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Legislation to extend unemployment benefits overcame a Republican filibuster in the Senate yesterday, putting more than 400,000 Californians a step closer to having their benefits checks reinstated.

But suspended checks are only part of the state’s unemployment woes: 34.5 percent of teen workers in the state were out of a job in June. That’s compared to 25.7 percent of teens nationwide and is nearly three times higher than the state’s overall unemployment rate.

Workers 16 to 19 years old face the highest rates of unemployment of any age group. Teen unemployment in California is more than double what it was in 2000, according to the state Employment Development Department.

OAKLAND, California — The city of Oakland, California on Tuesday legalized large-scale marijuana cultivation for medical use and will issue up to four permits for “industrial” cultivation starting next year.

The move by the San Francisco Bay Area city aims to bring medical marijuana cultivation into the open and allow the city to profit by taxing those who grow it.

“Terriers” is our new Twentieth Century TV series, which recently finished shooting its 12 episodes, including the pilot. The show is going to air in the fall line-up for the FX Channel. I wanted to provide some insight on what it takes to get a show like this to work in San Diego.

Rare Coastal Habitat In San Diego Needs Volunteers July 24th

By Ed Joyce / KPBS / July 19, 2010

San Diego is home to one of the few remaining coastal dune habitats in California.The area is also a key nesting area for an endangered bird. The rare jewel can be found in the midst of Ocean Beach.

Rob Hutsel is the executive director of the San Diego River Park Foundation, which is involved in helping to protect the coastal dune habitat in Ocean Beach.

by MSNBC Staff / July 18, 2010

Since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, top-secret intelligence gathering by the government has grown so unwieldy and expensive that no-one really knows what it costs and how many people are involved, The Washington Post reported Monday.

A two-year investigation by the newspaper found what it called a “Top Secret America” that’s hidden from public view and largely lacking in oversight. The newspaper’s investigation is based on hundreds of interviews with intelligence, military and other officials, as well as public documents and records.

In its first installment of a series of reports, the Post said there are now more than 1,200 government organizations and more than 1,900 private companies working on counterterrorism, ….

by R. M. Schneiderman / Newsweek / July 17, 2010

So far, no modern country has ever legalized marijuana production—not even the Netherlands. Yet with heavy drug-related violence plaguing the U.S.-Mexican border, some analysts and policymakers now say that America should legalize weed in order to reduce the power of Mexico’s drug cartels.

Marijuana carries the least amount of overhead cost for many of the cartels and provides some of their cash flow for buying guns and influence. Estimates vary, but analysts say pot accounts for somewhere in the range of 20 to 50 percent of the cartels’ profits. But that could soon change with competition from El Norte: California has a proposition set for the November ballot—on which voters are roughly split—that would legalize the drug’s domestic production and sale.

Editor: New rules for dog handlers at leash-free dog parks are being considered that would limit the number of dogs a handler can bring to three. Three is the number. The new rules also include prohibiting people from bringing a dog in heat to those parks as well, and also not to leave a dog unattended.

If passed, these rules would affect dogs and their lovers at Dog Beach and Dusty Rhodes Dog Park. The new regs were unanimously passed by the San Diego Park and Rec Board, but still have to go to a full Council committee, and then to the Council itself before becoming law.

My name’s Scott and I’m unemployed. So here I was, just minding my own business, providing for my family and just living the dream.

For 15 years I’d been running staffing agency territories and training the recruiters. Things were great. In 2006 my wife and I sold the house we’d owned for 12 years, put a $250K down payment on a bigger place.

One day I’m checking my 401k online and almost 1/2 was gone! What the heck!?

A little bit later, there’s a foreclosure across the street. Same floor plan as ours – ends up selling for $100k less than what our 1st mortgage is. Doggone it!

By Gustav Wynn / OpEdNews / July 10, 2010

As was widely predicted, a former employee at the San Diego ACORN office has brought a lawsuit against right-wing activist journalists James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles who surreptitiously recorded him while posing as a pimp and a half-naked hooker seeking accomplices in the commission of crimes of prostitution, statutory rape and kidnapping.

Juan Carlos Vera was fired after O’Keefe’s San Diego ACORN exposé was released.

Washington, DC – Today, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) spoke out against the war in Afghanistan, and against the war’s funding, at a press conference of the Out of Afghanistan Congressional Caucus.

“Every dollar we spend in Afghanistan, every life we waste there, is a waste,” said Nadler. “An intelligent policy is not to try to remake a country that nobody since Genghis Khan has managed to conquer. What makes us think, what arrogance gives us the right to assume that we can succeed where the Moguls, the British, the Soviets, failed…..

You might have heard this: BP is so well connected in Washington that even after being cited for 760 different safety and environmental violations, the company still got environmental waivers for the Deepwater Horizon rig that’s now destroying the Gulf.1

But BP’s not alone in using its DC influence. Check out the list below of other companies’ outrages—then pass it along. And be sure to sign the new Fight Washington Corruption Pledge to support 3 key measures that will protect our democracy from corporate lobbyists!

If there were ever any doubt about the extent of waste and ineffectiveness in private contracting, San Diego City Council member Carl DeMaio has just given us more proof.

Since his election to City Council, DeMaio has been relentless in his attempts to privatize San Diego’s city services, including the city’s drinking water and wastewater systems. In the latest attempt, DeMaio paid over $160,000 for contractors to gather signatures from San Diegans in support of a proposed ballot measure that would have required the city to take bids from private contractors for services. The measure would have also allowed the city to directly privatize services without taking a public bid and would have eliminated the city’s living wage and domestic partnership benefits ordinances.