Category: San Diego

Editor: This is Part 2 of Jim Miller’s examination of San Diego as the “Wisconsin of the West”.

While the web of right wing, corporate-funded think tanks are clearly feeling their oats in the Scott Walker era, their rise was a long time in the making. They were, importantly, the intellectual replacements for unreliable “liberal” universities where the state-funded intellectuals could not be counted on to carry the water for the corporate class.

At the City Council hearing on budget cuts to the libraries last Thursday, May 5th, Friends of the OB Library announced that they had collected over a thousand signatures in support of libraries and in opposition to cut-backs and closures.

This was confirmed to me by George Murphy on Saturday, May 7th.

by Lucas O’Connor / Two Cathedrals

It was perhaps with a certain perverse pleasure that political watchers in San Diego pounced in late March on Congressman Bob Filner’s seemingly accidental entrance into the mayor’s race. Not only was it easy to comment on—it was anything to comment on in the decidedly un-fun wasteland of redevelopment, budget cuts and pension reform.

REGION: Reshaping county districts draws yawn from County residents By Chris Nichols / North County Times / May 8, 2011…

by Ed Joyce / KPBS / originally published May 3, 2011 Scripps Institution of Oceanography scientists said the sea level…

This Saturday, May 7, San Diego marijuana supporters will meet at 11am and march together from Crystal Pier (Pacific Beach) on the boardwalk to the lifeguard station at Mission Beach and back again in support of the marijuana movement.

This event, co-sponsored by California Cannabis Coalition, is part of a worldwide march taking place on the same day in over 300 cities across the United States as well as many other parts of the world. It is expected that hundreds of San Diegans will participate in this worldwide effort to show support for the marijuana movement.

by Livia Borak

Two months. Exactly two months remain until the 4th of July holiday. We’ll take time off to enjoy the company of our friends and loved ones, fly our American flags and light the barbeque. And then the fireworks. What’s more American than buying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of fireworks from China, watching their explosive display, and then sitting in traffic for an hour? Sarcasm aside, 4th of July fireworks are, for most people, synonymous with the holiday. It’s tradition.

May 4, 1970: Four students murdered, nine wounded by National Guardsmen, on the campus of Kent State in Kent, Ohio.

Allison Krause, William Schroeder, Jefferey Miller and Sandra Scheuer were killed in the 13 second fusillade of 67 shots fired by the Guardsmen, after an order to fire was given.

(Originally posted May 4, 2010)
I was sitting on my porch this afternoon pondering the meaning of Kent State. I had more tears last year when I wrote a post about it. Yet – here it is – the 40th anniversary. Kent State, hmmm, OB, hmmmm. Something was there.

And then I figured it out! I figured out how Ocean Beach is connected to the Kent State massacre of May 4th, 1970. Or vice versa.

I was in college when it happened. I was attending UCSD and in my senior-year when it all came down. I had been involved in the campus anti-Vietnam movement and was deeply affected by Kent State,

Confusing Array of Events Shows More Unity Is Needed In Order to Unify

May First, May Day – International Workers’ Day – was again celebrated in downtown San Diego this year. Hundreds of San Diegans did converge on a sleepy downtown on a warm Sunday afternoon a couple of days ago, and chant, bang drums and make speeches in favor of labor and workers’ rights. And this continues the great tradition of rallies on this date in what is usually regarded as a conservative, even anti-labor city.

A high point in San Diego’s celebration of a labor ritual that began in America over one hundred years ago, is that the San Diego County Labor Council endorsed it this year.

Editor: We received this request from Lorena Gonzalez, the Secretary-Treasurer/CEO of the San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council (known around here as “THE” Labor Council – we got no other in this huge county). Due to KGTV’s intransigence in negotiating a labor contract with one of its unions, the Labor Council is requesting that we do not watch or report Channel 10 news or programs. (Sorry Michael Chen.)

After watching the attacks on workers taking place across the country, it is time to stand up to the union busters in our own community. McGraw-Hill-owned KGTV Channel 10 refuses to negotiate a fair contract with employees for the fifth year. They have actively engaged in union-busting campaigns and employee intimidation.

Yesterday, a bright, sunny Sunday, I hopped on the trolley to 25th and Commercial and made my way to Chicano Park to join the festivities celebrating International Workers Day in San Diego. I was greeted by the sound of music from the awesome mariachi band who were entertaining the crowd from the stage. I’m sorry to say that my spanish is lousy, but as a middle-aged gringa who has lived her whole life in San Diego, mariachi has long been a favorite music style for me.

There were several hundred people in Chicano Park (I later heard an estimate of about 400, and I agree on that count), where people gathered for games, face painting, music and the playground equipment was packed with kids.