Opinion

Battered, California GOP struggles to survive

Consider the California Republican Party. Or, what’s left of it. Not long ago, California Republicans slugged it out with Democrats in competitive statewide campaigns and threw considerable weight into legislative policy debates. But today, after a quarter-century slide into irrelevancy and dogma, it’s reasonable to consider if the state party still has a pulse and if its future includes a revival. The California party faces…


Marie Waldron is days late and dollars short

I was outraged when I read a Thanksgiving column by my 2020 election opponent for California’s 75th Assembly District, Marie Waldron, titled “Does California Owe You Money.” It was another reminder for me why I decided to run to bring change to our district.   The article begins: ”The holiday season is fast approaching and many are suffering from severe economic distress resulting from the COVID 19…


ACLU investigating local jail COVID-19 surge

The ACLU Foundation of San Diego & Imperial Counties (ACLUF-SDIC) filed a California Public Records Act request Monday, Dec. 21 seeking information on the alarming surge of COVID-19 cases in San Diego County jails. According to the Sheriff’s Department website, as of Dec. 18, 637 people incarcerated in its jails have tested positive for the virus since the pandemic began. “The situation in county jails…


Doug Porter may be down, but he’s not out

As of December 10th, I’ll be taking a break from my daily musings. To make a long story short, I’m going to have surgery at UCSD La Jolla on December 11th. All the preoperative appointments are crowding my schedule making it difficult to write a daily column, so I’ve missed a day or two recently. This has been on the horizon for a while. A…


Old West theme parks paint a false picture

In 1940, just a year before Pearl Harbor plunged the United States into a world war, Walter and Cordelia Knott began construction on a notable addition to their thriving berry patch and chicken restaurant in the Orange County, California, city of Buena Park. This new venture was an Old West town celebrating both westward expansion and the California Dream – the notion that this Gold…


Sierra Club North County blasts Harvest Hills

The Sierra Club North County Group took to social media Monday, Nov. 23 with a video release lambasting the proposed  $58 million Harvest Hills development proposal at San Pasqual Valley near the San Diego Safari Park. “We are ready to re-ignite the fight to halt sprawl development in Escondido and to Stop Harvest Hills,” said Laura Hunter, Chair of the Conservation Committee of the Sierra…


SD Dems facing ‘curse of the supermajority’

The Wisconsin of the West No More: San Diego is Now a Democratic Stronghold, What Will This Mean for Local Progressives and the Future of the City? With all the focus rightfully placed on the national picture, it’s worth noting how historic the election was here in San Diego. With Democratic victories in the County Board of Supervisors races, only one Republican left on the…


Donald Trump, Rebecca Jones deny COVID

Donald Trump says his use of social media, countering what he calls fake news, made him president. This morning, as I watched the DOW sink by more than 900 points (so much for his recovering economy), I came upon President Tweet’s latest rant: “Covid, Covid, Covid is the unified chant of the Fake News Lamestream Media. They will talk about nothing else until November 4th,…


San Onofre radioactive waste storage dust-up

The decommissioning of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) has been riddled with controversies since it was shuttered in 2013, undermining public confidence in Southern California Edison’s management of highly radioactive nuclear waste which will be stored on-site for the foreseeable future. In 2018 for example, a whistleblower exposed how a 54-ton canister loaded with radioactive waste nearly plummeted 18 feet because of a design flaw…


Carpetbagging Issa refers to coronavirus, wildfires as ‘moronic doomsday scenarios’

Got to hand it to the carpetbagging, shameless Darrell Issa, who self-quarantined himself from his 49th Congressional District home in 2018 due to voter revulsion. He says coronavirus is the result of a left-wing conspiracy. Actual fact, this is what Issa said in a fundraising letter district voters received this week: “I won’t ignore the true threats to our national security because of moronic doomsday…