San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

Sherri Lightner Seeks to Retain Her City Council Seat

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The lone remaining City Council race stands to determine the balance of power in San Diego’s City Hall.

The lone remaining undecided city council race is in District 1, where incumbent Democrat Sherri Lightner finished a close second to Republican challenger Ray Ellis. Which is surprising, and then again not surprising, since of the four contestants in the race, three of them were Democrats.

It’s an important race, however, one that could very well determine the future direction of the City of San Diego. It will determine the balance of power between Democrats and Republicans on the City Council, which is currently split evenly between the two parties, giving one party a distinct edge in which policies get adopted. And although the city council and mayoral race is officially non-partisan, in this election year they have been anything but. It’s a distinction that takes on even more significance should Carl DeMaio defeat Bob Filner in the mayor’s race.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – San Diego Zoo Expansion Plan: Make 61% of Balboa Park’s Parking Paid

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Now that (it appears) plans for construction of a paid parking garage adjacent to the Plaza de Panama are moving forward, the San Diego Zoo has dusted off an eight year old project involving construction of a fee based 4800 space underground garage and will eliminating the free 2500 space surface lot currently in use.

The announcement for the latest proposal came via a very carefully controlled roll out with members of the Balboa Park conservancy and the UT-San Diego editorial board being given a ‘first look’ at the revived plan. Today’s newspaper features a front page article putting a positive spin on the Zoo’s parking scheme, stressing an alleged paucity of parking in Balboa Park. It will be very interesting to see if any opposition develops.

INSIDE: Fletcher Blesses Prop Z, Undecided Voters Who Have Already Voted, Adios NC Times, Munger Pulls Negative Ads

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Wrongful Death Claim Filed Against Border Patrol by Family of Woman Slain by Agent

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Lawyer for Family Cites Long History of Misconduct by Agent Justin Tackett Prior to Shooting Death of Valeria “Munique” Tachiquin Alvarado

The lawyer for the family of Valeria “Munique” Tachiquin Alvarado – shot to death by a Border Patrol agent on September 28th – has filed a wrongful death claim against the Border Patrol.

Eugene Iredale – a renowned criminal defense attorney in San Diego – retained by her family, just filed a claim on Friday, October 12th, that seeks damages and raises significant concerns about the agent who killed her. Agent Justin Tackett has been named in the family’s claim, but has not been identified by the Border Patrol nor by the Chula Vista Police who are investigating the killing.

Iredale said Agent Tackett shot Alvarado nine times.

The wrongful death claim, filed on behalf of Alvarado’s parents, husband and five children, states that the shooting was “the unjustified use of legal force in circumstances that did not justify its use.” The filing for damages is the first step before suing a government agency, and the Border Patrol has 6 months to respond before the family can file suit.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Bain Owned Plant Drops US Flag as US Workers Forced to Train Chinese Replacements

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Presidential candidate Mitt Romney loves to berate the Chinese on the campaign trail. He portrays himself as the candidate that will stop Beijing from “cheating” that will stem the flow of jobs being exported to Asia from the United States. Yet an Illinois company that he has large investments in is forcing soon to be laid off workers to train their Chinese replacements even as Romney continues to claim that his programs will revive the economy and create jobs.

To make matters worse, the U.S. flag that has always flown in front of the company’s Freeport , Ill. headquarters was removed just as the Chinese trainees arrived. The facility, which is non-unionized, employees 170 people.

Workers at the Sensata Technologies plant set up camp in an adjacent fairground over a month ago, hoping to draw more attention to their cause. About a dozen people have been there round the clock even as temperatures outside have rapidly declined. The encampment is a nod to both the “Hoovervilles” of unemployed workers that sprung up during the Great Depression and the Occupy Wall Street movement.   [Read more…]

Colonizing Greece: A European Union Strategy?

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Commentary and photographs by Jim Bliesner, SDFP Correspondent reporting from Greece

Skopelos, Greece. Oct. 14, 2012. Greece as a civilization is over 7000 years old in one form or another. It has experienced thousands of transformative influences, some self-generated others external. It now sits in a pivotal position in the economic roulette game being played by the European Union (E.U.) and the G-7 (United States, Japan, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Italy and Canada whose finance ministers meet annually to discuss economic cooperation/intervention).

The E.U., the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank, frequently referred to as “the troika” in Greece, has been engaged in a multi-year experiment focused on keeping the European Union together as a global economic force. Various countries of the E.U. coalition have erupted with economic turmoil as a result of the bank excesses in the USA and sub-prime mortgages in 2008-09. Most of the countries in the E.U. basked in the spending spree, bought bad investments and made a few of their own. The troika is commissioned to respond by its charter.

The fly in the ointment at the moment is Greece, representing about 3% of the total E.U. economy.   [Read more…]

Ryan Dumps First Amendment for Faith; Does Romney?

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By Kit-Bacon Gressitt

Until a few years ago, I had a neighbor named Donna. Widowed well before she was ready, she plodded on, alone in her leaky house, unread mail and remembrances piling up in dusty corners. We invited her to holiday meals, cared for her dying cat, and, when the 2007 wildfire forced our town’s evacuation, she came with us, enjoying a prolonged pajama party in a small, borrowed apartment, raucous with four women. We ate out, watched movies late into the night, laughed about the yard-waste bag full of adult diapers Donna offered to share with us, found succor for our fears in chocolate and wine and camaraderie. And, while combing Donna’s hair one evening and avoiding a fairly large knob on her head, we learned that she was Mormon.

“They used to say we have horns,” she said, “like the devil. That’s my Mormon horn.”

I’d never heard that particular slur, and Donna laughed it off, saying the lump was just a fatty deposit, so I thought little of it — until recently.   [Read more…]

Reflections on Notes to Our Sons and Daughters

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I had no idea what we were going to other than it was a gala of some kind and we were expected to dress in kind. So I put on a nice outfit and admired myself in the mirror for a nice amount of time and then waited for a short time to be picked up by my beautiful sidekick. I didn’t need to know where we were going to know we would have a good time as that seems to be the only kind of time we know how to have. We like to joke, “Hey, we’re doing all right for old folks.”

I hop in the car (well, plop in the car, to be more exact for my age) and learn that our destination is the Port Pavillion on Broadway Pier, a venue at the very end of Broadway in which I had never set foot before this day.   [Read more…]

1,000-Plus People Spell Out ‘Dump Citizens United!’ on San Francisco Beach

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Alternet / Oct. 13, 2012

The 2010 Supreme Court ruling on Citizens United trampled on America’s founding principles, swamped our democracy in corporate cash and needs to be overturned,” said Brad Newsham, the San Francisco cab-driver who organized today’s event. “Some truths are so self-evident that the Founders felt no need to mention them. Truths like, ‘Corporations are NOT People.’ ‘Money is NOT Speech.’ ‘Elections are NOT Auctions.'” continued Newsham. “But in the shadow of Citizens United, we all have to step up and protect America’s sacred principles. That’s why over a thousand of us came out [Saturday Oct. 13] to make this beautiful, people-powered statement: ‘DUMP CITIZENS UNITED!'”   [Read more…]

Video Picks of the Week: The Avenging Uterus, Hellfire with Deer Heads, and the Science Guy

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The extreme right wing depiction of science as a conspiracy of elitist lies used to undermine the authority of the family and biblical truth while promoting a dangerous liberal/socialist agenda has been given an undeniable legitimacy within mainstream Republican politics. Climate change denialism. The assault against women’s reproductive choice. Creationism. We speak constantly about providing a quality education for our kids that will enable them to be productive and competitive in the world, yet we elect a growing number of people to public office whose policies are dangerously, ignorantly anti-science. Do you think there will be consequences?   [Read more…]

Note to Obama: Ditch Simpson-Bowles for FDR

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In the aftermath of the spectacular shellacking that Mitt Romney gave the President in the first debate, there was much handwringing in liberal circles. Critics on the left side of the spectrum couldn’t believe how Mr. Obama let Romney prevaricate so boldly and wildly as he hammered away at the President’s record while simultaneously and stunningly repackaging himself as a centrist unrecognizable to those of us who were paying attention to Mitt’s rightward tilt during the primary season and the obvious implications of his plutocratic agenda.

But hey, it worked! Now the Rombot is neck and neck with the face of hope in the polls and progressives have been forced to ponder the real possibility of a Romney/Ryan victory, a horror that had seemed to be getting less and less likely until Obama showed up and played the listless corporate Democratic technocrat with low T to Romney’s perky plutocrat on a crazy Viagra binge. The result: perky plutocracy won and now it’s nervous time even after Joe Biden’s frantic full court press attack on Paul Ryan in the Vice Presidential debate.

While there is certainly much to be worried about, it has less to do with style and more to do with Obama’s core vision. On this note, the most important and insightful analysis came before the first debate not after it. Paul Krugman in “The Real Referendum” presciently noted that the President and other prominent Democrats like Bill Clinton have become smitten with referencing their fondness for the timeless wisdom of the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan.   [Read more…]

Powerful Court Quietly Takes Marijuana Case That Could Shatter Federal Prohibition Laws

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Alternet / By Steven Wishnia / Oct. 11, 2012

For the first time in two decades federal courts will consider the science behind medical marijuana — and today there is more evidence than ever.

Once again, medical-marijuana advocates are taking to the courts to eliminate the biggest barrier to legal use—the federal law that classifies marijuana as a dangerous drug with no valid medical use.

On Oct. 16, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the federal appeals court that usually handles cases involving government regulations, will hear oral arguments on Americans for Safe Access v. DEA. It will be the first time in almost 20 years that federal courts have considered the science of medical marijuana, says ASA spokesperson Kris Hermes.

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Videos: Mitt Romney Debates Himself

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The one thing that unites all these clips is that Romney appears equally passionate about his convictions in all of them. The problem is that he’s saying the exact opposite things. Apparently, the only thing he really cares about getting what he wants, and he’ll say whatever he thinks it will take to get it. And with his track record of dishonesty, voters shouldn’t believe a word of it.   [Read more…]

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