San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

Covered California Introduces Standard Plans

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by Anthony Wright/ California Progress Report

On Wednesday, February 13, Covered California unveiled a new website, its new social media presence and, in particular, the new benefit designs that this marketplace will offer in 2014 under the Affordable Care Act to help California consumers get coverage more easily and affordably.

California has led the way in realizing the promise of “Obamacare” – being first to set up such an exchange where consumers will be able to conveniently shop for quality, affordable health insurance that meets federal guidelines and where many people will be able to receive subsidies (100% federally subsidized) to help pay for coverage.

The standardization of health plans is a breakthrough for consumers, who will now be able to make apples-to-apples comparisons that are virtually impossible in today’s market. Consumers trying to buy health coverage today face a complex and confusing experience, including fear of the fine print. The standardization of benefit designs will make it easier for consumers to compare health plans. It will force insurers to compete on cost and quality and customer service, rather than consumer confusion.   [Read more…]

An Invitation to Rick Perry to Come Back to California

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by Angie Wei/California Labor Federation

You have to feel a little bad for Texas Gov. Rick Perry. He came all the way to California this week to “poach jobs” and left empty-handed. Maybe Perry hasn’t read the studies that show very few jobs move from California to other states. Or maybe he wasn’t aware that California is on the rebound in a big way, now leading the nation in job creation. At the end of the day, Perry’s trip really was all hat, no cattle.

Over the last week, there’s been a lot of silly media coverage comparing Texas to California. It’s almost like a sports rivalry at this point. Perry says his low-regulation, low-government service, low-wage economic model is the way to go.

As a native Texan, I know better. I still remember going to the beach in Galveston and having to use turpentine to clean my feet before I left because of the oil. And I know being a worker in Texas is no joy, either. Workers have few rights. Collective bargaining is rare. If you’re injured on the job, tough luck. Texas is dead last in workers’ compensation coverage. Health insurance is hard to come by. Wages are low, and as a result, poverty is high. The Rick Perry fairy tale of Texas being an oasis is nothing more than a Texas-sized lie.

But we think Rick Perry ought to come back. Yep, you read that correctly. We should invite Perry back to California with open arms.   [Read more…]

Peters Focuses Consequences of Sequester on San Diego

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Sequestration deal agreed to in 2011 could have devastating effects on the San Diego economy.

Representative Scott Peters is back home in San Diego. A rather irritated Scott Peters. “I love being here in San Diego, and by the way it’s 20 some degrees in Washington, D.C. This is a nice place to be. But I really ought to be at work as we get two weeks away from the sequester,” he said, expressing his frustration that the Republican leadership in the House had declared a recess for this week.

As of March 1st, the sequestration deal that was struck at the end of 2011 between President Obama and the Republicans will kick in—a deal that was never intended to be actually implemented.

Back in December, 2011, the federal government was coming up against the debt ceiling. It’s usually a routine matter to raise it in order to allow the government to borrow money in order to meet its financial obligations. It’s important to note that we’re not talking about borrowing for new spending, but to repay debts already incurred.   [Read more…]

Tunnels Under San Diego’s 30 Foot Height Limit in the Coastal Zone – Part 2

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At the risk of encouraging the critics of the height limit by continuing the discussion of the effects and value of the 1972 citizens’ initiative, this is meant then to demonstrate to those same critics the tunnels that have already been dug in and around and under the 30 foot standard, as well as informing the fairly new generations of citizenry and those uninitiated observers of San Diego development.

Height limit MB monsterIn Part One, I discussed how some of these tunnels have been dug underneath the height limit on San Diego’s coastal areas over the decades, outlining several serious breaches of the seemingly sacrosanct restrictions on building heights. Feeling that the ongoing online discussion on the issue with Voice of San Diego (see part 1) wasn’t complete without some kind of acknowledgement of how tunnels have already been dug under the 30 foot limit.
  [Read more…]

A Helping Hand to a Needy Group

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When my husband was alive, he belonged to a wonderful organization entitled “Veteran’s for Peace.” As the title suggests, the group was made up of veteran’s from many “conflicts” and they all had one purpose – “Peace.”

Although not a member myself, I am still on the VFP mailing list and received this message today that I would like to share with you. The world for veterans today is so bleak; the feelings about the homeless population is shameful in so many areas that this report may shed a light on what is happening in our world today.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Big Hotels to Mayor Filner: ‘We Want Our Money, We Stole it Fair and Square.’

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So the Big Local News story today over at the UT-San Diego is that city’s hoteliers have decided to sue Mayor Bob Filner.

It seems as though our Mayor has decided not play nice with the hotels, refusing to sign off on a deal that would hand them more than $1 billion in tax revenues to do with as they see fit over the next four decades.

These ‘hospitality’ businesses decided to collect these taxes and allocate the money without involving local citizens. The logic behind this maneuver is that hotel taxes are paid by tourists, not locals, so voter approval is not required.

All this was done by our former mayor and a council scared to death of being labeled as ‘anti-business’. Our elected representatives don’t even get a say as to who sits on the board that doles out this money.   [Read more…]

Ritual Dishonesty – How freakin’ formulaic our encounters have become…

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By Bob Dorn

The other day, while I was cruising the pants section of one of my off-fashionable thrift shops, something within me caused me to notice one of those inevitable and pointless engagements between two putative human beings.

“Hi, howsa goin’. ” The cashier was greeting a guy about her age, unsmilingly.

“Hi, howsit goin’, he said, riffing a bit on the theme, also without affect.

Neither one of them changed their expressions and nothing more was said. It was clear they were goin’ nowhere, at least not with each other.

Now, if he’d have said, “Good,” he might have opened up their meeting for her to take another step, like, say, “Sure is a nice day out there.” But I suspect he wasn’t going to go there; how it was goin’ for him was none of her business, really. Nor did he have any real interest in hearing how it was goin’ for her, even if he did re-launch that question, “Hi, howsit goin’.” Those were two calculated dead-ends. A simple nod might have been more friendly.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Keystone XL Pipeline the Focus of Nationwide Protests: Mayor Filner Addresses San Diego Gathering

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San Diegans joined with protesters in twenty other cities in North American yesterday to express opposition to the Keystone XL Pipeline project, calling upon President Obama to block it and for leaders at all levels to take action in the fight against global warming.

Five hundred people rallied locally in Mission Bay Park, hearing speeches from Dr. Jeffrey Severinghaus, director for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Climate-Ocean-Atmosphere Program and Mayor Bob Filner.

The Mission Bay rally was part of a nationwide protest, sponsored locally by sandiego350.org, Citizens Climate Lobby, the Sierra Club, the Environmental Health Coalition and Greenpeace.

In Washington DC, an estimated 40,000 people braved below-freezing temperatures to rally at the foot of the Washington monument to protest against the Keystone pipeline.

INSIDE: The Pope’s Retirement, Manchester’s New Hotel, Gormlie’s Old History, and Why We Call Them Teahadists   [Read more…]

Is Big Oil Too Big to Tax in California?

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Soon our national political discourse will be dominated by the nightmarish sequester debate with the Republicans’ doomsday austerity strategy being countered by the Democrats’ austerity-lite program that draws from the eternal verity of Simpson-Bowles. God help us.

Standing in stark contrast to the reigning austerity-lite crowd inside the Democratic Party is perhaps the brightest progressive hope in the country, Senator Elizabeth Warren. Rather than playing the populist note to bash Republicans and then retreating to safe, chamber of commerce approved positions that put Social Security and Medicare “on the table” like many of her colleagues in the Democratic Party, Warren is consistently taking it to the 1% whenever she can, and she really means it.   [Read more…]

Rick Perry Shows His Love For Corporate Welfare Queens

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Editor’s Note: Since it seems like our local daily newspaper can’t find enough good things to say about Texas Governor Rick Perry, we thought we’d present the point of view of a Texan who’s living through his reign… 

by Libby Shaw /Daily Kos

 

I did not want my tombstone to read, ‘She kept a really clean house.’ I think I’d like them to remember me by saying, ‘She opened government to everyone.’ Ann Richards.

Ann Richards served as Governor of Texas 1990-1994.  This was a great place to live until Governors Bush and Perry ruined it.

Now that we know the Governor’s political appointees have turned the state’s taxpayer funded cancer prevention institute (CPRIT) into a cash cow for themselves and their cronies in the medical and pharmaceutical fields, state legislators want to take a hard look at two of Rick Perry’s pet projects. This is especially necessary now that CPRIT is under criminal investigation.

These funds would be none other than the Texas Enterprise Fund and the Emerging Technology Fund.  These funds were created as a means by which to attract businesses to the state as well as to advance various technologies here.

But both have been shrouded in secrecy with little oversight or accountability.   [Read more…]

Bonny Russell, a Woman for our Times (December 23, 1943 – January 14, 2013)

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For Bonny Russell’s Celebration of Life on 2-17-13 at the Unitarian Universalist Church

Jan says about Bonny,
her wife, her love:

“She brought with her an open and loving heart,
the ability to listen deeply,
and a passion
for addressing injustice and inequality.”
…
Come Inside for the rest of Ernie’s beautiful poem…   [Read more…]

Book Review: “Revolutionary Brain – Essays & Quasi-Essays”

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Written by Harold Jaffe, Published December 2012

I met Dr. Jaffe several months ago and was intrigued by his writings and background.  He is the author of 20+  volumes of fiction, “docufiction” novels and essays.  His writings have been translated into numerous languages, and has been the recipient of several awards.  He is the editor of Fiction International” and is currently a Professor of  Literature and Creative Writing at San Diego State University.

Dr. Jaffe, in this book, explores the changes of millennial culture.  He deplores what is happening to earth in a variety of ways.  It is an intellectual and philosophical look at the changes technology is making – has made – today and how we are unable to “reconstruct ourselves”.   [Read more…]

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