Mary England, MTS Board Member, Opposes Boost for CEO

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[captionpix imgsrc=”http://sdrostra.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/2011-Mary-photo-3.jpg” captiontext=”Mary England”] By Mary England From today’s U-T San Diego: At least one San Diego Metropolitan Transit System board member hopes to undo the $20,000 boost in benefits approved last month for CEO Paul Jablonski. Lemon Grove Councilwoman Mary England on Tuesday plans to urge her fellow council members to oppose the increase, and she will represent their …

Mark Powell for SD Unified School Board

Guest ColumnGuest Column 19 Comments

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 …

Not only does the Legislature need to “Man up,” so does Governor Brown

Poway RogerPoway Roger Leave a Comment

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-jerry-brown-20120414,0,7914862.story Is Governor Brown for real? He signed a budget that was based on overly optimistic revenue projections that everyone knew would not be met. If he was a leader, he would NOT have signed the current budget last summer. If he really cared for California, he would have said “NO” and forced the legislature to work out a realistic …

Obama’s Chief Strategist Just Endorsed Mitt Romney for President!!

Richard Rider, Chairman, San Diego Tax FightersRichard Rider, Chairman, San Diego Tax Fighters 2 Comments

FROM ERICK ERICKSON at RedState.com: David Axelrod, Chief Strategist for President Barack Obama, just endorsed Mitt Romney for President on Fox News Sunday this morning! In defining what this election will be about, Axelrod told Chris Wallace, “The choice in this election is between an economy that produces a growing middle class and that gives people a chance to get …

Do you Believe in Miracles? — Parents’ Group 1, Bureaucrats 0 — SD City Schools stop Graduation Plan Debacle

Jim SillsJim Sills 1 Comment

If Las Vegas posted numbers on such things, you could have gotten  100-to-1 against the “Voice for Our Kids” parents group last month.  They faced a Ponderously-awful change to  graduation standards, creating chaos, blocking  many students from later reaching College.  But in a stunning 5-0 vote late last week, school Trustees ash-canned the Ponderous Plan.  Credit to Debra O’Toole and the rest …

Filner Flops In An Ugly Campaign Week

Tony ManolatosTony Manolatos 10 Comments

Politics & Media Mashup: A look at this week’s local political coverage They say a good writer knows when to get out of the way of a good story. So rather then comment on this entertaining Investigative Newsource story — Bob Filner Misses the Boat on the Port — I will just encourage you to read it, and then watch Filner’s …

SB829 a fight between Sacramento and local control of our economy

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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 …

Social Security by Choice: The Terrific Experience of Three Texas Counties

Richard Rider, Chairman, San Diego Tax FightersRichard Rider, Chairman, San Diego Tax Fighters Leave a Comment

RIDER COMMENT: This little-known story of three Texas counties that set up their OWN unique and highly successful social security plans (a brief option that has since gone away) deserves widespread publicity. Years ago I wrote about this, but frankly had forgotten about their instructive experience. The article below is an excellent summation of their approach — and the impressive …

Party over Principles: More Game-Playing from San Diego GOP

Nathan FletcherNathan Fletcher 20 Comments

“Local Republican Party chair Tony Krvaric continues to play the political games that helped drive Nathan Fletcher from the party last month. In an email to San Diego Republicans Tony Krvaric distorted the facts and misled voters. It’s shameful. This kind of game playing isn’t new. After Nathan switched the San Diego Republican Party sued Nathan to recover their money after major …

Fletcher Fails Prop-A Supporters and San Diego Taxpayers with Absent Vote on SB 829

Steve RiderSteve Rider 20 Comments

Partisan-Republican-turned-something-else Nathan Fletcher failed San Diego taxpayers yesterday by missing the Assembly floor vote on a labor union bill specifically designed to punish the City of San Diego financially. If Fletcher is truly in favor of Proposition A, and protecting taxpayer interests, he could have done no greater service to the Prop A effort and the San Diego taxpayers by …

President Obama’s Latest Campaign Strategy: The Supreme Court

Bob SiegelBob Siegel Leave a Comment

From Bob Siegel’s column,  Forbidden Table Talk on Communities@Washington Times.com SAN DIEGO, April 9, 2012 — President Obama shocked reporters last week with comments about the Supreme Court. Even the normally uncritical press corps was obliged to ask, “do you really think the Court can’t strike down an act of Congress as unconstitutional?” The Court’s nine justices will announce their decision …

Obama’s inequality argument just utterly collapsed

Richard Rider, Chairman, San Diego Tax FightersRichard Rider, Chairman, San Diego Tax Fighters 2 Comments

RIDER COMMENT: Actually I have touched on this bogus income disparity in the past, but we never had such a specific study to point to as proof. This is a welcome report. This blog is from the American Enterprise Institute, a rather staid, somewhat right-of-center think tank. I now subscribe to their free daily email service and RSS feed to …

Dumanis: Transparency a New Concept to Fletcher

D.A. Bonnie DumanisD.A. Bonnie Dumanis 8 Comments

SAN DIEGO — District Attorney and Mayoral candidate Bonnie Dumanis today announced she would release her personal tax returns and issued the following statement: “Nathan Fletcher has discovered transparency — it looks like he’s having another one of his last minute conversions. “Unfortunately, Nathan Fletcher’s sudden interest in transparency comes too late to save San Diego’s redevelopment program. His engineering …

40-point Lead for Pension Reform! New Poll Shows 55% YES to 15% NO

Jim SillsJim Sills 1 Comment

Stop the Presses! Prop. B’s  pension Reform is 40 points ahead in a new Survey USA/Channel 10 poll  released today. Your Correspondent’s reactions: (1) Labor Council chief  Lorena Gonzalez, call your Answering Service.  (2)  John Nienstedt, take a bow. The head of Competitive Edge told me six months ago that Prop. B was a certain winner. (3) Carl DeMaio and Tony Krvaric, …

Dumanis Earns Endorsements from Entire San Diego County Board of Supervisors

D.A. Bonnie DumanisD.A. Bonnie Dumanis 1 Comment

Cox and Horn Join Colleagues, Cite Dumanis’ Strong Leadership as District Attorney SAN DIEGO – District Attorney and San Diego Mayoral candidate Bonnie Dumanis was endorsed today by San Diego County Supervisors Greg Cox and Bill Horn, making the Board of Supervisors’ support of her Mayoral campaign unanimous. In announcing their formal endorsements, Cox and Horn both cited Dumanis’ track …

What kind of car is your mayoral candidate?

Barry JantzBarry Jantz 13 Comments

If the mayoral candidates were cars, what kinds would they be and why? For the background on a similar question, read this article by Chris Cillizza in The Washington Post’s “The Fix”… If President Obama was a car, what kind of car would he be? “If President Obama was a a car, what kind of car would he be and …

How to turn a $500 donation into many thousands of dollars of free publicity

Richard Rider, Chairman, San Diego Tax FightersRichard Rider, Chairman, San Diego Tax Fighters 3 Comments

How to turn a $500 donation into a major “media buy” Everyone loves firefighters. Especially me.  Volunteer firefighters are my heroes. But recently the San Diego media hyped a story of San Diego firefighter charity that is rather odd – odd because it’s reported at all as news.  The U-T newspaper made it a front page story in the local …