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Why I Can’t Support Summer Stephan for County DA (and why we need Genevieve Jones-Wright)

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By Timothy Holmberg

I first met Summer Stephen one early morning as I schlepped into my 7am Rotary meeting. I had decided months ago to join Rotary for the good works at the core of their mission. They also specifically swore off political affiliations or allowing themselves to be used as a platform for the politically aspiring. We had officeholders speak to our group in the past, and all had heeded our organization’s prohibition on politicking at our meetings.

I expected the same of Stephen. I was wrong.   [Read more…]

Interim District Attorney Summer Stephan Did Nothing When I Was Assaulted By White Supremacists

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My name is William Johnson. I’m an activist here in San Diego and have been a regular at protests since 2011. I go out to march, rally, protest, and demonstrate, because I care deeply about fighting for the civil and human rights of all people, and against institutional poverty, environmental degradation, and militarism. Nowhere in our greater San Diego/Tijuana Metropolitan area are these issues more intersectional than at our border.

This has drawn me to protest there many times, most recently to protest Attorney General Jeff Sessions when he announced his policy to separate all migrant children from their parents, to which I called him “evil”. (And he announced this policy at Friendship Park of all places… The nerve of that man! But I digress…) To many people’s amazement, I walked away from this protest like I do 99% of the protests I attend; unscathed.

This was not the case on December 9th of last year, where I, and some of my friends and allies, were attacked by a group of well-known San Diego-based white supremacists.   [Read more…]

Documents Suggest Favoritism on San Diego County Property Tax Appeals by Assessor’s Office

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It pays to have friends in high places, especially when it comes time to appeal property tax assessments in San Diego County, according to documents released via the California Public Records Act and provided to the San Diego Free Press. These documents, along with a careful analysis of campaign finance records and personal financial disclosures, suggest favoritism has been a factor in reducing the tax burdens of those with connections to County Assessor Ernest Dronenburg. 

A major local corporation, along with a longtime campaign contributor’s family, were among the beneficiaries, thanks to a seeming lack of interest in challenging appeals by the agency responsible for such matters. Because there was no push-back by the County, the assessment appeals process was effectively manipulated, paving the way for significant reductions in property values for Qualcomm, the largest property taxpayer in San Diego County.   [Read more…]

To Create a More Welcoming World | Video Worth Watching

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As part of Starbuck’s four-hour training session last Tuesday, participants watched a short film by Stanley Nelson designed to heighten the viewer’s awareness of how profiling affects diverse communities. The video features the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s Sherrilyn Ifill who served as Senior Consultant for the project. During the video a narrator comments that even though discrimination in public spaces has been against the law since the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, changing the law doesn’t always change reality. And being allowed in doesn’t always mean being welcomed.   [Read more…]

Slate Mailers and Other Weapons of Mass Deception

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As the primary election season draws to a close, voters are being bombarded with slate mailers, a legally recognized way in California to fool some of the people some of the time. More than 80 such efforts are registered with the California Secretary of State. Further down in this column I’ll give a shout out to some of the other hinky happenings this year.

These mailings, which don’t come from political parties, unions, or business groups, typically start of listing a few well-known candidates running for high profile offices.  To the untrained eye, most appear to come from organizations with names suggesting a legitimate interest group or point of view. All contain the legally mandated disclosure explaining the sender is “not an official political party organization.”  Slate mailers sometimes call themselves voter guides and the only way a curious voter can tell the difference is by looking for the legally mandated disclosure.

These mass mailings are funded by selling ‘endorsements’ to various campaigns. Often times candidates buy in as a means of keeping their opponent from gaining exposure. It’s not unusual for the mix of candidates supported by a slate mailer to seem illogical, especially if you’re reasonably well-informed on politics. 
  [Read more…]

An Open Letter to the California Charter Schools Association

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To: Steven Baratte, Managing Director, Communications, Southern California, California Charter Schools Association (CCSA)

Reference: Your May 21, 2018, email message to San Diego Free Press (SDFP)

Your message began, “I am the managing director of communications in Southern California for the California Charter Schools Association and wanted to introduce myself because I have seen an increase of charter-related stories on your website.” Then you claim without evidence, “Many of the stories contain inaccuracies about California charter schools and perpetuate falsehoods.”

Mr. Baratte, don’t you think a serious claim like this deserves a little evidence; a few examples? Every charter school article in SDFP has been rigorously documented and provides hot links to the documentation. One might disagree with the conclusions, but the evidence presented is accurate and well-sourced.   [Read more…]

San Diego Disabled Homeless Who Live in RVs Will Have Their Say in Court – Some Day

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A class-action suit against the City of San Diego by a group of disabled homeless challenging the enforcement of parking laws that prevent homeless people from living and sleeping in recreational vehicles is winding its way through Federal court.

The suit was filed in November 2017 by 9 homeless men and women who say they have no other housing option except to live in their RVs – which forces them to park overnight in city parks or streets. Their disabilities make them unable to afford rent and that homeless shelters are unsuitable for the disabled.

Their lawsuit demands that the city immediately stop citing disabled people under its long-standing vehicle habitation ordinance and its relatively new RV ordinance. The RV ordinance, enforced by the city in 2014, prohibits such vehicles from parking on any San Diego city street or in any public parking lot between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. The suit was written by attorneys from the Sacramento-based nonprofit group Disability Rights California.   [Read more…]

San Diego County’s Continuing War on Marijuana

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Today in Spring Valley – an unincorporated community of San Diego County – sheriff deputies raided an unlicensed marijuana dispensary on Troy Street. This effort demonstrates that the war against pot continues in this area of California.

Twenty-two years after the voters of California legalized medical cannabis and a year and half after voters over the state voted to legalize recreational marijuana, the County of San Diego pushes on against the will of the people, cracking down on pot shops.

The current crop of County supervisors voted in March 2017 to prohibit any marijuana operations in the unincorporated areas of the County and phase out existing ones.   [Read more…]

Looking Back at Our Coverage of County Primary Contests – These Are the Races to Watch

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An Overview

The motto for San Diego County is “The noblest motive is the public good.” Questions to be answered in 2018 will decide if this is possible in the future.

I hold that the government of the County of San Diego is the single biggest factor standing in the way of solving many of the social problems facing the region. Voters have an opportunity to do something about it, starting in June.

Editor’s Note: Starting Line columnist Doug Porter is taking a few days off. Since he’s spent the last six months flogging the importance of the County of San Diego primaries (last day to vote is June 5), we’re reprinting some of his early observations. Updated parts of these stories are in red.    [Read more…]

Lori Saldaña and the Lincoln Club? Just Say NO

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There’s been a lot of controversy lately about Lori Saldaña’s previously floundering County Board of Supervisors run getting a big money boost in the form of an independent expenditure campaign by the Lincoln Club, and while Doug Porter did a fine job of connecting the dots and explaining why both the Lincoln Club and the Working Families Council would be involved in a dark alliance to attack Nathan Fletcher and promote Saldaña, some folks wandering the barren landscape of social media still don’t seem to grok precisely how troubling these connections are for those inclined to support Saldaña, the self-proclaimed savior of the Democratic Party.

Thus, some history is in order.   [Read more…]

Feeling in Tune With La Neighbor and Logan Heights

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I just finished reading a collection of essays, “La Neighbor: A Settlement House in Logan Heights,” written by a longtime friend, Maria Garcia.

Maria and I go back a ways and we’re soulmates in so many ways.

We’re writers, and activists, who’ve taken to the streets many a time in the pursuit of equality.

We’re educators who modeled, in our schools, how to treat children with respect and how to turn them on to the world of learning.

When a state law was passed requiring us, as school principals, to harass some of our families, our friends, like we were “la migra” or somebody, we, without as much as blinking, said a a loud “Hell! No!” to that.

Maria’s stories captured the spirit of Logan Heights’ old iconic Neighborhood House, a welcoming place that so many Mexican Americans considered the “heart” of their community.   [Read more…]

Looking Back: D4 Supervisor Candidate Lori Saldaña – The Truth Will Set You Free

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Editor’s Note: Starting Line columnist Doug Porter is taking a few days off. Since he’s spent the last six months flogging the importance of the County of San Diego primaries (last day to vote is June 5), we’re reprinting some of his early observations. Updated parts of these stories are in red. 

Former Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña is running for termed-out Supervisor Ron Roberts seat, a Republican who managed to get re-elected despite Democrats outnumbering Republicans in the district 2 to 1.

She has a long progressive political pedigree and has maintained a high profile despite not currently holding office through her activism with groups advocating for the homeless, women’s rights, and environmental causes.   [Read more…]

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