For more than a half-century, the Girls Club of San Diego served as a beacon for the city’s African-American community, a place of pride, empowerment and fun.
Now, the club’s survival is in jeopardy. The club’s Logan Heights facility is closed, eviction is looming and there’s no place for it to go. Infighting and a barrage of allegations have distracted the club’s leaders.
But the story isn’t over quite yet. A group of advocates have been meeting to find a way to keep the club alive. “I am the result of women who gave of themselves to us girls,” one of them tells us, and she’s dedicated to helping a new generation of girls get the same opportunities that she did.
In other news:
- Federal prosecutors have relied on a controversial law in several local corruption cases. Now, finally, the U.S. Supreme Court is taking a look at whether it’s constitutional.
If skeptical justices throw out the law, more than 20 years’ worth of convictions might become void. As we report, “that would have implications for anyone convicted of or charged with honest services fraud — from former San Diego City Councilman Ralph Inzunza to former Congressman Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham, plus a few Superior Court judges and corporate executives.”
But even if the Supreme Court says the law is history, that won’t necessarily be a get-out of-federal-prison card for those who got convicted.
- Last month, we calculated that members of the San Diego City Council had offered to slash $148,486 from their combined budgets. The offers were one thing. The current reality is another, as we discovered. Stay tuned: We’re not done exploring this issue.
- An alert reader (our favorite kind) caught an error that Councilman Ben Hueso made regarding how much the city will save by eliminating a position dedicated to overseeing police practices.
- Also: “Water consumption is down 10.3 percent countywide since water-use restrictions went into effect in July.” And we check an NYT story that has useful information about the local water supply.
- The subject of our Photo of the Day has got cat class and has got cat style. The only thing missing: A home. (Today’s photo soundtrack explains that lingo.)
Elsewhere:
- The NYT continues its intensive look at drug trafficking at the border with a story from San Diego that focuses on attempts to corrupt Americans: “law enforcement officers believe that traffickers are pulling out the stops, even soliciting some of their own operatives to apply for jobs.”
- From today’s Wow File: It costs about $10,000 to install a streetlight in San Diego. Twenty-eight streetlights are on their way — slowly — to two neighborhoods where 150 people marched to protest their absence last night. (U-T)
- SDG&E got an OK “to raise rates for residents who use a little power in order to lower them for people who use a lot.” (U-T)
- The state parks department “is forming a task force to address equality issues for its women and gay employees. . . ,” AP reports, “part of a settlement with a lesbian park ranger who filed a harassment lawsuit in San Diego County.”
- The local ACLU office thinks Imperial County supervisors may have violated the law when they voted to get involved in a federal case involving the anti-gay-marriage Prop. 8. (IVP)
- Slate has a thoughtful piece about what happened to those pilots who flew a jet from San Diego and managed to miss their destination: “Their minds had been sucked into a pair of laptops.”
- Finally, a couple San Diego guys have created a dog collar that comes equipped with a bottle opener. It’s called the Bark 4 Beer and took a year and a half to develop due to complications. (I’ll bet.)
How about a dog collar that can hold the remote? Here, boy!