San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

Marijuana May Heal Health Problems That Come With Old Age: How Can People Living in Senior Homes Get It?

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From pain and trouble sleeping to cancer and dementia, pot can be a godsend for seniors.

By April M. Short / AlterNet 

Sue Taylor, a retired Catholic school principal and grandmother from Oakland, California, was living in Atlanta, Georgia writing a parenting handbook when she got a phone call from her son that would disrupt her life.

“He told me, ‘Mom, I know how you can open up your metaphysical holistic center,’ which had been my goal,” Taylor said. Taylor had earned a degree in divinity in Atlanta and is now a metaphysical minister. “He said, ‘It will be supported by a cannabis dispensary.’”

“Cannabis dispensary?” Taylor asked him. “You talkin’ about that marijuana stuff?”

Yes, he was.   [Read more…]

May 1970 Student Strike Against Vietnam War to Be Commemorated at UCSD May 9th

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UCSD Students to Honor George Winne’s Self-Immolation and Protests 44 Years Ago

By Frank Gormlie / OB Rag

Forty-four years ago exactly, college and university campuses across America exploded in violent and non-violent protests against President Nixon’s expansion of the Vietnam war. It was May 1970.

Over the course of the month, the nation would witness more than 450 university, college and high school campuses being shut down by student strikes that involved more than 4 million students. It was the largest American student protest before and since.

During protests, National Guardsmen killed four students at Kent State University on May 4, 1970 in Kent, Ohio, and Jackson city police and Mississippi state troopers killed one student at Jackson State College and a high schooler passerby, in Jackson, Mississippi on May 15.   [Read more…]

Public Banking Advocate, Ellen Brown, Is Running For California State Treasurer

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By John Lawrence

Ellen Brown, author of the Public Bank Solution, is running for California State Treasurer. The primary election takes place June 3. There are three candidates. Two will advance to the general election. She is running on a platform to establish a public bank for the state of California similar to the one in North Dakota.

She has the endorsement of the Green Party – along with Luis Rodriguez for governor and David Curtis for secretary of state. Green Party candidates take no corporate money. Candidates who take corporate money – and that means nearly all conventional candidates – are beholden to large corporate interests and cannot properly represent the interests of the disenfranchised 99%.

A public bank will bring many benefits to California including the fact that interest on outstanding loans will accrue to the taxpayers of the state instead of to private Wall Street banks. State and local finances could be restored by making sure that profits now going to Wall Street will remain at home. Taxes could be lowered, public services expanded. The cost of a college education could be reduced. The cost of borrowing for in state businesses could be lowered thus attracting more businesses to California.

  [Read more…]

Orca Profiles in Captivity: No. 6 of the San Diego 10

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By Cara Wilson-Granat / OB Rag

(Sixth in a series)

This is the sixth in a series of ten in which we meet one of the San Diego 10 orcas and hear from an advocate who continues to be one of the voices of these imprisoned voiceless, never stopping until the whole world listens.

This week’s Advocate is Steve Christianson. After reading about Prisoner #6, Shouka, please scroll down this article and “meet” one of the top San Diego 10 Prisoner Advocates. [Here is Prisoner Orca Profile #1 and #2, #3 ,#4and #5 .]

Prisoner #6: Shouka

Age: 21

Imagine living in quiet desperation in solitary confinement for 10 YEARS. Pretty horrendous, right? The crime for such enforced aloneness? Nothing more than being held captive by those who considered her merely a source of entertainment and breeding opportunity for them. Nothing else. Just a money commodity. That’s Shouka’s story–the first orca to be born at Marineland in Antibes, France on February 25, 1993.

  [Read more…]

San Diego Goddam! The June 3rd Election And Why You Should Care

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By Doug Porter

I borrowed the first part of today’s headline from one of my favorite songs by Nina Simone, who sang about a certain southern hellhole of a state of mind as her response to the murder of Medgar Evers in Mississippi; and the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama that killed four black children back in 1964. The song speaks to the level of angst and frustration I’m starting to feel about the upcoming election.

Bad things are more likely to happen and good things probably won’t happen if you and your friends pass on your obligation as citizens to vote come June 3rd. Starting today and in the coming weeks we’ll be talking about those possibilities, so you need to (please!) pay attention.

Fast forward 50 years from Ms. Simone’s lament and there are 8 million eligible but unregistered voters in California. Of the 17.7 million voters that are registered to vote in the Golden State, only about one third will bother to cast ballots in the upcoming June 3rd elections. That works out to 14% of the total population deciding how things will be for next few years.   [Read more…]

Ride through National Bike Month with These Local Events

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The SDFP is switching gears from National Poetry Month to National Bike Month. There are several events throughout the month of May for avid and amateur cyclists alike. If you know of an event not listed below, please add it in the comment section.   [Read more…]

Desert Prognosis

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By Will Falk

wrapped in the dark blanket of night
huddled
and feverish with cosmic infections

either I’m shaking
or the sky is   [Read more…]

San Diego Airport Is First in World to Be Certified LEED Platinum

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By Good News Network

San Diego International Airport became the first in the world to be awarded LEED Platinum — the highest environmental certification possible — for its new energy-efficient green terminal.

Sustainable features of the new terminal include a 3.3-megawatt solar array, low-flow water fixtures, drought-tolerant landscaping, energy-efficient or natural lighting, reflective roofs, storm drainage management and non-toxic interior construction materials and paints.   [Read more…]

How Cities Can Be Designed to Help—or Hinder—Sharing

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By Jay Walljasper/Yes!

Centuries before someone first uttered the words “sharing economy,” the steady rise of cities embodied both the principles and promise of that phrase. The reason more than half the people on earth now live in urban areas is the advantages that come from sharing resources, infrastructure, and lives with other people. Essential commons belonging to all of us, ranging from transportation systems to public health safeguards to plentiful social connections, are easier to create and maintain in a populated area.

Think about typical urban dwellers. They are more likely to reside in an apartment building, shared household, or compact living unit (saving on heating, utilities, original construction costs, and other expenses), walk or take transit (saving the environment as well as money), know a wide range of people (expanding their circle of friends and colleagues), and encounter new experiences (increasing their knowledge and skills).   [Read more…]

The Works Progress Administration (WPA):”This Day in Labor History: May 6, 1935″

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By Erik Loomis/ Lawyers, Guns & Money

On May 6, 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued Executive Order 7034 creating the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Passed and funded by Congress in the Emergency Relief Appropriations Act of 1935, the WPA became among the two most important federal jobs programs of the New Deal and a model for how government investment in the economy can not only solve short-term unemployment problems but also build the infrastructure of a strong, modern nation.

The WPA is not the sexiest New Deal program. People love the Civilian Conservation Corps while the Tennessee Valley Authority is more famous for its ambition in reshaping an entire region of the country. But during its 8 year existence, the WPA provided nearly 8 million jobs to unemployed Americans.   [Read more…]

Highway to Hell – Report Documents the Current Course of Climate Change

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By Doug Porter

A  federally funded report on changing climate conditions released today warns of dire consequences throughout the United States in coming years unless significant actions are taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The National Climate Assessment, a 1,300-page report compiled by 300 leading scientists and experts, says the climate is changing in the United States almost without a doubt, and the warming of the past 50 years is primarily due to emissions of heat-trapping gases released by humans. By the end of the century the scientists forecast temperatures that could be up to 5 degrees higher if the nation acts aggressively to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from industry, or up to 10 degrees if emissions are high.

It warns that climate change poses devastating consequences across regions of the United States when it comes to the economy, public health, transportation, energy, water and agriculture attributable to increased heat waves and coastal flooding in the Northeast, decreased water availability in the Southeast, extreme heat waves in the Midwest, damage to agriculture in the Great Plains and wildfires and water scarcity in the Southwest.   [Read more…]

Extreme Weather Watch: April 2014 – Tornadoes, Flash Floods Pound US

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159 Tornadoes, 35 Deaths as Torrential Rain and Flash Floods Pound East, South and Midwest

By John Lawrence

The last week in April saw extreme weather over as much as half the nation. Over 20 states were affected. In some places a month’s worth of rain fell in a day. In New York City there was close to 5 inches of rain in one day. In Pensacola, FL there was over 20 inches of rain in 24 hours, 6 inches in one hour alone, more rain than Los Angeles saw all last year. More rain fell in Pensacola than during Hurricane Ivan. There were nearly 6000 lightning strikes in fifteen minutes. First responders rescued people in boats. Roads and bridges collapsed.

Two trillion gallons of water fell on the south and the east coast in just one day. Flooding was worse than after some hurricanes. Heavy rain led to the collapse of a retaining wall in a Baltimore neighborhood sending cars tumbling 75 feet down an embankment onto railroad tracks. These cars were not covered by insurance as the collapsing embankment was considered an “act of God.”  The Schuylkill River in Philadelphia crested higher than after Hurricane Irene and Super Storm Sandy. Philadelphia received more rain in a day than it usually gets in a month. Golf ball sized hail pummeled the country.   [Read more…]

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