Organizing

Are San Diego Taxi Drivers Driven to Despair?

May 24, 2013 by Doug Porter
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By Doug Porter / San Diego Free Press

A survey released yesterday leaves little room for doubt that conditions in the local taxi industry pose a very real threat to the safety of passengers, drivers and the general public in San Diego.

Conducted over a two month period by San Diego State University and the Center for Policy Initiatives (CPI), the study interviewed 331 local cab drivers, asking about earnings, expenses, hours, health care, vehicle safety and industry practices.

What emerges from the data is a picture of nearly serf-like conditions, where workers are obliged to perform in unsafe vehicles for long stretches of time with low pay under an ever-present threat of being blackballed should they dare to complain about conditions.

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San Diegans to March and Rally Against Monsanto in Balboa Park – Saturday, May 25

May 24, 2013 by Source
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San Diegans will join thousands of others around the country and hold a march and rally against MONSANTO – this Saturday, May 25th in Balboa Park.

WHAT: Rally and March Against Monsanto and Genetically Modified Organisms
WHERE: Balboa Park, San Diego
WHEN: Saturday, May 25th, 11 a.m.
Contact: March Against Monsanto San Diego Coalition

San Diego Action for May 25th is participating in the international ‘March Against Monsanto’ taking place in over 45 countries and 400 cities.

March Against Monsanto SD announced last week that on May 25 in Balboa Park at least 2,000 people will participate in a peaceful rally and march as part of the global “March Against Monsanto.” This event, which specifically targets industry giant Monsanto, will raise awareness about transgenic engineering, as well as the environmental, political and social injustices resulting from toxic agribusiness.

The rally will begin at 11a.m. at Balboa Park in San Diego and at 11:30 will feature speakers;

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Lorena Gonzalez Wins Assembly and Myrtle Cole Wins City Council Seats

May 22, 2013 by Doug Porter
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Mrytle Cole First African-American Woman Elected to San Diego City Council, School Board Member Richard Barrera to Head Labor Council

By Doug Porter / San Diego Free Press

The results are in for the last of a series of elections triggered by Bob Filner’s decision to run for Mayor of San Diego. Labor leader Lorena Gonzalez displayed her mastery of the political process, pulling together a massive canvassing campaign that gave her an overwhelming 70% of the vote and a seat in the State Assembly.

For those of you keeping track, Filner moved from the US House of Representatives to Mayor of San Diego, Juan Vargas moved from State Senate to fill Filner’s seat, Ben Hueso moved from State Assembly to State Senate.

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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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A Real Scandal: Activists in San Diego and Around the World to Protest Monsanto May 25th

May 16, 2013 by Doug Porter

Balboa Park March & Rally, Mission Bay Overpass Light Brigade Events Expected to Draw Thousands

By Doug Porter/ San Diego Free Press

While the oldstream media is obsessing on the current crop of Washington’s politi-dramas, an international protest movement is gathering steam. Activists in on six continents, in 36 countries, and in 47 U.S. states — totaling events in over 250 cities — are coordinating demonstrations to occur simultaneously at 11am Pacific time on Saturday May 25th under the general theme “March Against Monsanto”.

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OB Citizens Watch Formed – Will Meet Monthly at OB Woman’s Club

May 15, 2013 by Source
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Editor: From the agenda and minutes of the OB Crime Watch meeting held Monday, May 13th, we offer the following as a report of the meeting. As background, the OB Crime Watch formed in early October 2012 after a series of sexual assaults against women in Ocean Beach and reports of a peeping tom.

With about 20 people in attendance at the OB Woman’s Club, Mercy Baron opened the meeting with introductions. It was announced that a name change of the group was in the offering, that people thought “OB Citizens Watch” was a better title for the group.

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Robert Reich to Graduates of 2013: Understand the Triumph of Progressivism

May 14, 2013 by Source
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The Triumph of Progressivism: Graduation 2013 and 1968

By Robert Reich / RobertReichBlog / May 13, 2013

Many of you soon-to-be college graduates are determined to make the world a better place. Some of you are choosing careers in public service or joining nonprofits or volunteering in your communities.

But many of you are cynical about politics. You see the system as inherently corrupt. You doubt real progress is possible. “What chance do we have against the Koch brothers and the other billionaires?” you’ve asked me.

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OB Crime Watch to Meet Tonight – Monday – at OB Woman’s Club

May 13, 2013 by Staff
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The group that organized in Ocean Beach after a series of sexual assaults against local women is having their monthly meeting tonight at the OB Woman’s Club.

The meeting of the OB Crime Watch Citizens Patrol will be at 7pm at 2160 Bacon Street. They’re asking the community to join them and discuss and share ideas to help keep OB safe.

The meeting is open to all. Organizers are asking attendees to bring a non-perishable food item to donate to the Loaves and Fishes program.

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Petition to Have Ian Rey Re-instated in His Job at Sprouts in Point Loma – Sign Here

May 13, 2013 by Staff

Here’s a petition a reader and supporter of Ian Rey sent us.

A petition has begun:

“Sprout’s Farmers Market: reinstate Ian Rey to his job with their company” and need your help to get it off the ground.

Will you take 30 seconds to sign it right now? Here’s the link:

http://www.change.org/petitions/sprout-s-farmers-market-reinstate-ian-rey-to-his-job-with-their-company

Here’s why it’s important:

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Peninsula Community and Customers Rally for Ian Rey, Disabled Former Employee of Sprouts Point Loma

May 11, 2013 by Annie Lane
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Dozens protested Friday evening to show continued support for Ian Rey, a longtime Sprouts Farmers Market employee who said he was fired after 14 years for mistakenly taking a coworker’s jacket.

Rey was terminated from Sprouts on Monday, and has experienced an outpouring of support from the community and customers alike – many of whom say they won’t shop at the local grocery store anymore.

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Protest Against Ian Rey’s Firing by Point Loma Sprouts – Friday, May 10 at 6pm

May 10, 2013 by Frank Gormlie

Many of us have heard about Ian Rey, a developmentally challenged  employee fired at Point Loma Sprouts. They said he stole another employees jacket. It looked like a black sweatshirt jacket he wore all the time and he mistaken it for his. Channel 10 news did a piece on it. There is a protest this [...]

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“OB Exposed!” Photo Contest and Exhibit: Tonight – May 17th

May 10, 2013 by Frank Gormlie
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It’s that time again when the Ocean Beach Historical Society sponsors their annual “OB Exposed!” which is their 19th one – a photo contest and presentation of Ocean Beach and Point Loma.

It will be held on Friday, May 17, at 6 to 8:30 pm at the Masonic Center, 1711 Sunset Cliffs Blvd in OB.

The show will include:

  • Photo exhibit and contest – open to all levels and ages;
  • Old photos, new photos, color or black & white … any photo
  • Photos must be taken in OB or Point Loma – (you don’t have to live here)
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Celebrate May Day and Know Its Origins

May 1, 2013 by Source
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Most people living in the United States know little about the International Workers’ Day of May Day. For many others there is an assumption that it is a holiday celebrated in state communist countries like Cuba or the former Soviet Union. Most Americans don’t realize that May Day has its origins here in this country and is as “American” as baseball and apple pie, and stemmed from the pre-Christian holiday of Beltane, a celebration of rebirth and fertility.

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“Move to Amend” – the Campaign to Get Big Corporations Out of Politics – Meets Tonight in Point Loma – Tuesday, April 30th

April 30, 2013 by Source

The Campaign to Get Big Corporations Out of Our Constitution and Big Money Out of Our Elections The OB Rag was contacted by some local organizers for “Move to Amend” – a nation-wide group that works to kick large corporations out of US politics, elections, and our Constitution. There is an important event in our [...]

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Are They Going to Slip Something By Us Again at “The Inn at Sunset Cliffs”

April 29, 2013 by Judi Curry
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By Judi Curry

I was stunned to find out that there is a potential building change going to be asked for that will totally destroy the Sunset Cliffs area.

Let me tell you what I know – and let me stress I do not know how much truth there is to this, but people are talking, just like we heard the “talking about the VFW building.”

“The Inn at Sunset Cliffs” – corner of Pt. Loma Avenue and Sunset Cliffs – is seeking permanent and private ownership of the coastal area just west of the hotel.

The Ocean Beach Planning Board hearing is scheduled for this Wednesday, May 1, at 6:00pm at the Ocean Beach Recreation Center.

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Beach Clean-up at OB on April 27 – Part of 11th Annual “Creek to Bay” Clean-Up

April 26, 2013 by Source
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I Love a Clean San Diego is organizing a beach clean-up in Ocean Beach from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, April 27. It’s part of the 11th Annual “Creek to Bay” Clean-up taking part at 92 cleanup sites countywide.

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OB Flashes: Citizens Patrol to Meet, Foodie Network in OB, and Questions on San Onofre

April 24, 2013 by Staff
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OB Crime Watch Citizens Patrol Meeting on May 13th at Woman’s Club

Please join us to discuss and share ideas to help keep OB safe.

Calls for public hearings on San Onofre grow, fears about summer power supply may be exaggerated

See this post at The Reader by OBcean Dave Rice:

Food Network shoots show at OB Noodle House – Guy Fieri visits Hodad’s again also

… and more

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Dave Davis – Once San Diego’s Printer for the Movement

April 23, 2013 by Frank Gormlie
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Every now and then we must pause in our daily rush and grind to acknowledge the passing of someone who is important to us. This is especially true in the tiny world of progressive journalism in San Diego. And it is true as we pause on the passing of Dave Davis.

Now, there are probably very few people in San Diego right now who even remember Dave Isaac Davis, but it was his little print shop in Golden Hill that was responsible for printing up the very first issues of the original OB Rag way back in 1970 and 1971, when we considered it to be an “underground newspaper”.

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XL Pipeline Protest Today – April 17th – in Coronado

April 17, 2013 by Source

Don’t Miss this Event!

XL Pipeline Protest

April 17, 2013 11:30 – 12:30

Silver Strand Blvd & Coronado Bay Rd, Coronado

Join organizes for a press conference and protest outside the Loew’s Coronado Bay Resort where the American Petroleum Industry (API), the primary trade association of the oil and gas industry, will be holding its annual Pipeline Conference.

They will be there to say that climate change demands an end to the fossil fuel industry’s “business as usual” and to call on President Obama to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline. They”ll also draw attention to the recent tar sands spill in Arkansas, and the surprising revelation that tar sands are already being brought by train to Los Angeles for refining.

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Pacific Beach Planning Group and Local Residents Fight Bar Expansions

April 11, 2013 by Source

By Sub-committee

Wednesday, April 10, Bill Allen – owner of the Crystal Pier Motel - and other residents called a press conference at the pier to help expose a simmering problem in Pacific Beach to the larger community. Allen and many other concerned residents have over the last while voiced their complaints about Scott Slaga – owner of the 710 Club (ex-Blind Melons) near the Crystal Pier – in his efforts to obtain a sidewalk encroachment variance for his establishment.

Allen and the complaining residents have issues caused, they contend, by encroachments for bars, problems such as the high crime stats and high noise impact, to lowered property values to no room on the sidewalks for people to walk to the beach.

This is all in preparation for the city council vote today, April 11, on whether or not to allow Slaga to obtain his sidewalk encroachment variance.

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Mission Valley Hunger Strike by “the San Diego Nine” Reflect Last Work by Martin Luther King

April 8, 2013 by Jim Miller

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“The San Diego Nine” picked the perfect week for a hunger strike. They may not have known it, but the ghosts of Memphis were haunting the Mission Valley Hilton. What’s the connection?

Last week was the 45th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was murdered in Memphis where he had gone to support striking sanitation workers. As I noted in my column for Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday in January, the real MLK is frequently neglected in favor of a distorted picture of a vanilla saint who just wanted us all to get along. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Indeed, King was a provocateur who wanted to disturb us about America’s hypocritical racial inequality AND its shameful class divide. King died fighting for the rights of poor workers of color because he thought nothing was a better example of what he wanted the Poor People’s Campaign to be than the sanitation workers’ strike. Their fight was a call not just for legal civil rights for black people, but a cry for economic justice for all.

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San Diego’s “Anti-Drone Days of Action” Kick Off Nation-Wide Protests April 4 – 7

April 3, 2013 by Source
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San Diego Has Become “National Capital” of Military Drone Production

From San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice /April 3, 2013

“National Anti-Drone Days of Action” from April 4 through 7 in San Diego start a month of protests across the United States against the policy and practice of drone warfare and secret surveillance.

Local and national organizations are coordinating a series of events to increase the attention to why drone killings and surveillance are bad practice and policy for the United States.

San Diego’s “Anti-Drone Days” is not one, but a series of events (see listing).

San Diego is where these protests will start based on the region’s role as the “national capital” of military drone production. Killer and surveillance drones pour out of San Diego at increasing rates, matched by the rise in deaths and dismemberment from US strikes across the globe.

Most of this production is tied to two corporate contracting giants — Northrop Grumman and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, which is headquartered in San Diego.

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OB Citizens’ Patrol to Meet Tuesday, April 2nd

March 29, 2013 by Staff

Perhaps spurred on by the latest sexual assault (and though the suspect has been caught), OBceans are organizing the next meeting of the OB OB Citizen’s Patrol.

The first meeting of 2013 will be held Tuesday, April 2 at 5 pm. The meeting will take place at the Tower 2 Cafe, in OB.

Tower 2 Cafe is located at 5083 Santa Monica Avenue, OB, CA 92107; and their phone is (619) 223-4059.

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March 28th Is the 42nd Anniversary of the Largest Community-Police “Disturbance” in Ocean Beach History

March 28, 2013 by Frank Gormlie
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Today, March 28th, marks the 42nd anniversary of the infamous Collier Park Riot – the largest “disturbance” between the community and police in the history of Ocean Beach.

Hundreds of OBceans and students from area colleges were gathered on March 28, 1971, at a peaceful anti-Vietnam War protest that was combined with a community clean-up of a large corner lot for parkland when they were attacked by police. This unprovoked assault by police resulted in a riot that spread from Soto and Greene Streets all the way to the beach and lasted for hours into the night. Fifty people were arrested, many injured, a patrol car was burned, but over time, the wounds were healed, the war ended, and a park was created in northeast OB: Collier Park.

Here are a series of articles about the Collier Park Riot and what it meant for Ocean Beach.

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Help Bob Filner Stand Up to Business as Usual: Vote for Myrtle Cole in District 4

March 25, 2013 by Jim Miller
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Tomorrow is Election Day in District 4, and it matters.  While this City Council race has garnered very little attention in San Diego as a whole and will certainly be a low turnout affair, the stakes are actually quite high.  Indeed, the direction of the city is on the line.

As Doug Porter noted last week, outside money has been pouring into District 4 attacking Myrtle Cole. Why?  Because Cole is the only candidate who will stand firmly behind Bob Filner’s agenda and buck the powerful moneyed interests that are bent on subverting the mayor.

Who’s behind the attacks?  San Diego County Voters for Progress and Reform, a shadowy group that has been funded by the usual suspects: developers, downtown business groups, and the Lincoln Club.  Those same folks are backing Cole’s opponent, Barry Pollard, and even fellow progressive Dwayne Crenshaw has taken money from Robert Gleason of Atlas Hotels (and a key figure in the TMD struggle against Filner) as well as Rural/Metro Corporation whose contract with San Diego for paramedic services will soon come up for renewal.  In addition to this, sources close to the campaign tell me that Cole is the only candidate that has not met with the Lincoln Club, which should tell you all you need to know.

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City Council District 4 Election: Who Do I Vote For? Vote Against the Bad Guys.

March 25, 2013 by Doug Porter

Part Three of a Three Part Series on the City Council Special Election

Part One: Setting the Scene – Dirty Tricks Fly

Part Two: Meet the Candidates

So what we know so far is that there are nine candidates vying for the historically “Black’ City Council seat vacated by Tony Young. Change has citydistrict4come to the district; although they still hold political supremacy by virtue of their community institutions, African-Americans are now a minority.

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