Category: Civil Rights

By Kate Callen

The City of San Diego had a one-time-only opportunity to compensate Southeastern San Diego for decades of neglect and broken promises. It has thrown that away to hand an iconic community parcel over to a national developer with a checkered history.

On July 7, by an 8-1 vote, the City Council denied an appeal to stop D.R. Horton, which is facing class action lawsuits across eight states, from building 123 homes on a 31-acre hilltop plateau in Emerald Hills.

The future owners of those homes will have exclusive access to a beloved natural asset: a stunning panoramic 360-view of the San Diego-Tijuana coastal region. People in the surrounding communities, who have long treasured the vista from the Radio Towers Hill, will be shut out.

And their dream of building a landmark destination like the Griffith Park Observatory in Los Angeles that would bolster the local economy has now collapsed.

Communities across the city have endured similar heartaches when iconic properties, like the Little Red Bungalow in Mission Hills, are razed by out-of-town developers.

But the Emerald Hills loss is uniquely tragic. It happened because in 2019, someone inside City Hall targeted Southeastern communities by slipping the infamous “Footnote 7” into the municipal code.

Movement Against ‘Golden Pacific Powerlink’ 

PRESERVATION ACTION ALERT
Help Protect Backcountry Historic Resources and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

by Cody Dulaney / inewsource / July 6, 2026

Earlier this year, inewsource revealed a glaring loophole in a San Diego law that allows property owners to obtain a short-term rental license even after carrying out an illegal eviction.

More than four months have passed and that loophole still exists, and city officials haven’t said how they plan to fix it.

Councilmember Jennifer Campbell, who represents Ocean Beach, Point Loma and Mission Beach, continues to tout the regulation of short-term vacation rentals as a signature achievement, leading the charge to pass the ordinance that took effect in 2023. The ordinance has been hailed as one of the best examples of vacation rental regulations in the country.

Campbell plans to bring amendments forward to a committee meeting next month for consideration, said Venus Molina, the councilmember’s chief of staff. But Campbell nor her staff have answered questions about the loophole or how they plan to fix it.

Since inewsource revealed the gap in city law, hundreds of San Diegans have been evicted from their homes and the city has no way of knowing whether any of those evictions led to short-term rental licenses.

The loophole deals with a specific type of action called a no-fault eviction — it happens when a property owner wants to end a lease for reasons unrelated to a tenant’s behavior. State law allows property owners to exit the rental housing business for a number of specific reasons, including a substantial remodel or to allow for the owner or their family to move in.

By Paul Krueger

I can remember when Sean Elo-Rivera, my city council representative, didn’t turn his back on me when I greeted him, when he didn’t talk over me and joke with his colleagues while I testified at council meetings, and when he didn’t leave the council chambers during my public comments.

Shortly after taking office in 2021, Elo-Rivera met with a group of Talmadge/ Kensington residents concerned about the emergence of multi-story apartment buildings in residential areas (branded as “Bonus ADUs”).

To his credit, Elo-Rivera was honest and unapologetic about his intentions. He told us he had no interest in helping us secure even modest reforms to the controversial ADU program. He saw no reason to include minimal requirements for landscaping, off-street parking, setbacks from adjoining homes, and basic design standards.

He did pledge to help make sure the developers complied with building codes and other requirements. But, as we warned him, they didn’t — and he did nothing to stop them.

In the five years since that initial meeting, Elo-Rivera has abandoned any pretense of representation for constituents who disagree with his views, criticize his policy choices, or complain about his behavior.

He’s made it clear that those of us who, in his words, “live north of El Cajon Boulevard” do not deserve his respect or even the basic constituent services of his non-partisan council office.

Elo-Rivera shows a special disdain for those of us who are — in his words — old, white, and “implicitly racist” homeowners. (No matter that Elo-Rivera himself now owns property north of his chosen El Cajon Boulevard battleline.)

Rag judges have – finally – determined a winner of the July 4th 250th anniversary Rag writing contest.

It is William Dorsett of San Diego. The Rag will be sending William a check for $100.

There were 7 entries  in the contest and we published them all anonymously. Dorsett wrote number 7, entitled, “What the 250th Anniversary Means Today… Living Under Trump: ‘I love America But It Can Do Better — the Torch Has Been Passed to Us.'”  Dorsett wrote his winning essay on the morning of July 4th.

Here is his essay:

Today marks the 250th anniversary of American Independence Day. It feels very different from the celebrations I remember growing up.

When I was a child, July 4th was a spectacle. My family gathered every year. My grandfather fired up the grill while my grandmother made potato salad and all the fixings. After lunch there was homemade ice cream or fresh peach cobbler. But the real excitement came after dark. Growing up in Texas, fireworks were everywhere, and lighting them was what I lived for each summer.

As we grow older, however, our understanding of history changes. I learned that the celebration of American independence has never meant the same thing to everyone. For many Native Americans, it marked the beginning of the destruction of their way of life. For African Americans, freedom would not come for another 89 years, followed by generations of unequal treatment. Women would wait nearly a century and a half before gaining the right to vote.

By Anonymous #7

Today marks the 250th anniversary of American Independence Day. It feels very different from the celebrations I remember growing up.

When I was a child, July 4th was a spectacle. My family gathered every year. My grandfather fired up the grill while my grandmother made potato salad and all the fixings. After lunch there was homemade ice cream or fresh peach cobbler. But the real excitement came after dark. Growing up in Texas, fireworks were everywhere, and lighting them was what I lived for each summer.

As we grow older, however, our understanding of history changes. I learned that the celebration of American independence has never meant the same thing to everyone. For many Native Americans, it marked the beginning of the destruction of their way of life. For African Americans, freedom would not come for another 89 years, followed by generations of unequal treatment. Women would wait nearly a century and a half before gaining the right to vote.

America, in its infancy, was not as great as history often portrays it. It was a extraordinary idea, one that produced many achievements, but had a long journey ahead before it could truly live up to its founding ideals.

That journey included a Civil War, two world wars, and countless struggles for civil rights and equality. America became a nation admired around the world, because it had shown an ability to grow, correct itself, and strive toward something better.

America has always had skeletons in its closet, so perhaps it should not surprise us that, on the nation’s 250th anniversary, we find ourselves moving backward in some ways. We elected a convicted felon as president. That fact alone says less about one man than it does about us.

Dear Friends:

We hope your summer is off to a good start. Here is a news round-up about the Coalition’s recent activities and future priorities:

This Week at City Hall: We appreciate the feedback on our weekly bulletin that highlights significant Council agenda items. Thanks to your involvement, City officials are feeling pressure to serve constituents and not just special interests. Let’s keep that up by speaking out at Council meetings – in-person, virtually, and in writing – to remind them that they work for us.

Jack McGrory Coalition Forum: If you missed it, check out Jack McGrory’s no-holds-barred analysis of City Hall in the OB Rag (Part I and Part II). The willingness of some civic leaders to deliver straight talk at our town hall events is encouraging. Our speakers’ series resumes in the fall.

strong>By Anonymous #6

Words cannot cover what it’s  been like since Donald Trump got elected President again.Worry, anxiety, doubt, despair and bad dreams are  my companions these days. I have been flying a small flag upside-down at my front door until Trump’s war on Iran ends.

There is always the mitigating gob-smacking Crime du Jour: President Trump’s unprecedented annual earnings report of $2.2 billion for his family and their private businesses — like crypto (which is “regulated by the government” Trump heads, Trump Bibles, Trump shirts-and-shoes merch — all while he holds public office. Critics are calling this a potential conflict of interest.

But what preoccupies  me is Trump’s arrogant ignorant  misalliance with Israel’s criminal prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is jonesing to destroy Iran.  Trump has joined Bibi’s war with no notice, no consultation, no consent sought from the U.S.Congress. Trump tore up Obama’s 10-year nuclear weapons production detente with Iran and instead, Trump/Hegseth/Rubio/Vance/Lutnick/Kushner have twice interrupted diplomatic negoatiations with Iran, first to “obliterate” (kill off) Iran’s leadership hierarchy and then to bomb Iran’s infrastructure and tighten economic sanctions against its people.

By Anonymous #5

The arrival of the United States’ 250th anniversary in 2026 brings an unexpected juxtaposition: a milestone meant to celebrate two and a half centuries of constitutional democracy is instead marked by the reality of Donald Trump’s continued dominance over the American political landscape.

For many, this semiquincentennial was envisioned as a moment of triumph for modern pluralism. Instead, it serves as a stark reflection on how the political map was redrawn. While Trump’s rise is often analyzed through the lens of conservative populism, an honest accounting of how the country arrived at this point requires looking at the other side of the aisle. The political reality of 2026 is, in large part, a direct consequence of progressive politics in 2016 and 2024, which repeatedly alienated moderate voters, fractured the anti-Trump coalition, and inadvertently drove a significant portion of the electorate straight into Trump’s arms.

The blueprint for this self-sabotage was drawn in 2016. In an election decided by razor-thin margins in the Rust Belt, the progressive left’s refusal to compromise proved fatal. Driven by an all-or-nothing ideological purity, a critical mass of progressive voters chose to defect from the Democratic ticket. In states like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, the votes cast for Green Party candidate Jill Stein exceeded Trump’s margin of victory over Hillary Clinton. By treating the mainstream center-left as an enemy equal to the populist right, progressives fractured the coalition needed to stop Trump. They treated the 2016 election as a risk-free opportunity to send a message, operating under the assumption that American democratic institutions were durable enough to withstand a temporary protest vote. That miscalculation laid the groundwork for the transformation of the federal judiciary and the reshaping of American governance.

By Anonymous #4

Trump wants to use the 250th anniversary to validate his presidency and portray this era as a “golden age” he restored. His opponents focus on Trump’s many crimes and on his vile coarseness. Administration messaging through Freedom 250 stresses a heroic, mythic narrative of the Founding Fathers and America’s destiny. It encourages citizens to embrace patriotism and national pride. It’s impossible to take in this drivel and not list some aspects of our history that are nothing to be proud of:

• Native American Genocide
• Slavery
• Jackson: The Indian Removal Act
• McKinley: Imperialism
• Women can’t vote until 1920
• The National Security Act of 1947
• McCarthyism
• Vietnam and COINTELPRO
• Political Assassinations
• The Global War on Terror, including Palestine and Iran

Most of us are more comfortable with a traditional approach to July 4, which considers both American achievements and failures, and invites at least the pretense of national self-examination.

The key fact is that the American Revolution is a priceless example of radical political change for the better. The founders overthrew royal tyranny by force. There is a reason virtually every revolution since ours has quoted from the Declaration of Independence. We still love the ideal of liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the constitution. These principles are as seductive – and as subversive – as they were 250 years ago. We see them as fundamental to the American character.

By Kate Callen

In the news profession, journalists are supposed to be fired for breaching ethical standards. They are not supposed to be fired for upholding them.

Terence Shepherd is suing his former employer, KPBS, for doing just that. In a lawsuit filed in May in Superior Court, Shepherd, who was KPBS News Director from August 2021 until September 2025, alleges he was terminated for wanting to comply with rules set down by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

The incident in question was KPBS Reporter Alexander Nguyen’s TV news report of a September 17 event at Encinitas City Hall protesting the tactics of U.S. Immigration, Customs, and Enforcement (ICE).

The lawsuit states, “Shepherd became aware that [Nguyen] had apparently staged a protest scene about which KPBS was reporting. One of the protesters that [he] staged behind the live shot [carried] a placard that prominently displayed ‘FUCK ICE.’”

Believing that a display of the word “FUCK” would violate FCC rules governing broadcast content, Shepherd alerted KPBS Chief Content Officer Nancy Worlie. He wanted to audit Nguyen’s past work. Worlie “vehemently disagreed” and said that Shepherd was “grossly overreacting.” Soon after, he was fired.