San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

SeaWorld Calls It Quits on Orca Breeding, Promises to End Killer Whale Shows

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Starting off with the admission that Americans’ attitudes about orcas have changed dramatically, SeaWorld CEO Joel Manby has announced –via an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times– the end of the company’s controversial breeding programs and the phasing out theatrical killer whale shows at all its locations.

SeaWorld has been the target of nationwide protests over its treatment of captive orcas in recent years. Revenues and attendance began a steady decline following the release of the documentary “Blackfish,” which spotlighted the animals’ living conditions and the dangers posed to their handlers.

The company currently has 29 orcas listed in its care — seven in Orlando, five in San Antonio, eleven in San Diego and six in Loro Parque, Spain.   [Read more…]

Plaza De Panama – A Host of People-First Changes Make a Big Impact in Balboa Park

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Plaza de Panama is the central plaza in Balboa Park and for many years was devoted to automobile parking. In June 2013 reviled former Mayor Bob Filner led a push that removed the parking spots from the Plaza de Panama and created a public space for strolling, sitting, and enjoying the surrounding museums and sunshine.

Today our family had a small picnic lunch on the plaza and there were people everywhere – a newlywed couple taking photos on the steps of the Museum of Art, small children riding bikes and scooters, people of all ages sitting or taking photos. In short, it felt like an authentic plaza: “a public square, marketplace, or similar open space in a built-up area“.
  [Read more…]

San Diego Police and FBI Drove Local Black Panthers Underground

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Union-Tribune Finally “Finds” San Diego’s Black Panthers

By Frank Gormlie / OB Rag

In a very decent February 28 article about San Diego’s Black Panthers penned by Peter Rowe of the San Diego U-T, some of the city’s turbulent civil rights and Black power movement history from the Sixties and Seventies was uncovered.

First, it’s amazing to some San Diegans, including Rowe, that San Diego even had a Black Panther chapter back in the day. And that’s a credit that the San Diego Union and Tribune themselves can claim, for the coverage of local Panthers and the civil rights movement in general was skewed due to the right-wing – and yes, racist – policies and bias of its owners and editors. Think the Copley family, who ran the city’s only pair of dailies for decades.   [Read more…]

Bernie Is Best to Trounce Trump

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By Frank Thomas

Vote for Bernie in the primary and get a guaranteed win for Trump in November. … or is it … Vote for Hillary in the primary and get a guaranteed win for Trump in November?

I prefer a presidential candidate of exemplary integrity, keen problem-solving skills, a dedication to improving the common man’s welfare and equitable sharing in society’s progress (or breakdowns) – as opposed to the systemic marginalization and impoverishment of Main Street taking place the last 35-40 years.

As we have moved further and further to the right in past years, we’ve moved further away from our founding values of fair play, justice, and a rising tide for all.   [Read more…]

It’s Time to Stand Up to the Bully Trump

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More than twenty progressive and liberal organizations on both sides of the Hillary/Sanders split released a letter yesterday calling on all Americans to join together in taking action to oppose the candidacy of Donald Trump.

Calling him “a five-alarm fire for our democracy,” the letter sets forth concrete steps to oppose the Republican front-runner — from protesting to organizing large-scale voter turnout efforts.   [Read more…]

What Has Influenced Your Feminist Perspective?

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By Krizia Puig

My feminism goes beyond gender. It is about demolishing the oppressive present structures of power through intellectual and activist work, because everything that is socially constructed can be socially deconstructed. My feminism is about believing in utopias.

My Feminism is about believing in the right of owning and defining our bodies. My Feminism is being against the normalization, the serialization, of human beings. It is about being conscious about the fact that “everyone’s body is a battleground.” My Feminism is thinking that any sort of discrimination because of human variable body features is an abomination.   [Read more…]

We Let White Celeb Domestic Violence Offenders Off the Hook Far More Than Their Black Counterparts

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A new study reveals that racial bias in celebrity domestic abuse reporting has consequences for every victim

By Kali Holloway /  AlterNet

Few of us who care about domestic violence are likely to see the continuing condemnation of Brown—which hasn’t been helped by his subsequent public meltdowns over the year—as undeserved. What’s more, it’s about time domestic violence was recognized as the terrible crime it is.

But Brown is far from the only celebrity to be accused of domestic violence. So why do we hear about other stars’ despicable behavior with so much less frequency? A new study suggests that the level of media outcry about domestic violence is colored by the race of the offender.   [Read more…]

Border Activists At Friendship Park: John Fanestil’s Christian Service Turns Into Civil Disobedience

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By Barbara Zaragoza / South Bay Compass

“I think Americans project onto the border their fear and phobia and racism and then construct policies that are predicated on fear and phobia and racism. And so, in the long haul, apart from any legislative fixes for immigration reform, culturally and at a more existential or spiritual level, the only solution is to construct an alternative narrative. To construct a narrative of the border as a meeting place, the border as a place of encounter, the border as a place of friendship, the border as a place of communion where people actually figure out, despite their differences, how to get along.”   [Read more…]

The March for People’s Park – Memorial Day 1969

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From the San Diego Free Press 1969 /Transcribed by John Lawrence

As noon approached, people prepared to march. There was a hint of danger in the air. People prepared themselves accordingly. Some had moist rags in plastic bags. Others had gas masks on. No one seemed prepared to withstand the buckshot Madigan had promised.

Brothers and sisters were there from all over the U.S. and abroad. San Diego was well represented with people from San Diego State, Mesa College and UCSD. People gathered under placards representing the places they were from to show their solidarity with Berkeley.   [Read more…]

Get Rid of Your Toxic Teflon

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By Jill Richardson / Otherwords

Teflon, you might have heard, may cause cancer.

The culprit was a toxic, now retired compound called PFOA. Also known as C8, the chemical became the subject of a major lawsuit accusing DuPont — the manufacturer of the popular nonstick coating — of sickening thousands of Americans.

Yet Teflon is still on the market, The Intercept reports, with a secret new active ingredient.   [Read more…]

Hedge Fund Billionaire Paul Singer Makes Argentina Cry For Itself

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Argentina is the latest country to suffer at the hands of US vultures. Paul Singer of the Elliott Management hedge fund will reap a huge sum based on his purchase of Argentinian bonds in 2001. His firm has about 300 employees, yet it has managed to force Argentina, a nation of 41 million people, to its knees.

Hedge funds like Singer’s play a big part in the financialization of the global economy, making money off of money with no productive labor involved. They are making the inequality gap between the wealthy, the 1%, and the rest of us, the 99%, even bigger. Singer’s money will be deposited into the account of one of his subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands, a tax-free jurisdiction, which means he will pay no US taxes on his windfall.   [Read more…]

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