The Morning Report
Get the news and information you need to take on the day.
Occupy San Diego protests began yesterday with a message against corporate greed and VOSD photographer Sam Hodgson was there to document the movement through downtown, where police and protesters seemed to work in peaceful unison.
“We got sold out. They got bailed out,” marchers chanted, according to the Union-Tribune, while they carried signs saying things like “End the Fed ponzi scheme,” “Chop from the Top,” “Mr President, pare down Wall Street,” and “Wake up 99%.”
A spinoff of the Occupy Wall Street movement, the protest is one of several that have sprung up around the country.
Conservative critics like local talk-show host Roger Hedgecock have noted that protesters don’t necessarily know specifically what they want. That’s normal for social movements, a political scientist told the U-T, but they may want to step on it. “In our fast paced media culture they’ve gone to protest first, the question is will the media lose interest before the organization can form to generate a list of goals.”
The NC Times and NBC7 San Diego have more coverage of the protest.
A Tune of Human Harmony
David Borgo, a jazz saxophonist and music professor at UCSD, does more than feel the rhythm when he’s with other players. He feels a kinship with them, a sense of human harmony.
“There is a certain intimacy that you’re achieving with your fellow performers, and hopefully with the audience, that’s maybe what makes music such a special thing. Something that sort of transcends language,” Borgo said in this weekend’s Q&A. “It’s not about sharing information or even telling stories to one another. But it’s actually doing things simultaneously, in the moment.”
Borgo, who hopes music can teach us how to live together, talked about the avant-garde music he embraces, the joys of live music and the thrills of a jam session. “It’s a platform where you can explore the fringes of: What does it mean to be human? Where does my identity stop? Where does my cognition stop?”
•Behind the Scene TV checks out Malashock Dance’s upcoming “Raw” performances.
• Did you attend our “Meeting of the Minds” event earlier this year? Either way, here’s a guide on where to catch all the diverse art and culture happenings featured there coming up soon.
NFL Just Isn’t That Into L.A., for Now
The NFL commissioner has privately said the league doesn’t support the idea of a team moving to Los Angeles under the current deal being considered for a football stadium in its downtown, Yahoo! Sports reports. That proposed stadium, of course, is considered a major prospect to woo the Chargers to La La Land and leave us pro-football-free.
We offer a caveat — that this could be a simply negotiating move — and examine what the news means for San Diego.
• The U-T rounds up opinions from politicians and other leaders about the value — and it won’t be a cheap proposition — of keeping the Chargers in town by building a combo stadium/convention center expansion.
Nope, said a mayoral spokesman. Naw, said a major convention center booster. Hey, let’s talk, said a county supervisor and a labor representative.
The U-T story also looks at the stadium/convention center complex in Indianapolis, which is a good model for what the Chargers have in mind.
The challenge here is figuring out how to get people six blocks from the existing convention center to the expansion without annoying them. Where’s a Star Trek transporter when you need one, other than in my imagination?
We’re No Longer as Much of a Steal
“It wasn’t long ago that we were No. 3 in the nation for car thieves and now we’re down to 15,” district attorney and mayoral candidate Bonnie Dumanis said last month. Are we really becoming less of a magnet for those who want to take our Camrys and Impalas? San Diego Fact Check finds her claim is true.
Figuring Out the Cost of a Ballot Measure
We’ve been trying to figure out if it’s true, as union advocates say, that the city could lose as much as a quarter of a billion dollars in state funding if voters pass a ban on certain labor agreements.
No way, says the office of the state senator who wrote a new law that’s cast confusion over so-called project labor agreements. The labor leaders had estimated the costs being between $40 million and $250 million. But the senator says about $160 million of that $250 million won’t apply.
We’re continuing to dig toward a final answer on what the state’s law means for San Diego: “No one appears to have completed a financial analysis of the bill before legislators approved it or the governor signed it. State officials, lobbyists and nonpartisan legislative analysts are still trying to wrap their heads around it.”
Here Come the Prisoners
San Diego Explained, our video series with NBC7 San Diego, examines how the state is shifting prisoners to the county jail system, transferring responsibility for convicted criminals to the local level.
Thar They Blow!
Gigantic blue whales are hanging out a lot closer to the beach than usual around the La Jolla area, the NC Times reports, possibly because they’re searching for food that’s become more common due to colder waters.
That’s one theory. I’m thinking they’re here to get some handy weight-loss tips from our very own Jenny Craig. Try this guys: A shake for lunch, a sensible dinner, then a nice midnight snack of a million krill.
Please contact Randy Dotinga directly at randydotinga@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/rdotinga.