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How Land Use Abuse Fits into the Current San Diego Drama

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By Jay Powell

The news this week via the “Utterly-Terrible” news machine (August 6 edition) is that when asked the “push-poll” question: “What story about Filner concerns you more: the charge of sexual misconduct or the charge that he improperly extracted monetary concessions for the city from developers in return for approving their projects?” the result was a dead heat at 44% for each.

Never mind that in both cases the “story” is about a “charge”. And that the only so-called “extraction” was from the now infamous Sunroad developer for donations to two City sanctioned projects.

Yes, there should have been a nexus to the impacts of that project, so the money was returned. It’s important to bear in mind that all the projects that the current Mayor has questioned or impeded were due to violating either community plans or municipal code provisions and initiated under the previous Mayor’s regime.   [Read more…]

In Search of the Chariot Fire Burn on Mt. Laguna

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By Frank Gormlie

Like many San Diegans I watched images of the recent Chariot Fire that began on July 6th destroy sections of Mt Laguna with great concern. That mountain is one of my favorite spots in the county and I waited for the local media to give us an update on the damages that the fire caused to the natural habitat of the area along Sunrise Highway. Not satisfied with the paltry amount of news of the burn since the fire was put out, I decided to head out there myself and do a photo gallery of the destructive havoc wreaked by a wildfire.

On Friday afternoon, August 2nd, I drove east on I-8, heading for Sunrise Highway – the road that traverses Mt Laguna. With camera at the ready, I took notes in my search for the burn, holding my fears in check as I hurried towards the 6000 foot plus ridges that separated the mountains from the desert. There were sections of the mountain that I worried had been destroyed, as reports of the fire had it crossing Sunrise Highway, and eating its way west through pine forest.   [Read more…]

How to Get Mayor Bob Filner Out of Office and Why It Won’t Happen

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By Doug Porter

The City Council is on August recess. The Mayor is getting his head examined—one hopes from within, at least. And the campaign to get rid of Bob Filner continues, having failed to do much more than foster a gaggle of press conferences, one civil lawsuit, a nascent recall movement and whole lot of nastiness.

There is, of course, The Shame.  Let’s face it; the Mayor is a masher. As Daily Show substitute teacher John Oliver put it, there’s a lot of “ewww” there.  Admitting that there is a problem and doing something about it, however, are two vastly different things.

While the rollout, timing and (probable) coaching of the assorted witnesses against Bob Filner may not be a coincidence, denying that the Mayor has a problem doesn’t solve anything. I suspect he’s done enough denying in his lifetime to cover any quota imaginable.

Questioning the veracity of those women in comments around town won’t do squat either, except making the writer of the comments look bad and the Mayor look worse.

At this point the only arbiter of truth that counts is a judge or jury. And despite what some people would like us to believe, Trial by Twitter has not yet taken the place of our judicial system.   [Read more…]

Baja Justice at the Borderline

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By Bob Dorn

This week, my best friend and wife and I– the two of us– spent 48 hours on a quick trip to Baja; three of those were spent in line waiting to get back into the U.S.

It was 7:30 a.m. when we had finished looping around the center of TJ and entered the river bed east of the center. We didn’t know at this point that we’d followed “San Diego” signs until they’d disappeared. We were left to ourselves to learn that the left lane would turn into a Left Turn Only lane, withdrawing us from our salvation and guarantor of freedom, the U.S.   [Read more…]

Our Promising Bicycling Future in San Diego

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Don’t Miss
CicloSDias
August 11th

By Andy Hanshaw 

Ciclovía – a familiar term to any bicycling enthusiast, where popular roads turn car-less for people to play and literally rediscover their streets.

These open-street celebrations have trademarked bike-friendly cities around the world since the first Ciclovía was hosted in Bogotá, Colombia, in 1976, when the town closed one road to all cars and opened them for pedestrian use. Since then, the trend of people enjoying their streets without the stress of car traffic has made its way around the globe and into major cities where residents embrace these opportunities – in Bogotá, the Ciclovía still remains a city tradition every Sunday.

Since its conception in the late 70s, Ciclovías have swept the world, taking over main cities in Australia, New Zealand, Peru, Argentina, Canada and now, the United States is pedaling along. Turnout for Los Angeles’ “CicLAvia” has been recorded at 180,000 people, while San Francisco and Portland regularly draw 30,000-40,000 with their “Sunday Streets” and “Sunday Parkways.”.

We are finally getting in on the action, announcing San Diego’s first open streets celebration in history.   [Read more…]

Real Journalists vs Real Journalism And Why it’s Important in San Diego

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By Doug Porter

The Senate Judiciary Committee agreed yesterday to consider legislation sponsored by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. offering some protections to journalists from government demands for identification of sources used in news accounts.

What the committee could not agree on was what exactly defines a journalist.  Schumer’s proposal has a definition spanning four pages and defining reporters as persons “with the primary intent to investigate events and procure material in order to disseminate to the public news or information concerning local, national or international events or other matters of public interest,” collecting information by conducting interviews and directly observing events, and having the intent of gathering news.

As we’ve seen time and time again -from the New York Times’ complicity in the propaganda campaign in the run up to the invasion of Iraq to the campaign to recall the current Mayor of San Diego- the symbiotic relationships between ‘professional’ news organizations and the institutions they report on can and does cause a lot of ‘not really reporting’ to go on.

It’s all about “everybody knows”.   [Read more…]

Awash in a Sea of Reagan – Issa Wants Coastal Waters Named After Former President

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By Doug Porter

The House Natural Resources Committee approved legislation Wednesday naming 3.4 million square nautical miles of ocean and thousands of miles of coastline after the late President Ronald Reagan.  Introduced by San Diego’s own Rep. Darrell Issa, HR 553 would rename the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) after the GOP icon.

Most people haven’t heard of the EEZ, which became codified via a United Nations convention granting countries special rights over the exploration and use of marine resources, including energy production from water and wind in its coastal waters up to 200 miles offshore.

Nations began the ratification process of the international convention generating EEZs during the Reagan administration (1982) and the rules went into force in 1994 following approval by a 60th nation. Although the agreement has been ratified by 162 nations, the United States is notamong the signatories.   [Read more…]

San Diego Progressives Divided on Fate of Mayor Filner

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38% Vote He Should Not Resign

One doesn’t need poll results to know that San Diego progressives, Democrats, and liberals are divided on the fate and future of Mayor Bob Filner. The poll that San Diego Free Press ran for two weeks magnifies and confirms that division.

To the question, “Should Mayor Filner Resign?”, a plurality said “no” – with over a third agreeing to this position – 38%.

In contrast, 33% said ‘yes’, he should resign, and 6% agreed to the statement ‘if he doesn’t resign, he should be recalled’. This leaves a total of 39% voting that Filner should either resign or be recalled.

A fifth of those polled – 20% – stated that needed more information from the women involved. 13% wanted more info from the mayor, and 2% said they wanted more from the original accusers.

A total of 420 respondents took part in the two-week poll, which began on Sunday, July 14 and running through July 28th.   [Read more…]

NSA collects ‘nearly everything a user does on the internet’ with XKeyscore

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By Glenn Greenwald / theguardian.com / July 31, 2013

A top secret National Security Agency program allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals, according to documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The NSA boasts in training materials that the program, called XKeyscore, is its “widest-reaching” system for developing intelligence from the internet.

The latest revelations will add to the intense public and congressional debate around the extent of NSA surveillance programs. They come as senior intelligence officials testify to the Senate judiciary committee on Wednesday, releasing classified documents in response to the Guardian’s earlier stories on bulk collection of phone records and Fisa surveillance court oversight.

The files shed light on one of Snowden’s most controversial statements, made in his first video interview published by the Guardian on June 10.

“I, sitting at my desk,” said Snowden, could “wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president, if I had a personal email”.
  [Read more…]

Sex in San Diego: Could Porn Be Censored in America?

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By David Rosen / Alternet

On July 22, British Prime Minster David Cameron announced a plan by which, at year-end 2014, all UK Internet users would be required to formally register—“opt-in”—for access to porn sites on the web. Those who fail would be blocked from viewing such sites. His first step is to have Internet users install special programming filters to block access to such sites. Further, public venues like libraries, offices and cafes and nonregistered (read underage) users will be blocked from accessing porn sites.

“By the end of this year, when someone sets up a new broadband account the settings to install family-friendly filters will be automatically selected,” London’s Daily Mail reported Cameron announcing. “If you just click ‘next’ or ‘enter’, then the filters are automatically on. … Once those filters are installed, it should not be the case that technically literate children can just flick the filters off at the click of a mouse without anyone knowing.” (In the UK, like the U.S., most schools, libraries and businesses employ filters to block porn and other undesired content.)   [Read more…]

The Due Process of Getting Back to Business as Usual in San Diego

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By Doug Porter

 Now that proving Mayor Bob Filner’s is guilty as charged as a masher is just about finished in the San Diego media, the real business at hand is getting underway. I’m talking about a frenzied effort to roll back, eliminate or air brush out any vestiges of the Mayor’s actions in the first seven month of his administration.

Yesterday the case against Filner was bolstered with yet another victim’s testimonial about unwanted advances via KBPS (Ever wonder how they’re always first with all these revelations?) and a story in the Los Angeles Times revealing the woes of Voice of San Diego reporter Liam Dillon, who apparently decided that now was a good time to reveal his own Filner Horror Story.

The UT-San Diego went for a trifecta, leading with the City Attorney’s latest publicity stunt, a lawsuit seeking repayment of any costs incurred in defending the City against lawsuits, along with reporter Trent Siebert’s continuing efforts to hype up any possible charge against Filner. So many words, so little substance, so much innuendo.   [Read more…]

FICTION: My San Diego Nightmare – a Visit by the Ghost of Scandals Past

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By Sherly U. Jehest

Not accustomed to nightmares – as I am usually a good sleeper – I had a horrible one last night and just have to share it with you – my San Diego nightmare.

I had gone to sleep at my usual time, falling into slumber some time between Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show with John Oliver and its first commercial – a truly deadly time for me. I was dreaming of rolling sheets of ocean waves, so pretty … when I noticed a pale figure emerge out of the surf and begin to walk towards me.

The figure got closer and I noticed it was a tall woman wearing long, thin robes. She approached me and got closer – when all of a sudden she was sitting at the foot of my bed.

“What the …” I started to say, partially sitting up, when she shushed me with a long bony finger to her pale lips, glancing over at my sleeping mate.

“Who are you?” I managed to squeak out.

“I’m the Ghost of Scandals Past,” she said softly. She looked sad.   [Read more…]

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