Letters to the Editor

Nuff Said

Regarding “We Spend Every Dime on Our Costumes." Best cover ever!

Thomas Coyne
via email

Sound the Alarm

The Don Bauder article on Michael Clifford and for-profit colleges is not enough (City Lights: “For-Profit College Tried to Recruit Homeless").

The Reader accepts ads from vocational colleges and other so-called universities such as National University, Coleman University, etcetera, that have been under investigation off and on for years. These and other institutions are accepted by the IRS as nonprofit. This usually masks devious practices by sole proprietors and others who reap millions from milking the G.I .Bill, other veterans, and military programs. You also seem unaware of the shady recruitment practices, false promises, and line ads from many of these institutions.

Over 20 years ago, state senator Rebecca Morgan authored S-1, which became law and was supposed to crack down on the phony independent colleges and so-called universities in California. The lobbyists for these institutions watered down their law with exceptions because the State of California was as crooked then as it is now. U.S. Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia conducted a federal investigation as well. But the phony so-called educators and their lobbyists are still clouding up these issues.

The Reader, as well as the entire California print and broadcast media, sit by and do nothing. Sound the alarm against this scam!

Name Withheld
via voicemail

Homeless Rights

Some of your articles in the May 9 issue deserve criticism, especially “Cops and Homeless” (Neighborhood News), a media-drivel variety story about the very out-of-touch and despised Homeless Outreach Team of the San Diego Police. The article is a piece of trash worthy of the Union-Tribune, but not of the Reader.

Homeless and poor people have been trying for years to make H.O.T. a part of Fire and Rescue, not the Police Department, because so many have been kicked in the head, beaten up, and mistreated by the police — not only in San Diego, but in whatever city they have lived. Homelessness is something to be rescued from, not prosecuted for.

Even more ridiculous, “Bustle in the Hedgerow” (Neighborhood News) seems to ignore the fact that the United States Federal District Court held trial and investigations over three years, concluding that the City of San Diego is 100% at fault for all of its homeless problems, and thus ordered that all duly registered homeless have a legal right to occupy and sleep on any and all City property from 9pm to 5:30am daily, seven days a week, without any interference. Failure to abide by this federal court order can subject you, or even a police officer, to imprisonment for contempt of court. So, commenter Mercy Baron, who also wrote the first ridiculous article, shall we move five or ten thousand homeless to Ocean Beach?

On the brighter side, Don Bauder pens an exceptionally good and truthful article about the Bridgepoint University Scam (City Lights: “For-Profit College Tried to Recruit Homeless ”). Well done!

Dr. John Kitchin, NZ9F
Publisher, San Diego Homeless News

Kafe Hitler

Georgia-born Mark Likgalter, owner of Kafe Sobaka, has been a San Diego restaurateur since the early 1980s, but this tale (Tin Fork, “I Go Socialist”) missed the most bizarre part of the story.

Apparently, Mark Likgalter now goes by the notorious last name of Djugashvili (at least for the purpose of this restaurant review). Did anyone else happen to notice that Josif Djugashvili was Stalin’s birth name? (He later changed his name to Stalin because it means “Man of Steel.” )

How different is this from opening a German restaurant and changing your last name to Hitler?

Sue Garson
via email