San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

The Sanders Campaign Continues

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Vermont Senator and Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders did not concede–as some expected him to do– during his 27-minute speech to supporters on Thursday night.

He did, however, attempt to drive home the point that the movement springing from his candidacy wasn’t about him.

Sanders urged supporters to stay engaged in the struggle for economic and social justice by taking their cause to the Democratic convention, the general election and by involving themselves in the political process at every level.

PLUS! Weekly Calendar for Progressives   [Read more…]

Drug Bust In Eastlake Shopping Center Turns Fatal…

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… Tijuana Shelters Overflow With Asylum Seekers, and Developers See Otay Mesa As Solution to Housing Shortage

An undercover narcotics investigation took a bad turn on Tuesday, June 14, at about 2 p.m. when a federal agent was threatened and fired on a suspect, who was taken to the hospital and later pronounced dead.

After the shooting, two suspects sped away in a car, but crashed the vehicle a short distance away and were apprehended. A fourth suspect was found hiding inside a vehicle trunk. (Imperial Beach Patch)

During the ordeal, residents were told to take shelter-in-place and keep their doors locked. Many took to the Internet to get live coverage and others took to social media.   [Read more…]

League of Women Voters Talks Trash to San Diego Rules Committee

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On Wednesday the League of Women Voters of San Diego called for a revote of a hundred year old law.

Representing the League was Beryl Flom, who addressed the city of San Diego’s Rules Committee regarding the overhaul of a law called the People’s Ordinance. She requested the measure be placed on the November ballot.

Originally enacted in 1919, The People’s Ordinance allowed the city to take over food waste and trash collection from a private company that sold it to pig farmers. It was amended in 1986 to prohibit the city from imposing a fee for trash hauling service.   [Read more…]

ACLU Endorses ‘Adult Use of Marijuana Act’ Expected on November Ballot

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In 2014, 73 percent of misdemeanor marijuana arrests are people under 20. Nearly 70 percent of arrests were people of color.

By ACLU San Diego / Imperial

Citing the continued widespread criminalization of young people of color through marijuana enforcement, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of California today announced it has endorsed the Adult Use of Marijuana Act (“AUMA”) to control, regulate, and tax adult use, sale and cultivation of marijuana in California. The measure is expected to qualify for the November state ballot.

Low-level marijuana possession was reduced from a misdemeanor to an infraction in California in 2011, but marijuana law enforcement still results in thousands of arrests each year.

In 2011 to 2014, according to the California Department of Justice, law enforcement agencies made 60,000 marijuana arrests statewide. In 2014, young people under the age of 20 accounted for 73 percent of all misdemeanor marijuana arrests in the state. Nearly 70 percent of all marijuana arrests were of people of color. A recent analysis of infraction data from Fresno and Los Angeles Police Departments found racial disparities in marijuana enforcement remain even at the lowest level.   [Read more…]

Baseball’s All-Star Game: Rocks for the Homeless?

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The infamous rockscaping in and around East Village was installed as part of the city’s preparation for Major League Baseball’s 2016 All-Star game on July 12. The wishes of the surrounding community, the supposed reason for the installation, were actually not considered.

Even as emails on the situation were made public on Wednesday by Kelly Davis at Voice of San Diego , local gendarmes were rousting homeless people who’d moved to surrounding neighborhoods as a result of the city’s actions.

Trust me. It’s a juicy column today. I’ve got stories on US Senators being brave, secret files on Trump, and a strong candidate for hypocrite of the year.   [Read more…]

Democracy in Action at City Council Rules Committee

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On Wednesday, June 15, 2016, there was a well attended meeting of the Rules Committee of the San Diego City Council. Many diverse topics were covered, some at exhaustive lengths. The meeting lasted over three hours with a dozen or more speakers pleading their causes. Most were asking the Rules Committee to take their issues to the full City Council and have them vote to put them on the November ballot.

There was a discussion of the nature of the voting system. The way it is right now someone running for office who gets 50% of the vote plus one in the June primary is considered elected. Any less than that and there is a run-off on the November ballot between the top two vote getters. Jeff Marston of the Independent Voter Project maintained that, since more voters vote in the November election than in the primary, all final votes should be in that election in which more voters would have a say. A new voter Marissa Gomez, 19, favored that approach.   [Read more…]

We Need a New Public Use of the Old Central Library

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By Joe Flynn

“Planning? We don’t need no stinking planning!” No, I am not talking about The Treasure of Sierra Madre, I’m talking about the treasure of our old Central Library. One would think after decades of working to build a new central library, some thought would have been given to a new use for the old library.

And it is not just another old building; this one has a lot or treasured memories for many San Diegans, especially those who spent hours there doing school projects and term papers or just for the pure enjoyment of literature.   [Read more…]

The San Diego U-T Looks at Short Term Vacation Rentals – and Still Misses Major Point

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By Frank Gormlie

The San Diego Union-Tribune had veteran reporter Lori Weisberg write an extended piece on short term vacation rentals in Sunday’s “SD In Depth” entitled “Opportunity or Nuisance” (June 12, 2016). Weisberg looked at the impact of short term rentals on San Diego’s housing market and wrote – based on her research – who exactly was profiting “from the rise of the home sharing.”

Two of the immediate take-aways from her article are that more and more commercial rental agencies are dominating the short term market and that the available housing stock in San Diego is being negatively affected – even if only “gradually”.

Yet, despite all the articles that Weisberg has written on this issue and the debate that has been raging within San Diego for nearly two years – while the City Council has still not made a decision on laws regulating short term rentals – , she still has not focused on one of the key long-term effects of the short term vacation rental industry: the loss of community.   [Read more…]

Nailed It! 4 Texts That Get it Right About Invisible Disabilities

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By Linda Williams, Ph.D. & Monica Slabaugh / Invisible Disability Project

1. Canceling Plans

It happens. Invisible disabilities may be unseen, but they aren’t unfelt or unreal. They are, however, unpredictable. One moment, our body tell us game on; and the next, it’s curled up on the sofa, and it’s not going anywhere today. Bodily and neurodiversity need flexible structures, allies, and partnerships. Go with the flow.

2. Accessibility? That’s a Thing Now

Asking about accessibility may not always have been front and center on our minds. But now, it is. And if it’s not on yours, it should be. It is part of the everyday language we use, and exists in the social world around us. It’s not a formality. It’s not about following a rule. It’s equitable, and it’s the right thing to do. Public and social spaces may not be built for all bodies and all people. But all bodies and all people have a right to exist in the world as they are. So check in about accommodations often, ok?   [Read more…]

Bang! Bang! (((Never Mind))) More Guns, Please!

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Today’s column is all about guns and the people that enable their abuse. A few corporations fund a ‘grassroots’ lobbying group. Data is suppressed by law. Thousands of people die every year and the only solution is supposedly prayer.

Or we’re supposed to chant the words Radical Islamic Terrorism three times, click our heels, and everything will be right in the world.

Once again the nation finds itself in the middle of a ‘debate’ over guns following a mass shooting. It’s a very one-sided debate. Vast majorities of people believe that common-sense measures are needed. The will of the people is likely to be ignored.   [Read more…]

The Second Amendment Has Nothing to Do with Gun Ownership

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From the Editor: In light of the Orlando Massacre, this article about the second amendment, published in 2012, deserves repeating. We have re-published it in full here.

By Navy Vet Terp / Daily Kos

The Gun Lobby’s interpretation of the Second Amendment is one of the greatest pieces of fraud, I repeat the word fraud, on the American People by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime. The real purpose of the Second Amendment was to ensure that state armies – the militia – would be maintained for the defense of the state. The very language of the Second Amendment refutes any argument that it was intended to guarantee every citizen an unfettered right to any kind of weapon he or she desires.
-Retired Chief Justice Warren Burger, “The Right to Bear Arms,” Parade Magazine, January 14, 1990.

In 2008, this fraud was furthered by Mr. Scalia, joined by his fellow ideologues Thomas, Alito, Roberts and Kennedy. Yet five zealots in black robes cannot change the historical record. Writing something down on paper or pushing the send button to the internet doesn’t make it so.   [Read more…]

Zuni Tribe Returns to Sacred Ceremony

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The Southwest tribe is rebuilding sacred buildings critical for teaching Zuni youth the pueblo’s core values of community and devotion to collective prosperity

Michael J. Dax / Yes! Magazine

“Do you know the secret of the kachinas?”

It was a whispered question, between two young girls—one Zuni, one white—as they watched Zuni night dances in 1979.

Bronwyn Fox, then 9 years old, had moved to the town of Zuni in far western New Mexico for her mother’s teaching job. Fox found that, because of her age, she was treated like any of the other children and allowed to attend and participate in festivals and ceremonies, like the series of six night dances held each spring, that might otherwise be closed to a non-Zuni-member.   [Read more…]

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