Category: Economy

I want a plug-in hybrid. A vehicle with lithium-ion batteries good for 40-45 miles, two wheel drive, a six speed computer controlled transmission with a computer that starts a small generator; an 11 hp portable generator is rated for 6200 watts, and yes, burns gas, for now. Modular construction would make it easy to replace the gas power generator with a fuel cell or other non-internal combustion power source.

As it helps push for legislation that would make it easier for workers to organize, the country’s fastest-growing union is engaged in its own labor dispute with employees it is seeking to lay off.

The Service Employees International Union, considered the most influential union in the nation, has notified the union that represents about 220 of the SEIU’s national field staff and organizers that it is laying off 75 of the employees.

(Originally posted July 30, 2008)

by Frank Gormlie

Oh, my god! The Union-Tribune is about to be sold – or at least – is up for sale. What will San Diego do now? Do we care? What does it mean for a one-paper town like San Diego to have its monopoly print media exchange owners … or even close down altogether?

Today we heard (tip to Voice of San Diego) that our favorite monopoly press – the San Diego Union-Tribune – has been sold to Platinum Equity – a private equity firm in Beverly Hills. Here is how they describe themselves:

Dozens of Ontario police and code enforcement officers descended upon the homeless encampment known as Tent City early Monday, separating those who could stay from those to be evicted.

The Employee Free Choice Act was introduced in Congress this week, but the action wasn’t all in Washington. Around the country, grassroots efforts are growing to pass this critical bill to restore workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain.

Hundreds of phone calls and handwritten letters have gone to U.S. senators this week, urging them to support the Employee Free Choice Act.

A HUNDRED years ago a group of foreign diplomats gathered in Shanghai for the first-ever international effort to ban trade in a narcotic drug. On February 26th 1909 they agreed to set up the International Opium Commission—just a few decades after Britain had fought a war with China to assert its right to peddle the stuff. Many other bans of mood-altering drugs have followed. In 1998 the UN General Assembly committed member countries to achieving a “drug-free world” and to “eliminating or significantly reducing” the production of opium, cocaine and cannabis by 2008.

by Lane Tobias

After writing the first piece on food stamps, a number of questions have come up regarding San Diego’s place in the food stamps controversy. How are the income guidelines that determine eligibility set? Why does San Diego county have such low enrollment in the program? And most of all, what can we do about it?

The income guidelines that the USDA utilizes are based on the “Orshansky Poverty Thresholds”, developed for the Social Security Administration by a woman named Mollie Orshansky in the late 50’s and adopted by all Executive Administrations in 1965. Her guidelines took into account family size, farm or non-farm family, income, and other relative numbers.

Many of the vendors kicked out from Rock Paper Scissors are still angry at Dr Jefe who ran the place, and who supposedly decided in one day to immediately close the business – a business that had grown to be one of the most popular storefronts on Newport Avenue. Jeff Fagan, the real Dr Jefe, had told me that the fateful day was February 2nd, when after reading his financial statements, he decided to close RPS immediately.

The vendors don’t believe that. They believe that he and his staff knew business was bad, but the message they gave out to the vendors was that ‘everything was fine.’ That’s what they heard.

A century and a half ago it was at the centre of the Californian gold rush, with hopeful prospectors pitching their tents along the banks of the American River. Today, tents are once again springing up in the city of Sacramento. But this time it is for people with no hope and no prospects. With America’s economy in freefall and its housing market in crisis, California’s state capital has become home to a tented city for the dispossessed.

In my first post of this series on San Diego County government, I gave an overview of the County itself and then a brief look at the governmental machine. Because of the sheer size and magnitude of its operations and reach, it can be very overwhelming any time one looks at our County political apparatus. Because our county is huge, the government shell over it has to be huge too. And we’ve got to understand this shell.

by Anna Daniels

A woman came up to the information desk where I work at the Central Library downtown and asked me how to get her stimulus funds. This is of course an excellent question- the 787 billion dollar budget for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) includes provisions for education and training, protecting the vulnerable, energy, state and local fiscal relief, tax relief, health care, infrastructure and science and “other.” In addition, California, the most populous state in the union will receive the largest amount of those funds destined to the states.