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You’ve Got Mail: Mayoral Shapeshifter Sweepstakes Rolls On

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By Jim Miller

Everywhere you look, there is a different Nathan Fletcher. The magic never stops. You can see it in a recent mailer from the Municipal Employees Association (MEA) that touts the man with an 18% lifetime score on labor issues and a 36% Sierra Club score on environmental issues as someone with “a consistent progressive record we can trust.” The MEA magic comes by taking a handful of votes that Fletcher made while re-positioning himself for his mayoral run and giving them the tag line, “Show Us the Facts.”

Well, brothers and sisters, if you think that Fletcher is a progressive, with both a labor and an environmental record that actually comes in behind Republican Kevin Faulconer’s, you just don’t care about the facts. Particularly when you know that David Alvarez’s record on these issues is far superior to both of them.   [Read more…]

Old Halloween Ain’t What She Used to Be

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By Judi Curry

The Halloween for 2013 has sure changed.  In the olden days – 2012 and before – hundreds of young costumed children would knock on my door in their cute Halloween costumes, yelling “trick or treat.”  Sometimes only one child would be at the door when answered; sometimes several.

Later in the evening, some of the “older” children would knock on the door with the same message, and they always received the same treat as the younger ones.

When my children were younger, we usually met the parents with a flask of Brandy Alexanders  – to ward off the chill of the evening, of course.   [Read more…]

Walmart CEO: Food Stamp Cuts Could Be Good for Business

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By Doug Porter

Today’s the day.

Twenty three million Americans, including four million in California and more than a quarter million in San Diego will see a 5% reduction in their food stamp benefits starting November 1st.

As many as one in nine California families receive food benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — known as CalFresh in this state.  The cuts mean a family of four will receive $632, or $36 less per month in federal food assistance, even as California food costs rise. That is the equivalent of losing roughly 21 individual meals per month based on calculations used by the Department of Agriculture.

Walmart’s CEO Bill Simon says they’re “cautious but modestly optimistic” about those cuts, despite the fact that $14 billion of the $80 billion appropriated for food stamps was spent in their stores last year.  Simon told a meeting of financial analysts earlier this year when the benefits are cut, price becomes more important to the consumers, which he said will play to Walmart’s advantage.   [Read more…]

Why Blackface Isn’t Funny and Other Halloween Tales

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By Doug Porter

A couple of football coaches from San Diego’s Serra High School have been in the news this week after photographs of them wearing blackface as part of their “Jamaican Bobsled Team” halloween costumes surfaced.

San Diego Unified School District officials have acknowledged “inappropriate activities” and are investigating the incident, which seems to have involved a non-school related party.

To nobody’s surprise the UT-San Diego has a letter to the editor today decrying the ‘political correctness’ of the situation.  Reader Jack Cohen opines, “The absolutely priggish administrator who said that we cannot tolerate the slightest insensitivity should be exiled to the next universe.”   [Read more…]

Child Labor Shouldn’t Haunt Halloween

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Even if the kids in my neighborhood think my fair trade chocolate is a bit weird, at least I’m not handing out dental floss.

By  / OtherWords.org

I can’t bring myself to be the Grinch who stole Halloween. I just can’t, even though I write about healthy food. I even eat (mostly) healthy food.

Friends and colleagues expect me to have something to say about Halloween. But how can anyone condemn an innocent day of costumes and candy that brings joy to so many children?

As a kid, I was no health nut. I’ve always had a sweet tooth. My first word was “cookie.” But my parents did their best to restrict the sweets in our house. Halloween represented the one glorious day a year of unfettered access to gobs of candy.   [Read more…]

A Brief History of “Livable Neighborhoods” in San Diego

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By Jay Powell

Livable Neighborhoods was a program piloted in City Heights in the early 90′s by then City Manager Jack McGrory. It was in response to a community improvement partnership of community members and the City to bring City staff out of City Hall and into the communities. It was complemented with Neighborhood Policing that had assigned teams cruising patrol cars and bikes and meeting in storefronts to proactively address issues block by block and neighborhood by neighborhood.   [Read more…]

What’s Next for Political Reporting in San Diego? A Nose Hair Census?

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By Doug Porter

Mayoral candidate Nathan Fletcher’s campaign has had their fair share of issues over past six weeks or so.  The former assemblyman is taking hits from both the right and the left; direct mail pieces have flooded city mailboxes seeking to exploit what polling says are the front runner’s vulnerabilities.

I’m not persuaded that these efforts are working, despite the fact that I share the sentiment behind them.

But I’ve found common ground with the Fletcher campaign’s refusal to participate in the latest exercise in “transparency journalism” at UT-San Diego. Snoop dog reporter Trent Seibert’s latest exercise in lunacy includes a stab at rounding up of mayoral candidates’ college transcripts.   [Read more…]

Right Wing Continues to Block Immigration Reform

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By Doug Porter

The body of law and administrative policy defining reality for the nation’s 12 million immigrants has once again risen to the top of our national “do-list”. The Republicans in Congress see it as yet another opportunity to thwart the administration, saying the latest push for action is simply an attempt to draw attention away from more “pressing issues” like Benghazi and Healthcare.gov.

Last week President Obama urged House Republicans to act on immigration, saying: “Democratic leaders have introduced a bill in the House that is similar to the bipartisan Senate bill. So now it’s up to Republicans in the House to decide whether reform becomes a reality or not.”   [Read more…]

America’s Wealthy Are Even Wealthier And Have A New Name: Point-Seveners

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America has 45,000 citizens worth more than $50 million.

By Steven Rosenfeld/ Alternet

The old cliché is true. The rich are getting richer. And there’s a new name for the upward transfer of wealth and richest people in America and worldwide—now called the “point-seven percent”—according to The Wall Street Journal,which, in its typical cheerleading way, boasts that Americans rule the top of the wealth pyramid.

“Forget the 1 percent—the statistic that 1 percent of people in the U.S. hold 40 percent of the wealth” brags Jason Bellini on a WSJ video report. “It became a rallying cry during the Occupy Wall Street movement. Now there’s a new number to consider: 0.7 percent. Globally, 0.7 percent of the people control 41 percent of the world’s wealth. Who are the 0.7 percent?”   [Read more…]

Wordplay – Shardly Worthwhile

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By Bob Dorn

Every few months I stumble onto files tucked away in odd places recording wordplay I’ve recorded in the last few years. I started doing it when a name, or coined word or phrase seemed to define events well but wouldn’t work in the piece at hand, either because it didn’t quite fit the passage (and would have looked shoehorned in later), or because it was too light or mean and petty for the context, or because it was simply distracting.

Yeah, distracting. I don’t know who said this; it was a writer for sure: the first thing to cut from a piece is the best thing in it. Of course, that’s so that the rest doesn’t suffer the contrast. But can you afford to forget the debris?   [Read more…]

The Fish Stinks From the Head – Tales of Woe About San Diego’s MTS and NCTD Transit Authorities

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By Doug Porter

“The fish stinks from the head” is an old Turkish metaphor used to attribute poor leadership as the cause for dysfunctional enterprises.

News accounts from the past 24 hours about San Diego’s Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) and the North County Transit District (NCTD) speak to seriously misplaced priorities, along with racism and sexism in both organizations.

In today’s UT-San Diego there is a story detailing how officials with the Metropolitan Transit System have declined to offer discounts for low income students. A pilot program, funded by both the school district and the City Council will now be cut by more than half.

Yesterday reporter Brad Racino at inewsource/KPBS broke a major story about sex and age bias in employment policies within the North County Transit District.    [Read more…]

Commemorate Día de los Muertos throughout San Diego – Long Live the Dead!

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Día de los Muertos Commemorated for Thousands of Years in the Americas

By Brent E. Beltrán

Los días de los muertos have been commemorated for thousands of years in the Americas. It started in what is now México and has spread throughout the United States and the world. Today these days are celebrated by people of many different colors and cultures.

November 1 is Día de los Inocentes (Day of the Innocents) when deceased children are honored and November 2 is known as Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) where we pay tribute to adults who have passed away. These dates correspond with the Christian holidays of All Saints’ Day and All Soul’s Day.   [Read more…]

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