As presently constituted, San Diego County’s Board of Supervisors is a dying breed. Decades of a status quo determined by mostly white, Republican, and male overlords are coming to an end. Term limits, a less homogenous population, and the decline of the Grand Old Party’s base in California mean a change is coming. This is the lens through which Measures A thru D–to be voted…
In the escalating trade conflict between the U.S. and China, more California agricultural products now face new retaliatory tariffs in one of their export markets. On Monday, Sept. 24, China implemented a new round of tariffs on $60 billion worth of U.S. goods, including a wide range of foods and agricultural products. The tariffs came in response to new U.S. duties on $200 billion in…
Today is Constitution Day. Thousands of middle and high school students across San Diego County will better understand the wisdom, complexity and enduring relevance of the United States Constitution thanks to a special ACLU program pairing volunteer speakers with host teachers in celebration of Constitution Day. Since 2007, the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties (ACLU-SDIC) has recruited attorneys, civic leaders, community advocates and others…
[Editor’s note: Hard to believe the congressman from grift-ville can see through his alcoholic and federally ordered drug testing haze to compose an op-ed piece, meager and ridiculous as it is, but there you have it. USA Today did the dishonor of publishing “Duncan Hunter: Evidence will trump political agendas” without even the courtesy of identifying it as a satirical take. Here it is, annotated…
Momentum has shifted in the race for California’s 50th Congressional District. Criminal co-conspirators Duncan and Margaret Hunter charged with 60 counts of campaign finance fraud in a 47-page indictment handed up Tuesday, pleaded not guilty on Thursday in San Diego Federal Court. While that was national news blared from coast to coast on cable TV, the real news was the momentum grabbed by Ammar Campa-Najjar,…
To the tune of $250,000, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-50th Congressional District) did it, said he and his wife did it, and now a federal grand jury says he’s going to pay for doing it. Just doing what you do when you’re a criminal grifter with all the sense of a dissipating cloud of vaporizing campaign dollars fraudulently spent on personal expenses via campaign credit card….
Not a good week for GOP candidates in San Diego… Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter and his wife, Margaret are expected to be arraigned on Thursday morning in Federal court. A 47-page grand jury indictment accuses the couple of diverting more than $250,000 in campaign funds to family vacations, school tuition, theater tickets and other personal expenses. They are facing charges of wire fraud, falsifying records,…
Once again, the summer of 2018 in the Northern Hemisphere has brought us an epidemic of major wildfires. These burn forests, houses and other structures, displace thousands of people and animals, and cause major disruptions in people’s lives. The huge burden of simply firefighting has become a year-round task costing billions of dollars, let alone the cost of the destruction. The smoke veil can extend…
Agriculture values sprouted for a second straight year in the annual County Crop Report, helped by 20-plus percent increases in the value of lemons, miscellaneous vegetables and tomatoes, and a continued renaissance for oranges. Overall, total agriculture values in San Diego County rose about 1.6 percent to more than $1.77 billion in the 2017 Crop Report released this week. Last year, crop values increased 2.63…
Voters who took part in California’s innovative and anti-party “jungle” primary on June 5 delivered a typical and predictably partisan result in the governor’s race. They sent Democratic Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom as the heavy favorite into a November contest against Republican businessman John Cox, who now lists his residence as Rancho Santa Fe. With the liberal Newsom positioning himself as a Bay Area Bernie…