Category: California

NEW UPDATE FROM SDSU – See inside…

Yesterday, March 1st, was the National Day of Action for Education. Students at four area colleges walked out in solidarity and staged marches, rallies, teach-ins and even a “sleep-in” at one campus.

Protests were seen at City College, Mesa College, UCSD, and San Diego State University. The National Day of Action to Defend the Right to Education was coordinated by the Occupy Education movement, and there were protests at about 30 California campuses, including one of the most tense scenes at UC Santa Cruz where about 150 protesters blocked entrances and largely shut down the university. (Here’s more news from around the state by the LA Times – but they inexplicably and continually omit news from San Diego.)

Locally, about 50 to 60 students at UCSD marched through campus to the Chancellor’s Complex and occupied the conference room. Many planned to stay the night and discuss future plans.

Here are reports about the actions at the four college campuses:

By Carlos Batara / Immigration Newsletter / Feb. 29, 2012

Back in my days as a political science professor, I would point out how candidates scapegoat politically powerless individuals for self gain. Like undocumented immigrants. Since they cannot vote, their ability to fight back is nearly non-existent.

[A recent] narrow proposal by the Obama administration, addressing the needs of some immigrants trying to adjust their status to lawful residents, is a stark reminder of this history. However well-intended, the limited changes fail to offset the human misery inflicted by the 3 and 10 year re-entry bars – bars to legalization caused by political attacks dating back to 1996.

As part of the March 1st National Day of Action for Education, three area college campuses are planning student and faculty walk-outs tomorrow, the first day of March.

Students at City College, San Diego State University, and University of California at San Diego have all joined in this national day of demonstrations, and each campus has plans for walk-outs, rallies and other protests of budget cuts and the on-going stampede towards the privatization of public schools and colleges.

Here in more detail are the plans for each campus:

City College

At City College, the Walkout is set to start at 11:00 am at Curran Plaza. A rally will be held from 11:00am until 3:00pm.

SDSU

There will be a student walk-out at 12:oo noon, followed by a rally at Scripps Cottage Patio, where speakers will discuss a education from a variety of perspectives. Potential solutions and opportunities for students to stay involved will be offered.

UCSD

At 11:30 am, students will stage the walk-out. At 12 noon, instructors will hold a rally / teach-out at the Silent Tree in front of Geisel Library. There will also be performance art at the Silent Tree. Then at 1:30 pm, there will be a march!

Editor: The following “Call to Action” is from ReclaimUCSD and involves a campus protest against student fees for March 1st, and although student walk-outs are also being planned for City College and SDSU, this “Call” is detailed in its reasons and history (see footnotes at end).

By Reclaim UCSD

Students, instructors and staff you have a stake in the future of the UC. The public nature of the UC is under threat, but on March 1st we are coming together to defend it.

Students, mandatory fees set by the regents have more than doubled since 2001 adjusted for inflation.[1] At the same time, UCSD’s average debt at graduation increased 20%.[2] In 2009, 48% of UCSD students graduated with debt at an average of $18,757.[3] Since 1990 expenditure per student has fallen over 19%.[4] At the same time state support per student fell 60% while tuition support more than tripled.[5] The UC shifted from public funding toward personal, private funding. This shift was not and is not inevitable. Students: the ability of many of your qualified colleagues to attend a UC is threatened by this shift,[6] but you can help.

In last week’s column, I noted that Arizona lawmakers, with help from a right-wing think tank, were pushing union busting legislation more severe than Wisconsin’s. Not surprisingly, as John Nichols reported in The Nation, Arizona Republicans got a little pep talk from Governor Scott Walker himself:

Two days after Ohio voters overwhelmingly rejected Governor John Kasich’s anti-labor agenda by a sixty-one to thirty-nine margin in a statewide referendum, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker jetted to Arizona to launch the next front in the national campaign to attack union rights. After meeting with former Vice President Dan Quayle, Walker was whisked over to the Phoenician Resort in Scottsdale, where he briefed a thousand Arizona conservatives on how they could attack “the big-government union bosses.”

“We need to make big, fundamental, permanent structural changes. It’s why we did what we did in Wisconsin,” declared Walker, who at the annual dinner of the right-wing Goldwater Institute said that compromising with unions was “bogus.” Comparing governors who have been attacking the collective-bargaining rights of public employees with the founders of the American experiment—“just like that group that gathered in Philadelphia”—

No. 1. Caltrans’ Screw-up: the Drive out of Ocean Beach on I-8
There is only one lane for motorists leaving Ocean Beach and getting on I-8 East from Sunset Cliffs Boulevard, the main north-south avenue into and out of OB. There used to be 2 lanes – and yes, they did have to converge as you drove onto I-8. But with the elimination of one of those, there are now just not sufficient lanes. There is a one lane for turning onto Nimitz Boulevard but hardly anyone takes it. There are two lanes that are available if you want to go north across the bridge over the San Diego River and head toward SeaWorld. Hmmm. Is there a connection there? I know of at least one accident that occurred in the lane that is destined for the freeway, an accident of 4 vehicles – that I firmly believe would not have happened if there had been two lanes for the waiting vehicles. So, only one lane gets you onto one of the largest freeways in Southern California, but there are two lanes if you want to go to SeaWorld.

No. 2. Caltrans’ Screw-up: Only 1 Lane for transition from 5 North to 8 East.

This is really a no-brainer, but there’s always backed up traffic on 5 North waiting to make the transition onto 8 East, as there is only one lane. These are two of the most important and major freeways in this part of the world, the 5 and the 8. But there is only one lane between them if you are going north on 5. This causes crashes, rear-enders and a lot of anxiety among drivers trying to make the change. There are two lanes – thankfully- that get you into OB and the beach area.

By Jed Sanders / Nug Magazine / Originally published Jan. 6, 2012

Mario Acevedo Torero pushes art beyond the level of a tangible commodity and employs it to build community, beautify surroundings, enrich lives, and encourage understanding. Born in Lima, Peru in 1947, Mario was introduced to the arts at a very young age by his father, renowned artist Guillermo Acevedo. His family came to the United States when Mario was 12 years old.

He established Downtown San Diego’s first art gallery along with his father, which later became the first multicultural arts center. He later opened Acevedo Gallery in Mission Hills, which operated throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s. His public art can be seen in numerous places locally, including Chicano Park, various spots around the Boulevard, and UCSD in La Jolla. He has also created public works throughout other cities in the United States as well as internationally in Peru, Japan, Costa Rica, Barcelona, and Czechoslovakia.

Mario is a self-proclaimed “Artivist”; a term that is very fitting to his visionary and warrior-like persona. He has founded, and is active, in many art, cultural, and politically related groups and organizations. He gives his time and knowledge to teach painting to people of all ages through his Cosmic School of Art. Mario also currently operates the Mundo Gallery in University Heights.

Editor: Here’s an article that should concern all OBceans, surfers, all swimmers, scuba divers and anyone else who plays or works in the ocean. Federal monies for water testing are being cut. So much for a “smaller government” – eh, you conservatives who see government as the problem. Enjoy yours and your kids’ next visit to the beach.

The EPA plans to cut $10 million in grants it gives annually. Water quality advocates worry that swimmers and surfers will be at even greater risk of illness.

By Tony Barboza / Los Angeles Times / February 16, 2012

Health testing at beaches in California and across the nation is at risk of being cut under a plan to eliminate federal funds for monitoring whether the water is too contaminated to swim in.

Editor: In this impassioned plea to save County planning committees, East Co Mag editor Miriam Raftery takes a stand in their favor. This plea should resonate with OBceans and other San Diegans about their own planning groups. Ocean Beach, for example, has an active planning board that when it was established in the mid-Seventives, was the very first democratically-elected planning committee in the history of California. The OB Planning Board is also engaged in a “war” of sorts with the City of San Diego and local developers. But hear out Raftery’s plea and apply it to your own local committee.

By Miriam Raftery /East County Magazine / Originally published Feb. 2, 2012

“People will never hear about projects until after they’re done if this [elimination of planning groups] goes through.” – Mark Ostrander, chair, Jacumba sponsor group

I’ve rarely published an editorial, reserving my opinion for only those matters with the gravest of consequences for East County. One such matter will come before San Diego’s Supervisors on February 29, when supervisors will vote on whether or not to eliminate all community planning groups countywide. They will also weigh other “reforms” aimed at making it easier to pave over paradise–or put a Goliath-scale project next door to you–with nobody the wiser until it’s too late.

Rally Against the NDAA of 2012

Saturday, February 11th

Noon – Children’s Park – First and Island in downtown San Diego

March and Rally across from the Convention Center with speakers and song

The Democrats are coming to town for a three-day state convention, beginning today – Friday, Feb. 10th. Big name Dems like Governor Jerry Brown, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and US Senator Al Franken, will be here. There was even a rumor that President Obama would make a showing.

Yet the State Dems will be facing an angry crowd on Saturday rallying across the street from the convention – an angry crowd made up of Democrats, independents, progressives and yes, even some Republicans. Angry because most Democrat senators and half of the House Dems voted for the Bill-of-Rights-gutting National Defense Authorization Act of 2012, that was then signed by another Democrat – the one in the White House.

Editor: Our good friend and fellow Ragster Doug Porter has not been feeling so hot these last couple of days, and so hasn’t dropped off his daily column “First Cuppa Coffee” for a couple of mornings. So, we have enlisted the last minute assistance of one of our regular readers and commenters, OB Joe, in the first of his irregular columns, “Wake and Bake”.

By OB Joe / Special to the OB Rag

Hey, all – ol’ buddy Doug is down, so I’m stepping in to fill his shoes – just for this mornin’ – ‘course if you like it, maybe the Rag editors will let me do it more often … just sayin’. Anyhoo, my style is a little more free flowin’ than Porter’s so I hope it doesn’t distract from the news. And BTW, don’t get upset if I’m using a lot of links to our local fishwrap, the U-T. The Rag editors called me freakin in the middle of the morning, before I had my first bong. So Wake and Bake – fellow OBceans and other denizens of the world!

Who will pay for SDG&E’s screw-ups and all that 2007 fire damage? The U-T is reporting that Sempra Energy – SDG&E’s parent – is assuring investors that its San Diego-area utility customers – that’s us – will pay for nearly all of an estimated $463 million in costs not covered by insurance from the catastrophic 2007 wildfires that were triggered in large part by its power lines. My emphasis. Let’s keep this mind.

By Howard Mintz /MercuryNews.com / February 7, 2012

A federal appeals court on Tuesday struck down Proposition 8, finding that California’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional because it deprives gay and lesbian couples of the equal right to wed.

With a decision that pushes the gay marriage issue a step closer to the U.S. Supreme Court, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld former San Francisco Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who invalidated Proposition 8 in 2010 after conducting an unprecedented trial.

“Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples,” Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote, joined by Judge Michael Daly Hawkins.