San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

San Diego Concert Band: Band About Town

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by Bruce Rainey

April 14, 2013 Concert: 4 p.m. Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center 6845 University Ave, San Diego, CA 92115

Community Bands have been an enduring part of Americana. The San Diego Concert Band proudly continues that tradition. Based in East County, we serve San Diego and neighboring counties, and have acted as cultural ambassadors in performances overseas.

Originally founded as the La Mesa Community Band in 1989 by Charles D. Yates and Warren Toms, the San Diego Concert Band continues to provide the best in concert band music to audiences in San Diego and abroad. Celebrating almost two and a half decades of entertaining San Diego residents, this band has an exciting schedule of concerts planned this year.

Over the years, the annual spring and Winter concerts have been performed throughout the county, including East County Performing Arts Center, the beautiful setting of Point Loma Nazarene University and the Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center.   [Read more…]

Is San Diego Going to Implement a Great Bicycle Network?

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By Beryl Forman & Sam Ollinger

Last year, SANDAG began the work of implementing their Early Action Projects that are part of their 2050 Regional Bicycle Plan. Within the City of San Diego, SANDAG is currently working on the design of the Uptown  and the North Park/Mid-City  regional bike projects both of which are currently in the design phase of implementation.

The design phase of the implementation process to date has included putting together the working group composed of over 40 individuals representing a wide variety of stakeholder interests for each of the two urban core projects. The draft plan initially presented by SANDAG to the working group provided a skeleton of a map that was designed to get the working group efforts to coalesce around some specifics on where they thought the bicycle facilities to be implemented would be most effective and most utilized.
  [Read more…]

Desde la Logan: West Coasting Tour Brings More Love to Barrio Logan

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At the end of March master graffiti artists, Isaias Crow and Werc Alvarez, returned to San Diego for the first stop on their West Coasting Tour 2013. In addition to painting in San Diego, they are creating murals in Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento and others spots in between as part of their tour. While here in town they created three beautiful, unique murals. The first one in San Ysidro at Casa Familiar’s The Front, another at Pedal Pushing Bicycle Shop on El Cajon Blvd in Talmadge and the third and final San Diego mural at La Central Market in Barrio Logan across the street from Chicano Park.   [Read more…]

Why People Are Protesting Drones in San Diego

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The New York Times has posted an excerpt on-line from “The Way of the Knife: The C.I.A., a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth,” to be published by Penguin Press on Tuesday.

The story starts out telling us the story of Net Muhammad, a Pashtun rebel hiding in the South Waziristan province of Pakistan. His death in June 2004, along with several others, including two boys, ages 10 and 16 was the opening salvo in what has become the newest secret war.   [Read more…]

The Dove and the Cockerel: Chapter 30

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Scott Raines looked at the flashing light on the telephone. “What now?” he said out loud. Picking up the receiver, he said, “Sergeant Raines here.”

“Are you the sergeant of the cop who killed Tyrone last night?” asked the southern-twanged female voice on the other end of the line.

Scott Raines hesitated. “A police officer did not kill anyone last night.”

“Bullshit!” yelled the voice. Then calmer, “I was there, I saw it.”

“Well, we are still investigating the shooting,” he said, not wanting to lose the caller.

“Investigate all you want, I know what happened, I was there,” hissed the voice. Before he could respond, the voice continued, “I got your telephone number at the hospital from your office. Now listen up. You want me. I’m the one that killed that pig the other night.”
  [Read more…]

Field of View: Barrio Logan

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In spite of being surrounded by freeway on-ramps and overpasses that attempt to make it appear like an oversight, Barrio Logan represents a culture and community that’s decidedly alive. It’s something that can be felt within seconds of parking, and seen in nearly every direction by way of the skillfully executed murals throughout the neighborhood.   [Read more…]

Kinya Letting Her Light Shine in Honor of MLK

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It was already a beautiful day as I observed the sun shining through the window and then I clicked into facebook where these words brightened my outlook even more: “Today, I marched with his son to symbolize that the struggle is not over and our will to fight has not died. You did not die in vain…R.I.P. Martin Luther King Jr.”

My granddaughter, Kinya, shared such sentiments after a march in Memphis where Martin was felled 45 years to the day. It warms my heart that she took part in such an assemblage, considering that my progeny, unlike me, are not among those who hit the streets with slogans and songs in pursuit of justice and dignity. They just don’t do that. But I don’t despair because I know they care and pursue a better world in their own ways – as loving people, I’m proud to say.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Mission Valley Hilton Hotel Management Tactics Prompt Employee Hunger Strike

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Employees and the community supporters at the Mission Valley Hilton will be engaging in a five day hunger strike starting today in protest of a decision by the property’s new management company to dismiss nine long term hotel workers.

Following weeks of protests, including a sit-in where 20 people were arrested, employees at the Mission Valley Hilton Hotel were elated last month after hearing that their jobs would not be eliminated as part of a takeover of the property by Evolution Hospitality/ Tarsadia Hotels.

What they didn’t know is that the new managers would subject all the employees to immediate E-Verify background checks. Nine long term workers are now facing dismissal as soon as next Tuesday. Those employees believe they are being targeted for standing up for their rights as immigrant workers.   [Read more…]

Health Care Industry Charging an Arm and a Leg

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Now Doctors are Turning Away Cancer Patients

According to an article in the Washington Post on April 3, 2013, doctors are now turning away cancer patients who can’t pay out of pocket. We previously reported how MD Anderson, a leading cancer hospital in Houston, Texas demanded an upfront payment in cash from Sean Recchi before he would even be admitted to the hospital and about the mind boggling expense of prescription drugs. The patient by the way had health insurance. The admitting agent told him, “We don’t take that kind of discount insurance.” Fortunately, a family member was able to write the check for $83,900. that was demanded before treatment would begin.

Now doctors are doing the same thing – refusing to administer life saving drugs to Medicare cancer patients using the rationale that they they would be losing money because their payments from Medicare are reduced 2% by the sequester.   [Read more…]

You Make My Heart Sing

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A Shout Out to the Arizona Wildcat Basketball Team

Hey, you, Wildcats!
Man!
You could never understand
how you make my heart sing
when you take to the courts and do your thing.
It’s downright thrilling, appealing,
exhilarating, fulfilling…
And I’m sitting here in my den, chilling,
thinking of rhymes about how y’all beat Belmont
like they were no more than children out to play,
no more than feathers in a hurricane’s way,
and you attached yourselves to Harvard
like leeches feasting on fat prey,
like gloom on a nasty stormy day.
…..   [Read more…]

It’s Up to Wrestling to Keep Me Alive

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When I was younger, I said that I didn’t want to die until my grandchildren graduated from high school. Of course when I said that I didn’t know that I would have 9 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren. Then, after so many of them graduated, I had to modify my statement to say that I didn’t want to die until my grandchildren graduated from college.

Now I find that I have to modify that statement again, because the twins – Landon and Logan – have filed for graduation from Cal St. Fullerton; Cody, my second grandson is a Junior at ASU, and the others are quickly catching up to them. So my latest “death wish” is that I do not die until I see Colin, my 14 year old grandson do two things: Win a wrestling scholarship to attend Stanford; and win a medal at Nationals. I also want to be at his graduation from Stanford. I figure he can achieve those goals in 10 years, and at 84 I could still have a positive life, be reasonably healthy, and continue my quest to find a companion.   [Read more…]

San Diego For Free: Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcala – California’s First Mission

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Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcala

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.

Address: 10818 San Diego Mission Road, San Diego, CA 92108 (Mission Valley / Grantville)

Date and Time: 9:00 AM – 4:45 PM Daily are the Visitor Center Museum and Gift Shop hours. To schedule a tour or for tour information call 619-283-7319 or send an email to tours@missionsandiego.com.

Best For: History, culture, religious studies

Website: www.missionsandiego.com

Sited along El Camino Real (The King’s Highway) are the twenty-one California Missions, historic sites that played a major role in the settlement and exploration of the West by Europeans. The chain of missions begins in San Diego and stretches north to Mission San Francisco Solano in Sonoma and roughly follows the modern Highway 101.   [Read more…]

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