San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

McClellan-Palomar Airport: FAA Grant Enforcement?

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Did county’s Palomar landfills violate FAA grant requirements?

The Issues

For nearly two years, we have been waiting for the FAA to explain:

  • Trash Dumping. Did the FAA consent in writing to the County of San Diego dumping about 800,000 cubic yards of trash in 30 acres of McClellan-Palomar Airport canyons over a 14-year period?
  • Trash Dumping Interim Safety Risks. If so, on what basis since dumping trash both (i) endangered Palomar Airport runway operations by attracting birds to the trash heaps just 1,000 feet away from aircraft using the airport and (ii) violated the FAA Grant conditions that preclude use of airports for non-airport purposes without written Secretary of Transportation permission.
  • Trash Dumping Extraordinary Costs and Permanent Safety Risks. Why would the County of San Diego be eligible for future FAA grants to extend its 4,900-foot runway up to 800 feet over the now closed landfill when by dumping trash, county has (i) increased the cost of extending the runway by more than 1,000 percent, (ii) created a safety hazard by exposing increasingly larger aircraft to the landfill methane gas collection system that lies 4 to 7 feet below the Palmar runway east end, and (iii) violated the FAA grant conditions?
  • IPERA. How is the FAA complying with the federal Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act when the County of San Diego applies for future FAA grants to extend and/or relocate the Palomar runway?

  [Read more…]

GLUE: Gorgeous Ladies Unionizing Everywhere! | Video Worth Watching

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From the Full Frontal website:

MMA fighter Leslie Smith is doing what she does best: fighting. This time for Project Spearhead & collective bargaining rights for her and all UFC fighters. Allana Harkin steps into the ring. Produced by Halcyon Person with Lauren Walker.

  [Read more…]

Many People Are Saying Today Would Be a Good Day for Trump to Resign

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Why not say it? I mean, if The Donald can get away with making stuff up by saying it’s a popular thought, why can’t I?

Speaking of making stuff up, the hair-on-fire response to the 13 pages of former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s sentencing memorandum filed yesterday is a sight to behold. Tasty tidbits of information are being treated as if they were the main course of the Mueller investigation.

Come on, gang. I’m sick and tired of the “this will be the one that brings him down” bullshit. Having lived in DC through Watergate, let me assure you there is no one thing other than critical mass.   [Read more…]

The Old Man and the City

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Editor’s Note: Bob wrote this article on October 30 and intended to finish it while in Sant Joan, Mallorca, where he unexpectedly died. Nat Krieger, a dear friend of Bob and SDFP contributor himself, was able to find the article on Bob’s computer and sent it to us, at Deb Dorn’s request. We are publishing it posthumously.

By Bob Dorn

The old man used to ride his wobbly old bike every day up to the market on Park Boulevard where he preferred to shop. On his way north he would dismount as he approached the Georgia Street overpass of University Avenue because the climb was steep enough to make him uncomfortable. In fact, he not very stable on the machine under any conditions, and it looked nearly as old as him and seemed to weigh half as much as he did. On his way back the filled-up basket of the bike rattled loudly, which alerted the few people along the way getting out of or into their cars.

On some days the people recognized him and waved, some pointing their thumbs upward toward the sky because they knew he would pretend to think they meant something was up there and he would look up at the morning clouds as if he were following their directions. They always laughed at that. Others would aim their garden hoses at him so they could share a different laugh.   [Read more…]

Review and Preview of Tony Thurmond vs. Marshall Tuck

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By Thomas Ultican / Ultican

This year’s biggest election win in California was for the down-ballot office, Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI). Tony Thurmond defeated Marshall Tuck in a proxy battle between billionaires supporting public school privatization and teachers’ unions fighting for democratically run neighborhood schools. More than $61,000,000 was spent on the SPI office doubling the previous $30,000,000 spending record set in 2014 when Tuck lost to Tom Torlakson.

Director of research at California Target Book, Rob Pyers, reported this year’s total election spending in California realized a new level. Target Book publisher Darry Sragow commented, “If blowing through the billion-dollar campaign spending ceiling in California doesn’t give pause to everyone in politics, I don’t know what will.”

Of the eight state-wide constitutional offices on the ballot, the governor’s race topped spending at $108,221,028 and the SPI race came in second totaling $61,170,451. Spending in the governor’s race was also heavily impacted by billionaires supporting the charter school industry. California has an open primary in which the top two vote getters reach the general election ballot regardless of party. Before June’s voting, billionaires lavished Anthony Villaraigosa’s campaign unprecedented independent expenditure money trying to get him to the November ballot.   [Read more…]

The Dorn Effect | Remembering Bob Dorn

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By Donna Rankin

I met Deb first, a million years ago when we worked together. She threw herself into the lives of kids, developed their hurt, loss, hope, talent into stage performances that loosened your humanity. I liked kids, too, but from the safer distance of writing about them. Deb didn’t like goal attainment scales, office hours, meetings. Me neither. We formed an instant sisterhood.

Sisterhoods can be wrecked in a heartbeat by bringing in unbrotherly mates, but a few months in we took that nervous-making step of introducing the husbands. From the first day Tom and I met Bob Dorn, there was never a day we didn’t love him.   [Read more…]

Mayor’s Office Confirms Sale of Liberty Station Leases by McMillin – But Questions Remain

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After the Times of San Diego story of the sale of Liberty Station leases by McMillin Company to a Michigan company broke on Wednesday, there have been further developments in the unwinding of just what and when it all happened.

To recap briefly, it was reported that McMillin sold leases to Seligman Group on Wednesday, but nobody in city government appeared to have heard about it. The city is supposed to monitor and approve any sales of the leases at Liberty Station by terms of its agreement with McMillin. Especially of concern is the fate of the North Chapel at Liberty Station.

But by the next day, things had changed. Thursday afternoon, as the Times of SD reported, Christina Chadwick, a spokeswoman for Mayor Kevin Faulconer, had confirmed the deal. She added an operator has been found by the new owner, who would continue to allow religious worship at the chapel.   [Read more…]

Elle Features New Women Elected To The House | Video Worth Watching

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From the MSNBC website:

Elle Magazine exclusively shot the majority of the non-incumbent women newly-elected to the U.S. House of Representatives during their orientation week in DC, and Executive Editor Emma Rosenblum joins Morning Joe to discuss the project.

  [Read more…]

Memo to Democratic ‘Giga-Majority’ in Sacramento: Don’t Forget Who Sent You There

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November’s Blue Wave gives California’s Democratic legislature the opportunity to do more than simply resist the Trumpian agenda.

If they move wisely, the Golden State will serve as an example of what’s possible in an era when good governance serving the needs of all the people takes precedence over schemes designed to line the pockets of the few at the expense of the many.

Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon has a “gigamajority,” with 60 of the 80 seats in that chamber affiliated with his party. Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins shares a party affiliation with 29 of the 40 members in her chamber.   [Read more…]

America’s Dark History of Organized Anti-Semitism Re-emerges in Today’s Far-Right Groups

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By Bradley W. Hart / California State University, Fresno

Hours after Robert Bowers allegedly walked into a Pittsburgh synagogue and killed 11 people, investigators told the media that Bowers appeared to have acted alone and fit what experts call the “lone mass shooter profile.”

Weeks later, FBI agents arrested a Washington D.C. man who followed Bowers on social media. He had told relatives he wanted to pursue the same path and start “a race revolution.”   [Read more…]

Hey Mr. President Donald Trump, Who Is ‘Scott Free?’ | Video Worth Watching

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From the MSNBC YouTube website:

In tonight’s Thing 1 Thing 2, Donald Trump’s unnecessary capitalizations give birth to “Scott Free” and the internet just needs to know who the heck that is.

  [Read more…]

Despite Lousy Midterm Results, the Republican Party Isn’t Dying

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There have been a plethora of pronouncements about the impending death of the Republican Party. I think the concern is misplaced. We should be talking about the impending death of representative democracy.

Keep in mind that it’s wrong to look at the 2018 midterms and the responses of Trump’s minions (who now are the party) outside the context of what’s happening in the world. Anyway you want to cut it, authoritarians are on the rise, and the United States is not immune.

The warning signs of authoritarian creep include projecting strength (“big brain”), demonizing enemies (“immigrants”), and dismantling institutions. I would argue that Republicans and their Dear Leader are busy working on electoral institutions this year.   [Read more…]

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