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Proposition 52 – Keep MediCal Funding Where It Belongs

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Back in the bad old days of the great recession, the California legislature diverted hundreds of millions in funding derived from a tax hospitals pay. The federal government kicks in matching funds for these taxes flowing back to the hospitals through MediCal, so it’s a sweet deal. Hospitals pay one dollar to get two back, more or less.

The recession is over, and the hospitals want their original deal back in place.

So they raised a boatload of money to put Proposition 52 before the voters. This is a “lockbox” measure, designed to give voters the opportunity to say that funds raised for or by a certain purpose must be spent in that general area as well.   [Read more…]

Trump’s Thin Skin Did Him in at the First Debate

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You really didn’t need the sound on for Monday’s Presidential debate at Hofstra University to understand what was taking place.

Donald Trump blustered. He made faces. His eyes turned into narrow slits spitting fire. And, I suppose, some of his comments were relevant to his followers.

Hillary smiled, eyes wide open. Towards the end, she even did a little victory shimmy, as her opponent once again stepped in it.   [Read more…]

Prop 51 – Will Schools Get Fixed and Repaired?

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The California Public School Facility Bonds Initiative, better known as Proposition 51, proposes to refill the State of California’s money pot used for school construction and repair.

It has been ten years since the last statewide school bond, and proponents say there is a massive backlog of local school projects.

Everybody loves building and fixing schools, right?   [Read more…]

Progressives Should Just Say NO WAY to Measure A

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Something isn’t better than nothing if that something keeps us on a steady course down the suicide path.

San Diego does not have a history of visionary regional planning, but the woefully inadequate Measure A would take our city to a new low by ensuring decades more of inadequate efforts to address both our infrastructure needs and climate change.

Sadly, Measure A is not up to the transportation and climate justice challenges of the present and would guarantee a future for our city that would leave us with no solutions for climate change or traffic congestion while increasing pollution, poisoning our children, and turning a deaf ear to the needs of beleaguered communities of color.
  [Read more…]

National Report: The Clinton-Kaine Campaign Checks In From Kent, Ohio

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By Yuko Kurahashi

This month the 2016 Clinton-Kaine Campaign hosted the grand opening of its office headquarters out of Portage County in Kent, Ohio.

In freshly painted rooms and the lawn in front of the office campaign, volunteers and supporters engaged in conversation, reflecting the campaign slogan “Stronger Together.”

Present at the opening were Mike Kerrigan, candidate for Portage County Commissioner and Brad Cromes, candidate for Portage County Treasurer. Cromes brought his toddler son to the opening and said he would like his children to grow up in the world of positivism and hope, not of fear and hatred.

The guest speaker was Richard Schiff, known for his Emmy Award winning role as Toby Ziegler on The West Wing.   [Read more…]

Notes on the First 2016 General Election Presidential Debate

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The first presidential debate is not about “winning” or “losing.” It’s about perception and emotion. It’s time for a “gut check.”

Monday evening’s event (6pm start time, for those of us on the left coast) will be broadcast live from Hofstra University. NBC’s Lester Holt will moderate the first debate, broadcast live on each of the major networks and leading cable news sites. There will be a live feed from ABC News available on Facebook and Twitter will stream Bloomberg’s coverage.

Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump will be the only candidates on the stage. Libertarian Gary Johnson, Jill Stein of the Green Party, and that other stand-in for a Republican candidate failed to make the cut based on their results in the most recent major polling.   [Read more…]

Prop 66 Promotes ‘Shotgun-Style-Appointment’ of Unqualified Defense Attorneys

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Qualified death penalty lawyers don’t grow on trees, which is another reason to vote “No” on Prop. 66, and “Yes” on Prop. 62.

In response to The San Francisco Chronicle’s recent editorial, Fight crime, not futility: Abolish the death penalty, which thoroughly eviscerates Proposition 66 – the Grim Reaper ballot initiative seeking to speed-up state-sponsored executions – Sacramento D.A. Anne Marie Schubert promised California voters that, “[t]he overall changes” needed to repair the state’s discriminatory and horribly dysfunctional death penalty are, “easy fixes.”

To anybody who believes that: Not only do I have a snazzy bridge in Brooklyn to sell you, I’ll throw in a bridge to nowhere gratuit.

The Chronicle, which published Schubert’s glib and disjointed talking points under the header “dissenting view” was also clearly unimpressed. It excerpted just one devastating paragraph from its prior full-length blistering editorial to run beneath Schubert’s superficial, scatter-brained response.   [Read more…]

Measure D – Nice Try, But No Cigar for The Citizens’ Plan

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A good metaphor for Measure D would be the guy who tries to break up a fight and ends up getting pummelled by both combatants.

Also known as the Citizens’ Plan, Cory Briggs Evil Plot, and Chargers Stadium Lite, the proposal is all-but-dead in the water.

The money spigot ran dry in May. The thoughtful discussion Measure D should have stimulated never happened, lost in the dread of yet another rich guy scheme, and the unintended consequences of its (mostly) good intentions.   [Read more…]

Chargers Stadium Ballot Measure C — As In Chutzpa

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There are two items on the ballot for City of San Diego voters related in some fashion to the construction of a place for the local NFL franchise to play.

Measure C, backed by the San Diego Chargers ownership, is an effort to get a stadium/convention center built. The group’s committee is a cash machine, taking in tens of thousands of dollars (nearly) daily, all from the same source.

Measure D is primarily backed by interests with investments in nearby properties, namely the Moores family. For monetary reasons, it’s just about dead in the water. D is on the ballot, but the money spigot was turned off May 3.   [Read more…]

Measure B – Ballot Box Planning at its Worst

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Lilac Hills Ranch Developer Goes for an End Run Around Community Groups

If you’re buying the arguments proponents of Measure B are peddling, I have a bridge to sell you.

Measure B is a clear cut case of a developer doing an end-run around years of community input into planning. Voters in El Cajon and Chula Vista are being asked to decide on a North County project they only know of through ads with fallacious arguments. (Ask the people in Barrio Logan how they feel about that concept.)

For starters, there is no low-income housing in this plan. Unless a starting purchase price of $300,000 is considered low-income friendly. And the greenest thing about this development is the cash being passed around to support it.   [Read more…]

Junior Trump and the Skittles of Doom

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By Mark Sumner / Daily Kos

On Monday evening, Junior Trump demonstrated once again how he has inherited all of his father’s deep respect for diversity and understanding of complex issues.

Uh huh. Syrian refugees undergo the most intense vetting process of any group arriving in the United States. You might even call it … extreme. But there’s a bigger issue with Junior’s Skittle comparison. This kind of “poison candy” argument can be, and has been, used to defend racism against any group.   [Read more…]

Does SANDAG’s ‘Measure A’ Amount to Bold Action on Climate Change?

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Of all the local measures on the ballot, none has split local Democrats, labor, and environmental groups more than Measure A. It proposes to fund transportation and open space projects throughout San Diego County over the next 40 years via a half-cent sales tax increase. Questions about its environmental and social consequences have been raised.

The plan, crafted by the staff of the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), will raise $18 billion over its lifetime, with $4.3 billion doled out to local communities for upgrades and repairs.

Just about everybody agrees that work on local and regional infrastructure needs to continue. It’s how we get there that’s causing disagreement.   [Read more…]

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