OB Rag

Report: Janitors’ low wages a blotch on biotech’s shining reputation

By Center on Policy Initiatives / May 15, 2012

Janitors who clean the offices and laboratories of San Diego’s highly profitable biotech companies generally aren’t paid enough to live on, while their low wages are excluded from the industry’s claims of creating good jobs.

A new report from the Center on Policy Initiatives examined the pay scales and financial health of large local life sciences firms, including biotech and related companies. While the industry claims its salaries average more than $100,000 locally, that doesn’t count many essential support jobs that often are contracted out – such as janitors, security guards and food service workers.

Over the past year or so that I have been writing for the OB Rag I have mentioned one or two of my grandchildren in the course of discussion. I have three beautiful daughters, and they have gifted me with 9 grandchildren and some of those have given me 4 great-grandchildren. Out of those children that are eligible for college, all of them are currently enrolled in the California Higher Education programs.

Last week I posted an article written by my oldest grandson, Josh, as to why he was proud to be an American, and why he feels somewhat “tarnished” today. I have always known that he was very bright, yet if you look at his past his actions sometimes belied that intelligence. I think it is fair to say that he is growing up, and the beautiful creative mind that has been stifled is being unleashed.

Josh has had a relationship with his girlfriend Cherie for close to seven years. When she came into their relationship she had a very young daughter and Josh treated her as if she was his. (I have to admit that for a time I wondered if she was his child. She wasn’t.) Two years after they got together they had a child together and people, including this grandmother, asked if they were going to get married. The answer was “no” and has continued to be “no”. But something happened last week that has Josh thinking – and writing – again.

By Joe Flynn

Dear Grover Norquist:

Top Ten Reasons why most people would not want government reduced to the size they could drown in a bathtub, as you so smugly recommend.

10. A water main has broken in front of your house, and you don’t have enough water to flush your toilet, let alone, drown anything in the tub.

9. Neighborhood kids have piled rocks in a sewer manhole plugging the line and what appear to be date expired Baby Ruth’s are floating down the street.

8. Your residential neighbor is in the process of constructing a building in his front yard, which coincidentally, blocks your prized view of the ocean.

PENINSULA COMMUNITY PLANNING BOARD AGENDA

3701 Voltaire Street, Point Loma Library
May 17, 2012 – 6:30-9:30 PM

Parliamentary Items

6:30 to 7:00

1. Approval of Agenda – Items subject to change
2. Approval of Meeting Minutes – April 2012 Regular Board meeting
3. Secretary’s Report – Discussion of minutes, format, written sub committee notes, drafted resolutions, etc.
4. Treasurer’s Report – Confirmation of Nancy Graham
5. Chair Report – Appointment to fill John Gott’s vacancy. Website maintenance.

7:00 to 7:15

Non-Agenda Public Comment (3 minutes each speaker)

New/Old Business

Engineer warns that tube plugging and low power operation are risky “non-solutions”

By Friends of the Earth / May 15, 2012

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Southern California Edison avoided federal regulatory guidelines when replacing defective steam generators at the San Onofre nuclear power plant — a costly mistake that can’t be fixed by plugging the tubes that carry radioactive steam or by operating the plant at reduced power, according to a new report released today by Friends of the Earth.

The content of the report by nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen details the significant design changes that should have triggered a license review which would have uncovered problems that subsequently led to serious damage and the release of radiation from the defective equipment at San Onofre in January.

By John Lawrence / Will Blog for Food / May 12, 2012

In this article we explore how the price of gas at the pump is determined. This is an opaque subject which has been heaped in layers of obfuscation because the oil companies don’t want you to know what a huge scam they are perpetrating on the American public systematically ripping them off at the gas tank. They want you to think that gas prices are set by immutable, impersonal factors like the “world oil market” over which we have no control nor ever could we.

When the oil company executives went before a Congressional hearing in May 2011 as gas prices hit $4.00 a gallon, Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon Mobil, was asked “how are oil prices set?” He responded that they were based on the marginal cost of producing the next barrel of oil. Nothing could be further from the reality of the situation although it would be a worthy aspirational ideal, something to shoot for in a more perfect world.

TIJUANA, MEXICO — The signs at the union rally were lettered in red and green on a white background, reminiscent of the Mexican flag.

“!Con DeMaio al Norte!”
(“With Demaio to the North!”)

“!Si, se puede, jefe!”
(“Yes, we can, boss!”)

“!Te amos Carl!”
(“We love you, Carl!”)

The setting was a south-of-the-border parade on Tijuana’s famous Avenida Revolucion, where a union representing undocumented workers hoping to migrate to the United States endorsed Republican candidate Carl DeMaio for San Diego mayor.

“Soft Path” from Dog Beach to Main Lifeguard Station Part of Master Plan

Lots of action is promised at the next Ocean Beach Planning Board meeting Wednesday night, May 16th.

Actually, it’s the Project Review Committee that is meeting, and they make recommendations on projects to the full Board – which will meet next on June 6th. Both committees meet at the OB Rec Center, 4728 Santa Monica Avenue.

First on the agenda is something called the “Ocean Beach Waterfront Master Plan” – a plan for the ocean front of OB being rolled out from the Design Committee of the OB Mainstreet Association.

Among the elements of this so-called “Master Plan” is a recommendation for a “soft path connecting Dog Beach and the Santa Monica Lifeguard Tower”. This could be controversial as a similar idea of a boardwalk was floated years ago but was brought down to defeat by last-minute grassroots’ opposition.

There is an evening public budget hearing tonight,

Monday, May14, beginning at at 6pm,

on the 12^th floor of city hall, 202 C street.

This is the evening hearing scheduled for working San Diegans to attend and give them two cents on the San Diego City budget.

Are Your Library Services “Good Enough?” Mayor Sanders and the City Council Think So

Outgoing Mayor Jerry Sanders recently declared an end to the structural deficit problems facing the city by virtue of his eight year reign of awesomeness. Revenues this past year were a modest 1.9% higher than anticipated, and Sanders was able to play the kindly king, distributing some of the revenue to deserving city departments in fiscal year 2013.

Editor: Just to ensure that our readers and the world know where the OB Rag stands on Carl DeMaio, we’re running two posts today, one by Doug Porter, and this one by Jim Miller.

“We have a conservative movement that has learned, over the decades, to mimic
many of the characteristics of its enemies.” – Thomas Frank

As Frank Gormlie noted in an OB Rag piece last Saturday, Carl DeMaio used a pull quote from one of my OB Rag columns describing Nathan Fletcher as a “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing.” More specifically, DeMaio’s mailer cites this passage:

Nathan Fletcher is not a man of great political courage. He isn’t even a particularly independent thinker. But he is politically clever, and he knows that San Diego’s Democratic base has a long history of being bamboozled by wolves in sheep’s clothing from the days of Pete Wilson to the present.

It was so nice seeing my old friend, Whoopi, the other night. It had been a while. The last time I saw her was a few years ago when my wife, Nancy, and I, found ourselves standing in a line that can only be described as very long at a book store in La Jolla.

When we finally crossed the threshold of the building and got a glimpse of Whoopi, her head was bowed as she was intently writing her name with swift sweeps of her wrist. We just looked at her with deep admiration as she made so many people’s day, smiling at them as she scribbled.

In a moment she happened to look up and spot us, opening her eyes ala Mr. Magoo and she dropped her pen and came towards us like a Drum Major in a Black College Marching Band, calling out to us, “Ernie! Nancy!” and then she wrapped us in a hug that must have warmed the room.

Steve Breen, the U-T San Diego in-house cartoonist, has done it again. He has gone off and insulted another group of American citizens with his drawings.

This time, it’s seniors. His Thursday, May 11th, cartoon, went over the top by portraying American seniors as “a vengeful mob” – as one complaining letter writer stated in today’s paper.

Look at the cartoon itself. Look at the faces of the older people he drew. Are they the faces of your grandparents, parents, or even of you or us ourselves?