San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

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.
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Activist DeRay McKesson on Campaign Zero (Updated)

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Note: #BlackLivesMatter activist DeRay McKesson was the closing keynote speaker at Politifest2016, all-day public affairs conference held at SDSU on September 24, featuring workshops and sessions about the November ballot.

Talking with DeRay McKesson was the highlight of my day. He has an engaging, low-key candor that put the mostly white audience at ease. He’s a good-looking 31 year old man with a unique style – wearing a preppy Patagonia vest with slim jeans and European style pointed shoes with colorful socks. He’s soft-spoken with an indistinct diction and fast flowing words.

I asked him how white people could help the cause of ending violence against black people. He suggested we use our “White Privilege” to disrupt it. Campaign Zero, the campaign he and fellow activists started, provides strategies for doing this.   [Read more…]

From Despising Wells Fargo to Creating Democracy at Work

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By Frank Henry-Reyes and James Anderson

Watching Senator Elizabeth Warren grill the chief executive of Wells Fargo, John Stumpf, as he testified before the Senate Banking Committee last week was a little satisfying, sure, but it hardly suffices in terms of addressing what is really at issue.

As has been well documented, Wells Fargo agreed to a $185 million settlement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in early September when it came to light that the bank’s employees had for several years created fake bank accounts to pad sales numbers, which resulted in customers nationwide paying overdraft and late fees on credit cards and accounts they did not even know they had.   [Read more…]

Looking Back at the Week: September 18-24

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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: Measures ABCD, Fred Glass, six council candidates in NC, Jess Haro, deported veterans, Dr. Bronner, Chunky Sanchez, keeping SD seafood local, Standing Rock, and lots of other grassroots news & progressive views from San Diego’s friendly, neighborhood, all volunteer, slightly funky, community news site.   [Read more…]

Six Candidates Compete for National City Council Elections

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The First United Methodist Church of National City had planned to host a City Council Candidates Forum on Monday, September 26th. They wanted to have a meet-and-greet, allow candidates to give a presentation and then have time for questions & answers.

Unfortunately, First United had to cancel the event. They explained only two candidates had responded to the invitation, even though this forum was the only one planned for the entire city.

Last week, I emailed & called each candidate. I asked them to answer 5 questions relating to National City. Of the six candidates, Jerry Cano (currently Vice Mayor) and David Garcia did not respond.

Fortunately, four other candidates agreed to send their answers: Jose Rodriguez, Luis Natividad (former City Councilmember and also endorsed by the San Diego Democratic Party), Candy Morales and Alejandra Sotelo-Solis (currently city council member of National City and endorsed by the San Diego Democratic Party).   [Read more…]

Jess Haro: From Stockton to San Diego

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Jess Haro is well known in San Diego’s Latino community. The Chicano activist has been a City Councilman, Chairman of the Board of the Chicano Federation and has served on various boards in our community. How did the boy born in Stockton, California end up in San Diego?

Jess’s father immigrated to the United States in 1918. Jess’s mother became a widow from her first husband in Durango, Mexico and followed her daughter to the United States in 1923. It was a very long journey and took eight days by mule to reach Nogales where she then caught a train to El Monte, California. She went to work at the Hick’s Ranch and lived in the huge farm worker camp located in El Monte.   [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…]

Geo-Poetic Spaces: Rules of the Road

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There are exits
nobody can open

When calls for help
echo unanswered
break the door
set yourself free
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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…]

Hoping a Museum Will Help My People Finally Overcome

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Soon the new National Museum
of African American History and Culture
will open and stand infinitely
on the National Mall
in Washington D.C. –
sharing a home
with other grand memorials
commemorating extraordinary
Americans and events
in our nation’s history,
giving “Black Lives Matter”
fresh breath,
dignifying the humanity
of kidnapped and bought people
who toiled as slaves
in cotton fields in a long ago day …   [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…]

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