Month: August 2013

by John Lawrence

From coast to coast, we saw a variety of record-breaking weather in July 2013. Several cities recorded one of their hottest Julys on record. A heat wave that lasted a week in middle July helped propel Hartford, Conn., Bridgeport, Conn., and Providence R.I. to their hottest July and calendar month on record. In the west Salt Lake City, Utah, Reno, Nev., Elko, Nev., Medford, Ore., Roseburg, Ore. and Bend, Ore. all saw their hottest July and calendar month in history.

Although July is typically the driest month of the year in the Pacific Northwest, it was exceptionally dry in July 2013.

Seattle, Olympia, Wash., Portland, Ore., Eugene, Ore. and Salem, Ore. were among the slew of locations in western Washington and western Oregon that recorded no measurable rainfall in July 2013. Only four other Julys since 1890 have had no rain in Portland (downtown). For Seattle, it was the first time in more than 50 years with no measurable rain in July.

By David Rosen / Alternet

The 8th annual Feminist Porn Awards, held in Toronto, April 4 to 6, were organized by Good for Her, a Toronto-based, women-orientated, sex paraphernalia store. Some 110 programs were submitted for such categories as Golden Beaver (Canadian content) and Smutty Schoolteacher (sex-ed).

By Jay Powell

The news this week via the “Utterly-Terrible” news machine (August 6 edition) is, when asked the “push-poll” question:

“What story about Filner concerns you more: the charge of sexual misconduct or the charge that he improperly extracted monetary concessions for the city from developers in return for approving their projects?”, the result was a dead heat at 44% for each.

Never mind that in both cases the “story” is about a “charge”. And that the only so-called “extraction” was from the now infamous Sunroad developer for donations to two City sanctioned projects.

by Juan Cole / Informed Consent/ August 6, 2013

In a Reuters Exclusive, John Shiffman and Kristina Cooke reveal that the National Security Agency shares information it gleans from warrantless surveillance of Americans with the Special Operation Division of the Drug Enforcement Agency, which then uses the metadata to develop cases against US citizens. The DEA then routinely lies to the judge and defense attorneys during discovery about how its agents initially came by their suspicions of wrongdoing.

by Paul Buchheit/ Common Dreams

Some of America’s leading news analysts are beginning to recognize the fallacy of the “free market.” Said Ted Koppel, “We are privatizing ourselves into one disaster after another.”Fareed Zakaria admitted, “I am a big fan of the free market…But precisely because it is so powerful, in places where it doesn’t work well, it can cause huge distortions.” They’re right. A little analysis reveals that privatization doesn’t seem to work in any of the areas vital to the American public.

Health Care

Our private health care system is by far the most expensive system in the developed world. Forty-two percent of sick Americans skipped doctor’s visits and/or medication purchases in 2011 because of excessive costs.

There’s a summer musical band program in the OB and Point Loma area for junior and senior high school students, and it’s been going on for 24 years – until now. Now, “Band at the Beach” is celebrating its 25th season.

A musically-inclined woman named Dell Schroeder has been running it in OB for all these years, and this year it’s taking place at Correia Middle School from August 5th to 9th.

Dell Schroeder has done a lot of wonderful things in an attempt to keep music alive in the schools this past quarter century. She has been a private music teacher for many decades and also volunteers at Correia and works with kids to help them learn their instruments better. In the words of one of her fans: “She is a saint.”

Here is what Band at the Beach says about itself – from its brochure:

The monthly meeting of the Ocean Beach Planning Board will be held Wednesday, August 7th, at the OB Recreation Center. Starting sharply at 6:00 pm, with the gavel being banged by Chair Tom Gawronski, the meeting can be readily found in the community room at 4726 Santa Monica Avenue.

The controversial so-called “Police Trailer” is back (“so-called” because there is a real question whether the police actually utilize it) on the Board’s agenda. It’s up for a Coastal Development Permit this time.

Also up before the Board is the Public Facilities Financing Plan, a report by the sub-committee headed by Gio Ingolia presumably on their list of priorities.

Then the Board will segway into what’s being called a discussion on the “Ocean Beach Precise Plan”, more recently titled the OB Community Plan Update Draft. The Board decided at its July meeting to take residents’ comments on the new draft and report back on them for this meeting.

By Frank Gormlie

Like many San Diegans I watched images of the recent Chariot Fire that began on July 6th destroy sections of Mt Laguna with great concern. That mountain is one of my favorite spots in the county and I waited for the local media to give us an update on the damages that the fire caused to the natural habitat of the area along Sunrise Highway. Not satisfied with the paltry amount of news of the burn since the fire was put out, I decided to head out there myself and do a photo gallery of the destructive havoc wreaked by a wildfire.

On Friday afternoon, August 2nd, I drove east on I-8, heading for Sunrise Highway – the road that traverses Mt Laguna. With camera at the ready, I took notes in my search for the burn, holding my fears in check as I hurried towards the 6000 foot plus ridges that separated the mountains from the desert. There were sections of the mountain that I worried had been destroyed, as reports of the fire had it crossing Sunrise Highway, and eating its way west through pine forest.

Ciclovía – a familiar term to any bicycling enthusiast, where popular roads turn car-less for people to play and literally rediscover their streets.

These open-street celebrations have trademarked bike-friendly cities around the world since the first Ciclovía was hosted in Bogotá, Colombia, in 1976, when the town closed one road to all cars and opened them for pedestrian use.

Since then, the trend of people enjoying their streets without the stress of car traffic has made its way around the globe and into major cities where residents embrace these opportunities – in Bogotá, the Ciclovía still remains a city tradition every Sunday.

By Jim Miller

Last week President Obama sought to turn the nation’s attention toward the fact that the income gap is fraying the U.S. social fabric.

In an interview with the New York Times he noted that “the idea is to promote those things in service of the lives of ordinary Americans getting better” and told reporters that he keeps a framed program from the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in his office to remind him that there was a “massive economic component to that” as well as a civil rights focus.

Sadly, however, while Obama discussed the need to move away from the austerity policies of the Republicans and how fiscal policy might be used to help American workers he didn’t even mention the notion that we could empower workers themselves in their fight for a better life.

In the San Diego Reader, columnist Don Bauder has a different view of the Filner scandal and imbroglio. He says it “is all about greed” and that the “business community reveals it plans to pick [our] pockets.”

We are reprinting it here in its entirety:

Don Bauder / San Diego Reader / August 1, 2013

A story in the Aug. 1 Union-Tribune tells all that has to be known about the Filner slaughter. First, the city attorney’s office issued two dubious opinions to smooth the way for a recall. City Attorney Goldsmith, a toady for the downtown corporate welfare crowd, has been an enemy of Filner from the beginning. But then comes this quote, which is all you need to know about what is going to happen.

Councilmember Lorie Zapf – who now sits representing District 6 in the City Council of San Diego – is running for re-election in District 2, the district that encompasses Ocean Beach, Point Loma and the Peninsula – as well as the rest of the district.

Recently district boundary lines were changed and Zafp now resides in District 2. Zapf – a Republican – wants to hold Kevin Faulconer’s seat – also a Republican – in the Party’s fold.

And apparently, Zafp is well on her way to carry the GOP banner, as she has collected $130,000 for her warchest in the last six months, so reports Dorian Hargrove at The San Diego Reader. His headline: Zapf collects big-time cash from building and hotel industries