NARAL Pro-Choice California reacts to Horn’s financial support of pro-life group
Meghan Doran, Assistant State Director for NARAL Pro-Choice California, one of the country’s largest regional political organizations focusing on reproductive rights, issued this statement in reaction to CityBeat‘s story about how County Supervisor Bill Horn used public money to fund a group that distributes. pro-life educational materials.
Parents are tired of seeing politicians like Horn use the classroom as a way to push a political agenda. We are fortunate that, in most schools across California, we have age-appropriate sex education that helps prevent teen pregnancy and protect teens from sexually transmitted diseases. Horn needs to understand that the facts that keep students safe and healthy should be taught in school, while the values are taught at home.
In its application for a County Neighborhood Reinvestment Program Grant to pay for its annual “Life Walk” fundraiser, the La Mesa-based non-profit Life Perspectives said, “Funds raised through Life Walk are used to underwrite educational programs that empower students to make healthy choices.”
These healthy choices aren’t about nutrition, exercise or wearing sunblock. As CityBeat revealed, the religious lesson plans ranged from teaching kindergartners about fetuses to providing high schools students with scripture passages relevant to the issue of assisted suicide.
San Diego Shows–Thursday, July 29
PLAN A: Joanna Newsom @ San Diego Woman’s Club. The enigmatic songstress continues to mesmerize with the sprawling songs of her new triple album, Have One on Me. (See our feature on this page.) PLAN B: Kenseth Thibideau, Cry For Us Black Swans, Immovable Objects @ Tin Can Ale House. Local mainstay Kenseth Thibideau is celebrating the release of Repetition, an excellent record of laid-back guitar grooves. PLAN C: The Night Marchers, Obits @ The Casbah. The Night Marchers pair John Reis (Rocket from the Crypt, Hot Snakes, etc.) with a rhythm section “suspended by Ionic fortitude and bathed in a distilled olive oil suitable for the same rectal lubrication that eased in democracy and the Olympics,” according to MySpace. Need I say more? (Youngsters: The Night Marchers will play at Hensley’s Flying Elephant while the Obits play at Che Café on Friday, July 30.) BACKUP PLAN: Three 6 Mafia @ 4th & B.
Note: Both Joanna Newsom and The Night Marchers are sold out, so go see Kenseth Thibideau. You won’t be disappointed.
Want proof? Pledge form ties Horn’s grant money to religious proselytizing
"Generously sponsored by Supervisor Bill Horn" - From an older version of the Life Walk website
In this week’s CityBeat, we reveal how San Diego County Supervisor Bill Horn has used $80,000 in public money to pay for fundraisers for a group that produces and distributes highly religious, pro-life material to K-12 schools.
For example, in Lesson #1, kindergartners learn about God and zygotes.
While he did not respond to our questions about Life Perspectives and its annual Life Walk, Horn did provide TV stations with a written response after our story was already on newsstands.
In the e-mail, he stated:
City Beat’s accusations are entirely based on the inaccurate assumption that the county is sponsoring a curriculum that is designed to be used in private, religious schools, but not a single penny of taxpayer funds can or will go toward that use. If you look at the Life Walk website, there is no religious proselytizing going on and county auditors will ensure taxpayer dollars do not go toward religious purposes.
It’s true. We did look at the Life Walk ’10 website and saw that there was no religious proselytizing going on. In fact, there was no explanation at all as to what was going on, period. There was no clear identification of the purpose of the fundraiser and no description of what services Life Perspectives actually provides. So, we did some investigative journalism, and that’s how we got our story.
But if it’s proselytizing that Horn wants, he’ll find it on the old website for Life Walk ’09, which, as of publishing this post, was still available through Google. It contains a four-page pledge form that “Team Leaders” were to distribute to walk participants.
My morning at the library groundbreaking
Is Councilmember Kevin Faulconer pondering library funding?
Today’s groundbreaking for the new Downtown central library was quite a production. Former Mayor Dick Murphy was there (rebuilding the library system—including a new main library—was among the eight of his “10 Goals” that weren’t completed during his five-year tenure); there were cupcakes and shiny silver shovels and T-shirts that read “7-28-10″ above an image of the library. There were people shooting off air guns filled with streamers and confetti and warnings to the press to make it a happy day and not ask the mayor any tough questions.
There were surreal moments, too, like when Judith Harris, former chair of the board of the San Diego Public Library Foundation, described Mayor Jerry Sanders as a “mayor who kept the doors open when people were telling him run, don’t walk, away from this project” (surreal because the mayor’s been MIA during debates over a proposed sales-tax and couldn’t have left today’s event faster than he did).
Most surreal, though, was the collection box sitting next to a wood model of the library. The project’s $32.5 million short of being fully funded and there’s no identified source of money to pay for operations after five years, so anything helps, apparently. I’m guessing there was about $50 inside the box.
More photos after the jump:
Judith Harris and David Copley (center)
Union-Tribune agrees to a Latino advisory committee
Alex Nogales
One thing you can say about San Diego Union-Tribune editor Jeff Light is that he isn’t afraid to face his critics, whether that’s CityBeat, art patrons, or the National Hispanic Media Coalition.
Sometimes it doesn’t work out for him. Today it did.
This afternoon, representatives from NHMC and local Latino groups met with Light to discuss diversity in the paper’s newsroom and coverage.
“We’re very positive,” NHMC President and CEO Alex Nogales told CityBeat in a phone interview after the meeting. “We like Jeff, we like Hieu [Tran Phan, Topic editor] and we expect to have a fruitful partnership with them.”
As a result of the meeting, the Union-Tribune will work with the community to form a “Latino advisory committee” that will provide recommendations for how the paper may best serve the Hispanic community, Nogales said.
Earlier this month, CityBeat reported that NHMC was recruiting community members for an organized to response to the newspaper layoffs of columnist Ruben Navarrette and several other staffer who were Hispanic or covering Hispanic interests. Via email, Light told us he respected the NHMC and would be happy to meet with them.
The meeting with Light lasted an hour and a half and also included Border Angels founder Enrique Morones, Center for Academic and Social Advancement board member Olivia Puetes-Reynolds and Gus Chavez, the respected activist who took on filmmaker Ken Burns for leaving Latinos out of his World War II documentary.
Nogales describes the meeting as a first step that will lead to action in the “very near future.” The next move will be to assemble the committee to come up with specific recommendations ranging from the make-up of the editorial board to how best to cover minority communities.
“This is about inclusion, this about making sure that Latinos are included in not only the stories but the employment and management ranks,” Nogales said. “It is to the paper’s benefit to do exactly this… Jeff is willing to work with us to make sure that diversity does exist in terms of the Latino community as well as other communities of color.”
We’ll update with Light’s response once he returns our call.
San Diego Shows–Wednesday, July 28
PLAN A: Rachelle Ferrell @ Anthology. A jazz singer with a range spanning six octaves, Rachelle Ferrell belts, murmurs, even sings super-high whistle notes—sometimes in single phrases. Let’s hope the big screen onstage gives us a better look at her mouth’s amazing expressions during what I’m expecting will be a breathtaking performance. (She’s also playing Thursday, July 29.) PLAN B: Nathaniel Rateliff, Pearly Gate Music @ Bar Pink. Rateliff ’s rich pipes grasped me within moments of hearing “Whimper & Wail” from the folkie’s well-received debut, In Memory of Loss. BACKUP PLAN: Black Mamba, Aunt Dracula, D/Wolves @ Tin Can Ale House.
Comic-Con Girls | Comic-Con Coverage
Geek Girls Network founder Kristin Rielly hasn’t been doing her community geek-blog thing for long, but she already has a pretty massive following and was invited to host a panel at this year’s Comic-Con. Above are some geek girls spotted at the Con and below is an interview with Rielly, who says, “If you are a geek girl, please represent yourself…. Be proud and don’t be self-conscience about being a nerd because there are thousands of us.”
Push play to hear an interview with Kristin Rielly of Geek Girls Network
PETA’s ‘Lettuce Ladies’ coming to lifeguard stations?
To raise money, the city of San Diego wants to generate revenue by allowing paid ads on things like lifeguard stations, benches and kiosks placed in public rights-of-way. While the details still need to be finalized, PETA’s already made an offer. In a letter to Mayor Jerry Sanders, PETA’s executive vice president Tracy Reiman writes,
…we have designed an eye-catching ad that we would like to pay to put on a few of your lifeguard towers until you are able to find permanent sponsors. The ad features one of our gorgeous Lettuce Ladies and reads, “Save Lives: Go Vegan! PETA.”
You can read the full letter after the jump. Till then, here’s a Lettuce Lady ad:
San Diego Shows–Tuesday, July 27
PLAN A: Gayle Skidmore, Rheanna Downey, The Olive Grove, We Landed on the Moon! @ Soda Bar. This lineup will feature lots of lush folk from female singer-songwriters, but the highlight is Gayle Skidmore, a multi-instrumentalist with a sweet, rich voice whose dreamy piano ballad “Remember” could make the perfect soundtrack for a rainy day—which is more than welcome, considering how hot it’s been lately. BACKUP PLAN: S.P.E.C., Spirit Photography, DJs Blk Pnts, Autumn Child @ Tin Can Ale House.
San Diego Music Award nominees – updated list
It’s that time of year again! Today, the San Diego Music Foundation unveiled its list of nominees for the 20th annual San Diego Music Awards. (Disclosure: CityBeat‘s publisher, Kevin Hellman, is the foundation’s president.) The nominees were chosen by the SDMA Academy, a council of local movers-and-shakers, who submitted their favorite artists, albums, and songs in various categories.
The awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, Sept. 12 at Humphrey’s Concerts by the Bay. There’ll be a Lifetime Award presentation honoring Iron Butterfly and performances by local favorites The Night Marchers, The Nervous Wreckords, Maren Parusel, New Mexico, Miss Erika Davies and Transfer.
Keep reading to check out an updated list of the nominees Hellman sent me, sans typos and misspellings:
Millennium Faulconer says Comic-Con decision is “imminent”
OK, so that’s really not news; everyone expects San Diego Comic Con to make a decision any day now. However, it is interesting that this was the first year City Council member Kevin Faulconer experienced the wackiness that is the planet’s greatest pop culture event.
“I met the actor who plays Chewbacca,” Faulconer, who attended with his nine-year-old son, says. “He was cool! You know, I loved all the technology that was on display and, of course, just the costumes.”
Faulconer’s talking about Peter Mayhew, who was at a small booth at the back of the convention center exhibition hall…which (correct me if I’m wrong, Kevin) means that he had to go out of his way to traverse the sprawling crowds. That sounds to me like he was getting in touch with his inner nerd. His son, too, was in the grip of the force of the Star Wars lego displays.
What a non-Comic-conner probably doesn’t realize until one actually gets down to Harbor Drive is the extent that the convention takes over downtown. Sponsored by film companies and television networks, restaurants change their names for the event. Hotels–like this one of the “Scott Pilgrim” Hilton Faulconer posted to his Facebook account–have redone their exterior to advertise films.
So, Faulconer, of course, is backing the nerds and while he says a decision is “imminent,” he can’t say for sure which way it will go.
“I’ll tell you, we’ve got a lot San Diegans, industry and businesses, pushing very hard, including those of us at City Hall,” Faulconer says. “This event is a huge success for San Diego, nationally and locally. There were CNN clips over the weekend highlighting San Diego and that’s very important for us as a tourst destination. It’s one of the busiest times of the year for hotels and restaurants. It’s a shot in the arm for the economy and we need to continue to fight to keep Comic-Con here.
“I think, when you look at the location–downtown, the Gaslamp, the water front, who wants to go to LA?”
Four academics, a superhero, a skunk and a goat explain why Comic-Con should stay in San Diego
We’ll get to the goat in a minute. But first…
One of the lesser-mentioned parts of San Diego Comic-Con is the annual “Comic Arts Conference,” an academic program of discussions and panels for headier discourse on comics, culture and sociology. Wittenberg University also sponsors undergraduate, masters and PhD students to conduct field work on site at the convention.
On the final day of Comic-Con, these students presented their initial findings at a panel titled, “The Culture of Popular Things: Ethnographic Examinations of Comic Con 2010.”
A little something about me: I’ve got a masters in social anthropology, so I felt compelled to ditch out on the Bill Hader (SNL) and Matt Fraction panel halfway through to attend this one. During the Q&A, I hit the students with the question on many San Diegans’ minds:
There’s been a lot of talk about Comic-Con leaving San Diego—and it’s been here for several decades now—and I was wondering if there’s sense of… how much the building itself, the city itself affects the culture that thrives here and how much that will change if it leaves?
Here are the truncated answers.
