San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

Urban Corps Begins Work for Barrio Logan MAD

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Nonprofit to clean community five days a week

By Brent E. Beltrán

Barrio Logan has not been the cleanest community in San Diego. For years this predominantly Mexican American neighborhood has been neglected by the city, the transient population that lives on its public spaces and even its own residents.

Graffiti has been ubiquitous throughout the alleys, walls and fences of property owners and businesses. Trash has been strewn along the streets and sidewalks due to a lack of receptacles and youth not caring. Weeds have overgrown green areas and sprouted through cracks in concrete and asphalt. Trees and bushes on public property have become unruly.

But not any longer.

The nonprofit Urban Corps has been called upon to help clean the dirty streets, alleys and sidewalks of Barrio Logan. Under the direction of the Barrio Logan Association and the city of San Diego Urban Corps began servicing the assessed parts of Barrio Logan in early November.   [Read more…]

Is the Pope Getting the Catholics Ready for an Economic Revolution? (Maybe He Read Marx)

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A spectre is haunting the Vatican.

By Lynn Stuart Parramore / AlterNet

In 1992, the Catholic Church officially apologized for persecuting 17th-century astronomer Galileo, who dared to assert that the Earth revolved around the sun. In 2008, the Vatican even considered putting up a statue of him.

Could a certain 19th-century atheist philosopher be next?

It is true that in 2009, a Vatican newspaper article put a positive spin on one Karl Marx. The author, German historian Georg Sans, praised Marx for his criticism of the alienation and injustice faced by working people in a world where the privileged few own the capital. Sans suggested that Marx’s view was relevant today: “We have to ask ourselves, with Marx, whether the forms of alienation of which he spoke have their origin in the capitalist system….” Indeed.   [Read more…]

Bracero Guestworkers, Unpaid

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Congress is preparing to expand the guestworker program, but Mexican braceros remain unpaid after half a century.

By Adam Goodman & Verónica Zapata Rivera / Jacobin Magazine

Every Tuesday, 76-year-old Miguel Díaz spends the better part of the day outside the House of Representatives in Mexico City. Díaz went to the United States in 1960s as a bracero, a contracted guestworker. Upon returning to Mexico, he and millions of other braceros were never paid the 10 percent of their earnings that had been withheld and sent to the Mexican government in an attempt to ensure braceros’ temporary status.

Each week, Díaz is joined outside the House of Representatives by around 100 other braceros, as well as widows and children of braceros. The vast majority are in their 70s or 80s. Some live in Mexico City, but others travel hours from other states to get there. Wearing sombreros to protect themselves from the sun, the braceros hang a large banner on the fence in front of the House that reads, “EPN [Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto] Pay Us or Kill Us!” According to their organization, the Binational Bracero Proa Alliance, an average of 14 braceros die each day. Their cause is urgent.

The braceros’ struggle to recoup decades-old back pay sheds light on the unjust treatment and unexpected consequences of guestworker programs.   [Read more…]

Clemency for Imprisoned War Resister Kimberly Rivera Denied!

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Rally Dec. 1 in protest of Rivera’s separation from new born son to serve remaining 4o day sentence.

By Staff

Kimberly Rivera gave birth to her son Matthew Kaden Rivera in the Naval Hospital on November 25th. Her husband Mario was initially denied access to the birthing room but was ultimately granted permission to attend the delivery. Although the delivery itself went smoothly, this was no ordinary birth– Rivera has been serving a ten month sentence for deserting the US army while deployed in Iraq. She deserted in 2007 because she felt morally unable to take part in the conflict. She was arrested after she was denied refugee protection in Canada in September 2012.

Amnesty International has requested urgent action on her case based on humanitarian reasons because of her pregnancy. Rivera is the mother of four other children, ages 11, 9, 4 and 2. She has been separated from her family in Texas since she began serving her sentence here in San Diego.   [Read more…]

Goodwill Gets Thrifty With Many Disabled Employees, Pays Pennies For Hours of Labor

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By Annie Lane

Having relied on Goodwill for years as the place to drop off my “unwanteds” in the hope they would find new life with people who could better appreciate them (the tax write off was a nice touch, too), it saddens me to discover that the famous thrift store is, in many ways, just another large company run by a disconnected wealthy few who have forgotten what it means to demonstrate humanity, or, more aptly, good will unto others.

Sure, as the video below states, it should not be forgotten the incredible impact Goodwill has had on the communities it inhabits, including the countless people it has hired, disabled and otherwise. But wouldn’t you know my tolerance for companies that do mostly good while still managing to take advantage of some of the most vulnerable members of society is at an all time low.   [Read more…]

Tens of Thousands Protest, Over 100 Arrested in Black Friday Challenge to Wal-Mart

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By Josh Eidelson / Salon / Originally published on Nov. 29, 2013, at 4:40 p.m.

Organizers say 111 people were arrested in eight Black Friday civil disobedience actions against Wal-Mart, with more arrests expected at a ninth and final such demonstration now underway in San Leandro, California. Those actions are among 1,500 total protests promised for today by the union-backed group OUR Walmart, which last year said it mobilized 400-some Wal-Mart employees to strike.

“Wal-Mart workers and community supporters, we refuse to live in fear and refuse to accept scraps,” employee Martha Sellers told reporters on a mid-day call. She was joined by arrestee Betty Shove, who said she’d been “harassed” for OUR Walmart activism, and was “standing up for every member that cannot, that will not, because they’re too afraid to lose their job.”   [Read more…]

Restoring Fairness to the World of California Water

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By Kate Poole/Natural Resources Defense Council

The Los Angeles Daily News penned a noteworthy editorial last week titled “California is drowning in ancient and unfair water rules.” It’s noteworthy because the editorial correctly debunks some of the common myths about California’s water system and, in doing so, points the way to several needed reforms:

  • Myth 1 – urban southern California is the biggest water hog in the state.

Wrong. As the editorial points out, “farming accounts for more than 80 percent of the state’s water usage, while providing less than 5 percent of its gross domestic product.” This is not to say that farming is not important – it certainly is. But because farmers laid claim to a huge amount of California’s water rights in the 19th and early 20th century, the State’s first-in-time, first-in-right system means that they continue to control a vast majority of the state’s water supply, even though agriculture is a far smaller piece of the State’s economic pie than it once was.  Meanwhile, many urban southern California water agencies have impressive plans to be highly efficient in their use and reuse of their piece of the remaining 20 percent.  When will we demand that agriculture be as efficient with this scarce resource?

Disagreement Without the Hate

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By Laura Finley/Common Dreams

Disagreement is an essential component of a healthy relationship, a healthy workplace, and a healthy democracy. Much research documents the dangers of surrounding ourselves with so-called “yes men” who always concur. Workplace echo chambers stifle innovation and reify bad policy decisions. Disagreement stimulates creative thinking and prompts innovation.

Yet, there is indeed a peaceful, even collaborative, way to disagree. And, I contend, that it never involves personal insults, ad hominem attacks, and strings of epithets and curse words.

Unfortunately, it seems as though few in the U.S are taught how to disagree peacefully and constructively. Instead, if we read, hear or see something that bothers us, we tend to get all pissy about it and, rather than present our case, resort to the lowest blows we can. This behavior is, of course, modeled at nearly every turn.   [Read more…]

Elevated Rates of Thyroid Disease in California Newborn Linked to Fukushima Fallout

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By Michael Steinberg / OB Rag

A new study indicates that rates of a thyroid disease in California newborn spiked after they were exposed to fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.

The peer-reviewed study, “Changes in confirmed and borderline cases of congenital hypothyroidism in California as a function of environmental fallout from Fukushima,” appears in the November 2013 issue of the periodical Open Journal of Pediatrics.

In California all babies are tested at birth for congenital hypothyroidism, a rare disease that nevertheless can cause serious growth problems in children if it remains untreated.

Study authors Joseph Mangano and Janette Sherman of The Radiation and Public Health Project (radiation.org), along with Chris Busby, Scientific Secretary for the European Union Committee on Radiation Risk, obtained information from the state of California related to this issue.   [Read more…]

Pet Store Owner Battling ‘Animal Rights Terrorists’ Sues Backers of Puppy Mill Ordinance

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By Doug Porter

Back in July the San Diego City Council approved an ordinance banning the sale of dogs, cats and rabbits at pet stores unless the animals are obtained from an animal shelter, an animal-control agency, a humane society or a nonprofit rescue organization.  The law came about following a slew of reports nationwide tying pet store sales of companion animals to high volume breeding facilities, also known as puppy mills, catteries, and rabbit mills.

Impacted by this move was San Diego Puppy, a Grantville retailer owned by David and Veronica Salinas.  They have filed a federal complaint, according to a San Diego Reader story by Dorian Hargrove, naming the City of San Diego, the local Humane Society, the San Diego Animal Defense Team, the Animal Protection and Rescue League, and the league’s lawyer, Bryan Pease, for their part in passing the Companion Animal Protection Ordinance.

The Salinas’ claim irreparable damage to their business, which the complaint says was the only retail “pet store in the city that is/was selling purebred and other high-quality puppies that are not purported to be from a rescue or shelter retail facility.”  Yes, animal lovers, we’re supposed to believe these plaintiffs are humble businessfolk, unreasonably persecuted by council members Lorie Zapf and Marti Emerald at the behest of activist organizations.

Starting Line on Hiatus (!)

I’ll be taking the weekend off. If anything really earth-shattering occurs I’ll post a special edition of this column.  Otherwise, see you Monday!   [Read more…]

Pass the Dinosaur, Pardon My Turkey and Love the Ones You’re With

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A Thanksgiving Cornucopia of Good Reads and Videos

By Anna Daniels

This year many of us will be thankful to sit around tables laden with wonderful food in the company of friends and family. And for many of us, a dinosaur will be the main dish. Seriously. We accept the fact, with a few stubborn creationist holdouts, that dinosaurs died out millions of years ago before humans were on the evolutionary scene. No more T Rex, Velociraptors or Stegosaurus.

But those were the non-avian dinosaurs. The dinosaurs that didn’t die out are the avian dinosaurs, more commonly known as birds. This is a fun fact for the kids at the Thanksgiving table, but it’s a heavy lift to mentally shift from the lifeless, plucked Butterball on the table, even if it’s a twenty-five pounder, to memories of Jurassic Park. A marauding wild tom turkey however is quite another thing. It may be a much scaled down tyrannosaurus, but admit it- it’s a dinosaur.   [Read more…]

Progress Made at Ft. Rosecrans National Cemetery

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By Judi Curry

On November 10, 2010, I wrote my first article in the OBrag.org  about the trees being cut down at Ft. Rosecrans.  I asked who was cutting down the trees and why.  The editor-dude also wrote an article about the tree cuttings.  On August 12, 2012 I wrote another article about the deplorable conditions of the cemetery, replete with pictures of dead and dying grass; lack of trees, etc.  In the months that followed I wrote an additional seven stories about the cemetery, and until a new Director was appointed every story that I wrote was about the lack of progress  of restoration to the cemetery.

I interviewed the new Director – Doug Ledbetter–with Michael Turko from KUSI, and the plight of the cemetery was not only aired on KUSI but also written about in both the OBRag and the SDFP.  That was on August 30th, 2013, and Doug stated that things were going to improve – drastically and quickly.
  [Read more…]

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