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Anger against North River Farms may lead to recall, referendum
Unless I'm imagining things, I read accounts of how the councilman Rodriguez was a leading cheerleader for this development. I other words, well before the vote was taken, he had his mind made up. That's how a politician can bring down plenty of bitterness on his or her own head. The development can probably he held up by lawsuits, and kept stalled for a number of years. In that time, things can change, and one of them could be the referendum described. Getting almost ten thousand valid voter signatures is a big task but not impossible.— November 20, 2019 8:13 a.m.
Credit card did not work at Encinitas Target, so....
What might be a surprise here was that anyone from the store's staff actually tried to stop him. Many retailers just tell their employees to let them go, and they watch the thieves walk out the door with a bagful or cart full of merchandise. But as to guilt, once he'd left the building, and knew that he hadn't paid for the contents of the cart, he had committed theft. With his record, any sentence he'll get will be much stiffer than it would normally be. So, will this become a misdemeanor plea bargain? Looks that way.— November 19, 2019 6:51 a.m.
San Diego City College's spending scandal
Have you actually read the article? Cost overruns are a plague; smart administrations allow for them. No, this involves shuffling funds among various applications. That is known in popular parlance as "cooking the books." And the claims have to do with hiding the reality of misused bond funds. The Sweetwater Union High School District is now being audited for fraud. What are the accusations? Well, cooking the books for many years and shuffling funds are the gist of it. Is there much difference between what they are known to have done and this situation? Uh, no.— November 14, 2019 5:25 p.m.
San Diego City College's spending scandal
If half of these claims are true, there is serious misconduct going on in the district. The top administrators need to be investigated, first by the board, and also by the DA. Oh, I forgot that this DA doesn't "investigate" or prosecute political corruption. And her predecessor Bahnee D didn't do that either, except in the most egregious situations. In other words, the sorts of financial manipulation going on suggest criminal actions. The board is most unlikely to do any investigating because it appears complicit in this manipulation and waste. The same sort of brain-dead voters who elect some of the city council members have voted for incompetent board members. Does anyone even know the names of those who serve on that board?— November 14, 2019 7:41 a.m.
Are San Diego streetlight spy cams leaking privacy?
My takeaway is that after spending some sorely-needed-elsewhere funds, the city isn't getting the payoff from these cameras. Could it be that those cams don't really deliver the goods? So, the always cash-strapped city, now headed by not-so-strong mayor Sunny, dumped $3/4 million down a rathole with little to show for it. The cop who is charged with getting the goods writes emails expressing his frustration at the poor response and results. If you reside in the city of SD, you must ask yourself what better use that fat sum of money could have provided. For starters, look at the execrable condition of many streets--even after Sunny's program to make them better--and wonder how many miles or yards or streets were not resurfaced with those funds. The UK, aka Great Britain, is now supposed to be the most videoed society in the world. Curious isn't it that it is generally seen as polite and law-abiding? Actually that isn't so; the place is plagued by "yobs" (what we here would call thugs or bros) who can be counted upon to disrupt the public peace. The courts in Merrie Olde England can't keep up with the petty crime--the bewigged judges were trained for a different sort of society. So, to make up for the criminal justice breakdown, the bobbies, aka "Peelers" or local police use surveillance cams to fill the gap. If folks can't behave properly in England/Wales/Scotland, where can they be expected to? Are we headed in that direction? Yes we are, and this misbegotten and mismanaged smart streetlight system is just evidence of it. Will the city get it working? Who knows. If it is made to work as promised, will it cut down on street crime and vice? Don't count on that either. What you can count on is more financial waste and more dead-end attempts to make the city crime free. Good luck.— November 11, 2019 8:09 p.m.
Clan linked to yesterday's Mexico slayings once rocked San Diego
U S citizens do travel to Mexico in large numbers for many reasons. Any time you cross into TJ, you are crossing into one of the most violent (if not THE most violent) cities in the world. Believe me, that's saying something that isn't good. TJ was, for years, a popular tourist destination despite its raunchy reputation. The truth was that it appealed to people who found its dark side an attraction rather than a turn-off. In those times you might have risked your wallet or a night or two in the infamous jail, but not your life. When something goes awry there for a visitor, the best thing to do usually is flee. Calling the cops there is just inviting more bad guys into the already-bad situation. The reasons to avoid Mexico today outweigh the positives; many of those who live there and visit there have been lucky--so far. When their luck runs out, they'll change their tunes.— November 8, 2019 7:58 a.m.
Shoved his girlfriend and Escondido policemen
The photo with this piece is one of the arresting cop. Howzabout a pic of the perp? Not a clean cut guy, I'd guess, and maybe downright nasty-looking and ugly.— November 7, 2019 7:56 p.m.
No new North County sprawl has its consequences
The project that has been at the center of this knock-down-drag-out fight is that Newland Sierra fiasco. The place is everything that we are told new housing must avoid. It doesn't provide any sort of walking access, and nothing like shopping, schools or services can be accessed except by car. Oh, then there is the matter of jobs close by. There are none, except maybe at the shopping center that is in the development, right by the entrance, and again, only practically reached by car. (I think the name of the area is Merriam Mountain.) To make it all happen they will bulldoze building pads, and a winding street to access them, along ridgelines. That might be appropriate for huge view estates, but these are supposed to be middle-income homes. If you want to have to drive a mile or two just to buy a quart of milk or meet a school bus or . . . you might love the area. Yes the county needs more housing, but a number of these projects don't add all that much to the housing stock, and put houses in places that just don't accommodate them, while adding to a massive amount of car traffic on roads and highways that can't handle it.— November 7, 2019 7:11 p.m.
Clan linked to yesterday's Mexico slayings once rocked San Diego
It isn't clear that this was an ambush by "drug cartels" at all. It might have been, but why did they take out women and children? So, it could have been internecine warfare between and among these breakaway Mormon groups. But there is little protection for ordinary folks in large swathes of Mexico, and that area is one of them. The cops (of all varieties) are no where to be found, the army isn't present, and the new national guard was absent. That sort of out-of-control situation has a name: failed state. Yet Mexico is back, pushing itself as a "really neat" tourist destination. Hey, travel there at your peril.— November 7, 2019 8:29 a.m.
Journalism: Going, Going, Gonzalez
Why don't you tell us what you REALLY think of them? Don't hold back.— November 5, 2019 7:46 p.m.