San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

Brown’s Betrayal of Schools for Prisons

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By Jim Miller

Finally, there was a measure of good news for schools in California with Proposition 30 creating a budget surplus that had plugged some of the gaping holes that years of budget cuts had made in our state’s public education system. But it didn’t take long for Governor Brown to betray us. Indeed, the Courage Campaign has done a great job in recent weeks taking the Governor to task for seeking to raid the Proposition 30 surplus to fund prison expansion.

That’s right, you heard it: prison expansion. As the Courage Campaign puts it:

Gov. Brown claims that his hands are tied. He claims a court order mandating him to reduce prison size by 10,000 has forced him to spend billions more in taxpayer dollars over the next 5 years. Don’t believe the spin. The Los Angeles Times and Sacramento Bee editorial boards don’t; they’ve ripped apart the Governor’s approach.   [Read more…]

For the Love of Food: Baked Pears With Blue Cheese, Walnuts and Honey

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By Melissa Phy / For the Love of Food

I don’t really eat dessert. That’s not to say I don’t appreciate it, because I love me some chocolate. But it’s just not something I consume — or make — very often.

My very good friend Annie was helping me brainstorm some ideas for blog posts and she suggested a fall-type dessert, a sort of teaser for the impending season.

We came up with baked pears with blue cheese and honey, and walnuts for texture (and because I had some in my freezer patiently waiting to be used up).   [Read more…]

Sweden Getting 65% of its Energy From Non Fossil Based Fuels Now!

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Sweden set to get 82% of its energy from non fossil based fuels by 2020.

By John Lawrence and Frank Thomas

Why is it that other countries can convert from fossil based energy which is destroying the atmosphere and producing global warming to renewables in a relatively short time while the US is lagging way behind? One reason is the of the gas and electric companies to deter individually based solar and wind systems that would detract from the profits generated by their centrally based energy producing systems. Here in San Diego, San Diego Gas and Electric (SDGE) lobbies against any law that would make it profitable for individual homeowners to expand their solar systems and sell their energy back into the grid. SDGE wants the role of selling energy entirely to themselves. And besides they want their ratepayers, not their shareholders, to pay for the decommissioning of the San Onofre nuclear plant.   [Read more…]

San Diego For Free: My Free Tree (& How You Can Get One Too)

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City of San Diego property owners are eligible for free tree plantings.

By John P. Anderson

Back in April I wrote about a program ran by the Urban Corps of San Diego that plants free trees in front yards for property owners in San Diego. At the time I was living in an apartment and unable to partake of the green goodness but have since moved into a house – I can vote now! – and one of the first things I did upon moving in was contact the Urban Corps to get as many free trees as possible.   [Read more…]

Tío Emilio and the Secrets of the Ancestors: Chapter 17 — Hoops Two

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“It’s not just mind reading. It’s about knowing in general, like knowing where the ball is going to be, or knowing that you should go to a certain place and then you find something there that you need. It’s all about keeping a high energy level, and you start to become aware of more things, more than other people. You just know.” Tony
 

By Richard Juarez

“‘Bout time you guys got here. We’re already warmed up and ready to trounce you.”

Pablito was shooting off his mouth again, acting like the great basketball player that he wasn’t. For some time now, the guys had been bugging us about not hanging out with them much anymore. So we agreed to get together with them to play some basketball in Chicano Park.   [Read more…]

The Clean, Curious Eyeball of Bill Nericcio

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By Perry Vasquez / AGITPROP

Bill Nericcio’s work as a writer and theorist of cultural studies extends from the semiotics of Speedy Gonzalez to the film career of Rita Hayworth to the influence of the Homeric tradition on the Chicano novel. For Nericcio, the fluid barriers between high, low and Mexican and American cultures offer irresistible opportunities to thread his sharp observations through the often overlooked gaps in what we perceive to be the impermeable walls of cultural identity.

To his many students, Nericcio is best known as the director of the cultural studies graduate program known as MALAS (the Master of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences) at San Diego State University–the program, known as the “MA in Curiosity” is an interdisciplinary studies program open to undergraduates with degrees in all majors. Additionally, he serves as a Professor of English and Comparative Literature and a member of the faculties in the department of Chicana/o Studies (CCS) and the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS).   [Read more…]

Extreme Weather Watch, August 2013

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By John Lawrence

August 2013 was prime time for wildfires.  The Rim fire, started by a hunter’s illegal fire, burned 370 square miles in California.  About a quarter of the fire was within Yosemite National Park.  More than 5,100 firefighters were battling the flames at their peak.  The Rim fire has destroyed 111 buildings, including 11 residences.  It threatened San Francisco’s water supply.  It has so far cost $72 million to fight and it’s still burning.  Research in California’s Sierra Nevada found that rising average summer temperatures are strongly associated with an increase in acres burned.  An annual increase in average summer temperature of 1º F is associated with a 35 percent growth in burned areas.

Nationally, federal agencies have spent more than $1 billion so far this year on wildfires, about half last year’s total of $1.9 billion.  There have been 33,000 fires that have burned more than 5,300 square miles, an area nearly the size of Connecticut.   [Read more…]

What’s Cookin’ at San Ysidro’s The Front?

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… A whole lot of artmaking in a one-of-a-kind visual arts space

By Linda Caballero Sotelo

If you haven’t made it out to the southernmost part of San Diego county, where the San Diego/Tijuana border meet, then you’ve been missing out on one of the most unique spaces and areas in San Diego: San Ysidro’s only space for art, culture, design and urbanism: THE FRONT.

Since its opening, THE FRONT has enabled the production of new social and cultural relations bringing together arts and social programming, affordable housing and urban research at the border, straddling San Diego and Tijuana.

THE FRONT is part of Casa Familiar’s Arts & Culture Division, under the able hands of its gallery Director, Leticia Gomez Franco, this space was conceived as a cultural think tank that would amplify the “neighborhood” of San Ysidro as a site of cultural production, while engaging local residents and claiming the border region as a unique artistic laboratory. The Salon is a second arts space in the area; housed in what was once a church, in fact, San Ysidro’s one hundred year old Catholic church. The structure was acquired by Casa Familiar and has been repurposed as a gallery and meeting space, serving as the second of Casa Familiar’s art galleries, and a part of an ambitious multi use development project entitled ‘Livingrooms at the Border’.   [Read more…]

Rebuilding Barrio Logan Begins on Tuesday – And You Can Help

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A Call to Support Alternative 1

By Environmental Health Coalition

When you think of a healthy community, what comes to mind? Maybe you picture a park where children play, sustainable local businesses or tree-lined paths winding through clean neighborhoods. This is realistic for most of San Diego, unless you’re in Barrio Logan. Intermingling land use patterns designate parks, paths, businesses, schools and homes to share streets with heavily polluting industries. This incompatible mix not only makes residential neighborhoods feel more like industrial zones, but contributes to air quality so poor that children who breathe it go to the emergency room three times more than the rest of San Diego County.

These circumstances beg the question: What happened to this neighborhood, which was once one of the most thriving areas in San Diego? Full of legends, heroes and rich culture, Barrio Logan seems to have caught the short end of the stick since the 1950s. It helps to remember Barrio Logan (once known as Logan Heights) was once a flourishing local community, fostering a culture of musicians, artists, local businesses and a strong workforce, contributing to San Diego’s overwhelming success as a national destination.

Now it seems San Diego has forgotten its own history. While other neighborhoods have improved community plans to keep residents healthy and happy, Barrio Logan’s community plan hasn’t’ seen an update in over thirty years.   [Read more…]

Language Interpreters Are California’s Lifeline

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Lack of Interpreters is a Life and Death Situation for Many

By Lorena Gonzalez

There are more than 50 languages spoken more comfortable and proficiently than English by the residents in the South Bay and Mid-City San Diego neighborhoods I represent. Throughout California, this challenge is shared by more than 6.5 million Californians, according to the 2010 U.S. Census.

Ordering food. Asking for directions. Attending school. Interviewing for a job. Filling prescriptions. Rescheduling appointments.

No situation involving a language barrier is as frightening, though, as one that risks the life of a loved one.   [Read more…]

I (Also) Have a Dream

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Let Freedom Ring for the Undocumented

By Enrique Morones (with respect to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Five years ago a great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, was elected President of the United States. This momentous event came as a great beacon light of HOPE TO MILLIONS of undocumented who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their living in the shadows.

But 2000 days later, the undocumented are not free. 2000 days later the life of the undocumented is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. 2000 days later, the undocumented lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. 2000 days later, the undocumented is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land. So we come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.   [Read more…]

San Diego City Council Committee Pushes for Ban on Plastic Bags

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By Frank Gormlie

A key committee of the San Diego City Council came out today in strong support for a ban of plastic bags. The Rules and Economic Development Committee took a unanimous vote in directing staff to construct an ordinance that would ban plastic bags at city grocery stores and other retail sites within the city.

The proposal at this stage of its process would ban plastic bags in supermarkets, and other retail sites that include large stores that sell food, drug stores, convenience, hardware and clothing stores. It also has a requirement that stores charge 10 cents a paper bag, but exempting restaurants, nonprofits, food stamp recipients, and produce and meat products.   [Read more…]

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