Author: Source

By Jason Everitt / Two Cathedrals / July 19, 2011

Without much time to produce a side-by-side comparison of the major redistricting proposals and the newly minted “July 19th Plan,” here is my first take on the obvious shortcomings of this map.

It’s clear that the so-called “Coast and Canyon” district, the historic African-American empowerment district, and Border-Barrio Latino empowerment district are locked. Expectedly, there has been little variation in the borders of these districts in any major proposal, including the “July 19th Plan.”

On July 18th, 200 family members, community members and lawyers across CA mobilized outside the headquarters of California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation (CDCR) in Sacramento to demonstrate their support of the people on hunger strike at Pelican Bay, Corcoran and other prisons, and to call on the CDCR and Governor Brown to intervene in this urgent, life-death matter.

By Los Angeles Times – Editorial / July 20, 2011

Conditions in California prisons are so bad that a panel of federal judges ruled that they violate the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, but until recently the ensuing protests came mainly from lawyers rather than the inmates themselves. That changed on July 1, when thousands of inmates at one-third of the state’s prisons started a hunger strike.

by Marjorie Cohn / CommonDreams .org / July 19, 2011

The torture of prisoners in U.S. custody isn’t confined to foreign countries. For more than two weeks, inmates at California’s Pelican Bay State Prison have been on a hunger strike to protest torturous conditions in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) there. Prisoners have been held for years in solitary confinement, which can amount to torture. Thousands of inmates throughout California’s prison system have refused food in solidarity with the Pelican Bay prisoners, bringing the total of hunger strikers to more than 1,700.

The County of San Diego is asking the lowest paid County employees to take pay cuts between 7 and 14%!

This while the County has 1.2 billion in reserves; while they have been spending hundreds of millions of dollars in cash on infrastructure property, including $120 million on a planned “Legacy” water park at the County Administration Building; and while the top management, executives and elected officials have continued to get raises on top of their $200k plus salaries, plus better health care benefits and car allowances of between $600 and $1000 dollars

by Liam Dillon / Voice of San Diego / July 18, 2011

The two-year-old allegations are as scandalous as they come: Mayor Jerry Sanders or one of his deputies fired a high-level city of San Diego employee because he was helping investigate contracting involving one of the mayor’s supporters. And the lawsuit that makes those allegations doesn’t show signs of going away.

Sean Hoare, the former News of the World showbiz reporter who was the first named journalist to allege Andy Coulson was aware of phone hacking by his staff, has been found dead, the Guardian has learned.

Hoare, who worked on the Sun and the News of the World with Coulson before being dismissed for drink and drugs problems, is said to have been found dead at his Watford home.

By East County Magazine / July 16, 2011

Home foreclosures in the City of San Diego are costing local governments hundreds of millions of dollars, in addition to billions lost by neighboring homeowners, a study by the Center on Policy Initiatives shows.

by Jared Quient / Two Cathedrals / July 18, 2011

Opponents of Marriage Equality are getting desperate. Between last month’s awe-inspiring leadership by Governor Andrew Cuomo that led to the state legislature legalizing same-sex marriage in New York and the latest court decisions here in California, the march towards marriage equality for all seems for the first time in our history, wonderfully inevitable.

Heck, even the San Diego Union Tribune’s editorial board (not exactly a bastion for progressive ideals) realizes that opponents of Marriage Equality are running out of options.

Braille Institute Students Learn to Surf Via School Set Up by Roger Caldwell and His OB Surf & Skate Shop

By Surfline / July 18, 2011

Ocean Experience Surf School and Braille Institute San Diego unite for the 11th annual surf camp for visually impaired students on Monday, July 18 – Wednesday, July 20, 2011. Located at Mission Point and South Mission Beach Jetty, this three-day surf camp truly breaks the barriers faced by Braille Institute students.

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt / Excuse Me, I’m Writing/ July 17, 2011
San Diego Pride
San Diego’s Pride Parade was Saturday 16 July, and its images are telling.

On Friday, July 15th, leaders of the Pelican Bay hunger strike unanimously rejected a proposal from the California Department of Corrections and Rehab (CDCR) to end the strike. In response to the prisoners’ five, straightforward demands, the CDCR distributed a vaguely worded document stating that it would “effect a comprehensive assessment of its existing policy and procedure” about the secure housing units (SHUs). The document gave no indication if any changes would be made at all.