June 2012

Teachers Are People Too: Some Musings on Education “Reform” and Gender

June 23, 2012 by Source

By Kelly Mayhew / Special to San Diego Free Press

A line of chatting parents greets the hurly burly crowd of small ruffians storming out of school at 3:40 on a Wednesday afternoon. I stand among these folks, basking in the sunshine and marveling at the mix of families and kids, waiting for my son Walt to make his way through the gate. McKinley Elementary in North Park is a bright, vibrant, neighborhood school that has an International Baccalaureate program. It is also public, which is why we chose to send our son there.

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Former ATF Agent Blasts GOP Fast & Furious Foolishness

June 23, 2012 by Source

By Kimberley Beatty / Special to San Diego Free Press

Republicans feign outrage over “Operation Fast and Furious,” ensure more illegal firearms flood the streets.

The National Rifle Association (NRA), one of the most powerful lobbies in the US, has relentlessly tried to destroy the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) since it was created in 1972. They came close under Ronald Reagan in 1981, when the NRA pushed legislation to abolish the agency. Realizing that federal gun law enforcement would transfer to the then much esteemed Secret Service, the NRA scuttled the proposal.

I’m sorry – Nick Popaditch is not a white-supremacist, he’s anti-Semitic.

June 22, 2012 by Frank Gormlie

A Retraction … of sorts

A recent post-primary article of mine about how conservatives were celebrating too early caused quiet a stir in certain circles. Causing a stir is putting it mildly, as what I wrote brought in a slew of hate mail, physical threats, and promises to boycott our advertisers. Right after the primary, I wrote an article about the results of the election. In cruising down the list of ballot winners and losers in that article –

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America’s Robed Right-Wing Radicals on the Supreme Court

June 22, 2012 by Source

Republicans like to denounce the so-called extremism of the liberal Warren Court. But the 5-4 decisions of the Roberts Court are the most divisive in American history.

by Michael Tomasky / The Daily Beast / Jun 21, 2012

As we gather in our respective bunkers awaiting the white smoke from the Supreme Court, I thought a little history discussion might be in order. We’ve heard conservatives say many times that the Warren Court overreached, legislated from the bench, and divided America.

Public asked to join Native American vigil – June 23rd – at Ocotillo wind site on sacred lands –

June 22, 2012 by Source

By Miriam Raftery / East County Magazine

Ocotillo – Neither blistering heat nor blowing dust dissuaded Native Americans from at least four different tribes from taking part in a five-day occupation in Ocotillo last week. They came to be with the spirits of their ancestors. They also aim to show that desert devastation occurring with construction of the Ocotillo Express wind facility is wrong and must be stopped.

Hope Dies at Guantanamo

June 22, 2012 by Frank Gormlie

By Marjorie Cohn / Jurist / June 20, 2012

The tragic case of Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif hit a dead end when the US Supreme Court issued an order refusing to hear his case last week. Latif, a Yemeni man, has been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay since January 2002, after being detained while traveling to seek medical treatment.

Nearly 2 Million Californians Could Benefit From Health Insurance Rebates

June 22, 2012 by Source

by Janet Lavelle / U-T San Diego / June 21, 2012

Nearly 12.8 million Americans, including 1.9 million Californians, are expected to benefit from rebates on their health insurance this summer as part of the federal Affordable Care Act, officials announced Thursday.

Sex in San Diego: Are you a prude?

June 22, 2012 by Source

by Mrs. Grundy

The word “prude” comes from the French. Traditionally, it meant something along the lines of “honorable woman.” Today, dear Wikipedia explains that “prude” refers to a person of any gender who is “concerned with decorum and propriety, significantly in excess of normal prevailing community standards.”

The New Morena District Certified Farmers’ Market Opens !

June 22, 2012 by Christine Schanes

From San Diego Free Press

The new Morena District Certified Farmers’ Market opened Tuesday, June 19, 2012, from 3 – 7pm with 75 booths exhibiting the wares of 45 vendors to the delight of a crowd estimated by Brian Beevers, Market Manager, to be approximately 3,000 people!

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The Men Are Standing in Line …. at Urgent Care

June 22, 2012 by Judi Curry

Everyone I talk to tells me that “getting old sucks”. Sometimes I think that if I didn’t have doctor appointments spread throughout the week, I would stay home and do nothing. This week was no exception, because I spent one day at the Ophthalmologist’s office and two days in Urgent Care. When I said I was looking for a man this is not what I meant!

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Wake and Bake, Kids! San Diego News You Can Use

June 21, 2012 by Source

By OB Joe

Since Doug Porter moved over to the San Diego Free Press, I’m left here at the OB Rag to strut my stuff. That’s fine by me, cuz there’s lots of news that you missed while you were surfing or baking or just sittin on the couch, and I’m here to set you straight.

Medical Marijuana Ballot Initiative In San Diego City Falls Short Of Goal

Chicano Park Murals Restored

San Diego Foreclosures Fall to Five-Year Low

… and much more – come inside.

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Announcing the San Diego Free Press “Find the Koch Brothers Confab” Contest

June 21, 2012 by Staff

First Person Who Finds Koch Brothers’ Site Wins T-Shirt !

Earlier this week we let the cat out the bag that the infamous Koch Brothers, the guys that are pumping $395 million for right wing causes into this year’s elections, are having a little get together in San Diego. Its location is a secret.

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Credit Card Complaints Go Public

June 21, 2012 by Source

By Catherine New / Huffington Post / June 20, 2012

Dory Hayes’ credit card complaint started with an honest mistake. And the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau agreed. When she bought a new couch at Jennifer Convertibles in April 2011, she financed it by charging $500 on a GE Money Card, which had an annual percentage rate of 0 percent.

Coffee, City Heights Style- A Blend of Cultures in Every Cup

June 21, 2012 by Anna Daniels

From San Diego Free Press

It probably should come as no surprise that the diverse community of City Heights delivers up equally diverse coffee drinking experiences. The one unifying quality to the coffee here is a certain “robustness–” this IS City Heights after all.

Helping Jazz 88.3 Cop a Plea

June 21, 2012 by Ernie McCray

The other day
I was kind of lowriding down the street,
feeling about as cool as a 74 year old
could ever hope to be,
listening to some sounds
on Radio Jazz 88.3.
Ramsey Lewis, more specifically,
running his fingers over a keyboard,
…

Incorporating the Mind

June 21, 2012 by Source

By Lucas O’Connor / San Diego Free Press

By now, most of us agree that the concept of treating corporations as people has, in practice, been a disaster. The flood of corporate money into elections since Citizens United has been just as bad as advertised, deference to the supremacy of corporate health as national health continues to rise, and still the very concept remains just as laughable now as it’s always been.

What Is the San Diego Street Sign Department Smoking?

June 20, 2012 by Judi Curry

Since Ocean Beach and Pt. Loma have begun to have the streets paved, a mysterious sign has appeared that should be discussed. On the new paving is a picture of a bike – a “two wheeler” every block or so. And on a pole near the decal, is the following: a picture of the decal and these words under it: “May Use Full Lane”. You have to be kidding?

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The Starting Line — Demonstrations, Caravans and Twitterstorms, Oh My!

June 20, 2012 by Doug Porter

Editor: This is an updated and edited version of Doug Porter’s daily column “The Starting Line” from the San Diego Free Press. The column here ran yesterday, June 19th.

Grass roots activism around the world leads the news wrap up today. In San Diego, cities around the world and in cyberspace citizens are and have been expressing their frustrations and hopes for a better world.

National Robin Hood Day demonstrations…. Rallies in San Diego and 14 other cities across the country were held yesterday to kick off a national campaign to institute a Wall Street tax that would produce billions for the public good. This Financial Transaction Tax, called the “Robin Hood Tax,” is a levy of less than half of a percent on trades in derivatives, stocks, bonds and foreign currencies.

Young Wall Street Traitor Joins Occupy Wall Street

June 20, 2012 by Source

Wall Street “Quant” Alexis Goldstein Joins the Opposition

By John Lawrence / San Diego Free Press / Will Blog For Food

Wall Street recruits young, just out of college computer science majors and mathematicians to become “quants” whose skills are used among other things to predict when pension funds are going to make huge trades so that Wall Street can jump in ahead of them and do deals effectively raising the price the pension fund must pay or lowering the profit they might make.

Pacific Beach Planning Board Tackles “Garage Morphing”, Lifeguard Stations, and Less Beach

June 20, 2012 by Source

By Sub-Committee / Special to San Diego Free Press

The second, and last, item on the agenda of the very recent Pacific Beach Planning Board sub-committee for the re-development of the North Pacific Beach lifeguard station at Law St. was to do with a complaint from some local resident at some other local resident for erecting a temporary car shelter, of the canopy type, I imagine, and morphing it into a more permanent garage in their driveway or front yard, without a permit, of course.

This must also be the sub-committee for code compliance. The committee members seemed of a mind to propose a change in the city “garage morphing” building codes, rather than trying to enforce existing city ordinances, (“morphing” anything into something else is the best way to get around all these ridiculous governmental laws they keep making!) and as a second thought, suggested calling “the TURKO Files” to complain, as Mr. Turko seems to be the only one willing to question bureaucratic policies, and actually get something done about it… thank you Mr. Turko!

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Today – June 20th – Is International Surfing Day !

June 20, 2012 by Jack Hamlin

Good morning Dudes and Dudettes!

Today, Wednesday, June 20, 2012, is the eighth annual International Surfing Day. Regardless of the June Gloom or lack of bump in the water, Our Mother Ocean is calling us to come and play…especially if you surf.

Now I know most who work in OB most likely will not have a problem getting the time off to commune with our Beautiful Lady to the West. Not all who live in San Diego, however, live west of I-5. I do not understand this, but it is the subject for another time.

So for those of you who work for uptight, tie-wearing, clock-puchin’, worried-about-makin’-a-buck bosses, regardless if it is in a high-rise downtown or changing tires in El Cabong, you need to get in the water. Have no fear, an answer has been provided to your dilemma.

Seems Jim Moriarty, the CEO of the Surfrider Foundation (truly an oxymoron if I ever heard one) has taken time to provide those of us who need to splain’ to their bosses why they need to get off work.

Just cut and past the link below, and Jim has drafted a fill-in-the-blank letter which should, in most reasonable cases, allow you to get off work. It looks official enough that if you worked for me, I’d give you the day off.

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Readers’ Rants: Save Balboa Park … Before It’s Too Late!

June 20, 2012 by Source

Editor: Here are two “letters to the editor” sent out by local Point Lomas, Susan Town Shea, and Judy Hagar Schons, pleading to their fellow citizens to save Balboa Park, to oppose the Jacobs’ plan, and to support SOHO. We decided that they were important enough to cast as one of our irregular Reader Rants. Susan and Judy, I am proud to say, are also from the Point Loma High School Class of 1966 – my class sisters!

___________

Many years ago, my mother, Mae Louise Ford Town, was a frequent contributor to Letters to the Editor. Harold Keane, newscaster, had called her “that woman on Pt. Loma”. Mae Louise Town tried to impress the sanity of keeping San Diego true to zoning, historical importance, and natural beauty of San Diego.

This was despite the ill advised people trying to ruin our city, propelled by greed and disrespect, our City Council! I feel compelled, as a second generation San Diegan, to take over the gauntlet my Mother carried.

In protesting what the City Council is supporting, in ruining Plaza de Panama, I say enough is enough! SOHO needs everyone’s support! REACT! Before it’s too late. We are not like L.A. We will be if greedy, unconscionable, thoughtless people ‘in charge ‘ are left alone.

Susan Town Shea

_____________

Thousands of Anti-Military Egyptians throng Tahrir Square

June 20, 2012 by Source

Massive protests in Cairo and other citeis against military rule as their candidaten declares himself winner of presidential vote.

AlJazeera/ June 20 , 2012

Thousands of Egyptians have packed into Cairo’s Tahrir Square to protest against the ruling military council’s decision to claim new powers, amid contesting claims by both presidential candidates of victory in the weekend’s election.

In the hub of the uprising that deposed president Hosni Mubarak, protesters chanted against his military successors, with a steady trickle of people joining the demonstration after sunset.

The demonstration on Tuesday comes against a backdrop of uncertainty over the winner of the presidential vote, with the Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi and his rival, former prime minister Ahmed Shafik, both claiming victory.

Election of Birther to the Bench Proves Voters Unworthy of the Responsibility of Selecting Jurists

June 19, 2012 by Andy Cohen

Asking voters who know nothing about judicial candidates, and usually fail to do any research of their own is a recipe for disaster.

Well, looks like we’ve done it, San Diego. The electorate has spoken, and the electorate has chosen a completely unqualified individual to serve as a Superior Court judge in San Diego County.

Gary Kreep is a lawyer who decided he wanted to be a judge. Relatively harmless in and of itself, until you find out a little more about him. First, he is the founder of the United States Justice Foundation, an innocuous sounding name (aren’t they always?) for an organization that is dedicated to TEA Party causes and the advancement of right wing religious causes. They are anti-abortion, anti-gay, all conspiracy theory all the time whack jobs. His endorsement list reads like a who’s who of the TEA Party.

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Lights in the Darkness of Mount Soledad

June 19, 2012 by Source

By Frances O’Neill Zimmerman
A veterans’ group led by the owner of the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club wants to light up inky-dark Mount Soledad nights and is seeking official approval next week for this unprecedented alteration to the highest viewpoint on the west side of the city of San Diego.

At stake is encroaching light pollution within our urban area and maintaining Mount Soledad as a sacred dark space for viewing the night sky — shooting stars, unusual planetary alignments, spectacular moonrises, eclipses of the moon. Generations of San Diegans and visitors to San Diego have experienced the beauty of the nighttime sky and the 360-degree panorama of the city below from atop Mount Soledad.

Design Flaw At San Onofre Power Plant Revealed

June 19, 2012 by Source

By Michael Blood / HuffPost / June 19, 2012

AN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif. — A botched computer analysis resulted in design flaws that are largely to blame for unprecedented wear in steam tubes at the San Onofre nuclear power plant, but it isn’t clear how the problems can be fixed, federal regulators said.

The preliminary findings by a team of Nuclear Regulatory Commission investigators were disclosed Monday night nearly five months after the seaside plant was shut down following a break in a tube that carries radioactive water. There is no date to restart either of its two reactors.

The problems center on excessive tube wear in steam generators that were installed at San Onofre during a $670 million overhaul in 2009 and 2010. Tests found some tubes were so badly corroded that they could fail and possibly release radiation, a stunning finding inside the virtually new equipment.

The Starting Line – SDG&E’s Trojan Horse; Koch Bros Confab Set for San Diego

June 19, 2012 by Doug Porter

June 18,2012—SDG&E’s trojan horse…Michael Hiltzer in the LA Times reported Sunday on a scheme proposed by SDG&E that would give its 1.2 million customers the option of prepaying their electric bills. While the plan may sound appealing to those mostly working class consumers who favor prepaid cell phones and the like, there are significant disadvantages for consumers built into the proposal. Sign up for the prepaid program and you’re signing away virtually all the consumer protections governing disconnections. Run out of money on the prepaid deal and your power will be cut off, no notice required. Regular customers get a two week notice prior to disconnection and the option of extending any back bills over a three month period when they run into financial difficulty.

Band Line Up for the OB Street Fair – June 23rd, 2012

June 18, 2012 by Source

Here’s the line up for the bands at this Saturday’s OB Street Fair, by stage for Saturday, June 23rd.

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Widder Curry Takes On Car Washes – First Up: “The Auto Scrubber”

June 18, 2012 by Judi Curry

The Auto Scrubber
3405 Rosecrans St.
San Diego, 92110

Different Kind of Review – It’s a Wash!

Eating out several times a week is not helping me maintain my “girlish” – ok, “matronly” – figure, so I thought I would try reviewing something else that didn’t put the weight on. As I pondered what it might be, it came to me that I had told my beautician just this morning that I needed to have my car washed. I asked her where she went – her shop is just across the street from the GENIE Car Wash so I thought she would mention it. She surprised me by telling me that since she lives in Escondido she has her car washed closer to where she lives. Imagine living in Escondido and driving to Ocean Beach to work 4 days a week!