Cover Story
Is Abel too friendly with the energy biz?
The money was free and it flew Abel Maldonado around the world: Australia, Africa, Europe – $30,987 in bills, and a single special-interest group supplied every last penny. Maldonado first went globetrotting back in 1999 when he was an assemblyman. With a bipartisan group of fellow legislators, Maldonado spent two weeks hanging out with farming groups…
Local opposition to CAFTA grows
An unlikely pair among local groups is raising concerns with the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), an initiative that President Bush is hoping to bring to the floor for a vote this month. The Sierra Club and San Luis Obispo County Farm Bureau are expressing hesitation about the agreement. CAFTA is essentially an expansion…
It’s the little things
Some days, when being the Shredder gets me down, which, come to think of it, is most days, I imagine what my life would be like if I was living somebody else’s life. If, for instance, I was Sen. Abel Maldonado, I could be sipping champagne on a yacht paid for by some group that…
City votes to match funds for Bill Beeson public art memorial
The San Luis Obispo Arts Council won a valuable victory last week when the City Council approved a request for up to $10,000 to match the Bill Beeson Memorial Fund. The Arts Council so far has raised $6,000 for a public art memorial that will commemorate Beeson’s contributions to the local art community. A longtime…
Schwarzenegger sickens nurses
In a former lifetime, Arnold Schwarzenegger was notorious for stepping in harm’s way and defeating enemies against all odds. Now, as governor, he’s trying to defeat a measure that would improve the odds for California nurses. A new law required hospitals to increase their nurse-to-patient ratio from one-to-six to one-to-five on Jan. 1, but Schwarzenegger…
‘Democracy Now!’ has the right idea, but lacks credibility
Mark Phillips is a first-class organizer, and his motives are admirable, but his enthusiasm for “Democracy Now!â€? and KCBX’s decision to air it four days a week are misguided. Together with “Counterspin,â€? “Radio Nation,â€? and “Alternative Radio,â€? “Democracy Now!â€? is part of a 6 1/2-hour block of public affairs programming on KCBX that is as…
Let’s work together to stop discrimination
First, my purpose for writing the story about GALA (directing their membership to disassociate themselves from a conservative friend of mine) was to show that all forms of discrimination, regardless of reason or source, are hurtful and should not be tolerated by anyone. Second, the “eventsâ€? described in the letter were not “fabricated,â€? but were…
Stop ‘Dream’-ing and do something
About our little nightmare problem and the Dreamers of Los Osos who envision a Disneyland sewer in the heart of town: Quit that daydreaming and help get this mess straightened up. Developers, Realtors, and Los Osos can find middle ground. The Recall is punishment for those who railroaded us into this fiasco. They failed to…
What the County’s talking about this week
Kayaker says he won’t pay for rescue Ethan Donahue, who was rescued by the San Luis Obispo city fire department on Jan. 9 after attempting to kayak the flooded SLO creek, is refusing to pay for the rescue. Donahue is the first person to be billed for a rescue under a new state law that…
It’s in the bag
Oscar Wilde once defined a gentleman as a man who knows how to play the bagpipes … but doesn’t. I suppose that makes Paul Dunn more a Scotsman than a gentleman; he plays his bagpipe for about two hours a day. “You’ve got to tame the instrument, or it will tame you,â€? the half Scottish,…
Nazi comment unacceptable
Kudos to Peggy Pavek in New Times Letters March 3-10 (“Comment was way out of lineâ€?) for exposing Jan Di Leo’s tasteless remarks in the New Times Feb. 24-March 3 story, “Recall redux.â€? Maybe Jan will learn to keep her mouth shut if she loses her job. I don’t think there is room for racist…
I wholeheartedly disagree
On Nov. 12, 1991, Amy Goodman and Allan Nairn went into East Timor and witnessed firsthand as the Indonesian military advanced on a crowd of peasants. Ignoring their own safety, they made their way to the front in the hope that their cameras might prevent the killing of innocents. They were not successful, as 271…
One-sided reporting is not a ‘valuable voice’
So it’s Mark Phillips I have to thank for no longer being able to enjoy NPR’s “The Worldâ€? during my lunch hour (“A valuable voice,â€? Opinion, March 3-10). Instead I get the hack Amy Goodman and her low-budget, one-dimensional “Democracy Now!â€? Don’t get me wrong, I am a liberal to the bone, but I’m also…
Time to stop the violence
I felt deep sadness as I read of Jerry O’Malley’s murder (News, March 3-10). I felt sad for Jerry, the boy who murdered him, and for all of us. The act of a child killing for excitement is a wake-up call for all of us to lobby against violence. Let’s make the merchants of violence…
‘Democracy Now!’ much appreciated
I wanted to thank Mark Phillips for helping to get “Democracy Now!â€? on KCET here in San Luis Obispo! We recently cancelled our dish service because we couldn’t stand the amount of misinformation and half-truths being fed to us by the corporate owned and corporate biased “newsâ€? channels. It was our pleasure to not only…
DeVaul has his cake and eats it, too
Re: “Devil and saint� (March 3-10): The 73 residents of DeVaul’s ranch paid him $260 a month. That’s $18,980 a month. Not bad cash flow. DeVaul’s no devil and he’s no saint. Rather he’s a canny businessman/slumlord making lots of money while appearing to do good. David Sheridan San Luis Obispo
Why do police get preferential treatment?
It appears to me that the police have become the “fair-haired employees” of our community. Whatever they want, they get. Are we experiencing a crime wave in Morro Bay? When the cuts come down from the City Council, will the police take their fair share of hits along with reduced services, reduced community recreational programs,…
The birds are coming
Since November of 2004, I’ve been researching and ultimately spearheading a grassroots, citizen’s effort to change the hunting policies on the Morro Bay Estuary, now considered nationally significant and designated one of only 28 national estuaries in the country. It is home to diminishing populations of indigenous wildlife and is one of the last significant,…
Clearing the air about Duke’s water
I would like to correct an error that John Peabody made in his article “Desperate times for Dukeâ€? in the New Times dated March 3-10. The second paragraph, last line, reads, “Water that is used to cool the plant’s generators is discharged into an outfall area in the bay.â€? This statement is incorrect. The power…
