By Ernie McCray
Just turned 75.
As I think about being a year older,
my first thought is
I’m so glad to be alive.
No jive. [Read more…]
Extreme Weather Watch: Records Set as Flooding in Midwest Takes Its Toll
By John Lawrence
There was definitely a lot of extreme weather in the Month of April as records were set for rainfall, snowfall, flooding and low temperatures and the month is not even over yet! However, none of it occurred in sunny San Diego so we should appreciate how lucky we are.
In Rapid City, S.D. April 2013 is the snowiest month on record with 39.5 inches. This beats the previous April and all-time monthly snow record of 38.5 inches set in April 1927. For Duluth, Minn. April 2013 is the snowiest month on record with 50.8 inches. This breaks the previous all-time monthly snow record of 50.1 inches set in November 1991. April’s snow total is more than Duluth saw all of last winter! [Read more…]
Hawaii for Cheap: Camping in Paradise
By John P. Anderson
Hawaii – land of honeymoons, idle thoughts, and sitcom ultimate vacations since the mid-1970s. Also a land frequently visited by residents of Southern California due to the (relatively) close proximity and frequent flight deals. I have been fortunate to visit Hawaii twice – my first trip, to Oahu, followed my junior year of high school and included my first flight, first time seeing an ocean, and many other firsts. The second visit was a ‘babymoon’ in November of 2010, visiting Hawai’i, also known as ‘The Big Island’ since the state is commonly known by the same name as the largest island in the archipelago.
Following my typical travel planning routine we arrived in Hawai’i with no plans or reservations (other than a rental car). Fortunately we discovered that the county of Hawai’i (which covers the entirety of the island) runs a spectacular set of nine beach parks located all around the island. Camping is available at all the locations, although the associated amenities vary greatly at each park. [Read more…]
The Starting Line – Our SNAFU Congress: Stories of Inaction, Reaction and Sperm-Shaped Electric Cars
By Doug Porter
Our national sausage making factory rises to the top my morning news heap today with a pile of stories that cry out to be told.
We’ll start with the number zero. That’s how many Republican members of both houses of Congress showed up for a Joint Economic Committee hearing on long term unemployment. And the Democrats didn’t do much better.
Long term unemployment represents a huge economic, social and political challenge. In my opinion, it’s ticking time bomb, ripe for developing into a rich recruitment source for extremists and a rich environment for fomenting ‘lone wolves’ bent on acts of mayhem. The sense of humiliation by forces outside one’s control is a powerful and very negative motivator.
There were suggestions for policy changes put forwards at these hearings, noted in today’s Wonkblog at the Washington Post. But they all involve some form of government intervention and cash money at a time when the now-disproved mantra of austerity continues to reign supreme in the nation’s capital.
INSIDE: CYA = Clear Your Airports, Issa’s Failed Sperm Car Loan Request, Local Protest on Immigration Policy, and It’s Kumbaya Time for Carl & Bonnie [Read more…]
San Diego’s Favorite Bicycle Rides #1 – Ocean Beach to National City
By John P. Anderson
A few weeks ago I wrote up one of my favorite bicycle routes, from North Park to Ocean Beach. I got some good feedback and suggestions in response and decided to continue this idea. However, I’m still a relatively new to cycling in San Diego and there are many areas of the city and county that I haven’t ridden.
To address my lack of personal knowledge I’ll be reaching out to cyclists across the county to profile some of their favorite rides and hopefully connect readers with some new places and routes to check out and enjoy. I hope this series will be on a monthly basis, but we’ll see where things go.
The inaugural installment of this series features a ride from Jamie Ortiz. Jamie recently won the 2013 Commuter of the Year Diamond Award from SANDAG for her earth-friendly cycling habit. [Read more…]
There Must Be A Magnet Pulling Me to Barrio Logan
A Visit to the Public Market
By Judi Curry
I have always enjoyed going to different areas in Barrio Logan. Sometimes I would go every few months; sometimes I would take my foreign language students on a “tour” of San Diego and introduce them to a taco at Las Cuatro Milpas, but NEVER have I ever visited the area 3 times in one week – soon to be 4 times in the same week – as I am doing this week.
Why? There is no question that I have a compulsive personality. I can no more eat one potato chip than I can eat one piece of “See’s Candy.” Why only have one martini when two make me feel so much better. But let’s face it, how many taco’s, taquito’s, tamale’s can you eat in a week? So what is the pull? [Read more…]
The Best Bicycle Ride Around Mission Bay
A Tour of the Best Bicycle Route Around San Diego’s Aquatic Playland
By Frank Gormlie
This started out as a chronicle – complete with a photo journal – of the best bicycle ride around Mission Bay. I had planned to post nearly one hundred photos with complete descriptions and commentary – but due to a glitch in our programs, I was having too many problems to present all the pics. So, I temporarily shelved that idea and gravitated to a briefer version, this one. (As you peruse the photos, be sure to click on them for larger versions to view.)
The tour I now present around Mission Bay is a great one and it is a ride that has been honed by me and a few riding friends over the last three decades – since the early Eighties.
It is a ride along a route that has a minimum of traffic and street exposure, and it is a route that is practically 13 miles round trip from the Ocean Beach Skateboard Park in Robb Field.
Chicano Park Mural Recognizes the Father of the Immigration Movement: Bert Corona
By David Avalos / La Prensa San Diego / April 19, 2013
This week the bipartisan group of Senators known as the “Gang of Eight” put their plan for “comprehensive immigration reform” before the USAmerican public, and once again served the Chicana/o community a Mexican Combo Platter steaming with piles of beefed-up border security smothered in drones, refried Bracero guest worker programs, and microwaved workplace enforcement.
Citizenship for the estimated 11 million immigrants in the country without legally adjusted status, (“amnesty” to conservatives) went sour when gang member Marco Rubio told Fox News “it will be cheaper, faster and easier for people to go back home and wait 10 years than it will be to go through this process that I’ve outlined.”
Herman Baca of the Committee on Chicano Rights (CCR) feels the Chicana/o community has no voice in the debate because it has forgotten the lessons of Bert Corona who introduced the foundational ideas and approaches to establishing immigrant labor rights in this country. [Read more…]
San Diego For Free: Brews & Views at Alcohol-Friendly Public Spaces in San Diego
A weekly column dedicated to sharing the best sights and activities in San Diego at the best price – free! We have a great city and you don’t need to break the bank to experience it.
By John P Anderson
Address: Many locations across the city
Date and Time: Varies but generally either 8 AM – 8 PM or 12 PM – 8 PM
Best For: Beer drinkers, coping son-in-laws, well-behaved college students, responsible citizens and visitors of all stripes
San Diego is known for many things. Some prominent ones are sun, surf, an ideal climate, and beer. (If you enjoy reading about beer, read this article from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that is the best list of top U.S. beer cities I’ve read.)
Once upon a time you could enjoy all of these things together but today we inhabit a safer, tamer, lamer, more responsible world and despite the love many San Diegans have for our local (and non-local) breweries it is not advised to consume their offerings whilst lounging on the golden sand of the Pacific. A ban on beach drinking was passed in San Diego a few years ago. [Read more…]
The Starting Line – California Education Issues Come Front and Center
By Doug Porter
There’s a lull between big electoral periods right now (except for Los Angeles) and, fortunately this means there’s space available for bytes or ink with articles discussing education without the overlay of various campaigns.
The Big Issue in education since the “A Nation at Risk” study released during the Reagan administration has been reform. The changing needs of the nation’s workplaces, spurred by the revolution in technology, ran smack dab into the rising credo that argued for a smaller role for the public sector.
The word ‘reform’ has become tainted, laden with expectations or fears that private enterprise would alter the educational landscape. Three decades of interventions (and, yes, the ‘reformers’ have had many opportunities to try out their ideas) have left us only incrementally better off than we were when this entire hubbub started.
Along the way, programs not central to the theology of ‘teach to the test’ have been downgraded or discarded. Playing clarinet will not enhance your abilities to fill in bubbles on test sheets. And earlier attempts at ‘scientifically’ updating instructional methods were conveniently forgotten. (Anybody remember the ‘New Math’?)
So it’s interesting that so many angles on the quest for a better education are in the news this week. [Read more…]
Sex in San Diego: What Terrorizes Americans Most — Guns or Sexual Freedom?
America treats sex, not violence, as the biggest threat to families and the nation.
By Lara Riscol / Alternet
“Just know that you are loved. And show your love. Every day, okay? That’s what matters,” I said as I hugged my 10-year-old son goodbye at his robotics camp not too far from Aurora.
We had just talked about the cowardly gunman in gas mask and body armor mowing down mostly young people at The Dark Knight Rises midnight premiere, killing 12 and wounding 58, some badly. We talked about America’s glorification of violence and sacrosanct gun culture, making mention of gun control taboo no matter the carnage from a formerly banned assault rifle firing a 100-round drum magazine.
I’d rather talk about sex. [Read more…]
The Starting Line – GOP’s Lincoln Club Smear Campaign Suggests The “R” in Republican Stands for Racism
By Doug Porter
Voters for the upcoming City Council runoff elections got a familiar sounding piece of mail this week. They’re getting campaign literature crafted by and credited to the Lincoln Club of San Diego, making many of the same claims made in the primary by the shadowy PAC calling itself San Diego County Voters for Progress and Reform.
Never mind that these claims have been debunked. Never mind that the group behind the original mailer tried (and failed) to fool voters into thinking the propaganda was somehow from the City of San Diego by putting an official looking logo at the top. [Read more…]
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