San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

Occupy Medi-Cal – Justice for Raul Carranza Rally – Friday, April 6th

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Patients, Caregivers and Community Leaders Rally to Restore Medi-cal Care to California’s Disabled and Elderly.

In the tradition of Disability Rights Movement patients, caregivers, human rights activists, and community leaders, Congressman Bob Filner, Lorena Gonzalez of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council and others will gather on Friday, April 6, 2012 at 11 a.m. to protest the state-wide budget cuts affecting millions of disabled patients and the jobs of their caregivers. ]

The rally will take place at the Medi-Cal office located at 690 Oxford Street in Chula Vista, Calif.   [Read more…]

Sex in San Diego: To porn or not to porn

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I’m a man in my 30s who enjoys porn. In contrast, most women I know seem to have no interest in porn.

Accordingly, I’m intrigued by how porn tends to be compelling to men but unappealing to women. Maybe it’s because, for men, so much of sex is about the physical details. Whereas for women, so much of sex is not about the physical details.

But porn does excite women — and it doesn’t matter what kind of porn. Studies show that straight men are turned on by straight porn, gay people by gay porn, and straight women by both straight porn and gay porn…   [Read more…]

Film “Bag It” Asks How Plastic Are You? Free Showing In OB

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Free Screening of “Bag It” at Indie Yoga April 7th at 7pm

Billions of plastic bags and bottles are used in the U.S. each year. Take a look around your own household, or check out the trash littering our streets and beaches.

The average American uses about 500 plastic bags each year and, according to estimates, each bag is only used for about twelve minutes before being discarded.

There’s no denying it. Plastics are everywhere! Most of what we eat and drink, and the products we purchase, are packaged and wrapped in petroleum plastic – a material designed to last forever, yet used for products that most people use once and throw away.   [Read more…]

San Diego Bishop to wash feet of Ocean Beach homeless – Thursday morning

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The Ocean Beach branch of the Episcopal Church is holding a special event this morning – Thursday, April 5th.

The Episcopalian Bishop of San Diego is coming to OB to wash the feet of homeless people in our village. And it’s all being done to raise awareness about the homeless, homelessness, and the homeless population that seem to be “invisible” to the rest of society.

Bishop Jim Mathes will also put on new shoes and socks on them. Legal, medical and social services will also be available.

Where: The Episcopal Church Center, 2083 Sunset Cliffs Blvd, San Diego, in the courtyard

When: Thursday, April 5, 10:00am – 1:00pm

Why: To raise awareness about homelessness and to let our homeless population know they are not invisible; they are loved.

  [Read more…]

Naked Ocean Beach Nighttime Swimmer Can’t Find Clothes, Goes Home – Sets Off 2 Hour Rescue Search

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What a story! Apparently, an Ocean Beach woman with friends went swimming last night – Tuesday night – and they went swimming without clothes – naked – . When she got out of the (low-50s?) water she couldn’t find her friends, she couldn’t find her clothes, her cellphone or even her wallet. What to do? So, she walks home. Now, the U-T is reporting that she walked home “drunk and naked”. OMG!

Anyhow, she probably fell asleep at some point, not even imagining that her absence on the beach would set off such a scene.

Anyhow, someone walking on the beach near the end of Brighton Avenue near Dog Beach found her stuff. This was about 4:30 a.m. – this morning. Sounds like the good Samaritan waited around for an hour to see if anyone claimed the clothes, cellphone and wallet. No one did. So, they called the lifeguards.   [Read more…]

Nearly Eighty Arrested in San Francisco During ‘First Real Occupation’ of 2012

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Allison Kilkenny / The Nation / April 3, 2012

Once the last major Occupy camps had been razed by police forces, pundits began to crow that the movement was finished. Of course, once it became clear that thesis was not grounded in reality, the professional ponderers went on to wonder aloud (and in print) if occupations would still be a major part of the group’s agenda. In other words: could Occupy still be Occupy without ongoing occupations?

An Occupy Wall Street action in San Francisco of between 100 and 300 activists achieved what New York Magazine calls “one of the first real occupations of 2012” when they took over a building belonging to the city Archdiocese. (photo via @OCongress)

Police in riot gear stormed the two-story building Monday afternoon after breaking through a barricade the activists had built and arrested nearly eighty Occupiers.   [Read more…]

Come On Down to PUC Hearing and Protect Your Wallet and Purse From SDG&E

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San Diego CPUC Meeting

Al Bahr Shriners Memorial Auditorium

April 5th

2:00 pm and 6:00 pm

5440 Kearny Mesa Road

San Diego, CA 92111

By Diane Conklin / Ramona Sentinel / Originally published March 24, 2012

What will it take for the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to deny San Diego Gas & Electric’s request that you and I pay for their fires? I have thought a lot about this question and have come to this conclusion: It will take the people of San Diego County, thousands of them, to email, call, write, and participate in the process.

And one of the most important and most accessible ways to participate is to join with neighbors and friends and “Come on down” to the April 5th public hearing and tell the commission yourself what you think of this plan.
  [Read more…]

The Green Store of Ocean Beach Has to Move – and Is Looking for Sponsors

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The Green Store of OB – sitting in an old storefront at 4827 Voltaire Street Voltaire Street – has to move. After 17 years being in the same location, the environmentally-and-socially- minded shop was given a 60 day eviction notice by its landlord on April 1st – and it wasn’t a joke.

But Colleen Dietzel – owner and manager – is not bitter. She and her partners at the Green Store have had a wonderful relationship with their landlord, Gregg Sullivan over the years. “He’s been very good to us,” Colleen told me over the phone. “Gregg supported what we’ve been doing here,” she said.

In a bit of irony, Colleen is getting ready to celebrate the Green Store’s 23rd anniversary this April 22nd. The store originally opened in one location in OB and had to move after 6 years. That’s when she and her partner Kip Kruegar moved into the place on Voltaire. Sullivan didn’t buy the place until 7 years later, so he’s been their landlord for the past ten years.   [Read more…]

First Cuppa Coffee – April 4th, 2012: They Who Would Be King Edition

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Cry me a river… What’s a Republican gotta do to get some ink in this town, anyway? With the national press all gaga over Nathan Fletcher’s decision to dump the Grand Old Party, the Brian Bilbray campaign is hoping that they’ll get some ink (probably not in the OB Rag, though) when House Speaker John Boehner speaks out at a campaign fundraiser on Thursday at a Pacific Beach condo at Pacific Beach Drive and Cass Streets. Festivities are slated to begin at around 5pm, and rumor has it that there will be protesters.

The primaries are over, really…. For those of you who may have missed this morning’s pronouncements in the mainstream media, Former Mass. Gov. Willard Romney’s sweep of the elections in Wisconsin, Maryland and the District of Columbia means that he’s won the race to become the lucky Republican to take on the incumbent Democratic President. Word hasn’t apparently reached Rick Santorum, who’s decided to one up the other clueless contender, moon man Newt Gingrich, by visiting Mars. (Mars, Pennsylvania, that is.) By the way, in Wisconsin, four out of 10 voters in the Republican primary weren’t even Republicans.   [Read more…]

Filner and Fletcher Shine in San Diego Mayoral Debate

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Candidates Bob Filner and Nathan Fletcher demonstrate a preparedness to lead.

The race to determine who will become the next Mayor of San Diego took its next step last night at the Joan Kroc Center for Peace and Justice Theater on the campus of the University of San Diego. Nearly 300 people filled the auditorium to capacity to see the top four contenders for the top political office in San Diego square off in a debate with the intention of focusing on one issue and one issue only: Education.   [Read more…]

Open Letter to Assemblywoman Toni Atkins on Proposed Bill Requiring Registration of Medical Marijuana Patients

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Assembly Member Toni Atkins
State Capitol
P.O. Box 942849
Sacramento, CA 94249-0076

Re: A.B. 2465

April 3, 2012

Good morning Ms. Atkins:

I am writing to you with concern over A.B. 2465, introduced by Assembly Member Campos of San Jose. As I am sure you are aware, the bill contains provisions which directly affects the privacy rights of those who use medicinal marijuana as they are provided under the provisions of the Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996 (codified as California Health and Safety Code §§ 11362.7, et seq.).

As I understand the gravamen of A.B. 2465, inter alia, it would require those who seek to use medicinal marijuana, after obtaining a physician’s recommendation, to register with the State of California to obtain an identification card as a part of a state-wide registry.   [Read more…]

San Diego Interfaith Community to Wash Feet of Janitors to Highlight Health Inequality – April 5th

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Study Released Revealing Startling Data on Lower Life Expectancy Even in Upper Income Communities

On Thursday, April 5, 2012, over 200 union janitors, religious leaders and community members will be gathering at Good Samaritan Episcopal Church, where members of San Diego’s religious community will be washing the feet of our hardworking janitors to draw attention to the impact of inequality of health for both working class and middle class families.

The janitors’ union, SEIU United Service Workers West (USWW), as part of their statewide campaign for a new contract expiring in 2012, released a study that demonstrates that with a better health care system people in middle-class families could live four years longer, and people would live five years longer.   [Read more…]

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