San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

Reader’s Response to “What Does City Heights Lose when Albertsons Closes?”

by

“The branch doesn’t fall far from the tree” vis á vis City Heights and Albertson’s

By Remigia Bermúdez’ 

“The branch doesn’t fall far from the tree” comes to mind in so many respects as I read with great care the insightful article written by SDFP’s Anna Daniels on the economic prospect’s and livelihood of City Heights residents without a clear direction as to who does what about City Heights’ concerns losing a major supermarket, jobs, economic base and faith in local government.

My comments are my professional/personal opinions in an attempt to answer the original questions posed by Anna Daniels in her outstanding article on the impact of Albertsons departure from the City Heights redeveloped project area:

  • 1) Who benefited most from the original redevelopment project in City Heights
  • 2) Who are the parties of interest?

  [Read more…]

Income Equality and Good Economic Performance Go Hand in Hand

by

Dr Adnan Al-Daini /Independent Australia

The argument of free market economists and plutocrats that income inequality is the price society must pay for strong economic growth is, demonstrably, bunkum, explains Dr Adnan Al-Daini.

SO, LET ME GET THIS RIGHT: free market economists’, right wing politicians’ and commentators’ solution to the economic depression engulfing Europe and the United States is to cut government spending, slash welfare payments to the bone and make iteasier for employers to fire people. And additionally, to cut taxes to those at the top and give them a freer hand to “incentivize” them to use their entrepreneurial skills to create businesses, and with that jobs.

Do not worry about the gap between the rich and the poor, they say, this is the price we have to pay for a dynamic economy that will make us all richer; they seem to have forgotten why we are in this mess.   [Read more…]

Pressure to Raise Pathetic Minimum Wage Is on the Rise Across the Land

by

A growing coalition of progressive organizations is pushing hard to get the minimum wage on 12 state ballots.

By Steven Rosenfeld / AlterNet

After years of hard times and recent organizing by growing coalitions of worker organizations and progressive groups, 2014 may see some of the biggest state minimum wage increases in years.

In 2013, 13 states and handful of cities raised the legal hourly minimum wage after those locales saw campaigns uniting low-wage workers, unions, clergy and Democrats. While most of these increases did not raise wages above the $9 rate for hourly workers, they still increased paychecks for an estimated 4.5 million workers—mostly women—and should inject an extra $2.7 billion into their pockets this year, economists said.

This year a mix of elected Democrats and seasoned organizers are seriously pushing for even bigger increases in a dozen states including Massachusetts, Maryland, Hawaii, Illinois, Arkansas, Alaska, South Dakota and California. According to analysts, these and other states are likely to raise their minimum wages, either from legislative action in coming months or from votes on statewide ballot questions where Democrats are betting that the issue will lead to higher turnout and be a factor in congressional races.
  [Read more…]

Holder Says Marijuana Banking Rules Coming Soon

by

Marijuana industry advocates applauded the attorney general’s remarks.

By Phillip Smith / StoptheDrugWar.org

Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday that the Obama administration would soon announce regulations that would allow banks to business with legal marijuana businesses. Financial institutions have been scared away from such businesses by the threat of legal action for dealing in the profits of a commodity still illegal under federal law.

The Obama administration had previously signaled it was working to address the issue, but it now appears action is imminent.   [Read more…]

Indigenous People of Michoacán Organize to Defend Themselves Against Drug Cartel

by

First Statement from the Self-Defense Group of Aquila, Michoacán

Today, the residents of the municipal seat of Aquila, tired of the extortions, rapes, killings, kidnappings and all sorts of criminal acts committed by the Knights Templar; given the complete abandonment of the citizenry by the municipal and state governments who for 12 years did not provide the security needed for our people to have a peaceful and dignified life; we have decided to organize our self-defense group in order to expel organized crime from our town, and we invite the rest of the people of the municipality to rise up against crime, so they never again feel fear or pay protection fees.   [Read more…]

Buffalo Nickels

by

By Will Falk

she spent all her money
and a long time
getting to California from Chicago
it was good

she saw a lot of America
on the freeways
crossing the plains
then up over the Rockies
finally arriving in La Jolla
just as the sun set   [Read more…]

Pollution: In Our Air, In Our Politics

by

By Joy Williams / Environmental Health Coalition

As a kid growing up in the LA air basin during the smoggy 50s and 60s, I thought of irritated eyes and a sore chest as normal parts of life. The sky on hot summer afternoons was a brownish yellow shade, and the air sometimes made your eyes water. In my later childhood years, I came to view air pollution as a symbol of how radically alienated from nature Southern California life was; as I thought of it in apocalyptic, if poetic, terms, we had poisoned heaven. Later, in college, I learned to think in more analytical, and hopeful, ways — smog could be analyzed, understood and to a large extent, controlled. The ochre-brown color came from nitrogen oxides; the lung-damaging substance was ozone.

Particulates added a hazy quality. It wasn’t an amorphous cloud of human failure hanging over our cities, it was a specific set of pollutants with knowable causes and controls. If you increased the fuel efficiency of cars and added on catalytic converters, the air quality got better. And the photochemical smog picture of SoCal actually has improved since the 60s.   [Read more…]

Calls Intensify for Obama to Fulfill Campaign Promise on GMO Labeling

by

Members of congress, farmers and businesses await response from president

By Elizabeth Kucinich / Center for Food Safety

When polled, 93 percent of the American public said they supported the labeling of genetically engineered food and ingredients. Sixty-four countries already have GMO labeling standards.

A morning press conference offered a beacon of hope for farmers and activists on Capitol Hill today as members of Congress and 200 organizations demanded Obama fulfill his 2007 campaign promises to label GMOs.   [Read more…]

Conservative Darling Dinesh D’Souza Indicted for Illegal Contributions in Senate Race

by

By Doug Porter

Just two years ago San Diego resident Dinesh D’Souza was sitting at the top of the conservative heap. He was a best selling author, president of Kings College, fledgling documentarian and sought after debater. Now he stands accused by federal prosecutors of making $20,000 in straw contributions in a 2012 Senate race.

According to an indictment made public on Thursday in federal court in Manhattan, D’Souza around reimbursed people (believed to be his ex-wife and mistress) who he had directed to contribute $20,000 to a senate campaign, believed to be that of Wendy Long, a Republican attorney who lost to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) in 2012. The indictment said the campaign was unaware of D’Souza’s activities, which apparently weren’t very helpful, as Long garnered just 28% of the vote..

D’Souza rose from Reaganite beginnings to become a fixture on the ‘90s speaking circuit, and became a personal favorite of UT-San Diego publisher Doug Manchester. The Daily Fishwrap ran scores of full-color ads promoting his shoddily-made documentary entitled 2016: Obama’s America.  

“Papa” Doug even helped finance the film, which set out to lead its audiences to the conclusion that the President of the United States hates this country, wants to destroy it and create a socialist state where everybody is taxed at 100%; one world under Allah.   [Read more…]

Restaurant Review: El Cuervo Taco Shop

by

By Judi Curry

Restaurant Review
EL CUERVO TACO SHOP
110 West Washington St.
San Diego, CA 92103
619-295-9713

Several weeks ago I did a restaurant review of “Ortiz’s” in Pt. Loma.  Michael, one of the readers of the review wrote that he thought that “El Cuervo” was one of the best Mexican restaurants in town.  In fact, he said, “ . . . El Cuervo Taco Shop in Hillcrest.  Everything cooked to order and prepared as if grandmother was in the kitchen.   The Veggie Burrito ROCKS!!!  The Carnitas Burrito and the Pibil Burrito are both excellent too.  Have fun.”

“Go.  Now.  Eat!”   [Read more…]

About Those Legal Changes in Military Sexual Assault Cases…

by

By Kathy Gilberd

The Department of Defense has just released preliminary figures showing that reported cases of sexual assaults in the military have increased by 50% in the last fiscal year — from 3,374 in 2012 to more than 5,000 in 2013. While DoD officials are still evaluating the numbers, their initial public statement claims that this does not represent an increase in the total number of sexual assaults (which they assume to be about the same as the 26,000 cases in 2012), but rather in the number of people willing to come forward and file reports after having been assaulted.

If DoD’s assessment is correct, the increase in reporting is the result of a year of public and congressional pressure on the military to treat assaults seriously, and resulting new regulations that have provided some additional protections to victims/survivors of assault. Congressional hearings and statements, lawsuits challenging the military’s handling of assaults, and diligent work by organizations such as Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN) have created a climate in which servicemembers may have a little more confidence that reporting assault could lead to punishment of the offenders and, hopefully, that reporting would not lead to retaliation.   [Read more…]

Details Emerge in San Diego’s Campaign Finance Scandal

by

By Doug Porter

There were new developments in San Diego’s latest round of political malfeasance, bringing drama but not answers to questions about how deep this scandal goes.

Lobbyist Marco Polo Cortes was arrested at his Little Italy residence on Tuesday, following an hour long standoff ending with a FBI Swat team and negotiator being called to the scene. The Coronado Cays residence of Mexican moneyman Susamo Azano, aka Jose Susamo Azano Matsura, was searched by FBI agents on Wednesday. Authorities believe Azano illegally donated a half-million dollars to local political campaigns over the past two years.

Local politicians lined up to return contributions, including Congressman Juan Vargas, iMayor Todd Gloria, former City Councilman Carl DeMaio and others. The returned monies appear to have been legally donated and reported. Every politician involved was just trying to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the names already associated with the scandal.   [Read more…]

©2010-2017 SanDiegoFreePress.org

Code is Poetry