Opinion


Defeat the gun lobby, support these people

Are you sick and tired of gun violence and the barely contained flood of weapons on our streets? Time to drill down to the local election level to get the ball rolling against the pernicious gun lobby and people who make our streets unsafe due to the abundance of guns allowed in our society. This issue has caused us to endorse several candidates for local…


President’s bully pulpit bloodies Issa

Darrell Issa, you’ve been served. And by POTUS no less. Issa just found what eight years of trolling President Obama and soon-to-be-president Hillary Clinton got him — a hot seat; a very, very hot seat. As chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Issa wasted a lot of congressional time and taxpayer money on tea party and trump trolling fictions like investigations into the…


Lilac Hills Ranch ‘Measure B’: ‘What a revoltin’ development this is…’

 It was a classic and pretty much forgotten today radio-then-TV show, “Life of Riley,” starring William Bendix as wing riveter Chester A. Riley, who tag-lined in outrage  “What a revoltin’ development this is,” when life, as it always seemed to on that venerable show, went wrong. It happened every week back then and it’s happening again around North County. Nobody in North County wants the…


Can Duncan Hunter come out & debate?

It happens every congressional election year, like death and taxes. Like father, like son, Duncan Hunter don’t need no stinking debates. Hunter Sr. was infamous for ducking debates against contenders. Now, his son, and heir to the 60-percent Republican registered 50th Congressional District fiefdom of a seat, is following the same path in daddy’s footsteps. There’s a delicious irony to this refusal to tell voters…


Lilac Hills Ranch ‘Measure B’ is a scam

With the November election just weeks away, I am encouraging San Diego voters to vote No on the Lilac Hills Ranch Measure B. Measure B is a countywide measure on which all San Diego County voters – including residents of incorporated cities – will vote. Measure B would allow a deep-pocketed developer to build Lilac Hills Ranch, a development of more than 1,700 homes and 90,000…



Supe race limbo: How low can it go?

How desperate are Republicans to regain the District 3 Supervisor’s seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors? VERY DESPERATE.  But the hand it has been dealt with Kristin Gaspar as its standard bearer is really pretty poor. Gaspar’s performance as Encinitas mayor has been undistinguished. The only issues she personally has initiated have gone pretty badly. Gaspar proposed to address homelessness by sending…



Tale of the Toppled Hurler: A Peter Hartwell Story (Part 2)

(This is Part 2 of a 13-part serialization of the Peter Hartwell saga. Follow new chapters of the story each weekend at The Grapevine…) “They killed my father, and now they’re coming after me.” – Marty Nolan, on the pain of being a Red Sox fan, in David Halberstam’s “The Teammates.” I walked into the drab green waiting area of the emergency room at Columbia-Presbyterian…