He’s a full-time chaplain equipped with a bulletproof vest and a badge, a pastor who doesn’t think his job is to preach to the cops he serves.
“I’m not there to give them religion. I’m there to care about them,” says Dale Lowrimore, chaplain with the San Diego Poice Department, in this weekend’s Q&A feature.
We hear from Lowrimore about how he deals with people of other faiths (he’s a Christian), what he tells officers about killing on the job, and how he helps cops cope when a life is lost.
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In other news:
• The city’s auditor may become the most important person in town if voters approve the sales tax ballot measure. The sales tax hike will only kick in if the auditor decides that the city has met certain requirements regarding its spending.
• Now here’s some irony for you: a Hillcrest street art display by noted artist Shepard Fairey has been vandalized. (Fairey created those iconic Obama posters.)
Someone lacking in artistic talent — that doesn’t narrow it down much, does it? — spray-painted a big chunk of the display, which is on the side of a building near Fifth and University.
Check our photos, get more details from KPBS, and ponder the question: When a “guerilla artist” gets vandalized himself, should we be appalled? Whatever the case, a quick cleanup was planned.
Elsewhere:
• SDG&E wants to jack up its rates by 7 percent over two years. (U-T)
• Finally, Starbucks is testing “coffee that doesn’t taste like coffee” in the San Diego area. It’s made from green unroasted coffee beans and comes in cold flavors like Cool Lime with Fresh Mint (gotta watch out for that non-fresh mint, people!) and Very Berry Hibiscus.
Huh. I’m looking forward to their next invention: Expensive drinks that don’t taste like expensive drinks. Oh, they already have those?
Uh-oh. I’ve ticked off the baristas. I’ll never drink a cinnamon dolce latte in this town again!
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What We Learned This Week:
Brrrrr: It’s been a chilly seven days. (And the weather was a bit on the nippy side too.)
Just consider the frigid reception in some parts to the ballot measure that most of the City Council approved this week. It would boost sales taxes if the city reforms its financial mess.
While some folks in the business community find the deal tolerable, others plan to fight it. Will they do it at the ballot box or in court? Or both?
Suprema Donna: She came within inches (technically, a few ballot bubbles) of becoming mayor not too long ago. Now, in a twist of fate, a member of our commentariat thinks she’s finally done it unofficially by leading the charge to raise revenue and fix a broken city government. Other commentaries mull what’s next and analyze where that new money might go.
Mr. Big Mouth: Oh the things that he’ll say! Our mayor has a way of putting things into earthy terms. We also discover that he watches too many Viagra commercials.
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The Coffee Collection (engaging stories to read over a cup of coffee with a jigger of Irish whiskey. Or the other way around.):
Because They Could Not Stop for Poetry… : It kindly stopped for them. OK, OK, I’ll quit it with the poetry allusions.
We visit a local summer school where immigrant children from countries around the world are learning English with the help of their own poetry.
Insert Bowling Pun Here: Bowling alleys are anything but paradise for germ-haters. Mira Mesa Lanes may be an exception: it’s home to a 43-year-old man with Down syndrome who’s been keeping things spic and span for a decade.
We follow him around during his rounds in the last edition of our People at Work feature. (The writer is now our arts editor and will be profiling artist types as they do whatever it is that they do.)
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Quote of the Week: “I think what Donna was saying is there’s a pony in this pile of poop.” — Mayor Jerry Sanders, helpfully translating a councilwoman’s words about a city recovery plan. That inspired us to chronicle the mayor’s history of interesting word choices.