San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

Through the City Heights Looking Glass

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By Dana Driskill

With  a 41 percent foreign born population in City Heights, it’s easy to see how a sizable percent are refugees who have come to resettle in this neighborhood in San Diego.

Refugees’ presence can be seen and felt in various areas of the community- from currency exchange buildings to colorful murals at the schools to authentic Vietnamese, Mexican, and Ethiopian eateries, just to name a few. While refugees bring complex and beautiful traditions and practices from their culture to the area, the transition from their previous home to a new one isn’t always easy. As a result, City Heights provides various resources to help refugees resettle and assimilate to the new community.

One such organization is the AjA Project, an arts based program founded in 2000 for refugee and urban youth, and some adult populations. The name AjA is an acronym for the phrase, “Autosuficiencia Juntada con Apoyo” which means supporting self-sufficiency and represents the core philosophy of the organization.

  [Read more…]

Public Banking: The Antidote to Wall Street’s Domination of the Economy – Part 2

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California Could Solve Its Budget Problems by Starting a Public Bank Like North Dakota Did

by John Lawrence

The most solvent state in the US is North Dakota which has low unemployment, no budget deficit and a burgeoning economy. The main reason is that the state has a public bank (BND) in which state revenues and pension funds can be invested making it unnecessary to send the money out of the state to Wall Street. All state revenues are deposited in the BND by law. Instead of Wall Street making the profits on North Dakota’s money, North Dakota is making the profits.

Instead of paying interest on debt bonds, North Dakota is reinvesting the interest its public bank makes on infrastructure improvements and lowering state income taxes among other things.

Whereas private banks are required by law to extract as much in debt service as the market will bear, a public bank can pass on the lower interest rates it has access to to its customers such as public agencies, local businesses and residents. Infrastructure projects are effectively interest free since the bank returns interest on its loans to the state treasury in the form of an annual dividend.   [Read more…]

The Political Side Effects of Tolerating Legal Pot

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Attorney General Eric Holder has placed a ticking time bomb on the GOP’s doorstep that could detonate during the 2016 presidential elections.

By  /OtherWords

Attorney General Eric Holder’s recent announcement that the federal government wouldn’t challenge Colorado and Washington state’s ability to implement a legal regulatory system for adult recreational marijuanause marked a tremendous political victory for reform if not a definitive legal victory.

Technically, pot remains illegal across the nation. But Holder went as far as he could under our system of checks and balances.   [Read more…]

Let’s Start a ‘Neighborhood Watch’ Program for Mayoral Candidates

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By Doug Porter

It seems like ‘neighborhood’ is the new ‘sustainable’ for candidates in San Diego as the campaigns for the mayoral special election on November 19th get underway.  Yes, indeedy, it seems as though this buzzword is on everybody’s lips.

What the word ‘neighborhood’ actually means to the various candidates is what we’ll be looking to find out in the coming weeks. Both the effen (my new shorthand for the anointed candidates that “everybody knows” will win) brothers emphasized the new ‘n word’ in their initial pronouncements.

Meanwhile things are going on in San Diego’s neighborhoods and communities of interest that are symptomatic a return to the business as usual mentality that has dominated the local landscape for generations.   [Read more…]

Has Assad Crossed a Red Line In Syria?

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by Frank Thomas and John Lawrence

Is the Gassing of 1400 Syrians More of a Crime Against Humanity Than the Slaughter of 100,000 Syrians?

Frank Thomas’ take:

Russia’s ongoing multi-dollar sales of advanced massively destructive weapons to Assad’s government has exacerbated the killing fields in Syria. Yet Russia sanctimoniously thinks the rest of the world, namely the U.S., has no right of humanitarian intervention to protect the lives of innocents being slaughtered by chemical weapons and more so by Russia’s own prolific arms sales to Assad’s military forces.

Russia would remind us that for many years (1980-88) Saddam Hussein’s army blatantly used mustard and nerve gases at will against Iran and even the people of Iraq. Foreign Policy has just published CIA documents confirming Washington and other western nations knew of Iraq’s production and use of chemical gases and even delivered some raw materials. In fact, the U.S. incredibly falsely accused Iran of using chemical weapons. Super-hypocritically, we and others set the Iraq precedent that a tyrant government leader, no manner how barbarous, can use chemical gases so long as his tyrannical regime is on the right side of western interests.   [Read more…]

Who Really Deposed San Diego’s Mayor and Nullified the 2012 Election?

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city hallBy Bill Adams /UrbDeZine San Diego

By now, most of the nation is aware of San Diego’s mayoral scandal, which was reported in such national media outlets as CNN, Chris Mathews Hardball, New York Times, etc. and included international legal gadfly Gloria Allred elbowing her way onto center stage. Former 10 term congressman Bob Filner had been Mayor of San Diego only 6 months before it all came to an inglorious and undemocratic end. The conventional wisdom is that the Mayor was accused by 18 women of sexual harassment leading to his resignation.

A former Freedom Rider, he was elected in the 2012 presidential election in one of the widest turnouts for a Mayoral election in the City’s history. It was a referendum for dramatic change, embodied in the policy positions and persona of Bob Filner. He was elected on a vision of prioritizing planning, neighborhoods, transit, affordable housing, labor, and livable city concepts. He was quick to deliver action on his promises . . . perhaps too quick.
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A New Day at San Diego’s City Hall?

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by Ernie McCray

The other night while watching tv I heard interim San Diego Mayor, Todd Gloria, mention that it’s “A new day at City Hall.”

Well, I’ve witnessed many a “new day” in my life and what’s going on today in City Hall doesn’t look anything like any one of those days to me. Instead, it looks like the same old same old to the millionth degree.

Oh, but there was a new day at City Hall. Not too long ago. And it wasn’t like any “new day” I have ever experienced before. It was something to behold. True blue. I mean no mayor, as in none, before Bob Filner, had ever cited visions for our city that coincided with mine, a vision that included people like me, many of us South of 8, activists, artists, performers, non-profit folks and business folks of common means, all trying to meet our community’s needs.   [Read more…]

Sex in San Diego: I Was Asking My Wife for a Vow of Celibacy

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By Pete Beisner / The Good Men Project

Author’s lack of a sex drive almost cost him his marriage, but he couldn’t let his wife go without doing everything he could to win her back.
My wife and I are in a sexual time-out. That is my polite way of saying that right now I would rather do the dishes than make love to her. This isn’t about my wife, as much as she sometimes wants to make it about her so that she can fix it. The most beautiful woman in the world could show up right now ready to fulfill my wildest sexual fantasy, and I would say, “Eh, there is some leftover pasta in the fridge. I am going to heat some up. Want some?”

Why am I telling you this? I believe that our ideas about marriage are distorted by how little we hear about the true inner workings of functioning marriages.   [Read more…]

The Pawns Line Up in San Diego’s Mayoral Race

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“The U-T wants only what is best for San Diego” – quote from editorial warning Carl DeMaio to obey publisher Doug Manchester’s wishes

By Doug Porter

It was a day to remember in San Diego’s political history.  Three high-profile politicians opted to decline the opportunity to enter the contest for the top spot in the eighth largest city in the United States.  That’s like three customers going into a Starbucks paying for a latte with a hundred dollar bill and saying “keep the change”…or a camel passing through the eye of a needle.

Carl DeMaio did a stellar job of playing the media as to his intentions. “According to a source with direct knowledge of his plans” DC’s Politico and other media outlets ran with the story saying the former city councilman had decided to drop his candidacy for Congress to run for Mayor. He posted a photo on social media with supporters holding campaign signs for both Congress and Mayor.

The 11am press conference on San Diego’s harbor featured a podium sign strongly suggesting DeMaio was in it to win it for the mayor’s seat. One reporter even pre-typed a Tweet to that effect and ‘accidentally’ hit ‘send’ as DeMaio’s speech meandered across the political landscape. It was clear the former councilman was enjoying playing the press and his “special interest” opponents.   [Read more…]

City Heights Prepares for Obamacare: How Outreach Will Affect Enrollment

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By Anna Daniels

While Republicans are busily obstructing and attempting to de-fund (but not replace) Obamacare, California has been gearing up for the day when a significant number of its 7.1 million uninsured residents under the age of 65 can sign up for health insurance on the State’s health care exchange. That day is October 1, 2013. The insurance itself will go into effect on January 1, 2014. All Americans must be insured by tax time next year or face a penalty – 1 percent of their annual income or $95, whichever is higher.

There is a great deal at stake here in City Heights for making the enrollment period a success. There is a great deal at stake here in City Heights for making the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) a success. There is a higher percentage of uninsured adults and children in City Heights than the county and state averages. There are fewer working adults in City Heights with insurance coverage–only 49% compared with 65% of county residents. This translates into lower levels of preventive and routine health care access– the very things that Obamacare will provide. “All new health plans must cover essential health benefits such as doctor visits, hospitalization, emergency care,maternity, pediatric care for your kids and prescriptions,among other services. ”   [Read more…]

Slash and Burn: The War Against California Pensions

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By Gary Cohn/Frying Pan News

Benjamin Gamboa doesn’t know John Arnold, but they are linked by a shared concern over the fate of public-employee pensions in California.

“I’m proud to have a pension,” the 30-year-old Gamboa says. “I believe every American should have a pension.”

The two men live in very different worlds. Gamboa is a research analyst at Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa, California. Arnold is a hedge-fund billionaire from Houston, Texas.

There’s another difference between them: Arnold recently had a representative present at a secret “pension summit” held at a Sacramento hotel, where strategies to limit public employee retirement benefits were discussed; Gamboa, a union member, did not – representatives of labor were specifically not invited.

“Pension reform” has become the latest battle cry in a seemingly endless war that has ostensibly been declared against tax-dollar waste, but whose single-minded purpose has been to slash the job protections and benefits enjoyed by California’s working middle class. Pension-cutting advocates have filled airwaves, websites and op-ed pages with stories about employees retiring in early middle age on six-figure pensions. The reality is that the average state and municipal worker retires on about $26,000 a year.   [Read more…]

California’s Already Fracked

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California’s SB4 Moves to State Assembly, aims to create first fracking laws in the state.

By Jenesse Miller/California League of Conservation Voters

Today and for the last 60 years, oil and gas companies frack California without public notice. They inject acid into the ground, and they hide their “frack jobs.” They pump secret chemicals underground. They won’t tell, and they don’t have to tell – not even if you live next door. And it’s about to get even worse.

Demand to know the truth about fracking in California. Tell your Assemblymember to support SB 4, the environmental bill that forces Big Oil to answer to the public.

Right now in California there are no regulations, no oversight, and no consequences for the oil and gas industry that got us where we are today: fracked by hydraulics, pumped full of acid, and completely in the dark. It was recently revealed that oil companies have even been“quietly” fracking offshore in state and federal waters.   [Read more…]

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