San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

Why the Pope Hates Nuns

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AlterNet / By Adele M. Stan

It’s tempting to simply view the church hierarchy as a cult of misogyny. But at its heart, it’s a cult of power; misogyny is but one tool for securing that power.

In 1979, Sister Theresa Kane was given a very special task. As president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an umbrella group for most orders of U.S. Catholic nuns, Kane was asked to deliver four minutes of welcoming remarks, on behalf of American sisters, to the newly elected Pope John Paul II during his first papal visit to the United States. At a gathering inside the grand church in Washington, D.C., known as the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Kane offered the pope a warm greeting, and then launched into this:
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Is Wells Fargo Stealing From its Customers?

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Banking giant can’t explain money mysteriously missing from student’s account.

On Wednesday Monica called me in tears from Wells-Fargo. It appears that she made a $400 withdrawal from her account on May 30 to cover the cost of tuition for school on June 4th. She did not make any withdrawals after that time, and knew that she had $300+ in her account for books and other things. She was horrified when she went to withdraw $20 from her account and was told that she only had a balance of $7. I asked her if she had tried to make the withdrawal from the savings account, thinking that if there had been any overdrafts the original $100 moved to that account would be depleted. She answered that she had checked that account too but the $300 was missing. I told her to talk to the bank manager and call me from his office so I could help her out. She did. The bank manager told me that on the same day there was a $300 withdrawal after the $400. I asked what time it was done but he said he’d have to check. I asked who made the withdrawal, and he told me he would have to check it out. I asked how soon he would have an answer. He told me he didn’t know. I asked for a ballpark figure and he said 24 hours. He said he was sure it was a “computer glitch” and would be straightened out in no time. A computer glitch? What kind of glitch does a computer make where-in $300 goes missing from a customer’s account?   [Read more…]

The Myth of Exorbitance in the San Diego Police Department

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In San Diego and elsewhere across the country, public employees are the bane of conservatives’ existence, including, as we found out, police and fire services.

The SDPD is having a major retention problem. And when their own union tried to do something to alleviate the problem, they were rebuffed because it didn’t fit the political narrative of the day: That unions are bad; unions are always bad; unions are greedy and are only out for themselves and their members, never mind what’s good for the city at large. Unions make city services too expensive. The Carl DeMaio crowd’s rhetoric is that unions need to be decimated in order for the city to even be able to function.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line—San Diego Teachers to Talk Contract Concessions

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Tuesdays’ election results continue to reverberate around the country. Here in San Diego city attorney Jan Goldsmith is asking the courts to help the City sidestep long term litigation over the legality of Proposition B by combining five lawsuits already filed over the initiative in advance of a court decision on the legality of the measure. At issue is the question of whether the city violated a state law that requires negotiations with labor unions in advance of requesting any initiative that would impact employee pay and benefits. The city has maintained that Proposition B was initiated by private citizens and is exempt from the provisions of the law.

Early morning reports on Twitter indicate that the San Diego Educational Association (teacher’s union) membership has voted to talk about contract concessions aimed at negating already announced layoffs for some 1534 teachers. The issue of concessions has divided the union, with more militant members being purged from the SDEA leadership in recent weeks. And yesterday 1000 students at Point Loma High School walked out to protest teacher layoffs.   [Read more…]

Dumanis to prosecute Zoo koalas for dealing eucalyptus

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Erstwhile mayoral candidate turns focus to criminal element from Down Under

Bouncing back from her last-place finish in San Diego’s mayoral primary, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis announced plans to prosecute members of a “eucalyptus distribution ring” at the city’s world-famous zoo.   [Read more…]

Field of View: Golden Hall Bustles On Election Night

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Photo Gallery: Crowds gathered at the Civic Center’s Golden Hall on Election Night, from Boy Scouts to veteran reporters to parents showing their kids the ropes—and, of course, diligent politicians offering last-minute interviews. Cheers and chanting could be heard, but mostly the hum of active conversations filled the space.   [Read more…]

Restaurant Review of North Park’s “Urban Solace”

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“Urban Solace”
3823 30th Street
San Diego, CA 92104

The restaurant could easily be missed if you did not know where you were going. The name is on a sign high above eye level; and the entrance is very unpretentious. Upon entering into a darkened room, with the hostess desk and the bar on the left, I was immediately struck with how long and narrow the room was, and it reminded me of many of the restaurants in San Francisco. There was an outside eating area on the right, but because it was overcast and damp we elected to eat indoors.   [Read more…]

Denial of Service Attack Responsible for Registrar of Voters Website Crash

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According to a Channel 6 report, a firewall issue caused the San Diego County Registrar of Voters website to crash shortly after the first batch of election results were posted Tuesday night, June 5th.  The County is conducting an investigation into the source of the attack. IT services provider Hewlett Packard determined that there were […]

Peed Takes the Lead

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SDROV updates election results to include some absentee ballots. Plus: Saldaña vs. Peters update.

Updated results (and reported first by “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC, no less) on the Garland Peed vs. birther king Gary Kreep: The San Diego County Registrar of Voters has released new figures showing that Garland Peed, the longtime San Diego prosecutor, has taken a slim lead in his quest to become a Superior Court judge:   [Read more…]

California Primary: San Diego Conservatives Are Celebrating Way Too Early

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Since Primary election eve, when the results were coming in, San Diego conservatives have been celebrating their perceived “victories”. Me thinks they are celebrating way too early, as the results are not as favorable to the GOP and their extremist friends as they think it was. Check this out.

First, the California Primary was one of the lowest voter turn-outs in history – 36% – if not the lowest. Low turn-outs tend to favor conservatives, whereas large turn-0uts favor Democrats and liberals. And Democrats did stay away from the polls, as there was no big-ticket item on the ballot. Sure, Barack Obama was on it but he was a shoe-in. And Senator Dianne Feinstein was on it as well, but she didn’t have any serious challengers. Yes, there were two state-wide measures – and one of them – Prop 28 – which does aid democracy just a tad -passed handily – but how can anyone get excited about a tax on tobacco.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line—Are We Ready for an Alien Invasion?

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June 7, 2012—In keeping with my perceived reality that most of us are in overload mode with regard to election coverage, The Starting Line will talk about defense, science and technology issues today. We’ll get back into the muck tomorrow, I promise.

Does the Pentagon have the right weapons to fight off an alien invasion? No, but they’re working on it, says Foreign Policy magazine, in a short but sweet review of some of DARPA’s (Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency ) more sci-fi kind of projects. These projects include lots of ideas that are not ready for prime time, but show promise for future use by the military.

Perhaps the closest to realization are weapons-grade lasers. The stumbling block with this project thus far is that they can work but are too big to be of use in an actual fight. If the aliens have super fast flying saucers, DARPA’s Falcon HTV-2 might be able to keep up with them. It is an unmanned, rocket-launched, maneuverable aircraft that glides through the Earth’s atmosphere at incredibly fast speeds, as fast as Mach 20 (approximately 13,000 miles per hour). It’s actual been tested, but not successfully.   [Read more…]

Sex in San Diego: Women in Movies

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Double Standard: Women on screen are always required to look their sultry, sexy best. Not so for their male counterparts.

Over the weekend I caught the movie X-men on TV and I have to say that women are really starting to get on my nerves. For those who are unfamiliar with the story (is that possible?), X-men is an action adventure about love, revenge, super human capabilities, violence and acceptance. And lots and lots of sex.   [Read more…]

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