Author: Source

by Mike Davis

“Since everyone is dumping on Mexico these days, you might as well help me do the real thing.”

My friend Marcos Ramirez (aka “ERRE”) isn’t kidding. He’s building a new house in Colonia Libertad, Tijuana’s oldest and most surrealistically colorful neighborhood …

The banks used their power over 12 Democratic members of the Senate to defeat Senator Durbin’s “Helping Families Save Their Homes in Bankruptcy” amendment. And they financed the lobbying of taxpayer representatives with some of the billions of bail-out dollars provided by – taxpayers.

This was a defeat for American democracy.

by Ken Secor

May 1st is observed as International Labor Day by most of the countries of the world. The reason most people believe that May Day is a communist holiday is because corporate America doesn’t want you to even wonder why that day was chosen.

Before the California Democratic Convention ended yesterday, delegates bucked the Party leadership on the May 19th ballot measures – by securing a “no endorsement” on Propositions 1A, 1D and 1E. State legislators and Party operatives pushed “yes” on all six measures, but enough of the grassroots who stayed for the tail end of the session refused to go along.

by Rocky Neptune

Otay Mesa, Tijuana, Mexico……Juanita couldn’t hold her balance. The policemen pursuing her were waving guns and shouting. She tried to re-tie the shawl that held the baby to her breast while darting through the moving traffic, but her six month old fell forward, skidding across the filthy asphalt, his lower lip ripped by the jagged edge of a pothole.

By Ali Soufan

FOR seven years I have remained silent about the false claims magnifying the effectiveness of the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques like waterboarding. I have spoken only in closed government hearings, as these matters were classified. But the release last week of four Justice Department memos on interrogations allows me to shed light on the story, and on some of the lessons to be learned.

The carbon footprint of the average San Diegan — including residential energy use and transportation — is larger than that of the average resident of Los Angeles, a review of available data shows. San Diego lags behind LA in policies and programs to reduce energy use.

The Supreme Court put a new limit on police searches of cars Tuesday, saying that “countless individuals guilty of nothing more serious than a traffic violation” have had their vehicles searched in violation of their rights.

Dozens of city and county workers descended on Sacramento’s tent city on Thursday, and within hours cleared the area of all signs of the sprawling homeless encampment.

PLUS

Over the past few months, reporters from around the world have flocked to the now-famous tent city in Sacramento, Calif. When they find out that 55-year-old John Kraintz has been living in a tent for almost seven years, they turn around and walk away.

by Norm Stamper, Former Police Chief of Seattle

As 5:00 p.m. rolls around my interior clock starts chiming. I’ll have an ice-cold, bone-dry martini, thank you. Jalapeno olives and a twist. If the occasion calls for it (temperatures in the twenties, a hot political debate on the tube) I may substitute two fingers of Kentucky sour mash. Four-twenty?

by Denny Doyle

The good news is the Pretenders scored 15 runs on 19 hits, and scored in each inning we played (5).

The bad news is the other team called in the score, as we had our first loss, 17 -15, with Tilted Sticks …

In a well attended raucous meeting on April 13, 2009, of the San Francisco Labor Council – representing nearly all the unions in San Francisco – the Council unanimously endorsed a resolution condemning the raid by the president of SEIU International Andy Stern on Unite-Here throughout the country. (SEIU stands for Service Employees International Union – and is one of the most influential unions in the country.)