Columns/Blogs

Communities lose when local news dies

It is a story of corruption that will stay secret, politicians who will need fewer votes to win, even dangerous communicable diseases that will spread faster as our best scientists struggle to fight them. The story is the slow and painful demise of local newspapers, a story whose ending is not yet written but which — without bold intervention and strong reader support — could…


Microplastics everywhere; in our bodies, too

What do beer, oysters, table salt, air & tap water have in common? They’re all ways humans are ingesting microplastics, tiny bits of plastic waste ubiquitous in oceans, lakes and rivers and even soil and air. Wildlife as diverse as whales, seabirds, fish and zooplankton are polluted by ingesting plastic debris. It’s naïve to assume that humans, sharing the same global environment and eating at…


Taking down the Hunter political crime family

Last week, a woman approached me at lunch. “You inspired me to vote for the first time,” she said, pulling out her phone for a selfie. “So what happened, did you win?” I replied, “Not this time.” The final count — 48.3 percent versus 51.7 percent. After running for two long years in a district President Donald Trump won by 15 points, my first election…


Don’t kick climate change down the road

Mankind has only 12 years left to make unprecedented cuts in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions if we want to stave off unimaginably catastrophic effects of runaway global warming. This is the warning detailed in October’s report from the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the recognized global climate authority which represents the investigations of hundreds of climate scientists and 195 participating nations. A…


Grifter Duncan Hunter’s pyrrhic victory

Criminal grifter Duncan Duane Hunter Jr. stole his latest election metaphorically speaking since it was, at best, the epitome of a pyrrhic victory, defined as a victory “won at too great a cost to have been worthwhile for the victor.” Fact is, Hunter’s 9 percentage point victory over Ammar Campa-Najjar means only that the 50th Congressional District will NOT be represented during the initial part…


Duncan Hunter is a man on the brink

(Editor’s Note: This article is taken directly from https//duncanhunter.com. Also a reminder that Hunter was one of 265 mainly Republicans  who voted to reverse a landmark FCC privacy rule in March 2017 opening the door for ISPs to sell customer data. Lawmakers provided no credible reason for this being in the interest of Americans.  The only people who wanted this were the people who were going…


I am Republican, and voting for Campa-Najjar

I am a lifelong Republican from El Cajon. That’s why I’m supporting Ammar Campa-Najjar against Duncan Hunter in the 50th Congressional District contest Nov. 6. Republicans Must Return to their Principles or Lose Women Voters Like Me. It’s been a long, strange trip downward for the Republican Party. Today, the values we once championed are overshadowed by finger-pointing and yelling. Public debate has shifted from…


Duncan Hunter JR. has-been who never was

Duncan (D.) Hunter JR., is a criminal grifter federally accused of using $250,000 of campaign funds illegally to support a lavish lifestyle at the expense of his defense and special interest campaign contributors. For those who don’t appreciate how little Hunter has done for anybody besides himself and grifting associates, this editorial is for you. Hunter — called Duane before he ran to replace his…


Duncan Hunter ‘Op-Ed’ annotated

[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…


San Onofre Nuclear Plant ticking time bomb

What to do with the 3.6 million pounds of highly radioactive waste at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station by Camp Pendleton remains an epic problem, pitting concerned citizens against Southern California Edison, the California Coastal Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).  San Onofre’s seaside nuclear reactors were permanently shut down in 2013, following steam generator malfunction. Edison operates San Onofre while the Coastal Commission…