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Note to world: People are tired of war
Before there were Hamas rockets, there were kidnapped and murdered boys from both camps. And there are more and more Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory. And more and more Hamas tunnels into Israel. And a gigantic wall separating Jews from Palestinians and an Iron Dome (whatever that is) and tanks and aerial bombardment of densely-packed urban areas in Gaza and bombs falling near the Tel Aviv international airport and enough mindless intransigence all around to plunge us into a world war. So I'm grateful to those pacifists up in Encinitas for their weekend vigils. And good for Israel for whittling away at the number of humiliating, inconveniencing and frightening Israeli military checkpoints: only 99 more to go.— July 28, 2014 9:38 p.m.
Property-tax hikes ahead, San Diego
I had a noticeable increase in my tax bill LAST year and I appealed it, but haven't heard a thing from tax collector Dan McAllister's office. I never got any reassessments either -- just kept paying and paying. But last year there was a spike. I will call tomorrow.— July 28, 2014 9:19 p.m.
An attorney for the city attorney
Bonnie just got re-elected D.A. You'll have to wait four more years for her to step down. Goldsmith has the same two years left as Filner would have had, had he remained Mayor. But Goldsmith will be termed out by then and he will need to find a sinecure. Maybe the Reader will organize a pool so we can speculate and bet on his ultimate resting place.— July 28, 2014 9:10 p.m.
NY Times pooh-poohs Comic-Con spending
For proof of Times reporters' take on ComiCon spending, take a look at Wonder Woman. When she was married to a rich cancer researcher, she shopped a lot, but when she started doing her own thing keeping the public safe and sound, she just hasn't felt the same compulsion.— July 28, 2014 1:17 p.m.
Utilities commission was cozy with utility
I would say this borders on criminal -- but of course, it's just government business as usual, with Governor Jerry Brown responsible and negligent for not requiring that his buddy, utilities-complicit California Public Utilities Commission head Michael Peevey, resign immediately or be fired. The terrifying gas explosion in the northern California suburb of San Bruno that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes happened FOUR YEARS AGO, and culpability and restitution are still unsettled. Obvious responsibility lies with Pacific Gas & Electric which failed to maintain old gas lines and had no emergency shut-off systems in place to prevent spreading conflagration. Now there's proof in cavalier CYA emails between CPUC Peevey's staffer and PG&E. Please, Reader readers, this is not about ivory tower commentator and reformer UCSD Professor Steve Erie. This is about current elected officials, chiefly the too-often-sanctimonious Governor Jerry Brown, who needs to man up and do the right thing, even though he is running for re-election. Readers should contact the office of junketing Governor Brown and demand that he get rid of California Public Utility Commission chairman Michael Peevey.— July 28, 2014 1:09 p.m.
Sorry, minimum-wage workers
The new mayor wields an iron hand in a velvet glove. It will be interesting to see if this City Council actually musters the political courage to override Faulconer's veto. The notion of putting a minimum wage increase to a public vote in San Diego is deeply cynical: it would lose by a big margin. (I don't remember: what was San Diego's vote on Governor Brown's statewide proposition to raise the income tax?)— July 27, 2014 1:41 p.m.
Is Jerry Brown hiding his San Onofre role?
There is something profoundly depressing about the juxtaposition of cut-throat politics and lofty ideals coming from a person like Jerry Brown. He knows what's right, but he does whatever is necessary to stay in office. First things first. Always. Brown called for better public education and much-needed budget austerity and the public generously responded by approving a tax increase. Brown then called for more money to be spent on California's economically and academically poorest public school students, but he set up a bogus system like the opaque "Local Control Funding Formula" that puts all spending authority and oversight into the hands of local educrats. In San Diego, that means carte blanche for an authoritarian puppet Superintendent of Schools controlled by a 100% AFl-CIO Labor Council-backed Board of Education. Look for LCFF financing huge "promised" raises for teachers across the spectrum instead of lower class sizes for students in the next year. And go to that new CA website (name?) where you can look up the salary of (almost) every public employee -- but not the ones employed by the Dan Diego Unified School District.— July 26, 2014 12:53 p.m.
Is Jerry Brown hiding his San Onofre role?
Funny you should mention this, as Governor Brown -- definitely no friend to Mike Aguirre when he was our embattled City Attorney -- is traveling to Mexico right now with a huge entourage that includes representatives of SEMPRA, the corporate parent of SDG&E. Brown always likes to sound high-minded and principled, but he is politically sharp, and that's not meant as a compliment. Brown courts and deals with Establishment interests (like the California Teachers Association and SEMPRA) who return the favors at election time. Which happens to be right now, as Governor Brown is running for a historic fourth term in office.— July 25, 2014 5:24 p.m.
Horton’s dowry
Give credit: at least the U-T cops to a conflict, whatever "it" is. Props to U-T editor Jeff Light. Maybe Osborne owns a piece of the Board of Equalization. (Who knows what that agency is or does except pay salaries to members?)— July 25, 2014 1:22 p.m.
UCSD cash speaks with loud Voice
Wow. At first glance, I thought VoiceofSanDiego.org had taken out retaliatory advertising space at the top of Matt Potter's Reader column. But no, this was just one illustration of the regular mutual back-$cratching that occurs between online VO$D (financed principally by businessmen Buzz Wooley and Irwin Jacobs and "member" contributions) and the extremely business-friendly wing of UC$D that is Exten$ion run by Mary Walshock. Here the old journalism "wall" between advertising and editorial has disintegrated. If VOSD CEO Scott Lewis' does lecture UCSD audiences on "the future of media," he will join former GOP Assemblyman and failed GOP/Dem mayoral candidate Nathan Fletcher, another Irwin Jacobs' Qualcomm employee, who last year was a quasi-instructor on "government" at our university on the hill.— July 25, 2014 12:51 p.m.