By Micaela Shafer Porte
I imagine he is managed by many smart women,
Because I never hear him mention any particular opinion,
Except that he’s In Favor and that All is Well,
Then to hand the floor over to
Accompanying Security Personnel. [Read more…]
Today (November 1) is Congressman Darrell Issa’s sixty-third birthday.
He’s worked hard in recent years, using the powers of his office to deny Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke ability to testify on birth control and failing to come up with even one conclusive investigation into the Obama administration despite promising the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform would hold investigative hearings “seven hearings a week, times 40 weeks.”
The Republican leadership denied Issa’s request for an extended tenure as committee chair in 2014, due primarily to a lack of results. This wasn’t such a big deal back in the days of the Bush administration when Issa used his perch to block investigation of 22 million missing White House emails. But with Barack Obama in the driver’s seat, the party expected results and got nothing but posturing designed to build the Issa brand. [Read more…]
By Dr. Gregg Robinson, President, San Diego County Board of Education,
Dr. Jim Miller, Vice President, American Federation of Teachers Guild, Local 1931
Somebody is trying to buy control of San Diego’s education system and few in the local media seem to have noticed until Sunday’s San Diego Union-Tribune finally covered it. The Voice of San Diego has been quiet on this front, perhaps because, as the SDUT article reports, its co-founder Buzz Woolley is part of the action. He and his fellow corporate education reformers have San Diego in their crosshairs and are spending big money to drive their agenda.
As Jeff Bryant recently reported at OurFuture.org, there is a huge amount of money behind this new corporate effort to “disrupt” public education:
As education historian Diane Ravitch explains on her personal blog, “Public education in California is under siege by people and organizations who want to privatize the schools, remove them from democratic control, and hand them over to the charter industry.” [Read more…]
By Mario Torero, Brent Beltrán, and Bill Adams / UrbDeZine
Barrio Logan is little known to most San Diegans – beyond being a predominantly Mexican-American neighborhood near downtown. Yet it is one of San Diego’s most historically significant and culturally important neighborhoods.
In particular, it has national prominence for its role in the Chicano / Mexican-American civil rights movement. However, more than a Chicano historic asset, the neighborhood and it’s history stands as a monument to the resilience and survival of the nation’s minority and working class populations in the face of assaults and exploitation by the overwhelming power of the state and business interests.
In particular, many ethnic working-class urban neighborhoods across the country were destroyed or severely damaged by en masse relocation of their residents to build freeways and other neighborhood-destroying and suburb serving facilities. Barrio Logan repeatedly faced such assaults, and not only survived but like putting a bouquet of flowers in a tank cannon, sometimes made beauty and purpose out of injury. Nevertheless, once the second largest Mexican-American enclave in the U.S., it has shrunk to less than 5,000 people as a result of the loss of land to the freeways and industrial uses. It may not survive another such assault. [Read more…]
Of the $16,874 from a total of 41 donors to Cody Campbell’s campaign for reelection to Vista’s City Council, only $2,640 came from city residents. He could thank the six of them by having them over for dinner.
To thank the others he will have to drive up the coast to Irvine and Newport Beach, after stopping in Oceanside to thank Mayor James Wood for his $300 donation and visiting other generous residents of Vista’s neighboring cities.
But take a closer look at the out-of-towners to get a clue to their affection for the politician. [Read more…]
The campaign season is almost over, and like an unsupervised five-year-old later in the evening on Halloween, most of us are sick of it.
Was it the candy corn or the M&M’s that pushed us over the edge? We’ll probably never know, but the one sure cure for all this queasiness is to cast your ballot. Consider it a metaphor for throwing up. Do it and you’ll feel better, honest.
As is true with hustling candy from strangers, one person’s political treat is another’s trick. So with that in mind, here’s a rundown of what I found in my bag of politics from over the weekend. [Read more…]
By Jim Miller
In weeks past, I have shared this space with colleagues from labor and the Climate Action Campaign, the Cleveland National Forest Foundation, the Sierra Club and SD 350, as well as the Environmental Health Coalition, all making the case against Measure A. This week, I am pleased to present the final guest column, this one from Mid-City CAN, yet another of the many labor, environmental, and community allies who are part of the Quality of Life Coalition opposing Measure A. [Read more…]
By Will Griffin / Common Dreams
I was in Iraq when President Bush announced the “surge” in January 2007. I was in Afghanistan when President Obama announced the “surge” in December 2009. But it wasn’t until I visited Standing Rock in October 2016 when I actually served the American people. This time, instead of fighting for corporate interests, I was fighting for the people.
The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), or Bakken Pipeline, is a 1,172-mile oil pipeline project that will transfer crude oil across four states: North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois. From the Bakken fields of North Dakota, the pipeline will carry in excess of 450,000 barrels per day of crude oil to Patoka, Illinois, and possibly on to Texas and near the Gulf Coast areas for refinement or export. The project will cost $3.7 billion while creating 8,000-12,000 temporary construction jobs and only 40 permanent operating jobs. [Read more…]
By Herman Baca / Committee on Chicano Rights
It was with a sad & heavy heart that we heard of the passing of beloved; Ramon “Chunky” Sanchez. To Isabel Sanchez, the entire Sanchez/Enrique families our deepest & most sincere condolences from the Committee on Chicano Rights, Chicano/Mexicano/Latino community, and my family.
I first met Chunky in the early 1970’s at SD State at a rally where Chunky was a student. At the time both of us were doing what we were to do for the next 45 years, Chunky playing & singing (then with La Rondalla Amerinda, later with Los Alacranes Mojados) & I speaking. We hit it right off, since the both of us were from two small rural agricultural communities, Chunky from Blythe, CA & I from Los Lentes, New Mexico. [Read more…]
This week’s edition of Looking Back at the Week features articles, commentaries, columns, toons, and other work by San Diego Free Press regulars, irregulars, columnists, at-large contributors, and sourced writers on: Chunky Sanchez, Tom Hayden, SDPD’s bias report, opposing Measure A, SD’s war on homeless people, Reclaiming Our Stories, La Frontera, and lots of other grassroots news & progressive views from San Diego’s friendly, neighborhood, all volunteer, slightly funky, community news site. [Read more…]
By Jeeni Criscenzo
How do I write about a wrong without shutting down respectful communication with those who hold the power to block all efforts to find a humane solution to the growing number of people who are homeless in our region?
The way I found out about the Homeless Town Hall held on Wednesday evening at Town & Country Resort and Convention Center should have been a clue that that this wasn’t a serious effort to find solutions. It wasn’t announced through the usual channels that would reach those who are working every day for solutions to homelessness. There was a mention on the Facebook post of Homeless News San Diego, from Michael McConnell, a highly respected a local advocate, who was one of the early leaders in the 25 Cities Campaign to End Homelessness, who had been asked to be part of the forum.
