San Diego County Wage Board’s Heartbreaking Hearing

San Diego County Wage Board’s Heartbreaking Hearing Posted: 19 Oct 2015 10:44 AM PDT By Doug Porter  More than thirty low-income workers came before an ad hoc committee on Saturday to testify about the realities of low-wage life in San Diego County. Many wept openly as they told their stories, encompassing a range of human misery in sharp contrast with the image of San Diego as the economic juggernaut portrayed by civic boosters. Tales of living without running water, of not being able to afford medication for sick loved ones, of having not being able to afford school supplies and more were heard by the panel composed of representatives from faith, academic, labor and business groups. Every one of the speakers was employed; some were working two or more jobs. None of them could make ends meet on the wages they were being paid. San Diego’s regional forum was one of several dozen held around the country, with low-income workers also testifying in Denver, Phoenix, Atlanta, New Orleans, Detroit, Kansas City, Mo., St. Louis, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Houston and Milwaukee.    [Read more...] shared from San Diego Free Press Bad News Not Reported: The Drift Toward Global Plutocracy Continues Unabated Posted: 19 Oct 2015 04:46 AM PDT By Jim Miller Recently Thomas B. Edsall penned an interesting column in the New York Times asking “How Did the Democrats Become the Favorites of the Rich?” where he observed that while the gulf between the two parties is still very wide on many social issues, on economic issues, Democrats have “inched closer to the policy positions of conservatives, stepping back from championing the needs of working men and women, of the unemployed and of the so-called underclass.” Consequently, Edsall notes that: Democrats now depend as much on affluent voters as on low-income voters. Democrats represent a majority of the richest congressional districts, and the party’s elected officials are more responsive to the policy agenda of the well-to-do than to average voters. The party and its candidates have come to rely on the elite 0.01 percent of the voting age population for a quarter of their financial backing and on large donors for another quarter.   [Read more...] A Black Perspective on Ben Carson, the Teapublican’s ‘anti-Obama’ Posted: 19 Oct 2015 04:45 AM PDT By Denise Oliver Velez / Daily Kos Historically, black Americans tend to be overlooked when it comes to achievements in science, math, and medicine. So it was with great pride that we embraced the acclaim garnered by Dr. Ben Carson, neurosurgeon, who inspired many of our youngsters to go on to college and to follow his career in medicine. His autobiography,Gifted Hands, is a present that has been given to many young people in black households across America. Hence, many of us are beyond appalled that this man has morphed into an anti-science reactionary who touts creationism, intelligent design, and anti-evolutionism. What makes it even worse is that he is now the poster child for the right-wing tea party attacks against Barack Obama, the Democratic Party, and Democrats running for the 2016 nomination. He has become the antithesis of the civil rights struggle, directly attacking the gains we have made and are fighting to hold onto. He embodies a "great black hope" agenda for white tea partiers, and racists who are willing to forgo their racism as long as the black person they control is steeped in their brand of tea. I can't say that I am surprised by this tactic. Look at the "replacement" of Thurgood Marshall, an iconic Supreme Court Justice and defender of civil rights, with Clarence Thomas.   [Read more...] Readers Write: Grim Prospect of Hundred Years War Posted: 19 Oct 2015 04:45 AM PDT By Stan Levin Bush's War is thirteen years old and counting. It is increasingly evident that none of the participants in this expanding global tragedy knows how, nor it seems, has anyone the will, to put an end to war. Children born in the Middle East and children born in the United States at the time of our ill advised incursion into the affairs of a foreign country are now about thirteen years old. They know of no time of no war.   [Read more...]

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

Finally, Democratic Presidential Candidates Say Good Things about Marijuana Legalization

Finally, Democratic Presidential Candidates Say Good Things about Marijuana Legalization Posted: 17 Oct 2015 09:04 AM PDT In years past, candidates totally ignored the failed war on drugs and the harms of marijuana prohibition By Tony Newman / AlterNet  During the first Democratic debate, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) became the first major presidential candidate to say that he would support legalizing marijuana if given the chance. Asked whether he would support an upcoming ballot measure on legalization in Nevada, Sanders said: "I suspect I would vote yes. And I would vote yes because I am seeing in this country too many lives being destroyed for non-violent offenses. We have a criminal justice system that lets CEOs on Wall Street walk away and yet we are imprisoning or giving jail sentences to young people who are smoking marijuana. I think we have to think through this war on drugs, which has done an enormous amount of damage. We need to rethink our criminal justice system and we've got a lot of work to do in that area."   [Read more...] shared from San Diego Free Press Lilia Lopez: From Logan Heights to the United Nations Posted: 17 Oct 2015 09:37 AM PDT Introducing our new series 'Latinos in San Diego' By Maria E. Garcia If you have not met eighty-seven year old Lilia Lopez, wife, mother, friend, feminist and activist, you have missed out on a woman who has influenced many people. She has worked diligently to improve the lives of women, not only in San Diego, but all over the country and Mexico and Europe. Lilia says that I am responsible for her becoming involved in Chicano issues. While I was a student teacher at Lowell Elementary School in the 1970s, I invited her to attend a meeting with a group of moms. She says that was when she understood the injustices the women were facing. She couldn’t sit back and do nothing. Lilia did not need me or anyone else to take the leadership role in so many issues that affected Latinas.   [Read more...] Excerpt From Sunshine Noir II: My Days at the Door Posted: 17 Oct 2015 09:06 AM PDT Editor's Note: We'll be publishing excerpts from Sunshine/Noir II: Writing from San Diego and Tijuana, an anthology of local writing about San Diego over the coming weeks, starting with the chapters written by SD Free Press writers. As City Works Press co-editor Jim Miller says in his introduction: "...San Diego is still a city in need of a literary voice, a cultural identity that goes beyond the Zoo, Sea World, Legoland, and the beach.  With Sunshine/Noir II we persist in our romantic, perhaps Sisyphean, effort to address this need and expose the true face of “the other San Diego.”  To buy a copy of Sunshine/Noir II or any other San Diego City Works Press book go here. By Doug Porter The San Diego Door and its antecedents were a big part of the alternative media scene in America’s Finest City over a eight year period starting in October,1966 when the Good Morning, Teaspoon published its first edition. By December, 1971, when I first climbed up the steps of the paper’s Victorian stick mansion at 2445 Albatross Street just north of downtown, the paper had gone through ‘free love’, hippie druggie and counterculture phases and a half-dozen names. It had evolved to become a publication with anti-establishment news and alt-culture reviews, featuring powerful graphics and color.   [Read more...] Finally, Democratic Presidential Candidates Say Good Things about Marijuana Legalization Posted: 17 Oct 2015 09:04 AM PDT In years past, candidates totally ignored the failed war on drugs and the harms of marijuana prohibition By Tony Newman / AlterNet During the first Democratic debate, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) became the first major presidential candidate to say that he would support legalizing marijuana if given the chance. Asked whether he would support an upcoming ballot measure on legalization in Nevada, Sanders said: "I suspect I would vote yes. And I would vote yes because I am seeing in this country too many lives being destroyed for non-violent offenses. We have a criminal justice system that lets CEOs on Wall Street walk away and yet we are imprisoning or giving jail sentences to young people who are smoking marijuana. I think we have to think through this war on drugs, which has done an enormous amount of damage. We need to rethink our criminal justice system and we've got a lot of work to do in that area."   [Read more...]

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

Hey, Here’s An Idea! Let’s Sexualize A God-Awful Disease That Kills and Maims Thousands of Women!

Hey, Here’s An Idea! Let’s Sexualize A God-Awful Disease That Kills and Maims Thousands of Women! Posted: 16 Oct 2015 08:20 AM PDT By Abby Zimet / Common Dreams  Today we mark the low point of the breast cancer industrial complex's already sketchy Pinktober - the month wherein insatiable capitalism touts spending money on all things pink "for the cure" - with National No Bra Day, the semi-pornographic, useless, entirely counter-intuitive "holiday" that calls for women to let their (blessedly healthy) breasts flow free in the name of ill women who are "scarred, radiated, burned, nauseated, and fighting for their lives." No Bra Day, notes one observer, is "the latest way to do nothing about breast cancer."   [Read more...]

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Lt. Gov. Newsom’s Gun Violence Initiative Draws Predictable Fire Posted: 16 Oct 2015 10:51 AM PDT By Doug Porter Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom held a press conference yesterday, rolling out details of a proposed ballot initiative aimed at reducing gun violence in California. The setting for the announcement was San Francisco’s 101 California St. office building, site of a 1993 mass shooting. The measure, co-authored by the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, includes provisions of bills that have stalled at the state Capitol or were vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown in recent years. Owners would be required to dispose of weapons with high capacity magazines grandfathered in after the 1999 ban. Ammunition sellers would be licensed and required to do point-of-sale background checks on every purchase of ammunition. A process would be established to seize guns from people prohibited from owning them because of their criminal records and federal authorities would be automatically notified of each addition to the state’s databased on prohibited firearms owners. Needless to say, gun groups are locking and loading.   [Read more...] North Of The Fence: It’s All About The San Diego-Tijuana Border Posted: 16 Oct 2015 09:52 AM PDT By Barbara Zaragoza/ SouthBayCompass The Times of San Diego reported that former Arkansas governor and Presidential hopeful, Mike Huckabee, visited Border Field State Park on Saturday, October 10th. Standing alongside former congressman, Duncan Lee Hunter, Huckabee talked about illegal border crossers, saying: “They’re not coming to make beds and pick tomatoes. They’re coming to sell drugs. They’re coming to commit crime and to bring the mayhem that they have in their hearts upon the American people.” Huckabee didn’t cite his sources. The statement was interesting because more than 68% of the 1.6 million people living in Tijuana legally cross the border at least once a year (sometimes once a week); they have in their hearts a desire — to shop. They spend at least $6 billion a year, or more than $1 of every $8 in retail sales in San Diego. (Check page 7 of the linked report.) That means legal, peaceful Tijuanese put a heck of a lot of sales tax dollars into our economy each year.   [Read more...] Turista Libre Teams Up With Tijuana Photography Festival Posted: 16 Oct 2015 08:52 AM PDT Turista Libre tour of Tijuana Photo Festival captures border town’s moment of change By George Howell What better way to get to a photography festival than to sit in an old school bus with the artist-organizers and a handful of curious Americans, listening to booming dance music while the eastern hinterlands of Tijuana whiz past your window? On Saturday, October 3rd, I hopped on board the bus tour co-sponsored by Turista Libre, the Tijuana-based tour operator, and the coordinating team of the modest, but highly ambitious First International Festival of Photography Tijuana (FiFT). As artist Rebecca Goldschmidt told me, “We don’t just want to take people to the sites where the festival events are taking place. We want a dialogue.”   [Read more...] Geo-Poetic Spaces: Bodysurfing Posted: 16 Oct 2015 08:23 AM PDT By Ishmael von Heidrick-Barnes Skimming glassy waves Beaded strands of water fly From crests, closing lips The nosediving sun ascends Into heaven once again   [Read more...] Hey, Here’s An Idea! Let’s Sexualize A God-Awful Disease That Kills and Maims Thousands of Women! Posted: 16 Oct 2015 08:20 AM PDT By Abby Zimet / Common Dreams Today we mark the low point of the breast cancer industrial complex's already sketchy Pinktober - the month wherein insatiable capitalism touts spending money on all things pink "for the cure" - with National No Bra Day, the semi-pornographic, useless, entirely counter-intuitive "holiday" that calls for women to let their (blessedly healthy) breasts flow free in the name of ill women who are "scarred, radiated, burned, nauseated, and fighting for their lives." No Bra Day, notes one observer, is "the latest way to do nothing about breast cancer."   [Read more...]

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

Here’s Sanders in Your Eyes

Here’s Sanders in Your Eyes Posted: 15 Oct 2015 07:40 AM PDT By Bob Dorn  Time for another look at politics 2015. No, no, no, don't go back to Ultimate Fighting, or The Kardashians, or wondering whatever became of Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake or that kid on Via Amnesia named Justin whose pants keep falling below his crack. Forget the distractions for a moment and try to focus on wtf is going on. Let's look at the S-words, and the J-word. One S-word is Sanders, short for Bernie Sanders. Another S-word is Socialist, that's the elephant in the room.   [Read more...] shared from San Diego Free Press A Dark and Dirty Shadow Falls Over California Plastic Bag Ban Posted: 15 Oct 2015 10:56 AM PDT By Doug Porter Efforts to eliminate the use of plastic grocery bags in California face all-out opposition via two well-funded industry campaigns in 2016. Hilex Poly, Superbag Corp, Advance Polybag and Formosa Plastics Corporation are expected to cough up most of the probable $55.3 million price tag for the efforts. An estimated $38.1 million war chest will back a November referendum aimed at SB270, State Senator Alex Padilla’s bill banning the use of plastic bags. The measure was suspended following a $3.2 million signature-gathering campaign funded by the American Progressive Bag Alliance. And just to make sure they get their way, industry proponents are spending an estimated $4 million qualifying a second ballot measure innocuously titled the Environmental Fee Protection Act. It’s likely they’ll spend $17.2 million selling this bit of misdirection, according to Forward Observer.com.   [Read more...]

Race to the Bottom Posted: 15 Oct 2015 07:50 AM PDT By Jeeni Criscenzo Driving back to San Diego from a conference in Fresno down 99 through the San Joaquin Valley, you’d have to be sleep-driving not to see it – the Death Valley of California. Miles after miles, acres after acres, east and west, abandoned farmland as far as the mountain edged horizon, not so long from being lush that you couldn’t identify what once was, or dread what isn’t yet – that rugged desert that comes next, after the tiniest bit of rain.   [Read more...]

Here’s Sanders in Your Eyes Posted: 15 Oct 2015 07:40 AM PDT By Bob Dorn Time for another look at politics 2015. No, no, no, don't go back to Ultimate Fighting, or The Kardashians, or wondering whatever became of Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake or that kid on Via Amnesia named Justin whose pants keep falling below his crack. Forget the distractions for a moment and try to focus on wtf is going on. Let's look at the S-words, and the J-word. One S-word is Sanders, short for Bernie Sanders. Another S-word is Socialist, that's the elephant in the room.   [Read more...]

‘Sunshine/Noir II’ is for Bibliophiles Posted: 15 Oct 2015 07:26 AM PDT San Diego City Works Press' distinctive approach to book as object By Anna Daniels While mass market publishing continues to flourish and self-publishing has increased, small independent presses have declined over the past decades. Those of us who can't imagine a trip to San Francisco without a visit to the City Lights bookstore are an indication of the limited but passionate support that still remains for independent publishing. Small presses release limited runs of titles and address a specific niche and readership which mass marketing publishers largely ignore. They seek out emerging talent, provide a platform for out of the mainstream views and take risks that go far beyond the financial-- City Light's publication of Allen Ginsberg's Howl in 1955 resulted in an obscenity trial. Another small press hallmark is the attention to how the book as an object feels and looks. That means high quality paper and unique cover art and illustrations. San Diego City Works Press' release of Sunshine/ Noir II is a reminder of what small independent publishers can do better and differently than the big guys.   [Read more...]

Buena Vista Social Club in the (White) House! Posted: 15 Oct 2015 07:24 AM PDT By Staff Here's something to celebrate--the Cuban musicians who compromise the Buena Vista Social Club will be performing at the White House on October 15. They have been touring the United States for almost twenty years. They got their start in 1997 when Ry Cooder searched out a number of aging and forgotten singers and musicians from Cuba's rich musical past, brought them together and cut the album Buena Vista Social Club. Wim Wenders documented the process and outcome in his popular film of the same name. It's worth remembering that while the group was well received here, there was bitter and loud push back from the most anti-Castro segments of the Cuban exile community in Miami.  [Read more...]

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

The Democratic Presidential Debate’s Big Winner Was…

The Democratic Presidential Debate’s Big Winner Was… Posted: 14 Oct 2015 09:36 AM PDT By Doug Porter  The consensus view as expressed in the mainstream media I read this morning was Hillary Clinton as “winner” of the October 13th Democratic Presidential debate, hosted by CNN.  Not so fast... There's more to this story... Polling, social media, and focus groups told a different story, hailing the performance of  Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. We’ll take a look at some of the commentary on the events of the evening. I'm happy to report the debate was informative and not boring at all. The contrast with earlier Republican contests was the most obvious takeaway. The Democratic candidates stuck to issues, passing up opportunities to create personal controversies. The wonkiness of the proceedings made the GOP’s debates look like episodes of the Jerry Springer show.   [Read more...]

shared from San Diego Free Press We Need A Medic! Posted: 14 Oct 2015 06:58 AM PDT

In Drought Conditions, the Rich Are Using Millions of Gallons of Water Posted: 14 Oct 2015 06:56 AM PDT One San Diego Household Used an Astonishing 4.6 Million Gallons By John Lawrence Hey, we're in a drought and people are being encouraged to take shorter showers and only wash their cars sparingly. But that doesn't apply to the rich. They are using millions of gallons of water and neither the state or local water districts are limiting them in any way. The water bill for a 11.8 million gallon user in Bel Air for the 12 months ending April 1 was $90,000. This guy was only charged 0.76 cents a gallon! No wonder he consumed water excessively; it was so cheap! California is in the fourth year of a water crisis, but the rich are using water as if there were no tomorrow. Mother Jones nailed the zip code data on this, although no water district would reveal their excessive users by name. Privacy trumps the public's right to know who these water gluttons are, but it's not hard to guess. They all come from exclusive neighborhoods. Take San Diego, for instance. There are 92 persons or families who have consumed more than a million gallons, mainly in La Jolla and Carmel Valley. The biggest single user in San Diego was someone who consumed 4.6 million gallons in a year. Anybody want to step forward and admit what a scofflaw you are and try to justify your excessive water usage?   [Read more...]

Global Parents Unite to Protect Children from Climate Catastrophe Posted: 14 Oct 2015 06:54 AM PDT By Sarah Lazare, Common Dreams In the lead-up to the United Nations talks in Paris next month, parents and grandparents from around the world announced Tuesday that they are launching a global coalition to demand climate solutions for the people they love most: their children. "When I became a parent for first time, catastrophic climate change became a lot more real to me," Frida Berry Eklund with the Swedish organization Parents Roar told reporters on a call Tuesday. "To build parent power around the world we need to reach out to others around the world." That's exactly what Our Kids' Climate plans to do when it stages marches and meetings at the COP21 meeting in Paris in November and December—alongside international civil society and social movement organizations, including youth organizers from around the world.   [Read more...]

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

The GOP Marches to the Right End of the Flat Earth

The GOP Marches to the Right End of the Flat Earth

Posted: 13 Oct 2015 05:07 AM PDT

By Daniel Donner / Daily Kos 

As we watch House Republicans descend into epic disorder, let us contemplate once more how we arrived at this congressional apocalypse: Republicans have run so far away from the middle of the political spectrum that a significant nihilist minority of the party now regards any compromise with Democrats as tantamount to treason.   [Read more...]

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Debate #1 for Democratic Presidential Candidates: Please Be Boring Posted: 13 Oct 2015 09:53 AM PDT By Doug Porter Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know.  I’m supposed to breathlessly predict something sensational will happen in tonight’s Democratic Debate. Maybe Bernie Sanders will rip off his mask, revealing that he’s actually Karl Marx reincarnated. Maybe Hillary Clinton will let it slip that her private email account was all about keeping her orders from the Illuminati hidden. I, for one, hope none of that happens. The best possible contrast with the Republicans would be for an actual discussion of actual programs based on this crazy little thing called reality. I think a successful debate tonight will be, as The Donald has already warned us, boring. Instead of hearing about Mexican rapists, maybe we can hear point and counterpoint on how much (not if) the minimum wage should be increased. Or something about how NOT bombing brown people somewhere might be a good idea.   [Read more...] Students Protest Gun Violence with Giant Dildos Posted: 13 Oct 2015 05:09 AM PDT By Sola Agustsson /Alternet Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently passed the “campus carry” law, which will allow gun license owners to carry concealed firearms throughout public university campuses. The law will go into effect starting August 2016, and many believe it will make universities less safe. Students at the University of Texas at Austin are protesting this law in a peaceful yet subversive way- by openly carrying sex toys to class. "You're carrying a gun to class? Yeah well I'm carrying a HUGE DILDO. Just about as effective at protecting us from sociopathic shooters, but much safer for recreational play.   [Read more...] “Express Yourself” Posted: 13 Oct 2015 05:08 AM PDT Acknowledging the Playwright Project's "Deborah Salzer Excellence in Arts Education Award" By Ernie McCray Being recognized for any contribution I've made to the arts is like being recognized for breathing a breath, like being identified for being myself - as I was raised by a mother and a grandfather and a great-aunt and cousins and a church and more than a handful of neighbors and a teacher or two at a segregated school to, in the spirit of the Golden Rule: Express myself.   [Read more...] The GOP Marches to the Right End of the Flat Earth Posted: 13 Oct 2015 05:07 AM PDT By Daniel Donner / Daily Kos As we watch House Republicans descend into epic disorder, let us contemplate once more how we arrived at this congressional apocalypse: Republicans have run so far away from the middle of the political spectrum that a significant nihilist minority of the party now regards any compromise with Democrats as tantamount to treason.   [Read more...]

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

California Rises Above the Republican Madness

California Rises Above the Republican Madness Posted: 12 Oct 2015 10:47 AM PDT By Doug Porter  We are six years into the Obama administration. The dire predictions made for the United States of America by the prophets of the right have failed to occur. If this were baseball instead of politics, their batting average is so low they wouldn’t even qualify for the minor leagues. This is the kind of madness passing for normal in the GOP. Yet somehow these very same voices continue to be treated as credible. A leading candidate for the highest office in the country says--with a straight face--that German Jews could have stopped the holocaust if they had a few real men with guns. Fox News finds some clown who agrees. And now we have a “debate”, based on a fantastical assumption. Messages of fear continue to contaminate the political process, thanks to a press dependent on access and an ever-growing pile of Dark Money. According to an article in the New York Times, a mere 158 American householdscoughed up nearly half of all the money donated to 2016 presidential campaigns thus far. That’s more money--including inflation--than was spent on the entire 2000 presidential campaign.   [Read more...] Down With Columbus Day! Posted: 12 Oct 2015 06:33 AM PDT Sunshine/Noir II: A Continuing Exploration of Literary San Diego and Tijuana Posted: 12 Oct 2015 05:26 AM PDT San Diego City Works Press Celebrates 10th Anniversary with Anthology: "Sunshine/Noir II: Writing From San Diego and Tijuana"Friday, October 16th at 6:00 PM at the Glashaus Mainspace 1815 Main Street in Barrio Logan By Jim Miller This fall, San Diego City Works Press marks its 10th anniversary with the release of Sunshine/Noir II: Writing from San Diego and Tijuana, an anthology of local writing about San Diego edited by Kelly Mayhew and myself.   Sunshine/Noir II is dedicated to the late local poet Steve Kowit, who was an original member of the San Diego Writers Collective and, as so many San Diego writers can attest to, a fellow traveler and one of our community’s great treasures. His work appears in the anthology along with poetry, fiction, and nonfiction from Sandra Alcosser, Marilyn Chin, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Stephen-Paul Martin, Mel Freilicher, Elizabeth Cazessús, Perry Vasquez, and many more. Local journalist Kinsee Morlan formerly of San Diego City Beat as well as Doug Porter, Anna Daniels, Brent Beltran, and Frank Gormlie of the SD Free Press and OB Rag appear in the anthology along with former SDUT Book Review editor and columnist Arthur Salm.   [Read more...] It’s Time to Abolish Columbus Day Posted: 12 Oct 2015 05:21 AM PDT By Bill Bigelow / Common Dreams Once again this year many schools will pause to commemorate Christopher Columbus. Given everything we know about who Columbus was and what he launched in the Americas, this needs to stop. Columbus initiated the trans-Atlantic slave trade, in early February 1494, first sending several dozen enslaved Taínos to Spain. Columbus described those he enslaved as "well made and of very good intelligence," and recommended to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella that taxing slave shipments could help pay for supplies needed in the Indies. A year later, Columbus intensified his efforts to enslave Indigenous people in the Caribbean. He ordered 1,600 Taínos rounded up—people whom Columbus had earlier described as "so full of love and without greed"—and had 550 of the "best males and females," according to one witness, Michele de Cuneo, chained and sent as slaves to Spain. "Of the rest who were left," de Cuneo writes, "the announcement went around that whoever wanted them could take as many as he pleased; and this was done."  [Read more...] Extreme Weather Watch: September 2015 – Fires Devastate Homes in California Posted: 11 Oct 2015 09:10 PM PDT 2000 Homes and 200 Square Miles Up in Flames By John Lawrence On September 13 California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in Lake and Napa counties. He also had issued a state of emergency in Calaveras and Amador counties. Four firefighters were injured in the fire called the Valley fire. Thousands fled as mandatory evacuations were ordered for the communities of Cobb, Middletown, Harbin Hot Springs and Big Canyon Road. More than 1,300 people fled Middletown, north of San Francisco, as their homes were consumed by the flames. Main Street in Middletown burned up. 600 homes gone. More than 5,000 were without power. The Valley fire burned 40,000 acres in just 17 hours. On Sept. 13 it was reported that 1000 homes gone. As of October 5, the Valley fire was 99% contained. 1,958 structures were destroyed, 93 structures damaged. A separate blaze — called the Valley Fire — in Lake County, about 170 miles to the northwest, has killed three people, destroyed nearly 600 homes and burned hundreds of other structures.   [Read more...]

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

SeaWorld’s Crying the Blues Over Orca Breeding Ban

SeaWorld’s Crying the Blues Over Orca Breeding Ban Posted: 09 Oct 2015 09:56 AM PDT By Doug Porter  There was good news and bad news for SeaWorld at Thursday’s meeting of the California Coastal Commission. SeaWorld prevailed in its quest to nearly double the size of its killer whale enclosure, to be marketed as the Blue World Project, despite an ongoing campaign by animal rights activists urging a no vote from the panel. The bad news was the condition barring the theme park from acquiring any further orcas by way of breeding, artificial insemination or transfers. When the current batch of 11 whales reaches old age there will be no replacements, meaning the $100 million or so SeaWorld was getting ready to throw at the project looks not-so-good. I smell a lawsuit a'coming.   [Read more...]  shared from San Diego Free Press Planning My Garden for an El Niño Winter Posted: 09 Oct 2015 08:39 AM PDT By Jeeni Criscenzo Now that my knee is healing, and the weather is cooling off a bit, my attention is turning back to my garden. Knee problems aside, the oppressive heat of the past two months pretty much silenced the siren call of my garden. Just dragging my sweaty self out to feed the chickens was my quota of physical exertion for the day. Some evenings didn’t even cool enough to inspire my meditative stroll through the succulent labyrinth. Resigned that my vegetable garden this summer was a total disaster, I had removed all of the fencing that kept the chickens out of my raised beds. So while I wasn’t working, the chickens were.   [Read more...]     North Of The Fence: South Bay GDP Growth Nearly 25 Percent More Than County Posted: 09 Oct 2015 08:37 AM PDT By Barbara Zaragoza / South Bay Compass Incredibly good news for the South Bay this week. According to a report by the National University System Institute for Policy Research, GDP growth in the South Bay from 2010 to 2013 was 37.6 %, compared to 12.9 % for the entire County. Click on the article to see the increases. We South Bay’ers can get awfully patriotic about our little neck of the woods. Although we’d like to be seen as an integrated part of both Tijuana and San Diego, some ‘outsiders’ would rather call us the Third Nation. Ok then, I guess, you can start calling us the Third Nation rising.   [Read more...] Foreign Interventions in the Middle East: More Havoc, Nuclear Weapons, Less Order Posted: 09 Oct 2015 08:23 AM PDT By Frank Thomas Middle Eastern states are breaking down in an endless escalation of civil wars where Syria, Libya, Yemen, Iraq are collapsing. The resulting power vacuums exploited by rebel factions and demonic jihadist Islamic state are threatening the Middle East. The ancient, ongoing Sunni-Shiite mutual hatreds are afire. U.S. foreign regime change interventions – by military engagement, funding, training insurgency groups, supporting coups d’etats, protecting regional dictatorships – have boosted instability and mayhem in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Egypt, etc. Emerging unscathed in these interventions, the U.S. departs leaving the wreckage behind to go on to the next trouble-spot.   [Read more...] Empire’s Newest Terror: Climate Colonialism Posted: 08 Oct 2015 03:41 PM PDT By Will Falk I was recently invited to an event at Chicano Park billed as “Live Art For a Sustainable Future.” The promotional poster featured a beautiful image of an indigenous woman with the phrase, “All my relations against climate colonialism.” The event will feature San Diego’s best artists gathering in one of San Diego’s most beautiful spaces to encourage action against climate change on Friday, October 9 from 4-7pm in Chicano Park. I have seen the term “climate colonialism” being used more and more often and I think it reflects the proper analysis. As one of the San Diego Free Press’ resident radicals and after spending two years on the road fighting the forces producing climate change, I want to express my thanks to the poster designer who used the term “climate colonialism.” It’s good to see the term being used because it stems from a radical understanding of the connectedness of environmental and political issues.   [Read more...] Charger Stadium Deal Could Be Key in Block vs Atkins Senate Contest Posted: 08 Oct 2015 03:32 PM PDT By Doug Porter New polling from the Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group indicates increased voter awareness of Assemblywoman Toni Atkins willingness to ease environmental challenges to a proposed publicly subsidized NFL stadium in San Diego may be her Achilles heel. The September 24-26 survey of a representative sample of 401 likely 39th Senate district primary voters was, according to a summary issued by Hart Research, fully representative of the district by geography, inclusive of variables such as race and partisanship, and has a margin of error of ±5.0 percentage points. The summary indicated Atkins name recognition and favorability rating are higher among voters on first blush. When voters were presented with positive, similarly long descriptions of both candidates, incumbent Senator Marty Block gained ground. A shorter comparative description mentioning Atkins's willingness to ease CEQA challenges to the proposed NFL stadium, voter preferences shifted to give Block a 46-to-35 advantage over Atkins.   [Read more...]

The TRUTH will set you FREE.