San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

Stadium at San Diego’s 10th Ave Marine Terminal Site Potentially a VERY Bad Idea

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UT San Diego​ CEO threatens port commissioner in effort to intimidate local officials into supporting development plan.

San Diego has a stadium problem. I know. You’re shocked—SHOCKED!—to hear this. I mean, after all, it’s been the best kept secret in San Diego this side of peanut butter. We’ve only been talking about a new football stadium to replace the aging and crumbling city owned Jack Murphy/Qualcomm Stadium for the Chargers (and Aztecs) for over a decade now. And yes, it has been that long. It may only seem like yesterday.

The Chargers have long contended that in order to remain financially competitive in the NFL they would need a new football only stadium with all the bells and whistles of the rest of the modern facilities that have cropped up throughout the league. And there have been a LOT of them. Of the 32 NFL teams, almost all of them are playing in new or completely refurbished stadiums.   [Read more…]

Vigil for Valeria “Munique” Alvarado – Young Mother Killed by Border Patrol

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Question is raised – is this our ‘Trayvon Martin’?

Nearly two hundred people attended the vigil for Valeria “Munique” Tachiquin Alvarado in Chula Vista Monday early evening. Family, friends, supporters and strangers – and the media – gathered at the intersection of Moss Street and Oaklawn Avenue – where she was shot to death by a plainclothes border patrol agent on Friday afternoon, September 28th, while in her car.

The 32 year old mother of 5 had been fatally killed during some kind of interaction with the agent. Reports of what happened differed wildly. And during the at times emotional vigil family members, including the young woman’s father, called for answers and justice.

Speaking first, Christian Ramirez of the American Friends Service Committee spoke about the evening being a sober one. He said the community vigil “was called by the family to remember her life and bear testimony to the tragedy that occurred 72 hours ago. They demand justice.”   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Want to Make San Diego More Bike Friendly? Lose the Helmets!

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There’s been a lot of discussion in San Diego lately about making the city more bike friendly.  Mayor Sanders held a media event not long ago touting a public “bike sharing’ program, a low cost rental system that could encompass downtown, the beach areas and midtown by next spring.  Three bike ‘corrals” that allow riders to safely park their bicycle in crowded urban neighborhoods have been opened recently. And it would appear that the people in charge of the area’s roads are starting to take a more serious look at making the streets more user friendly to riders.

From the venerable New York Times Sunday Review comes an article suggesting that, if we truly want to succeed in making the San Diego area more bike-centric, we should look at what many will consider a heretical idea: lose the helmets.   [Read more…]

Mexico by the Numbers

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Some interesting facts about our largely misunderstood neighbor.

Mexico is a diverse nation with complexities that most Americans have trouble fathoming. It is a country that is stuck with the stigma of having a third world economy with a poor education system, among other problems. The truth is that it is a far more advanced country economically and culturally than most people know.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line –GOP Voter Registration Fraud Program Continues to Unfold; Is There a San Diego Connection?

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Does anybody remember the Fox News generated story about voter fraud allegedly perpetrated by ACORN during the 2008 election cycle? The sum total of their evidence was that individuals were attempting to scam the voter registration system by turning in falsified forms. No monies from the Democratic Party were ever tied to ACORN, nor was there proof that any of the fake voters actually attempted to vote.

It should be noted that actual voter fraud (where somebody casts an illegal vote), despite regular histrionics by right wing zealots, is exceedingly rare.

Now there is a nation-wide voter registration scandal unfolding involving companies directly funded by both State and National Republican Party groups, and over at Fox News there’s not a peep to be heard.   [Read more…]

California Prisons, a Profitable Industry

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by John Lawrence

We’ve been incarcerating more of our citizens than any other country in the world. 2.3 million Americans are presently behind bars. Since 1970 the number of people incarcerated in the US has grown by 700%. Even though we are 5 percent of the world’s population, we have 25 percent of the prisoners in the world. Most of those incarcerated are there for minor drug offenses including possession of small amounts of marijuana. 9.2% of African-American adults were in prison in 2008. One in six Latino men will spend part of their life behind bars. The for profit prison-industrial-complex has grown mainly due to the War on Drugs. The War on Drugs has become a war on drug users, non-violent offenders and poor people even though a majority of drug users are affluent.
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The Obsession of Right-Wing Media With an Imaginary Woman’s Success Story

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Alternet / By Joshua Holland (Originally published Sept. 21, 2012)

Conservatives talk a lot about “dependency,” but it’s not clear that they know what the word means. Consider, for example, the right’s bizarre reaction to a rather benign online campaign the White House pushed briefly earlier this year called “The Life of Julia,” a slide-show featuring a fictional Everywoman that was meant to highlight how Obama’s policies might improve the lives of average Americans.

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Red States Outpace Blue States in Income Growth — Thanks to Food Stamps

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Alternet / By Sarah Jaff (Originially published Sept. 27, 2012)

Government programs are helping ease poverty in red states, despite the GOP’s best efforts.

Americans love nothing more than a good Red-State-Vs.-Blue-State argument, especially during election time.

So a new story in USA Today, looking at the changes in income, state by state, since the beginning of the Great Recession, of course breaks down the results into “red,” “blue” and “swing” states. It declares that red states have seen incomes grow 4.6 percent since 2007, adjusted for inflation, while blue states have only seen incomes grow 0.5 percent. In swing states?
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We Read Banned Books: City College Hosts 7th Annual Week-Long International Book Fair

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Despite the financial difficulties that came with trying to fund a big cultural event featuring books during hard economic times, the San Diego City College International Book Fair continues to deliver excellent literary talent for San Diego. Director Virginia Escalante has put together a lineup that features a little bit of everything with emerging writers, like Reyna Grande, alongside established talents such as Susan Straight and Gustavo Arellano.

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Field of View: Politifest 2012

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This year’s Politifest saw a smaller crowd than 2011 as people came to partake in some local political activity. The event, which ran Saturday from 10 a.m. until 2:30 a.m., showcased dozens of booths at the Ingram Plaza in Liberty Station, as well as debates among mayoral candidates Bob Filner and Carl Demaio, and also candidates for the San Diego Unified School District board.

While I missed the mayoral debate, Frank Gormlie reports that Demaio presented himself “as crazed as he ever was.” Gormlie says the quote of the day came from Filner: “Reform that Carl wants is real estate for Manchester.”

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5 Biggest Lies About America’s Public Schools — Debunked

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Alternet / By Kristin Rawls

Just weeks into the 2012-2013 school year education issues are already playing a starring role in the national conversation about America’s future. Because it’s an election year, the presidential candidates have been busy pretending there are many substantial distinctions between them on education policy (actually, the differences are arguably minimal).   [Read more…]

A Reading Guide to True the Vote, the Controversial Voter Fraud Watchdog

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ProPublica / By Suevon Lee (Originally published Sept. 27, 2012)

As Nov. 6 approaches, the efforts of True the Vote, a Texas anti-voter fraud group recently profiled by the New York Times, are gaining national attention.

Despite scant evidence of voter fraud, the group is laser-focused on weeding it out. It has pushed for voter-ID laws, voter roll purges and other controversial voting-related measures in a host of states. (Here is our guide to the voter ID controversy, where we note that evidence on both sides of the issue is lacking.)

  [Read more…]

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