Author: Source

By Rob Nikolewski / San Diego Union-Tribune / Dec. 31, 2020

The San Diego City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved a proposal brought forth by Mayor Todd Gloria to extend the city’s existing franchise electric and gas agreement with San Diego Gas & Electric by an additional five months.

The extension, which runs through June 1, continues the terms of the current agreement that was set to expire Jan. 17 and is designed to give city officials more time to negotiate a new deal while clearing up uncertainty regarding the millions of dollars SDG&E pays to the city in franchise fees.

Gloria’s proposal to the council comes after the newly elected mayor and his staff negotiated with the utility over the Christmas holidays. On Tuesday, SDG&E’s board of directors agreed to add five months to the existing contract.

JANUARY 6, the day Congress meets in a joint session to accept the results of the presidential election, should be a testament to America’s enduring democracy.

Yet it may become a demonstration of its poor health. President Trump, along with craven enablers such as Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), is seeking to upend what should be solemn but largely perfunctory proceedings to ratify the victory of President-elect Joe Biden.

The result could be a shameless show of support by numerous congressional Republicans for erasing the votes of millions of Americans — and, perhaps, mayhem incited by the president in the streets of D.C. “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!,” Mr. Trump tweeted earlier this month in an appeal to his supporters to come to the capital to buttress his campaign to overturn the election results.

From the San Diego Union-Tribune, Wed., Dec. 30, 2020

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria has worked out a proposed extension of the city’s soon-to-expire franchise agreement with San Diego Gas & Electric that will add just over five months to the current deal — through June 1.

Gloria will present the proposed extension before the City Council in a special meeting scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

“I urge the City Council to support it during their special meeting tomorrow,” Gloria said in a statement. “I thank SDG&E for working with me in a collaborative process.” In order for the proposed extension to go into effect, the city council has to approve it on a two-thirds vote — meaning at least six of the council’s nine members have to vote yes.

General Rain Advisory in Effect

The Department of Environmental Health has issued a GENERAL RAIN ADVISORY for the coastal waters of San Diego County due to contamination by urban runoff following rain.

Swimmers, surfers, and other ocean users are warned that levels of bacteria can rise significantly in ocean waters, especially near storm drains, creeks, rivers, and lagoon outlets that discharge urban runoff.

Activities such as swimming, surfing and diving should be avoided for 72 hours following rain.

The most recent rain event occurred December 29, 2020.

The GENERAL RAIN ADVISORY for urban runoff contamination applies to beaches from San Onofre State Beach south to Border Field, including Mission Bay and San Diego Bay. While many coastal outlets are posted with permanent metal warning signs, additional temporary signs are not posted for General Advisories.

When a General Advisory is issued:

By Colleen O’Connor

Yes, it is a song, but a song that might presage the entire fate of the country.

The lyrics tell of a Gothic murder, lots of jealousy, infidelity, and an innocent man hanged.

Then ends with a bizarre twist, with the real murderer (the “little sister” of the man hanged) who confessed and warned,” Don’t trust your soul to no backwoods Southern lawyer, ’cause the judge in the town’s got blood stains on his hands.”

The surprise ending or literary “plot twist” in this song, or any story, requires misdirecting the audience with “fake” information. The finale depends on the element of surprise.

The many surprises coming from Georgia begin with the two U.S. Senate races on January 5th. The outcome will determine not just the control of the U.S. Senate, but choice between deadlock and progress.

Already, this race is the most expensive contest in congressional history

When Greta Thunberg met Margaret Atwood… on Zoom

This is what happened when teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg and veteran author and environmentalist Margaret Atwood were brought together on a radio station.

Editordude: Here’s two views of sports in 2020: sports should have been halted during the pandemic versus ‘everything was weird – except who won.’

2020: The Year Sports Should Have Stopped

In this awful year, sports didn’t deliver normalcy. But they did nudge us toward justice.

By Dave Zirin / The Nation / December 2020

This cursed year of 2020 should be remembered as the time when sports was put in a meat grinder, mixed with all manner of offal and served to us as hope.

Professional sports, we were told, represented a “return to normalcy” in a time that was anything but normal. “The games must go on” was the mantra, with athletes presented as “essential workers” by sports leagues and colleges desperate for their billion-dollar fix of television cash.

By Allison McNearney / Daily Beast / Dec. 27, 2020

Since the beginning of time, humans have sought to stage-direct our environment. The drama of history may have proceeded through act after act, but the trickster in the story has remained the same: the weather.

Over the centuries, our methods for trying to control the elements have gotten ever more sophisticated, and outlandish. We’ve tried to dance the rain down, blast precipitation from the skies, give the atmosphere an electrical wake-up shock, and seed the clouds with chemicals to bend them to our will.

The pseudo-science of what was later dubbed pluviculture, or man’s attempt to artificially bring about rain, began to develop more rapidly in the early 20th century.

By Thomas Ultican / Tulican / Dec. 19, 2020

Democracy and free universal public education are foundational American ideologies. They have engendered world renowned success for our experiment in government “by the people”. Two new books – Schoolhouse Burning by Derek Black and A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door by Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire – demonstrate that these principles which were integral to the American experiment are shockingly under serious attack by wealthy elites.

After his father Fred died in 1967, Charles Koch took a disparate set of assets – a cattle ranch, a minority share in an oil refinery and a gas gathering business – and stitched them together. Today it is the second largest privately held corporation in the world. In the excellent 2019 book, Kochland, Christopher Leonard states, “Koch would eventually build one of the largest lobbying and political influence machines in US history.”

By Colleen O’Connor

The amazing planetary “conjunction” of Jupiter and Saturn, aka, the “Star of Bethlehem,” appeared Monday in the morning and evening sky. And will be visible for several more days.

Not seen for over 800 years, this vision portends amazing graces. Just as the Three Wise Men witnessed the Star and trudged for days, through the desert to meet the newborn Savior; so, too has the current apparition lifted the aspirations of many to a higher level.

Hope.

Just look at the gifts that have already been unwrapped.

No, not the thousands of telescopes and binoculars purchased and put to early, good use as an introduction to astronomy; all thanks to the “conjunction.”

Nor the “Zoom” apps or the new game toys, cookbooks or bicycles.