San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

Getting away with murder

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New Series: What you always wanted to know…

Dear NumbersRunnner,

This question has been on my mind for a long time but it’s one I’ve been afraid to ask: How come so many San Diegans get away with murder?

Yours truly,

Timid Questioner

Dear TQ,

Murder is a serious allegation.  If you’ll settle for the lesser charge of white-collar crime (the FBI says it means “lying, cheating, and stealing…the full range of frauds committed by business and government professionals…”), you need only take a look at some of Don Bauder’s investigative stories about our hometown white-collar crooks.

But yes, when it comes to San Diego miscreants of a political persuasion these guys really DO get away with murder – both the metaphorical and bloody types.

Consider the case histories of two recently-departed politicians — ex-mayor Jerry Sanders and ex-councilmember Tony Young.    [Read more…]

Gems on The Boulevard Series: Coffee and Tea Collective

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By Omar Passons / eat.drink.give.go

I’ve been frequenting places along El Cajon Boulevard for a few years now and been on my own personal crusade to help clean it up.  So I was thrilled a few months back when a new coffee spot opened up near 30th and ECB.  Let’s talk about the good folks at Coffee and Tea Collective.

So, the North Park Community Association–a group most known for organizing and raising money for the Bird Park Summer Concerts–has over the last several years made improving all of our community an important goal.  What I’ve found interesting and cool is that the most important improvements to the stretch of El Cajon Boulevard in North Park over the past five years have been the opening of honest, energetic small businesses.  One of the most recent additions is a group who take creating a great cup of coffee as seriously as, well, I dunno, serious other things.  Point is, it’s a cool spot.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Petition Drive Seeks Removal of San Diego School Official

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A teachers group has initiated an online petition drive urging the Superintendent and Board of Trustees for the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) to dismiss newly hired Chief Financial Officer Stanley “Data” Dobbs.

The movement comes in the wake of a recent Q&A interview with Dobbs published February 1st by Voice of San Diego (VOSD). The CFO’s factually challenged assertions about the challenges facing the school district along with his one-dimensional analysis of the politics of education in this city has reverberated throughout the community for nearly two weeks now.

VOSD responded to complaints about inaccuracies in the interview by publishing “fact check “ articles which have proved that, indeed, the Chief Financial Officer for SDUSD had no command of actual dollar figures associated with the single biggest expense in any education system: the people who teach. Nor is he familiar with studies relating to concerns in the academic world over the impact of class size on educational achievement; Dobbs simply said they don’t exist.

MORE INSIDE: DRONES SEEKING DORNER, THE GOP/VEGETARIAN PLOT, RON PAUL JOINS UN CONSPIRACY   [Read more…]

My Bloody Valentine

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It’s the Monday before Valentine’s Day and merchants across America are happily preparing for our annual romance-driven consumer frenzy.  Indeed this schmaltzy commodification of love is worth around $14.7 billion dollars a year with much of it ending in the predictable disappointment that comes when we realize that our frantic, frequently anxious lives just don’t measure up to the prepackaged saccharine dreams we are sold.

Valentine’s Day is the sanctification of an empty, soul-killing romance narrative, a celebration of the notion that the most precious and intangible human emotion can be summoned by the magic of the sexless dollar.  In sum, as currently constituted, Valentine’s Day is where real love goes to die.

The roots of what we think of when we think about buying something to signify love are as American as apple pie, and we might trace the origins of the total commercialization of romance to 1913 when Hallmark began to mass market Valentine’s Day cards as we know them.  This commercial landmark was preceded by the work of Esther Howland who, in 1850, first started to produce and sell Valentines, starting the move away from exchanging personally crafted cards or even poems to trading commodities made by someone else.   [Read more…]

Homelessness: NIMBYism

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NIMBY is the abbreviation of the phrase, “Not In My BackYard.” It is a term used to describe the negative emotional reaction that some of us experience when we fear that other people, who belong in a group other than the group to which we align ourselves, may live near or among us.

NIMBYism is the term used as a noun as in the sentence, “Group homes for people with severe mental challenges are not welcome in this neighborhood because of the NIMBYism of its residents.”

The focus of NIMBYism can be any race, economic class or any basis upon which similarly situated people can be distinguished from other groups.

The online Merriam-Webster Dictionary states that the first known use of this term was in 1980. However, the negative emotional response to people unlike ourselves living in our neighborhoods developed long before its use in everyday parlance.   [Read more…]

Bernie Sanders and Ralph Nader Both Condemn Postal Service Decision

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By Matthew Rothschild / The Progressive –RSN

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader and Senator Bernie Sanders condemned the U.S. Postal Service for its decision to end Saturday delivery.

“The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) today continued its tradition under the leadership of Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe of shooting itself in the foot,” Nader said. “The only question that remains is: When will the madness end? By ending Saturday letter delivery in August 2013, as the USPS has proposed, millions of customers who take advantage of its services will be harmed, mail service will be slowed, and the USPS’s current death spiral will deepen.”

Nader also called into question the legality of the move.   [Read more…]

Protest the Keystone Pipeline at Mission Bay – Sunday, February 17th

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San Diego Joins National Protest Against Keystone XL

A number of prominent environmental organizations and groups have come together to organize a San Diego protest against the Keystone Pipeline and to fight against climate change – joining groups nation-wide for a day of action.

Groups such as SanDiego350.org, Citizens Climate Lobby, Sierra Club San Diego, Environmental Health Coalition, Women Occupy San Diego, and many other organizations are planning a rally on Sunday, Feb. 17th, at the Mission Bay Park Visitors’ Center, in east Mission Bay, near the I-5 freeway. Protesters are being asked to wear all-black.

Protests are also happening in Los Angeles , San Francisco and other cities across the country.

The pipeline is designed to carry dirty tar sands oil from Canada to the U.S.

San Diego speakers include:

Robert Reich: Coming Tuesday (Hopefully): The State of the Union’s Economy

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By Robert Reich / February 9, 2013

If you’re sitting in the well of the House when a president gives a State of the Union address (as I’ve had the privilege of doing five times), the hardest part is on the knees. You’re required to stand and applaud every applause line, which means, if you’re in the cabinet or an elected official of the president’s party, an extraordinary amount of standing and sitting.

But for a president himself, the State of the Union provides a unique opportunity to focus the entire nation’s attention on the central issue you want the nation to help you take action on.   [Read more…]

Tax Refunds are Good, Despite the ‘Conventional Wisdom’

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It’s the most wonderful time of the year – time to dig out your receipts, examine bank statements, call up your accountant, and “render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s”. It’s time once again for that most thrilling and enjoyable civic duty – the filing of income tax returns and paying of taxes.

While it is on the minds of many I want to share my advice to my fellow tax-paying Americans for 2013 in anticipation of our next season of tax filings: Set yourself up to receive a refund next year. Increase the tax withholding on your paycheck (via Form W-4). Refunds are good.

Technically speaking, the conventional wisdom is correct – if you receive a refund you have overpaid the government during the year, for most people via wage withholding on paychecks. However, this overpayment isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There are a number of reasons why receiving a tax refund is a good thing.   [Read more…]

The Dove and the Cockerel: Part IV, Chapter 22

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As they drove from the station parking lot, Scott Raines broke the silence.

“Before you say anything, Joe, I want you to hear exactly what I have to say. First of all, you are killing yourself. That is your business and not mine. If I were in your position, however, I would seriously look at getting some kind of help. Enough about that. Secondly, I want you off my team.”

Joe was shocked. It felt as though the air had been sucked out of him. He turned to look at Raines, his mouth slightly opened.

Scott continued, looking straight ahead at the road, “The way I see it, you can do it two different ways. If you ask for a transfer to the report writing desk, I will approve it. The position will give you time to get your act together. Perhaps down the road you can come back to Homicide, although at this point, that is highly unlikely. If you do not accept my offer, I will ask that you be relieved of duty based upon your alcoholism. You are a hazard to yourself, other officers and the public. I have given you adequate latitude to work out your problems, but the situation has come to the point where you are jeopardizing much more than just yourself. I want a team of four, not three and a drunk.”   [Read more…]

The Weight of Affluence

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By Leo Lobbestael

I never really came from money, so to speak.
I mean we always had enough to finance whatever was needed.

And needs back when I was younger was a pretty flexible intangible. 6 through 15: candy, sports equipment, and anything “cool” was equal to breathing, thinking and freedom of speech.

From 16 – 19 it was primarily cars and girls. Anything that increased my access to both of those was milk from natures breasts.   [Read more…]

Calif. Shooter Christopher Dorner: ‘I am a Man Who Has Lost Complete Faith in the System’

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By Steven Hsieh / Alternet

Editor’s note: The republishing of this article is not intended to condone murder for any reason. Rather, it is to turn attention away from the modern-day manhunt glorified by mainstream media, in which sightings of Dorner have occurred simultaneously in multiple areas, and instead highlight the deeper societal issues at hand.

Today, Los Angeles police continued the manhunt for a former police officer that allegedly killed three people in a rampage targeting LAPD police and their families. In pursuit of the alleged gunman LAPD officers shot two women they mistakenly believed were driving Dorner’s car.

Christopher Dorner who was fired from the police department in 2008, posted a 6,000-word memo to Facebook before his alleged killing spree began Thursday. The manifesto explained how his experiences with the LAPD, which he said included years of unchecked corruption and racism from his colleagues and superiors, were his motivation for the violence. Dorner claims he lost his badge in 2008 for trying to expose corruption in the department.

The corporate media’s account of the story, however, nearly entirely ignores the former officer’s lengthy explanation, perhaps in efforts to cast Dorner as yet another lunatic in an era of mass (and mostly unexplained) shootings.   [Read more…]

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