San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

Dirty Tricks Fly in San Diego’s District 4 City Council Special Election

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Part One of a three part series: Setting the Scene

There’s a special election coming up in San Diego on March 26th to pick a City Council person to represent the residents of District 4. Ho-Hum. Expect low voter turnout. Nobody cares, right?

Somebody cares. Somebody cares enough to send out smear mailers from a shadowy group trying to discredit progressive candidate Myrtle Cole. It’s getting nasty out there.

Voters in the 4th District are getting mail from a group called ‘San Diego County Voters for Progress and Reform’. Last they were heard of was last fall when they funneled $25,000 from California Real Estate Independent Expenditure Committee of Los Angeles in support of the failed city council candidacy of Republican Ray Ellis.

The mailers have the City of San Diego official seal at the top of the page and on the front of envelope. In bold type with a bright red background they say “Urgent City Message to Residents… Open Immediately”.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Top Pay for Wells Fargo Exec Confronted Over Foreclosures in Carlsbad

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The Los Angeles Times is out with a story this morning about how John G. Stumpf, CEO of Wells Fargo Bank made more than any banker in America last year — $22.87 million.

Some people might say he’s earned it lately, as Wells Fargo Bank has seen a rough month in the public relations realm.

First this story surfaces about Larry Delassus, a retired and disabled man from Hermosa Beach. He dropped dead from a heart attack in court as his attorney argued for Wells Fargo to stop foreclosure of his home.

Yesterday the Wells Fargo CEO was confronted by Betty Badro, an angry homeowner facing immediate foreclosure, as he attempted to give the keynote speech to the American Banker Retail Lending Conference at the Park Hyatt Aviara Resort. The luxurious Carlsbad resort is the same location used by the infamous Koch Brothers for their secret reception and biannual fundraiser for conservative causes back in June.

The SD Free Press’s exclusive coverage of the Carlsbad confrontation has gone viral on the internet. Of course, there’s not a peep in the local daily newspaper.   [Read more…]

Award-winning film “Greedy Lying Bastards” pulls back curtain on corporate-funded climate denialism

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Pay no attention to the Koch behind the curtain

By Eclectablog / Daily Kos

Greedy Lying Bastards is a new documentary released to theaters this past week that reveals the intentional, corporate-funded deception campaign that has shaped our conversation about climate change in profound and dangerous ways. While it’s long been known that the fossil fuel industry — “Big Oil” — has been throwing up a smokescreen (pardon the pun) to confuse the debate over the existence of human-caused climate change, Greedy Lying Bastards picks up where Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth left off to show us just how deliberate and well-funded this effort has been.

The film has already won numerous awards including the 2012 Burbank Film Festival, the Eco-Award at the 2012 Boston Film Festival and was an official selection at the 2012 United Nations Film Festival, 2012 Bahamas International Film Festival and 2012 Costa Rica International Film Festival.   [Read more…]

Restaurant Review: North Park’s Paesano

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Paesano 
3647  30th St.,
San Diego, CA 92104
619-291-4090

Several weeks ago two of the greatest people in San Diego asked if we could go out to celebrate my birthday. (Some people just never let you forget you are getting older.) I said” yes”, and even though it was  two weeks ago, we went out to celebrate today.  And, since the San Diego Free Press is celebrating North Park this month, we decided to eat at a restaurant none of us had ever been to before.

We chose “Paesano” and we were not unhappy with our choice.   [Read more…]

Filly Brown at the San Diego Latino Film Festival: A Hero’s Journey to Authenticity

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Including interviews with Lou Diamond Phillips and Gina Rodriguez

by Alejandra Enciso Guzmán

The San Diego Latino Film Festival is celebrating it’s 20th consecutive year of hard work and film screenings from all over Latin America in the United States. A remarkable effort–small or low budget films which often depend solely on word of mouth, get the opportunity to receive an important amount of exposure during the festival, and even, maybe, a distributor. Such was the case of the Cuban film Juan de los muertos (Juan of the dead) a dark humored comedy that was a part of the 2012 Latino film festival and earned the Goya Award, the premier film award in Spain, as well as ‘Best foreign picture’ and other prestigious international awards.

Filly Brown, a hit from the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, was a much anticipated premiere for the community. The big names in the cast include Edward James Olmos, Lou Diamond Phillips, late singer Jenni Rivera and rising star Gina Rodriguez as Filly Brown. The film follows Filly Brown’s trajectory as an amateur rapper from inner city Los Angeles who seeks to enter the world of hip hop stardom with her striking lyrics.   [Read more…]

Wells Fargo CEO Meets a Desperate Homeowner Facing Foreclosure, Flees

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Wells Fargo Bank CEO John Stumpf’s keynote speech to the American Banker Retail Lending Conference on Thursday morning didn’t quite work out like he (or anyone else) expected. Midway through his address, single mom Betty Badro calmly walked up on the stage to confront him over Wells Fargo’s foreclosure polices.

Ms. Badro, who has worked for the State of California for 22 years, attempted to deliver a personal check to the CEO, and tried to explain that she was hoping to forestall a scheduled foreclosure of her home tomorrow, March 15th. Not saying another word, Mr. Stumpf turned his back on Ms. Badro and left the stage.   [Read more…]

Newest Pizzeria in Town – Tribute Pizza – Debuts Today in North Park

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Today, March 14th, is the debut of Tribute Pizza. This one-man-show, operated by Matthew Lyons, is debuting pop-up style inside of Coffee & Tea Collective at 2911 El Cajon Boulevard. Matthew was formerly the general manager of the MIHO food truck and is now focusing on Tribute Pizza and taking it from the current ‘project’ status to a full-fledged restaurant.

Matthew has over 10 years of experience in the pizza-making world. As part of the first class at UC-Merced, he nearly launched a pizzeria there to capitalize on the newly-created college town demand but was dissuaded from this idea when he saw a headline naming Merced the “Foreclosure Capital of the USA”. Now in San Diego he’s working to move his plan for a pizzeria forward.   [Read more…]

Bad News Environmentally Elsewhere Is Good News for San Diego

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Bad news for the environment in other locales can be good news for San Diego.

Today, two offerings by the media – one on how hot and dry the City of Phoenix is getting due to climate change, and the second about the loss of Monarch butterflies in Mexico – is good news for us.

In an Op-Ed piece in the Los Angeles Times, entitled “Phoenix Too Hot Future”, we learn:

In Phoenix, the convergence of heat, drought and violent winds is creating an ever-more-worrisome situation. … [High] temperatures, however, are child’s play in Phoenix, where readings commonly exceed 100 degrees for more than 100 days a year. In 2011, the city set a record for days over 110. There were 33 of them. … It goes without saying that Phoenix’s desert setting is hot by nature, but humans have made it hotter. The city is a masonry world, with asphalt and concrete everywhere. The hard, heavy materials absorb daytime heat more efficiently than the naked land, and then give it back more slowly after the sun goes down, preventing the cool of the desert night from providing much relief.

  [Read more…]

San Diego For Free: The Natural History Museum – Balboa Park

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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.

The Natural History Museum – Balboa Park

Address: 1788 El Prado, San Diego, CA 92101 (Balboa Park)

Free Hours: First Tuesday of each month from 10 AM – 5 PM (Free for San Diego County residents and active-duty military, with ID)

Best For: Children, the naturally inquisitive, the curious, those looking for a break from the computer

The large white museum just off Park Boulevard in Balboa Park houses the San Diego Natural History Museum. If you’ve been to the zoo or museum campus of Balboa Park you’ve probably noticed the large structure and if you haven’t been inside yet you should take a visit. There is sure to be something of interest to you whether you are aged 5 years or 50.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Mayor Filner Takes to the Streets, Carl DeMaio Re-emerges to Obstruct Plans

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Mayor Bob Filner is making two high profile appearances as the week winds down to highlight pro-active aspects of his agenda for San Diego. Meanwhile, the proxy war aimed at thwarting his programs continues, as opponents wage their own media onslaughts.

This morning Filner’s holding a press conference with ex-councilwoman Donna Frye to announce details of an open government initiative designed to make the inner workings of the City more accessible to citizens. The Mayor’s decision to bring the popular ex-councilwoman into his administration has been widely lauded.

The Mayor’s defeated opponent, Carl DeMaio, is also taking the stage today, with an op-ed piece in UT-San Diego this morning and a morning speech at an event hosted by the San Diego County Taxpayers Association. DeMaio’s message would seem to be a clarion call to warn San Diegans about Filner-approved ‘double-dipping’ for city pensioners.

The Mayor is trying to make it possible for Donna Frye to work in his administration and get paid for her time. Period. End of story.

Taking a cue from his Congressional brethren, DeMaio’s mission is to simply obstruct where ever possible, using alarmist rhetoric to cover his real intentions. You can bet that nobody in the mainstream San Diego media will see through this ruse; the ex-Councilman will be all over the evening news.   [Read more…]

Sex in San Diego: Are Some Men Born Pedophiles? New Science Says Yes, But Sexologists Say Not So Fast

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By Steven Rosenfeld / Alternet

Pope Benedict’s legacy will be forever tied to it. Penn State’s lawyers are offering legal settlements over it. Adults who knew perpetrators for years still struggle with it. And now new research suggests that some people are born with brains ‘wired’ for sexual attraction to children—or pedophilia—a propensity that’s further shaped by life experiences and often cannot be controlled.

“Whatever the chain of events is, the chain begins before birth,” said James M. Cantor, a University of Toronto professor of psychiatry whose research team has made a series of startling correlations finding that pedophiles are likely to share physical attributes, such as slightly lower IQs, shorter body height, left-handedness and less brain tissue.

“There is no way to explain the findings that we get for pedophelia without mentioning or without including biology,” he recently told Canada’s Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers. “It is inescapable at this point. We cannot rule out psycho-social influences, but we cannot have a complete theory that cannot explain these non-obvious but exquisitely important biological findings.”   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Rumors of LA Times Koch Bros – Manchester Deal Rise and Fall with the Sun

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Los Angelenos were caught up yesterday in successive waves of speculation that the regions’ dominant daily newspaper was about to be purchased by billionaire brothers/conservative activists Charles and David Koch. Alt paper LA Weekly broke the story, followed by echoes from the Hollywood Reporter, Reuters and even Forbes.

The Weekly story claimed multiple sources in reporting that the Koch brothers were contemplating purchasing “either the Tribune Co. newspaper group, which includes the L.A. Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Baltimore Sun or the entire Tribune Co., which includes more than 20 stations like WGN and KTLA Channel 5.”

An unnamed member of the LA Times editorial board was credited with adding that the Kochs were actually acting as financiers for a bid by UT-San Diego publisher Doug Manchester. The embellishments appearing in various reports and comments about San Diego’s media mogul were nearly as ridiculous as the local daily’s self promotional efforts.

INSIDE: IRS Employees Protest Sequester Cuts, Judge Rants on SDReader Wrongs, Pedestrians Fight Back   [Read more…]

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