San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

You are here: Home / Archives for Politics / Courts, Justice

House GOP Morality Crusaders Go After Scientists

by

Having failed to find evidence of wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood insinuated by doctored videos, a House committee led by anti-abortion Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is ready to start a new campaign targeting individuals engaging in fetal tissue research.

Since July 2015, 20 states have cleared Planned Parenthood of wrongdoing or decided not to pursue the matter. Yesterday, Planned Parenthood affiliates in three states joined a federal lawsuit filed in California against the videographers, alleging fraud, illegal recording, trespassing and invasion of privacy. The videos’ makers have also been indicted in Texas.

Now the committee — called the “Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives” by the conservative representatives behind it — is seeking subpoenas to medical companies to gather the names of medical researchers, graduate students, laboratory technicians, and administrative staff.   [Read more…]

November Ballot Measures in Turmoil: Fifteen Bucks Per Hour and a Football Stadium

by

An attempt by the City of Upland to delay a referendum overturning its ban on medical marijuana dispensaries has led to an appellate court decision challenging the presumption of a two-thirds majority being needed for tax increases in citizen-based ballot measures.

This is huge. And what seems like a good thing could end up being a nightmare, thanks to flaws in California’s initiative process. This ruling should mean a restoration of ‘majority rules’ when it comes to citizen-driven projects.

However, given the rash of special interest gaming of the electoral process, it could mean the public will be paying for projects benefiting private interests. In San Diego, that means the path to success could be a whole lot easier in the San Diego Chargers’ quest for a new stadium.   [Read more…]

Activists Move Closer to Getting Needed Police Reforms on Ballot

by

City Council Committee to Hear Ballot Proposal, Recommendation to Charter Review Committee Urged

By Women Occupy San Diego

On Wednesday, March 23rd Women Occupy San Diego will present its community-backed Ballot Proposal to make the Citizens Review Board on Police Practices (CRB)more independent and transparent to the San Diego City Council’s Public Safety & Liveable Neighborhoods (PSLN) Committee. We will do so on behalf of 25 civic organizations who have endorsed a Charter Amendment for the November 2016 ballot.
  [Read more…]

It’s Time for Some Changes at the San Diego Police Department

by

Will the City Council expand oversight of the San Diego Police Department? That’s the question being considered on Wednesday, March 23rd, as a city council committee considers an amendment to the charter making the Community Review Board on Police Practices more transparent and accountable.

Evidence that there may be a problem with oversight keeps piling up. The ACLU and 26 other groups have called upon the Department of Justice for an investigation into the SDPD’s use of force when encountering people living with mental illness.

A preliminary report from an independent study following up on concerns of racial profiling by the SDPD was delayed for eight months so the information wouldn’t come out “piecemeal.”   [Read more…]

Homeless Evicted in San Diego as Major El Niño Storm Approaches

by

UPDATE: Advocates to attend Tuesday City Council meeting…  “wearing trash bags to signify the only protection from the elements the city has left to hundreds of human beings who spent Monday night huddled under the overpasses in East Village. Our message: Stop treating human beings like garbage!”

You have to wonder what they were thinking in city hall. On Monday morning the police department conducted a sweep of sidewalk homeless encampments as a major winter storm bore down on San Diego.   [Read more…]

Dolores Huerta Joins Educators to Appeal Meritless Vergara Ruling

by

By Steve Smith / Labor’s Edge

This morning (Thursday, February 25th) in Los Angeles, civil rights icon Dolores Huerta joined teachers and parents to appeal the flawed ruling in the Vergara case that would undercut public education to the detriment of the state’s 6 million students.

Stating that Judge Treu’s decision striking down five California Education Code provisions “is without support in law or fact,” the speakers predicted that Treu’s numerous errors will be clearly visible to the appeals court, and the earlier Superior Court judgment will be overturned. Treu’s decision was stayed pending appeal. But if upheld it would cause great harm to public education.

Huerta, renowned civil rights leader, founder of the Dolores Huerta Foundation and co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association, talked about the importance of teachers’ having a strong voice for students and described how the backers of the Vergara case, a group deceptively named Students Matter, misrepresented details of the case in an attempt to get her support.   [Read more…]

Questions About Police Intervention at Lincoln High Remain Unanswered

by

The San Diego County District attorney’s office announced on Monday that video of an incident at Lincoln High School will not be released, according to a report on 10News. A SDUSD police officer was injured, two students were arrested and five people were hospitalized on Friday.

At issue are conflicting reports over what happened. Students say police overreacted to roughhousing. A cell phone video shows a police officer tasering a student lying face down and another officer pepper-spraying onlookers at the historically black high school. Police are asserting that an officer was jumped from behind and say more arrests are expected in the near future.   [Read more…]

Past Fatal Shootings of Civilians by San Diego Police

by

Call for Federal Investigation Echos Earlier Cries for Reform After Shootings of OBceans Danny the Walker and Tony Tumminia

Frank Gormlie / OB Rag

Every now and then, San Diegans get so outraged by police shootings of civilians who are usually unarmed, that they do something about it, whether through protest, or art – or by calls for the Department of Justice to come to town and investigate excess shootings by San Diego Police.

Just yesterday, February 17th, the ACLU and 26 San Diego groups and law firms called on the US Justice Department for an investigation into the SDPD’s use of force when encountering people living with mental illness. We certainly applaud this effort to bring a spotlight to an ugly underside of San Diego.   [Read more…]

Winter 2016 AFL-CIO Executive Meeting Topics: Economic Inequality, Democracy in America

by

The executive council of the AFL-CIO, a federation of 56 unions representing 12.5 million members, has been meeting in San Diego this week. The agenda for the gathering suggests a growing enthusiasm for broad political actions, going beyond the specific needs of organized labor.

The Big Story, according to mainstream media outlets, has been the decision not to make a presidential endorsement. The reasoning behind that decision, and just about everything else happening at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel is no secret though it would be easy to think it was from the lack of local coverage.   [Read more…]

I Don’t Mourn Scalia’s Passing

by

The man who gave us Citizens United and Bush vs Gore is gone from the face of the earth. I for one do not mourn his passing. His decisions have not only contributed to the destruction of the US, but major portions of the world as well, and he was set to destroy the world consensus on climate change which would have destroyed the entire planet.

It was Scalia who said that unlimited corporate campaign spending is something “we should celebrate rather than condemn,” (Citizens United), that vote-counting should be halted for causing “irreparable harm” to the candidate who might lose as a result (Bush v. Gore), that protecting the right to vote is an odious example of “racial entitlements” (comments related to Shelby County v. Holder), and that allowing local anti-discrimination laws to protect gays and lesbians amounts to “special treatment of homosexuals” (Romer v. Evans), the 5-4 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, which held for the first time that the Second Amendment protected an individual’s right to bear arms just to name a few of the highlights of his ignominious career.   [Read more…]

Obama’s Budget Contains Some Small Victories for Immigrant Advocates

by

By ChaKiara Tucker / Communications Coordinator for Alliance San Diego

Recently, President Obama revealed the budget for 2017, his final budget as Commander-In-Chief. The $4.7 trillion financial blueprint is a proposal of how this country should appropriate funds, and will be sent to Congress for revisions and approval.   [Read more…]

What A New Supreme Court Means for Unions, Education Funding, and the Future of California

by

With the death of Antonin Scalia on February 13th, public sector unions in America were given a reprieve from what was sure to be a bad ruling in the Friedrichs v CTA case before the Supreme Court. As Michael Hiltzik explained in the Los Angeles Times:

The target of the Friedrichs lawsuit, and several others just like it, is the “agency” or “fair share” fee. Under the law and according to a 1977 Supreme Court decision known as the Abood case, unionized public employees can be assessed nonmember fees to cover solely the cost of negotiations and contract enforcement, without being compelled to join the union and support its political activities by paying full union dues. That’s the arrangement in California.   [Read more…]

©2010-2017 SanDiegoFreePress.org

Code is Poetry