San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

RIP Joe Marillo, San Diego’s Godfather of Jazz

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Joe Marillo passed away Saturday, March 26. Born in Niagara Falls, NY, 83 years ago, he moved to San Diego in 1974 from Las Vegas where he had played in show bands for 10 years. He started out playing saxophone in Atlantic City, NJ while swinging from a trapeze.

He was dedicated to bringing straight ahead, mainstream jazz to San Diego for almost 50 years both with his virtuoso playing and his skills as a presenter and impresario. He received the San Diego Music Awards Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.

After moving here from Las Vegas, Joe immediately started playing and performing in San Diego clubs. I first saw and heard him at Chuck’s Steak House in La Jolla where Joe lived “in the ghetto” for his entire life.   [Read more…]

New Veteran-Led Campaign Challenges Islamophobia

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By Brian Trautman

Violence against American Muslims is growing faster than at any time since 9/11, with assaults on Muslim individuals and their places of worship having tripled since the Paris and San Bernardino terror attacks. A NY Times article published last December cites several examples, which include shootings and vandalism.

According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), last year set a record for the highest number of incidents targeting U.S. Mosques. As a result of this violence, Muslims across the country, including women and children, have conveyed to the public that they genuinely fear for their safety and security.   [Read more…]

Lies of the Rich and Famous: Off-Shoring Dark Money and Fighting the Minimum Wage

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As leaks of confidential documents go, the Panama Papers dwarf past disclosures. The story isn’t new: rich people use offshore shell corporations to avoid taxes. But the detail is stunning. And there is reportedly much more coming over the next month.

Enough documents to fill six hundred CD’s leaked from the law firm Mossack Fonseca reveal the dark money dealings of world leaders, celebrities and dozens of Fortune 500 billionaires. More than 370 journalists from more than 70 countries are following up on leads using corporate filings, property records, financial disclosures, court documents and interviews with money laundering experts and law-enforcement officials.

A much ‘smaller’ story impacting a much larger number of people in the US appears today in the Washington Post (via the Center for Media and Democracy) showing internal polling commissioned by Chambers of Commerce revealing a large majority of business owners being supportive of increasing minimum wages, paid sick leave and other reforms.   [Read more…]

San Diego is Led Around by the Nose

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How about taking a break from our city’s inane preoccupation with a behemoth sports palace for the San Diego Chargers?

And let’s give ourselves a break from the fiasco called a “Convadium,” a zany proposal to link a convention center annex to a new football stadium just down the street from our 18-acre ballpark. Talk about blocking pedestrian access! Talk about walling off the heart of downtown!
What self-respecting city in the USA would fall for such a ludicrous proposal?

So let’s NOT to take a break from simple questions like: Why are we even thinking about cramming a mammoth new football stadium into our modestly-proportioned, pedestrian-starved downtown streets? What rational person would want to do such a dumb thing to our city? Are we nuts, or what?   [Read more…]

Go Padres: Vivas to Those Who Have Failed!

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Today is opening day and with it, if history is our guide, what is most likely another season of futility is born. Having grown up a Padres fan, this is par for the course as the Pads have only gone to the postseason five times and have a meager .463 winning percentage over the life of the franchise.

They are, in short, losers.

So why go? Why will I be sitting in the stands this afternoon as the Padres take on the Dodgers hoping against hope that the outcome will be different?   [Read more…]

To Be Arab and American

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By Denise Oliver Velez / Daily Kos

After writing Black History and Women’s History Month articles recently, I thought I would not be covering heritage months for a while. Out of idle curiosity I decided to check the month of April and discovered that much to my surprise, it’s Arab American Heritage Month.

I admit I knew nothing about it and asked myself, “Why didn’t I?” That made me determined to investigate and share what I discovered with readers. I figured it would be fairly simple, given the ubiquitous Wikipedia and the use of several internet search engines (no luck, except for events happening in Maryland and Michigan). As of March 28, when I started writing, there was nothing posted at White House.gov, nor could I find a listing under presidential proclamations.

On a U.S. government website I found it listed with the slogan, “Proud of Our Heritage and Proud to Be American,” and found more detail at the Center for Arab American Philanthropy (CAAP) website   [Read more…]

Feeling the Bern When it Comes to Changing the Status Quo

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Over a week ago I tortured my 77-year-old muscles and bones standing for the better part of 4 hours at the San Diego Convention Center, “Feeling the Bern.”

But Bernie made me forget my discomfort and lifted my spirit high when he said “The status quo just isn’t working for us”: something I’ve felt all my life considering the long row my people have had to hoe to get a break in the USA.   [Read more…]

Looking Back at the Week: March 20-April 1

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This week’s edition of Looking Back at the Week features a double dose of articles, commentaries, columns, toons, and other work by San Diego Free Press regulars, irregulars, columnists, at-large contributors, and sourced writers on: SD feeling the Bern, victory in the fight for $15, Trump the fool, D9 council candidate Sarah Saez, the multi-headed beast known as the Citizens’ Plan, pushing SDPD reforms at the ballot box, neo-feudal financial parasites, EHC’s transportation justice victories, fascism in America, puppy mills in Carlsbad, and lots of other inspiring (and sometimes depressing), grassroots news & progressive views from San Diego’s friendly, neighborhood, all volunteer, slightly funky, community news site.   [Read more…]

Transportation Justice Victories: What We Have Accomplished With People Power

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By the Environmental Health Coalition

Through the process of advocating for a Regional Transportation Plan that prioritizes affordable and accessible public transit, biking and walking, our communities grew stronger and more united.

Doing much of this advocacy work in partnership with City Heights CDC and MAAC Project, we organized community support in unprecedented ways. We brought the concept of transportation justice to our neighbors, to community meetings, to City Council and SANDAG. We led bike rallies to celebrate a future where pedestrians have safe places to ride bikes and walk. We taught each other the importance of having transportation alternatives to improve our quality of life and encouraged each other to get involved in the planning process and build healthy neighborhoods.

We accomplished the following by raising our voices and spreading hope for the past two years.   [Read more…]

Geo-Poetic Spaces : My Life In Cyprus

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Look
at Spartan me
washing socks by hand
hanging myself out to dry

Subsiding on Lahmajoun
and clay cups of Cypriot poetry
blacker than aniconic stone   [Read more…]

A $15 Minimum Wage Didn’t Fall From the Sky and the Sky Won’t Fall Because of It

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“There’s no turning back. We will win. We are winning because ours is a revolution of mind & heart” – Cesar Chavez

An ambitious demand tracing its origins to fast food workers walking off the job in 2012 took a big step towards becoming real yesterday as proposals to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour advanced in California and New York.

In California, hundreds of low-wage workers and members from supportive unions traveled to the Capitol to watch as the bill (SB3) was voted on in both legislative houses. California State Secretary of Labor David Lanier later told a cheering crowd that Governor Jerry Brown would sign the bill in Los Angeles on Monday.

In New York,  Gov. Andrew Cuomo made it official Thursday night, announcing the state budget deal he reached with Legislature leaders included a $15 an hour minimum wage. The New York deal is multi-tiered with different regions of the state getting different rates of increases.     [Read more…]

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