A City Council veto override on Monday has set the scene for a showdown between local and national business interests vs. a labor-community coalition over San Diego’s Earned Sick Day / Minimum Wage ordinance.

Following months of public hearings and invitations (mostly declined) for local businesses to hammer out a compromise, the city council passed an ordinance providing access to five earned sick days and setting a local minimum wage increasing to $11.50 over three years.

This action makes San Diego the largest city in the nation to raise the minimum wage.

Mayor Kevin Faulconer–said to be one of the bright new faces in the GOP– then turned thumbs down on the bill on Friday, August 8th. Although the council was slated for vacation for the rest of the month, a special session was called by president Todd Gloria. The 6-2 vote upholding the ordinance surprised nobody.

It didn’t take but a few hours before a well-financed Chamber of Commerce-led group announced it would be collecting signatures to force a referendum on the ordinance, hoping to suspend (until the June, 2016 elections) an increase in pay for an estimated 172,000 local workers, along with denying access to earned sick days to 279,000 individuals.

They have 30 days to gather at least 33,866 valid signatures; National Petition Management has been reportedly hired to do the dirty work. If they fail to make that threshold, the first stage of the wage hikes will go into effect in January with an increase for local minimum-wage workers from $9 an hour to $9.75.

Decline to Sign Campaign

Funded by national restaurant chains and some of California’s biggest donors to Mitt Romney, the Chamber’s “Small Business Coalition” (managed by the right-wing Revolvis political consultancy) is facing off against Raise Up San Diego, which has called for a citywide decline to sign campaign, simply called “Don’t Sign It,” to defeat the referendum against the ordinance.

This attempt at forcing a referendum will be the fourth big dollar effort at overturning council-enacted legislation in the last two years orchestrated by conservative business interests who’ve long been used to getting their way in local government.

As San Diego has faded from being a solidly Republican town to having a Democratic majority among registered voters, the business as usual crowd has turned to well-financed misinformation campaigns run by right wing spin-doctors.

And until now they’ve been on a winning streak, enabled by local media either owned by financiers of these campaigns or incapable of reporting on issues outside the framing provided by the Chamber of Commerce and their allies.

Told, Sold and Lied To

Over the past two years San Diegans have been told, sold and lied to about:

**requiring impact statements on big box store construction,

**reinstating a linkage fee (tied to affordable housing funding) suspended for nearly two decades on big construction projects,

**and creating a barrier between residential and industrial projects in the neighborhood with the highest asthma rate in the state

Each campaign has used numbers pulled out of a bodily orifice to create the impression that people’s job’s would be in danger. The last campaign even went so far as spread stories about the US Navy (a major local employer) pulling out of town.

The local daily newspaper is owned by “Papa” Doug Manchester, known for his financial support of right-wing causes. He was a backer for Dinesh D’Souza’s smear-o-mentary, 2016: Obama’s America.  

The Sunday edition of UT-San Diego  featured a “news” story giving opponents of the increase major play.  

This time around, the Chamber types, hiding behind the ‘money is free speech’ notion, are out to claim they are the defenders of democracy. They are saying the referendum is needed since the City Council passed this ordinance without putting it up for a public vote.

It’s Orwellian beyond Orwellian; Big Money is trying to play the pity card because the City Council did the job voters elected them to do. And they’re claiming the “decline to sign’ campaign is a plot by labor bullies to harass business.

The Raise Up San Diego coalition is taking a stand on this issue. Two-thirds of voters – 63%, according to a recent Greenburg Quinlan Rosner Research poll – support the Earned Sick Days and Minimum Wage Ordinance.

When you have a local oligarchy capable of throwing hundreds of thousands of dollars or more on the table everytime they see something they don’t like, it becomes harder and harder to persuade people to vote in local elections.

And that, my friends, would be the point.

The Rise Up San Diego Coalition

In addition to faith, labor and community groups the Coalition fighting for this minimum wage increase has some high profile supporters in the business sector. Not every business in San Diego’s economy is dependent of a low wage model.

Irwin Jacobs, founder of Qualcomm (a major employer in the area) and Mel Katz (former Regional Chamber of Commerce Chairman) wrote a supportive op-ed, only to have it buried in the Saturday edition (lowest day for readership) of UT-San Diego.

The minimum wage and earned sick leave ordinance passed by a supermajority of the City Council establishes a basic standard of fairness for working people and their families. Our business experience here in San Diego tells us it makes good economic and business sense, too.

The high cost of living in San Diego is well-documented. Full-time work at the California minimum wage of $9 an hour pays $1,560 a month before taxes. In a city where the average one-bedroom apartment rents for $1,032, it’s unrealistic to support one’s self or a family on that wage. Our city minimum wage and earned sick leave ordinance gives an estimated 172,000 San Diegans a modest and gradual raise to $11.50 an hour by the year 2017 plus the ability to earn up to five sick days off per year.

Also well-documented is that increases in salaries of low-wage workers are spent close to home by these workers on basic necessities like food, housing and transportation. In San Diego, that means millions of dollars more circulating and recirculating through the San Diego economy each year and the associated multiplier effect of that spending. Earned sick days means millions more in improved productivity courtesy of a healthier and happier workforce.

Basketball great Bill Walton joined supporters at a press conference last week:

“We stand for a San Diego in which hard-working people aren’t locked in poverty and in which they can earn a few days off a year for when they get sick or need to care for an ill child or other loved one,” Walton said.  “We know the vast majority of San Diegans feel the same way, and we urge them to say no to the signature gatherers.”

It’s Time to Fight Back

Those seeking the referendum don’t care that they are literally taking away sustenance from those who need it most.

For Andrea Tookes, a minimum-wage security officer and mother in San Diego, this means another 20 months or more not having to choose between job security and a pay day, and taking care of one her four children when one of them becomes ill and can’t go to school.

“That’s a terrible choice,” said Tookes.  “You don’t want to send your kids to school sick.  You can’t leave them home alone.  And you can’t afford to forfeit pay or give your employer the impression you’re not a dependable employee.”

If you live in San Diego:

1.Take the pledge not to sign the anti-sick days anti-minimum wage petitions.

2. Inform as many people as possible that the earned sick days and minimum wage policy HAS PASSED, and that any signature gathering effort is an attempt to TAKE IT AWAY!! Tell your friends: DON’T SIGN IT!

3. If you see a signature gatherer, call or text the following hotline: (619) 930 – 3300

4. Volunteer.

Progressives in San Diego have used these recent challenges by reactionary elements in big business to increase organizing efforts throughout the community. Although we are outgunned, our numbers and commitment keep increasing; new alliances are being built on the shoulders of previous coalitions.

San Diego used to be a bright red city. Now it’s light blue and getting bluer. The minimum wage drive is just part of the shift. We will keep fighting until we’re BRIGHT BLUE..

Spread the word, my friends. This is going to be an epic battle.

This story was cross-posted at Daily Kos

The San Diego Unified District Board of Education will be voting Tuesday (5 pm) evening to place a temporary parcel tax up for voter approval on the November ballot.  While this move on the surface is a response to the “funding cliff” that public education systems state-wide are facing as Federal stimulus dollars expire next year, the reality is that much larger stakes are in play here.

The school district is facing the prospect of $127 million in projected cuts for the school year beginning in September 2011 after cutting more than $370 million from its budget over the last four years. They have tentatively proposed a long list of budget reductions, from eliminating librarians and counselors to halving the school day for kindergartners. More than 1,400 employees – ten per cent of school district employees – will be facing layoffs if those cuts become reality.

Beyond the job cuts, which would entail eliminating school athletics, arts & music programs, vice-principals, libraries, school nurses, gifted programs and magnet schools, is a struggle for the very soul of public education.  Hidden behind the “no-tax” and “blame the unions” rhetoric of the measure’s opponents is an agenda that would shrink public education to a bare bones institution that would functions as holding tank for the children of the lowers and middle classes whose parents cannot afford private education.

As with private schools in the higher education business, this agenda won’t actually reduce education costs; these monies will simply be re-directed to profit-making institutions with no public oversight or real interest in student achievement. (For more on the cruel, cold world of private college education, I suggest that you read this investigative report: http://www.propublica.org/arti…

The reality of proposed parcel tax is that it will cost individual home-owners a whopping $8 a month, apartment owners are looking at paying $6 per month per unit.  Low-income seniors would be exempt from the parcel tax. In other words, for the cost of a martini or a couple of lattes, the local school district will be able to deal with a looming fiscal crisis. That money goes directly to the school district and not Sacramento. In San Diego Unified, the money would be used to hire more teachers, which would help to lower class sizes.

The tax expires at the end of five years, and the monies raised are strictly targeted: Under the proposal, none of the money would be spent on administrators or the central office. Expenses would be monitored by an oversight committee.  Each school would get $150 per student to pay for academic programs. The money could be used to hire teachers, pay for supplies, vocational education or technology. After per-pupil funding is distributed, half of the remaining funds – about $20 million annually – would be spent to keep class sizes low in kindergarten through third-grade.

The counter-attack on the proposed parcel tax has already begun.  Sunday’s Union-Tribune editorialized on flaws they perceived in the District’s web site explaining the details of the parcel tax.  You can be assured that a follow-up attack will happen over the next couple of weeks over the choice of consultant Larry Remer to run the campaign in favor of the proposal, despite the fact that he has a good track record on such issues. (Full disclosure: Remer and I were, four decades ago, co-editors of an alternative newspaper that used much of its editorial footprint towards denigrating the local dailies.)

Since it now appears that the two initiatives that appeared likely to gain the most interest amongst reactionaries will not be on the ballot in November-Carl Demaio’s “Clean Up Government Act” and the proposal to raise the local sales tax by ½ percent*-the proposed parcel tax will become the lightning rod for pro-privatization forces.

(*Insiders have told me that the decision has been made not to expend political capital in the face of proposals to build a new city hall and other new shiny toys.)  

Advance polling by education advocates shows that the battle is likely to be hard fought.  Poll respondents demonstrated a significant depth of support for the tax.  The problem is that State law mandates that such measures must be approved by 2/3 of the electorate.   Over the past year more than 20 California districts have attempted to pass parcel taxes, with 16 passing in mostly small and affluent districts.

The voting districts with the most swing, depending on the questions posed by pollsters, were district six (inland north city, i.e., Claremont & Kearny Mesa)  and district two (which includes Ocean Beach and Point Loma).  This means voter turn out in OB could be a real determining factor.

As one business leader reportedly told School Board President Richard Barrera, he’s opposed to this initiative and will work for its defeat so he can make the schools “come to us on their knees” to beg for survival. That pretty much sums it up.  The survival of schools is now on the line. Here’s where we stand now:  

California has more students per school staff than the rest of the US.

California’s schools:

• Ranked 50th in the nation with respect to the number of students per teacher.

California averaged 21.3 students for each teacher in 2009-10, more than 50

percent larger than the rest of the US, which averaged 13.8 students per teacher.2

• Ranked 46th in the nation with respect to the number of students per

administrator.3 California’s schools averaged 358 students for each administrator

in 2007-08, compared to 216 students for each administrator in the rest of the US.

• Ranked 49th in the nation with respect to the number of students per guidance

counselor. California’s schools averaged 809 students for each guidance counselor

More than $17 billion has been cut from California public schools and colleges in the last two years, equaling a cut of nearly $3,000 per student. This is the single largest cut to public education since the Great Depression. Because of this, more than 26,000 pink slips were issued to California educators this year.

Do we really want to make things worse? The school board hearing on the parcel tax is scheduled for 5 pm Tuesday, July 13th at the Board of Education Building in University Heights.  The anti-education people will be out in full force to try & discredit this idea.

Please attend if you can.

The Town Hall budget forum in San Diego High’s Library drew over 100 concerned parents on Thursday Night. School Board interim Superintendent Bill Kowba and Board member Richard Barrera made a power point presentation that outlined the funding shortfalls faced by local educators with expected State contributions for the 2010 fiscal year.

The bottom line, as presented in this meeting, is that ALL of the cuts in programs that have been bandied about in the news media and various on-line discussions will not cover the expected deficit.

Sports programs, arts & music curricula, magnet schools, bussing, libraries, school nurses, classroom size limits, magnet schools, many instructional and administrative positions-along with benefits provided to district employees-can all be eliminated and the district will still be short of balancing its budget for the next fiscal year.

Reductions in school funding over the last three years have already taken a toll. Experienced educators have fled the district in droves (over 1000 last year). The administrative staff for local schools has been decimated, meaning that teachers are now diverting their efforts from classroom activities to do such mundane tasks are making copies and completing State-mandated paperwork. For the San Diego Unified School District, this has meant a reduction of nearly 20 percent in school funding over three years, while the enrollment has increased by nearly 2 percent. These reductions add up to $180 million over the last three years-and local schools are facing another$16 million shortfall before the end of the 2009-10 school year.

And it’s going to get worse. California State budget analysts are now estimating that next year’s cuts could be as high as $200 million for San Diego schools.

There were lots of parents at the Town Hall who’d come to fight for individual programs that they perceived might be on the chopping block for next year. The likelihood that ALL those programs were facing elimination seemed beyond their grasp, in part, because of past School District claims of impending cuts that proved to be premature. Other parents in attendance whose kids programs were cut last year were sad reminders of what’s likely to come next year.

While the SD Unified School Board’s dismal record at predicting the consequences of past funding reductions has skeptics wondering if they are once again simply crying “wolf”, a closer examination of the State of California’s projected revenue shortfalls does seem to indicate that there really are hard times ahead for education. (Go here to see the figures.)

The second part of the Town Hall budget forum-and most of the evening-consisted of getting the crowd divided into smaller working groups who were directed to envision and articulate pro-active solutions to the looming budgetary crisis. The divided nature of support for education reared its ugly head here, as proponents for individual programs and schools voiced their concerns. The isolation of these groups and individuals demonstrated the need for co-ordination and communication along with a unified agenda aimed at opposing all reductions in State funding for education.

The political challenges facing area schools are daunting. The only real solution is to increase funding, yet the Governor is defining the current revenue shortfalls as a “spending” crisis; slightly more one third of the State’s Legislators are pledged to oppose any steps that might be taken that could resolve the shortfalls. This representative minority will likely remain an effective deterrent to continuing educational programs unless parental groups can make their voices heard in a manner that implies that political winds are changing around the State. After all, the one thing that politicians all try to excel at is getting re-elected (or, in these days of term limits, continuing their philosophy of governance).

The arguments relating to budgets need to be re-framed, and quickly. The cost of education is not about “spending”; it’s an investment. Each dollar spent on education returns three in future taxpayer dollars. The cost per pupil of education in California has fallen from slightly less than $6000 per year to under $5000, putting the State on a par with such bastions of educational excellence as Mississippi and Alabama. Further cuts in education will increase the dropout rate in high schools, which will in turn lead to crime rates increasing. (Consider that the average inmate in a California correctional institution costs taxpayers over $60,000 per year!) And then there is the matter of having a competitive and competent workforce as a bulwark against further exportation of jobs in the face of globalization.

The forces that stand opposed any increase in State funding for education are deeply entrenched and hide their true agendas through a bewildering array of misinformation, deceit, and a core cadre of voters that have bought into their basic premise that doom and gloom are just around the corner unless further reductions in government programs occur. The surest example of this in the San Diego area is the editorial and news policies of the Union-Tribune Newspaper; they have built their entire point of view on the premise that the teacher’s unions are at the root of all evil. Any suggestion to the contrary is simply ignored, as was demonstrated when the paper failed to send a reporter to cover the San Diego High meeting.

If you care about the future of education in San Diego, now is the time to get involved. The Governor will be sending his budget proposal to the Legislature in January; school budgets must by law be based on the available funding in that plan. The school district must inform employees of impending layoffs by March. So all the phone calls and letters you can send supporting education (do it early & often!) over the next couple of months could make a critical difference.

E-mail or call every legislator from the San Diego area and the Governor to tell them your concerns about cuts to education funding. We need a united San Diego effort to pressure the Governor and legislature. Here’s the link for contact information with the Governor and local legislators, along with a rather meek and mild suggested letter. (Personally, I think something along the lines of “vote correctly or suffer the consequences” sounds much better.)

  In the world of right wing talk radio hosts, San Diego’s Rick Roberts has to keep ahead of the curve. His daily show on KFMB-AM Radio ranks behind competitor KOGO-AM (Chip Franklin) and his audience is pretty much limited to the teabagger fringes of the Republican rank and file.  Need to know what topics will be covered on his show this week?  Just surf over to any of the Fox News discussion boards and look for the most inflammatory material: that’s what you’ll be hearing on the show this week.  

 Basking in the glory of helping out his buddy Congressman Darrell Issa (and regular recipient of Big Pharma/Healthcare PAC $$) fill a couple of “Town Halls” this past week, Rick wants you to know about the next big thing on the horizon: a boycott of schools on September 8th.

  That’s because President Obama is making a speech next week aimed at school kids.  In a recent interview with student reporter, Damon Weaver, President Obama announced that on September 8 — the first day of school for many children across America — he will deliver a national address directly to students on the importance of education. The President will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning.

 So “Stay in school” is being called “indoctrination” and an attempt to “get ’em while they’re young,”.  Roberts, along with Glen Beck and the usual collection of tin foil hat wearing pundits are now warning, “They are capturing your kids” and “your republic is under attack.”

 It’s not that other sitting Presidents haven’t done pretty much the same thing.

 Roberts and his cohorts apparently have forgotten that, while president, George H.W. Bush gave a speech to schoolchildren intended “to motivate America’s students to strive for excellence; to increase students’ as well as parents’ responsibility/accountability; and to promote students’ and parents’ awareness of the educational challenge we face.” The White House sent letters to schools across the nation to encourage teachers and principals to allow students to tune in the speech; live television and radio coverage was arranged at the request of the Education Department.

 Also forgotten is former President George W. Bush posting a “teacher’s guide” on the White House website intended to help students understand the “freedom timeline” and encouraging them to “explor[e] the biographies of the President, Mrs. Bush, Vice President, and Mrs. Cheney.”  Of course, we’ll never forget the seven minutes that President Bush took out to continue reading to school children in front of TV cameras after learning that the World Trade Center had been bombed.

 Then there’s Ronald Reagan’s “educational” event on November 14, 1988, where he addressed and took questions from students from middle schools at the Old Executive Office Building. The speech was broadcast live and rebroadcast by C-Span, and Instructional Television Network fed the program to schools nationwide over three different days. Part of the President’s speech that day included a discourse on supply side economics and reduced taxation, plus a spiel about gun control.

How long did it take the right to go from: “if you criticize the President you are a traitor” to “School children should not trust the President”? So President Obama speaks to the nation’s youth and it’s:

The fascist in chief is taking his special brand of brainwashing to the classroom. Keep your kids home. I think this man is a threat to our basic unalienable rights. I don’t want him indoctrinating my children. Seriously.

Ask your school what their participation is in this leftist indoctrination outrage. Keep politics out of the classroom. Keep communists and their propagandists away from small children

 

And….

Unless we get public assurances from the White House that the president won’t address health care or global warming or the homosexual agenda (under the color of “human rights for people different than us”) this might be a great time for parents to exercise their opt-out authority and give their students a biography of George Washington to read while the President turns the minds of an entire generation to mush.

The difference is, when the right wingers used to go on about how everyone should respect the President they really meant that they would only respect Presidents that they liked.

The other difference is, this President is black.  Maybe they avoid letting their children see Obama on TV because they’re afraid their kids will get the image of a black President in their minds and might think it is OK.  That might be the “indoctrination” they’re worried about.

Or maybe it’s that this President has “secret powers” that allow him to sway minds in a 15 minute speech.  But I don’t think so.  The American people voted Dick “secret powers” Cheney’s party out of office.

So, in the spirit of this sort of ongoing over-the-top righty responses, we’d like to propose a few more White House initiatives:

**National Dental Health Day.  That way, Roberts & his crew could claim there is a nationwide conspiracy of dentists seeking to implant transmitters in the teeth of “true patriots”.

**National Buy A Book Week.  Wouldn’t have much impact, except to knock Glen Beck off Amazon’s best seller list.

**National AM Radio Month. Heh, heh.

**National Abstinence Day.  (But only with your mistress)

** A Presidential speech announcing that the world is, in fact, round.  It’d be nice to get the flat earth society types out of the closet.

cross posted with cool graphics at obrag.org

It was a scorcher out in east San Diego County on Saturday afternoon as the crowd gathered to attend Congresswoman Susan Davis’ Health Care Town Hall.  The east county has traditionally been a haven for right-wing fringe groups, and they were out in full force for this event.  As we approached the Spring Valley Gymnasium, we were greeted by members of the John Birch Society handing out DVD’s so we’d understand how the Constitution works.  The driveway was lined with a motley collection of birthers, deathers, Jesus freaks and anti-abortion protestors.

By the time the doors to the event opened at noon, it was well over 100 degrees outside, with a blazing sun and no breeze whatsoever. And the crowd had grown significantly larger than the 1000 seats available in the gymnasium.  A quick check of the signs that people were carrying seemed to indicate that pro-health care reform forces had succeeded in mobilizing a significant majority of the multitude.

For those lucky enough to get inside the Town Hall, the air conditioning was working just fine.  Those stuck outside were fortunate that the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department

had the foresight to provide a generous supply of bottled water.

Inside the hall, pro and anti reform forces traded chants, and paraded back and forth showing off their signs to the crowd.  There were a few instances of heated words being exchanged, but by and large, things were civil.  Things were settling down to a dull roar, when a full throated cheer filled the room.

Entering through the doors were…. Billionaires For Wealth Care, a collection of men and women dressed to the nines, carrying signs, waving and blowing kisses to the crowd.  The signs, which included “Don’t Tax My Face Lift”, “Keep the Money Flowing”,  and “A 428% Increase in Premium Costs is Just Good Business”, had the effect of confusing the anti-reform crowd.  Finally, they got it and it turned briefly ugly as threats were made.

Luckily, Rep. Davis’ people decided to start the Town Hall at that point.  The Billionaires left the building shortly thereafter, getting into a super stretch limo parked out front.  Look for additional coverage of the San Diego Health Care Town Hall, along with photographs, at OBRag.org.

(Keep the town hall reports coming… – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

Congresswoman Susan Davis spoke about health care at a town hall meeting this evening in the Hillcrest neighborhood of San Diego.  About 450 people showed up prior to the doors opening; the hall held maybe 300, lacked adequate ventilation and was supplied with a sound system that made it difficult to hear beyond the first few rows of seats.  A couple of disruptors made it into the hall, but, for the most part, things ran smoothly inside.  

I was there along with other associates of the OBRag.org community blog to cover the action. Some of us went inside. Other stayed outside.  We all took pictures, made a video or two and will post our observations over the next few hours.  I took a a quick look at our web stats after getting back from the meeting, and discovered that we had been identified by a local right wing blog as being somehow responsible for the turnout. (I can’t wait to moderate those comments.)

Most of the real action was outside the Joyce DeBeers Community Center.  The crowd outside was overwhelmingly pro health care reform and stayed to show their support of the cause to the assembled media. The handful of right wingers who showed up hoping to disrupt the event ended up across the street. They had a couple of bullhorns, a few signs, and no obvious leadership.  

And the rest of crowd outside the hall was ready with a response to the wingers’ taunts.  We laughed at them. Loud and hard. And we laughed some more, pointing at these clowns, and drowning out their pitiful pleas for attention.

When we got tired of laughing, the chants of “Yes We Can” and “Health Care Now” filled the air. For even more variety, there was a rousing chorus of “Racists Go Home” and then it was back to laughing and pointing.  After the meeting was over, one of the right wingers was arrested by the police for disturbing the peace.  Other goons attempted to bait the departing crowd, making comments like “go home to your mamas, faggots.”  Their frustration was obvious.  So was our victory in this skirmish.

Once upon a time in America we were all promised a future where there would be “better living through chemistry”.  Well here we are. It’s the future. And the better living future we’re experiencing is chock full of unexpected consequences.

Jill Richardson’s new book, Recipe For America, is filled with stories about those consequences.  As a contributor with Daily Kos and La Vida Locavore, she’s made her mark covering issues that relate to the food chain.  She gets the connections between obesity and the current health care crisis. She makes the connections between policy and reality. And she’s offered up a paperback that backs up the horror stories with plans, goals and resources so that those of us who care about these issues can begin the process of taking our food chain out of the hands of those who put profits before people.

I sat down with Jill last week in San Diego to talk about the release of her book and her plans for the future.  She explained to me that the purpose in writing the book was to help people make the connection between the sorts of personal actions they’re making (like planting gardens & buying organic) and the broader policy issues that have led to a crisis that has implications for the entire planet.  

All this better living we’ve been sold means that, along with the façade that we’re “eatin’ good in the neighborhood”, the obesity rate for Americans more than doubled over the last three decades-and it tripled for children aged 6 – 11.  Four of the top ten leading causes of death are directly related to diet.  Our per-person expenditures for health care have also doubled over the last three decades.  Pesticides, hormones, antibiotics and chemical residues are all implicated in complex health issues that appear to be connected to the seemingly limitless choices available in the supermarket aisles and chain restaurants of our nation.

One thing is for sure: all this better living is killing us.

Oh, and, by the way, it’s our fault.  

At least that’s what the overlords of agribusiness and their food processing compadres would like us to believe.  They have benefited by the lessons learned by big companies in their fifty year fight to save the tobacco industry in the face of an obvious public health threat. So now we’re now hearing lots of food industry rhetoric about “consumer choice”, CongressCritters are stalling for “further studies”, and spokespersons are hard at work denouncing, delaying and denying the ever increasing amount of data pointing towards the possibility their products and processes are poisoning us.  They’ve learned well.

Jill Richardson certainly didn’t plan on a life of activism.  As a healthcare software analyst, she was headed towards a life of working with medical professionals, demonstrating and teaching solutions that could make a difference in that field.  As part of her work, she gained insight into the everyday problems faced by healthcare professionals. She kept hearing doctors telling the same stories over and over again about their patients; the fact was they spent most of their time dealing with chronic illnesses that were lifestyle related like high blood pressure, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes.

Her subsequent research on dietary factors related to those chronic illnesses led to publication of a piece at Daily Kos entitled “Vegetables of Mass Destruction: Food, Poverty and Environmental Edition”.  The response to the diary was remarkable- hundreds of readers left comments-and, although she didn’t know it yet, Jill was headed down a new path.  Over the next couple of years she expanded her work to include a weekly column and started her own blog.  What started out primarily as book research and internet searches grew to include field research and an ever-increasing network of contacts willing to help her dig for facts.

At the 2007 Netroots Conference, she connected with a publisher and that led to the book deal.  It’s just been published, and she’s soon headed off on a book tour, starting in San Diego on August 2nd.  The first event, scheduled at Sea Rocket Bistro, is already booked solid and a second night has been added.

Other dates on the tour include:

August 6 – Philadelphia, PA at Big Blue Marble Books at 7pm

August 7 – Lancaster, PA at Kimberton Whole Foods at 6pm

August 8 – Lancaster, PA at Eastern Market at 9am

August 8 – Lititz, PA at Aaron’s Books at 7pm

August 10 – New York City at The Tank at 6:30pm-8pm

August 13-16 – Pittsburgh, Netroots Nation

August 17- Morrisville, VT at Apple Tree Natural Foods Market

August 23? – Martha’s Vineyard, MA

August 24 – Northampton, MA

August 25 – Northampton, MA at Knitting Liberally & Drinking Liberally

September 5 – Tacoma, WA, Farmers market in the AM; King’s Books at 3pm

September 7 – Portland, OR, Slow Food’s Labor Day Picnic Eat-In

September 8 – Portland, OR, InFARMation (and Beer!) at 5:30pm-8:30pm

September 9 – Portland, OR, Powells Books at 7:30pm (Burnside location)

September 10 – Portland, OR, Drinking Liberally

September 26 – Madison, WI at the Food for Thought Festival (not confirmed yet)

October 10-13 – Des Moines, IA, Community Food Security Coalition conference

October 16 – Los Angeles

October 17 – San Jose

Late October – Bay Area

Early November – Austin, TX

November 16 – Canyon Democrats

Week of November 30 – Naperville, IL/Chicago

The corporate media push back on Recipe For America has already begun.  Barnes & Noble booksellers are refusing to sell the book-I even tried placing a “special order” with them.  There have already been a number of “trade” reviews that are shockingly similar in language and content, as if they’d been written from a script.

LaVidaLocavore.org’s influence has already been included mentions on television and mainstream media outlets, including the New York Times. While quite modest about her accomplishments thus far, Jill’s passion for the cause and dedication to energizing the movement are undeniable.  She’s already begun contemplating the global implications of US food policy in light of the historic agribusiness domination in our domestic corridors of power.

Recipe for America is not an exposé-although there are plenty of stories illustrating the consequences wrought upon people as the result of the current state of affairs in the food industry.  It’s more like a tool kit, designed to give us a hand in countering the spinmeisters and lobbyists who play the game of preserving the status quo in agribusiness, food processing and food distribution.

This book plainly shows us how sustainable agriculture-where local farms raise food that is healthy for and does not harm the environment-offers the only solution to America’s food crisis. Jill also plugs the reader into the rising grassroots food movement, with lots of contact information, blogs to read and suggestions for action.  If you care about the food you eat and the future of the planet it’s not enough to simply shop at the Food Coop and the local Farmers Market. Buy this book, use it, and thank your lucky stars that there are people like Jill Richardson out there in this world willing to lead the fight for food safety, a greener planet and good nutrition.

The San Diego daily newspaper makes no bones about its position on labor unions and public employees.  A casual reading of the Union Tribune will reveal an anti-union bias that harks back to the early days of the trade union movement.

This week the paper has been presenting a “special three part Watchdog Report” about city employees in San Diego.  Never mind that the report’s numbers are skewed by the fact that the reporters chose to use a Calendar year in stead of the City’s fiscal year to make their comparisons.  Or that city employees received pay in 2007 and 2008 resulting from labor disputes in previous years.

The point of the report is to reveal that city employees are overpaid, union-lovin’ cancers that are sucking the taxpayers dry. To make that point, the paper ran the names and salary information for the City’s entire payroll.

City librarian Anna Daniels retired last week.  It wasn’t something she wanted to do.  But, facing cuts in benefits that would have left her without health insurance coverage if she’d stayed on with the City, she “cashed out”.

She’s written a rather powerful letter to the editor about how the Union-Trib’s decision to publish names and salaries has impacted those employees that have remained with the City of San Diego.

Here are excerpts from the letter, originally published in the OBRag news blog:

The U-T has presented a special three part Watchdog Report about the City’s payroll obligation.  I have spent close to three decades in my public service position answering questions and informing the public.  If someone were to ask me how to find information on this topic I would refer that individual to annual budgets, IBA reports, and labor agreements on line or in our document section.

I would also provide context for that search- that the City operates on a fiscal year beginning July 1; there is a general fund budget which includes departments that undergo annual public review and city council approval; there are quasi-independent authorities and  recovery departments that are not subject to the same policies, restrictions and review as the general fund departments; there are unclassified and represented employees; and there are four unions with different negotiated contracts.

In short, I would inform the individual that a thorough understanding of the topic would take into account these general distinctions.  Unlike the U-T, we respect and do not underestimate the intelligence of our customers.

What I wouldn’t do, and again, I am speaking strictly as a professional, is refer that individual to your “Watchdog” series on the very ground that it did not provide necessary context, despite your claims otherwise, nor data consistent with the City’s fiscal year reporting process.  Therefore your information was inaccurate and as a source you are unreliable.  Ms. Winner, the U-T does not achieve the most basic library information standard of accuracy and reliability.  If you also consider yourself a professional you should be very concerned about that.  I would appreciate a response to this, as one professional to another.

Despite its abysmal failings, the Watchdog Report was not the reason I canceled my subscription.  The bias against unions and the City workforce is pretty much quotidian.  Your decision to publish City employee names and salary information however is beyond the journalistic pale.

Ms. Winner, how much time did you REALLY spend weighing the public’s right to information against individual privacy concerns?  And how much thought did you REALLY give to the fact that “Individual pay for each year can be affected by promotions, partial years of employment, leave taken, vacation payouts and other issues that can cause wide fluctuations.”?  Or to the fact that the 2008 surge was a one time occurrence due to multiple factors?   It is evident that the answer is “Not much.”

I talked with co-workers at the library this morning about your choice.  They were appalled.  Concerned.  Fearful.  Angry.  Every one of us felt that salary information by job classification, with low, high, median and average salaries would serve the public’s right to information.  We felt that making that information available by department served the public’s right to information.  But by name? The women among us felt violated.  Think about that Karin.  We are not elected officials.  Even our name badges don’t provide our last names if we don’t feel comfortable revealing that information. Whom and what purpose are you serving, Ms. Winner?  And please, we are not stupid.  We know you can legally provide this information.  The question is why should you provide this information?

Your note about the wide fluctuations of salaries was reason enough to choose not to reveal specific names.  You did not make that choice.  Here’s my very personal response to your phenomenally bad judgment, to your utterly unprofessional judgment.  I owe you absolutely nothing, but the truth should always be served.

The recent sale of San Diego’s Union-Tribune to the Beverley Hills based private equity firm Platinum Equity has left many in the area wondering what the future will bring. Will the paper, which has seen several rounds downsizing of its news staff in recent years, be even less of a source for local news as its new owners seek to shore up their investment?  The answers to their questions will play out over the next year as Platinum partner Black Press, Ltd. takes a hand in shaping the publication once the sale is completed later this year.

Although it may seem serendipitous with its timing, San Diegans woke up Monday morning with yet another source for news.  The San Diego News Network (SDNN.com) launched a beta version this week, with a staff of over fifty reporters, correspondents and editors and twenty eight “partnering” media organizations.  Whether this new media outlet can command enough readership or provide real in-depth local coverage remains to be seen.

In an opening communiqué, CEO Neil Senturia promises over 30 sections will be initiated in coming months, encompassing local politics, sports, movies, restaurants and other topics. With former Sign On San Diego honcho Ron James as Publisher/Executive Editor, the SDNN initial offerings included:

**Associated Press Coverage on the Banking Crisis. And three different AP stories about the drug dealers that threw cash out of their vehicle while tooling up I-15 with the law in hot pursuit. Their reliance on the AP for national coverage suggests that it will mirror the generally conservative slant that news organization has exhibited in recent months.

**A feature by Joseph Pena profiling SD City Councilmember Carl Demaio. Political consultant Larry Remer is quoted as calling DeMaio a political “bomb-thrower”. Others interviewed for the piece  aren’t willing to pass judgment yet, including Remer’s long-ago consulting partner (and now partisan opponent) Tom Sheppard.  Bottom line:  meh?

**Reflections on the sale of the Union-Tribune by SDNN deputy editor Eric Yates in which he poses the question: “why would a private equity company, with no prior history of owning a major news publication, suddenly pounce to acquire a daily metro that has had a 40 percent reduction in ad revenue since 2006?”

**A lengthy article on the urban farming by Eric Glass.  The most “new media” of all the initial offerings, complete with a video and background story links.  While informative and well written, it falls short when it comes to placing the story in the context of the national and local interest in locavorism.

**Coverage of the local prostitution business by Political Editor Hua Quach. The price of oral sex has fallen along with property values, we’re told.  And I guarantee that his story will generate the most hits on the site, since anything mentioning s.e.x. on blogs and news websites always generates huge traffic.

A screenshot displayed on the SDNN website promises that the limited offerings on the beta release will significantly increase in the future.

SDNN appears to understand the collaborative future of web-based news reporting by virtue of their partnerships with other organizations, including radio stations, community newspapers and San Diego Magazine.  What remains to be seen is whether they can wield that collaboration into an actual point of view.  The issue here is not partisanship or even necessarily agenda.  But if you try to be all things to all people, you end up being nothing to nobody.  

Beverley Hills based private equity firm Platinum Equity has reached an agreement to purchase San Diego’s daily newspaper, the San Diego Union-Tribune for an estimated $15 million dollars.  The paper, once the flagship of the far-flung and politically conservative Copley media empire, has been a distressed property in recent years.  Last summer the heirs to the Copley fortune decided to cut their losses and put the paper on the market.

The family’s angst over the paper’s plight has been obvious over the past few years. Anxious for a solution, the Copley organization launched so many quick fixes, re-designs, re-launches, re-positions, cutbacks, flip-flops and fire sales that they began to resemble a losing political campaign more that the grand cartel with a license to print money that they once were.

The Union-Tribune has been losing circulation at an astonishing rate. Advertising dollars were disappearing faster than free food samples at Whole Foods. And, most importantly, the credibility and influence that the paper once wielded in the San Diego market had evaporated.  While it was all fine and wonderful that the Copley newspapers were once profitable, making profits was only part of the deal. The real reason for all this hand wringing had to do with influence.  If they could have found a way to maintain what they call their “market share” or “penetration”, they’d printed the paper on toilet paper, or switch to CB radio.  But those days are over.

San Diego is the eighth largest city in the United States.  It used to be a reliably Republican bastion, a Navy town, where dissent and dissenters simply weren’t tolerated.  Richard Nixon called it his lucky city.  The Union-Tribune was the face that the City showed the world.  Changing demographics and a shift in the regions’ economic base away from the military towards high tech industries have altered things.  Democratic majorities are emergent in most parts of the region, with the exception of the County Government. Given that the Union Tribune’s circulation was reaching just 8% of the households, the family wisely decided to trade their remaining hard assets for cold cash.

The San Diego newspaper was hardly alone in its troubles.  Three dailies have closed up shop since the first of the year, and the clock is ticking in a half-dozen more metropolitan areas.  What makes this sale noteworthy is that they found a willing buyer.  Why would a private equity firm invest in such an obviously doomed venture that had already shed its tenured employees?  The answer isn’t immediately obvious.

Private equity operators like Platinum Equity are often portrayed as slick, heartless financial manipulators that squeeze the remaining life from their acquisitions at the expense of the people unfortunate enough to be working there.  That doesn’t seem to be the case here.  In fact, it all seems too good to be true.

The U-T’s buyer says that its focus is operations, not financial manipulation, and it has a history of making long-term investments in the industries where it is active.  Platinum calls itself an M&A&O company-mergers, acquisitions and operations-and, in fact, it often acts more like a strategic buyer of its companies than a financial one. It invests, sometimes heavily, after the acquisition in additional businesses, equipment, people and facilities that give its holdings a stronger position for the long haul.

They certainly have been a buying streak.  Over the last 14 years, they’ve acquired nearly 100 companies with more than $27.5 billion in combined annual revenue at the time of acquisition.  What’s hard to believe are the rates of return.  Private Equity Intelligence Ltd., the British analyst of private equity fund performance, says investors in Platinum’s Equity Capital Partners Fund I of 2004, have seen a multiple of 2.68 (that’s $2.68 for every dollar invested) on their money, compared with 1.28 for all U.S.-based buyout funds originated in that year.  As the company is privately held, all such claims are completely unverifiable.

Platinum has an operating partner in their acquisition of the Union Tribune-Black Press Ltd., a Canadian company with extensive newspaper and internet holdings in North America.  Only two of their newspaper holdings are dailies: the Honolulu Star Bulletin and the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal.  Standard & Poor’s’ Rating Services downgraded Black’s Corporate credit rating into junk bond territory based on debt acquired in its last US purchase-the Akron paper-predicting that the company would remain fiscally challenged at least through 2010.  It would appear that, for the moment, Platinum has the money and Black is providing the muscle.

Black Press Ltd.’s track record with their holdings in Canada and the Northwestern States is pretty solid, and, if past performance is a reliable indicator, the San Diego daily won’t be the only paper changing hands in southern California.  The company has been able to deliver decent returns with their publishing concerns (most of which are weekly papers) via regional grouping of advertising and operational personnel.

For San Diegans, it’s wait and see time.  Will their daily paper shed its longstanding reputation as a reactionary mouthpiece with a particular distaste for anything associated with a trade union?  (Both of the Black Press’ dailies endorsed Obama last fall.) Or will this sale be just another boondoggle in a City seeking to shed its past reputation as Enron-by-the-Sea?  

other links about the sale: The family’s angst over the paper’s plight has been obvious over the past few years. Anxious for a solution, the Copley organization launched so many quick fixes, re-designs, re-launches, re-positions, cutbacks, flip-flops and fire sales that they began to resemble a losing political campaign more that the grand cartel with a license to print money that they once were.

The Union-Tribune has been losing circulation at an astonishing rate. Advertising dollars were disappearing faster than free food samples at Whole Foods. And, most importantly, the credibility and influence that the paper once wielded in the San Diego market had evaporated.  While it was all fine and wonderful that the Copley newspapers were once profitable, making profits was only part of the deal. The real reason for all this hand wringing had to do with influence.  If they could have found a way to maintain what they call their “market share” or “penetration”, they’d printed the paper on toilet paper, or switch to CB radio.  But those days are over.

San Diego is the eighth largest city in the United States.  It used to be a reliably Republican bastion, a Navy town, where dissent and dissenters simply weren’t tolerated.  Richard Nixon called it his lucky city.  The Union-Tribune was the face that the City showed the world.  Changing demographics and a shift in the regions’ economic base away from the military towards high tech industries have altered things.  Democratic majorities are emergent in most parts of the region, with the exception of the County Government. Given that the Union Tribune’s circulation was reaching just 8% of the households, the family wisely decided to trade their remaining hard assets for cold cash.

The San Diego newspaper was hardly alone in its troubles.  Three dailies have closed up shop since the first of the year, and the clock is ticking in a half-dozen more metropolitan areas.  What makes this sale noteworthy is that they found a willing buyer.  Why would a private equity firm invest in such an obviously doomed venture that had already shed its tenured employees?  The answer isn’t immediately obvious.

Private equity operators like Platinum Equity are often portrayed as slick, heartless financial manipulators that squeeze the remaining life from their acquisitions at the expense of the people unfortunate enough to be working there.  That doesn’t seem to be the case here.  In fact, it all seems too good to be true.

The U-T’s buyer says that its focus is operations, not financial manipulation, and it has a history of making long-term investments in the industries where it is active.  Platinum calls itself an M&A&O company-mergers, acquisitions and operations-and, in fact, it often acts more like a strategic buyer of its companies than a financial one. It invests, sometimes heavily, after the acquisition in additional businesses, equipment, people and facilities that give its holdings a stronger position for the long haul.

They certainly have been a buying streak.  Over the last 14 years, they’ve acquired nearly 100 companies with more than $27.5 billion in combined annual revenue at the time of acquisition.  What’s hard to believe are the rates of return.  Private Equity Intelligence Ltd., the British analyst of private equity fund performance, says investors in Platinum’s Equity Capital Partners Fund I of 2004, have seen a multiple of 2.68 (that’s $2.68 for every dollar invested) on their money, compared with 1.28 for all U.S.-based buyout funds originated in that year.  As the company is privately held, all such claims are completely unverifiable.

Platinum has an operating partner in their acquisition of the Union Tribune-Black Press Ltd., a Canadian company with extensive newspaper and internet holdings in North America.  Only two of their newspaper holdings are dailies: the Honolulu Star Bulletin and the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal.  Standard & Poor’s’ Rating Services downgraded Black’s Corporate credit rating into junk bond territory based on debt acquired in its last US purchase-the Akron paper-predicting that the company would remain fiscally challenged at least through 2010.  It would appear that, for the moment, Platinum has the money and Black is providing the muscle.

Black Press Ltd.’s track record with their holdings in Canada and the Northwestern States is pretty solid, and, if past performance is a reliable indicator, the San Diego daily won’t be the only paper changing hands in southern California.  The company has been able to deliver decent returns with their publishing concerns (most of which are weekly papers) via regional grouping of advertising and operational personnel.

For San Diegans, it’s wait and see time.  Will their daily paper shed its longstanding reputation as a reactionary mouthpiece with a particular distaste for anything associated with a trade union?  (Both of the Black Press’ dailies endorsed Obama last fall.) Or will this sale be just another boondoggle in a City seeking to shed its past reputation as Enron-by-the-Sea?  (cross posted at daily kos)

other links about the sale:

http://obrag.org/?p=1333   http://lastblogonearth.com/200…  http://www.voiceofsandiego.org…