San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

Making Valentine’s Day More Meaningful

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The value of a gift increases with the thoughtfulness put into it

By  / OtherWords

Valentine’s Day, it seems, has all the trappings of a made-up Hallmark holiday. It’s a holiday created purely to encourage us to go out and give our money to a few select industries: greeting cards, candy, roses, restaurants, etc.

As it turns out, the holiday has a history. Obviously, there’s the link to St. Valentine — but given the Catholic Church’s views on sex, why would they turn their saint’s day into a romantic night for couples? Some historians think the holiday actually dates back before Christianity to a Roman fertility festival called Lupercalia.   [Read more…]

A Legacy of Genocide: The San Salvador

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By Will Falk

What do you see when you look out across San Diego and see the San Salvador being reconstructed?

Do you see the first wave of wave upon wave of white settlers who systematically dispossessed California’s indigenous people of their lands?

Do you see the beginnings of a process that reduced the indigenous population of California from 250,000 in 1800 to less than 20,000 in the matter of a century?

Do you see the face of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo grinning maniacally back at you? Do you see the faces of him and his men joining up with Hernan Cortes in the ethnic cleansing of Mexico?   [Read more…]

Cartel Partners Comcast and Time Warner Cable Announce “Merger”- Slower Internet Speeds for All Promised

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By Doug Porter

The pending merger of Time-Warner Cable and Comcast has made headlines everywhere today. Sadly, most of the coverage is missing the mark when it comes to the real significance of the deal. The tone, if not the actual content of the reportage, generally suggests that there is concern about creation of a cable monopoly.

The #1 and # 2 cable TV providers compete head-to-head in very few markets. In fact, when it comes to cable TV, competition is a rarity. In San Diego it was decided long ago to be in the ‘public interest’ to split the county into north and south region cable providers. These companies are more like a cartel than they are competitors.

So the proposed deal won’t effect the actual connection people use or, for the time being, its cost. The combination of Comcast-TWC will end up with about 30 million subscribers, but that number is less than the percentage (roughly 33%) of the overall pay TV market the FCC is likely to worry about.  Non-cable providers, like AT&T and Dish Network will keep enough share of the market for the government and the industry to say there is adequate “competition”.   [Read more…]

Cyclist Seriously Injured On Pershing Drive

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Broken leg results from collision between car and bicycle

By John P. Anderson

Yesterday afternoon a cyclist was hit on the north-bound Interstate 5 onramp from Pershing Drive, on the south side of Balboa Park near Downtown.  The San Diego Police Commander’s Log offers the following details (inside).

My wife is a regular bicycle commuter from North Park to Downtown and was heading the opposite direction on Pershing Drive at about 4:45 PM yesterday. Riding in the bicycle lane she was nearly hit by a vehicle that attempted to make a right turn around her while she was crossing the intersection.

Continuing up Pershing to the intersection with 28th Street she was nearly hit a second time when crossing the intersection adjacent to a vehicle and a turning vehicle came around the vehicle she was beside. Upon her return home, thankfully safe and sound, she was very agitated and upset. Not only had she nearly been hit, twice, but in the first incident the driver had also angrily pointed, yelled, and given her an angry glare – clearly communicating that the cyclist was the one at fault and to blame for the near collision.   [Read more…]

maladaptive behavior

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By Will Falk

when I feel crazy or when
I run out of things to say
as if there really is a difference
I wonder why I even bother
to write all this down

when I feel crazy or when
I run out of things to say
I go to Joshua Tree
I like to find a warm, flat stone
to sit on and read and think   [Read more…]

Democrats Methodically Stripping Republicans Of Immigration Excuses

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By Bill Scher/Campaign for America’s Future

Throughout the immigration debate, Republicans have run phony excuses for delay, Democrats keep stripping them away, and the process keeps moving forward.

Last June when the Senate was deliberating immigration reform, and Republicans were complaining that it didn’t do enough border security, Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer’s team suggested a multibillion-dollar “border surge.”

The deadlock was broken and the bill passed with a solid bipartisan vote.

Then House Republicans rejected the Senate’s “comprehensive” approach and signaled its preference for a series of “piecemeal” bills – without explaining their desire to delink any legalization of undocumented immigrants with other aspects of immigration reform.   [Read more…]

Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda… Faulconer Wins Big in San Diego Mayoral Contest

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By Doug Porter

Local Democrats lost big at the polls last night, as City Councilman Kevin Faulconer cruised to an estimated nine point victory over David Alvarez in the final mayoral showdown.

The much vaunted ground game for the Alvarez campaign turned out to be a disappointment, as turnout  was lower than expected (the final numbers are dependent on 36,000 provisional votes). Mail in votes, as opposed to voting at polling places, which tend towards Republican candidates, were the deciding factor. Democratic party activist enthusiasm for their candidate clearly did not translate into the needed higher voter participation in traditionally supportive areas of the city.

It’s also true that the side with the nastiest attack ads won. The Lincoln club mailers attacking Alvarez’s character via gangster-esque photo-shopped images did a better job of motivating voters than labor’s portrayal of a smiling Kevin Faulconer as the tool of an amorphous set of downtown developers.   [Read more…]

Faulconer Victory Brings Back Business as Usual

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San Diego’s shadow government poised to make its triumphant return.

By Andy Cohen

So that just happened. Not that it’s all that surprising that Kevin Faulconer beat David Alvarez in the mayoral special election last night. What is very surprising is the margin by which Faulconer beat Alvarez. It was expected to be squeaker of an election, with most polls showing a one to two point spread. Every poll considered to be credible had Faulconer with a one point lead and a margin of error of around four points.

Faulconer won by nine points, 54.5 percent to 45.5 percent.

First, let me just say that I must be a complete idiot. I stood up last November (figuratively speaking) in front of a packed house at a meeting of the Pt. Loma Democratic Club and definitively predicted that David Alvarez would win this election. The numbers were in his favor, and San Diego was in the midst of a political transformation.

This is why I got out of the prediction biz a long time ago. Not sure why I decided to wade back in, because I’m obviously not very good at it anymore.   [Read more…]

Roberts Reviews First 13 Months

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Escondido Democratic Club

Third District San Diego County Supervisor Dave Roberts reviewed his first year during remarks before Escondido Democrats February 8, 2014, emphasizing that he had demonstrated the importance of a campaign pledge that Democrats “have to have a seat at the table to change the dialog.” Roberts is the only Democrat on the County Board of Supervisors and the first to be elected in years.

Roberts reviewed areas of County responsibility in which he had made a difference. First was mental health, a topic that has engaged him “for almost three decades” and where he has worked “to put mental health on parity with physical health.” He described how he had worked other supervisors to expand a home assistance demonstration project that required $3 million in new funding. He reported that he is working to implement “Laura’s Law,” that allows judges to order medication for some patients to allow them to “get back into the right state of mind where they can make decisions” and “get out of a downward spiral.” San Diego County would become the 18th county in California to put the measure into effect, he said. “I think in mental health we’ve had a tremendously successful year,” he added.   [Read more…]

Human and Natural-Caused Climate Change

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By Frank Thomas

Within three decades scientists warn, warming will be irreversible. The world’s top scientists have just formally embraced an upper limit on greenhouse gases for the first time … establishing a target level at which humanity must stop spewing them into the atmosphere or face catastrophic climate changes. Scientists warned the target was likely to be exceeded in a matter of decades unless steps were taken soon to reduce emissions. The experts cited a litany of changes already under way, warned that they were likely to accelerate and expressed virtual certainty that human activity was the main cause.

This was reported last September in the International Herald Tribune and was taken from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report in 2012.   [Read more…]

Court Rules City Within Its Rights To Reduce Retiree Health Benefits

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Potentially precedent setting ruling opens the door for governments statewide to slash worker benefits.

By Andy Cohen

Last month, a state appeals court confirmed a lower court ruling that retiree health benefits are not vested benefits, as are employee pensions, and therefore are not subject to the same rules that apply to pension benefits.

The original lawsuit was filed on behalf of a retired police officer who sued the city because the it placed a cap on the premiums it would pay on her retiree health benefits. The cap, she said, fell $600 short per year of covering the full premium. Her attorneys argued that, according to the city’s agreement with the San Diego City Employees Retirement System (SDCERS), the city had to pay the full premium on medical benefits for all eligible retired city workers.

The courts disagreed, noting that, according to the city’s municipal code, “Health plan coverage for retirees and eligible dependents is subject to modification by the City and the provider of health care services, and may be modified periodically as deemed necessary and appropriate.”   [Read more…]

Fear and Gambling at Pauma Casino

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By Doug Porter

Anna Daniels and myself took a road trip yesterday to beautiful downtown Temecula to meet and talk with employees of Casino Pauma who have been struggling for union representation. Native American casinos like Pauma are located in sovereign territories whose coverage  by labor laws are limited to the terms described in compacts negotiated with the Governor’s office and ratified by the legislature.

Following an initial investigation by its General Counsel, the National Labor Relations Board has issued a complaint against Pauma Casino alleging that management’s response to the wearing of union buttons was an unfair labor practice. The unions says that workers who wore buttons have been threatened with disciplinary action if they failed to remove the buttons.

Organizers with UNITE HERE Local 30 staged a press conference in the parking lot outside of a Ramada Inn in Temecula prior to the start of a week long series of hearings by an administrative judge from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Separate from the hearing, workers have been asking the tribe to agree to a fair process, free from intimidation and retribution, while they decide whether to unionize.

   [Read more…]

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