San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

The Garibaldi Fish and the Barrio Logan Referendum Vote

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Listen to the Garibaldi fish

By Will Falk

Garibaldi fish have a lot to say about the Barrio Logan Referendum Vote.

I learned this the other day snorkeling in La Jolla Cove when a Garibaldi fish attacked me. The fish, named after the Italian freedom fighter Giuseppe Garibaldi, sprang out of thick plants as an orange flash thumping me square between the eyes on my mask.

I swam too close to a Garibaldi fish family nest threatening the babies. Garibaldi fish will attack any predators that may eat their young no matter how large including sharks and humans.

The Garibaldi fish, in his actions and even his name, demonstrates a basic law of life: When an intruder threatens the physical well-being of you and your loved ones, in a home you’ve lived in for generations, you protect your body and the body of your loved ones.   [Read more…]

All Filner, All The Time: Looking Back at August 2013

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 For the twelve days of Christmas I give you: The madness of 2013, one month at a time-A month by month recap of stories that appeared in the Starting Line in the past year.

By Doug Porter

#1 Apologies to John Cleese..

In response to reader requests, I’m doing my best to keep this Filner falderal all in perspective. Not every development in this saga is a screaming headline kinda deal. So I’ll limit my remarks in keeping with what I see is the actual significance of events in yesterday’s San Diego edition of the Monty Python Media Circus. (h/t My Mom)

Ex-Mayor Sanders went on TV to say Filner’s gotta go. It’s bad for business, said the current head of the Chamber of Commerce, citing staffing cutbacks with the local tourism marketing effort.   [Read more…]

USS Ronald Reagan Sailors to Refile Suit For Fukushima Radiation Poisoning

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At least 71 sailors from San Diego-based carrier have reported radiation sickness and will file a lawsuit against Tokyo Electric Power Co.

By Brandon Baker / EcoNews

After U.S. Navy sailors on the USS Ronald Reagan responded to the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan for four days, many returned to the U.S. with thyroid cancer, Leukemia, brain tumors and more.

At least 71 sailors—many in their 20s—reported radiation sickness and will file a lawsuit against Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), which operates the Fukushima Daiichi energy plant.   [Read more…]

A New Day (Opening David Alvarez’s Office on Imperial Avenue)

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By Ernie McCray

For the opening of David’s Imperial Avenue office
I was asked to read a piece I wrote about our mayor to be,
something to which I took heed and agreed
because right away it seemed like something cool to do to me.
But then it occurred to me
that there ain’t a whole lot of
“Orale”
in reading an essay, ese.   [Read more…]

The Stars Align, Send Chargers to the Playoffs

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After a series of fortuitous, near impossible events, the Bolts are on their way to the NFL playoffs for the first time since 2009.

By Andy Cohen

Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. And the 2013 San Diego Chargers certainly are very lucky.

Against all probability, the Chargers are headed to the playoffs after completing a 9-7 regular season. Two weeks ago I wrote a column calling the talk of the Chargers making the playoffs nonsense, even after their dominant week 15, Thursday night win over the #1 overall AFC playoff seed Denver Broncos in Denver. The Chargers, it seemed, had finally gotten their act together and were playing some of the best football in The League. The problem was that it took them 13 weeks to get there.

The best the Chargers could hope to finish was 9-7, and with both Baltimore and Miami (who the Chargers lost to in week 11) ahead of them in the playoff standings, and with both teams coming off of impressive week 15 wins—Baltimore against Detroit, and Miami against Tom Brady (is there any other player on the Patriots that really matters?)—their chances at extending their season beyond week 17 were slim to none.
  [Read more…]

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner’s World Starts to Fall Apart: Looking Back at July 2013

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For the twelve days of Christmas I give you: The madness of 2013, one month at a time-A month by month recap of stories that appeared in the Starting Line in the past year.

By Doug Porter

#1 Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire…

It was an “aha!” moment triggered by one sentence buried deep in the latest of an ongoing series of “news stories” published in the Daily Fishwrap that triggered a larger realization for me.

The purpose of the story and others like it was to propound upon the sore loser propaganda campaign promulgated by UT-San Diego publisher Papa Doc (that’s what his employees call him) and his like minded minions: With [insert disliked politician’s name] in power we are all doomed.   [Read more…]

Facts Don’t Matter in Newspaper’s Quest to Demonize Public Education in San Diego

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“…pining for a previous superintendent is not only an affront to Ms. Marten but is akin to daydreaming about a former lover on your honeymoon.” 

By Doug Porter

Talk about your cheap shots. It was bad enough when the UT-San Diego editorial board whipped up an attack on our city’s schools laden with misstatements, factual errors and a personal attack on Superintendent Cindy Marten. But when a nationally recognized education leader stepped forward to correct the record on her behalf, his response was deemed unworthy for publication.

It’ all very Orwellian; reality isn’t simply what Papa Doug Manchester  tries to tell us it is.  When his minions refuse to acknowledge something, the idea is for you to believe that it never happened.

One of the longest running narratives with our Daily Newspaper has been their dislike for the Board of Trustees at San Diego Unified.  The paper’s ‘reform’ agenda for public education mirrors the libertarian/conservative wet dream of privatized charter schools, a change that means monetizing learning for corporate interests and creating a two-tiered system favoring the wealthier (and white) classes.   [Read more…]

San Diego’s Unlucky 2013: The Year That Can’t End Fast Enough

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By Jim Miller

…the emergence of the local plutocracy’s strategy of rule by ballot initiative is a genuine threat to our local democracy.

Last year, I rang out the New Year with a list of the best in San Diego culturally and politically in 2012. This year begs for a grimmer assessment. Better yet, politically, 2013 deserves to be tossed from the house with the caveat that it not let the door hit it in the ass on the way out.

It would be tempting to do a bottom ten list as there are so many deserving candidates in all quarters, but let me just reiterate what I wrote last summer, that much of what we saw transpiring in our fair city brought to mind Mark Twain’s pithy assessment of “the damned human race”:

I have been studying the traits and dispositions of the lower animals (so-called), and contrasting them with the traits and dispositions of man.  I find the result humiliating to me.  For it obliges me to renounce my allegiance to the Darwinian theory of the Ascent of Man from the Lower Animals; since it now seems plain to me that the theory ought to be vacated in favor of a new and truer one, this new and truer one to be named the Descent of Man from the Higher Animals.

  [Read more…]

Issa’s Joe McCarthy Imitation, DeMaio’s Koch Connection and #filnereverywhere: Looking Back at June 2013

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#1 Why Only Five People in Washington Take Congressman Darrell Issa Seriously

San Diego’s own Congressman Darrell Issa is making headlines nationally this morning, but not in the way that the local daily paper would like you to believe.

Today’s UT-San Diego has a Page Two story up featuring a picture featuring Issa holding up a piece of paper, with a caption that says “interviews with employees at the Cincinnati IRS office indicate they were directed by Washington to target conservative groups.”

The north county’s answer to Joe McCarthy went on CNN Sunday morning to tout his latest ‘evidence’, which turned out to be highly edited selections from staff interviews with IRS agents. Political correspondent Cindy Crowley called Issa’s bluff, actually reading the documents and pointing out that they proved nothing.   [Read more…]

Using Creativity in the Battle for Barrio Logan

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Maritime Industry Has Money, We Have Our Imaginations

By Brent E. Beltrán

How does one fight what is possibly the largest industry in San Diego, an industry that has millions of dollars at its disposal? We use our creativity!

Barrio Logan is a laboratory of creative, artistic thinkers. Movements have sprung forth from its streets, homes, alleys and parks. With that kind of history it is no wonder that artists have decided to take on the behemoth that is Maritime Industry and their surrogates.

The first of many artistic projects has already begun. You won’t find this one in a gallery or on a pillar at Chicano Park. This project is only visible on the internet.   [Read more…]

The Media Should Stop Pretending Marijuana’s Risks Are a Mystery — The Science Is Clear

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We now know as much about cannabis as we know about alcohol, tobacco and many prescription drugs.

By Paul Armentano / AlterNet

Speaking recently with the Los Angeles Times, UCLA professor and former Washington state “pot czar” Mark Kleiman implied that we as a society are largely ignorant when it comes to the subject of weed. Speaking with Times columnist Patt Morrison, Kleiman stated, “I keep saying we don’t know nearly as much about cannabis as Pillsbury knows about brownie mix.”

Kleiman’s allegation—that the marijuana plant and its effects on society still remains largely a mystery—is a fairly common refrain. But it is far from accurate.   [Read more…]

Bigger Than Watergate, Dumber Than Obamacare and More Dangerous Than a Leftist Bagman: Looking Back at May 2013

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By Doug Porter

 For the twelve days of Christmas I give you: The madness of 2013, one month at a time. A month by month recap of stories that appeared in the Starting Line over the past year.

#1 Nothing But Good News for Bike Riders

Things are looking so bright they gotta wear shades for bicycle fans these days, both nationally and locally.

The nomination of Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx’s for U.S. Transportation secretary on Monday has bike enthusiasts excited. The Hill quotes League of American Bicyclists President Andy Clarke as saying:

“When Secretary LaHood announced his departure, the bicycling community asked the White House to appoint a successor with a clear commitment to multi-modal solutions to local transportation challenges, and Mayor Foxx clearly checks those boxes,”

  [Read more…]

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