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Help Wanted: Who Did What in the North Park Jack-in-the-Box Construction Caper?

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By Doug Porter

On Wednesday I included an item in my column about a community rally and fundraiser for the North Park residents still hoping for a hearing on the lack of consequences for permit violations occurring remodeling of a Jack-in-the-Box restaurant. In that story I made the following comment:

The bottom line here is that the City of San Diego (also being sued) chose to be sued by residents rather than take on a corporation. We can thank City Attorney Jan Goldsmith for that legal strategy. 

One of my favorite phrases in writing about politics in San Diego is everybody knows. Based on reporting in City Beat (and elsewhere), I thought everybody knew that the construction was allowed to continue due to actions (or inaction) by the City Attorney.

Jan Goldsmith’s office now says that’s not true. So I’m asking for a little help from our readers to figure this out.   [Read more…]

How Dry We Are – Worst Drought Conditions in California Since 1895

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By Doug Porter

Thursday’s weather forecast for San Diego includes the slight possibility of rain. Maybe that should be a slight possibility of a slight amount of rain, since the total precipitation is expected to be in the one hundredth of an inch range. The Sierra Nevada Mountains are expected to see as much as six inches of rain, but even that amount will be the proverbial drop in the bucket when compared to the severity of the current drought.

Today’s column will start off with a look around media outlets and water conservation activists in the Golden State addressing the impact of the current dry spell.  A Public Policy Institute poll cited in the UT-San Diego indicates that ten percent of Californians see the drought as the most important issue of the day.

Based on the reactions of State and Federal officials it seems likely to me the public is uninformed about the severity of the situation. Droughts, after all, lack the sex appeal of stories about 19 year old pop stars being arrested or the latest in ObamaScare lies being peddled by the GOP.   [Read more…]

The Story Behind Those Illegal Campaign Contributions in San Diego

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By Doug Porter

The big story today concerns the dark side of campaign finance.  Acomplaint unsealed in federal court yesterday indicates that law enforcement agencies are building a case around illegal contributions made by Mexican businessman Susumo Azano to candidates in recent San Diego elections.

Ravi Singh, owner of ElectionMall Inc., and retired SDPD detective Ernesto Encinas have alreday been charged with conspiring to funnel more than $500,000 of illegal contributions to various campaign committees during 2012 and 2013.  The candidates’ names are redacted in the federal complaint, which refers to them as c1, c2,c3,and c4.

Campaign finance records and inside sources talking to reporters at UT-San Diego indicate the monies went to PACs working to support District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis’ mayoral run, former Mayor Bob Filner and former Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher. One candidate, who ran for federal office in 2012, remains unidentified.   [Read more…]

When Martin Luther King Gave Up His Guns

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By Mark Engler and Paul Engler  / Waging NonViolence.org

Few are aware that Martin Luther King, Jr., once applied for a permit to carry a concealed handgun.

In his 2011 book Gunfight, UCLA law professor Adam Winkler notes that, after King’s house was bombed in 1956, the clergyman applied in Alabama for a concealed carry permit. Local police, loathe to grant such permits to African-Americans, deemed him “unsuitable” and denied his application. Consequently, King would end up leaving the firearms at home.

The lesson from this incident is not, as some NRA members have tried to suggest in recent years, that King should be remembered as a gun-toting Republican. (Among many other problems, this portrayal neglects to acknowledge how Republicans used conservative anger about Civil Rights advances to win over the Dixiecrat South to their side of the aisle). Rather, the fact that King would request license to wear a gun in 1956, just as he was being catapulted onto the national stage, illustrates the profundity of the transformation that he underwent over the course of his public career.   [Read more…]

A Panty Bribe? Really? City Attorney Blames Sexual Assault Victim in Civil Action

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By Doug Porter

City Attorney Jan Goldsmith’s office has, once again, taken actions guaranteed to make San Diego a national embarrassment.  A sexual assault victim suing the city because her assailant was a police officer is now being portrayed in court documents as having committed a criminal act.

According to an article in today’s UT-San Diego, our city’s chief legal advocate has chosen to adopt a strategy of blaming the victim as a defense in a civil suit filed in the wake of the 2011 conviction of former SDPD officer Anthony Arevalos on charges of sexual battery, bribery and related charges.

Our tax dollars paid for a legal document filed by Goldsmith’s office alleging that “Jane Doe” offered her underwear as a bribe to escape arrest on a drunk-driving charge on March 8, 2011.

UPDATE, 5PM WEDS: The City Attorney’s office has now decided this accusation wasn’t such a good idea, after all.   [Read more…]

Toll of U.S. Sailors Devastated by Fukushima Radiation Continues to Climb

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By Harvey Wasserman / Common Dreams

The roll call of U.S. sailors who say their health was devastated when they were irradiated while delivering humanitarian help near the stricken Fukushima nuke is continuing to soar.

So many have come forward that the progress of their federal class action lawsuit has been delayed.

Bay area lawyer Charles Bonner says a re-filing will wait until early February to accommodate a constant influx of sailors from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and other American ships.   [Read more…]

All I Want for Christmas: A Youth’s Statement of Solidarity with Joe Solomon

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By Anonymous Youth

Editors Note: We received this essay over the holiday in response to our December 24 post by activist Joe Soloman. Because of the personal nature of subjects covered herein, we suggested anonymity to the author.

I write in solidarity with Joe Solomon’s desire for more youth-led climate justice.

I am 26 years old. I hold degrees as a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Juris Doctor. I have $230,000 of student loan debt and growing. I have already began and finished a career as a public defender.

I am young and I want climate justice.

I want a livable future for myself, my loved ones, and the rest of the world. I want the current extinction rate of 200 species a day to stop. Forever. I want more whales off the San Diego coast this year than the year before. I want less deforestation. I want the kids in Barrio Logan to be able to breathe. I want the rich to stop stealing from the poor. I want to see a grizzly bear in California again one day.   [Read more…]

“We Sincerely Wish Mr. Filner Well in His Rehabilitation”

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By Doug Porter

The headline on today’s column is the language used by the UT-San Diego editorial board today in summing up what they called “the final chapter” of the Bob Filner saga.  Today’s column will look at some of the coverage around the nation of former Mayor Bob Filner’s sentencing yesterday. And I’ll chime in with a few thoughts.

Between reading the coverage and today’s UT-San Diego editorial I’ve concluded San Diegans are expected to draw the following conclusions:

  • San Diego just experienced a disaster. (Has the Red Cross been notified?)
  • Bob Filner’s political supporters should to be exiled. (Will Siberia do?)
  • The news media failed to print enough rumors. (Except about Carl DeMaio)
  • The voters were stupid not to listen to Lynchester Logic™.

Just in case we, the public, haven’t “learned our lesson” from this squalid affair, our Daily Fishwrap featured Logan Jenkins warning us that the former mayor might indeed seek a role in local civic affairs in the future.  Look for additional Filner Fearmongering in your mailbox in coming weeks as the Lincoln Club types desperation deepens in their quest to disparage Democrat David Alvarez’s mayoral campaign.   [Read more…]

Congressman Juan Vargas Joins Capitol Hill Fast for Immigration Reform

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By Doug Porter

An ongoing fast by immigration activists just steps from the Capitol building in Washington DC continues to grow, both in participants and impact.  The news media around the country has begun to notice, with prominent stories posted in the Washington Post and at National Public Radio.

The four original protesters—who had consumed nothing but water since November 12th—yielded to the concerns of medical personnel yesterday, handing their protest over to Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-Mass.), the first of a series of lawmakers to participate in the fast.

Kennedy will be replaced by San Diego’s Rep. Juan Vargas today. House Majority leader Rep. John Boehner and other Republicans have declined invitations to meet with the protesters.

Although lobbyists and business leaders have urged to House of Representatives to take action before the end of the year, the GOP leadership has indicated they’ll have to wait until a budget agreement is enacted in mid-January. And even then, they’re not willing to go on the record to say immigration reform will get consideration.   [Read more…]

Charges Dismissed Against Vince Adame – “the Felony Hedge Trimmer of OB”

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By Matthew Wood /OBRag

The nightmare that has been Vince Adame’s long shrubbery saga is finally over.

He has been battling a citation over his trimming of some bushes across the alley from his house that somehow turned into a felony vandalism charge. When the district attorney’s office finally dropped the charges Monday night, the longtime Ocean Beach resident was able to breathe a sigh of relief.

A press conference in the alley just outside his house, in “Surf Check Alley”, next to the scene of the crime, brought some closure to this chain of events that started in July.

“I’ve been doing the same thing for years,” Adame said of his maintenance work, which he said only came about because nobody at the city would take care of it.

“I sweep the alley and clean up. I encourage everyone to do the same in their neighborhood.”   [Read more…]

Face Up to It, San Diego is a Beta Project for All-Seeing Law Enforcement

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By Doug Porter

Facial recognition technology developed for battlefield use in Afghanistan and Iraq is getting its first major domestic field test right here in San Diego County.  A report by the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR), based on documents obtained by the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) through a California Public Records Act request, spells out the parameters of this endeavor.

The San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) is coordinating a program involving twenty five local state and federal agencies in the region using a vast data sharing program called the Automated Regional Justice Information System. Participants include U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, San Diego State University and the San Diego Unified School District Police.

Utilizing tablet and android cell phone technologies, law enforcement officers are snapping photographs of individuals they encounter and running them through databases that include 32 million driver’s license photos.  The system can quickly match images with the 1.4 million arrest mug shots in the San Diego County system.   [Read more…]

When Public and Private Meet, Extra Care Is Needed

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By Donald Cohen/California Labor Federation

Across the nation, private companies are looking to take over public services. A legislative battle in Sacramento over a bill to privatize state trial courts epitomizes the promises and pitfalls of privatization.

Assembly Bill 566 (Wieckowski) would require that before contracting services out, courts must provide proof of cost savings, create employment standards, engage in a competitive bidding process, and undergo regular financial and performance audits bill sits on the governor’s desk for signature or veto and the lobbying is intense.

As in most debates over outsourcing of public services, opponents’ central claim is that privatizing essential courtroom services such as court reporting, processing cases, probate investigations, and interpretive services, saves dollars.

Yet the track record on privatization of public services and assets is decidedly mixed. Public agencies that hire private companies without strong mechanisms of accountability, transparency, rigorous evaluations of contracting costs and standards have learned the hard way.   [Read more…]

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