joseph Mangano and Janette Sherman of The Radiation and Public Health Project (radiation.org), along with Chris Busby, Scientific Secretary for the European Union Committee on Radiation Risk, obtained information from the state of California related to this issue.   [Read more…]

How the Republican Tempest Over the Affordable Care Act Diverts Attention from Three Large Truths

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By Robert Reich /RobertReich.org

Having failed to defeat the Affordable Care Act in Congress, to beat it back in the last election, to repeal it despite more than eighty votes in the House, to stop it in the federal courts, to get enough votes in the Supreme Court to overrule it, and to gut it with outright extortion (closing the government and threatening to default on the nation’s debts unless it was repealed), Republicans are now down to their last ploy.

They are hell-bent on destroying the Affordable Care Act in Americans’ minds.

A document circulating among House Republicans (reported by the New York Times) instructs them to repeat the following themes and stories continuously: “Because of Obamacare, I Lost My Insurance.” “Obamacare Increases Health Care Costs.” “The Exchanges May Not Be Secure, Putting Personal Information at Risk.”   [Read more…]

The “Most Walkable” Cities in San Diego County – La Mesa Scores Highest

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By Bill Adams/UrbDeZine San Diego

Walk San Diego rated La Mesa as 2013′s most walkable city in San Diego County. The number one reason for the City’s walkability happened 100 years ago.

It’s the traditional town pattern of it’s historic center. It’s a pattern that is relatively rare in Southern California but seen everywhere in the East and Midwest U.S.:

OB Bamboo Bicyclist Lives to Inspire “Earth-Friendly Lifestyles”

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Activist to Give Away Free Seeds

By Rob Greenfield

This spring I left my comfortable beachside home in sleepy Ocean Beach to wake America up. On April 16th I hopped into a van with a stranger from a Craigslist.com rideshare board, stopped in Santa Cruz to pick up a bamboo bike, and arrived in San Francisco a with a few days to prepare for a 4,700 mile bike ride across the USA.

The journey, coined Off the Grid Across America, was designed to inspire Americans to start living a more earth-friendly lifestyle for themselves, their community, and the earth.

To lead by example I followed a set of rigorous ground rules:   [Read more…]

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