The Rostra Archive

by Mark Powell I am a lifelong San Diegan who attended San Diego Unified schools from kindergarten through 12th grade, graduating from Madison High School in 1979. Now, I am the proud father of two daughters who attend the neighborhood elementary school in University City, where my wife and I live. It is time for Efficient Change, and Effective Competent …

Guest Commentary by Scott Crosby Yesterday, the California State Assembly approved SB829 sponsored by the State Building & Construction Trades Unions. The bill is an attempt to limit state funds paid to any charter city that enacts restrictions on project labor agreements – including initiatives approved by charter city voters.  The bill has serious constitutional defects, and each charter city …

Guest Commentary by Sen. Tony Strickland Nathan’s decision to leave the Republican party must have been a difficult one. It isn’t easy to leave a party you’ve been a member of for nearly 20 years. While I’m disappointed we’ve lost Nathan, I know he feels this is what is right in his heart. It’s okay to be sad he left …

Guest Commentary by John Gordon Over the weekend, an organization with a history of being on the receiving end of the Soros money network, began running an ad demanding that the San Onofre power plant be permanently shuttered. From listening to the 30-second spot, one might come to the conclusion that San Onofre is run by a proverbial Mr. Burns, …

Guest Commentary by Brian Brady If your inner rebel is calling you this tax season, you might want to head up to the Oceanside Pier Ampitheater on Monday, April 16, 2012.  Taxpayer advocacy group Stop Taxing Us is hosting its Fourth Annual Tea Party Rally, from 4:55PM until 7:05 PM. Stop Taxing Us is Southern California’s largest tea party group …

Guest Commentary by Sherry Hodges Farrah Douglas irresponsibly and falsely claims I was responsible for the release of information about her personal and business financial difficulties. I can understand Ms. Douglas’ desire to shift attention from her financial problems, since she is competing to represent the people of the 76th Assembly District in Sacramento, and oversight of state finances is …

Guest Commentary by Farrah Douglas When I announced my candidacy for the 76th State Assembly, I knew I was going to have a tough race.  But I was not prepared for the level of bullying, intimidation, and dishonesty that I have experienced as I fight to represent our community in Sacramento.  The most recent example is the anonymous – and …

Guest Commentary by Ben Sullivan As the article linked below indicates, the Oceanside Airport was left in a state of decay and ruin after years of neglect by the City of Oceanside and some of it’s elected leaders and administrators. The key opponents to any airport improvements were the previous City Council majority of Mayor Jim Wood, Councilwoman Esther Sanchez …

Guest Commentary by Brian Brady Forget Fenway Park’s left-field fence; the real Green Monster is the Solana Beach City Council. The Council has all of its ducks lined up for a full-court environmental press to ban the use of plastic bags in the City: The ordinance, reads a notice from the City, is “intended to reduce the distribution and use …

Guest Commentary by Sherry Hodges, candidate for State Assembly District 76 Two months ago, Governor Jerry Brown proposed a package of tax increases totaling $6.9 billion as his “solution” to the state’s long-standing budget problems. His threat to California voters was “approve my tax increases on the ballot in November, or I will make draconian cuts to K-12 education.” But …

Guest Commentary by Brian Brady There is a simple way to make the Republican Party the majority party in California — let people vote for Republican candidates.  Former California and San Diego County GOP Chairman Ron Nehring claims that open primaries afford mischief-makers the opportunity to wear Republican clothing, and vote for Republican sheep, so that they can be slaughtered …

Following the organization’s endorsement of mayoral candidate Nathan Fletcher last week, San Diego Police Officers Association President Brian Marvel noted to us via Twitter that recent analyses of AB 2510 by columnist Steve Greenhut and radio host Chris Reed, some repeated on Rostra, were inaccurate, stating the references as “a perfect example on the right of trickle down laziness.” He …

Guest Commentary by Michael Schwartz After weeks of waiting to see if Governor Jerry Brown is indeed the friend of gun owners he proclaimed to be while on the campaign trail, we now have our answer … he’s not. Gov. Brown signed into law AB144 which bans carrying loaded or unloaded pistols throughout our state. Regardless if you’re hiking in …

Guest Commentary by John Gordon The bottom line of the recent Southwest power outage is that San Diego was never more than a misplaced car accident, lightning bolt, brushfire, or otherwise inane occurrence away from a disaster. Until significant infrastructure improvements are made to better link the San Diego grid with the rest of California, San Diego’s electrical reliability will …

From today’s FlashReport (Published in full with permission) by Jon Fleischman Since I am in the business of aggregating relevant California political news and opinion, I spend more time that any sane person should scanning the opinion pages of California’s major daily newspapers. As it does on every day that I am putting together the links for the FlashReport’s main …

Guest Column by Chris Shilling With the recent highly controversial votes to approve lifetime healthcare benefits at the Otay Water District for all employees and their spouses, the attention has finally turned to Otay’s board of directors. This is long overdue as this board has spent the last decade squandering ratepayer money while increasing water rates to pay for their …