California

UC Medical Center Strike Is On – Thousands of Hospital Workers Begin 2-Day Strike

May 21, 2013 by Staff
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Thousands of hospital workers at University of California medical centers up and down the state have begun a two-day strike starting today, Tuesday, May 21.

The strike definitely includes the UC Med Centers here in San Diego, at both Hillcrest and La Jolla, where more than 2,000 workers stayed home today or walked picket lines. The striking workers include vocational nurses, respiratory therapists, pharmacy technicians, bus drivers and custodians.

The strike follows almost a year of failed negotiations and eight months without a contract. The last one expired in September of 2012. Strikers are are motivated by demands that the UC Medical System stop prioritizing profit over quality patient care, as today’s strike is NOT just about higher pay, as is being reported in the mass media.

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The Widder Curry Re-Visits the Point Loma Democratic Club

May 20, 2013 by Judi Curry
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A Brief Summary of May 19, 2013 Meeting of Peninsula Dems

It has been a long time since I attended a meeting of the Pt. Loma Democratic Club. My husband was an officer of the club, and when he passed away I decided that I no longer wanted to attend their meetings. The reason for that was many – I didn’t want to hear how much Bob was missed; I loved the President of the club – Nancy Witt – but didn’t know the other officers well and from what Bob had said I didn’t want to know many of them.

The other thing that disturbed me was that the average age of the club was – well, let’s just say “old.” There were very few young people attending meetings, and although this is an intellectually sharp group, I wanted to be with younger people with younger ideas.

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Mayor Filner to Speak at Press Conference Against Gag Order in Federal Medical Marijuana Case – Today – Monday May 20th

May 20, 2013 by Source

Press Conference with Mayor Bob Filner

Ronnie Chang is a state legal medical cannabis patient, an alleged former collective operator and victim of the 9/9/09 raids on cannabis collective in San Diego County. A widespread and brutal attack on legal cannabis patients, the raids were part of a joint effort by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis to senselessly destroy the public safety collectives provide the community.

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Health Care Reform – An Enlightening Discussion in OB Sponsored by League of Women Voters

May 17, 2013 by Judi Curry
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OB Rec Center Meeting Led by Jeanne Brown

By Judi Curry

I attended a most informative meeting at the OB Rec Center on May 16 on the subject of “Health Care Reform”. The focal point was on a “Single Payer Health Care” and a Healthcare Movie was shown to the audience.

The film revealed the true story of how the health care systems in Canada and the US evolved so differently when, at one, point, they were essential the same. Statistics are overwhelming –not just in comparing the Canadian health care system to ours, but in just looking at the stats overall.

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Pharmacist Kickbacks Put California Patient Health at Risk

May 17, 2013 by Source

PillsBy Hollaine Hopkins/California Progress Report

Health care cost containment is a critical issue facing every participant in the health care system. Efforts to contain costs, however, appear to have given rise to dangerous financial arrangements between health insurers and pharmacists that may be jeopardizing the health of California patients.

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Ballot Initiative Seeks to Bring California In Line with Other Oil Producing States

May 6, 2013 by Andy Cohen

Lost Hills Oil Field

by Andy Cohen / San Diego Free Press

North Dakota does it. Louisiana does it. Florida too, and Alaska. Even Texas has an oil and gas severance tax, which largely funds state government there. Alaska is almost entirely dependent on their oil severance tax. But in California, no such tax exists. …

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Ocean Beach Lawyer Leads Innocence Project March to Sacramento

May 2, 2013 by Frank Gormlie
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Some lawyers talk a lot when serving their clients – and now an Ocean Beach lawyer is walking a lot.

OB’s Justin Brooks, a law professor at Cal Western School of Law, is leading a 600 mile march from San Diego to Sacramento, on behalf of his clients. He’s walking with other lawyers and supporters of the California Innocence Project.

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Right now, the “no’s” are winning in U-T Poll on whether San Onofre should be shut down

May 1, 2013 by Staff
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The UT-San Diego has a poll for its readers going right now on whether you think the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant should be shut down.

As of yesterday, May 1, “Yes”was winning – but as of today, the “no’s are ahead.

C’mon OBceans and San Diegans – Vote to shut it down. We have the link right here so you can vote.S

Here’s the link to vote

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The Best Bike Ride Around Mission Bay – The Long Version and Photo Journal (for those who will never ride it)

April 30, 2013 by Frank Gormlie

This is a chronicle – complete with a photo journal – of the best bicycle ride around Mission Bay. It is a ride that has been honed by the author – along with a few friends – over the last three decades – since the early Eighties.

It is a ride along a route that has a minimum of traffic and street exposure, and it is a route that is approximately …. 13 miles round trip from the Ocean Beach Skateboard Park in Robb Field.

(Editor: See the “short” version here)

It is a bike ride that is chronicled for two types of people:

  • those who actually try the route (or already have), and
  • those who will never ride it – (although they may walk parts or even all of it).

The main method of my chronicle is a photo journal that accompanies this introduction.

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Labor Bashing and Lincoln Club Love : the Last Refuge of Losers and Scoundrels in San Diego Democratic Politics

April 29, 2013 by Jim Miller
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Local Races in Assembly District 80 and City Council District 4

By Jim Miller

Before I devote the month of May to the San Diego Free Press’s upcoming focus on my Golden Hill neighborhood, recent events compel me to do one last column on the special elections in Assembly District 80 and City Council District 4.

The 80th California Assembly District: Lorena Gonzalez vs Steve Castaneda

In the race to replace Ben Hueso in the 80th it shouldn’t be shocking that Lorena Gonzalez’s opponent has attacked her for being a “union boss” except for the fact that that charge was hurled at her not from a Republican but from fellow Democrat, Steve Castaneda. Indeed, Mr. Castaneda, who would surely have taken labor’s endorsement if offered, was far too quick to turn to cartoon like right-wing anti-union stereotypes. This should tell us all we need to know about this variety of Democrat.

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Happy Tax Day — For Some More Than Others

April 15, 2013 by Jim Miller

dollar three dBy Jim Miller

While there was much bluster about the rich tying their hot tubs to the roofs of their Mercedes and heading off to Texas after Prop 30 passed, the truth is that the poor still pay a heftier share of their income in taxes than the wealthy. Last week, the California Budget Project (CBP) released their annual report “Who Pays Taxes on California?”, and it appears that the post Proposition 30 landscape is far from apocalyptic for the top 1%.

By the broadest measure of revenue collection, “Taxafornia,” despite its largely progressive tax system, ranks 15th in the country in total “own source” revenue, and the poorest among us pay the highest share of their family income in taxes.

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Wayward Sea Lion Pup in Ocean Beach Pier Parking Lot a Bad Sign for Species

April 11, 2013 by Frank Gormlie
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Wednesday’s – 10th of April – episode of the wayward sea lion pup in OB’s Pier Parking lot is but the latest in a string of local human and sea lion pup collisions, incidents whose numbers are way out of proportion to the norm along the coast in Ocean Beach and other beach towns in Southern California.

The wayward pup was sighted around 5 a.m. on the corner of Abbott Street and Newport Avenue. A witness notified a passing police officer, who called SeaWorld. Even some media in the area found it.

But after about an hour, the pup waddled back into the ocean before the rescue squad arrived. The resident who originally saw the pup, Pamela Martinez, told the media “she was thrilled the pup went back on its own.”

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While NRC Contemplates Restart of San Onofre, New Study Shows Decline of Cancers Since Northern Calif Nuke Closed

April 10, 2013 by Michael Steinberg
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New Study: Cancer decline since Rancho Seco nuclear plant closed over 20 years ago

by Michael Steinberg

Recently Southern California Edison asked the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission for permission to restart Unit 2 at its San Onofre nuclear plant. Units 2 and 3 at San Onofre have been shut down since January 2012 after radioactive steam escaped into the environment, and subsequent investigation found that steam generators installed less than two years before had suffered significant damage to large numbers of critical tubes in the generators.

Now Edison wants to restart Unit 2 in June, and receive permission from the NRC to operate that reactor for two years, despite failing to substantially address the damage to the steam generators or pinpoint the reasons for the problems, according to environmental group Friends of the Earth.

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West Coast Babies Suffer Thyroid Problems After Fukushima Nuclear Meltdown

April 8, 2013 by Source
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Children born in Pacific coastal states in 2011 may be at greatest risk.

By Anne Hurley / msn Healthy Living / April 4, 2013

It’s already well known how devastating the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdown was for Japan — dramatic spikes in radiation-related illnesses, an increase in likely cancer deaths over the next several years, and pollution which may never truly be cleaned up.

A new study suggests what many worldwide have feared — that the devastation from the traveling radiation has in fact sickened infants in other countries, including babies born shortly after the incident in Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and California.

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Feds Declare ‘Unusual mortality event’ for the California Sea Lion as Sickly Pups Continue to Appear

April 3, 2013 by Source
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Editor: Just today – Wednesday – a dehydrated and sickly sea lion pup climbed into a car near SeaWorld San Diego. A SeaWorld rescue crew was called to the scene. The following piece from the LA Times gives a more regional view, and it ain’t a happy one. Our own Tony Perry was involved in writing this piece. But something is happening to Southern California’s sea lions. Hopefully the federal designation is not too late and will be greatly helpful.

The federal designation comes after sickly sea lion pups have been found stranded on beaches from Santa Barbara to San Diego at rates exponentially higher than in years past.

By Rick Rojas and Tony Perry / Los Angeles Times / April 1, 2013

A weakened California sea lion pup near the Huntington Beach Pier. Sea lion strandings, which began rising in January, have intensified in recent weeks, packing marine mammal centers, perplexing researchers and prompting federal wildlife officials to act.

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Chargemaster: Hospitals’ Killer App for Sucking Your Financial Blood Dry – Part 1

March 19, 2013 by Source

We spend more on artificial knees and hips every year than Hollywood collects at the box office.

Closeup Money rolled up with pills falling out, high cost, expensive healthcare

By John Lawrence / San Diego Free Press

A recent exhaustive article in Time magazine details the exhorbitant charges that hospitals are imposing on the American people, charges that have nothing to do with the actual costs of services provided. A woman in Stamford, Connecticut suffering from chest pains called 911. She was taken by ambulance to the emergency room at Stamford Hospital, a non-profit institution, four miles away.

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Wells Fargo: California Leader in Predatory Lending and Heartless Foreclosures

March 14, 2013 by Source

by Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment / San Diego Free Press

ACCE_logo_2colorWhen it comes to foreclosing on Californians, it looks like Wells Fargo may take the prize. According to a report released today, Wells Fargo is responsible for more homes in the foreclosure pipeline in California than any other single lender.

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Fukushima, San Onofre and Our Health

March 11, 2013 by Michael Steinberg
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It’s been two years since Fukushima’s multiple meltdowns. San Onofre in the Southland has been shut down for over a year.

Time to look back and gaze forward. This article will concentrate on nuclear power plants’ radioactive emissions and their effects on our health.

To do this I’ll be drawing on a recent book, Mad Science: The Nuclear Power Experiment. This book came out last year, authored by Joseph Mangano, executive director of the Radiation and Public Health Project (radiation.org). The RPHP has been studying nuclear power plant radioactive releases effects on human health for several decades.

Numerous peer reviewed epidemiological and clinical studies published in various scientific journals by Mangano and his associates in the RPHP have found that children living within 50 miles of nuclear power reactors have higher amounts of radioactivity in their teeth; have higher rates of cancer, including leukemia; and that such rates drop after reactors shut down.

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SAN ONOFRE: Secret report confirms Edison knew of major problems

March 8, 2013 by Source
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Friends of the Earth: ‘Bombshell’ for plans to restart crippled reactor

From Bill Walker / Friends of the Earth

A secret Mitsubishi Heavy Industries report released today confirms that Southern California Edison knew about serious problems in the radically redesigned replacement steam generators for the San Onofre nuclear reactors years before the defective equipment was installed, yet failed to make changes to fix the problems. The report was released today by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission after Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.) revealed its existence and demanded it be made public.

The report documents that Edison knew of specific safety concerns with the replacement steam generator design as early as 2005, and failed to incorporate changes proposed to fix it because they would trigger a more lengthy and public review by the NRC. It fatally undermines Edison’s case for restarting one of the plant’s crippled reactors and for receiving any compensation from the California Public Utility Commission.

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Coastal Commission Nixes Navy Sonar Program Due to Harm to Blue Whales and Other Sea Life

March 8, 2013 by Staff
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To a packed meeting room on Friday in San Diego, the California Coastal Commission voted unanimously to reject the US Navy’s sonar training program scheduled off Southern California because of harm to endangered blue whales, other marine mammals and sea life.

The Commissioners ruled that the Navy had insufficient information to support its claims that the explosives and sonar training program would have negligible effect on marine mammals. Scheduled to proceed in January, Coastal staff had recommended that the Commission require more protections to the wildlife before authorizing it.

Estimating that their proposed training program would kill 130 marine mammals and cause hearing loss in 1,600 over five years, the Navy rep argued to the Commission that the Navy was set against any additional conditions that they said would reduce the realism or scope of the training. Navy rep Alex Stone stated that the program has enough protections for the wild sea life. Stone directs the program.

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A History of Community Planning in Ocean Beach

February 21, 2013 by Frank Gormlie
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Editor: Here is a series of articles about the history of community planning in Ocean Beach going back to the Sixties and Seventies. It is not a complete history, but does offer up an early history of the OB Planning Board, the Ocean Beach Precise Plan, the planning crisis that faced the community in the early 1970s, and OB’s response – which by the middle of that decade – made California history.

The Battle Over the Ocean Beach Precise Plan- how urban planning became a democratic process and how OB was saved (here)

  • an introduction to the story about OB’s historic battle over the Precise Plan and about the fight to make urban planning a democratic process – which in the end directly saved Ocean Beach from over-development, enabling it to be the quaint village it is today.
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Author Q & A: ‘The Golden Shore: California’s Love Affair with the Sea’

February 21, 2013 by Source
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Conservationist David Helvarg – a former OBcean and writer on the original OB Rag – talks about his book, “The Golden Shore,” a tribute to California’s beautiful and iconic coastline, and the Navy’s and San Diego’s roles in shaping it.

By Serge Dedina / Wildcoast

No one has done more to educate the public on ways to preserve our coast and ocean than David Helvarg. Author of six books and the founder and Executive Director of the Blue Frontier Campaign, Helvarg will be speaking about his newest book, The Golden Shore: California’s Love Affair with the Sea at the Birch Aquarium on Tuesday Feb. 26 from 6:30-8 p.m.

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Tunnels Under San Diego’s 30 Foot Height Limit in the Coastal Zone – Part 2

February 19, 2013 by Frank Gormlie
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Introduction: This is the second part of my series on the 30 foot height limit. This would have been published earlier except for a medical issue, so I offer my apology.

At the risk of encouraging the critics of the height limit by continuing the discussion of the effects and value of the 1972 citizens’ initiative, this is meant then to demonstrate to those same critics the tunnels that have already been dug in and around and under the 30 foot standard, as well as informing the fairly new generations of citizenry and those uninitiated observers of San Diego development.

In Part One, I discussed how some of these tunnels have been dug underneath the height limit on San Diego’s coastal areas over the decades,

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Is Big Oil Too Big to Tax in California?

February 18, 2013 by Jim Miller

Soon our national political discourse will be dominated by the nightmarish sequester debate with the Republicans’ doomsday austerity strategy being countered by the Democrats’ austerity-lite program that draws from the eternal verity of Simpson-Bowles. God help us.

Standing in stark contrast to the reigning austerity-lite crowd inside the Democratic Party is perhaps the brightest progressive hope in the country, Senator Elizabeth Warren. Rather than playing the populist note to bash Republicans and then retreating to safe, chamber of commerce approved positions that put Social Security and Medicare “on the table” like many of her colleagues in the Democratic Party, Warren is consistently taking it to the 1% whenever she can, and she really means it.

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Mayor Filner to NRC: ‘Restarting San Onofre is a dangerous experiment that threatens millions of residents.’

February 15, 2013 by Source
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From East County Magazine

In a letter sent to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on February 8, San Diego Mayor Bob Filner urged denial of Southern California Edison’s request to restart Unit 2 at the San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station for five months at 70% as a test to see if similar problems that caused failure of a steam generator at Unit 3 would occur.

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California Leads Nation in Fighting Global Warming

February 14, 2013 by Source

By John Lawrence/ San Diego Free Press

As of January 1, 2013, the cap-and-trade portion of California’s Global Warming Solutions Act, AB 32, went into effect. Over 300 major polluters in California will face emissions reductions obligations, and in 2015, the program’s size will double to include transportation fuels and natural gas. These companies were given an allowance as to how much carbon pollution they can dump into the atmosphere. They can buy additional “allowances” from the state which held its first sale November 2012. There are more auctions scheduled.

Eventually companies will be able to trade allowances among themselves. So a company that emits less CO2 than they are allowed to can sell the remaining portion of its allowance to a company that exceeds its allowance. As years go by, the allowances will be reduced thus reaching California’s goal to cut its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020.

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